As I begin, wow it's hard to believe I've been here officially since August. I've been here actually since July. But officially since August and we're making our way through Ephesians and we should be done with it next week unless the Lord changes my plans for this morning. As we begin though I just want to make a quick announcement. I know some of you have taken the challenge to read through the Bible in a year. And we are in Genesis 30 something today. And I wanna encourage you that if you took the challenge, if you're reading through with me, would you just simply pop me an email to let me know you're reading along with me so that I can encourage you and maybe even send you an email to say, hey, what's God showing you? Or if I know you're doing it with me and I see you on Sunday, I can ask you, what's God showing you about himself? And I'll tell you what, I've been in God's word a lot in the last 34 years. But as I'm working my way through the Bible this time, I'm seeing things about God in Genesis that I had never seen before. That's the beauty of being in God's word. You can never get to the bottom of it. You're always learning and growing from it. So as we begin this morning, I just want to bring us back and recap us what we talked about last week. So last week we talked about Paul's instructions to those under authority. We talk to the children, we talk to those, Paul would call them slaves, they were literally slaves, and I use the analogy today of those who are subservient, as it were, to somebody in maybe a position of work, okay? So I reminded, and again, one of the things I highlighted was looking at the scripture and to find the instructions, you look for the verbs. And so obey your parents, honor your mother and father. To the slaves, it was be obedient, render service. Now this morning, as we finish it out, I wanna speak from Paul's instructions to those in authority. because there may be a place in your life where you are in authority and a lot of people don't feel like they're in any kind of authority but for your in authority particularly for the fathers and for masters which the modern kind of understanding of that would be if you're a boss. or if you're any kind of position of authority, like if you are helping out with Word of Life even on Wednesday night, you're in a position of authority. So may these instructions speak to us in those positions this morning. So now he's gonna speak to those in authority. And so he starts off with, okay, fathers, okay? And this is what he says to them. You may have to run that Cody after all. OK. Ephesians 6 4. He says fathers do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. How many of us are fathers in here? A lot of us, right? It's a privilege, right? To be a father. But it's also an incredible and an amazing responsibility. How many of us who are fathers in here would say that we have obeyed these instructions completely and we're like the best that we could possibly be? I'm noticing no hands are going up. Because for those of us who have been fathers, we know that there are times in our life where we fail, and there's times when we actually have to go back to our children and say, forgive me for not being the kind of father that I need to be to you. And I'll be honest with you, I have the privilege of having my youngest son with me. You guys know Josiah, hopefully you've met him. My youngest, and if you don't believe my testimony about the fact that I've not always been the best father, Josiah would love to share with you and confirm that. Okay, we realize we fall short, unfortunately, because of our sinful nature, but that doesn't mean that the standard that's being proclaimed isn't. supposed to be there. It's like we talked about in Sunday School this morning. We strive for it in the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can be everything we need to be according to the Lord. So he speaks to the fathers. Now, it's interesting, he doesn't speak to the mothers, okay? Not that the mothers aren't involved in this process, but as the wife in the home, based on Scripture, they are the helpmate who will come alongside. the head, the authority that Paul talked about earlier in chapter five to help them in this process. How many of you in here who just raised your hand, who have children, have wives that have come alongside you to help you? to do what God's calling you to do. I know I can't speak for anybody else wives in here, but I have an incredible wife who is a gift from God, who I don't know if I could have ever had any success raising my children without her by my side. And I want to honor her today because I've needed her. She's made me a better father. as well as a better husband. But listen to what Paul says. Fathers, and he starts out in the negative, do not exacerbate, let's go back to Ephesians, do not provoke your children to anger. So he starts in the negative and he's gonna get to the positive side of the instruction. He says, do not provoke them to anger. The word provoke can mean to rouse to wrath, to stir, to exacerbate, somebody or to irritate. Okay, so I'm gonna ask kids here now. Have you ever been exacerbated or kind of stirred up or roused up to anger because of something your father has done that was maybe not godly? Anybody? I don't see any hands. I saw one go up real quickly. Because you're afraid that when you get home, you're gonna have a conversation with your father. But the reality is, we've done it. But here's what God is telling us, and it's in the present tense. Which means in the Greek it means to to continue to not do those things. It's not just a one time