Fatherhood: A Fortress For The Family, Part 9

I want to welcome you once again to not just my office, but the opportunity for us to spend time in God's Word together You know, I want to let you know that as we finish this series on fatherhood, not this week but next week, we'll finish it up Following that, we're going to have our staff and elders Take you through the summertime and do a summer of Psalms We had planned this way back in the fall And dec that this summer would be an opportunity for us to have those on staff and those who lead our church speak to you and to be able to give you, from their standpoint, what God's teaching them

But they're going to do it through the Psalms And so it'll be a summer of Psalms from two weeks from tonight with Tim all the way to the end of August with Bruce And so all of them are going have a chance to speak and share their heart with you They're going to do it by way of social media, like we're doing this evening But we want to be able to do that for you And we're doing that You know, we want to open the church We're kind of doing it slowly And we don't know what's going to happen the weeks ahead We're taking one thing at a time

So we're planning it this way for the benefit of everybody involved And we're excited about all that This Sunday was a great day If you're with us, wow, what a beautiful, beautiful day Now we understand more of what the psalmist said in Psalm 122, verse number 1. I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord What a great day Man, it was so So great And this day, this Sunday, will be even greater We're going to partake at the Lord's table And it's going to be so Great because we're going to remember the Lord's death

We're going to celebrate the life that we have because He died for us and the opportunity to live for His glory and for His honor And as a church, we're going to get together and celebrate that And I want you to come be with us It's going to be a great day We got a lot of room, especially in our second service And we had the overflow, but in our second service we had a lot of extra room And so if you were in the over in the first service, you can come and sit in the auditorium in the second service It's just going to be great So, you come, be with us, worship with us this Sunday

It'll be a beautiful, glorious time We're going to remember Jesus Christ, des of David, risen from the dead That's our gospel And we're going to preach it loud, and we're going to preach it clear, and we're going to preach it consistently because we love the Christ But tonight, we want to work our way through our outline to help you understand exactly How to be a fortress for your family Why is fatherhood a fortress for the family? And how is it I accomplished that? That's what we're trying to explain to you

We spent the last 10 weeks doing that, and we want to continue that tonight and next Wednesday as we understand the important principles that God has for us But, you know, there is a point where we come and we say, you know, can I actually do all this? Can I handle this responsibility of being a f? Being a fortress for my family, being a shield for my family Sometimes we have these feelings of inade The inab to handle the pressures of life, let alone handling the responsibility in life to leave my family

And I asked myself the question: I'm not so sure I can do this. I'm not so sure I can fulfill the responsibility of being a father It's overwhelming It's time-consuming But remember, fatherhood Never takes a vacation It's like motherhood Mothers never take a vacation Fathers never take a vacation Your Christianity never takes a vacation There are certain things that never vacate Fatherhood is one of them Once you're a father, you're always a father, right? And so, because you're a father, your fatherhood never goes on vacation

And yet there are times where we realize, because the task before me seems so overwhelming, I begin to retreat back, pull back from my responsibility And I hide myself maybe at work, or I pour all my energies into work, or I pour all my energies into a hobby, or I pour all my energies into some kind of act Where I can remove my mind from the responsibility that overwhelms me And we become more and more passive And that's one of the greatest weaknesses of men today: passivity We just sit back and let things go Let our wife take control, let our kids run amok, and we just bow our heads in sh

We run away And next thing you know, we've completely abdicated our responsibility. I just want to encourage you, as men, that yes, it is an overwhelming task at times, but it is the greatest opportunity that God has given to you and me And so even though we might sometimes feel inade, you got to realize you're a father Put it this way When you decided to leave and cleave to your wife, when you decided to leave, you made a decision to lead When you left to cleave to your wife, you left to lead your wife When you are born, you are born a leader Manhood is leadership God designed you to lead

Now, you might be a bad leader, you might be a good leader, you might be a great leader, but God designed you to lead So we're trying to help you understand that in your leadership, as a father, you are that shield, that protector, that bulwark, that rampart, that fortress for your family And if you do the principles we're giving to you, if you just follow them through, you'll be that fortress But you've got to focus, number one On life's priority, which is to me, to live as Christ, to die as gain Philippians: Once you've focused on life's priority, you abstain from all iniquity

