God's Vision for Your Household

But, hopefully, Hopefully things will, be clear. let me have you, just for our time of study and the word, this morning, have you turn to, First Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3. this morning, we are, going to continue, our December seminar.

Mr Sweet. OK. I was wearing broken glasses because I left mine at home. Anyway, our December seminar, the theme of it is, house to, to house, and, essentially what we're trying to do during the month of December is to focus on the strategic role that the household plays in the body life of the church.

this is a month where, we're just going to try to go a little further in figuring out how to do church, just the mechanics of it, and there's a number of things we could focus on. This is not an exhaustive series, on The church, but we're just focusing primarily on the strategic role that the household plays in the body life of the church. And last week we defined what a household is a family group consisting of parents and children who share living quarters. So that typically, ideally would include a mother and a father, husband and a wife, along with their children, and often can include other relatives that may be living with them.

By way of extension and application, we're more broadly defining household to include any person. The person could be unmarried, any person or group of persons living in a dwelling place with resources at The disposal that are connected to that. dwelling place. This morning our focus is primarily going to be on the first element of that definition of household, just looking at a typical family, a husband and a wife, a father and a mother, and, often including children that are in the home.

But just by way of review, last week we took some time to just stare at the early church and To try to make some observations about how they did body life in the first century church and our goal is, was last Sunday to just observe some things and, and, and then see what we can seek to imitate here at Cornerstone. And if you want to put what we learned last week in a nutshell in terms of desires that I think we can take from that message, it would be these things that you see on the screen based on what we learned last week, I think I'm probably speaking for everybody when, when I say that at Cornerstone, we want the household to be the first place where godliness.

To be learned and practiced by its members. So we want to honor the home, the household, as the first place where godliness is learned and practiced.

Secondly, at Cornerstone, based on what we observed last week, we want household members to fulfill their duty to one another with an eye toward benefiting the church in doing so. so it's not like there's this dichotomy of, well, there's my family and then there's the church, and I'm gonna have to pull away from ministry to the church because I need to dedicate myself to my family. That's really not the right way to look at it. a woman, for example, that needs to pull away from a couple church ministries on the Linden Street campus so that she can devote herself to her husband and children.

More accurately, what her heart is, is I'm pulling away from these church ministries so that I can engage in this church ministry to my husband and to my children, so that I can seek to better benefit Cornerstone Fellowship Bible Church through my ministry to my family. And so as we minister to one another, husbands and wives ministering to one another, and, parents ministering to our children and children obeying and honoring our fathers and mothers and seeking to grow up to be wise, sons and daughters that bring joy to the heart of our parents.

when you do that, children, you're making a significant, contribution to the body life of Cornerstone. Your parents come to church encouraged, and they're, much more of a blessing to be around and they're ready out of their joy to be delivering that blessing.

You have no idea the degree to which you bless the entire body, just in the way that you might comport yourself. As a child toward your parents and before God in the home. There's a, a, a third thing that we would say that we want based on what we observed last week, and that is that we want the church to restrain itself from replacing what the household members should be doing. In the home.

Now, we're not entirely sure at this point. I know I'm not, what that actually means, but I think it's a valid question to ask and it's something that we need to be willing to do as we're doing church, year by year and week by week to stop and evaluate sometimes and at least ask the question. Are there any ways that we as a church are unwittingly having a disassembling effect upon the family? Are there any ways that we as a church replacing what family members ought to be doing towards one another in the context of their household?

The staff has been asking this question. The elders have been asking this question. We don't want to be the only ones asking it. We would love to hear from you also as you interact with that question.

And then lastly, we would say that we want the household to be embraced as a premium venue for body life, for worship, for hospitality, for outreach, and for instruction and learning. So I think those are legitimate things that we can derive from the text of the New Testament and say, yes, this is legitimate. This was in the early church and we want this to be true for us here at Cornerstone as well. Now, if we really want to go in this direction, guys, if we say this is, this is, we're going to chart our course and we're gonna move in this direction.

And try to see these things become a reality in the Cornerstone, just the way we do things here at Cornerstone, then guess what suddenly becomes a drastically important ministry position at Cornerstone. what it is? It's the ministry of the heads of the households. The ministry of the men who stand before their households and who lead their and love their wives and their children.

