The Greatest Blessing of All

I think that's worthy of a round of applause. Thank you, ladies.

Very much appreciate the special music. Very much appreciate the message. It certainly ties into the day, so thank you for that. And it was beautiful. Your voices blend so incredibly well, so thank you. Thank you for that. Today, as we've traditionally done for a number of years on the second Sabbath back from the feast, we did take the opportunity to honor God and to thank Him for the blessing of children.

These little tiny bundles of joy with lungs of steel and a freakishly disproportionate strength-to-size ratio when you're trying to like change them out of a onesie and they're not having it. You ever fought a baby trying to change them? Like sit there, they're pulling and you know they're freakishly strong. It's incredible, really. But these little things are such a blessing to our families, to our congregation, and most certainly to God. I got a kick out of the line in the song that the children are noisy.

You know, yeah, they are. Yeah, they are. And that's okay. You know, it's often been said if your congregation's not crying, it's dying. And so, you know, not tears of sadness, of course, but like children, you want to be able to hear those noises.

Those are beautiful noises. We are incredibly thankful, truly incredibly thankful for our youth. You know, I don't know how many of you folks got a chance to talk to people while you were at the feast this year about their home congregations and about kind of the experience that they might have. You may realize this, you may not. We're a bit of an anomaly here in the Salem area. This part of the country is a bit of an anomaly from a standpoint of the number of youth that we are blessed to have.

We have a very robust teen. We have a very robust pre-teen group. We have a growing young adult group now, as some of our teens have kind of graduated into that next stage of life, so to speak, into adulthood, which is really not the case in a lot of other congregations around the country. It's really not. Frankly, around the world, it's not the case in a lot of places. I got to talking to some of the teens from Mexico while we were down this year in Puerto Vallarta, and many of them are very isolated in their congregations.

They might be one or two of the teens that are in their area, and it's their brother or their sister that is the other one. And so for them to be able to get together with other teens requires something like the feast. It requires something like camp. You know, the fact that we have a couple of Sabbath classes of banded age ranges and a teen group that's, you know, 25-30 kids is unreal.

And it's really kind of an anomaly when you look across the demographics of the church. Now, thankfully, thankfully, that's starting to shift. I think Salem was on the kind of the front edge of that bubble, so to speak. As you begin to talk to some other areas, we've got a number of young adults that have married. They're beginning now to have children. They're entering that stage of life. Some of these kids that were campers back when we were counselors, and some of them that were, I guess, our campers were their counselors.

Anyway, moral of the story, it's starting to shift a little bit in the United States in some ways, and some of these smaller congregations that have traditionally been a little bit smaller are getting quite a bit larger. So we're immensely grateful for the incredible blessing to our congregation that our youth are. And blessings in our lives, they come in different shapes and sizes. They come, you know, in a sense. We have blessings that occur in our families. They occur in our congregations.

We're blessed on a national level. You know, here in the United States, we're incredibly blessed. We live in a nation that has been blessed with vast natural resources, that have been blessed with material wealth. We've had years of peace. We've had years of prosperity and abundance. And as we kind of reflect on, again, other nations around the world, that's not always the case. In the United States, we're free to practice our faith and peace.

You know, we are free from the police knocking down that door and coming in and shutting down our services. We're free to peaceably assemble. We're free to peaceably protest if we find something to be unjust. We're free to speak our minds. We're free, both verbally and in writing, to say what we intend to say. We're free to own. We're free to protect our personal property.

We have a free press. We have freedom of association. We have the right to petition our government. The United States, we enjoy a level of economic prosperity, opportunity, and an aspiration, the American dream, that much of the rest of the world looks at and desires.

Over the past 250 years or so, almost, I mean, next, it's hard to believe next July is the sesquicentennial, or the semi-centennial, which is the semi-quincentennial. It's a mix of the two. Anyway, it's a 250-year anniversary as a nation, but it's hard to believe it's been 250 years that we as a nation have prospered as a result of the blessings which have been given by God.

And again, unfortunately, other nations have not experienced that in the same way.

There are other nations out there with the freedoms that we've described. You know, the U.S. doesn't have the corner in the market, so to speak, on freedom. But in the way that the United States has experienced it, it has enabled this peace, this stability, has enabled the gospel message to go out in such a way from the United States very powerfully. During the time of Jesus Christ and the apostles, there was an existing peace called the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace.

