Men are charged with certain duties in scripture. Men who are husbands and fathers are called by God to care for, provide for, and protect their wives and children. This responsibility does not only extend to the physical needs of the family, but all aspects of life, especially the spiritual. The man of the house also guards himself well in order to better watch over the spiritual welfare of those under his care.

This short parable in verse 12, if you want to look there, is going to be the focus of our message. In Matthew 12, verse 29, Jesus says, How can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man, and then he'll plunder his house. Since we're gonna be focusing on this verse, let's read it one more time. Jesus says, how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house. Now in this verse, Satan is a strong man, the strong man's house is Satan's kingdom, and the strong man's goods are everyone who's part of Satan's kingdom, which would be what?

Who's part of Satan's kingdom? Every unbeliever is, every unbeliever is. Physically, lots of different kingdoms, but spiritually speaking, there are only two kingdoms. There's the kingdom of God that all believers are part of, and then there's the devil's kingdom that all unbelievers are part of. The words plunder his goods.

This is a beautiful way to describe what takes place every time Jesus seizes someone from the devil's kingdom, plunders him from that kingdom, and then makes him part of, makes that person part of his kingdom. Notice Jesus said, nobody can enter the strongman's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strongman. Logically, if someone tried to break into the strongman's house, the strongman is going to try to stop that person. And so if someone was able to break into the strongman's house, it would show that that person was what? Was stronger than the strongman, right?

And that's the main point of this parable, that for Jesus to be able to break into Satan's kingdom or into his house and plunder some of his goods, unbelievers, then he is stronger than Satan. Every time Jesus saves someone, he's demonstrating that greater strength he has than the devil. What I want to do is I want to consider the application that this has for families, and this brings us to lesson one on your handouts. Strong men protect their houses spiritually. Strong men protect their houses spiritually.

Just raise your hand if you don't have a handout. Does anyone not have one? Okay, there's just one up here that doesn't have a handout. So lesson one, strong men protect their houses spiritually. Verse 29, this is a very profound verse and it's packed with considerable instruction.

We're going to look at it piece by piece. It's pregnant with so much great teaching for us. We're going to look at it piece by piece. And first look at the words, strong man's house. And one thing I want you to notice about a house is that this house rises or falls based on the strength of this man.

The house rises or falls based on the strength of a man. The house is entirely protected by this individual. Now, do you see the application for us? What's the application? The same is true of our homes.

The same is true of our families. That they rise and fall dependent on the spiritual strength of the fathers or husbands of those homes, the protectors of those families. And this is why it's so important for men to be strong. But to be clear, what sort of strength do men need? What sort of strength do we need as husbands and fathers?

Is it a physical strength? What do we need? We need spiritual strength. If I just ask all the women to look at me as I ask this question, what do you want? Do you want a husband that is physically strong or spiritually strong?

I thought a bunch of women were going to say both. But yes, spiritually strong, spiritually strong. Women want men who are spiritually strong. What's interesting about this is as we kind of continue considering the feminist agenda, that strong, you know, liberal mindset that attacks the church and attacks the family, we know that one of the main criticisms from that arena is that wives are commanded to submit to their husbands. You're not going to hear anyone criticizing that husbands are commanded to love their wives, but the fact that wives are supposed to submit to their husbands receive considerable criticism.

I've been a pastor now for about 12 years, and a few times each year I'll put on marriage conferences. And the reason I mention that is just to simply say that it puts me in touch with a number of different couples, and you would be surprised. You would expect that because of the criticism submission receives, that women would regularly be coming to me and complaining that their wives or that their husbands want them to submit. I mean, you'd almost expect that women would be lined up at the booth just one after another to tell me that it's so barbaric or terrible that the Bible would command their husband to submit to their husbands. But I'll tell you this.

The most common complaint that I hear from women is not that they're expected to submit to their husbands. Do you know the most common complaint I hear? My husband won't lead. My husband won't lead. That is the most common complaint that I hear from women, frustrated that their husbands won't lead.

