Family Survival Kit - The Secret to Good Parenting

[Music]

Who am I? that the highest king would

welcome

me. I was lost but he brought me in.

Know his love for

me. Oh his love for

me. Who the sun sets

free. Oh is free.

Indeed, I'm a child of God. Yes, I

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am. He has

ransomed his grace.

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While I was a slave to

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s Yes, he died for

me. Who the sun set

free always is

free

indeed. I'm a child of God. Yes, I

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am. In my

father's

house, there's a place for

me. I'm a child of God. Yes, I

am. I am chosen, not forsen.

I am who you say I

am. You are for me, not against me. I am

who you say I

am. I am

chosen, not

forsen. I am who you say I

am. You are for me, not against me.

I am who you say I

am. I am who you say I

am. Who the sun sets

free. Oh is

free

indeed. I'm a child of God. Yes, I

am. In my

father's

house, there's a place for

me. I'm a child of God. Yes, I

am. In my

father's

house, there's a

for

me. I'm a

child of

God. Yes, I am.

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[Applause]

It's pretty good.

That's my little olive

tree. Let's go to Psalm 128, please.

Psalms are right in the middle of your

Bible. Should be pretty easy to find.

Open right in the middle and you'll be

near Psalm

128. Uh, no, I did not join the army.

Uh, my hair stylist apparently thought I

was going to. Um, but I did not. This is

in a tribute to to Hayden. Uh Hayden's

meant a lot to me personally over the

last two years. Uh watching him grow and

mature and uh get to know Jesus better

and uh just watching the way he

interacted with his his church family.

It's just an awesome honor and privilege

to have known him for a couple years and

we look forward to seeing uh how God

uses him in the military to be a

blessing to uh our entire country. So

thank you Hayden. In the series uh we're

going to finish it up today, but we're

talking about how to build a family that

can withstand life's storms. And what we

do is we turn our attention to the

passage of scripture that inspired

Jesus' sermon on the mount, his closing

illustration where he says that the

family that builds their life on the

word of God, they're going to face

storms, but their house will not

collapse. And so the question is, uh,

did anybody memorize Psalm

128? Larry, you memorized all of Psalm

128. Well, would you like to come to the

stage and recite that for us now?

So, you're aware we are not cheating. Uh

there will be nothing on the back wall

to help him out. Uh this is all Larry.

So,

how happy is everyone who fears the

Lord? Thank you.

and walks in his

ways, you will surely eat what your

hands have worked

for, and you will be

happy, and it will go well for you.

Your wife will be like a fruitful

vine and in within your

house. Your kids or your children will

be like young olive trees around your

table. In this very way, the man who

fears the Lord will be blessed.

May the Lord bless you from

Zion. May the Lord bless you from

Zion. So you will see the

blessings of J of

Jerusalem all of your

days and will see your children's

children.

May

God may blessings be with Israel. Peace

to Israel. Yeah.

Yeah.

Larry. Come on,

boy. My boy was sweating up there,

wasn't he? Man, great job. That was

impressive. Uh Matt Brennick's not here

today, but he will give you a gift card.

So, did you hear the heartbeat of the

psalm? It It's the best thing that we

can do for our world is to have a strong

and healthy family. The best thing you

can do for your family is to have a

strong and healthy marriage. And the

best thing you can do for your marriage

is to have a strong and healthy soul.

Dear God, we ask your blessing on the

reading of your word. We ask that you

would allow us to be able to receive

what you want to give us today. Thank

you for those that are joining online,

those that are here in this this

service. Thank you for those who have

sacrificed and given everything so that

we could have the freedom to preach the

word this morning. And Lord, I I pray

that this this weekend would be one

where they are focused on the victory

that's been provided in Christ and the

victory that was provided by the

sacrifice of their loved ones. It's in

Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Dental exams are the only well one of

the few exams that you can't cram for.

Uh like the night before you go to the

dentist, you can't just start flossing.

