SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we believe that life begins with you, and life continues with you, and life is life because of you.
SPEAKER_01: And so we've come this morning to get a deeper, fuller understanding of what life is all about.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, uh, it's for freedom the Bible says that we've been set free.
SPEAKER_01: So increase our understanding of and our experience of freedom as a result of having been in this room together with you and each other this morning.
SPEAKER_01: We ask for this in Jesus' name, and we ask it as for it as your sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_01: And so we pray as we've been taught to pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it, open up to Deuteronomy chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: Deuteronomy, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, like the fifth book of the new in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're our guest today, we're in a series called Better.
SPEAKER_01: Better.
SPEAKER_01: And we're just looking at different things we want to get better at.
SPEAKER_01: And today I want to talk to you about getting better at parenting.
SPEAKER_01: Getting better at parenting.
SPEAKER_01: And let me say this while you're finding Deuteronomy chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: Parenting is one of those things that you're going to do the rest of your life if you have children.
SPEAKER_01: And so you don't just parent while they're in your home and they go off to college and you kind of still parent.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, they get a job in a career.
SPEAKER_01: You still parent, they get married, you still parent, they have kids, you really parent a lot.
SPEAKER_01: You've never done parenting, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so it's necessary that we kind of have this biblically informed understanding of what it what parenting involves.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's two things I want to give you to think about.
SPEAKER_01: As long as you have the platform and the perspective in your kids' life, you should be parenting.
SPEAKER_01: Now, kids or students, for some of you, I say kids are your eight years old, students, you're like in high school, whatever, in college.
SPEAKER_01: People, if you're in your 40s and 50s, your parents are still alive, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: One of the best things you could do is remind your mom and dad, hey, you still have a platform in my life.
SPEAKER_01: I still want you to speak into my life because they have a perspective.
SPEAKER_01: I saw this with my own eyes years ago.
SPEAKER_01: I was at a dinner, and a friend of mine had closed a big deal, and they were celebrating, he's buying dinner for all these people, and we're all sitting around the table, and it was great, and he was telling about the details of the deal, and it was great.
SPEAKER_01: And I glanced over and his dad's 83, and his dad's getting tears in his eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And I was kind of like, uh, okay, I guess he's just proud of his son.
SPEAKER_01: Uh until afterwards, we're all out in the parking lot and we're getting in our trucks, and somebody's like, Hey, can you get my dad a ride home?
SPEAKER_01: And blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And his dad's 83, and he moves kind of slow, and his son was standing there, and he turned to walk away.
SPEAKER_01: And the dad reached out and grabbed his arm and he said, Hey son, when you were talking in there over dinner, you talked a lot about yourself and what you did to put this deal together.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not sure if you got the glory or if God got the glory.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was like, Should I be hearing this?
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh, and he just squeezed it, he just held on, and the son wasn't pulling away.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Oh, Daddy, he goes, Just son, be careful.
SPEAKER_01: And then he just hugged him and said, I love you.
SPEAKER_01: And I was just like, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: My prayer that night was, God, I want to be like this 83-year-old man who's still parenting his son.
SPEAKER_01: His son's wildly successful beyond what anything his dad could ever be.
SPEAKER_01: And his dad's not intimidated by that, not jealous of that, but he's still his dad.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself, hey, what does it look like for me to just to remind my mom and hey, I want you to have a platform and a perspective into my life.
SPEAKER_01: Let's read the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read the whole chapter of Deuteronomy 6, because I think it's the best teaching on parenting anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: And then I'm gonna give you 10 things that, 10 takeaways from the text, and we'll put them up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: Now you don't have to write them all down.
SPEAKER_01: You can just pull out your phone, take a picture of them, and they all get up there.
SPEAKER_01: And then I want to give you three questions that parenting, that good gospel parenting has to answer.
SPEAKER_01: And then we'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: You can go home, put on your sweatpants, and fire up the case go.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And watch the Atlanta Falcons win the Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: The rest of you are on the bandwagon.
SPEAKER_01: Be quiet.
SPEAKER_01: Uh let's read the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: This is what he says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, now this is the commandment, the statues and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land in which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God and your son and your son's son, by keeping all of his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be long may be long.
SPEAKER_01: Hear, therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord the God of your fathers has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
SPEAKER_01: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
SPEAKER_01: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.
SPEAKER_01: And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
SPEAKER_01: You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes, and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
SPEAKER_01: And when the Lord our God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
SPEAKER_01: It is the Lord your God you shall fear, him you shall serve, and by his name you shall swear.
SPEAKER_01: You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples uh who are around you.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God.
SPEAKER_01: Lest the anger of the Lord uh your your your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you off the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: You shall not put the Lord to the test as you did at as you tested him at Massah.
SPEAKER_01: You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you.
SPEAKER_01: You shall not you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you.
SPEAKER_01: And you may go in and take possession of the good land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers by thrusting out all of your enemies before you, as the Lord has promised.
SPEAKER_01: When your sons ask you in time to come, what is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?
SPEAKER_01: Then you shall say to your son, We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and he and the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household before our eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And he brought us out from there that he might bring us in and give us a land that he swore to give to our fathers.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive as we are this day, and it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God as he has commanded us.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I want to just begin with a question, Mom and Dad, for you to think about.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 25, he says, And it will be righteousness for us.
SPEAKER_01: And it will be righteousness for us.
SPEAKER_01: What does righteousness for you, if you were to do what God says in Deuteronomy 6, because this is kind of a summary, hey, by way of reminder, it will be righteousness for us if we do the things that were just written about, that we just heard about.
SPEAKER_01: What would righteousness for you look like in your marriage and in your parenting relationship with your kids?
SPEAKER_01: Just a question of takeaway.
SPEAKER_01: You can talk about it later tonight.
SPEAKER_01: No, you won't talk about it later tonight.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna watch Super Bowl and then 24 Legacy, and then you'll be passed out of sleep.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: You can just have the conversation.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, what would it be like if we actually did what the Bible talked about?
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I say takeaways, uh, what I mean is when I read this, I just when I read things in the Bible, I have a legal pattern.
SPEAKER_01: I just jot down things that stand out to me.
SPEAKER_01: Things that I'm like, hey, yeah, I want to understand that more.
SPEAKER_01: So there's 10 of them from this chapter that I wrote down, and I'll just list them off briefly.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is this learning is for living.
SPEAKER_01: Learning is for living.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: He tells them this commandment, and these are the commandments, statues, and rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you that you may do them.