The ministry of the men in the church becomes vitally important. Other aspects of church life and the ministry of women's vitally important. We'll get to that in a couple of weeks, but today, what I wanna do is I want to focus on, the ministry of the men in the body life of Cornerstone, and for some reason this slide is not changing, but if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be what the church needs from her men, what the church needs from her. men, ultimately, what I'd love to be able to do is to share with you at least 5 things that, That I believe that the church needs from her men and what we could say that Cornerstone needs from our men, especially if we as a church body are going to try to move in this direction of imitating a little more closely the early church and how they gave the household such a strategic role.

As a man, and I'm talking to the men who are, are married, I'm talking to the men that have children in the home that, by divine design, you are the head of your household. Now, most of us don't need this belabored, but unfortunately in our culture today to call a man the head of the household is something that needs to be proven and it's politically very incorrect, right? but when you go through the sweep of scripture, it's just amazing the prominence that God gives to To this theme.

over 15 times in the Old Testament, we find the reference of the heads of the Father's households.

It's just the way that the people of Israel, did life, did worship, the way they catalog and categorized, themselves. we find that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, so God gave grace to Noah's. Family. God wanted to raise up a people for his name, and he started with Abraham, who is the father of that multitude, the Jewish people.

In the celebration of the Passover in the Old Testament law, it is the Father that conducts this ceremony and answers the questions that are asked by the children as they partake of the Passover meal. We find the Old Testament that as the children of Israel are situated for worship on the north side and west side and so forth of the tabernacle, they are grouped and arranged by heads of households. That's clearly what is stated there. And Ezra chapter 1 verse 5, they're setting about to rebuild the temple and a renaissance in, in Israel's history is about to begin and, they, they organize, the structure of the people of Israel, who are returning.

they organize them who are going to be involved in rebuilding the temple according to, quote, the heads of the father's households. King Josiah organized the people in 2 Chronicles 35:4 by their fathers' households. Again and again we see, this affirmed, and you say, well, all of that's Old Testament. What about the New Testament and the New Testament, we see passages like Ephesians 5:23, where Paul is saying, essentially, here's what the gospel is and now husbands and wives, here's how I want you to relate to one another.

And he says in chapter 5, verse 23, the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church. And who is the head of Christ in 1 Corinthians 11:3, Paul says that God, God the Father, is the head of Christ. And by seeing that, you begin to observe that, to, to be under a head does not denote inferiority, right? Otherwise we'd have to say that Jesus Christ is inferior to God the Father.

It's just an organizational structure and in God's economy, God has so seen fit. To establish you as a man, as the head of your household. That is not a position from which you vaunt your authority and lord it over your wife and your children, but it is from that position that you seek to imitate Christ and be the Biggest servant leader in the family and walk in humility and sacrificially love your wife as well as your children as you seek to imitate the gospel way in your dealings with them.

But nonetheless, you are the head.

You've been put in this position by God and there's responsibility that goes with that. What I want to do is I want to just look at 5 things that Cornerstone needs from you men. 5 things that the church needs from you. Before we do that, I got one more quick thought., it used to be that home or the household was a happening place.

it was a production center. until the industrial revolution. The home was a center for production. In fact, our English word economics comes from oikonomics, which is the word for house that we actually encountered last, last week.

The home was a center for production. It was the place where much education took place and, and Christian families. Jewish families, it's where spiritual instruction and the words of God took, took place and where the husband loved his wife and so forth. And so it was just a beehive of wonderful things that were taking place in the home.

But nowadays, it's like so many things, little by little. innocently and some not so innocently. Things that used to happen in the home have been taken out of the home. Now, most men, when they want to go make some money, they have to leave the home to go do that.

I'm not saying that's morally wrong or bad. It's just a, a fact of life in many cases. Any man who does that would say I would love it if someonehow could work it out that I could be at home. And earn money for my, my family.

