Genesis Week 33 • Biblical Parenting

Welcome to the Willow Ridge Sermons podcast. This is

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Absolutely. To all of the graduates, we

are so proud of you. To all of

the parents, we are so desperately praying for

you. You know, just a wonderful, time

to see, all of the hard work for you graduates, all the

hard work, the time, the energy that, you've put

in, and the excitement of

what's next. The excitement of

the, certainty or the uncertainty of the

certainty. Right. Of going where God has you and

trusting in your path for him and seeing all. All the things that

he unfolds for you and parents praying for

you, seriously praying for you as

you walk alongside them in a different chapter of

their life, where you're called to walk alongside them in

a different way, maybe, than you ever have

before. but congratulations to all of

our, graduates. if you have your bible, and I hope you do,

I want to invite you to join me in Genesis, chapter

Genesis 29 · chapter mention

29. We're going to look at verses one through 30

this morning, and in a passage of scripture

that I wasn't sure, when you have these graduate

services, a lot of times it's this,

challenge to the graduates. And what we've kind of done

is continue where we're going to go. And I'll be honest with

you, this morning's passage, a little bit different. and it was neat,

though, as we studied this morning and spent time in prayer, how

God wove together what Aaron and I are

experiencing, as a couple, and something that we've been

doing here at our church. And I think

for the graduates here, as well, but

also for, the parents as we dive

into this, just quick handful, just reminders. The

India meeting after the service is over

with in room 200. I want to get all the information

that I can about two possible trips. so whether you're a

medical professional or not, if you feel God calling you, if

you're interested, please come there. We'll have you out, as

quickly as possible, please. Remember, sign up for kids camp. Sign

up for our discipleship studies. They're on the cards around

here. next Sunday, Robert

Stevens will be sharing. Man, God's just brought Robert

into my life, his whole family into my life. during COVID

is when we met, when they started, coming to Willow Ridge church and being

able to hear all that God's done in Robert's

life and how God is using Robert, in

his suffering and in his tragedy. What God is

doing in him and how he's able to minister to

others, that are close to God and then others who

don't know God is remarkable. And so you'll want to be

here early, for that next week, during our

09:00, discipleship hour, we'll have youth, we'll

have kids. We'll have all that. So you'll want to be there, for

that. we will be pausing on Genesis

after this morning for the remainder of the summer

as we start our simple Sundays next summer,

which means if you weren't here last week, go back and listen. We've got a video

we're going to put out this week. We'll have our kindergarteners through second

grade in here, each week and then dismissed

after worship, keeping our third through fifth graders in

here, abbreviating the message

time. and we're going to be looking specifically at the

parables of Jesus over the course of the summer. So

it'll be a wonderful time of Bible study and worship and

discipleship for us together, as a

family.

Well, this morning, what we're going to look at

in Genesis chapter 29 is

Genesis 29 · chapter mention

some comparison of what we're going to

see. And the comparison,

there's two weddings that take place.

It gets weird quick. In Genesis

29, it starts off, and

maybe you'll recognize from a previous

story and then. And then turn really,

really crazy, turn in about midway through.

But that's not necessarily the comparison that we're gonna look at.

What we're gonna look at this morning is this concept

of biblical parenting and worldly

parenting. Biblical parenting,

what God holds for us as parents and for the

family. And then worldly parenting,

what we see happening not only

in our context in which we live, but

also during biblical times. I do

think this. I think that sometimes we look at

our world and we think this is

the worst it's ever been.

There's new sin, there's

new ways of doing evil, and I

really don't think that's the case. I think when

we look out and we see throughout the course,

from the fall until today,

mankind has been doing sin really

well. Mankind has been rebelling

from God. Mankind has been running

from the statutes,

the promises, the hopes,

the joy of scripture to pursue

the foolishness of the world. And

so we can draw some really great. Maybe the

scenarios are different,

but the hearts are still the same.

From Genesis chapter 29 to

Genesis 29 · chapter mention

today, when it comes to this.

Here at Willow Ridge Church, we place a high

level of importance on what we call

family discipleship. We

believe that the family is

God's design for discipleship.

Not only God's design, but the best opportunity

for. For discipleship to happen and take place.

We believe that we, as a church, are called.

It is our beautiful duty of

responsibility to walk alongside

moms and dads and grandmas and

granddads as we walk alongside

you, to be the assistants, to

be the help, to be the mentor, to be

the encourager as you lead

discipleship in your family. We

believe that's why God has entrusted you

with those kids, and God blesses us

and has entrusted us with your family.

