God has orchestrated the world in such a way that the spheres of responsibility and government that he has established are intended to complement one another. Today, often the spheres of the church and of the household are set at odds with one another as if they are in competition. But in fact, God has intended the family and the church to complement one another: the family building up one another to be better church members and to prepare the next generation, and the church is to edify and disciple the family. When we see these coordinating roles we can see the marvelous grace of God in giving his people the blessings of home and church working together to fulfill the mission of God.

Well, we can take a deep sigh of relief this morning in knowing that this is your Father's world and in His kindness, in his everlasting love, he has provided for mankind whom he has created. He in his world has established a number of ways to care for, to nourish, to govern, to comfort, to bless the people that he's placed on the earth. He's provided for them from the day of their birth until the time that he takes them home. Everything that happens in between happens under his great sovereign care. And in the midst of that, he has established very, very interesting ways to care for for human beings.

He has provided many things. He's sent the Holy Spirit. He's established the Church. He's done so many things for mankind. We also can think of it this way.

He's established various governments to care for us in the different phases of our lives. He establishes the home as the nursery of his children. And this is a jurisdiction in which there is government and their responsibilities and their particular things that should happen during this time of home life. He's also established another government, the Church, which also has a head, the Lord Jesus Christ, and also Surrogate heads, in a way, elders and deacons to govern that flock. And then he is also given the civil government.

If an individual isn't functioning very well in the family, or isn't functioning very well in the church, and extreme measures are needed, then he is given the civil government to bring the sword to deal with grievous sins that would be committed by people in this world. So God, in his world, because this is my Father's world, has established ways of caring for human beings. And this morning I'd like to speak about two of those areas, the dual jurisdictions of church and home. These dual jurisdictions operate in parallel. They have similar responsibilities, but they're different in some ways.

And they are separate, but they are also very complementary. And what I want to do this morning is I want to demonstrate that there are 15 ways, at least 15 ways, I'm sure there are far more, that the family is the nursery for the church. And when we get to the 15th, we will see a very extreme example of how important the home is to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I would just like to make it clear that the home cannot be understood apart from the church. For the home is a discipleship community.

And that discipleship community mirrors many functions of the church. And at the same time, nor can the church be understood apart from the home. For the church itself is a household. And what we see in Scripture, when we look at the various functions of both home and the church, that the home is a type of the church, and in some ways the church is a type of the home. For example, the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church.

In that way, a husband plays a mirroring role. Not only is he the head of his wife, he also mirrors the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ to his church. In this way, the home is a type of the church. Here's another example. Children in the home obey their parents in the Lord.

In other words, not only are children obeying their fathers and mothers as individuals in the home, it's a mirror of their obedience to the Lord. You can't disconnect a child's obedience to father and mother from his obedience to God Almighty. If he is disobedient to his parents, he is, by fact of its own nature, disobeying God Almighty. So the church and the home are integral in that way as well. We also see this in the way that wives submit to their own husbands as to the Lord.

So a wife is submitting to her husband in the home, but at the very same time that's that submission is a mirror of her submission to God. Every time a wife submits to her husband, she's declaring that there is a God in heaven that deserves submission and obedience. What a beautiful declaration that is when a wife can humble herself and proclaim to her children and to all of her neighbors and to her husband that God deserves to be obeyed. And so the home is a type of the church. Let me say this as well.

The richness of home life enters into the church. And on the other hand, the deficiencies of home life, the unpaid bills of the home, They finally come due in the church, and they affect the church dramatically, decade after decade after decade. For the deficiencies of home life will be found expressed in the members of the church. Many church problems really just go back to problems in the home. There are disobedient and angry.

There are strikers. There are evil inclinations and lackings in submission, lack of love, lack of kindness toward one another. In the church! Have you ever seen that in the church? Ever seen one person in the church treat another person badly?

Well guess what? It didn't begin there. It began when they were little children, when they did not learn to honor the authorities that were in their lives. They did not love one another from the heart. They were allowed to be phonies in the home.