SPEAKER_01: That you may do them.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, this is not just what we do to occupy our time while our kids are little until they get a car and can drive themselves to different things they'd rather do besides come to church.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: This, we learn these things so that we can actually do these things.
SPEAKER_01: Uh now, here's a little sidebar.
SPEAKER_01: Much of your parenting, whether you realize it or not, is influenced and affected and guided by your understanding of the doctrine of salvation or what's called soteriology.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, it's when I say doctrine of salvation, how do you understand people come into a personal relationship with God?
SPEAKER_01: Uh and the way you understand that influences the way you parent.
SPEAKER_01: You say, I don't get the connection.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, just give me a couple minutes and let me build a case for this from the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: If you're not careful, the learning is for the living.
SPEAKER_01: Uh what happens, you should, as a mom and dad, you should expect to see the gospel manifesting itself in your kids' life.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, you should say to your kids consistently around the dinner table or when you're hanging out in their room, because they love for you to come in their room and hang out.
SPEAKER_01: Have you noticed that?
SPEAKER_01: You walk in, they're like, What are you doing here?
SPEAKER_01: Well, this is my room.
SPEAKER_01: I pay for this room.
SPEAKER_01: You're like a freeloading hobo in my room.
SPEAKER_01: So pick my room up before I take it back.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but just hanging out talking to your kids, just ask.
SPEAKER_01: Not as a pop quiz, okay, but just hey, how's the gospel kind of manifesting itself in your life these days?
SPEAKER_01: Because it teaches your kids to flesh out what the Bible is all about, what the Bible teaches and talks about.
SPEAKER_01: Because learning is for the living.
SPEAKER_01: You say, why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're not careful, our kids will live with disconnect.
SPEAKER_01: I believe this, I heard all this, I understand this.
SPEAKER_01: But this, yes, sister, but this is what I experience.
SPEAKER_01: And there doesn't need to be a big gap in those things.
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, why what has it got to do with the doctrine of salvation?
SPEAKER_01: Uh because we've got to be careful, because we've kind of accepted as the norm in America, this, I believe this, but I live this.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus comes along in Luke's gospel in chapter six and he says, Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I say?
SPEAKER_01: Translation, why do you, how can you believe all this right and good stuff and yet you live this?
SPEAKER_01: And here's the reality that many of us will be faced with in this lifetime is we will have to come to, we will have to ask ourselves, does my kid really have a relationship with God?
SPEAKER_01: Or they just learned all and heard all the Bible stories, and they can they they can recite information, but they don't walk in intimacy.
SPEAKER_01: And you gotta be careful because what happens is that it's necessary.
SPEAKER_01: The best thing and the most essential thing we do as parents is teach our kids a right view of God.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of kids grow up and they've been taught a flawed view of God, and many of them go to a church that teaches them a flawed view of God.
SPEAKER_01: Here's how it happens: they take verses out of context, and they teach our kids that God kind of stands at the door and he knocks of your heart and he knocks to waiting to get in, and he can't get in unless you get up and open the door and let him in.
SPEAKER_01: And so, without even intending it, this flawed unbiblical theology teaches your kid that, hey, God wants into your life, but you're in control, and whenever you get ready, you can get up and open the door and let him in.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what happens in your kids' mind is they go, okay, I get to control God.
SPEAKER_01: Well, if I get to determine when when and how God has access to my life, then I, by extension, I get to define what it looks like for me to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: And so what happens is you you have kids that grow up and they apply the gospel to their lesser appetites, but not to their bigger appetites, like their morality.
SPEAKER_01: That's off limits.
SPEAKER_01: And so we have, if you're not careful, you can have a gym, you can have a 22-year-old that lives very immorally and yet professes to be a very passionate Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Will go to worship conferences and sing their hearts out and go home to their boyfriend that they live with.
SPEAKER_01: And it's like one of these things is not like the other.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what happened: because you you gotta have a biblical understanding of how people come to know God and experience God and who God is, because if we let our kids decide that and determine that, then they get to define what it looks like for them to relate to this God.
SPEAKER_01: And if you spool that out all the way to the end, what you end up with is a God that's not worth worship, fear, or sacrifice, and a life that's not worth living.
SPEAKER_01: So we've allowed them to create for themselves a version of Christianity that's not Christianity and it's not interesting.
SPEAKER_01: And it's like, hey, well, you, when you say, hey, are you going to church anywhere?
SPEAKER_01: They're like, no.
SPEAKER_01: Because that doesn't, that God that they've been allowed to live under this illusion that this is what God's like, He doesn't interest them.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I say the learning is for living, there's a whole lot in that statement.
SPEAKER_01: Second takeaway from the text is simply this that parenting is consequential.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2, he says, this is for you, your sons, and your son's sons.
SPEAKER_01: There's three generations that are being affected by the way you parent your kids right now.
SPEAKER_01: So it it's it's vitally important that as a parent and a grandparent, you kind of speak up.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: I saw this not long ago in a restaurant here in our city.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, these grandparents had their three grandkids out, and the three grandkids were like seven, five, and like four, and it was getting pretty unruly there.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, grandpa stood up and said, I don't know if your mommy and daddy let you get away with this, but your grandpa's gonna wear you out if you do that again.
SPEAKER_01: And I turned around and was like, Yeah, and the kids were all big eyed, like, haw.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Now, grandpa isn't mad at you, sweetie, okay?
SPEAKER_01: You ain't gotta be afraid of me, but you're not gonna act that way with me.
SPEAKER_01: And it was funny because I was kind of like, You go, your bad self, grandpa.
SPEAKER_01: These other people are sitting around, kind of like, how dare he! Parenting is the most consequential thing you will do in this lifetime because it affects three generations you, your sons, and your sons' sons, you, your daughters, and your daughters' daughters.
SPEAKER_01: So when you the hardest thing, by the way, to endure as parents is your kids' wrath.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes what allows you to endure their wrath is to realize I'm not just parenting her, I'm parenting my grandchildren that are gonna come out of her if I don't kill her.
SPEAKER_01: That's the way you gotta think about it.
SPEAKER_01: It's radically consequential.
SPEAKER_01: Third takeaway is that you have to you are to be monotheistic in a polytheistic culture.
SPEAKER_01: You are to be monotheistic.
SPEAKER_01: It's Deuteronomy 6.4.
SPEAKER_01: It's called the Shema.
SPEAKER_01: Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord our God is one.
