Family Sunday

You blessed today?

Can we just thank God for all that he's doing?

Isn't amazing.

It's just wonderful to be part of a New Testament church.

Amen.

Uh, moving in these baptisms and the, uh, all that the kids are involved in and all those things.

It's just, uh, just wonderful and it's all cause of the glory of God.

Name is John.

I am one of the pastors here, Trinity.

And it's, it's really a true blessing to be, uh, part of a team.

Uh, you know, we have the privilege of being with the kids and we have so many fabulous workers that come alongside of us and do so many things.

And the wonderful thing is that so many of them have grown up through our, through the ministry here, you know, and how many trips to Buffalo with Rob and Chris, and the camps that have been done and all these things.

And now to walk through the halls and see our youth leaders who were once teens and the youth group, you know, and, um, our nursery workers and all these people that have grown up that are Christianity's generational.

Yep.

You know that.

And that's, if you haven't guessed by now, throughout the service, we're about partnering together, you know, to see all that.

And, um, you know, watching Hannah and Joel and, um, all the other and going through the office staff and it's just such a blessing, you know, in fact, Derek was once my youth pastor, so it was But, um,.

But it is just such a blessing.

And like I said, if you have not guessed by now, we're about partnering with one another.

I think Tyler put it so well this morning.

Uh, yeah, this is Family Sunday, but you know, y'all have a seat at the table.

Yes.

Because we're all family here and yeah, we're focusing a lot on family today and parents and kids, but we all have a part.

Yes.

And we all have, you know, a responsibility to one another.

And here at Trinity, we just don't, you know, want to see you on Sunday and ask you how your week was and see you next week.

But, you know, the New Testament church was involved in each other's lives.

That's right.

And they walked with each other.

They cared about each other.

Um, you know, they supported one another.

And that's what we're about.

And that's what our children's ministry is about.

Our youth ministry.

Every, every ministry that we have here, um, we were not called to parent your children.

That's right.

Okay.

We are not the parents.

That's not our job.

You are the parents.

I'm the parent of my family.

Um, that's ordained by God.

Yes.

So, but we are here to walk with you.

Hold your hand, be a listening ear, sometimes to give you that support.

Maybe it involves babysitting on Friday night.

That's right.

You know, whatever it takes to join with you and to reinforce biblical truths that we pray that you're instilling in your kids and in their lives.

So we're just so thankful for that.

I know it's already been a packed service and a lot of things going on.

Um, and we won't, we have time.

Tyler said we have time, but we won't spend a lot of time.

We knew it would be a, a time where we would need a shorter service.

So the elders thought that I was best fit to do the shorter service.

So I really don't know what they meant by that.

But Neil was here.

He would say, stay in your lane, stay in.

But we are gonna open the word of God.

We're gonna look at some familiar scripture and just, uh, this is meant to be an encouragement to all of us, and especially to parents.

Uh, the word of God is there for our instruction and our encouragement.

Um, and sometimes it's there for change.

Yes.

So, uh, let's just open up the word.

Uh, let's start with a familiar pass.

All this will be familiar to us, but, um, starting in Ephesians chapter six, verses one through four.

All right.

Honor your father and mother.

This is the first commandment with the pro.

I actually thought I would've gotten some amens from that, but come on.

Yeah.

Amen.

Parents, that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.

Fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

All right.

So here we have Paul giving us instructions, not just for parents, right, but for children.

Children too.

Honor your fathers and your mothers.

Obey them.

Do what's right in the Lord.

Right?

This is the what God has commanded us.

And as parents, as fathers, mothers, we are to instruct our children.

Right?

And that's a, that's a big word today, instruction.

And we are not to provoke them.

Antagonize um, frustrate them.

Aggravate them.

Um, and it's kind of funny, you know, for a long time I thought aggravation was my spiritual gift,.

Um, and my wife can attest to that cuz I'm just so good at it, aggravating people,.

But Mark informed me that it's actually not a spiritual gift.

That it's really the opposite of spiritual gifts.

