Title: The Shepherd's Family
Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:4-5
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
But one of the most beloved Psalms for parents is no doubt Psalm 127. Let me just read this to you. Psalm 127, Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain those who build it.
Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors, for he gives to his beloved even in his sleep. Behold, children are a gift of the Lord.
The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them! They will not be ashamed when they speak of their enemies in the gate.
This is a very short Psalm, but we see the importance here of building your life and your legacy on the Lord. Here, the house is the life and the fruit of a man's life. His legacy is very often found in his family.
Solomon writes here, Behold, children are a gift from the Lord. They are a man's reward. How blessed, how happy, the verb translates, is the man with whom his home is full of children.
Of course, we understand that nestled in the promise of this Psalm, the blessedness of this Psalm, is also the responsibility of raising those children correctly. Because a house, a quiver full of rebellious, entitled, embattled children is not a blessing but turmoil. In fact, there are also warnings about not stewarding your family well.
Several warnings in Scripture, Proverbs 11, 29 says that a man who troubles his own house will inherit the wind, in other words, nothing. Or Proverbs 14, 1, A wise woman builds her house, but the foolish one tears it down with her own hands. See, there are blessings for obedience and parenting and consequences for negligence.
Our culture tends to view children as tools for our own personal self-fulfillment. But the Bible sees children as gifts, as blessings from the Lord to be shepherded toward Him. Furthermore, the Bible also teaches that parents are to take responsibility for rearing their children.
It is not the school's job to raise your kids. It is not the state's job. It is not the church's job.
It's not the youth leader's job. It is the job of faithful parents. Of course, we know the Bible is full of bad examples, warnings to us.
The priest Eli, King David, Saul, Jacob, even Abraham. Obviously, there are a couple of examples of good parents in the Scripture, but we see quite a few that are not good examples. And yet we are exhorted to be faithful to train our children in the ways of discipline, godliness, and worship.
One such passage, I'll just read this to you, comes to us in Deuteronomy 6, 4, O hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart.
Then he says this, You shall teach them diligently to your sons, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates.
And so we're commanded to teach our children diligently. Diligence, by the way, involves hard work, discipline, trials, faithfulness, obedience, even when you don't feel like it. But the Bible tells us that the rewards are great.
3 John 4 is a classic verse that every parent loves to read. I have no greater joy than to hear of my children walking in the truth. Talk to any parent of adult children who are faithful to bring up their children in the Lord, and they will tell you to see their children walking in faith, walking as Christians.
They will tell you there is no greater joy. And when those children then have their own children, and now that generation gets to see grandchildren walking in the faith, I see those people, I talk to those people, and they are abounding with joy. There is a blessing of seeing these children walking in the truth.
And so I would add to this to the younger parents, don't spurn the advice of older saints who have raised godly children. Our culture, again, seems to turn away from that. And when they tell you hard things, don't just say as if you know better, okay, boomer, don't do that.
Rather, instead, heed their wisdom. Heed their counsel. But more than all that, heed the words and the wisdom of God's Scripture.
Heed what God has to say, because He knows what's best for our children. He's a much better parent than we could ever be. And He loves our children more than we do.
Despite all the parenting experts, what they might say, the Lord is very clear, Proverbs 22, 6, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he's old, he will not depart from it. And so as Christians, we have the responsibility to train our children in the ways of the Lord. This is every Christian parent's responsibility.
All of us have this responsibility to raise our children in the faith. However, as we'll see, for those who are leading in the church, this is an absolute requirement. And so with that, I would invite you to turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3. In one jam-packed paragraph, the Apostle Paul is laying out the qualifications for those who are seeking spiritual leadership in the church, whereas much of what takes place in the earlier verses pertains to his personal character.
And we've been here for several weeks now. But when we get to verses 4 and 5, it begins to showcase the effect of his influence on the family. So now we're seeing character moving from the inside and working its way out.