Women want men who are spiritually strong. Women want men who read the word with their families. Women want men who will pray with their families. Women want men who do these things because then they know that they are part of families that are being protected, then they know that they have strong men that are guarding their homes, their children, and them personally from the enemy that wants to destroy them. I used to be really into working out something you can't really tell any longer, but there's some interesting similarities between being physically strong and being spiritually strong.

Anyone that has any sort of success in the fitness world knows that you have to nourish yourself physically. Well, likewise, If we want to be spiritually strong as fathers and husbands, we need to be nourishing ourselves spiritually. We need to be devouring or consuming the word of God. It is not random or arbitrary that God's word is so frequently compared with food. It is something for us to devour, to consume.

I think just yesterday at the pastors meeting, Scott Brown quoted a gentleman that actually compared it with cud. With cud, that you're gonna bring it back up and then chew on it some more. And so that's what we're to be doing with God's word. Similarly, if you wanna be physically strong, then you've gotta be exercising. And for men that want to be spiritually strong, we need to be performing the spiritual exercises or the spiritual disciplines.

We need to be reading the word. We need to be memorizing scripture, meditating on the word, praying, serving, and involved in the body of Christ. We need to remember how the reality that a man can be a good husband in the world's eyes or a good father in the world's eyes and he can be a poor father or a poor husband in God's eyes. And here's why I say that. Just picture this husband.

He works hard to take care of his family. He loves and he serves his family. He takes them on trips. He attends his kids' events. He makes sure that he, you know, he tucks his kids in at night, he's attentive to his wife's needs and to his children's needs.

As the world looks at this man, they would consider him to be a very good father or husband. But I would say this, If he's not leading his family well spiritually, if he is not protecting them spiritually from the cultural chaos that surrounds us, how does that same father or husband look in God's eyes? I would say that he doesn't look very good. Because regardless of all the other things that he might be doing well, he's failing in the primary responsibility that God has placed on husbands or fathers' shoulders, which is to be the spiritual leaders of their marriages, the spiritual leaders of their homes. He's not doing the most important thing that God wants.

Most men, I suppose there could be some deadbeat husbands, but I'll tell you, rare it seems to me is the man who does not take care of his home physically or financially. I rarely encounter a man who is not laboring throughout the week, and I will just say, ladies, that is one thing you can be very thankful for with your husband, if he works hard to take care of you. I don't wanna minimize that. The point of this isn't that physical or financial provision for the family is unimportant. The point is that spiritual provision for the family is more important.

And that's why it's so tragic that while I rarely see a husband who doesn't take care of his family physically or financially, frequently I will see husbands who are not taking care of their families spiritually. As husbands, we need to make sure that we are working as hard for our families spiritually as we are for them physically or financially. Picture this situation. If you have men who take care of their families physically or financially but not spiritually, you are going to have Christian homes, and consider the tragedy of this, Christian homes that do not look different than non-Christian homes. Let me say that one more time.

If you have men who work very hard to care for their families. They love their wives and they love their children, but they are not being spiritual leaders in their homes. You are gonna have a home that does not look any different than a non-Christian home. I mean, when we talk about holiness, what we're talking about is set apartness or separateness, a difference or distinction from the world. And so what you have then is you have a family that except perhaps for that father taking his family to church for worship on the Lord's Day Sunday morning, which some families don't even do that consistently, Other than that period of time Sunday morning, that family, the rest of the week will look exactly like an unbelieving or non-Christian family.

And that is truly a tragedy. Next in the verse, look at the word enter. Look at the word enter. Jesus said, or how can one enter a strong man's house? This brings us to lesson two.

Strong men decide what enters their homes. Strong men decide what enters their homes. I'm not going to pry into your homes, gentlemen, and be too specific, but hopefully we can all agree that as the protectors or the defenders of our homes, there are plenty of things that should not enter, Right? Can we all agree on that? There are plenty of things as the fathers and husbands of our homes that we should not allow to enter.

Some number of movies, some amount of music, some clothing that should not enter our homes, Some jokes that should not be told in our homes. Some language that should not be used in our homes. Some activities that should not be part of our homes. Strong men are men who keep these sorts of things out of their homes. And strong men are men who, once these things come into the home, do what then?

