Transcript: Rev Fred Proctor's Father's Day Sermon | Christian Inspiration

you all the world i welcome you to brighterdaybaptistchurch.com this is reverend fred proctor senior the pastor and we are glad that you are with us here today in our service special day father's day and i want to say to all fathers happy Father's Day hope it's a blessed day for you and your family all of you and we're so glad that you are here ask you to enter right into the service we are a virtual church which means we have everything that a church does we don't have a virtual building so I'm coming to you from a studio but it is a church you visit and then go around and go into the different doors and you will see what we have so we have brighterdaybaptistchurch.com which we've had for a good several years two or three years and then before that we had telling the story read it for 17 or 18 years I'm gonna thank my family our firstborn son Fred jr. is the engineer he built the first website 2004 and I said you build it now promote it and God really blessed it many months because we have analytics tells us what's going on how many people come how well they went what page you know how long they stayed and we even back then we were many months we had over 2 million visitors per month so this is the world wide web worldwide and I've said it I think this is the only the first generation that since technology has and I'm sure that it came from God he allowed man to do all this stuff through technology and I think we are the first generation that has been able to reach the entire world with the gospel you know the last thing that Jesus said immediately before he went back up to heaven on the cloud he He said, go ye, or you go, you go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And that's been our desire. That's what we strive to do, to present the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, hallelujah. Thank you for the gospel. I will give you this. then we're going to have a special message for fathers. The gospel in a nutshell has been described as John chapter 3 verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. Hallelujah. Thank you for everlasting life, almighty God. Thank you for loving us, a loving heavenly father. My hallelujah. Now, I have some prayer requests. And this, like I say, this is going out to all the world, all you that's out wherever you're at. And you know how to pray and you believe in prayer. I'm going to ask this very special prayer request for a good Christian brother and his family, Brother Randy Kent. He had a stroke. I'm guessing it was like four months ago, maybe. It's not been that long. It did not paralyze him. We're thankful for that, very thankful. But it did affect his short-term memory. He doesn't remember anything about the stroke or being in the hospital or being in rehab. But before that, his memory is fine. So I'm asking that you pray that God will restore his memory totally. He knows that he has this problem. He was here visited. He and his wife and his brother, Brother Sammy Kent, visited with me yesterday. And he said, Brother Fred, I don't want to be a burden. But he knows it. He knows he has a problem with his present memory. So I'm asking that you pray and ask. God will touch him. God will. God's a God of miracles. and I know I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that God can touch him and help him and restore his memory pray for him and his wife Shane and their family and also all the Kent family his mother brother Randy and Sammy's mother is in is in a nursing home. She's 90 some, about 97 or 98, I think. But she's a very godly woman. And I've known this family ever since I was about the age of 12. They're a godly family. Pray for all of them. Pray for all the sick and afflicted. I have a special prayer request. A man and his wife who are neighbors of mine, Guy and Pat Davenport. Now, they're living on the same street where I live, and Brother Guy visited me yesterday and wanted to know how he could come in on the church service. And Guy had fallen and broken his hip, but he's recovered and his wife is, she's sick, has different problems. So please remember and pray and ask God to touch Guy and Pat Davenport. And all around there's problems. My next door neighbor, they found him dead in his home. and pray for all of his family, everyone who's a part of his family. So there's a lot of situations, a lot of sick people, a lot of people who are hurting. I ask you to pray for my family, every one of them, for our four children. and I pray that God will touch them, help them give them strength as they raise a family or grandchildren pray for me this raspy voice come about because of COVID I tested positive for COVID last year and still have this raspiness but I had my checkup with my doctor this just this week and she said Fred it will go away eventually it will go away and I'm praying and asking that it will but I still have a voice and I'm going to use it because God called me to preach and to preach the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ pray for our pray for America oh how we need prayer how we need a mighty revival in the United States of America and I have a special object pray for the people in China under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party. They are persecuted very bad. And I have a special place in my heart for the Chinese people. I've never been to China. I served in the military and served in Okinawa. And I remember this was back many years ago. Of course, Okinawa had been rebuilt, was fairly modern. But I remember some of us were talking and they said 20 minutes. And that was jets, fighter jets especially are much faster now than they were then. And they said 20 minutes. A fighter pilot can take off in communist China in 20 minutes. He'll be right here over us. So let's pray. Let's really pray and ask God to heal America. Oh, how we need it. And pray for all of our listeners and viewers. And pray for Brider Day Baptist Church. We just added five or six weeks ago. We just added BriderDayBaptistChurch.org. and I saw the for the first like first three weeks three or four weeks we had I think it was like three hundred and forty one thousand visitors and God has blessed us We have two radio stations WFSP AM WFSP FM You can listen 24 hours a day. It's an internet. They're