It's good to see all of you seeing with you.
Um, it is honestly, um, I was just um talking with Tony right there about this earlier.
For me, this is the pinnacle of my week.
You know, we get to gather and we get to study God's word and fellowship and encourage.
I'm glad you're here if you're joining um on the app online.
Thank you for being here as well.
And let's do this, church.
At this time, I would invite you to get out your Bibles, and I want you to go to the we're gonna be in the Old Testament today.
We're gonna be in the book of Psalms.
Psalms has a lot of chapters.
I want you to go to chapter 127, verse 3.
We're going to be looking, we're really just at three verses.
You can follow along in your Bible, your worship guide as well.
But um, we've been in this um short kind of series entitled Turn Your Heart Towards Home.
Um the first week we we honored mothers.
Last week we looked at the foundation of a family, and today, our final, our final week in this series, um, we're gonna we're gonna cover um, I don't know, it's a it's a complex kind of subject.
We're gonna, we're gonna, it's not easy really.
It's we're gonna talk about parenting, alright?
Alright, so I'll say talking about parenting.
Now, having said that, I want you to know I got um I got some good news for you, and I got some uh not so good news for you, all right.
Here's the good news.
I don't even know if the good news is that good.
Good news is I I I am a parent, alright?
So um I got two children, 16 and 18, so I have you know some insight on this.
Here's the not so um, you know, good information.
Um I still don't know what I'm doing, you know?
I don't.
And um when it comes to parenting, I got, man, you would think 18 years in that that I would I I don't know.
I got lots of questions.
Maybe you do too.
Got lots of questions about parenting.
There's a lot of questions, okay?
Um I wrote down some of the questions I have accumulated over the years.
And I was thinking about this.
And it's like every single year, as they're growing, you get you get new.
These are the mysteries of the universe, man.
Like, for example, when they're littles, they're littles.
Here's a question that I had is this how can a child want, you know, snacks after they done said they didn't want the food.
They done ate, you know?
It's it's it's it's it's it's it's a missed mystery.
Other, okay, another mystery.
Why come?
Why is it?
Why is this?
When it's time to leave, ain't nobody able to find a shoe.
It's a great mystery.
It's true.
Here's a mystery that's really come to my mind recently.
It was this.
When did my automobile become kind of like the lost and found?
You know?
It's maybe you've experienced it, right?
At your house, you know, you can't find something.
Can't find something at my house sooner or later, someone's going to say, Did you check out dad's car?
Right?
And we'll go look.
And it's usually my my my my car's kind of like, you know, this Museum of Jones family history, right?
You got you got snacks in there.
I didn't need them.
You got some snacks, you got crumbs.
There's there's a water bottle usually somewhere in my car, and apparently don't belong to nobody.
I I don't know, man.
Trash, I didn't do, you know, and man, I got a lot more questions.
And we, I could, I could ask you.
I could ask you, parents here, what questions you got?
Because they're they're they're they're mysterious.
You know, we're still trying to figure this stuff out.
Committees are still out there.
But I was thinking about this.
We all got all these questions, but I was thinking about this.
There is one question that I think rises above all questions.
It supersedes all of these mountains of questions that I currently have.
Because here's what I think.
I think if we can answer this one question, it will help us answer all these other mysterious questions.
And that's the question that I set about trying to answer today.
Here's the question.
We've got to answer this.
I've got to answer this question.
We need to answer this question.
What is the goal of parenting?
Like, like, like what are we aiming for?
If we're just trying to raise children to behave, is that it?
Is that what I've been doing for 18 years?
Have I, for 18 years, just be trying to raise some kids who will behave, you know?
Or am I just trying to get my son just graduated?
Is that the goal?
He graduated and now, you know, you know, everything's good.
I don't know.
Or is there something deeper?
Is there something?
Am I to be aiming?
Is the goal of my parents?
I know, man, I know.
Listen, I ain't never gonna find that extra sock.
I done figured that out, dude.
We lost some keys when my little girl was like two years old.
Lost the keys.
I don't know where they're at, man.
One of my cars only has one key because we lost.
I don't know where it's at, man.
I don't know.
But I'm telling you this: if we can answer this, all those other questions are small potatoes, man.
What am I aiming for?
What is my goal?
Psalms 127 gives us, tells us that there is, in fact, a purpose for parenting.
And that is what I want us to look at.
This is what I thought would be most helpful to me, and I hope it's helpful to you.
So we're gonna go about, we're just gonna walk through three verses, and I believe in these three verses we can determine, dude, what do we what are we aiming for?
