WEBVTT 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:14.000 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. 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:19.440 You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers. 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:21.280 Thank you for listening. 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:23.760 I'm not sure I can follow that. 00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:25.280 That was incredible. 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:29.440 Thank you, Natalie and Jacob and praise team and orchestra and everyone. 00:00:29.679 --> 00:00:30.399 What a great deal. 00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:37.920 And I want you to remember that feeling and the words of that omnisci uh omnipresent, omnipotent, soon coming king. 00:00:38.079 --> 00:00:39.200 Remember that in just a moment. 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:40.799 We're going to come back to that. 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:51.840 But I want to begin this morning by reminding you we started a sermon series last week called Biblical Parenting in a Chaotic Culture. 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:58.079 And I want to remind you that this is the definition that we are working towards as parents. 00:00:58.320 --> 00:00:59.600 And this is really important. 00:00:59.679 --> 00:01:03.920 It's not something that I just put up there, and I think hopefully you'll see that in just a moment. 00:01:04.159 --> 00:01:07.120 This is the goal, what we're doing as parents. 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:16.640 Raising your children to have a relationship with Jesus so that when they are adults, they will walk with him and serve him. 00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:18.480 Let me repeat that again. 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:21.680 Raising your children to have a relationship with Jesus. 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:33.680 So what you're doing now, moms and dads and grandparents, what you're doing to help your kids, your adult kids with their children, your grandchildren, we are teaching them to have a relationship with Jesus. 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:49.120 Everything is focused on helping them know Jesus, love him, worship him, follow him, be saved, have a relationship with him, and do that in such a way that when they are adults, they will walk with him and serve him. 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:52.159 So the question then is how do we do that? 00:01:52.400 --> 00:02:14.800 And last week we talked about what we needed as parents, that you needed to have a passion for Jesus that transcended down to your children and grandchildren, that you needed to have a spiritual vision for your family, and then a commitment in all the different ways to teach and to train and to do those things so your children have a relationship with Jesus. 00:02:15.039 --> 00:02:20.800 Then I gave you four principles that are the foundational things that we're teaching. 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:28.000 And so that's what I want to do today is give you the biblical principles that you need for biblical parenting. 00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:30.000 You see, it starts there. 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:33.439 So turn with me in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 11. 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:41.039 Before you ever get to the issues in the culture, you have to know what the truth is. 00:02:41.919 --> 00:02:51.360 Because you don't have a framework to deal with what kids are dealing with, the questions that they have, all of that. 00:02:51.599 --> 00:03:00.719 You don't have a framework to counter what the world would say or argue with us as followers of Jesus. 00:03:00.879 --> 00:03:17.520 And so we are not equipped to handle the chaotic culture until we understand those biblical principles that we are imparting and training and teaching our children that help them have a relationship with the Lord Jesus. 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:20.960 Now, I want to show you these four principles again. 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:22.719 In fact, Bobby's helped me. 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:28.319 We just took the screen from last week because I want to keep reiterating that. 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:32.560 And parents, this is layered for us today. 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:42.319 As you'll see here in Deuteronomy chapter 11, beginning in verse 1, the Bible says, and here's the instruction to the audience that he's speaking to. 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:49.039 Love the Lord your God and always keep his mandate and his statutes, ordinances, and commands. 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:54.080 You, the audience that he's speaking to, here is parents. 00:03:54.400 --> 00:04:04.400 You, as parents, you must understand today that it is not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of the Lord your God. 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:09.280 Our children are sponges and they learn. 00:04:10.159 --> 00:04:15.120 But they don't know anything yet when they start out life. 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:23.680 The maturing process is growing to learn and understand progressively the world around you. 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:26.240 Now I love it when you have babies, right? 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:45.040 And they can't see much and they can't do much, and they and they only see about here, and they discover their fingers and they do all that, and then they begin to recognize voices, and then they begin to recognize you, and then they begin to recognize things ten feet out, and then they begin to recognize some other things around them, and they it's this progressive sense of learning all those things. 