The Responsibilities of a Godly Man

Transcript

GRM 546
11/23/1997
The Responsibilities of a Godly Man
Selected verses
Gil Rugh

I want to continue this evening, the subject we were talking about this morning, and that is the biblical responsibility of men. As we saw in Colossians 3:19, the focus there was on the husband-and-wife relationship. And the husbands were to love their wives. I want to talk about the area and realm of the man’s responsibility, moving a little more broadly than just their responsibility to love their wives. Or perhaps I could say some of the things that are included in a genuine biblical love of your wife. So that commandment becomes the broad and inclusive, with the unfolding of it, we can see in some various areas.

Perhaps, to begin with, let’s remind ourselves again of the difference that there is between a male and a female. You know, I think we’ve seen somewhat of a reaction in the world today, in our country, against the pervading doctrine that men and women are the same. Just in the last week, I read articles both in the Omaha paper and the Lincoln paper. I’m sure some of you saw them on the differences in the sexes. One editorial was noting how having children brought things into a different perspective, and you appreciate the difference that is there from the beginning in a little boy and a little girl. It made reference to a friend, I believe it was in an editorial this person was writing, how distraught this friend was who did everything they could to make sure that their little boy never had any guns around or any opportunity to play with guns or toys like that. She bought the little boy a Lego set. The first thing he did was make guns with them.

There was a larger article, I believe it was in the Lincoln paper on boys and their characteristics. The world as it tries, if you could only raise them differently, then there wouldn’t be any difference other than some physical differences between a boy and a girl, a man and a woman ultimately. But we as believers know that’s just not true. Because God says He made us differently. He made us to be different. It’s in our very nature to function differently. This is not just something external that we have been conditioned to do. It has to do with the Creator and what He did for us, and to us in making us.

Look at Leviticus 12. I want to look at a number of passages, a few passages not many. We will see that in Israel, God marked out the distinction between a man and a woman, between a boy and girl from birth. Leviticus 12, you note how the chapter begins, “then the Lord spoke to Moses saying.” So, this is the word of God, and He tells Moses, “speak the sons of Israel saying, when a woman gives birth and bares a male child, she shall be unclean for seven days.” Verse 5, “but if she bares a female child, then she shall be unclean for two weeks.” What I just want you to note there, without going into the details the difference between the sexes is marked out from the beginning. Within the functioning of Israel, a clean/unclean distinction is marked out differently. A mother was ceremonially unclean for forty days after the birth of a boy, for eighty days after the birth of a girl. Now, what ever else is entailed in that, it clearly was a reminder that at birth there is a difference and a distinction made.

In Leviticus 27, what is going on here is, values are established in connection with the making of difficult vows. There are certain financial issues involved and the evaluation of the people when a difficult vow is made. In Leviticus 27, again “the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, when a man makes a difficult vow, he shall be valued according to your valuation of persons belonging to the Lord. If your valuation is of the male from twenty years old, even to sixty years old, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver.” Verse 4, “whereas if it were a female, your value shall be thirty shekels of silver.” You move through the different age brackets here, from twenty to sixty years of age, the value of the male was fifty shekels, the female thirty shekels. For ages five to twenty, there’s different valuation for different ages, but in each age group there’s a different valuation determined by what the sex of the person is. From five to twenty years of age, the male was twenty shekels, the females, ten. Over sixty, the male fifteen, the female ten. One month to five years of age, the male five shekels, the female three shekels. We won’t go into the other details of what is involved here, but you note, in Israel as God speaks, you mark out a difference between the male and the female here.

Go over to Numbers, just after Leviticus, Numbers 1. And you note how the chapter begins, Numbers 1, same thing we’ve seen in the other two chapters we’ve looked at. “Then the Lord spoke to Moses.” Now, not everything God did in Israel carries over to today. That’s not why we’re looking at this. But in God’s will for His people, Israel in the Old Testament, there was a clear distinction marked out between the male and the female which is consistent when we go all the way back to the creation in Genesis 1.