What's the goal?
All right, we're gonna start Psalm 127, verse 3.
The first thing we'll see is this receive children as God's gift.
Here's what the word of God says.
Behold, this is so informative.
Man, before I even get into it, you're gonna see this over and over again.
The word of God is going to tell us something contradictory to what a lot of this world says.
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward.
All right, let's stop here.
It begins with this word, behold.
That's God's way of saying you need to stop and you need to look at this.
Before God tells us what children are like, he's telling us how you and I should see them.
How should we see them?
Because if you listen, if you see children, you know, if you see them as a as interruptions, if that's why you see children, then you're gonna parent with irritation.
If you see children as inconveniences, then you may parent with resentment.
God says, no, you gotta get a law.
My people need to know this.
You gotta understand this.
Behold, this is what children are.
They are a heritage from the Lord.
What does that mean?
It means they're not an accident, it means they're not burdens, it means they're not possessions, it means they are gifts, gift entrusted to you and I by the living God.
That is how they're to be seen.
Every child you see, that's how they're to be.
God says, Behold, this is how you are to see children, right?
And I read that and I think, well, you know what?
I get it, I get it.
But oftentimes in my life, parenting, you know, it doesn't always feel like a gift, man.
It doesn't, you know, sometimes, I mean, I love I love I love my children.
I love my children, but for real, children can test every fruit of the spirit in me before 7 a.m.
in the morning.
You think you love, joy, peace, patience?
Oh my goodness.
You know, that's a man.
They all on the exam before 7 a.m., before I done had my coffee, man.
Look, how are how am I to respond to my children like Jesus before I even got a drinky drink of the coffee coffee, man?
But God says they're a gift.
They're a gift, they're a sanctifying gift.
They are a gift.
God uses children not only for us to shape them, but they shape you and I.
The word used there is a heritage.
That's a big word.
That's an important word, right?
A heritage is something that you receive.
It's been entrusted to you, man.
It's been entrusted to me by God.
It's been passed down.
He is the one giving it.
It means, it means, means I don't own my kids.
I don't owe them.
Own them.
God has entrusted them to me to steward them.
Children belong to God before they belong to you and I, you know.
That'll change how you parent.
Change how you parent, man.
If I think my child, and if I think my child belongs to me, I might, you know, uh try to try to control them, you know, maybe for your purposes, right?
But if I understand that my children are a gift from God, the sovereign God chose my children put in my life, they belong to him.
I am going to parent them in such a way to shepherd them for his glory.
That means parenting is not about producing a child that makes me, I don't know, look good.
It's about raising children who know who God is.
Now, I say all of that once again, in all of these things.
You need to understand that I have not always done well in this, you know.
I can understand this, man.
But it's gonna be more difficult, man, because sometimes we have to surrender our expectations that we may have placed on our children.
Okay, because God gave him to me to shape him for his glory, man.
I've had lots of delusions in my life.
I don't think they're lame.
I like to say I'm the mayor of lame city, man.
I had a listen, listen, I had a delusion that my children would automatically like the things that I like, man, right?
Surely they would like the things that I like.
And I thought about this, man.
Like I liked a skateboard.
And I thought, surely my kids will enjoy doing that.
You know, I'm gonna sell you on the vision.
Okay, look, look.
Is it not cool?
Me and my kids, you know, shredding down the road together?
That was the vision.
You catch it?
Okay, that's the vision.
My son, he was a young, he was a young little guy, and I was like, you know, I gotta buy, I'm gonna buy him a skateboard, I got him a camouflage skateboard, and I and I gave it to him, and he liked it.
He did like it, but he didn't, he didn't love it.
And I went, I was looking at these pictures on my phone, man.
I got all these, I got all these pictures.
I got all these pictures of me and a skateboard and my son and my daughter, and and if you can zoom in, you know, on my eyes, and you can see the hope and expectation in my eyes.
I'm like, I'm trying to sell them on this, man, the dream, man.
But it was not to be.
So I had to shift gears.
I had to learn what they loved.
It's not as easy as you think, because sometimes they're gonna enjoy things maybe you you don't you don't enjoy.
I mean, okay, so my dude, this is man, parenting.
Parenting's so complicated.
It's so complicated.
My son enjoys rock climbing.
That's great.
Here's the kicker, man.
The kicker is this.
I had an accident on my skateboard years ago, and I messed my shoulder up, so I really can't rock climb.
So, no, this is so ironic.
The thing that I love kind of prevents me from fully enjoying the thing that he loves.
That's parenting.
