Father's Day - Leading In Matters Of Faith

TITLE: Father’s Day - LEADING IN MATTERS OF FAITH

TEXT:

Acts 16:15

When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. "If you consider me a believer in the Lord," she said, "come and stay at my house." And she persuaded us.

Acts 16:31

They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household."

INTRODUCTION:

As you may know the Gideon’s are business men who pass out Bibles.

We heard the story of a man who asked for a Gideon Bible …He said the paper is very fine and perfect for rolling his cigarettes. The Gideon gave him the Bible on the condition that he before using the pages that he read them front and back. The man proceeded to smoke his way through Matthew, Mark, Luke and a then came to John and stopped when he read chapter 3:16 – and he gave his heart to the Lord

Another story was of a young Colombian Girl who received a new testament in her school. She read the new testament until one day her father caught her reading it…and told her not to read it any more because it was full of lies and fantasy..

But the girl kept on reading until one day her father came home unexpectedly found her with the NT grabbed it from her hands and put it in his pocket.

The father went off to work where he was a mining engineer. Several hours later sirens went off in the community there had been a cave in at the mine. The father was trapped in the mine. The rescue workers took 5 days to finally reach the men, but it was too late. All 31 men died including the father of this little girl

Curiously, workers found the man clutching the NT between his praying hands.

When they opened the front cover they read a note

“To my daughter” Keep reading this NT, it is true and right, and I will see you one day in heaven.

Then they turned to the back page where the father had signed the commitment card after having said the sinner’s prayer.

But that was not the end of the story,

Turning the page there were signed the names of the other 30 workers.

These stories reminded me how powerful God’s Word is

Able to save - all who call upon the name of the Lord

As Paul said,

Romans 1:16

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

I want you to notice something important in that second story

The father was able to lead his child in her faith – even in his death

The message the Holy Spirit has for his church today is this

“Will you fulfill your God given responsibility to lead your family in matters of faith?”

In the ancient world the whole household followed the religion of its head; and the head lead their whole household in worship toward God.

As Joshua did in Joshua 24:15

… as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

What we are going to see this morning is that

Lydia

And the Philippian Jailer

Lead their families to the Lord

Why?

They had the responsibility

And they met the challenge

Will you fulfill your God given responsibility to lead your family in matters of faith?

PRAYER

Paul and his companions after having received direction from the Lord

Acts 16:11-12 says,

From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Sa mu thrayce, and the next day on to Nee apolis. [12] From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

There are in Acts 16 three Major incidents recorded during those days in Philippi

1. The encounter with the seller of Purple, Lydia

2. The encounter with the demonized slave girl

3. The encounter with the Philippian jailer.

What I want to do is describe these 3 incidents

And then conclude with one point

1. THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE SELLER OF PURPLE, LYDIA

From Verses 11-15 We see Paul and his band entering the city of Philippi

It is the Sabbath.

According to Acts 26 When God called Paul to preach the Gospel it was to the Jew first and then to the Greek

And you see this pattern throughout His Ministry

To the Jew first and then to the Greek

It is the Sabbath and usually Paul would be in the Synagogue preaching

But instead we see him heading to the river to pray

WHY?

When the Jews were carried off into exile they had no temple and they had no Synagogue.