internet radio stations. But you can listen. You'll hear preaching. You'll hear gospel singing. And God has opened up all these doors and said to the Holy Spirit, impressed upon us. Now go in these doors and present the gospel. I'm just praying that God will save, multiplied. matter of fact I've had a prayer request that I've made known for many for several years and it is that this year 500 million people will convert and accept Jesus Christ as their Savior a lot of people say Fred you're crazy well just let me alone that's my prayer request and you pray And now let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day. It's a special day when we honor fathers. God bless all fathers who are fulfilling their duties as a father and mother. Lord, you know, we just celebrated Mother's Day. And today is Father's Day. And we thank you. Thank you, oh God. Forever, Godly Father, I thank you for our Heavenly Father, Almighty God, the Father, Jehovah, and our elder brother, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Almighty God, the Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit. Thank you, O God, I pray for these objects of prayer, that your will be done. You have all power. You can do anything that you want, and no man can stop it. And I thank you in Jesus' name I pray. Amen and amen. Now, I want to read one verse from the book of Psalm, Psalm 103, verse 13. It says, like as a father pitieth his children. So the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Have pity upon us. A father has pity upon his children. That word pity could mean grace. He has grace, abundant grace. Mercy. He has mercy upon his family, upon his children. So, and then I want to give you this. Excuse me one minute because I didn't have the room to get all my stuff that I wanted to say. and it's not that we're trying to be a wet blanket on any service, especially Father's Day, but I just feel that it's so very important that you get these facts. These are stats or facts that just came out this week as I was studying and I tried to write some of them down. I'll give them to you very quickly. In the United States, we're just talking about the United States of America. Eighteen and a half million children live in a home without a dad, without a father. Not because they're dead, but because they've just walked off and left them. And it said in many cases, they didn't even say goodbye. They just walked off and never did come back. 18.5 million children who don't have a dad in the family so that according to this report that makes us the world leader and children without dads of all the nations in all the world the United States of America leads in this category of children who don't have a dad in the family and you know that that is wrong that's that's part of that's big that's a huge part of the problem that we're having in America is there's no dad there as a matter of fact I put a title on this sermon where are the dads where's the fathers where are they and And without it, that home cannot be what God intended for it to be because he set it up as a man and a woman and they're married and they have children and the dad is there, a mother is there. Can't be there all the time after work, whatever. But they have a dad, a father. and without it that home cannot be what it should be and the children the biggest part of those children will not turn out the way that God intended so and you say well what's the consequences or some of the consequences when children are raised in a single and the mother raises them the dads who knows where he's at so we see a rise in crime and we see a huge rise in drug abuse we see a decrease in social mobility I'm putting it down just like they said so just look just look at all the chaos that's going on in America people out young people especially young people and I just believe and according to this report this is a big part of it of the reason that you see all this is because there was no father earthly father in the home to instruct the children to set an example and say don't do this this is wrong you set the example so rise in crime everywhere you look there's a rise in crime people are just they just look it's like they kicked it out of gear and just let it go wherever and we will tear down we will burst into stores and just rob and steal and then look at Chicago and and New York City and some of the other major cities Chicago especially every day there's people many people that's shot and killed or shot and wounded it's all because or at least a big huge part of it is because there is no earthly father in the family to set the example of drug abuse fentanyl and this has become a epidemic young people people of all ages especially young people teenagers are dying it's a way up in the thousand multiplied thousands of people who were dying because of fentanyl and it's being brought in especially on our southern border it comes in from communist China and different places that are enemies to the United States of America and and we see the results of it I've seen the results of it you have we see it all the time and a big part of that problem is because there is no earthly father in the family setting the example and telling the children this is wrong do not participate in this do not be a part of it it's wrong and then a decrease in social mobility they don't know how uh they don't know how to interact so uh the big thing is so many young people just join a gang whatever gang comes along i guess and they know about it they know about it in school they know about what's going on and they join up and become a gang uh and uh and it's not the gangs are not out to do any good they're out to do damage. They're out there actually destroying the fiber of this nation, the United States of America. And it creates economic strains. They don't know anything about the work ethic. So many people everywhere, I've never seen this in all of my life. Never seen it. So many places and so many factories so many any kind of business everywhere you look we're hiring we want to hire you they send out mailers in the mail some of the some of the large manufacturing or pharmaceutical factories in in the county where I live they have big huge billboards on Interstate 40 saying hey we're hiring come check us out and one one factory I don't know how many people they