Portrait of a Father - Priest of the Family

Today, we're going to ask and answer four key questions that every father must address if he's going to lead his family well. Now, here's the deal. How you tackle these four issues will dramatically affect the direction of your children's future.

You want to know what they are? Stay with me. I'll tell you. Thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher for this international teaching and discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. In just a minute, we'll continue our series, Portrait of a Father. Today, Chip unpacks the responsibility a dad has to care for his kid's emotional and spiritual livelihood.

If you're ready to learn what that looks like, here's Chip with the second half of his message, Leader and Priest of the Family. Your goal is for your boy, your girl, your teen, your young adult to become like Jesus, to become Christ-like. In fact, you might jot in your notes, guys, Romans 8, 28-29. God says He literally uses all things, all things, who you are, who your dad was, your idiosyncrasies, your struggles, your problems, the birth order of your child. He uses all things to work together for the good for people like you who are loved and called by God to do what? Verse 29. Conform your son, conform you to the image of Christ. But you know what? If you don't have a target, you're in big trouble. Psalm 127, the last three verses of it, what's it say?

Children are a gift from the Lord, an inheritance, a beautiful thing. You know, those of you, he says, you know, most of us have got this pretty well wired. He says if your quiver is full of them, way to go. Now when's the last time you saw someone in archery range like this? Pull out an arrow.

Hey, nice arrow. Take it on a bow. Shoot it straight up.

Boy, I wonder where that will come down. Well, don't stand still. Or just shoot it here.

What do you do? You've got to have a target, guys. You need, I need, we need to say my children are arrows. I put them in the bow of God's training program. And then I reach back and I say, God, I want to aim these kids so they fulfill your calling. God's goal isn't that your kids be successful, that they have athletic prowess, that they get a scholarship, that they get straight A's, that they're more financially affluent than you, that they're popular, that everything works out well for them. Any of that stuff you get, say, thanks, Lord. Praise Him. His goal is your kids become like Christ.

And if you're not careful, you can unconsciously line them up to become successful failures. Isn't that what we heard? We heard from a guy who got straight A's, all American and swimming. Bench press 400 pounds, that's a lot of weight.

If it lands on your neck, it hurts. You know what he didn't have? He didn't have character. He didn't have a dad. He didn't have a marriage that worked.

He was successful, but a successful failure. See, dads, let's not pass on just second hand clothes, second hand stuff. Let's give our kids the best. How? You say, how do you do it? Let me give you some very specific ways to get there. One, you're going to hear this a lot because the Bible says it a lot and the research says it a lot, modeling.

Modeling. You need to be a man of God's word. You need to be a man of integrity. You need to be a man involved in loving relationships.

Your kids are going to come out, whether you like it or not, a lot like you. Second, as a leader, you need to take initiative. All through the old New Testament, it's amazing. It doesn't say, mothers, don't exasperate your children, but bring them up in the nurturing admonition of the Lord.

What's it say? Fathers, initiative, just like you do at work. I mean, you don't go to work, put your hands in your pockets and say, gosh, I hope someone calls. What's your job? I'm a sales manager. I'm just waiting for one of these big companies to call. And yet unconsciously, what do we do?

Hope these kids turn out right. What are you doing? Nothing.

Don't hold your breath. What's another thing leaders do? They give direction. They set direction. This is where we're going to go.

We are here. There's the target, Christ likeness. My child has unique needs.

We relate in a certain way. This is how I'm going to leverage it. Here's what they need emotionally, spiritually, physically, bam, you come up with a strategic plan. You lay it out. Part of it works.

Part of it doesn't work. So what do you do? You evaluate. That's the next one. And you're looking in the rear view mirror and say, we're making progress, but not here, not there.

Guys, if you guys are smart guys, all right, you are smart guys. What I'm asking you to do is ask the Spirit of God today to turn a switch inside your head and say, God, would you help me to bring the level of focus and intentionality and strategic thinking and absolute commitment to success to my kids and my home that I do to work every day? You do.

God will show you how to get there. And here's the deal. The rewards are awesome.

