God is in the business of using broken people. God uses imperfect fathers. Nobody can sit here today and pretend to be perfect, right? And so, no matter how broken, flawed, or imperfect you are as a father today, but God is not. So, no matter how broken, flawed, or imperfect you are as a father does. is in the process of using you. He has put you in the place where you are for a purpose.
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Throughout history, he has continued to fulfill his purposes through fathers and men in spite of their failures. And he is using you, Father, in your home today to be a standard, to hold the family together, to provide for the family, to lead the family, and to be a blessing to your children.
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Maybe, as a father today, you feel disqualified. The heavy weight of past failures and broken relationships has convinced you that you cannot be the kind of father that God wants. Maybe you carry failures, regrets. or even shame in your heart. But the good news is that the gospel of Jesus Christ redeemed you. It's through faith in Jesus Christ that you've been redeemed.
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God takes what is broken and puts it together again, right? You don't have to be a perfect man for God to use you, to be a father. He is looking for willing men. Men that will be faithful, willing to admit their mistakes, repent, and then move forward. There's a purpose for you today.
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In the Bible, as we read about fathers and men in the Bible, we see mostly or maybe completely flawed men, men that sometimes made very serious mistakes, right? You read the story of Abraham, you read the story of Moses, you read the story of any one of these great, great men, and you read also of their mistakes and their failures. Yet God used them to raise families, to lead nations, and to pass on the faith, to pass on the faith.
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I have found that in my greatest failures, I've also found God's greatest grace. And not just God's grace, but also people's grace. Also my wife's grace, my family's grace. So life is not so much about being perfect and doing everything perfect, but in learning to trust God that he will do extraordinary things through very ordinary people that sometimes fail, right?
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A father has compassion on his children. The Lord has compassion, or as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. The Lord has compassion on his children. For he knows how we are formed, and he remembers that we are but dust. God knows our shortcomings. God knows our failures.
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So God does not define us by our failures either. He didn't do David. Even David as a king failed horribly, horribly. And yet God used him and moved Israel forward through his leadership. So he defines us by our faith.
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Stop believing the lie that you have to be perfect to be a good dad. That you can be a good dad in spite of your failures, even though you sometimes fail. And yet when we have failed, we feel so worthless. so like we just can't do this we can't do this right throw that lie out the door.
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Invite God into your weaknesses. When you are weak, when you do fail, you come back to God and invite God. You ask for forgiveness and you invite God into your weaknesses because God empowers the weak.
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God redeems our failures for his purpose. Even when we fail, God often uses those failures to do good things, to accomplish what he started out to accomplish.
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Genesis 50 verse 20, Joseph says this to his brothers. Remember, they sold him into slavery. They threw him into a well. I mean, they wanted to kill him. Then they sold him as a slave to a foreign land. At the end of that story, Joseph tells his brothers, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good. God used their horrible actions to actually save them all and their families and their descendants. God did good.
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Romans 8 verse 28, In all things, God works for good of those who love him. So my challenge to you, especially as dads, continue to love God no matter how you feel, no matter where you're at. Love God. Love God. and he will do good things through you and in your family because all things work for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.
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Own your past mistakes with humility. Not guilt. Be willing to admit your failures and your mistakes. Confess them. Repent of them. And then move forward. And then move forward. Talk openly with your children about where you have failed, dads.
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Let your testimony be a tool for healing and for giving other people that fail hope. Hey, you also have experienced something like this? Wow, then maybe there's hope for me. That's the result.
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God honors the father who walks in repentance. There are times we need to repent when we do fail, when we do make a serious mistake, that we repent. The father of the prodigal son runs and embraces his son. His son had betrayed him, had left him, had taken his... whether he's been growing up or after these days, and the people does not secretly win on the court. The inheritance squandered it and totally left the family. And when he finally returns, the father is not angry. He's not upset. He runs, embraces him, kisses him, gives him a ring on his finger, which stated clearly without doubt that you are still my son.
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Repentance is not weakness. We sometimes feel, well, if I have to repent and I have to acknowledge, that just shows I'm weak. That shows you're strong. It takes strength and honesty and genuineness to acknowledge failure.
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Fathers who walk in humility ask for forgiveness and extend it. They model God's mercy in very powerful ways by being genuine.
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Cultivate a heart of grace in your home. Let your children know that they're also safe to acknowledge their failures to you, that you also are willing to forgive. Teach your family how to fail but to fail forward, that in your failure you can actually move forward and grow as you learn from it. A father who repents becomes a living example of the grace of God.
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God blesses the faithful not the flawless. Hebrews 11 verse 8 to 10 tells us about Abraham who obeyed God and followed God even though he made many mistakes. Proverbs 20 verse 7 says a righteous man a righteous man who walks in his integrity how blessed are his sons after him you And walking in integrity means not just being perfect, but also that when you do fail, that you're genuine and true about it, that you're confessing it, you deal with it, and you walk through it, and then you keep going.
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Every father here has a past, every one of us as dads. But by God's grace, that past can become a platform for ministry, ministry, not a prison for shame. All of you dads here have a calling. If you're a dad, you have a ministry. And first and foremost, that is your family. To lead that family, bring them to faith, show them by your example what repentance is like and what forgiveness is like.
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God delights in using broken vessels to pour out his blessings in our midst. Your failures are not final when placed in the hands of God. I hope you know that.
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As you walk in humility, trust in his mercy, and remain faithful, your brokenness becomes a channel through which his blessing flows. Whenever we do fail, and we're willing to admit it, and it does break us, God's mercy and his blessing comes through that in the family.
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We teach our children best, not by our words, our commands, but by our example, that we live before them. Let your children see, not a perfect father, but a redeemed father, a father that knows Jesus and walks with Jesus. One who points them through his imperfections to a perfect God because they learn from your example.
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From broken to blessed, know that God is using you. God is using you. Your blessing, your smile is on you. Walk in that blessing.
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