admonition. It's a constant reminder that continually we are not to exacerbate our children. What's really interesting. Cody, if you would just take me, I'm gonna come back to Ephesians 6, 4 in a minute. If you could take me to Colossians real quickly. Paul adds to this admonition in Ephesians by saying, fathers do not exacerbate your children. And he adds to it this phrase, so they will not lose heart. So they won't become faint hearted. Fathers, we need to be lifting our children up. We need to be building our children up. And I'll get to the idea of the discipline and instruction of the Lord in a minute. Because sometimes we have to correct. Sometimes we have to call them out according to the word of God. But even then we can do it in such a way that doesn't make them feel faint hearted. And I'll be the first one to admit and confess to you that there have been way too many times in my life as a dad that I've exacerbated my children. That you could see the exacerbation on their face. And I will never forget one of the moments that was just breaking for me in a good way was when one of my children had the, had the courage, in love, to come to me and say, Dad, this is how you relate to me. Dad, it doesn't work with me. And I was able to listen to them and find a better way to relate to them that didn't frustrate them. Guys, I'm telling you, and you say, well, I'm here today, and I don't have, I have grown kids, and I just have grandkids. Well, you know what? Grandparents, help your children to do what's right, to raise their kids in the way of the Lord. Don't, like we looked at last week, why did I invite the grandparents to come up? Because you're part of that legacy, and you're part of that help for your own children to help them to raise your children in the way they should go. Grandparents, help your kids. And I know that's tough, I'll tell you this, I'll tell you from personal experience. Lisa and I are very careful about how we communicate to my son, Caleb, and my daughter-in-law, Shelby, because it's not always received well, because it looks like you're meddling. You raised your own. But what our kids need to understand, even as grown adults, we are helping them with experience and with God's word to raise their children in a way that doesn't exacerbate them or frustrate them or cause them to lose heart. Because the last things we want to do, and I'm going to pick on Josiah for a second because we even had this conversation yesterday. We were having a conversation kind of about how we could address a certain situation. And he goes, Dad, I'm not sure I would do that because that might cause somebody, he didn't use these words, but to be faint hearted. So we can even learn from our older children what helps in dealing with them. So don't exacerbate them. Cody can go back to Ephesians 6, 4, but here's where we get. the positive, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. And so that word but there is really significant here in this English text because it's a contrast between what we shouldn't be doing and what we should be doing. And so he says, don't do that, but bring them up, raise them up to maturity. Right? So it's talking about nourishing the child, not only physically, but also rearing them up continually in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Now the word discipline here is interesting because it's often misunderstood in scripture. Hebrews 12 talks about discipline, right? We think of discipline from our culture as what? Pulling out the belt. By the way, I got the belt growing up. I deserved it most of the time. Okay, the way it was done would have been frowned upon a little bit today, but I got the bell on my backside, and it was good for me. The Bible says that, you know, that kind of thing is good, correction, especially when it comes to rebellion in the home, right? We need to be corrected, but the word discipline really is where we get the root word disciple or train. So when he's talking about the discipline of the Lord, he's talking about the whole training and education of a child in the spiritual realm. That's what we're supposed to be doing. We're supposed to be training our children and instructing. The word instruction means exhortation or admonition, and it literally means training by word. Not just example, that's part of it, but training by word. And in the Greek it talks about the word of encouragement when that is sufficient. So sometimes when we're training and instructing our children in the ways of the Lord, we have to encourage them, right guys? How many of us have children and know that younger children, they have to encourage them, right? Because if you don't encourage them, you're gonna cause them to be fainthearted. But we also know that because they're little sinners, Let's be honest, we're born with sin natures, right? You don't have to teach a child to sin. They have the inherent nature to do that, unfortunately, right? Because of that, there are times when we have to correct them, when we have to show them that what they're doing is not pleasing to whom? Mom and dad? Yeah, kinda, but more what's not pleasing to the Lord. Because that's our responsibility as fathers and as parents to discipline them in a way, to train them in such a way to understand what pleases God. That's exactly the whole premise of parenthood throughout the whole entire scripture. Sometimes it may mean reproof. And that's what it means is the whole instruction of child training. Now, Let me just show you quickly some cross-references. Deuteronomy 6 and 11. And I'm not necessarily gonna read this, I read it last week. But it's a