Fatherhood: A Fortress For The Family, Part 7

I want to welcome you again to another Wednesday evening where we spend time in God's Word together looking at fatherhood, the fortress for your family, and what does that mean for each and every one of us And maybe during our study you've had some questions you want to ask, or maybe even our Sunday morning study on abolishing anxiety, we've been doing this for A couple of months now, and if you have some questions that you want to ask, we want you to ask them And Pastor Patrick and myself are going to answer those questions next week

So if you can just let us know, you can DM us and let us know what that question might be Maybe it's a question about fatherhood, your family, maybe it's a question about anxiety, maybe it's a question about this pandemic In our world If you have questions you want to ask, or maybe there's something that you've read in your own study that you have a question about Just feel free to ask us Let us know, and next week we'll answer those questions for you We want to be available to you to be able to share with you what the scriptures say concerning questions that you might have

But tonight, as we continue our study on fatherhood, the fortress for your family, we want to look at what that actually means for us So important You know, we've been looking at what it means to focus on life's priority, abstain from all iniquity, and then to move on and understand what it means to Treasure your legacy and honor your family and embrace God's sovereignty All that's part of the fortress aspect, building a strong shield about your family to be that protector, that provider For your family So important We are the bulwark We are the rampart

We are, as fathers, the strength for our family And I'm hoping that as we go through this time together, you are becoming stronger and stronger in your walk with the Lord And so tonight, as we look at our next principle, that simply is this, to renew your spirituality Renew your spirituality You need to be growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord

And I would trust that over the last couple of months that we have been home. I mean, our last Sunday service was March 15th, and now it's April 19th. and we're looking at just the different aspects of what has taken place over the last couple of months But if you look back over the last two months, ask yourself this question Am I growing spiritually? Am I closer to the Lord now than I was two months ago? Two weeks ago? Am I progressing in my walk with the Lord? You know, think about that It's so easy for us to become slack To become sluggards during this downtime, for lack of a better phrase

We're in this lockdown, we're in this, for lack of a better phrase, house arrest We're in this situation where they want you to do this and do that And we can become very, very sluggish, very, very fl spiritually If we're not careful, just by way of example, you can look at your own family

Remember when we first started doing our Sunday morning services? And so you were able to get up and listen and watch, and so you got up early and you got ready, and you sat down and you you heard the sermon and and then the next week you did the same thing, and then the next week, the next week, and then all of a sudden, you know, l let's we don't have to get uh get up and see it at nine o'clock Let's let's watch it at ten or or twelve or or one Let's sleep in We won't get you up as early And so you begin to sleep in later and later each day

And so, next thing you know, on Sundays, you're sleeping in t 11 o'clock or noon You 're watching it maybe in the afternoon, maybe that night, or maybe even on Monday, because you don't get to it on Sunday You know, the rigors of discipline is very, very important And part of that discipline is still getting up on a Sunday like you would get up every Sunday To worship the Lord You get up and you get ready and you hear the word of the Lord because you want to grow

Or maybe on Wednesday nights you. used to tune in with us and listen every wednesday night at at seven o'clock and then then you then it got passed off to thursday and then it got passed off to maybe frid and then you got a got a week behind then you got two weeks behind All of that is a part of the discipline that we are to be a part of If we're going to renew our spirituality, if we're going to keep growing day in and day out, your family needs to be able to drink from a fountain that's fresh

They need to be able to feed off of you, their father, because you are providing for them day in and day out fresh food, not stale food Not stagnant water The question comes for you: Are you growing spiritually? You know, so many times I think about this because I've wrestled with this in my own mind that when you provide The online service When you are able to view on Sundays and view on Wednesdays, you make people's worship very convenient and very comfortable And whenever worship becomes convenient and comfortable, there will always be compromise that will lead to corruption

You need to remember that Because in today's evangelical church, we are looking for all the different ways that we can make worship convenient for you As easy as possible And then not only make it convenient, make it comfortable for you We want you to feel at home Those are the two components that lead to compromise And compromise always leads to corruption You see, your worship must cost you something If it doesn't cost you anything, it probably isn't worth much at all Think about it this way

We're to present our bodies a living sacrifice holy, acceptable unto God, which is your logical form of worship And a living sacrifice costs But that's the only logical form of worship that's acceptable to God And so, as we seek to bring the word of the Lord to you, it's not to be a substitute for worship We're looking Soon, to get back and to get back here at the church and be involved in our regular services and be involved in the regular ministries that we have, so you can be back into the throw of things

But it still is no substitute for your own personal time of renewing your spirituality, growing each and every day You can't depend upon the Church once a week or twice a week You've got to be in the Word all the time Your spirituality must be expanding with each and every day And so that's what I'm going to talk to you about this evening because we need to renew. our spirituality We don't want you to become spiritually flabby, spiritually sluggish We don't want you to become lax in your approach to your walk with the Lord That's never good And as the Father, you provide the example

