Role of Fathers in Family & National Development

Family:

- key to national success

- oldest human institution on earth

- God's ideal institution

- cure for all social psychological emotional and spiritual ills of our community

- foundational unit of development

- prototype of society

- society is reflection of family

- purpose of family is to secure society

- family is not product of state

- sanctity of family is bedrock for human survival

Proverbs 24:3-5

By wisdom a house is built,

and by understanding it is established;

by knowledge the rooms are filled

with all precious and pleasant riches.

A wise man is full of strength,

and a man of knowledge enhances his might,

★ We need to be full of knowledge, always informed. And we need to understand and apply that knowledge. Applying knowledge that we understand is an act of wisdom.

Exodus 12:2-3

“This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers 'houses, a lamb for a household.

1 Timothy 5:8

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

★ We can't substitute worship for our family! Why does God care a lot about family? Because it's the foundation of everything!

Deuteronomy 11:18-21

“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

Purpose of family:

- socialization

- civilization

- preservation 

- identification 

- procreation

- classification

- incubation

- accommodation

- liberation

- transformation

Products of family:

- Responsibility

- Accountability

- Respectability

- Morality

- Communication

- Values

- Emotional shelter

- A natural psychological incubator 

- Self concept and worth

- Convictions and beliefs

Deuteronomy 4:9-10

“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children— how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so. ’

★ Role of the family is to preserve generation. And that the foundation of family is male - man - the father! However though...

THE GREATEST PROBLEM ON EARTH IS FATHERLESSNESS!

If you want to know what's important to God, study what satan focuses on!

Why does satan wants to destroy the men? Because satan knows that if he destroys the foundation, he will automatically destroy the whole building - if satan destroys men, the whole family will be destroyed, and if the whole family is destroyed, so is the society, and if the society is destroyed, therefore the whole nations is destroyed too.

Exodus 20:12

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Ephesians 6:2-3

“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

★ Honor what? Honor the position that he has! God did not say honour your perfect father or honour your loving father, He simply said honour your father. Therefore no matter how your father is we still have to honour him for being a father. Why father? Because God sees fatherhood as the solution to all human personal social national problems.

Malachi 4:6

And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Psalms 68:5-6

Father of the fatherless and protector of widows

is God in his holy habitation.

God settles the solitary in a home;

he leads out the prisoners to prosperity,

but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.

★ FATHER - Abba - Pater

Father defined:

- source

- nourisher

- sustainer / provider

- protector

- progenitor

- founder (foundation)

- author / maker

Now ladies, if you're looking for a husband, make sure he does all this:

MARKS OF REAL MAN

HE LOVES GOD'S PRESENCE!

HE WORKS, before God gives him a woman!

HE CULTIVATES!

HE PROTECTS!

HE LOVES GOD'S WORD, KNOWS THE COMMANDMENT OF GOD!