00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:49.920 And here's what he's saying: listen, how are your kids going to know who God is? 00:04:50.800 --> 00:05:02.720 And how are your children going to understand all the things that he has done for his people to create this spiritual heritage unless you own it and teach it? 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:11.600 And so what he's telling them is this love the Lord your God and always keep his mandate, statutes, ordinances, and commands. 00:05:11.759 --> 00:05:15.920 He is saying, listen, you must own this to give this to your children. 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:28.879 You must have a passion for the Lord that is so strong and deep and rooted in him, it is so authentic that your kids catch it as they're learning it. 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:34.079 That it is the reality of their life and they learn from that. 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:43.680 And you have got to teach them in a way that is greater than the world around them is trying to teach them the opposite. 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:49.839 You've got to beat the world around you with the message. 00:05:50.560 --> 00:05:52.000 Now, I want you to see it. 00:05:52.079 --> 00:05:53.360 We're going to read this passage again. 00:05:53.439 --> 00:06:01.680 We read it last week, we're going to read it again, but I want you to notice these four principles and see how they are repeated throughout this message. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:07.279 God is layering the importance of these biblical principles as a foundation. 00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:10.800 Love the Lord, worship him with all your heart. 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:12.319 He begins that way. 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:14.879 That's the song we've just sung. 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:22.800 If you don't know who God is and acknowledge him as God, everything else is just information. 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:28.480 And it may not even be information you choose to believe in it or not. 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:31.839 It begins with the foundation of who God is. 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:41.680 Once you know that he is God and He's issued commandments and written scripture to us, well then we need to follow that. 00:06:42.560 --> 00:06:58.959 A gratefulness for his provision, an understanding that everything that we have comes from him, that he is the God who is prepared and blessed, and that we are the recipients of his provision. 00:06:59.199 --> 00:07:02.800 And then the call to live is God's people for his glory. 00:07:03.040 --> 00:07:17.600 The very fact that he is speaking to his children of Israel and he is preparing them to go into the land of Canaan, he is setting them up to be his people and to be the conduit through which he brings the Messiah into the world. 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:23.120 By definition, right here, he is calling them to live as his people for his glory. 00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:27.839 Now, look at those four things and see how often they are repeated through this passage. 00:07:28.240 --> 00:07:29.279 Here's what he says. 00:07:29.519 --> 00:07:36.319 Verse 2, you must understand today that it's not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of the Lord your God. 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:46.000 His greatness, strong hand, and outstretched arms, his signs and the works he did in Egypt to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all his land. 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:55.920 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. 00:07:56.079 --> 00:08:07.360 So obviously he's rehearsing there when God redeemed his people, following the leadership of Moses, out of Egypt and led them towards the promised land. 00:08:07.839 --> 00:08:14.240 Then he says, verse 5, what he did to you in the wilderness until you reached this place. 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:29.839 Now he's talking about the fact that as they got to the Jordan River and ready to go into the land of Canaan, they were afraid of conquering that land, and they wilted in their courage and in their faith, and they refused to go in. 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:45.840 And because of that, God said, You will now wander for forty years, and this generation will move on, and the next generation will come up, and we will begin with them as children, and we will raise them to follow me and understand, and then they will have the faith to step into the land. 00:08:45.919 --> 00:08:52.720 And that's now where we find ourselves, with this next generation forty years later, ready to go into Canaan. 00:08:52.960 --> 00:08:58.320 So he says in verse 7, Your own eyes have seen every great work the Lord has done. 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:12.559 Keep every command I'm 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 their descendants. 00:09:12.639 --> 00:09:17.279 That's having a vision for the spiritual life of your children and grandchildren. 00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:19.759 A land flowing with milk and honey. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:32.399 For the land you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you've come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated by hand as in a vegetable garden. 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:36.320 Now he's saying, Look at how beautiful this land that I've given to you is. 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:40.320 It is a land the Lord your God cares for. 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:44.399 He is always watching over it from the beginning to the end of the year. 00:09:44.639 --> 00:10:01.279 If you carefully obey my commandments I am giving you today, to love the Lord your God and worship him with all your heart and all your soul, I will provide rain for your land in the proper time, the autumn and spring rains, and you will harvest your grain, new wine, and oil. 