And what He said, verse 2, “take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel by their families by their father’s household according to the number of names, every male, head by head.” You take the census by the father’s household, the household identified by the father, recognition of his role and his leadership. Something of that is carried over down to our day where it has been the practice that the wife takes the name of her husband. She’s married, the household identified by the husband, the father, he is the head of the household. Now, today and our reaction against God’s plan in male leadership, why you have a lot more of people getting married, and the lady keeping her own name. Or we have hyphenated names to emphasize equality and all of that. I understand that all the way back. That’s why feminists have a problem with the Scriptures. It pervades the scripture because God is the creator, and He is the author of scripture, and He marks a distinction. Indecently, the purpose of the census is to gather an army. God’s plan here, was to number the men, every male from twenty years old and upward. He didn’t say, assemble the persons and number them. We think we’ve made great strides because we have women in our military armed forces. That is degradation of the woman, not elevation of the woman. It is a failure to recognize her value and importance. Here is the army of Israel as gathered, distinction is made. The men bear the responsibility of the fighting and the protecting of the nation and the women and the children.

There are other things we could look at in Israel. There were no female priests in spite of the fact that there were priestesses in the pagan nations around them. That was a common phenomenon. That was not the practice among God’s people. So, the distinction that is marked out.

Come back to Genesis. I want to talk about a couple of the areas of the man’s realm. First the man as the provider for his home. I understand that the man is the leader, the provider, the protector of his home. That goes back to the beginning. The order of creation established the man’s position. According to the New Testament man was made first, then the woman. The woman is of the man, not the man of the woman. The woman was made for the man. That establishes the difference in their relationship and the man’s role to be the leader, the provider, the protector.

Seen in other things as well. It’s the man who named the animals. It was Adam who named his wife which denoted the authority that he had in that realm. My understanding is, that it’s Adam’s responsibility to be the provider and that follows through to men. When Adam was created he was put in the garden to cultivate it and to keep it Genesis 2:15 says. God took the man, put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it. We noted, man was to be busy. He would be working. If you use the word “work”, as a negative connotation of toil and hardship, well none of that’s entailed obviously before the fall. But man would have been busy, had activity to occupy himself. He just wouldn’t have sat there and thought on God, though he had a perfect relationship with God, not marred by sin. He had responsibilities given to him by God. It may at least be a glimpse to the other end incidentally, when we mover into the eternal kingdom. I take it, we will not be idol. So, what are we going to do? Well, do you think that God created man perfect? Put him in a perfect garden and man would have been bored? Well, from the other end, we will be busy and active, I take it, in the eternal kingdom as well. Eternally, but without the negative aspects we associate with our work today.

When you come to the fall in Genesis 3, the consequences of the fall are set forth. And we want to pick up the woman’s consequences in verse 16 of Genesis 3. “To the woman, He said I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” Just want to observe, as a result of the fall the basic nature, the basic responsibilities or realm of the woman has not changed. The home, the family, the children will be her responsibility. What is brought into this now, is pain and suffering. Her husband would have been her leader before the fall, but now unpleasantness comes into that leadership as well, domination.

For the man, He said to Adam, because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you saying, you shall not eat from it, cursed is the ground because of you. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles shall grow for you. You shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, because from it you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. And He unfolds rather fully here, the curse on Adam. Now, Adam before the fall, was the cultivating, keeper of the garden. And to eat of the fruits of his cultivating the garden of his work, if we use that work. Now, he will work the fields, but it will be hard. He will struggle, he will toil. It will not come easy. By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread. You’re going to grind it out. And the end result of it is, you’re going to drop dead. And you’re going to decay and go back to dust.

Now, you’ll note, I take it that man’s realm has not changed either. He is the provider. He works the fields to provide for his family. God hasn’t changed his nature as the provider, protector of his family, but now difficulty and hardship come in. You note, He could have said to Eve, that you’re going to have to work to provide food for your family, He doesn’t. Her realm is the children and her responsibility to her husband. And the man is to do with providing for his family. And you’ll note, it’s not going to be easy.