And ultimately, it was a large peace and stability that enabled the gospel to go out in a very specific way at that time to the world. Analysts have said that over the last couple hundred years we have experienced what is called the Pax Americana, and it's done much the same way. It has enabled us to be able to have these blessings, this peace, this abundance, this opportunity, and this aspiration that, frankly, are incredible blessings from God. Yet, as great as these blessings are, there are blessings which are far greater. Blessings which are far greater.

They transcend the physical, and they're blessings which God offers to those who enter into relationship with Him. If you turn over to Psalm 33, we'll begin today in Psalm 33.

And in Psalm 33, the psalmist is reflecting on the serenity of God. He's reflecting on the serenity of God through His creation, through the history of God and His people, and he's bringing to bear a concept that is important for us to consider when we think about the importance of blessings in our lives. When we think about blessings in our lives, Psalm 33 and verse 10 kind of helps remind us what really matters. What really matters. Psalm 33, we'll grab it in verse 10, says, Psalm 33 verses 10 through 12 reminds us that without a relationship with God, the counsel and the plans of a nation, the counsel and plans of a family, the counsel and plans of a church, the counsel and plans of anything come to nothing. Without that relationship from God present, He makes the plans of the people, it says, to no effect. It says His counsel stands forever. The plans of His heart are available to all generations. In other words, God is there, He's accessible, He's available. And the psalmist says that when a person aligns themselves with Him, when they align themselves with Him, when their God is the Lord and those people are His chosen as His inheritance, then the nation is blessed. You know, brethren, if someone asks you, what is the greatest blessing that you've ever received, how would you respond?

What is the greatest blessing that you would ever received?

How would you respond? Would you respond with a career, perhaps, or financial windfall? Maybe your family, your health? What would it be? As humans, we tend to think of blessings in terms of that which is physical. So we tend to think about blessings in terms of what is physical. In other words, as humans, when we think of someone as truly blessed, quote unquote, it begins to look a lot like the health and wealth gospel, right? We think of blessings. We think of someone as being blessed. We tend to think in terms of a big house, ample paycheck, good health, and the like. There's certainly nothing wrong with acknowledging God in those blessings. In fact, He is the author of those things. But does it mean that a person is not blessed if those things are not in place in their life? Or is there more nuance than that? God works with us individually.

God, I think, personally knows that me striking a million-dollar lottery is not a good idea.

I think that God knows that about me. And so I don't think that I'm going to win a lottery. Of course, I don't play the lottery. So, you know, God's going to have to be a miracle if I win a million bucks because I'm not buying tickets. So that would be actually a pretty incredible miracle if I won a million dollars in the lottery. But there's nuance. There's individuality. God works with us each in different ways. He works with each of us in different methods in order to bring all of us to the greatest blessing of all.

And that blessing is not material wealth. That blessing is not national prosperity. It's not our physical health. That greatest blessing of all is our calling. It is our salvation.

It's being given the opportunity to be part of the family of God for eternity, to have the chance to be part of God's family. The title of the sermon today is The Greatest Blessing of All. And as we think about this concept today on this day that we've blessed little children, which we take the time in that blessing to ask God for protection on their behalf, for material blessings in their lives, for ongoing care and his personal involvement, as we ask him to draw near to them and enter into relationship with them, what is one of the primary things that facilitates that blessing? Right? If the salvation and the calling and the opportunity to be part of the family of God is the greatest blessing, what's maybe the second greatest blessing in someone's life? Let's begin to turn over to the book of Proverbs. Let's turn over to the book of Proverbs. In the book of Proverbs, we see a very clear delineation between the way of wisdom and the way of folly. Right? We see the way of wisdom, we see the way of folly. And much of the initial chapters of Proverbs are dedicated to this comparison. Right? He talks about how wisdom stands in the city and shouts, and so does folly, right? And kind of the question is, well, who are you going to go with? Who are you going to follow? What are you going to listen to? We see this contrast between wisdom and folly, and then as we move into the middle to the kind of end of the book, we start to receive a collection of wise sayings to help us to be able to live wisely. Proverbs 22, we see a passage that admonishes us to train up our children. Proverbs 22 and verse 6. Proverbs 22 and verse 6 says, train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old says he will not depart from it.

Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

The Hebrew word that is used here for this concept of train up is the Hebrew word chanak.

And interestingly, this is the only location in the entirety of the Bible in which the word is translated as train up. There's other places where the word is used, and it's not translated to train up. In fact, Mounce's dictionary of Old and New Testament words records that this word chanak means to dedicate, to devote an object to deity, to dedicate something to God.