Uh you can't just brush real good

because the next day when you go there,

you're going to find out what you did or

did not do. And parenting is very

similar to that. Um you can't wait for

the the weeks, the few weeks leading up

to where your child is going to lead the

home, leave the home and and then

decide, oh well, we got to make up for

decades of lost time. uh we got to do

all these gospel conversations and we we

have to go to Sunday school and worship

service and do all that. You can't cram

that into those final few days uh with

your children because what you're going

to find out is when they leave the home

uh you're going to find out very quickly

what you did or did not do. So, I got

two things I want for you today. First

of all, if you are a parent who is

already teaching your child to walk in

the ways of the Lord and have a healthy

fear of God, I want you to continue

doing that. If you're someone that has

not started that yet, um I would

encourage you to go ahead and start. But

number two, I want to make sure that if

your child is no longer in in your

house, if you are no longer their

primary caregiver, I don't want you to

lose heart today. I want you to be

encouraged to know that even if you

missed your opportunity while they're

young, that God is always active. Okay?

The story is not over. And so, you can

make up for lost time because God's not

done. Um, this sermon is not one that

should elicit any type of remorse. I

don't want anybody in here to be like,

"Man, I wish I would have, but I

didn't." That's not from God. That's

from the enemy. The enemy wants you to

feel a a feeling of regret this morning.

But Jesus wants to take you to the

cross. And he wants to show you that he

is the God of second and third chances.

That his grace and his mercy is

sufficient to cover a multitude of sins.

So, don't you dare let the enemy shame

you or guilt you or cause any feelings

of regret this morning because that is

not of God. The only bad news we're

going to talk about today is that your

kids need a perfect parent. Yeah, that's

bad news. Um, any perfect parents? Okay,

just checking. Well, the good news is

that they have one and his name is God.

And that's why God told us to call him a

heavenly father. So, we can start out

with this agreement where we can just

kind of relax a little bit as parents.

uh we can just kind of chill out and we

can admit that there's nobody in this

room that doesn't have uh room to grow

when it comes to their parenting. I

mean, this is coming from a guy that

allows his children to eat in his car.

And so, there was a cup of barbecue

sauce the other day that was on my my

armrest and uh when I hit the brake a

little too hard, it slid forward and all

the barbecue sauce dumped into the

little buttons in my Honda. Yeah. Smells

great in there. Um I can't put it in

park currently because the button is

completely stuck. So, I guess I'm going

to be selling my car. I don't know what

to do. But our goal today is not to be a

better parent. All right? Remember two

weeks ago, we talked about that our goal

was not to be a better husband. It was

not to be a better wife. Um, today it is

not to be a better parent. Our goal

today is to connect ourselves to Jesus

Christ because he is the vine and we are

the branches. And if we connect

ourselves to him, then we will produce

much fruit in our marriage and also in

our parenting. So, we got a few points

here today. I want to make a note of

from Psalm 128. Uh the first one is

parenting is a picnic sort of. All

right. So let's go to verse three. Psalm

Psalms 128:3

128:3 says, "Your children will be like

young olive trees around your table." So

the the psalmist when describing the

results of a a life that is lived where

you have a healthy fear of God and you

walk in his ways or as Jesus

reinterprets it a a solid foundation

life that can withstand all of the

storms that are thrown at it. The

psalmist is saying that part of the

blessing that you will receive when you

teach your children to please God is the

hand of favor that will be on your

children and on your children's children

and for generations to come. The the

psalmist says that uh your children are

like these young olive trees. So why did

the psalmist choose olive trees? Now

remember we talked about this a few

weeks ago. We talked about how the

Hebrew language they speak very

poetically and so it is perfectly fine

to lean into these uh word pictures that

are being drawn. So is he saying that

life as a as a parent is a picnic? Well

well no. But he is painting a beautiful

picture for us this morning. He he's

painting the picture of this this home

where you have this healthy vine that's

in the center of the property that's

producing these these wonderful grapes

and you have these olive trees that are

growing around your property. It's

almost as if he's picturing a picnic.