And so we're going to read this section again here. 1 Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 7. It is a trustworthy statement. If any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.
An overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity. But if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God? And not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.
And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. And so verse 2, an aspiring elder is to demonstrate faithfulness to his wife. In the Greek, that's literally the phrase a one woman man.
He must have eyes, heart, mind, body for one woman, his wife. Faithfulness in marriage should also translate to faithfulness in parenting. It begins with your marriage, but it bleeds over and spills over into your parenting, which is where he goes in verses 4 and 5. And we noted in the previous sermon last week that the Bible does not require pastors and elders to be married or even to have children.
It doesn't mean that a man who is single or commits himself to being single and being chaste is not qualified for ministry. There are many pastors out there in the world and have been who are unmarried or don't have children. But rather, this is more about the assumption that if they are married, if they do have children, they must be faithful in all of those kinds of ways.
The passage assumes that most men entering into ministry are likely to be husbands and fathers, and therefore these qualifications are given in the way that they ought to be faithful in those roles. And so assuming that a pastor or elder or shepherd is a father of children, we read again in verse 4, he must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity. Building on the grammar from verse 2, we read that he must be certain things.
We know that as an aspiring elder, he must be one who manages his own household well. This reference to his household in the Greek is the word oikos. It could technically refer to all in his home or all in his estate.
In some cases, in the early church and in the early ancient days, a household might include a staff, household staff or servants or even extended family members that lived with him in this estate. But the context of this specific verse points to the fact that his own household is referring to his immediate family. His immediate family, his wife, and thereby his children with a specific focus on his children.
And what is his responsibility? That his household, that his children, that it must be well managed. Well managed. The Greek word is proistomai, which refers to a presiding or a governing or a rule, a rule over his household.
But it also refers to maintenance and direction, the way that a man directs his house. Some ancient writers use this word to speak about supervision and even protection. See, in a very real way, the husband and the father is the head of the home.
That's not a very popular sentiment today, but it's biblically true that husbands, fathers are called to be the leader, the head of their household. Again, it's not a cultural designation. This is a biblical one.
Fathers ultimately are accountable to God for their families. Men, we have to give an account to God with how we lead. Because again, if our wives are to submit to our leadership, and if our children are to be submissive to our leadership, then we have to be the one to make that call and lead them toward the Lord.
It's a serious responsibility. We see this expressed in Deuteronomy 6, the passage you looked at earlier. As well as Joshua 24, 15, along with numerous other Proverbs, that we must be those who lead our families in the Lord.
Joshua proclaimed, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. It was a designation, a specific charge that he placed on himself and on his family. Both key New Testament passages on fatherhood, which we're going to be addressing, which is Ephesians 6, 4, Colossians 3, 21, they place the responsibility of training and stewarding the children on the father.
Even just consider for a second, let me read to you Proverbs 4, 1-5, Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father, and give attention that you may gain understanding. For I give you sound teaching. Do not abandon my instruction.
This is a father speaking to his son. When I was a son to my father, tender and the only son in the sight of my mother, then he taught me and said to me, let your heart hold fast to my words. Keep my commandments and live.
Acquire wisdom. Acquire understanding. Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
Solomon's emphatic plea to his son to listen, to follow my example, to follow my words, warnings, cautions, training from fathers to their children. Fathers are charged with governing and supervising, maintaining and managing their households. Now, there's a lot of ways to do that because you see a verse like this and in 1 Timothy 3, and you say, well, there's lots of ways to manage a household.
We know that this word manage, when he says manage them well, this word well, kalos in the Greek, it's a right way, a fine way, a good way. Some have rendered this, they must do this excellently. Their house must not be in disarray.
It must not be in incompetence. It must not be overbearing. He is to father like the heavenly Father.
That's the model. And so when you consider, and again, I've been working through this with you all, reminding you that these qualifications are certainly Christian qualifications, but they are required of leaders. And so when you examine the leadership of this church currently, when we're looking forward to future elders, future pastors and so on, this is a measuring stick to examine such men and ask the question regarding an aspiring elder or pastor considering his home.