reminder, and by the way, it's part of the Shema. The word Shema in Hebrew means to listen. And I think I used the word listen last week and talked about the idea in Hebrew reckoning, Hebrew thinking, listening means obeying. So this is the Shema, you know, the hero Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. It's all part of that in Deuteronomy and Deuteronomy is the second giving of the law to that new generation that's going to go into the land. Why? Because all but two got destroyed. The original people that came out of Egypt got destroyed because of the disobedience. Joshua and Caleb are the only ones so that Moses is given the second giving of the law so that that new generation would know what they need to do to obey God so they're not like their parents. Didn't go well. Parenting for the adults didn't go well. But this new law is given, not new, but a reiteration of the law. And it talks about teaching your children diligently as you walk, as you talk, as you lay down. And what it's saying is basically, whatever you have the opportunity, tell them about it. And we can skip, we can actually skip to Deuteronomy 11 and just kind of go past it, Cody, because it's really a reiteration a number of chapters later. But then in Psalm 78, it says, we will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the congregation to come to the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done. So here's the deal. Here's what I figured out in Scripture. Why does God give us children? Okay, they're a gift, they're a pleasure, right? But if God just gave us children so that they could watch us grow old and then die and then they get through the cycle, then that's meaningless. Based on scripture, God gave us children so that we could teach them the ways of the Lord. My parents, unfortunately, did not know Christ, so they couldn't do a very good job of teaching me the way of the Lord, but now that I know Jesus, I have the responsibility of teaching that next generation and the following generation. I was praying for Elijah and Adeline last night, my two grandkids. Elijah's almost four, Adeline just turned one, and anybody here have grandkids? Aren't they a blessing? They're truly a blessing. I gotta say this just as kind of an off-the-cuff. Over the years, I've heard people make very disparaging remarks about kids, parents, about their own kids. And I remember one, and I thought it was funny at one point, and I don't anymore, and that's the idea that, well, kids are the grandparents' revenge on their own kids. And at first it kind of sounds funny but then you think about it. It's really not. I heard somebody share something recently from a Christian perspective. They said you know because people say well I don't know I could love my my kids anymore. And when you get grandkids. I was listening to Elijah last night talk to me on the phone. Papa. I couldn't understand half of what he said but it was Papa. It was like oh it melted my heart. Papa. He knows who his Papa is. Right. And I heard this person say this, Elijah and Adeline belong to my son Caleb. He's the only one in our family, and my kids have had grandchildren. I never thought I would have any, but what a blessing it is. And I heard this person say, if you love your son like Caleb, then you can love him even more through your grandkids, through the progeny of them. And so when I look at Elijah and Adeline, it's just one more way that I can love Caleb that much more through them. So grandparents, we have a responsibility to help the next generation to know the wonderful praises of the Lord and what he's done in our life. We actually talked about it in Sunday school this morning. Are we marveling at the things that God has done? And not only marveling in our hearts, are we marveling in front of our children marveling in front of our grandchildren and saying, you know how wonderful God is? That's part of the reason why God gave us children, not just to have kids that we can adore and love and dote on and all that kind of stuff. There's a greater spiritual purpose in scripture for having kids, and that's to pass the next generation of God on to them. Because unfortunately for Israel at one point, there was a generation that did not know God. Why? Because the previous generation had not told them about God. I can't do anything about what happened before me, about the generations that came before me, but I sure darn well can do something about the generations that follow me. Fathers, we have a responsibility, an awesome responsibility. If we could go to the next one real quickly. Proverbs 22 6 I used this last week but I wanted to share something really cool if you've never heard this before. Says train up a child in the way he should go even when he's old he will not depart from it. So so our job is to train them up so that they have that word of God in front of them. You know what the word train means in Hebrew. It's not what you think it is. It means to make palatable. Now think about, what's our palate? Our palate is where our taste buds are, right? And I heard this explained by Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis in such a beautiful way. He said, he comes from, I think it's either Australia or New Zealand, right? And he said there's a thing in their country called Vegemite. It's a veggie paste. How many of you, when you hear that, get excited about putting that on your crackers? I think I've even had a taste of it. It was disgusting. I spit it out. But he said, where I grew up, when our kids are born, all parents take Vegemite and put it under the kid's palate so it becomes normal to