Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we do give you thanks this morning for those mercies which are ours in Christ, for this blessed assurance in which we have, because you have bought us, purchased us, ransomed us. And Lord, we thank you for the work of Christ. We even asked this morning that we'd set our minds in the heavens as we think of Your kingdom, Lord, Your throne, Your sovereignty, Your rule, Your reign in the hearts of men. And Lord, we ask particularly for Your help as we continue our study relating to the little ones and their coming to You, their professions, and even as parents, that we would see a responsibility unto God from this and that You would fill us with much faith. and hearts that are willing to obey you in these matters. Lord, we do pray for the little ones that you've given to us, that you would be pleased to save them, that you would give them and grant them true faith in the biblical gospel, and Lord, that you would empower them by your Holy Spirit to walk faithfully unto you. Give us all of this we ask in Christ's name, amen. All right, if you wanna go ahead and turn to Deuteronomy 6, We'll start there this morning. Deuteronomy 6. So today we're going to continue and finish, God willing, just our little mini-series that we did on shepherding children through professions of faith, our responsibility as the people of God, and particularly us as parents. And there's something here for everyone, even if you are single, if you've never had children, if you have children currently. Or if you're a grandparent, there's much to glean, much that we can see as the body of Christ. And really, it's a shared responsibility in some senses, but the ultimate responsibility lies on the parents, okay? And we're gonna see that. So let's look at Deuteronomy 6.4, and I'll read through verse nine. It says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontless between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates." This is God's Word. So thus far we've examined The foundation of what God's people are called to do when a little one makes a profession of faith. We heard our Savior's words, to forbid them not, if they are coming to Him by faith, resting upon Him for their salvation alone, it matter not the age that they come. We also spent some time examining particular challenges. So two weeks ago, we saw these challenges that the Church of Christ would face when a young one makes a profession of faith. How to discern first, biblically, if they truly belong to Christ? And secondly, how do we exercise church discipline on those young ones who make false professions of faith? This, however, still led us, nonetheless, to maintain that any true believer of Christ, no matter their age, must not be forbidden to come to the Lord and receive the precious means of grace. And so today I want us to focus particularly upon the parents of those young ones who are making professions of faith. We must absolutely, without hesitation, acknowledge the blessing that it is when a child comes and makes a profession of faith. It's a tremendous joy, blessing, and delight for that. It's a wonderful thing that a child is sensitive to the things of God. We should be joyous over this rather than immediately skeptical. Parents may feel these dual emotions, excitement for the child's spiritual sensitivity to the things of the Lord, but also concern for how now do I guide them rightly according to the Word of God. And so I hope today's discussion will equip us as parents to shepherd our children faithfully through their professions. But again, remember, even if you're not a parent currently or you have older children, this still applies to, you think of your grandchildren, you can think of the children in this church. There are things that you can help other parents and encourage them in these matters who are right in the midst of this. So let's look at the beginning, the foundation. Okay, a parent's role in discipleship. We first must look back to Deuteronomy 6, and notice there, notice what it says, Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength. Notice the absolute call in this matter. This is a divine summons, no matter your age, by faith you must look to Christ, by faith you must love God, by faith you must not love your own sins and desire to continue in them. The idea is to give everything unto the Lord, to not hold anything back from Him. This is what we must teach, not only ourselves, but also our children. We must help our children to understand that their very lives exist not for themselves, but to glorify God. And if you lay that foundation, it'll be so helpful to them later in life. Parents bear the solemn responsibility from God to ensure that they are teaching their children the Gospel of Jesus Christ. that they are always speaking of the things of God, that they are opening His word continually and repeatedly to them. So, this matter of discipleship, it begins in the home through consistent teaching, modeling, and worship exercised by the parents. Now, I want to be careful. We need to be very clear with our children. We don't immediately treat them as disciples. We have to understand that they're lost and need a Savior. But once they start