And I can kind of see this in my

backyard. You know, I got the the picnic

table and we got my dogs out there,

Clover and Rosie. They're running

around. I got my kids Eli and Emry and

my wife. We got our sto solo stove fired

up and we cook some chicken wings and

ramen for my my daughter because that's

all she eats. Um, so you know, we uh we

we have all this going. The one thing

I'm missing though is shade. I have no

trees left on my property. Hurricanes

have wiped them all out. Okay. Um, my

neighbors, however, did not give up like

I did. Like I didn't replant trees. I

just knew they were going to get torn up

again. Um, but my neighbors decided they

were going to plant some trees. And so

they had these little saplings that have

now grown into trees. Now they have this

wonderful thing called shade, something

that I don't have. So in Psalm 128, the

psalmist is saying that your children

are like these little olive shoots. Like

if you plant them and you nourish them

over time, uh you get to see how your

effort will pay off, how they're going

to grow and mature and then they start

to throw shade literally and

figuratively. They start to throw shade

in the house. But what the psalmist is

saying though is that they provide a a

blessing. They're the olive trees that

grow around the picnic table to provide

a blessing for the family. And I love

how the Bible constantly paints this

picture of family life around a table,

like sharing a meal together. And it

doesn't stop in the Old Testament. It

goes into the New Testament, too. Except

the table gets a little bit bigger

because then Jesus says, he starts

talking about your spiritual family,

your church family, and how we should

gather around the table. speaking about

communion and how we should gather

around the table speaking about the

fellowship meals that we have. And so as

a church, we have to ask ourselves, how

can we extend that invitation? How can

we make room for more people at the

table? How can we add leaves to the

table? How can we put more place

settings out? How can we gather more

people around the table? Then we have to

ask ourselves, how do we expand that

vision? What does it look like to to

expand the reach of a a church? What

does it look like to maybe even put

tables in other locations? But for this

scripture, we're talking about this

particular family that's having a meal

and the children are providing the

blessing. So, what you have to ask

yourself is, how in the world did we get

there? How do you get to the point where

your children are the olive trees that

are providing the blessing for the

family? Well, a few things jumped out of

this scripture to me. Uh, the first one

is you got to think like a grandparent.

How many grandparents we got in the

room?

All right, kudos to you all because

you're going to be a great sermon

illustration right now. You got to think

like a grandparent. Look at verse five.

Says, "May the Lord bless you from Zion

so that you will see the prosperity of

Jerusalem all the days of your life."

So, good long life, "And you will see

your children's children," that would be

your grandchildren. And scripture

continues to talk about how generation

after generation will be blessed. So, I

think there's something that we can

glean from the subtle art of being a

grandparent. The first thing we can

learn from our grandparents is that

grandparents are relaxed for the most

part. I know I'm speaking in

generalities. You're like, "Not my

grand." No. Most of the time,

grandparents are more relaxed. Like when

Eli was born, my first child, I was

white knuckling everything because I

knew how scary the world was. And so for

several years I was just like, you know,

looking out for him and guarding him.

And then over time I started to relax.

Then all of a sudden the dude gets on a

skateboard and gets a traumatic brain

injury and almost dies. And so I'm all

the way back to old Kevin and I start

worrying about him again. I'm white

knuckling everything that he's trying to

do when he comes out of that hospital.

And then he's like, "Hey, I want to get

back on a skateboard." I'm like,

"No." But he's like, "Yeah." And then

and then he still wanted to go on his

senior trip to Japan. So he wants me to

put him on an airplane right after

having this injury and send him to Japan

with his classmates and a couple

teachers. And so that was a big struggle

for me. But God met me in scripture as

he always does. And he worked to relax

my anxiety. He he taught me that of

course children are a gift. And what

that means is they belong to God, not

me. All these scriptures about how he

knew them before they were ever born.

how they were knit together in their

mother's womb by the hand of Jesus

himself. You know, this is a gift that

I've been giving. It's not a possession

of mine. It's a possession of his

heavenly father. And so, what I got to

do is I got to be like, God, he he's

yours and I trust him. So, here's your

skateboard and here's your plane ticket.

I got to relax a little bit. So, olive

trees when you plant them, they they

often have these stakes and a guide wire

that would help guide the tree as it

grows. But master gardeners will tell

you not to tie the steak too tight,

otherwise you're going to scar the tree.

