says, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the
husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he
is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let
the wives be to their own husbands in everything." So in this chapter we learned
that positionally the husband is the head of the home. He's in charge of the
wife, he's in charge of the children, and wives are commanded to obey their
husbands, like the church obeys Jesus Christ. But with this comes a lot of
responsibility. That comparison with Christ being the head of the church and
the husband being the head of the wife is made in verse 26. It says this, "that he
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water of water by the
word." So like Jesus Christ is the spiritual leader of the church, it's the
same thing with husbands. Husbands are put to present their families as
spiritual. In verse 27 it says that he might present it to himself, "a glorious
church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy
and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that
loveth his wife loveth himself." So of course we talk about how men are the
head of the home but with that comes a really response a really high
responsibility of being the spiritual leader of the home and of course us as
dads we wear a lot of different hats in life. You know we could be physical
protectors, we could be providers, we could be people that offer correction to
our children, we could be friends to our family members and to our children but I
would say that the most important role that dads have today is that of
spiritual leadership and so the title of my sermon this morning is this spiritual
leadership at home. You know it's important to preach sermons like this
because obviously us as dads and us just as men in general we want to succeed in
everything we do in life right. We want to be good providers, we want to be good
protectors but for me man if there's one area I don't want to fail in it is in my
spiritual leadership to my family. I don't want to be that dad that man did
he you know like baseball or man that dad knew everything about NASCAR. Man
that dad was just a really great hunter but he didn't really teach his kids
anything spiritually. He didn't care about his kids salvation. He didn't care
about his kids spiritual growth. You know I don't want that to be my legacy. So
this morning let's talk about some important keys to being a spiritual
leader in the home. Keep your place in Ephesians 5 and go to 1st Corinthians 14.
Number one is a simple but this is important. You need to read the Bible. And
you know we talk about this and it's something that I feel like people just
it goes into their ears but oftentimes Christians don't practice this and you
will never be an effective spiritual leader if you do not read the Bible. You
will never be a spiritual Christian by just listening to preaching, by just
coming to church. You must read the Bible yourself. Look at 1st Corinthians 14
verse 34. The Bible says let your women keep silence in the churches for it is
not permitted unto them to speak but they are commanded to be under obedience
as also saith the law. So of course men are not just in charge in the home men
are in charge in church. Men are supposed to be pastors, bishops, all of these
different you know positions and notice verse 35 it says and if they that's the
women will learn anything at home learn anything excuse me let them ask their
husbands at home for it is a shame for women to speak in the church so notice
if a woman has a question about doctrine about something spiritual she's not
supposed to interrupt the service and ask the pastor you know in a sermon or
something like that she's supposed to ask her husband at home now how is a
wife supposed to get fed spiritually by her husband if her husband doesn't know
the Bible if her husband doesn't read the Bible and look you as a man here's
the thing I'm all for women being as spiritual as they could possibly be I
don't believe we should try to put women down or keep them from learning like
ladies I hope you read the Bible five times a year that'd be great you know I
I've got nothing against ladies just putting as much of their heart and soul
into learning the Bible but here's the thing men you ought to be doing more so
you ought to be reading the Bible even more you ought to be even more
knowledgeable about the things of God because you are that bulwark for your
wife to go to if she has a question about something spiritual and guess what
grok AI is not how you become a spiritual leader hey honey what does
that mean the Bible hold on real quick you go to grok AI and then you have you
know a computer tell you what the Bible means that's a lot of people are doing
right now in a lot of areas of life you know they're getting through school with
AI they're getting through you know lawyers are using it doctors are using
it and even a lot of Christians are just basing their doctrine off of Google
searches and AI no you actually ought to know the Bible yourself if you're gonna
be a spiritual leader in your home you must be reading the Bible go to 1st
Timothy chapter 4 1st Timothy for now the pastoral pistols are really great
for dads to read because though they're primarily directed at a pastor what is a
pastor he's the spiritual leader of the flock what is a dad he's the spiritual
leader of the home and so a lot of these principles you could apply to
yourself 1st Timothy 4 verse 13 the Bible says till I come give attendance
to reading to exhortation to doctrine see I'm all for emphasizing church
attendance and soul winning but we ought not to forget that one of the most
important Christian disciplines is reading the Bible it says neglect not
the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of
the hands of the presbytery meditate upon these things give thyself holy to
them that thy profiting may appear to all take heed unto thyself and unto the
doctrine continue in them for in doing this thou shall both save thyself and
them that hear thee so notice the pastor of a church he's supposed to be giving
himself wholly to reading the Word of God to doctrine to the work of the
ministry and by doing that his inner profiting the profiting that he's
getting himself from being spiritual appears to all and by him paying
attention to the doctrine it says that he's gonna save himself and those that
hear him right so and obviously this isn't talking about a spiritual
salvation but if you are being spiritual if you're paying attention to
the doctrine of the Word of God you're gonna save yourself from going down the
wrong path in life and if the pastor is going the right way and leading the
right way the church is gonna go the right way well it's the same exact
thing in your home you are setting the tone in your home men and you are you
know just like preaching is not neutral your leadership in the home is not
neutral you are either leading your family down the right path towards
serving God towards doing that which is right or you're leading your family down
a dark path getting backslidden getting away from the Bible and it starts with
you yes the followers can rebel and that's wicked but you need to make sure
that you are setting the tone you need to be reading the Bible so that you can
profit your family go to 2nd Timothy chapter 3 2nd Timothy chapter number
3 and you know here's the thing you can't go the right way unless you know
the right way right so you as a father or as a husband your job is to lead
your family the right way guess what you can't do that unless you actually know
yourself what the right way is you know this is why it is so so important
before you get married you know if anyone's listening who's not married is
to spend as much time in the Word of God as possible before you get married
