Biblical Leadership at Home

Well, if you would open up your Bible to Psalm 78. Psalm 78. We're going to talk about a very critical issue in our world today, which is biblical leadership at home. What does that look like? How do we do that? And really, it's for every age. It's from the child, the youngest child in this room, all the way up to the oldest adult in this room. We all have a responsibility to take our Christian faith from this room, from this place to our home, and be a light for the gospel right in that place. So I want to begin this morning by looking at verse eight there of Psalm 78, and it's on the screen for you. It says, and not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God. I want to set this up by sharing this in just a matter of a generation or two, a job that once was lucrative and needed in an absolute way, and somebody had to work in that job. It doesn't exist today. It doesn't exist at all. I want to give you some examples of that. Sometimes it happens because of certain laws enacted, and other times it's because of modern technology. But here's some of those. Anybody ever heard of a knocker upper? A knocker upper? This was a person in the 1800's before the time that everybody had an alarm clock or even a clock in their home, was contracted by individuals to come by their house to wake them up in the morning. They were their alarm clock in the morning. In fact, they would ask them to shoot peas at their window or tap on the glass using a long pole to wake them up. It was crucial during that time, but nobody does that anymore. What about a gandy dancer? A gandy dancer was a railroad worker who carried out any task related to the railroad track. Their responsibilities included setting ties, hammering spikes, and replacing rails. A gandy dancer was an integral part of railroad maintenance in the 1820s. What about a caddy butcher? A caddy butcher? Ever heard about this? Crucial during the time, but caddy butchers specialized in processing and selling horse meat, popular in both the United Kingdom and the United States until about the 1940s. Horse meat was cheap then and considered an alternative to venison or beef. What about a lenotype operator, a lenotype operator? This was a person who used a lenotype machine, which is a hot metal typesetting device used to print newspapers and magazines in the 19th century. Of course, with the advent of digital printing, we no longer need this job. What about it's getting a little bit more current? What about a pin setter? A pin setter? This is a person who reset the pins at a bowling alley before the advent of the automated pin setter, right? So they would sit down at the end of a bowling alley. Whenever the pins were knocked down, they would reset those pins. Anybody have that job, I wanted to ask? Nobody had that job? Okay, this is one a lot of you may remember a milkman, right? Milkman will come to your home before the advent of the refrigerator. They would come and they would be able to drop milk off at your door because it would spoil in just a few days. And so they would have to come on a regular basis. And this is one for the younger crowd in here. You won't remember this person, but for a lot of you, you may have worked this job. This was a video rental associate. The person who was in the video store who restocked the videotapes and the DVDs, Blockbuster Video. Remember back in the day with the advent of streaming and obviously those things aren't around anymore, but these jobs at their time were invaluable, and now they're nonexistent. These jobs were phased out and not handed down to a next generation. There was no next generation really to hand them to. They just weren't needed any longer. Now, let me bring that over to the message today, because this is what happens with faith. If it is not handled correctly and not passed to the next generation, it can be phased out very quickly. By that I mean just like jobs are phased out because they're not deemed necessary, the world can easily see faith in Jesus as being unnecessary and just phase it out. We need biblical leadership at home to avoid this calamity and pass on the truth of Scripture to neighbors, friends, relatives, and of course, the next generation. Here's the big idea of the day. Biblical leadership at home passes the truths of God's word to the next generation. Biblical leadership at home passes the truths of God's word to the next generation. Now, you might be asking, Pastor, I feel less than adequate to pass on my faith to the next generation. Or you might be asking it, isn't that the job that the church does? Isn't that what the church is supposed to do this for me to pass on this knowledge. If these are your questions, I've got some news for you today. The Bible tells us that you can you individually, you can listen to the truths of Scripture, adhere to those truths, and pass that on to the next generation. And we must all do this. So this morning I want to give you three instructions on what God says in his word about listening to, about knowing, and then passing on what it means to be a follower of Christ to the next generation. So here's point number one. To lead at home, you must know the truths of Scripture. To lead at home, you must know the truths of Scripture. Let's begin reading Psalm 78. We'll start in verse one. It says this listen, O my people, to my instruction. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known. Skip on down with me. Verse five says, for he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers that they should teach them to their children. So the very first thing we must do, we must do, every believer must do is to know the truths of Scripture. It's no longer acceptable for us to say, well, you know what? I didn't get a seminary education. I don't know the Bible very well. We'll just let the church do all this work. No, each of us must know the truths of Scripture. The very first instruction in this passage is to know, to listen, to understand, and incline your ears toward the words that God has spoken. We must know these truths that God speaks. Now, God has been active for a very long time, delivering the truth that he desires for us to know. Many believe that Moses was the author of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. As you get on through there, he wrote these down. It kind of started God began to relay these things and they were written down. But even before then, God was speaking and people were communicating verbally to one another. These words have been around for centuries. These words are true. And God isn't ambiguous. He doesn't change his mind. He doesn't come along and sort of say, you know what? This is what I said at one time in history, and now I'm saying something different. No. God is extremely consistent throughout all the text of Scripture. He has boldly declared how we should live, the boundaries by which we should not cross, the incredible gift of life that he has given to us. He doesn't mix up. He doesn't sort of say, well, that's something I meant back then. But now I mean something different. The text of Scripture is complete. And while culture may change, it has changed over the centuries. And culture may shift. Opinions may come and they may go. There may be times in which certain truths in the culture are sort of held onto and said, this is what we believe, and then you just wait just a little bit of time and those may change. God doesn't change. His word does not change. It has not changed and will not change. For example, God has been expressly clear on the issues that lead to righteousness and holiness throughout Scripture. They've been very consistent all throughout the Old Testament, and even coming into the New Testament, they have always been consistent. He's been clear about the issue of creation. Man and woman creation of marriage. He's always been consistent. Jesus brought these words for the New Testament, and then the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the New Testament. Everything is consistent. We see this throughout Scripture. He has revealed his complete truth in the text of Scripture. So anyone who comes along and says, you know what? God has changed his mind. God has a new Word for you. God has illumined certain individuals to bring forth new truths. Anybody who says that is selling you garbage, heresy. The text of Scripture is what we go back to and say, this is the truth. It's that one unchanging anchor that we hold on to. The problem is that many times, as believers in Christ, we adhere to and say that the Bible is God's Word, but we may not know it. We have to know the truth of Scripture to be able to truly walk with God, to be able to pass this on, to have Biblical leadership in our homes, we have to know it. We have to know God's word. The danger that the Psalmist brings forward is that one must grapple with today is which they know these truths. They sort of understand these truths, but they don't live by these truths and they don't pass these truths on. They sort of hold on to them. It ends with them. The main problem that the Israelites have, if you look at that in the Old Testament, god gave them the Law. It was very specific, very clear, but they didn't pass that on. They didn't lead with that every step of the way. In fact, in the Book of Judges, we read that very dangerous passage that says they did what was right in their own eyes. They got away from what God had spoken to them. As God's people, we must stay focused and consistent and know the truths of Scripture and live them out. We must know the truth. And that is where we again turn to next. Point number two to lead at home, you Must know Jesus as Savior. To lead at home. You must know Jesus as savior. Read with Me in verse four. We will not Conceal them From Their children, but tell to the Generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wondrous works that he has done. The Psalmist says that God has done incredible and great works, miraculous deeds. In fact, at the time that the Psalmist is writing this, you think about all the things that God had done leading up to the time where the Psalmist is writing. I mean, everything from creating all things to all the work he did at the time of the Exodus, people coming out of Egypt, going to the Promised Land, the establishment of the Promised Land, the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel. I mean, these were miraculous, incredible, and really otherworldly events that God had done. They saw these things, many of them were eyewitnesses. God reveals himself. He doesn't conceal himself. He reveals himself. And he's done this now in our time. He's done this in the most incredible way through the person of Jesus Christ, God in flesh. I mean, I don't know that we quite grasp that enough or think about that enough. The God of the universe, the uncontainable, all sufficient God who's both omnipresent and all powerful, he willingly restricted Himself into the form of a man walking upon the earth. Philippians, chapter two, says that Jesus, being God, humbled himself. I mean, do you grasp that God over all things, the Creator of all things, became the creation for one specific purpose, for your salvation? That he might die upon the cross, be sacrificed so that we might have eternal life? This is what he has done. And for us to be the leaders beyond the walls of this church, to have biblical leadership in our home with our neighbors, our friends, our relatives all around us, to have that, we must know the Savior. We must have an intimate relationship with Jesus. We must do these things to have this understanding that when Jesus comes into our life, he changes us. Do the people in your life where you work, your neighbors, your family, do they know about your relationship with Jesus? Do they know that you are