Thank you once again for listening to the Cultivating Growth podcast. This month we've been spending some time and dealing with you know, some topics surrounding the family, specific relationships and roles. We've talked about the first two weeks, the marriage relationship, the husband and wife, the husband one week, the wife the next.

And that marriage relationship, it is the foundational relationship. Within the family. But it is the only relationship in the family. There also is the parent child relationship. And this week, we're gonna spend a little bit of time, you know, specifically, as we have, talking about roles that are given to us in Scripture, specifically to parents, and then roles specifically to children.

And we'll talk about those things and that relationship as it respects to the family. So I'm looking forward to this conversation, so let's get to it. 

Well, Jeremy, over the past couple of weeks, we've spent the majority of our time in Ephesians chapter five, and we'll probably spend the majority of our time today kind of in that passage leading into chapter six, where the conversation really continues in regards to the family and the different relationships within that family.

And Paul's going to turn his attention to children and the relationship between the parents and the child at the beginning of Ephesians chapter six. And one of the things that we've pointed out, I think both of the last two weeks, that is important to continue to point out as our study progresses. Is that the instructions that Paul gives to both the husband and the wife, and then to the children in chapter six are not super complicated.

Now we we've made the point, and it's an important one that the application of these things can be difficult. And I never want to diminish the challenge in any way of fulfilling the responsibilities that we're given. But with that said, there is a simplicity to this that I think is important to recognize.

The husband's Love your wives. Be a leader in your home. Wives, be submissive to your husbands. Respect them. Children, obey your parents. Right? These things are not complicated and it would do us good not to overcomplicate what God has simplified. And so I think it is worth just kind of acknowledging the simplicity of these instructions.

There's a question about that. I mean, even in chapter six and verse four, you know, that kind of even carries on to the parents, you know, fathers, you know, don't do this thing. But do this thing and he really basically gives one, you know one thing Yeah, you know one other thing before we kind of get into those roles themselves.

I also found interesting We've talked about it in both weeks prior with the husbands and the wife You know in chapter 6 of the book of Ephesians when you have that very simple  Kind of proclamation in verse one, children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. But then in, in verse two, he points way back into the future again, or in the past, excuse me.

Just like he has done when it comes to husbands and wives. He made the point in Ephesians chapter five that this marriage relationship God put in place. And the roles and the, the  The seriousness of that relationship he put in place from the very beginning long time ago, and he's going to make that point again in Ephesians chapter six and verse one.

Children obeying their parents isn't something brand new. Yeah, that this important piece within the family has always been in place, and God has always called upon the children to do so. Yeah, I mean, that's, that's the reality of it. You can go all the way back to the Old Testament, and you can see the importance of that.

As you mentioned, he's making that point as he did With the husband and wife relationship pointing back to the very beginning to make the point that these responsibilities that you have to one another within your family, they haven't changed. This is the way God created and designed it to be. And that should encourage us as we look at 2025 America or wherever you're listening to this, and we see how the world.

Complicates the family dynamic and frustrates the family dynamics so greatly. We should be reminded of the fact that God's plan for the family has not changed. Now, the world's view of the family continues to change and will continue to change and will continue to complicate what God has made simple, but God's plan and view for the family hasn't from the very beginning.

He set it up this way and it has continued to be that way ever since. And so when it comes to the husband wife relationship, they are to be one, they are to be unified and they each have responsibility to one another. As we've talked about over the past couple of weeks, children, you have responsibility to obey your parents.

That has always been the case. And that will always be the case. Parents don't do anything intentionally to frustrate your children and to, to make them mad. You know, the, these very simple instructions. God has given to us from the very beginning and they continue to, to be practical and useful in our lives today.

I was in Proverbs chapter 22, where a very simple verse, verse number six, train up a child in the way he should go. And when he's old, he will not depart from it. These truths are not overly complex.  But we need to appreciate the simplicity of them and recognize that this is the way God has designed it to work from the very beginning.

Yeah, I mean, it is, it should give us a pause to say, this is God helping us, right? It's not that he can't complicate things, but it is him helping us. helping us. And so we've got to be able to look at it, you know, like that when he says to the Children, Listen, your role, your place is to follow the leadership of the parents. 

And then another verse later, as a parent, this is what you are leading in. This is what your leadership looks like. And so again, God, he lays it down. And so for the Children, for the family. If you are trying to run a family that are allowing the children to be in charge, that is against the way and direction that God has said that the family is to go.

The parents are in charge, the children follow, and they Obey. And when it comes to the parents, you have verse four specifically, you fathers, don't provoke your children to wrath. You made mention of that, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. This is the job of the parents now in our culture. 

