In this audio message, Paul Carrington discusses the topic of how a father is to be priest within his home. He explains that our example is Christ. He is our compassionate High Priest. In this message, he looks at Job 1 and then provides several applications.

Colossians 3:23-24 (NKJV) - "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ."

Well, it's a blessing to be here with you this afternoon. Good afternoon, and hope everyone is doing well. I've got the coveted after lunch time here, so I'm going to be looking out to see who's dozing as I'm going through. If I were Tom, I would have probably put one of these two brothers up, up at this time here, either Carlton or, or my brother who preached earlier and, and kept you awake. But I'm glad to be here and to have my family with me.

It's always a blessing. Well, Tom, Tom gave me an assignment to, to look at the father as priest of his home. And so I'm gonna be looking at that today and it's a really humbling topic when you begin to really evaluate. The more I was studying it, the more I was convicted and saw my own lack in the area of being the priest of my home. And it hadn't always been that case.

I didn't grow up in a Christian home at all. Came to know the Lord at about 20 years old. And it was a number of years ago that we were actually overseas. We were on the mission field and we were working in a really, I would say, rough and tumble environment where the family was entirely decimated. We were working in a barrio or a ghetto of about 20, 000 people and I would go door to door, almost, I can't remember how many times a week, but door-to-door, sit down with folks.

And in an area of about 20, 000 people, there was only one nuclear family that I could remember, a father who was actually there in the home with his family. It was really quite devastating. So we had some friends from Canada, and they sent us a link. And it was the NCFIC website in Spanish. And he said, this will be helpful for you because it's helping deal with fathers and their responsibility.

And I started reading it myself, and my eyes were opened up to, to another world in terms of the role, not just as a father. We have been doing family worship. I've been taking my family to church. All of those things, but the level of intentionality, of being the priest of your home, is what really began to strike on my heart. And so I'm talking to you today, not as someone who's kind of arrived or mastered any of the content.

I'm still on my way, just as many of you are, but so thankful for the way that the Lord has led and the way that he continues to lead. And so as I'm going through this today, you might find yourself asking, how can I do? What seems to be impossible? The bar is just too high. Or this sounds great, but then we go home, or you could even be thinking, oh boy, what's going to happen when I get home?

And your wife gives you that look. I think one of the brothers spoke earlier of the father who can look at his children, and they know something. And you might have a wife also that can look at you and you know something's not quite right or you're not acting in a way that you should be, conducting yourself. And so you might be overwhelmed with so much of what we're hearing. But here's the reality, is that the Lord Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing.

So when we look at all these things, it's not as though we're on our own and that we've got to measure up and do something. It's never been different. When Paul writes and he says, husbands, Love your wives as Christ loves the church. Think about that bar. It's an impossible bar to reach, but yet we aim for that.

And much of what we're gonna be talking today about is following where Scott ended, which was a focus on Christ, and then we're gonna be looking at Job. But really, the root of the priesthood of the Father, it is rooted in him, in Jesus Christ. He has made us kings and priests and our entire priesthood as believers. What that means when he says that we're priests is that it means that we have bold access to the throne of God. What a wonderful, wonderful thing that is.

And it's his most basic office. When you think of Christ as prophet, priest, and king, It's really the most basic thing for him to be the priest. And Charles Spurgeon, he put it like this, he says, he is first priest before he is king. Jesus reigns because he died. For the suffering of death, He is crowned with glory and honor.

And so when we think of our priesthood, we look to Christ as that compassionate high priest. And I love how Hebrews puts it for us. It says this, that when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high." And then chapter 4 goes on to say this, seeing then, and this is how we ought to see ourselves, this is how we draw encouragement and example. It's not only encouragement but encouragement and example. This compassionate high priest says this, seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So let's look to the Lord, to this one who has brought us before the throne of grace. Let's call upon him now. Lord, we come before you so thankful that you hear us when we call, Lord.

