Five qualities of a good parent are outlined to support the life of a believer. Happy Mother's Day.
So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy. [1 Peter 1:13-16]
Five qualities of a good parent are outlined to support the life of a believer. Happy Mother's Day.
So roll up your sleeves, put your mind in gear, be totally ready to receive the gift that’s coming when Jesus arrives. Don’t lazily slip back into those old grooves of evil, doing just what you feel like doing. You didn’t know any better then; you do now. As obedient children, let yourselves be pulled into a way of life shaped by God’s life, a life energetic and blazing with holiness. God said, “I am holy; you be holy. [1 Peter 1:13-16]
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Good morning, Church. Happy Mother's Day. We're posting this so that if you don't feel comfortable or are not able to attend that service this morning in the parking lot, you can still have a message. Uh, I wanna ask you some questions this morning. It's Mother's Day. It's Mother State. And so my question is, Ah, a little bit of a parenting. Um, we know that that made us not debating on on the methodology he used t make us or non. I think that the Bible doesn't really answer that question that way. It's more. Why not? How book. And so the genesis time isn't really about methodology that God used to make us. It is an example of God making us. That's now why. But how we're not a How about a wide book He made us so that we would follow him and love him as a parent. I mean, my parents, I know that some of you will will sort of just say no, gods, father. But some of the names used for God in the Old Testament are actually from the feminine gender, and so I think it's more accurate if we can if we can understand how languages or church that we could. We could say that that is our parent parent is a batter terminology because because of the male and female stuff, and it ended up being used as God is our father because that was both an authority figure. And if you said parents generally language wise in the world, the first thought would be father. Although, if you look at most the football players in America today, it's always Hi, Mom, not hype bad, but hi, mom on the thing. But the way languages work, it's if its parent. But it doesn't say anything that it assumes this other role. And so there's this confusion here, but I want to make sure that we know that God is a good parent, likes that a big deal. I'm a parent is a big deal. Uh, some of the people that I know in the community didn't have very good relationships with a mother or a father, either one. And so, if we use the term parent and you had a tough go with your dad and father bothers you, it is okay to say this is what a good parents would dio. I didn't have a good father, but a good parent would do this. But maybe you had a good mom. Or maybe you had a difficult time with your mom understanding what's a good parent? So let me ask you this question. What is five of the past qualities of a parent? I mean, if you had to choose five qualities for a parent, what would you choose? You would choose something like, First off, I would choose something like loving. This is the idea of they care for us without us deserving it. So if we're it wasn't that our parents loved us because we did the chores right? Or something like that. It's that they loved us. And I asked us to do some things and the chores got done or they didn't. They didn't stop loving us. Now, some of you might have not experienced it quite that way. But God exhibits this this way. He gives the rain and both the evil and adjust alike. That's Matt in Matthew. Five. It talks about that he really cares and provides an earth where we could flourish and cares for us whether we deserve it or not. That's a that's a kind of thing, but the first quality I would lift up as the best parent quality ever is loving. The 2nd 1 that I would pick is available. How many of your parents were available when you need it? They were there when you needed a and and and And they took care of stuff behind the scenes or or right there. But they were available. And maybe maybe your parents are still available. Or they were, even as you were an adult. They were available E calling. Talk to them whatever. Anyway available Number three. I'm I'm picking up service as 1/3 1 that teaching training aspect of apparent in such a way so that look, we need parents when we're little kids to teach us the things we need to know the function in the world we live in, and in order to do that, they have to teach and train us to do that. We follow examples really well and all that, but But we teach our kids, we potty train our kids because, you know, if we didn't do that, that is really weird later on, isn't it? And because our parents do that when? When? Later on in their life. We understand how that that worked and how we were taught and trained and and given a path. The biblical idea here is that we should train up a child in the way shit They should go so that when they're old, they're older, they won't depart from it. So you give them a way of being in the world. May maybe not so much. This is exactly how toe how to live your life. But as you go living your life, this is the way you want to be. Number three, teaching and training. Remember number one loving number two available Number three, teaching and training. Here's one number four and number five. I could put them in either order. Maybe you would have something else in here, but number four I have advising. So advising is different than teaching and training. That's a providing us enough information so that you can make good decisions on your own. It's part of teaching training, but advising one of the things that I really like for here is if have you ever gotten advice from somebody and and if you didn't follow it. They okay with it. You They gave you positive and negative, but it wasn't necessary that you I took the advice. Anyway, Uh, I'm getting down here to the next one. Number five. I'm gonna put in its truthful so that 11 available teaching, advising and truthful. Maybe you have truthful earlier Look truthful here for a parent is your parents know who you are, and they love you there, right where you are are now. We understand that sometimes the people that raised us took some of this things or we've seen it in the world that we've taken these things too far. So what do I mean by too far? If you're loving and you take this too far, it goes wrong. Suddenly you've got a mama bear. That's the terminology I'm thinking of Or helicopter parents. Right? But that they love you so much that you conduce no wrong. And if something goes wrong for you, they jump in and squash everybody around you in order to make you know that your love that's as taking loving too far. That's loving you at the expense of others around you, right, Too far about available to how many of you have had parents that took availability too far. You know, they smother you. They never let you out of their sight. They're always available. You can't be anywhere without them. Since kind of the human day, they're number three teaching and training too far. Some of us have seen parents that raise their kids toe, live their own line of their parents, lives again vicariously like football parents or all these things that we didn't. We force them to make copies of