Remove them, despite whatever amount of frustration that the family might feel. Very sadly, there are some men, simply because of the battle associated with removing this compromising or immoral thing from the family. It's just a battle that they don't wanna fight. So that man will just allow that to remain. He'll allow it to enter and stay there.

And he's doing his family terrible. Disservice, It might not be the easiest battle to fight, but I guarantee it is a teaching opportunity to sit down and look at your family, look at your wife or your children and tell them, I know you don't like me getting rid of this. I know you have enjoyed this, but I'm doing this because I love Christ. I'm doing this because this is what he has called me to do. It is the most important responsibility that I have as a father and a husband to protect this home, and I see this as a threat to it.

So I can tell you that I'm truly sorry. This might be upsetting to you, but I want you to know that I'm doing this because I love you and I love our savior. And he does not want this to be part of our family. He does not want this to be in our home. Third, notice the words plunder as goods.

Plunder as goods, and this brings us to lesson three. Strong men prevent their families from being plundered. Strong men prevent their families from being plundered. So I just get the gentleman in here to give me their attention. I want to ask you a question, brothers.

Are there things in your home that you don't want plundered? What am I talking about? I'm talking about your wife. I'm talking about your children. We have tremendous possessions or goods in our homes that we need to ensure are not plundered by the devil, our wives and children.

We need to remember when we let certain things into our homes, we need to remember that when we do not spiritually lead our homes or protect or defend our homes, that we are allowing our wives and our children to be plundered. Strong men protect their families so that they're not plundered by the devil. There are three enemies that we face. There's a devil. We're primarily focusing on the world or the cultural chaos that surrounds us.

We don't want to let that plunder our families, compromise, ungodliness, any of these things. We have a responsibility as men of God to prevent from plundering our wives and children. Next, notice the words, unless he first binds the strong man, and I want you to notice, in particular, the word he there. It says unless he first binds the strong man. We're talking about an individual.

So as husbands, all of us need to know that there is an enemy, a person, who wants to enter our house, bind us, and plunder our goods. And that enemy is the devil. John 10, 10, in John 10, 10, what did Jesus say about him? What does he want to do? He wants nothing more than to steal and to kill and destroy.

And that verse could not apply any better to any area of life than our families. There is nothing more that the enemy or the devil would like to do than to steal or to kill or destroy regarding our families. He wants to steal and kill and destroy our marriages, our wives, our children, and brothers, we have to fight for them. It is a fight. It is a spiritual fight that is more intense and more demanding than any physical fight we could ever engage in.

1 Peter 5 8, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." Now, regarding that verse, who was Peter talking to? Was he talking to unbelievers, or was he talking to believers? He was talking to believers. He was talking to believers. He says believers need to recognize there's an adversary or enemy that wants to devour us.

We need to recognize the devil would love nothing more than to come into our homes. It is a vivid graphic image in our minds that the devil would want to come into our homes and like a roaring lion, devour or tear to shreds our wives or our children. And he would love nothing more than that. And that image alone should cause us, as husbands, to want to protect our wives and children. In verse 29, I want you to notice the words first and then, there's a progression here.

There's something that must happen before something else can happen. In verse 29 it says, How can one enter a strongman's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strongman and then he can plunder his house? So the enemy wants to bind men so that he can plunder our families. If we are bound, then our families are defenseless. And this brings us to lesson four.

Lesson four, strong men are not bound. Strong men are not bound. They're not bound by what? They're not bound by the devil. They're not bound by sin.

It is shocking to me the number of men who will allow things to come into their lives, and this is the lie that they will believe. A man will say this to himself, I don't wanna hurt my wife. I don't wanna hurt my children. I'm going to allow this sin into my life, and here's the lie, it is only going to affect me. There are not bigger lies for a man to believe than that he could be bound by some sin and that it wouldn't affect his family as a result.

It is an impossibility, it is an impossibility for a man not to be bound by some sin and have it not spill over to negatively affect his family. Just yesterday at the church leaders Meeting, Pastor Carey gave this message about pornography, and he was discussing the way in which it binds pastors and prevents them from being effective shepherds or leaders in their churches. If we move beyond the church into the home, we have to acknowledge that it has that same effect on husbands in terms of binding them and protecting them from being, or binding them and preventing them from being able to protect or defend their family. So brothers, you need to understand this. I cannot say this strongly enough.

