Sermon: Why Children Matter (Ephesians 5:1; Zeph. 3:17)

the texts this morning are taken from Zephaniah 3:17 and Ephesians chapter 5 these are the words of God the LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save he will rejoice over thee with joy he will rest in his love he will joy over the was singing and from Ephesians therefore be imitators of God as beloved children father and God we confess to you that when it comes to bringing up the children you have given to us we are often in over our heads we thank you for this reality realizing that it makes us turn to you for guidance we are doing this now looking to your word and we plead for your presence with us we ask this in Jesus name and amen as you've noticed from the reading of the text we are taking a brief break from second Samuel actual to be a couple of months that will resume second Samuel after the first of the year because we're going to have a short series on why children matter and then after that we're into Advent and so we'll have Advent messages and then the end-of-the-year messages and then we'll resume second samuel lord willing the family is a divinely ordained community marriage and the resultant family is god's invention not man's it is a it is a set of defined relationships and the obligations and the privileges that go with that assignment that set of assignments given by God are parceled out accordingly it is not an arbitrary collection of individuals and it is not something that we get to define we cannot get Congress together and have them vote on it we cannot have Congress can no more vote on what is a family then they can vote on what is gravity they can well they can vote but they can they can vote but they can't change they can vote and say we are going to decree that water from this point forward is going to flow uphill they can vote all they want but it's not going to do that they can't touch what God has done God has established the family it is from his hand it is revealed to us in his word and however we think however we behave when we are in rebellion against him we don't alter the reality we do alter some things if someone said well Congress voted to repeal the law of gravity and I'm glad that they did so I was getting tired of it and and decided to jump off a cliff or jump off a skyscraper they would have a sensation of liberty for a time they would have the scent they would have the sensation that that all was going according to plan for a time but grab hasn't gone away despite our despite our posturing the Supreme Court Congress the president everybody could outlaw marriage tomorrow and it would have as much impact as outlawing gravity it would destroy a lot of people but it wouldn't destroy a lot of marriage all right if you outlaw gravity you're destroying a lot of people who are foolish enough to believe you you're you're destroying people you're not destroying gravity you're destroying lives you're not destroying marriage marriage is established by God it was established at the very beginning it is not going anywhere we are going to heaven or hell we are going somewhere but marriage isn't going anywhere so God created the family he was not invented by us in the first place and so we do not get to reinvent it for this reason parents must beware of treating the family as an assemblage that results from techniques developed by experts there may be people who say here's the hot book or this is the biggest thing and here are the techniques no no everybody in your family is created in the image of God and the marriage is supposed to reflect the love of Christ in the church the each person in this family is reflecting the image of God and we need to go to what God's Word says in the first place in the first instance that's what we should be interested in young parents there are a number of you here I know young parents should come therefore to the scriptures with the true hunger and openness and this is particularly true for those young parents who didn't have a good model growing up God is the god of new beginnings God breaks cycles of sin God interrupts our sinful pattern that that is why he sent his son into the world and that that's related to something else I wanted to say near the beginning of this this message and near the beginning of this series of messages when you talk about family or child-rearing or or things that are very practical that have practical applications for you in the row where you're sitting right now or practical applications for you in the car on the way home this is because it's so intensely practical it's easy for Americans especially to start thinking three steps to or twelve steps to or seven secrets of and that sort of thing and I I want this message and these messages to be a proclamation of the gospel and not an exercises in therapeutic self-help this is not a self-help lecture this is gospel but gospel is embodied in our families that's one of the things we find out when we when we look to scripture instead of to the world we see that that the family is a gospel reality we if you if you're looking at your family and you're not seeing gospel if you're not seeing gospel principles then your your you're looking at your family with your eyes shut so you should young parents particularly should come to the scriptures with a true hunger and a true openness and those and especially if you didn't see if you didn't see a model for how you're supposed to be doing this imitation we learn by imitation as I'm going to be emphasizing shortly and we learn how to be a godly parents how to be godly grandparents by imitation but you're not limited to imitating people who are right there next to you that's a great blessing and a great help but the Bible teaches us that we can imitate from what's written down we can we can imitate from biographies we can imitate from the accounts of lives that that are written down for us and that's why the Scriptures are given to us we are we see good examples and bad examples we see we we see things to imitate and we see things to avoid but God is the god of new beginnings he breaks the cycle blessing to a thousand generations as it says in the ten commandments and cutting off disasters after the third and fourth generation be encouraged when God says he visits the iniquity of the three and four generations