So, you know, pray for me in that, in that way.

But, um, we are given that charge.

And the word of God is, is for all time.

There's no expiration date on it.

There is no age limit on this honor your father and your mother till you're 18 because then you're an adult and you don't have to do anymore.

did not see that.

Right?

And as parents, we are to instruct our children just until they get outta high school.

Nope.

That's not there either.

Right?

We are to do it for all time.

Um, the word of God is not affected by our society or what people think.

You know, I'm remembering, uh, one of my children growing up, came to me one day.

They're about at an age where they're starting to think about driving, starting to think about cars, all that good stuff.

For me that age was three.

But, um, they were a bit older than that.

And they came and they said, Hey dad.

Right?

You always know something's up right when they come to you, you know, I was wondering, how much money did your dad give you for your first car,?

And I said, well, he didn't give me any money for my first car.

I could sense there was a little hesitation there, a little pause.

And they said, well, you know, dad, things are a lot different these days,.

And I turned to them and I said, well, you know, they're really not, okay?

They're exactly the same.

But we think that times change things, but the truth is it doesn't.

Right?

The word of God is the same yesterday, it was the same today, and it's the same forever.

Right?

So the instructions God has given us do not have an expiration date.

And as parents, as children, we're given that role and we must obey it.

It's not an option.

So, and seeing that we can also go into Deuteronomy chapter six, verses four through nine, Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Okay?

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house.

And when you walk by the way.

And when you lie down.

And when you rise, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand.

And they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates.

Okay?

I thank God was specific here, wasn't he?

Do you, I think he was trying to impress on the children of visual Israel here, that it is important to instruct your children Yes.

That this is a generational thing, like we mentioned this morning.

This is not just do as I say, not as I do.

Right?

This is instructions in the word of God.

Um, you know, we could look at it a different way.

Instruct your children when you're watching TV in the living room and something comes on the screen that is not in line with the word of God.

Yes.

Right?

Messages that are being told to us over and over again, which do not line up with scripture or things that we shouldn't be in, lifestyles we shouldn't partake in and things like that.

When you're sitting at the kitchen table and you're eating dinner, hopefully we all still do that, maybe once a while, couple days a week.

It's a great thing to do.

Um, talking with our children, bringing up the word of God, bringing up things that you've seen in the scriptures, things you've done at church, things that are going on in the world and pointing it out and saying, Hey, did you see this is a great thing?

Or this is a negative thing instructing our children, um, in the evenings when we're getting ready for bed, are we, are we praying as a family?

Are we with our family?

Are we instructing them the last thing they go to sleep?

Do they remember an argument or do they remember peace in it?

Peaceful evening with prayer and dedication to the god's work.

You know, these things are very important when we're driving in our cars.

I don't know about y'all, but our family had like, wonderful discussions in the car.

I don't know what it is about the hum of the tires or what it is, but all of a sudden people want to talk about things and they bring up these life-changing discussions, right?

And you're like, I'm trying to drive.

But, um, we have to be prepared for that because we never know when our kids are gonna be ready to talk.

Right?

They don't, they don't go on our schedule.

It's like, okay, let's talk now.

Well, no, they don't want to.

They wanna play with their toys or do whatever, but sometimes when they open up, we gotta grab ahold of those situations, right?

So when we're driving in the car and we're the things we listen to, the things we look at, it's just comes down to simply this, that way as parents, okay?

Our children need to see our love for God.

Yeah.

Our children need to hear it with their ears.

They need to hear that the words we say, uh, reflect our love for God.

And in essence, they need to know in their hearts that mom and dad love God.

That this is an important thing to them, to us as parents.

This is not just a hobby.

Right?

And we heard someone a long time ago who say that Christianity is a terrible hobby.

Yeah.

You know?

Yes.

If you're gonna do it, do it right.

Yeah.

It's not for the faint of heart.

Right.

God said that it's, it's a long journey and he's there with us and parenting is hard.

Yep.

Amen.

Yeah.

Okay.

Parenting is hard.