And then they went into the church and they carried on those same qualities. And so the unpaid bills of the home finally come due in the church. I really appreciate what Samuel Phillips has said. He said, the church gives to home a sacred religious ministry, a spiritual calling, a divine mission. So if you want to build strong churches, you have to build strong homes because they're so intimately interconnected.

And the Bible makes it clear that the home needs the church and the church needs the home because they are so interdependent. And so in this session, I would like to speak about the fact that the home is the nursery for the church and it is also a nursery for heaven, as is the church as well. They play dual and parallel roles for very similar purposes. I'd like to give you two facts about home life. Here's one.

We abuse the family by disconnecting it from the church. We abuse our families when we disconnect them from the church. In doing so, we strip the home of its purpose and its significance and we defeat its role to equip people for church membership. In all of our homes, we are preparing them for church membership, to be members of the body of Christ, to be a bride. And so we abuse the family when we disconnect it from the church.

There are many people who do that today. They become frustrated with the church and then they disconnect. This is a sinful and a wicked practice that should be constantly argued against. The second fact about home life and church life is that we abuse the church by disconnecting it from the family. And in so doing, we strip the church of its purpose and its significance and we defeat its role to equip the family members and to play their roles in society and to prepare them from heaven, and to prepare them for heaven.

It is a fact well established that the home gives the church her members. You know, think of the fact of an undisciplined family on the church. What would be the effect of an out-of-control father and mother or children on the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ? And so what I would like to do this morning is give you a number of ways, a number of illustrations, and these aren't the only illustrations, I'm sure they're more. In fact, please feed them to me if you find more.

I would like to develop clarity on this issue and if you could instruct me I would appreciate it very, very much. But let me give you, let me give you 15 ways that the church and the family are connected. First of all, the home is the place where children first hear the gospel and become familiar with the Bible. This is the place where fathers open their mouths in a parable and utter dark sayings of old and they tell of the great wonders of God and how mighty He is so that their hearts would not fail in any evil day that they face. That their hearts would be fortified by the fact that God is almighty.

That He is perfectly sovereign. That all the hairs of their head are numbered, that he knows all the steps of their feet before they take them, that he has taken all of their tears and put them in a bottle, and that he will finally accomplish all that he has promised toward them. This is the place where children hear the Gospel for the first time in the arms of their fathers and their mothers. Secondly, it's the place where wives are washed with the water of the Word of God. Here a wife is nourished and cherished in such a way that she becomes a blessing and a resource to the other wives and the other young ladies in the church.

When a wife is washed in the water of the Word, There is a veil of contentment and harmony and peace and holy submission that infuses her soul. And the peace of God which passes understanding is emitted from her and she becomes a resource to every fearful, harried woman in the church. And so it's critical that a home is a place where wives are washed by the water of the word. Think of the release of wives like this into the church week after week, on the telephone, in the personal conversations, and in the relationships that are so precious and so, so necessary as the older women teach the younger women. Thirdly, it's the place where children are disciplined in the training and the admonition of the Lord.

God has made it so that children would be taught primarily in their homes. The children are not to be outsourced to other training structures. God has given the training of children to parents. Period. And then there are other nuances to that.

But the overwhelming dynamic period of the training of children happens in the home. And they are brought up in the training and the admonition of the Lord. On the one hand they honor their fathers and their mothers. On the other hand their fathers and mothers are challenged in a dramatic way, not to exasperate their children. And so the sins of fathers and mothers are brought to the surface in this process of training them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord.

The sins of parents are brought to the surface as they are tempted to exasperate their children. The sins of the children are brought to the surface as they are tempted to dishonor their fathers and mothers. And in this way the family is sanctified, again providing more good fruit for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And fourthly, it's the place of child evangelism, where children thrill at the news of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see this in a number of places of Scripture.

How about Acts chapter 10 in the household of Cornelius? Or how about the household of the Philippian jailer saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into the fellowship of faith through the faith of the Father of the household. Fifthly, it's the place where kings are trained. Proverbs 31 is a great illustration of this. Proverbs 31 happened to be the words of a woman, a mother, to her son.