You run from sin Having abstained from all iniquity, You want to treasure your legacy, the legacy of truth And then you want to honor your family You want to lift, elevate your family as a fortress As a bulwark, as a rampart, you're the strength, and so you have the strength to lift them up You want to honor your family, keep them propped up because of your spiritual strength So you lift your family high, you honor your family, you embrace God's sovereignty, you renew your spirituality And after you renew your spirituality, you hold fast your integrity You have credibility

You have believability If you do that, you're well on your way to being that fortress God has given us these principles in His Word because He wants us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might And now we come to the next two principles that are pretty rolled up into one If you're with us, you understand that we're spelling out the word You tell me Fatherhood, right? F-A-H-R That's what we've covered so far. F-A-H -E-, right? That's what we covered so far And tonight we're going to cover the double O Next week we'll cover the D, all right? But the double O is for tonight

And that simply is this: that you overcome Your inade by obeying God fully Fatherhood is a fortress When you realize you need to overcome your inade by obeying God fully, completely Whole Whatever your inade are, and I don know what they may be, maybe you think you can't lead your family spiritually Maybe you don't think you can provide for your family financially Maybe you don't think you can be the kind of leader you need to set as an example You can Whatever the past was, is past tense But today, and from this day forward, you need to obey what God says in His Word

Christianity is simply doing what God says, obeying the word of the Lord We hear what he says, we obey what he says So, how do you overcome your inade, your feelings of insecurity, your feelings that you don't matter, your feelings that You have maybe a poor me mentality The feeling that you don't feel respected enough The feeling, the inade of not being what you need to be. I don't know what yours is But the only way you overcome your inadequ is by obeying God fully Let me give you an example of that

Caleb, if you've got your Bible with you, and I hope you do, turn with me to Joshua chapter 14 Joshua chapter 14, I want to talk to you about Caleb because he had what the Bible calls an extraordinary spirit, a different kind of spirit He wasn't different for difference's sake He was different for deity's sake He was different for God's sake Very important You just don't want to be different because you don't want to be like everybody else You want to be different because you want to be like God And when you're like God, you are different

He possessed a different spirit, an extraordinary spirit, the Bible says in the book of Numbers He's not mentioned very often in Scripture He's only mentioned six different times in Scripture Joshua 14 is one of those times And yet, he was really the leader of Joshua and Caleb As you recall the story, there were 12 spies that went into the promised land to spy out the land, and Moses sent them in And when they came back from the promised land, there were only two, Joshua and Caleb, who came back with a good report Everybody else came back with a negative report

And so what did the majority do? The majority believed the majority, not the minority There was just Joshua and Caleb They came back and said, You know, the giants are too big It's a beautiful land It's all what God said, but the giants are too big We'll be destroyed We'll die And Joshua and Caleb said, No, this is our land And Caleb was the spokesperson Caleb spoke first before Joshua And yet it was Joshua, not Caleb, who was chosen to lead the nation into the promised land It was Joshua who had a book of the Bible named after him, not Caleb

But it was Caleb who was that silent, str, st individual that had an extraordinary spirit. I like to say that it's Caleb's strength that promoted Joshua to greater strength Caleb had that heart that was different In fact, his name means all heart In Hebrew, it's dog, but dogs give their whole heart to their master, right? It's a beautiful name, all heart, speaking of the loyalty, the comm of this man to his God And Caleb would have to overcome whatever inadequ that he had by obeying God fully And when you see what he did, you'll overcome your inadequ And you 'll obey God fully

You'll be a fortress for your family And your children and your wife will be what the scriptures say and look to you for leadership Because you'll be that prominent figure in your home That's what I want for you That's what I want for me So look at it with me in Joshua 14 Let me read verses 6 down to verse number 14 Then the sons of Judah drew near to Joshua and Gilgal

And Caleb the son of Jep, the Ken, said to him, You know the word which the LORD spoke to Moses, the man of God, concerning you and me Cad. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Cad Barnea spy out the land, and I brought word back to him as it was in my heart Neverthel, my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt with fear But I followed the Lord my God fully

