SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_01: We have been worshiping Jesus and praising him today, and that's really our role as the church, as the people of God, as those who have trusted Jesus as our Lord and as our Savior, we live that out, that praise, that hope that comes from Him in the world around us.
SPEAKER_01: And in today's world, it's really important for us to live out that testimony.
SPEAKER_01: You see, we live in a time of a very chaotic culture.
SPEAKER_01: And so over the next few weeks, I'm going to be in a series entitled Biblical Parenting in a Chaotic Culture.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the culture is not something that should cause us to panic because greater is He who is in us than He who is in the world.
SPEAKER_01: But we do live in the world.
SPEAKER_01: We have to function in the world.
SPEAKER_01: We work through all the experiences that people are working through, and in all of that, we are trying to live for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's important for us to really spend some time talking through this issue of family and biblical parenting.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I actually wrote out an intro this morning, and I'm going to read.
SPEAKER_01: I know you're shocked.
SPEAKER_01: I can read, even though I don't most Sundays, but it was just important for me to really capture my thoughts about why we're going to have this study over the next coming weeks.
SPEAKER_01: Never before in our culture has parenting as a foundation of family been so under attack.
SPEAKER_01: And never have our kids needed godly parents and godly parenting more than in today's culture.
SPEAKER_01: All of the moral ills that we see being debated in the news and all of that today are the result of some very fundamental attacks specifically on the family.
SPEAKER_01: So let me give you four of those.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, the devalued life of unborn children is a massive evil that has opened the door for all manner of deterioration in our society.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, the undercutting of the structure of the family by devaluing marriage.
SPEAKER_01: Things like the tax code that penalizes marriage and no fault divorce, and now redefining marriage as no longer between a man and a woman, and even undercutting the importance of marriage as an institution itself.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, the definition of male and female has been under assault for decades now.
SPEAKER_01: And in the news today, we see where that has brought our culture.
SPEAKER_01: And number four, the authority of parents as parents has been under subtle assault for years.
SPEAKER_01: But the battle is no longer subtle.
SPEAKER_01: States are passing laws, for example, where the state tells you as a parent and values or evaluates you as a parent whether you affirm some gender identity question of your children as young as four and five years old.
SPEAKER_01: Schools have become the center of social engineering, and all across our nation we are seeing an effort to limit and even in some ways abolish the authority of parents.
SPEAKER_01: Those four fundamental factors are having an incredible and profound impact on our culture today.
SPEAKER_01: This is not the world that I grew up in.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the world that Janet and I raised our kids in.
SPEAKER_01: But that should not be a surprise to us as believers.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus warned us that the last days would be like the days of Noah.
SPEAKER_01: We should expect Satan to attack the work of God, the plans of God, the structures that God put in place to bring about his plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Parents must learn to parent biblically in a chaotic culture.
SPEAKER_01: We as a church must be more focused than ever before on supporting families, encouraging families, strengthening families, equipping families, and supporting them.
SPEAKER_01: That is our role as the church in a world where the authority of parents is being undercut, we must build up and support parents.
SPEAKER_01: Family is God's most fundamental structure in human life.
SPEAKER_01: It was created long before government or the church or a society culture.
SPEAKER_01: God began human history by first creating the family.
SPEAKER_01: Marriage is his most tangible and universal picture of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: It is woven throughout Scripture from the beginning of Genesis to the beginning of eternity when God calls us home and we are reunited with our Savior in an event that is so joyful, the best way God knew to describe it so we would get an inkling was called the marriage supper of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: As the bride of Christ is reunited with our bridegroom.
SPEAKER_01: Parenting is the first and most fundamental discipleship plan God has ever created.
SPEAKER_01: When the worldly plans and schemes around us attack God's plan for the family and parenting, we as the church must elevate the family and support parenting.
SPEAKER_01: Over the next few weeks, we will work through God's plan for family and for parenting.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll culminate with our event that we love, we call a family reunion at the river on October the 15th.
SPEAKER_01: So write that down.
