Authority of Parents

Chapters

0:03 Introduction to Parental Authority

1:03 Understanding Authority's Origin

3:32 Honoring Parents in Scripture

8:24 The Importance of Obeying Parents

13:32 Responsibilities of Children

17:48 Adult Children's Relationship with Parents

20:25 Caring for Aging Parents

26:46 Responsibilities of Parents

28:59 The Role of Discipline

35:32 Training and Instruction in Parenting

38:50 Conclusion and Passing on Truths

Transcript

[0:00]If you haven't, okay, it's 9 a.m. We'll go ahead and get started.

[0:03]Introduction to Parental Authority

[0:03]Denny, when you get a chance, would you close those doors in the back, please? Does everyone have a handout? If you don't, they're in the back. Feel free to grab one of those so you can keep track of where we're heading this morning. We're gonna talk about the authority of parents. It's actually not just the authority of parents, but it's also the entire sort of parent-child relationship from little kids to adult kids, parents of little kids to parents of adult kids. So we're going to kind of cover a little bit of all of that. And it's certainly something that applies to all of us, whether you're a parent or not. You're probably a child of somebody that you're going to be relating to, and this will be important information. Just a reminder, we are recording this morning, so this will be recorded so that we can put it on the Life in Christ podcast. So if you found anything confusing, you want to go back and revisit it, go to the podcast. It's on the website.

[1:03]Understanding Authority's Origin

[1:00]You can listen again if you want to. Therefore, when you're asking questions, I may repeat the question just so it gets on the recording well.

[1:11]And I will be reading most of the scripture for that very reason also, so that it gets on the recording nice and clearly. So today we're talking about an important subject in the life of the church The authority of parents And again, it pertains both to parents and children And even adult children Therefore, it applies to everybody in the room My goal today is to answer, among other things, a few questions Why does God want children to obey their parents? Why does he think that's important? Should adult children continue to obey their parents? Should adult children continue to honor their parents Um, and I may, if I feel bold, uh, touch on the idea of spanking, Which I, I do with some fear and trepidation Um, As I went through this lesson, so most of this lesson is from Wayne Grudem's book on Christian ethics.

[2:09]I'm only going to cover a part of it. There's a whole section in this chapter that I didn't even touch because there's not going to be time that deals with the decision of public school versus Christian school versus homeschool. So if that's a subject that you're interested in and you want to hear what Wayne Grudem's thoughts are on those, then grab this. This comes from, I think it's chapter 14 of this book is most of this lesson. And then there's another book that I was referring to also that is also a really good book that talks about the general idea of authority itself. So if you've lived very long with your eyes open in this culture, you know that most people don't look on authority with bondness. Most people rebel against authority. And if you think of the root word of authority, well, in my simple mind, it's author. So who authors authority? All authority ultimately comes from God himself, including the authority of parents. It's a delegated authority that's handed down from God. He authors the authority. He delegates it to parents. So there's some really good stuff in this book. It's by Jonathan Lehman. It's called Authority. It's a nine marks book. book. I don't even know where I ended up with it, but it's good, and I commend it to you also.

[3:32]Honoring Parents in Scripture

[3:32]So get a copy of that one also. I think it's a good book.

[3:36]Let's go ahead and commit our time to the Lord before we jump in.

[3:41]Father, we thank you for this time together in your word, studying the important topic of parental authority and the entire parent-child relationship. Please guide us by your Holy Spirit into the truth you want us to see, Father, and accept and love. Give us receptive hearts that trust in and believe in your word, even when it goes counter to the culture. We're all impacted by the culture, Father, probably in ways we don't even realize. So help us to believe your word as opposed to what we're believing from the culture. Be glorified in our efforts to fully understand how you want us to think about roles within the family. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. So let's go ahead and dive in.