If we’re not careful here, we get off track. God blesses some men with nice jobs. Some men are blessed with an inheritance in their family and they don’t have to work. So, there are exceptions. But the general rule was, men have to work to provide a living. And the general rule is, it won’t necessarily be easy. Now, I mention this because we have the idea today, if work is not fun, something is wrong. No one should have to do a job that is a grind. And if, you know, the world doesn’t talk about sin, but they would be glad to label as sin, having to be put on an assembly line and do a mundane, monotonous job for eight hours a day. That’s something nobody ought to have to be expected to do. Why? You ought to enjoy your job. Why? I don’t get the idea that God is telling Adam that his work will be fun. God cursed the ground as a result of sin. The result is, it will be difficult for the man in the providing for his family. And he will toil and sweat. And ultimately, he’ll die.

That being the case, we ought to raise our young men realistically. Their responsibility will be to provide for their family. You may be able to have a job you will enjoy more. You may have a job you will enjoy less. That is not the issue. The issue will ultimately be that you carry out the responsibility God has given you as a man. If you have a job that’s unpleasant, and you have the opportunity to change to a job that is more pleasant, fine, thank You Lord! If not, thank You Lord! But the man’s realm, I take it, is clear.

Look over to the book of Ecclesiastes. The same thing could be said on how long you have to work. Early retirement is the thing today. That’s fine, I’m glad. My brother is four years younger than me and he retired this summer. I’m glad for him. If I had stayed at US Steel, I would be retired. I would be glad for me! But I would rather do what I’m doing. I’m not saying early retirement is wrong, but I’m saying I ought not to expect that as my rights. Because God says, you’ll make your living by the sweat of your brow until you return to the dust. So, I ought not to think that God has been unfair to me, because I had to work long after other people have quit working. You know, I adopt the world’s idea and that causes me to make adjustments. Because pretty soon, I think, I’m not going to be able to make this without help. Then soon, I’m thinking well, if my wife doesn’t work I’ll never be able to retire. And if we both work, then we’ll both retire. Well, if we both had children, she’d only have half the pain. But we didn’t work it out. And there are certain responsibilities in entrusted and placed upon the man.

Look at the book of Ecclesiastes 1. The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, which would be Solomon. “Vanity of vanities says the Preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” Now, here’s a perspective on life. It’s futile, it’s empty, it’s purposeless in and of itself. Verse 13 of chapter 1, “I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom.” And he’s the wisest man who ever lived. “Concerning all that has been done in heaven. It is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.” Solomon recognized the hand of God in the grievous toil of man. “I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold all is vanity and striving after wind.”

Vanity, somebody has mentioned before at a presentation one time says, like soap bubbles, you know, they sort of glisten and colors can bounce off them. You grab onto them, they are nothing. Or it’s like grabbing onto the wind. You have nothing. Solomon says, with all my wisdom, as the wisest man on earth, and one of the wealthiest, he looked around and he says, this is all empty, futility, worthless. When you have it all, you have nothing. Chapter 2:11, “I considered all my activities which my hands had done, and the labor which I had exerted, which I had labored to do. And behold, all was vanity and striving after wind. And there was not prophet under the sun.” Verse 17, “So, I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me because everything is futility and striving after the wind.” Verse 22, “for what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun? Because all his days, his task is painful and grievous. Even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity.” This is consistent, is it not with what we read about the curse on man in Genesis 3. As the world’s wisest man, richest man, looked to things. He says you know, there’s no purpose, it futile, it empty.