So Moses swore on that day, saying, Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance to you and to your children for ever, because you have followed the LORD my God fully And now, behold, the Lord has let me live, just as he spoke these forty-five years, from the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, when Israel walked in the wilderness And now, behold, I am eighty five years old to day. I am still as strong as I was in the day Moses sent me As my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in

Now then give me this hill count about which the Lord spoke on that day and you heard on that day that Enikim were there with great fortified cities Perhaps the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as the Lord has So Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jep for an inheritance Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jep the Ken, until this day, because ye followed the LORD of God, or the Lord God of Israel, fully That's just so filled with such amazing truth Joshua follow the Lord God fully

It's one thing for Joshua to say it, I mean for Caleb to say it about himself It's another for Caleb to say it about Joshua But in the book of Numbers, God says it about Caleb God says it about Caleb He followed me fully Wow What a testimony See, that's how you overcome your inade Just follow God, obey God fully Just do what He says There are three principles here I want you to see Three principles that help you understand how to follow God fully so you overcome your inade So important The first one is this Caleb, Caleb was committ to the pres Of God Excuse me. I'm sorry

He was committed to the promises of God He was committed to the promises Of God There are six occasions: 14, verse number 2, verse number 6, twice in verse number 10, and twice in verse number 12 That it says the Lord spoke or the Lord commanded The Lord said something And Caleb was committed To what it was God said, and that is, he was committed To the promise that God gave, he was committed when he went into the land, and when he came out of the land, he talked about that commitment because God had given it to them

And even though the people rebelled against it, he was still committed to the promises of God for the next 45 years Now, think about that He was forty when they went to spy out the land Now he's forty five Forty-five years of age He says, and the Lord spoke Now remember, when God speaks, He didn't speak every day He spoke every once in a while We have the Word of God, and we can open it up, and we know what God says to us every day because God is speaking to us through His Word We have the Word of God in our hands Well, God had to show up and speak to Joshua

And Caleb knew what God said because God spoke to Moses And so they were going on the promises of God And he was fully committed to the promises of God Over in Numbers chapter 13, verse number 30, it says this: We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we sure will over it That was Caleb He knew that God had promised in the land And yet, the majority of people said no He was committed to that promise And he remained committed to that promise for the next 45 years And for 45 years he could have become embittered against all those other ten spies

And by the way, you don't remember the name of the other ten spies? Because nobody remembers Those filled with fear The only we remember those who are fearless, not those who are fearful And Joshua and Caleb were fearless Because they wanted to follow the Lord of God fully, and they did But the other ten spies, we couldn't even recite their names, we don't even know who they are But the Bible tells us about Joshua and Caleb They are memorialized in Script because of their commitment to the promises of God

And all throughout the desert, traveling through the wilderness for 45 years, Caleb could have, you know what? This is ridiculous This is never going to happen. I can't believe this But God told them how long they would wander God told them how long they would be in the wilderness, in the desert So he had a timetable in his mind, and he was always looking to the promises of God He was completely committed to it because he knew what God said And he just kept burying Israelite after Israelite after Israelite because that whole generation had to die off in the wilderness

Can you imagine all the funerals he went to? Thinking, wow, man, if you just would have believed, we could have gone to the promised land Now you're dying in the desert Better to die in the plush arena of the promised land than to die in the wilderness in the desert But you didn't believe He kept doing funeral after funeral after funeral, but he never became bitter He kept trusting in the promises of God. I wonder if you're committed to God's promises You know, the Bible tells us that all the promises from God are fulfilled in Jesus Christ our Lord. 2 Corinthians 1:20

Jesus is yes, He is the yes to all of God's promises So if you have Jesus, You understand the promises of God And so when he says, I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you When he says in Hebrews 13, verse number 6, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid What shall man do to me? When he says, I will never leave you orphans in John 14 When he, I've gone to build a mansion for you, prepare a place for you in glory, for there are many, many dwelling places in my father's house

When he gives you those promises, especially the promise of eternal life, you're committed to those promises like Caleb Your loyalty never wavers People whose loyalty wavers are not committed to the promises of God But those who are committed to God's promises, their loyalty to God never wavers It never backs away It never bows down It remains strong Strong Listen to Numbers chapter 14, verse number 22 Surely all the men who have seen my glory and my signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness Yet have put me to the test these ten times, and have not listened to my voice