SPEAKER_01: We're going back to the river and the park, and we're going to celebrate as families and worship together as families as we've done on October the 15th.
SPEAKER_01: This journey, this study, begins today with the fundamentals of parenting.
SPEAKER_01: It does not help anyone to simply attack the things that are wrong or attack the things that frustrate us or worry us or those barriers.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, we have to equip parents and families and kids.
SPEAKER_01: We need to say, this is God's plan and this is how it works, because those are the tools that we use to live out that testimony of Jesus in this world.
SPEAKER_01: We must understand the tools that God created in families to equip us to live for Him and more importantly, impact the world around us with the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible has a lot of instruction for parents throughout Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: One of my favorite passages is Deuteronomy 11.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 11.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to read another scripture in a moment, but I want you to be there.
SPEAKER_01: In this passage, God is specifically preparing the children of Israel to go into the land of Canaan and possess that land as his gift to them as he builds them as his people.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen, this is what Canaan was.
SPEAKER_01: God's people were about to enter into an extremely wicked, violent, and pagan land filled with ungodly, wicked, and violent people groups.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I believe this is an important teaching and passage in Scripture for us as a people.
SPEAKER_01: We see parallels between that culture and ours.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, as God sends them in the land of Canaan, if you do any amount of study of the land of Canaan, you'll find out that it was probably far worse than the culture that we live in.
SPEAKER_01: And yet God sent them in as his people, and in preparing them, he taught them this is how you will build your families, because that is the structure through which I will build you as my people and accomplish my purposes.
SPEAKER_01: This makes it a very appropriate teaching point for us.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I want to begin, you stay where you are, but I want to begin, you'll see it on the screen, with Joshua's address to the people of Israel after they have conquered the land and divided the land to every tribe as their inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this passage includes a verse that if you've been in church any amount of time, you know is famous and you've heard it.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua makes the pronouncement, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, right?
SPEAKER_01: You've seen that.
SPEAKER_01: Many of us have gotten a plaque or a picture or something, and we put it on the walls of our house and all that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But I want you to understand the significance of that moment when Joshua says that.
SPEAKER_01: In Deuteronomy 11, God is preparing the children of Israel to go into the land of Canaan.
SPEAKER_01: Now, one of the things that makes this particularly appropriate for us as the church today, somebody may say, Pastor, why are you going to an Old Testament passage for parenting?
SPEAKER_01: Because the land of Canaan is the place where God went and sent his people to become his people, to bring about his plan of redemption, and to be the people that God brings, the Messiah to the world.
SPEAKER_01: He sends them into a pagan land and he equips them to become his people and advance the plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Canaan is an Old Testament picture of the abundant life in Christ that we have as believers in today's world.
SPEAKER_01: And so here you literally have an Old Testament picture of how people are prepared to live and the promise that God has for them as his people and to be his people who bring about or advance his plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_01: So Deuteronomy was written to prepare them to go in.
SPEAKER_01: The book of Joshua tells the story as Joshua leads the children of Israel through the various battles and the times when they conquer the land.
SPEAKER_01: As you move towards the end of the book of Joshua, he divides the land and its inheritance to all the tribes of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And then we find ourselves now here in Joshua 24 at the end of Joshua's leadership of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says in Joshua 24, verse 1, Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem and summoned Israel's elders, leaders, judges, and officers, and they presented themselves before God.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua said to all the people, This is what the Lord the God of Israel says.
SPEAKER_01: And he's now delivering the instructions of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He reminds them of their history and how they got there.
SPEAKER_01: Long ago, your ancestors, including Terah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.
SPEAKER_01: Then he goes to tell them the story of how God has brought them and delivered them and given them that land and set them up there now.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, I gave you a land, I, God, gave you a land that you did not labor for, and cities you did not build, though you now live in them.
SPEAKER_01: You are eating from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, fear the Lord and worship him in sincerity and truth.
SPEAKER_01: Get rid of the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt and worship Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: If it doesn't please you to worship Yahweh, choose for yourselves today the one you will worship.
SPEAKER_01: The gods your fathers worship beyond the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living.