[4:27]I've got a lot of scriptures because God's word is perfect and mine is far from perfect. So we're going to start with the fifth commandment. It comes from Exodus 20, verse 22. So the fifth commandment from the Ten Commandments. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And then it's restated and amplified a little bit in Deuteronomy 5, verse 16. Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God commanded you that your days may be long, that was said before, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. So there's a little bit of an amplification. Your days may be long that it will go well with you. So honoring your father and your mother sounds like it's pretty important to God. It's the first commandment with the promise, as Ephesians 6 talks about. We'll get to that a little bit later. So you're going to hear a mixture of Old Testament and New Testament scripture. Some of the Old Testament scripture, you know, was part of the Mosaic law. Maybe it's not as applicable today for New Testament Christians. But then most of it is referred to in Paul's writings, who essentially then makes it.

Exodus 20:22 Deuteronomy 5:16

[5:43]Applicable for all people at all times. And I'll try and be clear when I'm explaining that. So the meaning of the fifth commandment, we'll go into that for a little bit. The placement of this commandment, so I've never really noticed this, but the first four of the 10 commandments all deal with God and our relationship with God. It's no other gods, no idolatry. Don't take the Lord's name in vain and keep the Sabbath holy. Those are the first four, but then the last six all deal with human relationships. And within those six, the very first one is this one dealing with honoring your mother and your father. So those six are honor your mother and your father, don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, don't covet. Okay. With honoring your mother and your father being highest on that list. So assuming that there's some meaning in it being highest on the list of six of human relationships, what would be the reason why God would have that on the top of that list of six?

[6:50]Honor your mother and your father. Why is that the one that God mentioned first? So what Tom said is children are supposed to get most of their teaching and understanding about who God is from their mom and their dad. And the family relationship in the society that God built and created in human society, the family relationship is probably the most important relationship. Okay, there's the marriage relationship, there's other things, people with the government, those sorts of relationships. But anyway, way, the relationship in the family is super important for things to work the way God wanted them to work. Parents have the greatest impact on the next generation. So we'll talk about this throughout the lesson, but.

[7:44]In a large way, and actually in a frighteningly large way, how children think about God is greatly influenced by how they think about mom and especially dad. Okay? Awesome responsibility. If children honor their parents, they can learn to love God and know his blessings. And we'll talk more specifically about that in a little bit. But in Proverbs 3, verses 1 and 2, it says, My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments for

Proverbs 3:1

[8:24]The Importance of Obeying Parents

[8:20]length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. So Proverbs adds another benefit of obeying your parents, and that's peace. And there's tons. I mean, if you're in the Bible reading plan that I'm in, you're in Proverbs right now. And there's just tons of stuff, especially about a father talking to his children, but a lot of stuff about moms talking to their kids, too, and how important it is for the kids to pay attention and listen. So the verse...

[8:54]Honor your father and mother. So it doesn't say, I mean, this may be obvious to you. I thought there was obedience in that, but it's honor. Okay, it talks about obedience later in other verses, but what is the meaning of honor? And this is the way Grudem defines it, to treat your mother and father with respect, deference, and care. Also to treat them as worthy of honor and is important and significant. And then John Calvin went a little bit further and talked about reverence, obedience, and gratefulness. So the idea of being thankful as children for what your parents are doing for you. In reverence, a reference there is Leviticus 19.3 that talks about reverence. Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father. And that's a pretty strong word.

[9:53]When you think about it, obedience, there were lots of examples of severe penalties, especially in the Old Testament, which again is not enforced today. But if you disobeyed your parents in the Old Testament world, that was a death sentence. I mean, think about how important God thinks of that. Now, that's not enforced today, obviously, but it gives you some inkling of how important it is to God. And then for another reference, 2 Timothy 3, 2 through 4 lists out a whole, I won't go through it, but it lists out a bunch of bad behaviors, really bad behaviors. And in the middle of that is disobedience to parents. And that's always struck me. In this culture, that seems like, well, that's normal. Everyone's disobedient to their parents. But it's wrapped in a list of really bad things like murder and all sorts of really serious sins. So there you go. The motivation. So why would we want to follow this? God talks about several benefits of following this commandment to honor your mother and father. Long life, and that it may go well with you.

