SPEAKER_02: Well, good morning, Grace Church.
SPEAKER_02: My name is David.
SPEAKER_02: I'm one of the pastors here.
SPEAKER_02: This is my wife, Rochelle.
SPEAKER_02: We have the privilege today of just sharing God's word with you as we continue in our message through the book of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_02: And before going any further, I want to remind you of something that you already know.
SPEAKER_02: And that's that you're being led by an amazing couple, pair of leaders, in Pastor Dan and Amy.
SPEAKER_02: Their transparency in leadership, their steadfast faith, their heart after God is worthy of the calling he has placed on their lives, and I'm grateful to be part of this team.
SPEAKER_02: It's been just a joy and an honor, and I know you appreciate them as well.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say again, happy Mother's Day, to all the moms in the room.
SPEAKER_02: We honor you.
SPEAKER_02: We are grateful for you the way you so selflessly give of yourselves to your children.
SPEAKER_02: There are moments I'm sure you feel more like a chauffeur or an alarm clock or more accurately, perhaps an ATM machine.
SPEAKER_02: But most of all, you're a source of strength and care and compassion to those whom God has entrusted to your care.
SPEAKER_02: And we just want you to know that you're loved today.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if you've been here for the last few weeks, uh, you know, we've been talking through the book of Proverbs, talking about wisdom, and we have established that wisdom is knowing the difference between what is right and what is wrong, and then choosing to do what is right.
SPEAKER_02: And if we're ever unclear, God's way is always the right way.
SPEAKER_02: And so today, on Mother's Day, it feels so appropriate that we're speaking about parenting from Proverbs today.
SPEAKER_02: Because if we're honest, parenting is often one of those places that feels like the gap is the largest between what we know is right and what we maybe actually do.
SPEAKER_02: And our hope today is that you're able to take away something practical for your journey, maybe some inspiration for some of the hard days, and most of all to see that you're not alone on the journey.
SPEAKER_02: That you're not alone in the failures, you're not alone thinking you've blown it too many times.
SPEAKER_02: And now for those in the room who might think to themselves, okay, our kids are grown, so we're off the hook.
SPEAKER_02: Sorry, not true.
SPEAKER_02: Or for those that think, I don't have any kids, or maybe you don't have any kids yet.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe I am a kid.
SPEAKER_02: This won't apply to me.
SPEAKER_02: That's not true either.
SPEAKER_02: Don't check out too soon.
SPEAKER_02: We'll get to you later.
SPEAKER_02: But before we dive into Proverbs, Rochelle's gonna tell you just a little bit more about us.
unknown: Good morning.
unknown: So excited to do today.
SPEAKER_00: So David and I didn't Bible college, and we are gonna celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary in June.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Woo! So that's us uh before we got married when we were in Bible college.
SPEAKER_00: And don't you guys like David's haircut there?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Pretty cute, and I got those bangs that are just happening.
SPEAKER_00: So we've had the privilege of raising three kids, Micah, Josiah, and Sayla.
SPEAKER_00: And somehow they still like us.
SPEAKER_00: Pretty great.
SPEAKER_00: They are grown up now.
SPEAKER_00: They are 27, 25, and 21.
SPEAKER_00: So this is uh oh, that was well, we'll just keep going.
SPEAKER_00: This was us um at our son's wedding in 2021.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I have one daughter-in-law, her name's McKenna.
SPEAKER_00: We love her so much, she's so great.
SPEAKER_00: And then the next picture is just this past Christmas, all of us in Oregon, and we have some added people.
SPEAKER_00: We have now some boyfriends and girlfriends, and life just keeps going on.
SPEAKER_00: So we have moved from hands-on parents to just prayer and texting parents, right?
SPEAKER_00: Things change.
SPEAKER_00: So, for every parent, you know, you go through different stages of parenting, and parenting doesn't ever really stop, it just changes.
SPEAKER_00: And so, we are in a different season of parenting than when we were just having toddlers all around and busy, busy, those are the busy days.
SPEAKER_00: And now parenting is still hard, even though they're grown up, it's just different.
SPEAKER_00: So perhaps your journey started a little bit like ours.
SPEAKER_00: I will never forget the day that I found out I was pregnant the first time.