SPEAKER_01: As for me and my family, we will worship Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: The people replied, We will certainly not abandon the Lord to worship other gods.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord our God brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, and performed these great signs before our eyes.
SPEAKER_01: He also protected us along the way.
SPEAKER_01: We went, and among all the peoples whose lands we traveled through, the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, including the Amorites who live in the land.
SPEAKER_01: We too will worship the Lord because He is our God.
SPEAKER_01: And so you see in this passage of Scripture the incredibly important moment that Joshua makes this statement, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And you will also notice that he brings the children of Israel to a point where he challenges them, not their government to serve the Lord, not their culture to serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: But he says, listen, God prepared us to come into his people and to raise our children and our children's children and our children's children's children.
SPEAKER_01: He has put in place the structure of family to be how we establish ourselves as a people who worship God.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why he says, as for me and my house, we will worship the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He is challenging the children of Israel that you must make a choice as families and patriarchs and fathers and grandfathers and mothers and grandmothers, that you are going to decide the way we are going to inhabit the land that God has given us and to be God's people as we will raise our families to serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And the significance of this statement that he makes goes far beyond what we often think about in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: It is also a statement that the children of Israel understood very clearly in its context.
SPEAKER_01: When he says, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, he is hearkening back to the training that they were given to come into the land.
SPEAKER_01: He is standing on the foundation of what was already been created.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he says, as for me and my family, because God is established, as we'll see in Deuteronomy, that the family is how they will become God's people and worship him.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to read with me in Deuteronomy 11.
SPEAKER_01: I'm reading a lot of scripture today, but it's far more important than you hear from Jesus than you hear from Greg.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he says in Deuteronomy chapter 11, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, love the Lord your God and always keep his mandate and his statutes, ordinances, and commands.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen here.
SPEAKER_01: Parents, grandparents, you must understand today that it is not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes back again to rehearse their history of being pulled out of bondage in Egypt, of wandering through the wilderness trying to reestablish their faith and how God has carried them through that, and how he has now brought them to the land of Canaan to take them in.
SPEAKER_01: His greatness, strong hand, and outstretched arm, his signs and the works he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, king of Egypt and all this land, what he did to Egypt's army, its horses and chariots, when he made the waters of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued you, and he destroyed them completely.
SPEAKER_01: That's when they were coming out of bondage in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: What he did to you in the wilderness until you reached this place, and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the middle of the whole Israelite camp, the earth swallowed, opened up its mouth, and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing with them.
SPEAKER_01: Those are people who had walked away from God and were not faithful.
SPEAKER_01: He speaks to the parents.
SPEAKER_01: Keep every command I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to cross into and possess the land you are to inherit, and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them, and note this, and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.
SPEAKER_01: For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated by hand as in a vegetable garden.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Listen, that was a dry era and you had to work for that.
SPEAKER_01: Now he's going to describe a land that flows with milk and honey, the fruitfulness of Canaan.
SPEAKER_01: But the land you are entering to possess is a land of mountains and valleys, watered by rain from the sky.
SPEAKER_01: It is a land the Lord your God cares for.
SPEAKER_01: You will eat and be satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside worship and bow down to other gods.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Lord's anger will burn against you.
SPEAKER_01: He will close the sky and there will be no rain.
SPEAKER_01: The land will not yield its produce, and you will impair, and you will perish quickly from the good land the Lord is giving you.
SPEAKER_01: Here's his instruction.
SPEAKER_01: Still speaking to parents, imprint these words of mine on your hearts and minds.
SPEAKER_01: Bind them as a sign on your hands and let them be a symbol on your foreheads.
SPEAKER_01: Then teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, and when you lie down and when you get up.
SPEAKER_01: Every place the sole of your foot treads will be yours.
SPEAKER_01: Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon, from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea.
SPEAKER_01: No one will be able to stand against you.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord your God will put fear and dread of you in all the land where you set foot, as he has promised you.