It's the words of a mother to a king. King Lemuel's mother is speaking, and she is training her son how to be a king. And one thing he must do as a king is identify what is a good woman. What is a godly woman? That's the Proverbs 31 woman.

This mother explains how a boy would be a king and she says, kings do not drink wine. So the home is where kings are formed and raised up. Sixthly, it's the place where godly seed is planted and grown. In Malachi 4 we learn the purpose of marriage. What is the purpose of marriage?

Godly seed. God says, I desire godly seed. And so, he has put upon the shoulders of parents to give him what he wants. God wants something from you in your home. He wants godly seed.

Would you give it to him? Would you create an environment? Would you establish a schedule? Would you institute a culture that would bring about this godly seed and make this seed bear much fruit? We all know that it makes a difference how you treat seed.

Some farmers treat seed poorly and their crops show it. Some farmers treat seed as it was meant to be treated And there are bumper crops. But it takes tremendous care and labor. It takes hours. It takes instruction so that one would be knowledgeable enough to raise good seed.

And so it is in the home where godly seed is planted and it is grown. Seventh, it's the place where the curse of God is held off. In Malachi chapter 4, we learn that if the hearts of the fathers do not turn toward the children, God will smite the earth with a curse. And so the home is the place where the curse is held back. So that God would not come in judgment as he did with Sodom and Gomorrah and smite the earth with a curse.

It is in the microcosm of the home that God would look so that he would hold back this curse that perhaps would be so deserved. And seventh, or eighth, it's the place where husband and wife stand together as heirs of the grace of life. It's the place of the demonstration of the love of God and the experiential understanding of grace as a husband and a wife turned toward one another, and they deliver as a gift the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ all lifelong. For it is in marriage where God calls two people together to make a covenant that they would always be a source of grace toward one another. And so God, in caring for his people in such a kind way, would ensure that there would at least be one place in this world where grace and loving kindness would be extended all life long no matter what and that is in a marriage.

And therefore a child can see how the grace of God is communicated in this world. And ninth, it's the place where iniquity is held back for generations. In Exodus 20 we read, God says, For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children of the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. So not only is it a place where iniquity is held back for generations, but it's also the place where blessing is thrown off for generations as well and continue from one generation to the next. Tenth, it's the place of marital unity where children learn of the nature of God and that a house divided against itself cannot stand.

One of the great doctrines that seems to have been lost in the church today is the doctrine of the Trinity. If one doesn't understand the doctrine of the Trinity, one cannot understand love. If one does not understand the doctrine of the Trinity, then you cannot understand marriage. You can't understand the authority and the submission, the love, the honor that exists in marriage unless you understand the doctrine of God. One of the tragedies of the modern church which has refused to teach the doctrines of the faith, particularly the doctrine of God, because it prefers to teach interesting things that are helpful in your life and ignores the great doctrines of the faith, is that you end up with the people that don't understand love.

And so it's in the household that children learn, or at least they can learn, the doctrine of the Trinity. Because the marriage relationship is really a mirror of the doctrine of the Trinity. Eleventh, it's the place of marital love that is an earthly explanation of the love of Christ for the church. The Apostle says, husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her that He might present her to Himself a glorious church. Now, that means that the husband's love for the wife is a mirror of Christ's love for the church.

How would the world know that God loves a sinner? He would give a sinful wife a husband that would love her. Nobody ever gets to marry a perfect wife. We only get to marry sinners. And what will we do with those sinners?

The same thing that Christ has done for us sinners. He covers over our sins. He justifies us by faith. And in a oblique but similar way, a husband loves his wife as Christ loves the church. He extends the same kind of love that Christ has extended to him as a sinner.

And this becomes an explanation of the love of God through Jesus Christ, who shed his blood for all sinners. It's quite possible that there are even people here this morning, some of you have never repented of your sins. You've never experienced the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ says to all sinners, come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. And this is the same kind of love that a husband should give to his wife.

