Wisdom and Manhood (Proverbs 2:1-22, 23:19-28)

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Transcript

Thank you. Thank you. That's a big moment. I think I might just retire after this. It'd be like a walk-off home run and be done. We've always just been studying through books of the Bible.

We're working through certain kind of series. And we just say, Happy Father's Day. And then we jump right into where we are. And as we went into Proverbs, we thought, we actually can this summer, as we walk through this, talk about motherhood and womanhood on Mother's Day and fatherhood and manhood on... I may have said this wrong, but on Father's Day. And so we're excited to get to do that this morning.

We want good men. We need good men. The world needs good men. We need men like the Proverbs talk about. We need men around us that are wise and righteous. That care about justice.

That control their anger. That control their words. That say no to sin. That work hard. That are generous. That stand up for the weak.

We need that kind of men. The reality is much of your life, much of the goodness of your life, has risen and fallen with the quality of men that were around you. The presence of good men or the absence of good men or the presence of bad men have much affected you. And so our hope is that we would be good men and that we would have good fathers who raise up good sons. And that's some of what we're going to look at today. Much of the Proverbs is written in that framework of a father talking to a son.

Twenty-five times in the book of Proverbs, it has 31 chapters, but 25 times it says, My son, my son. Now there are a couple that are in specifically in the context of a father talking. There are two other times that it's a mother talking. And we've looked at some of that already. But this is a major theme that runs throughout the book of the Proverbs that fathers would raise up sons.

So we want to look at that today as we look at what are fathers supposed to do and how do we raise up good men. Now, personally, for all of us, it's a bit of a mess. I know that we're all over the place when it comes to what our dads were like or our desire to be a dad or what our husbands like as a dad. And there's a lot of maybe joy when you think about your father or maybe fear and frustration, anger and sadness. I know we're all over the place. My granddad, when he was a boy, he was getting a haircut at a barbershop and a man came by the front of the barbershop and stopped and turned and looked in the window and just sat kind of looking in at what was going on.

My granddad noticed him, but, you know, this guy was just watching him get a haircut. He didn't think much about it. And the man walked off and the barber said, Hey, boy, you know who that was? My granddad said, No, sir. He said, That was your daddy. So my granddad hopped out of the chair with half-cut hair and a little, you know, barber robe on and stood at the window and watched his daddy walk down the street.

And that was the only interaction he ever had with his dad. Now, he had a stepfather, who I've always known as Papa Holloman, who was a good man. Worked hard, raised him, cared about him. But our lives are affected by the men around us and who they decide to be and what they decide to do and what they decide to care about. And so as a church, as people who belong to Jesus, we want good men to raise up more good men. We want to encourage that.

So, ladies in the room today, less of this will apply to you. And that's fine. Enjoy the morning. Sip your coffee. Don't aggressively take notes and highlight things and show it to the man next to you. Don't elbow.

Don't plan your follow-up sermon for the ride home. We have a Holy Spirit. He does a wonderful job. So, as best you can, let's study the Word together. Now, we understand that we're all over the place and so there's two ways that we're going to approach this this morning. One is very practically.

The Proverbs are a very practical book. One of the things I have benefited from in being a part of this church family is how many other dads there are and how many other children there are. And so, a lot of times, when dads are interacting with their children, I watch them. And I know I probably have a super judgmental look on my face, but that's just what my face looks like. That's my learning face. So you're interacting with your kids, I might be just staring you down like, but I'm learning.

I'm trying to see what you do. I've learned some things from some of the other fathers around here. I've watched how they interact with their children and I've thought, that was good. I'm going to do that. And so, we're going to do that with the Proverbs today. We're going to see how this father talks to his son and we're going to stand with our aggressive faces staring at it and going, okay, what do I need to learn from this?