You know, you gotta figure it out, man.
But God, heritage gave you a child for his glory, and we've got to learn what they love.
How has God shaped them?
How has God got plans for them?
And then you help shape them in that way.
It's the first thing we see, but there's a second part of that verse, and this one I want to be sensitive on.
And all of this I always try to be sensitive, but it says, the fruit of the womb, a reward.
All right.
This does not mean that our family stories are all simple.
You know?
Um, we're gonna be careful here.
The Bible's really honest when it comes to family.
The Bible talks about struggles with barrenness, right?
The Bible has these stories of longing and loss and adoption and blended families and broken families and painful situations.
The Bible's all through of that, man.
Many faithful people have walked very heavy roads in this area, but it doesn't negate God's declaration.
Children are to be treasured, children are not to be despised.
You can contrast that with our culture.
It's not hard to find this.
You can hear it all the time, but people talk as though children are obstacles.
Children are obstacles to my freedom.
Children will drain my finances, children are interruptions, they're limitation.
God says, No, behold this.
They are a reward, they are a heritage given to you.
Receive them as such.
All right, I get that.
I hear you.
Not saying all this is easy, but once again, that's God's word, and it's true.
And I want to align my life to that.
I want to get to verse four.
We'll see this shape children for God's purpose.
Look at this.
Yeah, this is good.
Look, okay.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth.
All right.
So you get verse three, and we're told, behold, take note, this is true.
This is a declaration of God.
Children are a heritage, they are a reward.
And now he says, not only that, in addition, they are arrows.
Arrows like arrows in the hand of a warrior, man.
There's a lot of imagery going on here, right?
Means children are to be shaped, children are to be aimed, and they are eventually to be released for God's purpose, man.
Arrows, arrows aren't to be decorative.
Arrows have a purpose.
They're designed to fly.
We got to understand that.
I got to understand that.
My kids, they're designed to be sent.
They're designed to hit a target.
So if children are arrows, then parenting is what?
It's about preparing them.
Preparing them to be sent, not for my glory, for God Almighty's glory.
Once again, I, you know, can fail many times.
This is more difficult than you might think as well.
I know I can say, I'm supposed to, you know, I'm going to shoot my kids out, man.
It's going to be easy to do.
Yeah.
Look at this.
And I thought about this.
When my kids were small, so much of parenting, it was about protecting them, right?
I'm going to hold when they're small, I'm going to hold them close.
And you hold their hands when they cross the street.
Man, you just have buckle them up every time you put them in the car seat.
You got to tell them not to touch the hot stove.
You got to tell them, you got to tell them things like this.
Hey, you can't lick the handle on the shopping cart, you know?
You got to tell them these things.
They don't know.
They'd be licking the floor, man.
You got to do this stuff, man.
But if protection and holding them close is the whole goal, we forget the purpose.
The purpose of an arrow is to be sent.
And hopefully, when it's sent, it won't lick the floor anymore, you know?
But at some point, you gotta understand the goal, gifted to me an heritage, a reward, so that I can shape and I can prepare, and then we as a church can also, we're building these children and and we send them on a mission.
And I love that last part.
It's like, look, look, check this out.
You know this is true.
Like a hand in the hands of a warrior.
Parents.
You're warriors, man.
That's a good language, dude.
Warriors.
It's appropriate.
I mean, look, seriously, it takes a warrior to get children in a minivan and get them to church on time.
That is that's that's warrior level, man.
For real.
I mean, I know about growing.
Well now my kids were younger, man.
If we got our littles, you know, in the minivan and we got to church, and you only miss the first worship song, you on time.
You know what I'm saying?
That's true.
It's true.
It's elite, that's elite level parenting.
You are a warrior, man.
You gotta be a warrior.
Warrior, man.
The warfare is real, you know?
It is.
We don't war against our children.
I mean, they're not the enemy, they're arrows against the enemy.
But we know this, but it's worth saying here right now the enemy wants your children.
The enemy wants the children of our church.
The world is warring for the attention of your children.
Sin wants their heart.
The culture, the listen, listen.
The culture wants to shape their identity.
Technology wants to disciple them.
You gotta be a warrior.
You can't raise them casually.
A warrior doesn't casually handle his arrows, man.
Warriors know the stakes, and that means I know, man, you get tired and dude, yeah, man.
I'm telling you, I get it, dude.
When the kids are little, you get so sleepy.
You get so sleepy, and you're sleepy, they're not sleepy, so that means you ain't sleeping.
You know, it's hard.
It's real, and it's hard.
The question is not, are my children being shaped?