You're so faithful to us. We thank you for all that you've taught us even this morning and last night. And we pray that these words would lodge deep in our hearts, Father. We pray now that as we discuss this topic of our priesthood as fathers in our homes, Lord, that we would have our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ. Lord, please help me and help each one of us to come away with a deeper sense of our duty and role as fathers, as husbands, that we would give you all the glory and all the praise, Lord.

We do thank you in Christ's name, amen. Amen. Well, today in terms of looking at the father as priest of the home, I'm just gonna be taking us through three kind of things. I'm gonna be looking at Job, Job chapter 1, verse 1 to 5. And then we're gonna be talking about impediments or obstructions to what it is that a father wants to be a priest, but what are the things that are holding him back?

And then we'll talk about some of the applications. But When we look at Job 1-1, and if you have a Bible, you can open up there. Here's a man, if you want to get a picture of who Job is. He existed before Abraham, many would argue. He lived more years than Abraham, But yet he wasn't of Abraham in the sense that he was not a Hebrew, he wasn't of Israel, he was a man that wasn't a part of the Levitical priesthood because he existed hundreds of years before that was instituted.

But he was a priest nonetheless. And when you look at the family priesthood, where is it rooted? It's not rooted in the Levitical priesthood, in the Mosaic Covenant. But when you go back, really the first instance of where we see a man offering sacrifices might be Noah. And then you see other men like Abraham and of course his sons and of course Job himself.

We're gonna be looking at him today. But what that tells us is that this idea of a father as priest transcends every age. Right, it's not something that was instituted just at the time of Moses, but way, way, way in advance of that. This idea of a father being the priest of his home was established. And of course, we're gonna be talking about what Job did.

We know on this side of Calvary, there's no more sacrifice for sin. But the role of leadership, responsibility, and care for those within our household still exists, just as it always did. And so the Puritans would say this, that every Christian household is to be a household of faith, every father, a priest, in his own family. So let's read verses one to five of Job one. This is what it says.

It says there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Also, his possessions were 7, 000 sheep, 3, 000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East. And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

So it was when the days of feasting had run their course that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job regularly." And so what do we find when we look at that first verse of Job 1.1? We get this description of a man who is living in a land that we don't know all that much about. There's no genealogy.

But what we learn is that we find a man who feared God and he hated or shunned evil. And this, to me, when we think of the father as being the priest of his home, is the most important element. It's to deal with character, and this is so important. If you take nothing away, think of and ask yourself, what's my character? Who am I?

You know, reputation is what others think about you. But character is who you really are when no one is looking, when you're by yourself. As we heard earlier, corem deo, before the face of God, whether you're on this side of the country or that, whether you're in this hotel room or that, whether you're at the office or wherever you are, it's this idea of wholeness that you've got this sense that you fear God. And this is what this man possessed and it's built incrementally. And this is not to say that Job was perfect in the sense of sinless perfectionism.

He was a man, later on we find out, he says, for I know that my redeemer lives. He's not a man who's claiming to be perfect or when God describes him as though he's perfect, but what that perfect means is a sense of wholeness and integrity. And so this is critical. What are the notes or distinguishing marks of a priest of his home? Well, it would be that first thing that you have, integrity.

And someone said it like this, that integrity can be understood as the actions that count most that are usually seen by the fewest people. No one sees them, and it's usually in your family or when you're by yourself before the eyes of God, and to fear God. Isn't this one of the most lacking components in our churches today? There's very little fear of God. Very, very little of it exists in our world today, even in the church itself, where men somehow think that they escape the gaze of God, when that's never the case.

And so God reigned in this man's heart. He respected his commands. And to prove that, he also shunned evil as well. He shunted it himself. He shunned it in others.

He dreaded even the thought of falling to sin and offending his God. He hated that idea, that concept. And so here's what we wanna remember and think about is this, is that Job's character, it flowed from a God-centered devotion. That's really who this man was. It was all flowing from God to him.

