You read the Word of God from Colossians Chapter 3. 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 ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth. fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in the which ye also walked some time when ye 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 ye have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies. kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, 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. and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are 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, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the father by him. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong, shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect of persons." Then I want to read just a few verses from Ephesians chapter 6, which is the parallel passage that bears on the relationship of children and parents. Ephesians 6, 1 through 4. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Thus far the reading of the holy and divine scripture. It is on the basis of those passages and many others in the Word of God that we have the teaching of our Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 39. Lord's Day 39. What doth God require in the fifth commandment? That I show all honor, love, and fidelity to my father and mother and all in authority over me and submit myself to their good instruction and correction with due obedience. and also patiently bear with their weaknesses and infirmities, since it pleases God to govern us by his hand. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, according to its literal wording, the fifth commandment deals with the relationship between parents and children. It is true that there is an application of the fifth commandment to all the areas of life. So that there is an application of the fifth commandment to servants who have a boss. There is an application to marriage. There is an application to the government. And in all of those two, you ought to see that when the Lord worded the Fifth Commandment, the way that he did, addressing the children and the parents, he really made the very brief time that parents have their children, in which they instruct them and bring them up, he made that foundational to their entire life. If a parent neglects the instruction and discipline of his children or her children that affects that child for their entire life in every area of life, you'd be tempted to say the parent ruins the child. He ruins the child either by his harsh or overbearing ways or he ruins the child by his neglect of that child's discipline or instruction, or he ruins that child through his indulgence of that child's sinful human nature. And the apostle alludes to that when he speaks about a father provoking his children to wrath. He means not only in that home, But for their entire life, life in the home is foundational. And if you have an undisciplined or rebellious child in the home, you're going to have an undisciplined and rebellious person as an adult. You're going to have that in the school. You're going to have that in the church. You're going to have that at the workplace. You're going to have that in the government. The Lord gave children to parents. And then in the fifth commandment, the Lord addresses those children with regard to the relationship that they have to their parents. And God deals with the subject of the family in the fifth commandment. because he himself is a family God. That must jump out at us on all the pages of scripture. And when you read scripture with regard to the family, you're in fact shocked by the state of some of the families in scripture. Cain murdered Abel, his own brother, because his brother's deeds were righteous and Cain's were wicked. And that shows that the family is an arena where the hostility and warfare of the antithesis comes. You read of Abraham's family. where Ishmael persecuted Isaac, so that thereto the child of the promise and the child of the flesh clashed. Jacob's family was a mess, to put it bluntly, where the rivalry between his wives spilled over into the children so that there was warfare among the children and especially between the brothers and Joseph. And Jacob really was to blame for that. And David, David brought untold trouble into his family. by his own sin with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah, so that the Lord says, the sword is never going to depart from your house. You read of the Lord's genealogy in Matthew. And when you read the names, it's shocking. that those names are the names of those who are the forbearers of Christ because those families had serious problems. Judah, Tamar, where the family was the result of Judah's own lust and sin. And I bring this up because I don't want you to think this morning when I speak about the family that I'm creating an idealized picture, an idealized picture then that we are supposedly those who keep, because it isn't true. Our families are sinful too. They're sinful parents. sinful husbands and sinful wives and sinful children. Our homes are not the product of our own faithfulness. Our homes are not the product of our own obedience. Our homes are not the product of our own instruction or our own discipline. And I think if an outside observer would come into our homes at certain times, we would be deeply, deeply embarrassed. Our homes are wonders of grace. That too is what must leap out