[11:14]So again, Exodus 20, 12 says, honor your father and mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord has given you. So God gives blessing in this life to our obedience to him. That's Old Testament and New Testament. So it's not like you're earning anything from God, but as a perfect father, he gives us things that he wants us to do, commandments orders and he likes it when we follow those okay and just like you want to reward good behavior in your own home and you know accentuate things that kids are picking up and learning and doing correctly God does the same thing by blessing us that your days may be long in the land that the Lord is giving you, The New Testament affirms this commandment. The Apostle Paul confirms it and affirms it as applicable to all people for all time in Ephesians 6, 1 through 3, which says, children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. So basically, he's restating that, but he's emphasizing the fact that God is giving you a promise if you obey this. And does God keep his promises?

[12:40]Yes, he does. Now, maybe if we have time, we'll cover it at the end. Does that guarantee that you're going to live to be 100 if you honor your mother and father? Not necessarily, okay, but it's something to think about here. And then there are a couple of John Calvin in his book Institutes, and also in the Westminster Larger Catechism, they both indicate that this commandment applies in a broader sense to require our obedience to not only our parents, but to all legitimate human authority that God places over us. Okay, that's not scriptural, but that's a long-held belief within the church. And one short example of that is 1 Peter 2.17, where he says, Honor the emperor.

[13:32]Responsibilities of Children

[13:33]Okay, any questions on that first kind of introductory part or comments?

[13:40]Okay, now we're going to move forward into the responsibility of children, and then we'll go to responsibility of parents, and then we'll wrap it up. So this is the responsibilities of children of all ages, and we'll differentiate when things change. So when children are young, they must obey their parents. It's a command. Ephesians 6, 1 and 3, again, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and your mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. And then Colossians 3, 2 says, children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. And then Jesus himself, when he was a young child, if you remember when he went into the temple and the families all left and he stayed behind and they got super worried about him and they were kind of a little bit upset with him and they went back and found him. He was 12 years old at that time. Basically, it says in Luke 2, 51 that after his parents found him and probably scolded him a little bit, it says that he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was submissive to them.

[15:04]So, and this is just a thought I had. We think of somebody who is submissive as that's kind of like a negative thing or sort of a doormat type of thing. It really isn't. Being submissive is something God calls us to do, especially children to their parents. Lots of other examples of Jesus' obedience to the Father, obedient even to the point of death, death on the cross. However, obedience to parents never outweighs obedience to God. So that's an important concept. If you as a parent are ever directing your child to do something that would result in him or her sinning, they have every right and they should disobey that commandment from you.

[15:50]If parents' command would result in sin, then don't obey it. What about adult children? So when children become adults, they must still honor their parents. That's a lifelong commandment, the fifth commandment, but are not required to obey them. So if you, one of the ways that I've thought about and I've heard it described is, you know, when you're a parent, you have little kids, you have control over them and influence, and that's almost absolute. And as they get older, those two things start to diminish. As a child grows up and becomes a teenager, you have less control over them and you have less influence over them. And then as they become an adult child and go out and begin their own family, get married and start their own family, then it's even less. And that's a normal, healthy thing. So that's something that parents obviously understand that as their kids get older, they're less and less controlling of their situation. Hopefully, they're still providing good influence.

[16:59]But when they become adults, they no longer have to obey you, but they should still honor you. With one caveat if you have adult children that are staying with you in your house then they should obey your house's rules so an example of that would be heaven forbid one of your children is living with another person they're not married they come to visit you and stay with you in your house, your rules apply, and they should obey your rules as to whether they would stay in the same room together. So, Grudem talks about that passage in Ephesians 6.

[17:48]Adult Children's Relationship with Parents

[17:45]Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Some people mistakenly think that that applies throughout all of life. It doesn't. So, let's just make that clear. When you become an adult, and that's obviously a little bit subjective, but probably when you become out of high school and you're out on your own, You no longer have to obey your parents It doesn't apply to adult children And if you want the rationale behind that In that section of Ephesians Paul is talking to specific people groups And children in that case is a definitive thing It's different than adult children So if you wanted to look into that.