Chapter 5:15, “as he came naked from his mother’s womb, so he will return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. And this also is the grievous evil, exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So, what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind? Through out is life he also eats in darkness with great vexation, sickness and anger.” I mean, no matter how hard you work and you toil and you go to work cause you’re not feeling well, but you still go because you need to pay and you go on. All said and done, you drop dead and what do they do? They pick out a suit to put on you, to put you in the casket. You’re going out naked just like you came in. You have nothing, you take nothing with you. Solomon paused and considered, what’s the purpose? Here he is the king, sitting in his palace with riches and wisdom. But he’s going to come to the same end as a poor fool. And he’ll take no more with him than the most wretched beggar in his kingdom.

Remarkable, when they opened King Tutt’s tomb, King Tutt hadn’t taken anything. It’s obvious what the solution is. Well not part of what we’re doing but I ought to mention this, the end of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12:13, “the conclusion when all has been heard is, fear God and keep His commandments because this applies to every person, because God will bring every act to judgement, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.” A life apart from God has no meaning. So, you live your life with God in view. But you understand work is work. It is not given for man to enjoy it. So, if you’ve got to work hard, you’ve got to work long hours, your job is unpleasant, you don’t have much future for retirement, you say well, it’s just like scripture said. If your life is easier than that, all you can say is, thank You God for additional blessings that I am undeserving of. May I be faithful. That’s it. This to say what? Man’s responsibility is work.

Back up to the book of Proverbs, just before Ecclesiastes. Proverbs 6, just some examples. Proverbs 6:6, “go to the ant oh sluggard, observe her ways and be wise.” Verse 10, “a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and your poverty will come in like a vagabond and your need like an armed man.” So, watch how diligent the ant is, in making provision and work hard. If you’re a lazy person, you’ll probably be a poor person. Now, you may work hard and not be rich, but at least you’ll have food. That’s the pattern. And we could go on, and we won’t take more verses in Proverbs, that exhort us to hard work. What has this to say? It’s to say that man is to be diligent in his labor. Man is to work hard. 1 Timothy 5:8, it says, “if any man does not provide for his own, his own family, his own kin, he is worse than an infidel”, an unbeliever. It’s our role as men. So, in loving my wife, doing what is best for her, I see my responsibility to provide for her and our children. Now, that’s a responsibility entailed to a man. I take it that, in our very nature, man is built and made by God to go and hammer out a living, just as the woman, by her very nature and being, is made to bear children and to nurture those children. That doesn’t mean a husband can’t help with the children, but he does not have that nurturing nature that goes with motherhood. It’s built into the woman. So, I’m not saying that a woman does not have the capability to go out in “the working world”. But God has made the man, in his nature and makeup to be the one who is out there toiling and working and providing.

That being the case, I think part of my love for my wife is, I do my job. Now, are there ever any exceptions? I have to deal with what the scripture says. Maybe if I would get a dread disease and we had no income, if I would become physically incapacitated and no way to provide, I trust Marilyn would do something to help bring in income, so we could eat. I’m not saying there aren’t exceptions. I’m saying here is God’s plan for our home. If at all possible, in any way, I take my responsibility. My thought on this is that’s my role. If I’ve got to work from sunup to sundown to make a living, then I work from sunup to sundown to make a living. We say, oh it would be better for the wife to work part time and then the man could spend time with the kids.

I was reading an article in a secular magazine, I believe it was “News Week”. I may refer to it in a later study, but they were saying there, a result of their study, they haven’t found any significant difference in the time that a man spends, or a father spends with the kids related to how much time the wife spends. You know, the world says, we’re trying to feminize the men at the same time we masculinize the woman. Well, the man’s job is the man’s. And you know, you may be from sunup to sundown working hard. A “grievous task that God has given to the sons of man.” It’s your role, it’s what you are as a man that demonstrates your love to your wife as well as to your family.