They're long-term rewards, but you hang in there. Man, I tell you, there's not enough letters you can get behind my name or your name. There's not enough zeros you can put in my portfolio or yours, and some of you do. There's not enough fame.

There's not enough prestige. There's nothing you're ever going to get that is as rewarding as having your kids look you in the eye and say, Dad, I don't know about anybody else. I know you're not perfect. Man, I'm glad you're my dad. I love you. And you have marked my... I got a card from one of my kids that it was just like, you know, everyone's there. I just didn't want to kind of lose it. He said, Dad, you've been the single most powerful influence in my life.

Guys, that's my dream. And, you know, love covers a multitude of sins. You're looking at a guy who's blown it early and often and late and often and in between and often. What I learned was your kids don't need you to be perfect. They just need you to be honest, need you to be real.

When you blow it, you do what Scott does. You know, even to a four-year-old, son, I'm sorry. In a word, your stewardship, man, and this is new, so, you know, ease back, deep breath. Your stewardship, man, you are morally responsible.

You are morally responsible before God for your home. Not your wife, not the church, not the maid, not the nanny, you. Does it mean you do it all? Of course not. You don't do everything at work, do you? What do you do? You own it.

You own the moral responsibility and say, we are going to produce these kind of kids by the grace of God. And we're going to have a plan, we're going to have a strategy, we're going to evaluate, we're going to set direction, we're going to take initiative, and then we are going to go for it. And, guys, there's a little side light here. A lady in between services shared it. She said, I am married to a man who does what you're talking about. And she said, you just can't imagine what it feels like and how good it is to have a man who leads his home. And this is hard for some of us.

You didn't have a model like me. Some of you are just going to start off and it's going to be tough. And, ladies, can I give you a little hint here?

Really, don't use this message as a, you know, this is where you need to get with the program. And when he starts leading, can I give you a little clue? You know who will not like it? Those laughing understand. You know, because your husband starts to set some direction. Well, that's not the way I do it. Oh, really? Right? So you've got to be a team.

I'm not talking in any way about any authoritarian, my way or the highway models. I'm talking about a husband and a wife that come together and say, what's the dream for our family? What does God want for our kids? Where are we going to go?

How are we going to get there? What do you think? And you do it together. But when a man starts to do that, a lot of women in this room, here's what will happen. You come to church every day, my husband's a drunk, my husband's a drunk, my husband's a drunk.

You ever met one of those ladies? Pray for him. Pray for him. Pray for him. Well, guess what? God answers.

He's not a drunk anymore. Then she comes to pray for me. Pray for me. Pray for me.

Why? Because he's healthy now and I don't know how to live with a healthy man. He's making me nuts. He wants to do things. I was in control. I got all these strokes from, you know, we were poor, dear, married to this drunk.

Guess what? Ladies, this is not going to be easy. It's going to be great because I believe God's going to speak to a lot of men.

And baby steps, baby steps, a little at a time. Second role, men. You're not only a leader, you're a priest. A priest?

What? Yeah, a priest. That brings lots of pictures to a lot of our minds. A priest, what's his definition? He makes God known. That's what a priest does. He makes God known.

You are the family priest. Open your Bibles, will you? Deuteronomy chapter 6.

Let me give you the context. Deuteronomy chapter 5, God gives the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai. There's smoke. There's an earthquake. There's rumbling and the people are going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. So in verse 27, they come to Moses and they say, Moses, we have a great idea. Moses says, well, what's the idea? How about God never shows up like this again ever, okay? This makes us very uncomfortable. We're out of our comfort zone. We're scared to death.

How about you go talk to him and then whatever he tells you, you come talk to us. And Moses in verse 28 goes to God and says, hey, God, they got an idea. I'd like to run it by you. And he tells them the idea and God says, you know what? That's a good idea.

Let's do it that way. And so what happens is Moses becomes what? A priest. He goes and realizes who God is and he reveals God to the people and then he takes the needs, the hurts and the fears of the people and it represents them to God. That's what a priest does.

He reveals God to the people and he takes the needs of the people to God. Now as Deuteronomy six opens up, listen, God has told Moses, Moses is the priest and Moses is going to give this mantle of responsibility to the men to pass on to their sons and their grandsons. And the reason you got to have a pencil is he goes through about literally eight clear steps about what a priest does.

