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
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
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
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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