What Are You Handing To The Next Generation?

Families don’t drift into strength; they drift into chaos. We feel it in the constant noise, the changing cultural definitions, and the quiet fear that our homes are more fragile than we want to admit. So we sit with one grounding question: what is a family for, according to God’s Word?

We start with a direct command from Ephesians 6:4 that places real responsibility on fathers while calling every parent and grandparent to intentional discipleship. We talk through a simple but challenging pathway for raising children: moving from parent control to self-control and finally to Holy Spirit-led maturity. Along the way, we name what kids inevitably absorb at home: how to do relationships, what character looks like in real life, and which values actually run the household, not just the ones we claim.

Then we confront a modern discipleship crisis: the sheer volume of screen time compared to Bible teaching and everyday faith conversations. We ask what we’re teaching unintentionally about money, entertainment, honesty, work, church, and Jesus himself. We also widen the lens to hope, not shame: no family is perfect, but healing is real, and legacy can change, even for parents who feel they’ve missed years.

We close with a vision of the home as a place of joy and a launch pad for ministry, including a practical starting point: hospitality. Subscribe for more biblical teaching, share this with a friend who needs courage for their family, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway or the value you most want to pass on.

Transcript

Series Setup And Big Question

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Foundations of Truth. This is the podcast and radio program of Firm Foundations Ministries. Our mission is to help you build your life on the unshakable foundation of God's Word, rooted in Scripture, anchored in the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our teacher is Dr. Timothy Mann. In a world where the definition of family seems to shift with every passing year, where confusion often replaces clarity, and where homes can feel more fragile and secure, God has spoken to us. This is another message in our series, Home Security, God's Protection Plan for the Family. And we'll discover today what is not just relevant, but foundational. What is a family for? Here now with the messages, Dr. Timothy Mann.