If you bring a sin into your life, it is an unbelievably selfish decision because of the toll it is going to take on your wife and children. So you can't think for a moment that it's not going to spill over and negatively affect them. Do not deny the selfishness of your action. At least have the integrity to say, I'm going to let this sin into my life knowing it's going to ruin my marriage. At least be honest enough to say, I'm going to let this sin into my life knowing the terrible effect that it's going to have on my children.

And I'm still choosing to do it. You'll be selfish but at least you'll be honest then. And at that point when you decide to repent, at least you'll know what you have to do. You won't be deceiving yourself. Strong men make sure that they're not bound.

If you think about the word binds or some translations say tied up, which I really love, what sort of imagery does that create? If you think of a man who's bound or a man who's tied up, you're thinking of someone who's helpless. You're thinking of someone who's unable to do something. You're thinking of an individual who's incapacitated. And the reason that I draw that picture in your minds is I want to say this, that is what the devil wants to do with every man.

That is what the devil wants to do with every man. Bind him up, tie him up. Briefly look at verse 22 to see a picture of what the devil wants to do with men. Because you get to see what he did with a man. Verse 22, a man was brought to Jesus who was demon possessed.

He's blind and mute, and Jesus healed him so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. What did the devil do to this man? Not a trick question, it's right there in the verse. What did he do to him? I might have heard one person.

He made him what? He made him blind and mute. You are looking at what the devil wants to do with men. One of the biggest mistakes that Christians make with God's word is we look at the physical and fail to interpret it spiritually. Here's what I mean.

Most of what Jesus did in his earthly ministry is a picture or type of what he wants to do for us spiritually. Most of what Jesus did in his earthly ministry physically is a picture or type of what he wants to do for us spiritually. Here's what I mean. When Jesus healed a man's blindness, is that meant to teach us that Jesus wants to heal every physically blind person? You better say no to that, because you're gonna run into some real problems when you meet blind people, right?

The point is, Jesus wants to heal our spiritual blindness so we can spiritually see. When Jesus healed deafness, that's not to make us think that Jesus wants to go through the world and heal every physically deaf person, but he wants to heal our spiritual deafness so that what? We can hear or understand spiritual truths. When Jesus healed the paralytic, you walk around and you see paralyzed people, right? Did Jesus fail them?

No, he wants to heal their spiritual paralysis that according to Romans 6, 4, we can walk with God. When Jesus raised people from the dead, is that meant to think that the moment someone dies, Jesus is going to physically raise them back to life? No, but it's a picture of him raising us to life spiritually. Everything that took place with Lazarus is a, well, you actually heard Scott Brown say it earlier when he talked about Egypt, the deliverance from Egypt, the Passover, took place physically, but is only a picture or type of the true and greater reality which is spiritual. And so when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, that's not to make you think that if one of your loved ones dies, you can pray and Jesus is gonna raise that person from the dead physically, but it is a picture of how he wants to take us when we are spiritually dead in our sins, as Ephesians 2 describes, and raise us to life.

Jesus calms a storm. Does that mean if you're out in a snowstorm, or you're out in the ocean, and there's some storm that's about to sink your ship, that you can pray, and Jesus is gonna wanna calm that storm because he calmed the storm that was gonna sink the disciples. No, the point is Jesus wants to calm the spiritual storms. Not the ones that are out there above the ocean or in the sky, but the storms of our hearts. The storms that rage in our hearts, as he gives us the peace that surpasses understanding.

And so the point is, what takes place physically has a spiritual understanding or interpretation of it, and that's the point with this. In verse 22, it says that the demon-possessed man was blind and mute, and this is what Satan wants to do spiritually with every husband and father. He wants to take away our voice, brothers. He wants to take away our leadership. He wants to make us spiritually blind so we cannot understand spiritual truths, so that we're so spiritually blind we cannot see what's happening in our families?

I'm not asking for names or a show of hands, but have you ever met a man and you've wanted to shake him and say, are you blind to what is happening in your family right now? Can you not see what is going on with your wife and children? And that man can honestly say, no. Because the devil has made him spiritually blind. He wants to make us spiritually mute.