And a lot of times we try to get it backwards and try to fix our families and do other things, but it's our character as we are before God that is most important. It's like a cup or a river that's overflowing. And so A question for us as men today is, how does it stand between you and God today? Not when we're gathering in a group like this, but when you're at home or when you're by yourself. What is your character really like?

How would your family describe your relationship with sin in the world? How would your wife describe that one if she were to be asked that question? Really important questions to ask. Again, we're not looking for sinless perfection, but are Any men here today simply at ease with sin? Or any of us here today kind of don't really feel all that much discomfort with the world and worldliness, or maybe it's a diminishing discomfort.

Where before you used to hate things. Now, you know what, kind of embrace them and bring them close to your bosom. Because character is built incrementally, right? But also a man can fall by degrees as well and the things that you once hated you can begin to tolerate and then accept and then embrace. And if that's one way the devil is undermining the church and undermining this concept of fatherhood, it's incrementally not kind of this radical, gun to your head, deny the Lord.

But it's a step by step degradation and declension that often happens in our hearts. So we don't want to take things for granted, even in a Christian conference like this, I don't want to presuppose that every man in this room knows the Lord. That's between you and God, but have you met him and are you living for him? Here's a man, Job, who feared God and he hated evil. Do you fear God?

And do you shun evil when it presents itself and it continues to present itself? And hopefully today, as Scott Brown was talking, there aren't any fathers here that are looking for that silver bullet to patch up the family, to just improve kind of the externals, but we understand that anything that will come that is good will flow from God to the man in terms of his character and his love and devotion for God, and then from there flow down into other areas of his life. It's not anything opposite of that. And so why is character so important? Well, we lead from who we actually are.

And our priesthood largely has to do with our concern for God's glory and our hatred for sin. If you think of the idea of the priest, what was Jesus Christ, if nothing more, in terms of his ministry, than one who had the highest regard for the glory of God? And on the other hand, what is his name? You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. He hated sin.

He died for sin so that we could be set free. And so oftentimes when I'm out preaching and speaking even in the streets, almost without fail, what do I do? I run into somebody, a young person, and what do they tell me? I grew up in a Christian home, but now they've totally abandoned faith. They're atheists, agnostic.

They not only have just wandered slightly astray, but they've turned back and they've spat in the face of what their parents professed but didn't live. And what they'll often tell you is the level of hypocrisy that existed in their homes. And oftentimes, particularly with the father, was the thing that just told him this thing isn't real at all and they abandoned the whole thing altogether. And so a father's life should match his profession as much as possible because he's been freed from the bondage of sin. A man ought to live a life that proclaims that Jesus is Lord.

That's really so critical and so important. And most of you know this because you lead again from that example. And Paul says this, he tells Timothy to keep a close watch on yourself and also on your teaching. These things are important. So I just want to point out when we look at Job 1, 1 to 5, you see this flow from a man and his character.

And then what does it mention next in verse 2 and 3? And then down to 4 and 5. We'll talk about those things, but verse two gets to his family. Verse three talks about his possessions. Verse four is his actual priestly activity.

And when you try to implement priestly activity before you deal with verse one, all you're gonna do is breed a bunch of hypocrites and young people that at the end of the day hate God. Maybe well-behaved and moral, but they do not have a love for God. So let it come from our hearts first. And so in verses 2 to 3, we hear about Job's family. It doesn't really mention his wife, but we know he has a wife, of course.

And it talks about his 10 children, seven boys and three girls. And this comes before his possessions. Notice that, right? It's his character, and then it's his family, and then his possessions. And you think of a man like this in verse three, the massive amount of wealth that this man has.

He's described as the greatest man in the East. And in our world today, this man would have been regarded like a multinational CEO. I mean, he would have had interests in all parts of the world, perhaps. You know, right now there's a big discussion going on in the business world that Jeff Bezos, who's the CEO of Amazon, is getting close. He's only $4 billion away from surpassing Bill Gates as the richest man in the world.

It's this race for accumulated wealth. There's a statement in the world, he who dies with the most toys wins. That's how men gauge who they are. But that wasn't Jove at all. In fact, this is what he said.

