Father's Day

Rev Gideon Lee

One little boy has an interesting description of Father's Day. He said it's like Mother's Day except we don't spend as much on Father's Day. So today please make sure you take your father to lunch and don't make your father pay.

Bill Cosby wrote on his book the difference between Father's Day and Mother's Day.

For Father's Day I give each of my five kids $20 so that they can go out and by me a present--a total of $100. They go to the store and buy two packages of underwear, each of which costs $5 and contains three shorts. They tear them open and each kid wraps up one pair, the sixth going to the Salvation Army. Therefore, on Father's Day I am walking around with new underwear and my kid's are walking around with $90 worth of my change in their pockets. (laughs).

He insists that Mother’s Day is a much bigger deal because Mothers are more organized. Mothers say to their children: Now here is a list of what I want. Go get the money from your father and you surprise me on Mothers Day. You do that for me.

Matthew 14:22-23
Jesus Walks on the Sea
22 Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. 23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.

Today's message is not just for fathers but for all of us.

Four very important words that we need to learn.

While He dismissed the crowd.

Jesus dismissed the crowd because He wanted to go to the mountain top to pray. Before that Jesus was feeding the 5,000. So the crowd He was talking about was the 5,000 but with family and children, it could be 10,000 or more. He sent them home.

If I was Jesus with 10,000 listening to me and wants to make me king I would not have dismissed them.

But the reason He dismissed them was that He wanted to go to the mountain to pray.

So Jesus said no to a good opportunity on that day in order to say yes to a better one.

It was His time with the father. His first responsibility was not to the crowd but to His father. His relationship with God the Father was more important.

The key word here is focus. His focus was His walk with the Heavenly Father. What is your focus today?

In one firecracker I was told has the same amount of gunpowder as a bullet. So what's the difference between a firecracker and a bullet? The firecracker just makes a lot of noise but the bullet hits a target. The difference is focus and direction. So are you a firecracker father or Christian or are you a bullet?

I want to share with you 3 truths or secret.

1. As a parent we must understand that our role model to our children is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year.

They watch you all the time so you cannot take a day off for a holiday. No off days. Because of this our children see what we say or do.

I give you an example. I was driving and suddenly a car swerve into my path and I had to suddenly slam my brake. We were shock when my daughter shouted "stupid driver, how can drive like that". I was shocked and then I realized that is what I had said before. Our children hear and learn from us.

Sometimes we label people and discriminate. Especially us Chinese. We call other races kui "ghost" but we call the Chinese "lang" human. So our children pick this up too. We are guilty. We are a father 24 hours a day and sometimes in our worst scenario our children pick it up and learn from us.

2. Fathers, nothing can substitute for your presence.

Many fathers qualify it this way. I don't spend much time with my children but I spend quality time. That's an excuse. They need both quality and quantity. We men sometimes overwork. I am sometimes also guilty of this. I bring work home and sometimes I sacrifice family time for ministry.

There is this boy who misses his father so much because the father was always so busy. So one day he waited for his father to come home and he asked his father, how much do you make in an hour? The father feeling proud as a provider said he makes about 80 ringgit an hour. So the boy pulled out from his pocket 80 ringgit and asked to pay for an hour of his father's time. I hope our children never have to make an appointment to see us.

I tell you another story. This one is for real. The one just now I read from somewhere.

My children had their kindergarten concert on a Sunday and I cannot attend as I am serving in church so I sent my wife. So I missed my first and second daughter's kindergarten concert.

My son's concert was on a Saturday so I could go. So my two daughters ask me why I attended Josiah's concert but not theirs. How to answer them? I am guilty.

Often we don't take our time to tell them they are clever, or beautiful. It is important when it comes from the father and it will make them confident growing up. Don't leave the parenting to just the mum. Don't leave the parenting to our grandparents. You bring the child into the world the responsibilities is yours.

It will be a sad day if our children learn everything from the grandparents or the kakak. Nowadays got kakak taking care of our children.

3. No one can lead your child to God as well as you can fathers.

Children are clever. If they don't see you read the bible they will think the bible is not important. If you go elsewhere instead of church on Sunday they will think church is not important. Or if you don't pray, they will not see the value of praying.

If our children learn things from the TV or Internet, it will be a sad day. As we try to be a bullet father or mother, God is in the picture to help us get the right message to our children.

In cell, we asked the question who is the biggest influence in your life? So who is the biggest influence in your life? You know who is the biggest influence in my life? It's my father. I learn all things of God from my father. When my father died I was not in full time ministry but I already knew God called me. During the funeral many came and gave their eulogy. One of these was Jeremiah. He was an ex-drug addict and he was serving with my father in the drug ministry. He said my father, Bro Hudson was very careful with his money, even 5 cents. So he said he did not understand why a Chinese man would come and help us drug addicts. So he ended by saying there is no other reason except the love of God. I saw how much my father love God. At the memorial service God spoke to me that in 6 month's time I will be serving God.

Fathers, your influence is the most important to them. And the most important decision will be them giving their life to God. We have a huge responsibility. We can only do it with God.

I want to end with a story. There was these two boats that needs coal for steam to run the boat. So there was a challenge to see who will reach the destination first. So to move faster they had to burn more coal. So one of the sailors had a bright idea. Why don't we burn our cargo. So they won the race but reached their destination without the cargo. Let's not be like that. It is not the race that's important. It's the cargo.

So are you a firecracker Christian or a bullet Christian? It's all in the focus. I pray all of us will be bullet christians.

Rev Gideon praying for the fathers before they received a DIY Kit from the youth and young adults.