So you go outside the home now to generate income to meet your family's needs and, and now there's education that's provided outside of the home. And, not only in, educational institutions, but, but also churches come, to a family and say, hey, we've got instruction here on the church campus and we got a Sunday school program and we got an Iana program and vacation Bible school program. We got all these things going on that can provide instruction. There's nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with any of these things, but, but again, there were things that used to happen in the home that are Now taking place outside of the home in terms of scriptural instruction that takes place outside the home and so a man comes to a church and it's like he goes out of the home to produce income to meet his family's needs and the church says, hey, your kids, they need to be trained up in the way of the Lord and we've got a great youth ministry so you can send your kids here and we've got a great Sunday school program and And these other children's programs that can train them in the teaching of the word of God and the man's like, wow, that's great, so I guess my job as a dad is to drive them here and, and here and make sure that they get that instruction and then the church.

Points to this husband's wife and says, and by the way, your wife has needs too, right? And we've got exactly what your wife needs. she can just blossom into the beautiful woman God wants her to be, through the ministries that we have here on the campus of, of this church. Now, I am not criticizing any of this.

I'm just trying to sweep it all together to just make a point. What often happens in a way that 99% of men would never know how to mentally quantify. a lot of men are having all this stuff happen outside of their home and they're displaced, they're displaced. and there are churches.

Someone in our care group last week shared that at a, at a previous church on Monday night, there was a ministry for the men, Tuesday night, a ministry for the women. Wednesday night there was a ministry for the kids. Thursday night there was something else going on and it was all happening on the church campus. And here's a man who's called to be the head of his household, but every night he comes home and the family that he's supposed to lead has been taken away and the church is doing all of that.

And so men walk around with this vague feeling of, what do I do? What am I needed for? And they might even come to the church leadership and say, hey, you got, you got something for me to do? They're like, well, yeah, here's an offering plate, you can pass this out on Sunday.

And I, I'm not belittling being an usher or passing around an offering plate. Lord knows we need trustworthy, godly people to do that, but I'm just saying that I think we've taken too much out of the hands of our dads. And it's time we start giving stuff back to our men. I think our men are ready for it.

I think our men, by the grace of God, are capable of taking a man-sized responsibility, taking that back by the grace of God, and just going gangbusters with it. I want us to just dream a little bit and imagine what our church life can be like. With our men taking these things upon themselves, and men can do this and we still have some of these other ministries that I just mentioned. I'm just saying that every church, whatever they do, has to be careful that they not have a disassembling effect upon the family and not end up disenfranchising men and displacing them to where they're feeling pretty unnecessary to just the mechanics of how body life is done.

Anyway, that's my short thought before point number 1. anyway, here's the first. thing that the church needs from Her men, and that is she needs her men to take responsibility for leading their households well. The church needs her men to take responsibility for leading their households well.

This is clearly affirmed in First Timothy that we spent a couple of years studying, but we need our men to, to basically step up and say I'm not gonna be just a resident in this household. I'm not gonna just live here. I'm not just gonna be a passenger on, on this airplane, but I'm going to be the head of the household that God has. Called me to be, and I'm going to lead my household, and I'm going to seek to lead my household well.

I'm not going to make excuses. I'm not going to let others do this for me. I'm not going to let others lead my household for me. I'm going to seek to lead my household and what, I bet you anything that as I start doing it, I'm not going to do it well.

But what, I'm not going to be discouraged. I'm going to keep working at it. I'm going to seek counsel and resources from other men in the church and even the leadership of the church until I am leading my household well. That's what the church needs.

Douglas Kelly says this family religion, which depends not a little on the household head daily leading the family is one of the most powerful structures that the covenant keeping God has given for the expansion of redemption. Look how Paul emphasizes the importance of a man leading his household well. When Paul looked at the Ephesian Church as he's writing this letter to Timothy, Paul, you could just tell that he saw, the church is a household of God and there are many different earthly distinct households that are represented in the Ephesian Church.

Paul wanted men over every one of those households, leading those households and doing so well.

We know this because Look what he says in 1 Timothy 3. An overseer must be. In other words, if a man wants to be an elder and preside over the church as a whole, he must be the husband of one wife, and he must be one who is leading his own household well. So in relation to his own distinct earthly household, he needs to be a man who's leading his household, and he's doing a good job of leadership of his household.

