Discipling Your Kids Through Life-Dominating Sins - Discipleship for Dads

Lying, anger, laziness, lust — family is a beautiful opportunity for gospel life! The panel discusses how to remain hopeful even when kids keep committing the same sins…how to confront and disciple them after the 76th time they’re caught…what to expect in terms of breakthroughs…how much mom should deal with ongoing sin…and the place of guilt, shame, and the gospel.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

And welcome friends to Generations and another segment of Discipleship for Dads with Todd Strasser and Bill Roach in Studio. Yours truly, Kevin Swanson. And today is a big this is about discipling our kids through life-dominating sins. And and you know, this is going to be pretty much every child at some point in their lives. Lying, anger, uh disrespect for mama, laziness, one of us. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. We've been through these ourselves. That's right. And and and some children have more issues with some sins than others. Right. The principle of individuality uh feeds into this one. But here, I want to say from the outset, and uh and we need to set the stage here for for the bigger picture, right? And that is the family is really a beautiful opportunity for gospel life. And yes, it is shocking with a front row seat when we realize our children are you know taken by sin, and at two years old they're running around the living room, I'm gonna kill you to their sister or whatever it is, and uh or at 12 or 13 years of age, you discover that your son found the wrong websites or whatever it is. You know, the shock of sin, the shock of the fact that our kids are sinners and we're sinners, right? But also the incredible, amazing redemptive work of Jesus Christ. Amen. And and you know, the breakthroughs that come about. Amen. I mean, this just this is a beautiful scene in which it could happen. And we can't just be hiding our sins in the family. Um you can try for a while, but I'm sorry, but everybody's gonna know what you're doing. And you know, it just comes out. It comes out in relation, in family relationships. So praise God for all of those things. But lying is a biggie. You know, anger is a tough one. Uh laziness can get its tentacles around a young boy, et cetera, et cetera. But we need to challenge these parents, and I want you brothers to just lean in on this, challenge the parents to be full of faith, hope in God, and uh be a hopeful home, confident in the gospel and the potential and what God can do in our children's lives. We're hoping in God. It's a wonderful thing for a man to wait upon God and uh and patiently hope in the salvation of the Lord, right? Uh that's uh Lamentations chapter three. But uh wait on God, pray to God, bring your children to Jesus. Uh we we just we just have to realize that the family is an area of redemption. This is where God's redeeming. It's redeeming, right? I I think of Acts 16, 31. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, and your house. And salvation has come to this household. I think it was Achaeus, right? Salvation has come to this household. Hallelujah. God has saved me. Now he's gonna save others.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

That's the mentality. Yeah, we believe the promises of God in this. Bill, you you said it's critical, yeah, critical to be a hopeful home.

SPEAKER_03 3:02

Amen. It you have to be, you know. I think the worst possible place that a man could be is the place where he says, I don't need God. Oh man, no, no, no. Right, no. That's because one you you're constantly aware of your need for him. Oh, yeah. And then when you look at his word, that gives you the hope of the promises, all the promises that he's given that this this battle's already won. The game's finished. I don't have to worry about what the score's gonna be at the end of the fourth quarter. It's all won. So we have we uh we have tremendous hope. Now it's hard to see it when you're in the midst of a very difficult battle. Like, God, are we really going to win this one? That's why Jesus said 365 times, fear not, fear not, right? Fear not. That's right, right? Because I've already won the battle. So we have a whole bunch of uh reasons, many reasons to be hopeful in God.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Yeah, and you know, there's a lot of things our families can be about. You know, our family's about this, we do this business, and we we kind of gain like a little identity, which is okay. I mean, if it's a family, we have cultures and rhythms and everything like that. But this is the essence. I mean, this is the core of the gospel. Yes. We're good, we sin, we admit we sin, but by the quickening, by the conviction of the spirit, we can confess and we go, I I am, I'm guilty. I I am the sinner, I'm I'm that man. But we but we turn to the promises in the family. We proclaim the promises. The the the the it's like flourishing, it's overflowing with the promise of God that if you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That should be the just the the heartbeat of the home as it goes forward.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