I take it then; we raise our young men with this in view. As a man, it’s God’s intention that you will provide for your family. You ought to keep that in mind in the job you take. In how you prepare yourself. Doesn’t mean a man can’t take into consideration, what would I like to do that I could provide for a family when God gives it me. I want to prepare myself, do what I can. Fine, but I realize this will be my responsibility. I take it seriously, I work hard. You know, it’s not so strange, it wasn’t that long ago that the general public functioned this way. I was a young person growing up in an unbelieving home. I had a mother who stayed home, took care of us and a father who worked long hours at shift work to provide for us. A recognition there was different roles. Men and women were different. A mother did everything she could to provide a home for the children and the father. The father went out and did everything he could to bring material provision for the home.

Now, I want to say something here, you know we’re talking about provision. I take it, in light of scripture if to provide for your family as a man, you have to work from sunup to sundown, and you’re doing this faithfully as a godly man, that will be a good testimony for your children, even though they won’t see you as much as someone else. Now, if you’re doing this for greedy purposes, because we’re not satisfied with the house we have, the car we drive, the clothes we have, the vacations we take, the retirement plan we set up, then we’ve moved into the realm of greed. Scripture warns us to “be on guard against every form of greed.” Jesus said that in Luke 12:15, “Be on our guard against every form of greed.” So, I have to be careful where I cross the line, and my life becomes more absorbed with the things of this world, than having comfort and having the ability to do things and have things. And so, I have little time for my family, but I disguise it by providing, when really what it is, is greed. So, I want to be careful we are honest with ourselves.

Maybe just a word here to the men, before we move into another realm. 1 Timothy 6, and I say something to the men here, I find that we men are the worst offenders in this normally. Wives tend to be more content as long as they have their home and the provision. We men, part perhaps of our makeup and then the corruption that comes into that with the fall. We ought to drive forward, I want a better car, I want a nicer car, I want a better position, I want a nicer home. And it becomes proverbial again, the big-ticket items are the ones that men spend on. We joke about the women spending a lot. You know, the wife goes out and buys several sale items, and we say, oh, she bought a lot, the total was $19.95, and I only bought one thing, a $20,000 car. And yet, I joke about all the things she buys, because we’re not quite content. You know, my house says something about me. People who drive by, he lives there, here’s my address, let me write it down for you. Like kings build palaces, I can’t build a palace, but I can live in a nicer house in a nicer part of town, and make my statement. Well, we have to be careful. Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong, if God has so blessed you, given you the income and you, before Him are being faithful as a godly person, and then where you live and what you drive is between you and the Lord. But a warning in 1 Timothy 6:6, “godliness is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment, for we have brought nothing into the world, so we can take nothing out of it either.” Same perspective as Solomon had. And “if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.” I need the basics, I need food and covering. We need shelter, food and clothes. “But those who want to get rich, fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires would plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil. When some, by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many a pang.” Just a reminder to us as men, our responsibility is to provide for our wives and our children.

That, being our realm, we need to be careful about the danger associated with it. And that is the lust and greed for more, and all that goes with that. I want to be a godly man in it all. Now, people will say to me, do you believe it’s sin for the wife to work outside the home? And I mentioned this last week, you have to decide that before the Lord. All I can tell you is what the scripture does say. It doesn’t say, thou shalt not work outside the home as a wife. It does say that’s her realm. It does say the providing for the home is the man’s responsibility. It’s what it says. In this context, let me say something about man just as the leader. We’ve talked about the wife as submissive, and this is the other side of that. A man’s role in creation, he is created to be the leader. And we’ve alluded to 1 Timothy 2, 1 Corinthians 11, in Genesis 3:16, as a result of the fall, he shall rule over you. So, both by creation and in the fall, we see man’s role as leader. 1 Timothy 3:4, and he’s talking about the qualities of a godly man here, as he talks about elders. And you note, he must be “one who manages his own household well.” And that word, to “manage” means to be at the head of, to rule, to direct, to manage. So, here a godly man is one who is at the head of his home, has his children under control. He can’t be an elder in the church if he doesn’t manage his household. Verse 5 indicates clearly here that the man is responsible as the head of his home. Verse 12, deacons also, are to be the husband of one wife. Good managers of their children and their own households. So, the ruling of my house, the managing of my house, my household, are ultimately my responsibility.