So discipleship for us is

incomplete. If you feel like

you're to bring your kids here, drop your

kids off, or even for you, where you will

receive discipleship, you check that box,

and then you go home and you're done. You've done it for the week. It's like

the trip to the grocery store. Who's

gonna do that? Who's gonna fight those lines?

Who's gonna figure that out? No, no, no. We believe that

discipleship is what God has called the family to and best

equipped the family to with the time, the energy, the skills, with

all that's there. And it's our heart to come alongside you.

Aaron and I have been leading a, parenting study over the last ten

weeks. And, man, it's been so good. We've had a lot of

great couples in there at, different stages in life

with different unique situations in their families,

walking through what it looks like to

disciple the, kids that God has entrusted with them.

And Aaron and I have learned so

much as we've taught, as we've led this

study, from the material that we were given, but then also

from just the people that were in the class.

But here's what it comes to. Here's what you've got to

embrace. If you're going to be a

biblical parent. Here's what you've got to just

say, you know, I'm signing up for

this. Being a parent is not

easy, but being

a biblical parent is

a selfless act. It's

continually. Continually

thinking of others

before thinking of yourself.

It's embraced with sacrifice.

It's embraced with living for the mission, where,

as we see with worldly parenting. And

now, I'm not saying that people who don't

know the Lord are not parents who

love their kids. I'm not saying that

what I am going to say

is the information

that drives worldly

parenting comes from a worldview

of selfishness,

while the truth of God's word that

drives biblical parenting

very selfless.

Because biblical parenting is

about discipleship, and the

home is the best avenue for

discipleship. Right? Look at

Jesus when he calls. The disciples

chooses a group of men, and he says,

come follow me continually.

They lived together, ate together, slept together,

talked together, interacted together on a continual

basis, right? If I were to come to

you and say, I want to disciple

you, and then later,

come and follow me, which would be a

weird statement to phrase it that way, but let's

say I did. In that day, you showed up at

my house with, like, two

suitcases and a sack of

groceries from Walmart, and you're like, all right,

we're ready. Let's do this. I'm like,

no, no, no. You misunderstood what I was talking about.

I meant, like, let's meet at Creekside for breakfast.

That's what I meant. but that's what Jesus did,

and that's what we see in the family. We

see the time, we see the opportunity, we see the venue

where this can take place. Biblical parenting is

about discipleship, but when we look at

worldly parenting, what we see is that worldly parenting

is about behavior modification. And we'll explain

that. But what can I

create? What can I turn you into?

And biblical parenting and discipleship are

not about behavior modification. And here's

why. Biblical parenting and discipleship, in the light of

the gospel, says this. This is who

you are.

Christianity always begins with

Christ in who

you are in Christ.

Where your identity is

found is in Christ.

And so in discipleship,

we begin with the mindset that this is

who you are. And then the

application of

discipleship from that is

then this is what you will continue to

become, and then this is what you

do. It all comes out of,

here's who you are in Christ

Jesus, our lord and savior,

where worldly parenting

and behavior modification

is largely this. It is. This is

what you do. So then this is

what you will become. Your

identity in those moments are

found in your accomplishments,

your successes, your achievements

in life. Do you notice the difference in that

with discipleship, with living? In the

gospel, it's, I am a

son of God.

I am a daughter of God.

And then there's expectations that come

from that. But that's who you are.

Where worldly parenting says, no, no, no,

go and make yourself

who you want to be by the things that you

do. So parenting is about

cultivating, this relationship with

your children that seeks to help them

become who God has called them to be in the light of

his truth and his grace. And if you're here and you're

skeptical about that, you're like, well, that seems

to be a very hands off. That seems to be

a very idealistic

view of parenting. That's there.

That seems to be, I'll use the word

weak, but

within this and what we see, and we won't get into great

depths of these, but in biblical parenting, there's rules, there's

instruction, there's teaching, there's discipline, there's structure,

there's boundaries, there's expectations

that are established and met within there. In fact, one of the

verses that I see, that I cling to is

this. Proverbs 22 six. Train up a

child in the way he should go. Even when he is

old.

He will not depart from that.