If you have not repented of your sins and embraced the gospel, why don't you do it now? Why would anyone want to wait for the great blessings of the kingdom of heaven? Well, God has given the family to be a place of marital love. That's an earthly explanation of the love of Christ. Twelfth, it's the place of personal growth.

In Luke 2, 41 through 52, we read, And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God and men. These things were happening in the context of his home. He was a son of a father and mother. He had brothers and sisters. And yes, he too is an example of personal growth.

I don't know how to explain how Jesus Christ grew. Maybe some of you do, but this is a very difficult explanation. But we know that it's true that there is a way that even the Lord Jesus Christ somehow he grew in stature in his household with his earthly parents. For 13th it gives the church places. It gives the church households of rare and beautiful treasures.

Proverbs 24 says, by wisdom a house is built, by understanding it is established, by knowledge its rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. And so the home provides the church a household, a place of refuge, a place of hospitality. This outpost of riches. Think of the riches of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The church has riches in her households.

As travelers travel and are cared for there. As children are raised there. As the people in the community come there. They come into a place of riches. And it's a resource of the church because households are formed by the members of the church.

And then 14th, it's the place where sound doctrine is established. In Deuteronomy 6, in Psalm 78, and Ephesians 6, 1 through 4, We learn that the home is the place where sound doctrine is taught. It would behoove the families to deliver doctrinally sound children into the church so that they have heard the word so many times that the accumulation of the doctrine one day after another would be a blessing to their minds and they would bring that into the church so that they too would know how to conduct themselves in the household of God so that they would know that there was a pattern and that they would hold fast to the pattern of sound words that had been delivered to them which have their source in Jesus Christ himself. And so these 14 ways that the church or that the home is a nursery for the church leads us to this 15th one which is of gargantuan importance. This 15th tells us that it is the place where elders are qualified.

The home is the place where elders are qualified. Not only does the home give the church her members, the home also gives the church her elders. And that makes the home a place of tremendous significance for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you can see how wicked it is to separate the Church from the family and to separate the family from the church. Yes, they are separate jurisdictions, but they have enormous impact on one another.

Well, the Bible says that elders must be qualified. And twice Paul says that an elder must be qualified in 1 Timothy 3, 1-7, and then in Titus 1, 5-9. More is written about the qualifications for elders than any other aspect of eldership. And one of the most critical aspects of an elder's qualifications is the quality of his leadership and his family. And this is of particular importance because his abilities in his family prove his fitness for ministry in the church, making a direct connection between the family and church leadership.

So in these two texts of scripture that are given for qualifications of elders, the church and the home are united. There are people who have concerns about you saying that the church and the home are united. Well, if you have any concerns about that, please understand that the home and the church are united at least in these 15 ways that we have just spoken of. We can say quite rightly that the home is the nursery of the church. We could say that it's the factory of church leaders.

It's the place of basic training. It's a cradle. It's a hothouse. It is the boot camp. It's the basic training location for the elders of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, 1 Timothy 3, 1 through 7 is very clear on the answers to three critical questions. One, who is qualified to lead the church? Those who manage their households well. It answers this question as well. How do you prepare yourself to lead the church?

By managing your household well. And thirdly, why is there such a dearth of leaders in the church today? And I would say it's because the families are in collapse. The doctrine of the family has been lost. How important is it that the biblical doctrine of the family has been lost?

It's enormously important because it's in the home where church leaders are built and verified. In today's church pastors don't have much sensitivity to the issues of making for strong homes. I think most pastors really do dearly desire that their homes are strong. I'm confident of that. But pastors in real life, though, don't focus that much energy on training family shepherds.

Because they're so busy hiring other people to do their jobs for them and running a program and cranking the gears of machinery that eclipse this function. And I wish I'd understood this as a young pastor. I always wish that there were better and stronger and more leaders in the church. I wish that there were stronger elders. And how do you get that?