See, grandparents, they have a little

bit of a looser touch. Of course, they

they set the the wires and they they

help guide the tree to grow, but they

don't have such a a strong touch that it

would actually scar the tree. They don't

white knuckle. They don't hold on too

tight. They leave room for God to do

what God wants to do since he is after

all their heavenly father. Grandparents

also know what's precious and what's

not. They've kind of filtered through

things. They they know what really

matters. You know, there's really no

need to guess where they're going and

what they're going to be up to because

if they're Christians, it's probably

going to be giving. It's probably going

to be serving. It's probably going to be

praying. It's probably going to be going

to church. It's probably going to be

reading the Bible. Because when you're a

young parent, it's very easy to get

wowed by and impressed by the wrong

things, to get caught up in the the

latest trends. Like I remember the first

stroller I bought for Eli, I had to take

out like a second mortgage on my house

just to afford the thing. Man, I thought

I thought I needed the Mercedes bins of

strollers, you know? And so, uh, we went

to this elderly couple's house near the

church where we were serving. And, uh,

we wanted to go for a walk and of course

I forgot the stroller. And so they're

like, "Oh, don't worry. We have one."

So, so the guy goes up in his attic and

he he brings down this stroller that he

brought back with him in World War II

from Germany. No lie. They actually gave

it to us. We have it at our house. Um,

so they gave us this this stroller. It

had dust all over it and cobwebs. And I

was like, "There is no way I'm putting

my kid in that death trap." And he's

like, "Ah, don't worry about it." And he

like picks up Eli and puts him in. Eli

was asleep in like 3 seconds in that

thing. I was like, I could have went to

the thrift store and bought something

just like that for like $5, but instead

I spent all this money on this thing

that I didn't really need. And that's

kind of how when you live a while, you

you look back at some of the stuff that

you used to do and you're like, man, I I

didn't really need to try to keep up

with all those trends. I didn't really

need to have my kids in every single

activity under the sun. The only thing I

really needed in my life was God and

family and church and friends.

See, they kind of distill it down to its

basics. And that's what we need to do as

parents. We need to learn to kind of

parent like a grandparent. Parent like

someone who has children's children to

look out for. Number two, we need to be

patient with our children. We need to be

patient, right, Emry? You should amen

that one. We should be patient with our

our children. It says in verse two, you

will surely eat what your hands have

worked for. The average olive tree

doesn't produce fruit until around four,

usually more like seven years old. Uh,

and then they don't produce any kind of

an abundant crop until at least 10 years

of age, uh, more like 15 in most cases.

So, as a parent, you have to know that

every year that you're working, every

year that you're tending to your little

olive tree, every year that you're

laboring, every year that you're tending

to your children's needs and you're

pruning and you're assessing is the the

stake too tight or not knowing all of

those things are not going to produce

substantial fruit until a few years. So,

we had this family friend have this

family friend, her name is Linda, and

she basically adopted Eli when he was

born. We were serving a church in

Henderson, North Carolina, Kerry Baptist

Church, and she and her husband Jarrett

just took Eli in. They started watching

him during the day so we could both work

and and go to school. And so they they

just adopted him like he was their own.

And so even to this day, Linda will send

cards with money to my son. She will

send boxes of homemade bread to my son.

Like she's always thinking about Eli,

always sending him stuff. And I'm always

like, "Dude, have you text her and said

thank you? Have you called her and said

thank you. Have you written her a thank

you card? And he's always like, "Nope."

And it makes me so furious. You have no

idea. I'm like, "This woman woke up,

baked bread, put it in the mail, sent it

to you, and you can't even text her a

thank you, and he just kind of like

walks off like didn't hear a word I

said." Well, the other day he was coming

back from college at Western Carolina,

and he was supposed to be home, and he

wasn't. And so, I'm getting a little

nervous. I go to my wife, I'm like,

"Where is my son? Why is he not home

yet? He left like 8 hours ago. He should

be getting home about right now. So, we

pulled up Life 360 to see where he was.

Guess where he was

at? Linda's house in Henderson, North

Carolina. On his own accord, he was

like, "I'll drive out of my way and

swing by Linda's and hang out for a

little bit." I was like,

"Yes." All that laboring, all that

parenting, it finally showed a

significant payoff. Look, we're not day

trading here, okay? you're playing the

long game with your children, but there

will be significant payoff if you don't

give up. And there's going to be a lot

of this. I I don't know if it's working,

but I'm going to continue to work hard

because I believe Psalm 128. And I

believe these blessings are available

for me and my family. And so, I'm not

going to give up. I'm going to continue

to teach my child to have a healthy fear

of God and to walk in his ways because I

believe there's going to be a payoff.