You say, Well, I can understand that being a qualification for an elder. But what about other positions in the church? Well, what about deacon? The word deacon just literally means servant.

I'm sure deacons had leadership roles. But nonetheless, even the qualifications for deacons, look what he says. 1 Timothy 3:12, deacons must be the husbands of one wife and good leaders of their children and their own households. Paul is saying that for a man to be released to minister in some significant capacity in the local church, he needs to be One who is ministering effectively and providing solid and good leadership for his wife and children in the home.

So the church needs her men to take responsibility for leading their household. Now, the Greek word that is translated lead or manage in some of your translations is the Greek word proistemi. And the word istemi means to set or to stand, to stand something somewhere or to set something somewhere, and then pro has the idea of facing towards and even movement towards something. So the pro isemi is essentially what I'm doing to you right now.

I am in front of you and I am facing you. So I am positioned here, facing you, giving attention to you, and seeking to lead you. That's literally the picture. It literally means to stand before.

In some passages, it has the idea of taking responsibility for or to be put in charge of, of a group of people. In fact, in Thessalonians, Paul says, appreciate those who have charge over you. And that's this word proistemi, and he's referring to elders and ministry leaders in the book of First Thessalonians. So basically what an elder is in the church, that's what a man is in his household towards his wife and his children.

When a man is lovingly servant leading his wife and his children, he's eldering. He's doing every bit in his household what an elder is to do. To the church at large. In some passages, this word proistemi means to give one's attention to.

Just like when we're having a conversation, you turn and you face somebody, you look at them while they're speaking, or you turn to something and you examine it carefully so it can have the idea of facing something for the purpose of giving diligent attention to something or someone. And 1/4 idea is to lead through instruction. In 1 Timothy 5, Paul, says, let the elders who rule well, remember that passage, let the elders who pro isa me well. he says, let them be considered worthy of double honor, especially those that work hard at preaching and teaching.

In other words, one of the ways that elders pro isemi is through providing instruction. So for a man to lead his household and to lead his household well, he needs to step up, to stand before his household, assume responsibility. for what goes on in his household without making any excuses and say, I'm going to give my attention to my wife and to my children and to this household, and I'm going to own this, and I'm going to provide leadership. And wherever necessary, I will provide guidance and teaching and instruction.

This is the calling of every man in our church that is married. And has children. Look what Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:5. He says, if a man does not know how to stand before, if a man does not know how to proistemi, his own household, how will he take care of the Church of God?

You see how the importance he's attaching to this? He's saying, if you, all men need to learn how to do this. If you don't know how to do this, you will not be able to. Take proper care of the Church of God.

But be encouraged, man. Look at this. If a man does not know how, this indicates that to stand before a household is something that a man needs to learn how to do. You don't just get married and suddenly you're the skilled leader, biblically, it's something you, you have to learn how to do and you learn over time and you learn with diligent study and also practice.

But we can also observe from just this question of Paul that managing one's household is one of the key ways a man helps to take care of the church. You want to take care of cornerstone the very best you can. Your first responsibility is to lead your household. By leading your household, you're providing care for your church body.

Does that make sense? let's say you are a husband and a father, you have a wife, and you have 3 children. Cornerstone is about 400 people right now. What that means is you've got a wife and 3 children.

That's 4 people that are a part of the Cornerstone family that you are called the shepherd and to lead, and by taking care of your job when it comes to them, you are providing wonderful care to 1% of the Cornerstone family. And that's not to speak of whatever ministry you might have beyond that and whatever ministry your children and your wife may have to others that is now enriched because of your ministry to them. Please understand, and this goes for women too, that one of the primary ways that you provide.

Care to your local church is by being diligent in what God has called you to do in your household.

And even moms just receive this and say, what, God, use me to raise stalwart sons and daughters for the faith who will be gifts to the church. Help me to raise sons and daughters that will be pillars in the church of Jesus Christ, accomplishing great good. In the weeks and months and years and decades to come and invest yourself in them and make the church all the richer because of your investment in them. But we can also infer from this question of Paul that if one knows how to manage his own household, then he's thereby gained the skills to take care of the church.