Is he loved by his family? Is he respected by his family? Is he obeyed? These are hard questions to ask, but they must be asked. Interestingly, deacons are also called to the same task. In chapter three, verse 12, it says that deacons must be good managers of their children and their own households.
And so even when it comes to servant leadership, this requirement is also there. But this leads us again to the question, well, how is this to be done? How does a man effectively parent his children? And there are lots of philosophies today. I'm sure that you're inundated with parenting philosophies.
And I know that when you first become a parent, you try to read every possible book you can find and you don't know which ones to follow, which ones not to follow. You try certain things, you make mistakes, you try other things. I mean, it's difficult.
Being a parent is very difficult. However, there are principles in scripture which we're gonna look at. But I wanna just examine just a couple of philosophies that are prevalent today or even just ideologies that we embrace.
And I wanna give examples of poor parenting styles. One popular philosophy today is known by the title of gentle parenting. Gentle parenting.
Now, of course, who could argue with the name, right? Gentle parenting sounds great. Certainly, we are to applaud gentleness. We don't want a parent that's not gentle, of course.
It's a fruit of the spirit. However, there was a book that came out a few, I guess, maybe last year or so, Justin Miller, who's a pastor. He assesses this movement, gentle parenting.
And he has a book called The Not So Loving Side of Gentle Parenting. And he notes that it is a child-led parenting ideology that does not punish, but rather it coaches. It aims to produce happy, confident, and self-fulfilled children, end quote.
One article that he cites in his book says that gentle parenting is a means of parenting without shame, blame, or punishment. Rather, it is centered on partnership as both parents and children have a say in this collaborative style. All told, Miller notes, gentle parenting is composed of four main elements, empathy, respect, understanding, and boundaries.
What does a child-directed home produce? What does gentle parenting produce? Ultimately, and we're seeing this now, even in culture, we're seeing the effects of gentle parenting over the last 10 years. And we're even seeing reactionary movements being made by culture, which I won't discuss. But we've seen the fruit of so-called gentle parenting.
It results in tantrums. Meltdowns, disobedience, selfishness, disrespect, all of the parents. The fundamental flaw here is that children do not ultimately know what's best for them.
After all, Proverbs 22, 15 says, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. They don't have a sense of what they need. They only have a sense of what they demand and what they want.
Their hearts are foolish and flawed and sinful. What is the solution? The verse, Proverbs 22, 15, continues that foolishness is bound up in the heart of the child. What's the resolution? The verse continues, the rod of discipline will remove it far from him.
The rod of discipline, also known as the rod of correction, correction. Of course, Scripture never advocates for violence or for abuse, but it does exhort parents to use loving discipline and correction. And there are many ways to do that.
Again, Scripture does not emphasize things like empathy or understanding or boundaries, at least not in the way of the secular psychologists, but rather what does Scripture teach? What are the principles of parenting in Scripture? We see things like love, honor, training, discipline, and obedience. And so we should steer clear of secular methodology of so-called gentle parenting. But we should also avoid another kind of parenting that's sort of the other side of that, and I would just call that domineering parenting.
This is really the polar opposite of gentle parenting, and it oppresses and manipulates children into acting obedient, and yet it doesn't actually reform the heart at all. In fact, the Bible warns against this kind of parenting in Ephesians 6, 4, speaking to fathers. Paul writes, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger.
Well, how do you do that? Well, it happens when you abuse them, when you gaslight them, when you manipulate them, when you play favoritism between kids, negativity, unrealistic expectations, perfectionism. We could even add to that Colossians 3.21, fathers, do not exasperate your children. Why? Paul gives the answer.
If you do, if you frustrate them and exasperate them, they will lose heart. They will lose heart. Children who are provoked, exasperated, manipulated, abused, they do not grow in love, joy, and godliness.