And then it says to train morally or religiously that thing, okay, in that case.

The Lexim Analytical lexicon of the Hebrew Bible says the following. It says train up, and then it says dedicate to set apart to a particular use through custom or religious right to develop a person's behavior by instruction and practice, to consecrate, to restore, or to renew. So that's kind of a mouthful and a bunch of different things.

But the way that this word is used in the context of the Old Testament is interesting.

1 Kings 8 and verse 63, you can write it down, we're not going to turn there, but the word is used to describe the dedication process that Solomon made for the temple.

The number of sacrifices that Solomon made, the prayers, the ritual that went through the process of dedicating that building to God. Deuteronomy 20 and verse 5 describes the one condition in which somebody could get out of war. Well, there were multiple conditions, but one of the conditions was that a man would potentially be sent home from battle to dedicate his home.

And it says, lest you die in battle and another man dedicated. Right, so they were able to go home from war to dedicate their home. They were able to go and do that. So we see almost every other every other circumstance that we see in Scripture here describes this as a dedication.

Dedication was something that was important to Israel. It involved a ceremony. It was something that was more sustained then than a single point in time, right? We have young people come up, we have them be blessed at services. It's not the same thing as a dedication. Dedications are done in other faith traditions. It's not the same thing in that sense. But when we think about what it is that we're doing when we do this, we are saying this little bundle of joy, God, we're giving her to you in that sense, or him to you. This is your child. Be with this child. Strengthen this child. Help them get through the issues that they're obviously going to face in this life.

This child is yours in that sense as we provide this process. We are intentionally, purposefully shepherding the lives of these youth committing their way to God in that sense. That's what it means when it talks about training up. It's not one point in time. It is a lifetime of continuing to shepherd and continuing to press them forward in the direction of God. There's a quote that I came across recently that said, culture isn't just what we encourage.

It's not just what we encourage. We have a lot of things we encourage in life. There are a lot of different things that we encourage. It says, culture is not just what we encourage, but also what we allow to happen. Culture is not just what we encourage, but what we allow to happen.

The process of dedicating our children, training up our children in that sense, to wisdom, which is the way of God, right? The way of God is the way of wisdom.

It is as much encouraging the way of wisdom as it is discouraging the way of folly.

If we allow folly, we're not dedicating our children in an appropriate way.

Proverbs goes on to describe pride, lust, dissipation, wastefulness, laziness, rebelliousness, impatience. And it talks about all of these things as being part of the way of folly. They're not a part of the way of wisdom. None of these things have a place in the way of wisdom. None of these things have a place in the way of God. Those of you who have parented and are parenting, you recognize that it is one of the biggest responsibilities that any of us will ever experience. We are directly responsible for another being. Right? It's a big, enormous responsibility. Deuteronomy 6 in verse 6 speaks to the diligence with which we teach the way of God. It speaks to the diligence with which we teach it. It says that we should teach it as we walk by the way. In all these moments of life as we go alongside of these youth, repeating these concepts as the youth accompany us through life, as they learn from our example, as they see us personally yielded to God, as they see us personally reconciled to God, as they see our hearts circumcised, seeing us show love and peace and kindness to others, seeing us exhibit patience and grace. These are the examples that they see as they go along with us in life, as we diligently teach the way of God. Proverbs 22 6 again said, train up, dedicate a child in the way that he should go, in the way of wisdom, and when they are old they will not depart from it.

Now, we understand this passage is not a guarantee in that sense. It's not a guarantee in that sense. There is a responsibility on behalf of the individual. The child has a responsibility to do something with what they've been provided in that. We mentioned it earlier in the blessing of little children. Satan is after our kids. Satan is after our marriages. He is doing everything that he can to destroy the family unit. Everything, everything possible to destroy the family unit.

But what Proverbs 22 6 is saying is that when these foundations are purpose-built, when they're intentionally upheld, and when you've got two parents that are deeply converted, that are yielded to God, that are appropriately submitted to one another, when those people are living their way in which they're dedicating that child to, they're living it in word, and they're living it indeed the likelihood of that dedication and of that training, bearing fruit, is much, much greater.

It's much greater. When we look at Scripture, we recognize God works through families.