Now we're just going to give you the highlights, but you know, it's not rocket science. You can figure this out and you know how to do it. So follow along. Let's read the first three verses as Moses, the new priest, is calling the men to be the priest in their homes. Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments, which the Lord your God has commanded me, that's Moses, to teach you.

Why? That you might do them in the land where you're going over to possess it so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord, have relationship with him. What do you do then? To keep all his statutes, his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life that your days may be prolonged. Oh, Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you.

Well, what's he want for him? What's God's will? Is this a God whose arms are crossed, wears a big black robe, says, here's the rules, my way or the highway? What's it say?

Look at the text. He says that God may prolong your days, greatly multiply you and has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey. See, God says, Moses, I want them to hear the content. This is right, this is wrong and my character, but Moses, make sure they get my heart. I love them. I love these people.

I've delivered them. Make sure every dad tells a son, every son tells his son for generation to generation to generation and make sure they do a couple things. One, my statutes, my word, they got to know it, but don't let them get into that legalism stuff.

Don't let them just share these rules. Make sure they know it comes from a God who is so good and so loving that he wants to protect and give them the very best. See, God's will in this fallen world is like a twisting highway on a mountain road and if you go over the highway, it's painful down there, thousand foot drop offs. And so God says, I want to help you because I love you. And so he puts guard rails on this winding highway. Guard rail on one side is his commandments, guard rail on the other side is his statutes. And what he wants you to do is bump into those guard rails. Oh, that's wrong. Boom, that's wrong.

Why? Because see, if you go over the guard rail, you get hurt. This isn't about a God who says, here's all the rules, keep all the rules, memorize this stuff. This is a God who says, I have for you better, bigger, deeper, richer than you could ever imagine. And I've outlined how to get there.

So follow him. And you say to yourself, I'd like to be a dad like that. I'd like to be a priest like that.

I'd like to lead my family so that when they go around the winding roads and difficulties of life, they would land well. And you say, how do you do that? I say, I'm glad you ask. Look at verse four.

I'm going to give you some steps here to get that pen out. Verse four says, hear O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. Write down on your notes or in your Bible, put a little number one and write correct theology. Moses starts with, you got to make sure you're worshiping the right God. He's living in a world where people are worshiping everything. He says, the Lord our God, it's the great Shema of the Hebrews. This is what's true, our God. Make sure they get it clear, correct theology, accurate view of God from the scriptures.

Doesn't stop there. Verse five, and you dad shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. Put a little number two and write down devotion. First of all, get them on right track with the right truth.

And then you, before you say a word, before you try and be a dad, you with all your heart and all your soul make your number one devotion, your relationship with God. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and Chip will be back to continue his message. But quickly, let me encourage you to stick around after the teaching to learn more about the insightful resource that came out of this series. It'll help you better understand these four responsibilities Chip's highlighting and how you can apply them to your life today.

Keep listening for more details. Well, with that, here again is Chip. My kids need to grow up not because I'm a pastor, not because you're a carpenter, not because you're a dot com guy, not because you're in construction. Your kids need to grow up and say, yeah, that's what he did vocationally. My dad was a man of God. What was most important in my dad's life was his relationship with Christ. And then after you have personal devotion, notice it goes on. And these words which I'm commanding you today shall be on your heart. So long before we're doing any parenting, write theology, personal devotion, three, word centered life.

You can't know God apart from the scriptures, not in its fullness, no way. You want your kids to grow up and say, hey, my dad didn't have a hobby centered life. He didn't have a work centered life.

He did those things. He had a word centered life. You want your kids now and then to kind of sneak into the bedroom and say, oh, excuse me, dad.

They caught you reading the Bible, even before the Wall Street Journal, even before the sports page. You know, you don't want your kids thinking, my dad was an ESPN type guy. My dad was a workaholic type guy. My dad was a softballaholic type guy.

My dad was a real money guy. You know what? All that has made maybe its place in the right priorities. God says, word centered. Because if you don't have the resources, you can't give them away.