I know you all think you're just bundles of joy and.

It's just our pleasure to be around you.

But parenting is a very hard thing, especially when we do it in line with God's word.

Right.

But we're thankful that God is there with us.

That He's the Holy Spirit is there to empower us and we don't need to worry about it.

We can, we can place our children in God's hands because after all, they're his star with Right.

And he knows way better than we do.

Yeah.

What's best for our children, which is really a hard thing sometimes to grasp cuz you know, you pray over your children and you ask God to use them and to bless them.

And when he does, you say, but wait a minute.

Now, that's really not the direction I wanted.

Right.

You know, when I prayed over my children, if they'd wanna serve God, I didn't mean that they'd go to Lebanon.

Right.

You know?

Yeah.

God, I I didn't mean that I meant down the road, down the street.

Okay.

And, um, those are hard things for parents, right.

But we're instructing them in the word of God.

And, and they need to understand that church is important to mom, to dad.

It's not just something we're doing on Sunday because we have nothing else to do.

Right.

But this is important instruction of the word of God is life.

The Word of God is life to us.

And a lot of things we see in today's world, and, um, situations that are happening, I really believe are because we've been silent.

Yes.

We've not instructed our children in the word of God.

We've not told them what is right, what is wrong, what the, what the word says about this situation, what it says about that situation.

We've ignored it and thought, well, they'll figure it out on their own.

Not gonna happen.

Right.

It's not gonna happen.

We don't figure out things on our own.

We need the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and we need Jesus and the grace of God.

So already moving on Proverbs 22, 6, again, familiar scripture, but one that needs to be reinforced.

So train up a child in the way he should go.

And even when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Amen.

Amen.

Since training up in child, remember when first part we read in Ephesians, giving instruction to our children.

Right.

Not aggravating them, not, um, frustrating them, but instruct them in the word of God.

Uh, it just so important, just so important that our children know where we stand.

Right?

And again, if left to their own, you know, we are not naturally good.

Right.

Because in spite of what the world has told us, in spite of all the, well, just follow your heart.

Well, you know what the Bible says, our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked.

So you may wanna rethink that.

Right.

And our children as sweet and precious as they are,, we're a little sinners.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, we taught our children many things over the years.

I wife homeschooled them a lot of things we taught them.

You know, I never taught them to say no.

Right?

Somehow they figured that on their own.

I never sat them down and said, now look, at some point I'm gonna ask you to do something and you're not gonna wanna do it.

This is what you say.

You say, no,.

I never had to do that.

I never had to say.

Now, if you really like something, you just say mine.

.

All right.

Have you ever taught your children to say mine?

No.

Um, go back in the hallway into the two year old class.

See how they, how they treat each other.

You know, one kid has a a toy, the other kid wants it, mine.

Mine.

And they real fighting over it.

And our all right, we are born with sin in our lives.

And except for the grace of God and the blood of Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit that makes us righteous.

Okay?

If we leave our kids to their own, let them figure it out.

As we hear that a lot in, in society and the world's message to us.

Well, you know, I think they should all find their own way.

That's not what the word of God says, right?

Right.

It says to train our children.

All right.

Train them up, not just instruct them and give them direct orders and obey what I say.

Don't question me.

All right?

But with a heart of love, a heart, a teaching heart that wants to see them follow after the ways of God and to succeed in all that they do.

Right?

And you know, th this is a warning for us.

It's an encouragement and it's a warning to be active in our, in our children's lives.

You know, to take notice, to be intentional of what their talents are, what their abilities are, what they are able to do, the things that, uh, come natural to them, whether they're athletes, whether they're musicians, all those kind of things.

We need to be noticing that because we can show them or guide them, direct them, encourage them to use their gifts and abilities for the Lord.

Right?

It, it is just a wonderful thing.

My daughter was here today and did the flags.

Yeah.

You know, I don't know, you probably know Kayla.

Yeah.

And that's a great thing to see and to see that, to see her leading the flags, you know, where did she get that love that training from, from generations, not generations ago.

from years ago being a co-op.