I was thinking of the verse uh where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Grace wins, grace overpowers. Mercy breaks judgment. Exactly. And uh the other thing that is important is the faith of fathers, the faith of grandfathers, uh, the hope. I mean, we we we are the the man who brings his child to Jesus. Amen. Uh remember the demon possessed little boy, you know, that was caught by this big demon, this strong demon, uh, really had this little boy. But uh Jesus looked at that man and said, You believe I can do this? You know, he was testing that man's faith. He looked him right in the eye and said, Do you believe me? Do you believe my power? Do you believe I can do this? And uh the man said, Lord, I believe, but help thou my unbelief, right? And I I think Jesus is stretching our faith. Jesus is testing us in this. Okay, you got a special needs kid who's got a lying issue that just won't stop. Yeah. Jesus is not, he's not looking at the child right now, he's looking at you. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

And you know, you know what helps so much in those times. And we're talking about besetting sin or something like that is the confidence in God. It's that it's a humble confidence, but it's like, I am confident. And as a father, as a grandfather, we can say, I know it's hard, I know that, but I know our God is with us. I know our God will come through. He has for me a million times, he's done this in my life, he's shown himself true. And to be that, there's a steadiness, right? There's a steadiness that we by faith example and live out. And we're just confident in our God.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

We and we must be. And and what does that hopefulness look like in the home, Bill? Okay, your your son's been caught for the 18th time this week lying. Okay, whatever it is, the life-dominating sin. How does a dad remain hopeful and faithful in this?

SPEAKER_03 6:42

It's it's pointing back to to Christ. God is willing to forgive us, God is willing to help us. It's and I think you you have to help the child with what hope looks like today. Say, you know, we're gonna we're just gonna take this off a bite at a time. Yes. You you know it may be you're gonna have victory this morning, you're gonna have victory today. That's what we're gonna what we're gonna focus on. So you make the battles winnable.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Take no thought for the morrow. That's right. Sufficient to the day is the grace thereof.

SPEAKER_03 7:11

Yeah, and the evil too. Right? Yeah. And and so we're we're making the battles winnable. That's part of, I think, yeah, uh, the hope of it too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

That's good. That's good. Okay, I want I want to speak somewhat generically about this. Obviously, we don't want to pull out one particular child and say, and for this child, uh, there was this issue. But but let's draw a distinction between younger children and older children when dealing with life-dominating sins. Now, the the big thing, the big thing I'll say for for any child, but certainly a younger child who's got a problem with anger, got a problem with lying, that's dragged out for a year or two years or three years, is hang in there, be strong in faith, believe and hope and pray for the long haul. I mean, you just gotta dig in for the long haul. Todd, thoughts on that.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Yeah, and I think you know, at that, it is important to encourage that one day at a time. You know, today's the day, today's the day of salvation, today's the day that God has us to get through and to trust in him. Because sometimes if we think, oh, this is uh overwhelming for 25 years, I've got to do no, it's like today. The the grace is here today and now in this moment. So it again is going back to the promises and remembering that. And there's a there's an aspect of God's promise that he's with us. You know, God never promises you're never gonna see trials or troubles, but he does say I'm always with you. And I think as fathers, we say that too. I'm with you. We're like we I can't fight your battles for you as your father, but I'm I'm here, I'm walking with you, I'm beside you.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

And I think things work out differently for different children. Let me give some hope to the family that hasn't seen an immediate breakthrough. Right now, I'm not sure it always works that way. I'm not sure you always, you know, one day for the last you know, 10 years of his life, he's been a total liar, and then everything changed in one day. Right. I don't think that it happens that way for the most part. Now, there are exceptions to that rule, but uh let's let's at least hang in there and realize that this may be a gradual process. He may be working his way through the birth canal, so to speak. Probably will be.

SPEAKER_03 9:13

Or the exercise, you know. Yeah, I like the exercise metaphor too, is that you know, it it takes a while to build up strength or on the on the treadmill or in the weight room. And and it and it kind of takes a while for it to fall off, too. You show show the child through that exercise, it it's it's your strengthening is is gradual too.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Yeah, one of the things that really helped our son to we have, you know, is as children grow through besetting sin, is our counsel, our encouragement, our love, but also other godly men, you know, that would come alongside, and that could be pastors or just older men to to walk with. It's just the the understanding, one of the main things is understand you're not alone, you know, because that can be very downcasting, very discouraging. But to remember, you know, there's other men, good men, godly men that have walked this path too, you know, and that there is there's a hope in that. There's a hope.