Then now notice it shifts. Number four, what do you do? And you shall teach them diligently to your sons. Teach, the word here, has the idea with formal training. A little Jewish boy, by the time he hit 12, had the first five books of the Old Testament memorized and had formal instruction. And the dad was responsible.

Got a little help from the synagogue, but dad was responsible. Men, we need, when they're little, you start with the picture Bible books. When they're a little older, you read them stories. We kept reading them stories all the way up through almost teenage years of different ways. And then they read back and forth.

There's certain content. You need to have formal times where you teach. A couple times a week around the dinner table.

It doesn't take 10, 12 minutes. But you get in the Bible together and you teach. And you try and make it creative. Right, guys? How many of you have been to a boring business meeting?

How do you like them? Right? How many of you have been to one of those presentations and you're thinking, we paid $495 for this seminar. This guy couldn't keep my grandmother awake. Well, ask yourself, what kind of times do you want to have around the table when you open the Bible? Do it in such a way where, are you creative? Of course you're creative.

Try applying that at home. Ask them questions. Use some visuals. Think through. What do you want them to learn and why? This actually can be kind of fun. But after you teach them formally, notice the next one is talk with them.

When? Well, when you sit down in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up, what's the point? You not only do formal teaching, but now you talk.

This is informal time. This is when you're riding in the car and they're talking about their boyfriend or their girlfriend or why the coach or son is getting to play ahead of them and they're struggling with their attitude when they know they're better. And in your prejudice bias view as a father, you're thinking I know my kids better than him. And how do you help them resolve it?

And how do you help them have the kind of attitude God wants? And you talk when you rise up and when you lie down, when you take walks and on vacations. And it's just woven into who you are as a person. You teach formally.

You talk informally. And then notice this next one, number six is practice it. Practice it in all of life. Notice what it says, and you shall bind them, speaking of God's word, as a sign on your hand and that shall be as frontals on your forehead and you shall write them on your doorposts of your house and on your gates. What's he saying?

You need to practice your word centered personal devotion to God by teaching, by talking, but in all of life. I mean, what does it mean here? Your hands, what are the hands? That's what you're doing. Your activities. You're in the garden. You're playing softball.

You're on the computer. You go to work. Your hands reflect what's God's word?

What's person? What's it look like when a believer, a dad walks with Christ? You live it out. You integrate. There isn't the church side or the devotional time. It's integrated in your activities and in your thinking.

That's the idea here. Now the Pharisees, the Pharisees took this so literally they, they would walk around and they actually kind of had like sunglasses with verses. They walked around like that. I am holy. I am really holy. See, I'm getting God's word.

And then when they memorized a bunch, they had philanthropies and they would put all the verses and they would really impress people and their kids are going at home. Give me a break. Give me a break.

Try living it, dad. And that's what he's saying here in your thinking. And then when you go to work, the gates of your house and how your home operates the doorposts so that it's a reminder.

It's integrated. And then notice what God promises to his priests. Look at this next line.

This is fantastic. He says, then it shall come about when the Lord Yahweh your God brings you into the land, which he swore to his fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give to you great and splendid cities, which you did not build and houses full of good things that you did not fill and human cisterns, which you did not dig and vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant and you shall eat and be satisfied. Now that's Old Testament imagery and very specific things God promised to them.

Now unless you're really into like orchards, this is not a real motivating passage. But what he was saying to those fathers is when you live life my way and you teach your sons so they teach their sons and you give them correct doctrine and you model personal devotion and you have a word-centered life and you decide there's going to be some formal times in your home where they really get it and teach it and then you talk about it and you apply it how you live. I'm going to bless your life.

I'm going to bless the socks off of you. And I'm going to do it relationally and I may do it materially. I'm going to do it in ways that your kids grow up knowing, you know, I don't know very much about life, but the way my dad led our family seems like the way to go because when I visit my friend's house there's no dad in that house or if there is they're arguing all the time or if there is he doesn't seem like he even cares. And I notice that little chemistry that my dad when he doesn't think we're looking and comes back, you know, around our mom gives her a little pat on the rear end and then gives her a little kiss and I see that stuff. Dad doesn't think I'm looking, but I see that stuff. My dad's a fulfilled man. My dad's got a heart full of joy and there's amazing things. It seems that God blesses. We have hardship. We've had struggles, but it seems like God keeps coming through. That's what God will do.