So that you just turn to the side, we should be talking. You don't like to talk, you better be a talker if you're a husband. God has called you to teach your family and the devil wants to make you spiritually mute so you don't talk, so you don't teach, so you do not address the problems that you see in your home, so you act oblivious to it, so you don't speak against the chaos you see raging in the culture. The theme of the conference is navigating through cultural chaos. Spiritually blind men do not see what's happening in the culture.

Spiritually mute men do not say anything about what's happening in the culture. But in verse 22 it says, Jesus healed the man so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. So you can see what the devil wants to do, but you can also see what? What Jesus does. What Jesus heals.

The remedy or the solution that he provides. And this is what Jesus wants to do for men. He wants to help us speak. He wants to give us spiritual voices so we can lead our homes, we can preach the gospel to our families, so we can teach our children the word of God. He wants to help us see, give us spiritual sight so we can understand the word so we can see what is going on in the culture, so we can recognize it as sin.

Because what the culture wants to do is tell you that it's love. It is love when you let women murder their babies. It is hateful if you're to say something else. And if you're not a spiritually seeing man, you could be convinced that the people who are standing outside abortion clinics with signs are the hateful ones, and the people inside the clinic performing abortions and having abortions are the loving ones. If you can't see things spiritually, you will have things completely backward.

And you see how many spiritually blind people there are when more people are concerned about saving trees or fish than unborn babies. That's the spiritual blindness that is plaguing our culture that the devil wants to cause, but that Jesus wants to deliver us from. There's one other reason some men are blind and mute, and I hate to say this. They're wise. There's a reason some men are blind or mute, and it is their wives.

Some men don't say things, they want to say something, but their wives put a stop to it. You have men who try to lead in their homes, but they're wives and they question everything. They second guess everything. The husband says something, and the wife offers all the reasons that he's wrong. You see this man being constantly corrected by his wife.

He makes a decision, and his wife chops him off at the knees when he says something. These women silence their husbands. They spiritually blind their husbands through their actions that communicate, I do not trust you. You cannot leave this home. You do not know what you're doing.

I could do this better than you. Why are you doing it that way? Didn't I tell you you should do this instead? Didn't I tell you that this wasn't going to work? Our kids shouldn't listen to you.

Our kids can't respect you. When you have a wife who either says those things or her actions communicate those things to her husband, you have, I hate to say it, a wife like Job's wife. A wife who is spiritually binding her husband. Why do you think the devil let Job's wife live when he killed everyone else? She was his servant.

She was his servant. That's the truth of it. I mean, if you were the devil, wouldn't you want a woman like that on your side? But the sad thing is, when women act like that today, by spiritually binding their husbands through their insubmissiveness, through their disrespect, through their constant challenges and criticisms. If God wants men to be leaders and protectors of their homes, we can be sure the devil's gonna try to bind them to prevent that from happening.

And what does it look like? It looks like making men passive. It looks like making men spiritually lazy. A man comes home from work. Actually, let me just ask you, brothers, and let's be honest.

You come home from work, and How do you feel? Tired. There's only one guy in this whole room that says he's tired when you come home from work. So the rest of you guys better not fall to this then since you all have so much energy. I'm going to ask this one more time.

When you come home from work, brothers, how do you feel? You feel tired. There's nothing wrong with that. But when you're in that tired, vulnerable state, that's when Satan tempts you to sit on the couch, ignore your wife, ignore your children, ignore what's happening in your home, neglect them. He tempts you not to deal with the issues around you.

He tempts you to hope that those problems are simply going to what? Just go away on their own or fix themselves. Exactly. Satan tempts a man by filling his head with any number of other things that seem more important to him than his family. Satan tempts him to find anything to do other than pray with his family, read the Word with his family, discuss spiritual issues with his family, Train and disciple his children.

That is how Satan binds men. Ephesians 6, 4, fathers, don't provoke your children to react to it. Bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. This verse is so interesting to me Because I'm guessing that we're largely homeschooling or home educating families here, which means the majority of the education rests on whose shoulders? And this is fine that this is the case, the mother.