at you on the pages of scripture. Jacob's home Was God's home Why didn't God simply swallow up Jacob Because he loved him He loved him in his own sovereign grace He loved him and he forgave him and his children all their sins. I And you have to see then, when we consider the family, we're going to consider that this morning. We're going to consider about the children and about the parents and the promise that God gives. But you have to see, when you talk about family, you must start where the apostle starts. You start with Christ. Our life as God's children in our families is hid with Jesus Christ. That's our salvation. That's the only explanation that anything good comes out of our family at all. Our life is hid with Christ. And we must also see that the trouble that comes into our home has its explanation in what the apostle says later. We don't crucify our members which are on the earth so that there comes out of our mouth all kinds of evil communication. There is in our heart all sorts of selfishness and wrath and evil speaking. There is in the home oftentimes an abject failure to forgive. As the apostle says, Christ forgave us. And we use that home and we live in that home as though everything in that home needs to revolve around us. No, if we don't have Christ, then there's nothing good that will ever come out of our home. And it's exactly because we are in Christ that then we can be admonished with regard to our homes. And we can hear what the apostle said. Children, obey your parents in the Lord. Why do you think he says that? Because the children are so obedient? No. Fathers, don't provoke your children to wrath. Why do you think he says that? Because that's the tendency of the father. And you can add to that the mother too. And so today, this morning very briefly, we're going to consider the home. We're going to consider that, first of all, from the viewpoint of the children. What does God say to his children in the home? And you children better take it to heart. That's the foundation of your whole life. is the few short years that you'll have in your parents' home. And if you chafe under it and you rebel against it, you're going to wreck yourself for your entire life. And we're going to consider the home from the viewpoint of the parents. What does God say positively and negatively to the parents? And you better take it to heart And then, too, the promise, and that's, of course, Christ. Children are, by definition, part of a home and a family. There is a biological and a legal connection between parents and children. And that home that God creates between a husband and wife and their children, that home is God's ordinance. So that God structured as the very basic relationship among human beings, God structured the entire world based on homes. And that's true of his church too. The foundation of the church is the Christian home. And God did that because that's who God is. God is a family God. I know that we can define the Trinity, and we can define that Trinity very precisely. God is three persons who subsist in one being, so that God is one in being and God is three in persons. God is not one in being and one in person. God is one in being so that there is only one God, and God in that one being is three persons. We can define that. But you may never forget that the vital truth about the Trinity is that God is a covenant and a family God. That's what God reveals about himself. When God says, I am a father, and God says, I am a son, and God says, I am a Holy Spirit, God is revealing to us that in his own being, from eternity to eternity, God is the family God. There is a father in God. And that father in God has begotten a son. And that father loves his son in the Holy Spirit. And the son loves his father in the Holy Spirit. And in God's family, God's family, there's two things about God's family that you have to understand. God's family, first of all, there's perfect harmony. There's not a ripple. of disharmony or disagreement that disturbs the ocean of God's peaceful existence within himself. The father loves his son and the son loves his father. That first of all. And secondly, what you have to understand is that in God's family, there's structure. You might say God's family, that is God in himself, that home that is God's own being, that home is not a free-for-all. Everyone doing what's right in their own eyes. Everyone seeking their own thing. In God, there's structure. Everything in God follows this pattern. It is out of the Father. It is through the Son. And it is all in the Holy Spirit. When we say there's structure, of course, in God, we don't mean that there's subordination. God's house is different than our houses in that regard. In our houses, there is subordination. There is one whom God put in control of the house. That's the Father. God vested that father with authority. That father does not have authority of himself. The father has authority from God. That's why God in these passages addresses the father. Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, because when things go wrong in the home, God comes knocking at the door of the father. The father is the head of the home. The mother is subject to the father. And the children are subject to the mother and the father. That's why God says to the children, obey your father and your mother. Children are to obey their mother. And I say that especially to the boys. You're to obey your mother. And to the girls, you can say this, if a boy doesn't know how to treat his mother, run from him. Because he'll treat you the same way he treats his mother. There's structure in our homes, but the structure is one of subordination, not in God. There's structure in God, but not subordination. In God's home, all three persons are co-equal and co-eternal. And that covenant God, that's what you may never forget about God. God is a covenant God. God is a family God in himself, and God loves the family. Not just families in general. God loves his own covenant families. Our homes are simply the creation of the covenant God. Our homes find all of their explanation and all of their reason in God himself. God brings to every man his wife and to every woman her husband. God gives to the covenant couple, God gives to them their children. And God stands at the very center and head of that home. That home is God's home. He loves that home. He's working in that home. God puts the solitary in families. Of ourselves, we deserve only a miserable and lonely existence. And God puts the solitary in families because He's a family God. Now in that home, that God's home, that's what we all forget. That's what we all sin against when we sin in the home. We sin against God in his headship, in his lordship in that home. In that home, God has a word for the children. And that word is the fifth commandment. Children, honor your father and your mother. And the apostle in Colossians 3 and the apostle in Ephesians chapter 6, the apostle is explaining that fifth commandment. And the apostle says, obey your parents in the Lord. And you say, what's the difference between honor and obey? God says honor in the fifth commandment and the apostle says obey in Colossians 3 and Ephesians 6. Honor, has to do with your attitude towards your parents. What's your thoughts towards your parents? What lives in your heart with regard to your parents? When God says honor, then he's addressing the invisible man of the heart. He's addressing your attitude and your thoughts and your mind. And that honor simply means this, that in your mind, in your heart, you hold the parent in the highest regard so that you lift that parent up in your esteem. And there's nothing that's more unnatural to a child than that. It's very easy for a child to dishonor the parent. And you understand they might not do that with a visible display. But they do that in their mind, they do that in their heart. Honor has to do with your heart. And you could just as well say it the way the apostle says it, you've put on the new man. Where does that honor come from that you have towards your parent? That's not part of you naturally. That's what you receive when God gives to you the new man and you put that new man on and you live out of that new man. That new man honors the parent so that that new man lifts that parent up and holds that parent in the highest regard. That's what God means. And then that honor that the child has in his heart manifests itself outwardly. So that when the apostle says obey, then the apostle is describing the honor that the child has for the parent as that honor manifests itself in the child's behavior. I can put that to you another way. Children love your mother and your father. And the children will say, well, I love my mom and dad, I love my mom and dad, I love my mom and dad. And then they disobey them. And I can tell you about a disobedient child, something very plain and very obvious, they hate their parent. You better understand that. When you disobey your parents, when you fight your parents, and you war against your parents and you disobey those parents, that's hatred. You have children who received a good upbringing from their parents. They were taught the truth. And then they abandon their parents' instruction. As the Proverb says, they forget the law of their mother. And then when the parent dies, they come to the graveside and they cry great big crocodile tears. That's all they are. It's a fake and it's a fraud. They hate their parents. And they show it because they disobey them. They abandon all the good instruction and all the good correction and all the good discipline that their parents give to them. And they disobey. And that's true, you might say, in the little things in the home, too. Obedience is the proof of love. You obey, of course, what's lawful. There's always that caveat to the Christian's obedience, and that's for parents or children, too. You obey what is lawful. But obedience is the proof of the heart. Then the Catechism adds a few more words, that I submit myself. What is submission? Submission, too, is a matter of the heart. And submission has to do with your attitude towards your parents' authority. Authority is the right to tell someone what to do. God gave to the parent authority so that the parent has the right to tell the child what to do. Now that might be a very obvious thing, like the parent has the right to instruct the child in the truth and tell the child, you must believe this, you must, Agree with this. You must learn this. But that also extends to parents making rules in their home. You're going to be home on Saturday night at 10.30. Why? Because I said so. It's that simple. You're going to clean your room. Why? Because I said so. Who gave you the right to tell me what to do? God did. That's authority. It's the right to tell someone what to do. And submission has to do with the attitude toward that authority, that you love the parent in that