The fatherhood of God is the heart of the whole Bible, which is the story of a King, a kingdom and a royal family, not a list of rules. In this Father’s Day message, Dr. William P. Hohman teaches that without the revelation of fatherhood there is no inheritance and no blessing passed on, only an orphan mentality of lack and aloneness. Jesus came to bring us to the Father, and every earthly father is meant to reflect Him.
He presents the message as part of his teaching on redemption: we are redeemed from something and redeemed to something, and the Father is where redemption leads. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline and practical steps for fathers and families.
Sermon at a Glance
This message was preached on Father’s Day at NTC Ministries and posted on June 18, 2024. Pastor Hohman says he has taught on this subject several times over the years, but this time he takes it further from his foundational text in Ephesians 3. He opens in prayer with 2 Corinthians 13:14: the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit.
The sermon moves from the need for fathers, to Paul’s prayer, to his own story, to the three roles of a father modeled by Job, and finally to the blessing that follows honor. It closes with an invitation to receive Jesus.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Dr. William P. Hohman |
| Series | Fatherhood of God, Part 1 (Father’s Day, within his redemption teaching) |
| Main text | Ephesians 3:13–19 |
| Key theme | Moving from an orphan mentality into the Father’s family, care and inheritance |
| Length | About 60 minutes, ending in a prayer of salvation |
A King, a Kingdom and a Royal Family
Pastor Hohman’s opening claim is bold: there is nothing in the Bible more important than the revelation of fatherhood. Without fatherhood there can be no inheritance and no blessing passed down. Without it, people fall into an orphan mentality of lack and aloneness: I’m on my own, I have to do this myself. The revelation of the Father brings great comfort.
He cites David Blankenhorn’s 1996 book Fatherless America, subtitled Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem. As he reads it, the book said that 40 percent of American children would go to sleep that night in a home where their father did not live, and that more than half would spend a significant part of childhood apart from their fathers. He wonders aloud what the numbers are now, nearly thirty years later.
Without a father’s support, he says, children suffer a kind of neglect that a mother, however hard she tries, cannot fully make up for. Many children still turn out well, and he believes that is most often because of praying Christian mothers and the Lord’s intervention. But God’s design is for fathers to carry this weight.
He quotes Derek Prince: you can be a child of God and yet live like an orphan. So he asks the church directly whether they are living with an orphan’s lack of comfort, security and confidence in being cared for. God wants that changed in the church. He also voices his confidence that, as the church embraces the Father, it will see health, prosperity and whole families saved, a glorious church without spot or wrinkle (Ephesians 5:27). The world may grow darker, but where sin abounds, grace abounds much more (Romans 5:20).
Every Fatherhood in Heaven and Earth
The foundational text is Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:13–15. Paul asks the church not to lose heart at his tribulations for them, and then says, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” Pastor Hohman explains that Paul was the spearhead taking the blows of spiritual warfare so that the church could grow. He was fathering them spiritually.
He then teaches that the word for family here is the Greek patria, which comes from pater, father. So the verse can be read as the whole fatherhood in heaven and earth. He notes that the J. B. Phillips translation makes the point plain, speaking of the Father of whom every fatherhood in heaven and earth is named. The fatherhood of heaven is the structure meant to be duplicated in every part of life.
That is why, in his reading, everything flows from the Father. The Triune God is Father, Son and Spirit, and believers can have an intimate relationship with each, but the source is the fatherhood of God. Human fathers are called to represent that fatherhood in their homes.
From Orphan to Son: A Personal Testimony
Pastor Hohman speaks openly about his own upbringing. His father was rarely home, often away working for a month at a time to provide for the family, and his mother was battling illness. He says he grew up feeling like an orphan even though he had a home, and that the children ran wild in the country.
When he gave his life to Jesus, something changed. He did not have an earthly father to show him how to be a dad, but Jesus took that place and showed him the Father. About a year after his commitment, he realized he had been lacking as a father. One evening, instead of avoiding his daughter Sarah, then about two and a half, he got down on the floor and played with her. She called out to her mother Pam in the kitchen, “Daddy’s playing with me.” That small moment stayed with him.
He also began to honor his own father. The first time he hugged him, he says, it was like hugging a telephone pole. It took about a year before his father patted him on the back, and some years later his father was born again and, for the first time, initiated an “I love you.” God makes a difference, he says, and everything is focused on building a fatherhood where people grow healthy.