SPEAKER_01: Now you you say, now, let me let me admit this.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes as your pastor, I say things and y'all are like, I'm not writing that down.
SPEAKER_01: That's got nothing to do with me.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you what this has got to do with you just from the news this past week.
SPEAKER_01: You're to be monotheistic, mono one, theistic God.
SPEAKER_01: You're to be, you're to think about God as one.
SPEAKER_01: But we live in a culture that's polytheistic.
SPEAKER_01: They got a bunch of different gods.
SPEAKER_01: Like Oprah says, all roads lead to God.
SPEAKER_01: Find one that fits you and get on that.
SPEAKER_01: And so she does.
SPEAKER_01: That's what people do.
SPEAKER_01: Uh look around, even in Deuteronomy, he says, hey, do not worship the gods of the people around you.
SPEAKER_01: This past week, like one of the gods we worship in America is tolerance.
SPEAKER_01: It is just a God we bow down to in our culture.
SPEAKER_01: Here's how hypocritical the God of American tolerance is.
SPEAKER_01: This past week at UC Berkeley, the birthplace of freedom of speech.
SPEAKER_01: Let me let me get that, lay that foundation for you so you don't think I'm just hating on college kids.
SPEAKER_01: I love college kids.
SPEAKER_01: I got a college kid.
SPEAKER_01: I'm all for the next generation.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the deal uh activism is a really tangible quest for forgiveness because we think we're doing virtuous things, but that's another sermon.
SPEAKER_01: Uh at the birthplace of the freedom of speech movement was UC Berkeley, people torched and rioted the campus because they didn't like a speaker that was speaking there.
SPEAKER_01: Does that not concern anybody?
SPEAKER_01: Again, at the birthplace, because here's the deal: if you don't bow down to the God of tolerance, if you don't feel the way I feel about things, if you don't, it's kind of like, and by the way, some of the most tolerant people in America are the most intolerant people you'll ever meet.
SPEAKER_01: And they glam on with all their signs, with every cause from Donald Trump to this, that, and the other.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just, I mean, gay rights and immigration and blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: It's just this plethora of confused, we don't know what we're for, but we're against anything that's not in favor of the.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: But what about free speech?
SPEAKER_01: Because, see, one of the gods that we worship, and for you to be monotheistic against that backdrop is just to say, hey, not only do I not agree with you, but I think you're wrong.
SPEAKER_01: I think you're hypocritical.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's just, I mean, people will get exasperated, won't be able to talk over that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I just say, I'm just being monotheistic.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just worshiping the one God.
SPEAKER_01: There's one God, and there's one way to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the only way you can get there is through a relationship with the Son Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because he and he alone died on the cross as payment for your sins.
SPEAKER_01: And all these other ways, Jesus talked about in John's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: He said the people don't come through the door, they try to climb over the wall, they're just a thief.
SPEAKER_01: They're trying to break in.
SPEAKER_01: You do not break in to get to a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: You come one way.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you've got to be monotheistic and a polytheistic culture.
SPEAKER_01: Fourth thing is you parent from the heart.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: He says this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Whether you realize it or not, you parent from what's heaviest on your heart.
SPEAKER_01: If you're frustrated with your kids, you will parent out of frustration.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it's okay.
SPEAKER_01: It's even necessary once in a while, mom, dad, for you to look at your kids and say, I don't need to talk to you right now because I'm frustrated and I don't want to hurt your feelings with what I want to say.
SPEAKER_01: Your kids should come out and warn the other ones, save yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Mom's frustrated.
SPEAKER_01: Back up, it's gonna blow.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because you parent.
SPEAKER_01: So because we parent, he says, hey, these words today, it's right there in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: These words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
SPEAKER_01: You should teach them diligently to your children.
SPEAKER_01: See, we parent from the from what's heaviest and deepest on our heart.
SPEAKER_01: Fifth thing is God intends that parents be the most spiritually formative people in your child's life.
SPEAKER_01: God intends that parents be the most spiritually formative people in your child's life.
SPEAKER_01: Where do you get that?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: You shall teach them.
SPEAKER_01: Circle that word you.
SPEAKER_01: Not Jeff Witten, not Jana, McKee, not Samantha Levine, not even me.
SPEAKER_01: We all can partner with you and equipping you to parent your kids with a gospel worldview.
SPEAKER_01: But look what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's just let me give you three words.
SPEAKER_01: Teach, talk, and walk.
SPEAKER_01: You shall teach them diligently to your children.
SPEAKER_01: Talk about these when you sit down and when you walk along the way.
SPEAKER_01: It's teach, talk about it.
SPEAKER_01: How often do you have naturally occurring spiritual conversations in your home?
SPEAKER_01: How often around the dinner table do you say, hey, what do you sense?
SPEAKER_01: What do you sense and what do you see God doing these days?
SPEAKER_01: You're like, well, my kids ate, I promise you.
SPEAKER_01: They see.
SPEAKER_01: They sense things.
SPEAKER_01: What questions do you have about God these days?
SPEAKER_01: How's the gospel manifesting itself in your life these days?
SPEAKER_01: And they're not always going to be like, oh, waiting for you to ask that.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes they'll just roll their eyes and go, oh, another moral lesson, huh, Dad?
SPEAKER_01: That's what it sounds like in my house sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm kind of like, yeah, call it what you want.
SPEAKER_01: I I don't want you to get out of my house and think wrongly about all this.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say that God intends parents to be the most spiritually formative people in a child's life, it's teach, talk, and walk.
SPEAKER_01: He says, as you walk along the way, that means that the older your kids get, don't hide in your bedroom and let them just be out there on their own.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta keep walking with them.
SPEAKER_01: Because what happens is that we stop parenting, and the bigger, the loudest voice in their life becomes their peer group.
SPEAKER_01: And your kids need more guidance than that.
SPEAKER_01: Next takeaway from the text is number six is prioritize God's word.
SPEAKER_01: Prioritize God's word.
SPEAKER_01: That's verse eight.
SPEAKER_01: He said, You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, they should be as frontlets between your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: You should write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
SPEAKER_01: And when he says prioritize the word of God, not his rules, but his honey.
SPEAKER_01: Not his rules, but his honey.
SPEAKER_01: I remember when I was nine, I was playing uh football at David Hawkins' house, and his dad had beehives.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what that was.
SPEAKER_01: But but I realized that one day we were playing football, and Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Hawkins came up with a white porcelain metal bowl looking thing, and it had a red rim around it, and he set it down on the front porch, and it was full of honeycomb.