SPEAKER_00: I was at work.
SPEAKER_00: I know, funny place to find out you're pregnant, but I did.
SPEAKER_00: And I immediately knew I had to go tell David.
SPEAKER_00: He worked across town, he was a fourth grade teacher at a Christian school, and so I got in my car, I drive over there, and I tiptoed into his classroom.
SPEAKER_00: He had a class, they were all working, he was in the corner at his desk, and I just leaned down and I showed him this positive test.
SPEAKER_00: And we were super excited.
SPEAKER_00: And nine months later, we walked out of the hospital with our little baby boy Micah.
SPEAKER_00: Now, think about that for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: How crazy is it?
SPEAKER_00: And should it even be legal, that they are just gonna give another human, a human, and say, take it home, and the main thing is keep it alive, right?
SPEAKER_00: They just send you home with no instruction manual, and that is pretty crazy.
SPEAKER_00: We had no experience having a baby, and here we were, keep this thing alive.
SPEAKER_00: So the thing that is so cool is that there really is an instruction manual, and that's what we're gonna talk about today.
SPEAKER_00: God's word speaks so much to parenting, to motherhood, to fatherhood, to being a son and being a daughter, and that's where we turn for wisdom and direction.
SPEAKER_00: In Proverbs 22, 6, it says, Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old, he will not depart from it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: I'll read it again.
SPEAKER_02: Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
SPEAKER_02: He implied she also.
SPEAKER_02: This is the principle we see in God's word today, and we want to talk about what it means to train up a child in the way that they should go.
SPEAKER_02: How do we train up our kids?
SPEAKER_02: Is it even possible today?
SPEAKER_02: This was written thousands of years ago, but how does it apply in 2026?
SPEAKER_02: Well, let's just dive in and find out.
SPEAKER_02: See, long before Solomon penned that verse, train up a child, God already had told his people through Moses in Deuteronomy 6 how faith is best passed on to children from one generation to the next.
SPEAKER_02: He said that it didn't happen in a classroom, but it happened in everyday life.
SPEAKER_02: We find it in General 6, chapter, uh, chapter 6, verse 4, starting, it goes like this.
SPEAKER_02: It says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
SPEAKER_02: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.
SPEAKER_02: And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
SPEAKER_02: You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
SPEAKER_02: And this pattern of passing down God's word to your children, teaching them, talking about them on the road, in the house, around dinner, while you work, while you play, all the times, it became the vehicle for transmitting faith from one generation to the next.
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't just written down and said, here, right, you know, figure out what this papyrus thing means.
SPEAKER_02: It was, let me talk about it, let me show you, let's walk together, and I'm gonna pass this thing, these words from Yahweh or Jehovah down to my kiddos.
SPEAKER_02: And this became the tradition for the Israelites as they would pass the baton of faith from one generation to the next.
SPEAKER_02: And in the same way, the traditions that we build into our family rhythms will become and be a primary pathway for our children to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Traditions matter.
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: Uh a tradition is just something that I do on a regular basis with a certain group of people again and again.
SPEAKER_02: And when I do it again and again, it becomes tradition.
SPEAKER_02: And so when Proverbs 2228 says, when Solomon writes, do not move the ancient landmark that your fathers have set, he's talking about fence lines, property markers, and posts in the corners.
SPEAKER_02: Don't move those.
SPEAKER_02: But those pointed to something so much bigger than just the fence line.
SPEAKER_02: It was their inheritance, it was their heritage, it was their identity.
SPEAKER_02: And so, in other words, he's saying, be slow to remove the traditions that have been passed down to you.
SPEAKER_02: When those traditions are passed down to the next generation, they shape perspective, they influence worldviews, and they anchor us in hope.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this isn't about controlling behavior.
SPEAKER_02: It's not about if we do this, then our kids will have to.
SPEAKER_02: It isn't like that.
SPEAKER_02: See, behavior modification is not the goal.
SPEAKER_02: A transformed heart is the goal.
SPEAKER_02: And so when Proverbs 23 says, My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways, he's saying, Watch what I do, so you can catch my heart in the process.
SPEAKER_02: Like, watch these things that I do so you don't catch the pattern of doing the right things, but you catch the heart behind the things.