[18:28]That's where that comes from Talks to wives, husbands, children, fathers bond servants and masters so and and then in genesis 2 4 therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh that is definitely the point at which those adult children would no longer need to obey their parents and we talked about this already but parents authority and influence gradually wanes as the children grow up I remember, this is just a little anecdote, but I remember someone telling Kathy and I that when your son in particular becomes 16 years old, you and Kathy will become really dumb. And then about 25, you'll become smart again.

[19:18]So that's kind of a little joke, but there's a lot of truth behind that also. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's where that statement, if your parents are telling you to do something that would result in you sinning, you should not obey that. And obviously, we all have a varying spectrum of degree in terms of how good our parents were. Some of you had very godly, beautiful parents. I'm looking around the room. I can think of lots of examples. Some of you didn't. Some of you had really terrible examples. And again, you know, sadly, even in those cases that's where children form their idea of how their heavenly father is also so um yeah it's it's a truism i think that they're going to think about god the way they think about their own parents uh for better or for worse so hopefully it'll be for better with the people in the in the hearing of of my voice, So the fifth commandment applies for all of life. Honor your father and your mother.

[20:25]Caring for Aging Parents

[20:21]That's my segue into the part where parents grow older. Their children are responsible to care for them as necessary and as they are able.

[20:33]It's interesting. Lois and I were just talking about this this morning. But for those of you that are, everyone in here is adults. you have parents, your responsibility is to care for your aging mom and your dad. That's an important part. The Bible assumes that. Adult children are the first priority to care for aging parents. The church is secondary. And if we look at 1 Timothy 5, several verses in there, 3 and 4 and then 8, it says, Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents for this is pleasing in the sight of god another way to please god but if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

[21:37]Okay. So within the church, the elders face this, and the deacons face this, and mercy ministry, we face this all the time. When there's an older person that has real serious needs, what is the church's responsibility and what is the family's responsibility? And some of these folks don't have family members that are near enough or able to care for them, and then the church needs to rightly step in and provide help. And we tend to focus on the urgent, the acute need as opposed to chronic needs. And for those chronic needs, we try to look for other ways to meet those needs. But the first priority is the kids and the grandkids. So children have a significant responsibility to care for their parents. And many of you are right in the heart of that. I know my wife's parents are both 90. We're in the thick of that, and many of you are in that realm also. And if you're not, you will be somewhere down the road. In fact, Jesus, do you remember the story in Mark 7 where apparently the church leaders back in the day were encouraging adult children to give finances to the church, I use that term, to the temple, instead of giving it to their parents. And Jesus rebuked them for that.

[23:03]They were being taught that people could avoid their obligation to their parents by instead giving to the temple. I think the term was Corban. And Jesus said, no, no, that's not right. That's where he talked about, you dismiss the word of God for the tradition of men. So don't do that. Children must, however, respect the independence and property rights of their parents while they are still living. So this is an interesting concept. The Bible speaks favorably of an inheritance, not only to your children, but your children's children.

[23:41]But there is a tendency sometimes in adult children to think of that inheritance that is coming to them as already being available to them. And that's where you have to respect the independence and property rights of the parents while they are still alive. Proverbs 13, 22 says, A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. However, children should never begin to think of the inheritance as theirs before their parents die. And really, if you want some examples of that, think of the prodigal son. When the younger son said, I want my money now, and he leaves, he's essentially saying, I wish you were dead. He takes his inheritance and goes away before the father has passed away and then let's see another example would be Absalom wanting to assume the throne from King David before he had even taken his last breath.

[24:40]Proverbs 28 24 says whoever robs his father or his mother and says that is no transgression is a companion to a man who destroys you, Okay, so that's adult children respecting their parents' stuff and their money. Now, that's not to say, well, I'm not going to go down that rabbit trail. But there is a time and a place where parents may elect to start giving away their inheritance while they're still alive. And there's reasonable reasons to do that. And the government allows that. And there's even tax benefits in gifting money to your parents or to your children while you are still alive. That's not what we're talking about here. Okay, moving on to the blessings of obedience to the fifth commandment. So Deuteronomy 5, 16 says that your days may be long and that it may go well with you. So that sounds like a pretty good reward for obeying your parents.