He said this, if I have made gold my hope, this is later on in chapter 31. If I have made gold my hope or said to find gold, you are my confidence. If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great And because my hand had gained much, this also would be iniquity, deserving of judgment, for I would have denied God who is above." So he has this great household. He has all of these possessions. But his key interest was to carve his name on hearts, not on marble, not on possessions, but on the hearts of his own children.

And we're gonna see that momentarily. And think of all the demands of a man who has 10 children. He's got a wife, He's got all of these possessions, all of this great household, and yet we notice his priority. And a question to ask yourself is, oftentimes men demure from their responsibilities. Why?

Because they've just got too much going on. But a man like this who had more going on than perhaps most of us or all of us combined made sure that his priority was upheld, which was to fear God and then to disciple his family. And these things are so critical. And in verse 4, it talks about this atmosphere. And we don't know a whole lot about its children, because we know, obviously, in the first chapter, all of them are taken away.

Their lives are taken away. But how do you prepare your children for life? This is not something you can outsource. This is not something that you can just kind of give off to somebody else. But the primary responsibility of preparing your children for life is to the father.

And so here's a man who, unfortunately, again, their lives were cut short. But they could not help but being impacted by this man's love for God. And it seems like all of them were set up, each in their own homes, at least the seven boys. Each of them had their own household. And perhaps each of them had an interest in their father's business.

Again, we don't get too much detail. But what's key is that this man's character, you can guarantee, was having an impact on his children. And you see this kind of close-knit family here, where on their day, whether that was their birthday or some other event, it would say that they would have each other over. Even when they left the home, this close-knit, multi-generational view seemed to be upheld, where they would have each other over, spend time together, and all of that. And it seems like, again, a lot of times we can think of this priesthood as just this rigid, almost killjoy picture.

But it seems like they had a very good, free atmosphere where God was most likely honored and in some cases perhaps people you know as you know when you're young you can kind of get carried away and Job was careful for that but it seems like there was a beautiful atmosphere among his children at least that carried over even when they left the home and so we want to make sure that we're intentional in our fatherhood. And so we're dealing with this man, again, who's the greatest man in the East. But what would you say about men like you and I, or men that might not even be socially at a certain level, or regarded much in a society? Well, I wanna just read something from the father of a man who wrote quote, the greatest missionary story ever written. And this father, his name was James.

He was a father of about 11 children, and he lived in Scotland almost 200 years ago. And all he was was a lowly stocking maker in a tiny little village. And after each meal, this father would go into the closet for prayer. But here's what I want you to see is that his son, 40 years later, wrote, again, the greatest missionary biography ever written. And this is what he has to say of his father.

By the way, this man's name is John G. Payton, who was a missionary to Vanuatu in the 1800s. And this is what he says of his father 40 years after. He says this, though everything else in religion were by some unthinkable catastrophe to be swept out of memory, were blotted from my understanding, my soul would wander back to those early scenes and shut itself up once again in that sanctuary closet and hearing still the echoes of those cries to God would hurl back all doubt with the victorious appeal he walked with God. Why may not I?

How much my Father's prayers at that time impressed me I can never explain nor could any stranger understand when on his knees and all of us kneeling around him in family worship he poured out his whole soul with tears for the conversion of the heathen to the service of Jesus and for every personal and domestic need, we all felt as if in the presence of the living Savior and learned to know and to love Him as our divine friend. Isn't that an amazing, beautiful testament 40 years later? And if you've got an eight year old today or a ten year old, what will that eight year old say when he's 48? Or that ten year old daughter say when she's 50, when she recalls back the days looking at her father. How would you describe how he led in the home?

Would it be he was the great, oh he told the best jokes or he could throw that ball or would it be his spiritual concern and his desire to uphold God and pass on the beauty of God to the next generation. That was what this man is recalling 40 years later. And so we've got the greatest man in the East, Job, and a lowly stocking maker 200 years ago in a little town in Scotland. See, God can use whoever to bring about great things for his namesake. And his son did a wonderful work for him.