SPEAKER_03 10:07

I like what you said about that God is with you. That that that that's really ringing back to me because you know, when you're in the midst of sinning and you're in the midst of major sin, the m one thing you have to convince, you try to convince yourself is that God's not there, that God's not not watching. Yeah, not listening to you. But but the help portion, that God is present. You remember, Kevin, a couple weeks ago you stopped by and talked to one of my grandchildren.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Yeah, sorry, we prayed with them.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

You prayed with them, and and you said, here's what I want you to remember. Just Jesus help me. That's all you have to pray. But that's a recognition that he's there in the middle of it. Remember, I said to her, I said, right in the middle of it, while it's happening, you can cry out to God in the middle of it. Not you don't have to wait until it's all over and then ask him to forgive you. Right. Only you in the middle of it, you can cry out, Jesus help me.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

How do you confront uh you know your seven-year-old uh who's dealing with laziness or anger? Uh how do you how do you walk them through that in the midst of them expressing this sinful thing?

SPEAKER_03 11:10

Right. I I I start with, you know, I struggle with that too when I was your age, or maybe it's something else. I I know what you're going through. I know it's difficult because I struggled with it. Yeah. Here's the ways that God helped me. So you kind of can relate to them. And then even if it, you know, if if it's a major sin that you didn't specifically struggle with, but you can see that it's rooted, um, somehow, related somehow to your own sins. You bring bring that in and you get some help.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Correcting children calmly, firmly. Yes. And now this may be you know the 247th manifestation of the sin. Yeah, it's a temptation to strike the rock. That's a right, take the old rock, the rod, and strike the rock with it. Yeah, hey, Moses did that.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

We're telling what to do.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

Well, that's thought maybe the rock would be better.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Because we think we get to the point that we think, I'm gonna take over and I'm gonna change this kid. Right. You can't do that, and you've got to be careful with that control thing. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

I think that was uh a mistake I made early on was focusing on that sin so much and talking about it, versus moving to the affirmation, the opportunity. Look, look at the life of in Christ. We can walk and sort of let these chains go and walk in freedom, in in in like free of those weights and chains. And I think pointing them in that direction is much more encouraging than just kind of staying bound up, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:46

But you're we're all we're men of that, we're sinners too. We're struggling with some sin in our life too. So you can relate to them in that way too. That uh, of course, right, right. That you're you're you're struggling with something too. But you what do you do? You look beyond it too, you're trying to get past it, and you're looking at the ways that God is blessing you and other ways.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

And I I distinctly remember actually one time uh one of my daughters struggling with something, and Psalm 127 says it it's giving a picture of the gospel where you're like a bird in a cage, but the gospel, the door is opened, and you can fly out of the cage and you're free. And I was telling her that that that's really encouraged me in my you know, in my sin in the past. And I remember that was really big to her too, and she still talks about it today is that oh wow, I don't have to be in this cage, I can walk free in Christ. I have this liberty in Christ if I if I confess and he wants me to grow in that way.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Amen. Uh, the wife versus the husband in dealing with these. Okay. Is is the wife more equipped to to help the daughters? Is the dad more equipped to help the sons? Um, it does seem that the father's involvement is critical, absolutely critical to this process. The tough thing is mom is usually involved with the 90% of it.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

Right. When they're especially when they're little.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Yeah, when they're little. When dad's dad's off to work or something. So what's your thought in terms of mom's contributions versus dad's contributions, Bill?