position of authority that God gave them. That's submission. And then out of that love for the parent's authority, then also that submission manifests itself again in obedience. You do what they say. And then the Catechism also speaks about that I show all honor, love, and fidelity. Fidelity is loyalty. You're loyal. to your parents, and I believe that that word has the idea of trust in it. You're trustworthy. When you go out, mom and dad aren't around, and you say, we're gonna go do this, and you actually are gonna go do that. You're not gonna go to the movie theater. We're gonna do this, and that's what you're doing. You're not gonna go out drinking. That's loyalty. You're faithful. You're trustworthy. And that all has its origin in the heart. The heart that God has regenerated. The heart in which God puts His Spirit. And those children then, those children out of love for God, and out of thankfulness for God's salvation. Those children, in fact, show all honor, love, and fidelity to their parents. But the Catechism says one more thing. I also patiently bear with their weaknesses and infirmities. The parents that God gave to you children are full of weakness and full of infirmity. And if you ask them, they will admit that readily. That explains all the trouble in the families that we read about in the Old Testament. Jacob was a weak and infirm father. David was a weak and infirm father. They were sinful. and their sin brought trouble into their own homes. And that's true of every parent in the church of God. They all have their particular weaknesses and infirmities. And God says to the children, patiently bear with that weakness. Now why patient? You know what patience is? Patience is like the tensile strength of a rope or a toe strap. That rope or toe strap has a rating so that that rope or toe strap can bear the weight. And when the catechism says patient, the catechism is saying that God understands that parents can get on your nerves. They can be overbearing. They can be inconsistent. They can bring trouble into your life by their own sin and their own weaknesses and their own infirmities. And God says to the child, patiently bear with. I understand, God says as it were, that that's a weight, that that pulls on your soul and your mind. Bear with it. Patiently bear with. Don't take advantage of. Don't allow the weakness and infirmity of the child to lower their esteem in your heart and mind. Patiently bear with. Why? Because it pleases God to rule you by their hands. That's a lovely phrase. The apostle says something similar in Colossians 3. He says, this is well-pleasing to God. And in Ephesians chapter six, he says, this is right. And you have to understand, when he says that, it pleases God to rule you by their hand. The apostle means, or the catechism means, and the apostle means, first of all, this is in harmony with the law of God. God's law for you, the guide to your thankful life, is that you show all honor, love, and fidelity to your mother and father. But there's something more that that means. It pleased God from all eternity when God numbered you among His own family. And God took you out of the kingdom of darkness and put you in the kingdom of His dear Son. and God established a covenant of grace with you. It pleased the Lord to give you to those specific parents. He didn't give you to this parent or to that parent. He gave you to these specific parents. He says about you, this one's going to be your father and that one's going to be your mother. Because that's pleasing to me. That's my will. I delight in it. And that means, too, since it pleases God to rule you by their hand, that when He gave you to those parents, He intends your good. That's what a child often thinks. This is so bad for me. This isn't right. This is not good. And the catechism and the apostles say, no, It's well pleasing to God. The weaknesses and infirmities of your parents, they can't harm you. They serve for your salvation. God works it for your profit. Not only now, but in the life which is to come. If a child If a child cannot submit to parent, whether mother or father, that child is headed toward disaster in their whole life. Because the whole world is structured in no other way than by authority. That's why the commandment has a broad application. You have to submit to the government. You have to submit in a marriage. You have to submit in the workplace. And it all begins in the home. And God too does not only have a word, in the fifth commandment to the child. The fifth commandment, of course, is addressed to the child. But as we see with all the commandments, there is more that lies behind the commandment than the literal words And the Apostle brings that out. The Apostle addresses first the child. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. And then the Apostle turns, as it were, to the father, and he says to the father, provoke not your children to wrath, that's the negative, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And then he says something similar in Colossians chapter three. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Let's take the negative first. Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. That's a very serious and sobering word to a father. That word, provoke, if you can imagine it, if I took a rope and I put that rope across your arm, then I seesawed with that rope and I kept doing it like this, then you're gonna get a burn. right across your arm. And if I keep doing it, I'm gonna eat away your skin. And if I keep doing it, I'm going right down to muscle. And if I keep doing it, I'm going down to bone. That's provoke. And how does a father do that? A father provokes his children to wrath, first of all, when that father is inconsistent in his instruction and discipline of the children. Let me explain that to you. The father demands in the home that those children behave properly, but that father in his own life is unruly and undisciplined, and the children see the inconsistency, and it rubs their soul raw. The father demands of me what he doesn't demand of himself. Or that father shows favoritism among the children so that one of the children he treats differently than the other of the children. Now we all know, of course, that all of our children are different. All of our children we deal with with a different hand. But that's not favoritism. And a father with that favoritism, that father provokes the soul of that child to wrath, and that child becomes angry, and that child becomes sullen, and that child becomes dull, and that child becomes downtrodden, as the Apostle says, discouraged. Or the father provokes his child to wrath through the neglect of that child. And if you ask me, what's more damaging to a child? That the father discipline overly harsh, and that can happen, fathers can do that. And with that overly harsh discipline, they also provoke their children to wrath. The discipline is not commensurate with the sin. The father wails on the child all the time and for the slightest provocation. And the father provokes that child to wrath. He rubs the soul raw. But if you ask me, what's even more damaging than that? And it's the neglect of the child. Eli provoked his sons to wrath so that they were the most unruly and wicked and ungodly men in Israel all Eli would ever do is say now boys now boys you shouldn't do that boys come on now you know better boys boys stop doing that it's kind of offensive in the church and Eli never laid hold on those men discipline them in measure with their grievous and gross sins. And He wrecked those boys. Or a parent, a parent maybe who understands their children's sin and their children's disobedience, but that parent never lays hold on that child and I mean that you lay hold on them as though God himself did and you take the rod and the Bible says beat them now when the Bible says that the Bible means physical discipline the parent never does it maybe read a Bible verse Maybe have some canned spiritual phrase that you throw at the child every now and then. That's neglect. And what you're going to do is you're going to take a rope and you're going to rub that on the soul of the child until that soul is broken. Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. but rather bring them up in the fear and nurture of the Lord. I can translate that for you, explain that so that you grasp it very quickly what the apostle means. With great tenderness and affection, teach your children and admonish your children in the truth with great tenderness and affection. It ought to hurt a father when a father needs to discipline his children because he has a great tenderness and affection for them. A father isn't to be a brute, an animal, unruly, with great tenderness and affection. And at the heart of that tenderness and affection is this, you love the child's soul. You know that this world is for a brief little time and that what matters is the life of that child in the world which is to come. when the parent understands that that is the reality of the life of that child, then that parent has a great tenderness and affection for that child's soul. The parent isn't so concerned that the child has the latest clothes, or that the child has the latest toy, or that the child gets to go out for dinner, or the child gets to go on vacation, so that the child has a real nice life here in the world, but his soul is neglected. But the parent, above all else, desires the salvation of their child. That's why they brought their child for baptism. That's why they promised at baptism that I'm going to bring this child up in the aforesaid doctrine. And that fear and nurture of the Lord, I can translate that for you too. It means the truth. There is no parent more wicked than the parent who takes the child for baptism. and says, I'm going to bring this child up in the truth, and he never teaches the child the truth. That's a wicked and a profane parent. That parent is rubbing the soul of that child raw. That parent may have a great concern for the earthly comfort of their child in this life, but they couldn't give a snap about that child's soul. bring them up in the fear and nurture of the Lord that's the doctrine that's the most important thing you can do for your children teach them the doctrine make sure they know their catechism make sure that they come to church make sure that they go to a Christian school The doctrine, that's the fear and nurture of the Lord. That's how the parent shows that the parent loves that child. He doesn't do it perfectly. I understand that. But in thankfulness for his own salvation and the salvation of his children, he teaches them the truth. And if he doesn't, he hates his children. That's what you have to say about a parent who neglects the doctrinal instruction of their children. They hate them. Those kids might be dressed in the most beautiful clothes, live in a great big house, have their own room, have an Xbox, and