Rather, they become empty shells of themselves. They've lost heart. And we see that a lot today of just children who are just sunken down and have no joy.
They fall into depression. They fall into all kinds of bitterness and all kinds of problems. And so we're not to be domineering in our parenting.
But a third bad example of parenting is actually no parenting at all. That one's very popular, as you can imagine. It's when you go hands-off and just let them do their own thing.
Sure, you provide for their basic needs, but you don't teach them. You don't direct them. You don't train them.
You don't correct them. You don't guide them. This is oftentimes the product of either a parent's laziness or just plain cowardice where they don't want to stand up to their kids.
And people will say high-minded things like, I don't want to indoctrinate them. I don't want to manipulate them into doing what I want them to do. I want them to find their own way.
But this is actually abandoning your children to the world. That's what that is. And when we do that, when we just take our hands completely off of our children's training and discipline, we wonder why they become sexually immoral, financially irresponsible, entitled and loveless adults.
It's because that's what the world is. And you can't hand them over to the world and expect them to act like Christians. And they certainly won't become Christians by just being abandoned to the world.
And we wonder why there are so many children who just get up and leave the church after 18 years here and walk away from the faith, from God's people, from everything. It's not because the church wounded them so badly. I promise you that.
It's because the parents failed to bring them up in the discipline and correction of the Lord. But what does God expect from Christian parents, but specifically Christian fathers? What must the leaders of the church do with regard to children? Again, verse four. Again, this man must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity.
And so in managing his own household well, he is to be keeping his children under control. Under control. The word children here is technon, technon.
Now, the reason I'm bringing up the word usage of the translation of children is because technon can refer in some context to the physical descendants, regardless of their age. It's your progeny. So for example, you could be an adult parent with an adult child and they're your child, but they're not children, if you know what I'm saying.
And so it's clear here that Paul is not referring to adult children. He's referring to younger children who are still in the home. Context tells us that.
Children here are to be kept under control. The Greek word is hypotage, which is referring to in subjection or in submission, in obedience to. Because after all, this is one of the 10 commandments, isn't it? For children to honor your father and your mother.
But more directly, Ephesians 6, 1 commands, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. So children, God has something to say to you. God commands that you obey your parents.
And you might be thinking, well, I don't want to. Too bad. Too bad.
The Lord desires, He commands that you obey your parents in all godliness. Colossians 3, 20, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. In other words, and I don't want to oversimplify this, do you want to make the Lord happy? Obey your parents.
Obey your parents. First time obedience, full obedience, and with a happy heart, as we say in our house. And fathers, it is your responsibility to see that they are kept in obedience, to be kept under control, in submission.
Now, is this just vanity and arrogance and control? I'm the dad, I say so. Is that the kind of thing? I made a comment like that earlier, which is obviously joking around a little bit. But is that what this is? That fathers are just a rule with an iron fist and you're to obey because I say so? Is that it? In his excellent book, Shepherding a Child's Heart, which I would commend to all of you, Ted Tripp writes this, talking to parents.
You exercise authority as God's agent. You may not direct your children for your own agenda and convenience. You must direct your children on behalf of their good.
He adds, the purpose of your authority in the lives of your children is not to hold them under your power, but to empower them to become self-controlled people living freely under the authority of God. Families, households are training grounds to bring children up into adulthood, to deliver them into the hands of the Lord, to obey Him. Parents, it isn't all about us at all, frankly.
It's about Him. And parents, our desire is to bring our children to a place where they're going to be directed toward the Lord. Until they get to that point, they must be kept under control, Paul adds, with all dignity.
This word dignity, semnotes in the Greek, refers to reverence, seriousness, respectfulness. They ought to respect their parents and yet be respected as image bearers of God. Children are not our personal property.
They don't belong to us. They belong to the Lord. But there's actually more to this than simply obedience and respect.