SPEAKER_03 14:07

Well, I think you have to talk about it with with your wife, and and some of it comes down to the faith and strength of your wife, too. How much they can do. So you need you need to be careful not to put too much uh upon her. But you know, the the idea that, you know, wait till your father gets home and we'll take care of it, uh it's not really a great idea. So much but sometimes you have to say, you know, we're gonna deal with it now, but we're also gonna talk to dad later on when he comes home, too. But I think knowing having the conversation with your wife, you you have and you have to take on the big ones, you know. You have to you have to protect your wife from the from the very large battles for sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

One thing I've learned is that you know, I don't want to be correcting my children uh in the conversation with my wife, thus such that she will have to take what I just said and communicate that to them. Does that make sense? In other words, I want to be sure that if if it's a concern I have, I don't have you know, kind of turn to my wife and go, sick, you know, like you know, s sick on that kid, you know, kind of thing. You follow me? I don't want her to get the impression that somehow she has to respond. Because we'll have these conversations about you know child A or B or C, but I need to be willing to be the upfront guy in dealing with this with the child. Um so I think the father does have a responsibility sort of set the stage, right? The stage of faith, the stage of hope, the stage of correction, yes, and and bringing God's word to bear. We we do need to be firm. We do need to say, you know what, we can't we have to correct every instance of this kind of behavior in the house. In fact, this is one of my encouragements. It's like you know, correct the child Shekar early, uh, the word in the prophets, I think 1324, if I'm not mistaken, but uh that that yes, we need to be consistent and on it and not allow the weeds to grow. And and uh, you know, it's a matter of again being faithful, you know, calm, consistent, and applying ourselves to the specific sin, not letting it go and staying on it. The hard part is yeah, if it's a major issue, this is gonna take some time. We're gonna have to work this for quite some time.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Yeah, and of course, dad should lead. Dad should lead, and like you're leading the whole household. And particularly, mom shouldn't be left to fight these battles alone, as it were, right? Like, well, that's your that's kind of your you gotta deal with that. No, no, no, no, that's the wrong idea. I think a couple things is you need to know your children. Some children are gonna respond differently to different parents a little bit differently. So uh, you know, you have to think about that. But if if mom if mom and dad, if if if the husband and wife are aligned on how to what's what's the vision, where are we going on the truth of parenting, then sometimes what's neat is a husband and wife, I mean for my wife and I, we probably have different ways of saying things, but that's good for the children, they're gonna hear it this way and hear it that way. And more and more as our children got older, we try to speak to them together. We try to speak, you know, husband, uh father and mother are speaking together with the child about, you know, as particularly as they get older. And that seemed to be encouraging because they would kind of get the the motherly perspective, the fatherly perspective all at once, and we'd pray, and that's helpful.

SPEAKER_03 17:22

You know, one thing I remember that really frustrated my wife uh early on was like I would and I when I was away at work more, I I'd come home and and this goes to communication, you gotta really talk it well. Where if um one of my son was doing something for the sixth time and I treated it like it was the first time, you know, that was frustrating to her. That I oh, I'll give it gonna give a little grace here, you know, don't do that again, you know. And she's already on number six, waiting for something stronger to happen. And and now I'm finally home, and that stronger can happen. So you got to be communicating, like, hey, you when you're on your way home, you know, Chad did this five times today. You know, if he does it the sixth time, can we treat it like it's the sixth and not the first?

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Yeah. Let's talk about mistakes that we can make when it comes to confronting our kids who are uh going through some of these major life controlling sins. Um I like to distinguish between guilt and shame. Right. Now, you know, shall we make them feel guilty? Well, again, I think it's a matter of the situation that the child does make them guilty. That's true. And and and I think, you know, if if a child is not thinking is wrong, then we need to bring the law in. Because the law does convict of sin and hopefully drive to Christ. And and that's the thing about guilt, is that once they've got a sense of the wrongness and their guiltiness before God for this sin, let's rush them to Jesus, let's get them to the cross, ASAP. Uh, you know, you've got an issue, let's go to Jesus with it. So let's we don't just have them sit there and feel guilty in the room. And I don't know, sometimes just sending your kid off to sit in a chair, you know, facing the corner for the next hour and a half. I I never understood what that gets you. I'm not sure what that is. Uh but you know, bringing the sin to bear and then saying, Well, you know what? We need to go to Jesus with this. And if they have come to the point as well, say, I can't be good, you know, I I don't know how to be good. I I can't. Well, amen. Amen to that. We're all gonna say amen to that. Right. Uh, because uh we know somebody can help you with that. We'll go right to Jesus for this.