SPEAKER_01: He just pulled out and cut it up into bite-sized pieces.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, You boys want some honeycomb?
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, What's honeycomb?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we got honey at the store.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Sue B makes honey.
SPEAKER_01: And David, his son, looked at me and just kind of like, You never had this.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, What?
SPEAKER_01: And he went, This is honeycomb.
SPEAKER_01: This is wax that the bees have filled with honey.
SPEAKER_01: And you chew it, and the honey just explodes in your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: And then you chew on this waxy, sweet, honey-tasting wax like bubblegum for an hour.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I want to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I stood there for 20 minutes and I ate honeycomb right out, just just right, just gorged on it until I almost got sick and threw up.
SPEAKER_01: So when the Bible says, when I say, hey, prioritize the word of God, not his rules.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying put the Ten Commandments on your kid's bedroom wall.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, sinner, did you look at number four?
SPEAKER_01: That's got your name on it.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Number seven, remember that fullness leads to forgetfulness.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that fullness leads to forgetfulness.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the latter.
SPEAKER_01: Part of verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: He says there's like a dash, and he says, and when you eat and are full, verse 12, then take care lest you forget the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Mark that in your Bibles, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: When you eat and are full, take care lest you forget the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because when it's hard, we need Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: When it gets easy, when we're full, it's easy to forget.
SPEAKER_01: I remember talking to a kid at a youth camp.
SPEAKER_01: He was just, he was just rebellious, whatever word you want to use for it.
SPEAKER_01: They're getting ready to send him home.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Well, would you talk to him?
SPEAKER_01: You're the camp pastor, you're the speaker guy.
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
SPEAKER_01: Sit down and talk to him.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hey, what's what's really formed the way you think about all this?
SPEAKER_01: He said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: What's formed the way you think about God, Jesus, church, everything?
SPEAKER_01: He said, I don't know, but I mean, we used to go to church a lot, my parents, and because my parents started a business, they quit their job and they pulled some money, and my grandparents gave us some money, they bought a dry cleaner, and that went really well, and then they got another one, and now we have like seven dry cleaners, and my parents don't need God anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Oh, I understand why this kid's this way.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't, he didn't not care about God.
SPEAKER_01: He was saddened by the fact that he watched his parents get full and forget.
SPEAKER_01: And it happens quickly.
SPEAKER_01: I have a friend that's a ministry, great guy, consistent for years.
SPEAKER_01: His mom died, left him over$700,000.
SPEAKER_01: Within four years, he was out of ministry, committed affairs, disqualified himself.
SPEAKER_01: It's horrible.
SPEAKER_01: He's a totally different person.
SPEAKER_01: He's just indifferent to the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: All our mutual friends were like, What happened?
SPEAKER_01: What happened?
SPEAKER_01: He got full.
SPEAKER_01: He saw the finish line.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I can retire.
SPEAKER_01: What can the church do to me now?
SPEAKER_01: I'm golden.
SPEAKER_01: I got enough money to make it.
SPEAKER_01: Is that what this is all about?
SPEAKER_01: Now, unless I sound all high and mighty, I cried last night in my office at our house because I was reading over this passage and I was taken back to where Marcy and I first got married.
SPEAKER_01: We lived in seminary housing, like 700 and I think it's 620 square feet.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_01: Envision that.
SPEAKER_01: It was so small, the stove had two burners.
SPEAKER_01: Like, why didn't he just give you a Coleman cook stove when you when you sign up for class?
SPEAKER_01: We had two burners and we had a little kitchen table and a sink, and you kind of like negotiate around them to get out of the kitchen.
SPEAKER_01: And we were happy as clams.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember one time I went to the store to get stuff because she's going to cook supper, and we're like, oh.
SPEAKER_01: And I got back and she said, Oh, did you get crescent rolls?
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, ah, and she said, I think we can afford crescent rolls.
SPEAKER_01: And so I went to the store and I got them and I was like, oh, these are so good.
SPEAKER_01: Last night, clear as a bell, the Holy Spirit said, Do you still just experience the wonder of being able to afford crescent rolls?
SPEAKER_01: And I cried because I mean, think about it.
SPEAKER_01: I love crescent rolls.
SPEAKER_01: Love me some crescent rolls.
SPEAKER_01: I may have some for lunch today.
SPEAKER_01: I bet I got three or four cans of them in my refrigerator right now and don't think a thing about it.
SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't condemnation.
SPEAKER_01: The voice of God's not condemnation.
SPEAKER_01: The voice of God was kind of like, hey, I've been really good to you.
SPEAKER_01: You ain't think about it, do you?
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't.
SPEAKER_01: I don't.
SPEAKER_01: Fullness.
SPEAKER_01: Be careful.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Don't feel bad if you got stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's what the Bible says right here.
SPEAKER_01: God says, and when, look at verse 10, and when, not if.
SPEAKER_01: And when?
SPEAKER_01: I'm so faithful, God says, you can bank on this happening.
SPEAKER_01: And when the Lord your God brings you into the land and He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give you with great and good cities that you did not build, houses full of good things that you did not fill, cisterns you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant.
SPEAKER_01: And when you eat and are full, hey, God doesn't mind you possessing any or all of that.
SPEAKER_01: There were some people in the last service that says, Oh, we love this.
SPEAKER_01: We got to go now.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to the Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_01: Sinners.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to go to a suite in the Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_01: Probably made a deal with the devil, right?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: And I just thought, yes, your cisterns are full.
SPEAKER_01: Now go drink them dry.
SPEAKER_01: And they were like, that's our plan.
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't mean that.
SPEAKER_01: No, that's what God says.
SPEAKER_01: So don't look at people that get to go to the Super Bowl and enjoy it and kind of go, man, I was doing something wrong.
SPEAKER_01: No, what if they're doing something right and God's blessing them for doing something right?
SPEAKER_01: What if their business is so successful that they're like, hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: We're not only going to take ourselves, we're going to take one of our clients to the Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing wrong with that.
SPEAKER_01: Just don't get there and gorge yourself and forget.
SPEAKER_01: Or you'd be like my friend talking about the deal, you know, and I told him this, you know, we need to, I need 3%, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And your 83-year-old father has to pull you aside and say, hey, hey, I didn't, I couldn't tell who got the glory, you or God.
SPEAKER_01: Just don't forget, because it's easy to forget.
SPEAKER_01: So easy.