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:09.440 I will provide, you see, God's provision, grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied. 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:18.000 Be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside, worship, and bow down to other gods. 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:21.360 Then the Lord's anger will burn against you. 00:10:21.679 --> 00:10:30.320 He will close the sky, and there will be no rain, the land will not yield its produce, and you will perish quickly from the good land the Lord is giving you. 00:10:30.559 --> 00:10:34.559 Now he teaches them as parents all those principles. 00:10:34.799 --> 00:11:12.960 Number one, imprint these words of mine on your hearts and minds, bind them as a sign on your hands, and let them be a symbol on your foreheads, and then number two, teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up, write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days, a vision for your spiritual life, look at what he says, of your children and grandchildren, look at what he says, your days and those of your children. 00:11:13.679 --> 00:11:16.960 Maybe many in the land the Lord swore to give your fathers. 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:35.519 For if you carefully observe each and every one of these commands I am giving you to follow, to love the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, and remain faithful to him, the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will drive out nations greater and stronger than you are. 00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:40.240 Every place the sole of your foot treads will be yours. 00:11:40.799 --> 00:11:49.440 Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon, from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea, and no one will be able to stand against you. 00:11:49.679 --> 00:11:56.159 The Lord your God will put fear and dread of you in all the land where you set foot, as he has promised you. 00:11:56.399 --> 00:11:58.799 You see, these principles work. 00:12:00.399 --> 00:12:09.519 When we train our children and they become the next generation of the people of God, we are the church of the living God, the church of Jesus Christ. 00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:25.919 When we are inhabiting that power and that abundant life and that walk with Him, we have the power to impact the chaos around us instead of the chaotic culture impacting our children. 00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:32.879 Now, we've got to understand, we've got to teach them these specific principles. 00:12:33.039 --> 00:12:45.440 These are the things that God said, you should have learned as you walked with me, that you imprint on your minds and hearts, and then you teach your children every moment of every day. 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:55.840 When you get up in the morning, when you put them in bed at night, when you walk through the way, whatever you're doing, you write them on the doorpost of your house, you teach your children these things that he keeps repeating. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:13:00.879 And as I read through there, you should have recognized these four over and over and over again. 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:06.000 Now, these are not sequential, these are all interlocked and linked together. 00:13:06.240 --> 00:13:12.559 They, if you pull one out, you break down this biblical worldview and framework. 00:13:12.879 --> 00:13:17.200 They begin to be much weaker if you start to break them down. 00:13:17.519 --> 00:13:19.919 Number one, love the Lord your God, worship him. 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:21.200 He is God. 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:26.240 If he is God, then nothing else matters. 00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:30.960 If he's not God, do whatever you want to do. 00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:34.320 If he is God, you must worship him. 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:38.320 And as the creator God, he has a purpose in that. 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:42.320 As the creator God, he gives us the rules for his creation. 00:13:42.480 --> 00:13:45.440 And he gives us instructions as his people to follow. 00:13:45.600 --> 00:13:49.039 And if he is God, then we must follow them. 00:13:49.279 --> 00:13:58.240 If I'm not following them, I am literally saying, I don't really care what you think, because I don't really think you're that important. 00:13:59.200 --> 00:14:03.919 Jesus said, He is who loves me, who keeps my commandments. 00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:12.320 Gratefulness and stewardship, why does he keep going through all this about this is not the land you created, and this land is beautiful, and it's not like that place you came from. 00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:16.399 This one is lush and green, and I'm gonna pour rain on it, and all of that. 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:17.360 Why is he doing all that? 00:14:17.519 --> 00:14:20.799 Because he is reminding you, how many times did you see the word provision? 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:24.159 Everything that we have comes from the Lord. 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:28.799 You're not smart enough to have created your career or whatever. 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:38.000 In fact, you didn't pick the DNA that you have, you didn't pick the parents that you have, you didn't pick the skills or the abilities or traits that you have. 00:14:38.159 --> 00:14:41.120 All of that, God created in you. 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:49.919 And then you live in the place and you walk in the opportunities and all of that He created everything that we have. 00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:52.720 He is the one who created it for us. 00:14:52.879 --> 00:14:55.519 We have two children, Mabry and Grant. 00:14:55.600 --> 00:14:56.320 It's amazing. 00:14:56.480 --> 00:14:58.480 As they grew up, we watched them. 