It's this process of giving of

yourself to train up to help them

understand who they are, setting the parameters and setting

the expectations of God's word of what it means to

love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength,

to love your neighbor as yourself and to then understand

that you do these things so that you can embrace the great commission in

your life, which is to go out and live for

Jesus Christ and to raise up disciples,

to see people come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Like, that's it. And then here's the other. So,

like, let's say you're at a different stage in life and you're sitting here. Well,

here's some disclaimers that we want to kind of share about

parenting, about, being a parent, about being a

child, of someone, right?

I'm a man. I'm 44,

45 sooner than I really want to

be. Right? but I'm still Randy and

Donna Bradbury's child. All right,

here's what I want to say in the Bible. Honor your

father and mother does not come with an expiration

date. You don't hit 18 and you're done

with that, all right?

And I think teenagers need to understand that.

And I think adults

really, really, really need to

understand that. In fact,

the older you get, I believe the harder that is

in this world to apply. But the greater

the call is to honor your father and

mother. All right? The

second thing with that is the verse we just

read to train up a child. Like, being a parent also

doesn't come with an expiration date. It doesn't

come with, they're 18, they're done,

they're out, they're released. They're not my

burden. They're not my responsibility anymore.

Right. The beauty of what God

gives us is the beauty in these relationships

where we keep functioning, we keep working, and we keep

moving, all for this. Okay,

so how do we look at. In Genesis

29 is the

negative example of what this looks

like? Okay. And so we're going to look at the negative

and then turn to the positive and see what are these lessons of what

it looks like to be a biblical parent. And we're going to see

some absolute craziness in

Genesis 29. And my

caution, as we look at the craziness,

is not to get caught up on the crazy

and think that's them and their problem, but to see the

connection for us within there.

So let's start reading verse one.

Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the

people of the east as he looked and saw

a ah well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep

lying beside it. For out of that well, the

flocks were watered. The stone on the well's

mouth was large, and when all the flocks were

gathered there, the shepherds would roll the

stone from the mouth of the well and water the

sheep and put the stone back in its

place over the mouth of the well.

Jacob said to them, my brothers, where do you come from?

They said, we are from Haran. He said to them,

do you know Laban, the son of Nahor? And they said, we know

him. He said to them,

is it well with him? And they said,

it is well. And see, Rachel, his

daughter, is coming with the sheep. And he

said, behold, it is still high day. It

is not time for the livestock to be gathered together,

water the sheep, and go and

pasture them. But they said, we cannot until all

the flocks are gathered together and the stone is

rolled from the mouth of the well. Then

we water the sheep. While he was still

speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for

she was the shepherdess. Now, as soon as Jacob saw

Rachel, the daughter of Laban, from his mother's

brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's

brother, Jacob came near and rolled the

stone from the well's mouth and

watered the flock of Laban, his

mother's brother. Okay, so real quick, recap

of kind of what's going on. Jacob has been

told. There's the whole deceit thing that we looked at a couple weeks

ago, right? Jacob has been told to leave

and to go to the land of

his mother. And so this is what

he does, which is also the land of his

grandfather, Abraham. And

just as he has been instructed to do, he

approaches and he sees these shepherds and

he asks them if they know Laban. This

is what he's looking for in Genesis, 28 two. Just a

reminder. Jacob been instructed to go there

not just to find safety and keep,

but to go there so that he would

marry one of Laban's daughters.

And the shepherds are like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we know

him. We know who he is. This is of his flock.

And Laban's. One of Laban's daughters is

coming. And Rachel

appears with her father's

herd. Now, verse ten, I

think is kind of cute things that

guys do sometimes so that girls

notice. Remember, times haven't changed

a whole lot, right? So he sees her and

she's approaching, and he's

what? We'll find out later. Let's just say this. He likes what he

sees, right?

I'll never forget first time I saw my

wife. She was not my wife at the time.

She was walking down the stairs at first Baptist, North Augusta. We were set

up on a blind date. And I remember

thinking, I don't know if that's

who I'm set up with or not, but

if that's not who I'm set up with,

I'm going to try to get to figure out who she is.

Right. She's pretty.

Whoo.

Jacob has some of the same reaction, right?