Training Toward Spirit Control

Home Shapes Relationships

Character Is Caught By Watching

Values Passed Like A Baton

Stop Outsourcing Faith To Screens

Evaluate What You Model At Home

Support The Ministry Message

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Ephesians chapter 6, verse 4. The Bible says, Fathers, don't exasperate your children. Instead, bring them up in the training and the instruction of the Lord. Training and nurture and admonition are other words that's used in the old King James Bible. You know what's interesting as I read the Bible? Who is the majority of parenting instruction targeted toward in the Bible? Who is the majority of parenting instruction targeted toward in the Bible? That may not be a good way to say that, but you can understand what I'm saying. It's targeted toward fathers, not mamas. Now I wonder why that is. Well, again, it goes back to responsibility, it goes back to accountability. But I also think it's because women just have an innate nature to parent and to nurture. You ever notice that? Women have that innate nature. They don't need as many commands. Us guys, well, we're just we're just lazy. We just don't want to do our job. We don't want to be the dads. We don't want to be the fathers. We don't want to be the husbands that God has called us to be. It's work, it's effort. And the Lord says, fathers, bring up your children in the training and the instruction of the Lord. That's what a family is to have: a father who will fulfill his responsibility to the Lord and who will fulfill his responsibility to his children. Someone said that the bottom line in training your child is knowing which end to pat and knowing when to pat it. Well, I'll tell you, my daddy didn't have any problem figuring that out. He knew which end to pat. When you're training your children, you want to take them through three stages. You want to take them from parent control to self-control to God control, Holy Spirit control. That's the stages. Parent control, self-control, Holy Spirit control. God intends for our families to be learning centers for life. Jesus grew. He grew four ways. Luke chapter 2, verse 52 says that Jesus grew in wisdom, that is intellectual growth. He grew in stature, that is physical growth. He grew in favor with God, that is spiritual growth, and he grew in favor with man, that's social growth. And that ought to be the goal for your family. That they would grow in those four ways: intellectually, spiritually, socially, and physically. And you're going to learn a lot. You're going to learn a lot of things in your family. I promise you, there are some things that you will not leave home without. There are three things that you at least have already sent your kids out into the world with. If your kids are gone, an adult. And here's what they are. Number one, you taught them about relationships. You taught them about relationships. You learned, as an individual yourself, you learned how to relate in your home. Good, bad, right or wrong, effective or ineffective. You learned how to do that. And your happiness, your happiness depends on your ability to relate to other people. And you know where you got it? You got it at home. That's why it's so important to learn good relationships at home. Relationships, I believe, are usually worth saving. And so we need to work on them. We talk out our problems. We ask for forgiveness quickly. We need to model that as parents. You need to model that as grandparents. You are helping your kids, you are helping your grandkids determine how they're going to relate to others for the rest of their life. The second thing you're not going to leave home without is character. Much of what you picked up, you basically picked that up from your parents. Like father, like son. Character is caught, not taught. You don't tell your kids, always be honest, and then when the phone rings, you say, tell them I'm not home. Some of you did that this week, didn't you? You don't do that. Why? Because they watch your actions, not what you say. They watch your actions. Third thing you're not going to leave home without is this. You're going to give them values. Values. Home is where we learn all about these important things in life. Money, time, play, work, other people, God, sexual relationships, all of those things we learn what is really important to us at home are values. And values come through loud and clear, either intentionally or unintentionally. The Bible says in Isaiah 38, 19, one generation makes known your faithfulness to the next. One generation makes known your faithfulness to the next. To the next generation. Your family is a relay of values. That's what it is. It's like a relay race. You're passing the baton onto your children. And they pass that baton then on to the next generation. And so on and so on to the families that come after you. Now that's serious when you think about it. That's very serious. What am I saying? I'm saying that you not only influence your kids, but you're also influencing future generations. You are. You have been influenced not only by your parents, but by the influence their parents had on them and the influence their parents had on them, and so on. And so as I raised my kids, I was, it wasn't just my kids that was going to make it, but I was influencing future generations on my family. You do the same. We pass it on. We pass it on. So I want to ask you. In particular, those of you who have who still have kids at home, what are you passing on to your kids? What are you passing on? I'll tell you what, one of the things that I hear, have you ever heard this? I hear this sometimes as a pastor. Well, I'm not going to impose my spiritual values on my kids. I'm just going to let them decide for themselves. You ever heard that, Pastor Josh? I have a Greek word for that. Baloney. Baloney. Listen, this the I don't want to force religion down their throat. I'm not even going to make them go to church. That's ridiculous. You are abandoning your responsibility. I'll tell you, one of the most upset times I'd ever been in my life was when I was in elementary school. And I'll tell you, we were at church Sunday morning, we were at church Sunday night. We were at church Wednesday night. We went every time the church doors were open. We went to revival meetings. We didn't miss. I mean, we didn't miss. My daddy was a deacon, and I was church long before I was ever saved. You understand what I'm saying? I was churched long before I was ever saved. I grew up at Harmony Grove Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina, out at the beginning of Willis Cove Road. Anyone know where that is? I didn't think so. And on Sunday night on CBS, remember back in the old days we had three channels. And on CBS, broadcast out of Spartanburg, South Carolina, the Wizard of Oz was coming on on that Sunday night, and I wanted to stay home and watch that movie. I mean, I wanted to see Dorothy and the Tin Man, right? And I mean, I I threw a fit. I thought, I'm going to raise such a fuss, they're going to have to give in, and they're going to make me stay at home. Because I'm going to raise such a fuss. And I'm going to tell you what, my daddy fired up my behind, and he marched me into that brown Chevy and Palace Station wagon, and I spent Sunday night at Harmony Grove Baptist Church. I did not see The Wizard of Oz. And I think I have yet to this day to see the entirety of that movie. So this, well, I'm not going to impose my spiritual values on my kids. I'm just going to let them. Listen, you know the foolishness of that is that it implies that Jesus is an option. And he's not. He's not an option. If you're not teaching your family about Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, you're making a major mistake that's going to have eternal implications. Oh, teach them about Jesus. You're teaching them values. The Bible says that's your job as a parent. It's not just a matter of letting them decide with no leadership from you. Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 6 and 7 say these commandments impress on your children. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Why don't we do this anymore? Why don't we do this anymore? I think one of the reasons is this. It's because we don't walk along the road. We don't lie down together. We don't get up together. What do we do? Well, we watch TV. Or we're on the internet. Or we're playing video games. You know, the average child watches a screen 2,500 hours a year. The average child watches a screen 2,500 hours a year. So that means if you're an average American, by the time you've reached 18 years old, you've amassed 45,000 hours of screen viewing. If you live to be 65 years old, as an average American, you will amass 18 and a half years of screen time. Solid. 18 and a half years of your life. On the other hand, if you drag your kids to Sunday school and they go to church once a week, so Sunday school and church once a week, and they go for 65 years, they will amass eight months of Bible teaching. So you've got 18 and a half years of your life watching a screen, or eight months of Bible teaching. Where are kids getting their values? Are they getting it from television and the media or the internet? Or you and God's word. It's very important that we realize our kids are picking these things up from us. Well, what should be my response to this? This is the application. Well, I need to evaluate my values. I need to ask myself a couple of questions. Number one, what am I, here's the question. What am I unintentionally teaching my kids? What am I unintentionally teaching my kids? What am I teaching them about money? What am I teaching them about things related to the kind of entertainment we partake in? What am I teaching them about character and honesty? All the issues of life, hard work and its values. What am I teaching them about the importance of Jesus and his church? What am I unintentionally saying? And I think the follow-up question to that is this. Is this really what I want to teach them? That's the question. Is this really what I want to teach them? Does it match? What do I want them to know? What do I want them to leave home with? What about my grandkids? Maybe I've already missed it with my kids already. I've got a chance with my grandkids to make at least some difference in their life. What heritage do I want to leave them? What am I doing? Now, this does not absolutely guarantee that your children will follow what you taught them when they lead adult lives. Salvation is an individual reality. And after they leave your authority, they can reject God and all that you've taught them. However, the principle and the hope is that the good things you have taught them will have a lasting impact, even when they are old.

