1. This being Fathers Day, I would like to emphasize that in the Bible, God expresses His relationship to us as a loving Father.
2. In his great lesson on prayer in Matthew 6, our Lord said to His disciples, "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him" (Matt. 6:8).
3. A good father takes care of his children, and God our heavenly Father takes care of us! Cf. Luke 11:9-13.
4. I have heard Jehovah's Witnesses argue that the only proper name for God is Jehovah. But when Jesus taught His disciples to pray He said, "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name" (Matt. 6:9).
5. The Bible teaches that all true Christians are part of God's family. The apostle Paul said in Ephesians 3:14, 15 -- "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named."
6. But to get into God's family, a person must be born again. John 1:12 says, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."
7. Galatians 3:26 says, "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."
8. There are many interesting pictures of fathers in the Bible. Jacob gives us one when he cried out in anguish, "Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me" (Genesis 42:36).
9. Or grief-stricken King David, who wept and cried, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" (II Samuel 18:33).
10. But this Fathers Day I will not preach about Jacob or David. This Fathers Day I would like to preach on the great patriarch Abraham, often referred to in Scripture as "Father Abraham."
11. I believe it is good to preach about Abraham on Fathers Day because Abraham's name means "Father."
12. His original name was "Abram," which means "exalted father." The LORD changed it to "Abraham," which means, "father of many nations" (Gen. 17:5).
13. The New Testament begins with these words -- "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1).
14. Galatians 3:9 says, "So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham."

I. ABRAHAM'S RELATIONSHIP

1. A good father should have a relationship with God, and God said this about Abraham, "For I know him..." (Genesis 18:19).
2. If you do not know someone, you really do not have much of a relationship. Sometimes I am asked, "Do you know Mr. So-and-so?" and I reply, "I have heard about him, but I do not know him."
3. Sadly, many fathers do not know the Lord. They have heard about Him, but they do not really know Him.
4. First John 2:13 and 14 says, "I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning."
5. In Galatians 4:9, the apostle Paul makes an interesting statement. He says, "But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God..."
6. In other words, Paul is saying not only have you come to know God, but more importantly now you are known by God.
7. That is why the LORD could say about Abraham, "For I know him..." (Genesis 18:19).
8. Of course, God knows everything and everyone, but I am speaking now about a personal relationship with God. James 2:23 says Abraham "was called the Friend of God."
9. For the family to function properly, the father must know God, and obey God, and walk with God. If the dad is not saved, then there will be some serious problems.
10. There is a sad day coming when many fathers (and mothers, etc.) will stand before God, and God will say, "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:23).
11. Ephesians 6:4 says fathers are to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But how can a father bring his children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord unless he himself is saved and in a right relationship with the Lord?
12. This is first and foremost! Some fathers won't even take their children to Sunday School!
13. Billy Sunday knew a judge here in Brooklyn, who told him, "In the five years I have been on the bench I have sentenced 2,700 persons, and not one of them was a member of a Sunday School."
14. Luther Burbank was an American botanist, horticulturist, and a pioneer in agricultural science. Years ago, Mr. Burbank said this: "If we had paid no more attention to our plants than we have to our children, we would now be living in a jungle of weeds."
15. Many people here in Elmont have beautiful gardens but they also have wild and unruly children. We need to get our priorities right!

II. ABRAHAM'S AUTHORITY

1. Abraham's authority is suggested by the word "command" -- "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him..." (Genesis 18:19).
2. Abraham's authority is suggested by the word "command."
3. Do you remember what the Roman centurion in Matthew 8:9 said to our Lord? He said, "For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it."
4. The LORD said this about Abraham, "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD..." (Gen. 18:19).
5. In other words, they will respect Abraham's authority and they will obey him!
6. Sadly, many children do not respect their father's authority and they do not obey their parents.
7. The Fifth Commandment: "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee" (Exodus 20:12).
8. "Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee" (Deuteronomy 5:16).
9. "That thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee."
10. Ephesians 6:2 says, "Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise)."
11. The "promise" is a long life.
12. Two doctors were talking one day. One of them was a pediatrician, and he made this statement to the other, Dr. J. Adam Clark: “When it comes to a serious illness, the child who has been taught to obey stands four times the chance of recovery that the spoiled and undisciplined child does."
13. Later on, Dr. Clark wrote, “Those words made a lasting impression upon me. Up to that time I had been taught that one of the Ten Commandments was for children to obey their parents. Never had it entered my mind that a question of obedience might mean the saving or losing of a child’s life."
14. Many other illustrations could be given: One day a father noticed his son running into the street after a ball. But the boy did not see a car racing up the street from the other direction.
15. The father yelled: “Son, stop right there!” The boy immediately obeyed and the car did not hit him. But what would have happened if that boy ignored his father’s command?
16. A few years ago, there was a terrible tragedy out east on Long Island. A father and some friends were out in a motor boat and they had a few children in the back of the boat who were playing and jumping around. The father told them to sit and stop playing, etc.
17. But the children ignored him and when the boat hit some rough waves, two of the children were thrown overboard and drowned.
18. The Bible teaches that it is a sign of wickedness when children are disobedient to their parents. Romans 1:29-31 lists some very wicked sins -- fornication, covetousness, maliciousness; envy, murder, backbiting, hating God, pride, etc.
19. And right in the middle of this terrible list we see: "disobedient to parents" (Romans 1:30).
20. Second Timothy 3:1 and 2 says, "This I know, also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents..."

III. ABRAHAM'S EXAMPLE

1. Many years ago, the great evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman said, "It is absolutely impossible for one to be the father one ought to be and not be a Christian...If we are to set before those about us a right example, we cannot begin too soon. Your children are a reproduction of yourself. Weakness in them is weakness in yourself; strength in them is but the reproduction of your own virtue."
2. Dr. Chapman referred to the Godly example of his father. He looked back and recalled the day his beloved father put his arms about him and said, "My son, if you go wrong it will kill me."
3. At that time young Chapman was under the influence of a worldly friend who was older and had much money. Chapman said, "I had taken my first questionable step at least and was on my way one night to a place which was at least questionable if not sinful. I had turned the street corner and ahead of me was the very gate of hell, when, suddenly, as I turned, the face of my father came before me, and his words rang in my very soul. If my father had been anything but a consistent Christian man I myself, I am sure, should have been far from the pulpit and might have been in the lost world today."
4. Think about that -- Dr. Chapman said that if his father had been anything but a consistent Christian man, he is sure he would not have become a preacher, and he might have even been lost and out in the world.

CONCLUSION:

1. John Howard Payne was born here in New York City on 1791. He was an American actor, poet, playwright, and author who had a career that had its ups and downs.
2. In 1842 President John Tyler appointed Mr. Payne as the American Consul in Tunisia, north Africa, and he died and was buried there in 1852. This appointment was at the request of the Secretary of State Daniel Webster, who felt sorry for Mr. Payne, and was moved by a famous, sentimental song that he had composed.
3. It was during a difficult time in his life that Mr. Payne had been wandering up and down the streets of New York, without any money and with no where to go.
4. One cold bleak night, Payne felt very lonely as he walked the streets -- cold, destitute, and friendless.
5. As he walked down a certain street he heard people singing that famous, sentimental song that he himself had composed years earlier.

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

6. There's no place like home. And according to the Bible, the father is the head of the home. Can God say this about you? -- "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD" (Genesis 18:19).
7. Some changes need to be made in some homes.