Tries to get him to go away. They can't. They say

that they can't until they water. And it's not time to water yet. They can't

do that till the flock is there. So what the Bible says is that

there's a stone over the well, and it says that

shepherds, plural, would come together

to remove the stone and to roll it away. All

right. I don't know if it was adrenaline of, I've got

to get these guys out of here. I don't know if it's

the watch me show off in front of

her. But he reaches down and

in Crossfit style, like, this is where

Crossfit came into being. Right here. Right? He lifts

up this stone and he rolls it

away. Look at me. Look at my muscles. This

is who I am. Rachel, take notice of this. All

right, this is the

interaction, verse eleven.

Then Jacob kissed

Rachel and wept aloud.

I don't know. I don't know what to do with that. Right.

and Jacob told Rachel

that he was her father's kinsman

and that he was Rebekah's son.

And she ran and told her father, there are

things culturally that are just off there for us, and we just gotta

trust it. All right? As soon as Laban heard the news

about Jacob, his sister son, he ran to

meet him m and embraced him and kissed him and brought him

to his house. And Jacob told Laban all these things.

And Laban said to him, surely you are

bone. You are my bone and my flesh. And

he stayed with him a month. All right?

Now, no scholar that I could read could give

great clarity to verse eleven. But like,

that just had to be a kiss. You know what I mean? Like,

that's a good kiss right there. He wept.

Right here's where at.

Jacob tells Rachel who he is, that he's a kinsman. He's in the

line of Abraham. This is what she knows. Rachel and Laban

know who he is. Would have known

Abraham, would have known Isaac. They are family. They would have known

the generational wealth. They would have known all that's there.

They would have known who he was. All right? And he is brought

in. Look at verse 15. Then Laban says

to Jacob, because you are my kinsman, should you

therefore serve me for nothing? This kind

of changes a little bit. Tell me what

your wages should be. Now, Laban had

two daughters. The name of the older was

Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.

Leah's eyes were weak, but

Rachel was beautiful in form and

appearance. And Jacob loved

Rachel. And he said, I will

serve you seven years for your younger

daughter, Rachel. And Laban said, it is

better that I give her to you than I

should give her to any other man.

Stay with me. So Jacob

served seven years for

Rachel. And they seemed to him

but a few days, all, right. That's sweet.

But they seemed to him but a few days because of

the love he had for her. So

Laban and Jacob, they strike a

deal. Laban says, look, if you want to stay with me,

you gotta work, set your salary.

So he hires him as a hired servant,

and he agrees. And so he's willing to

do this because of his love

for Rachel. And it's very clear

in scripture that the Bible says that she was. She was

pretty. She's very pretty. He loved

her. But there's a second sister that's there as

well. And the second sister is the older

sister named Leah. And the description that the Bible

gives of her is that her eyes are weak.

And so this is unsure of

exactly what that means. One theologian said that

her eyes may have been just a dull, like, not

attractive eyes. another theologian would say that she

was blind. But here's the difference.

One draws what they would have characterized

a negative aspect. And then on the counter

of that, for Rachel is the

opposite of that. So what we

see are two sisters who are

different, and he is

in love with one and

not the other. And so Jacob and

Laban, what they do here, it seems different, and it

seems, weird to us. But they agree to a dowry,

right? Now, Jacob has no money

to, be able to come at this point because of how he had to

flee his family. So in order for him, which

had been customary of the time, to provide a

dowry, he agrees to work for seven years.

And the sweetness of there right at the end. I've

never worked for my father in law as

employment. I can understand where that could be

a, stressful situation. And it says that over those

seven years, it seemed like days, right?

Because of his love for Rachel.

So, verse 21. Then Jacob

said to, laban, give me my wife, that I may go into

her, for my time is complete. So

Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a

feast. But in the evening, he took his

daughter Leah and brought

her to Jacob. And he went

into her. Laban gave his

female servant, Zilpah, to his daughter Leah

to be her servant. And in the morning,

behold, it was Leah.

And Jacob said to Laban,

what is this you have done to me?

Did I not serve with you for

Rachel? Why, then, have

you deceived me?

So we jump, seven years

later, and Jacob

is ready for his

life. He's ready for his

wedding. He's ready to

consummate his marriage. He's

ready to start his life with

Rachel. And a wedding

happens. But he

doesn't marry

Rachel. Instead,

he married Leah. He was

tricked. The deceiver

was deceived again,

not only in service,

but even in consummating his

marriage. And you're thinking like, man, like,

how can this happen?

