Media
The Dad in the mirror
JUNE 21, 2026
Speaker: Dale Jenkins
Summary
Delivered as a Father's Day Bible class at the Oak Hollow church of Christ, guest speaker Dale Jenkins presents "The Dad in the Mirror," an examination of fatherhood through the lenses of biblical examples. Jenkins contrasts the typical approach to Father's Day—which often leans into correcting or "fussing at" fathers—with a reflective look at seven paternal figures from Scripture. He outlines the triumphs and failures of Noah, Eli, the father of the Prodigal Son, Abraham, Isaac, David, and ultimately, God the Father. The lesson challenges earthly fathers to emphasize their children's spiritual destination over worldly happiness, eliminate familial favoritism, step out of passive parenting, and actively communicate faith through daily life. Jenkins concludes by asserting that the secret to successful fatherhood is first learning to receive and reflect the perfect, affectionate love of God the Father.
Description
In this engaging Bible class presentation, Dale Jenkins introduces a fresh, newly developed lesson created specifically for Father's Day. He opens with a humorous behind-the-scenes look at using an AI program named "Codex" at 2:30 AM to generate his visual slides, using Middle Eastern cultural prompts to depict biblical characters realistically. Jenkins then walks the class through a critical breakdown of seven fathers in the Bible, categorizing them by their defining parental traits.
He highlights **Noah** as a dad of absolute conviction who built an ark of faith before the pressure of the rain started. He contrasts this with **Eli**, a passive, workaholic religious leader who traded hard discipline for comfort, ultimately destroying his sons. Turning to the New Testament, Jenkins praises **the Prodigal Son's father** for extending grace faster than shame and keeping the door open without approving of sinful lifestyles. He reviews **Abraham's** intentionality in handing down faith, warns against **Isaac's** household-fracturing favoritism, and shares a cautionary tale through **David**, whose repented private sins still carried severe generational consequences. Finally, Jenkins points to **God the Father** as the only perfect roadmap for parenting, urging red-blooded earthly dads to step past emotional stoicism and intentionally show deep affection to their sons and daughters to anchor them securely in life.
He highlights **Noah** as a dad of absolute conviction who built an ark of faith before the pressure of the rain started. He contrasts this with **Eli**, a passive, workaholic religious leader who traded hard discipline for comfort, ultimately destroying his sons. Turning to the New Testament, Jenkins praises **the Prodigal Son's father** for extending grace faster than shame and keeping the door open without approving of sinful lifestyles. He reviews **Abraham's** intentionality in handing down faith, warns against **Isaac's** household-fracturing favoritism, and shares a cautionary tale through **David**, whose repented private sins still carried severe generational consequences. Finally, Jenkins points to **God the Father** as the only perfect roadmap for parenting, urging red-blooded earthly dads to step past emotional stoicism and intentionally show deep affection to their sons and daughters to anchor them securely in life.
Outline
I. Introduction: The Father's Day Dynamic & Presentation Background
* **The Father's Day Paradox:** Mother's Day messages focus heavily on praise and appreciation, whereas Father's Day sermons routinely shift toward correcting and challenging men to do better.
* **A Freshly Minted Lesson:** Speaker Dale Jenkins shares how the ideas for this study were developed and dictated while driving between heavy preaching assignments in Montgomery and Columbia.
* **The Early Morning Visuals:** A lighthearted explanation of utilizing an AI tool ("Codex") late at night to format the presentation slides, instructing it to use historically accurate Middle Eastern imagery for biblical characters.
II. The Seven Paternal Profiles from Scripture
* **1. Noah: Obeying Before the Rain**
* *Context:* One righteous man standing firm in a global population consumed by violence and continual evil.
* *The Floating Box:* Building a massive ark strictly by God's blueprints, hundreds of miles away from any major body of water, in an era before rain even existed.
* *The Takeaway:* Dads must build their family's faith when the sky is still clear, leading by conviction rather than following the crowd.
* **2. Eli: The Cost of Passive Parenting**
* *Context:* A faithful priest and prophet who was highly active in public tabernacle ministry but completely passive and permissive at home.
* *The Discipline Gap:* Allowing his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, to slide into spiritual and moral corruption without enacting hard, corrective boundaries.
* *The Takeaway:* True parental love prioritizes a child's eternal faithfulness over temporary happiness; love must speak up before silence is interpreted as permission.
* **3. The Prodigal Son’s Father: Running with Grace**
* *Context:* Facing a rebellious youngest son whose early inheritance request was culturally equivalent to wishing his father dead.
* *The Open Door:* Watching the horizon daily, keeping hope alive, and physically sprinting to embrace the son before the boy could even finish his rehearsed apology.
* *The Takeaway:* Grace moves faster than shame. Fathers should love unconditionally and keep the door to reconciliation open without compromising scriptural values or approving of sinful choices.
* **4. Abraham: Intentionally Handing Down Faith**
* *Context:* Commended explicitly by God for his dedication to training his household and children to follow the way of the Lord.
* *The Legacy Principle:* Recognizing that saving faith is not a genetic inheritance passed down automatically; it must be deliberately modeled, explained, and taught.
* *The Takeaway:* Integrating the stories and lessons of God into everyday lifestyle conversations like road trips, meals, and daily routines (Deuteronomy 6).
* **5. Isaac: The Fracture of Favoritism**
* *Context:* An aging, blind patriarch who openly favored Esau while his wife, Rebekah, favored Jacob.
