Leading Your Family by Faith

Introduction

We began this series entitled living by faith three weeks ago. So far we have seen a description of what faith is and how we can please God by faith.

Today we celebrate Father’s Day by looking into the life of a father who led his family by faith.

Each and every father here today has the responsibility to lead his family and to lead them by faith following God’s leadership.

From Noah’s life and testimony we can learn what it takes to lead a family by faith.

Noah was not a perfect father nor will any of us be perfect in our attempt at fatherhood, but we must determine to do our best to lead our family knowing that we will be held accountable for how we lead them.

From the scriptural account of his life we learn that Noah:

Walked With God (Genesis 6:8-9)

Noah had a personal relationship with God made possible by his faith in God.

The world that Noah lived in bears a striking resemblance to the world that you and I are living in today. (Genesis 6:5) Yet in the midst of such a wicked world Noah walked with God!

As a father it is vitally important that you have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. If you are going to lead your family successfully you need more than just an escape from Hell and a ticket to Heaven. You need a real vibrant relationship with God.

It will take work to maintain a walk with God, you will have to make sacrifices, you will have to set priorities and stick to them, you will have to set aside time each day to commune with God.

In all likelihood the world that our children will grow up in will be more wicked, with more anti-christian sentiment, and more pressure to turn from the faith. If our children are going to make it in such a world they must have a walk with God.

Father you should want every single one of your children to be saved. You should also want them to know what it is to walk with God on a daily basis.

The fact that you have a walk with God does not necessarily guarantee that your children will walk with God, but if you do not have a walk with God you all but guarantee that your children will never know what it is to walk with God either.

It was because Noah walked with God that he heard to voice of God speaking to him and Noah:

Listened to God (Genesis 6:13 & Hebrews 11:7a)

Noah communed with God and it was through this communion that he was warned of God that the earth was to be destroyed by a worldwide flood.

Noah heard the voice of God and he was listening when God spoke to warn him of the coming judgement and to instruct him how he and his family could be saved from this judgment.

Noah certainly would never have imagined that there would be a worldwide flood which would wipe out all human and animal life on the earth, but when God spoke Noah listened. It was because Noah listened to the voice of God that he had the wisdom to know how to lead his family.

Fathers we are living in perilous times and we desperately need wisdom from God if we are to lead our families successfully. We must also listen for the voice of God.

This is why it is so important that we stay in the Word of God and that we are faithful to the house of God where it is taught and preached. God wants to give us wisdom, He wants us to know His will, but so often we are not listening to His voice.

It may be that God is trying to speak but you have not opened your bible in days or weeks. It may be that God is trying to speak to you through a Sunday school teacher or through a preacher but you were not there to hear.

Your children and wife are relying on you to lead them in the way that they should go, but you cannot lead them aright if you are not listening to God!

Feared & Followed God (Hebrews 11:7b & Genesis 6:22, Genesis 7:5)

Noah feared (reverenced/respected) God. When God warned Noah that there was to be a worldwide flood, he did not question God or doubt that what he said was true because he feared God.

It was evident that Noah feared God because when God spoke not only did Noah listen, but he acted upon what God had said. Noah’s fear of God motivated him to respond in faith and follow God’s instructions, even when to follow went against the grain and brought mocking and ridicule.

When God told him that He was going to destroy the earth with water and that the only way he and his family could be saved was to build a gigantic ark, Noah did not hesitate, he went straight to work building the ark.

Fathers do you fear God? You may say that you do but it will be evidenced by your actions in following God. Those who truly fear God will strive to do what God says. Ecclesiastes 12:13- the whole duty of man.

Your family is relying on you to lead them and, if you are to lead them in a way that honors God, you must have a healthy fear of God. Noah believed God and because he feared God he deliberately sought to follow God’s instructions to the letter.

Fathers, it is our responsibility to receive God’s instructions (in His Word), to follow Him, and to lead our family to do the same. Noah was careful to follow every detail of God’s instruction because he knew that his life and the lives of his family depended on it.

Oh how carefully we ought to study the Word of God, how diligently we ought to listen to the teaching and preaching of it, how carefully we ought to strive to understand God’s instructions for our family. Our wife and our children are counting on us to lead them and God forbid that we should ever lead them astray!

We should have a sincere desire that our children would not only make it to heaven, but that they can one day stand confidently at the judgment seat of Christ knowing that they lived a life that was pleasing to God.

Conclusion

Hebrews 11:7c- to the saving of his house

Genesis 7:10-13 & Genesis 7:23

Because Noah led his family by faith, they were spared from the judgment of God and were delivered. We ought also to lead our family by faith so that our children and grand-children can be saved and delivered from the judgment of God.

Every child will make their own choice but father, your influence will play a significant role in the choices they make. If you will lead your family by faith, as Noah did, you significantly increase the likelihood that you children will be saved and that they will mature into adults with a sincere desire to follow God.

Contrast the results of Noah with that of Lot- Genesis 19:14- if you are not sincere you also will seem a hypocrite when you instruct your children to follow God.