God works generationally through the calling and the faith of parents. If you would turn over to Acts 2 as we kind of explore what would be outside of this greatest blessing of all, what is the next most important blessing that really pushes us in the direction of the first, that really supports that first? Acts 2. Let me turn over to Acts 2. You know, we frequently come to this passage when we consider the Feast of Pentecost, but on this particular day there was an important promise that was made by God through Peter to those men that were gathered on that day of Pentecost. And Peter brings it about as part of his incredibly powerful sermon on that day. Acts 2 verses 38 and 39. Acts 2 verses 38 and 39. So Peter here is describing the covenantal aspect of this greatest blessing, our part in it, what our responsibility is in order to receive the promise that God has promised to us, right? There is a covenantal agreement upon which we must enter. There is a process, there is an expectation by God of something that we must do.

But he describes this process and he describes the promise that God makes.

Verse 38. Then Peter said to them, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And it says, You shall then receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So we see our covenantal agreement. We see the aspect in which we are expected to enter into in order to receive then this promise which God has promised us. Notice verse 39. This is where the big promise comes. It says, For the promise, this promise of salvation, this promise of, you know, the baptism leading to the receipt of the Holy Spirit, to eternal life, to ultimately the promise that God has given, says, For this promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. That promise wasn't just to those men gathered at that time. If they entered into covenant with God through baptism, God said, You'll receive the Holy Spirit. You will receive the Holy Spirit. Christ's blood would then wash them of their sins, but it wasn't just for them. That promise, that opportunity, was to their children as well. It was to all who were afar off, as many as the Lord will call.

So that promise was made available to the children of the men who were gathered.

And as we can extrapolate out, their children's children and their children's children's children. And on down the line, it goes in the way that God works in families and generations.

1 Corinthians 7 and verse 14. We've been here recently. I'm not going to go through and read it for sake of time. But 1 Corinthians 7 and verse 14 illustrates that children of believers are sanctified by God. Children of believers are sanctified by God. They are set apart.

They are made holy. And Paul even indicates here in 1 Corinthians 7 verse 14 that it doesn't necessarily take both parents. Now that's the ideal. Okay, that is the ideal. But it doesn't necessarily take both parents. As we've mentioned before, with regards to this passage, it's certainly easier on the family when it's both. I was a product of a household where one parent was a believer and the other was not. I can assure you it's much easier. I can only imagine it's much easier when both parents are both believers. What Paul states is that it only takes one. One believing parent. One parent with faith in God for that calling to be offered to their children. Through the faith of the parents, the children are offered an opportunity for salvation. Again, what that child does with that is their responsibility.

What they do with that calling, what they do with that opportunity that God has given them, that is on them. That's on them. That's their decision. But God works through families.

God works through families. And the action and the example of the parents has a significant impact on the children and on the children's children. If you want to start turning over to Exodus 34, you want to start popping over to Exodus 34. We're going to see a biblical principle here that becomes really critical when we think about this responsibility that we have as parents to dedicate our children to God. Right? The responsibility that we have in this process.

Exodus 34, we see an example here of God's glory being proclaimed.

Moses had come before God again to receive a second set of tablets. This is the passage in which he passes before Moses in the cloud, stands there with Moses, and ultimately proclaims the name of the Lord. Exodus 34 and verse 6 is where we'll go ahead and pick it up. So Exodus 34 and verse 6. Again, we see God describe the following to Moses. It says, The Lord passed before him and proclaimed. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth. Notice verse 7, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. God describes his character. He describes his very nature.

God says he is merciful. He is gracious. He is patient. He abounds in goodness and truth. He says he keeps mercy for thousands, forgiving their iniquity and their sin.

But then we see that he declares that for those that are guilty, and another section that has a similar statement here says, for those who hate me is the way that it's described in another location. He declares, for those who are guilty, it says, he visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generations. Now, passages like Ezekiel 18 and verse 20 clarify this. God does not directly punish someone for someone else's sin. It says in Ezekiel 18 verse 20, the soul that sins shall die. The punishment for sin is upon the individual who sins. But there is a principle here that we need to understand.

We need to understand this. A good example can provide blessings from generation to generation to generation to generation. And the converse of that is also true. A poor example, an ungodly example, can cause generation after generation after generation of trauma. And ultimately, individuals who continue to perpetuate that trauma throughout time. Unfortunately, in the world in which we live today, generational trauma is a very real thing. We have individuals who have not yielded themselves to God, either through ignorance, through not knowing, or ultimately through an outright rejection for those who have been called. And through ungodly behavior, through an unwillingness to submit to God and live God's way, have created a great deal of trauma in the next generation. And if that doesn't get fixed, it creates a great deal of trauma in the following generation.