He wants your kids to know his way works. Does it mean everything goes your way? Does it mean you get rich? Does it mean you never get sick?

Well, absolutely not. It means that the best life possible in a fallen world, this taste of this side of heaven you can experience. Notice the warning though. It says that God can bless us when we do it his way. Then watch yourself lest you forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. He says, you know, be careful when life gets going kind of good, you don't focus on the gifts instead of the giver.

And then notice the summary. Verse 13. This is where we get back. He started with passing it on to be a priest. You shall fear only the Lord. Capitals, it's Yahweh, his covenant name, your God. And you shall, here's our key word, worship him and swear by his name. Moses is saying, guys, you asked me to go up on the mountain, figure out what God is saying. I went, he spoke, I'm speaking, you do it. And it says you swear by his name, convictions, commitment, dependency, integrity, loyalty. God and God alone, it's got to be the focus of your heart, your life, your actions, your speech, your thinking. And when you do, the God who created all that there is and with whom he would desire to spend eternity with every person in this room and on this planet, if they would receive the free gift of Christ, that God wants to honor you. And so you say, well, what questions does a priest need to ask? How do you get there? Let me give you a few and I'll let you play these out for yourself. First, ask yourself, dad, do my kids know God?

Are you thinking about that? Ask yourself, do they have an accurate view of God? Your kids are being bombarded with all the media, all the stuff, all the school. Do they have an accurate view of God? If not, who's going to give it to them? Third question, does our home honor God? By what we see, what we allow in, where our values are, would Christ kind of walk into our home, sit on the couch and say, very well done.

I'm very comfortable living with you all. Your values, your heart, your relationships, how you deal with your anger, what movies come on the screen, what you listen to, it honors me. Or what do you have to say?

You know, we need to have a little talk. So you think you can have this double standard and tell your kids this is how they ought to live, but you kind of live this way. I just got to tell you, it won't work. They will never do what you say. They will always do what you do. Then the question is, are we growing in holiness? See, that's not the church's job. Is your wife, are you, are your kids growing in holiness? And holiness doesn't mean they're going to get a big black Bible, wear dark robes, and be no fun to be around. Holiness, biblically, means they're going to be winsome, free, pure, the kind of people who they say, man, you know what really holiness means? It means to be totally other.

They're going to be different, but not like different weird, different, like wow, winsome. A family that works. What a novel idea. A loving relationship between a teenager and his dad. Ooh, amazing.

People that have been married 20 plus years and they've got that little twinkle in their eye and they still plan weekends away. What's going on here? This is un-American. It's God's way. Your focus, men, as a priest is to guard worship.

That's your focus. Worship, worship, worship in what you say, worship in what you think, worship in the home. And you say, well, how?

How do you, how do you become a priest? And I realize here, guys, the learning curve for some of you, would you relax a little? Just relax some. I mean, when I started out on this journey, it was like overwhelming. I wrote this thesis and what I realized is this is what a father is supposed to be. And then I went and looked in the mirror and I said, and I ain't it. And I said, God, I, you know what? I'm overwhelmed.

Whether I pass this class or not, a leader, a priest, a teacher, a lover. And you know, I just sense the Spirit of God say, Hey, Chip, you know, would you lighten up? You know, what, what did you do with your kids? Did they take one tiny little step and you say, come on, run kid, get with the program. Or did you just get excited over every little baby step your kids took?

He said, that's how I am, Chip. Let these dads know, just take a little step toward me. You know, he'll, I'll impress each man exactly where he needs to go. Let him start taking some steps and they put a little step here, step here, step here, step here, step here about a year from now. Whoa, about five years from now. Whoa, it'll happen. Let me give you some practical ways to get going.

Number one here on the how to be a priest is modeling authentic worship. And then let me just shoot it straight. You have time. I have time.

It's a priority issue. Set your clock back 15 minutes this week or 20. Get up, read, start in the New Testament, start in Matthew, start in Acts, start in Mark. Get in the Bible every day.

Okay? You can't be changed. You can't be transformed. You'll know the truth.