All right. Well, during this time, it was

customary for a bride to wear

a veil. And we've seen

veils at our weddings. Maybe some of you ladies,

when you got married, maybe you wore one that

very thin, see through

material where your face can be seen. And

it's more symbolic than it is for anything else. But it was

very customary for this time for it to completely

hide who she was. And in certain

instances, the veil would be

worn not just for the wedding ceremony, but for the

wedding night as well. And

so here he's deceived

by a dad who

uses the control and the authorities

over his daughters, to treat them

as his possessions, to leverage them

for what he wants. Now,

next morning, the next day,

Jacob, all of this is found out. He's

enraged. This is what he's done. This is

what he's committed to. Why has this happened? I, mean, think about

this. All

that you've worked for, all that you've dedicated

yourself for, all that you've held near

and dear in what seven years

seemed like moments in time. Because

for his love. And what happens

is not honoring that, but deception,

selfishness, the heart of a

corrupt dad thinking only of

himself. So he confronts

him. Verse 26 through 30.

Laban said, it is not

so done in our country to

give the younger before the firstborn.

Complete the week of this one,

and we will give you the other

also in return for

serving me another

seven years. Jacob

did so, completed her week.

Then Laban gave him his daughter, Rachel to be his

wife. And Laban gave him his female

servant, Bilhah, to his daughter Rachel to

be her servant. So Jacob went into

Rachel also, and he loved

Rachel more than Leah and

served Laban for another seven

years. Some

levels of dysfunction that are

happening in that family. All right,

ladies, I don't know how close you are with your sister,

but I imagine having the same husband would

lead to some conflict. But let's look

and see. Let's eliminate the

very specific actions

that were done here and look at the

categories of what Laban did,

what Laban took on of himself, that

embraced worldly parenting

versus the parenting of the standard of God. Number,

one, he determines for himself that he is

the authority, and he controls the lives of his

daughters. In this moment, he

says, it's my will. It's my

way. I'm going to determine who you are. I'm going

to determine what you become. There are these that are

set so it's not in light of who you are.

This is what you do, but it's inside of what I'm going

to cause you to do, of what you're going to

be. In spite of the expectations,

what he does, as crazy

as this seems for us, as

off putting, as offensive,

as grotesque as this seems for

us, he embraced the norms and

the customs of the society of which he lived.

That was his excuse to Jacob. He's like, listen, man, like,

I just did what culture and

society demand or what is normal

or what is right for us.

And then what he does is he

continues on.

14 years of, securing

financial freedom and benefits for

his family, above all things.

When I looked at in this light.

Laban has many of the same

aspirations as parents.

In 2024, just

played out in a different environment.

He wanted to control. They are going to do.

They are going to be what I have determined for

them. We're not going

to be influencers in society,

but society is going to influence us,

and it will rise above the standards of what

God has for us and above

all things. What does this

mean, and how does this benefit me?

M what does this mean, and how does this benefit

me? It's kind of a difficult passage of

scripture when we look at. So

how can you and I, take this learning from

others mistakes to see what God

could call us to be as parents,

to see what God would call us to

respond as children learning

to and growing in honoring

their mother and father. What can we look at with

this? And I think the first thing that we see from

this is movement, from controlling

to navigating move. When it comes

to biblical parenting, from

controlling to navigating,

Laban had determined what his daughters

would become and who they would be.

What I love about proverbs 22

six is this train

up a child. Train

up, a child in the way that

he should go. And even

when he is old, he will

not depart from it.

This word train

that's here, it means to

initiate or to dedicate.

To initiate or

dedicate. To move

a child toward where they should

go in their walk, in their relationship with

the Lord. In our parenting class, like,

there is a season in

parenting for control,

right? Like, I love it. I loved

it. In the times where we've got our kids, and

it's like, we've got to control the environment

to provide the opportunity

for you to be able to grow in

wisdom and knowledge of the Lord. And so, in this

controlling environment, there's a lot of these rules that

we've got to establish and the protection for you to do

that. But here's what I know. That the older a

kid gets and the more that we try to hold

on and squeeze them tightly is the moment,

like, right here in my fist, I can

see the cracks and the crevices where they'll fight the

push through.

And you try to take a

child, and our action is

control. But what we see

from scripture, what we are in this, is there's

a season for that. But the end goal of what

we're working toward, the end goal of what we're

pushing to, is moving away from control

and to help them navigate

the waters, to

navigate the path,

man, like all of you parents

and your precious kids were up, there

on that screen, man. You're feeling

that weight now of

the release of what time

in our culture has provided for

them to go out into this world, into the

workforce, into the military, into college,

wherever the Lord has for them to go. And

you're realizing that, man, I've got to move

from this to this.