[25:40]You live a long time and you're gonna have a good life. Okay, so that's good. That's Old Testament. Let's talk about New Testament, Ephesians 6 again, one through three. Paul also connects obedience to parents with blessings for the children, that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. And then again, Colossians 3.20, children obey your parents and everything for this pleases the Lord. And the emphasis I'll take now is for this pleases the Lord. There was that other verse I just talked about, pleasing the Lord. This one is also a way that you can please the Lord. And obviously pleasing the Lord should be high on our list of priorities. And again, Grudem gets into this a little bit. Does obeying your parents necessarily result in a long life? No, but we can reasonably expect God's favor. When we do what he commands, obedient children are generally better prepared for a successful adult life than those who are disobedient. And teaching children that obedience and honor to parents will result in God

[26:46]Responsibilities of Parents

[26:44]blessing them is fun. That's a good thing. There's nothing wrong with teaching that. Thank you. Okay, now we move on to the responsibility of parents, but I'll pause for a second. Any comments or questions on that section?

[26:59]Okay, the responsibility of parents. This is where the crux of the subject is. So, the responsibilities of the parents in a nutshell are in your handout here or your outline. Love, discipline, patience and understanding, and instruction. And then we'll talk about the importance of training children So first of all, you're responsible to love your children Does the Bible command us to love our children? Can you think of a verse where it says, parents love your children? I can't love one another Yeah, yeah, right? We'll get to that But God doesn't explicitly tell us to love our children Why would that be?

[27:46]Yeah, he doesn't, Ron said it should be natural. So he doesn't need to command us to love our children because he knows that that is going to happen. Okay, so the Bible assumes that parents will love their children. A few examples of this, Genesis 22, 2, God talking to Isaac, take your son, or to Abraham, take your son, your only son, whom you love. That's when he was about to attempt to sacrifice him. Psalm 103, 13, as a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. So the assumption is that the father is going to be compassionate. And Luke 11, 13, if you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, and so on. And then again, the prodigal son parable, we talked about the son and what he was saying when he left, But think about the father when that son came back. Unconditional love. Ran to greet him. Okay, so love your kids. That's kind of a no-brainer. Discipline. Okay, this is where we'll spend a little bit more time. So parents are responsible for having obedient children.

[28:59]The Role of Discipline

[29:00]Scripture emphatically teaches that parents, especially fathers, are responsible for having their children under control, not defiant, but respectful and obedient. 1 Timothy 3, 4, and 5. You must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? And then Titus 1.6. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers, and some translations will say faithful, and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. You might say, well, wait a minute. Aren't those qualifications of elders specifically? Yes. But those are things that all Christians should work toward and ascribe to, should be true of all of us. So we should have submissive children who are faithful. Various forms of discipline we know that God disciplines us in various ways parental discipline discipline should be tailored to the age and personality of the child Hebrews 12 5 through 11 Hebrews 12.

[30:25]And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Okay, so the lengthy passage there, a lot of important stuff in there. Now I'm gonna step into this concept of, or the discussion of corporal punishment or spanking.

[31:43]Again, I'm going to caveat this strongly before I get into this, but it's important that we talk about it because scripture talks about it a lot. Godly discipline is always merciful, redemptive, and therefore calm and measured. When we get into these verses that talks about sparing the rod, that is a metaphor that may or may not include corporal punishment, but should include several forms of redemptive consequences for disobedience For example, losing phone privileges if a phone is misused, or maybe driving privileges if they crash your car or do something with it that you didn't want them to do. Discipline of a child should never be cruel or physically harmful to the child. Okay. Should never be cruel or physically harmful to the child. It may inflict pain, but it's not going to be harmful. With those cautions in mind, let's go to the several passages that emphasize at times discipline must include inflicting pain on the child through some form of spanking. And again, Grudem gets into this concept of what was the rod. Back then it was a small piece of wood. Think of it like a kitchen spoon made out of wood, something along those lines. But I'll equate that to what we call spanking.

