Last week, we reviewed a few of the principles we covered in
the men’s spiritual leadership boot camp.
Keeping these things in front of us is a necessity if we are going to
continue practicing the disciplines essential for spiritual leadership in our
homes. As the men’s breakfast
approaches (at which we will take the follow-up survey), lets consider the rest
of the main principles.
Remember how crucial
it is to understand how sanctification works so that we can pursue godliness
and lead our families to do the same.
Remember that understanding the gospel is central to understanding
sanctification. God is holy (Lev19:2); Man is sinful (Rom 3:10-18,23); God is wrathful (Rom 1:18, 2:5);
Man is doomed (Matt 7:19; Rom 6:23); God is gracious (Eph 2:4-10); Christ was given (John 3:16; Gal 4:4-5);
God was satisfied (Rom 3:25-26); I am redeemed (Eph 1:7; Col 1:13-14).
Have you spent any time recently meditating on these truths?
The gospel gives us the right power, motive, and desire to change. Therefore, true
sanctification cannot happen in isolation from the truths contained in the
gospel. If we would lead our
families to grow in their knowledge of Jesus and in Christlikeness, we must be
men of the gospel. This begins
with saturating ourselves with it, so that we might saturate our families with
it.
Remember that the
Bible calls us to actively strive in the power of the gospel to kill sin and
put on godly living. The Holy
Spirit uses the warnings and exhortations of the New Testament to spur us on to
holiness. Sanctification involves
God working in us and us working out
our own salvation (Phil 2:12-13). We
do this by using the resources He has given us to put off sin and put on
righteousness.
Have you been actively putting to death the deeds of the
flesh according to the plan of attack we discovered together? Is there a particular sin you are
regularly putting off and replacing with the opposing godly virtue? Remember that we must be experts on
this kind of spiritual battle if we are going to lead our families in the
fight. The best way to learn how
to fight is to engage in it ourselves.
Remember the
importance of leading our families in regular times of devotion. It is our responsibility to establish
the Lord as the sole object of worship in our homes (“As for me and my house,
we will serve the LORD” Joshua 24:15).
There is no more important way to do this than to actually worship Him
together there. Family devotions
are an indispensable component of leading our families to worship God alone.
Have you continued this practice? Are you regularly seeking to point your family to the
Lord? Remember that the Bible
commands formal instruction and it assumes that regular devotion takes place
there. It doesn’t have to be a
major production requiring hours of preparation. Simply reading the Word and praying together is extremely
valuable.
Remember that it is
our joy and responsibility to evangelize and disciple each individual in the
family. God doesn’t save
families, but individuals. It is not a certainty that all members of the family
will trust the Lord at an early age or at all. Likewise, not all members of the family
will journey toward Christlikeness at the same rate. We must know where every member of the family is on the
journey toward justification and sanctification so that we can provide
individual help along the way.
Have you continued to give individual attention to the spiritual
needs of your wife and kids? If
asked, could you describe what is weighing on the heart of each of them? If asked, could you describe how you
are helping them? Remember that we
literally have nothing better to do than to shepherd our families. It is part and parcel of our own
devotion to the Lord.
Please make every effort to attend the men’s breakfast on
May 16 at 7am at the church. It
will be a great time of fellowship and spiritual refreshment. May the Lord use it to stir up us all
to love and good works and to greater faithfulness in leading our
families. I hope to see you all
there. (Again, please RSVP to Ted
Knecht [tedsgirl6@gmail.com] so that we will know how much food to prepare.)
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