Your children are being shaped, my children are being shaped.
The question is what's shaping them?
Nobody accidentally aims an arrow.
Try it.
You cannot close your eyes, pull back an arrow, release it, and then be shocked when the arrow does not hit the target.
It requires focus and purpose.
If God has placed an arrow in your hand, you've been called to aim it to his glory.
Now we're gonna get to verse 5.
I'm gonna break this in two parts, but the next thing, see this.
CSC children as God's blessing.
All right.
It's beautiful words here.
And as I'm studying this, it's just I need, guys, I need the Bible.
I need it.
It helps me think right.
Every day I go out there, every day I'm walking, just like you.
Lying to us, and I will eat that up if I'm not in the word of God.
And I will sit there and I read this and it helps clarify.
Check beautiful words here.
Beautiful words here.
The first part blessed is the man, or you could say the household, who fills his quiver with them, fills them with children.
All right, verse 3, heritage, verse 4, arrows in the hand of a warrior, verse 5, right off the bat, they're a blessing.
They're a blessing.
Children are a blessing, okay?
I mean, this is interesting.
We all want to be blessed.
I pray for God to bless me.
I pray for God, you know, we sing about blessing.
God says here, it's you're blessed if you got a family and your whole house filled up with children.
That's a blessing.
That's what God says.
That's what hear that.
That's what God says.
You're blessed.
That's not what the culture says.
That is not what the culture says.
Culture says kids are expensive, kids are exhausting, kids are limiting, kids are inconvenient.
Once again, God says, no, no, they are a blessing.
They are worth far more than they cost.
Blessed.
You're enriched, you're strengthened, right?
Now, he doesn't say it's easy.
That's not what he's saying there.
It doesn't mean your life is quieter, doesn't mean you go check my car out.
Don't mean your car is cleaner, don't mean your house is quieter, man.
That's not what it means.
Look at the word.
Look, it's in the text.
Look at that word full.
That word full.
That's a beautiful word.
It's full.
What does full mean?
It means occupied.
Full means loud.
Full means busy.
Full means messy.
God says that is blessed once again.
Come to my life.
Let me tell you something.
And you're all welcome to this.
You come to my house, and you're all welcome to my house.
You know, you you know.
Text first because people ring that doorbell, we all get quiet.
You know, but uh because you you don't know, you don't know, you don't know.
People try to sell you stuff.
You but anyway, but you're welcome to my house.
If you come to my house and you walk upstairs, that's where my my children reside, man.
And you go up the stairs, true story, you go up the stairs, and you're going to notice, you know, there's two shades of paint on the wall.
I mean, well, it's it's it's it's it's darker.
Three three feet up, it's as, you know, kind of dark and grubby, and then it kind of fades back into a color you would recognize, okay?
Now you may sit there and you go, look at Travis, he's got some sort of new strange, I don't know, HGTV kind of theme going on here.
I said, no, it's not it.
It's not it.
The reason why my walls got two different colors is because when my kids were toddlers, about three feet tall, they just they touched the walls, you know.
And you're gonna, you know what you're gonna, you know what you're gonna find there?
You're gonna find some peanut butter and jelly stains.
You're gonna find where dirty hands went down there.
Man, these are marks from real life.
And to me, when I go upstairs and I see the dirty walls, it reminds me I am a blessed man.
I know I'm blessed.
That is a sign.
I have been blessed, man, because man, I got dirty walls, you know?
And oh, in addition, if you come to my house and you want a peanut butter and jelly, ain't got no jelly, I'm gonna give you bread.
You just go rub the wall, you're good.
All right, you're good.
Don't worry about it, don't worry about it, man.
But it's true, it's true.
It's a blessing, man.
Blessings don't always reduce the weight of life, and that's what we think.
Sometimes blessings give your life a holy weight, and we need that.
We need that.
Children, they can't add this holy weight.
You know?
And responsibility.
That's good.
I need it.
I need that.
They're gonna stretch your schedule.
Yeah, they stretch your budget.
Um, dude, you know, yeah.
Who knows how many skateboards I'd have right now if I didn't have kids?
You know what I'm saying?
Or how many more broken bones I'd have, man.
They stretch your patience, man.
But please hear what the text says.
God says that's a blessing.
It's a blessing.
I needed my time stretched.
I needed my budget stretched, I needed my schedule stretched.
I am a better man because of it.
So that means we view our children, we view our children in light of scripture more than we view it in light of culture.
And I'm gonna tell you this too.
That means the church has to see it that way too.
Children are not distractions from worship, they are future worshipers.