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:08.080 We thought, here they are in the same house, the same mom and dad, the same DNA pool that they came from, and everything else, and they couldn't be more different. 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:10.399 I mean, it was unbelievable. 00:15:10.559 --> 00:15:23.039 Our daughter is a science mind, and she does all this stuff and literal and all this, and our son is a word guy, he's a writer, he's an editor in a magazine, he does all this thing. 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:26.399 And like they think so completely differently, it's amazing. 00:15:26.559 --> 00:15:31.519 You think, like, I don't know, like they swapped one of them at the hospital or something. 00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:35.840 There's got to be some commonality between them, but there's not at all. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:36.559 Why? 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:50.159 Because he made each of them specifically and purposefully, and he made them to be who he wanted them to be and gave them abilities and talents that are unique from either one of us. 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:50.960 Right? 00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:58.720 I mean, she has pieces of Janet, pieces of me, and Grant has pieces of Janet and pieces of me, and like some pieces, we don't know where that came from. 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:18.639 But they're there because God created them that way, and they are successful and they do what they do, and we try to remind them you did not pick your brain, you did not select your talents, anything that you have developed, you are simply being a stewardship of what God placed in you. 00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:28.000 We live in a world that God has provided and created for us. 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:36.879 And when we forget that, then we get these ideas that God is mean or he's ugly or it doesn't matter or he doesn't care about us or all this other kind of stuff. 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:45.600 All kinds of weird, aberrant things come out of the fact when we are not grateful for God's provision and we are looking to him as the provider of what he does for us. 00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:50.639 And then all of that moves towards you're his people. 00:16:51.440 --> 00:17:00.399 That's why he instructs you, that's why he commands you, that's why he provides, that's why he's planned you, and it is your job to do what he's called you to do and live for his glory. 00:17:00.799 --> 00:17:05.519 Now, let me give you just a few thoughts about these as we sort of unpack this deal. 00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:13.680 This week on our Triangle Podcast, I don't try to wrestle you to listen to that all the time, but I think you'd be blessed if you did. 00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:16.160 But this week, I want you to listen to it. 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:23.039 I'm asking you to listen to it because there is some information on there about a new book that's just come out in the last two weeks. 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:25.680 That's one of the books that I study. 00:17:26.079 --> 00:17:35.680 It is an update from a book written by George Barna in the early 2000s that has shaped our my ministry. 00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:37.599 Janet and I, our ministry. 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:39.039 It shaped us as parents. 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:44.079 The original one was called Transforming Your Children into Spiritual Champions. 00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:49.359 And the new one, the updated one, is Raising Spiritual Champions. 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:52.559 You'll have information in the podcast, you'll hear an interview from Dr. 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:54.720 George Barna, who is the author of that book. 00:17:54.880 --> 00:17:58.960 I cannot tell you how important it is that you learn the information in that. 00:17:59.119 --> 00:18:01.039 And it tracks along with the series. 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:07.599 One of the things he does is he researches where people are and what trends are and how those things happen. 00:18:07.839 --> 00:18:17.519 In that book, he has some pretty incredible statistics that they have taken in interviewing teenagers all over the nation. 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:21.759 Now, I want you to think about this with me for just for a minute. 00:18:22.079 --> 00:18:28.799 The first principle that God begins with in this passage is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:30.160 Love the Lord your God. 00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:37.920 We must understand that we live in a world that does not recognize God as God. 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:52.559 For generations, everybody's been teaching our children and our grandchildren and the generations that God is not the creator, and there was some big bang from something, and they didn't can't tell you where the bang came from. 00:18:52.720 --> 00:19:10.319 They just think there was a bang, and then they think there was some primordial ooze or slime or something, and you all look handsome and beautiful this morning because some process where some worm climbed out of some slime somewhere and somehow over billions of years grew into be like you. 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:16.079 I mean, it just sounds idiotic when you say it out loud, doesn't it? 00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:21.119 But God is the creator God of the universe, He is the God of the universe, He is the creator. 00:19:21.359 --> 00:19:27.599 Listen to what where teenagers are in the world that we live in today, the culture that you are raising your children in. 00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:34.000 Only 27% believe that God is God in the basis of altru. 