because you want to get those leadership qualities and that knowledge beforehand
so that you could just lead your wife and lead your children the right
direction right off the bat look at second Timothy 3 verse 16 the Bible says
all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for
reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may
be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works so when you think about how
Christ is the head of the church we talk about how is that done practically
what's done through his word right Jesus corrects us through the word of God and
the word of God does all these different things for us it's profitable for
doctrine what is that just teaching right knowing what's right for reproof
that's telling you when you're wrong right for correction telling you what's
right for instruction in righteousness telling you how to do right now these
are all the things that Jesus Christ does for us through his word these are
all the exact same things that a good human leader does for his followers you
know oftentimes as a dad you are going to have to first of all teach doctrine
what is right give your family the truth and oftentimes you're gonna have to
correct problems in your family you know leadership is not just everything
going smooth and everything going wonderfully leadership is often you
correcting problems and if you as a dad want to ever have to reprove
effectively and correct and instruct effectively you're gonna have to do that
from a source of authority that's beyond yourself that's the word of God you don't
want to just lead like some pastors lead today just based off their opinion based
on their own human wisdom and human understanding you know the most
effective fathers and the most effective husbands are gonna be those who are
reproving correcting and instructing based on the principles in the Bible you
know that's how you're gonna make sure that you're actually leading your family
the right way go to Deuteronomy chapter number 17 Deuteronomy chapter number
17 Deuteronomy 17 verse number 18 notice what it says about a king it says and it
shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom that he shall write him a
copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites
and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life
that he may learn to fear the Lord his God to keep all the words of this law
and these statutes to do them. So in the Old Testament you had a leader here
which of course is a king but this principle could apply to any leader and
notice how much the king had to respect and invest time in the Word of God that
he had to literally hand copy the Word of God out legibly by hand. I mean has
anyone ever written something really long by hand before? It takes forever. You
know when I was in high school we had to by hand write out the entire Declaration
of Independence and Constitution of the United States and it took months. It took
forever. It was a lot of work. Could you imagine doing that with the Bible? I mean
this would take forever but not only that he's supposed to read therein all
the days of his life. Why? Look at verse 20. That his heart be not lifted up above
his brethren and that he turn not aside from the commandment to the right hand
or to the left to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom he and
his children right happy Father's Day and his children in the midst of Israel.
You know any leader when it comes to your effectiveness as a leader pride is
one of the quickest ways to destroy the influence that you have and just basing
things off of your own mind not doing things according to the Bible going to
the right hand or to the left off the path that God has given you. You know it's
a really quick way to lose the influence that you have and obviously you know we
need to emphasize what God emphasizes which is hey wives obey your husbands
children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right but in addition to
that truth we also want as leaders to try to be as effective as possible and
to keep the respect of the people that we lead and one of the ways you do that
is by not being prideful being prideful is going to hurt your home it will hurt
you as a pastor or as a preacher as a leader in business pride is going to
cause your heart to be lifted up above your brethren and that's going to affect
the people that you follow because notice when you turn aside from the
commandment to the right or to the left says don't do that to the end that he
may prolong his days in his kingdom right so he's gonna prolong his position
of leadership and his effectiveness as a king by not being prideful by sticking
with the Word of God and it says and his children in the midst of Israel you
know if your followers are rebelling against you and your children you know
God forbid grow up and they don't like you or something like that obviously
that's terrible but if that happens as a result of you just leading with what the
Bible says and sticking with what the Word of God says then hey so be it right
but you know it'd be a shame if we as fathers lose our influence over our
children because we're just prideful arrogant jerks because we're not
following what the Bible says you know I want to keep the heart of my children
as long as possible and so the best way to do that is to be humble to read the
Bible all the days of your life you know the reason why a lot of people grow up
and don't respect their parents is not because they were godly and respecting
the Bible and following God's commandments it's because their dad was
a raging alcoholic it was because their dad divorced their mom it was because
you know their dad was committing adultery you know when you're going
aside from the commandments of God to the right hand or to left you know
that's really gonna destroy your relationship with your children go to if
you will Ephesians chapter 2 again Ephesians chapter number 2 I'm sorry
Ephesians chapter 5 verse 22 so we talked about number one leadership in
the home you got to read the Bible it's the foundation for everything it's not
gonna be the most exciting sermon but you know what that is super important
very important number two biblical leadership in the home you need to be a
benevolent dictator as a father you must be a benevolent dictator in your home
look at verse 22 it says wives submit yourselves and your own husbands as unto
the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of
the church and he is the Savior of the body so notice when it comes to a man's
authority and a father's authority in the home it says that he is the head of
the wife he's not some like co-regent with the wife where they have fifty
percent of the power no the husband is in charge of the wife the husband is in
charge of the children and that means that he needs to make the rules in the
home he needs to set the tone he needs to not allow himself to be walked all
over by his wife or God forbid even by his children no he needs to be in charge
why because it's the same as Christ being the head of the church right me and
Christ we don't sit here and argue back and forth and well let me give you my
ideas God and let me tell you why I think I'm right no it's just he's in
charge period the Word of God is in charge period and anytime I have an
opinion that's different than what the Bible says I need to immediately fix
that carnal attitude right and it's the same thing with a wife or children in
the home dad is right folks happy dad happy life that's what we need to get
back to in America not this garbage feminist crap you know happy wife happy
life let me tell you you know I'm sure Eve was real happy when she was eating
that fruit right she thought this was what she wanted she thought this was