different today because of what Christ has done? Do they know these things? This is what we really have to struggle with today. To be the leaders in our home, in our communities, is to understand that God coming into our life changes us. Glory to God. We can have an intimate relationship with God through His Son Jesus that changes us so we might have a witness to tell the next generation, to tell those around us, God changes lives through the person of Jesus Christ. My fear in our world today is we have a lot of people claiming to have some relationship with Jesus. I'm a Christian, really, in name only. Without ever having that change in their life, without ever having that moment where they pass from this sort of misunderstanding, this point of living a life on their own, of doing whatever they want to do, passing from that to living a life committed to Jesus, from a life of sin to a life of righteousness. I don't know that we're communicating that well enough in our world today. See, whenever people think of believers in Christ, they should first think, wow, they are different people because of their relationship with Jesus. But is that what people say about you? Is that what people think about you? Do they know your commitment to Christ? Not just in name only, but because it makes a huge difference in your life? We can't pass on a bland misrepresentation of a holy encounter with a living savior. No, we must pass on that we are white hot with a passion for living, for a savior who saved us and communicating that in everything that we do mom, dad, grandparent, neighbor, teacher, coach, deacon, pastor the greatest gift we can give to the next generation is to have a deep, abiding, on fire, life changing relationship with King Jesus. Is that you today? There's one last component to this passage. Point number three this morning is this to lead at home, you must point the next generation to Jesus. To lead at home, you must point the next generation to Jesus. Look with me in verse six. We're going to read all the way through verse eight that the generation to come might know even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children that they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. And we read this earlier and not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God. Ultimately, the greatest way we can perpetuate the need for a Savior to the next generation is by pointing anyone we can to Jesus and that they might know Jesus. Now. The Psalmist says here that we want the children now and the children who aren't even born yet to have a deep confidence in God, to not forget his works and to keep his commands. When we talked about those jobs, especially that video job at the Blockbuster Video that's not too long ago. That's really not that long ago. That's why we used to rent videos. It's not too far in the future that the children who are children in this room will have their own children. I mean, think about what he says here. The children who aren't even born yet, they're going to need to know the truths of Scripture themselves. How do they know that? Are they just supposed to fall into it one day? No. It's because believers today, from every age in this room live out their faith in Christ Jesus. I realize there are many attractions in this world that we might want to pass on to the next generation. I mean, things that we really love. A love of country. Melody and I just got back from our trip in other countries. The people in those other countries want to come here. We should be very thankful for the United States. I love this country. I love what this country represents. But I hope that in all the things that I pass on, that my love of country is not the main thing that people remember me by, but that the love of Jesus is. What about a love of sports? I love sports. I love sports. I love watching sports. I love playing sports. I love sports. There are certain teams that I love. I just love watching my teams. I am a fan. Fan is short for fanatic. Right? Just ask my family. In the fall, we get down to football. I get a little fanatic about it, right, yelling at the TV as if they can hear me, right? But I hope that's not what I pass on, that people would know me by as a love of sports, but rather a love of Jesus. What about, I mean, in many other things, a love of particular hobby, a love of a craft, a way to cook, a way to keep house, a love of cars, a love of a hometown, a love of a place to visit. There's so many things that we love that we have in our lives, but all of these are loves that I hope we would not say that is the top of our list that people would know us by, but that they would know us by our love for Jesus Christ and him alone. And then we point people directly to him. That's what we need to do to be a biblical leader at home in your residence. We need to pass on this singular love of following after Jesus. Pointing the next generation to this love is the only love that will bring them joy and peace in a world of absolute chaos. The issue that the Israelites had that's highlighted here in verse number eight, is they had a generation, actually several generations, that became stubborn in their heart. They refused to listen to the words of God. If you read through the Old Testament and you read through all what the prophets told them, the prophets told them time and time and time again, repent, change. If you'll change and follow after God, he will bless you. Repent, change. And what did they do to the prophets? They killed them. They had a hard heart. May we not have a hard heart. May we not have a stubborn and rebellious spirit. May we choose to follow after Christ and to pass on that love to the next generation. We need to have an understanding that we need to be faithful to the Lord. We cannot have a church. We cannot have individuals who say, you know what? It's all about me. I'm just going to live and die with my