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:42.240 Only 31% of teenagers in America today believe that God is the creator and sustainer of the universe. 00:19:44.160 --> 00:19:49.440 We sang omnipotent, omnipresent this morning. 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:52.960 Only 36% of teenagers believe that. 00:19:54.720 --> 00:19:55.920 Just a third. 00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:06.240 Nearly half of all teenagers don't even know if God exists. 00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:12.240 And we're raising our children in this culture. 00:20:12.480 --> 00:20:12.799 Okay? 00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:21.759 Sixty-one percent of teenagers believe that Jesus did sin, or may have, or could have sinned. 00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:27.119 What happens to salvation if that's your picture of Jesus? 00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:33.599 These beliefs matter as it plays itself out in life. 00:20:33.920 --> 00:20:36.960 Only 18% of teenagers pray. 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:42.240 Only 19% seek to know and obey God. 00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:53.119 Only 20%, that's one in five, intentionally thank God, praise and worship Him outside of a church setting. 00:20:54.880 --> 00:21:05.200 It sounds simple to come into a church and tell people that God is God, but listen, parents, you are in the minority if you believe that. 00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:13.119 And your children are walking in a world where an entire world tells them that God is not God, that Jesus sinned. 00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:21.519 They are telling him, your children and our children and grandchildren, then God is not the creator, and it didn't happen this way. 00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:27.039 And there is a responsibility to that because if God is not the creator, then you owe him nothing. 00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:34.559 If God is not the creator, when you run into an issue in our culture and you say, But God says, they go, Well, I don't care. 00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:36.000 I don't even know who that is. 00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:39.519 You literally have no framework for the conversation. 00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:51.200 And how are your children going to go to school, be involved in baseball, dance, band, whatever it is, listen to the radio, have an iPhone, watch television, go to the movies? 00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:54.000 How are they ever going to do all of those things? 00:21:54.160 --> 00:22:06.000 And if you have not owned in your life that God is God and spent every Moment of the day teaching your children that God is God, how are we not going to lose our children? 00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:10.640 Why do you think all throughout this passage of Scripture? 00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:14.480 Listen, if anybody knew that God was God, it was the children of Israel, right? 00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:20.079 I mean, they've watched the Red Sea and they've watched water come out of rocks and they've had manna every morning and they've done all this. 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:24.000 Like they see God, and He is not taking for granted. 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:28.400 You must teach your children that I am God. 00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:32.079 Because they're not going to know if you don't tell them. 00:22:32.640 --> 00:22:35.839 They haven't seen what you've seen, they haven't experienced what you've experienced. 00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:39.680 And we see that played out in our culture today. 00:22:42.799 --> 00:22:45.519 Second one, keep and obey the scriptures. 00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:47.440 Keep his commandments. 00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:49.200 Be careful to obey his commandments. 00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:50.880 How many times did you see that? 00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:54.240 God say that in just this one passage of scripture. 00:22:57.440 --> 00:23:06.559 Only 10% of teenagers in our culture today reject truth. 00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:14.400 Only 10% reject the idea that there is moral truth. 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:32.720 Okay? 00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:36.240 Now listen, I am not picking on this generation. 00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:37.680 We love kids. 00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:41.920 If I'm picking on anybody, it's the parents that hadn't taught them diddly squat. 00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:55.279 Because there are more than 10% of the people in America that go to church, and yet 90% of teenagers don't understand that scripture is true. 00:23:56.400 --> 00:24:00.559 17% agree with this statement. 00:24:00.799 --> 00:24:01.359 17%. 00:24:02.160 --> 00:24:05.839 That the best way to define success is obedience to Jesus. 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:15.200 18% will validate Scripture as a source of truth. 00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:25.039 Only 27% believe in God as the basis of truth as revealed in the Bible. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:30.160 They have this has a result. 00:24:31.119 --> 00:24:36.640 Only 12% of teenagers study the Bible outside of a church setting. 00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:42.000 See, parents, we we got work to do. 00:24:42.319 --> 00:24:43.440 I mean, work. 00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:50.480 And we are swimming up against a major cultural current. 00:24:50.799 --> 00:24:54.000 Let's talk about gratefulness and stewardship. 00:24:54.559 --> 00:25:04.799 We live in a world today where at most studies say that 20% of people tithe, of church growers tithe. 