And so those who persist in this whole idea that the father is priest of his home is just something that's a misapplication of scripture, the question is, show an alternative. Where would you derive your idea of the father being leader of his home? Or where would you point to the father's role? It makes absolutely no sense. The scriptures are so plain that the father's role is laid out all the way from the beginning right into the end in the New Testament, in the New Covenant as well.

And so in Job 1.5, we finally see his priesthood on display. And this would be a picture, not of everything that he did as a righteous man, but as a picture of, or a sliver of what this man would do. It's as though the author is just giving you one little tiny insight into a man's life to demonstrate his priesthood and his acts on behalf of his family. And this is what it says here. It talks about the fact that he offered these sacrifices for his children.

And where does he get this desire to be the priest of his home? Again, we talked about his character. But it's not just character. He understood the word of God. Even when there was no testaments necessarily written, somehow he was able to say this, that I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

And it seemed as though he had eaten and hoarded up all of God's words and wanted to apply them in every single area of his life and then have that cascade down to his children. And we can learn so much, again, that this man had a heightened consciousness of sin. He wasn't casual with sin in any way. And so he made intercession for his children. It says this, that he would send and sanctify.

This is obviously the role of a priest offering sacrifices. Again, he wasn't a Levite in any way. But he would rise up early in the morning to do this. Burnt offerings were instituted shortly after the fall. And of course, again, we know that our sacrifice is in Christ.

But this man would rise up early in the morning after all the hubbub had died down and he would take care, first thing, to make an offering for sin. See how careful he was that sin wasn't just allowed to have free course in his family. And it says, according to the number of them all. And I was looking at this, and I thought this is so interesting. We have six children, and it's amazing how different every single child is.

And a good thing to ask yourself as a father is, do you know your children individually? What are their tendencies? One might have a certain temptation or be going on this trajectory or that path or that path. And as fathers, we ought to know that and have a sense of, hm, what's going on with that one? And here's a man who would do it for each of his children.

There's this intimacy there. And the most beautiful thing, I thought, that came to me when I was looking at this is that he was concerned lest any of them had cursed God. Where? In their hearts. The father's primary interest is not in externals, and it's not in good behavior.

It's not in, I just want my family to just sit around and memorize scriptures or give nice speeches. But his primary interest was heart religion. If you don't have heart religion as a dad, how in the world are you gonna promote heart religion in your family? It will never happen. And so heart religion was his primary interest.

See, lest they had cursed God, not with their lips, but in their hearts, maybe blasphemed God or made light of God or thought light of God, and he was so interested that they wouldn't do that. Well, what kind of life was he living intentionally before them, if he was interested in even their thoughts being rightly directed towards God. Do you see that? How important and how serious this man took sin? And then it finally says this, thus did Job regularly.

There's this idea of consistency. It wasn't weather dependent. He wasn't one of those dads that if he had time in the afternoon, he would do it. But even though he was running a multinational organization, This was the first interest of his heart, that God would be glorified in his family and in everything that he set his hands to do. And so this is what Spurgeon says, I love this, he says, if you do not die to sin, you shall die for sin.

If you slay not sin, sin will slay you. Dad or young men or young ladies, do you have a casual relationship with sin? Remember when the Israelites entered the land and instead of destroying all the ites of the land, they made alliances with the ights of the land. And before long, what happened? They ended up being enslaved by the ights of the land.

And so many of us can have such a kind of a comfortable view of sin that we don't actually hate it and destroy it. We've got some alliance going on. Well, this man was not interested in that whatsoever. And so I wanna just take some time on closing talking about impediments. So we've talked about Job and his character and desire that it would cascade down from him to his children, I'm sure, to every area of his life.

