John K. Jenkins Sr - The Description of Being a Deadbeat Dad

I want to talk about the dangers of being a deadbeat dad. Yeah, I know y’all wouldn’t be too excited about that; it’s okay. Um, I want to take a moment and salute men who have risen to the level of responsibility of caring for their children. Dr. JZ is in the house today; y’all celebrate Dr. J. Thank you for being here. It 's no small thing that men take the responsibility of raising their children. 1 Timothy 5:8 says, «If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.» That 's how the New King James Version puts it. The King James Version presents it a little harsher; it says you’re worse than an infidel. That sounds worse than it is. An infidel is a person who operates, flows, and functions in a way that’s not a reflection of someone who has a relationship with God. Amen. Because when you have a walk with God, brothers, when you have a genuine walk with God, it seems to me, since it is the heart of God to care about children, that when you have a walk with God, it seems like somewhere during the journey of your relationship and your talk with God, He ought to talk to you about caring for your own children.

In our community, in the African American community, the statistics say that approximately 67% of our children are raised in homes without a father. 67%! Do y’all find that horrifying? Yes, it’s horrifying. I thought it would behoove me, as a good pastor, to jump in somebody’s grill, yeah, get in your face and challenge men to rise up and be fathers to their own children. Matter of fact, that’s what the passage says: if you don’t provide for your own, just be responsible for your kids. Amen. And I’m telling men, if you don’t have the ability to provide for your family-your children-if you don’t have the capacity to care for your children, keep your penis in your pants. You know you’re right about it; y’all shouldn’t have come to this service. The fact of the matter is, you have a responsibility. I’m saluting the men who have risen to the occasion to be fathers, but I happen to know that there’s a huge number of men in our community who are not taking care of their kids. It’s a huge number.

Now, what does the word " provide» mean? The key here is the word " provision.» Now, what does it mean to provide? What does provision mean? I’m glad you asked the question. How you doing, Kevin? I’m fine; I’m glad to see you, buddy. The Apostle Paul in this passage that I just read is talking to his spiritual son Timothy, and he’s giving him direction in the book of First Timothy on instructions on running the church. He 's telling him a lot of things; in this particular chapter, he’s talking about widows. But in the middle of discussing widows, he says, «Oh, by the way, tell the brothers to take care of their own kids.» If they don 't, they’ve denied the faith. I thought it would be appropriate for me to dialogue. I know y’all want me to just preach a nice Father’s Day sermon, but that’s not happening today.

I want to talk about — let me see-my first point; I only got two points today. I want to talk about the power of provision. The power of provision — what does the word provision mean? What is the definition? I’m glad you asked the question. Provision means, look, jot this down; this ain’t going to come up on the screen, but let me tell you what it means: the word provision means to think about beforehand, okay? Amen. It means to consider in advance. Here 's what it also means: to go without for oneself for the benefit of your family. Y’all can’t handle the truth. That 's what it means. It means that you take your eyes off of your needs and think about the needs of your kids. Take your eyes off of your needs.

One more-this is Brother Dan over here; let me come over here. Dan, you might be the only white person in the church today. Dan and his wife were in the seminary in the master’s program with me; he’s still in the program. Joshua is now in this master’s program, and they had class here. They came to this church today; I’m so glad. He pastors in Annapolis, or San Diego, California. So glad to have y’all; thank you for standing over to hang out with us. Glad to see you! You can come anytime, yeah! Thank you. Where was I? Oh yeah, provision-that’s where I was, talking about the power of provision. To think about beforehand. Let me just give you three sub-points here. What does it mean to provide for? First of all, three things. First, it means to physically take care of them. Physically, it means to provide shelter, food, and clothing. Men, when you have a child and you’re not giving money to help your child, you are saying you don’t care whether they eat. My Lord, that’s right.