And the caution that I

say also often is, if it's that fast

of a release, the shock to

the system is unbearable. But over

the course, if what we're moving toward is

this gradual, so that they're equipped to go and to

be all that God has called him to be. So what does

it mean? Like, how do we train up? We point them to Jesus,

we commit them to Jesus, we disciple them to Jesus,

and then in this, we release them to

follow Jesus. That's not what

Laban does. Laban says, I'm going to term and

I'm going to do. You're going to do as I instruct you to

do. The second thing that we see of being a biblical

parent is this. Understand that we need to be

a culture influencer, not one

influenced by culture. So

this is even the second and the third time where

we overly see polygamy in scripture.

So I want to kind of talk about this for a minute.

All right. Laban, within the

context of his family, says yes

to polygamy, even though this

isn't the design of God. All right.

specifically, polygamy

is something that is common

in the Old Testament.

Polygamy is a practice that

continues, throughout different parts and different

places of the world.

Polygamy culturally

made sense during this

time.

Polygamy was never

go all the way back to Genesis. Imperfection in the garden,

polygamy never the design of God.

But what we see is that culture

established that polygamy made

sense, and here's why. Now, I'm not saying it made sense in that I

agree with it, but I'm saying in the norm

of the society of what's there,

polygamy made sense, and here's why. And

it's all a break from the design of God

or for what God had. But in this day,

in essence, a woman had little to no

value apart from the support of

a man. And men

would go off to war and men would die. and so

it was common in the culture for there to be

more women than there were men. And so

in order for them to care for and to

protect in their eyes, what they said

was, well, then I'll take more

women as wives. And this is the

way that I will protect them. And this

is the lie that they began to believe over

and over and over again,

breaking from the design, from

God. So when the church is

established in the book of acts,

what did the early church, who were the group of people

they were challenged to care for, the

widows and the orphans, do you know

what they didn't do? They didn't gather

in a room and say, all right, we gotta

care for these ladies. How many you

want? How many you want? How many you

want? They didn't do that.

Do you know what they did? They

sold all their possessions,

and they gave it away because

they knew that their value was not found

in who they were married to or who they were promised to,

but their value was found in who they are in Christ.

That's where their value is. And

so what we see in here is a

culture influence of what

Jacob, where Laban was. And

what would it have been.

How would the story, the narrative have been

if Jacob would have been like, no, no, no,

this is not God's design. This is

not God's design. And you have deceived me.

And she is the sister of the woman

who I love. And so here's what I promise and here's what I

plan. She is not my wife,

but I'm going to care for her. I'm going to provide for her.

I'm going to make sure that she is taken care of because that's

what she needs. And instead, he gave into it

as well.

The question that I have when it comes to us

as parenting is this.

Do we press against

the cultures of this world?

Who wants to influence, influence us? And do

we embrace them as the norm?

Or do we push against

and allow discipleship in the gospel to ring true in our

family? Deuteronomy, chapter

six. One of my favorite passages on

parenting. It says, hear,

o Israel, the Lord our God is one. You shall

love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, with

all your might. And these words I command you today shall

be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to

your children and 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 up. you shall bind them as a sign

on your hand, and there should be frontlets between your eyes.

You shall write them on the doorpost of your

houses and on your gates. A lot of thing there

is happening culturally within the context of

what's being communicated here. But what Moses is

communicating and the generational discipleship from

the parents and the elders of Israel to their kids

is this. It will be marked that we are different, that we

are God's people, and we will live a lifestyle of

discipleship that continually reminds the next

generation that, so that they will know who God is. And they will

remind the next generation that, so that they will know who God

is. And they will remind the next generation that, so that they will

know who God is. It will not be a class that we teach, take

them to. It will not be a youth group that we drop them off at. It

will not be a kid's ministry that they are sent to, but it is

embodiment of who we are. And we will be marching

into a culture to establish who God is, and we

will not march into a culture and allow them to establish

who we are. And here's what I think is

the downfall of the

american family christian

unit. We have

allowed everything around

us to knock off, what

we believe is not necessary

when it comes to God's expectations. And we

become more like them. And we've stopped

spreading the gospel so that they become more like Christ.

And the statistics back that up.

The statistics back that up.

