Faithful Fathers Build Families and Churches

1. Read: Ephesians 6:4

2. About the Text:

1) Fathers have a God-given role to build families.

2) Paul describes it as bringing up, training/nurturing, and admonishing.

3) Numerous studies show that fathers who are faithful make faithful families also.

3. The world today.

1) Many have rebelled against God’s plan for male leadership.

2) This has resulted in the destruction of the family and the church in our culture.

3) Fathers must say “no” to this anti-family culture.

4. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.

1. Fathers must have an obvious relationship with God.

1) It must be more than mere professed belief, but faith working in love.

2) “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6).

3) “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:23-25).

4) Your wife, children, relatives, friends and coworkers need to see that you are a Christian by your works, not just your words.

5) These fathers talk to others about God, Christ, and the Bible.

6) They live lives that are pure and holy to all who know them.

2. Fathers must prioritize spirituality.

1) This means putting God and His kingdom first!

2) “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

3) These fathers will put others needs before their own.

4) “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (Phil.2:3-4).

5) These fathers do not schedule conflicting events with worship services.

3. Fathers must set a spiritual agenda for the family.

1) They lead family prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

2) They know the Bible and talk to their families about the scriptures (2 Timothy 2:15).

3) They schedule spiritual events in which the family may participate.

4) They attend worship services regularly, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

4. Fathers must be involved in church activities.

1) Participating in activities such as potlucks, youth devos, funerals, and celebrations.

2) Worship activities.

a. Leading singing (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16).

b. Teaching a class or preaching (2 Timothy 2:2).

c. Serving on the Lord’s table (1 Corinthians 10:21).

d. Leading prayer (1 Timothy 2:8).

3) Serving as a deacon (1 Timothy 3:8).

4) Serving as an elder (1 Timothy 3:1).

1. Fathers as husbands must love their wives.

1) This is the prime relationship for the Christian father.

2) “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church” (Ephesians 5:25-29).

2. Fathers as husbands must lead their wives.

1) The word husband has connotations of agricultural growth – husbandman.

2) Fathers as husbands are responsibility for the spiritual growth of their wives.

3) “For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:30-33).

3. Fathers as husbands must laud their wives.

1) Husbands should speak well of their wives.

2) Talking poorly about your wife reflects on your ability to husband her.

3) “Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them” (Colossians 3:19).

1. Fathers must rear their children.

1) This means taking responsibility for them.

2) A good father provides for his children and sees to their needs.

3) “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8)

2. Fathers must train their children.

1) This means teaching them things that they need to know to do well in life.

2) “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

3) “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

3. Fathers must admonish their children.

1) This means correcting them when they need to change.

2) Sometimes physical correction is necessary.

3) “Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die” (Proverbs 23:13).

4) “The rod and rebuke give wisdom, But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother” (Proverbs 29:15).

1. Faithful fathers build families and churches by being faithful to . . .

1) The Lord

2) Their Wives

3) Their Children

2. Invitation