Fatherhood: A Fortress For The Family, Part 6

It's great to have you back with us this evening as we study God's Word together This has been a great study for me, just to be reminded of my responsibility at home. I think that as we understand the scriptures and our responsibility as fathers to be a fortress for our families, Wow, I can't think of a better topic to address with our men, because we live in a world where there's just not much strength

And so we as men of our homes want to be able to provide the kind of strength for our families that's necessary. I want to remind you back in 1 Corinthians 16, verse number 13, the Apostle Paul says that we are to act like men Act like men What a phrase Only used one time in the New Testament It's in 1 Corinthians 16:1 Act like men It's a phrase that means to be strong Filled with strength, courageous, confident It's a phrase that's used in the Old Testament When they would take the Old Testament Hebrew and translate it into Greek, it's called the Septuagint

It's used three particular times in the Old Testament First time it's in the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 31, when Moses is about to die He's 120 years of age, I'm sorry, and he's about to die And so he's addressing the nation and Joshua And this is what he says He says, be strong and courageous That's our phrase, act like a man Be strong, be courageous, do not be afraid, or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you He will not fail you or forsake you

Then Moses called to Joshua and said to him, In the sight of all Israel, be strong. and courageous for you shall go with this people into the land which the LORD hath sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them As an inheritance And the Lord is the one who goes ahead of you He will be with you He will not fail you or forsake you Do not fear or be dismayed Be strong, be courageous He tells the people, but they need a leader that's going to provide an example of strength and courage It's used again when David would address his son

When David's about to die, he would talk to Solomon, 1 Kings 2, and it says, as David's time to die drew near He charged Solomon his son, saying, I am going the way of all the earth Be strong, therefore, and show your a man Wow Show yourself a man How do you do that? By being strong How do you do that? Well, he tells you He says, Keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his comm, his ordinances, and his testimonies, according to what is written in the law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do. where you turn

Of course, the phrase is used again in Joshua 1, verses 7 and 9, where God tells Joshua, Be strong and only courageous That's the kind of fathers we need Fathers filled with strength, filled with courage That's the fortress your family needs And I would pray that that's the way you are for your family Not at this time, not just at this time during this pandemic But really, truly throughout your entire life, that you would show the strength needed

You know, one of the things that is happening with us now with this coronavirus and this pandemic that's kind of swept the world is that none of us really are in control of anything Showing yourself a man doesn't mean you're in control, but you need to have control over your emotions, over your responses, over your mental faculties, but you'll never be in control You are household manager, you are steward of God's possessions, and you are to responsibly carry out what it is you are designed to do But none of us are in control of anything

And this virus has shown us that not only are we not in control, nobody's in control. I mean, whether you watch the news one night or the next night or one week and next week It's never the same Everything's constantly changing Statistics for this and statistics for that and should you wear this or should you wear that? Or should you go here? Or should you go there? And nobody says the same thing because nobody has any idea What they're talking about That's the one thing I concluded after seven weeks: that nobody knows anything about whatever it is we're going through

That's why they keep coming up with new ideas and new ways to handle things That's because they're not in control They're not in charge But God is God's in complete control of this whole situation surrounding us And as fathers, we realize that in our lives, we're not in control of much either But we know that God's in control And we rest in that That this pandemic didn't catch God by surprise But even though it catches us by surprise, we know that the God who is in charge Either actively causes or consciously allows everything to happen That is his sovereignty

And we've talked to you about that in our study on Sunday morning: abolishing anxiety, and how it is we do that, and how it is we are able to trust the Lord, and how we are to rest in his sovereignty Remember that? That was point number one To abolish anxiety, you must learn to rest in the fact that God's in complete control of everything because you are not At the same time, you need to realize your dependency upon the God who's in control because you're not But you need to be dependent upon one who is greater than you, stronger than you That's the Lord God of Israel

As fathers, we paved the way for that Our wives need to see that we, even though out of control, are in complete trust in God And that's where our strength comes from That's where our courage comes from Your children need to be able to see the same thing And so as we go through our study on fatherhood, we're realizing that the fortress that a father portrays to his family is one that focuses on life's priority, which is to live for Christ and to die as gain That's Philippians 1:2