that's not a dire threat that's an act of mercy God is limiting the cascading effects God has cuts it off after three and four generations but blessings abound to thousands thousands of what thousands of generations so this is a series of messages for all of us the title of the series is why children matter but I should probably expand it to white children matter to all of us why children matter to all of us the gospel principles have application everywhere but particularly in the family when you're dealing with children and those of you who believe you have nothing to do with children I would encourage you to pay closer attention I recall I recall when I was in the Navy I was single I was a sailor stationed in Norfolk and I went to a church Tabernacle Church of Norfolk it was a great church and and and I enjoyed being there very much and they had a Christian school associated with it thriving Christian school I think I went to a basketball game there once and if I had known that within a few years I would be in the midst of trying to start a Christian school I would have been I would have paid a whole lot closer attention to what was going on right next door to the church there's old there was an awful lot for me to learn you might be thinking young man the service series is four sermons on on children I don't need to worry about children I'm just I'm still trying to figure out her dad's phone number well that's all I'm trying to do well if you're figuring out her dad's phone number you're well on the road toward what we're talking about here today so Ephesians 5 the imitators I read Ephesians 5 from the ESV because the King James that I normally preach from has be followers of God but the Greek word underneath followers is the word we get mimesis from mimetic from imitators be imitators be mimickers of God as his beloved children mimic copy God imitate God and imitate God as beloved children you are his beloved children you look to him as a father imitate him now I read these two texts Zephaniah 3:17 and if in Ephesians 5:1 I want them in juxtaposition the juxtaposition of these two texts is intended to make the found day no point that as God treats us as his children so also we in imitating him must seek to be like him in our treatment of our children we imitate God as children and functioning as children we know how he's treating us and we as parents want to be that kind of parent to our children so as we're imitating him we are learning how he treats his children when we imitate him as dearly loved children we are imitating him learning how to be parents to our children so as he deals with us so also we must deal with our own children God has created us as reflective and imitative creatures we imitate by design we imitate instinctively naturally readily we become like what we worship not only do you imitate those who are shoulder to shoulder with you not only do you imitate your friends and colleagues and co-workers and family members we pick up a lot of things like how we walk and accents and that sort of thing from the people around us but the fundamental imitation the Bible teaches is the fundament is is the imitation that comes from the one you worship idolaters do this and worshipers of the true God do it in psalm 115 verses 4 through 8 it says that the idolaters are worshipping statues that have eyes that don't see ears that don't hear noses they don't smell and then it's it caps it off with by saying those that make them are like unto them so you become like what you worship if you worship something that's deaf dumb and blind you are going to you're gradually in the process of becoming deaf dumb and blind you become like what you worship if your God is stone-cold you are in the process of becoming stone-cold if your God is ultimate impersonal ultimately impersonal as the atheists and they as the atheists and secular non-believers of our era are doing ultimately that results in you becoming less and less person like less and less less and less able to embrace what God has given us as persons this also happens to the worshipers of the true God as we see in 2nd Corinthians 3:18 as we behold his face we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another this is happening by imitation God the the God we worship is the son we are a moon we reflect he shines we reflect and as we face him in worship we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another and as we are being transformed we want to turn and pass that on to our children there are a few places where the ramifications of this principle that God made us as imitative beings are as important as they are in child-rearing imitation is crucial in child rearing you do not want your children imitating you unless you were imitating God if you are imitating God you want an open invitation to them to imitate you but if but if you are not imitating God if you're not pursuing God if you're not walking with God if you're not beholding his face in worship weekly sincerely and openly wanting to be transformed from one degree of glory to another if that's not happening for you with you in you then the last thing you should want is for your children imitate you if you are not worshiping God the last thing you want is for your children to copy you your children to imitate you but bad news your children are gonna copy you regardless your children are going to imitate you and so your responsibility is to worship God in that context now in the Zephaniah passage consider first that the Lord our God is mighty the Lord our God is mighty you are much stronger than your children you are that when your when your child first comes home from the hospital when your when you first receive this baby from God and you say where are the instructions I have no training God just gives me God just hands these out all right billions of them and and we're scrambling I don't know what I'm doing how how is this pub well you have a Bible you have a God you have you worship God you turn to him imitate him and ask him to walk with you as you're doing this our tendency is to think that might is used destructively might is used in order to impose alright so here it says God is mighty but how does he use that might how does he use that strength his might is deployed for the good of his people in this text for their salvation for