expressing these desires to follow Christ, then we think in the categories of discipleship. I think, I know, for far too long parents have abdicated their responsibility to teach and train their children. They send them to public schools, which now are nothing more than indoctrination camps for the secular state. They rely on youth pastors instead of teaching the gospel to their children. Well, they'll hear it at church. They rely on pastors, even, who minister the Word of God each week to them and say, well, they get it from there. Parents, though, must see that their calling from God is to shepherd their children. And if they're not doing this, then they are in great sin. So why do you think this problem exists, I'll just speak broadly, in American evangelical culture? Why do you think it exists in our day and age that parents are not discipling, training, speaking much of the gospel to their children? What's the causes, what do you think, if you were to say? Too busy? Busyness? Yeah? Yes? Dude. Yes. Laziness. Yeah, laziness, right? Part of it goes to the church, I think, that they've taken that responsibility and said, you know, we're the professionals, don't try this at home. Simply put, it's selfishness. It's too hard, it takes too much work. It's away from my free time. Yes. The children run the roost, so the parents aren't going to step over that line. Yeah. That's exactly right. I think these are great. What do you think the root of all that is? You mentioned it, but spiritual laziness is one. What's some other roots? Let's talk about the sins of the heart that cause this to happen. Selfishness. Anything else? Comes to mind? Let's think of these categories. Have you ever heard, for example, someone say they just feel inadequate to that task? So maybe they're desirous to do it, but they just feel unable. And this may come into where the church has not discipled the people of God well. How would we respond to somebody that just says that? I don't feel adequate enough to do this. You don't have anything above being a father. teach and children are instructed in this way. Another qualification, can you read the Bible? And if you can't, then just put the audio Bible on and they can listen to it then and talk about those things with them. It doesn't have to be that you're preaching 45-minute sermons to your children every day, but opening the Word of God, explaining it to them. And so there's a lot of causes that we can really think of. One that I see quite often in our American culture is parents want two incomes. Right? They don't want to do the hard work that may be to sacrifice some of those lifestyles. And so they're pursuing money at the expense of their children, whatever form of fashion that takes root. So let's look at the goal, okay? The goal of shepherding our children. And we need to be very clear in this, that as parents, our goal is not simply to produce outward conformity in our children. Okay? But we want to shepherd them and nurture them to love God, and to come to a deep understanding of His Word and His ways. We should not be striving to make external Pharisees, but making disciples who love Christ from the heart. And the primary way that parents faithfully fulfill the Great Commission is taking their Gospel to their children. I hope you understand that. That is the primary way that we exercise this great calling of God for the Great Commission, us as parents, preaching and teaching the Gospel to our children. And so, if you're a mom that stays at home, take heart. You have great harvest fields. They are ripe unto harvest in your home, but they need laborers there. We're also called to make disciples. What's a disciple? Follower of Christ. It's someone who, we can think of the imagery, sits at the feet of the master and learns from him. It's an emulator of Christ. Discipleship means cultivating a heart that treasures Christ above all else. And I know I'm going back, but this came to me, for example, maybe some of the reasons that parents aren't shepherding their children well is because they're not following Christ with their whole hearts either, right? And so out of guilt, they say, well, I can't demand my children to do that if I'm not even willing to love Christ above all else. The good news, though, for us as parents is that this is not a task that we're called to do alone, right? We have our helpmates given to God, but we also have the Lord has given to us a local church in order to aid this process of making disciples. Now, what happens in our day and age too often is many professing parents put a higher emphasis and priority on sports, events, extracurricular activities instead of the Church of Christ. And children are not stupid, they know that. They see that. Where are mom and dad's priorities? Well, they're not here at the Church of Christ, they're here. And so parents, I urge you, exhort you to invest in your children's spiritual state. Your child is probably not ever going to be a professional athlete. In fact, why would you actually want them to be? Train them up in the way of being a disciple of Christ. And so we shepherd our children, not just for professions, okay, but we shepherd our children to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Any