That's why Vadi Baum, when someone comes to him and says, hey, I want to train for pastoral ministry, what should I do? Vadi Baum. Says, find a wife, have some children, and see if you qualify. That's his counsel.

Get married, love your wife, provide leadership for your household, have children. That's where you're actually going to gain the skills that are necessary to provide leadership for the church. What does the church need from her men? The church needs her men.

To step up and to commit themselves to leading their households well. And by the way, I will just say that if what I just said is true, then my job and the job of the elders is to do absolutely everything we can. To help you men be equipped with the resources and whatever training that you need in order to serve your household as God has called you to. If you've been dropping the ball and not leading your household the way that you should have been, maybe there's, A lot you need to take on the chin and, and repent of, but there are also very well may be a lot that I need to repent of and that the elders need to repent of if we've not been properly shepherding and providing for you what you've needed to lead your households.

but then a second thing that the church needs from her men is she needs her men to love their wives. The church needs her men to love their wives. In fact, this is the fundamental aspect of leading a household. A man says, OK, I want to leave my household.

What's the, what's the first thing I need to do? Give me, give me a list of orders that I can start. giving to my wife and children so I can be leading them. No, Paul would say, listen, you want to lead your household well, here's the first thing you need to do, go to the cross and look at what Jesus did on the cross and giving himself up for the church, sacrificing, laying down his life for the church, be a student of the cross, and then turn from the cross and go to your wife and just do that to her.

Love her sacrificially, be a living embodiment. Of the gospel towards your wife, be good news to your wife. Love her with a gospel shaped love. That's the most important element of a man who is leading his household well.

He's leading through love. We see this in 1 Timothy 3:2, essentially, Paul is giving the qualifications for an elder and he says an overseer or an elder then must be above reproach. He's giving not just qualifications, but this is a job description also. Any man that is an elder should read this and say, OK, this is what I'm supposed to do today.

An elder then must continually be above reproach. That's the generic overarching. character qualification that you crack open, and then what falls out are specifics. And the very first specific is that an elder must continually be a one woman man.

In other words, a man who loves his wife, he's faithful to his wife. He is devoted to his wife. His wife is his number one delight, the number one relationship, and his number one ministry. It's what he prizes the most, is his marriage.

And it's not like there's the church over here, but I got to minister to my wife. No, he loves the church. And takes care of the church and benefits the church by loving his wife. He loves his children, takes care of his children, nurtures his children, creates a healthy environment for his children to grow strong and secure in by fundamentally, and first of all, being devoted to his wife, and being genuinely in every way, shape, and form a one woman kind.

Of men. In Ephesians 5, I want you to imagine the Ephesian congregation is gathered together and they're going to hear the book of Ephesians read to them. They've never heard it read before and there's a lot of women that are attending the Ephesian Church and they need ministry. And so what's, what's the women's ministry going to look like?

Well, there's a variety of things that a women's ministry in a church should look like. We know from Titus that older women should teach the younger women and so forth. And so there's an absolutely vital place for that. But get this, the single men, the single most important part of women's ministry here at Cornerstone is your ministry to your wife.

It's your ministry to your wife. You won't find that on the women's ministry brochure, but it's your responsibility. And if our husbands are not loving their wives as God calls them to, oftentimes there's only so much that the church can do and salvaging the damage that is done by husbands that are dropping the ball. You need to just have this sense of calling that, what, I've been called to be a pastor of women's ministry.

What is that? It's fundamentally, I got to minister to my wife. I got to minister to my wife that she might be nourished and built up and blossom into the beautiful woman that God desires for her to be. Ephesians 5 husbands, here's in the Ephesians church, who's going to minister to these women?

And Paul says, husbands, listen up, husbands. Here's what I'm calling you to do towards these women in your life. the woman that you call your wife, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that he might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but so that she would be holy and blameless. He's not just saying here to love your wife sacrificially the way that Christ did.

He's saying love your wife with an agenda, and that agenda is that your wife be sanctified. Your goal should be, I, I want to be an instrument of sanctification and holiness in my wife's life. I want to actually be involved in cleansing my wife with the washing of water by means of the Word. I want to speak God's word to her and over her and in her presence so that she can be cleansed and sanctified by the word as I'm, I'm reading it to her, speaking it over her.

