This was, I was kind of told that this was ministry couples with young families, and I think the oldest young person I met today was 12. Anybody here with a child over 12? All right, and so that means you're all like in your 30s or younger, and that's, wow, you know, I just, is there someone who's not in his 30s here? Brother Kuhl, are you not in your 30s? Well, congratulations. What day? Oh, my goodness. Wow. Is there anyone else? Is there anyone else out there that old? OK. Well, you could still be our child. So we're much younger. And you're not going to tell us how much. I want to start out, and in case you like alliteration, these are all M's today, but I want to start with how we manifest Christ to our children. Manifesting Christ to our children. I believe that, I believe I'm safe to say this, we're losing a generation because they don't really see that our Christianity works. Okay? We're losing a generation because they want to see proof. And I understand we live by faith, but our children are young and they don't attain to that quite. They want to see that the daddy I knew when I was seven and the daddy I know at 10, God's done something. My daddy's different in a good way. The mom I knew when I was seven and the mom I know today that I'm 11 or 12, Wow, God has done something in my mom's life. The marriage that my parents had when I was, wow, it's so much better now. And they want, they need us to manifest Christ to them. And I will take you to the book of Colossians this morning. We're gonna, this particular point, we're gonna be in the three epistles, Colossians, then back to Philippians, then back to Ephesians. But I want to take some time on this point today, because I think it's foundational and it'll help as my wife takes you ladies, because it's going to lead into some of the things she is going to communicate, and it's going to lead into the rest of what I'm going to communicate later on today. But manifesting Christ to our children, we start with the word mortify. Look at Colossians 3, verse 1, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God, Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, for you're dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, now notice this, when Christ, who is our life. Let's focus on that. Christ, who is our life. When Christ was our life, she'll appear. Then shall you also appear with him in glory. Verse five, mortify. One of the things that you and I are going to do in manifesting Christ to our children is a mortify process. We mortify means to put to death your members which are upon the earth. And there's a list of them here. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence. Wow, that's a great long college word. Concupiscence really means a longing for that which is forbidden. That's what it means. You could talk to most PhDs, they wouldn't know what concupiscence is. Honestly, it's a word we don't use anymore, but we should. And covetousness, which is idolatry, for which thing's sake? the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in the which ye also walked some time when you lived in them, but now ye also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds. So, mortified, if you and I want our children to see Christ in us, there has to be a mortifying goes on where we are actually looking into the mirror of God's Word. Now somebody has said this, we are all aware of our sins. Married people find out about them more often. It's the truth. Because you know what, when God gave me Catherine, you know what part of that was about? I'm gonna tell you what part of it's about. It's about somebody who can see the parts of me that need work. Don't resent your wives, men, when they, you know, there's something, you know, and here's how arguments go. Yeah, you always bring that up. Well, I wonder why. Maybe because it's not changing. And it needs to. And the same in the other direction. You know, ladies, if your husband is, you know, there's just something that just, okay, there goes the silent treatment, and you know what's going on in his mind, because you've heard that 72 times. Okay, then that's something to work on. There's some mortifying that needs to take place. And once we do that, notice it's not just mortify, but notice the next one is modify. Look at what he says in verse 10. After he says, you've put off, now notice what he says, and have put on. You see, we don't live in a vacuum. We don't just get rid of all of the bad stuff and then live in this spiritual vacuum. No, you must replace wicked things with righteous things. Because we do not live in a vacuum. And so he says, and put on. So after you put off, put on. Look at it. Put on the new man. Now, who is this new man? This is Christ in you. It's Christ who is our life that is mentioned earlier. So put on Christ. Are we familiar with Galatians 2.20? Yes, we are. Maybe you can say it with me. Just say it out loud. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, in this body that I live in, how do I live that? I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. But notice it's Christ living in me. The new man is Jesus Christ using your hands. The new man is Jesus Christ using your mouth. The new man is Jesus Christ using your mind. The new man is Jesus Christ filling you, living in you. That's who the new man is. And you put that on. Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge. Okay, does that sound like Romans 12 maybe? By the renewing of your mind. Renewed in mind. You know, we're all filled with humanistic ideas every day. You know what? The billboards aren't written by Christians. The advertisements are not written by Christians. The little mantras and the jingles and the adages and the sayings and most of what's on social media, most of it, I said most, isn't biblical. It's humanistic. Humanism is the religion of the United States of America. Mark that down. And we have to have our minds renewed. And so this new man is renewed in knowledge. It's a renewal of what we know. Now, we're all set. We're creationists. We're not evolutionists. We're set on that. But there's so much more to it. It's not just the big divide between creation and evolution. We have a thinking process in the United States of America that divorces itself from the power of God. And you know how we do that? We push buttons. We just Google. We just figure it out. We have ways of doing it. And God says, no, no, no, no, that is not gonna work. And we depend on our programs, and we depend upon our own training, and we depend upon our talents, and we depend on our college degrees, and you know, nothing wrong with any of those things in their place. They all must be subservient to the power of God. And so if you're gonna manifest Christ, you mortify and you modify. Notice what he says, verse 10. Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. And so this is conformity to the image of Christ. That's what we're doing here. We're putting off the sins of the flesh, and then we're letting Christ modify, change us. Okay, you say is that in the Bible? I'm glad you asked that you ask good questions 2nd Corinthians chapter 3, but we all Okay, that's us With open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are what? changed into the same image from glory to glory What does that mean from glory to glory? That means when you get saved, there's a certain glory. But the longer you walk with God, you shine more and more under the perfect day, like Proverbs 4 says. There should be greater glory. There should be, you know, you come down off the mountain, your face ought to glow, amen? You spend time with Jesus, there ought to be something about that that's visible. I don't mean that your face really glows. I'm talking about the countenance. I'm talking about what God's doing. And so we're changed into what? The same image, not a different image. You know what Christianity is not about? I'm myself. If you don't like it, get out of my face. That's humanism. You know what Christianity's all about? Christ liveth in me. You know what? We all ought to look like Jesus. Now that's shocking to this individuality crusade that we see, sadly, in our churches. And it's all about my rights. And it's all about, I want to be who I am. You know, be yourself. Nonsense. That is humanism. No, be Jesus. That's Christianity. And we're changed into the same image from glory to glory. How does that happen? Even as by the Spirit of the Lord. It doesn't happen because you're such a good kid. You're such a great preacher. You're such a good pastor's wife. You're such a good dad. I'm such a great grandpa. or husband, or wife, or whatever. You know how it happens? It happens by the power of the Holy Spirit. And we have so much technological power today, we have forgotten that not very long ago there was no technology. And people had to rely on God. I can remember when I was first saved, missionaries coming, to Highland Park Baptist Church when Lee Roberson was still leading Tennessee Temple. And they would talk about how on the mission field a world away there had been some great need and they got on their knees and they cried out to God and there was a great deliverance and then they came home on furlough years later and walk into some church and find out there was a couple burdened for them the very day they needed it, and they were crying out to God on their behalf. You know what? We don't hear about that anymore because we just push buttons. We need to hear about those miracles again. And nothing will manifest Christ to your children any more than they see the power of God in your life. Because really, you're trying to manifest Him to them. That's what you're doing, or supposed to be doing. So we modify, continuing. He says in verse 11, neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on, now here he says it again, put on. So here's the things we put on. Not just put on the new man, that's a general thing, but put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved. Wow, talk about a great little phrase for the people of God. The elect of God, holy and beloved. Oh, I love that. What are you supposed to put on? Vowels of mercies. By the way, that works in a marriage. My wife's been merciful to me. I've been merciful to her twice. She's a good woman. Bowels of mercies, kindness, it's missing today. We live in a world of rage, don't we? Road rage, school rage, workplace rage, Facebook rage. I mean, everybody's mad. And part of that is because we can't laugh at anything anymore, because it's not politically correct to laugh. Your nationality's shaming, or your body's shaming, or you're doing something shaming. I tell people a good, clean joke, it's like that thing on the top of the pressure cooker that goes... A good joke is just like, ah, and it lets off a little steam. And I love a good joke. By the way, if I send you an email this week that's about canned meat, do not open it, because it's probably spam. Amen. See? Did you see what that did? And that lightens things up a little bit. Now, my kids hate them. But they've heard them all so many times. All right. Look what he says. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind. That means you think humbly about yourself. You're not convinced of how wonderful Because the moment I'm convinced how wonderful I am, nobody else is convinced of that at all. Humbleness of mind. Meekness. That means power under control. You realize Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth? He very well could have said, go ahead, Lord. I'd like you to make a nation of people, of me, better than they are. I'm sick of them. By the way, if you're a pastor, you know what that's like. You just get sick of that congregation. You'd want another one if they were all just like you, right? But Moses had that power. He could have said, go ahead, Lord, but he didn't. He said, oh, Lord, please don't do that. Meekness, he had power, but he kept it under control, all right? Here's another thing. Long-suffering. Long-suffering and patience are sort of synonyms, but they're not the same. Patience is enduring with difficult situations and problems. Long-suffering is enduring with difficult people. Now, ladies, your husbands are going to have days when they're difficult for whatever reason. We men are, we can be cranky. And it's not a liberty here for men to just be mean spirited. But you know, we men need a little leeway once in a while. We need a little elbow room once in a while. Some long suffering. Men, turn the coin over. Your wives need some long suffering once in a while. They need you to just Let them stew once in a while. And you just listen. Now, I know. The minute my wife gets that face, it's like, I want to fix this. She doesn't want it fixed. She just wants me to listen. So she can blow off steam to me and not tell somebody else what that other person really needs to hear. And you know what? Your children need some long suckers. They are not short adults. They do not see life the way you and I see it. They don't. They can't. You sit down and explain something to a seven-year-old. The seven-year-old is saying, what is wrong with my parents? They can't see what you see. They see things from the level of a seven-year-old, have some long suffering. Now, I don't say be lenient and permissive so they grow up to be brats. You've heard it said, doctor's kids can be sick for nothing and preacher's kids can be good for nothing. Don't be permissive. Be firm, but have some long-suffering. And then we see this, forbearing one another. That means just endure things that aren't outright sin. You know, I have some quirks. Years ago, this saying came out, he has issues. Is anybody here who doesn't? Seriously, we all have issues. Okay, you know what? Faults, little weirdisms, okay? This is the guy you married, girls. And turn it over, that's the girl you married, fellas. And we all have those little things forbear. Just say, you know what, it's not a transgression against the law of God. Okay, we'll just deal with it. Forbearing one another and forgiving. You know what, I think he saves the best for last. Forgiving. You realize there is a word that separates true Christianity from all the works religions of the world. It's forgiveness. Works religions have no forgiveness. They're always just trying harder. And to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of death. But he that believeth on Christ who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. If you were to boil down Christianity, the only dregs that would be left in the bottom of the pot would be forgiveness. That's what separates Christianity, Bible Christianity, from Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Islam, and all the other, the Baha'i faith, and all these other quirky, weird, I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't call them weird. Maybe I should be nice. But these weird religions that are just flooding the country, paganism, is at epidemic proportions in the United States of America today. But there's no forgiveness in any of it. Where do you think reincarnation came from? It's another life where you can improve on this life. Why? Because we all know we fall short, right? And so forgiving one another, you know what? Forgive your children. When you have to spank them or when you have to sit down with them and really lay it on the line, when it's over and the Spirit of God has worked repentance, take that child in an embrace and say, you're forgiven. Release the child. Don't hold You know, some parents, they kind of parent like Saul was the king. He that followeth not after Saul, his oxen's gonna be chopped into pieces. What do you think they're gonna do? Oh, we better follow the king, because he'll chop our oxen in pieces. He motivated his army and his nation by scaring them to death. Don't hang the sword of retribution over your children. And don't hang the sword of retribution over your spouse. Forgiving. Listen, this is about changing your life. Modify, okay? And then magnify. We could say more here, but I wanna get on to magnify. We're running out of time. Well, let's just stay here for just another minute. Verse 13, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also you're called in one body. And be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. That means there are such a thing as an unspiritual song. Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord in whatsoever you do. Whatsoever you do as a husband, a wife, a mother, a father, whatsoever you do, do it how? How do you do it? Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. So mortify, I think it'd be good if everyone in this room could identify right next to that word one or two things that you know need to be weeded out of your garden patch. Don't put down 12 things. You can't do that. One or two. And begin making it an earnest matter of prayer for the power of God to get that out of your life. Modify one or two things which would be the exact opposite of what you're mortifying that you want God to put into your life. Now the list that is in that passage we just read covers just about everybody in this room. Nobody's exempt. Nobody's exempt. No one. And then notice magnify. That's the third M here. Mortify, modify, magnify. And that'll take us back to the book of Philippians and you know the verse. You know the verse. Philippians 1.20 and 21, according to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed. Okay, let's stop right there. That in nothing I shall be ashamed. You want to be ashamed as a husband someday? This is what I've done to my wife. You want to be ashamed as a wife? I've reduced my husband to this. You want to be ashamed as a parent? that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ may be, what's the word, magnified in my body, whether by life or death. For to me to live is Christ and that I is gain. I want to ask you, what does it mean to magnify Christ? How big is Christ? Can we make him bigger? To magnify something, We can go back to biology class in high school, and we looked under a microscope, and we saw something invisible to the naked eye, and it looked to be about that long. And maybe it was a paramecium or an amoeba or something, you know, some other little one-celled creature that floats around in pond water, which is the reason we drink bottled water. I want to ask you a question. Did looking through the microscope make that creature any bigger? No. It made it look bigger. And that's what we want to do. Because in a lot of people's minds, Jesus is about this big. And we want to make him look this big or this big. We want to magnify him. And you want to do that in your marriage? Your wife, sir, wants to see Jesus in you. bigger and bigger and bigger. Your husband, ma'am, wants to see Jesus in you bigger and bigger and bigger. from glory to glory leads me on from grace to grace every day and brighter and brighter the glory dawns while pressing my homeward way and if you know that song oh it is wonderful is marvelous and wonderful what jesus has done for this soul of mine the half has never been told we want to magnify him It's not a sign of weakness to sit down with your kids and say, Mommy, sorry. I messed up today. In fact, I blew it. It's not a sign of weakness to sit down with your family at devotions and say, Daddy ruined the day. But you know what? Tomorrow's a new day and God has forgiven me and I want you to forgive me. Because I did wrong today. I messed up. Because we all have days like that. That will not make your children not respect you. That will magnify Christ. because they see that dad and mom are real. I've often said, the first great crisis of childhood is the realization that dad and mom are not perfect. If you have 10 and 12-year-olds, they've already endured that. But you know what? Your six-year-olds think you're perfect. They don't know. To them, you're just, everybody lives like this. But there comes a day when our children move from innocence to awareness. And they realize, you know what? Something's wrong with my mom. Because I do know what happened, and she made the wrong choice. She disciplined me, but it was his fault. I know that. Or dad messed up. Why doesn't he ever admit that? Boy, when we're doing wrong, he really gets on us. But who gets on dad? That just gets away with it. Let them know you don't. Let them know there's a God in heaven who speaks to you by the Holy Spirit. How do we do this? That takes us back to Ephesians. I said we'd go backward in these epistles, Colossians, Philippians, now Ephesians. And very quickly, we do this by resurrection power. We do it by ascension power. We do it by Pentecostal power. It's not my power, it's His. Resurrection power, Ephesians 1, 19 and 20, are found in a prayer that Paul is praying, beginning in verse 17. But he says in what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us word who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead. Realize the only way we have life spiritual life. Is the power of the resurrection working in us? You and I have no great secrets. You and I have no great anything. The life we live, we now live in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. We live in Christ who is our life. Oh, Christ is resurrected. He has conquered death. Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. What's the next verse? Yield yourselves unto God as those who are alive from the dead. You see, this whole concept manifesting Christ lays hold of the resurrection it's not just my salvation is based on the resurrection no my whole Christian life you know we Independent Baptist I want to say something carefully we Independent Baptist are big at emphasizing the day you got saved Boy, we're all about salvation, aren't we? We're getting the gospel out. We're knocking on doors. We're running buses. We're doing whatever we do. And we're getting sinners saved. And boy, everybody has his own little pet program. And I'm not against that. I'm for it. And then the other thing that we independent Baptists are all excited about is the second coming of Jesus Christ. And that's the end of the Christian life. Boy, we're all excited about Jesus coming again. But do you know what's in between that? It's what we call the Christian life. From the day you're saved to the day you see Jesus, what about that period? What about it? That's where we need God's power. We need it. I need it. We desperately need to get back to where Baptists were in the days of John Rice and Hyman Appelman and some of those great men who got up and the power of God was so mighty. We need to get back to that power. I remember Lee Roberson telling the story of having Hyman Appelman into Chattanooga, Tennessee for a citywide revival. And some of the cooperating pastors got a little put out with Lee Roberson, because Hyman Appelman, even though he was a short little Jew, he stepped on an awful lot of toes. And they got together with Brother Roberson, and they said, Brother Roberson, you know, you need to go to your evangelist and tell him to kind of lighten up a little bit. And Lee Robertson said, I told those men, I'm not going to say anything to that Jew. If you want to talk to him, here's his room number, here's the hotel. And a whole bunch of those preachers got together, and they went down to the hotel that night after the meeting. And they got to his door, and they heard Brother Appelman talking. And they thought, well, we won't barge in, he's got somebody in there and he's counseling. And the more they listened through the door, they realized it was a one-sided conversation. And they got right up to the door and they listened. Who's he talking to in there? And one of the preachers, the door happened to be open, and he pushed the door open and they looked in. And Hyman Appelman, these chairs are all hitched together, can they come apart? Hyman Appelman was over, I can't pull it apart. Try this end. Oh, okay. Anyway, Hyman Appleman was over in the corner on his knees with a chair over his head so he wouldn't fall asleep, crying out to God for the people of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He didn't want to fall asleep, so he held a chair over his head. And they said, you know what? We're not going to say anything to the Jew either. And God did a mighty work. It wasn't Hyman Appelman. It was the man he was talking to. Yeah. And we need to talk to him. Resurrection power. Ascension power. The rest of that prayer in chapter 1. and set Him at His own right hand, where Ephesians 1.20, set Him at His own right hand, where in the heavenly places, far above all principality, power, might, dominion, every name that is named, not only in this world but that which is to come, and hath put all things under His feet and gave Him to be the head over the church. Over all things. Listen, we need His ascension power. What is the difference? Resurrection. Victory over death. Ascension was his victory over sin because he sat down. You want victory over the sins in your life, so do I. How do we have that? We have it in him, not in ourselves. You know, I think the RU program is phenomenal. Our son has been in it for some time, and it's really, really helped him. But I'm going to tell you something. RU is zip without the power of God. AA is zip without the power of God. And no matter what other program you're using, it's zip without the power of God. We need him. We need him. Ascension power. And then Pentecostal power. Look at Ephesians chapter 4, if you will. I like how the author of Scripture, the Holy Spirit, just sprinkles himself all through. Notice what he says, Ephesians 4.3, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. By the way, you want unity in your marriage? You want unity in your family? There it is. the unity of the Spirit. Look at verse 30, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. And then look at chapter 5, verse 9, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Look, if you will, at chapter 5, verse 18, and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Chapter 6 verse 17 take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit your prayers are Holy Spirit led Holy Spirit fed Holy Spirit sped We have access to the Father how by the Holy Spirit manifesting Christ for your children.