SPEAKER_03 19:36

Can you imagine a world where everybody just keeps they they sin, they don't have a place to bring it to the cross, they just keep it inside, and then they sin again, and then they sin again, and they just keep bearing their own load of that sin. What does that world look like? It looks like a world that's full of drugs to offset it, self-atonement, uh running aways, justification, blame shift day. I can't imagine without uh a a path to the cross. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

That would be a mess. Amen. I'd be a mess. Um but here's another thing: shame. Shame to me is is something that ought not to happen. Shame is horizontal. Shame is, you know, hey, you've sinned against us and you've embarrassed the family and and and it's way too horizontal. It's not God-centered. It absolutely needs to be repented of. You know, I I believe feelings of shame need to be repented of because the sin is against God. But God justifies us by the blood of his son Jesus Christ. That's the truth of it. And we need to go back to the truth of it. This whole idea that I know we need to impose shame upon our children. And I think sometimes we do that. We have to be careful with it.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

It's shame like it's almost like saying, Todd, you just sin in a great way. You need to bear the sin yourself. You need to feel the weight of it. That's and and so therefore, you must be shamed.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

That's that's some of it. Yeah, it's self-atoning.

SPEAKER_03 20:59

That would be a self-atoning aspect of shame.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

It can also be bringing up the sin again and again. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 21:05

Something in the past, which is that's really you're still bearing it. It's all yours. You haven't you haven't given it up. Right. You haven't given it to Jesus to take care of it.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

So, yeah, the the gospel-less, god-less, right, god-centered less approach to sin is just something we absolutely need to obliterate. And also, you know, okay, our kids are irritating us, our kids are embarrassing us, our kids are that's a problem when it becomes a me-centered issue. Right. Um, granted, yes, they do offend us. But but again, the fundamental issue that we need to be concerned about is we're loving God and we're concerned that they have offended God. That's the biggie. And then the second thing is we're concerned for them that they be saved from these sins. Right. So instead of sitting around going, I'm gonna shame you for irritating me, uh no, no, that's that's not gospel, that's not truthful.

unknown 21:59

Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:59

And we know To avoid that.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

And if you get it wrong, if it if the big problem is that they've sinned against you, the path away from that is much different than you've sinned against God. Because the path to fixing that is you go to God and He takes care of it for you. The path of you trying to fix this situation is I'm just gonna everything on the outside is fixed when it's a matter of you've offended me.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

Now their sins can affect relationship with mom and dad. And we see this sometimes. We see where there's a hardness that develops. There's a you know, mom versus dad versus, there's an attitude issue towards one another. You'll see relationships start to break down in family life because of anger, because of sinning against, sinning against, sinning against, and that parent finally has a really hard time forgiving and and and restoring relationship. How do you how do we deal with that? How do we watch out for the the first indications of a broken relationship between the parent and the child?

SPEAKER_03 22:59

I think you're creating, we've spoken to this before, you're creating a culture in the home where confession is normal. Yes. That the child knows this is a place where people sin, this is a place where people confess, this is a place where people are forgiven. Amen. Right? Absolutely. In fact, you you probably your best bet uh against having life dominating sins is that you have this culture where they don't become dominating because they've built up so big and strong. Because this is a place where sin is taken care of. It exists not only in children, but it exists in parents.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Todd, how how do we restore or maintain good relationships with our children amidst the sinfulness in the home?

SPEAKER_01 23:41

Yeah, obviously that's critical, you know, enabling a place, it's a place where this confession can happen. And I think that's also just walking with and taking interest in. You know, we're very like duty bound, or what what's the next thing to do or memorize or focus on, or maybe we'll speak a lot and point, and that's all good, but we also need to take interest and make sure we're receptive and hearing their hearts uh and where they are. And and that's particularly important, I think, in in hidden sins or secret sins, right? Where I mean it could be years go by and you know, this could be some kind of hidden underlying thing that you might not notice, but uh, but you know, we're we're praying as parents that God will convict, that the spirit will convict, the spirit will draw these things out, that they won't be able to go on. Amen. Uh it gets bottled up in there and it will have to come out. Now, are you a are you a parent where they can share that without retaliation, without rebuke right away, you know, with a with a something like that. You're instead you're you're understanding because you walk through it.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

I think what's happened over the years in our home is humility and confession wins the day. Always it it just wins the day. I mean, if you've got a home that is saturated, humility, confession of sins, and forgiveness for one another, right? That wins out every time, and we've got to pattern that, right, Bill? We as moms and dads must pattern this.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

Absolutely. It's it and it's speaking of your dependence on God when you do that. Said we need God in this house all the time because we're a bunch of sinners around here.

