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.
D. William Bennett put is succinctly in a 1986 speech on the family in Chicago when he asked, "Where are the fathers? ... Generally, the mothers are there struggling. For nine out of ten children in single parent homes, the father is the one who isn’t there. One-fifth of all American children live in homes without fathers ... Where are the fathers? Where are the men? Wherever they are, this much is clear: too many are not with their children. - J. Dobson and G. Bauer, Children at Risk Word, 1990, p. 167.
E. Without a strong father to provide stability in the home, weak children are often set adrift.
F. “Committed fatherhood would do more to restore a normal childhood to every child, and dramatically reduce our nation’s most costly social problems, than all of the pending legislation in America combined.”—National Fatherhood Initiative
G. When children do not have the stability and security of a father’s love it is hard for them later in life to believe and accept the Father’s love and protection.
H. John 20:28-29 “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”
IV. Provide Spirituality
A. Deuteronomy 6:4-7 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”
B. Recent research is shining light on the importance of male spiritual leadership in the home. Among their findings is the reality that 68 million of our nation’s 94 million men don’t attend any church. This, in spite of the fact, that 86% of them grew up with some sort of church background. D. Research has revealed that if a child is the first person in a household to become a Christian, there is a 3.5 percent probability that everyone else in the household will become Christians. Not very high at all. If the mother is the first to accept Christ, the percent goes up and 17 percent of the homes will see the remainder of its members trust Christ. But if the father is first, there is a 93 percent probability that everyone else in the household will follow. E. When father goes first spiritually, good things happen at home. Let’s all pray together that God will call even more men to spiritual revival and renewal. Never has there been a generation in our nation, where is has been more important than now. – Davon Huss
C. Ephesians 6:4 “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”
D. A teardrop crept into my eye as I knelt on bended knee;
Next to a gold haired tiny lad whose age was just past three.
He prayed with such simplicity “Please make me big and strong,
Just like Daddy, don’t you see? Watch o’er me all night long.”
“Jesus, make me tall and brave, like my Daddy next to me.”
This simple prayer he prayed tonight filled my heart with humility.
As I heard his voice so wee and small offer his prayer to God,
I thought these little footsteps someday my path may trod!
Oh, Lord, as I turn my eyes above and guidance ask from Thee;
Keep my walk ever so straight for the little feet that follow me.
Buoy me when I stumble, and lift me when I fail,
Guard this tiny bit of boy as he travels down life’s trail.
Make me what he thinks I am is my humble gracious plea
Help me ever be the man this small lad sees in me! - Source unknown
E. 2 Kings 22:1-2 “Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. 2 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
F. 2 Kings 24:8-9 “Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father had done.”
G. Which foundation are you laying for your children and grandchildren to build upon?