SPEAKER_02: Because that's the most important piece.
SPEAKER_02: Traditions matter because traditions communicate what you love, and what you love they will love.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_02: Traditions matter because traditions communicate what you love, and what you love, they will love.
SPEAKER_02: Traditions you build into the rhythms of your family will reinforce what you love, and what you love, they will love.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I love sports.
SPEAKER_02: I grew up playing sports, all the sports.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have a favorite NBA team or baseball team, but if you were to ask our family, what are our family's favorite sports team, you would simply hear the Oregon Ducks.
SPEAKER_02: The Oregon Ducks.
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
SPEAKER_02: I want to sing the fight song.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_02: Uh but it's the only team.
SPEAKER_02: Is there one of you in the room?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, he's on the boo.
SPEAKER_02: He's on Ohio State Boo.
SPEAKER_02: The only team that has ever impacted our schedule or our finances was the Ducks.
SPEAKER_02: There's the picture, and that's us in Austin Stadium, minus our daughter, but uh anyway, we love the ducks.
SPEAKER_02: Our kids love the ducks, and their spouses, well, they better.
SPEAKER_02: But loving the ducks became a family tradition.
SPEAKER_02: And there are more.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, can I share a few more whole family traditions with y'all?
SPEAKER_00: Is that okay?
SPEAKER_00: So there is something, I believe, as a mama, that is so powerful about eating together at the dinner table.
SPEAKER_00: And that was something that I just decided this is gonna be something that we do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna prioritize dinner time in the middle of super busy seasons when you have school activities, sports, school plays, church activities, we just made it work.
SPEAKER_00: We would always check in with our kids around the dinner table, we would sit.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it was something super quick, but we always made sure that we were gonna sit together as a family and check in over dinner.
SPEAKER_00: There were other things that we did as well for traditions.
SPEAKER_00: So where we raised our kids in Bend, Oregon, whenever we would go over the mountains, we would call it, we would go into the valley.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so we'd go over the Cascade Mountains, and there were bigger cities if we would go over the mountain that we could do all kinds of activities.
SPEAKER_00: And so there was the same little coffee shop called Sister's Coffee that we would stop at.
SPEAKER_00: So our kids knew if we were gonna go over the mountain, we were surely gonna stop and get some treat at Sister's Coffee, and that just became a tradition.
SPEAKER_00: At Christmas every year, and some of you may do the same thing as well, we would give our kids a Christmas ornament that symbolized something in their previous year.
SPEAKER_00: And then my one of my very favorite family traditions is that on Valentine's Day, we would always order the same heart-shaped pizzas from the same little cute pizza shop, and we would have heart-shaped pizzas.
SPEAKER_00: So our kids knew every Valentine's Day we're gonna have pizza for dinner, and they love that.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the sweetest things for me as a mom is that a couple of years ago we found out that our marriage we have one married son, his name's Josiah, but that he and his wife McKenna did all of these same traditions once they were married.
SPEAKER_00: And so they love the Oregon Ducks, they always stop at Sister's Coffee when they go over the mountain, they love Christmas, just like we do, we love Christmas, and they always do ornaments for each other, and they also order the same heart-shaped pizzas from the same little shop on Valentine's Day.
SPEAKER_00: And so traditions matter.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because, like David said, your kids are gonna love what you love.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna they're gonna love whatever you invest in and care about, they are gonna care about that.
SPEAKER_00: So the question that probably needs asked of all of us in the room today, what do I love?
SPEAKER_00: What do you love?
SPEAKER_00: It's proven by your calendar and your bank statement.
SPEAKER_00: What do you love?
SPEAKER_00: Because what you love, they will love.
SPEAKER_00: Charles Spurgeon said, train up a child in the way he should go, but be sure to go that way yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Our kids notice when we say things but don't do them, right?
SPEAKER_00: They notice how we live, they see it, they see all the little things.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone is gonna know something that you say but don't do, it's gonna be your kids.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna notice.
SPEAKER_00: So, can we make a few suggestions today of things that you can love, or maybe traditions that could happen in your life that I think will change a lot of a lot of the ways that we live.