thoughts there before we move on to the next section? Going back to what you said earlier about the mothers staying at home, there's so many times where we've met people over the years that they really desired their children to be saved, and they said, well, we can sacrifice anything. And I have to look inwardly, But at the same time, some of these individuals, they have very worldly lifestyles. Their children are in the public school system. And when they say that they would do anything for their child, would they really? Would they really go to the full extent of sacrificing everything to be obedient to the word of God for the soul of their child? And I really believe fully that any sort of sacrifice Yep, amen, exactly right. All right, let's continue. There'll be plenty of time for interaction. Now, I just wanna recap. We've discussed this. Go to Matthew 19 as you're turning there, just kind of as a reminder, in case you haven't been here for all the sessions. We, as parents, must see a responsibility to examine the profession, okay, with biblical love and charity, but always under the biblical lens. So Matthew 19, Verses 13 through 15. It says, Then the children were brought to him that he might put his hands on them and pray. But the disciples rebuked him. But Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them and departed from there. So very instructive text. Here we have Matthew delivering to us the same account that we've read. I believe it was a mark that Ted Chrisman put out in his book. But here is another example of this, just solidifying the teaching for us. So what are the things that a parent is called to look for in one who has made a profession of faith in their children? This is just a recap. So we've discussed this, but what are some of those things? Just give me a brief summary. What do we look for? Truth to the Spirit. Sensitivity to the Gospel. What else? Attitude towards sin. Attitude even towards brothers and sisters. How they're acting, responding. And so we need not look and expect our children to have perhaps a Damascus Road conversion like Saul did. We'll talk about that in a minute. But we should approach our child's profession with the same love. recognizing that they indeed have a unique spiritual capacity, even as children, but ensure that they understand clearly the gospel from a biblical perspective. So, some key considerations. Comprehension of the gospel. Does the child understand key concepts like sin, repentance, and faith in Jesus? Because I would argue, if you don't understand those concepts, then you do not have the ability to be saved. You have to understand what these things are. So practical questions for our children, what does it mean that Jesus died for you? Or why do we need to repent of our sins? What happens if you don't repent of your sins? Just simple things, okay? We've discussed this, so we'll keep going. Secondly, spiritual fruit, as our brother said already. Look for the early signs of the Spirit's work. According to Galatians 5, those fruits of the Spirit, kindness, humility, or desire to obey. Dad and Mom. Third, and I think this is where we have to be very cautious and careful and pray to the Lord for much wisdom and understanding, is motivation behind their profession. And this may take some time. And this is where we have to invest hard and diligent labor, carefulness, because we have to discern whether this profession stems from a genuine conviction of sin or external pressures. What could be some external pressures that a child may would face that would cause them to want to make a profession? Another sibling preaching at them that they better be saved. Now that's not a bad thing but I would just say for our own example we have our oldest son that I told him many times don't preach so hard at your younger brother Jed at that time to preach at him because I don't want Jed just having to but it was genuine, so, but that's the way it is. External pressures, yeah. Macon, what were you going to say, brother? In your church environment, all of their peer group are getting baptized or something, and they feel like they're just, don't want to be the one that's not. Raise your hand if you want to accept Jesus in your heart. The altar call, even, too. Who grew up in the altar call? Set of curiosities. A lot of us, right? That pressure, well, I need to go up to the front for some reason. Yeah, Pastor Greg? I was just gonna say, one of the things, the pressure, is the watching the elements go by, right? So that's another thing that can get them thinking, like, I need to get in on this, right? Yeah, the fear of missing out. Yes? Well, if you have a child who tends to want to please the parents, pleaser will do it just to please the parent. Yep, that's exactly right. Anything else? I'm sure there's multitudes. Let me ask you this, and I want you to listen very carefully, okay? Is, I don't want to go to hell, a valid motivation to become a Christian? It's incomplete. Good answer. It's incomplete, right? And to a sense, it's really a self-centered view of it. Because really, the motivation that makes it complete should be, I've offended a holy God. And yes, I don't want to go to hell for my sins and