Paul also said that women were to rule in the home, to guide the house in 1 Timothy 5, but that under the ultimate leadership of the man. So, indicating again the man’s role as the leader in God’s plan. That’s true in the home, that’s true in the church, that’s true in government. I take it, it is true in the male, female relationships. Now, there are differences obviously. My wife is under my authority in a way she’s not under any other man’s authority. But there is the man’s authority in the church as the elders are appointed by God to lead God’s people. The general order is established that the man was created to lead and rule, the woman was created to be the compliment. That would be true in positions of government we see in Israel, there were kings appointed by God. It’s part of the very nature. This is not just a role that a woman has in a given area, but I can step out that role, and now here I don’t function that way. This is not only just a role, this is part of their nature, our nature as male and female. It’s just not a role assigned to us in a given place or a given area. This is part of what the Creator made us to be. There is an order established that is good for the woman, that is good for the man. We see the breakdown that takes place when those relationships are not followed. Conflict is developed. We see men reacting against women. We see that with their having trouble within the military. The abuse of things that go on. We say, well you violate the order that the Creator has established and then you just say this is terrible, this is terrible. Well, it is terrible. But the foundation of it is, it’s like we say, oh look at Aids is spreading. This is terrible, this is terrible, it’s terrible, but the real tragedy is the foundation of it, the immorality. The refusal to acknowledge the authority of the Creator and His plan for a man and a woman. We have all kinds of reasons and here we can point to cases, there it seemed to work very well. Well, I can point to unbelievers who as far as you can tell, humanly they may look like they’ve had a very good life, so, it means nothing. We want to be careful, we become can become pragmatic here.

Paul’s life took a turn for the worse, humanly speaking after he got saved. He was rich and influential as a Pharisee. With the kind of education he had, he had position and power. Now, he goes from prison to prison, from beating to beating. We as Christians look and say, well that worked for them, that worked. Well, is it biblical is the issue? Man’s role is he is the leader.

Come back to Genesis 18:19, God says concerning Abraham in Genesis 18:19, for I have chosen him in order that he may command his children and his household after him. You see the same thing that Paul says is required in the church, was to be true of Abraham, the founder and father of Israel, humanly speaking. He would command his children and his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice. In order that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him. Abraham was to be the leader in his home and his household. And that was not arbitrary, absolute authority that was under the leadership of God. The same for the man in 1 Corinthians 11, “Christ is the head of the man, the man is the head of the woman”. I am not an independent monarch, but I am under the authority of Christ. And I manifest His authority and His love in that authority in the treatment of my wife or in the male/female relationship, as Paul was dealing with in 1 Corinthians 11. He wasn’t dealing with the husband/wife relationship there. Christ is the head of the man; the man is the head of the woman and the order that is established.

Deuteronomy 6, this leadership for our homes, for our families, character that we are to demonstrate as men, as we love our wives and provide for them, we protect them. Verse 1, “this is the commandment, the statutes, the judgements which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you. That you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it. So, that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life. And that your days may be prolonged. Oh, Israel you should listen and be careful to do, that it may be well with you, that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear oh Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. These words which I’m commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently, your sons shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be on the frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates.” As a husband, as a father, as the provider, the protector, to the leader of my home, I am responsible for a godly environment. The word of God is to richly dwell within me. And my desire is that it richly dwells within my home. It permeates everything. The decisions, the conduct permeated by the will of God. You teach them to your sons, you talk about them, verse 7, “when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up, they are bound on your hand, on your forehead.” What you think about, what you do. It just permeates your life.

Now, the wife contributes greatly to this. I don’t want to in anyway to minimize the role she plays in this. But we’re talking about the responsibility of the man. And as the leader of my home, I am responsible to see that this happens to the best of my ability. To often, we as men think we abandon that. So, I am to be the provider for my family. But that doesn’t mean therefore, I forfeit and give up my responsibility as the leader of my home, and the one who gives it its general direction and oversite. Obviously working with my wife.