I want to be the one who gets to address the spots and the wrinkles or any such blemishes that are In my wife. I don't want to be turned off by them and caused to turn away. No, Jesus Christ saw our spots and our wrinkles and our blemishes. And he said to his father, I would like to be the one to take care of those and to fix and to clean up that mess.

And the father says, you want to do that, you got to get yourself crucified. And Jesus says, I'll get myself crucified to be the one who does that. Paul says, I want you as husbands to love your wife in the same way. Going to whatever lengths to be the one who is an instrument of sanctification.

And holiness in your wife so that when your wife stands before Christ at the judgment, she will say, I am so glad that you were my husband. You want your wife on judgment Day to be glad that you were her husband. John Piper in his book, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, it's a book to pastors. And, but, but what he says here is very applicable to all men.

So, even though it says pastors, I want you to take this as directly at you if you are a married, A man and and notice as he recounts the blessings of husbands loving their wives, notice the benefits that accrue to the church as men do this. He says, Oh, how crucial it is that pastors or that men love their wives. It delights and encourage encourages the church. It models marriages for other couples.

It upholds the honor and the office of elder. It blesses the pastor's children with a haven of love. It displays the mystery of Christ's love for the church. It prevents our prayers from being hindered.

It eases the burdens of ministry. It protects the church from devastating scandal, and it satisfies the soul as we find our joy in God by pursuing it in the joy of the beloved. This is not marginal brothers, loving our wives is essential to our ministry. It is ministry.

This is for all of our elders. This is the first element in your job description as an elder, love your wife. And it's the first job description in your job description as a man, as you've got a household to lead and provide for. The first element of your job description is to love your wife.

Go to the cross, study the cross, and then mirror the realities of the cross as you seek to love your wife sacrificially and being driven by a loving agenda for her spiritual growth that she might blossom. Into the beautiful woman that God has called her to be. Imagine how rich Cornerstone would be if every man just went crazy loving his wife, the way that Christ loves the church. Imagine what a blessing those wives could then bring to the other aspects of women's ministry as they then can help the younger women and their other sisters in the Lord.

So the church needs her men to love their wives. There's a third thing that the church needs from her men, and that is that she needs her men to teach and instruct their children in the word of God. She needs her men to teach and instruct their children in the word of God. Again, I want you guys, you men to have this feeling of, you're a part of the Ephesian Church, you're all showing up one day and there's a letter from Paul that's going to be read and there's a growing number of children in the Ephesian congregation.

age 2, age 58, and 10 and 12 and 15 and 17 and a growing number of these children. And who's going to be responsible for teaching these children in the ways of the Lord? Well, Paul gets to this part of the letter in Ephesians 6, and it's like, OK, he's gonna provide some direction on who's going to be taking care of the children and teaching them. And when Paul comes to this section of Ephesians, he points to the dads, not that no one else in the church should teach your children, that would not be biblical, and not that the moms should not teach your children.

We have in the book of Proverbs that that. Mom does teach and deliver commandments. She does instruct her children in the ways of the Lord. But in this passage in this context, God points the finger at the men and says, Men, dads, I'm appointing you to this ministry task.

I am entrusting you. I am calling you. To be the one who brings up your children and the instruction and the admonition of the Lord. I am giving you that job.

He says bring them up, not let them grow up. A lot of parents just let their kids grow up. Paul says bring them up. This word has the idea of nurture, nourishment with a touch of tenderness.

It has the idea of nurture. and nourishment that is delivered in close, tender relationship with. So you're not a stern dad that's just barking out commands and truth to your children, but you bring them into close relationship with yourself. There's a spirit of love and humility and tenderness and closeness.

And it's in that context that you are providing for them the instruction. and the admonition they need. You're giving them instruction in the Word of God, and also admonition. This word admonish, in the minds of many is a negative word, but it literally just has the idea of, of fixing, like addressing and correcting things that are amiss in your children, where they need insight, they need wisdom.