To abstain from all iniquity, Proverbs chapter 3, verse number 7, because by the fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil Next, we realize that you were to treasure your legacy Psalm 71 speaks about that Psalm 78, we had this legacy that we're leaving behind, a legacy of truth Need to treasure that legacy Number four was to honor your family, to help build them up, to help strengthen them We showed you last week how it is you honor your family As we come to the fifth principle this evening, it says, embrace God's sovereignty Embrace it

This is a fabulous principle because your wife, your children need to be taught and understand How to trust in the living God who is in charge of everything And I don want to rehash what we talked about on Sunday mornings You can go back and watch that video You can go back and listen to the audio And to see what we talked about when it comes to resting in God's sovereignty But Psalm 99, verse number 1: The Lord reigns, let the people tremble There's a declaration: God reigns There's a duty Let the people tremble

Because God's in charge, tremble under His supreme authority. 1 Timothy 6 speaks about the fact that the Lord God only has dominion He is the king of all kings He is the Lord of all lords And we know that 1 Chronicles 29, I love this because David, when he is collecting the offering for the building of the temple that his son's going to build This is what he says to the people as he blesses the Lord He says, Blessed art thou, O Lord, God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever Thine, O Lord, is the greatness And the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty

Indeed, everything that is in the heavens and on the earth Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and Thou dost exalt thyself head over all, both riches and honour Come from thee, and thou dost rule over all, and in thy hand is power and might, and it lies in thy hand to make great and to strengthen everyone In other words, God's in charge of everything He causes one to rise, another to fall He strengthens everyone He has dominion over everything For his is the victory, and the majesty, and the authority, and the power, and the greatness He's everything

Well, as we embrace that, we exude strength to our family They understand that this fortress of a father provides for them the stability they need, the refuge that they need To be able to hold on to, to take them through rough waters And so For a brief time this evening, I just want to talk to you about embracing God's sovereignty It is so important for us to grasp If, as Paul says, and it's true, Romans 11:3, that everything is from him and through him and to him, then we need to be able to embrace all that And sometimes it's not that easy But once we do, boy, let me tell you something

The strength and courage is there You truly act like a man It's high time, the men of the church, act like men Be strong, be courageous, be unafraid of everything around you And say, I'm standing with the God who's in control of everything Three principles I want you to see this evening Just three You know, the Bible says in Romans 8:2, For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose For we know, we don't hope, we don't think, we don't speculate, we know That all things, good and bad, work together for good

To those who love God and to those who are called according to His purpose So, if you love God and you've been called according to His purpose, you have this iron assurance that all things work together for good Now, think about it this way You know, I'm not a baker, but I know that when you bake a cake, there's a lot of different ingredients involved There's flour, there's sugar, there's eggs, there's oil, there's all kinds of good you put in there, and all the different ingredients that you use If you take them by themselves Sometimes they taste good, sometimes they don't

If you take flour by itself and taste it, it doesn't taste very good, very pasty Not that I've tasted it or not, but it's very pasty And then if you take sugar, that's very tasty That's very good If you take syrup by itself, that's sweet and delicious But but if you take certain ingredients like Crisco or oil and taste it by itself, not so good But you put all the ingredients for a cake together And you put it in the oven in a place where there's extreme heat When it comes out, it tastes absolutely marvel It tastes great

Because you've taken all the ingredients, you've put them all together, you've put them in the fire, and when it's been baked, it comes out It tastes fantastic It's sort of like your life and mine God takes the good ingredients and the bad ingredients He mixes them all together because God is baking a cake with your life and mind As He bakes that cake, He puts it He puts all those ingredients together, puts it in and through the fire, and when it comes out, it comes out marvelous Because the Bible says that we are his workmanship, right? Having been created in Christ Jesus unto good works

We are the literary masterpiece We are the vehicle that God is molding and shaping He's taking the good, he's taking the bad, he's putting them all together, and he puts it in the fire Because when it comes out, as Job said, I know that I'm going to be like gold That's what God's doing with your life and my life That's why we know that all things work together for good because God loves me and I've been called according to His great purpose That's why God's sovereignty truly creat confidence In me It creates supreme confidence

