Matthew 9:35 – 10:23 Just Like Dad
Before we begin, I want to wish all the Dads in the room, “Happy Father’s Day.” Sometimes, fathers get much respect. Sometimes they don’t!
Harmon Killebrew, the great baseball player of yesteryear, tells in his autobiography about growing up in a home with four boys. He says that on one occasion his father was out in the front yard playing baseball with the boys and a neighbor walked by and said, "Mr. Killebrew, if you keep on playing baseball out on your front lawn, you won't have any grass left in your yard." Mr. Killebrew said, "Sir, I'm not raising grass, I'm raising kids." Harmon Killebrew remembered that day. Yet Bill Cosby once observed that boys grow up spending hours and hours throwing footballs and going to games with their Dads. And when they make it big on the college scene, before the big bowl game they get interviewed, and the first thing they say is, “Hi Mom!!”
But you know, the news for dads on Father’s Day isn’t all bad. The National Center for Fathering conducts Father of the Year Essay Contests each year. One recent year, eight contests were held and over 100,000 school children submitted essays on the topic, “What my Father Means to Me.”
Here is a sampling of essays from past contests:
A first grader writes, “My dad is the best dad ever. I would kiss a pig for him.”
Another first grader writes, “My dad is a Frito‑Lay man. That is an important job because Frito‑Lay means chips, which is food. That is so important because you could not live without food.”
A third grader writes, “The dad in my life isn’t really my dad. He’s my Grandpa. But he’s been like a dad to me since before I was born . . . I hope that as I get older Grandpa will teach me all the stuff he knows about wood, and first aid, and everything else he knows about. My Grandpa isn’t my father, but I wouldn’t trade him for all the dads in the world.”
A fourth grader writes, “Sometimes as a joke I’ll put my stinky socks in his briefcase, so at work the next day he will think of me! He’s always at the concerts and plays that I’m in, even though he lives about an hour away.”
A fifth grade girl writes, “. . . You know what … my dad does? He braids my hair. I’m the only girl I know whose dad braids her hair. I think that’s a perfect dad. He already is the world’s greatest dad to me. I just wanted everyone to know that.”
A sixth grader writes, “One time I had an assembly and I was a soloist and my dad was in the first row and after my song I smiled at my dad and my dad smiled back and started crying. That was the best thing I ever saw.”
So, the news for Dads isn’t all bad. It’s the one day when grown kids call home to tell Dad they love him.
If you got a Father’s Day present today, I wonder it was something you can really use. I wonder how many of us have gotten neck ties where we had to grit our teeth as we tied them around out necks on Sunday morning. My dad got lots of those.
But I mean, besides more ties, what do we really need? In a society as affluent as ours, don’t we have everything that we really need?
Most of the things we want are simply bigger and better variations of what we already have. What do you give to people who have everything? That’s what I want to talk about for a few moments today.
Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness . . . Then he sent them out with these instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.”
Then he adds these powerful words, “Freely you have received, freely give.”
Here is the motivation for all evangelism, all works of justice, all foreign missions: "Freely you have received, freely give.”
We have so much. That’s the first thing we need to see. We have so much.
A visitor from a Third World country came to the United States. As he was riding through a subdivision, he noticed a car backing out of the garage and he said with amazement, “You even have houses for your cars!”
It reminds me of something humorist Will Rogers once said in the midst of the Great Depression. Will Rogers – who had seen grinding poverty in other parts of the world – said of America, “We’ll hold the distinction of being the only nation that ever went to the poorhouse in an automobile.”
Dr. Samuel Zumwalt tells about one of his friends who was a recovering alcoholic. When this friend went on a mission trip to Honduras, her whole worldview shifted. She said to Dr. Zumwalt, “I’ve always felt poor since I lost my big four bedroom house in a divorce. Then I came to Honduras and saw how the victims of Hurricane Mitch were thrilled to have these two room houses that we were building there.” She said, “I came back to my 600 square foot condominium and saw that I live in a palace compared to them. I’m rich, and I never knew it until I went to Honduras.”
We are rich, if we only knew it. That is why we need to listen closely to Jesus’ words, "Freely you have received, freely give.”
Motivational speaker Tony Robbins tells about something life-changing that occurred on Thanksgiving Day many years ago. A young boy woke up with a sense of foreboding. His family was in dire financial straits. They didn’t have much to look forward to that Thanksgiving Day – just a meager meal.
They were too proud to ask for charity. This led to frustration and harsh words between Mom and Dad. The boy was devastated to watch his mother and father become more and more angry and depressed with each passing day.
Then suddenly there was a loud and unexpected knock on the door. Standing there was a tall man in rumpled clothing, grinning broadly, and carrying a huge basket. In that basket was a multitude of good foods: turkey, stuffing, pies, sweet potatoes, canned goods! The man at the door said, “This is from someone who knows you’re in need and wants you to know that you are loved and cared for.”
The father tried to protest, but the man holding the basket said, “I’m just a delivery man. Have a great Thanksgiving.” In that brief encounter, says Tony Robbins, this young man’s life was changed. The kindness of this stranger would never be forgotten. That young man vowed that some day he would repay that grand gesture.