I always thought The leadership pool of the church is razor thin. There never were enough leaders. That's the great problem that plagues all the denominations and all the local churches that I've ever known of. What's the big problem? We don't have the leaders that we need.

That's a crying problem all across our nation, and family integrated churches as well. It's the greatest need of these churches, and it always will be. But how do you fix it? Well, you don't fix it overnight. You fix it decade after decade in your home.

You fix it with a one-year-old. You fix it with a two-year-old. As you're singing the great songs of the faith, and a three-year-old teaching you in the words of doctrine, and four, and five, and six, And the accumulation of knowledge happens. You don't fix this problem overnight. It takes a couple of generations.

Oh, brothers and sisters, deal with this issue in your homes. Be a blessing to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ after you're dead, when your children are there in the church preaching and counseling and helping and being servants of this great and mighty bride of Jesus Christ. It's a good investment. The church will never go away. The gates of hell will not prevail against it.

When you make an investment in the church, you're making an eternal investment. How many of us are making investments in things that will pass away? Well, the church won't. God will not allow the church to falter and fail. Of course, this bride can be scarred and marred, but God will see to it that he will bring her home.

So our Investments are worthy investments in the homes for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me make some observations about this qualification. First, it identifies a skill. This qualification is different from the rest of them. Among the qualifications, this is one which refers to skills.

The other qualifications are all about character. They're all about what this man is like in his heart and in his character. But this one is about his skill. You know, an elder doesn't need to be skillful in business. He doesn't need to be skillful in a lot of areas.

But He does need to be skilled in shepherding his little flock in his home. He creates a certain kind of home. He has a skill. He has an ability to create a certain kind of tangible home life. Hey, by wisdom, a house is built.

How does it happen? There's wisdom that he applies in the day-to-day operations of his household. And in doing so, he fills his house with all precious and pleasant riches. And so it's a skill. It's something he is able to do.

Secondly, it is a startling qualification in view of our culture, particularly in view of the breakdown of the family. All over the world divorce rates are soaring, children are being pushed aside into daycare centers. What will happen to the church when the family breaks down as it is today? Well, if the family fails, where will the spiritual leaders come from? And so it's a startling qualification because of the environment that we live in.

And so how do we deal with this environment? Well, God has given us all authority to build homes for the glory of God. You can do it. You can do it. You have complete authority to do it.

And all you have to do is take the reins and chart the course and break away from this wicked and perverse generation in the way that she's dealing with her families. But hey, it's a scary qualification, isn't it? Because the world is full of church people who were not trained right in their homes. Of course, God has so much grace toward his church that He would raise up from the dust, from those who have had terrible family lives. We know that God's grace is greater than this problem, and that He will raise up those whom He would.

But let's not look through rose-colored glasses and think that we don't have a part in this. We do have a part in this. It's an unusual practice in the modern church as well. It's startling because it's so unusual. How many leaders do you know in the church who were chosen because they fulfilled this family criteria?

How many men do you know who, when they were chosen for leadership positions, were chosen because they were successful in their families? And they also had the other qualities that are there. Of course, one could perhaps manage his household well and fail and some of the other qualifications. But how many pastors inspect this area when they're bringing on another another staff member? How many focus on it strategically and they they work it into the the program of the church to train family shepherds.

How many pastors do you know who put high expectations on the functioning of an elder's family? Well, pastors exert lots of energy. They're wearing themselves out. They are pouring themselves out to build small group leaders, to build Sunday school teachers, to build youth leaders, to build board members, to build Bible study leaders. But very, very few focus very much energy on equipping family shepherds.

And so it's an unused tool in the church, the family shepherd, and something has been neglected to our detriment. Well, How about this? How many elders, how many pastors have their own homes in spiritual health? Can they in good faith tell the men in their church to manage their households well, lest they be unqualified. And so it's ignored by pastors.