You read chapter 29, and it talks about a man involved in every area of society. He says, I broke the teeth of the wicked. Is this a man who's just kind of limp-wristed, hiding in the back. I mean, he says, when I saw the wicked abusing and oppressing, I broke their teeth. He's on the front line doing what he can to relieve oppression.

But what are some of the impediments or obstructions that men can face today as they think about this idea. Because we all see this. We know what we should do. But what are the things that are holding us back from actually doing them? Well, I just want to talk about four.

And you can think about your own personal life. These are ones that I was thinking about for myself. And you can think of ones that apply for yourself. But I think the first one, or not necessarily the first one, but number one that I'll deal with here, is culture sway. The sway of our culture today, if you think about the warfare that's being relentlessly waged, this campaign to destroy the family, a lot of the times we ourselves can be so affected by it, because culture is kind of the water that we're swimming in, right?

Just like a fish doesn't know it's wet. Sometimes we can just be in the culture, and it's a normal thing, because that's what we live in. We breathe it in. We drink it in almost every single day. And so in our day today, what is a father?

Well, at best, he's a supplier of credit cards and car keys. That's what the world will tell you. Put food on the table, and that's the standard, At best, at best. At worst, when you think of media and how it portrays the father, he's a bumbling fool. Where his sophisticated wife and his sarcastic daughter rolls her eyes every time dad makes a statement And he's kind of just relegated to the den where all he does is watch football.

And has as little interest and interaction with the family as possible. He's kind of just relegated there. Just do your job, put food on the table, if that. But we'll take care of the rest of that. And this is how one observer put it, a secular observer, speaking of fathers in terms of how they're portrayed.

He's outwitted by his children. He's the target of condescending eye rolls from his wife. He's a dumb, incompetent, sometimes even selfish oaf, but his family loves him anyway. That's how the world describes dads today. And dads can almost be like in the days of Malachi.

You remember how in the days of Malachi, the priests had become so profane. They were allowing anything to be offered on the altar, as long as just keep religion going. And that's kind of the idea today. We can so lower the standard, the bar, of what it is to be a father, just like they did in the days of Malachi, when there's a higher standard that God is calling us to. And so we're spending more time as dads, by all indications.

We're spending more time with our children. But on the same hand, mothers are now outside of the home more than they ever were. So you've got this problem that's just exacerbated even more and more. But the important thing I just want to make clear here is that Job, he was living, if you think about it, perhaps in the time when the Tower of Babel maybe had just been the work had ceased and the people had been dispersed across the whole earth. That might have been the time, Genesis chapter 11, before we get to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12.

Well, that would have been his culture. But the beautiful thing is this, that Job wasn't dictated to by his culture. He lived above because he was living for God. And that's our responsibility and our role. Well, what's another impediment?

Not only the world and the sway of our culture, but another impediment we might consider is selfishness. And I know for me this can be one of the greatest, greatest impediments. It's this idea like pride and unbelief. It's this root sin that can take over and sift into every area of our lives. It's a terrible thing.

It's this idea of self-absorption and love of ease. And when I was thinking about this, think about Job and then compare him with what we read in Proverbs 24. And I just want to read this little, this picture, if you will, that Solomon put together. He says this, I went by the field of the lazy man and by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding and there it was all overgrown with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles, its stone wall was broken down.

When I saw it, I considered it well. I looked on it and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. So shall your poverty come like a prowler, and your need like an armed man. And this is dealing with laziness, this is dealing with sloth.

But really, what this is really discussing is this is an idea of a man who is doing something other than what he ought to be doing. That's really the picture. A man who's caught up with diversions and distractions, running here and there and everywhere, or just kind of living for himself. And one of the greatest ways to undermine your own family as a priest of your home is to simply be so absorbed with your own interests. And you think of this picture of walking by, even on the way here this morning, we're driving by these palatial homes.

I don't know what area that is, but massive, massive homes, well-kept lawns. But you can compare, you know that's been maintained. But here's a, here's something, a description of a property. When you look at it, slowly over time, somehow a stone fell off, and it was never put back on. The weeds began to grow, they were never trimmed.