And it was actually Melissa New, I think she's in the back.

So hello Melissa.

In the back teaching flags to our co-op was the first time we were exposed to it.

And we've had others over the year.

Jessica Ellis and many others have taught flags in our co-op and different things.

But that stirred something inside of her, right?

Stirred it up.

And as parents, we were encouraged to plug them into these things, to find opportunities with Rob and Chris and the other ministries that we would go to, and we'd be able to perform in different places and do different things.

It's a witness to other people, and it's taking our children's talents and abilities and helping them serve the Lord with it.

You know, our son plays the drums up here sometimes, you know, and I remember years ago being in a meeting at a church and some kid right outside a pastor's office is banging on the drums, which says, banging, banging, banging.

Bang.

Right?

And we're in this meeting, you're like, whose kid is that?

Banging on these drums?

And I opened the door and guess whose kid it was?

Right?

.

But we saw that he had a desire and it really didn't sound all that bad.

So we were like, there might be some potential here.

And I, I prayed over him, really asked God to change his heart and make him play the flute instead of the drums.

But that was the direction.

But seeing that, and, um, my wife is very active in, in finding teachers that were spear, spear filled teachers, Christians, people of like faith that would teach him in the drums, right?

We just didn't drop'em off somewhere.

We were purposeful about finding someone who's gonna pour into your child, right?

This is the most important, um, person in your lives, your children, right?

You don't wanna just drop them off and say, oh, go at it.

Right?

So to find people that were able to pour into my daughter and to my son and show them the joy of serving God, right?

I couldn't do that.

I couldn't teach them flags.

, you don't want me to teach your children flags?

Okay?

It's gonna end up to big martial arts stick war or something and would make, would not do anything, right?

But other people have other gifts and other abilities that they can pour into your children.

And it's so important when they're athletic.

We had, um, when the kids were playing soccer, one of their coaches was a strong Christian would pray with them before the game, we'd pray with them right?

In the middle field, didn't care the other parents felt or whatever.

Um, but looking for that, and that's where all of us come into the partnership at realm, right?

Even if you are single, if you're older and your kids are raised, you, we still have a part in pouring into these children.

You know, Jesus was in his thirties.

Yeah.

Single.

Yeah.

Did he care about children?

Yes.

Yeah.

Right?

And we don't think about it that often, but it, it's so true that this, they, and as I said the last time we're here, we don't believe that the children are our church of the future.

We believe the children are our church of today.

Amen.

Yes.

We have kids up on the stage worshiping, playing instruments, praising God.

And, you know, if you wanna really experience awesome worship, come back with us on a Sunday morning, come out on Forge, come to our youth rallies and to our camps.

When you see kids worshiping God, there's nothing like it.

There's nothing that can really stir your heart.

And it's so encouraging to see that and to see them getting baptized and, and going forward in their faith.

It's, it's a wonderful thing.

But it takes effort.

It takes time, and it takes that partnership together.

And like I said, we are not here to parent the children, but we are here to walk alongside of you and to partner with you to reinforce those biblical truths that I pray you're bringing forth to your kids.

Because what we do here and what other places can have an impact, but there's nothing like mom and dad.

And it may not seem that way, okay?

It may not seem like you're getting through.

But as a parent who's been through all those stages, it's amazing what really sinks in, even though you don't think it is.

Um, and a lot of that is due to the fact that you're allowing other people to pour into your kids' lives.

Being purposeful.

You know, there's a rule of seven, which is effective in all kinds of things, sales and all kinds of things.

But it basically says that before you and accept, before you accept a belief or see a need for something, you're usually presented, you're presented seven different ways or at seven different times.

So maybe you see a commercial for a product on tv, and then maybe you hear it on the radio, or maybe you are at work and someone starts talking about it.

Or you see a demonstration.

Okay?

All these multiple things happen before you finally decide, you know what?

I really need that vacuum, that hovers in space, you know, or, or whatever the situation is.