SPEAKER_01: Number eight, God does not have to prove himself to you.
SPEAKER_01: That's verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: He says, you should not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him at Massah.
SPEAKER_01: I think every preacher in America ought to be made to preach in the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because most of what the Bible refers back to comes out of the Exodus journey.
SPEAKER_01: When God says, hey, I'm on record as the way I deal with my people.
SPEAKER_01: Check this out.
SPEAKER_01: It's something out of Exodus.
SPEAKER_01: And this is from Exodus 17.
SPEAKER_01: They're out in the wilderness and they didn't have any water.
SPEAKER_01: And they were like, because every time a need manifests itself, God was on trial for them.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: Every time a need manifested itself in the life of the children of Israel, they were like, okay, God, you better come through, or we're not going to believe in you.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, Why do I got to keep proving myself to you?
SPEAKER_01: Well.
SPEAKER_01: And so he says here, hey, don't put God to the test.
SPEAKER_01: Next time it gets hard in your family, just look at your kids and smile and go, hey, God's been so faithfully good to us for so long.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be okay.
SPEAKER_01: We don't need God to all of a sudden jump up and do, we're going to be okay.
SPEAKER_01: We've seen enough and we've tasted enough of the goodness of God to absorb a little hardness.
SPEAKER_01: Ninth takeaway is this have history with God, not just church.
SPEAKER_01: Have history with God, not just church.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody asked me, it's a great question.
SPEAKER_01: A couple months ago, they said, hey, why don't we have like a white window sticker about our church like all the other churches in Fort Bend County do?
SPEAKER_01: That's your answer.
SPEAKER_01: But no, it's it's bigger than that, actually.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't disparage that.
SPEAKER_01: I think, oh, that's cool, oh, that's cool.
SPEAKER_01: And I just, here's what I said, I didn't think about it.
SPEAKER_01: It must have been God, because I'm not this smart.
SPEAKER_01: And I just said, I would rather you go away talking about God than our church.
SPEAKER_01: Because you can have great experience with church.
SPEAKER_01: You can find a church that has, you know, jumping, jumping, jiving, children's ministry, and hootin' nanny, this, that, and the other, and your kids can go through all that, graduate, and go off to college and not know a thing about God.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 20, when your son asks you in time to come, what is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?
SPEAKER_01: Then you shall say to your son, We joined Grand Parkway and things begin to take off.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you just feel dirty hearing that?
SPEAKER_01: He says, Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_01: We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh, and against all his household before our eyes.
SPEAKER_01: And he brought us out from there that he might bring us in and give us a land that he swore to give to our fathers.
SPEAKER_01: Translation, think about it backwards.
SPEAKER_01: He was faithful to our fathers, and he has kept the word he gave to our fathers to us, and so therefore he gets all the glory.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what I mean when I say have history with God, not just church.
SPEAKER_01: Last takeaway is simply this.
SPEAKER_01: Don't just come out but enter in.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: It's verse 20 at the very end there.
SPEAKER_01: He says this, verse 23, and he brought us out from there that he might bring us in.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes on and says other things, but I want you just to have your imagination captured by that.
SPEAKER_01: Hear it again.
SPEAKER_01: He brought us out from there so he could bring us in.
SPEAKER_01: Christianity is not about what you don't do.
SPEAKER_01: It's really most demonstrated in what you do.
SPEAKER_01: He brought us out from that old way of life that Lindsay led us so beautifully to think about earlier.
SPEAKER_01: He brought us out from there.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not just it.
SPEAKER_01: He also wanted to bring you in to a different kind of living, to a different way of thinking, a different way of being.
SPEAKER_01: So let's don't, mom and dad, let's not teach our kids that it's just don't, don't, don't, don't.
SPEAKER_01: That it's also, hey, that's just a consequence.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: We need to be advocating for the poor.
SPEAKER_01: We need to be welcoming the stranger in the alien.
SPEAKER_01: We need to be forgiving people.
SPEAKER_01: We need to be praying.
SPEAKER_01: We need to practice the spiritual discipline of fasting.
SPEAKER_01: These are things we that we do.
SPEAKER_01: We want to enter in.
SPEAKER_01: And so let me let me close this morning by giving you three questions that gospel parenting has to answer, and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Question number one: Is God real?
SPEAKER_01: Is God real?
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I get this out of the Bible in verse 20 when he says, and when your son asks in time, what is the meaning of the testimony, statutes, and the rules that our Lord God has commanded you?
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, Hey, God, why does this matter?
SPEAKER_01: It comes out like this, is God real?
SPEAKER_01: Now, when your kids, and I say your parenting has to answer this, your kids may or may not come to you and say, Hey, I'm really doubting all of this.
SPEAKER_01: Your kids may come to you and go, I don't believe any of this.
SPEAKER_01: Don't panic.
SPEAKER_01: I know that it's like, but remember in the beginning when I talked inordinately about a doctrine of salvation?
SPEAKER_01: And it's not about your kids can come to you and go, I don't believe any of this.
SPEAKER_01: I go because our family goes, but that's all you're getting out of me.
SPEAKER_01: You should look at your kids and say, Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate your honesty.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm gonna be praying is your dad is that God would reveal himself to you because clearly he hasn't.
SPEAKER_01: And we love you.
SPEAKER_01: We don't love you so that you'll become a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: We love you because you're our son, because you're our daughter.
SPEAKER_01: We love you.
SPEAKER_01: I love you because you're my stepson, you're my stepdaughter.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to believe this for me to love you.
SPEAKER_01: I love you, period.
SPEAKER_01: Your kids aren't prepared for that response.
SPEAKER_01: They're prepared for you to try to make them believe something they don't believe.
SPEAKER_01: And mom and dad, and we'll talk about this.
SPEAKER_01: This is a two-part sermon, much to your chagrin.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we'll talk about that in the next part.
SPEAKER_01: But but but ownership parents, uh, they they parent out of what they need for their children and what they need from their children.
SPEAKER_01: And your and your self-worth is tied in your kids' behavior, and it'll eat your lunch.
SPEAKER_01: And that and other happy thoughts will come in part two of this sermon.
SPEAKER_01: I say, hey, hey, is God real?
SPEAKER_01: By the way, this is not an argument you win with your kids.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: This is a reality you demonstrate.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a picture, and I won't take long on it.
SPEAKER_01: The story of the prodigal son.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: He goes off in the far country, he squandered his estate on wild living.