Surely these people who saw me do all that I did to Pharaoh and his army, all those miraculous signs I did in Egypt They didn't believe me They tested me They had seen it all But they weren't committed to my promises They didn't listen to my voice They shall by no means see the land which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who spurn me see it, but my servant Caleb Because he has an extraordinary sp and has followed me fully What a testimony God is saying, God is saying

That Caleb followed him fully. I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it That was a promise given to him So for 45 years, he lived in anticipation of fulfilling that promise He was committed to the promises of God Therefore, his loyalty never wavered Number two He was convinced of the presence of God He was convinced of the presence of God Listen to what the Bible says in Numbers chapter 14, verse number 6 It says these words It says only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land, for they shall be our prey

Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us Do not fear them That's Caleb speaking He comes back He says, Let me tell you something The Lord's with us The Lord's not with them Don't fear them Remember what he did in Egypt He can do greater things in the promised land He's with us It was God's presence That took away all of his whatever feelings of inade he had to make any difference God was with him It's like you're like your

Your kid, right? They're small, they're frail, and if they have to go to fight somebody, God forbid, but they're going to war and go to fight somebody If their dad's standing with them, they have strength, they have power, they're unafraid because dad's there, right? Dad, the fortress is standing next to them They're not scared of the little bully down the road It's like Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, right? When he cut off the high priest servant's hair ear, Malchus Remember that? Cut off Malchus' ear Una Why? Jesus stood with him The presence of Jesus next to him made him fearless

But as soon as Jesus was out of his presence and was gone, was it by his side? He denied him Completely denied him Until the day of Pentecost when the Spirit came and it dwelt him, the presence of God actually was in Peter Peter was fearless Read the book of Acts He was a great man of God This is Caleb Caleb was convinced of the presence of God Not only was he committed to the promises of God, he was convinced of the presence of God God has given us this land God is with us He's not with him

He said in verse number ten of Joshua four, And now behold, the Lord has let me live just as he spoke these forty five Years Just as he spoke, the Lord let me live It was the Lord who was with me. I made it through the wilderness. I'm now 85 years old He goes on to say, I'm as strong now as it was back when I was 40. I don't know about that You, I'm 62, and I tell my boys, you know, I'm as strong now as I was when I was 22 Okay. I don't tell them I'm not, but, you know, I really am, but I'm really not See, I think I am in my mind, but I'm really not But, Caleb

He wasn't trying to pull the wool over anybody's eyes He's just as strong and as agile as he was 40 years ago because God was with him God has strengthened him And if he goes into the promised land, he's a warrior Because he was fully committed not just as a spy, not just as a servant, but as a soldier He was fully committed This man was amazing, and he was so convinced of God's pres, his life never weakened If you are comm to the promises of God, your loyalty never wavers If you are convinced of the presence of God, your life never weakens

Caleb was strong, strong in spirit, strong in heart, strong in soul He was committed He was convinced So, whatever inade he might have had, he overcame that so so readily because He simply obeyed God fully See, we want to obey God partially We want to obey God when it's convenient We want to obey God when we're in the forecast We want to obey God when we've lost our job and we're looking for a new job But we don't want to obey God fully, continually, all the days of my life But this is what Caleb did That's how you overcome your inade

And therefore, the Bible says in Hebrews 12, fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of her faith Keep her eyes fixed above and not below He says, I'm still as strong now as I was forty-five years ago So Principle number one, simply, Caleb was committed to God's promises Therefore, his loyalty never wavered He was convinced of God's presence Therefore, his life never weakened And then, number three: here's a third principle: his confidence, his confidence Was in the provision of God His confidence was in the provision of God

Therefore, Therefore, his love never wan his love never lost its vigor Because his confidence was not in him, but in his God He was confident In God's provision Listen to what it says This is so great Joshua chapter 14, verse number 12 Now, then, give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke on that day For you heard on that day that An were there, they were the giants in the land, with great fortified cities You remember that day, Joshua? We were together Perhaps the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out as the Lord has spoken Perhaps the Lord will be with me