And as fellow partners together, the more we pour into these kids, the more we share with them, the more we reinforce the word of God, which, um, we are told to do, and show them that it's so important to honor the Lord and put him first, the deeper those roots go.

And we know it's the power of the Holy Spirit, and we know that the Holy Spirit draws them to himself, and he's the one who saves them.

But it is just such a journey.

And like I said, it's a, it's a hard journey.

It is.

But we're here to be with you.

We're here to walk alongside and it's just such a reward, like we to see and a joy to see these kids today and all that they're learning.

And it's just well worth it, you know?

And it's, you'll as a, as you go along parenting, and those who have older kids will, can relate to this.

One day they will walk in and they will say, you know, mom, dad, so-and-so told me so-and-so, and you, I figured it out.

It's this, it's this.

And you're looking, look at them and you're want to just going to grab them and say, I've been telling you that for 14 years.

, anyone relate to that?

Uhhuh.

.

Yeah.

.

But someone else said it and some, for some reason it sunk in.

But don't be discouraged, okay?

, because that work that you've done, the seeds you've planted, the day after day after day of being consistent and showing your love pays off, okay?

It's not just that end result, that end person.

And we encouraged that.

And we had, um, something that happened at, at camp last year, which was really kind of special.

But we had a boy come to camp and we'll just say he was very active.

And it was my pleasure.

Rob blessed me by placing him in my cabin.

Thanks for that, Rob.

Um, which tends to happen a lot, but I think my dad would've called that payback.

Um, but this poor guy, oh, he was so sweet, so fun.

But man, he could not stop getting in trouble.

You know?

He just, it was like a tale, you know, just followed him everywhere he went,.

And, um, some of the trouble was pretty severe.

But one night he had gotten himself in trouble again and we're outside in the parking lot.

And I'm talking to him and I'm saying, you know, you don't have to get in trouble.

That's right.

You don't have to always be getting called out and in trouble in school, in trouble here.

You know, Jesus can save you.

Yeah.

Jesus.

And the power of the Holy Spirit can give you a whole new life.

He can change all this about you.

And he just yelled out, I need Jesus.

Wow.

Because he was tired.

Tears are coming.

He's just, I could tell this boy was tired of that life being in trouble all the time, you know?

And he recognized his need for Jesus there, right?

And we prayed together.

He got saved there in the parking lot, and we went to bed.

And the first thing, the next morning, you know, what he wanted to do?

He wanted to call his parents.

Wow.

Mm-hmm.

, because this wasn't new.

His parents had been walking with him, right?

They were home praying for their son.

They were home, you know, week after week at the school meetings and the parent teacher conferences and all those things, right?

But pouring into this young man, and I was just in the right place at the right time, but that was fruit of their labor.

That was fruit of their diligence to pray for their child.

Um, and it was just such a blessing to see that.

So that's what it means to be partnering together.

We don't know when our children are going to receive the blessings of God, right?

We don't know who's gonna be there, but we all have part in it.

Um, no matter, like I said, your age, your status of life, wherever you're at, when you see these kids, you know, pray over them.

When you see these parents, young parents and older parents and parents, pray over them.

As you're in your house, as you're going through your day, uh, take the time to show wisdom to others.

Maybe you're a little, um, older in your parenting.

You have more experience or what offer yourself to them.

As I said, sometimes a spiritual thing is just giving up a Friday night to sit with somebody's kids so that mom and dad can go out and have an evening together because they've not done anything in months.

Right?

It's not always sitting there and doing a five point lesson in the scripture, right?

, sometimes it's just walking alongside and doing that.

Um, you know, maybe it's, uh, hopefully it's not changing a diaper, but it could be.

If that's the case, I might be in trouble with that one.

I'll need special grace for that.

But be encouraged.

And you know, there are a lot of ways that we are here to partner with you.

And they said for every age, for every, um, position of life you're in.

But we have the children's church, we have our youth ministry, we have wonderful youth leaders, and we have our diaper days, which is fantastic, right?