Make Home A Place To Play

SPEAKER_00 13:27

If today's message is helping you see God's design more clearly, would you consider supporting this ministry? Foundations of Truth is listener supported. And your gift helps bring biblical truth into homes just like yours. You can give a gift now at firm-foundations.org. And thank you. Now back to more of the message. What is a family for? On Foundations of Truth, here's Dr. Timothy Mann.

Family As A Ministry Launch Pad

Hospitality And Dedicating Your Home

Church As Family And Final Appeal

Prayer And Closing Ways To Listen

SPEAKER_01 13:52

What's a family for? Well, it's also, number three, I have to touch base on this one. A family is a place to play. It's a place to have fun. It's a place where, you know, you can you can get down and party, where you can have a good time, where you can kick back and relax and enjoy yourself. I think that's what we're missing in a lot of homes. A lot of homes might get this second point about a learning center, and the dad thinks that the learning center is a boot camp and he's the drill sergeant. You know, he's kind of like that guy on the sound of music before Julie Andrews got a hold of him. Remember that? He'd blow a whistle and all the kids would march out and line up. They'd march in and march out. Hannah, you know what I'm talking about. Ecclesiastes chapter 9, verse uh chapter 9, verse 9 says this. And I think it's the principle for the family. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love. Proverbs 5.19 says, Be happy with your wife and find your joy with the girl you married. You know what one of the basic problems in homes are? They need to lighten up. They just need to lighten up. And it starts with the parents. Get over yourself. Enjoy life. Laugh. Kids are just inherently funny. Make fun of your children. Have a good time with that. I don't mean in a way that hurts their self-esteem. Make fun of yourself. Have a good time as a family. There's nothing more humorous than what goes on in a family. You can't get the kind of humor that you get in your home anywhere else. That's just right. So I want to ask you this morning: do you have fun with your kids? Do you enjoy your family? Maybe you messed that up already. Well, it's not too late to get some fun now. Your adult kids would probably enjoy that. Your grandkids would enjoy that. It'd be a blessing to them. And maybe you'd build a relationship back. But you definitely need to have fun with your grandkids. It's a place to play. What else is a family for? Here's the final one, and it may be the most important one. God meant for the family to be a launch pad for ministry. A launching pad for ministry. Now you might have never thought about that as it relates to your family, as a family being a ministry team together. But it will unify your family and it will bring joy if you do some projects together to serve the Lord together. You and your husband. Your husband and your wife, if he or she is saved. If you have children in the home, form a ministry team. 1 Corinthians 16, 15 says this about Stephanus. It says, Stephanus and his family were the first to become Christians in Greece, and they're spending their lives helping and serving Christians everywhere. What a great goal to have a ministry team, to see your family as a launch pad for the kingdom of God. Well, how do you do that? Well, you do it by helping and serving believers. You do that by helping and serving unbelievers as a witness. You get involved, actually, in the ministry of your local church. Listen, I think the ultimate basis for joy and harmony in family is in this verse out of Acts chapter 16 about the Philippian jailer. It says his whole family was filled with joy because they'd come to believe in Christ. They'd all been saved. The whole family. And that's the bottom line. When your whole family knows the Lord Jesus, loves the Lord Jesus, serves the Lord Jesus, it's a unifying factor. What a blessing. Joy comes when a family believes in Christ. So how do you turn your family into a ministry team? How do you do that? Well, let me suggest one simple way. There are many, as creative as you can get. But let me suggest one simple way. And the one way is this hospitality. Hospitality. A simple family project is hospitality. By the way, the Bible actually says it's your Christian duty. Romans 12, 13 says, when God's people are in need, help them out. Get into the habit of inviting guests home for dinner. That's interesting. That's the living Bible, by the way. Or if they need lodging for the night, the Word of God says that too. That used to be so common in church, doesn't it? Used to be so common. People invited people over. They were always going to other people's homes for dinner. Everybody sat on porches. Hospitality, I believe, is becoming a lost art in our world. It's a lost art, but it doesn't change the command of God's word. I grew up in a home where this was modeled from the time I can remember. My dad had a gift of giving, and we always grew a huge garden. It was at least an acre. It was so big. I hated that garden because he made me work in it. I mean, I hated it with a passion. From the time I was about five years old until I was 16 years old, he said, All right, then now you can quit working in the garden. You can go work a public job now that you're 16. And I went and worked a public job. I was so happy to get out of that garden and help pay for my vehicle and some various things. But he didn't make a lot of money, but we certainly