"Honor and a Healthy Heart", Fathers Day 2010

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Fathers Day: Honor

(1 Samuel 2:26-30)

Im Watching

Here is the big, huge profound truth I want you to hear on Fathers Day 2010youre kids have

a sin nature which will pull them away from the Lord just as intensely as yours does you. Check that

truth out as you listen to this cute but overwhelmingly realistic video clip.

Which of the challenges stood out to you?

The most compelling for me was Ill seek my comfort above all else. Ill need you, Dad, to teach

me to honor God.

The Lord God declares, For those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will

be lightly esteemed (1 Samuel 2:30). I checked out dozens of verses this past week pertaining to

honoring and dishonoring God. The term honor means heavy. It is used throughout Scripture in

both positive and negative ways. For instance, when you treat God as heavy, serious the translations

say, glorify, honor, exalt, praise. Psalm 22:23 sings, You who fear the LORD, praise Him; all you

descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, and stand in awe of Him, all you descendants of Israel.

When you dont treat God as heavy life becomes a burden and the weight of our sin can be

crushing. My iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burden they weigh too much for me (Psalm

38:4).

To honor the Lord is to be driven by His jealousy for His glory and our delight.

To despise the Lord is to treat Him as less than supreme.

In ancient times before Israels monarchy but after Abraham, Moses and Joshua came the time

of the Judges. Men such as Gideon, Jephthah, Samson and others led Gods people for three centuries.

Their time ended with this commentary, All men did what was right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25b).

As is often the case during dark hours, the God of all hope interrupts history and moves in a mighty way.

This was such a time. We read about in 1 Samuel 2:12-17, 22-27a, 29, and 35.



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Men who dont value Gods honor highly enough

dont really know God (2:12). Elis sons were worthlessthey didnt know God. Religious

history suggests that usually only the first and, maybe, second generation of temple, synagogue or

church leaders is inspired following great revivals.

Could Eli have missed the most simple of responsibilities as a father because it was so simple?

His children grew up in the synagogueour equivalent to church. Did he assume that because he was a

priest and they were surrounded by spiritual things they would have necessarily known God for

themselves?

The story of Eli and his two boys could be any of us. Were raising our kids in the church. But,

our service to the Lord as pastors, elders, deacons, teachers, ushers, hosts and etc. does not ensure our

children will know the Lord.

become gamers instead of difference makers (2:13-17). The sacrificial practice of the Old

Testament made provisions for the needs of the priests. They were permitted to use a large fork of

sorts to keep part of the meat for their own food. They had to wait until the fat had been boiled away

and could select only certain parts of the beef.

It may be hard for us to understand, but think of it this way. Youre a rancher in ancient times.

All your work is done with your hands. The labor is hard and even dangerous. Your whole family is

diligent to the well-being of all the livestock. Because you are a devout and God-fearing man, you give

special attention to certain of your animals for they were to be the Lords. You are often moved by

Gods heart for you and your family. You want Him to have the best. But, when you present the

sacrifice in the temple, the most influential priests establish a system which disrespects your offering.

Instead of God getting the best, they take it for themselves and get fat off it. Atonement Day is not

treated with solemn reverence in repentance but as a huge barbecue. If you objected, youd be



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threatened. Not only is your hard work disdained, your love for God scoffed at, but your manhood is

challenged before your family by the weasel-ly sons of Eli.

At the core of their sin, Elis boys were gamers. They trifled with the important things of life.

Life was a game. Instead of stepping up and using their influential positions to inspire the people and

rally them around their hope in Jehovah, they were playing.

There was no more basic function of the priest, yet they didnt take it seriously. We have basics

toodaily devotions, family prayer at mealtime, the weekly gathering of Gods people, our testimony

with our neighbors. Do we take those simple disciplines seriously?

develop addictions especially to sex (2:22; Proverbs 13:25). Eli confronted his boys for sleeping

with the women who worked in the temple. Were unsure of the function these ladies had but they may

have been singers. According to Exodus 38:8 they ministered in the area people entered the temple.

Elis two sons couldnt keep their fly zipped. The home that claims to follow God, but doesnt

take Him seriously is a breeding ground for addictions. Listen to the definitive, no-middle-ground

manner of Proverbs 13:24-25. First, the wise man teaches, He who spares his rod, hates his son, but he

who loves him disciplines him diligently. Why does the loving father discipline his children? Because

he respects the principle of the next verse, The righteous has enough to satisfy his appetite, but the

stomach of the wicked is in want.

cant find the passion to discipline their own sons (2:23-25a; 1 Kings 1:6). It is one thing for us

to interrupt our kids lives every once in awhile with rebuke because things are serious; it is quite

another for us to be a loving father who disciplines them diligently. Elis motivation to discipline his sons

seems to be the pressure of the peopleI hear from these peopleI hear the Lords people

circulating.