suffer that punishment, but I also don't want to offend God. I want to honor Him. And so often times kids will get the wrong idea. They hear preachings about hell and they just get scared about hell itself. But they're not really scared of offending God, if you know what I mean. Their fear of the consequences or what's going to happen to them. And we talked about it a few weeks ago, maybe a month ago now, but when we talk about the fear of God and the different fears that people can possess, right, but it's incomplete. I think it's a great answer here. It's incomplete. And so what do we do? Well, if a child comes to us and says, well, I don't want to go to hell, well, you also need to remind them that it's not just about you and going to hell. You have sinned against God, and you have to realize that. And you have to want to make amends for that reason alone, right, that God has been offended. And so, as they say that, remind them it's not complete fully. Let's keep going and talk more about the gospel. And I think what a wonderful, I mean, it's lobbing a softball in there for you to hit with your children when they ask that question. Is the gospel now can be clearly presented. And so, These things are just helpful to us examining the profession. We went through all those practical questions that we could ask. And I want to remind you too, if you're a member of the church, whether you have children or not, or you have older children, ask these little ones here. Especially when they make professions about these questions of the gospel. Just ask them one day after service. What's your understanding of the gospel? Ask them, why do you need to be saved from your sins? And I think what a wonderful blessing, what a wonderful, really, testimony that our church could do with these little ones is ask them questions about the gospel. Don't be afraid to ask them, okay? What are some practical things that we can do as parents to examine this profession? And especially examine the motivation behind their profession. What are some things that you found helpful in your own home? Anything come to mind? didn't mention by Mike, but fruits of the spirit. There's nobody better, you know, set up in the family unit as the parents to be able to look at the child before the profession and then after the profession. And just maybe you, if you were in my home, if I was in your home, I may not be able to notice that change. But the parents, and especially I believe the mothers who are very close, will see So it's just those little things. There's going to be a change. It does not go on just how it was before. There is change. Yeah, absolutely. And we'll get to it more, but another thing I say practically speaking is family worship. I mean, what a great opportunity to instill the gospel within your children. But we'll pick up that in just a moment. Third, let's look at the dangers of false assurance. Okay, Matthew 7. And parents need to wrestle and struggle with these passages, as well as their children. But just to understand the gravity behind this. We should never have this mentality, well, better safe than sorry, let's just get the kids to make a profession of faith and get them baptized. Because what if they're not resting upon Christ? Look at Matthew 7, verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And so this is another reminder that we have to set before our children. Just because you say the magic words doesn't mean you're going to be with Christ. Notice what it says, "...he who does the will of my Father in heaven shows himself to be a true disciple of Christ." So don't be afraid to encourage obedience, gospel obedience on your children. Remind them that you have to follow the ways of God. But also remind them that when they fail, when they sin, that this is why you need Christ. This is why you need a Savior. And so it's not just about the vocal profession, but it's also a life that professes to know Christ. So a mere outward profession does nothing. We know that. Here are individuals in Matthew 7 who do not have faith in Christ, even though they've made a profession. They've worked miracles, signs, and wonders, which is just mind-blowing to me. But it was an outward professor only. Now, I remember growing up, I was an outward professor. I made a decision. And this is really what we see today, the danger of decisionalism and easy-believism. What it produces is empty professors, rather than true people who are resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 15 now. Same chapter. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them." We must shepherd our children to bear fruit in their lives, not just to make a profession. And so, there may be some helpful things, right? It may be helpful to avoid language like just make a decision, or just ask Jesus into your heart. While it's good intention, it could confuse them that it's all about just a profession. Or pray this prayer. Anybody pray that prayer? and just repeated, but didn't really believe the prayer that you were saying. Didn't even know what it meant. So we need to just be careful even in our language. And don't be afraid to use biblical language. Come to Christ, repent of your sins, turn to Him. And there may be times where we help our children do that. We teach them to pray. This is something that you would say, and I don't want to be too hypercritical here, but just be careful how you summon your children to pray. I mean, to pray, to come to Christ as well, okay? Be discerning as parents. As parents, we must remember faithfulness over speed. What do I mean? Well, don't rush into these matters. Trust in God's providence and His sovereignty. Don't make rash decisions because, well, what if my kid dies and he goes to hell? Trust in the Lord's sovereignty. Trust in His providence. Be faithful. in that matter. Don't rush into these things. Patience. Exercising that. And I would even argue, use discipline as a wonderful evangelistic opportunity. If you do not discipline your children according to the Word of God, then you're teaching your children that Daddy and Mommy are not following the Word of God. And you're undermining the Gospel that you're trying to preach to them. Now, I'll recommend we don't have time to go through it, but Pastor Alan Dunn, from New Jersey. He did a wonderful article he titled, Spanking Evangelism, one of my favorites. Now, what does he talk about in that article? Well, he simply says the parent's responsibility to discipline, right, and corporal discipline, spanking them, but also that is always an opportunity to preach the gospel to your kids, to pour over them the gospel. If you spank your child and do not speak of the gospel, it is an incomplete act of discipline. You have to drive them to the throne of grace. Your sin is great, you deserve punishment in hell, but Christ was born, your punishment, if by faith you trust in Him. And it's a wonderful opportunity. I would say this as well as parents, practically we need to be constantly repenting to our children for our sins against them. They need to hear that Mommy and Daddy exercise repentance and model that to them. I should not have spoken to you that way. I was too harsh. I was angry when I disciplined. You need to discipline, yes, but I was angry. Please forgive me. And our children need to hear those words, not just I'm sorry, right? Sorry is just a statement on how you feel, okay? I sinned against you in this way. Please forgive me for sinning against you in that way and model that to them. And so as parents, we have to model that. OK? Any thoughts there? These are all connected, so we'll keep going. But I want to stop if there's. Discipline is very, just like what you said, and to be able to express to your children that you would be, as a parent, disobeying God. Do not discipline them. And then bring that all into that whole picture of our obedience as parents and their obedience is needed, too. To be that we are all underneath. Remain his composure, keep his composure, and discipline. Meaning that you can say something, if it doesn't happen, you discipline, but your composure, you're composed, and that really brings the children that they listen up. Because Daddy doesn't have to get to a certain pitch before the discipline comes. Or count to three. Or on the third time you can obey, but the first few times you don't have to obey. Immediately, right? Immediacy of obedience for children. I've said it often, delayed obedience is disobedience. We know that. And so how often are we modeling that to our children? Well, only the third time that I tell you. You have to listen to me. Not the first or the second. But what if we act that way with the Lord and His commands? You see? And so discipline is so important. We'll get back to it because I'm coming back. But fourth, I want to talk about a Gospel-saturated home. Let's go to Ephesians 6. And this is connected. If you know the passage, you know very well. This is connected here. to this idea of discipline. And so we're gonna continue this theme really through the last two sections, maybe the third as well. But Ephesians 6.1 lays out for us really a gospel-saturated home, what that looks like, and especially as it relates to discipline and the children's responsibility. Ephesians 6.1, children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Do you see any qualifications there on that? Sometimes it's right? No, it's right. Good. Verse 2, "...Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth. And you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." So there are very important responsibilities that children must learn from a very young age. I don't just ask you to obey Mommy and Daddy because I want you to. The Lord commands you to. This is right. It's good. It's according to His Word. And you are obligated to do that. Of course, we tell our children. It's a good exercise. We do it with Harper and Judith sometimes. What if Daddy told you to sin? What would you do? We have to understand that according, they obey their parents in the Lord. That qualification is given according to the Word of God. But notice as well, verse 4, fathers are mentioned. Fathers have the primordial calling from God to be the spiritual leaders in their home. What do we see in our day and age? Well, we see men. who are passive and weak men who do not lead their families in the truth of God's word. They're just like their father, Adam. Passiveness. Instead of putting