00:25:05.119 --> 00:25:05.599 20%. 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:09.359 40% say they tithe. 00:25:13.759 --> 00:25:16.240 Unpack that a little bit at lunch. 00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:20.559 Now, why does that matter? 00:25:20.880 --> 00:25:23.839 Listen, I'm not a fundraiser, I'm a preacher. 00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:32.160 But listen, God repeatedly told the children of Israel, you only live in a place that I have provided for you. 00:25:32.799 --> 00:25:39.759 And we must understand that God's provision has a fundamental impact on our definition of the person of God. 00:25:44.559 --> 00:25:58.319 Eight percent of teenagers believe that wealth an individual accumulates is provided by God for them to manage to advance his kingdom. 00:25:59.599 --> 00:26:00.880 Eight percent. 00:26:08.559 --> 00:26:17.759 And so that's got to beg the question: what are we teaching as parents and grandparents, and what are we modeling to our children? 00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:49.839 And listen, when your kids go to school and somebody tells them something like, that God of the Old Testament is mean, kills people, commanded genocide, and they are challenged with the definition of the person of God, if they stick with the original, we believe that God is God, then the only response they can have to that is somehow God is some mercurial, mean, judgmental something. 00:26:50.720 --> 00:26:52.079 Here's what also happens. 00:26:52.240 --> 00:27:03.119 If we don't trust in Scripture as being true, and they tell you the God of the Old Testament, all that kind of stuff, then they get to the New Testament and they go, well, Jesus looks pretty good and that deal, and God looks bad in the Old Testament. 00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:07.200 Well, I'm just gonna get rid of the Old Testament and I'm only gonna listen to the New Testament. 00:27:08.559 --> 00:27:12.000 And they do great violence to their theology and their picture of God. 00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:28.079 And if you don't have an understanding of the benevolence of God, of the love of God, of the provision of God, of everything that we have come from him, how are you ever going to teach your children that God is always about life and the flourishing of the human condition? 00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:30.480 How are you gonna teach your children that? 00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:40.640 If you don't teach them the Old Testament, then you can't teach them Genesis, where you teach them God made it all beautiful and he made it wonderful, and he put them in there and he said, Enjoy the whole thing. 00:27:41.519 --> 00:27:44.640 And sin broke the world, not us. 00:27:45.200 --> 00:27:46.960 Sin broke people, not us. 00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:48.559 Sin is what's judged. 00:27:48.799 --> 00:27:51.200 God is not up there trying to destroy people. 00:27:51.519 --> 00:27:56.720 He sent Jesus to step out of heaven and die for our sins so that he could save us. 00:27:59.279 --> 00:28:06.720 But if you don't acknowledge the provision of God, how is that ever going to make sense to someone who's trying to make sense of the world? 00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:10.480 It matters if you tithe. 00:28:11.359 --> 00:28:18.079 And it matters more to your children and your grandchildren if you tithe than it does to you. 00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:24.720 It reflects what you believe, but it shapes what they believe. 00:28:28.160 --> 00:28:31.680 It literally anchors in the definition of God. 00:28:32.079 --> 00:28:35.039 Now, let me ask you, let me talk to you about this for a second. 00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:38.799 I know everybody wants their children to learn right from wrong. 00:28:38.960 --> 00:28:39.599 I know they do. 00:28:39.759 --> 00:28:46.480 And people, we we try to do that, and it's important to parents, and I know so many parents, we teach them right from wrong. 00:28:46.799 --> 00:28:47.920 Be polite. 00:28:48.319 --> 00:28:51.599 I I it's funny, you learn as a pastor these things. 00:28:51.839 --> 00:28:57.599 I came down out of a sermon like this one Sunday, and nice mom loves Jesus, great mom. 00:28:57.680 --> 00:28:58.799 It's not a bad story. 00:28:58.880 --> 00:28:59.920 It's about me learning. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:05.039 I come down out of that and she says, Pastor, you said stupid in your sermon. 00:29:05.839 --> 00:29:06.720 I said, I did. 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:08.559 I probably didn't say it enough. 00:29:12.400 --> 00:29:22.079 And she said, Pastor, we are trying to teach our children how to speak with grace, and we have bands stupid in our house, and I go home and tell my kids not to say stupid, and they say, Well, Pastor Greg says it. 00:29:25.359 --> 00:29:25.920 It's fun. 00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:31.839 I go out and I'll talk to people and I'll see this family, and I'll see a kid, you know, fourth grader, third grader, second grader. 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:32.559 Hey, what's happening? 00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:34.079 And I'm saying, I'm Greg. 00:29:34.160 --> 00:29:34.799 I'm I'm Greg. 00:29:34.960 --> 00:29:38.960 And they go, Pastor, we're trying to teach our kids manners. 00:29:39.279 --> 00:29:40.160 You're Pastor Greg. 00:29:40.319 --> 00:29:41.359 I said, I'm just Greg. 00:29:41.440 --> 00:29:43.119 I mean, I just want to be just Greg, right? 00:29:43.279 --> 00:29:47.759 I mean, I want to get down and play and let's go get some Legos and a Nerf gun and let's go have some fun, right? 00:29:47.839 --> 00:29:49.440 Let's get no Pastor, we're trying to chill. 00:29:49.839 --> 00:29:51.519 I'm like, okay, okay, okay, I get it. 00:29:51.680 --> 00:29:53.839 You know, parents are trying to teach right from wrong. 00:29:53.920 --> 00:29:54.240 I get it. 00:29:54.319 --> 00:29:55.359 They're trying to teach right from wrong. 