SPEAKER_01: That's Bible talk for he went crazy.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and then he has to go get a job feeding pigs.
SPEAKER_01: And and the Bible says this in verse 17 of Luke 15.
SPEAKER_01: And he came to a census, and listen to what he said.
SPEAKER_01: What his frame of reference was.
SPEAKER_01: How many of my father's hired men have more than enough food to spare?
SPEAKER_01: And here I am starving to death.
SPEAKER_01: He remembered what it was like back at home.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say, is God real?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying you're gonna have a conversation with your kids about the ontological proofs of God's existence.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're to live your life in such a way that when your kids are in the hog pen, when they put it in the ditch, they look up and they think, Man, how many of my dad's hired men have more than enough food to spare?
SPEAKER_01: Translation, man, my mom and dad, I don't always agree with them, but there's something about them that is sure and certain and juicy and enjoyable.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe, maybe there's more to that than I've thought about.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I mean when I say you answer the question, is God real?
SPEAKER_01: Second question your parenting has to answer is what is he like?
SPEAKER_01: What is he like?
SPEAKER_01: This manifests itself in two ways.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, it's nature.
SPEAKER_01: By nature, I mean that refers to who God is apart from us.
SPEAKER_01: Who God is apart from us.
SPEAKER_01: God does is not defined totally in relation to us.
SPEAKER_01: God exists apart from us, so he has attributes and character and characteristics that have nothing to do with us.
SPEAKER_01: So you gotta we gotta parent in such a way that our kids understand God's nature.
SPEAKER_01: God self-discloses in Exodus 34, verse 5 to Moses.
SPEAKER_01: It says the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He passed before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but will who by no means clear the guilty.
SPEAKER_01: See, we love that part about God that says, oh, he's loving and he's abounding and forgiving iniquity and transgression, steadfast in love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands.
SPEAKER_01: There's not a period there.
SPEAKER_01: In the same sentence, and God says, Hey, don't jerk with me, I'll lay the wood to you.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's the God our culture's forgotten about.
SPEAKER_01: God says, Who will by no means clear the guilty?
SPEAKER_01: I am loving, but when you're guilty, I ain't gonna get you off of it.
SPEAKER_01: I ain't gonna get you out of it.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, I gotta confess my sin to you.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta stop this week.
SPEAKER_01: I was going to have a lunch with my insurance agent, which is a sign from God.
SPEAKER_01: I should never do that.
SPEAKER_01: And I pulled up to a stop sign, and and and I want to say, apparently, I rolled through it.
SPEAKER_01: No, apparently.
SPEAKER_01: I kind of slowed down, I didn't see me coming.
SPEAKER_01: I rolled, turned left because I was running late for lunch.
SPEAKER_01: And when I turned, I saw the cop pulling up behind another car at the light.
SPEAKER_01: That car turned right.
SPEAKER_01: I looked up, the cop turned right.
SPEAKER_01: All of a sudden he pulls out and passes the car, and I was like, You know how you get that tingly feeling in your belly?
SPEAKER_01: I was like, he whipped in behind me.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, we must pay good taxes because this was a nice SUV.
SPEAKER_01: And it goes real fast.
SPEAKER_01: And it has a bunch of blue and red lights on it because they came on, and I just pulled over, I turned on the side street and I reached over and got my insurance.
SPEAKER_01: I rolled down my wind.
SPEAKER_01: Then he walked up and he said, Uh, sir, uh, do you have any any any idea why I stopped you?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah, because I rolled for that stop sign back there.
SPEAKER_01: And he went, Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Is there a reason why you rolled with it?
SPEAKER_01: I ain't got a leg to stand on.
SPEAKER_01: I'm guilty of sin.
SPEAKER_01: And he was like, And I he said, Do you have your insurance?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Here.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, let me run your license.
SPEAKER_01: He goes back, comes back, and he goes, I'm gonna give you a verbal warning, much to my wife's chagrin.
SPEAKER_01: She always gets a ticket.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and hand me that.
SPEAKER_01: And hand me myself.
SPEAKER_01: I looked at him and I said, Hey, by the way, we're not all against you.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Why am I saying that?
SPEAKER_01: Because when I'm guilty, I should be the first person to say I'm guilty.
SPEAKER_01: And look at me.
SPEAKER_01: When your kids are guilty, you should be the first person to say, Hey, my kid, my kid screwed up.
SPEAKER_01: Because most parents start every conversation about their kids with two presuppositions.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, it's not my kids' fault.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just start with that.
SPEAKER_01: Regardless of how foolish it's gonna make me look, it's not my kids' fault.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, your kids' depravity will let you suffer humiliation to protect them.
SPEAKER_01: They won't out themselves.
SPEAKER_01: And secondly, here's the other presupposition we parents love to start with.
SPEAKER_01: The best solution is whatever's best for my kid.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a question, we'll get into this in the second part of this sermon.
SPEAKER_01: Do you allow your kids to be trained by discipline?
SPEAKER_01: Are you always bailing them out?
SPEAKER_01: I'm such a bad parent.
SPEAKER_01: When we took our oldest to college, I rode with her, uh, and I looked at her and basically said, Hey, if you get up here and wake up and put it in the ditch, that's on you.
SPEAKER_01: Because your mom and dad worked hard, and we're good parents.
SPEAKER_01: We're not perfect, but we're pretty good parents.
SPEAKER_01: You've had it really good, so don't screw this up.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that's the way I think about it.
SPEAKER_01: My wife's in the van behind us, following us, and what she's thinking is, what what else could I have done wrong?
SPEAKER_01: If I would have nursed her a little bit longer, would she have allergies and blah, blah, blah?
SPEAKER_01: And my wife says these things, and I'm like, she'll say, you know, I just think, if I could have done this and I could have done that, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't know what you mean at all.
SPEAKER_01: I think these kids ought to get up and kiss the ground and thank God every day.
SPEAKER_01: I'm their father.
SPEAKER_01: I think that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, again, I'm not saying I'm perfect, but my wife is just like, oh, oh, have I, oh, do that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yeah, I don't think that way.
SPEAKER_01: And I need to be more that way.
SPEAKER_01: And and I don't know if she needs to be more like me, or I'm just like, mmm.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta be the first person, here's what I'm saying, you gotta be the first person to tell the truth about your kids.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you lie to yourself about your kids, you gotta lie to everybody else about your kids.
SPEAKER_01: And pretty soon you'll start choking on your own hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the grace of God, our kids are pretty, pretty sharp young women.