And the following generation. And now we see the principle of Exodus 34 in place. We're beginning to understand the concept and the realm of epigenetics. The decisions that are made, actually, in a lifetime of another person can cause genetic changes in that person that can then be passed on to the children. So we begin to see other facets of how this generational passing on of these things impacts future generations. Unfortunately, generational trauma frequently rears its ugly head in relationships. That is when it comes to a head. It manifests as an inability to trust someone because trust was broken so frequently, so often in their family of origin. They can't fathom the idea of being able to trust someone. Communication breaks down completely and totally. There's an inability at times to be able to communicate without a loss of emotional control. You get flashes of anger. You get flashes of sadness. You get withdrawal that comes in where a person pulls away from conversations that get real and become hard.

They step back. They pull away. They're unwilling to have those conversations.

People who experience generational trauma have difficulty setting boundaries.

They struggle to connect with people emotionally. And often they self-sabotage the very relationship that could help to heal them. Because the trauma does not allow them to process it. And sometimes this trauma goes back generations and generations and generations. And if you've ever seen the diagram before, there's a diagram out there where it shows a line of matchsticks. And it's like they lit one matchstick and you see the fire pass from one match to the next to the next to the next. And on down the line it goes. And it says, how do you stop this from progressing? One match gets pulled out of the way. And that's all it takes to stop this trauma from continuing from generation to generation. With each subsequent generation, if there is not a willingness to yield to God and to put in the work to fix it, the trauma just continues to be perpetuated and continues to be passed on to the next generation. The sins of the fathers are passed to the children and the children's children. Not as a punishment for the sin necessarily in that sense, but because of generational trauma that comes from living in a deeply dysfunctional family unit. Parents have an enormous responsibility. It's enormous as part of dedicating these youth to the way of wisdom because they're to model it.

And when it's done well, it's beautiful. Oh, when it's done well, it's beautiful. It's so beautiful. And those blessings are passed from generation to generation to generation. Think about 2 Timothy 1 and verse 5. 2 Timothy 1 and verse 5, where Paul tells Timothy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and I'm persuaded is in you also. Paul saw from this generation to this generation to this generation the faith that was passed on, the blessings that came from those things from Lois to Eunice and ultimately down to Timothy. Not all of us have experienced that. Not all of us have come from homes like that. Myself included. What do we do with it? How do we work through this? How do we ensure that we stop the cycle, so to speak? Brethren, this is what we're admonished to as parents. I want to take a look at a few passages where this concept is illustrated. This importance of teaching these things to our kids, modeling these things, being the example for these things. The first of those is a little bit closer to the front of the book in Genesis 18. If you turn over to Genesis 18 real quick, Genesis 18, see the example of Abraham. We see the example of Abraham and ultimately we see the calling that God provided him. When you look at this particular section, this is dealing with the upcoming events that were going to take place in Sodom. This is God talking here about the events that were upcoming. And God says the following about Abraham. Genesis 18 and verse 19. Genesis 18 and verse 19. God says the following about Abraham. He says, For I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him.

We see God promised Abraham that he would provide him with a multitude of descendants, that they would number like the stars in the sky, like the sand of the shore, that there would be multitudinous nations and peoples that came from Abraham.

God knew Abraham. He understood that Abraham would pass these things on to his children. And so ultimately, following through on that calling, following through on that promise, that the promise that God made to him would work, because these people coming from his household would have the opportunity to learn these things. In a sense, God worked with Abraham because he knew that he was faithful and that those descendants that God promised would be dedicated appropriately to him and to his ways.

Abraham's faith wasn't something private. He lived it. He lived it very out in front of him.

His faith shaped his household, shaped the way that he interacted with people.

Now, a little bit of speculation. Did God specifically select him because he knew that Abraham would follow through in this way? Like, his past just seems to insinuate it. That's speculation. I can't prove it one way or the other in that sense. God said later that he knew Abraham believed him after he had gone through the process with Isaac. But we see that Abraham's faith shaped his household. It shaped his descendants in a sense. Let's turn over Psalm 78.

As we see as the story goes on, you know, it didn't always work well. As the story continues from Abraham, not every generation of Abraham's descendants pass things on in the same way. Psalm 78 illustrates again this tendency that God has toward generational legacy.

And it also gets at the challenges that Israel faced in this process.

