In the sermon titled 'Jephthah and His Daughter: A Father's Role and a Daughter's Obedience,' Kelly Jennings discusses the importance of fathers being actively involved in the lives of their daughters amidst a cultural backdrop that often blurs traditional gender roles. The speaker references the biblical story of Jephthah from Judges 11, using it to explore the roles and responsibilities of fathers and daughters. Jennings emphasizes the need for fathers to follow Christ's example by embodying the roles of prophet, priest, and king—leading, protecting, and nurturing their families. He notes that men should be cautious of what they consume digitally as it can impact their relationship with their daughters. The sermon also highlights the obedience and honor demonstrated by Jephthah's daughter, emphasizing the importance of daughters being committed to their father's leadership, provided it aligns with God's word. Lastly, Jennings stresses the significance of repentance for fathers when they fall short, urging them to model this behavior for their children.

Good evening everybody. Good. This, I just want to start by saying like this is truly a blessing to my soul to see fathers together with their daughters. As I think about it, like where I grew up and where I came from, you didn't see things like this. And as I think about our society and where we are now, I don't think there's a more pertinent time for fathers to be involved in the lives of their children, and even especially their daughters.

We live in a culture where we're telling daughters that they're basically, to be men, to you can be the same thing that your brother can be, or you can do the exact same thing that he can do. And when I say that too, I like to be very careful in that. And I'm not saying from a value point, because yes, from a value perspective, men and women are of equal value. But when we talk about roles, God has made it clear, a clear delineation of the roles of men, women, sons, and daughters in scripture. And so to see fathers and daughters together here just, it melts my soul because I think it's one of the greatest things, especially for our society.

Now, like I said, we're going, you can be what you can do what he do and all what he does. And so I tell, I joke with my wife sometime where I think our society is gonna get to a point to where, or we're moving towards a point where husband and wife are gonna be in the house, hear something rambling downstairs, they're gonna look at each other and the husband's gonna look at the wife and say, hey babe go check that out. But I'm like that's the trajectory that we're on, where we know, we look scripturally, that it is a man's role to protect his family. But we're now men fighting women, and these things are kind of really getting out of hand, but yet it's being celebrated in our culture. So I love where we're going with this conference here in the name of what we must be.

The reason I love this name, because that means we don't get to pick and choose. We don't get to float with culture to say, oh well this has changed and I feel like this and I feel like that, but what does the Word of God say? And because I'm a Christian and because the Word of God sets that standard, I can never look at my wife and say, hey babe go check that out. That is my job to get out of bed to go to defend my house and to make sure that things are being held together in that way. And so my job here today as Mr.

Scott said is I want to just look at a little bit of scripture here and see if we can pull some things out to kind of dig into the roles of fathers and daughters. All right and so if you have your Bibles with you turn to Judges chapter 11 and I want to put a footnote here because yes Judges chapter 11 we're looking at Jephthah Most of us here know the story of Jephthah, know that with this text too, there can be some difficulties in the understanding of this text. I want to be very clear on what I'm attempting to do today, this evening. I am not attempting to exegete the text to go in to say this is what this means. My job in looking at this is to take this narrative and say are there biblical principles for a New Testament believer to say what can I pull from that to look as a father on what I must be?

As a daughter, can I look at this story? What can I glean from this biblical truth to say, what must I be as a daughter? That is my goal. Now, as far as what this text is meaning, whether the vow was legitimate or not, I'm gonna lob that over to Mr. Brown and Mr.

Davenport, or you can talk to me later on that, and we'll talk about my view, but That's not my point. That's not what I'm trying to make here. And so with that said, I'm going to take Judges chapter 11. I'm going to pull verses here because it is kind of long and with the time I have, I don't have time to read the whole thing, but I'm going to summarize it in a few verses as I can to just kind of set the backdrop and then look at it, talk about it on how we can, what we can glean from it. So, Judges 11, verse one.

Now Jephthah, the Gileadite, was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah. Verse 4, after a time the Ammonites made war against Israel, and when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah from the land of Tab, And they said to Jephthah, come and be our leader that we may fight against the Ammonites. Look at verse 9. Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, if you bring me home again to fight against the Ammonites and the Lord gives me over to give them over to me, I will be your head." Verse 11, so Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead and the people made him head and leader over them.

And Jephthah spoke all these words before the Lord at Mizpah. Now into verse 15, Thus says Jephthah, Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. And then Jephthah basically summarizes kind of what Israel did going through the territory. And then we're going to hop down to verse 20. But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through the territory so Sihon gathered all his people together and encamped at Jahez and fought with Israel and the Lord the God of Israel gave Sihon and all his people into the hand into the hand of Israel and they defeated them.

So Israel took possession of the land and the Amorites who inhabited that country. And then Jephthah basically asks some pertinent questions, a series of questions, and comes to the conclusion in verse 27, I therefore have not sinned against you And you do me wrong by making war on me. The Lord, the judge decide this day between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon. But the king of the Ammonites did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him. Verse 29, then the spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah and Jephthah made the vow to the Lord and said, if you will give the Ammonites into my hand then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord's and I will offer it up with the burnt offering.

