Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christians' armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Welcome to the Daily Blade. This entire week we are going to spend our time talking about what it means to be a godly dad. And now I know many of you are fathers, uh, and if you're not, do not check out. There's all kind of principles you could learn, or uh maybe it's a better way to love your dad or be a father figure to the upcoming generation in your church. You know, one of the things I think about is in the book of 3 John, verse 4. People don't even read 3 John. 3 John verse 4 says this I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. It is an incredible honor that God would allow us to be a father and to borrow his title. And you think about who wrote those words. John was the one that had the Last Supper with Jesus. John witnessed the resurrected Christ. John was the one given the revelation to see how all things will come together in the end when he sees the new heaven and the new earth, and of all the things on the planet and in the future that bring him joy, hearing that his children are walking in the truth brings him no greater joy. And now, one of the things I just want you to realize is that God is not a reflection of your heavenly father, but he is the perfection of what it means to be dad. Ephesians chapter 6, men says this children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. 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. Now, dads, I want you to pay attention to verse 4. Fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Some translations will say, Fathers do not exasperate your children. What it means to exasperate or to provoke is to put your kids in a no-win situation and just push them into the corner. You see, one of the things that is a heavy weight for us to bear is this is that the way we treat our kids will develop what our kids think about God more than anything else in their entire lives. I mean, think about that. How in the world are our kids going to understand that God is a loving heavenly father if all we ever do is yell at them and correct them? Now, of course, our kids need discipline. It says it right here that we should bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Well, how does God discipline and instruct us? Romans chapter 2, verse 4, the Bible says, or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance. Let me ask you, fathers, are you kind to your kids, or is it correction and compliance that you lead with? Well, according to the Bible, the thing that is going to change our heart is not God's rule and not God's justice, but it's God's kindness that is meant to lead us to repentance. You see, at the core of prayer, when Jesus is asked by his disciples in Luke 11:1, his disciples come to him and say, Lord, please teach us to pray. And Jesus basically says, Okay, when you pray, I want you to pray like this, because if you can understand this, it will teach you everything that you need to know about being a follower of the way, about being in right relationship with God. And he says this when you pray, say our father. When Jesus is teaching on prayer, he says, What father among you, if your kid asked for a fish, would give him a scorpion. You see, Jesus wanted us to know that God ultimately is father. That's just not a title that he puts on himself, but God is father. And he is a good, good father, that's just who he is, and we are loved by him, that's just who we are. And if we could get our mind around those two things, that God is a good dad who is for us, not against us, and that we are loved by him. God loves us and Jesus is the proof, then it would change everything about our entire lives. Now, we get to reflect that kind of relationship to our children. That your relationship with your kids will shape their view of God more than anything else in the world. And so if you have been out of step with how God has loved you and disciplined you and brought you up in the instruction of the Lord, then I would encourage you, one of the first things that we need to do as dads is go to our kids and repent. We need to own it, say, listen, your dad's not perfect. I'm very sorry, I have good intentions, and it doesn't always play out the right way. And I'm going to change the way I think. And I want to father towards relationship, not compliance. Why? Because that's how God fathers us. You see, the reality is, especially if you've got kids still living at home with you, there will be a day where they can do whatever they want to do. And what you have to father towards is when they are out on their own, then they know how to love God, love people, and make the right decisions because you have led them that way. Even when you don't have control over their lives anymore, you want to have the kind of a relationship where you still have influence in their life. So, dads, this whole week we are going to talk about what it means to be a godly dad. Come back tomorrow and we'll dig in.

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