And this is how families are undermined slowly and without oftentimes just a cataclysmic event. It's just fathers just folding their hands, a little slumber, folding of their hands to sleep as they pursue diversion and distraction, things that will not profit. And this is one of the grave dangers. We're destroyed and overthrown, not because we don't have good intentions, but because of neglect and true vigilance in doing what we ought to do. So we've talked about those two areas of the world.

We've talked about this idea of selfishness. Well, the other one I was just thinking about is this man by the name of Eli. And if you think about Eli in 1 Samuel, here's a man who was a priest. He was the high priest, he was a judge. And unfortunately, what did he do?

He winked at sin in his own family, worldliness in his own family. And there's no doubt about it that this man likely, he instructed his children, he probably did catechism with them as the high priest. He probably led them in song and did all of these things. But really, he's a man who could be described as a permissive father. He's the opposite of Job.

He's a man who just kind of took his hands off the wheel and said, hey, you know, I turned out OK. My kids should be all right as well. That kind of permissiveness. Or maybe it could have been other areas in his life that he was also himself enslaved. And when you're a father and you're enslaved in something, what is the big scourge in our world today?

With the internet, things like pornography that's so pervasive. If a father is enslaved, by virtue of that, how is he gonna respond when his children are enslaved? He's gonna back away and not really have a serious view of sin because he himself understands how enslaved he is to sin. And it cuts the father off at his knees when he's a slave to sin. May God deliver from this scourge that's happening not out there but oftentimes in the church.

Well, his failure was not because he raised unregenerate children. Samuel also had unregenerate children, the prophet Samuel. It wasn't that he had unregenerate children, but it was because he failed to restrain them when he could have. He gave them a good talking to. You ever done that?

I've done that in error. You know, your kids, you know they've done wrong and they deserve the rod, but you give them a good talking to. But that isn't necessarily what's going to curb sin. And when you're a permissive dad, you're just digging a hole that's gonna get deeper and deeper and slay you in the end. And this is how the prophet came to Samuel.

It says this, then the Lord said to Samuel, behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. Can you imagine hearing news so bad that your ears begin to tingle? That's what this man is saying to Eli. In that, or to Samuel. In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end, for I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows.

Do you see that? The iniquity which he knows because his sons made themselves vile and he did not restrain them. And therefore I have sworn to the House of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering." And so what was his grave crime? In a word, it was indulgence. We ought not to be indulgent, Father.

Again, think about Job, and then compare with Eli. Figure out where do you fall on this spectrum, because you're somewhere in between. And we need to take sin seriously. Again, you see the beautiful example of Job, lest or maybe my children, he's not accusing them, maybe they have cursed God in their heart. We have a compassionate high priest that can go and just lay down the law, just act like a madman in destroying sin in his home.

That's not the way to deal with it. We have an example in Jesus Christ, but at the same time we aren't to take sin lightly at all. Let's not fall asleep, especially as we get older like Eli. And so the last one I just want to talk about, the impediment, is where are you looking? And Scott Brown, he talked about this.

And this is really probably the most important area, is that if you're looking to the things of this world, then your eyes aren't looking to Jesus Christ. Have you lost sight of the prize himself, Jesus Christ the righteous? This is the most important thing for us, is that we keep our eyes fixed on him. If he came to save from sin, let's not be the ones to coddle sin. Let's not be having laxness of sin within ourselves and excusing it within our homes but but taking it seriously.

And so We want to make sure that we're constantly looking unto Jesus Christ, the author and the finisher of our faith. And we want to make sure again, the love that holds everything together in our priesthood as fathers is love. Love is the greatest description of really what the priesthood of Jesus Christ represents. There's not this harsh overlord, but a love that ministers and serves within the family. And we want to lead to Jesus Christ, not simply lead people and children to morality.

That would be the greatest travesty at the end of the day. That they be led to be moral, but not led to Jesus Christ. May God help us and save us from that. We don't want to put a new coat of paint on an old house, but may the Lord save our children. That's my great prayer when I pray at home or when we gather together even before putting them to bed.