So, be patient with your child, but also

friends, be patient with yourselves. Be

patient with yourselves. You've,

especially if it's your first kid, man,

you've never done this before. And I

don't care how many brothers or sisters

you had. Like, it's different when they

belong to you. Like, if you've never

done this before, then you can't be so

hard on yourself. I mean, I remember

vividly that horrible, horrible moment

when we were leaving the hospital when

Eli was born and that nurse like just

hands us the baby and we're like, "What

do we do now?" And she just turns and

walks

away. So, in the car, I have this like

100page manual written in seven

different languages that teaches me how

to install a car seat, but I got nothing

on what to do with this kid, right? So,

I I know what that terrible moment feels

like when you're just like, "What do you

do?" So, be patient with yourselves.

You're learning and growing, too. Don't

beat yourselves up. But what you can do

is use the tools that God has given you.

First of all, your kid does come with an

instruction manual. It's called the

Bible. There's a lot in here about how

to be a good parent. But not only that,

not everything is spelled out for you in

here. So, there is this wonderful gift

that God has given us called the Holy

Spirit. We can depend on him in those

moments where you don't really know what

to do for your child. You can pray and

ask God and through the power of the

Holy Spirit, he will give you clarity

and wisdom in how best to parent your

child because after all, he's their

heavenly father and he's looking out for

them, too. And you have this other

incredible gift called the local

church. Like that didn't exist before

Jesus died on the cross. that didn't

exist until Acts chapter 2. But in Acts

Acts 2 · chapter mention Acts 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2, Jesus establishes the first

church, this wonderful gift that you can

use to help raise your children. That's

why we devote so many resources from

this place to our children's ministry.

It's not just for them, it's also for

you. It's to help parents be the the

guardians that God has called them to

be. So, you got to be patient with your

kids. be patient with yourself and you

also need to practice what you preach.

So, we're working reverse through the

scripture. I understand. But let's go to

verse one

now. How happy is everyone who fears the

Lord and who what

walks in his ways. You got to walk the

walk. You can't just talk the talk. If

you want to ensure that your child is a

reader, there are two things you can do.

Number one, you should read to them. And

number two, and just as important, they

need to see you reading. Because if you

just read to them and you never read

yourself, they never see you reading,

then odds are they're not going to

become a reader. It takes both. You have

to practice what you preach. Now, there

are a lot of studies online that I

looked at this week, but there was one

Swedish study that was done very

recently, and it said that if a father

will go to church, and it it didn't

matter what the the mom did, but if a

dad would go to church, then the child,

30 out of 50 children would actually

wind up being worshippers. So regardless

of what what the parents said in the

house, regardless of what the mom was

doing, if the dad would simply go to

church, then 30 out of 50 children would

wind up being worshippers. On the

inverse of that, if the dad never went

to church, even if mom went every

Sunday, and even if dad talked about how

important Jesus was, if dad never went

to church, get this, one in 50 children

became a

worshipper. One in 50. You wonder why

the local churches are are drying up and

dying all around us. We're seeing the

the ramifications of what's happening in

our country where men are not attending

church. All these studies, they say the

same things over and over. And all

they're doing is saying what God's word

already taught us was true, which is

that we need men who fear God and who

say, "This is my house. And as for me

and my family, we will serve the Lord.

We will seek God. We will have a healthy

fear of him and we will walk in his

ways." And when men make that

commitment, the world changes.

By the way, statistically, women, moms,

you're holding it down. So, good job.

like everything I looked at, you guys

are doing a wonderful job, but it's it's

the men who seem to be missing in in the

United States. Did you know that uh

olive trees don't like to get their feet

wet? I didn't know that. Drainage is

very very important when you plant an

olive tree. Mark Twain once wrote, "The

olive tree and the cactus are fast

friends of a worthless soil."

And and when I read that, it reminded me

of John chapter 13 where Jesus is

John 13 · chapter mention

gathered around the table with his

little olive trees, his disciples, and

they're having a meal together. All of a

sudden, Jesus gets up and he takes a

towel out of his tunic in the home of

his robe, and he goes and he washes his

disciples feet. He's practicing what

he's preaching. He's telling them about

service. He's telling them about

forgiveness. And now he's visibly

showing them that he's not above that

himself. He believes in what he's saying

so much that he's going to practice what

he preaches. And so parents, we need to

let our children see us receive

forgiveness from God. We need to let

them see us repent. We need to let them

see us be washed by the hand of

Jesus. But we also need to let them see

that we practice what we preach. We need

to let them see us kneeling down in

humble service, taking care of people

that can't possibly ever pay us back,

doing the same things that Jesus did.