He links this to the promise of whole households. He and Pam decided to trust the Lord for their families, and he says everyone on both sides has come to faith. In Acts 16:29–31, Paul and Silas tell the Philippian jailer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” He points also to Rahab, who hid the spies, hung the scarlet cord in her window and gathered her family to be saved (Joshua 2:17–21). Rather than describe how bad our relatives are, he urges believers to claim the promise and expect it.
Jesus, the Way to the Father
The purpose of redemption is to bring us to the Father. We have been delivered from darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Colossians 1:13). In John 14:6–7, Jesus says, “No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.” When you truly give your life to Jesus, he says, you come to know the Father, because that is Jesus’ responsibility.
He warns against teachings that turn this backwards. He recalls a professional football player who taught that you must know the Father before you can know Jesus, and he answers that Scripture says the opposite. Some people chase a great mystery or new revelation and leave the foundation. Hebrews 6:1 tells us to go on from the elementary principles, and he explains that this means growing up from them, the way an oak grows from an acorn, not walking away. If you chase something new, he says, you will not grow up; you will blow up.
Jesus is not the destination, he says; the Father is, and Jesus is the way. Through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father, and we are no longer strangers but members of the household of God (Ephesians 2:18–19). In His prayer in John 17:1–6, Jesus says He has manifested the Father’s name, and in John 17:26 He declares it so that the Father’s love may be in us.
After the resurrection Jesus told Mary, “I am ascending to My Father and your Father” (John 20:17). In Revelation, those who stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion have His Father’s name written on their foreheads (Revelation 14:1), and His servants will see His face (Revelation 22:3–4). The journey ends with the Father.
That is why Paul prays in Ephesians 3:14–19 that believers would be strengthened with might through His Spirit, rooted and grounded in love, and able to comprehend the width, length, depth and height of the love of Christ. We are rooted in love through fatherhood, Pastor Hohman says, and in that fullness even the worst problem becomes like an ant before an elephant.
Priest, Prophet and King in the Home
A child gets his first impression of God from his father. If the ministry of Jesus is to show the Father, then fathers should do the same for their children. Teenagers may push back, but children shown real love will not depart from it when they are old (Proverbs 22:6). Pastor Hohman then uses Job to show three ministries every father carries.
| Role | Summary, as taught | Job’s example | What it looks like at home |
|---|---|---|---|
| Priest | Sacrifice | Rose early to offer for each child (Job 1:5) | Praying over your children every morning |
| Prophet | Declaring God’s promises | “I know that my Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25–27) | Speaking God’s plan and goodness over your family |
| King | Distributing an inheritance | Gave his daughters an inheritance with their brothers (Job 42:12–15) | Blessing every child without partiality |
As priest, Job rose early and offered burnt offerings for each child, saying it may be that his sons had sinned (Job 1:5). Pastor Hohman says the church’s school follows that pattern: teachers pray over the children and their chairs each morning, and the first people the children learn to pray for are their parents.
As prophet, Job declared, “I know that my Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25–27). When his own children kept hearing that classmates’ parents were separating, the Lord told him to tell them something different. He called Pam, hugged her in front of Jen and Sarah, and told them they never had to worry about their mother and father: they would always be together.
As king, a father distributes an inheritance. In that culture, Pastor Hohman explains, the firstborn received a double portion and daughters usually received nothing. Yet in Job 42:12–15, after the Lord blessed Job’s latter end more than his beginning, Job named his daughters Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-Happuch and gave them an inheritance among their brothers. That, he says, is a father with no partiality.
Honor and the Fatherhood of God
To fulfill this role, he says, fathers must acknowledge their responsibility to speak truth into their children’s lives, humble themselves before God so He can lift them up (1 Peter 5:6), and trust Him for grace. Paul showed a father’s confidence when he told the Philippians that He who began a good work in them would complete it (Philippians 1:6). And they must be diligent, because one confession is not enough.
Then he turns to honor. The Greek word, as he teaches it, means to treat with value and respect, to hold in high esteem and to ascribe worth. Why did Solomon receive wisdom? Most people say because he asked. In 1 Kings 3:6–14, Solomon does ask for an understanding heart, and God adds riches, honor and long life.