How do I need to speak to my sons? What do I need to care about? We are also, in the midst of this, going to hear the voice of our heavenly father who far surpasses any earthly father there has ever been. And so, if you aren't a father or aren't going to be a father or even if you are a father, I want you to hear your father speaking to you from the Proverbs because there's going to be a tendency while this is going on to be going, yeah, I wish my dad had talked to me about that or I wish that had happened or that would have been nice. And it's like, yeah, it actually is nice because your father is talking to you about that.

He is coaching you up and he is far better than any father you could have ever had. And he meets us in the scriptures and he meets us in the person of Christ. And therefore, we can approach this growing in our love for him as a good father as well as growing in our understanding of how to be good fathers. That's our approach. That's what we're doing this morning. Let's pray and let's get to it.

God, we ask for your help. We ask for your grace. Lord, we pray that you would give us the courage to repent and to follow you. We pray that as we walk through this, wherever we come in in our notion of manhood, our notion of masculinity, our thoughts when it comes to fatherhood, that we would see you as a gloriously good father and leave with a greater love for you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Chapter 2, verse 1. We're going to look at two passages. We're going to look at chapter 2 and we're going to look at chapter 23, which are two sections where it's that tone of father talking to son. Chapter 2, verse 1. My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding. Now, there's an assumption made in that immediate, those first two verses.

The father is assuming that his words contain wisdom and understanding. Fathers, this involves some work on the back end, like the front end. Before you have wisdom and understanding to pour out, you need to get some wisdom and understanding. You need to love your Bible. You need to get counsel from other wise men around you. You are not pre-born with wisdom.

Proverbs tell us you're born with foolishness. So if that's just what you've run with your whole life, that's all you can coach your children up with. And so you need to get your Bible, love your Bible, read your Bible, study your Bible. It dramatically affects your life if you will grow to love your Bible so that we might have wisdom and understanding so that when we speak we have something worth hearing. Verse 3, Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

I want to show you this if-then framework. He has a couple of ifs and then he has a then, but this is the first if and the other ones kind of fall under it. If you receive my words and treasure up my commandments, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Fathers, is that true? If your children listen to you, follow what you say, will you lead them to Jesus? Will they grow in the fear of the Lord?

Will they grow in the knowledge of God by hearing the way you talk, by hearing what you care about, by you pushing them towards the things that matter? Can we say that with credibility? If my children will just listen to me, they will fall deeply, madly in love with Jesus. They will fear the Lord and surrender to Him. They will know how to obey Him and they will understand all that is good and wonderful about Him. This was written in the context to a group of people who understood the Old Testament law and they would have understood the Shema, which was a main command given to them in the law in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and it's this, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your might. And these words I commanded you today shall be on your heart. So the first command that's given in the Shema is that you love the Lord. So fathers, do you love the Lord? Because if you don't love the Lord, how are you going to bring your children to Him? If you're not obeying Him, if you're not walking in the fear of the Lord, how is this going to play out?

But then it says this, verse 7, You shall teach them diligently to your children. Shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. Meaning that you should be so in love with the Lord that it just pours out of you. Sitting down to dinner, it's as likely as not that you'll be talking about Jesus. Walking, going to work, getting your chores done, you're going to be talking about Jesus. You're going to be explaining how the world works.

You're going to be pouring forth the knowledge of the Lord. You're going to be explaining to them what it looks like to obey and to follow and to fear the Lord. It says, You shall bind them as a sign on your hand. They shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Fathers, do we know wisdom and do we know the Lord so that we might actually lead our children to the Lord?

That's step one. The best way to begin that is for you to love your Bible so that in it you might meet Christ, you might know Him, you might grow in wisdom, to join a community group, to be committed to following Jesus with other men and women who are following Jesus, to have people in your life who know you and can call you towards better things. That's the first if. If you listen to me, the next one's buried in that. It's kind of under that, but it says this, it's verse 3 and 4. If you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as hidden treasures.

I love that verse because this father here is telling his son, you want to know something you need to get a little amped up about? You want to know something you want to need to raise your voice about? Like I remember times where my dad would get me and say, boy, you better bow up. I remember I was playing Little League catcher. He had to grab me one time after a game and he was talking to me and he said, that home plate is yours. It belongs to you.