employ I guess two or three hundred at least and they have a big sign come join come go to work for us starting pay is I think about eighteen dollars an hour plus and I never seen that before they can and some of the what What we call the fast food places Just have to close down They don have any help So. We see this. It's having a great strain. The economic. Strain on us. And. Children who live in a house. In a home. It's just a half a home. And I'm talking about. The earthly fathers that could be there. That should be there. But like I said earlier, they just walked out. They did not face up to their responsibility. And, of course, they don't understand what they're missing out on. My God, put the family. He set it up. And he set it up perfectly. And then when man starts changing things and saying, well, you know, I don't like this, then it always brings about chaos. People, children, we're talking about young people because it's in the home and they're still there. they are five times more likely to live in poverty if they don't have an earthly father in that house that home and look what a strain that puts on on the economy for the United States all these people living in poverty they don't have the example they don't have the father in the home. Let me give you this last one. Children who live in a home where they have no earthly father, they are nine times more likely to drop out of school. Think about that. You need a good education. You need to learn. You need to learn. and people that don't get a good education then they can't function they don't have a good job like they should have and so it's very very important Very important that where are the fathers? Where are the fathers? Well, I said that they have went out. They have refused to do their, I don't call it a duty. I call it an honor. It was an honor to raise our family and to still be a part of a family. Now, I want to say a few things about my earthly father. and I was thinking I probably just on Father's Day because I pastored, God gave me the privilege of pastoring eight Southern Baptist churches been preaching 60 years and pastoring for 50 some years and so every Father's Day We would, of course, have a special Father's Day sermon and different things and usually have a meal or something. And I don't ever remember saying too much about except about my earthly dad, my father, except that he was a godly man. And he was. And, of course, my mother, she was a very godly woman, godly mother. You couldn't ask for anyone. You couldn't ask for a mother or a dad any greater than what we had. I just want to give you this. I've never done it before, but I want to give it to you. My dad was James Clayton Proctor. James, everybody called him Jim. Jim Proctor lived on the Ridge Road in the Clinchfield section of Marion North Carolina. Jim Proctor. Ridge Road in the Clinchfield section of Marion North Carolina. We lived at the last house on Ridge Road. And it was all of my lifetime growing up. It was the last house. Next thing passed us, the railroad property joined my dad and mother's property, and then there was Lake James. We could walk and be to Lake James easy in five minutes. And so we didn't have a lot of things. You go out on the Clinchville Mill Village and, of course, Clinchville Cotton Mill. If you lived there at a mill house, they had things that we didn't have. They had eventually had a bathroom inside the house and running water. We didn't have that. But, you know, we had a dad since his father's day. I'm going to say this and I mean every word of it and I know that the Holy Spirit really dealt with me on this my dad was the most godly man that I have ever known did he teach a class? no did he sing in the choir? no No, but listen. He walked with God. My dad, I never ever heard him curse, or we call it cuss. Although I know there was a few times when it's not ever justified, but I believe most men would have a curse. Not my mother, of course, and not any of us children. Someone in the family, but not the immediate family. I never heard him curse. I'd ever seen him take a drink of an alcoholic beverage. Never, never, there was no alcohol in our family. he didn't drink he didn't I never saw him drink because he didn't drink he had no alcohol we have very strong opinions about alcohol and God's willing I plan on preaching but we can incorporate it into the gospel and about the results I think alcohol is the number one drug problem in America although fentanyl seem to be catching up with it but I never saw my dad curse I never heard him curse I never saw him drink alcohol he never went out into the dive so to speak he was there he was there yes we had to work my dad worked as a carpenter and we had a small farm and he truly believed in the work ethic and as soon as as four of us boys and as soon as we got old enough we were out in the I don't even call it the garden it was a small farm because somewhere but at least two acres or more that was planted and we we raised just about everything that we had and I'm gonna say this I never went hungry never went hungry because my dad believed in the work ethic and he taught us that I didn't like it I did not like farming And you know what? There were six of us children. None of us turned out to be a farmer. But we were there and we worked. We had a horse. We had a wagon. We worked. We had we raised beef. We had a milk cow. We raised hogs. We had everything that we wanted I'm serious we ate as good I mean my dad had built these buildings and it was called a smokehouse and you could he could unlock that and you go in there's all kind of hams hanging there and and on the he fixed the beaches and there's all kind of meat that's been you put salt on it to preserve it then he made a huge ice box and the Iceman would run once a week and in that it preserved you could put that in there and it was there and we had we had steak anytime you wanted it or anytime that my mother decided she's going to fix it red ham for breakfast what I'm saying is we certainly lived good we worked yes and And some of the things that a lot of other people had, we didn't have. We didn't have electricity for a long time. And, of course, we didn't have an inside bathroom for a long time. We didn't have a telephone. We didn't have a television. Of course, you have to have electricity. and you