gonna be good for her but you know what she doesn't always know what's best
Adam was not deceived the Bible says Eve was deceived and so we need to get back
to a family structure where dad is the benevolent dictator what does that mean
he makes the rules now what about that benevolent part he makes those rules for
the best interests of his wife and children it's not that we need you know
just tyrant dads and tyrant husbands that are just gonna walk all over their
wives and walk all over their children look that's garbage no one's
advocating for a structure like that except for maybe Muslims but you know
those are false that's a false religion we don't believe in that crap but we do
believe that husband should be the head of the home and sometimes that might
mean pissing off your wife and children but you know what if I have to piss off
my wife and children knowing that I'm doing right then that's me loving them
then that's me doing what's right for them you know I don't know about you I
like it when someone gets elected to political office and they don't sit here
and vote based off of what people like I like them to just vote on principle
what's right what the Constitution says right I like pastors that don't cave and
cower to their congregations when the winds of politics are shifting in their
congregation I like pastors that just do what's right that just stand on what the
Bible says and you know what it's the same thing with dads and with husbands
we need some dads today that are just gonna say hey Christ is in charge I
follow Christ I follow what the Bible says and I actually read the Bible so I
actually know what the Bible says and I'm gonna command my family to do what's
right not let my wife walk all over me and tell my wife how we're gonna serve
God or my wife tell me how we're gonna serve God my wife tell me where we're
gonna go to church my wife tell me what Bible we're gonna read my wife tell me
what pastor we're gonna listen to no I know what's right I know the right way I
know the Bible I know the right takes on things and so I'll tell you what we're
gonna do period you say that sounds prideful no no no submission to the word
of God is humility let me tell you what's prideful is feminism because
that's your human understanding that's your opinion that's trying to exalt
itself over what the Bible says oh 50/50 marriage prideful oh women being in
charge in their homes you're the prideful one not someone who's actually
submitting to what the Bible says the Bible says that the man is the head of
the home and that like we submit to Christ as a church so wives should
submit to their own husbands in everything notice what the Bible is
actually emphasizing obedience to the leader not well what if he tells me to
sin okay yeah there are exceptions but is that what the Bible actually focuses
on no oh you know my husband told me to be a stripper said no husband ever my
husband told me to start an OnlyFans said no husband ever oh yeah okay
theoretically if that happens yeah you disobey your husband in that case
because you obey God but guess what that doesn't happen you know many times I've
ever told my wife to sin zero zero times ever and so and I'm pretty sure for you
men I hope it's the same thing we're not just going around telling our wives sin
sin sin it's like what are you talking about it's insane you know what we're
doing is that we're benevolent dictators you know what I'm doing I want my wife
to be spiritual I want my wife to serve God I want my children to grow up and to
get saved and to please God and so all the decisions that I make in life are
going to be me making the decision me making the call but it's gonna be towards
that end towards that aim you know that's what a benevolent dictator does
look at verse 26 it says or actually 25 husbands love your wives even as Christ
also loved the church and gave himself for it so look husbands of course we
should be loving our wives and we should also be loving our children we
should love our wives as Christ loved the church how did Christ love the
church well of course he sacrificed himself for the church and you know men
we should be willing to give of our whole life our time our energy our money
everything that we have should be poured into our families you know you shouldn't
be one of these deadbeat dads that just sits around all day playing video games
not working hard not going to work you know that's not you sacrificing yourself
for your family like Christ did what did Christ do he endured a lot of pain a
a lot of hardship. He endured everything. He endured the cross, right? For the Church of God.
We should be doing the same thing. But does that mean that Christ has no rules for us? Oh, husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church. So that means you can never tell your wife what to
do. You can never, you know, rebuke your family or come down on them or correct them. It's like,
have you ever read the Bible? Love your wife as Christ loved the Church. You know that Christ has
some rules for us. You know Christ has some structure for us. You know that Christ tells
us what to do. I mean the whole Bible is God telling us what's right, correcting us of what's
wrong with us. No, we need to be leading our family. Go to Genesis 18, Genesis chapter number 18,
and you know one of the things that you just have to get used to if you want to be a good leader
is that just understand that not every decision you make is going to be popular. Not every time
you make a decision is your wife just going to be cheering and happy and your children cheering and
happy and your church cheering and happy. But here's what you just got to realize is hey well
I love my wife, I love my kids, and so I'm going to do what's right for them even if it causes them
to be temporarily angry with me or upset with me. That's what real love is. Genesis 18 verse 17,
"And the Lord said, 'Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? Seeing that Abraham
shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in
him. For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him. And they
shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham
that which he hath spoken of him.'" God liked Abraham because he said, "I know that he will
command his family to do what's right." Not like, well, Abraham's going to like silently do what's
right on his own and just kind of hope that his wife and kids follow. No, he's going to command
them to do what's right. And we need dads today to actually take the reins of their authority
and actually exercise that authority. Look, you have authority, but if you don't ever exercise it,
is it really, does it really mean anything? If you don't ever come down every once in a while
and actually set some rules and actually tell your family what to do, then your authority is
meaningless. You know, you're the head of your wife. If you don't ever tell your wife what to do,
you're not really in charge in practicality, are you? If you don't actually lay down the law
and tell your children what they're going to do, you're not really in charge. And so you know what
that means is that dads, you need to command your family to serve the Lord. You actually have the
power. See, you know what's what's sad is sometimes there's families where the wife is saved and the
husband isn't. That's a hard situation to be in because, you know, the wife can't just sit here
and force her husband to come to church and force her husband read the Bible. And even if he is
saved and just not spiritual, the wife cannot make her husband do anything. But guess what, husbands,
you do have the authority. You can say, "Hey, honey, we're coming to Anchor Baptist Church
this morning at 10 30 a.m. Get in the car." Now here's the thing, you could do this in a nice way.