* *The Trap of Unequal Attention:* Showing disproportionate attention or conditional love communicates to a child that they possess unequal worth.
* *The Takeaway:* Open your eyes to see who at the family table feels unnoticed or excluded, and intentionally bridge that gap with equal love.
* **6. David: The Repercussions of Private Failures**
* *Context:* A magnificent hero and "man after God's own heart" who unfortunately acted as a deeply flawed, detached, and hands-off father.
* *Sin vs. Consequences:* God completely forgives genuine repentance, but temporal consequences and generational baggage from bad choices can still echo down to harm your children.
* *The Takeaway:* Value genuine spiritual restoration and honest confession over keeping up a perfect public image or social media facade.
* **7. God: The Ultimate Blueprint**
* *Context:* Looking to Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 5:48 to strive for maturity and perfection just as our Heavenly Father is perfect.
* *Reflecting Belovedness:* Learning how to father your own children by first receiving and resting in the love God has for you, rather than treating your kids like a performance product.
III. Conclusion & Practical Father's Day Challenge
* **The Mandate for Affection:** A direct charge to traditional, stoic men to step past emotional distance and vocally express love to their children. Unconditional affection from a father anchors daughters so they don't seek validation in the wrong places and prevents sons from hardening into cruel people.
* **The Weekly Action Step:** Come home to the Heavenly Father first, share a faith-building story with someone younger this week, and pray for an honest heart to lead by example.
* **The Father's Day Paradox:** Mother's Day messages focus heavily on praise and appreciation, whereas Father's Day sermons routinely shift toward correcting and challenging men to do better.
* **A Freshly Minted Lesson:** Speaker Dale Jenkins shares how the ideas for this study were developed and dictated while driving between heavy preaching assignments in Montgomery and Columbia.
* **The Early Morning Visuals:** A lighthearted explanation of utilizing an AI tool ("Codex") late at night to format the presentation slides, instructing it to use historically accurate Middle Eastern imagery for biblical characters.
II. The Seven Paternal Profiles from Scripture
* **1. Noah: Obeying Before the Rain**
* *Context:* One righteous man standing firm in a global population consumed by violence and continual evil.
* *The Floating Box:* Building a massive ark strictly by God's blueprints, hundreds of miles away from any major body of water, in an era before rain even existed.
* *The Takeaway:* Dads must build their family's faith when the sky is still clear, leading by conviction rather than following the crowd.
* **2. Eli: The Cost of Passive Parenting**
* *Context:* A faithful priest and prophet who was highly active in public tabernacle ministry but completely passive and permissive at home.
* *The Discipline Gap:* Allowing his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, to slide into spiritual and moral corruption without enacting hard, corrective boundaries.
* *The Takeaway:* True parental love prioritizes a child's eternal faithfulness over temporary happiness; love must speak up before silence is interpreted as permission.
* **3. The Prodigal Son’s Father: Running with Grace**
* *Context:* Facing a rebellious youngest son whose early inheritance request was culturally equivalent to wishing his father dead.
* *The Open Door:* Watching the horizon daily, keeping hope alive, and physically sprinting to embrace the son before the boy could even finish his rehearsed apology.
* *The Takeaway:* Grace moves faster than shame. Fathers should love unconditionally and keep the door to reconciliation open without compromising scriptural values or approving of sinful choices.
* **4. Abraham: Intentionally Handing Down Faith**
* *Context:* Commended explicitly by God for his dedication to training his household and children to follow the way of the Lord.
* *The Legacy Principle:* Recognizing that saving faith is not a genetic inheritance passed down automatically; it must be deliberately modeled, explained, and taught.
* *The Takeaway:* Integrating the stories and lessons of God into everyday lifestyle conversations like road trips, meals, and daily routines (Deuteronomy 6).
* **5. Isaac: The Fracture of Favoritism**
* *Context:* An aging, blind patriarch who openly favored Esau while his wife, Rebekah, favored Jacob.
* *The Trap of Unequal Attention:* Showing disproportionate attention or conditional love communicates to a child that they possess unequal worth.
* *The Takeaway:* Open your eyes to see who at the family table feels unnoticed or excluded, and intentionally bridge that gap with equal love.
* **6. David: The Repercussions of Private Failures**
* *Context:* A magnificent hero and "man after God's own heart" who unfortunately acted as a deeply flawed, detached, and hands-off father.
* *Sin vs. Consequences:* God completely forgives genuine repentance, but temporal consequences and generational baggage from bad choices can still echo down to harm your children.
* *The Takeaway:* Value genuine spiritual restoration and honest confession over keeping up a perfect public image or social media facade.
* **7. God: The Ultimate Blueprint**
* *Context:* Looking to Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 5:48 to strive for maturity and perfection just as our Heavenly Father is perfect.
* *Reflecting Belovedness:* Learning how to father your own children by first receiving and resting in the love God has for you, rather than treating your kids like a performance product.
III. Conclusion & Practical Father's Day Challenge
* **The Mandate for Affection:** A direct charge to traditional, stoic men to step past emotional distance and vocally express love to their children. Unconditional affection from a father anchors daughters so they don't seek validation in the wrong places and prevents sons from hardening into cruel people.
* **The Weekly Action Step:** Come home to the Heavenly Father first, share a faith-building story with someone younger this week, and pray for an honest heart to lead by example.
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