No one touches that. And then he practiced pushing me in my garage so that I would learn how to end. But he would say, these are things, there were certain things that he would say you need to care about. And he says, you need to raise your voice. That men would be like, hey, I need some of that right now. And somebody would come over to you and say, what are you talking about?

And you'd be like, wisdom. I need it. I will not be denied. That's what he's saying, that you would have some energy about this. You would have some, take some courage. It takes some effort.

He says, you would seek it like silver or search for it as for hidden treasures. You know who hunts for hidden treasures? Adventurers, explorers, pirates, cowboys, archaeologists. But like the Indiana Jones kind. That this would take some energy and some effort. I love that what the father here is saying is that if you want to seek your own desire, if you want to be lazy, if you want to just go with your gut, if you want to just wing it, just understand any fool can do that.

That's why every fool does. But if you want something worth living a life for, if you want something worth giving a life to, if you want something worth handing on, and if you want to be the type of man that's worth being around, it's going to take some energy from you. It's going to take waking up a little bit earlier than the other people in your house. It's going to take going to bed a little bit later than the other people in your house. It's going to take opening a Bible and reading it and memorizing it and learning it. It's going to take a little bit of energy and effort and adrenaline and aggression and testosterone from you to call out for this.

That's what he's saying. And I appreciate that. And he keeps going on. Verses 6 to the end of the chapter, he says, if you do this, the Lord will grant this to you. He'll give you wisdom. He'll give you insight.

He'll coach you up. He'll train you. It'll help you turn away from sin. You'll be the type of person who knows what is right and good and just and equitable. And you'll be the type of person who says no to wickedness and you will not become a wicked man if you'll pursue this. And that's what we need.

Godly fathers who know Jesus, who walk in wisdom and help raise up godly sons to say no to sin and yes to Jesus and put forth the energy that that takes. Shame on the American church that it's 60% female and 40% male. Shame on us that every time we want to try to do something in the American church, you have a thousand female hands that raise that they're ready to come serve, they're ready to come work, they're ready to come labor and it's hard to find men. I have in general been very proud of our church family, of the females who love Jesus and who serve and the fact that we do have men that want to fight and to serve but we need more.

We need more good men and so may we be good men who raise good men and I want you to hear everybody, I want you to hear the voice of our heavenly father who is inviting you into this. That if you'll call out for wisdom, you'll get it. He'll teach you. He'll know you. You'll know him. It'll be good.

He'll keep you from sin. He'll bring you into righteousness. This is an invitation for all of us here. May we take it. I like to think sometimes, go ahead and jump to chapter 23. I like to think sometimes, I'll watch movies, aggressive movies, I'll watch like, my wife and I watched Braveheart recently.

I watched Braveheart and I think, I could do that. I could get a shield and an axe and run into a field and try to kill as many people as possible. I could do that. If I had to, I could get myself amped up to do that. That's not the fight the Lord has given me. I don't get to try to help free Scotland from the English.

But he has given me a fight. He's invited the church into a spiritual war. an eternal fight. He's given me two sons. He's given me a wife. He's given me a church family. He's given people in my community group.

That it's worth the energy and the effort and the labor it takes to know Jesus, to submit to Jesus, to know His word, to obey Him, and to walk in faithfulness. Every once in a while I'll talk to men and I'll say, what else do you have more worth fighting for than your wife and children? What else do you have more worth fighting for than the people in your community group? What else do you have more worth fighting for than the lost and dying souls around here that are going to spend an eternity in hell? Don't sit and tell yourself that if you were in some other time you would have taken up the mantle if you're not taking up the one that's laid down for you right now.