before them the word of God. If you remember, maybe it's been a year or so ago, maybe longer, when we went through that in Sunday school, that men are called to be prophets, priests, and kings in their homes. I'd recommend that to you. We don't have time to go through that, but just to summarize, fathers bear the responsibility to open the word of God to them. They bear the responsibility to pray with their families and for their families. They intercede on behalf of their families. And they lead their wife and their children in the things that they are called to do. But they always emulate and model Christ. And remember we talked about that fathers are called to be a prophet, a priest, a king, but not the prophet, the priest, and the king in their home. Never taking the glory that's due to Christ alone. And so we must understand, men, this is our responsibility to the Lord. If we're not doing this, we are in grave sin. And we have to repent of it and start this day teaching and leading our kids and our wives in the Word of God. Ephesians 5 talks about how you treat your wife, bathing her in the Word. And so, what I want to say at this point is we have to lead by example, teach by example. We have to be a model of the Gospel to our children. We are always teaching our children whether we know it or not. And besides the Bible, I think Joel Beeky said this, your lives are the most important book that your children will ever read. In the book of your life, he continues, they will see how important your views of God are. They will see if you have biblical conviction or if you're a coward. Whether worship is a delight or a duty. Whether sin is a horrible evil or mere naughtiness. And whether we really cherish our families or view them as a burden. So let them see Dad reading the Bible every day. Mom doing her daily devotions. Help them to see visually that our relationship with the Lord is more important than anything else in this life. And to preserve that relationship with Christ, I will do anything to do that. Teach them to pray by example. They will model and emulate your prayers. They will pray like you do, for better or for worse. Listen to Beaky here. I hope you can see that. He says, teach them who God is and what He is like. Teach Him the origin, comprehensiveness, and seriousness of sin. Teach Him the necessity of the new birth and a personal repentance and faith in Christ alone for salvation. Teach Him about the atoning blood of Christ and His efficacious power. Present the whole Christ to your children. Tell them about His person and natures, His offices and states. and his beauty and all sufficiency. Teach him about the moral law and its civil, evangelical, and didactic uses. Teach him about God's call to holiness and obedience, and how to live a lifestyle of thankfulness. Set before them the reality of death, the solemnity of judgment, the joy of heaven, the dreadfulness of hell, and the eternality of eternity." He also continues, "...as you teach, be plain in meaning and style. Be experiential and relevant in application. Be affectionate in a manner like the Father in Proverbs. Reach down into the life of your children by using age-appropriate illustrations and concrete concepts. Simplify sermons you've heard for them. Tether biblical instruction to current events in your family, society, and nation as much as possible. Simply be an example to them. in all aspects of your life. And I think in many professing Christians lives, what happens in this day and age is these parents who are professors have taught their children to be horrible churchmen. To hate the Church of Christ, really, in effect. That the church comes secondary to anything else I want to do in this life. So be an example to them even in how you model your membership within the Church of Christ. Faithfully committed to the Bride of Christ. Loving the Bride just as Christ loves His Bride. Any lingering thoughts here? Comments at this point? We've got two more, so. Yes? The quote in Ephesians 5, 25 mentions the word there, that's the word rhema. That's not the Bible description there. It's a great doctrine, and there's different texts we use. I mean, I don't know off the top of my head, brother, exactly what that word would be. I'd have to look it up. But I think the principle's still there, right? Even if it's not here, men are called to open the Word of God to their wives, to pray with them, to read Scripture with them. Part of that spiritual provision and protection, the prophet, priest, and king aspect, and I don't know if you heard all those, but I go into that a lot. It might be helpful. But I'll look into it and give you an answer, okay? Sorry about that. All right, fifth, exercising patience. And really what I want to say here is be patient as parents. We need to shepherd our children with the long-term perspective in mind, okay, not just immediate results or alleged results. There's a biblical foundation for patience, James 1.4. but let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Galatians 6, 9, and let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. The reality is spiritual growth takes time, right? And parents should allow and be patient enough to see their children's faith to