She's the one who's home while the husband's at work. But all of those academics, even if they might rest on the wife's shoulders, there is no way to escape that the spiritual education rests where? God has put it on the fathers. There is no way around it. So, brothers, your wife, she can do the spelling, she can handle the math, she can handle the reading, the English, and the writing.

You need to be handling the Bible. And some men, I've met a number of men who say this to me, they say, I want to read the Bible with my family, but I don't know how. Brothers, if you can read, you can read the Bible with your family. Do not tell me or someone else that you don't know how to read the Bible with your family. Unless you can't read, Then you can legitimately say that.

But if you can read, you can read the Bible with your family. Here's the worst situation of all. Some men bind themselves. Some men bind themselves when they bring sin into their lives such as lying or drunkenness. They give into anger.

They yell at their wives or children. They develop addictions. It could be pornography. Could be video games. Could be any activity that distracts that man from leading his family.

These are all ways that men will bind themselves. Sometimes men bind themselves, and they don't necessarily bind themselves with sinful or immoral things. They bind themselves with amoral or non-sinful things that they allow to become addictions or habits that prevent them from doing the things with their families that God wants them to do. First Corinthians 13, 11 says that, when I was a child I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, what did I do? I put away those childish things.

So brothers, I would just ask you, are there some non-sinful but childish things in your life that you should put away? I'm not going to pry into your homes too much, but I will say in our home, if I play video games, Katie wouldn't respect me. And Because there's nothing that I will trade for my wife's respect, video games are an easy thing to see go or not be present in the LaPierre household. And I would just say this, brothers. What would you trade for your wife's respect?

Hopefully the answer to that is nothing. So if there's something and your wife can't respect you because you do it, don't turn and tell me or someone else, well I can do it because it's not sinful. If it's making it hard for your wife to respect you, you should not be doing it. But really, brothers, would you, there's really something you will trade for your wife's respect? There's really something that's more valuable to you than your wife's respect?

And you're also dishonoring God because Ephesians 533 commands her to respect you, and you're making it harder for her to obey that command. You're making it tougher for her. Most men, they do a great job protecting their families physically. They'll tell you, if someone broke into my house, I would tell my family to hide and I would put myself in harm's way so that my son and my children could be safe. But let's be honest, how many physical intruders are gonna break into our homes?

This morning I was riding to the church with Pastor Carey and I was kinda telling him about my message. Is it okay for me to say this? Okay, never mind, I'm up here, I can say what I want. No, just joking. He did give me the go ahead.

We kind of talked in the truck that I was gonna say this. And we're talking, I was talking about this parable and men protecting their homes, and so Pastor Carey goes, oh man, this is great, you're gonna be able to talk to men about having guns. What? Oh, it was a joke? Oh, okay, okay.

So, I thought, I can, I can talk to men about having guns, but I will say this, There are a lot of men, and maybe it's guns, maybe it's alarm systems, the amount of time and energy that goes into protecting their homes physically? How many intruders are ever gonna break into your home physically? There is a spiritual intruder that wants to break into your home all the time. You can get as many guns as you want. You can get the fanciest alarm system.

But I'll tell you this. Your family is in way more danger, spiritually, from the devil than from any physical intruder. No amount of guns, no alarm system that's gonna protect them from that. And God has called us as husbands to be the ones that stand not between our families and the physical intruder, but between our families and the devil. Between our families and the cultural chaos.

Between our families and the homosexuality and the feminism and the misogyny and the criticisms of God's word and the evolution and everything else. We need to put ourselves between our families and all of that and protect them. The devil is an infinitely greater threat to our families than any physical intruder. Gentlemen, are you willing to protect your family from the devil? Are you willing to protect your family spiritually?

That is the protection that they need infinitely more than physical protection or even financial provision. 2 Corinthians 10 for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds Ephesians 6 12 we did not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of the sage, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. What is the main point of those two verses? The battle we're fighting is spiritual. God is calling us to focus on the spiritual.

That is the threat. We've been addressing the men. I like to address the women so they can see the part that they play in this, and this brings us to lesson five. Lesson five, Strong men often have encouraging wives. Strong men often have encouraging wives, or I could have said respectful wives.