You could do this in a way that tries to, you know, keep your wife's heart happy. You could say,
"Hey, honey, we're going to Anchor Baptist Church and right after we're going to go out to eat
at your favorite restaurant." Like you could do things like this to make your life easier.
But at the end of the day, if you are the man, if you are the husband, you command your family.
What's right? Oh man, today we have an epidemic of fornication in our country. Yeah, that's true.
But you command your children. No, you command your children and say, hey, no, we're not going to let
you be like Dinah. We're not going to let you go out and just see the daughters of the land. Oh,
you're just a 15, 16 year old girl. Go ahead and just go across state lines. Go and hang out with
your boyfriend and just drive across the country and hang out at his apartment and go to dark places
with him. No. You say, wait, you could do that? Yeah, you can because you're actually in charge.
You know, drugs, alcohol, this crap should not be allowed in your home. And you dad,
you're the one that has the authority. You're the one that gets to say no. You're the one that gets
to sometimes veto that shady boy that's coming after your daughter. You are the one that's in
charge. And you know what? You need to exercise that authority. Men today need to tell their wives
and their families, we are going to church because you know what I've noticed when people are either
they just got saved. You know they're babes in Christ. What I've noticed is that oftentimes
ladies do not like the hard preaching right away. Oftentimes it kind of takes them some time and it
grows you know it starts to grow and they start to like it. But from just countless testimonies
I've heard of people that go to our church and other churches like ours. It's the husband that
got saved. The husband started listening to hard preaching and the husband brought his family to
church and then the family got on board. Then the wife started liking it. You don't just see all
these women that are just like man I just love hard preaching. Man did you hear Pastor Anderson's
you know sermon on the home on obedience. It was great. You know you're in charge honey. You don't
really see that right. So what we need is some men to keep doing that and actually command their
family and say hey I don't care if you like it because it's right. Oh I don't care if you
like hard preaching it's what the Bible prescribes. Oh you don't like you know the battle. You don't
like the fight. Who cares? We've been called to the spiritual fight. We've been called to endure
hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. You know in a physical sense only men should be in
the army but in a spiritual sense all you ladies are enlisted and all you children are enlisted too
because it's a spiritual battle and you know what you got to tell your family you're you're joining
you're getting on board. Hey we're going to the barracks right now. Sorry if you don't like that
but we're doing it. We need some men to actually be in charge today and let me tell you something
right now. If your wife tells you how to serve God you are not in charge. You are not leading.
You are failing as a spiritual leader. You say but if I tell my wife what to do she's going
to be mad at me. Who cares man? Who cares? Are you trying to please God or men or in this case a
woman? I mean how how shameful how weak is that? It's like we're supposed to be you know faithful
unto death. We're supposed to be you know ready to go through the tribulation where we're going to
keep soul winning God willing through people trying to kill us through it being illegal to
be a Christian and you can't serve God because your wife doesn't like it. You need to change
and look here's the thing there is just this is the this is the case for thousands of men all over
America. This is the case for tons of people so look I'm not mad at people that are in this
situation I want to help them I want them to change but someone needs to tell you that you're
wrong that this is bad that this is not good spiritual leadership you would rather be making
Christ happy and making God happy than in the temporary moment making your wife happy because
let me tell you something right now your wife most likely sure there could be exceptions to this
but most likely in the long run when you do that which is right when you take her to a good church
when you lead spiritually in the long run that's how she's going to be happiest anyways sure there's
jezebels out there sure there's just extremely wicked women where they'll just never change and
look i'm sorry if you're in that situation but you know what your wife is probably not that person
your wife probably just needs a strong man to lead her your wife probably just needs to hear some
hard preaching and to be told to read the bible and when she starts reading the bible you know
what's going to happen the holy spirit of god can change her isn't that what happens to all of us
right we get saved we're worldly we're carnal we've got all these worldly philosophies in our mind
because we're human beings we're sinners but what happens we start getting washed by the water of
the word and we start to change and we start to grow and it's like men if you are already saved
and you are already spiritual or you think you're spiritual and you think your wife isn't okay what's
the solution going down to your water down church how is that ever going to change it will never
change your wife will never grow in a water down church she will never grow by hearing preaching
from the niv or reading a false bible version you know how she's going to grow hey just rip the
band-aid off go through a little time of tribulation of some hardship in your marriage
but over time if she actually gets the word of god she could change but you know what it's
hopeless it's a fool's errand in in bad churches for you to hope that your wife is going to change
you need to get her under good preaching go to jeremiah chapter 35 jeremiah chapter number 35
jeremiah 35 verse 1 the word which came unto jeremiah from the lord in the days of jehoiakim
the son of jessiah king of juda saying go into the house of the recubites and speak unto them
and bring them into the house of the lord into one of the chambers and give them wine to drink
then i took jiazaniah the son of jeremiah the son of habazaniah and his brethren and all his sons
and the whole house of the recubites and i brought them into the house of the lord into the chamber
of the sons of hanen the son of igdaliah a man of god which was by the chamber of the princes which
was above the chamber of masiah the son of shalom the keeper of the door and i said before the sons
of the house of the recubites pots full of wine and cups and i said unto them drink ye wine but
they said we will drink no wine for john adab the son of rekab our father commanded us saying
ye shall drink no wine neither ye nor your sons forever verse 18 and jeremiah said unto the house
of the recubites thus saith the lord of hosts the god of israel because he have obeyed the commandment
of john adab your father and kept all his precepts and done according to all that he have commanded