In the midst of this section in Psalm 78, kind of retelling, so to speak, Israel's history, Asaph, who's the writer of this psalm, makes clear this generational focus. Psalm 78—we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 5. Psalm 78 and verse 5 says, It says, So God provided these things, and he said to them that they should make them known to their children.

So they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they might arise, and that they might declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God, not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. So we see God established a testimony. He established a witness, so to speak, in Jacob.

There was a witness that was provided to Jacob, a witness provided to his descendants of the power of God. And Jacob's descendants saw that in multitudes as they left Egypt. They had opportunity to see the water's part, the plagues that delivered them, the God who delivered them.

And he said that testimony and that law was to be made known to the children, so that these upcoming generations might know them. For those that would be born later, they'd never seen these things.

They'd never heard these things necessarily. It was the responsibility of the previous generation to ensure that they knew them. Why was that? Why did that matter? It was so that that generation, those children who had never seen those things, could arise and declare them to their children.

So that there was a continuous generational legacy, so to speak, that was taking place.

So that those descendants could set their hope in God, so they could never forget his works, and ultimately so that they could keep his commands. Because for those that were not alive at that time when those miracles are done, these were stories from the distant past.

They hadn't directly experienced them, directly connected them. You go out 300, 400, 500, 600 years. What connection did they have to the Exodus aside from the stories that they were told?

How would that next generation know if that testimony and the law were not provided to them? God tasked the fathers to make sure that these things were known to their children.

It was the father's responsibility to ensure that their children had this information. Notice verse 8. There's a reason why God gave this to them. Verse 8 of Psalm 78 says, and may not be like their fathers. So he says, the reason why I want you to do this is they won't end up like your fathers, he says, who were a stubborn and rebellious generation.

A generation that did not set its heart a right, and whose spirit, whose heart, was not faithful to God. It was through generational education that bad examples were identified, good examples were upheld, and the next generation was trained up and was dedicated. Let's turn over to Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6, we see here an instruction to children in Ephesians 6. So specific instruction to children. Those children that may have tuned out at this point. Listen up. This is for you.

Ephesians 6 verse 1. Ephesians 6 and verse 1. We see very specific instruction to children, to youth. Okay, and it says, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. It says, honor your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.

Children are commanded by God to obey their parents. Now, to obey their parents in the Lord, it says. And as parents, we read that, we go, ha! Take that! You have to listen to me. God said, right? We kind of go that way. No, we don't. That's a joke, of course. But that is God's expectation of youth. That is God's expectation of youth, that they will obey their parents in the Lord. What does that mean? When their parents are submitted to God, when their parents are providing instruction that is in line with God's instructions, not in contrast to it, obedience is the expectation. If parents are instructing children to do the opposite of what God instructs, those parents are not following the way of God. Honoring our fathers and our mothers is the first commandment with promise. It's the first commandment that comes with an addendum, so to speak, that all may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. But notice, contained in this, beginning in verse 4, is an instruction to fathers as well. Ephesians 6, verse 4, says, And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and in the admonition of the Lord. So we see fathers specifically give an instruction not to provoke their children to wrath. Instead, they're to bring them up. They're to train them up. They're to dedicate them, in that sense, in the training and the admonition of the Lord. Now, this statement is provided in context of a father's responsibility, the task which was given to a father in this way. This is the context of this statement. It's bringing out the role that a father has to train their children in the way of God. And Paul recognizes, especially at that time with the Roman world and all these other things, that there were a lot of different ways that a parent might choose to do that in those times. Sometimes during Paul's time, especially, but even honestly, to an extent, even today, this idea of training up our children relies on harsh, unfair, inconsiderate methods that cause anger or exasperation to children. Fathers can train their children in a way that is devoid of warmth, that is devoid of love, and the end result is not bringing them up in the training and admonition of the Lord because it's not in line with how the Lord trains and admonishes his own children. It's a lot of different methods in which we have today. Now, the other side of that ditch, the extreme is harsh, inconsiderate, etc., the other side of that ditch is a parent that doesn't parent at all. They're so concerned about the warmth and the love of that relationship that they do not want to hold their children accountable.

In that circumstance, they're not provoking their children to wrath, but they're also not bringing them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord.

We have to find the middle. We have to find the middle ground when we work with our children.