But in 2 Chronicles 1:8–10, Solomon also says, “Let Your promise to David my father be established.” He wanted his father’s dream fulfilled before anything for himself. David could not build the temple because he had been a man of war, so he named his son Solomon, meaning peaceful. Pastor Hohman says the promise of long life matches the commandment: honor your father and mother, that it may be well with you (Ephesians 6:1–3).
He quotes Mark Twain’s quip that at eight his father knew everything and at fourteen seemed the stupidest man alive. Even then, honor your father. Dishonor is a dysfunction, he says, but any dysfunction can be corrected. He never let his children dishonor their mother, and he urges wives not to let children dishonor their father. When the family went out to eat, strangers and teachers would thank them for their children’s behavior. A father should keep his children in submission with all reverence (1 Timothy 3:4).
Living Under the Father’s Care
Pastor Hohman closes by inviting everyone to give their life to Jesus, who reveals the heavenly Father, and leads a prayer of salvation. These steps come straight from the message:
- Reject the orphan mindset. When fear or lack rises, remind yourself that you belong to the family of God and are cared for.
- Pray for your children daily. Like Job, rise early and bring each child before God by name.
- Declare God’s promises at home. Counter the negative messages your children hear with clear words about God’s goodness and your family’s future.
- Bless without partiality. Make sure every child, sons and daughters alike, knows they share in the inheritance.
- Practice honor. Honor your natural and spiritual fathers, and do not allow children to dishonor either parent.
- Claim your household. Stop rehearsing how far gone your relatives are and pray in faith for their salvation.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 Redemption and Father’s Day: opening prayer
- 1:12 A King, a kingdom and a royal family
- 2:35 Fatherless America
- 3:44 Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3
- 5:59 Patria: every fatherhood is named
- 7:15 Growing up with an absent father
- 8:24 A child of God living like an orphan
- 9:31 Confidence for a glorious church
- 12:53 “Daddy’s playing with me”
- 15:00 Hugging his father
- 16:21 John 14: no one comes to the Father but by Me
- 17:22 Stay with the foundation: Hebrews 6
- 19:32 The Father is the destination: Ephesians 2
- 20:47 John 17: I have manifested Your name
- 23:03 My Father and your Father: John 20
- 24:08 The Father’s name on our foreheads
- 26:22 Ephesians 3:14–19: rooted and grounded in love
- 29:36 Priest, prophet and king
- 31:54 The father as prophet: Job 19
- 35:10 The father as king: Job’s daughters
- 38:37 You and your household: Acts 16 and Rahab
- 41:56 How to fulfill your God-given role
- 46:52 Why Solomon received wisdom
- 54:23 Dishonor is a dysfunction
- 58:42 Invitation and prayer of salvation
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean to live like an orphan as a Christian?
Pastor Hohman, quoting Derek Prince, describes it as being a child of God while still thinking like someone with no father. It shows up as a mentality of lack, aloneness and “I have to do this myself,” with little confidence in being provided for and protected. He says that fear about a darkening world often comes from this orphan mindset, and the cure is knowing you are in God’s family and He is taking care of you.
What if my own father was absent or ungodly?
Pastor Hohman says this was his own story. He had no earthly example of a loving father, but when he gave his life to Jesus, Jesus took that place and showed him the Father. He learned to play with his daughter and to honor his own father, even when the first hugs were stiff. Years later his father came to faith. His point is that God can supply what your father did not.
Does honoring my father depend on whether he deserves it?
Not in this message. Pastor Hohman says you honor your father even if you do not know him and whoever he is, because the command to honor father and mother is the first commandment with a promise: that it may be well with you and you may live long. He points to Solomon, who honored David’s dream before his own, and says God blesses honor wherever it is given.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- Ephesians 3:14–19 — every family named after the Father
- John 14:6–7 — no one comes to the Father except through Jesus
- Ephesians 2:18–19 — access to the Father and the household of God
- John 17:26 — the Father’s love in us
- Job 1:5 — the father as priest
- Job 42:12–15 — an inheritance for Job’s daughters
- Acts 16:29–31 — you and your household
- 2 Chronicles 1:8–10 — Solomon honors David’s promise
- Ephesians 6:1–3 — honor your father and mother
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
Watch More Messages
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