you therefore thus saith the lord of hosts the god of israel john adab the son of recap shall not
want a man to stand before me forever you know this is a cool story on father's day because you
have these sons of recap here who were commanded by their father to drink no wine and obviously
i don't think this is talking about alcoholic wine there's some people that don't understand
this that in the bible there is alcoholic wine and there is non-alcoholic wine the bible talks
about the new wine that's in the cluster that's found in the cluster look if there's juice that's
in the vine cluster that is not alcoholic wine okay it's just insane today that people every
time they see wine they want to think alcohol but look his father wouldn't have to go and make this
special rule of not drinking alcohol because alcohol already is wicked the bible already
forbids you to drink it if you read in proverbs you're not even supposed to look at the wine when
it's red when it moves itself right in the cup so he's kind of going above and beyond and giving
him this extra just personal rule that he has telling his children not to drink wine and that's
talking i believe about this fruit juice so he has like this personal standard that's above and
beyond the word of god and notice how god responds to this he doesn't get angry at this he actually
respects the father for doing this and commends the children for obeying the commandments of
their father i say all that to say this hey give your children commandments give your children
rules give your family rules you know i my dad kind of has some proverbs that i remember remember
as being a child and they're kind of silly they're not super serious but they still kind of stick
with me you know my dad told me this he said guns are for buying not for selling guns are for buying
not for selling it's just kind of silly like i'm sure like at the end of the day he wouldn't be
super upset with me if i sold a firearm but i have never sold a firearm because my dad said
guns are for buying not for selling it's just kind of a funny thing but or how about this
you know my dad again this is kind of over what the bible necessarily teaches but like my dad
hated and boy do i share his hatred on this he hated when people don't put their shopping carts
away at the grocery store man it's just trashy it just shows like you have no respect for other
people and that you're lazy and that you're entitled and that you only think about yourself
and let me tell you something it is a reflection of your character when you just go out you just
leave your stuff in the middle of the road like come on man put your shopping cart away
and my dad was always just like we don't do that trash we're not like trash people that do that
and my dad would march himself across the parking lot and put his shopping cart away and my wife
knows i do that 100 of the time to a tee and you know what you need to put your shopping cart away
you know my dad told me this hey we don't litter we just don't do that that is absolute trash
behavior i mean i remember when i worked at steadfast we bought a building in cedar hill
and i was outside doing the lawn work and i see this family drive by roll down their window and
just throw out bags of mcdonald's out of their car and i'm just like you're a piece of garbage
you are a trash person you know if you do that that is absolutely wicked but you know we would
always go hunting and camping and fishing and idaho is just a very beautiful state very pristine
natural environment and you go there and it's like we want to make it better than when we showed up
like if previous people left trash and beer bottles whatever like my dad would pick that
stuff up my dad would take it to such an extreme oftentimes when he would go shooting he would
literally pick up his shell casings and it's like that's that's pretty over the top but he's just
like he hated littering you know and so like i i keep that today i don't litter i don't throw my
trash out of the window and you know what i like that my dad taught me those things and you know
you should give your children some commandments hey we don't smoke hey we don't litter hey we put
our shopping carts back hey we do whatever the rules you have you know use your authority for
good in your home give them some good rules go to uh jove chapter number one and i'll read for you
proverbs three one solomon said this my son forget not my law but let thine heart keep my commandments
hey it's good for dads to have their own their commandments their laws that they give their
children teach them to have some character number three for spiritual leadership in the home pray
for your family this is very important as well job one one it says there was a man in the land of us
whose name was job and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared god and eschewed evil
and they were born unto him seven sons and three daughters his substance also was seven thousand
sheep and three thousand camels and 500 yoke of oxen and 500 she asses in a very great household
so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east now job is is an anomaly he's a very
rare case because he's the most righteous person that's alive at this time but he also is probably
like the richest guy too i mean he's extremely wealthy he's got all these assets his household
is great and you know it's rare to find anyone that cares about serving god it's rare to find
anyone who's spiritual it's even more rare to find someone who's extremely rich and who has
this world's good and you know people who are very rich what do they spend their time thinking about
how to do more things the next vacation the next house the next car the next you know investment
usually rich people are just obsessed with this world but yet we have this man who's very very
rich and notice what it says in verse four and his sons went and feasted in their house houses
everyone his day and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them so
you know his children are grown but they have a good relationship with each other they still
fellowship with each other it says in verse five and it was so when the days of their feasting
were gone about that job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered
burnt offerings according to the number of them all for job said it may be that my sons have sinned
and cursed god in their hearts thus did job continually so notice job though he was rich
and most people that are rich they can't handle it they wouldn't be thinking about you know the
spiritual well-being of their children if anything they might be thinking about the
financial well-being of their kids or just their own financial well-being but job though he's rich
though he has everything he's thinking man my children might have sinned my children might be
doing wrong and so he's making these offerings every he says continually so he's just continuously
making these offerings for his children caring about their souls about their spiritual growth
and you know in the new testament obviously we're not making offerings we're not sacrificing
any things but what do we do we offer the sacrifice of prayer to god and you know what