Keep your finger in 1 Timothy. Just hop over to Titus, just two books farther ahead. Titus chapter one, verse six.
Titus one, verses six through nine, includes a similar list of elder qualifications. The two lists are very close, but they're slightly modified at different points. They actually correspond pretty nicely.
Whereas 1 Timothy 3, 4 focuses on obedience and respect, Titus 1, 6 says that elders or pastors must have children who believe not accused of dissipation or rebellion. Now, this is interesting because some scholars have debated about what this means. Does this mean that an elder's children must be those who believe? Does this mean that a man's children must all be Christians? Well, certainly we understand that salvation is from the Lord and an elder or pastor cannot force their children to believe.
Now, I know I made a comment earlier about parenting and having children who leave the church, leave the home, and walk away as Christians. There is something to be said for the fact that sometimes children will leave the home, having been brought up in the faith, and make a decision for themselves to run away from the Lord. It does happen.
Sadly, it happens all the time where a parent is faithful to bring their children up in the Lord and at a certain point, because the child's heart has not been turned to Christ, they rebel, they reject. And so there is not a one-to-one correlation where if my kids aren't believers, I fail as a parent. That's not to be understood this way because again, we know that this happens.
Examples in Scripture over and over again, even modern examples. There are pastors in the world who do well with their children and some of the children do not believe as adults. There's a principle there.
And if the shoe fits, wear it. I'll say it that way. If the shoe fits, wear it.
If you do nothing to bring your children up in the Lord and they leave the home and are not believers, that's on you. But if you work hard to bring them up in the Lord and they turn away from your discipline and correction and training, that's something they're making a decision to do against the Lord. They're in rebellion now.
And so you have to see it rightly. Not all things are the same. Not all things are equal.
But going back to this verse here, what does it mean to have children who believe? Again, we can't force our children to become Christians. That's a work of God. God has to work inside the heart of a person.
You can't force them to make a profession of faith. And just autobiographically, there's a reason we haven't tried to push our kids into the sinner's prayer. Because I don't want to bring them to a place of decision where they're tricking themselves into thinking they're Christians when they're not actually changed from the inside out.
And so we haven't pushed our kids into saying they're believers, but we're trying to lead them into saving faith, trusting in the work of God in their hearts. And so this qualification seems to have more to do with whether or not your children are being raised as believers. Do you bring them into the normal routines of the Christian life? And once again, fathers, you can't tell your kids, read your Bible if you are not reading your Bible.
If they don't see you in the Word in the morning or whenever you read your Bible, don't expect them to follow your bad example because they will. They will not read their Bible if you never pray with them or for them. They will not be those who pray.
If you don't reconcile things biblically in a godly way, if you don't confess your sins, they won't either. And so there is a responsibility to bring your children up in the faith. Is the man teaching the faith to his children and guiding them in the way of godliness? Of course, if a pastor's child grows up learning the faith and rejects it again, the father cannot be held ultimately responsible for their unbelief.
But as a general principle, Christians who raise their children in the faith ought to expect some level of fruitfulness when their children mature into adulthood. This is a principle that's taught and trained over and over again in Scripture, and it's a principle we've seen lived out in history. However, if children are being raised to believe, if they are being raised in the faith, they ought not to be accused of, he says, dissipation or rebellion.
Dissipation is debauchery, wild living, grotesque immorality. Rebellion is disobedience or lawlessness. A pastor's children should not be the worst behaved or the debauched kids in the church.
That should not be the case. But I would also add this, they should not be expected to be perfect. And I've seen that all too often.
I've known pastor's kids who buckle under the pressure to be perfect and to make their dad look good and ultimately they grow to resent the church and they resent the ministry. Pastor's kids are P.K.'s as they're called sometimes. They ought not to be in a class all by themselves with their own standards.
It's not fair. It's not right. And yet, if the man is faithful, his children should be bearing the fruit of being raised as believers.