By the time this young man was nineteen years old he had begun to fulfill that promise. That Thanksgiving, with his own earnings, he set out to purchase groceries not for himself, but for two families that he had learned were in need.
When he arrived at the first house, he was greeted by a Latino woman with six children. Her husband had abandoned the family only two days before. They had no food. You can imagine the pandemonium when this young man went to his car and started bringing in turkey and stuffing and sweet potatoes and canned goods and all the things that he had bought for this family. The children shrieked, and the woman started exclaiming, “You a gift from God! You a gift from God!”
“No,” said the young man, “I’m just the delivery boy. This is a gift from a friend.”
The young man was sharing with others because someone first shared with him.
Actually this is the personal story of Tony Robbins himself. He was the boy whose stressed-out family received the Thanksgiving basket and the same boy who turned around and began giving out similar baskets when he was nineteen years old.
And because, as a motivational speaker, he has achieved astounding success, Robbins also started a foundation that has given Thanksgiving baskets to hundreds of thousands of people over the years.
We are rich, if we only knew it. That is why we need to listen closely to Jesus’ words, “Freely you have received, freely give.”
Here is the motivation for all good works,
“Freely you have received, freely give.”
Of course, when Jesus spoke these words to his disciples, he was not talking about financial blessings. He was talking about the spiritual blessings the disciples had received through him.
His love,
his grace,
his peace.
He was asking them to go out into the world to share the faith that he had nurtured in them.
I saw a wall hanging recently. On it were inscribed these words: “God danced the day you were born. You are loved. You are beautiful. You are a gift of God, his own possession. You are a gift to all humankind, God’s gift of love to them all.”
Isn’t that wonderful? “God danced the day you were born.”
I think that I like this so much because it reminds me of the mission of Jesus – to share the message that every human being is loved,
is beautiful,
is a gift of God,
and is a gift to ALL humankind.
You and I are loved by God.
This makes us spiritually rich,
it makes us God rich, if only we knew it.
We have treasures that are not dependent on the stock market or the size of our bank accounts or the resale value of our house. We are rich because we are loved.
We are loved by other people and we are loved by God.
We are particularly mindful of our family relationships on a special occasion such as Father’s Day. Now I say this, being fully mindful that some of us may not have grown up in loving family relationships. I say this in the full knowledge that there is abuse in this world, there is neglect in this world, there are broken families in this world. Sometimes this earthly life can be a real bear, but --- to know that we are loved by a heavenly Parent is the most wonderful gift of all.
In 1997 a soldier in Jordan went on a rampage and shot and killed seven Israeli schoolgirls who were on a field trip to the “Island of Peace,” which is a park on the Jordan River between Israel and Jordan. Two of the girls were killed on the spot. The others were taken to a Jordanian hospital but later died.
In the midst of anguish and anger and alienation, without warning, King Hussein, the king of the country where this crazy gunman lived, left his throne, left his palace, left his very country without notifying photographers and journalists, and entered the homes of the families of the slain girls. King Hussein in all his majesty and grandeur entered each of the modest homes of these grieving families and fell on his knees. He bowed down before them. In each home he looked into the eyes of the mother, the father, the sisters, the brothers, all the people who were grieving the loss of each young girl and said, ‘I beg you, forgive me. Your daughter is like my daughter; your loss is my loss. May God help you to bear your pain.’ And the king, humbled before them, bowed and then walked out to go back to his country and his sovereignty.”
This king, this Moslem king, gave us an image of our relationship with Christ.
The God of the entire universe humbled himself and came into our world to show us how much we are loved. And now it is our job to take that love to others. “Freely you have received, freely give.”
In 1995 Cal Ripken, Jr. broke what many believed was baseball’s unbreakable record--Lou Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played (2,130). Known as baseball’s all‑time Iron Man, Ripkin retired from baseball in 2001 after 21 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles. His name appears in the record books repeatedly, most notably as one of only seven players in history to amass 400 home runs and 3,000 hits.
Ripken regularly gives the credit for all his accomplishments to the example and teaching of his father, Cal Ripken, Sr. Cal Ripken, Sr., was a former baseball player, coach, and scout for the Baltimore Orioles. In 1996 Cal Ripken, Sr. was inducted into the Oriole’s Hall of Fame and Cal Ripken, Jr. was asked to say a few words about his father. It was an emotional moment, and the younger man struggled to find just the right words.
Finally he decided to tell a story about his own two children--Rachel, who was six years old and her little brother, Ryan who was three. They had been bickering for weeks and one day Ripken heard Rachel taunt Ryan. She said, “You’re just trying to be like Daddy!”
After a few moments, Cal asked Rachel, “What’s wrong with trying to be like Dad?”
When he had finished telling this story, Cal Ripken, Jr. looked at his father and said, “That’s what I’ve always tried to do. I’ve always tried to be like my dad.”
And that is what Christ expects out of his disciples.
He expects us to try to be like Dad.
To be like our Heavenly Father who gave Himself so completely for the world.
“Freely you have received, freely give.”
That’s our challenge. Let’s pray that God will help us move forward as we strive to be “Just Like Dad.”