SPEAKER_01: You see now that incredible preparation and teaching and the command that Joshua gave to the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And so when they get to the end and they've conquered the land, and now they're getting the instruction this is how you will live, this is how you will possess, this is how you will remain.
SPEAKER_01: As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It calls directly back to this.
SPEAKER_01: You will write the commands and the word of God on your minds and your hearts, and then you will teach them to your children, and you will not depart from them, and that's how you will be the people of God, and God will bless and give you power and strength to become his people in a violent, pagan, ungodly culture.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, as I was preparing for this and praying through this, I thought, I just need to stop right there and not say anything else.
SPEAKER_01: I'll just mess it up.
SPEAKER_01: That's about as clear as it can be, is it not?
SPEAKER_01: And so right there, we have God's instruction to his people.
SPEAKER_01: And it is an instruction that is still powerful today because it teaches us how God has given power to the structure of family to step into a chaotic culture and not just survive, but win.
SPEAKER_01: Establish a testimony of the person and the power of God, become a people through which the gospel advances.
SPEAKER_01: And your children and your children.
SPEAKER_01: Children and your children's children's children can experience the blessings of knowing God as His people.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I want to give you three necessities for biblical parenting.
SPEAKER_01: These tools are vital for us when you start thinking about being a parent.
SPEAKER_01: And I know I have a lot of grandparents in the room.
SPEAKER_01: Grandparents, I'm speaking to you.
SPEAKER_01: And then I know I have people who don't have a family yet, but you want a family, and you need to understand this.
SPEAKER_01: All throughout this series, I will give you this definition, and these three necessities are going to tell us how we accomplish that.
SPEAKER_01: Your definition for biblical parenting is raising your children to have a relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So when they are adults, they will walk with Him and serve Him.
SPEAKER_01: That's our job as parents.
SPEAKER_01: That is our goal.
SPEAKER_01: You want to know what we're supposed to accomplish?
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're praying for, that's what we're working for.
SPEAKER_01: Your job is not to raise your children to be successful.
SPEAKER_01: Your job is not to raise your children to be a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, or a coach, or an accountant, or anything else.
SPEAKER_01: Your job is not to raise your children to learn how to hunt, fish, hit a baseball, spike a volleyball, be a cheerleader, or anything else.
SPEAKER_01: Your job as a parent is to raise your children to have a relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And everything else should pale in the amount of time, effort, creativity, passion that you apply to that effort.
SPEAKER_01: Your job is not to raise your kids, to be able to read, do math, make straight A's in schools, or anything else.
SPEAKER_01: Not saying those things aren't important, but I'm telling you, it is not nearly as important as raising your children to know Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We must learn and understand the fundamentals of what God teaches us as parents.
SPEAKER_01: And it's more important now than ever before because of the chaotic culture in which we live.
SPEAKER_01: Three necessities I want to give you briefly, and we'll unpack these as we go through this series.
SPEAKER_01: You will find them here in Deuteronomy 11.
SPEAKER_01: First word is passion.
SPEAKER_01: You must have a passion for Jesus that passes through to your children and your grandchildren.
SPEAKER_01: You must have a passion for Jesus that is so authentic, so real, and so on fire that your children and your grandchildren catch it.
SPEAKER_01: They do not need to catch from us a hatred or negative criticism of society.
SPEAKER_01: They do not need to catch from us the importance of money or all of that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: All those things are there, but listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: The only way your children are going to know how to process living in this culture, the only way they're going to know how to handle all the things that they face and all of that is that you are so positively passionate about Jesus that your kids catch it in your house.
SPEAKER_01: And it becomes their passion because they love it.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, this is awesome.
SPEAKER_01: As you know, we we have our first grandbaby coming, and I'm now noticing baby things again.
SPEAKER_01: I remember when my son was born, he's 29, Air Jordans were a thing.
SPEAKER_01: And it was the greatest thing in the world when I found Air Jordan baby booties.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's cool, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's what we want to do, right?
SPEAKER_01: And then I began to realize they make baby clothes in Tennessee orange.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know that y'all are putting your children and your grandchildren in a particular shade of red.