look at that and say well we lived We lived We had always food and water. Everything that is needed to survive, we had it. Food, shelter, and water. We had it. We had it. we had chickens where we got our eggs we didn't have to my mother and dad didn't have to buy much from the store because this is one of the greatest things that's needed and it's missing in these 18 and a half million kids that are growing up without an earthly father The work ethic. The work ethic. Get out and go to work. Go to work. You fathers that have walked off and left your children, get back home and live and set an example for your children. God is our Father. I'm going to read our text verse again, then I'll be through here in just a minute. like as a father pitieth or has mercy on his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Got to be taught in the home to fear the Lord. We went to church. We were not sent to church. We were taken to church. In the first 12 years of my life, we walked to church because my dad never had a vehicle. But, and I don't have time to go into this, but my dad, I remember we'd come home from church. And, of course, eventually we had electricity and we had, but we had a radio that operated on a battery. And we'd walk home from church and have lunch. And, by the way, a lot of Sundays. I remember it. Lots of Sundays. We as a family, us children, and my dad and mom, we would get out and just go walking. It was just such a wonderful thing. We would walk. I remember we'd walk down on this property. There was no problem being there. We certainly had permission to be on it. There was a nice swimming pool, a swimming hole, not a pool, but in a creek. We would just fellowship, have a wonderful time. I remember my dad bought us children, just little children, life jackets. They were orange. They were for children. And he took us down, he and my mom took us children down to the lake. I said we could be there in five minutes and put the life jackets on, took us out. Oh, maybe 15 feet from the bank. And then he came back and we were screaming, oh, I'm going to drown. I'm going to drown. He said, no, you won't. And he showed us, and it's a natural thing to, you know how to dog paddle, you know, that's like a dog swims. And he took us and taught us how to swim. Oh, listen, I really feel so bad for children who do not have that earthly father to set the example. and then of course when I think I was about 12 we left that church I'm going to give the name of the church where we went one Sunday my dad said Fred let's be in you let's walk go out to West Court Street Baptist Church that's I don't know it's quite several miles and he and I walked and went out to West Court Street Baptist Church. And oh, you talk about, and I often think, where would I be if my dad had not made that decision? Someone he worked with, he worked as a carpenter for Clingsville Cotton Mill. some man that he knew my dad had talked to him about wanting to find a good church and this man said told him about West Court Street Baptist Church and my dad said oh that's uptown and he said yes uptown but it's not an uptown church there was so different to feel the power of God To have a pastor who preached, Reverend Ray Long was my first pastor. Under his ministry, I was saved when I was 16 years old. He baptized me and I joined the church. And in the church, I announced my call to the ministry. I preached my first sermon at West Court Street Baptist Church when I was 21 years old. I met my wife at Westcourt Baptist Church. I married my wife and I were married in Westcourt Baptist Church. I was licensed to preach the ministry in Westcourt Baptist Church. I was ordained by Westcourt Baptist Church. So I'm saying this all to say, I wonder where I would be if my dad, Jim Proctor from the Ridge Road in the Clinchfield section of Marion, North Carolina. I wonder where I would be if he had not shown the leadership and taken us to West Court Street Baptist Church. It's changed our lives forever. And I thank you so much. I have a little something here I found this I had to print it out because I couldn't remember all of it it said many of you maybe all of you have seen it I don't know if I ever seen it or not but I just want to give you this in closing it's entitled Father and see if any of this rings a bell with you so Father at four years old a child says my daddy can do anything. At seven years old, the child says, my dad knows a lot, a whole lot. At eight years old, the child says, my father doesn't quite know everything. At 12 years old, he says, oh well, naturally, father doesn't know everything. At 14 years old, the child says, father yeah in the question mark hopelessly old-fashioned at 21 years the child says other that's his children oh that man is out of date what did you expect at 25 years old he he says he knows a little bit about it but not much At 30 years old, he says, must find out what dad thinks about it. At 35 years old, excuse me, he says, a little patience. Let's get dad's meaning first. At 50 years old, he says, he or she says, what would dad have thought about it? At 60 years old, he says, my dad knew literally everything. And at 65 years of age, if he or she is still alive, it says, I wish I could talk it over with dad one more time. oh listen if you were blessed to have a Christian dad or earthly father in your life you ought to just thank God you ought to just bow your head and say thank you God thank you thank you for a Christian home oh yeah we rebel as children all of us I know have some rebellious something we want to do this we want to do that because we don't want it's a natural thing the physical us as children we want to do it our way but thank God thank God almighty for earthly dads, earthly fathers. Happy Father's Day to everyone. To everyone. And I pray that these 18 and a half million children who their dads, their earthly father, has abandoned them. I pray for them. I pray for the fathers that have left them, that they will come back home. God bless you and thank you for visiting brighterdaybaptistchurch.com Lord I just pray and ask your blessings bless every person who listens or watches this service I pray that you just pour out your mercy and grace and your blessings upon everyone and I thank you for this wonderful marvelous Lord's Day in Jesus name I pray Amen and amen.