SPEAKER_00: So the first one is love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Be okay being a little bold with your kids, the people in your life, about how much you love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Tell them that story in your own life.
SPEAKER_00: Don't keep it to yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Let that love for him affect what you talk about in your home, what you say in front of your kids.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure your kids hear about the goodness and the mercy and the love of God from you.
SPEAKER_02: That's good.
SPEAKER_02: Another one.
SPEAKER_02: Love God's word.
SPEAKER_02: Spend time in God's word with them on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_02: Don't force it, just let it come up.
SPEAKER_02: Don't feel like you have to know all the answers.
SPEAKER_02: It can speak for itself just fine.
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to have it all figured out.
SPEAKER_02: God does.
SPEAKER_02: Just keep it present in conversation.
SPEAKER_02: Let them see you reading God's word.
SPEAKER_02: Can I give you a practical thing that I started a couple years ago?
SPEAKER_02: See, for almost 25 years, I've been reading God's Word uh through the Bible every year from my own devotional life.
SPEAKER_02: And uh not 100%, but close.
SPEAKER_02: And I've I've used lots of different Bibles and Bible apps over the course of that.
SPEAKER_02: But in 2024, January, I started a new tradition with a new purpose.
SPEAKER_02: Now still going through the Bible in a year.
SPEAKER_02: I'm letting the Bible app read aloud.
SPEAKER_02: It's reading in the beginning, was you know, that whole thing.
SPEAKER_02: And I have this Bible opened with a pen.
SPEAKER_02: So I begin, I'm following along, taking the time to just jot down notes, underline pieces, highlight things, write stars, draw lines, write notes on the side as I go through the whole Bible in the year.
SPEAKER_02: And then the next January comes around and I go through it again.
SPEAKER_02: And now I'm on year number three, about halfway through.
SPEAKER_02: Now I don't mention that to look spiritual.
SPEAKER_02: That isn't the point.
SPEAKER_02: But after three years of marking up a Bible, it's getting filled with notes that point to the fingerprints of God in my life.
SPEAKER_02: And after three years, this is year three, I'm gonna set it aside and start another Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: We have three kids.
SPEAKER_02: So with that math, if the math maths, then six and a half years from now, I will have three Bibles that contain the markings that point to the fingerprints of God on my life.
SPEAKER_02: That will have the nudges from God's spirit, that will have the oh man, I missed it here, and all the different scribbles, and they'll all be different and all be unique, but yet it will have the conversations that God and I have had through his word.
SPEAKER_02: So guess what I'm buying this fall to start in January?
SPEAKER_02: A new Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Love God's Word.
SPEAKER_02: Love is church.
SPEAKER_02: You're all here.
SPEAKER_02: But show up.
SPEAKER_02: Show up.
SPEAKER_02: Speak well of the family of God.
SPEAKER_02: I know parents who mourn the fact that their kids aren't involved in church, and yet if you back up the story about 10 years or 15 years, uh they were the same parents who told their kids all that was wrong with the church and why this person blew it and that leader did that and all the stuff, and or they valued everything else on a Sunday and weren't there.
SPEAKER_02: Love the church.
SPEAKER_02: It matters.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if we train our children in the way that they should go, we're gonna understand that traditions matter because what we love, they will love.
SPEAKER_02: But as you're raising kids, there will definitely be moments when point number two, your trust will be tested.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_00: True story.
SPEAKER_00: So in 2016, our oldest son Micah was a senior in high school.
SPEAKER_00: We were trying to help with all his next steps, planning everything out, thinking about college options, his next steps, all of that.
SPEAKER_00: Micah is a great, great kid.
SPEAKER_00: He was a senior.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: I got I got out of line.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he was doing great in school, he was doing great in sports, but he was our first child to graduate.
SPEAKER_00: And it was causing a bit of unrest in our own lives.
SPEAKER_00: We were super nervous about what he would choose and what would be next.
SPEAKER_00: And so David and I, as his parents, we had really big opinions about his next step.
SPEAKER_00: And we were sure to let him know what those opinions were, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we were we were trying to give him advice and and worrying about what he would do next.
SPEAKER_00: And as we were doing that, I remember just feeling in our house just a bit of tension.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord stopped me straight in my tracks one day as I was praying about it and thinking about what Micah would do next.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said so clearly to me, and he reminds it of me often, he said to me, Rochelle, you need to drop the pen.