SPEAKER_01: You have hogs all over their baby stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And you're calling the hogs and you're dragging them off to places, and they're going to ball games, and you're frustrated to win, they celebrate when they lose, and you got all that stuff, you even buy red pickup trucks.
SPEAKER_01: And we have this ability to understand what it means to have a passion that your kids catch.
SPEAKER_01: All you guys that go deer hunting and you live by deer hunting or duck hunting and you do all of that, and you wrap your babies in camo and you do all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: People ask me, what's it like living in Arkansas?
SPEAKER_01: It's a place where even hipsters and housewives hunt.
SPEAKER_01: And they have a passion to go in the woods and they learn to do that, and when they're seven years old, they kill their first deer and all of that, and they're raised to have a passion for hunting, and they die and go to hell because nobody gave them a passion for Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And we've got to understand it is never more important than Jesus being alive in your house.
SPEAKER_01: That you be excited about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That you sing those worship songs in the car, in the truck, that you love church, and you teach them to love church, and you teach them to love the word of God, and you have it in your house, and you make it the most critical thing.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to what the Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: God is very clear.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2 you must understand today that it is not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: Kids only know what we teach them or what culture teaches them.
SPEAKER_01: And culture is doing everything it can do to teach your children that Jesus is not real, and you are small-minded and you are judgmental if you think this or that because the word of God teaches it, because you must be uneducated and stupid if you believe in the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what culture is teaching our children.
SPEAKER_01: And we must have a passion for the Lord Jesus that is greater than anything else anybody else would teach them.
SPEAKER_01: He goes through this long dissertation about you have seen the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: It is your job to live by the commandments of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And then listen to what he says in verse 18 imprint these words of mine on your hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Who?
SPEAKER_01: The parents.
SPEAKER_01: It is important that the parent must own it.
SPEAKER_01: The parent must have it on our hearts, on our minds.
SPEAKER_01: Write it as a symbol on your hands, it is a symbol on your foreheads, and then teach your children.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot teach someone something that you do not know.
SPEAKER_01: And you cannot impart a passion that you do not have.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what does that mean specifically?
SPEAKER_01: I'll show you these four things all throughout the next few weeks.
SPEAKER_01: Because he continually repeats these four principles.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, love the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: That is the central calling for why we are created.
SPEAKER_01: Sin separates us from loving the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus died on the cross so that we could be forgiven and our sins removed so we could step back into that relationship and love him.
SPEAKER_01: Repeatedly, he says, worship the Lord, keep every command, worship the Lord, keep every command.
SPEAKER_01: If you read chapters 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, over and over and over, he repeats, worship the Lord your God, worship the Lord your God, have a passion for the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: Don't have any other gods before him.
SPEAKER_01: Everything we do is to love the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: Then he repeats, keep his commandments over and over and over and over.
SPEAKER_01: Keep his commandments, keep his ordinances, keep his statutes, be careful to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Over and over and over.
SPEAKER_01: And when you get to the end and they're inhabiting the land, and Joshua sends them out to become the people of God, what does he tell them again?
SPEAKER_01: Love the Lord your God and worship him and keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_01: In every one of these teachings, there is this point, and you'll miss it if you're not paying a little bit of attention.
SPEAKER_01: What is all this business about?
SPEAKER_01: This is not Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: This is where it rains and the sun is awesome and it's flourishing and it's flowing with milk and honey.
SPEAKER_01: And then you get to the end when Joshua says, Listen, God has given us this incredible land, and you are not living in cities that you built, and you are eating out of gardens that you did not plant.
SPEAKER_01: He is trying to teach them the principle of gratefulness and stewardship of his provision.
SPEAKER_01: Your home must be founded on an understanding that everything we have comes from God.
SPEAKER_01: It is the only way that your family will understand that God is a loving, providing God.
SPEAKER_01: He is the one who provided salvation.
SPEAKER_01: He has provided these blessings.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, I've come that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly.