own knowledge. No, we must have a church of people that say, this is about passing it on to the next generation, that there might be those after me that are following after Jesus because they saw something in me that I followed after Jesus. We must strengthen our tie to the truth of Scripture, to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, to love God with our whole heart, to set aside sin, to grasp hold of all that Jesus taught and all that God has been consistent throughout Scripture to teach. This is the impact upon our life that the children and young people today, who are the adults just tomorrow, will have an understanding of what it means to follow after Christ because the example that you left, the example that I left upon their life, may you grow up to love Jesus, kids, teenagers. May you have a passion for following after Christ, because there's going to be all kinds of things that this world says. This will fulfill your life, and it will not. The only thing that fulfills is a relationship with Christ. The task of those who are older is to live out your passion for Jesus, to point your children, grandchildren, the young people at church, those around you toward Christ is the hope of glory and the only hope we have. So that the gospel carries forward, so that the gospel spreads, so that the gospel continues to multiply from your life into the lives of others. Now, as we finish up this morning, I just want to remind us of what our big idea of the day is: Biblical leadership at home passes the truths of God's word to the next generation. Biblical Leadership at home passes the truth of God's word to the next generation. One of the biggest questions I want to ask myself, and I want you to think about this this morning is this it's about my Biblical leadership at home. Your biblical leadership at home. The way you live your life in Christ outside the four walls of this church is this would I be satisfied if my children, my wife, my neighbors, my friends, if they only had the knowledge of the way that I live out my faith in Christ? If I was the only example that they had, if I was the only representation of Christ they ever knew, would I be satisfied with them following my example? See, the days of saying, you know what? Do as I say, don't do as I do, that has got to be gone. Paul said this in First Corinthians eleven, Philippians three, and a couple other places in his writings, he said these words. He wasn't being arrogant. He was saying something we need to take into our own lives. He said this follow me as I follow Jesus. Follow me as I follow Jesus. We cannot say, that's someone else's job, it's ours, each person. We cannot just go along and say, you know what? You need to get some instruction from somebody else. No, you are the example of what it means to follow Christ for the next generation. Are you satisfied with them following your example? Because if you would say, well, you know what? I wish that the next generation would be more faithful in their witness outside the walls of the church. I wish that the next generation would be more faithful to church, or I wish the next generation would take some of the priorities of life and sort of reject what the world says is a priority and make the church the priority. If that's the case, you say, I want those things. Make sure that's in your life, make that sure. That's the way you're living the example. We have to set the pace at home in your life every step of the way today. I just have a couple of questions for you. First of all, do you have that deep on fire, close, intimate relationship with Jesus? Is that part of your life today? And not just part, but your whole life? Is that where you say, Man, I know Jesus? Not just to say, Well, I'm a Christian. I checked that box off. No. Is there a deep, abiding, intimate, tight, on fire relationship with Christ? Is it? Second question would people be able to follow your example of following Jesus and then they would truly be following Jesus? Or would you say, no, they couldn't follow me. They had to follow somebody else following you. Would they be able to follow Jesus? Because today is a day to say, God, I want to get this stuff right today. I want to make sure that I've got things in the right order. So first of all, if you don't know Christ as your Savior, there's no better day than today to say yes to Jesus. Jesus, I want to know you. I don't want to know about you. I want to know you. And so if today, if that's you do not sit there and go, well, I'll wait till next week. No, it's today. I want to know Christ. I want to know his presence. I want to know him. If that's you today, I hope that you'll walk forward in a few moments when I'm down front, you'll say, yes, I want to know Christ, if you're here today. And you would say, you know what? I haven't been living the example of a follower of Jesus. I've been expecting everybody else to be the example. I've been expecting everybody else to teach my kids and grandkids the neighbors. I've been having everybody else to do it, not me. And today you want to repent and say, no, I need to make sure I'm following after Christ, that I could say, as Paul said, follow me as I follow Jesus. If you need to repent today, then today is the day to get before God and say, God, forgive me, for I have stepped out of your will and your way and help me to walk in your path. And don't just slough it off. See, what's interesting about whenever God begins to speak in your life is the words that come out of my mouth in these moments are merely passing through. But God, the Holy Spirit, is contacting your heart today, and you know it. You know it. He's pointing at those things in your life that you've allowed to rise up to be a God in your life. And he's saying, let's get rid of that. You know that the Holy Spirit is speaking to you about ways in which you need to walk closer to Him. Don't ignore that. Respond.