I'm going to ask the ladies to do something, and I do want you to do this. I'm not joking. Ladies, please raise your hand if your husband is here today. Okay, you put your hand down. I'm going to say this to you.

If you have not thanked your husband for bringing you here today, you need to do that at some point. Because there are a lot of other places he could be right now. Lot of other things that he could be doing. And there are a lot of other husbands who aren't here right now. And I'm sure they have plenty of reasons that they could give as excuses.

But your husband chose to make you the priority and your children the priority and your family the priority and to bring you here today. And that is applaudable. That is commendable. So if you have not yet thanked your husband, you put your hand on his leg, you look him in the face, and you thank him for being a godly man that wants to protect his family like this. We're talking about husbands protecting their homes, and that's what your husband did, bringing you and perhaps even your Kids here.

Ladies, let me share something with you that I've learned, and you might not be aware of this. It kind of shocked me. It took an amount of time, a few years, of dealing or having familiarity with marriages or putting on marriage conferences to notice this because we project ourselves on others. And so because I have an amount of comfort associated with sharing God's Word, I assume every man is comfortable sharing God's Word. And I have learned many men are terrified to read the Word with their families.

Many men are terrified to pray with their wives. I'm not making excuses for them, but I am letting you know, ladies, there is a real fear with many men. They're afraid that they're not gonna know what to pray. They are not gonna know what to say. They are not going to know how to answer the questions that they're asked.

They're afraid that they're not going to sound like their pastor at church or that guy on the radio. And so what does your husband need, ladies? He needs your encouragement. He needs your encouragement. When he, if your husband will pray with you, if your husband will read the word with you, if your husband will gather his family around the word of God, you need to let him know how much you appreciate that, because here's the truth.

You are in the .0000001% of the population that has a husband that will do that. You are a very blessed woman if your husband will gather his family around the word of God. So you need to tell him you respect him. Tell him how much you appreciate him doing that. Let him know that you know there are countless other women who would love to have a husband doing what your husband is doing and that you recognize how blessed you are.

Now, if you say things like this, ladies, and I mean this, shame on you. Shame on you if your husband wants to get his family together around the word of God, and you say, do we have to do this now? Or you say, how long is this going to take? Or can we do this later? Or the kids are tired or I'm tired, can we skip tonight?

Shame on you. Shame on you. Please hear me clearly when I say this, you are binding your husband for Satan. You need to encourage him, you need to applaud him, you need to be his biggest encourager, his biggest support. I don't care if he's in Leviticus, you love it.

You've never heard a more exciting Bible study. It's drink offerings, and it's thrilling. Most men, ladies, here's what I say. They're going to have no problem living up or down to the bar you set. Let me say it one more time.

Most men are not going to have any trouble living up to or down to the bar you set if you disrespect your husband, if you treat him like he's a child, if you nag him, if you belittle him, he is going to have no problem living down to that bar. Do not be surprised when your husband is more like a child than a man. But recognize the part you play in that. But if you respect your husband, if you praise him, he might not live up to that bar yet, but he will try to. And I will tell you this, and this is the truth.

I am not the husband my wife thinks I am. I am not. She thinks way too highly of me, but I want to be that husband. I want to live up to that bar. I want to be the father that she thinks I am.

I want to be the husband that she thinks I am because of the way she praises me, because of the way she respects me, because of the way that she talks to me and talks to our children about me. I want to be that man, that husband, that father that she is talking about. Now I want to invite you to consider something. We've been talking about men protecting their families from Satan. It is interesting to consider that scripture never calls us to fight Satan.

Have you ever thought of that? You wouldn't know that because of the way some ultra charismatic churches act or the way some Pentecostal or charismatic denominations act. You're not going to see any exorcisms or instructions for exorcisms in the Epistles is what I'm saying. You can read through the Epistles, you don't see instructions for exorcisms. God has not called his disciples, he did the apostles, but you're not an apostle.

He has called believers, or he has not called believers to fight Satan, and what's the main reason? He has defeated him. He has defeated him for us. Colossians 2 15, Christ disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them. Hebrews 2.14, Jesus will destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil.