They ought to be obedient, respectful, and not enslaved to rebellion. Again, this points to faithfulness at home. It's not a steadfast promise that this will occur every time, but it is a principle.
It is a principle of Scripture. When it comes to Christian faithfulness and fruitfulness, you cannot export what you don't have homegrown in your house. You cannot maintain a disordered household and then try to clean it up for Sunday morning.
It never works. It doesn't mean anything. Because again, nobody's fooled by that.
Nobody's fooled. The church isn't fooled. The family's not fooled.
And God is not fooled. How you are at home is how you should be here. How you are here is how you should be at home.
Very simple. A pastor or elder must be one who manages his own household well. To what end? Go back to 1 Timothy 3. To what end? What's the goal here? Family management is not about image.
It's not about image. Always it is about faithfulness. Your family management is a training ground.
It's a training ground, men. For what? For the church. Look again at verse 5. Paul says, if a man does not know how to manage his own household, look at the correlation here.
How will he take care of the church of God? This is an argument from the lesser to the greater. A man's household is the testing ground to see if he knows and understands how to care for other people. If a man does not know how to manage his own household, if he doesn't know how to love his wife, if he doesn't know how to lead his children, then how is he going to take care of God's children? How is he going to love Christ's bride? The Greek word translated take care here is the same word that's used in Luke chapter 10 to refer to how the Good Samaritan cared for the stranger.
It's interesting. It implies compassion, tenderness, caregiving. And that's what God desires for his church.
To take the metaphor to an illogical conclusion, every pastor should be like the Good Samaritan caring for the wounded sheep. To love and to be tender and compassionate and caregiving. This title Church of God is repeated all throughout the New Testament, but it also goes by another title in chapter 3 verse 15.
The church is also called the household of God. This is God's household. You are his children.
I'm part of this. We are his children. He is the parent.
Remember, God is a father. We are the children. He is the husband.
The church is the bride. He is a shepherd. We are the sheep.
And so a man who desires to be a shepherd of God's flock must also act as he does. He must care for Christ's sheep. He must disciple God's children.
He must love Christ's bride. But going back to the image of fathers here, that's how the apostle Paul saw his own role in the church. He notes in 1 Thessalonians 2 verses 11 and 12, he says, just as you know, we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you, then he says this, as a father would his own children.
So that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his kingdom and glory. A man who abuses, neglects, or manipulates his own children would do the same thing if he becomes a pastor. And you don't want that kind of man taking care of the flock.
And all too many believers have sat in ministries or been part of ministries who have pastors who do that. They're abusive fathers to the church. That's how so many people get wounded.
And some of you even have come to this church from other churches that have been hurt like that. In many ways, I've seen so many instances where this church becomes a sanctuary to escape abusive ministries. It's happened more times than I can count.
But as with the apostle Paul, he is to exhort, and encourage, and instruct, and implore, and love, and pray for the church as he would his own children. Every church needs to be equipped, and trained, and taught. Every church needs to be loved, and nourished, and cared for.
And every church needs to be disciplined, guided, and corrected the way that a father would his own children. Again, not at the whim of the pastors and elders, but according to the will of God. Leadership in the church, we are merely stewards.
We don't own anything. You're not mine, even though I feel like you are in my heart. I love you all like my own children.
I worry about you like my own children. But ultimately, you're not mine. You're not the elders.
You belong to the Savior, to the owner, to the master. You belong to God. You're His children.
And He loves you, and cares for you. And He ministers to you through His Word. And He knows how He wants this household to operate.
And so it's up to the stewards of that household to be faithful to that call. Of course, when we consider all of these things, we understand that this is all a temporary reality. This is not forever.
We are, in fact, His spiritual household here on earth. I've said this many, many times because I've heard it from other people. I mean, the body of believers here, when we gather together, in many ways, this is as close to heaven as we will get on earth.
