The LORD's Day June 15, 2008 Happy Father's Day!

Bring Joy To Your Father

Proverbs 29.3, 4.1-23

June 1968- 40 years ago this past week, Robert Kennedy was gunned down by an assassin, Sirhan Sirhan in California. Just two months earlier Martin Luther King had been killed as well. Those were horrible days for our nation.

I remember June 1968 for another reason, one much more joyful. I graduated from sixth grade from Martin Avenue Elementary School in Bellmore, complete with cap and gown and diploma!

I also had an autograph book. Classmates, teachers and family wished me well in it.

My Sunday School Teacher wrote Proverbs 3.5-6 in it and said to use this as a guide for your life. I have sought to do that.

It was my grandmother who wrote a portion of the scripture we read this morning, Proverbs 4.23 “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” 40 years ago I received it. 40 years later I am sharing it with you on this Father’s Day. God had this all worked out. This is a moment when we are onto something He lined up from the beginning.

God, the Father, Our Father in Heaven, was obviously speaking to me back then 40 years ago so much that He had my Nana write it down. He is speaking to me and you today. He wants us to walk with Him. He wants us keep guard over our hearts.

It is His design that Proverbs are in the father-son or father-sons dialogue. It was Solomon speaking to his son, but it was and is God the Father speaking to you and I as His children in these Proverbs.

We are told a man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father. He makes him glad. To love wisdom is to have it close as you would a friend, it means to be like it. The man who holds wisdom close, who reflects in his life will bring joy to his father.

On this Father’s Day let’s think about our heavenly Father for a few moments and let’s thinking about making Him glad by the fact that we have embraced wisdom like a close friend and we love it so deeply that our lives reflect that.
First let’s speak of this point of making our Father in Heaven glad. This is definitely something we do not think of enough. We think of what we need and what we are concerned with. We think others needs. We struggle at times with doubts and ask the LORD to help our unbelief but we do not very often think about this matter of making glad the heart of God.


How do we bring joy to our Father in Heaven?


1. We bring joy to Him by obeying Him. Genesis 22.17-18
“Because you have obeyed Me.” First time the word obeyed is mentioned in the Bible is with the father of the faithful, Abraham, and in reference to his obedience.

God has not made it complicated for us to understand obedience. He has wrapped it up into daily living. He has given us basic commandments. Jesus boiled it all down to loving the LORD our God with our all and our neighbor as ourselves.

We know His will by knowing His Word. A great reason for the lack of obedience to God is that many do not know what His Word says. A great deception takes place among believers when they have not become grounded in God’s Word.

All of us Dads know what a joy it is (or was) to have our children obey us. It made our hearts glad. It brought harmony between us. We also know that there is no such thing as a perfect child. We know the pain and struggle there is with disobedience. Bring that to the relationship we have with our Father in Heaven. It is to our advantage, for our good that we obey Him. The motive should be first that we love Him. The whole growth and development of a child is here.

In John 14, after He said that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him, He said “If you love Me, you will obey what I command.”- John 14.15


2. We bring joy to our Father in heaven by keeping in touch with Him regularly.

Prayer is not just asking God for things when we need them, it is having fellowship with Him all the time.

Those of us who are older like to hear from our kids. We love to do things for them but we enjoy just hearing from them for no reason other than wanted to say hi. Unfortunately our high paced world is making that more difficult.

Few of the LORD’s children ever reach the joy of fellowshipping with Him on earth in quiet waiting and wonder in pausing and giving Him thanks and praise. This is not only a wonder filled experience for us it is brings joy to our Father in Heaven.

A Daily Quiet Time is so needed. I know of one couple where the husband would watch the children so his wife could have her time of quiet with Jesus each day. I believe that not only brought joy to the wife but joy to our Father in heaven.

Hang out with the LORD- you will experience joy in your soul while making the LORD glad.

3. We Bring Joy to our Father in Heaven by Lives of Wise Choices Springing from Wisdom

This is one of the purposes of Proverbs. Proverbs 1.1-7

It is not live and learn rather it is learn and live. Many young people today are suffering the consequences of foolish choices. They made bad choices because they lacked wisdom. Had they been taught the Proverbs and become friends with it, become like the book itself in that their lives spoke of the Proverbs by their actions they would have avoided so much pain and suffering and sorrow. If that is your situation this morning, God has grace for you. All is not lost. There is a way out. Make Jesus LORD of your life and begin to read this book and aim to live by it. We can avoid scars through applying wisdom.

4. We Bring Joy to our Father in Heaven by giving gifts to Him.

We are really not giving things that are ours in the first place. God is the giver of all good gifts. They have come down from Him. We are in reality honoring Him by giving and acknowledging that He is the One Who has given these things to us in the first place. You say, “Well I worked hard for what I have.” Oh and Who gave you the strength?


We think God needs us to give. How ludicrous! We need God He does not need us.
In fact I’m at that point now where I have a great deal of stuff- too much! My mother got upset when I told her there was nothing we really needed for Christmas this past year. However I still enjoy getting gifts on Father’s Day from my kids, not because of need but because of it is a way they express their love for dear old dad. It is a personal thing.

Now God has set up the church so that the giving to Him in part supplies the needs of ministry. If everyone gave what God placed in their hearts to give all the needs of the church would be met. I personally do not believe that stewardship campaigns were part of the early church. There were no needy among them because everyone was moved by the Spirit to give out of love for Jesus.

5. We Bring Joy to the Father in Heaven by guarding our hearts and lives. 4.23

We are not home yet. We must be on our guard. If we think it cannot happen to us we are in great danger of falling. We are all tempted. Many have fallen in their last years. What a tragedy! A mature Christian getting caught in a sin is possible and when it happens it is very sad.

Guard you heart.

Two meanings- blockade it- God’s Word and Prayer, Fill it with good things and thoughts
Confine it - Do not let certain things in, Keep it from imaginations that are evil.


Bring Joy to your Father in heaven- guard your heart- out of it are the issues of life. An example: Greed in the heart can result in stealing from someone. Love in the heart will result in giving.

Bring joy to your Father in Heaven:
Obey Him
Talk to Him
Live a life of wise choices
Give gifts to Him
Guard your heart and your life- keep it for Him!