A Man's Duty

A MAN’S DUTY

1 TIMOTHY 5:3-16 (note verse 8)

Introduction: Never before has the demand been greater for men to stand up and do their duty. The strength of the church is only as strong as the strength of the home. When men fail to fulfill their responsibility in the home, the home comes crashing down affecting the church and the nation. Men are called to provide sustenance, leadership, stability, and spirituality in the home.

I. Provide Sustenance

A. 1 Timothy 5:8 “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.

B. Fathers are the primary means God has ordained to provide for the material needs of families.

C. There are legitimate exceptions to the rule, but God has ordained the father – not the mother – not the federal government – or the welfare system to be the primary breadwinner.

D. Proverbs 31:24 “She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies sashes for the merchants.”

E. God’s design is that fathers are to be responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Unfortunately many Fathers have abrogated their responsibility placing the burden on family members, the government, benevolent organizations, and the church.

F. Matthew 7:9-11 “...what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

II. Provide Leadership

A. Fathers are to lead and be responsible for the family.

B. Ephesians 5:21-25 “Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another. Wives understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands. Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church - a love marked by giving, not getting.” (The Message)

C. Numbers 30:3-5 “"Or if a woman makes a vow to the Lord, and binds herself by some agreement while in her father’s house in her youth, and her father hears her vow and the agreement by which she has bound herself, and her father holds his peace, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement with which she has bound herself shall stand. But if her father overrules her on the day that he hears, then none of her vows nor her agreements by which she has bound herself shall stand; and the Lord will release her, because her father overruled her... These are the statutes which the Lord commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, and between a father and his daughter in her youth in her father’s house.”

D. Men are responsible for what goes on in their homes.

E. Dr. James Dobson from Focus on the Family has said that "Our very survival as a nation will depend on the presence or absence of masculine leadership in the home."

F. Studies show that the absence of the father expresses itself in male children in two very different ways: it is linked to increased aggressiveness on one hand, and greater manifestations of effeminacy on the other. A 1987 study of violent rapists found that 60 percent of them came from single-parent homes. A Michigan State University study of adolescents who committed homicides found that 75 percent of them were from broken homes. Girls without fathers fare no better. They become sexually active sooner and are more likely to have out-of-wedlock children. - Children at Risk, J. Dobson & G. Bauer, Word, 1990, pp. 167-168

III. Provide Stability

A. Proverbs 11:29 “He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind...”

B. Husbands and fathers have a duty to protect their marriage and maintain stability in the home.

C. Many Fathers have abandoned Their Children. We have a 50% divorce rate in this country. A larger number of such fathers accept responsibility for their children. While money and limited time with the children are certainly helpful, this does not make up for not being a full-time father in the home. Unfortunately, there are multitudes of dead-beat dads who simply walk away from their children as though they did not exist. In 1960, the total number of children living in fatherless families was fewer than eight million. Today, that total has risen to nearly twenty-four million.