Who have I in heaven but thee? And there is none on earth beside thee, though my flesh and my heart might fail, still thou art my strength and my portion forever. About ten years ago-ish, I stood at this podium, a little overwhelmed at what I had seen. It was my first time at the, what was then the NCFIC. And given my background and where I'd come from, I was amazed to see so many families, so many fathers, so many intact households.
And it resonated with me because my wife and I and Our team began our church in 1997 with a desire to reach young people and young families with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and here I walk into this place on the mountainside, and it was this vision that I had never seen walked out before me before. That burden for family reformation remains and it is hard to look around and not see the destruction of the household. Most of us are well acquainted with the bad news. Most of us have some understanding of the reasons why. But as I stand here today, a decade or so later, after having fellowship with this body of believers now for quite a while.
What burns in my soul still is a desire for widespread family reformation. And I desire this for all families, but if I'm honest before you today, I particularly yearn for this amongst the hardest hit, the most impacted families to be touched by the power of God's word. Families where children are consistently born without fathers in the home. Families where there's no strong man to lead them. Families who, for whatever reason, have a disconnect between the faith that they profess and the lives that they live.
Families who are trapped by the damage cycle of an unbiblical worldview, poisoned by the fruit of secular education, families who are being systematically taught that godly virtues are uniquely the space of one ethnicity or one culture, families that have lost their hope or looking for hope in all the wrong places. In May of last year, as COVID was in full swing, I had the honor to preach five messages at our church in Chesapeake, Virginia, Calvary Reformation Church, laying out what I believed were characteristics of a biblically healthy household. And they were simple thoughts. All the cookies were on the shelf where everybody could reach them. I simply declared to our church that a healthy household, a biblically healthy household is built on the rock of Christ.
That such a family honors and esteem fathers and mothers. Such a family joyfully accepts their God-defined roles, practices spiritual disciplines, and has a unified purpose. Just very simple thoughts. Well, for whatever reason, by the grace of God, that series of messages was well received by our church and it went beyond our church. It was an unusual thing for me as Brother Paul said, I'm just, you know, as he intimated, I'm just kind of a nobody.
Not a very good, you know, speaker and just a sinner trying to, as Scott said in the singles conference, just a dad hacking away, you know, in an ungodly culture trying to apply the Bible. But this series of messages was well received at our church, but also it prompted, you know, because of COVID, One of the unintended blessings that if you're streaming your services, who knows, someone in another state might see it. And so families in other states were getting in contact saying, this whole conversation has started with our family as a result of what you said. And one major homeschool conference actually even used a series of messages as their keynotes because their conference was shut down. And so the series was really built around Matthew 7 verses 24 through 27.
Therefore whosoever heareth these things of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock and the rain descended and the floods came, the wind blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. And as I began to think about this burden that we have at our church for the family reformation and as I said, particularly families who've not heard it before, not experienced it before, and for whatever reason aren't exposed to the wealth of resources that some of us are, we laid it out as clearly as we possibly could. We said that for a family to be built on the rock of Christ, that family must experience his person and work and those things must be foundational, that Christ is the chief cornerstone of the family even as it's built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
We said that Christ's gospel is a primary household motivator as, again, going back to what Brother Paul said, what else could possibly motivate us than that the Son of God and God the Son died for our sins. It oughta cause us to jump out of bed in the morning ready to attack the day because Christ is that good and is that worthy. We said that Christ should be worshiped and discussed and preached in every family, in every household, and he should be the main topic of conversation, that his full joy is sought after and growing, that Christ's warnings are heeded and accepted, that Christ's church is vital in the life of the household, that Christ's service is seen as reasonable, and that's just the first area. And there's this vodibakim of say, but wait, there's more. We said that honor and esteeming fathers and mothers includes the principle of honor.
And again, understanding where I'm coming from, we're teaching these things now in areas where it may seem mundane to you. It's not a mundane thing. That the principle of honor is in every single household. That biblical manhood, which I call the need of the hour, is being held up. Men are being respected, and there's a list of things that men must do in order to glorify God.
That biblical womanhood comes to the forefront, and we do our best to fight against the feminist tendencies of our day. That the dignity of motherhood and the esteem that we must give to women and mothers is held up. They're treated a certain way with honor, with deference, and with respect. We said that we must joyfully accept our God to find roles in family. And for us at our church, that meant that we must see scripture as sufficient, that we must ensure that our family identity flows from the word of God, that loving order and obedience undergirds such a household.
And these marriages are strong, resisting the lure of divorce in our day. That singles can greatly impact the kingdom of God as many of you have found out here just recently according to the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7. So much available to you to do and we need you quite frankly. And that children in old generations are loved and valued in such a household. And my burden is to take some of this information and take it into places that some of them are harder to reach places if you get my meaning.
That this household practices spiritual disciplines, that we spend time in prayer, we gather our families up in prayer and in family worship, that we read and memorize scripture, that we work to develop a worldview that honors our Lord. We call that a biblical worldview, that we walk in honesty and integrity, grow in an attitude toward sin wherein we pluck it out, cast it away, cut it off and kill it. Wherein a household wherein we repent quickly and speak kind and loving words one to another. And then finally that this household has a unified purpose. It understands the power of unity.
It knows that it's in a cosmic war, a great and vicious one, where Satan wars against the seed. So it develops family mission statements and covenants and it makes sure that it sticks together, that it rallies around the head of that household, that it ensures purposes connected to the local church so that we resist family idolatry and that we're under submission to good and godly elders. We work on growing household wealth that we might pass on something to our children's children and that we might pursue multigenerational faithfulness. Well, what I just basically did was, and I'll take a page from Dr. Beekie, we put all that in a book.
It's inspired, it's dedicated to my mother. It's called the Biblically Healthy Household. I have about 20 here with me. And it's a lot of what I've learned over the last 10 years of fellowshipping with church and family life. And you won't find many Puritan quotes in it.
You won't find many historical quotes in it because in the circles in which I travel, sometimes those things are a barrier. But it's just absolutely jammed with scripture, just absolutely packed with the Bible. And so the burden on my heart is to see what's happening in this organization and many others translate into other ethnicities and to do so in the power of Jesus Christ. And my prayer is that you all will keep your eyes open for those in your sphere of influence. They may not look like you, but they need the same word as you.
How many of you are glad we got the same Jesus? Amen, we worship a great God and he is able and capable. And I believe, as many have said, I believe this is a time for this. This is a season wherein we're bold. And so what's burning in my soul is to see a lot more families that look like me cry out solely, Deo Gloria.
You Thank you.