Truth will set you free. You can go to groups. You can come to stuff. You can listen to stuff until you get in the Bible for yourself.

You will never be the man you're supposed to be. Authentic worship begins. So begin reading through the New Testament and say, God, I don't have a clue. I don't know what to do.

Pray for each one of your kids and your wife and get out your day timer and look through who you're supposed to meet with and say, I'm going to pray for each of these meetings. Takes about 15 minutes. You do that for a year. You come back and tell me what a lousy idea it was.

Okay? Your kids will have a different dad. Your wife will have a different husband.

You'll have a different work world and you'll have rest and peace in your heart. It's sheer discipline, not legalism. Just do it. Private authentic worship. The second is, dad, let's not be the guy who people are trying to drag out of bed to come to church. Be the leader. Be the initiator.

Set direction. Hey, look, this is a priority. Part of God's plan is that worship happens corporately. We're going. And when your kids say, I don't really want to go, it's fine. You don't have to want to do things. You don't have to want to eat. You don't have to want to do a lot of things.

I just love you so much. We're going to go anyway. You won't hurt their psyche a little bit. Then is initiate some family worship.

And rather than, don't go home and say, every night we're going to have family devotions. Man, you'll end up doing it two or three times and feel like a failure. Set one night a week. Just one night. You know, look at your calendar. I know it's nutty.

It's crazy. And just say, okay, we're going to eat. You got one night to do it and then decide.

Do a little prep like you would at work and do something very short and then just say, okay, we're going to get in the Bible a little bit together and then we're going to pray a little bit together. I mean, like eight minutes, ten minutes max. And you know something? It'll grow. What will happen is your kids will want it to go longer. Be creative.

And then encouraging private worship. As your kids get older, early, early on, most of my kids, by the time they were 10 or 11, then, you know, before they went to bed and then later they developed on their own in the morning, is that we just say, you know something? How many, how many, how many sitcoms are going to just radically change your life? Oh, bad or bad. I got to watch this. I got to watch this. I got to watch this.

You know what? Just turn the TV off a half hour before bedtime and say, you know what? Why don't you take a little time, read the scriptures or read a good book that will encourage you spiritually. And early on, you can teach your kids to end each day with time with God, do some reading and thinking, and your kids will be transformed. It can be fun stuff when they're little that you read to them. Later on, you can do it together and you read, then you introduce them to C.S. Lewis and some of that stuff.

And then they get in high school, early college, and you get some real thinking type stuff. And then what your meals become, hey, what are you reading? What are you thinking? Where are you reading? What do you think God's teaching you?

How's it going? Well, can we pray for you on that? I mean, this is like doing life. This isn't rocket science. This isn't like you got to have a Bible degree. This is about saying, let's do life God's way together. The stewardship then men is that you own and I own the spiritual climate of our house. And 99% of the homes in America, the woman does.

And she would love you to take this ball and run with it. And in about two years, if you do, you'll say, now that was the best decision I ever made. And will it be easy?

Of course not. You name one, name a company you've built, a house that you've built, a relationship you've built. Name me one thing that had great impact that was like, man, that was easy. I just kind of woke up and it all fell right into my hands.

Anything of value is going to take focus, intentionality, strategy, discipline, objectives, work, evaluation. And what you'll probably need, you'll probably need two or three other guys to help you do this. Because you're a lot like me. You really don't know how.

Neither do I. But like Scott, you find a few people and you get close. And man, it's where the action is. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. And the message you just heard, leader and priest of a family, is from our series, Portrait of a Father.

Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute. It's no secret that fatherlessness is a worldwide epidemic. Too many kids are growing up without a dad or one who's physically present but emotionally and spiritually checked out. Well, in this short series, Chip offers some hope for this urgent issue by pointing men to a godly example of a father found in scripture. Stay with us to learn four critical roles dads play in the family. So whether you're a brand new father or been one for decades, there's something for everyone in this series.