develop naturally, not forced, but patiently over the course of time. It takes some time to perhaps see things, especially in our children. The nature of spiritual growth is that children, when we think of them, they're still in this state where they're learning these foundational truths. They may have never read their Bible through, probably not in its entirety. What's always been an encouragement for me is sometimes, as I mentioned, it's not a Damascus Road experience of conversion, but it may be a couple of years where the Lord's working. I don't know how many of you don't know the exact day when you're converted, but there's just a period of time where the Lord's working, right? So that's many of us. And so I think we should have that mentality with our children. And be hopeful in those moments when you see some fruit, but still encourage, don't give up. And don't even think your job stops once they actually make a profession. It really just begins. and disciple-making takes time in your home. And so be patient with your children in this regard and allow them to develop according to the mind of Christ and His Word. And so we need not demand instantaneous style conversions out of Damascus Road or whatever it may be, but just realize that the Lord may be working in a way that maybe I wouldn't have, but He sees fit to work how He wants to. Avoid pressure for immediate results, okay? warn against rushing these milestones if it's the Lord's table or baptism that could lead to false assurance. I just want to check the box off and just wait, just wait, be patient to the Lord. Now, there comes a point, right, where we know we're dragging our feet and we've waited too long. But most times, at least in my experience, you see parents and even pastors operate too hastily in this matter, that we have to do it now, right? And probably it's an outworking of Arminian theology that we see, but we rest on the sovereignty of God and realizing that the Lord is sovereign even over the souls of our children. And so, guide our children. We are called to guide our children toward a lifelong discipleship and seeing their faith grow over the course of time. And so, practical encouragements here. As parents, we need to be able to recognize small but significant signs of this spiritual growth in our children. Like as we said, acts of kindness, growing in understanding of God's Word. They may think, well, I really felt the Lord was speaking to me in that sermon, recalling some of those truths and those things. But as always, rely on God's sovereignty, trusting Him to bring about spiritual maturity in His time. Listen to 1 Corinthians 3. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his labor. Sixth and finally, and we'll end with this one, we must trust the Lord with our children, this whole process. And the fundamental reality is this, our children are not ours, they belong to the Lord. So we must exercise trust in God for every aspect of our lives and their lives. So the encouragement as parents that we take from this is that salvation is ultimately God's work. We do believe in means, and parents are the means which the gospel comes to our children, but it is ultimately God who saves them in his appropriate time. John 6, 44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day, including our children. Then Philippians 1.6, being confident in this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. And as parents, we have to model this trust in God even to our children. And so what does this mean? Well, how do we practically display to our children this trust in God for the state of their souls? Well, our children must see us praying, hear us praying for them, regularly speaking of them the gospel. Pray that God would save them from a very early age. God would work in them. He would bear fruits in their lives. Model that trust to your children. And another helpful exhortation is to release control. You are not in control, no matter how much you want to be, even over your children. We are laborers unto God, but he alone is the good shepherd who calls and leads his sheep. And so there are many practical things that we could consider here, and I hope that will be helpful. I just want to stop. We're getting close to time, but there's still time for questions or comments on these matters. Trust God, though, with our children. on their salvation, if they truly have believed. That's a scary spot to be. A parent doesn't want to be there, but it is necessary, I think, sometimes when a child falls into sin, that seems like it may not be, like repenting, their nature is not that way. Challenge them on their salvation, but be very, very quick and ready to assure them, too, if they express their repentance on whatever subject it may be that they have sinned, to say, look, we're all sinners, so that's why we need a savior. You know, they may understand, but to see that heart come back, we have to, as far as like, we can't be with our children, with our like, six years old, they profess Christ, they may even be baptized, they may go to the church and be members because they know what to say or whatever, but always be ready to be able to challenge their profession at any time where it may be necessary, as