So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them and the Lord gave them into into his hands. And as we know Jephthah goes home, his daughter comes out, He basically tells her of how she's brought him low because she's the first to come out because of the vow that he made Look down at verse 36 And she said to him my father you have opened your mouth to the lord due to me according what has gone out of your mouth Now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies on the Ammonites. So she said to her father, let this thing be done to me. Leave me alone two months that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions. So he said go.

Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains. And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man and it became a custom in Israel that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughters of Jephthah, the Gileadite, four days in the year. With the time I have left, I want to look at two topics. I want to be just as vanilla as we can be based off our topic of this conference.

I want to look at what he must be that we can pull from this text and what she must be as a daughter to a father. And like I said, I kind of made clear on what I'm trying not to do. So I'm going to just drill right here on, start with the fathers, what we must be. First and foremost, we must be followers of Christ. And in being followers of Christ, we have to look to Christ and what he did.

And if we've been studying our catechisms, we know that Christ did the work of a prophet, priest, and king. As prophets, we are to represent God before the people. As priests, we are to represent the people before God. And as kings, we are to provide and protect for our people. George Whitfield puts it this way, every governor of a family ought to look upon himself as obliged to act in three capacities, as a prophet to instruct, as a priest to pray for and pray with, and as a king to govern, direct, and to provide for them.

Do we see these qualities in Jephthah as we look through Judges chapter 11? And so I want to go back and take a look at verse 1. It said that he was a mighty warrior, which means he was ready to fight for his family, to protect his family, to protect his daughter. Men, we are to be prepared physically, if need be, to protect our daughters, to protect our families. And I know generally in our minds, our minds go, especially as men, as we talk about protecting, is, you know, can I fight in a dark alley if I need to be?

And yes, that's part of it. But I also want to look at another part of it too. I want to look at the spiritual and the emotional aspects of protecting our daughters. And so, men, we must also protect them by protecting ourselves. So when I say that about protecting ourselves, we yes, we have to be with our daughters We have to know how God has wired them We need to be able to speak into that and I jokingly say this as well But I believe it's definitely believe it's true that Our daughters are not young men and they're not like us, so we have to be very careful on how we go about instructing, how we talk to them, how we nourish when they're being bothered by something.

One of my sinful things, if I'm not careful, I'm just like, ah, shake it off, it's okay. That didn't go over so well in my household. And so I want us to be mindful of that, meaning that our women, our daughters, are not like us. And so when I say we must protect ourselves, I do not think we have a problem with the physical, but it is those other emotional spiritual areas and spiritual areas that we generally struggle with. Meaning throughout the day, where is your mind when you kind of off by yourself in the streets?

Where's your focus? Where are your eyes? What are you as the protector of your home actually bringing into your home? I want to be clear when I say this, do not be fooled, men, that what we are watching on our phones and our computers is a direct failure to protect our homes if those things are not God-worthy. I want to say that again.

Do not be fooled that what we are watching on our phones or our computers is a direct failure to protect our homes if those things are not God-worthy. And those things do affect how you relate to your daughter. We may try to push that out of our brains, but it has a direct effect on how we relate to the young ladies in our homes. So we need to be careful to protect, not physically, but also emotionally and spiritually, and that needs to apply to us and ourselves and our own souls. All right, also we also see Jephthah representing the people before God as priests.

Look at verse six. It says, come and be our leader. And then verse eight, that you may go with us and fight against the Ammonites and be the head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. If you bring me home again to fight against the Ammonites and the Lord gives them over to me, I will be your head and the people made him head and leader over them." and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord at Mizpah. Jephthah is representing his people, his family, us as men, representing our people before God and we are to present our families and our daughters before God.

We are to pray with them. We are to nurture them. We have to know that the scriptures in our prayer is the greatest nourishment for our daughter's souls. Finally, Jephthah represents God before the people. Verse 27 again, I therefore have not sinned against you and you do me wrong by making war on me.

The Lord, the judge decide this day between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon. But the king of the Ammonites did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him. Then the spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah. Men, we are to represent God before our families. We are to preach to our families.

Our daughters should see us leading in family worship, representing God before the people. We are to do that in the spirit, as it says, Jephthah here was in the spirit, or the spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah. We are to be reading the scriptures, in prayer, in our quiet times, searching the scriptures diligently so that we can preach those and teach those to our daughters. Yeah, now am I talking about setting up a three-point sermon, sitting your daughter down and preaching? Not necessarily, it may happen every now and again, But we are to represent God before our families and before our daughters.

They need to see that from us. They need to know what a strong man who's leading, who's protecting, who's being a priest and who's being a prophet, what that looks like. Because one day they will leave our home Lord willing with a young man and we pray that our young man will have those same qualities. They need to know what that looks like. All right finally here I want to look at what she must be.