As the Father, you lead the way As the Father goes So go the children So you need to remember that in your own spiritual discipline That you might maintain the life that's continually growing day in and day out So, I want to give you some principles this evening that help you in renewing your spirituality Seven of them, okay? And they're all centered around discipline Remember First Timothy 4:7 and 8? We are to exercise ourselves, discipline ourselves, train ourselves To be godly, exercise yourself unto godliness For bodily exercise profiteth a little, it does profit

But it doesn't profit for eternity God, godlikeness profits not only in this age, but in the age to come And so we need to train ourselves, exercise ourselves, discipline ourselves And the word for train or exercise is from that Greek word gun, which we get g, which we get our English word gymnasium And even when you say the word God, there's this grunting behind it because whenever you go to the gym, there's a lot of grunting that goes on, right? And whenever you think of a gymnasium, it's a smelly, sweaty place

Well, training yourself to godliness is a spiritual smell, a spiritual sweat that you exercise yourself in to grow spiritually And so we are to train ourselves to be godly We are to discipline ourselves unto godliness because that train is a discipline It 's not easy Discipline is never easy, but it's that which helps you in terms of your own spiritual growth There must be this daily discipline That we engage in to grow spiritually, to renew our spirituality You wake up every day, you can't live off yesterday's spiritual food You take that and you build upon it day after day after day

It's that spiritual discipline unto godliness And so the first discipline is the discipline of silence The discipline of silence That is, listening and look to the Lord God of Israel The discipline of silence is so important because we like to talk We like noise But silence is so important When you go back and you read the book of Habakkuk, the second chapter, the 20th verse, you realize that the Lord has said, He has established His throne in the heavens Let all the earth be silent Before him, to be silent before him The prophet Isaiah said that in quietness

And in trust shall be your strength But yet you are unwilling to do that You are unwilling to sit in silence To learn to trust the Lord, you were unwilling to do that Therefore, you were not able to grow in your walk with Him. I wonder if in your life there is this Sabbath rest, this rest of your lip Will you stop talking and just listen? You ever deal with your children and they're always talking and you're trying to talk to them and then they're talking, you're trying to talk then over them and they just won't be quiet and how frustrating that is? Think about your relationship with the Lord

You're talking to the Lord, and the Lord's saying, Don't say anything, just listen But we want to talk Unwilling to be silent before him Remember Ecclesiastes 5? That when you go into the house of the Lord, right, watch your steps, and you are going to listen Go in with ears wide open Don't talk Just listen Because the Lord says, I have something to say And what I have to say is more important than anybody else, and what they have to say So there's this discipline of silence, learning to be quiet before the Lord Learning not to speak before the Lord

We are so quick to bring up something to the Lord We are so quick to pray to the Lord instead of listening to Him through His word in silence That's a discipline And the second discipline follows right on the footsteps of that, and that's the discipline of solitude The discipline of silence and the discipline of solitude If silence is the rest of our lips, or rest for our lips, then solitude is the rest for our lives If in listening and look in that rest of our lips, then the rest of our lives is about learning And lo

You have this discipline of solitude to learn. I love what it says over in Mark's Gospel In the sixth chapter After the death of John the Baptist, the disciples had not yet heard about John's death, but the Lord knew he had been beheaded And so it says in verse number 30, and the apostles gathered together with Jesus and they reported to him all that they had done and taught They were excited about talking to the Lord about all that had happened He said to them, Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while Rest awhile

For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat And they went away in the boat to a lonely place by themselves Have you ever noticed people that just can't be alone? They always have to be around other people They always have to have people over to their house, or they have to be at someone's house They just Always around people There's no discipline of solitude, no discipline of silence But those are so important In fact, the number one discipline of our Lord was solitude He was always escaping into the mountain to pray, always going off by himself

Why? He needed that time of renewal, that time of refreshment You see, what happens when you are alone? You can regroup, you can refocus, you can refuel your life But if you're never alone, you're never quiet You can't do that It's so important to understand the discipline of silence and the discipline of solitude To come apart for a while Listen, the alternative to discipline is dis Van Sadner said that Van Sad was an old country preacher who used to preach the word of the Lord He used to go and preach at a Bible conference in a place called Sandy Cove, Maryland

And he used to preach, and he was just an old frail guy Boy, he preached with the passion He used to say that the alternative to discipline is disaster If you're not disciplined, you're headed for disaster And that discipline begins in sil and in solitude In fact, isn't that what the Lord said in that very familiar psalm, very popular Psalm? Psalm 23, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want He makes me lie down in green pastures He leads me beside quiet waters, because there it's where he restores my soul It's there where he guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake

You see, God has to make me lie down in green pastures He needs to lead me to quiet waters because he knows that the discipline of silence and solitude Is so important The third discipline is the discipline of Scripture The discipline of scripture, in that time of silence, in that time of solitude, I am listening to the Lord speak. I am longing for the Lord to speak. I am looking for the Lord to speak Well, how does he do that? Through his wor It 's the word of God that is so relevant to my life He speaks to me through his word, and that's why I open up the word of God to hear him speak

Because his word is a living word It's almost as if he spoke it to me today It was spoken into existence centuries ago as prophets were led along by the Spirit of God And the Word of God, that inspired Word of God, was put into print But because it's a living word, it speaks to me today And so, in that discipline of silence and solitude, comes the discipline of Scripture, where I spend time read the Word of God

And in the reading of the Word of God, I am hearing God speak to me through his word. I find it very interesting that the book of Revel, excuse me, the book of Revelation is about listening, read, hearing, and keeping the Word of God Revelation 1:3 talks about blessed are those who hear the words of this book Blessed are those who keep the words of this book And then you go to Revel 2, same thing is said Blessed are those who keep the words of this prophecy You've heard what it's said, now obey it

In the book of Proverbs, excuse me, Revelation is bracketed by that familiar phrase: listen, hear, obey That was always Israel's problem They didn't listen That's why the great Shema: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one You've got to hear the word of the Lord And all throughout the Old Testament, in the Psalms and in the prophets, he said, But you did not listen You were not willing to listen to my voice And that's the bottom line

So as you are in this discipline of silence and solitude, you are opening the Word of God, reading the Word of God, hearing the Word of God, so that you might be able to Give back that truth You know, the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2:15, stud to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth We need to be students of the Word of God Remember, we gave you those principles the very first night we were together, alone with the Almighty, those 10 questions that you ask. A very simple way to begin your study

Ten simple questions that you ask, and as you ask those questions, you begin to study You read for breadth, but you study for depth And as you read, years ago we did this thing on reasons for reading the revelation of God and all the different results of what happens when you just read the Word of God How it caused you to re-examine your life, and how the Word of God repairs your life, and refuels your life, and replenishes your life, all from Psalm 119 It's just a great way to understand the importance of just reading God's Holy Word So when you're silent in your place of solitude

Reading the Word of God, listening to God speak to you through His Word, and you begin to study God's Word, you leave that place ready to teach God's Word Teach it You become that leader in your family That's why you teach your family In Matthew 5, verse number 19, it says, The greatest people in the kingdom of God Are those who hear the Word of God, keep the Word of God, and teach the Word of God? You have to be a man of the Word You got to be in the book You've got to study the scriptures So important Such an incredible discipline The discipline of silence, solitude, scripture

How about this? The discipline of self-denial Self-denial We are in the age of self-ful, and yet Christ is all about self-denial If you're in one of those churches that's about your fulfillment, about you being comfortable, you being satisfied You're in the wrong church You got to run Get out of there Because Christianity is about self-denial If any man come to me, let him take up his cross, deny him, and follow me Right? It's all about self-denial, learning to sacrifice your aspirations and dreams to do what God has said

In Luke 14, in that beautiful parable that our Lord gives, great multitudes were going along following Jesus He could have said, Man, you, I'm so glad you guys are with me Come on, let's go to Jerusalem He didn't say that It's almost as if he said, You, I'm glad you're here But let me understand, let me help you understand that if you're going to follow me, this is what I require He said, if anyone comes to me and does not hate His own father and mother, wife and children, brother and sister, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple He can't be a learner of me

He can't be a follower of mine He just can't Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple He says in verse 33, So therefore, no one of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his own Possessions It's a life of self-denial And when you are in this discipline of silence and solitude, that's discipline of Scripture You begin to realize what the Lord requires of you It's the discipline of self-denial And with that discipline comes the next discipline, number five, the discipline of surrender Surrender

Willing to not just give your life away, but you're willing to lay aside those things that could be a hindrance in your life Surrender those things up. I like Hebrews 12 when it talks about laying aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets you The sin is the sin of unbelief in Hebrews chapter 12 But it's also the fact that as you lay aside these things and deny yourself, you are surrendering, surrendering those things that could be a hindrance to you It might be a hobby, a hobby that in and of itself is not sinful, but it's keeping you from your family

It's keeping you from spending time with your family, qual time with your wife It 's keeping you from doing those things that you need to do with the Lord It 's keeping you from your service in the church It's a hobby It's all moral It's neither good nor bad, but it becomes a weight. A hindrance to you It weighs you down We talked about the word gunmos, where in 1 Timothy:7's gynad, right? Gymnasium The Greeks used to exercise naked because they didn't want anything to hinder them They didn't want anything to weigh him down