their maturity he wants them he wants his people to be saved and the might of his arm is what he uses to save his people God uses his might for our salvation and not for our suffocation God wants us to grow up God wants us to mature God doesn't does not want to smother us or suffocate us with a relationship that we can't get out of and this is the irony wherever you go if you have if you have parents who of they'll be more about this later but if you have parents who say let's say you go home for Thanksgiving and then you have a two-hour conversation about why you don't come home more often for Thanksgiving and there's the thought bubble over your head I don't come home more often for Thanksgiving because of conversations like this one right because you're you're asking for me to you're demanding you're clingy what happens is if parents bring up their children for true independence for true godly biblical independence if you bring up your children that way they want to be with you they want to come back to you if you cling if you're if you're suffocating if you're grabby grabby grabby it's gonna backfire on you so God is mighty he is mighty to save and he's bringing up his he's bringing up his children for salvation your purpose as parents is to be used as the instrument of your children's salvation you are not the ground of their salvation obviously you're not the ground of their salvation but you are commanded to in the one who is the ground of their salvation it's the same with husbands and wives husbands cannot sacrifice themselves for in a vicarious substitutionary atonement for their wives they can't do that the only one who could do that is Jesus and he did it so husbands cannot die the way Jesus died for their wife husbands cannot die the way Jesus died for their one but husbands are commanded to imitate that which they cannot do they you cannot fundamentally reproduce a substitutionary death but you are commanded to imitate it it's the same with parents parents you are not you're not able to save your children you can't just press a button you can't just make a decision and be the ground of your children's salvation God is that God is mighty he is able to save and what you must do is imitate the one who is doing that so you're not the ground of that salvation but you are an appointed instrument that God uses in it you obviously cannot be saving grace but you are commanded to imitate that saving grace and to facilitate it and to have it be the model of your the atmosphere of your home when the mighty God intervened to save he did so at great cost to himself when he took the loaf of bread G when Jesus took the loaf of bread that represented his broken body he picked up the loaf of bread and he gave thanks Jesus took the loaf and the breaking of the loaf represented the breaking of his body and Jesus gave thanks and broke the bread he did what he did on the cross as it says in Hebrews 12 - that he did this for the joy that was set before him the joy that was set before him what is this what is this meal this Eucharistic meal Eucharist oh is the Greek word for Thanksgiving it is a Thanksgiving meal we have a weekly Thanksgiving and we it's not just that we thank God for what Jesus did for us when Jesus instituted the meal before he was crucified he gave thanks at this meal so we give thanks for what he did but note that when Jesus died he gave thanks for what he was about to do he gave thanks this is my body and he broke it giving thanks now that's the spirit that you have in Zephaniah God is mighty he is mighty to save and he saves with singing but notice in the saving we know from the whole story of the Bible what saving people involves it involves sacrifice it involves blood it involves breaking it involves taking the hip Jesus took the hit God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us and he did it with singing not only did Jesus give thanks tonight he instituted the meal it says after they sang a song they went out Jesus literally sang as he was preparing to go to the cross he sang so the sacrifices that you will make is you're imitating God in this way the sacrifices you will make for your children should therefore be something you sing over when you sacrifice for your children there should be a song in it if there's not a song in it it's not a sacrifice it's not a biblical sacrifice it's not a Jesus sacrifice it's a poor me look at look at the martyr go sacrifice and those have a very poor return so you're not just a sing over your children when they are being adorable asleep in their crib right you go in there and just look for the a few moments of every day when you can be at peace with them in the room and you've oh my heart is filled with joy and I sing over them because they're not doing anything no life is messier than that life is messier than that and the whole thing the mess at all every aspect of it should be met with a song the delight that were that we are imitating here is not an unrealistic delight it takes account of the world as it is and it rejoices still you need to sing over there sing over your children as your sacrifice for them you need to sing over your children when you're taking the hit for them you need to sing over them when they have no idea what you had to give up in order to do that you need to sing over it you need to rejoice over it that's that's what Jesus did and when they're growing up and they want to they want to test their own abilities then they want to try things and then they and one of things they want to try it starts to dawn on you one of the things they want to try is leaving your house joining the Navy going away going to college getting update you want to try that don't you want to sit here and have nice conversations with your mother no I don't I don't want that at all well how could you treat your mother that way well you're not preparing anybody for anything you need to sing over them as they grow and as they go them going is a design feature its built-in for this for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife who was given all right so the man will leave his father and mother cleave to his wife and the two become one flesh and they established a new household that is a design feature there are many sentimental and conservative and evangelical Christian parents who are at