It's not a statement of resignation It's not a statement of doubt It's a statement of self-ren It's a statement that says, I might be powerless to do this work But God, because of his presence, is powerful to do the work My confidence Is in God Himself The provision that God will give me to accomplish the task that's before me That's why the Bible says in Philippians 3, verse number 3, the great definition of a Christian: For we are the true circumcision, we are the marked ones Who are that? The ones who worship God in spirit

Who glory only in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh? That's a Christian He worships God in spirit He never glories in him only in God He puts no confidence in himself, but in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself Here is Caleb saying, The Lord will be with me The Lord will be with me, and therefore I will drive them out, because this is what God said Let me ask you a question

What are you committed to today? What are you convinced of today? And what are you confident in today? If you are convinced in God's promises, or committed to God's promises, and convinced in God's pres, and confident in God's provision, You overcome all your inade and obey God fully, completely, wholeheartedly That's what God wants So important He doesn't want half-hearted commitment Listen to what the Bible says Psalm 119, verse number 2 Who is the blessed man? He who seeks God with his whole heart, with all of his heart, fully That's the blessed man Proverbs 3, 5, and 6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart Don't trust in the Lord with some of your heart, but with all your heart And if you do that, you lean not on your own understanding But when you trust the Lord with half your heart, then you have half your understanding that you lean on God wants you committed to Him fully Then it says in 1 Samuel 12, 24, only fear the Lord, serve him in truth with all your heart In fact, the Bible says in Psalm 86:1, give thanks to him with all your heart, not with some of your heart. I love what it says in 2 Chronicles 2, verse number 2 about Amaz

It says, He did what was right in the sight of the L, yet not with his whole heart That's characterized a lot of us We did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, sometimes, half the time But not all the time God wants us that way And know what the result of that is? Two things Number one is intimacy And it went to his victory Intimacy Look what it says in verse number 13 So Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb, the son of Jep, for inheritance Well, how do you get intimacy out of that? Simply this

Why did he want Hebron? Why did he want the hill country? Because in Genesis chapter 13, that's where Abraham communed with God face to face It's a place of communion and fellowship It's a place of intimacy And Caleb was intimate with his God He wanted to go where Father Abraham had built his tent He wanted to go where Father Abraham built his altar He wanted to go with Father Abraham fellowship with his God, commune with his God, because he was in line with communion with his God

See, when you are fully committed to God, to doing what He says, the result? Intimacy, closeness, commun, fellowship It just blows up in a good way, not a bad way, in a good way, because it's so intense And that's where Caleb was This is a place that Caleb cherished This is where the enemy doesn't want you to be The enemy doesn't want you anticipating intimacy He doesn't want you in the place of intimacy He doesn't want you there But that's where Caleb wanted to be, and that's the land that Joshua gave him Because Joshua knew Had Caleb followed the Lord fully

He obeyed him with all of his heart Wow! How great is that? And then, and then, not only intimacy, but victory Victory If you read through Joshua 15 In the rest of Joshua, you realize only one person drove everybody out of their land Nobody else did That was Caleb Caleb succeeded in driving out the enemy Because he was intimate with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob He was a follower of God fully, not partially That's what happens when you are going to obey God fully You overcome your inade because you live in intimacy and in victory And that's exactly, exactly what He did

If you read through the book of Joshua, it says over and over again: they were not able To drive out the enemy They were not able to drive out the enemy, but not Caleb He drove them all out There are fathers today who are like the other tribal leaders They are the ones who were unable. to lead their family spiritually They were unable to model to their children integrity They were unable to love their wives intimately They were unable They were unable They were unable Why were they unable? Only one reason They did not fu fo the L

That's what Caleb did. I want that for you. I want that for me. I want to be all in That was Caleb What a fortress, what strength, what power, what leadership! He overcame his inade because he obeyed God fully He obeyed him fully because he was committed to the presence of God Convinced, I'm sorry, committed to the promises of God, convinced of the presence of God And one hundred per confident in the provision of God God will drive them out He was just a vessel through which God accentuated his power Wouldn't it be that you and I would be the same? Let me pray with you

Father, thank you for today Thank you for our time What a great day Lord, be with us Help the men of our church be strong in the Lord and the power of your might Help them overcome their inade by obeying God fully May they be used by you in a powerful way In Jesus' name, amen.