They wanted to be unencumbered. I wonder what is weighing you down today Maybe it's a hobby, maybe it's a relationship. A relationship that's neither bad nor good, it's just a relationship But it's keeping you from being all that God wants you to be Are you willing to lay that aside, surrender that up, give it up, surrender the hobby, surrender those things that are keeping you from being all that God wants you to be? It's a discipline It's a discipline, the discipline of mortific You know, if your right eye offends you, pluck it out, right? If your right hand offends you, cut it off

It doesn't mean you go around plucking out your eye and cutting off your hands It's not about that It's just that if there's shouldn't be anything more valuable to you than your walk with Christ Are you willing to get rid of those things that keep you from walking unhindered with the Lord? The discipline of silence, solitude, scripture, self-denial, surrender are crucial disciplines that train us. to be God And then there comes the discipline of supplic Discipline of prayer We had the great privilege of prayer

Hebrews 4 16, where we're able to go boldly before the throne of grace, right? And John 14, 13 tells us why God answers prayer And the reason is simply because He wants the Father to be glorified That's it You pray because you want God to be glorified You don't pray to get answers that you want You pray for an answer that glorifies the Lord It's that great privilege of prayer, that great purpose of prayer, the great promise of prayer. 1 John 5:14, we had this promise that if we go to him and pray, he hears He hears

And if he hears, we know that he will answer all that we ask of him because he wants the Father to be glorified And yet there are so many hindrances to our prayer life You know, these disciplines require you to spend time alone and be quiet in the word of the Lord, in prayer to the Lord You got to do it when nobody else is around Got to get up early Listen, I had eight kids, right? When they were all young, if I didn't get up before they did, my time with the Lord was shot You need to learn to get up early And people always say to me, you, I'm not a morning purpose, a morning person

Ask the Lord to change you Why can't you do that? You ask the Lord for everything else Ask the Lord to make you a morning person And you know what? He will The discipline of the early morning, getting up, starting your day off right in the Word of the Lord, on your knees, listening to Him speak in the quietness of your home. A place that you can go to and spend time with the Lord, learning what it is you need to deny yourself, what you need to surrender up to the Lord So important So you have the discipline of silence, solitude, scripture, self-denial, surrender, supplic

You have the discipline of self-examination Self -examination Let a man examine himself. 2 Corinthians 13:5 Test himself Prove him To see whether or not Jesus is in him Psalm 139, Examine me, O Lord See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way of righteousness. P 16, Psal 26 says, Lord, vindicate me according to my integrity Examine me, test my mind, test my heart We need to cry out for self-examination The only way that happens is when we're in the W, because that's a standard Your pastor is not your standard, your coach is not your standard, your teacher is not your standard

God, your standard, right? So you examine your life in light of who He is and what He requires That becomes a discipline Lord, what is there in my life about me that needs to change? And then comes the discipline of service That's number seven The discipline of service. I like in in 1 Thessalon 4, verse number 9, where they those in Thessalonica had turned to God from idols In order to serve the true and living God, the discipline of service We are saved to serve

And in that service comes the discipline, the discipline of heart, soul, and mind, that I may be all that God wants me to be. I want you to renew your spirituality You want to be strong for your family You want to be a fortress for your family You have to be growing day in and day out So that you are building spiritual muscles So you're getting stronger and stronger and stronger in your walk with the Lord And as you do, you become more and more a bulwark for your family And you provide for them the example that they need to follow The example of strength Listen

Spend time in the word of the Lord Spend time on your knees, in silence, in solitude, asking him to change you, asking him to renew you, asking him to make you the man he wants you to be He'll do that But it takes time It is a discipline Will you discipline yourself into godliness? Will you take time to train yourself, exam yourself? I would trust that you would Because I want you to be for your children, for your wife, all that God wants you to be

When the doors open up, you're able to go back to work. I want you to walk through the doors and people see that you've been working out spiritually That they see a new attitude They see a new you Not because of anything else, other than the fact that change has happened on the inside Because you see, change on the inside is lasting change And that's what you want Let me pray with you Father, thank you for this time that we could spend in your word What a joy it is to know that you want us to train ourselves unto godd And I pray for the fathers of our families

They would spend time alone with you, listening to your word as you speak to them through your word. look to what it is they should surrender up to you, how they deny things in their own personal lives So they can go to you in prayer, and they can go, having been self-examined through your word, to serve you fully Lord, be with our men May they grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord In Jesus' name, amen Don't forget to submit those questions so that Patrick and I can answer them next week And don't forget to join us on Sunday as we look to abolish anxiety

This week is going to be so good You're not going to want to miss it Have a great week Thanks.