Lord, would you save? Would you save? I don't want them to understand that they can just kind of somehow scoot over or under the fence and be in the church of God without being truly saved and knowing him. And so just in terms of application, a couple of things just to think about. There's two that I just want to talk about from a theological standpoint.

And we've just talked about it really is that we want to lean on Christ. This message today is not you need to be like Job, but you need a new and better job Who is Jesus Christ? That's really at the end of the day. I need that and you need that don't just be like job But look to the better job Jesus Christ himself And that's where the fountain really flows for all of us. We want to make sure that we're looking to him.

And then of course we want to fear God and hate evil and also live with a transcending purpose in our lives. We heard about it earlier this idea of multi-generational and you're if you're a first-generation Christian like I am, my wife is, you want to see the beginnings of something that maybe the Lord would have go on for three, four, five generations long after we're gone. But we're living and trying to implement things that if God helps us, that God who takes pleasure in using means, that he would somehow make that come to pass. That's really one of the great desires of our heart, but we wanna make sure that we fear God and hate evil. And then in terms of application for practical perspectives, understand, Dad, that no other person is going to impact your family more than you, for good or for ill.

And a practical application for wives you might want to consider, even though we're talking to dads, is don't crush your husbands. And for children, honor your father and your mother. It's hard. It's hard. But with the help of God and children having an understanding that it isn't easy, it's a wonderful encouragement.

But here's what I would want to just end with here. The best thing I ever implemented in our family I think would be family worship. We started doing, I don't know how many years ago, maybe 10, 12, I can't remember. And we would gather, it was at first started just once a week and I thought wow, this is wonderful. On Thursday evenings, we'd gather.

And I think later we went to every single day, maybe 10 years ago or something. But it's the most beneficial thing that we've ever implemented. And not only family worship, but prayer. We've talked about that as well, that We want to make sure that we're making supplication and praying for our wives and for our children. We want to take advantage of the means of grace, taking our children to church.

And I just want to leave you with one picture in closing as we head off here and end off. You want your children to see that the church is central to you. You don't want it to just be something you go to when you have time. And I would just ask you, do your children see this in you, that the work of God, the church of God, the bride of Christ is central? Well, here's a wonderful picture.

Again, I'm going back to John G. Peyton, and this is what he said. Speaking of his dad in church attendance. They lived four miles away. They lived in a town called, I can't even pronounce the name, but They would go to church about four miles away.

And he'd have to walk. And oftentimes the weather was so bad that they couldn't get there, or someone was sick, or there was some other issue. And here's what John G. Peyton says of his dad 40 years later. He says, during all these 40 years, my father was only thrice prevented from attending the worship of God, once by snow so deep that he was baffled and had to return, Once by ice on the road so dangerous that he was forced to crawl back on his hands and knees after having descended it so far with many falls.

And once by the terrible outbreak of cholera at Dumfries. Here's a faithful father. Can you imagine all these 11 kids, nose pressed up against their cottage window, looking out and seeing their dad trying to crawl out of their driveway or out of their little roadway up to the key road? And he couldn't get up because of the ice. But such was his passion to serve God and do what he could to honor God.

And so I leave you with that picture because 40 years from now, what's the picture that will be implanted and embedded in our children's hearts? May God help us. Let's pray. Father, we come before you and thank you for your patience and care for us, Lord. We thank you for our great high priest, the compassionate high priest, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Lord, thank you for your goodness. We pray that you would help us as fathers. We pray that you would help us to be priests in our home and to love you with all our hearts, oh God. Fill us with deeper love. Keep us from evil.

Help us to fear you and to shun the ways of this world and to overthrow all of the impediments, Lord, that come up and crop up and attack us from all different angles, Lord. We so need you today and pray your hand of mercy would be upon us, Lord. Thank you for this conference and for this time we can spend before you in Christ's name, Amen.