them. And so when the word here means to make palatable for them the way of the Lord, the way they should go, that when you've raised them up and they're facing a culture and a generation that's now saying things against God's word, that they go, no, that's wrong. I don't know how many times Caleb has come back to me and said, Dad, I've heard things from people, even people who are so-called Christians. And he said, Dad, I knew the difference. I knew that was wrong. Josiah and I were having a conversation just the other day, and he was saying to me, Dad, this behavior that the world is promoting, it's not of God. Well, where do you think they got that? I trained them up in the way of God so that they know what's right and they know what's wrong. Now, whether they choose to follow that or not is not our job. It's to train them up, right? And then in 2 Timothy 3.15, real quickly, And I quoted this last week, that from childhood you've known the sacred writings which were able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Unfortunately, Timothy's father was a Greek and there's no mention of him being saved. But we know grandma and mom, Lois and Eunice, brought him up in the Old Testament scriptures and the scriptures teach salvation. So can I challenge you guys, I have little ones, Are you sharing the scripture that talks about salvation with your children? Are you sharing salvation from scripture with your kids? Because I think one of the responsibilities from early on is to teach your kids that they're sinners, to teach their kids that the only way to have salvation is Jesus Christ. And I will say this, my three year old son, I asked him two weeks before he died, What prompted me was the Holy Spirit. I looked at him and I said, Joel, if you were to die tonight, where would you go? And he looked at me kind of frustrated, Daddy. I said, Joel, I need to know. And he looked at me and he said, well, I would go to heaven, Daddy. That's a three-year-old. Don't tell me a three-year-old can't understand. And then I prompted the next question, and I said to him, Joel, how do you know? What's your assurance that if you died even tonight, and I didn't know he was gonna die two weeks later, but boy, God gave me the assurance in all of this. And I said, how would you know? And he goes, Daddy, kind of a little frustrated. And I said, Joel, I need to know. And he goes, now listen to this response. He said, because Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. Did he understand the extent of sin as an adult? No, he understood that sin meant disobeying mommy and daddy, doing things that weren't pleasing to God. But I know that I shared the gospel with my kids, and my kids know Jesus. Are you doing that, parents? Grandparents, are you encouraging the gospel with your grandkids? And I'm gonna go home and give a call to my son and daughter-in-law and say, I know you're a youth pastor, but that doesn't mean anything. Are you sharing the gospel with Elijah and Adeline? Are you telling them about Jesus? Josiah, by the way, did we share the gospel in our home? Right? Wow. Okay? So parents, got a lot to think about. Let's move on. to the other group, masters, okay? And in Ephesians 6, 9, he says this. He says, and masters do the same things to them and give up threatening, knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven and there is no partiality with him. So he's telling them to do the same thing, but here he's not talking about that they have to do exactly what the slaves are doing, but simply what he means here is that you are to treat them with the same Christian principles and considerations that you expect them to show you. So really what he's saying here is the way you expect to be treated by your slaves, or by those in subordination, Use those same Christian principles and treat your employees. How many of you in here are either business owners, have been a business owner, or have been in some kind of position of authority in your job? Raise your hand. Right? Your responsibility is to treat your employees the way Christ want you to be treated by them. And here he's talking about Christian slaves. Right? But I think that principle would still be true of non-Christians. How do you win somebody to the gospel? When you start treating them like Christ would want you to treat them. And then they stop and go, man, I've had bosses before. This guy's different, man. He treats me with respect, with love, with courtesy. And you know what? It's even kind of freaky. He even says he prays for me. Maybe not even says he prays for me. He actually prays for me. How many of you have Christian bosses here? I wish Joseph were here because I know Mark's his boss. Right? Is this the way you want your Christian boss to treat you? With the same respect and the same honor that you expect them to give you. He says, and give up threatening. This is the idea of, in those days, it really should read in the English, and it doesn't translate it, but there's a definite article before give up threatening. In the Greek, it literally reads give up the threatening. I don't know why the translators don't translate it the, but it's give up the threatening. And what Paul's thinking about is there was a well-known habit of masters treating their slaves poorly. And so he's addressing, if that's what you're thinking about and you're a believer, stop it. Stop doing it, right? And I love Colossians 4.1, Cody. Similar passage, masters grant to yourselves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a master in heaven. So actually in Colossians, he actually picks up from Ephesians and says, and adds by