they're gonna get a car bought for them when they turn 16, and they're gonna go to a great school, and they're gonna have college paid for them, and they're gonna get a great leg up on life, and they don't know a thing about the truth. The parent hates them. Doesn't love them at all. into that admonition that really encompasses the whole discipline of that child sometimes it's a word the word admonition is a word sometimes that's what all parents have to do sometimes the Lord gives us kids like that all you have to do is look at them the wrong way and they have a broken heart And sometimes you need to lay hold on them because they're stubborn and hard-headed, just like we are. But admonition, and what's the goal of it? The apostle says the fear of the Lord, that they know God. That's what God uses parents for, that those children might come to know God. To know God in all His glory, to know God in all His sovereignty, and His power, and all His grace, and His mercy, and all of His salvation, to know God. Not just to know a business, not to know about life, to know God. And it's that command. Children, honor your father and mother. With its other side, fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the fear and nurture of the Lord. It's that command that the apostle says is the first command with promise. And you might say to yourself, well, does the law have a promise? And the answer is yes. But that promise does not come to us through our obedience to the law. The fact of the matter is, if God rewards us according to our parenting, then our children are all doomed. Because we can be some pretty bad parents. Shamefully bad parents. And our children suffer because of it. And the children can be some pretty rotten children. Because we have, as the Apostle says in Colossians, our members on the earth Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. And we have in our mouth lying and we have anger and wrath and malice and blasphemy and filthy communication. And that comes right into the home. That's present in the nature of the child. It's present in the nature of the parents. If God rewards us according to our parenting, our homes will be worse than the world, because we know better. That promise to us given in that fifth commandment comes in Christ. That's how the apostle starts. If ye then be risen with Christ. And the if there doesn't mean if, it really means since. Or because. Because you are risen with Christ. And you're risen with Christ because God gave you to Jesus Christ in his own sovereign election. and you're risen with Christ because you are also crucified with Christ. So that all your disobedience, and all your sin, and all your evil concupiscence, and all of the sinful human nature you have, that was all imputed to Christ, and Christ was crucified because of that sin, and Christ went down into hell because of that sin, and there he paid at the cross for that sin. That's why he was raised, and that's why you are raised too. Our homes, our homes are God's homes. Our homes are wonders of grace. Our homes are homes in which God works because we are in Christ. You may never forget that. You may not say my home was different than the home of the world because I did this and because I did that and because I do this. No. There's only one explanation of our homes. We're risen. with Christ. We are in Him. And the chief benefit of our being in Him is that we're forgiven by Him. That's what the Apostle says. Forbearing one another, forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any, Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. The amazing thing about our homes is that God always looks at us, mom and dad, parent and child, God always looks at us as perfect in Christ. He doesn't see any sin. And because we're perfect in Christ, God blesses our home. His attitude, let me explain that to you, what he means when he blesses your home. It means that his attitude toward that home is one of a gracious and free favor so that he loves that home And he works everything that happens in that home for the advantage and salvation of the parents and the children who are his. That's his blessing. God's attitude always is toward that home. I love that home. That's my home. That's a wonder of my grace. Those are my children. Those are parents that I created. I spared not my own son for them. And I love that home. And the promise then, the promise is simply a long life in God's covenant. It's stated in the Old Testament in terms of the earthly land of Canaan that child would have a long and fruitful life in that earthly land of Canaan but you have to put that in New Testament terms that's heaven God uses our homes never ceases to amaze me I forget it too often God actually uses our homes to bring His children to heaven. That's His blessing, because we're in Christ, because in Christ He forgave us, and because He loves our homes. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank Thee for our Lord Jesus Christ, We thank Thee for Thy love and Thy forgiveness. And Lord, wilt Thou bless our homes. Bless us as parents and children, forgiving us all our sins. And grant us Thy Spirit, that we as parents may raise our children in the fear and nurture of the Lord, and that our children may receive that good instruction and correction and patiently bear with the weaknesses and infirmities of us as parents so that thy name is glorified and thy kingdom comes. We ask this all for Jesus' sake, amen.