Father’s Day / Father’s Sunday Celebration Sermon
The original plan of God when he created man was to get him busy with the creature and to have fellowship with him in the cool of the evening. Fathers are created with tasks in mind. If you should call my 6-year-ol boy and ask him who a father is? He will provide you with very many answers. We know what he will definitely say. He will start this way; “father is the head of the family. He provides for our food and pays our school fees”. Father’s Day / Father’s Sunday Celebration Sermon.
Yes! No one disputing the above simple facts. Fathers are head. Fathers are the pillars of the family. Fathers are worth celebrating. This is because generations began through them. Right from the time after creature, man (father) has not rested. He was given tasks to perform by God.
Take a look at these following passages taken from from the book Genesis 1: 28; 2: 15 & 20a.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
In our new society today, we see responsibilities of the family being co-shared by the father and the mother or in the worst scenario, shifted entirely to the mothers. Mothers now dress the garden, Women have taken over the Eden and our Fathers are sitting down idling away.
Our Family is the physical Eden. God has placed every man to be incharge, to be productive and to rule. A man who does not know his responsibilities in the family cannot fulfil any of these tasks. In the Eden garden, there is no room for laziness. Adam was busy, carrying out the tasks given to him by God.
Father’s Day / Father’s Sunday Celebration Sermon
Roles of the Fathers
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Fathers rule in their Territory:
We can see this role from the book of Genesis 1 verse 28. He was mandated to rule and have dominion over living and the non living things on the earth. Fathers should not play second fiddle at home for any reason. And for someone to rule and dorminate, he must have a brave heart, determined and focused. You may read: Paul to Timothy “Use a Little wine because of your Stomach” 1Tim 5:23
A drunkard does not rule his territory. He will not be alert to know when the enemies are about to strick. A womanizer does cannot rule his territory. He will end it handing it over to a strange woman.
Rulling and dorminating your territory does not mean beating your wife or beaing harsh on your family. The hearts of your wives and that of your children be gladen whenever your voice is hear or the horn of your ride. Whenever your children and your go into hidding when you are coming in, it shows your are an intimidator and not a father.
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Fathers are Dressers
Another word for dressing is taking care of. Adam, the first man was commanded to dress the garden in the Eden. If the garden is dressed or properly dressed, it will look unkept and unattractive. This applies to our homes.
Fathers are given the task to go and be fruitful and multiply. Unfortunately, our fathers today are shifting the roles of dressing the family sole to the woman. But this is an error. You are obligated to take care of your home. Make them look good in the eyes of your neighbour. Fathers should be ashamed when any of your family members look unkept.
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Fathers are Incharge of his Home’s Physical and Spiritual Affairs
These days, fathers think it praying for the family and being consistent in the church should be for the mothers. This is a falacy. In the Genesis, I saw God coming down to fellowship with man in the Eden and man would always wait. On the day he ate from the evil tree, he did not wait for God as usual. Instead, he hid from Him.
Fathers should take care of his physical needs in his family. He is also obligated to stand in the gap in the place of prayer for the members of his family.
Father’s Day / Father’s Sunday Celebration Sermon
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Fathers hears direct from God
Every father is a Priest in his own home. In the Eden garden, Adam heard God. He saw His glory as he moved in the cool breeze. Unfortunately, most fathers today are far from God. They are strangers before God.
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Fathers are Fellowshippers with God
“When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.” Gen 3: 18 (New Living Translation)
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They are Creative
Laziness should never be mentioned among the fathers. As I said when I began the introduction, the fathers have been busy since creation. Immediately they were created, they found tasks, they embarked on them and kept working.
It was man who named all the living creatures. He was creative, he invented names, titles, locations, in their thousands and gave to the animals in the garden.
Father’s Day / Father’s Sunday Celebration Sermon
Origin of Father’s Day Celebration
A woman in one of the Father’s Day Sunday Celebration told one of the fathers that there was nothing like Father’s day before that it was fixed out of jealousy for mothers’ day. She went further to claim that Fathers were jealous of the precious gifts bought for the mothers on the Mothers’ day celebration and the quickly fixed theirs so they can be given gifts too. She could be right. As a child, all I knew was Mothers’ day, there was nothing like Father’s day celebration or Father’s Sunday celebration down here in the East. It just became popular recently.
According to History.com, back in 1909, a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd, “tried to establish an official equivalent to Mother’s Day for male parents.” She went around to local businesses to gather support for her idea, and on June 19, 1910, the state of Washington celebrated the first-ever Father’s Day.
“Although the event inspired President Woodrow Wilson and President Calvin Coolidge to urge Americans to acknowledge a day for dads during their administrations, it still wasn’t an official holiday. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm for the commemoration didn’t last long. During the ’20s and ’30s, people tried to do away with both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and replace them with Parents’ Day instead”.
Father’s day or Parents’ Day celebration did not see boom until during the Great Depression, business people saw it as avenue for money making, retailers pushed to commercialize the holiday. The aim was to make money out of it. Eventually, the World War II began; father’s day was adopted fully as a way to pay respect to American troops.
However, in the year 1972, on May 1, President Richard Nixon signed Proclamation 4127, which declared Father’s Day as a national holiday, with the first official celebration on June 18, 1972. He wrote in the Proclamation;”Let each American make this Father’s Day an occasion for renewal of the love and gratitude we bear to our fathers, increasing and enduring through all the years,”.
Father’s Day / Father’s Sunday Celebration Sermon
Why Is Father’s Day in June?
This is because the first Father’s Day celebration was in June. It was first celebrated on June 19, 1910. The date originally fell on June 19, 1910, the birthday of Sonora Smart Dodd’s father, American Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart.
It was later changed to Sunday. But it is always on the third Sunday in the month of June, every year.
When Will Father’s Day be celebrated in 2022?
It will be celebrated on the third Sunday in June, 2022. It will be on the 19th of June, 2022.
My second son’s birthday date has some resemblance with father’s day. He was born on the 24th of June. His birthday comes few days after Father’s day or father’s Sunday. Read: Methylated Spirit and Chlorhexidine Gel for Newborn Umbilical Cord Care, Which is Better?