SPEAKER_01: I do have to say every once in a while, because I, this is my fault, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_01: But I labor under this illusion.
SPEAKER_01: I should tell you one time to do something and you do it.
SPEAKER_01: I know, right?
SPEAKER_01: Keep smoking that, loser.
SPEAKER_01: I just, I'm not in the habit of repeating myself.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just like, what part of this did we not get?
SPEAKER_01: Uh but here's the reality.
SPEAKER_01: I have I have to answer the question, what is God like?
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: But look what he says, he'll by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, the children's children, to the third and fourth generation.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this.
SPEAKER_01: This is, you want to parent in such a way that your kids have this response to God.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself, do my children live with the illusion they can they can control God or alter God's nature to fit their desires?
SPEAKER_01: Or do they bow in submissive worship before God?
SPEAKER_01: Do they say, well, my God's a God of love.
SPEAKER_01: He would never do that.
SPEAKER_01: Or do they bow their appetites in submissive worship before God and go, Golly, I want to do that, but I know this is right.
SPEAKER_01: The other part of God's answer to the question is it's God's nature.
SPEAKER_01: And the second part is his character.
SPEAKER_01: This is who God is in relation to us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus tells us this in Matthew 11.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Come to me, all you that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
SPEAKER_01: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I'm gentle and lowly of heart.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, when Jesus says, Mom and Dad, learn from me, he has taken off of us the burden of trying to act like we know it all.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Come learn from me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to give you a pop quiz or something we've never covered before in class.
SPEAKER_01: Learn from me.
SPEAKER_01: For I'm gentle and lowly in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls.
SPEAKER_01: For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
SPEAKER_01: The third and last question you have to answer with gospel parenting is this is does he really have a plan for my life?
SPEAKER_01: Does he really have a plan for my life?
SPEAKER_01: Does God really have a plan for my what's that got to do with anything?
SPEAKER_01: Because if he doesn't, as soon as that thought lands on your kid and they don't think that there is a God or he really has a plan, then why not be ruthless, maniacal, self-centered, and motivated by whatever's necessary?
SPEAKER_01: Because that student, that kid grows up thinking I have to create instead of receive.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says that we're we're we are to receive.
SPEAKER_01: Let me demonstrate and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: 139th Psalm, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: David says this to God.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in your book were written every one of them.
SPEAKER_01: What's them?
SPEAKER_01: The days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that again.
SPEAKER_01: Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in your book were written every one of the one of them.
SPEAKER_01: The days that were formed for me, when as yet none of them.
SPEAKER_01: When as yet there was none of them.
SPEAKER_01: So two things I want to draw your attention to.
SPEAKER_01: One of them's kind of creepy, one of them is altogether glorious.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, David says, when your eyes saw my unformed substance.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're if you're uh under the age of 18, could I could you raise your hand right now?
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hand up.
SPEAKER_01: If you're under the age of 18, you're kind of like, yes, that's me.
SPEAKER_01: This will bless you immensely, my friend right here in the second row.
SPEAKER_01: I will not use your name because I don't want people to come up to you and going, but when you were unformed substance, we'll just we'll just say it like that, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So for my friend Hayden out here, when Hayden was unformed substance and his mom and his dad, nothing had come together.
SPEAKER_01: You got that?
SPEAKER_01: Is that biological enough?
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are like, dude, Super Bowl Sunday, come on.
SPEAKER_01: You're supposed to be wearing an Atlanta Falcons jersey talking to us about being super parents.
SPEAKER_01: Give me a break.
SPEAKER_01: When your eyes saw my unformed substance, this is what he says before I was formed, the days that were formed for me already existed.
SPEAKER_01: So I'll just use I have a friend in the room's name Hayden.
SPEAKER_01: I'll use my friend Hayden before he was ever formed.
SPEAKER_01: His days were already formed.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, In your book were written every one of them.
SPEAKER_01: So if you wonder if God has a plan for you, the Bible says, hey, before you were ever formed, your days were formed.
SPEAKER_01: So what that means is if you turn this around and look at it from God's perspective, God looks at you through the lens of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: And what God is saying is, I've been looking at today through the lens of eternity since before you were even formed.
SPEAKER_01: Today's not caught me off guard.
SPEAKER_01: Because I formed it.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's what we do.
SPEAKER_01: When we don't think that God has a plan and we've got to take matters into our own hands, we deform what God formed a long time ago.
SPEAKER_01: And then we blame God for the destruction that comes as a result of that.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't know how God could let that happen.
SPEAKER_01: And so maybe we could close today by thinking of it like this living from the perspective.
SPEAKER_01: He's real and he's available and he has a plan.
SPEAKER_01: This infuses both us and our kids, our lives with matter and meaning.
SPEAKER_01: What that says is fourth grade matters.
SPEAKER_01: You don't start mattering, students, when you get to be 17 and you got to declare a major or pick a college.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Because your days were formed, every one of them.
SPEAKER_01: So you start mattering.
SPEAKER_01: You matter already.
SPEAKER_01: What's this got to do with anything?
SPEAKER_01: When you were unformed, your days are already formed, which means God's had plans for you long before you got here, and He's waiting to entrust those to you.
SPEAKER_01: It's always been that way in the Old Testament, book of Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: People kept jacking around with God.
SPEAKER_01: God sent them into bondage and said, Hey, you won't listen to me?
SPEAKER_01: Listen to these people.
SPEAKER_01: And then there they're going, God, have you forgotten?
SPEAKER_01: And God says, For I know the plans that I have for you.
SPEAKER_01: Plans to prosper you, not to harm you.
SPEAKER_01: Plans of good, not evil.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the deal: I can't give you my plans because you can't be trusted with them.
SPEAKER_01: Where do you get that?
SPEAKER_01: The next verse.
SPEAKER_01: After God says, Hey, plans not to harm you, but to prosper you.
SPEAKER_01: Plans of good, not evil.
SPEAKER_01: And God says this, and you'll search for me and you'll find me when you search for me with all your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're in bondage right now because you ain't searching for me with all your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to get into relationships, young ladies, with guys because you're not searching for God with all your heart, and your heart drifted into another place that it should never be in.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be preaching to that kickoff.
SPEAKER_01: We get going on this.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: God says, hey, you don't think I got plans?
SPEAKER_01: It's not the issue is not that I don't have plans.
SPEAKER_01: The issue is that I can't trust you with the bigness of my plans because of the smallness of your life.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe tonight you could just crawl in bed.