You gotta view them like that.
Children are not a noise problem, they are disciples in formation.
Children are evidence that God has entrusted this church with a future.
There's even a deeper truth.
Children remind us the kind of father our God is.
Listen, God is not bothered by his children, he's not annoyed with us, he loves us, he's not irritated in my weakness.
He loves his children, he welcomes his children, he blesses his children.
So when God places children among us, we get a living picture of grace.
See them that way.
When they're loud or messy.
Dude, three weeks ago, man, my son's 18 years old.
Three weeks ago, dude, I pulled up the seat in my back of my car.
There's a Lego man, you know, from 10 years ago.
I'm blessed.
We're blessed.
Children are a blessing.
Let's get to the last part of verse 5.
Stand with godly confidence.
He shall not be put to shame.
That's the parent, when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
Now there's some imagery going on here, but here's what's happening.
We're moving from the private to the public, all right?
The gate was a place of public life.
That's where the leaders gathered, that's where decisions were made, disputes were settled.
The gate, so we're moving from private to public, all right?
And God says the parent who aims that arrow faithfully will not be ashamed at the gate in public, right?
Now, please understand that doesn't mean that parenting's never embarrassing.
You know that's not true, right?
There are days when parenting feels, I don't know, man, you don't have a lot of confidence, man.
There are so, you every parent here could give me a story of how they have been publicly humiliated by their child, man.
Children have a supernatural, look, children got this supernatural ability, I don't know, to act out in public settings.
I get that, man.
Your kid, your kid, dude, if you got littles, man, they may be an angel at home.
Here's the test.
Take them to Target, dude.
Take them to Target.
You're gonna get embarrassed, man.
It just happens, man.
But he says, it's bigger than that.
He's not talking about these little embarrassments we have raising them.
He says, he says, we'll not be put to shame.
He's not saying we're always polished.
He's saying, he's talking about this.
We're going for the long game.
That's what we're with the long game, right?
Confidence comes when the parents have been aiming for glory for Jesus Christ, they understand that they are not to, they're not the, they're not, that the kid's not living for their glory.
You're not shaping them for your purpose, you're shaping them for the mission.
And when you do that, even though there's gonna be instances throughout this whole process where you're gonna get a little bit embarrassed by things, it happens, we're going for the long game, right?
That's what he's talking about.
Well, children, children, because here's the deal.
I'm aware of this, man.
The children you raise in your home, right, they're gonna grow up.
And they're gonna walk into classrooms, they're gonna have friendships.
My children will be church members, and they're gonna have families, man.
They're gonna have a husband, they're gonna have a wife.
And that's why how I aim them now, that's why it matters.
I'm going for the long game.
I'm not going just simply, you know, for clean walls.
I'm going the long game, man.
And he says, you will have confidence if you spend your time now walking by God's grace for God's glory, aiming your kids for his glory when they get older, when they go out, you're not gonna be put to shame.
They're gonna love the Lord.
That's what we pray for, right?
Because you're faithful.
Plot of information in three verses.
I could speak much longer on this.
So, yeah, man, I still got those questions.
I do, I got lots of questions.
They're funny, some of them, some of them are serious, you know.
Once again, I still don't know where those socks go, dude.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, is there a black market somewhere?
I don't know.
But I know the answer to this question.
Psalm 127 is tell me, told me, the most important question that can be answered is what is the goal?
What are we aiming for?
And I'm just aiming that my kids behave.
I want my kids to love Jesus.
I want the next generation to chase after Jesus, man.
For his glory, to know Jesus, to love Jesus, to follow Jesus, to serve Jesus, and live their life for Jesus.
That is the aim.
That is the goal.
So let's church come on.
Let's parent in such a way that we aim our children for his glory.
We're going for the long game.
I know some days are better than others, some seasons are easier than others, but according to this, my uh assignment, my blessing from God, I was gifted children to aim.
This church has children gifted to aim.
So we will pray for our families, we will encourage our families, and together we'll grow men and women up for the future generation.
Let's pray.
Father God in heaven, thank you for these three verses.
They are so helpful in a world that teaches us, tells us opposite.
Father, I pray for the children of this church and in these families.
I pray that you would give each one of us wisdom.
Oh, Father, we need patience.
Father, I pray that we would be people who aim our children for your glory.
I pray that we would be a church that values our children, that we know that they are a blessing.
Thank you for blessing this church and this service with children.
We continue to pray that you use all of this for your glory and for our joy and for the good of the nations.
And we ask this in Christ's name, our Savior.
Amen.