There's a call towards some energy and some effort that we ought to accept because we have valuable things worth the energy and the effort all around us. Chapter 23. We're going to pick up in verse 19, but this section starts in the back in chapter 22 and in it the father is just telling his son a bunch of stuff. It's this random he talks about all kinds of things and we see that throughout the Proverbs. The father's just talking all the time about this is how you should think about work and this is how you should think about money and this is how like it's all this life coaching and that's good and I honestly think a lot of fathers get really excited about that.

And this is how like it's all this life coaching and that's good and I honestly think a lot of fathers get really excited about that. Whenever there's something that your dad knows and knows how to do how geeked out is he to tell you how to do it? I don't care what it is. Woodworking, coding, painting, changing attire, like wherever you see a competent man you will see

An excited man just so you know. Men don't like participating in things they're not real competent in. They do appreciate the challenge and learning but if you ever see something where it's like oh this I can do I'm ready you'll watch those men walk right up like oh you need help with that whatever like you know can I get in on that? This is where people talk about men all the time

Mansplaining or whatever but it's just they're really excited they know a thing actually they just appreciate being competent that's what's happening throughout this the father's just consistently coaching up on all the things that he's competent on that's why it's helpful for us to become competent men so that we can be helpful in life not pedantic and annoying with it but helpful but verse 19 in chapter 23

As he's coming through this he says this hear my son and be wise direct your heart in the way and again I just want to highlight for you that fathers are meant to not just hand out practical wisdom but also be the ones leading in let's follow Jesus together to direct your heart in the way that I care about your heart and I care that it belongs to Jesus and let's walk in righteousness

Let's walk in faithfulness let's walk in the way of following the Lord so yes coach up on all the things you know but don't think that's your job and if you're married well it's my wife's Job to try to tell him about Jesus now this is the thing that he does that he calls him into verse 20 be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat

For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty and slumber will clothe them with rags I think it's helpful just as we're looking at this and seeing what he does here he tells him why he doesn't just say don't do this he says don't do this because and he does that throughout the Proverbs but he has some wisdom to share where that heads meat and alcohol sound nice and he says

Yeah but too much of it let me tell you where that takes you let me show you where that ends up let me show you what that brings on you let me show you what that causes and this is one of the places he's real practical throughout the rest of the Proverbs he's practical and there are times where he's theological where he talks about he holds it up against righteousness and shield he says this leads you to hell so I would say both

Fathers when you're coaching your kids up explain why take the time to do that and explain theologically why not just practically why now I know some of you have little kids and I'm not saying that sometimes little kids kids in general your children want you to explain to them why so that they can agree with you and it's actually not

That's not what I'm talking about you can explain to them why but you don't have to win them over you're their parents so sometimes you can just say I've explained why now do it that's fine but do explain why it's helpful verse 22 listen to your father who gave you life and do not despise your mother when she is old compete for their attention he says listen to me pay attention to me

Look at me my sons and I reenact this this tension every time I'm trying to explain something to them and the TV is on because I'm talking to them and you can watch their little eyes drift and I know how hard that is I don't turn the TV off I make them control themselves I know how hard that is because I know there are times when my wife's talking to me and I'm going

I feel your pain but you've got to listen to me when I'm talking to you but there's some competition with the world for who are they going to listen to fathers be a voice in that fight for that which means a couple of things control the environment sometimes I know that depending on the age of your children or the attitude of your children there are a lot of times

Where you have something to do that is much easier if they aren't with you I have a three year old and a six year old we have for the past six years and we're just now on the edge of getting out of it but we've lived that little kid life where there's a kid that can't talk has diapers doesn't sleep

At night like we've lived that for six years my wife and I are talking are we going to have one more and make that nine years or are we going to move off into the joy of the promised land we've had that for six years I know when I go to the grocery store or to Home Depot or Lowe's

Without them I feel like a superhero I know why my dad spent so much time at places like that he was free but there are times where we need to say because we're competing with the world for their attention and for our ability to pour out wisdom to them as we walk in the way as we

Sit up as we rise get in the truck get in the car let's go come out here and help me I'm washing the vehicle you need to be here with me I'm changing the oil you need to be here with me we've got to run errands we're going