SPEAKER_00: I am the one who is writing Micah's story.
SPEAKER_00: I realized in that moment that I could try to do everything in my power to write Micah's story.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I had written a lot of good chapters for this kid, right?
SPEAKER_00: I had been with him through, yeah, I mean, since day one, and I had made sure as best I could that everything went so well for him.
SPEAKER_00: But I realized the best thing I could do in this moment as Micah was growing up was to allow God to have the control.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: To let God write this chapter for Micah.
SPEAKER_00: What I didn't realize was that I was trying so hard to fix things that God never even had the chance to because I was trying to do it all for my kid.
SPEAKER_00: God was very clear with me that there were chapters in Micah's story that he wanted to write, but I kept getting in the way.
SPEAKER_00: And I had to drop the pen.
SPEAKER_00: I had to drop it, and I had to let God write this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: The truth was, Micah needed to hear God for himself.
SPEAKER_00: And by me taking that pen and trying to orchestrate everything, I was getting in the way of my own son hearing God for himself.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm telling you, when I dropped that pen, the Lord really, really challenged me oftentimes since then to drop the pen in lots of areas in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe today for some of you, you're wondering if there's an area you need to drop that pen.
SPEAKER_00: What the Lord was asking me with Micah was, do you trust me?
SPEAKER_00: Do you trust that I know your son?
SPEAKER_00: Do you trust that I love your son?
SPEAKER_00: Do you trust that I have the best plan for Micah?
SPEAKER_00: And if the answer is yes, I knew I would drop that pen and I would let God write that story.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe the question that needs to be asked today for all of us in the room is, what am I holding on to?
SPEAKER_00: What am I trying to control?
SPEAKER_00: Where do I need to drop the pen and let God take over?
SPEAKER_00: For some of us, your trust right now is being tested.
SPEAKER_00: Will you drop the pen?
SPEAKER_00: Will you let God write the story?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 that says, Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.
SPEAKER_00: In all of your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
SPEAKER_00: Could apply to your parenting.
SPEAKER_00: It could apply to other things in your life in this moment right now.
SPEAKER_00: Do we trust him?
SPEAKER_00: Do we trust him with your son, with your daughter, with their choices, their missteps, their mistakes, even in their mistakes, do you trust that the Lord is writing a chapter?
SPEAKER_00: Do you trust him?
SPEAKER_00: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.
SPEAKER_00: There will come a day, if it hasn't already, if you haven't already been to this spot already, I promise you, there will come a day where your trust will be tested, and you're gonna be faced with the question, do you trust me?
SPEAKER_00: From the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna ask you, Do you trust me, will you drop the pen?
SPEAKER_00: The answer is always yes, right?
SPEAKER_00: If we trust him.
SPEAKER_00: So when our son Josiah was in kindergarten, I will never forget, there was a day I was dropping him off at school, and our my normal routine was I would park the car, I would get out, he'd get his backpack, and I'd walk him into class.
SPEAKER_00: It was it was super sweet.
SPEAKER_00: We did it every day.
SPEAKER_00: So there was one day where Josiah was just a little bit ahead of me, and he jumped up, jumped out of the car, grabbed his backpack, and I'm not kidding you, he took a few steps, he looked back at me in the car, and he put up his hand, he put up his hand and he said, Hey mom, I can take it from here.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was so interesting.
SPEAKER_00: It was so sweet and so cute and so heartbreaking.
SPEAKER_00: Like any moms of kindergartners in the room or four or five year olds, like when they start getting that little bit of independence, it's so, so bittersweet.
SPEAKER_00: But I remember the Lord so clearly speaking to me when that happened as a mom, the Lord saying to me, and Rochelle, I can take it from here too.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Like the Lord saying, I got this.
SPEAKER_00: All the stuff, all the stuff with parenting, all the stuff that's hard, he can take it from here.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is so good to us.
SPEAKER_00: I remember wrestling with that of do I trust the Lord to take it from here in my kids' lives from when they were kindergartners to when they were seniors in high school.
SPEAKER_00: There's that that wrestle.