As parents, we think we've got all kinds of different important jobs. Well, we've got one important job. Now, we've got other things that can happen. And we've got other desires and wants and goals, you know, that may be okay for our children. But as a parent, I have one job. that God has given me. And if I fail in that one job, no matter what other aspect of life that my child succeeds  in, if I have failed in the one area that God says is my role, then in God's eyes, I have been a failure as a parent.

Yeah. And that is something that can't be overstated when it comes to the seriousness of that. And I think you made another really important point in what you were saying there  The relationship between the husband and wife, that is to be the most important relationship within a household. The most important.

You made the point last week when, when God created Adam and he gave him Eve. He didn't create for them mothers and fathers and children. He created husband and wife, and they are to be one. And there is to be a unity that cannot be broken in that bond. Now, I love my children more than life itself. Right.

But my relationship with my wife must come first because if that relationship is what God wants it to be, then and only then will the relationship between me and my children be what God wants it to be. And so we have to make sure, and I, you know, you made the point, I mean, we see households all the time where the children run the household.

Where they are the centerpiece, where they are the most important thing within a household. And I get that, I understand that. I love my children to death. But, but, I have to remember the way that God structured the family. And I have to focus on my relationship with my wife, number one,  my children, number two.

And then they have to make sure I have to train them the way that God wants me to train them, and I have to demand from them obedience. Mm-hmm . That is something that as a child, as a child, they have to be trained in, but that's the responsibility that these god's given to us as parents. Yeah. And we've made them, we've made the point over the last couple of weeks when you read passages like this in Ephesians chapter five, in the beginning of Ephesians chapter six, this is the perfect.

design for the family that God has laid out. When you step outside of this design, there instantly is problems. So whether that's the husband not loving his wife, or whether that's the wife not being submissive to her husband, whether that is the children not obeying their parents, or whether that is the parents.

Not leading them or teaching them, you know, things of the Lord. If any of those are stepping outside of those roles, there are issues within the family. But this is the perfect design. And so it has to be where we are headed. And I think, you know, when we talk about, you know, the responsibility of parents, it's heavy.

I mean, it is a tremendous amount of work. I have, my children are older than your children. I have. Even adult children, even all of my children are, you know, out of the house now, and I have one married, one about to be married. But, it, it, I look back upon, you know, all of my time as a parent, including the time that we have still.

It's an incredible amount of work. And it, and to your point, it can be easy to say, well that now becomes the defining relationship within the family. And you lose sight that it isn't. It is that husband and wife relationship. But at the same time. with those Children, there is still a responsibility that God has placed upon me.

It is a simple one. It's one thing that I've got to be thinking about. And so I've got to make sure as a parent, I'm not missing that. Peace. I may hit other things, but I've got to make sure I hit that peace and we can make that same point You know as a husband if I provided physically that's my responsibility to do But if I have provided physically for the family Millions and millions and millions of dollars, but yet I did not love my wife as Christ loved the church I have failed as a husband  And so we've got to be thinking about it in those terms throughout all of the relationships within the family.

I love what Deuteronomy 6 has to say about this as it paints this picture of the work that a parent must put into training their child. In Deuteronomy six and verse six, he talks about teaching your children diligently, talking to them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand.

And they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You'll write them on the doorposts of your house and your gate,  emphasizing the work that must go in to training your children. It is. Not just daily, but it is minute by minute, hour by hour, every single day. Right. The responsibility of training and teaching your children, it is a monumental task.

And so we can see when we consider the work before us, as you said, we can see how that could dominate our family and our home, the responsibility that we have. And it is incredibly important. We just have to make sure that we're able to balance these according to the way God has defined the family. And we have a huge responsibility to train them in the ways that's being talked about there in Deuteronomy chapter six, while not neglecting the relationship of the husband and the wife.

And we've got to be able to, again, we are 2025 in the United States of America and our culture is filled up with distractions. And so we've got to be able as a parent. To be able to balance those life distractions that you know, our kids have to deal with on a day to day basis that we have to deal with as a parent on a day to day basis, and we have not lost sight of the one responsibility that God has given to us.

Absolutely. Well, let's finish up today in Psalm 127. Passage that, that talks about just the great blessing that children are. And we've talked a lot today about the work that goes into that relationship and anyone who is a parent knows how challenging that can be, but we never want to lose sight of the great blessing that children are.

And Psalm 127 calls our attention to that. And we'll finish in Psalm 127, beginning in verse number three, behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has a quiver full of them.

They shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate.  Thank you for listening this week. If you haven't already done so, we'd appreciate it if you would take just a second to subscribe to the podcast, whatever platform you're listening. Rate and review the show so we can continue to spread the good news of Jesus as widely and effectively as possible.

Thanks again for joining us this week and we'll talk again next week.