00:29:55.440 --> 00:29:56.160 You guys are doing that. 00:29:56.240 --> 00:29:56.640 Don't do that. 00:29:56.720 --> 00:29:57.759 Don't talk to your brother that way. 00:29:57.839 --> 00:29:58.799 Don't talk to your mom that way. 00:29:58.880 --> 00:29:59.359 Don't do that. 00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:00.400 But listen to me. 00:30:00.640 --> 00:30:18.960 If you don't anchor that teaching in the foundational truth of Scripture and teach them that it's the Bible that says not do that, then all you have done is given one definition of truth, and somebody else can give them another definition of truth, and they can pick whichever one they want. 00:30:22.160 --> 00:30:26.240 How many times do you sit down and teach your children how to use their Bible? 00:30:26.559 --> 00:30:33.839 How many times when you correct them, do you take out a scripture verse and you say, you don't talk to your mama because the Bible says this? 00:30:34.079 --> 00:30:37.200 You don't talk to your brother or sister because the Bible says this. 00:30:37.359 --> 00:30:39.119 We do this because the Bible says that. 00:30:39.279 --> 00:31:00.720 I'm going to tell you, if you're not teaching them the foundation of Scripture, when they become 15 and they come home and they ask you, all the other people in the locker room are mad at me, but your son tells you Billy is the only one that's not ugly to me, and Billy's a nice guy, and Billy and I are going to try to date. 00:31:03.440 --> 00:31:07.599 What foundation do you have to explain that or unpack that? 00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:10.880 Now let me tell you, that's a real question. 00:31:12.079 --> 00:31:14.160 That's a real experience. 00:31:15.839 --> 00:31:20.640 You go to church, and sometimes even the church people don't love you. 00:31:24.319 --> 00:31:40.000 And you get on the cheerling squad or the baseball team or you get in the band or whatever, and that person actually appreciates you, you had better have given your children some foundation to process those difficult life issues. 00:31:40.559 --> 00:31:42.160 Or you got trouble. 00:31:45.279 --> 00:31:49.680 And that is coming, parents, if you haven't had it already. 00:31:52.160 --> 00:31:54.960 And you have got to have anchored them in scripture. 00:31:55.200 --> 00:32:13.039 It isn't gonna matter what you think is right or wrong when somebody else that's cooler than you and is not you, and didn't make them go to bed without supper, and told them they can't listen to that on their phone, that person's gonna be cooler than you, and if all you've given them is opinion, that one is gonna be better. 00:32:18.319 --> 00:32:22.400 Finally, we got to live as God's people for his glory. 00:32:22.880 --> 00:32:25.839 Listen, the whole point of life is this. 00:32:26.480 --> 00:32:35.680 The whole entire point of life is having given my life to Jesus and found out what he wants to do with it. 00:32:36.160 --> 00:32:45.440 And there is no joy outside of that, there is no fulfillment outside of that, there is only judgment, there is only loss, and there is only hell. 00:32:47.359 --> 00:32:56.559 And we've got to learn as the church in today's world, you better train your kids to be missionaries and warriors, or you are at risk of losing them. 00:32:57.200 --> 00:32:59.839 Because the faith doesn't make sense. 00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:13.680 If Jesus says the Great Commission is this, whatever I have taught you, you, when you baptize people in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, you teach them to observe whatever I've commanded you. 00:33:13.759 --> 00:33:22.160 And if you have not gotten that as the target and training your children to that, you have unanchored them from the point. 00:33:23.599 --> 00:33:28.000 And what strength do the other three have if they don't have a target? 00:33:28.880 --> 00:33:38.240 But how much more serious and powerful they become when God, who is God, has a plan for your life. 00:33:38.640 --> 00:33:46.720 And God gives you instructions in his word, and he shows you how to get that, and he does all that because he has a plan for your life that he wants you to be a part of. 00:33:46.960 --> 00:33:52.880 And I'm grateful for God's provision and all that he's done for me because he has provided a plan for my life. 00:33:55.359 --> 00:33:59.680 And now I can step into that plan as God's child. 00:34:00.400 --> 00:34:02.640 Listen to what the stats are telling us. 00:34:03.599 --> 00:34:10.880 Only 20%, 26% of teenagers see the purpose of their life as knowing, loving, and serving God. 00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:22.000 Only 28% of teenagers believe that God's plan for humanity is based in families. 00:34:22.320 --> 00:34:27.599 One man, one woman, one father, one dad. 00:34:28.159 --> 00:34:29.360 Only 28%. 00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:34.079 Now let me give you these stats, parents. 00:34:35.920 --> 00:34:47.199 Only 44% of born-again parents characterize as very important serving others as a disciple of Jesus. 00:34:48.400 --> 00:35:05.840 Only 44% of born-again parents as church people, not culture, as church people, only 44% of church people characterize as very important serving others as a disciple of Jesus. 00:35:06.639 --> 00:35:18.719 If only 44% of the church people believe it's important to live as God's people and for his glory, that's why only 26% of teenagers believe it. 00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:41.760 If you're not committed to the church and serving the church, you are putting at deep risk the spiritual future of your children and your grandchildren. 00:35:47.760 --> 00:35:52.480 If you're not a warrior for Jesus, how are you gonna raise a warrior for Jesus? 00:35:55.280 --> 00:36:09.920 If you don't believe in Jesus enough to invite somebody to church, to figure out how to share your faith and tell somebody about Jesus, how are your kids gonna believe it with that depth? 00:36:11.599 --> 00:36:37.519 When they say that the God of the Old Testament is ugly and he's judgmental and all of that, when your kids are grappling with that and they're hearing it in college or they're hearing it in high school, they're being inundated that with everything around them, if you have not shown them the character of Jesus in serving the people around you, what credibility does your message have to your children? 