Thank you Pastor Rick Frederickson for this awesome Father’s Day message! Thank you for all you do for the Kingdom of God! Our love and prayers are with you and Sue! The picture is of Pastor Rick and Sue who are both from my hometown of Windom, Minnesota! Please keep Rick and Sue in your prayers as Rick is also now the Pastor of the Sanborn, Minnesota Methodist Church! Rick is such a dedicated man of God! PTL!
A special place for dad
It seems that our culture today thinks fathers are an expendable part of the family, as nothing more than sperm donors and deadbeats.
The courts tend to treat dads as second class citizens, often barely being allowed to be a part of their kid’s lives. TV commercials and the media often mock and degrade fathers.
And sadly, many men today also neglect to see the importance of their role as a father themselves, hence the term “dead-beat dad. As a result, their kids are growing up in unbalanced and dysfunctional households.
Fathers need to be reinstated to the level of importance that God intended for them! In fact, I believe one of the major reasons American morality and spiritual integrity is so low is because of the declining value placed on the role of the father in today’s culture. When dad is undervalued, so is a right relationship with God.
In Colossians chapter 3, scripture gives a model of authority in the family: “Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.”
God has set the father in a special place as head of the family and in 1 Timothy 3:12, he “must be faithful to his wife and must manage his children and his household well.” So dads are charged with the responsibility of looking after the best interests of their family: financially, spiritually and socially.
The legacy a father should leave his family is one of provision, protection, discipline and fatherly love. But the primary gift, the primary expression of love from a dad is the legacy of salvation.
God has set dads in the special place as head of the family – as a loving husband and father. We are the first line of defense for our families and are entrusted by God with power and authority to deliver the message of the Gospel to our families – not just with words, but in the way we live every day. Not just by the way we worship and pray on Sundays, but by the way we worship and praise God the father every day of our lives.
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Rick Frederickson, Pastor
Springfield United Methodist Church
Springfield, MN
507-723-6698 (Church)