ourselves rather than training a child on how they should go. We train them to be us, and then not make the mistakes that we made or do what we wanted to do better so that it could be better for them. It's maybe not the same thing, but is taking teaching and training too far about advising can advise and be taken to for Yes. What? Ellen Dean, I told you how to do that, and you didn't do it. You go away or I told you how to do it. Now I know that you made your own decision here, But you go back and you do it the way that I wanted it for your life. Now that might work with a four or five year old a couple of times is a teaching and training magnetism. But why don't you try it out with your 35 year old kid and see how that works or or something like that? Do you think that that works? I don't. What about truthful? How can truthful be done in a negative way or too hard? I think of this as as just the idea of I'm a truth telling parent. I always tell my kid that the exact truth of what's going on and that just means that I'd be rate my kid. I always expose every fault, You know that that when you have a friend, you don't expose every fault all the time with them, do you? You you. Because if you care for them, you understand that they have faults and that they'll do some things wrong and so being truthful, taken too far as truth without love, see loving and truth, truth and love go together, available on advising and teaching kind of go together and and how you do that. So if you're loving without being truthful. That's not good. But if you're truthful, happening, loving everybody know what's what. It's likes to be truth if you're super available, but you're never teaching and training, but you're forcing them to be or you're never really. You're always advising even when people don't ask, see, so availability. And those middle three kind of go together but loving and truthful sort of form this thing. So why do I go through all this on Mother's Day? Not only do I think that God is this is a good parent for us. He's a good model for us. He gives us examples in our lives. Some most of us have had one or two good examples are around us that do some of this stuff pretty well. What would it mean to choose God as their fault? That that's the version of the structure of what we've been talking about in John today? And so here we are in John, Chapter eight. Here, let me read. And now that you know what a good parent is like and how that could be in your life, let's read this. Jesus, Um, and his parents argument again, as they do this Jesus said to the people who believed in him. You are my disciples. If you remain faithful to my teachings, where you hold that was last week and you know the truth and the truth will set you free. You hear descendants of Abraham, they said we have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean? You will be set free. I tell you the truth. Everyone who sins is a slave of sin. And a slave is not a permanent member of the family. But a son is part of the family forever. A child is part of the family forever. So if that son set you free, you are truly free. Yes, I realize you are descendants of Abraham. And yet some of you are trying to kill me. That's killed Jesus. Because there's no room in your hearts for my message. I'm telling you what I saw when I was with my father. But you are following the vice of your father. Our father is Abraham. They declared, No, if you were really the Children of Abraham. Now he's talking about Children in the style of faith and example off life rather than bloodline. If you were Children of Abraham. You would follow his example instead. You are trying to kill me because I told you the truth, which is which I heard from God. Abraham never did such a thing. You are imitating your real father or riel parent. We aren't illegitimate Children. They declared God himself is our true father. If God were your father, you would love me Because I have come to you from God. I'm not here on my own. But he sent me. Why can't you understand what I'm saying? It's because you can't even hear me. For you are Children of your father, the devil. And And you love to do the things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth because there's no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character. For he is a liar and a father of life. So when I tell you the truth, you just naturally don't believe me. Which of you can truthfully accuse me of Senate? And since I'm telling you the truth, why don't you believe me? Anyone who belongs to God listens gladly. To the words of God but you that don't listen because you don't belong to him. Let's go back and rethink what it means to have a parental example. And so some of you are saying this the parental examples. If we just take the five best qualities of their that I talked about loving, available, teaching, advising and truthful. But you take them too far, then, and and youth and you accept those parameters is parenting. Then you're going to do this stuff and and and be the child of your of your of your family. Let me think this other way through. We all know for a second that were the product of our environment, but not just a straight product of our environment, where product of our environment and our perceptions of the environment that those are the two things that we do. So if we have ah, horrible environment and we perceive us and ourselves is horrible, the product, or two times two equals four is a child of the devil, or or you get all these bad habits. But if you see the environment that God is creating, where he's causing ah world to be and where we can flourish and you can see that and your perception ISS that God is doing this stuff in order to be a good parent for you. Then you can become a product off your environment, just in the exact same way that I'm talking about that we often become products of our environment the other way. So here we are, church. We live in a world where our parents and us, warts and all are human beings where things go wrong, we do things wrong. We sin. We do all these things and and some things have been done to us. And we are a product of the things done to us and how we perceive God working, being in the world around us. So today church, I want a still to accept the adoption that God has offered us and the responsibility toe live in that adoption and the perceptions that show that God is our parent in the same way that we honor mothers because we perceive them as being good and helpful in our life. Lists perceive and recognize and own the perception that God is our parent. And not only that, he's given us this example of mothers in our lives that we love that were welcome for two welcoming to us that we're loving to us, that taught us who to be there were there for us advised as they were truthful in grace and all that less be God's Children and live according to God's way. Let's do that today. Can you do that with me? Church? Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I asked today that you would You would die. Asked to see the examples to see the good examples in our live to see the work of your hand in our life around us and that we would own the perception of the day in your precious name are Jesus. Amen. And today, church. Except this benediction Oh, a and B A piece knowing where you live and that God isn't work in your world Go be a peace church, be at peace