For new moms, uh, so many community groups.

We have women's meetings, men's meetings.

All these things are there so that we can be partners together, that we're not just waving at each other on Sundays.

You know, we have our kids camped coming up to the thing you saw this morning with the flags.

That was something they all learned at camp last year, you know, and it's a performing arts camp.

It's camp where you, they can go and they can, if they have an interest in hip hop or um, puppets or like you saw today, the flags and all kinds of things we do.

People are there to train them and now for a whole week.

And they learn a song, they learn a drama, they learn a skit.

They learn all these things, not just so they can say they learned it, but so that they can bless others with it, right?

So they can see that, hey, these talents, these abilities, these gifts that God has given me can be used to serve him.

It's not just about preaching on a Sunday morning, right?

Some kids have gifts in music.

Wasn't it great to see ally up here singing?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was awesome.

She did a great job.

She has a great voice.

But that, that's just such a huge blessing to see that our children can serve God.

And in outreaches, we have all kinds of outreaches this year we have, our teens have already come back from Florida.

We have group going to Niagara.

We have all kinds of things happening.

And I say as a parent and a father of a family, there is nothing better than serving God with your family.

Come on.

You know, if you've ever done it, if you've ever had the opportunity to go on a mission trip with your family, we do our stockings of love around here.

Rob and Chris are set that up.

So great.

And it's an awesome ministry.

And you get to, as a family, provide gifts for another family, for some children and put it together, go shopping together, um, and even deliver it.

This last year when we delivered them, we had families that came out and together, walked through the apartment complexes, knocked on the door.

Here we have this gift for your family, for your kids.

What can we pray about for you?

Okay?

These are ministry opportunities.

And I, I'll tell you, it's been such a blessing over the years to be able to serve God with our children, with our family.

And I just really, truly believe that is something that strengthens your family unit so much that if you can do it, do it.

Yeah.

You know, plan a way to do it.

Be intentional, no matter how insignificant it may seem.

Maybe it's just making, uh, bread for the neighbor and taking it over there and welcoming'em to the neighborhood and hey, this is our church.

Or we can we pray about something for you, but let your children see how much you love Jesus.

Yes.

And we're definitely here to, to do that for you.

And again, this is not to condemn you, okay?

God, there is no con tells us there's no condemnation, but this is instruction in the Word of God and we're here to help you do it.

Yeah.

And it's very rewarding.

Don't think about the would've, could've, should've.

Yeah.

No one cares about that, right?

How will we think about the Holy Spirit?

Can, the Holy Spirit will and Holy Spirit already has empowered us to do these works for him.

Yeah.

So be encouraged.

We love our kids, we love your kids.

There's more information coming about camps and outreaches and all that great stuff.

But know that our children are very valuable, your children are very valuable.

And it's just, it's just time that the church stands up and instructs our children and helps parents, not just criticizes and not just looks down on them, but actually helps and trains and walks alongside.

So can I just pray over everyone today?

And we are have one more thing we're gonna do, but, uh, let's just pray over the, the kids and our families today.

Jesus, we're just so thankful that we could be in your house this morning.

God, it's just been such a, a wonderful time to see how much you're doing in our lives.

That Jesus, you are at work saving souls and Holy Spirit, we thank you for the empowering that you're doing in these lives of these children and these families.

Uh, again, Lord, it is not easy to, uh, be a parent, especially one that wants to serve God and wants to bring up their children in the way they should go and, and in the nurture of the Lord and God.

So I just pray for each parent here.

God, I just pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to be upon them.

Lord, they, they could see that through your spirit that you can strengthen them to do things they would never think they could do.

That they could be the priest of their home.

God the Fathers would, uh, pray over their children, Lord, that fathers and mothers would instruct their children for grandparents, God, for aunts and uncles and all the other extended family members, and all of us Lord, who just may be friends, God, that we would support these families, we'd support these children and that we know Lord, that through the grace of God you can save, you can redeem and you can change lives and families also.

So we're just so thankful for that today in, in the name of Jesus.