To go visit this person you need to be here with me because that's some of that shoulder to shoulder time some of that time that you need to spend with them and I understand there are times where involving them makes the thing take longer or be more difficult what else do you have to do with your time that wouldn't

Involve trying to help coach and train and love out for your children and the people around you and don't say well you know I need my alone time I'm kind of a loner well I'm sorry you have children you will never have alone time again you need to take them with you you need to coach them

Up and some of y'all in community groups need to be doing this as well you have some errands to run but you've got some people that you could invite to be around that you could walk in life together so that y'all might like iron sharpens iron you might sharpen one another and grow together in your love for Jesus and help not just be in

Your own little world but have people involved in life with you so that you might grow together second part of this verse that I also really appreciate he says listen to your father and do not despise your mother when she is old fathers make your house a good environment for your wife if you are divorced do not

Participate participate in your children and pouring into them bad thoughts about their mother teach your children to respect their mother demand that they respect their mother help them grow in respect for their mother because it's good for them to do that don't sit and say

Don't sit on the couch while your kids are acting up to your wife mistreating their mom and go you know they listen to me if you were better at this they'd listen to you get up off the couch and make them listen to their mama if you're so good

At it help them it's good for her it's good for them participate he says don't despise your mom and I just think that's helpful make it a good environment verse 23 buy truth and do not sell it by wisdom instruction and understanding I heard a guy say

That one of the reasons we give balloons to children is to teach them that there are some things worth holding on to and it also makes me feel better about every time one of my kids accidentally lets a balloon into the world I go see there's some things worth holding on to I'm not buying you another one you learned

A lesson here today but that's what he says he says buy truth and do not sell it we live in a world in a culture right now that does not like truth we live in a culture right now that's very confused about what is true we live in a culture

Right now that is letting everyone define their own truth we don't do that with stoplights we don't do that with seatbelts we don't do that with airplanes but we somehow want to let everybody do that in a bunch of other areas that matter a lot and let's be people

That care about truth who buy it and do not sell it who hold on to it even when the rest of the world has gone crazy and let's be people in our families that even when it is extremely difficult because our children have grown up and they have bought what the world is selling

And they want you to participate with them let's be some of the people that hold on to truth for dear life so that we might model for them that it really really really matters and without truth we lose so much and let's be people who grow in wisdom

So that we know what is and isn't true and let's be people who love our Bibles and know that it promises that one day everything will rise and fall everything will wither and fail but the word of the Lord is forever and so that

One day our culture will have changed its mind about things and cultures of the world have consistently changed their minds about things and one day we will stand in the kingdom of the Lord where all truth is alive and around us and we'll be standing in the continual word of the Lord that lasts

Forever verse 24 and 25 the father of the righteous will greatly rejoice he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him so just giving some general information verse 25 let your father and mother be glad let her who bore you rejoice I just appreciate

These verses the father here just said hey you know who's happy parents whose kids aren't morons wouldn't you like for your parents to be happy I just appreciate what he's saying here he's saying let's have some joy in this house and that involves

You not being foolish come let your mom be happy I feel like my dad said that to me before hey quit doing that you're upsetting your mama let your mama be happy that she didn't

Have a fool for a son verse 26 my son give me your heart let your eyes observe my way for a prostitute is a deep pit an adulteress is a narrow

Well she lies in wait like a robber and increases the traitors among mankind he goes on from here to talk about alcohol at some lengths and the use of alcohol and how it causes trouble in life fathers

Have have some awkward and uncomfortable conversations with your children because you care about them and you care that they say no to sin and yes to good things have some conversations where you say son sit down and talk

To you about prostitutes it's an awkward intro but there are things you need to talk about I remember one time my dad had just explained to me and my two brothers about reproduction and I was a bit

Skeptical I was like that doesn't sound right but I don't think that's how that works my older brother hit me said he knows what he's talking about he's done this three times very logical I was like I got a point there the reality is if you