Because I know that whatever's happening, no, let's take the pandemic, for example Whatever's happening right now and whatever I've lost or whatever I've gained, all those things are ultimately going to work out together for my good God's glory and my good Because I love God and I've been called according to His purpose. I don't have to understand all the situation concerning this decision and that decision and whether I've lost my job or I'm going to lose my job or I'm going to keep my job or whatever the case may be. I know that God is in complete control God's in charge of this

God has either actively caused it or consciously allowed it because He's in charge of everything And that creates supreme confidence in me So I can be strong and not discouraged, but strong and courageous Because I have this confidence that God is in complete control And if you read on in Romans chapter 8, verse number 28, it says these words It says, but in all these things we are overwhelmingly conquerors through him who loved us

For I am convinced That neither death nor life, angels, principalities, things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, depth, any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord There's great confidence there Paul had that confidence We can have that confidence because we embrace all that God's doing, whether it be good or bad Because some way, somehow, God is going to take all the good and all the bad, put it all together, because in my life He is making me into His literary masterpiece

So that I can best proclaim and portray the name of my God So as I embrace God's sovereignty, it creates Great confidence in me Number two, it causes great comfort in me Great comfort We know We grasp it We know that all things work together for good. I have not only confidence in that, I have comfort in that Because I don't have to work out all things together for my good and God's glory God's doing that. I can rest in him, as we talked about on Sunday mornings, resting in his sovereignty, because it does truly cause comfort in me

Think about it this way. I go back to the scriptures because Romans 15 tells us that all these things are written for our instruction, that through the encouragement of perseverance of scripture, we might have h Through the comfort and encouragement of Scripture, we might have hope There's comfort in Scripture And so, when I go back and I look at the life of Joseph, for example Joseph was a young man who who didn't do anything wrong, but his brothers threw him in a pit He was sold into slavery, into Potiphar's house And great things happened there, but then Potiphar's wife lied about him

He was thrown in prison But what God did in Joseph's life Was astronomical He would take all the good and all the bad, put them all together And while he said to his brothers, what you meant for evil, God meant for good And Joseph becomes a perfect example of how we know that all things work together for good Now, in the time, Joseph, Joseph didn't know all that was going to happen, but he had to embrace The God who's in control of all things Think about it this way: Judas, his betrayal of the Christ Because of his betrayal, salvation has come to all men

Israel's apostasy Led to the salvation of the Gentiles and the birth of the church Think about it this way: Paul's imprisonment Led to the writing of the New Testament When you think of those things and realize that all the negativity that's there, as Vance Hadmer to say, you can't You can't always trace God's hand, but you can always trust God's heart

Because God's heart Is one that says, This is what I want for you, my child. I'm going to take the good, I'm going take the bad. I'm going to put them all together for all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose When I know that, It creates confidence in me It causes comfort in me The worst thing that ever happened in the world Was the greatest thing that ever happened to the world When our Lord was crucified on Calvary's cross, a sinless man put to death by sinful individuals

What we have is the most horrific event in the history of the world turned out to be the most glorious event in the history of man And that is, through his death, we now have life Because God had predetermined in eternity past all that he was going to do to redeem a bride for a son This was the plan, see? We don't always know the plan, but we know the purpose behind the plan And that is God's going to work all things together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. I love what it says over in The book of Acts

Book of Acts, the 17 chapter, when Paul is on Marsh Hill, he says, He made from one every nation. of man to live on all the face of the earth, having determined in other words, God who created all men has determined their appointed tim There are appointed times In other words, God who created everything determined the appointed time of every single man Think about this, just for a moment Do you know that everybody who has died, eighty plus thousand people, from the coronav? All died on time Nobody died by accident

It was their appointed time to die. I don't mean that in any kind of negative way whatsoever. I'm just saying that if God determines every man their appointed times, this was their appointed time to die Because God is in charge of that Knowing that, it says, and the boundaries of their habitation God knowing determines how long you live He determines where you live, the boundaries of your habitation The house you're living in is what God has designed for you at this time And so we rejoice in what God's doing We embrace God's sovereignty Because we know that God has his plan