there's no one in this world that is going to love your children like you do dad and like you
do mom and look i i care about your kids in this church and i pray for everyone in this church
and i try to feed everyone i want to see everyone succeed i want to see everyone grow up and get
saved and be spiritual and marry pure and have godly families but let me tell you you want that
for your kids way more than i do it's just true and i want that for my kids more than you do and
more than anyone else does why because you know what you're just gonna have more love for your
kids than anyone else i'm gonna have more love for my kids than anyone else and if you are not
consistently praying for your children you could probably guess that no one is because who is who's
gonna be in this world that's gonna be consistently praying for your kids if not you you could hope
for maybe a grandparent you know you could hope for maybe a pastor but really who is it that cares
about them more than anyone it should be you and so you know what even if your kids are young
you should be praying for them constantly and you know bethany my oldest is saved praise god
but i prayed a long time that her heart would be softened that she would start to understand
these things i take her soul winning all the time and now that she's saved i want to pray for her
spiritual growth i want to pray for my other children that are not yet saved the same thing
for them you know it's important even when your kids are young to just pray that they'll grow up
and love god they'll grow up and love the lord and hate sin and pray even for their future spouse
even if they're young hey god please just prepare a godly young person for my children that's going
to lead them well that's not going to be carnal and selfish and a loser right i mean these are
important things to pray for and here's the thing if you're not praying for them probably no one
else really is and if you're not praying for them consistently probably no one else is and so man
it's so important as the spiritual leader of your family that you don't just read the bible that
you don't just know what's right and command your children what to do but that you also pray for
your family you know james 5 16 says confess your faults one to another and pray one for another
that you may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much you know
we don't believe that prayer is just a vain exercise we don't believe that prayer is just
meaningless we believe that prayer accomplishes things and it may not be right away but you know
what do you think is going to be more effective you only telling your kids what's right or
you telling your kids what's right and praying them for 20 years before they leave your house
i mean 20 years of prayer that that righteous effectual fervent prayer is going to be very
effective it's going to make a difference it's very important go to if you will act chapter
number 21 acts chapter number 21 number four this morning when it comes to spiritual leadership in
the home is be filled with the spirit this is also something cannot that cannot be emphasized
enough it's not just important to read the bible and command and pray but it's important that you
yourself are actually spiritual that you yourself are actually modeling what's right acts 21 verse
eight it says in the next day we that were of paul's company departed and came unto cesarea
and we entered into the house of notice philip the evangelist which was one of the seven in a
boat with him notice the description in verse nine and the same man had four daughters virgins which
did prophesy so philip is a dad here he's got four daughters who are virgins i feel like if the
bible is highlighting that fact it probably means that these girls are old enough of the age where
that actually means something significant you know you wouldn't think like if you had four toddlers
they're like they're virgins like obviously you know what i mean that's just that's obviously
normal but when it comes to like if you have older teenagers or adult children if you have four
daughters who are virgins you know that kind of is highlighting something there and so this is a
really spiritual man how do you know that well this is philip the evangelist folks this is the
guy in axe chapter 8 that gets the ethiopian eunuch saved right so we have great stories about him
now we see here that his daughters are successful they're preaching the gospel they're soul winners
they're virgins but notice what the bible says about his character if you go back to axe chapter
6 so axe 21 we see hey he's doing great he's a great dad he's got great daughters now what about
his character axe chapter 6 verse number one because some people can get lucky i mean it's
true some people children grow up to be spiritual who didn't even grow up in a christian home right
so it's not always necessarily just cause and effect but here the bible does tell us the type
of person he was verse one it says in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied
there arose a murmuring of the grecians against the hebrews because their widows were neglected
in the daily ministration then the 12 called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said
it is not reason that we should leave the word of god and serve tables so the apostles are
getting kind of overwhelmed with the administrative work of the ministry and they need some help in
that they need to recruit some help to help with this and it says in verse number three wherefore
brethren looky out among you seven men of honest report and notice this full of the holy ghost
and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business so notice they didn't say hey this is just menial
work this doesn't mean anything we could just hire random people for minimum wage off the street
no he said find men of honest report full of the holy ghost then it says in verse four but we will
give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word and the saying please the
whole multitude and they chose Stephen a man full of faith and of the holy ghost and notice Philip
so when it comes to the type of person Philip is we don't have to necessarily wonder like hey did
this guy just kind of get lucky and you know he had four daughters that grew up to be virgins and
prophesy no we know that this was a man of honest report and full of the holy ghost that is a great
testimony you know us as dads we should strive to be like Philip you know we should strive to set
the best example for our children because here is just the truth we have free will in this world
right so you can you know do what's right and your followers still rebel against you that is
a hundred percent fact that can happen but I believe this I believe that you give your followers
the best chance of turning out right the best chance of turning out spiritual when you yourself
are spiritual when you yourself are full of the holy ghost when you actually give a rip about the
things of god you see today there's millions of dads all across america who thought hey it's
father's day i'm gonna skip church and i'm gonna go fishing i'm gonna skip church and i'm gonna go
to the barbecue i'm gonna skip church and i'm gonna go camping and you know what they're doing they're