I think we complicate it, make it more difficult than it really is. Now, I use my own situation. And even before my parents were believers. You know, my dad worked long hours. He would work shift work, and I was going to school, there would be weeks, a week would go by, I wouldn’t see him because he would go to work while I was at school, and I would get home and you know, he’d be in whenever. But I never had any question who was in charge of our home. And all my mother would have to say is, I’ll let your father settle that when he comes home. It didn’t matter if I wasn’t going to see him until the end of the week, that was not good news. Because I knew he hadn’t abandoned the home, he hadn’t given up his involvement.

I think we make a false picture often. That should not be the case, it must not be the case. Ultimately it is the responsibility that God has given to the man. Is his realm easy? No! Is the women’s realm easy? No! I’ll tell you what though, even as unbelievers, when you function according to the Creators plan, life is better. Now, I’m not in anyway saying life has the fullness for an unbeliever that it should have for a believer, but the Creator says, this is how He created us, what He created us for. Then life will be better when you function according to the Creator’s plan. For us as believers, it is of absolutely necessity that we as God’s people rejoice in the privilege of knowing what His will is. It’s hard not to be conditioned by the world. I talked about the role of the man in leading his home, in being the provider. We raise our children, we say to our daughters, look you first have to get your education. You first have to be prepared. What if he dies? What if he divorces you? What if? We’ve talked about this. I’m already raising them to be godly. I’m hardly modeling godliness in this, how the number one passion of your life must be to submit to your God. To honor Him with your life and He will take care of you.

We sing the song, God will take care of you. God will take care of you. Oh, and just love to sing the song. Then go out and worry. God will take care of you. I don’t really think so. God will take care of you. I doubt it. God will take care of you, but you’d be foolish to trust Him. I need to be careful. It’s the little ways that He willed the godly environment that I want to create for my home. That I want to model in my home and I do it with good intentions. There are pressures, there has always have been pressures. The world raises doubt. I was reading in a financial magazine this week. Tells you what I do, I read a financial magazine. There’s a couple, the husband and the wife work. They have children, but both, husband and wife work. You know what the article was? They’re saving too much for retirement. They don’t need this much, they’ve figured at the rate they are saving at their age, they’ll have ten million dollars in the bank, by the time they retire and I say, my goodness. Yet, you know the world tells you, you’re not going to have enough, this is going to happen. We know how it’s all going to end up. I have more than enough. I have a God who laid up treasure for me in heaven, He provides for us. If we don’t have much, we have the Lord. He is sufficient. May God give us the grace to be godly men. To set the pace for our home, for our wives, for our children, and beyond that for our church. By His grace, He provides the enablement for what He calls us to do.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord, for who You are. Thank You that You are our gracious and loving heavenly Father. Jesus Christ is the husband of the church. Lord in everything and in every way, You the glorious God have provided for us. Have cared for us. Protect us and keep us. Lord, I pray for the men of this local church, that we might be godly men. Thank You for raising up godly men, men who desire to honor You with their lives, to function biblically. Lord the world continues to relentlessly press in upon us, to divert our attention from You. To divert our confidence and trust from You. Lord, we have nothing to fear. We have nothing to worry about. You are our God. Everything is under control. As we are faithful to You, You will care and provide and direct us. I pray that we as men, might draw upon the strength and sufficiency that is found only in You. To be godly leaders in our homes, for our wives. To be the providers and protectors for our homes that we should. That we would manifest the love we have for our wives, by the desire to protect them, keep them from the pressures, trials, that You did not create them to endure and bear. Lord, I pray that our church might be a model of godly men, who provide godly, loving leadership for Your people. Lord, again we are encouraged to know that the Spirit dwells within us. That You have provided for us. And we simply want to draw upon that provision, that we might honor You with godly lives. We give You the praise in Christ’s name. Amen