Lexington county,

I'm not going to talk about India. I'm not going to talk about

China. I'm not going to talk about Syria. I'm going to talk

about our place where we live, where

there's a church on every corner,

where there's christians living in every

neighborhood, where we can go out and

proclaim the gospel without fear of being arrested,

of being persecuted, of anything bad happening to

us. The government's not going to take your money. The government's not going

to take your job. The government's not going to throw you in jail for

talking to people about who Jesus is. And right now, in

Lexington county, and I'm not saying that all of these people are actually

saved. All right? 33% of Lexington

county identifies themselves as a follower of Jesus Christ

because christians

stopped, or people who

claim to be christians stop.

We gotta press, gotta press. We

gotta press. Jesus. John 17. And I

apologize if this isn't on the screen. It

says, I've given them your word, and the

world has hated them because they are not

of the world, just as I am not of the world.

And oftentimes church. Let me pause here. We've done a disservice

because we've stopped here. And this is the verse

that we use to say, we're in the world, but not of the world.

And that's partially what Jesus is saying. But there's more. Verse

15. I do not ask that you take them out of the

world, but that you keep them from the evil one. So

Jesus's prayer to God is that where you're

at and the dysfunction and the sin and the corruption and everywhere

that you are, that God would leave you there

and that God would protect you. They are not

of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them

in your truth. Your word is truth. And look what Jesus

says. As you sent me into the world,

so have I sent them into the world.

See, our job as followers of

Jesus, our job as

parents, our jobs as, as a

church, is not to say how do we

isolate ourselves from the world, how do we

build our own christian utopia that

eliminates us from all influence, from

all consequences, from all

struggles, from all temptations. That's

not it. Our prayer should be the prayer

of Jesus, of what we say of God.

I'm praying that you're going to keep them and that you're going to

protect them and that you're going to keep me and that you're going to

protect me. Because as Jesus was sent into the

world to share who he is and what

salvation comes from, that in him and him

alone, that God, we would live for the same

purpose and the same power, that we would walk into this

world filled with the power of the Holy Spirit that you have given

us to proclaim a gospel message that is not

natural to those who hear it and not try

to remove ourselves. And that in doing

so, not through litigation,

not through norms, but we influence

culture through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so we define

who we are by Jesus.

And then we go to the lost

world and we don't say to

them, hey, get your life right and do what I

do.

We say, get your life

saved and come meet my friend Jesus.

And then oh man, what he's going to

do in your life. And we're

proof of that. We're proof of

that.

The third thing, we'll close with this. The third

thing, value children

as a blessing

and do not simply see them as valuables.

Here's what I mean by that. Don't

simply view, I've got

enough because this is what I can get.

Value children as a

blessing. Doctor Tony Evans

and his kids, they led the study that

Aaron and I facilitated. I learned

a lot. I really respect. I've had the opportunity to

meet, him once. He came and spoke at the church that I grew up

in. Very godly man followed his ministry. Stayed close

to his ministry. and here's. He taught so much over

the course of this study. But here's one of the quotes that he

said that really hit home for me.

Really hit home. Doctor Tony Evans

said this. Children

are the only blessing from God.

Most people want less of.

I want more health.

I want more money. I want

more influence. Jesus, I

want more of you.

But that's enough. That's

enough.

And I'm not just talking about

how we view kids within the context

of our marriage.

I'm talking about how we view kids.

We got a world that has

said they're an inconvenience,

and that's enough.

We've got a culture that is

said they're an inconvenience,

that's enough. And I want to

be honest with you. We've got

churches that say,

how can we find on Sunday mornings,

opportunities to babysit our kids so that a group

of selfish adults can gather in rooms away from them?

Because I'll be honest with you, we've got enough.

Children are the only blessing from

God most people want less

of. Laban

wanted to know, man,

how can I get rid of

instead of understanding who they are?

Psalm 127 three.

Behold, children

are a heritage from the

Lord. The fruit

of the womb, reward.

They're loud,

they're messy,

they're complicated,

they cause trouble.

They'll make you frustrated.

They'll give you a headache. All right, now,

I was describing our men of this church. All

right? You see,

that describes people.

Children are a

heritage from the Lord.

Children are a

blessing from the Lord.

A quiet church, a

dying church.

A quiet church is a dying

church. Our kids are, not

the church of tomorrow. I

don't believe that. I believe

when we say that that's foolish.

Our kids are the church

today. Our

teenagers are the church today.