00:36:39.760 --> 00:36:44.079 We are in church because our parents were in church. 00:36:44.559 --> 00:36:53.199 My parents were in church, and Janet's parents were in church because their parents had a vision for them to be in church. 00:36:54.159 --> 00:36:57.199 I don't come to church because I'm the pastor. 00:36:57.519 --> 00:37:02.719 In fact, sometimes I don't want to come, and Janet says, you have to go because you're the pastor. 00:37:06.079 --> 00:37:08.639 I come to church because I need to be here. 00:37:09.599 --> 00:37:12.079 And I come to church because I need you. 00:37:12.960 --> 00:37:22.719 And I come to church because I love people that need Jesus, and I come to church because my son and my daughter need to know that it I meant it when I said it. 00:37:24.239 --> 00:37:33.920 And I have a grandchild on the way, and I need them to know that granddad is not a preacher, he's a follower of Jesus Christ. 00:37:39.119 --> 00:37:45.440 Listen, this 50% business is not getting it. 00:37:46.880 --> 00:37:48.639 Go read the stats. 00:37:49.360 --> 00:37:53.039 Not really concerned about what somebody's opinion is. 00:37:53.599 --> 00:38:18.079 I've been doing this for a long time now, and I've been pastoring through multiple generations, and I'm telling you, if you're a 50% attender and you write a$20 check somewhere, and it's more important baseball, homework, the lake, snow skiing, razorback games, or whatever than Jesus, you have deeply hampered the spiritual future of your children. 00:38:18.400 --> 00:38:19.119 Period. 00:38:21.360 --> 00:38:23.280 That's just what happens. 00:38:23.760 --> 00:38:28.719 If you're not a warrior for Jesus, your parents don't know what one looks like. 00:38:29.039 --> 00:38:38.880 And the only hope they have to know what one looks like is to be in church, and you're not bringing them to church where the warriors are. 00:38:39.760 --> 00:38:41.599 And it's not about church. 00:38:41.760 --> 00:38:44.880 Listen, I'm not counting noses or whatever. 00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:46.239 It's not about it. 00:38:46.480 --> 00:38:48.480 We have three things to get through this life with. 00:38:48.559 --> 00:38:51.280 I tell this all the time, I probably don't say it enough. 00:38:51.440 --> 00:38:53.599 I should apologize for not saying it enough. 00:38:53.840 --> 00:38:55.760 You have three things to get through this life. 00:38:55.920 --> 00:39:00.880 You have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit when you're saved, you have the Word of God, and you have each other. 00:39:01.440 --> 00:39:05.519 And if you're not here, you've taken out a third of what you have. 00:39:06.159 --> 00:39:10.880 And if you've taken out a third of what you have, you're probably not reading Scripture outside of this. 00:39:11.199 --> 00:39:16.239 And so you're down to one, and now you've rendered the Holy Spirit's role to this. 00:39:17.599 --> 00:39:20.480 Hey, get it together. 00:39:20.800 --> 00:39:22.320 Why aren't you in church? 00:39:22.559 --> 00:39:24.159 Greg, I told you not to say that. 00:39:24.320 --> 00:39:26.320 Greg, when are you going to come back and have time? 00:39:26.480 --> 00:39:27.920 Greg, when are you going to get it right? 00:39:28.079 --> 00:39:29.679 Greg, when are you going to come back? 00:39:29.920 --> 00:39:38.320 And you have taken 80% of the spiritual power out of your life when you have walked out of the church. 00:39:38.480 --> 00:39:44.320 You're not having a quiet time, and you have limited the role of the Holy Spirit to trying to call you home. 00:39:45.280 --> 00:39:47.760 This is the worst part about being a pastor. 00:39:48.320 --> 00:40:09.440 You're reaching out into the community and you're trying to share Jesus and you're trying to lead people to Christ, and people are being saved, and you have carnal Christians who are not living for Jesus and they're playing with their faith and they're messing up stuff and they crash and burn and they come into the church when I've got lost people to go meet and they are tugging at me back here, going, Pastor, you've got to come fix our life. 00:40:09.519 --> 00:40:14.480 Well, if you'd have been in church and doing the word of God and listen to the Holy Spirit, you wouldn't have that problem. 00:40:14.719 --> 00:40:24.159 And I'm trying to reach out and I'm trying to reach to people who need Jesus and I'm getting tugged back into my office for counseling for people that have messed up their lives because they're not living for Jesus. 00:40:26.480 --> 00:40:28.400 Now I'm gonna start preaching. 00:40:30.800 --> 00:40:33.280 Now please don't misunderstand me. 00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:36.000 We are always here for you. 00:40:36.239 --> 00:40:37.679 You know that, right? 00:40:37.920 --> 00:40:42.000 Our staff loves you and we pray for you, and if you got a struggle, you come. 00:40:42.159 --> 00:40:43.599 That is why we are here. 00:40:43.760 --> 00:40:46.639 Please do not misunderstand that illustration. 00:40:48.480 --> 00:40:55.840 But the point is, we ought to have an army for Jesus. 00:40:56.480 --> 00:41:11.360 But the most important thing is our children and our teenagers need to see what an army looks like, get excited about it, and want to be in it. 00:41:14.960 --> 00:41:16.239 And we got to show. 00:41:17.679 --> 00:41:21.840 And all of that begins with the first truth. 00:41:22.719 --> 00:41:26.800 You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:41:27.440 --> 00:41:29.840 I don't know how to say any better than this. 00:41:33.760 --> 00:41:37.679 This is Jesus' body, which was broken for us on the cross. 00:41:39.199 --> 00:41:41.199 You want to know God's provision? 00:41:41.519 --> 00:41:46.239 He gave his only son to die on the cross to pay the price for our sins. 00:41:47.440 --> 00:41:49.519 That's how much he loves you. 00:41:51.280 --> 00:41:56.159 You want to know why you should keep his commandments? 00:41:56.880 --> 00:42:02.800 Because every promise in Scripture is sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ. 00:42:05.199 --> 00:42:07.360 How do we know that Jesus saves? 00:42:10.559 --> 00:42:28.320 Because the Bible says.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can. 00:42:28.480 --> 00:42:34.880 Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.