setting a bad example for their family on father's day they're not they're not seeking god they're
not being spiritual on father's day what a shame that is you know what the the testimony you should
have is hey on father's day you know what my dad did he prioritized god he honored god because you
know what a real man of god does he doesn't sit here and honor himself and worry about himself
and only celebrate himself oh it's father's day it's all about me no it's all about god the father
it's all about jesus christ that's the testimony i want to leave for my kids that hey on father's
day dad still went to church dad still read his bible dad still went soul winning not well on
father's day dad just cared about himself and because here's the thing if you skip church on
father's day if you don't care about god on father's day you're probably not just doing
it on father's day you're probably not a man that's full of wisdom and of the holy ghost
in general in your life and let me tell you something you are leaving a legacy for your
family you ever heard the saying like father like son you know last year i preached a whole sermon
here called like father like son and you know you constantly see in the bible that oh this king did
that which is wicked like his father's did oh he walked in the ways of his father's or sometimes
you see the good example how this king did that which is right like his father did and you are
setting the tone you are leaving a legacy for your children and not just the things that you say
not just the commandments that come out of your mouth who you are in your life is who your
children will remember you to be and here philip you know he grows his children grow up and he has
four daughters that are virgins that are soul winners i mean wouldn't we all just love to press
that button and have our kids turn out to be clean and pure and godly and zealous for the things of
the lord wouldn't we all push that button well guess what you need to be a man of honest report
and full of the holy ghost and you know what that's not going to happen when you are kind
of this half in half out christian dad where sometimes we'll see you at church you'll be
free to thrive for one week and then you'll go a couple months where you won't be you're just
wishy-washy you go soul winning once in a great you know once in a blue moon every once in a while
you do something spiritual every once in a while you're consistent and plugged into the things of
god but most of the time you're just selfish most of the time you're just living for yourself and
worried about you and your plans and your ideas let me tell you something that will affect your
family and that will affect your leadership and the way that people view you the credibility you
have with them look if you want to give your kids the best chance you need to be filled with the
holy spirit and go to if you will axe 21 axe 21 zechariah 4 6 says this then he answered and
spake unto me saying this is the word of the lord unto his rubble saying not by might nor by power
but by my spirit saith the lord of hosts hey dads should be strong dads should be mighty we should
be strong in every area of life but you know what pure strength and pure will is not going to get
the job done when it comes to spiritual leadership you know what's going to be done how it's going
to be done is by the spirit of god number five this evening spiritual leadership we need to protect
our family from sin notice again what it says in verse 9 of acts 21 and the same man had four
daughters virgins which did prophesy you know i don't think that your children reached the marriage
offer alter pure just by pure accident and especially four daughters you know it sounds
like dad was proactively doing something to protect his family from sin it sounds like he
was actually setting up some safeguards and some rules and actually having some supervision and
oversight to ensure that his daughters weren't defiled you know you have dina what happens with
her she goes out and she's unsupervised unsupervised she's just hanging out with the
daughters of the land going around doing whatever no one's watching her and then she ends up getting
seduced she ends up committing the sin of fornication and it's like no one was there
to guide her and to watch her we need to make sure we protect our children from sin go to
deuteronomy chapter 22 deuteronomy chapter number 22 i'll show you this principle how it is the
father's responsibility to protect his children and specifically his daughter's virginity is
something that the bible talks about look at deuteronomy 22 verse 13 if any man take a wife
and go in unto her and hate her and give occasions of speech against her and bring up an evil name
upon her and say i took this woman and when i came to her i found her not a maid you know by the way
it used to be an evil and shameful thing when you got married and you were not a virgin it used to
be something that the husband if he married a woman and found out oh she was lying to me that
was marital fraud that was a crime that was wicked and today people don't value virginity like they
used to but you know what god values it it says then verse 15 shall the daughter of the damsel
sorry the father of the damsel and her mother take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's
virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate so notice there was literal physical evidence
that the father and mother would present to the elders to the people judging and it says in verse
16 and the damsel's father shall say unto the elders i gave my daughter unto this man to wife
and he hated her and lo he hath given occasions of speech against her saying i found not thy
daughter he made and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity and they shall spread the
cloth before the elders of the city and the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him
so this man it ended up coming out through the legal process here that he was lying against this
woman that he was claiming that she was not a maid that she was not a virgin but he was lying
about her and how was it proven that she was lying well the father and the mother had to take the
tokens of virginity to prove the fact that hey when i gave this woman to this man she was a maiden
she was a virgin and i think that the spiritual principle there is that us as fathers and even
mothers too that we have a responsibility and a duty to protect our children's virginity and to
ensure that they reach the marriage altar pure not defiled so that this situation can't happen
where oh just i married this woman thought she was a maid and she's lying and you know obviously
i'm not an expert in how to do this exactly but i'll tell you this supervision is a good thing
and i think that parents are extremely naive who think that they can just let their daughters go
off unsupervised all over town with whoever and just hope and pray that she'll reach marriage
pure let me tell you most of the case that's not going to happen and again i think that i've just
seen so many naive parents where they think like well my johnny would never or my suzy would never