Are not explaining these things from a biblical perspective of how the world works to your children the world is explaining it to them someone's telling them how to think about gender someone's telling

Them how to think about sex someone's telling them how to think about relationship someone's telling them you're like well my dad never did that I don't

Know how to do that yeah didn't you figure it out on your own and wasn't that a much more painful process? You're going to push the pain to your children? Are you going to take some of the awkwardness and some of the pain so that you might lead them in a better way? Don't put that off on them. Don't put that off on the world. Don't house that into American culture. Good Lord, help us. Learn and be able to communicate here and have some awkward conversations for the sake of your children and tell them to say no to sin and yes to Jesus. All you middle schoolers and high schoolers in here, you're welcome. You'll thank me later.

Verse 26. I don't want us to miss this. I think this is helpful. We'll finish out. We just read past it, but I want us to see it. He says, my son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways. My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways. I think that we need with credibility to be able to say this, that fathers, we care about the heart of our children, that we are jealous for the heart of our children, which means that you can trust yourself with me. You can trust your deepest desires, that you can trust what you long for. You can trust who you feel like you are as a person with me. I care about you. Now, that does not mean that everything that they believe or desire is safe with you, but that they are. But I think sometimes the impression that children have gotten from their fathers is not that I care about your heart, but that I care about my time. I don't care about your heart. I care about my comfort. I don't care about your heart. I care about not being bothered. I don't care about your heart. I care about my job. And I think we need to be able to, with credibility, say to our children, give me your heart and mean it and it be in safe hands when they do. The encouraging thing is that I think by default, most children give their fathers their heart pretty early on. Some of you need to fight back to getting it back and to be credible in your saying that you want it and that it's good. And then he says this, let your eyes observe my ways.

You, there's a, there's a saying that apparently everyone originally said when you look it up online, but it's, you can teach what you know, but you replicate who you are. That's what he's saying. Watch me. All the things that I've said to you about saying no to sin, all the things I've said to you about raising your voice for wisdom and understanding, all the things that I've said to you about what you ought to care about and what you ought to fight for, all the things I've said to you about saying no to overeating and over drinking and chasing women, all the things that I've said to you, watch me. The reality is that your children are watching you just like you watched your parents. You know what they cared about. You know, when they told you that Jesus mattered the most, whether or not he actually did, you know, how they handled money. You know what they were stressed out about, you know, what actually got on their nerves, regardless of what they told you, you know, and your children know. And that's why he says, watch me that we ought to have credibility because the reality is we're replicating who we are in so many ways. And you know, this, as you've gotten older, there've been times where after a situation, you really should have turned to an invisible audience and taken a bow because you did a perfect rendition of your father from 40 years ago. This has been a reproduction of Kent Phillips from 1992. You know that.

And there've been times where that scared you. There've been times where that was wonderful. A situation happened and afterwards you were like, oh, wow, I handled it. I'm so glad I saw that modeled that way. There are other times where you're trying to do what the Bible says and you have no good model for that. You're out on, you have no clue. You're just winging it as best you can as you follow Jesus. May we be worth watching and worth modeling. This is discipleship. This is apprenticeship. And so he says, give me your heart and watch me. Now that call from verse 26 is the same thing that the Lord says to us. In some ways, that's the message of scripture. Give me your heart and watch my ways. Give me your heart, meaning that you are safe with the Lord, that what he primarily desires is you, not your works, not your effort, that you wouldn't bring him a beautiful resume.

He says, give me your heart. That's the first thing that it says, that we would follow him with all our heart. That that's what he wants from you, that he's trying to captivate your heart and steal your heart and keep your heart and that it's safe with you, that all of your deepest desires and longings, all of your greatest fears are safe with him. That you're safe with him. Now that some of the things that you care about aren't safe with him, but you are, and you're better off if he comes in and goes, oh, you love that. That's actually really bad for you. So we're going to get rid of that. But give me your heart. Let it belong to me that this is what he calls you that in the midst of your failures, in the midst of your anger, in the midst of your hatred, in the midst of your alienation, in the midst of your rebellion, in the midst of all the times that we have run from him or been frustrated with him or tried to guard ourselves from him.

