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A weekly podcast from Fellowship designed to encourage and equip parents as they disciple their children in everyday life.
Good morning, guys. Welcome to The Seed Podcast through Fellowship Bible Church. This is a devotional that was created to encourage and equip parents as they disciple their children in the everyday moments of life. Our vision is to see every generation in the family following Jesus together. We believe that God has entrusted parents with the incredible privilege of being the primary disciple makers in their children's lives, and we want to encourage you in that calling.
Clayton:And where we see this in scripture is in first Corinthians three six, Paul where gives us a beautiful picture of this discipleship, where he says, I planted Apollo's water, but God gave the growth. So our prayer is that these weekly devotionals would refresh your soul. They would encourage your heart through the word of God and remind you that while we faithfully plant and we water, God alone is the only one that gives the growth. Yep. And we are here
Dan:We're back. For another podcast Back.
Clayton:With my friend Dan. I am Clayton and our lone wolf, not spiritually speaking, but in production, Caleb Ezzell. Caleb. He is there. Hey.
Clayton:So I'm going to pray really quick before Dan leads us in this week's devotional. Why don't you wherever you are, driving in your car to work, you're listening to this over lunch, or you're in the quiet moment before everyone wakes up, in the morning, let's pray. Lord Jesus, we ask for your grace, for this day because we desperately need your grace. That's the only way that we are going to get through. So give us strength where we need strength.
Clayton:Give us endurance where we need it and stir our affections for you. Why don't you parent take a moment to ask the Holy Spirit to stir your affections for him? And it's in Jesus name. Amen. Dan.
Clayton:Amen. That was the shortest prayer. Lead us. That was the shortest prayer?
Dan:That was awesome. You're like, pray for yourself.
Clayton:Amen. Amen.
Dan:Let's go.
Clayton:Make it quick, Hey.
Dan:Today's devotional is about a topic that I get lots of questions about from parents. And I would assume most parents that are listening to this podcast are wrestling with these same questions. And so whether your kid is a newborn or your kid is about to go off to college next year, I I'm I'm for certain that you have wrestled with the idea of their salvation and what their standing before the Lord looks like, and and that's a area of concern in in a good way for for many parents. And so, listen, we love our kids. Sophie and I really love our kids.
Dan:And one of our greatest prayers for them, like, we pray every single day, is that they would know Jesus, that they would love him, and that they would follow him for their entire lives. And why why do we pray that prayer? Well, it's because we know, Sofia and I know, that Jesus is the way. He's the truth. He's the life.
Dan:We know that no one can have a relationship with a holy and perfect God apart from believing and trusting in Jesus for salvation. And so I think that most of us would agree that we want that for our children. Like, more than success and good health and good friends, literally more than anything else, we desire that they would know Jesus and confess him as their personal lord and savior. That it wouldn't just be, like, our faith that they adopted, like, their own faith that they would have a personal relationship with Jesus. And and while that is our one of our greatest prayers, it's also one of my greatest sources of anxiety for me as a parent, thinking about my kids.
Dan:There are nights where I lie awake thinking about their eternal future. Like, we want to teach them to know Jesus, to love him, and to follow him. But are we doing enough? Is the gospel actually getting to their hearts? Are they coming to church because we make them come or because they genuinely love the Lord and his people?
Dan:Now we have younger kids, but I'm assuming lots of you are wrestling through these exact same questions. How do we know? How do we know if our child is simply saying the right things because that's what they've been taught to say or if their heart has genuinely been changed by Jesus himself? Like, the questions keep coming. And so in my own devotional time this past summer, I've spent a lot of time in the book of Romans, and Romans 10 has really challenged and encouraged me as I've thought about this topic.
Dan:So Paul writes this in Romans 10. We're looking at verses nine and ten. Many of you have heard these verses. Paul says, If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified.
Dan:And with the with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. And so there's something really beautiful about what Paul says in these two verses together. In verse nine, Paul gives us a simple call. He says, believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. He says, then you will be saved.
Dan:If you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, you will be saved. But then in verse 10, he almost takes us inside the process of this salvation. He says that with the heart, a person believes and is justified. And with the mouth, that belief is confessed. And I I think that that distinction is really helpful when we think about our kids.
Dan:When Paul talks about being justified, he's talking about what God does with our standing before him. Because of our sin, we could never stand before a holy God and claim that that we are good enough. Like, when when we place our faith in Jesus, God declares us righteous, not because of what we've earned or what we deserve, but because of what Jesus has done for us. And justification is about our standing before God being made right through faith in Jesus. And then Paul talks about being saved.
Dan:So that's different than being justified. Paul's distinguishing being saved and being justified. He says that salvation is the bigger picture of God's rescue. Like, God doesn't simply change our status before him. He rescues us from sin and judgment and brings us into a relationship with himself.
Dan:And that inward faith doesn't just stay hidden. It actually produces an outward confession like Jesus is Lord. So Paul isn't giving us two different ways of becoming a Christian. He is showing us the connection. It's it's a connection between what God does in our hearts and then what eventually comes out of our mouths and our lives.
Dan:So genuine faith begins in the heart, and genuine faith eventually finds expression in our lives.
Clayton:Alright, Dan. You get that's phenomenal, good biblical truths that we can think about. Yes. Now how does it go from our head to our heart? How do we actually believe this and live this out?
Clayton:Dude, talk with me.
Dan:Dude, great question. I have no idea. I have no idea. This is why we're wrestling with this.
Dan:And and and for me, I think practically, it allows me to breathe a little bit. Like like like the pressure can can kinda come off. It's because, like, we've been talking about this for some time, but our our parent our job as parents is not to save our kids. Like, my job as Shepherd, LJ, and Kiah's dad isn't to save them.