SPEAKER_01: Why does Joshua continue to remind them before they go in and once they got there that this land is wonderful and God has provided it and it is his, and look at all the provision that he has and look what all he's done for us, and you live in these cities that we've run these people out of, but you didn't build the city.
SPEAKER_01: You just get to come here and live because God has given it to you.
SPEAKER_01: He is trying to help us understand a picture that what God is is God is love.
SPEAKER_01: God is provision.
SPEAKER_01: God is the God who made the Garden of Eden.
SPEAKER_01: He has designed for us flourishing as people and flourishing in his presence.
SPEAKER_01: He put Adam and Eve in the garden and he said, Look, everything is beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: Be fruitful and multiply.
SPEAKER_01: I love you so much.
SPEAKER_01: I have created this world for you to live in and for you to see just how much I love you in a tangible fashion with all that is around.
SPEAKER_01: God provides for us.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus is teaching us about how to live by faith in the Sermon on the Mount, what does he say?
SPEAKER_01: He says, Listen, don't worry about the things that you think you need.
SPEAKER_01: Consider the birds and God provides for them.
SPEAKER_01: And if a sparrow falls from the sky, he knows that.
SPEAKER_01: Consider the lilies of the field and how beautiful they are.
SPEAKER_01: And you look at that and he says, Look, God, if he adorned them like that, why is he not going to provide for you?
SPEAKER_01: Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, This where your treasures are, your heart will follow and be there.
SPEAKER_01: If we are grateful to the Lord, if we are worshiping him, if we're thanking him for everything, if we are acknowledging to our children that he is providing all that we have and all of this is his bounty, then we have an understanding that God is love and God provides.
SPEAKER_01: Well, then why does God do that?
SPEAKER_01: And why do bad things happen?
SPEAKER_01: And why does all that happen?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we have established from the place that God is trying to establish human flourishing.
SPEAKER_01: He wants us to grow and to know him and come to him as the creator.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 1 explains to us that God has built all the picture of who he is into creation, and we are to come and it calls us to him.
SPEAKER_01: It speaks of the fullness of who he is and all of his creation.
SPEAKER_01: That he wants us to understand he loves us and he has provision for us.
SPEAKER_01: And it is sin that has separated us, and it is sin that creates damage, and it is sin that harms mankind.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus came because God is the provider of forgiveness and salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And it is fundamental in our homes that we teach a gratefulness and stewardship that God has provided everything we have.
SPEAKER_01: And then finally we live as God's people for his glory.
SPEAKER_01: They understand that God has set this place for them, for them to come and be his people, and he's given them all throughout their worship the promise of the Messiah and the Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: And that they are there to be his people, to point people to the Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: And it is our job to live in this world to point people to the Redeemer that God provided, who is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But parents, you have got to own this first.
SPEAKER_01: You should have a vision for your family's spiritual life.
SPEAKER_01: And you should have a vision for how you're going to help your children experience his blessings.
SPEAKER_01: How many times did he say this?
SPEAKER_01: He makes this promise, and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants.
SPEAKER_01: God has a plan for your children and your grandchildren.
SPEAKER_01: You should be searching for what God's plan is for them.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says again, so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your fathers.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have a passion for your children to be saved?
SPEAKER_01: To know Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Do you have a passion for your children to understand what it means to lead others to Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Do you have a passion for your children to walk with the Lord and to see his provision and to know his hands and to know the joy of that?
SPEAKER_01: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: It is a lie from the pit of hell when you hear people say things like this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to let my children decide when they're old enough.
SPEAKER_01: That is an affront to Almighty God, and it is disobedient to the teaching of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: You are not to let your children go figure out anything on their own.
SPEAKER_01: You are to teach them that God is God.
SPEAKER_01: And that Jesus is the Savior and that God provides and that he loves you and He has a plan for your life.
SPEAKER_01: And it is your job to teach them that you are a sinner and I must punish your sin because of that.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus loved you so much, He took your punishment on the cross, and Jesus has a plan for your life.
SPEAKER_01: And if you will give your life to him, he will walk with you and he will save you and you will be with him for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: And he has an abundant life for you.