You got to be patient with yourself. You

got to be patient with your kids. You

have to practice what you preach. And if

you do those things, it leads to our

last point here, generational

blessing. There are over 500 different

varieties of olive trees in the world.

Some of them are grown to just provide

wood. Some of them are are grown to

provide oil for machinery. Some of them

are grown for their fruit. And

similarly, children will bring glory to

God in different ways. So parents, what

we need to ask ourselves is what what is

it that God put in my child that I can

coax out? Or as Levi puts it, your child

is to be

unfolded, not molded. Your child is to

be unfolded, not molded. Look, we're not

trying to mold our child into our image

to walk in our steps or accomplish our

dreams. What we're trying to do is help

our children become the people that God

created them to be. There's a lot of

varieties of children out there and we

have to unfold what God has folded in.

And if you do this, you'll see that it

leads to generational blessing for not

only you but also your community. It's

why this whole passage ends in verse 6

where it says, "Peace be with Israel."

So being patient, being present, being

engaging with gospel conversations,

bringing your children to worship

services, bringing them to Sunday

school, teaching them, loving them,

serving them, crying with them, laughing

with them. It all leads to children who

have healthier souls. And children with

healthier souls lead to healthier

families. And healthier families lead to

healthier communities.

Did you know the the oldest tree in the

world is an olive tree? It's 45 years

4,500 years old and it's located in

Bethlehem, which I think is pretty cool

because that tree was pro probably

around when Abraham w was called to to

leave form the nation of Israel. That

that tree was definitely around when

David wrote Psalm 23. That tree was

there the day that Jesus was born. There

are actually olive trees in the garden

of Gethsemane that are so old that they

were there when Jesus prayed in the

garden of Gethsemane before going to the

cross. So what's the point? The point is

if you cheat teach your children to have

a healthy fear of God and to walk in his

ways, it will have a lasting

generational impact. God is faithful to

keep his covenant to a thousand

generations.

So as you love your little olive trees,

you can believe that you are unleashing

something into the world that's going to

impact somebody even a thousand years

later. Like somebody is going to come to

Christ and give their life to him and be

saved because of something you're doing

right now in your child's life. And

heaven is going to celebrate on that day

that that person gets saved. Look, I

know parenting is hard. I have stepped

on the Lego in the hallway multiple

times. I have sat on my couch and put my

hand in a pile of Orbeez. If you don't

know what those are, they're from Satan.

Uh, literally half my house is covered

with glitter. All right? So, I know that

parenting can be hard, but children are

a blessing. They are a reward from God.

And get this, they're not just olive

trees. They're they're actually arrows

in the hands of mighty warriors. That's

mom and dad. And they are to be launched

out to Argentina. They are to be

launched out to bring glory to God and

expand his kingdom as they illuminate a

darkened world with the gospel.

Man, that sounds hard. It sounds like a

lot of pressure, a lot of

responsibility. Remember what I said

first? We can chill out. We can relax

because we're not in this alone. We're

not called to be perfect. We're called

to connect ourselves to Jesus. So, let

me give you a a scripture in closing

that'll bring you some encouragement.

This is out of Zechariah chapter 4,

Zechariah 4 · chapter mention

beginning in verse

one. The angel who talked with me

returned and woke me up like someone

awakened from asleep. He asked me, "What

did you see?" And I answered, "I see a

solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the

top of seven lamps on it. And there were

seven channels to the lamps. Also, there

are two olive trees by it, one on the

right of the bowl and one on the left.

And I asked the angel who talked to me,

"What are these, my lord?" And he

answered, "Do you not know what these

are?" And I said, "No." So he said to

me, "Not by might nor power, but by my

spirit, says the Lord Almighty." Not by

might or power, but by the Holy Spirit

of God, says the Lord Al Almighty. This

whole story is about this perpetual

olive oil machine that was meant to

remind Zerubbable who was trying to do

something that they felt was impossible

that it was God's strength and not

theirs that they were going to have to

depend on. Olive trees throughout

scripture are synonymous with this word

called anointing which means blessing.