SPEAKER_00 25:14

Yeah. Well, let's wrap this up. Encourage the family in the middle of it. Have you seen victory yourself, Todd, in your home with your children through the years? Give folks help on this one.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Yes, amen. You know, and and it's a battle. I mean, some these are long, sometimes long battles over 10, 15 years. But we have to be watchful for the the the graces that God gives, the the incremental progress, you know, and and really rejoice in those, celebrate those, affirm those, explain those. Um it's been it's it's been interesting to see from young child to you know teenager children walk through these. And I think it's something we can just celebrate and expect. Wow, God is working, God is doing it. It is hard when it, you know, when it when something takes years. It's hard because we we want to see that progress. And obviously, sometimes it's a little bit like this. It's up and down. It's a little bit up and down, but wow, we need to maintain that hope. I think that's one of our big callings is just to continue to point to God, continue to remember his promises, remember the gospel, uh, be hopeful in that, be expectant in that, anticipate God is gonna do a great thing, and just even communicating that's gonna be a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 26:25

One of the most encouraging things, Kevin, that happens to me is when somebody uh hasn't been in our home for a while. Uh in maybe a year or 10 months, and maybe you might be struggling with a certain sin or in a certain child, and they come in and say, Wow, you know, this this child is doing so much better. And you even get caught off guard because you didn't see it because you're in the middle of the day today. And this person, you know, not only do they come in and say, Oh, look at you know, so and so, look how much taller you are, how much you know you have you're you're you're getting bigger, and they see all the changes, including the good ones. That's I want to be that person too. I wrote to my my daughter just a few weeks ago. I had spent uh some time in her home two months ago, and I wrote in my email to her, and I said, Boy, I saw a difference in in this child and this child, knowing that were the things she was working on too much. Helpful, super helpful. Yeah, yeah, that you have somebody comes in and reminds you, hey, I know what was happening here a year ago, and this is much better.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

You know, it's interesting, and God does work in our children through the years. I mean, you know, I would never have imagined that there would have been massive progress happening between 12 and 18 years of age, and then even more massive progress between 18 and 28 years of age. God is continuing to work in our children through the years. And I look at them today and I say, Wow, that's amazing what God did. What God did, not what I did. I didn't do that. Yeah, and uh to give God the glory for the great things that He's doing.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

We're gonna have my grandchildren here in in about a week or so for 10 days. And I know what what will happen. We'll have them for 10 days. My son will come back and then he'll ask me the questions like what you know, what what do you have for me? You know, tell me what how how am I doing? Because now you've had them for 10 days, you got the full, you know, full gamut of it. And so I know I have to be ready with a list of things that I see are improving in their lives, as well as maybe a few things to work on. So I'm ready with that list when he comes back.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Well, my encouragement, friends, pray on, work on, love on, hope on, and believe on Jesus through the process. And when Jesus looks at you and says, Do you believe I can do this? You say, Lord, I believe, but help thou my unbelief. Everybody say that. Help thou my unbelief.

SPEAKER_03 28:37

Philippians 1, 6, right? Uh-huh. You're you're sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion to the day of Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

And and move on with the promises of God poured out upon your family, that our children will speak the word of God. They will prophesy, and God will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, children to the fathers. We pray the promises of God in this, my friends. He's pouring out his Holy Spirit on all flesh, and our children will receive this. And uh, that's the promises of God. We'll claim them, we'll pray them, we'll believe them in the process, and hang in there with them.

unknown 29:15

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

Over the long haul. I think that's the takeaway from this edition of the program. Friends, you've been listening to Disciples for Dads as part of the generation's offerings. And if you have any input for this program, please mail at generations.org. This is Kevin Swanson, as well as Todd Strasser and Bill Roach. And we invite you back again next time as we continue to lay down a vision for the next generation. This has been a production of the Generations Media Network. For more information, go to generations.org/slash media.