And what he is saying is give your heart to me that you might belong to me and that I might bring you to the end. And then he says, watch me. There are some of us, because of the relationship we have with our father, the idea that God is a father gets all messed up. He feels distant or he feels angry. The best thing you can do is just behave well enough so that he doesn't, doesn't come in with that look on his face. If I can just stay out of his way, if I can just keep from annoying him. But you know that the scriptures tell us that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, that he looks at his disciples and says, if you know me, you know the father. If you've seen me, you've seen the father. That Christ comes to be the example of how God interacts with us, how God loves us, how God pursues us, how God dies for us, so that we might give him our heart. And so that in him we have hope and joy. So fathers, may we love Jesus and may we be able to look at our children and say, give me your heart and watch me and let's go. Because we've given Jesus our heart and we've watched him and we trust him with ourselves and we follow him in life. The band's going to come back up.

That's our hope this morning, that if you're in here, that you would give your heart to Jesus, that you would watch his ways, that you would know that he is good and that he is for your good, that he would die, that we might be saved from our sin, that he would take all of what is broken and wrong in us and that he would be the perfect example of what a man is supposed to be, that he is sacrificial and that he uses his strength for the good of others, that he did not come to have his own way, that he did not come to be the king of all things, that he came to suffer and to die and to take the lowest place so that the rest of us might be brought in. May we look at him and may we give him our hearts. And fathers, may we be so in love with Jesus that all of that just pours out of us and so that we can with credibility say, give me your heart and if you'll listen to me, I'll take you to the king. Lord, help us. Let's pray. God, may we be a people who love you and may we be a people that encourage faithful, godly men to raise up more faithful, godly men. May we celebrate that and enjoy that in the midst of a culture that's really confused about that. May we appreciate the distinctives of masculinity and the distinctives of femininity and celebrate your good design there.

And may we love Jesus, walk in wisdom and faithfulness. Thank you for your grace. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

You're going to push the pain to your children? Are you going to take some of the awkwardness and some of the pain so that you might lead them in a better way? Don't put that off on them. Don't put that off on the world. Don't house that into American culture. Good Lord, help us.

Learn and be able to communicate here and have some awkward conversations for the sake of your children and tell them to say no to sin and yes to Jesus. All you middle schoolers and high schoolers in here, you're welcome. You'll thank me later. Verse 26. I don't want us to miss this. I think this is helpful.

We'll finish out. We just read past it, but I want us to see it. He says, my son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways. My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways. I think that we need with credibility to be able to say this, that fathers, we care about the heart of our children, that we are jealous for the heart of our children, which means that you can trust yourself with me. You can trust your deepest desires, that you can trust what you long for.

You can trust who you feel like you are as a person with me. I care about you. Now, that does not mean that everything that they believe or desire is safe with you, but that they are. But I think sometimes the impression that children have gotten from their fathers is not that I care about your heart, but that I care about my time. I don't care about your heart. I care about my comfort.

I don't care about your heart. I care about not being bothered. I don't care about your heart. I care about my job. And I think we need to be able to, with credibility, say to our children, give me your heart and mean it and it be in safe hands when they do. The encouraging thing is that I think by default, most children give their fathers their heart pretty early on.

Some of you need to fight back to getting it back and to be credible in your saying that you want it and that it's good. And then he says this, let your eyes observe my ways. You, there's a, there's a saying that apparently everyone originally said when you look it up online, but it's, you can teach what you know, but you replicate who you are. That's what he's saying. Watch me. All the things that I've said to you about saying no to sin, all the things I've said to you about raising your voice for wisdom and understanding, all the things that I've said to you about what you ought to care about and what you ought to fight for, all the things I've said to you about saying no to overeating and over drinking and chasing women, all the things that I've said to you, watch me.