war with that principle they want to put that day off and putting that day off murmuring about it complaining about it chafing under it you know she's across town or she's across the country as she has children and a job and a husband to care for and we don't have nearly the time that we used to have and who was it that appointed that who decided that that's the way it would be God God wants it to work that way God wants it to work that way now that I'm not saying and I'm certainly not saying you shouldn't have a relationship with your kids your grown kids and your grandkids the scriptures are very clear Psalm 103 you rejoice over your children's children you you're involved with your grandchildren but you are not involved as a suffocating blanket you are involved as someone who read says over everything that God is giving them now where does this come from when God first created our race when God created the human race he placed us in a garden full of delights with just one prohibition in the middle of the garden nothing was prohibited out in the world outside the garden nothing was prohibited and inside the garden one thing was prohibited and I believe that that one thing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was prohibited for a time that there was going to come a time when they passed their probationary test when they had obeyed him then God was going to let them come to that tree because when they when they grabbed it prematurely when they seized the knowledge of good and evil prematurely God says they've become like us knowing good and evil but what what it has happened here is they are grabbing for something out of due time they're grabbing for something early and God judges them for doing that but it's not an evil thing in itself it was evil because God prohibited it and God said you're not ready for it they tried to grab it too quickly throughout scripture knowledge of good and evil is what Kings use as they rule so Kings have the knowledge of good and evil that means they have discernment in their judgments they have discernment as they're handling court cases and Adam and Eve were not prepared for that they were not ready for that so God prohibited that to them so one thing but regardless of if that was going to be lifted down the road it was certainly prohibited at the time and a severe penalty was attached to that one prohibition but then God saw to it when the restriction was disobeyed by our first parents the severus blow of retaliation the penalty for that sin would fall upon himself what kind of God is this God gave Adam a perfect world a perfect wife perfect environment beautiful garden perfect Commission a perfect vocation here's the whole earth for you to fill up he gave him a staggering abundance of things and only one thing was off-limits and then when Adam and Eve transgressed and they took the fruit from that one tree God saw to it God promised genesis 3:15 he promised a seat of the woman would destroy the seed of the serpent would crush his head and and we know from the rest of Scripture what was entailed in that crushing is what was entailed in the Messiah bruising his heel as he crushed the Serpent's head God ensured that the Bible tells us in Revelation the lamb was slain before the foundation of the world God ensured that the blow the heaviest blow that would come from our sin would fall upon him so the environment of your home is grace all that you have is theirs your your home should be identic there are standards within this when you have a home of grace it's not like you're introducing moral Anarchy there are standards in this grace is not an amorphous gelatinous mass grace has a backbone grace is a vertebrate and yet when the standards are broken the heaviest sacrifices in the work of restoration are made by the guardians of grace the guardians of grace not the enforcers of law not the pointers of fingers not the parental accusers not the quiver and the voice of parental self-pity when your kids have disobeyed when your kids have transgressed when your kids have not done the right thing and a parent says to a child how do you think it makes me feel when you do that I told you 5,000 times not to do that and sometimes you parents are exasperated you have to repeat yourself read the book of Proverbs how many repetitions are there in the Book of Proverbs repetitions galore The Book of Proverbs is a king training his son it's a it's a it's an instruction from a father to a son and there is repetition repetition repetition repetition is Cerie repetition is also a design feature so when a parent is repeated to repeated himself not only has it repeated himself but he's repeated himself repeatedly when that has when that has happened and the child is transgressed yet again and the parent has a that quaver of self-pity and how do you think it makes me feel when you do that now we do that's cheating that's that's not a biblical way of shepherding young people at all that's not what you because what are you teaching them remember they're learning by imitation what are you teaching them are you teaching them to feel sorry for you when you see someone feeling sorry for himself is the immediate response to feel sorry for them no that's not the immediate response once when someone is feeling sorry for himself your immediate response you know what you know what it is I don't need to bring them any pity they've got plenty they're running a surplus right now as far as I can see and I don't need to bring any pity at all well it has it ever occurred to you that your kids might be doing the same thing and they're learning by imitation but they're not learning to feel sorry for you when you demand that they feel sorry for you are you going to get them to feel sorry for you no not really what you're going to get is them imitating you and they're gonna learn how to say how do you think that makes me feel they're gonna learn how to pity themselves they're gonna learn how to be absorbed in themselves the same way if you model selfishness you're going to get selfishness when you model selfishness even if you're modeling selfishness as the representative of something of a moral law or a moral standard that you can find in the Bible is it possible to find a moral standard in the Bible and to then be selfish with it yeah of course that's the