We have to find the place that is not devoid of love and warmth, but that also holds them accountable and teaches them and trains them. The word that's used here for training in the Greek is the word pedia. It's the word pedia, and it's where we actually get the English word pedagogy. For any of you who have done education classes, pedagogy is the word that they use to illustrate classroom instruction. So pedagogy is this idea of classroom instruction. That's where we get the word from is that Greek word of pedia. But in Greek, it's a concept that actually contains a lot more than just classroom education. In Greek, it had this idea of an entire upbringing and education of the child. It was a holistic approach, so to speak, to character development. It included mental, moral, physical training. It went beyond the classroom. It went well beyond the classroom to include instruction and cultivation in virtuous habits and ultimately in discipline. This goal of pedia, this goal of this training, was to create someone who was well rounded and that embodied Greek ideals. Now it's in the Greek culture. But Paul, as he often does, co-ops Greek culture, co-ops Greek words. And so he uses this word very purposefully to illustrate a similar training as what pedia would have been in Greek culture, but in this case, in the way of God. That it is going to create someone who is well versed in the way of God. So it's not advocating for instruction in heroic Greek ideals and physics and rhetoric, although, you know, those things are important. But it is talking about development of the whole child in the way of God. Developing godly character, mentally, physically, morally. Cultivating virtuous habits.

Developing discipline. Just as God does with those who are His. Let's turn over to Hebrews 12.

Hebrews 12. In the book of Hebrews, we see a discussion on how God works with us, how He ultimately provides training, how He provides discipline, necessarily, in that concept for us, and how this process takes place. What it also illustrates is how a perfect loving father works with his children. A perfect loving father works with those who are his. Hebrews 12. We'll begin in verse 7. Hebrews 12 and verse 7 says, If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons.

For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? What father is going to watch their kid run into?

A horrible circumstance and not stop them is what the writer of Hebrews is saying.

It says, If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons. For what son is there for whom a father does not chasten? If you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us, as seemed best to them, but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. Notice verse 11. It says, No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. God chastens his children.

Now, interestingly, the word chasten is the same word that's used in Ephesians 6 and verse 4 for training. The Greek word, padeia, is the same word. It's the same concept. The difference here is that in that process of training, God does it in perfect love. He does it with our best interests in mind. And if we're willing to take that instruction, if we're willing to hear it, if we're willing to put it into practice, if we're willing to take that discipline from God, and we're willing to learn from it, God says you will harvest the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

God chastens his children because he loves them. And chastening is not pleasant in the moment.

It's not. You know, it is never fun to get a time out and have to stare at a wall.

It's never fun to get spanked. There's no enjoyable aspect of that. You know, it's not fun in that sense. But if we learn from those lessons, if we learn from those things, we're able to learn a great deal. You know, as parents, we love our children.

We want what's best for them. We want what's best for them. We want the best possible environment in their life for God to be able to work effectively. Right? We want to provide the most ideal ground, so to speak, for God to be able to sow that seed.

Which means that we have to take effort. We have to make effort to correct behaviors that are going to become destructive. We have to take effort in behaviors that are going to otherwise cause them harm. Meaning that we need to discipline out in some fashion. And again, I'm not advocating for a specific form of discipline. What I'm saying is discipline is necessary. Chasening is necessary.

We have to work to discipline out behaviors like rebelliousness, violence, disobedience, disrespect, anger. Or what you end up with is an adult that can't self-regulate and causes trauma to the next generation. Brethren, discipline is discipleship. Discipline is discipleship.

As parents, we're not just disciplining our children. We're making disciples.

That's the role that we play. And that process to make disciples requires discipline. It requires training. It requires chastening just as God chastens his children in order to do the same. And again, I'm not advocating for any specific method. Some kids, certain methods work better than others. You know, we had different kids that different methods of discipline worked for them differently. So it's very unique in that sense. But we need to chase it. We need to discipline. We need to teach our children what it means to have boundaries. We need to teach our children what it means to obey. What it means to submit. What does submission really look like?

We have to model that. We have to provide it for them. We have to teach them what it means to be respectful and kind and courteous. We have to teach them to pick up after themselves. Some of us as adults are still working on that. Right? We have to teach them to treat other people's property with respect and with honor. This disciplining, this disciplining, sets them up in a way in which there is a foundation in which God can continue to do the work that He has promised to do as a result to the faith of their parents. Again, culture isn't just what we encourage. It's what we allow to happen. And if we allow it to happen, it will become the culture. As parents, we have an enormous spiritual responsibility. It's huge. It is a huge responsibility. We are in the process of dedicating our youth to God. And we have been admonished by God to train them up, to point them to Him, to undergo a very intentional, very purposeful process of dedicating them in service to Him. And that involves us as parents modeling this way of life, modeling it for them so they can see it.