[33:12]These passages indicate that moral and spiritual benefit comes to a child who experiences physical discipline. Several from Proverbs. Let's go through them real quickly. Proverbs 13, 24. Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. Proverbs 22, 15. Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

[33:38]Proverbs 23, 13, and 14. Do not withhold discipline from a child. If you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with a rod, you will save his soul from Sheol. Proverbs 29, 15 through 17 The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. When the wicked increase, transgression increases, but the righteous will look upon their downfall. Discipline your son and he will give you rest. He will give delight to your heart. And again, wisdom literature applies to all people at all times Don't think of that as just Old Testament stuff that has been rendered obsolete Let's go to the New Testament now, Hebrews 12, 9, and 11 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. In most cases, physical discipline is not required. It should be considered, at least I would think of it as a last resort. There may be times where it's appropriate and it may be that there are times when that is the only way to get through to your child, okay? But it has to be done in a measured, calm, thoughtful way, never out of anger or frustration.

[35:06]Words are typically going to be enough. I think the real concept is that there are consequences for behavior. We have to instill consequences for bad behavior when you're training up your child. And again, in most cases, physical discipline is not needed. Proverbs 17.10 talks about this. A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.

[35:32]Training and Instruction in Parenting

[35:33]Colossians 3, 21, fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged.

[35:40]Yeah, yeah. I hope everyone could hear that. Okay. Yeah. I mean, it's in the scripture, so we don't shy away from it because we believe scripture. Okay. But it takes a lot of wisdom to know how to apply corporal punishment correctly. Okay. And I will leave it at that. The Bible instructs parents to have patience and understanding towards their kids. Ephesians 6, 4, fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Discipline should not be overly harsh or demanding to frustrate children. However, no discipline can also provoke children to anger. Just realize that you can be a passive parent and you can have really rebellious children as a result of that also. So not disciplining them is not necessarily the answer. And obviously we all know that kids want to know where the boundaries are. So it's our job to define those boundaries.

[36:42]Proverbs 22, 6 says, train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is older, he will not depart from it. So the next section is instruction. We're responsible for instructing our children. We have to teach them about God and his ways. Deuteronomy 6 says, 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 up. So we're the ones that are supposed to teach them about who God is. Wise parenting is hard work and requires tons of wisdom, but God gives wisdom to those who ask for it. Teach by example. They're staring at us. They're watching us all the time. And the kids are not only watching their own parents, but they're watching other adults in the church too. So we're all teaching by example. Titus 2.7, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works. And in your teaching show integrity and dignity. And 1 Peter 5, 3, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples. And again, we're not calling parents to be, or God isn't calling you to be perfect. There's only one perfect parent and he's it. We all make mistakes.

[37:58]We all stumble in many ways, as James says in chapter 3, children are amazingly forgiving of their parents if they know that you love them. So hopefully they have no doubt about that 1 Peter 4, 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly Since love covers a multitude of sins And then finally, the importance of training children Having disciplined children is so uncommon in this world That we live in now That it's actually evangelistic.

[38:28]Think about if you observe a mom and a dad and kids and they are well-behaved, you're like, what are they doing? I want to know what they are doing because I'm not doing that. Okay, so think of it that way. Why are your kids so well-behaved? And you can say, we follow the Bible's instructions on how to raise kids, and that could spark a whole conversation.

[38:50]Conclusion and Passing on Truths

[38:50]Okay, so I'm rapidly running out of time. In conclusion, I'm just going to read a chunk from Psalm 78, 1 through 7. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from our children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful.

And if I had time, I would play this Getty song right now that is entitled Pass the Promise. Some of you know that. If you don't know that, Google it and listen to that one. It's a really good song about passing on the truths of God to the next generation. Okay. I apologize. I ran out of time for final comments, but let's close in prayer. Father, thank you for teaching us through your Holy Spirit. Help us to apply your truths and trust that your word is best for our lives. Bless us now as we move into our time of corporate worship. For your glory and our joy, we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. And just a reminder, next week, there won't be Sunday school at this time. There'll be a breakfast. So come and participate in that. Thank you all.