yes they would no but you don't know my kids i don't need to know your kids because here's what
i know about your kids is that they're sinners and that they have the flesh and that all of us
as teenagers and as young adults this is like the biggest temptation for people and you are just
insane if you think well my kid was in church so that can never happen wrong it can happen it does
happen and you better not have this naive thought my son would never my daughter would never yes
they would and so you need to make sure to protect them and look it's not like you're being mean or
you don't love them you do love them you do want them to have a successful marriage and a happy
marriage and not ruin themselves by sleeping around with a bunch of people who aren't going
to be their husband or their wife someday you know that that type of baggage into marriage often
causes life long problems and so if you love your kids you want to spare them of that pain and yeah
they might not like you during the teenage years when you're laying down rules and you're having
you know supervision and all these things but hey you want your kids to be pure go to proverbs
chapter number five you know what else this means like if you're going to protect your family from
sin of course yeah you got to supervise you got to make rules you got to have safeguards but you
also should warn your children about specific sins you know i've kind of talked about this before how
like when it comes to uh sexual sins it's often very taboo in the old ifv so much so where they
won't even talk about it they won't even warn about it but notice what the bible says in proverbs
five verse eight he's talking to his son remove thy way far from her and come not nigh the door
of his house hey here this dad is specifically warning his son about horse he's sitting his son
down he's saying hey watch out for the strange woman here's what she does here's her tactics
here's what she dresses like here's where she hangs out and here's the consequences of if you
mess up verse nine lest thou give thine honor unto others and thy years unto the cruel lest
strangers be filled with thy wealth and thy labors be in the house of a stranger and thou
mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed and say how have i hated instruction
and my heart despised reproof and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor inclined my ear to
them that instructed me you know if you actually love your children you don't want them to come to
this point of their life where you know what they weren't warned about the whore or they weren't
warned about the whoremonger and they go and they commit these wicked sins and then their life is
destroyed and they're just like i wish i would have hearkened i wish i would have listened to
the people that warned me and wouldn't that just break our hearts as parents to see our children
hit rock bottom and ruin their life in that type of way obviously if that happens we're going to
love them we're going to do everything we can to help them but i'd rather just not have to deal
with that someday i'd just rather them not have to ruin their lives in that way someday and so
that's why i think solomon is sitting here saying hey remove thy way far from her watch out for this
type of woman and if there's anyone that knows about this type of woman it's solomon you know
he's got a lot of experience when it comes to this area and notice what it says in verse 14
he doesn't just warn him about the evil he gives him the solution i was almost in all evil in the
midst of the congregation and assembly he says drink waters out of thine own cistern and running
waters out of thine own well let thy fountains be dispersed abroad in rivers of waters in the
streets let them be only thine own and not strangers with thee so notice he doesn't just
warn about the whore we shouldn't just warn about the whoremonger and the whore but he gives the
solution he actually tells his children hey this is the godly path this is the godly way of taking
care of those normal desires someday you say i don't want to have that conversation i don't want
to talk to them about this this is the inspired word of god yes this is a father and his son and
a son you're a father writing to his son but this is also the inspired words of god so i don't think
talking about this to your kids is weird or wrong or taboo no you should why because it's your job
to protect them from sin as the spiritual leader of your home hey we talk about sin in this church
don't we don't we call out sins specifically don't we talk about them don't we talk about the
consequences don't we talk about ways to avoid it okay what's the difference in your home you
should be doing the same thing go to ephesians chapter number six ephesians six ephesians chapter
number six we'll finish on this verse here notice what the bible says and ye fathers provoke not
your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the lord again when it
highlights the role of a father like i said we have many different roles that we play as dads
you know we could be the buddy playing ball with the kids we can teach our kids how to do things
how to exercise how to eat properly how to change a tire like there's all these different roles that
we have as dads and all those things are great we shouldn't diminish any of those things
but when it comes to like hey god's telling us what to do what does he say bring up our children
in the nurture and admonition of the lord what does that mean hey our most important role as dads
is as spiritual leaders spiritual leaders of the home and you know what this sermon wasn't
necessarily just to pump up all the dads because you know what you have a very grave and serious
responsibility and maybe not every father's day do you just need to be patted on the back and told
how wonderful you are maybe you need a reminder that you need to take your job seriously as a
spiritual leader and you know if you want a pat on the back i'm buying you pizza this evening after
service and you'll have ice cream and floats and we will celebrate you we'll have a great time we'll
play games but here's the thing i want you to actually realize the gravity of your role i want
you to take it seriously i want you not to think of you know i'm just here to provide money i'm
just here to be someone's friend i'm just here to discipline no you're here to raise up the next
generation in the nurture and admonition of the lord and look god help me i pray that the lord
helps give me wisdom to do that but i just believe that these principles that we talked about today
are the best ways to do that number one read your bible number two be a benevolent dictator
number three pray for your family number four be filled with the spirit number five protect your
family from sin let's pray lord we thank you for the dads here and the sacrifices that they make
i pray that you would just fill us with the holy spirit that you'd give us strength to do
the difficult job that we have with your power and your wisdom and i pray that you would guide
every single one of us to be a good spiritual leader for our wife and for our kids in jesus
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.