The greatest blessing of all is not national prosperity. It's not material wealth. It's not even our physical health. Those are all wonderful things, and we're grateful to God for them when we have them. But the greatest blessing in all of our lives is the calling that we've been provided to come to the Father in reconciliation through the blood of Jesus Christ, to receive salvation as a result of entering into covenant with God. And brethren, that calling is generational.

That opportunity is generational. Children are made holy. They are sanctified through the faith of their parents. Not both. It only takes one. It only takes one. And through that process, just as it did in the life of Timothy, you can have a legacy of faith that grows.

As we mentioned before, the ideal when a children has two parents that fear God, truly fear God, who are yielded to His will in their life, who are both submitted to Him, and who are appropriately submitted to one another. Two parents who are both actively and purposefully working together to teach His truth to their children, that is the most ideal setting for training and admonition of a child of God. That's the most ideal scenario. What we see in Scripture are three things. Children are heritage of God. They are a blessing. They're a heritage of God. Parents are a steward of that blessing. It is our responsibility to care for and to point them in the direction of God. And ultimately, we see that the home is the classroom.

They are a heritage of God. We are the stewards as parents, and the home is the classroom.

Now, not everyone is a parent today. Not everyone's a parent today. Some of you are grandparents. Some of you are great-grandparents. Right? Some of you get to wind them up and sugar them up and send them home. It's a wonderful blessing to be able to sugar them up and send them home. But all of us play a part. All of us play a part to be able to contribute to the spiritual culture that helps to form our youth. I'd like to give you five quick things that we can do, all of us can do, members of the congregation, parents, grandparents, etc. The first thing, pick a kid, any kid. Pray for them by name this week, every day. Pick a different kid if you want. One kid a day.

Pray for them by name. Ask God to be with them. Ask God to strengthen them. Ask him to lift them up, to draw them to him. If all of us pick seven kids this coming week and pray specifically for those kids by name, imagine the the the prayers that are coming to God in that way.

Secondly, parents, grandparents, church congregations, start an intentional Deuteronomy 6 moment this week. Take a time to pull someone aside. Have a conversation. Maybe for parents it might be breakfast, it might be bedtime that works best. Pick one verse from the Bible, one section from Scripture, one sentence of how you've had to live it. Maybe even a shared prayer about how to implement it. Take the time, third thing, take the time to talk to your children about the messages that they hear at services. Take the time to talk about these things. Ask them what their takeaway was. Share with them what your takeaway was. Normalize talking about God. Normalize talking about His way. The fourth one's hard. The fourth one's hard.

We have to model repentance. We have to model repentance for our youth. As parents, we blow it sometimes. As pastors, we blow it sometimes. We have to model repentance. We make mistakes.

And sometimes we double down in pride. Instead, confess. Ask for forgiveness. Pray for them. Pray with them, rather. And let them be able to see that grace in action.

The fifth thing, and this is what I'm going to challenge all of you to do, and this is more for the parents, I'm going to challenge all of you this week, and you can continue doing it past this week if you want, and I, you know, guard the culture of your home. Guard the culture of your home. And I don't mean turn off Netflix, though that's probably wise. I don't mean like turn off Amazon Prime or stop watching this or that. That's not what I'm talking about. What is one thing that you've been allowing that undermines what you've been encouraging? What is one thing that you don't have the energy to tackle right now, but it is completely undermining what you're trying to encourage? What is that thing? And I'm going to challenge you this week to remove it. Find a way to solve it. Find a way to take care of it. Guard your culture at home. Brethren, every generation has an opportunity to build on the blessings of the last. It's incredible the way that God operates in these families and in these generations. And in time, physical blessings fade, right? In time, physical blessings fade, but a spiritual legacy is what endures. You know, Mr. Kinsella asked, passed on trumpets here, what would our legacy be, right? What is that legacy for us generationally? And what do you want it to be? What do you want it to be? There's still plenty of time. There's still plenty of time. If you don't like that legacy, if you don't like the direction it's going, there's plenty of time to fix it. What do you want that legacy to be?

And what will you do to take measures to implement that? Our children will remember what we model for them far more than they will remember what we say. Let's endeavor all of us to be examples of faith to our youth, to be the kind of parents, grandparents, and spiritual family ultimately through whom God can continue to work and can continue to develop this greatest blessing of all in the youth in our congregations.