The reality is that your children are watching you just like you watched your parents. You know what they cared about. You know, when they told you that Jesus mattered the most, whether or not he actually did, you know, how they handled money. You know what they were stressed out about, you know, what actually got on their nerves, regardless of what they told you, you know, and your children know. And that's why he says, watch me that we ought to have credibility because the reality is we're replicating who we are in so many ways. And you know, this, as you've gotten older, there've been times where after a situation, you really should have turned to an invisible audience and taken a bow because you did a perfect rendition of your father from 40 years ago.

This has been a reproduction of Kent Phillips from 1992. You know that. And there've been times where that scared you. There've been times where that was wonderful. A situation happened and afterwards you were like, oh, wow, I handled it. I'm so glad I saw that modeled that way.

There are other times where you're trying to do what the Bible says and you have no good model for that. You're out on, you have no clue. You're just winging it as best you can as you follow Jesus. May we be worth watching and worth modeling. This is discipleship. This is apprenticeship.

And so he says, give me your heart and watch me. Now that call from verse 26 is the same thing that the Lord says to us. In some ways, that's the message of scripture. Give me your heart and watch my ways. Give me your heart, meaning that you are safe with the Lord, that what he primarily desires is you, not your works, not your effort, that you wouldn't bring him a beautiful resume. He says, give me your heart.

That's the first thing that it says, that we would follow him with all our heart. That that's what he wants from you, that he's trying to captivate your heart and steal your heart and keep your heart and that it's safe with you, that all of your deepest desires and longings, all of your greatest fears are safe with him. That you're safe with him. Now that some of the things that you care about aren't safe with him, but you are, and you're better off if he comes in and goes, oh, you love that. That's actually really bad for you. So we're going to get rid of that.

But give me your heart. Let it belong to me that this is what he calls you that in the midst of your failures, in the midst of your anger, in the midst of your hatred, in the midst of your alienation, in the midst of your rebellion, in the midst of all the times that we have run from him or been frustrated with him or tried to guard ourselves from him. And what he is saying is give your heart to me that you might belong to me and that I might bring you to the end. And then he says, watch me. There are some of us, because of the relationship we have with our father, the idea that God is a father gets all messed up.

He feels distant or he feels angry. The best thing you can do is just behave well enough so that he doesn't, doesn't come in with that look on his face. If I can just stay out of his way, if I can just keep from annoying him. But you know that the scriptures tell us that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, that he looks at his disciples and says, if you know me, you know the father. If you've seen me, you've seen the father. That Christ comes to be the example of how God interacts with us, how God loves us, how God pursues us, how God dies for us, so that we might give him our heart.

And so that in him we have hope and joy. So fathers, may we love Jesus and may we be able to look at our children and say, give me your heart and watch me and let's go. Because we've given Jesus our heart and we've watched him and we trust him with ourselves and we follow him in life. The band's going to come back up. That's our hope this morning, that if you're in here, that you would give your heart to Jesus, that you would watch his ways, that you would know that he is good and that he is for your good, that he would die, that we might be saved from our sin, that he would take all of what is broken and wrong in us and that he would be the perfect example of what a man is supposed to be, that he is sacrificial and that he uses his strength for the good of others, that he did not come to have his own way, that he did not come to be the king of all things, that he came to suffer and to die and to take the lowest place so that the rest of us might be brought in.

May we look at him and may we give him our hearts. And fathers, may we be so in love with Jesus that all of that just pours out of us and so that we can with credibility say, give me your heart and if you'll listen to me, I'll take you to the king. Lord, help us. Let's pray. God, may we be a people who love you and may we be a people that encourage faithful, godly men to raise up more faithful, godly men. May we celebrate that and enjoy that in the midst of a culture that's really confused about that.

May we appreciate the distinctives of masculinity and the distinctives of femininity and celebrate your good design there. And may we love Jesus, walk in wisdom and faithfulness. Thank you for your grace. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.