Embracing Spiritual Fatherhood in a Fatherless Society

1. "And you know what's not on the ballot, or nobody's talking about it at least, is fatherlessness. Fatherlessness. I was blown away by this information that I'm about to tell you, okay? This is from 2002. A U.S. census showed that 18.3 million children in the U.S. live without a father. A father in the home. That's about one in four children in the U.S. are without a father. It's the highest rate in the world. It's the highest rate in the world. It's the highest rate in the world. It's the highest rate in the world. One." [00:01:04] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "And so this is a real thing that is going to, I believe, really bring our nation down because families, both a mother and father, in the home. And the Apostle Paul in our text today, he's going to talk about being a spiritual father to the Corinthian church. And as important, as having a father in the home is, it's also important, I would argue, if not more important, for each person to have a spiritual father investing in their life as they seek to walk with God." [00:02:55] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "Spiritual fathers care for their children. Look at verse 14. Now we're going to walk through it. I do not write these things to make you ashamed. Now, what are these things that he's talking about? These things refer back to the earlier parts of his letter. Look at chapter 3, verse 1. But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, because you weren't ready for it. He's saying you're not even spiritual people. You're babes. You're infants. You're, you, you should be eaten." [00:06:12] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "And so spiritual fathers are needed. And you might say, well, I got some things in my life I'm still working on. Well, welcome to the club. God's still looking for spiritual mature believers, men and women, to make an impact on their lives. And I think that's in the lives of other Christians right here at Village Bible Church." [00:14:47] (19 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "All those questions are a question of leading by example, that you can learn from somebody else and watch them in their life, an older believer who's gone before you, who has gone through those things, and how do they react in these different situations? And our world doesn't have any good examples for us to emulate or to look through. If we count on our culture, I have a picture. It's Ned Flanders. That's what the world says." [00:15:28] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "Spiritual fathers are not afraid to confront sinful attitudes and actions. They aren't. Arrogant people thought that daddy wasn't coming home maybe you heard this when you were growing up just wait till dad gets home anybody hear that and uh yeah and and paul's coming back and look back at the text look at this is like fighting words he says but i will come to you soon if the lord wills and i will find out not the talk of those arrogant people but their power man he's looking he's coming to fight and and more than a physical fight this is more important than a physical fight this is a spiritual fight a battle for the souls of people in corinth and beyond and paul says there's arrogant people there and they're a lot of talk i'm going to show up and i'm going to confront them man but i don't know about you i i don't like confrontation some of you are okay with confrontation a sermon a long time ago i said some of you like confrontations and somebody corrected me afterwards who liked confrontation they corrected me and they said i don't like confrontation i just it's part of the life we have to do it and i said okay i'll change it so let me just take a poll this morning how many people here are okay with confrontation it's fine how many people are here don't like confrontation okay so we're still skewed to more of you do not like confrontation but the studies have shown that the first service are filled with people who are okay with confrontation but so for me i like to have some help with this and maybe you need this help too because we're not all the apostle paul but all of us as mature believers are to confront sinful attitudes and actions" [00:16:55] (108 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "And there's four things to ask when you are going to confront somebody. The first question is this, who do we confront? Who do we confront? And the answer to this is those we have a relationship with, okay? Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 5, so just a little bit further on in this letter, 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 12 and 13. For what I, what have I to do with judging outsiders? It is not those inside the church whom you are to judge. It, no, is it not those inside the church who you are to judge? It is not those inside the church who you are to judge. Whom you are to judge, God judges those outside." [00:18:49] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "So, so his point is, is don't worry about the people on the outside, the people that you don't have a relationship, the people that are in the world. God's going to judge them. It's not your responsibility to get on Facebook and get in an argument with somebody who says something against Christ or against the truth. It's not your responsibility. You can do that if you want to, but remember, God's got it. But in the community, those you have a relationship, in the church, those are the people that you are called and have a responsibility to confront evil and sinful actions, sinful attitudes." [00:19:33] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "And we pray that that process, when it happens, that God would gently restore the person. Maybe some people need it not as gentle. but God, the goal is restoration, and very rarely over my 20 years of pastoral ministry have I seen it come to the end, although it has, where somebody refuses to repent, and the confrontation has to then come to a point where we're going to see later on in this letter where Paul tells the church that this guy that's in the church should be out of the church. But even that, we're going to learn, is the goal of restoration, that he would then come back to the church in repentance." [00:24:40] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "Now this takes work, time, and dedication. I'll just tell you honestly the truth, how many churches do this, and how many churches do it well. But it must be done by mature believers if we want the church to be all that God has called us to be. Everybody wants to be healthy in our body, and strong, and fit, but it takes a lot of hard work, and dedication, and adherence to a diet, and all of that. The same is for the church. For the church to be healthy, we need spiritual fathers who, like Paul, are not afraid to confront sinful attitudes and actions." [00:25:56] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)