easiest thing in the world thou shalt not do this and you just did this to me and so I'm gonna apply the law to you because you did it to me you're being selfish and if you're a parent being selfish you're modeling selfishness a garden of grace can contain a tree of law a garden of grace can contain a tree of law a garden of law can contain a tree of grace if your garden is all law and there's a tree of grace in the middle of it it's not really grace in the middle of it it's a tree of rewards or a tree of merit or a tree of earnings and you're gonna have kids to start looking for their tree I was good can I have my treat I was good can I have my reward I was good can I have this that no no no no what's happening is you're it's all law and then there's the award ceremony once a quarter and you give them their their their treat or their ribbon or whatever no it should be the environment should be Grace and there should be standards within that grace now I know this is in many ways this is going to seem like gibberish and you know like Zen Presbyterianism and and I'm not trying to think of it this way I hesitate to use this as an example because it's a reverse example but mark Mark Twain was a profane man used to use lots of bad language and his wife didn't like it at all and was long suffering under his cussing habit and one day she decided to show him and so she came up to him I think he was shaving and she just calmly recited every word to him that she had heard him say and he just looked at her and then he said my dear you know the words but you don't know the tune okay now flip that around many Christians know the words grace tender mercies forgiveness they know the words but they don't know the tune and we're operating out of Zephaniah 3:17 God rejoices over us with singing there's a tune all right if you say forgiveness that's not the tune that's the right word but that's not the tune so we have a tendency when when in the grip of our own unguided wisdom to get everything exactly backwards we think that the gold sanctifies the temple Matthew 23 17 we think that man was created so that there would be someone around to keep the Sabbath mark 2:27 we think that goat-milk was created so that we would have something cook the young goats in Deuteronomy 14 21 but discipline is when you're bringing up children you're disciplining them disciple them what discipline is directed toward an end it is teleological it has a point and no discipline seems Pleasant at the time but the glory of discipline is found in the harvest Hebrews 12:11 discipline and fruition occupy time just like your children do bring you children up is not abstract bookkeeping but is rather a story from planting to harvest it's the story and it's a story involving human beings created in the image of God you have to have your eye on the story and if you have your eye on the story you what you're going to be doing is be you're going to be disciplining your children with your eye on the harvest which is for their good the harvest is where they come to oh this is why or the harvest company is the point where it it's the realization of the peaceful fruit of an upright life you've you've got you're the adult you're the one who's grown you're the one who understands time you're the one who understands that you know think about it a year years are going by more quickly than they used to right you you're dealing with a three-year-old you're dealing with a four year old three year old one year is one-third of their entire existence it's a significant percentage of everything for you it's just another telephone pole by the highway just just and they're starting to click by faster than they used to you're the one you're the adult you're the one who has a better grasp of months weeks months years seasons generations you've got a better grasp of that and that means you've got a better grasp of story or rather ought to have a better grasp of story hardship and here my point here hardship in a story is grace hardship in a story is grace hardship without a story is just pain hardship with no story hardship with no memory hardship with no future no past is just pain imagine waking up in a bed somewhere with amnesia and excruciating pain you have no idea who you are where you came from how you got this wound or how you got this agonizing pain you have no memory no realization of the future what do you have just pain no story just pain child rearing is the opportunity that you have to love your children toward the harvest but that means you have to have the harvest in mind when it comes to Christian living and bringing up children is a major aspect of Christian living there are three L's to choose from there's legalism there's license and there is Liberty in the home legalism occurs when parents try to establish traditional values or a disciplined atmosphere on their own authority in their own name for their own sake for their own namesake they want the kids to be well-behaved so it's not an irritant not an irritant to them all right they don't want kids careening around the living room because it bothers them it gets on their nerves instead of I want to love my children in such a way as to prepare them for a world in which if they go out undisciplined like that they're going to have a heart much harder go of it if they if they don't learn self-control and I want them to learn self-control because I want their life to be blessed so I want to correct them for their sake I don't want to correct them for mind strictness becomes the central standard and parental law is central license happens when it turns out that legalism involves a lot of work and there's not a very good return on it so you have to pester people all the time and then they hate you that's no fun you have to pester people all the time and then they Ravel against you it blows up in your face legalism doesn't work and it's a lot of work it it involves a lot of work and there's not a good return and so parenting then turns you just abandon all standards you just say oh that's just a bunch of legalistic foolishness and parenting turns into a long stream of excuses and lame theories that you circulate on Facebook about the ineffectual Ness of spanking but if you have told 28 people this week that he didn't get a nap today if that's happening if that's come