And usually it's ignored by pastors because he has to ignore it as God is helping him to preach and to speak and equip to the people. They're sitting in the front row as his wife and his children are off, out of control in another place, being driven and governed by youth culture and not the culture of the kingdom of heaven. And so how can he say anything? How can he open his mouth? Because right there on the front row, that dear little lady, his wife, knows that his household is not in order.

And so how could he even instruct the church to fulfill this qualification? So why is it so important that elders manage their households well? Why is it even in the list of qualifications? What does a family have to do with the church? Or as we say in our modern political discussions, what does character have to do with an office?

What does a man's marriage have to do with the office of the President? Well, the Bible says a lot. And so why is it so important? Well, I'll just give you a number of reasons I believe that it's important. First of all, the church is like a household.

The home is a household where male headship is in operation. The church is also a household in which the male headship is in operation. D. James Kennedy, who just died earlier this year, said, The scriptural mandate remains unequivocal. It calls unmistakably for the headship of the male in the family and in the church, thus setting up a structural connection between the two." And so, the church and the family are governed in the same way.

And so, it's important that a church leader know how to govern and be the head of his family. Because he will find that same kind of relationship in the church. The church is a family. The words brother and sister appear around 250 times in the New Testament. Paul gives Timothy instruction for how these various brothers and sisters should treat one another.

The older women treating the younger women. The older men the younger women. How do the younger boys treat the younger girls? They treat them as sisters. The church is a family.

It's a family of fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and grandmothers and grandfathers spiritually. What a wonderful thing it is that God would add this to us. That He wouldn't be content just to give us our biological fathers and mothers. But he would go far beyond it and he would add many, many more so that there would be a greater depth and breadth and richness and sweetness of his ministry toward us. Because this is my Father's world and he has established also many fathers in the faith for us and brothers and sisters.

And so the family imagery is found throughout the New Testament and it teaches us how we ought to conduct ourselves in God's household, because the church is also a household. You know, The Lord has used many graphic illustrations to explain what this household is all about. He, for example, speaks of the church as his body. It's really interesting. Christ regards the church to be a very, very personal matter.

Here's how personal Christ takes his church. When he is speaking to Saul on the Damascus road, Saul is persecuting the church of Jesus Christ. And what does Christ say to him? Saul, Saul, Why are you persecuting me? He identifies himself with his church.

There are many people who want to disassociate themselves with the church. This is a very un-Christ-like thing. Christ continues to identify himself with his church. And we should too. But Christ takes his body very personally and he says, if you persecute the church, you're persecuting Jesus.

That's the idea. Because the church is His body. Anyone who despises the body of the church despises the body of Christ. You need to understand how serious it is when someone would cast wicked accusations against the church and to treat her poorly. This person is treating the body of Christ himself.

A bride. How about that one? The bride of Christ. After 2, 000 years or whenever Christ returns, Christ will still relate to his church as a bride. After all these years, After all the marrings, after all the failures of the church...

Think of the failures in church history. Jesus still, in the midst of all of our failures, sees us as his bride. You think after 2, 000 years, He would be thinking about the old lady or something. No, absolutely not. The church is not the old lady.

The church is the bride of Christ. The church is also a building, a building of living stones, fitted together, built on the foundation of the apostles. It's a royal priesthood. The Church is a holy nation. The Church is a pillar in support of the truth.

Well, that's what the Church is. Well, how about this? What kind of leader would be necessary to lead a church like this. And the character of the relationships in the church requires an unusual leader. And it's in the home that that kind of leader is built.

If a man can lead his home, he can lead this other amazing thing that is a bride, a body, a building, a household, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. If a man can do that in his home, he can also lead this other thing that's qualified by these beautiful terms. Well, there's another way to look at this as well. It equips a man, home life equips a man to lead the church in a relational way. To lead the church so that love would be the key in the church.

And so think of, here's an example, the one anothers. Church leaders are required to help church members fulfill all the one anothers of the church. There are over 50 of them. What kind of qualities would need to be in a leader to help his people experience the one anothers in the church. How about this one?