SPEAKER_01: And kids, I want you to know how much Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to tell them that long, often more than anybody else tells them some other lie that comes from the pit of hell.
SPEAKER_01: And we must tell our children and cast a vision for what it means to be a believer and for what it will mean for them.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things I love doing is premarriage counseling.
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
SPEAKER_01: I know more about weddings than any man ought to ever have to know.
SPEAKER_01: I've done, I lost count at 150.
SPEAKER_01: I love it, it's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the things I love is the moment as a pastor to look into a young couple's eye and say, listen, God has a plan for the two of you and your family.
SPEAKER_01: You have no idea yet the joy that He has set in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to join together and go chase everything God has for you.
SPEAKER_01: What's a shame is if I'm the only person that's ever told them.
SPEAKER_01: And what is a blessing is when I tell them that and they laugh and they say, You sound just like my mom and dad.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God for mom and dad.
SPEAKER_01: Necessity number three.
SPEAKER_01: You must have a passion.
SPEAKER_01: You must have a vision for the spiritual life of your children, and a commitment to train your children.
SPEAKER_01: We'll go into detail more about this, but what is all this business about?
SPEAKER_01: Train them, talking about it when you sit down, when you walk along the way, when you lie down, when you get up, what is all that?
SPEAKER_01: That simply means every moment of your life as a parent is spent teaching your children in one form or another.
SPEAKER_01: A commitment to train your children, it's a consistent, never stops, always going on, even when you're tired, work is busy, everything else, you never stop.
SPEAKER_01: It is a call to be creative, and you find every way that you can possibly teach your children.
SPEAKER_01: It is a compassionate, loving training that you are teaching your children because you love Jesus and you love them and you want to bring them together.
SPEAKER_01: It is caring as a parent.
SPEAKER_01: You are involved in their lives, you care about the decisions they make, you care about what's happening in their life, and you care about them, and it is a comprehensive teaching.
SPEAKER_01: You teach your children over and over and over.
SPEAKER_01: You never stop teaching.
SPEAKER_01: You teach them the full counsel of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: You teach them what salvation is, you teach them how to walk with the Lord, you teach them how to have a quiet time, and you teach them everything that you can possibly teach them.
SPEAKER_01: When we come to church and we talk about the Great Commission, here's what it says.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, before he goes home, he looks at his followers and he tells them as of the church, all authority that I have that is given to me, I give to you.
SPEAKER_01: And now I want you to go into all the world, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and then what?
SPEAKER_01: Teaching them everything that I've commanded you.
SPEAKER_01: How can that command not encompass parents to teach Jesus everything?
SPEAKER_01: As you look through those three things: a passion, a vision, and commitment, you will have the biblical skills you need, as Joshua told the children of Israel to have power.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord will drive out all these nations before you.
SPEAKER_01: And you will drive out nations greater and stronger than you are.
SPEAKER_01: No one will be able to stand against you.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord your God will put fear and dread of you in all the land where you set foot, as he has promised you.
SPEAKER_01: But we must be obedient, teaching of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to bow your heads as we close this morning.
SPEAKER_01: As I've said, you as a parent must first know Jesus as your Savior.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't know Jesus as your Savior, I want to invite you this morning.
SPEAKER_01: If you're watching online or if you're here, you come and you give your life to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In a moment, I'm gonna pray.
SPEAKER_01: God's people are gonna stand and sing a testimony.
SPEAKER_01: If you need Jesus, you come.
SPEAKER_01: We have shared the gospel repeatedly in song, in testimony, and baptism.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus stepped out of heaven, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, and rose again to offer us salvation.
SPEAKER_01: If you would have Jesus as your Savior, you come and you trust Him with your life.
SPEAKER_01: You take everything you've been, you are, and you ever will be, and you give it all to Jesus and you trust Him to do with your life.
SPEAKER_01: You can trust Jesus with your life because He gave His life for you.
SPEAKER_01: Parents, I want to call you to make a commitment this week to study these three words, to read Deuteronomy 11 throughout the week.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to chapter and first, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.