1 John 3.8, the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Even when people cast out demons, in the gospels and Acts, apostles, they didn't roll up their sleeves and summon their strength. It's not like the apostles were able to do it because they were these spiritually strong giants on par with the Son of God. Matthew 7 22, many will say to me that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Cast out demons in your name.

Luke 9 49, Jesus said, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name. Luke 10 17, the 70 returned rejoicing, Lord, even the demons are subject to us. In your name, Acts 19, 13, Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call on the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits. When people had victories over the devil or the demonic realm or the devil's kingdom, they had those victories by relying on Christ because of his victory over the devil. And this brings us to lesson six.

Strong men put Christ first. Strong men put Christ first. I'll share a brief story with you. Before we get into this lesson while I was talking about marriage or talking about my wife, I want to tell you about a time I was going to read the word with her very early. I can't even say it was very early in our marriages, early in our relationship.

I don't think we're engaged yet. Super want to impress Katie. Thought she was a deeply spiritual woman. It's one of our first Bible studies together. So I'm going to teach on, get this, the relationship between a chapter in 2 Chronicles, 2 Kings and Isaiah.

And so I put together all my notes for this. I share it with Katie And I don't think that it made me look impressive. I think it just made me look weird. I mean, because when we finished, seven hours later, it was probably the most confusing Bible study that had ever been taught. And I thought, well, I'm not too sure Katie's going to be thrilled about reading the Bible with me some other time.

But in the day a little later, I could hear her on the phone with her best friend, and she didn't know that I was listening. And she said, I am so thankful to have a man that will read the word with me. I'm so thankful to have a man that will read the word with me. And that's what I remember about that. Not how weird or terrible that Bible study was, but just that my wife appreciated it, and she was such an encouragement to me, despite teaching a very poor Bible study at that time.

And so ladies, I don't care what your husband teaches, how bad the Bible study is, how much it doesn't sound like your pastor at the church. Encourage him. Applaud him. Jesus had the victory over Satan and that means if we want victory over Satan we must put Christ first in our homes. I took this parable from Matthew 12 29 and there's probably a nagging thought in some of your minds, which is this.

This parable is primarily about Jesus, and you're absolutely right, it is. We took some application from this for fathers and husbands in their homes, but This parable is not primarily about men protecting their homes. This parable is primarily about Jesus' victory over the devil. And so to be perfectly clear, hear me when I say this, this sermon is not meant to encourage husbands to take on the devil. If you listen to this and you think, oh, Pastor Scott just got me all fired up, I'm gonna go home and be a demon hunter now, you missed what I'm saying.

This is not meant to encourage men to protect their families by fighting the demonic realm. This is a sermon meant to encourage men to protect their families by putting Christ first. If you want to protect your family, if you want to defend them from the devil, you put Christ first in your home. And you do that by praying with your family, by reading the word with them, by catechizing your children, by having them be active members of a local church. If you want to keep cultural chaos out of your home, you keep it out by putting Christ at the forefront of your family.

You have a Christ-centered home. That is how you keep out the cultural chaos. Now, if there's anything that I shared in this message that you have any questions about. If I could pray for you or be a resource to you in any respect, I would consider it a privilege. I thought I was going to be at the NCFIC booth.

They actually sent up a booth with some of my books over there. So that's where I'll be through the rest of the conference. But look for me there. If I can answer questions, if I can pray with you, I bet my wife will be back there, if we can be a resource for you in any respect, we would consider it a wonderful privilege to have the opportunity to speak with you. Father, we thank you so much for your word, and we see a call on husbands that is so high.

We see one that is so crucial to the health of families, and when we talk about the health of families, we're talking about the health of churches. And when we're talking about the health of churches, we're talking about the health of this country and this world, because healthy families make healthy churches. Healthy, strong churches consist of strong families. And so, Father, if for no other reason, We beg you, we don't just pray, we don't just ask, we beg you to help the husbands in this room to be strong, godly men who protect their families from the cultural chaos around us. And I pray for the wives here and the children that they can recognize that huge burden on their husband or their father's shoulders and be an encouragement to him.

And we ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen. You