Love one another. What kind of leader does it take to help a body of people love one another? Well, that kind of leader is formed up in the church. If he can help his little flock at home to love one another and not to pick at one another and whine and complain and belittle one another, then he can help the church to love one another. David says, you slander your mother's son.

Do you think I don't hear that? That's family gossip. How about a man who can control gossip in his household, who refuses it himself and also helps his wife not to gossip about other family members, to gossip about her mother's son. How would a man learn how to cultivate love in the church? He does it by learning how to cultivate it in his family.

If you want to be an elder and your children treat one another poorly, you need to understand it's your responsibility to help them love one another and to stop whining and complaining. Every time a child whines and complains at a sibling, he's destroying love. And it's a father's responsibility to declare war against it. So that he can make the church, if he becomes an elder, a place of love. Because of his children can't love one another.

How can he help the church and the children of God love one another? Well, how about this love one another? Be of the same mind toward one another. What's that all about? That's all about having the same opinion about everything.

It's about treating one another in the same way that Christ has treated you. That's what being of the same mind is. What kind of leader would it take for that? To help people of diverse views and understandings of doctrine. To still love one another as Christ loved them.

Where would you build a leader like that? You build him at home. Because in a home you have all different ages together, and they have different opinions at different times. Oh, have you ever had a teenager in your home who has interesting opinions about things that are actually contrary to wisdom? How do you help the members of the family love one another when there might be mismatches of belief in a certain area at that given time in their growing maturity?

Or pursue the things which make up for the building up of one another. What kind of leader does it take to make this happen in a church? Well, this leader is built in a home. Or admonishing one another. How do you train a man to properly admonish in the church?

He must learn how to do it in his home. Have the same care for one another. Serve one another. Do not challenge one another. Do not envy one another.

Show forbearance for one another. Regard one another as more important than yourself. Well all of these one another's, it's required of church leaders that they nourish them in the church. And how will they learn how to do it? They will learn how to do it by doing it in their homes first.

If they can't do it in their home, they ain't going to do it in the church. That's the idea. So why is it so important that elders manage their households well? Well, that's one reason. To make the church a place of love as Christ intended it to be.

It's also important because the family is important. It's a critical aspect of God's work throughout history. There is a transgenerational element in the spreading of the Gospel. There's the Father and Son delivery pattern of truth, of the covenants in the Old Testament, and the Gospel in the New Testament. One thing we know is that when God wants to bless the world, he uses a family.

What does he do? He sends Abraham and his family so that his family would be a blessing to all the families of the earth. And then he sends the church, the household of God, into the world to be his eternal family, to bring the gospel to the world. Well, the New Testament teaching on elders covers three major areas of family life. One, his marriage.

He is the husband of one wife. He is demonstrating the love of God that is mirrored in the Trinity. He is one with his wife. He is a faithful husband and he does not have a wandering eye. Next, it's his leadership in the home.

He rules his household well, as we learn from this text of Scripture. He manages his household well. He has his children in submission with all reverence. They are not accused of dissipation or insubordination. So it says in Titus 1.6, he rules his household well.

What does that mean? He rules. The term that the apostle uses here is the term prohistemi. It means to rule, to preside over, to govern, to lead on, to go before, to chart the course. That's what it means.

It means that a man has thoughts and he's implementing. He's doing something about them every day. That's what it means to manage a household. The manager doesn't let his household go in whatever direction it's going. He takes it somewhere.

God has given the government of a household to a father so that he would take it somewhere. If your family is going nowhere, where will you look? Look to yourself, brother, because you are given the responsibility to take your house somewhere. And the evidence of ruling your household well is that he has his children in submission with all reverence. These children have characteristics.

They are faithful children. This means that they are not accused of dissipation or insubordination. There are two kinds of children out there. There are faithful children and there are insubordinate children. Those are the two kinds.

Which kind do you have? If you have insubordinate children, then you cannot be qualified to lead the Church of God. This doesn't mean that all children have to be believers. This is my understanding of the text. A father cannot engineer the salvation of his children.

