Father Figure
Family Ties
James Merritt
Ephesians 6:4
Introduction
1. Over twenty years ago I decided to take up the game of golf. My church for Christmas had given me certificates to buy equipment and take lessons. After those lessons I went out to play my very first round of golf with a deacon in my church. He was a good golfer and was patient with me that day and as you could imagine because of nerves and inexperience, my first shot was absolutely horrific. It landed somewhere between Saudi Arabia and Egypt. I was crestfallen but then that deacon looked at me with a smile on his face and said, "Pastor, take a mulligan." I didn't know what a mulligan was!
2. When I asked him his smile got even bigger and said, "It is the sweetest word in golf." Now for you non-golfers "a mulligan" is a do-over. It is a second shot you get to take without any penalty and you hope the second shot will be better than the first. Of course, now the word is literally used to describe any second chance you get in not just sports, but in life when you failed the first time.
3. If I could have a mulligan in my life, if I could have a second-chance, a do-over it would be as a father. The hardest job I've ever had in my life was being a dad. I agree with a man named John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, who centuries ago said this, "Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories."
4. We are in a series that we are calling "Family Ties." The family that was modeled in the very first chapters of the Book of Genesis of a mom and a dad and children is to say the least in big trouble today. Marriage itself is becoming more and more obsolete. The very definition of family today is so broad that the word is becoming increasingly meaningless. Remember this - when a word comes to mean just about anything it virtually means nothing.
5. I still believe that God's original model of a man and a woman becoming husband a ...
Family Ties
James Merritt
Ephesians 6:4
Introduction
1. Over twenty years ago I decided to take up the game of golf. My church for Christmas had given me certificates to buy equipment and take lessons. After those lessons I went out to play my very first round of golf with a deacon in my church. He was a good golfer and was patient with me that day and as you could imagine because of nerves and inexperience, my first shot was absolutely horrific. It landed somewhere between Saudi Arabia and Egypt. I was crestfallen but then that deacon looked at me with a smile on his face and said, "Pastor, take a mulligan." I didn't know what a mulligan was!
2. When I asked him his smile got even bigger and said, "It is the sweetest word in golf." Now for you non-golfers "a mulligan" is a do-over. It is a second shot you get to take without any penalty and you hope the second shot will be better than the first. Of course, now the word is literally used to describe any second chance you get in not just sports, but in life when you failed the first time.
3. If I could have a mulligan in my life, if I could have a second-chance, a do-over it would be as a father. The hardest job I've ever had in my life was being a dad. I agree with a man named John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, who centuries ago said this, "Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories."
4. We are in a series that we are calling "Family Ties." The family that was modeled in the very first chapters of the Book of Genesis of a mom and a dad and children is to say the least in big trouble today. Marriage itself is becoming more and more obsolete. The very definition of family today is so broad that the word is becoming increasingly meaningless. Remember this - when a word comes to mean just about anything it virtually means nothing.
5. I still believe that God's original model of a man and a woman becoming husband a ...
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