In this short message we learn of Scott Brown’s desire to restore biblical family life. He says that restoring biblical family life begins by restoring fatherhood, which starts in the Church, through the preaching of the Scripture as sufficient for all areas of life. He concludes by saying that when a father begins to open his mouth and teach his children the things of the Lord, it changes everything. 

Thank you so much, Tom. What a blessing it is to be able to be here. You know, Tom and I have been really praying about and preaching about recovering biblical fatherhood for many, many years together, particularly through the National Center for Family Integrated Churches. There are about 500 churches that affiliate with us, and our great desire is to proclaim that scripture is sufficient for everything, and it's sufficient for a father, sufficient for a family. And we've had great interest in recovering biblical family life in a time when it has been destroyed.

About 20 years ago, my spirit began to get very disturbed about the state of the family in the church, particularly, I'm a churchman, I'm a pastor. That's where I've spent my whole life. You know, I don't know much about politics, and I don't involve myself that much there, but I have been a person who's spent his life in the church. And I noticed as I was reading scripture that Fatherhood in the church had been destroyed pretty much and in even in even the church that I was going to as well And you couldn't you couldn't find a father in our church that was really doing the things that God commanded fathers to do. And then I read a book by a man by the name of David Blankenhorn called Fatherless America.

It was about 20 years ago. And David Blankenhorn in that book says that you know all the social problems that that are plaguing America today They really go back to broken fatherhood And you know when you have a broken father you have a broken family you have a broken family you have a broken church And when you have a broken church, you got a broken nation. And that was my understanding of what had happened. And it all really goes back to the whole matter. It is scripture sufficient for a father.

And so I started studying the doctrine of fatherhood in the Bible. I really set myself to do it and I began to try to look carefully and preach about the passages of scripture that speak about fatherhood because I felt like you're not going to recover fatherhood in a nation until you recover it in the church. And so, you know, I went back to Genesis 19 where God gives, he actually discloses what the purpose of Abraham's life was. And God says, of Abraham, he says, I have known him in order that he might command his children and his household after him. That was the purpose of Abraham's life.

And you know, I noticed in Genesis 24 where you had a father who tried to find a wife for his son, Isaac, where a father took action to be involved in really the marriage of his son. And I went to Deuteronomy 6, which I discovered was really the flagship passage about fatherhood in the entire Bible. It's the passage that sums up everything that the Bible says about fatherhood. Where you have, you know Moses gathers the fathers of Israel together. And he says, now this is the commandment and these are the statutes and judgments which you're commanded to teach.

And he says, these things you'll teach to your children when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And there Moses is giving a roadmap for every father that he is a dispenser of the gospel of Jesus Christ when he sits in his house, when he walks by the way, when he lies down, and when he rises up. And it's not just information, because Moses says, these things shall be in your heart. So you have a picture there of a father whose heart is burning with the commandments and the statutes of God, and he loves them so much, and he loves his family so much that he speaks of those things when he sits in his house and when he walks, by the way. And I went to Psalm 78 and I saw this remarkable passage of Scripture where Asaph is speaking about fatherhood and he talks about what fathers are supposed to do.

And he starts out, he says, the fathers are to open their mouths in a parable, and utter dark sayings of old. And then, if you go to the New Testament, Jesus quotes that, he says, Jesus says the same thing. He's speaking and he says, I'm saying these things to fulfill what the prophet said. I will open my mouth in a parable. And there in Psalm 78 you find this father, He's so filled up with the knowledge of God and the greatness of God.

And he says that fathers should speak of the great deeds of God and to speak of how mighty and how good God is. So there you've got this father who he's a dispenser of every, he's really a dispenser of the power and the glory and the beauty of God. That's what fathers are supposed to do. And I was, I'm looking around 20 years ago and I'm thinking, This doesn't even really even exist in the church. The place where it's designed to exist and then to flourish and to be like a fountain out into society.

I was reading Psalm 127 and Psalm 128 and the great fatherhood passages of the Old Testament. And then I got to Ephesians chapter six, where God tells children to honor their father and their mother, and to obey their parents, and that fathers wouldn't exasperate their children. In other words, not drive them to anger by their behavior, but to bring them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord. So I entered into a zone of my life where I was pouring myself into these passages of scripture, I realized something had been destroyed, something had been lost in the church and had been lost in the nation. And it really was the whole pattern of fatherhood.

And one of the things that I learned through that time is that fatherhood in the Old Testament is really just a type. It's a type of one thing. It's a type of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who walks with his sons and daughters. Jesus Christ who's a compassionate high priest.

Jesus Christ who opens his mouth and he speaks and he heals and he saves, but he walks by his disciples. That's what Jesus did with his disciples, right? He talked with them when they sat in the house, when they walked by the way, when they were lying down when they rose up. And so the whole matter of fatherhood really is just the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in the world as a father brings the presence of Jesus Christ into his family. And so Tom and I, through the ministry of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, have been working for a long time just to try to recover the whole doctrine of biblical fatherhood and motherhood and womanhood.

How broken is womanhood today? It's just as broken as fatherhood. You know, one of the things that I discovered as I started traveling and preaching around the world is that fatherhood and womanhood's broken everywhere. And it's broken in the same place, by the way. And the reason it's broken is because man has broken God's commandments.

And Satan is not very creative. He works the same in every culture. And what we need today is really the preaching of the word of God and the raising up of biblically ordered fathers and mothers who will lead their families. And I know that's why we're here, to talk about that. But, you know, my interest is that it happens, first of all, in the heart of a father.

And then it happens in a church, where fathers become the kind of men that they're supposed to be. So I'm really, I'm so thankful to be part of this meeting. I know so many of you are working on this in different areas, areas that are really pivotal. My area is the Church of Jesus Christ. And I think I'll spend my days, you know, until they're over on these matters.

There's something really beautiful that happens when a father opens his mouth and teaches the word of God to his children. It changes everything, everything. So there you have it. Tom, thanks for allowing me to come. I'm so thankful for that.