SPEAKER_00: And then when they become adults, I think it gets worse, to be honest.
SPEAKER_00: You worry even more because you really can't do anything because you are really letting the Lord write those stories.
SPEAKER_00: So did David and I do it perfectly every time?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_00: We sure did not.
SPEAKER_00: We have a list of things that we would do differently.
SPEAKER_00: But I'll tell you what, when God asked us to move 3,000 miles away from our kids to the far off country of Pennsylvania, leaving our kids in Oregon, we were able to follow Jesus in obedience because we had already given him the pen.
SPEAKER_00: He knew the next chapter, and we could rest and trust in that, that he is writing a beautiful story, even with our kids far back in Oregon.
SPEAKER_00: People have said to me a lot of times, How did you leave your kids in Oregon?
SPEAKER_00: How did you do that?
SPEAKER_00: It's because I trust the Lord and I'm gonna obey the Lord first.
SPEAKER_00: He knows my kids' stories, he knows what needs to happen next, he knows what happens in our lives, and so I have chosen to give him the pen.
SPEAKER_00: And I trust him.
SPEAKER_02: That's good.
SPEAKER_02: So traditions matter.
SPEAKER_02: What we love, they will love.
SPEAKER_02: Your trust will be tested.
SPEAKER_02: You have to drop the pen.
SPEAKER_02: Brings us to point three.
SPEAKER_02: Tell your story.
SPEAKER_02: It says, Hear my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching.
SPEAKER_02: What is the instruction or teaching we're told to share as a dad or a mom?
SPEAKER_02: Now, those lessons could include changing oil, fixing the flat, putting gas in a tank, balancing a checkbook, all those kinds of things, a favorite meal, perhaps, how to cook that, whatever it might be.
SPEAKER_02: But they better also include things and conversations around the things of God.
SPEAKER_02: We have to include the things of God in your story.
SPEAKER_02: You have to tell your story why.
SPEAKER_02: Revelation 12, 11 says this, and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.
SPEAKER_02: It's their story.
SPEAKER_02: See, part of your children's success will be in hearing your stories about God's grace in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Tell them what God has done.
SPEAKER_02: Tell them how he's provided, how he's healed, how he's met you, how he's encouraged you, how he's buoyed you up, how he's given you peace.
SPEAKER_02: Tell them how he met you in the moments of despair and crisis.
SPEAKER_02: Include them in the moments when it gets real and you need God to show up today.
SPEAKER_02: Let him know.
SPEAKER_02: Now, sure, tell them about the home run.
SPEAKER_02: That's great.
SPEAKER_02: Tell them about the car race, about the crazy whatever that might have happened.
SPEAKER_02: Those are fun.
SPEAKER_02: But the stories that got me through my deepest faith struggles were the ones my parents told me about the miracle-working power of God.
SPEAKER_02: Tell them those stories.
SPEAKER_02: As a child, I remember when money was tight, and that wasn't uncommon as a pastor's kid, but God was always faithful.
SPEAKER_02: But it was tight.
SPEAKER_02: I remember one story where they couldn't afford a muffler for our old 81 Chevy citation.
SPEAKER_02: But my parents prayed and trusted God.
SPEAKER_02: And my mom was driving the car from one town to the next, and on the side of the road, she saw a piece of metal that resembled what could be a muffler.
SPEAKER_02: But she wasn't sure.
SPEAKER_02: So she pulled over.
SPEAKER_02: It's just sitting there on the side of the road.
SPEAKER_02: She looked forward, looked backwards.
SPEAKER_02: This must be like manna from heaven called muffler.
SPEAKER_02: And so she stopped, she put the muffler in the back of the car, and it was perfect.
SPEAKER_02: Don't tell me an angel didn't put that there for my family.
SPEAKER_02: I know the story.
SPEAKER_02: I heard the story.
SPEAKER_02: I watched the story.
SPEAKER_02: They told me the story, including me in the process.
SPEAKER_02: Tell the stories.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so good, so good.
SPEAKER_00: When I was growing up, up until I was about 11, my family, nobody went to church, nobody knew Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't serve Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And my mom had, when I was 11, just given her heart to Jesus, and she had this little, little tiny baby faith.