They need to be corrected, and God's word has the power. To accomplish that. Now that's a huge responsibility, man, but I, I want all of our men to just go, I can't believe that. I can't believe God picked me for this.

He picked me over my seminary trained pastor. He picked me over any other man to be the one who does this in the lives of my children. why I believe God picked you? Because, and I've seen this demonstrated over and over again, you as a dad have 10 times the power that any pastor will ever have over the heart of your child.

I have seen that. and there have been times where I've talked to a dad and then the dad has sent me his child and I've tried to minister to the child, and I'm able to maybe do a little bit here and there, but I've just realized over the years, what, I'm better off just spending time with that dad to help that dad to invest in that child because I don't have nearly the power that this dad has over the heart. Of their child. Whatever power you think you possess in the lives of your children, multiply that by 10, and you'll probably come close to understanding the power that you possess.

If you love God's word and you love it enough to read it and love it enough to teach it, and you're loving your children enough to create a close, tender environment in which you can pass your heart, from you to them about God's word. there's no telling what God can do in that context, as you are committed to teaching your children the word of God. Listen to something else Vadi Baum says. He says just a few generations ago, a man was considered spiritually responsible if he led his family before the throne of God in prayer, read and taught the scriptures at home, and led family devotions among other things.

Today parents are considered responsible if they find the church with the best staffed nursery and the most up to-date youth ministry who could do all of the above with their children. That's what a good dad is anymore, just someone who shops around, finds the right church that can do all these things for their children. When a church can and should do everything it can to supplement what you are doing in the home, to reinforce that and to come alongside of you and to seek to bless your children.

That's absolutely wonderful.

But God has called you with this responsibility. To the one who oversees the instruction of your children, and you are personally engaged in this. So I, I don't know what I'm going to say to my children if I I, I'm no expert in the Bible. What do, what do I do by way of instructing my children in the ways of the Lord?

I'll, I'll give you a really simple word of counsel. Just read your Bible. Read your Bible to your children. Absolutely powerful.

Just open your Bible and read it to your children. Read them a chapter today, tomorrow, just read another chapter. And just keep reading the Bible. God's word is quick.

It's active. It's sharper than any two-edged sword, and the word of God, which is powerful, being read to children by a dad who has this enormous God-given power in the hearts of his children. You bring those two things together. You bring a little bit of dad with a little bit of Bible together, and you've got an amazing combination.

Just reading. Paul says to Timothy, he tells him, I want you to preach the word. But right before he says that, he says, Timothy, all scripture is inspired by God. It's inspired by God, Timothy.

it's literally, it's breathed by God. So dads, as you open your Bibles and just read it to your children, something very personal and intimate is happening. God is breathing through you upon your children. You want God to actually breathe upon your children?

He can do that. Just open your Bible and read. God shows up and God breathes, and he's breathing through you upon your children. And as you read, look at this, it's profitable.

It is profitable. This God breathed revelation is profitable. So you just read it and, and it contains profit as it passes from you to your children. It's profitable for teaching?

Yeah, I'm supposed to teach my children, what do I teach them? God hands you the Bible and says this is profitable for teaching. Use this. Just, just read it at the very least for reproof.

This word reproof literally has the idea of just pointing out what's wrong. You see things that are wrong with your children. And their character. Of course you do.

We all see that, we see that in ourselves. God's Word has the power to point out what's wrong. Give us insight into what is wrong with us. God's word also as we read it.

As we pass it on, is profitable for correction. This is a positive word. It, this word was used to speak of mending a bone that had been broken. God's word, it can actually fix it, it doesn't just point out what's wrong but it fixes those things that are wrong.

Maybe not overnight, but over time. It's profitable for training and righteousness, in order that the man of God may be equipped, totally equipped for every good work. This book is profitable. And if you do nothing else, but gather your family together and just read a chapter.

If you've got a thought to share, share it. But you don't even need to do that. When you're done reading, you can then just pray or, or you can say, is there anything in this chapter that you loved, especially? Is there any promise?

Is there any truth? Is there any challenge in this chapter that That stands out to you. You can ask some questions, but if you just read the Bible, just read it and prayed, God is very pleased with that. And there's so much profit in what you are doing there.