Move from the fathers on to the daughters here in the text. Look at his daughter. Ladies, we all kind of know that story. It can be a tough pill to swallow, depending on how you look at it. But what I would like to do is kind of push past the emotion of that story and really see what we can glean from that in her response to her father.

Let's look at verse 34. Then Jephthah came to his home at Misbah, and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child. Besides her, he had neither son nor daughter, and as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, alas, my daughter, you have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.

And she said to him, my father you have opened your mouth to the Lord due to me according to what has gone out of your mouth now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites. Jephthah's daughter knew that vows were sacred. We see in Deuteronomy 23 verses 21 through 23, and we also see that you would see that in Numbers 30 verse 2, She was committed to her father and her father's obedience to the word of God. May that also be the same for you ladies, that you are committed to your father and to your father's obedience to the word of God. And ladies, you should be committed to the word of God yourselves.

Because for her to know, for her father to make that vow, to say, yes, my father, do what the Lord has called you to do, you see that she knew the scripture. She knew what a vow meant to the Lord and to make that vow. We also see look at Ephesians chapter 6 verse 1 and 2, children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and your mother for this is the first commandment with the promise. Jephthah's daughter's response was honor to her father.

And we, in ladies you, are to seek to honor your father, to have an honorable response to those things that he calls and asks you to do. Look at verse 37. So she said to her father, let this thing be done to me. Leave me alone two months that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity. I and my companions, so he said, go.

And even in that little context, she asked to go. She didn't say, hey, let me go, I need to go. She asked and he gave his command and so she went. Then he sent her away and sent her away for two months and she departed, she and her companions and wept for her virginity on the mountains. And at the end of two months, she returned to her father who did with her according to his vow that she made.

We see obedience. She was obedient to what her father had called, basically called her to do or for her to have to sacrifice. She came back it is important to realize she went off for two months and came back now if I'm being honest this is just me it's not detected this is me My father probably would have never seen me again, given the opportunity to go off for two months, knowing the vow that he had made. But she knew what was gonna happen. She knew the word of God, committed to that, and committed to her father, and she obediently returned after those two months.

But she came back to honor her father and his word. This is what you must be. You must honor your father's commands, his commitments, and his vision. I want to put a footnote here too, as I talk about New Testament believers, I want to say to the young ladies here as well. If your father makes this vow and tells you that he's going to sacrifice you, Go find your mother, go find one of the pastors, go find a police officer.

Okay, I want to be, I am saying yes, be obedient to your father and to your father's word, but that's why it's very important on what I said from Ephesians 6. Children obey your father in the Lord. That is very important. If your father asks you to do something that is outside of the word of God, you disobey. You follow God and not your father.

But that's why it's important for you as well to be in the scriptures, to know what your father is calling you to do, or the commitments that he's making, or the vows that he's making, whether you're to follow them or not. You follow and you obey in the Lord. That's what we see here from Jephth and his daughter. We see an obedience, man, far beyond what we, I think we can really try to wrap our minds around this day and age. Okay, finally here, this is why the law of God in this verse that, like I said, I quoted back in Ephesians 6 is so important.

But if your father instructs you in the Lord and not asks you to do something sinful, obedience is required. Now what that obedience will look like or how you respond to your father will look different depending on the dad. We all kind of have a, you know, this is respectful, this is not, but you're to talk to your father, you're to be around him, you're to know what an obedience, obedient response to him is, an obedient action when he calls you or he asks you to do something. You to be committed and obedient to his vision, to follow him, knowing that he is imperfect, that he will sin. And in sight to jump back men, our daughter should also see us on our face before God in repentance.

Jephthah in this case, depending on the argument you take, moves on. But in making a rash vow, if we do so, Our children, our daughters should see us in repentance. We ought to be men of repentance. My young girls, repentance. But for my younger age group, from the catechism question as I mentioned earlier, is to be sorry for sin and to hate it and forsake it because it's the pleasing displeasing to God.

We're to mourn our sin. We're to hate it and we're to repent when we make rash vows or to do things. But if we're walking in the Lord or your father seeking to walk into in the Lord, you're to follow him. You should seek to know what is the honoring response. Honor him, obey him, help him.

You are a tremendous asset to his life and this is what a daughter must be in relation to her father. Please don't let the culture tell you any different by following your father is one of the greatest most beautiful pictures of of headship and submission to openly follow and follow the Word of God. You're being obedient to the Word of God. You're being obedient to God when you're being obedient to your father, an imperfect man, because he's leading and looking to be led by a perfect father. This is what you must be.

Let's pray. Grace's father, I Thank you so much for this time that we can gather here tonight. Thank you for this text that we could just move outside of it to look at it, Father, to just glean some things from your Word, the things you've called us to be as husbands, as fathers, as daughters. God, may your word be enough for us. May we bask in it.

Forgive us of our sins where we fall short. Thank you so much for this time and this blessed time of fellowship with brothers and sisters here together. I pray that you will mold us, shape us. May we leave this place different than we came. I ask this in Jesus' name, amen.