Clayton:That's right.
Dan:Like, that's God's job. We can't make our children believe in Christ. Like, we can't manufacture faith in their hearts. We can't force spiritual growth to happen, but we can faithfully teach them about Jesus.
Dan:We can pray for them, and we do. We can open God's word with them. We can talk about the gospel and the ordinary moments of life. We, you know, bring them to church. There's a ton of things of we I mean, it's our model.
Dan:It's planting and watering these these seeds, and then we trust God with the growth. So yeah. And just to continue, Paul Paul says in verse 13, he says that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard, and how are they to hear without someone preaching?
Dan:And so, parent, do you see the responsibility that we have? Our responsibility is not to make sure, that they confess Jesus as Lord. Our job is to make sure that they hear, that they that we faithfully tell them about Jesus and point them to him and demonstrate what it looks like to follow him. But we don't get to be the Holy Spirit. We don't get to change their hearts and determine, like, the moment when that faith takes root.
Dan:That's God's job. That's his work. So parent, your faithfulness is not ultimately measured by whether your child believes in Jesus or not. And your faithfulness is not measured by whether your child has a perfect testimony or says the right things or never struggles with doubt. It's not measured by whether you can somehow guarantee the eternal future of your child.
Dan:Listen, your faithfulness is measured by whether you continually to faithfully point them to Jesus. Come on. That's it. Keep preaching goodness of Jesus to your child. Keep opening God's word and praying with them.
Dan:Have those conversations. Model repentance to your kid. Apologize to them and acknowledge when you fall short. Like, that is what we're talking about by planting these gospel seeds and watering them faithfully. And when we surrender our hearts to the one who can only bring genuine spiritual change, like, it it it it releases this this anxiety or fear, and it brings about so much joy to to be a part of what God is doing in your kid's life.
Dan:Parent, you can't save your child, but but God can. You cannot change your child's heart. God can only do that. So don't carry this burden that God actually never asked you to carry. Be faithful with what he entrusted to you.
Dan:Yeah. Yeah. What do you think?
Clayton:So you plant your water, and then you trust God with that growth.
Dan:It's it's it's hard to do that. It's because we like control. Dude, yeah, I do. But anyway, that that's been messing with me. I mean, when parents talk to me about, like, hey, like, do you see if my kid is saved or not?
Dan:It's like, hey. I have no idea, like, what God is doing in their heart. But but when they confess with their mouth, believe in their heart, like, God God is at work. If your kid is saying, hey. I wanna follow Jesus.
Dan:God working on their heart.
Clayton:That's exactly right. And then And
Dan:then you trust him with that growth?
Clayton:That you trust him with the growth. So what every week we want to take a faithful step.
Dan:Yeah.
Clayton:Dan, what is our one faithful step that we can take this week?
Dan:Here is our one faithful step. Parent, point out evidence of God's grace in your child. I'm gonna say it again. Point out evidence of God's grace in your child. Okay.
Dan:Look for moments when you see something good happening in their heart, not just moments when they are succeeding. So it's like maybe if they share a toy or apologize to a sibling or they're showing kindness or they tell the truth or they encourage someone. Instead of simply saying something like, hey, good job. Thank you for obeying. Say, I love seeing you love your brother like that.
Dan:It's amazing to see God working in your heart in that way. Listen, this subtly shifts the focus from their thinking, saying, I'm a good kid because I did the right thing, to God is at work in me.
Clayton:Like like you So good.
Dan:You want your kid to begin to see like, oh, God's actually working in me. So parent, point out evidences of God's grace in your child's life this week. Do it. I'm I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it.
Dan:Me too.
Clayton:I'm gonna do it.
Dan:Me too.
Clayton:I'm gonna look at him and say, God has gifted you like this.
Dan:I'll do it too.
Clayton:Love it.
Dan:One faithful step.
Clayton:One faithful step.
Dan:Clayton, am I praying? You praying?
Clayton:Pray it out, buddy.
Dan:Okay. Alright, guys.
Dan:Let's pray. Lord, thank you that we have, like, technology to where we can talk about you and what you're doing in our lives and then send it to other people. Like, that's really cool that we can just magnify you in this way. So thank you for the ten, fifteen minutes that we have every Tuesday morning to to meet with you and talk about you and be refreshed and and encouraged in our calling as parents. God, thank you for our kids.
Dan:Help us to trust you with their salvation. And we do pray, Lord, that you would save them, that they would know how rich your love is for them, how deep the father's love is for them. God, that that they would actually turn and repent from sin and and turn to your loving arms and and that you would save them. In Jesus' name, we pray.
Clayton:Amen. Hey, parent. Thank you for spending time with us today. It's a joy and a privilege to come alongside you as you faithfully disciple your kiddos in everyday moments of life. And remember that the Lord has entrusted you with this incredible calling.
Clayton:He has not called you to change your child's heart like we just talked about. That is the work of the holy spirit.
Dan:He has called you to faithfully plant in water, pointing your children to Jesus through these ordinary moments. Yep. Hey, guys. As always, if this devotional encouraged you today, would you please consider sharing it with another parent? We all need regular reminders of God's faithfulness, and you never know how he might use a simple a simple invitation to encourage another family.
Dan:So thank you guys for joining us again again today as we open God's word. We hope that you would come back and be Our encouraged our hope is that you would be equipped and encouraged in this calling together. And until then, keep play keep planting and watering. Keep watering and trust God with the growth. Alright.
Clayton:There it is.