up 28 times as an excuse then perhaps you ought to reevaluate we all know we all know that there's circumstances there are times when he didn't get a nap today is not an excuse it's the reason all right we know that that happens but if you find yourself resorting to excuses all the time and you're just you're just trying to explain how your lack of wisdom and lack of discipline ought to be overlooked by everyone else that's that's not wise Liberty I said there's legalism and there's license liberty is not some middle position between these two it is another thing entirely Liberty is not moderate legalism Liberty is not moderated license Liberty is another creature Liberty is something else Liberty is stricter than legalism and Liberty is freer than license Liberty is stricter than legalism not looser right Jesus tells the Pharisees he says unless your righteousness exceeds Jesus tells his disciples unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees no good for you he Jesus is talking about he's not saying be a moderate Pharisee he's saying you you've got to surpass the Pharisee Liberty exceeds the righteousness for the Pharisees Liberty is freer than license Liberty is purchased for us by Christ on the cross and that lines us up with how God made the world none of our shifts are evasions can do that for us the righteousness of Liberty out does the Pharisees Matthew 5:20 and the joy of Liberty out does the libertine now I hope it's become one thing I hope it's becoming obvious in this if you say I want to be a godly Christian parent and I want to be a godly Christian parent without being a godly Christian I don't want to die to myself I don't want to die to my lusts I don't want to die to my own self-centeredness but I want somehow magically to have good parenting skills on top of my fundamental selfishness as an individual no grace is what we must all learn as individual Christians we must to worship God truly holy sincerely as individuals and a godly Christian is going to become a godly Christian wife a godly Christian is going to become a godly Christian husband then a godly Christian father or mother though all these all go together living in an environment of grace with with an environment of grace that contains the law is something that only the Spirit of God can give you only the Spirit of God can teach you the tomb but there is a tune and it's instantly recognizable if you are singing over your children with delight with this in imitation of God they recognize what's going on they pick up on that so we're going to be addressing a lot of these things in greater detail in the conclusion of this series but it's going to be helpful to take a look at where we go where we are going children matter children matter to all of us because as creatures they bear the image of God as creatures they bear the image of God as sinners that image is defaced in them vandalized in them they are affected by Adam's sin just like the rest of us as sinners that image is two-faced in them and as Saints that image is being restored in them they are this isn't just this is just another way of saying that they are on the same pilgrimage that you are they they are in the same place that you are you you're creating the image of God they are created an image of God as a sinner that image was deface that image was vandalized same thing happened to them and as a saint they are growing in grace the image of Jesus Christ is being re-established in them just as it is in you by creating the human race in one fertile man and woman God was declaring that his image was going to grow and mature over the course of generations when we fell into sin the curse of our loss was extended over generations and now that the promised seed of the woman has come we are given the opportunity to bring up our children in nurture and admonition of the Lord Ephesians 6:4 fathers you're charged to do that bring up your children and the nurture nebulous to the Lord this is all part of the same process children are included in the book of Ephesians and that means if you go back to chapter 1 you'll see of television's you're gonna see that God's purposes and good counsel of his will and all the glories that he has established for us in Christ include our children children are mentioned they're part of the process they they simply joined the race a little bit later than you did just as you joined the race a little bit later then your great-grandfather did so they are to be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and this is part of what it means to put off the old man and to put on the new you and they are putting off the old man you and they are putting on the new man God is after a lineage God is after a lineage he's been after a lineage from the very beginning why did God make them one it says in Malachi because he was seeking a godly seed our Father God what we've considered today has many practical ramifications help us we pray as we pray over it as we meditate on it and as we decide what we are to do help us to please you in all things but especially in our homes as we ask this we offer up the words that Jesus taught us to pray saying the charge for this message is addressed to the the kids we're speaking of the there's a series of messages to your parents and I don't want you to conclude from this series of messages that your parents are doing a bad job and I don't want you to conclude I don't want you to on the trip home today from the back seat say something like well try to do a little better okay you know and expectations like that what you should conclude from these expectations and the fact that I have to preach sermons on it is that you guys are a handful you're very hard to figure out and it doesn't help when you're a pill so don't be a pill don't use these certain these sermons to work your own position remember you're a sinner too we're gonna get to you later the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds and the knowledge and love of God and of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord and the blessings of God Almighty the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit be upon and remain with you always amen

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Length: 43min 15sec (2595 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 06 2013