Well, Chip's in studio now with a quick word. Hey, before I come right back and give some practical application to today's message, this is a word for men. You're leading a men's group where you hang out with a bunch of guys or you're a pastor, associate pastor. And what you know is when men are growing spiritually, when men are leading their home, great stuff happens. And what you also know is it's a journey and it's really hard and it's really difficult. And so what I want you to know that's available in Father's Day is a Good Time is we put a little booklet together called The Portrait of a Father, How to Be the Dad Your Kids Need. It's a quick read, about an hour, maybe a little bit more. It's going to give you the four specific roles that God calls you and me to be as a dad, a priest, a leader, a lover, and a teacher. And I'll tell you how to do that with very specific ways.

Here's what I know. It was so hard to learn how to be a dad, but as I learned and as I got some other guys around me to help me learn, my kids are different today. They came out completely different because God showed me what He expected of me and how He would give me the power and the grace to be that kind of dad. Perfect.

No way. But I made progress. That's what I want for you. And in fact, we so want you to do it with others. We discounted it so that you can buy two, five, ten, twenty copies and get it to a lot of people to help them too. To order your copy of Chip's book, Portrait of a Father, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003. We hope this book will encourage every dad to be the man his kids desperately need him to be. And as Chip mentioned, we've discounted this resource so you can get as many as you need for either your men's group or your entire church. Also, if you want to get this as a Father's Day gift, place your order by June 7th to receive it in time. To get your hands on Chip's book, Portrait of a Father, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003. That listeners taps special offers.

We'll hear again as Chip with that application he promised. Men, I have a confession to make and to you ladies as well. The most difficult part of learning to be a father, because I didn't grow up in a Christian home, was this role of the priest, this role of leading in worship, this role that the spiritual climate of my house is my responsibility. And we said that a priest asks four questions that men or even women, this is a small little series.

I would really encourage you to order this one and listen to it a bunch, especially as a man because this doesn't come real naturally to us. So, let me ask you the four questions so that you can mentally review and do a little evaluation. And then I want to give you some very practical like, hey, here's how I've really messed up over the years and what I've learned, practical stuff about leading your family spiritually. The questions to ask as a priest are one, do my kids know God?

Let that burn in your heart. Second, do they have an accurate view of God? And do some thinking about their intake of scripture versus their intake of media? Third, does our home honor God? And that issue of holiness and how do you talk, you get it. And number four is are we growing in holiness? See, a priest is leading his family in holiness.

And then in the message we said, how do you do that? Well, you model authentic worship. Men, hear me, and I know it's hard, get up 15 or 20 minutes early and get in the Bible and talk with God. The greatest thing you can give your family is your own authentic walk with God. They will imitate you far more than they receive anything that they hear from you. Second is initiating family worship. And let's kick this one around because some of you have tried this and, you know, the kids are rolling their eyes, you don't know where to go, you read a little bit of the Bible, you make it too long, you make it too short, it gets real boring. You do it for two weeks and you think I'm a failure, I'm out of here.

Okay, been there, done that. So now that we've had that experience, let me give you a few tips. If your kids are small, get a little Bible storybook and read only one little story, act it out, dads, be funny, be creative, have a ball, and then pray. Just have them pray one sentence or something. Bedtime's a great time or mealtime's a great time and just, you know, do it. And by the way, most of you are not going to be able to pull this off every day.

Instead of piling on the guilt, say to yourself, hey, you know what? We do this when they're little, three, four, five times a week, we're really hitting it. When they get older and they have soccer and basketball and all the rest, you do it a couple times a week, three times a week, along with regular church attendance, they're going to get what they need. Hey guys, I know it's a fearful thing, I know most of us don't know what we're doing, but you jump in there and your wife will love it. And whether your kids act like it or not, as mine have told me, dad, sometimes it made me mad, but I look back, it was the act of us doing it that said, as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord.

Men, go for it. Great challenge, Chip, thanks. As we wrap up this program, Living on the Edge depends on listeners like you to help us continue encouraging Christians to live like Christians. So would you consider becoming a monthly partner to help others benefit from this ministry? You can set up a recurring donation at LivingOnTheEdge.org or by calling us at 888-333-6333. That's 888-333-6003, or visit LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners, tap donate, and thanks for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. Well for Chip and the entire team here, this is Dave Drouie, thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge, and I hope you'll join us next time.