SPEAKER_01: It's a third grader.
SPEAKER_01: Got any third graders in the room today?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody?
SPEAKER_01: Third grade?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I see that hand.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, is that my friend Ben?
SPEAKER_01: Ben, you could get in bed tonight as a third grader.
SPEAKER_01: You could just lay there and pull the covers up to your chin and just giggle and just think, he has a plan for me.
SPEAKER_01: He has a plan for me.
SPEAKER_01: You could tell your dog, what's your dog's name, Ben?
SPEAKER_01: Violet.
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about that after the service.
SPEAKER_01: Like Spike or something.
SPEAKER_01: Let's man this up here, Ben.
SPEAKER_01: Or Violet, the little snowflake dog.
SPEAKER_01: Ben, you could tell Violet, hey, he has a plan for me.
SPEAKER_01: So when I get older, and probably already now, some of your friends start to kind of get off the track and do goofy things.
SPEAKER_01: Ben, you ain't gotta do that.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God has a plan.
SPEAKER_01: And how do you experience the fullness of God's plan for your life?
SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, dude, I'm in the third grade.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to go play in the root in the creek with Violet.
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
SPEAKER_01: It's part of God's plan.
SPEAKER_01: But God has more plans, bigger and better plans.
SPEAKER_01: And you get to experience those, Ben.
SPEAKER_01: And it's based on this one simple thing.
SPEAKER_01: How much can God trust you with, Ben?
SPEAKER_01: The same thing's true of your mom and your dad and your sisters.
SPEAKER_01: How much can God trust you with?
SPEAKER_01: Because look at me.
SPEAKER_01: How on earth is to live your entire life and feel like it all depends on you?
SPEAKER_01: That will wear you.
SPEAKER_01: You'll be self-medicating the rest of your life because that just gnaws at you.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible says, hey, he has a plan.
SPEAKER_01: He has a plan.
SPEAKER_01: And he's had it when you were unformed, Ben.
SPEAKER_01: Before your mom ever knew your dad existed.
SPEAKER_01: God had already formed your days like a big snowball.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of them just perfectly packed and prepared.
SPEAKER_01: And he's just like, I can't wait for Ben to experience this.
SPEAKER_01: He's already got 16 all planned out, Ben.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know you're going to get a car when you're 16, Ben?
SPEAKER_01: Did your sisters get a car when they were 16, Ben?
SPEAKER_01: Wasn't God's will.
SPEAKER_01: But he's got it all planned out.
SPEAKER_01: And so you've got to back up, Ben, from 16 or 61.
SPEAKER_01: You got to back up.
SPEAKER_01: Third grade.
SPEAKER_01: How old are you in the third grade, Ben?
SPEAKER_01: Eight.
SPEAKER_01: And you gotta look way down there.
SPEAKER_01: What's a long way from you are?
SPEAKER_01: What's like, how old is old in your mind, Ben?
SPEAKER_01: You think of a number.
SPEAKER_01: How old is really old?
SPEAKER_01: Like.
SPEAKER_01: Like eighty?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: We'll go with 80.
SPEAKER_01: It's like like Google?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: 80.
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, Ben, and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: Stay with me.
SPEAKER_01: You're doing good, Ben.
SPEAKER_01: Ben, from third grade to 80.
SPEAKER_01: Every day.
SPEAKER_01: Every day, God has a plan for how you live those days.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to control your kids through behavior modification.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, come here.
SPEAKER_01: Let me smack your breath.
SPEAKER_01: What have you been doing?
SPEAKER_01: Who are you texting?
SPEAKER_01: I've been on Facebook.
SPEAKER_01: You, look at me, and I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: You experience the bigness of God's plan for your life, mom and dad, and then infects your kid with a desire to experience the same thing for their life.
SPEAKER_01: Not the same plan, but God's plan for their life.
SPEAKER_01: And what we have to ask ourselves as parents is do I want my plan for my kids' lives to be realized?
SPEAKER_01: Or do I want God's plan for their life to be realized?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Just take a minute.
SPEAKER_01: And just ask the Holy Spirit, what do you take away from the day?
SPEAKER_01: We'll come back and finish.
SPEAKER_01: But God's not coming.
SPEAKER_01: God's goal for today is not so you'd feel beat up about how you're parenting.
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: God just says, hey, here's some takeaways from a great section of scripture about parenting your kids.
SPEAKER_01: Here's some questions that this kind of parenting has to answer.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just think for a moment about what we take away from that.
SPEAKER_01: And Father, because you're faithful, we can be faithful as parents.
SPEAKER_01: We can be faithful as children.
SPEAKER_01: So God, I pray that in your mercy, the Bible says you're rich in mercy.
SPEAKER_01: So I appeal to that which you're richest in.
SPEAKER_01: Ask that in your mercy you'd reveal yourself.
SPEAKER_01: To everyone in this room that doesn't yet know you.
SPEAKER_01: You don't mind a good fight.
SPEAKER_01: You can take it.
SPEAKER_01: Our questions don't alter your nature.
SPEAKER_01: One iota.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, we want to leave this morning mindful of what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Of you.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that you freely provide everything for our enjoyment.
SPEAKER_01: That's the kind of God you are, and that's the kind of plans you have.
SPEAKER_01: Plans that increase our enjoyment of you and ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Now, hearing something like that, God, it's like somebody spitting in our hair.
SPEAKER_01: We won't soon forget that.
SPEAKER_01: You freely provide everything for our enjoyment.
SPEAKER_01: That's your nature.
SPEAKER_01: We are humbled by that, and we are invited into that today.
SPEAKER_01: So let us hear your voice calling us towards that.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for your attentiveness.
SPEAKER_01: I got a little carried away and went about 10 minutes over.
SPEAKER_01: My apologies.
SPEAKER_01: I'll give it back to you next week.
SPEAKER_01: Is that a deal?
unknown: What?
SPEAKER_01: You people don't act like you believe me.
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet, you sinners.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions about anything you heard this morning, we can pray with you about anything.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be available down front, myself and some of our pastors and elders.
SPEAKER_01: We'd love to know what it looks like for us to pastor you this week, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: Because you've been parented by God.
SPEAKER_01: You know how to do this.
SPEAKER_01: It's just not doing it out of frustration or exhaustion, but doing it out of understanding.
SPEAKER_01: May your understanding increase to such a degree that your children are satisfied by it and in it.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you.
SPEAKER_01: You're dismissed.