SPEAKER_00: And she, my dad was uh a semi-pro baseball player, and he ran his own business, and he tore his ACL and he was taken out of commission, couldn't do anything.
SPEAKER_00: And so my mom, being a brand new believer in Jesus, she just had heard at church that you could pray for somebody and they could be healed.
SPEAKER_00: And so she'll never forget it.
SPEAKER_00: She gathered my sister, my brother, and I into our living room and she said, We're gonna pray for dad that God's gonna heal his leg.
SPEAKER_00: And she had made a deal with him beforehand that we we didn't know about that if if his leg got healed, he was gonna go to church with us on Sunday the next day.
SPEAKER_00: This was Saturday night.
SPEAKER_00: And so she just had this little, little baby faith.
SPEAKER_00: And so we all gathered around and we we put our hands on my dad and we prayed for him.
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you what, my dad was instantly healed.
SPEAKER_00: His leg was healed.
SPEAKER_00: And he got up, he went to church the next morning, and he gave his heart to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And my mom invited us into her story.
SPEAKER_00: She she called us out from our bedrooms to come pray for my dad.
SPEAKER_00: And those are things that when you involve your kids in them, they will never ever forget.
SPEAKER_00: There are so many stories and countless times where we invited our kids in to pray for hurting people with us.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't hide the things that people were going through that God could deliver them from from our kids.
SPEAKER_00: We called our kids into those things to pray with us.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't send them to the bedroom while we played, while we prayed.
SPEAKER_00: We called them out from the bedroom.
SPEAKER_00: And our kids needed to know when people, including us, desperately needed Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They needed to know when we needed the power of Jesus to show up.
SPEAKER_00: And so we shared that with them time and time again.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we were making sure that they knew the story of God in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We shared that with them.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes until our kids have their own faith stories, they need to borrow faith from ours.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be bold with our kids, even and share those stories.
SPEAKER_02: So if your kids are grown or if you don't have any kids, you're not off the hook just quite yet.
SPEAKER_02: See, even those that may not have a house full of kids, this can still apply.
SPEAKER_02: I want to just draw a very simple parallel for us today.
SPEAKER_02: If you're a follower of Jesus and you become part of what we might call the family of God, as part of the family of God, there are familial principles that push the boundaries beyond our immediate family.
SPEAKER_02: Paul said to the church in Corinth, for though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers.
SPEAKER_02: For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: Paul wrote to Timothy and he addressed it to Timothy, my true child in the faith.
SPEAKER_02: And then Paul said in his letter to Titus, he says, Older women are to teach what is good and so train the younger women.
SPEAKER_02: And so today I want to just point us beyond our immediate families and encourage you to make room at your table.
SPEAKER_02: Make room at your table.
SPEAKER_02: They began to date shortly after the trip, became part of our youth leadership team, and then our college ministry team.
SPEAKER_02: We did their premarital counseling, and then we married them.
SPEAKER_02: And then we hired both of them.
SPEAKER_02: And he became Pastor Noah.
SPEAKER_02: And we were with them when their babies were born, answering late-night phone calls, and we were privileged to be a part of their lives and their ministry.
SPEAKER_02: They had a spot at our table.
SPEAKER_00: And a y another young couple that we love so dearly, Stephen Naomi, there was a night when they were going through a really difficult time, and David and I got a text from them saying, Can we talk?
SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you what, for us, no matter what time of day or night, if some young couple asks us to talk, the answer is always going to be yes.
SPEAKER_00: So they showed up at our front door, I kid you not, with a frozen Marie Calendar's pie at 10 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Not thinking about this thing takes 90 minutes just to bake.
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, we put that pie in the oven.
SPEAKER_00: We all sat down around our table, and we talked and prayed through tears with them that night.
SPEAKER_00: And we ate a lot of pie.
SPEAKER_00: So those couples and so many more, we could go on and on with stories of young kids who are not our kids that we sat with.
SPEAKER_00: And when we moved to Lidditz, God did not tell us that we were finished.
SPEAKER_00: There was still room at our table.
SPEAKER_00: There is still room at our table.
SPEAKER_00: We want to continue investing in the lives of young leaders.
SPEAKER_00: We were to continue what we'd always done.