we should also be challenging our own profession when we look at Scripture and evaluating our beliefs according to Scripture. Yeah, absolutely. And be careful not to utilize guilt as a means with your children. Saying things like, well, Christian would never do that, right? And you're heaping guilt upon them instead of taking the gospel to them. Imagine if your pastor spoke to you like that. You know, and so we gotta think carefully with our children. And I know it's harder because we get frustrated as parents and sin often when our children are disobedient or whatever it may be. But just be careful the language that you use around your children and heaving up guilt. I remember just growing up, and I hope my mom doesn't listen to this, but she might. You know, just, there's a lot of guilt associated with it, you know, and never really understanding the gospel from that age, and it was really hard for me. To discern those two things, it was moralism that was taught in our churches, but not really union with Christ by faith alone in his name, which is just the product or result of easy believism, decisionalism, it's pharisaicalism, whatever they call it, and it's just outward appearance, exterior, but the matters of the heart are neglected. Yes, Pastor Greg. Do you recommend, like, how do you recommend that have unbelieving children, small children, pray to God. Like for instance, let's say they sinned against their brother or sister. Obviously they're going to ask forgiveness for the brother or sister, but they're not a believer, they've not confessed faith. How then do you instruct them to pray to God? Do you understand my question? but we're still exhorted as parents. And I cover this, I think Angela had this question. Look, if you remember when it was, I can dig it up. But basically the idea is behind it, we still should exhort our children to pray. And I think for that one example, I think just modeling that to them, praying first about a new heart regeneration, God save me. This is a product of my sinful nature that I act this way. I need Christ, I need the gospel. And I'm okay leading in that and helping them find the language. but also making those clear distinctions that they aren't a believer. You know, Lord, help me to have faith in Christ so that I will be covered for this sin." And I just found that's helpful because it could put false assurance in them, right, if they have not made a profession of faith and are not trusting in Christ. But that's one thing I found helpful just personally with our children is modeling that prayer to them. And there's just sometimes I'll stand there with them and say, I just want you to pray and ask for God's forgiveness. And then we'll talk about how they prayed, you know, listening to those things and And even just a loving conversation afterward, okay, you know, you said this, just making sure, remember, you need to be a Christian in order for this to be effectual for you, those types of things. So I don't know if that's... Yeah, no, I think that's good. I think it's not easy, but God is not to be ignored. You did sin against God. You did, absolutely did, and God should not be ignored in that. Jesus Christ And so that's it. But I appreciate what you're saying there. I think we should not ignore God. That's number one. I think we should have the children calling out and speaking to God regarding their sin. But then I appreciate what you're saying, the nuance of how we work through that, because they're praying to a God who they've not bowed the knee yet to, and they're under God's wrath. And so that's difficult, but thank you for your comments. Yeah, Pastor Allen Dunn's Spanish Evangelism, super helpful on that note because he shows how to lead children to pray. I have offended a holy God, forgive me, grant me forgiveness, and just those categories, super helpful. Yes, brother. One of the miracle discoveries that having children granted me was with the help of a good child raising children God's way class at the church we were attending at the time. is that when children are concerned, and probably when adults are concerned too, compliance actually does lead to the change of heart. People will say, well, you can't force them to feel a certain way. But the catchphrase that we had was cheerful first time obedience. And so you can't just say, all right, and then do it. No. Smile, say you'll do it. it actually does change their heart. And so in the case of Greg's question, if they pray the right prayer consistently, it affects their heart in time. That's exactly right. You're teaching them to pray the gospel. Exactly right. We've got a line of little ones behind us, so I'm going to pray. Our Father in heaven, we give you thanks for this time that we've had. We do pray that you would help us as parents, help us as a church, that we would honor and glorify you Help us, even as pastors, as we know that coming up, we've got many, many conversations with these little ones, and we pray for wisdom, discernment. Lord, we just pray that, indeed, these who are making professions here in this place are genuine professions, and you would enable us and help us as a body to do the right thing unto you. And we ask this in Christ's name, amen.