Only God can do that. But there's a difference between children who are subordinate and insubordinate. That's the issue. They are faithful, pissed off. They are faithful children.

And then they are orderly children. They're not accused of dissipation. They are not an extreme rebellion. That doesn't mean, this doesn't mean that your children are perfectly obedient every single time, 1000% of the time. That's not reality.

That's not what God is talking about. The reason God puts children in homes so that they would continuously grow in their obedience. So when your 16 year old dishonors you, it's not the end of the world, but he must return to honor and obedience. He must return there. So they're faithful and orderly children, And there are two critical conclusions that come from this regarding child-raising.

First of all, your children are the visible evidence of your qualification to lead. And second, fathers are responsible for the behavior of their children. For he must manage his household well, keeping his children submissive and respectful in every way. You know, we have many extreme and terrifying examples in Scripture for the breakdown of a father's rulership of his home. Think of the terrible judgments against Eli and his heritage after him because he did not control his sons.

He would not restrain them. Think of the warning in 1 Samuel 2.29. There are many warnings for this and it's so critical for us that we nurture households so that fathers would manage their households well. Well, not only the management of his children, but also his hospitality. He is qualified by his hospitality.

Caring for a local church is more like managing a family than managing a corporation and therefore hospitality is critical. It's the relational aspect. It's not the structural aspect. It's not the administrative governmental aspect that's being spoken of here. But it's the atmosphere of the home that's an atmosphere of hospitality and welcoming and caring for people who enter into a home.

The home is meant for a center of evangelism, a place of prayer. It's meant for a place of refuge. And so an elder's household must be a house of hospitality as well. Okay, let's back through here some principles for church leadership. I'd like to click through a number of principles that come from this text.

One, God intends his church to be like a family. Secondly, Those who lead the Church must first be tested in their families. And thirdly, if a man can lead his family, he's able to lead the Church of God. If, of course, he is qualified in the other character qualities. And Fourthly, if you want to build spiritual leaders as elders and deacons, then focus on training of family shepherds.

Pastors, elders should be exercising great energy to build family shepherds. And fifthly, one of the reasons we have dysfunctional churches is that we have so many dysfunctional families. Let me give you some benefits of raising up an army of family shepherds. Here are some. It'll reduce the counseling load because the head of the household will be counseling the family members and also counseling the brothers and sisters as they are in their household, and thus relieving them of their terrors and their fears and their sins.

Secondly, it will increase the evangelistic impact of His ministry, exponential results across the generations. In leading one father to Christ, he will perhaps lead thousands to Christ across the generations. He won't see the fruit of his labor, but God sees it all. And someday it will come in. He may not see the bumper crop that's there in motion, But on that great day, God will show it to him.

Number three, it will multiply his teaching output. Instead of teaching one day a week or two days a week, it's several days a week. It's every day of the week. People come to us and they say, so you've eliminated your Sunday school, have you? We say, well, it's not so much that we've eliminated Sunday school, but we've established Monday school, Tuesday school, Wednesday school, Thursday school, Friday school, Saturday school, and a Sunday school as well.

And it will multiply a man's teaching output day by day. It will cause more people to be comforted and encouraged. And then lastly, the proper shepherding of the Church depends on it. If the church ever wishes to have sustainable biblical leadership, then the church needs to get real about the home and take great pains to train men how to manage their households well. And so along with the Apostle Paul, we would say, Hold fast to the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love, which are in Jesus Christ.

I trust that we've seen this morning how much the home needs the church and how much the church needs the home And that the home is a nursery for the Church, giving her many disciples and her leaders. Would you pray with me? O Lord God Almighty, thank you for Your great loving kindness in providing for your people, your creatures, cast on this earth with fatherly affection, giving us households, giving us churches, giving us governments in which we would be cared for all our days. Oh Lord, I pray that you would give us mighty households. I pray that all across this land, you would raise up an army of family shepherds who would shepherd their little flocks in the training and the admonition of the Lord.

And that they would know that you are so good. Amen.