saying, be just and fair with your employees. Be just and fair with those who are under you, because guess what? There's gonna be a recompense one day. There's gonna be a recompense for parents. There's gonna be a recompense specifically for fathers, and even for those in a position of authority. They're gonna have to stand before the master one day and go, well, these are the principles I gave you to how to treat those under you. Okay, now we're gonna have a reckoning. How'd you do? Now listen guys we don't stand before the judgment seat or before the great white throne judgment. Our sins been taken care of. But let me just remind you that doesn't mean there isn't a judgment for believers. It's called the great white throne or the great beam of seed of Christ in 2nd Corinthians 5. We're going to stand and give an accounting for our salvation one day and he's going to look at us and say OK Jim first of all I'm going to call you out as a father or a believer. Then he's going to say well you have the role of father and husband I'm going to I'm going to call you out on that. And then boy you get the privilege of being called out for being a pastor. Yay. That doesn't scare me because I'm not going to lose my salvation, but boy. I want to stand before the Master, before the judgment seat of Christ one day, and I want to hear, well done good faithful servant. I don't want to hear, well you did great here, but... So I know that one day, and those of us who are in a position of authority are gonna have to face judgment of one sort, and I pray that we live in such a way now that we hear better, more of well-done, good, and faithful servants, right? And then finally, Leviticus 25, 43. He says, you shall not rule over him with severity. This is masters and slaves in, you know, because there were people who became poor and became slaves and all that in Israel, and so he's talking to one Israelite to another, and he says, don't rule over him with severity, but you are to revere your God. So even the pattern was laid down in the Old Testament for how those in authority are supposed to treat those under them. I haven't always been treated very kindly by those over me. But that's not my responsibility. I do know, on the other hand, that as somebody who is in a position of authority, I'm gonna be held accountable. And it's not even the issue of being held accountable. It's the golden rule, guys. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And I heard it said one day, years ago, that the way you could translate the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, is this. Think about how you wanna be treated and go and treat that person that way before you. So if you want to be treated with kindness, then treat that person with kindness beforehand. If you want to be treated poorly, go ahead, because you know what's going to come back, right? So it's all practical living before the Lord. Now as we close out, I only have a couple minutes, I'm going to ask the question I asked last week, how are you obeying the Lord in your role, either in or under authority, And then real quickly, as we're getting ready to go out of Ephesians next week with the spiritual warfare text, I want us to think about this as we think about the book of Ephesians. As we've been in it, right, we've talked in chapter one, two, and three about who we are in Christ, our position in Christ. And then in four, five, and six is how do you live that out practically? So I wanna challenge you, church, because you know what? A church that's not challenged by the pastor is gonna be lacking. But a church that's willing to accept the challenge of their pastor, by the way, I think I've shared this with you before, I might be an under-shepherd, but I'm still a sheep. So anything I'm challenging you to do, I better be doing as well. But I'm gonna challenge us in 2025, how are you living out your position in Christ? How are you obeying? How are you doing what God wants you to do? What have you learned? How are you living it? How are you being changed by these truths? I'm gonna be honest with you. I've been a pastor long enough to know this is true. There's gonna be some of you who are in here who walk away from these messages every week and it, eh, whatever. I heard a good message, but that's it. Are you allowing these messages to impact you? Are you allowing the truths of Ephesians to affect your life and transform you in the same way that I need to be doing that as well? Because as he begins the next section, the final section of Ephesians, he says, finally, brethren. He's closing out the book and he's going to end, finally, and next week we're going to look at that last section. Okay, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this time. We thank you. I pray, Lord, that it's been beneficial. I pray that it's been challenging and encouraging as well. Lord, not only in this section, but in all of Ephesians, are we living these truths out? Are we being affected by them? Are they transforming us from day to day into the glory of God? Lord, I pray that you would help us by the power of the Holy Spirit. You would help us as we encourage one another and even have to challenge one another in this body. Lord, so that we could be the body of Christ that you've intended us to be and beyond. Lord, we don't want to get content and say, well, we've done pretty good up to this point. Lord, I want us to be challenged. that we go forward and we become even greater witnesses for you in 2025. Use Bark River, Lord, for your glory and for the good of those around us. In Jesus' precious name, amen. God bless. Have a blessed week.