SPEAKER_00: Keep loving on young people, keep loving on the people that God put in our lives, love the people that He brings through our door.
SPEAKER_00: So it isn't surprising to us that we're still sitting around our dining room table with lots of young people, lots of young leaders investing in them, hearing their story, loving them.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to ask you, do you have people that you could pour into?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe people at your workplace, maybe it's people that you're sitting next to right now, people that you meet out in the cafe.
SPEAKER_00: Are there people that you're investing in?
SPEAKER_00: God continues to remind David and I that we are not done loving on young people.
SPEAKER_02: Young leaders like Kendall, Callie, and Ben, Charlie, Katie, Justin, Becca, Natalie, this goes on.
SPEAKER_02: Some are on the stage today.
SPEAKER_02: People that God brings to our table.
SPEAKER_02: See, in the family of God, there are no free passes when it comes to investing in people because people matter most to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And so the question we wrap up with today is are you willing to make room at your table?
SPEAKER_02: Is there room for one more?
SPEAKER_02: It won't work up.
SPEAKER_02: We understand that traditions matter.
SPEAKER_02: Trust will be tested.
SPEAKER_02: Have to tell our story.
SPEAKER_02: You gotta make room at the table.
SPEAKER_02: So now what do we do?
SPEAKER_02: Are there traditions that need to begin so that those who follow can love what you love?
SPEAKER_02: Are there areas where you need to trust God and drop the pen?
SPEAKER_02: Are there individuals, families that need to hear your story?
SPEAKER_02: Or are there people who need an invite to your table?
SPEAKER_02: Will you stand with us today?
SPEAKER_02: You know when the band begins to play, it's the last minute of the time.
SPEAKER_02: It's the fourth quarter, we're almost done.
SPEAKER_02: The landing gears have come down.
SPEAKER_02: You brace yourself for the ending.
SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the day, this was never about raising kids.
SPEAKER_02: Just to be good members of society.
SPEAKER_02: That wasn't the point.
SPEAKER_02: It has, will be, forever has been, and always will be about passing the torch of faith to the next generation.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: It's not about who's in the four walls of your house.
SPEAKER_02: It's how far can the four walls of your house reach beyond the four walls of your house?
SPEAKER_02: How long will the legacy of your life, the ripples that have started down, how long will it continue beyond you?
SPEAKER_02: How long will the flames of fire for Jesus go past when your flame is out and you meet Jesus face to face?
SPEAKER_02: How long will that ripple effect last?
SPEAKER_02: So before we sing one final song, I want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_02: We want to just pray and believe that we're not done yet.
SPEAKER_02: Whether we have little kids, big kids, no kids, grown kids, or anywhere in between.
SPEAKER_02: So today, if your desire is to pass on your faith to the next generation, even younger or older, whether in your home or not, through traditions and stories and tables, if that's you, would you simply hold your hands out like this?
SPEAKER_02: So yeah, that this is me today.
SPEAKER_02: I want to pass the faith, the torch that God gave me.
SPEAKER_02: I want to pass it on to all those that would come around.
SPEAKER_02: Lots of hand, lots of hand.
SPEAKER_02: Let's just pray.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus, thank you.
SPEAKER_02: God, thank you that you're not done leading in us and through us.
SPEAKER_02: God, thank you that there are countless people that you want to bring into our lives.
SPEAKER_02: Now, God, I'm asking that today you would begin to plant a seed that would remind us and let us see the people that you bring into our path.
SPEAKER_02: You would let us to see the moments that you designed for us to step into.
SPEAKER_02: I pray for open doors.
SPEAKER_02: I pray for stories to be shared.
SPEAKER_02: I pray for tables to be shared.
SPEAKER_02: I pray for moments where the word is passed on.
SPEAKER_02: I pray that there would be uh just divine opportunities to share and to spread and to fade into flame those that come behind.
SPEAKER_02: I pray for every mom, every dad.
SPEAKER_02: God help us to look, live, lead, and love a little more like you today.
SPEAKER_02: God, I pray for peace to every home.
SPEAKER_02: God, I'm asking that you would have your way in the details.
SPEAKER_02: And God, we'd honor you in all we say and all we do.
SPEAKER_02: In your name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.