Most Christians I have known over the last 44 years of my life do not like the word duty. The word duty is not in their vocabulary, it has fallen out of favor in these desperate times. We love freedom from duty, we love doing what we feel like doing, and woe to the pastor who tells his people they need to do something whether they feel like it or not. How many times have I heard people say, “You are being legalistic, you are putting me under the law, you are guilting me.” We are a generation of people who hate duty and obligation. We want to do what we want when we want to do it. Often, we do not do what we ought to do because we don’t feel like it and we make excuses for it.
Brothers, Fathers, we have a sacred duty to God, an obligation to God to be the family priest! We have a sacred duty to perform, given to us by God. That duty is to devoutly worship God on behalf of our family, to enter into the holy place of God, through the work and grace, the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ our sacred High Priest and offer praises, thanksgiving, prayers, and entreaties to God on our behalf and on behalf of our wife and children. It is an extremely vital, important, and significant sacred responsibility. Most Christian fathers are either not performing this sacred duty, unaware it is a sacred duty, or are extremely lax, lazy, and inconsistent in attempting to do so. Most Christian men and fathers are AWOL before the throne of God, and derelict in this sacred, holy duty. Read Job 1:4-5. Job was a man who understood his sacred duty. Do not misunderstand me and think that I am saying you need to get up and offer burnt offerings for your kids because they may have sinned. I am not saying that. Notice, rather, Job’s devout reverence for God and his devotion to the sacred worship of God on behalf of his family. Remember that we most certainly owe God our sacrifices and offerings of praise and thanksgiving. This is what is sorely lacking today in most Christian fathers. We have a sacred duty to stand in the gap before God for our wife and children!
I would wager a bet that very few reading this have ever heard of this concept or have never thought of it in these terms. Why am I even bringing this up? Because this sacred daily duty, which happens in the privacy of our prayer closet, is of tremendous, vital importance to God, to your family, and you. God rightly deserves our honor and expects it! God rightly deserves our thanks and requires it. God rightly deserves our praise and worship and is worthy of it. God rightly deserves our entreaties, requests, and prayers, FOR HE is the only one true God, Creator, Provider, and Giver of all things, the only one capable of hearing and answering those prayers, and He is honored and glorified by His people when we treat Him like the Almighty, All-Loving, Awesome God He truly is and deserves to be in our life and family.
Many years ago, I had a dear christian friend. He was a husband and father, a very sincere man. Almost every time we got together he would ask for prayer that he would be more faithful in praying, more faithful in the Word. Over time this confused me. Why? Because I thought this: Why don’t you just do what you need to do? Perform your sacred duty and pray, praise, give thanks, and bathe your family in prayer!
Brothers, I say this with great tenderness but all seriousness, it is time to do what we ought to do! It is time to be the worshipful, prayerful, thankful, faithful priest for your family that God designed you to be. It is time to get out of our beds, get ourselves awake, and give honor to God! Give thanks to God! Offer up prayers and petitions on behalf of our family to God! We owe this to our Magnificent Creator Savior God. We owe Him our thanks for all He has given to us, all He has done for us, all He has provided for us, whether it seems to you a lot or a little. Every single thing we have, our eyes, our brain, our ears, our bodies, our gifts, our talents, our vocational skills, our wife, our children, the air we breathe, the job we have, the homes we live in, the water we drink, the food we eat, the cars we drive, the fuel for those cars, the money we have, it all came from God and was given to us by God. Our salvation, our new life, the complete and total forgiveness of our sins, our right standing with God, our sacred Bibles, the indwelling Holy Spirit, Comforter and Counselor, our eternal destiny in heaven forever, our blessed hope! All of these things were given to us by God, and He is honored when we thank Him, He longs for us to thank Him, and it dishonors God when we don’t!
Great victories will be won for our families in our prayer closet as we fulfill our sacred duty as our family’s priest to God!
Carefully ponder these two passages of scripture:
Revelation 5:9-10 (NASB)
And they sang a new song saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for you were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.”
Psalm 50:14-15,22-23 (NLT)
“What I want instead is your true thanks to God; I want you to fulfill your vows to the Most High. Trust me in your times of trouble and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory. Repent, all of you who ignore me, or I will tear you apart, and no one will help you. But giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me. If you keep to my path, I will reveal to you the salvation of God”
Lets us determine here and now, for the rest of our lives, each day of our lives, WE WILL BE THOSE MEN.