There's this perpetual blessing that's

available for all of us if we are

connected to Jesus. What it means is if

you're called to it, then God is faith

faithful to see you through it. If you

are called to it, God is faithful to see

you through it. So, I looked up the

first mention of an olive tree in all of

the Bible and it was in the story of

Noah. Noah and his family, they got in

the ark and God sent a double a global

flood. It was a a judgment for the sin

of mankind. But Noah and his family,

they were spared. They were in the ark

and eventually the the waters subsided

and the ark um got stuck on a mountain.

And so they're trying to decide at this

point, is it safe to send our children

out of the ark and back into the world?

Like how do we know it's safe? And so

the first thing they do is they send out

a raven. The raven flies around for a

while and it comes back. Then they send

out a dove a week later and the dove

flies around a while and it comes back.

Then they wait another week and they

send out another dove and this time the

dove comes out and guess what's in its

beak when it comes back?

Right? A little branch from an olive

tree. That's anointing. That's blessing.

That's God saying, "Hey, blessing has

returned to this earth and it is now

time for you to let your children leave

the ark." And so, as parents, a lot of

times we're like, "Man, is it safe to

send them out? Are they ready to go? Is

now the time? How will I know that it's

okay for them to go out into the world?"

Well, friends, nothing's going to give

you greater peace than knowing that your

child is entering the world with the

olive branch, with the blessing of God

on their life, with the anointing of God

on their life. Like, if my my son makes

the next great video game, great. If my

daughter winds up on Broadway, great. I

hope they excel at everything that God

has gifted them to do. I love my little

olive trees. But more than anything else

in this world, I want them to know

Jesus. I want them to have a healthy

fear of God. And I want them to learn to

walk in his ways because when they do,

they receive the anointing of the Holy

Spirit on their life. And so whether I

send them to Argentina or Japan or out

on a skateboard down the street, I know

one thing for sure, that God is

sovereign over their life and that we

are going to have forever together.

Let's

[Applause]

pray. Father, what a

blessing it is to not have to figure all

this out on our own. Thank you for the

spirit. Thank you for your word. Thank

you for your

church. Lord, I thank you for the people

in this place that set a good example of

what a healthy family looks like for us

to to follow. I thank you for the people

that donate their time to all of our

different children and youth ministries.

I thank you for the parents and

grandparents and aunts and uncles and

friends and neighbors and guardians that

that scoop up these children and bring

them to church so they can hear the

truth. Lord, I thank you for what you're

doing in their lives. I thank you for

the the privilege of of watching them

grow and mature. And like Hayden, just

go out into the the world knowing that

he has the anointing of God on him.

Knowing that you're in control of his

life, knowing that you're going to do

great things through him. Lord, for all

the other children like that, too. It's

just such a privilege to see how you how

parents are just launching their

children into the world like arrows to

bring the gospel with them, to bring

light to the darkness, to be the salt

and light that you called them to be.

But Lord, I'm also taken by this idea

that perhaps it's our chance, our turn,

Lord, to to set tables in different

contexts. Lord, we we want the blessing

to be available for all people. And I

look around, I see thousands of people

in our community that that don't attend

church anywhere and many of which don't

even know who Jesus is. And Lord, I

think about these opportunities that

you've given us to to share the gospel

with them. So that's my prayer today. I

pray that you will help us to to be the

parents you want us to be to to have

strong families, Lord, so that we can

make an impact in our community the way

that you promised that we would be able

to do in Psalm 128. So Lord, if there's

anyone here that is feeling a little bit

of regret, maybe missed opportunities,

anyone here with a a broken heart, Lord,

I pray that you would remove that from

them right now. Help them to see that's

from the enemy. Help them to see that

their story is not over and that they

can start right now setting an example

for maybe their children or their

neighbors or whomever. Lord, I pray that

they would find encouragement in knowing

that you can still use them up until

their last breath that you can make a

great work through them because God, if

they are faithful to you, you will

anoint them and you will do incredible

things through them. So give us

encouragement, give us strength. And

Lord, as we leave this place today, I

pray that you would help us to be

encouraged by your spirit. Help us to be

to have opportunities to have gospel

conversations with people and invite

them to our churches. And we ask these

things knowing that we're asking in the

powerful