had a lot of people in our home a lot of the time. One of the greatest influences of my life growing up was the fellow church members that my parents brought into our home after church on Sunday night or Wednesday night, and I watched them. I wasn't just influenced by what I saw at school or what I saw on television, but as I but I was influenced by my mom and my dad and by other church members that they brought into my life through hospitality, and hopefully it paid off. So, what should be your response in making your home a ministry launching pad? Well, I would say the starting point is to dedicate your home to God. Dedicate your home to the Lord Jesus Christ. You've dedicated your life to the Lord Jesus Christ if you're a believer, but I challenge you to dedicate your home to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's God's ideal. And friends, we've just really scratched the surface this morning. God has a plan. And there are no perfect families. Why? Well, because there are no perfect people. It's a lot like church, right? If you find a perfect church, don't join it because it won't be perfect anymore. And by the way, let me just throw this in here. If you left a church somewhere mad, angry, and upset, you just stay here long enough, and you're going to be mad here too. Because there are no perfect churches. We have our expectations. Disappointed. People let us down. And what you need to do, listen, what you need to do is not be glad in a church. You need to get glad in Jesus and let him be the joy and love of your life and let that flow over then into your family and into your church. And everything, everything that God said to do in the natural biological family, we're to do as a church. Did you know that? The church is to be a shelter for storms. The church is to be a learning center for life. The church is to be a place where you can have fun and fellowship. And the church is to be a launch pad for ministry. And I want to encourage you today. If you don't have a natural family, earthly family in proximity to where you live, make this your family. Join the family. You say, how do you do that? Well, we need to have a common father, the Lord God, Yahweh God, Almighty God, our Father in heaven, who sent his son, our spiritual brother, yet our Lord, sent his son, Jesus, to take upon our sin and do away with the enmity that was between us and God the Father to remove that barrier of sin. And it's a wonderful thing that happens when we trust Christ. We're born, we're born into his family. Spiritually and he also adopts us into his family all at the same time. He covers every area possible to get us into the family when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Do you know him today? Is he the Lord of your home? Sir, is he in control of your life? Ma'am, is he Almighty God? Is he Almighty God to you? And are you living for him? Are you devoted to him? Husband and wife. Mom and dad. Grandma and grandpa, are you applying the principles of this book so that your family can be what God meant for it to be? Maybe you're in a place today where you feel like the walls are caving in, closing in, the bottom's falling out in your family. I want to tell you, you can come back to Jesus and you can say, Lord, forgive me for all the mistakes I've made. I want to start afresh. I want to start anew, and I want to begin to apply the truths of your word to your family, to my family, and I'm going to obey you. By God's help and by God's grace, by your grace and help, I'm going to obey you. And I'm asking you to bring help and healing into my situation. That can happen. I know it can happen. Maybe you have a rebellious child. Maybe there are things this morning that only you know about, no one else knows about, but you know about that's going on in your life. I want you to know there's one, there's one who already knows. And he waits to help. Do you have Jesus in your life today? Do you need him as your Lord and Savior? That's the beginning point to understand what a family's for. As we apply God's word, he'll protect our homes. He'll protect our families. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, we come this morning and we give you thanks for your word. We understand today what a family is. We have a better understanding of what a family's for. Forgive us, Lord, of all the mistakes we've made, all the ways we've messed up and sinned against you. God, in my own life, as a husband and as a dad, many ways I have failed. But Lord, I know that there is hope and help found in Christ, found in your word by the power of the Holy Spirit. And you can change us, you can transform our situation. If we will seek you and follow you, completely give ourselves over to you in obedience. You can bless us and change the situation. Would you help us? God, may we not give up on the family. Help us to not give up on our family. May we honor you in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

You've been listening to Foundations of Truth with Dr. Timothy Mann. To support this ministry or hear this message again, go to firm-foundations.org. You can also download this message for free as a podcast wherever you get your podcasts. And if you'd like, share it with a friend. You never know who might need to hear this message. You can also listen to us weekdays at 10 a.m. in the Orlando, Florida area on AM 990 101.5 FM, The Word Orlando. And thank you for listening to Foundations of Truth. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of God stands forever.