Like Eli, King David following his repeated moral failures seemed devoid of passion in dealing

with his sons. His oldest living boy was Adonijah. 1 Kings 1:5 records that he exalted himself saying, I



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will be king. Absent from his character was humility and respect. His appetite was unsated and with

the hunger of greed he reached out to grab his ultimate thingthe crown. Listen to the reason. 1 Kings

1:6 explains, And his father had never crossed him at any time asking, Why have you done so?

If you only rebuke your children out of a concern for your reputation, or if you so fear losing

their love and approval that you say nothing, you are raising children who will make created things idols.

They will treat food, sex, power, position and everything else as ultimate things. They will have to have

them.

wont have ears to hear the Lords rebuke (2:25b). Elis sons responded with deafness. They

would not listen to the voice of their father, for the Lord desired to put them to death. That doesnt

say, Because they wouldnt listen, God desired to put them to death. Instead, their hardness of heart

was their judgment. Because they had refused to follow the Lord, God disciplined them by giving them

over to their own hearts desires.

Elis sin is summed up in verse 29, You kick at my sacrifices. You honor your sons above me. If

you dont honor God or take Him seriously in your family, then there is no other alternative but to treat

created things such as your children as ultimate things. Your soul will have a god. And, children cannot

handle being treated like a god.

Men who savor Gods glory with supreme worth

are raised up by the Lord (2:35a). I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest. In 1740 Samuel

Blair preached an ominous sermon warning the church of the colonies was all but doomed. He insisted

that darkness was mounting. In a letter to an evangelist to visit his small, unattended work, he

complained that the people did not take the Lord seriously. One of the recipients was Jonathon

Edwards who used Blairs burden to inspire his classic sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

and The Great Awakening was born which not only rallied Gods people to take Him seriously, but

prepared them for the tumultuous years of the American Revolution.



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A godly man takes God seriously because he yearns to have children who revere the Lord. The

young man or woman who grows up with a healthy awe of God will be a catalyst for revival in their own

little corner of the world. Just like Blair, their holy discontent will buoy the courage of the next Jonathon

Edwards wholl prepare the hearts of a generation for the next great challenge. And, its all because a

dad stepped up to the plate as a man of God.

seek the Lords heart and soul (2:35b; Numbers 25:11-13). To honor God means to be driven

by a zeal for His spirit. He will do according to what is My heart and in My soul. Hundreds of years

before the corrupt son of Eli named Phinehas there was another by the same name. But this Phinehas

was driven by a passion for God. He loved what God loved. He hated what God hated. Many of the

men of Israel had chosen to worship the false god of Baal because it gave them access to the attractive

and exotic women of Moab. Thrilled that these beautiful women found them attractive they abandoned

Jehovah. God judged His people. If not for the bloody but bold act of Phinehas, many more than the

24,000 who died would have fallen. Listen to the Lords description to Moses of his priest,

Phinehaswas jealous with My jealousy. I give him my covenant of peace. It will be for him and his

descendantsbecause he was jealous for his God (Numbers 25:11-13).

Every family has rules. But are you passionate about the heart and soul of God? Are you so

jealous of Gods honor that you fight for your children against the millions of idols their greedy heart

might go after?

endure on a solid foundation (2:35c). Like the first Phinehas, the priest God was about to rise

up would have an enduring legacy for the Lord. Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in

vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain (Psalm 127:1).

walk before the Lords anointed (2:35d). Ultimately, our hope is that our children will walk

before the Lord Jesus. Value the Gospel and treasure the principles of spiritual growth for your family.

Happy?



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Elis sons were happyfor a time. Isnt it our hope that our kids be happy? It is mine. But the

Bible warns of the wrong sort of happiness. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to

gloom (James 4:9). James writes that on the heels of his discussion about lusts and how our greedy

grab for the happy things of this life results in strife and violence.

There is a different sort of happiness or joy found only in Christ. It is this kind that the father

who honors God will himself savor. Thou hast put more joy in my heart than they have when their

grain and wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for thou alone, O lord, makest me dwell

in safety (Psalm 4:7-8). Who you are before the Lord is more important than all the instructions you

give your kids over the years.

Documents

"Honor and a Healthy Heart", Fathers Day 2010