He's working all things out after the counsel of his sovereign will, as Ephesians 1 tells us And so we're trusting that we're embracing that We're saying, God, we're not in control There are no accidents, there's only divine appointments God's in complete control of everything And I want to rest in that so much so that I embrace The God who's in charge of everything. I'm embracing God's sovereignty And what I do, it causes great comfort in me because it creates great conf in me Number three, it cultivates great courage in me It cultivates great courage in me

Knowing that God is sovereign gives me confidence, comfort, and courage. 1 Corinthians 16, 13, act like men Be str Be courageous Be confident Do not fear Well, if I embrace God's sovereignty, that He's in charge of everything, then what happens? I have confidence, comfort, I have supreme courage Because I can trust that what my God's doing is absolutely spot-on Think about it this way: Proverbs 20, verse number 24: a man steps Are directed by the Lord My steps, the steps I'm taking, are directed specifically by the Lord That gives me courage

That as I step out, I'm being directed by the sovereign rule of God in my life On top of that, Psalm 31 and verse number 15, my times are in th hands My time and everything that involves that time, that time of day, that time of the week, that time of the year, all of it is in God's hands Why? Because He rules over all He is majestic He has dominion over everything All that I have is His all that I have received comes from Him And I rest in that. I embrace that And all of a sudden, that confidence and that comfort Gives me the greatest courage to stand strong for the Lord God of Israel

So important So when you embrace that, listen Three things happen. I'm thankful, I'm trustful, and I'm thoughtful My life is full of thinks, my life is full of trust, and my life is full of thought only about God That's how I embrace that. I'm to give thanks in all things, for all things, right? I'm very thankful. I'm thankful that I'm not in charge You ought to be thankful you're not in charge Think about it How messed up this world would be if you and I were in charge God's in charge. I'm grateful for that

So I am filled with all kinds of thanks because of what God has done. I just give him thanks and praise So I'm thankful But I'm also trustful. I'm filled with trust Why? Trust in the Lord with all your heart Lean not on your own understanding All your ways acknowledge Him, He will make your paths smooth We ought to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts. I am to be extremely trusting in my God If I am thankful, if I am trustful, I can then be thought. A life filled with the thoughts only about God and His glory

And don't we want to be filled with thoughts about God? You start thinking about other things Listen, everything falls apart But you think about your God and all that He's done, letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, your thoughts are specifically heavenward That's what God wants for us Listen, if all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose, you've got to believe in Psalm 119:6 God is good and doeth good If that's true, and it is Psalm 8:1 No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly

It says in the earlier part of that verse, Psalm 8:11: The Lord God is a son and a shield He is a provider and a protector No good thing will the Lord withhold for those who walk uprightly If God is good and do us good, Then no good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly Therefore I am assured That all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose When I embrace that, Great confidence, great comfort, great courage That's my prayer for you That's my prayer for me, that God would do these kinds of works in our hearts

Your children are looking to you They are looking and gleaning from all of your actions, from all of your words Your wife, she's looking to you Be that pillar of strength Act like a man Be strong and courageous Take them through the rough waters Let them lean on you Because you are that bulwark You are that rampart You are that shield You are that defender and protector Of your family, because you, as a father, are the fortress Let me pray with you

Lord, thanks for today and a chance to just spend a brief moment in your word to reflect back on the things you want us to know. I pray, Lord, for our fathers Lord, give them the strength and the courage to stand confident in Christ May they be the leaders of their home in a magnificent way May their wives see in them that which they can hold on to Trusting you to accomplish great things through the husband, through the man, through the father you've given to that family We pray in Jesus' glorious name Am. I want to encourage you to come and be with us on Sunday morning

It 's going to be a great time as we understand How to abolish anxiety as we understand this week's principle and apply it to our lives And hopefully, you'll gather with your family and fathers, you'll gather your children around you And we'll spend time studying God's Word together What a great time How long this is going to last, none of us knows Hopefully, it will be done sooner rather than later, and we can get back together again and worship the Lord here in our church But until that time, I would trust you to continue to tune in on Sunday a. m Sunday p.m. not Sunday p

Wednesday p. m. and to be able to study God 's Word with us just for the brief moment that we're together Said, God's Word will replenish your own heart and life Have a great rest of the week.