I vividly remember the first Father’s Day sermon I ever preached. As I tried to figure out what to preach on, I remembered that someone told me that there were no examples of perfectly good fathers in Scripture (other than God). In other words, every father in Scripture who is given more than just a brief mention, had serious moral failures and shortcomings. They were all flawed.
So since there probably weren’t any fathers in Scripture that were good examples of how to be a father, I decided to preach on the worst father in Scripture–Lot. So that is what I did. I called it “The Worst Father’s Day Sermon Ever.” And wow, was it bad! It is not a sermon you will ever find in my podcast. I remember looking out as I preached seeing all the mothers and fathers staring at me with that “deer in the headlights” look, eyes wide open, mouth agape. Some of the mothers were covering the ears of their children. It was bad.
After the sermon, not one person even tried to be nice about the message by saying “Nice sermon, pastor.” I only had one man make one comment about the message. He came up to me afterwards and said, “Well, one thing is for sure. That truly was the worst father’s day sermon ever.” He was a good friend of mine, so we both laughed about it, but the truth is that I felt pretty ashamed. I still do.
But ironically, this sort of thing happens every year on Father’s Day in churches across the country. The sermons that are preached from our pulpits may not be as bad as mine was, but most Father’s Day sermons tend to beat up on dads rather than encourage them and challenge them to dream big, take risks for God, embark on an adventure, charge ahead, and be a man! Instead, we beat them over the head with everything they are doing wrong.
I’m reading the excellent book How Women Help Men Find God by David Murrow (I will post a review of it when I’m finished), and in the book he quotes Dr. Kevin Leman as saying:
Not only are men supposed to attend morning Bible studies, but they’re supposed to get home in time for dinner, spend time alone with each child, date their wives once a week, and earn enough money so that their wives can stay home with their young children. This is a heavy load, and some Christian men start to resent it” (p. 37).
Then Murrow quotes Nancy Wray Gegoire who said this:
I’ve often noticed that sermons on Mother’s Day tend to gush over moms, while on Father’s Day they tell dads to shape up” (p. 37).
Just yesterday, I read the following over at the Church for Men blog:
Mother’s Day: A day devoted to honoring moms.
Father’s Day: A day to beat up men for not doing a better job!
So I hope that this Sunday, you are able to honor, bless, and encourage the men in your church. If you want to learn how to challenge men to action, I recommend the books by David Murrow and John Eldredge. And whatever you do, don’t preach on Lot.
P.S. My “Lot Sermon” was my third worst sermon ever. My WORST sermon was at a wedding. Some day I’ll tell you about it. I hope that couple is still together, but if not, they can blame me for starting out their marriage on the wrong foot. Yes, it was that bad.
When someone finds out you are a Christian, how do they respond?
Frankly, I have the hardest time connecting with these people, because once they know I have been a “religious” leader, it seems that all they want to do is talk about devoted and dedicated they are. I find that I am often the one trying to change the subject to sports or the weather, but they keep bringing it back to their own religious efforts (e.g. “Yes, it is hot, and I’m so glad, because I prayed for good weather today.”)
Well … actually … it is true.