A place where all the saints that we know together are gathered under the banner of Christ to worship Him, to learn from Him, to sing praises to Him. This is just a small microcosm of what heaven will be. But there's coming a day when we will be brought into His heavenly household.
Our bodies will be free from the sin and the trappings of this life, of the body. We'll be free from the trappings of all of the world. We're going to come into His heavenly household and dwell in unity, in love, in adoration, in worship of the triune God.
It's going to be a wonderful day. We will not need undershepherds in heaven. My job will be done in heaven.
We won't need it. Why? Because at that point, we're going to be cared for by the chief shepherd. We're going to be cared for by the heavenly Father who will minister to all of our needs.
But until He comes, until He brings us to Himself, until we meet Him in glory, we are to love one another as members of His household, of the household of faith. And you might be asking the question, well, how does one become a member of the household of faith? It's very simple. We come to Christ by faith in the finished work that He's accomplished on the cross.
We come to Him through the message of the Gospel. That Jesus Christ Himself came as the Good Shepherd and He laid down His life for us. He died in the place of sinners.
He shed His blood to pay for our sins, because all of us have sinned and fall short of His glory. And yet, He's given His life for us, for His bride, for His people. And on the cross, He paid our debts, was buried in the ground, and then rose again the third day to bring us new life.
And so we, by repentance and faith, we look to Him. We cast off our old life, our old self. We repent.
We relinquish any desire for that life. We hate our sin. And in so doing, we take that step, but as an act of faith.
We trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. And it's by our faith in Him that we are born again. We're regenerated from the inside out.
The heart begins to change. And now we have a heart, and a mind, and a soul, and a life that desires to obey Him. That's when we become adopted as children.
Our God is a wonderful Father, and He knows how to care for His kids. Some of you have come into this world and lived through a situation where your parents, maybe your fathers, were not good to you. They weren't kind to you.
They did not raise you well. And some of you have come into here with wounds from a father. But know this, that the Heavenly Father is perfect.
And He loves us in ways that no one else ever could. Turned to Him through Jesus Christ by the Spirit. And not only will He save you and redeem you, He will nourish you.
He will cherish you. He will train you up as a believer. He will discipline you.
He will love you. He will care for you. And He will set your feet on a foundation.
And you'll walk in His ways. And one day you will see Him face to face. And you'll say, welcome home my child.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful to You. Lord, as earthly parents of children here, and not everybody here is a parent, but quite a few of us are.
Oh Lord, You charge us with the sacred responsibility of raising our children in the faith. Of stewarding and shepherding them toward You. And Lord, we need a lot of help because we are sinners trying to lead other sinners.
We fall short. We sin against our kids. We sin against our parents.
We make mistakes. We don't use discernment and wise judgment. And Lord, I know that there's even families, parents here who have worked hard to raise their kids in the faith only to see their kids walk away.
Lord, would You bind up their bruised hearts. And Lord, would You be merciful and redeem their children unto Yourself. And Lord, for the parents who were negligent and did not lead their children in the faith.
Lord, would You be merciful and restore these children back to Yourself. And restore and be merciful to these parents that they would see the fruitfulness of Your faithfulness in their life. Lord, would You do a work here in this church restoring and rebuilding, reconciling, making fruitful the efforts here, Lord.
But Father, for leaders, for shepherds, for pastors, would You help us, O Lord, as we endeavor to be faithful to the charge, to manage our own household well. And Lord, if there are men here who are not on that path, would You help them? Would You place their feet back on that path and put a conviction, a constitution in their heart to love their children and raise them well, directing them to You. Lord, do a work here through these verses, through this message, Lord, through this conviction by the Holy Spirit.
Would You help us to be blessed to produce children who love You and adore You. Lord, that our children would be the face of this generation upcoming. And they would stand and declare that You are faithful.
You are a God worthy to be praised. O Lord, let us experience no greater joy and see our children walking in the truth. We love You, O Lord, and we thank You.
In Jesus' name, Amen.