They're a heritage. They're a

blessing.

Luke 18,

Jesus is in a city,

and they were bringing even

infants to him that he might

touch them.

And when the disciples saw it,

they rebuke them.

Just pause for a moment

and understand how offensive that is,

but also pause for a moment

and understand how socially

applicable that is still today.

Nah, Jesus is too important for that.

Jesus doesn't have time for that.

We don't need to bother him with that.

But Jesus called them to him,

saying, let the

children come to me

and do not hinder them, for

to such belongs the

kingdom of God. God.

Truly, I say to you,

whoever does not receive

the kingdom of God like a

child, shall not

enter it. I've shared this

with you. Before anyone at our church gets baptized,

one of our ministers

has a conversation with them,

and then we share. At staff meeting, dawn will

share. Joel will share. Dave will share. Berger will share. I will

share. Hey, here's the conversation I

had with this person, and I'll be honest

with you. I love the conversations

that we get to have with dawn.

I love them, because

here's what usually what she says,

something in this world,

well, you know, they couldn't answer it

all, but they know

Jesus. They know

Jesus. And I

thought, isn't that

faith? Isn't that what it

means to come to Christ?

Let, me ask you, when you came to Jesus,

how many of you had your theology degrees?

When you came to Jesus,

how many of you knew the

intricacies of revelation?

When you came to Jesus, how many of you

had most of the Bible memorized? You

didn't, and you still don't today, and neither do I.

But we came to Jesus not

knowing at all. But we came to

Jesus because we knew him.

And parents,

parents, hear this.

One day.

One day your kid's going to stand before Christ,

and they're batting average,

their dance competitions,

their track meets,

their GPA,

their degree isn't going

to matter. Isn't going to

matter. The only

thing. The only thing that

matters is, do they know him?

Did they know him? And

so anything,

anything that

distracts from

that

is foolishness. Is

foolishness.

May we live as a people.

When Moses stood before

Israel in Deuteronomy six,

he stood before parents and grandparents.

He stood before senior adults. He

stood before young adults without kids.

He stood before all of them and

said, this is who we are to be

for the next generation. This is what we

are to do. Whether your name is

mom or dad, dad or

not, this is how we're to raise them up.

It's time for the church

to embrace what it means to

hold the discipleship of the

family and to continue on and continue

on so that we'll impact the

world for Jesus.

Would you pray with me?

God, I thank you so much for this

morning.

God, I thank you for just. Lord, a

very complicated passage of

scripture

that causes us where to cause

me

to dig, to see,

to pray.

And, Lord, we see a man

that the culture would have said

they're successful.

He took matters into his own hands.

He made sacrifices for the good of his

family. But for the good of

his family was not for the good of God.

And God. So often

what we have done is we

have lived like

Laban in our context,

succumbing to the culture of the

world,

succumbing to the standards that they've set

for us, succumbing to

the selfishness of our heart

and God. May we as a church,

may we as a people, may we as

families, may we as

individuals say, for the good

and for the glory of God in a world,

in a nation, in a state,

in a county, in a

city where the number

of christians are declining

rapidly. Lord, may we

say, not only do we want to live boldly

for Jesus, but Lord, we want to

invest the time. Lord, we

want to invest the volunteering. Lord,

we want to invest the money. Lord, we want

to invest the service, not

in anything else other than for the

continued movement of the

and God, I thank you so much for this

church who has embraced that. I

thank you for a staff who champions that.

But, Lord, can we do it more? Could we grow more

obedient to you, more passionate to

you for being

who you are and doing what you called us to do

as we live, for your name, for

your glory, God. If there's anyone

here who does not know you,

Lord, I pray that today they would come

to know you through faith like a child.

It's okay if you're in here this

morning and you don't know all the answers.

It's okay this morning if you don't even

really feel like you understand who Jesus is.

But if you would believe in the truth,

Jesus Christ

alone is the way, the truth and life.

You'll put your hope and your faith and your trust in

him that it is in a relationship with

him, the perfect, sinless son

of God who died on the cross

to save you from your sins and who rose from the

grief. You don't have to understand it,

but if you believe it this morning, put

your faith, your hope and trust in it. Today

will be the day of your salvation.

God, work and move how you

will and how you desire.

Amen.

Thanks again for listening and be sure to check back next

week for another episode. In the meantime, you

can visit us at ah, willowridgechurch.org dot or by

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