We are out of time and I just got to the 1st 3. Let me, I'll tell you what, let me do number 4 and we'll stop. Here is the church needs her men to lead in prayer. The church needs her men.

To lead in prayer. Paul says, therefore, I want the men in every place, and that would include the home to pray. I want the men to pray. And it's interesting, that's the only thing he says he wants from the men.

I want you everywhere you are to pray. And then he says, and now for the women, here's what I want for them, and we're like, whoa, wait a minute, you want anything else from me, Paul? Like, no. I just want you everywhere you are to pray.

Why does Paul do that? Is that all he wants from men? No, but I think Paul knows that if a man who is not naturally given to prayer. Men are normally the last ones to drop to their knees in prayer, right?

Normally our wives are ready to drop to their knees saying, we've got to pray, we've got to pray, and we're like, No, no, wait a minute, wait a minute, I think I can figure this out. They're dropping long before we are to our knees. If a man is willing to acknowledge his dependence upon God, and he's doing that in every place, including in his home, what other fruit of righteousness will fail to be manifested in a man's life like that? Be a man of prayer who is a leader in prayer.

Be the first one to suggest we need to pray in this situation. in fact, let me just give to you a man prayer. This is a man prayer in 2 Chronicles 20. King Jehoshaphat is facing enemies coming against him.

He's the king of Judah. And he's like, we, we can't, we can't handle these armies that are coming against us. So it says he stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem. We know there were women present.

There were children present, and here is a king of a people. Here is a man who said to God in his prayer, amongst other things, O our God, will you not judge them, these armies coming against us? We are powerless against this great multitude. Coming against us, nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on you.

Here's a man in public in front of the people he's called to lead and says, God, I don't know what to do, and I'm powerless. That's a man prayer right there. And when Paul says, I want the men in every place to pray, he's not just saying, I want you saying thank you for this day, thank you for this food. That's fine to say, but we're talking broken man praying, the praying where a man is leading the way and saying, God, we're beyond our resources.

God, I don't know. What to do. God, I don't have any power. We don't have any power to deal with this, but our eyes are upon you because you do have the power and you do have the wisdom.

You do have the insight. And I and those that I've been called to lead Lord, we are looking to you for direction and for empowerment. Be a man who leads in prayer. This is what the church needs and the 5th thing that the church needs we'll probably, we'll fit that in at some point during, during this month.

But let me ask you to bow your heads this morning. OK. We're going to take up an offering, we would encourage you to give as the Lord leads you to give. There's only one reason I would preach a message like this today, men, and that is because I believe that, That, that the men of Cornerstone are ready for a, Ready to receive.

A calling such as this. We, we've got men of God. We've got men that, that, that want to please God in every respect. And I, I believe at Cornerstone we are blessed with a unique set of men.

who have a, a love for the Lord, a knowledge of His word, and a readiness to, and, just, just give me something to do and I'll, I'll do it. And one of the things that we're wanting to do is is to, to seek to entrust this to, to you. Amen. And we're, we're working very hard on this and seeking the Lord and And just, and seeing how we've fallen short, but we as leaders of this church want to come behind you men in this very important role and to just be your resource person.

To help you, to encourage you in this very important calling that God has given to you. And all that I've said this morning, I've said as a contribution to an ongoing dialogue that I hope we in a spirit of grace will have as a congregation. We have much to learn. A lot of growing to do.

May God look upon us with grace and mercy and take us further in, in understanding how he would have us to do church. Lord, I thank you for Your word for what we have heard today, for being so gracious Lord, to speak with clarity. I thank you for our men. Pray, Lord, that You would empower them and just embolden them to step up to the calling that you've laid upon them, that they would embrace that.

And even in these very aspects, in my own household, Lord, I have so far to go, so far to go. And I need my brothers, we need each other. But where, where could we as a church be if our men Just, just did the things that we saw this morning. They just went crazy with these things.

And we were all in encouragement to one another in the doing of these things. Help us and grow us, Lord, and keep our hearts open to your wisdom as I know you wish to give it to us and receive this offering, Lord, we are about to give, do much with that also. In the name of Jesus we pray, and all God's people said,