Well, before we begin the message, let us pray. Father, we come to you this morning humbly in awe of your grace and your mercy to us, thankful for all that you're doing among us. We thank you for hearing our prayers and showing us that you answer them even at times before we utter them because you are so good and faithful to us. And we give thanks that we are your children. And we give thanks for all the children in this church, Lord. It's so great to see all the little ones who run around and we thank you for each one of them. And we lift them up this morning to you, Lord, that they would know you and serve you and walk with you all the days of their life. And that this morning as we consider what it means to be a Christian parent, that you would enlighten us and guide us so that we might be faithful to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, that they might know you and walk with you even from a young age. We ask, Lord, that you would bless our work as parents for those who have children here. And those who here, maybe their children are grown or they have not had children, we ask that you would give them opportunity to minister to the children in this church. And to be part, as they're part of the Forever family, to work in those ways. Lord, I just ask that you would bless this congregation. That it would be There would be generations that come from this, this place, who worship you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Colossians chapter 3. And last time we were in Colossians together, we looked at verses 18 and 19, which was about marriage. And today we're going to look at verses 20 and 21, which is about children and parents. And if you'll remember, we considered that, about how this section of Colossians is part of a household code, a way that you are to conduct yourself in your home. And so it deals with spheres in the home. And I mentioned last time that In the ancient world, there were household codes that were there, but what makes this a distinctly Christian household code is a few things. One is that Christ is at the center. Notice how often the Lord is mentioned in this section. He's mentioned in verse 19, verse 20, verse 22. 23, over and over again, the Lord is mentioned in this passage. And also, in the ancient household codes, the instruction would only be given to the subordinate parties, as it were. It would not be given to the head of household. And so, we have something unique here, as we will see, that those who are in charge of their home are under an authority, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so as we consider today what it means to be a Christian parent, I want you to realize, just as when we talk about marriage, that parenting is bigger than you. It's not about you. It's not about how good you feel, all these things that we get ourselves wrapped up with. But it's all about Jesus Christ. What has been the main theme of the book of Colossians that we've seen over and over again? the supremacy of Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ gets first place in all things. And we considered in marriage that marriage is bigger than you. It's a picture of the gospel. We saw that in marriage, there's a creation design for marriage, and there's a gospel picture in marriage. And you know what? There's the same thing in parenting. There is a design, a creation design, and there is a bigger picture as we reflect the fatherhood of God in our homes that is bigger than us. So the first thing we'll consider this morning is a theology of the family. You see, marriage was designed by God with the purpose of childbearing. Look at Genesis 1, verse 26. Sorry, I had you turn to Colossians and then Genesis, I'm sorry. But, you know, you can flip your pages a little bit. Starting in verse 26. Then God said, So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. See, look, God makes man. He makes man male and female in the image of God. And the commission to man that God blesses them to do is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over all living things. From the beginning, God designed marriage as the means by which man, mankind, would fulfill this purpose of subduing the creation that God had made. And we see, we learned last time we were in Colossians in Genesis 2, right? God gives, makes Adam, and we learn in a little more detail what happened on day six, that God gives Eve to Adam, and she is given to him because he can't accomplish this purpose on his own. He needs a helper and he needs the perfect helper, which is Eve, which is woman, perfect helper for the man to fulfill God's intention for the creation. And one of those intentions is that man would be fruitful and multiply. And God's word never returns void. God What he blesses comes to pass, doesn't it? The earth is filled with people. It started with Adam and Eve, and the earth is filled with human beings, right? Well, just as we learned from Genesis 2 that that is a prototype for marriage, so is this a prototype for the family. That one of the purposes of marriage is for us to have children. Now, our culture, the time we live in, wants us to feel something totally different. Wants us to believe, to think, that no, marriage, romance, is all about feeling good. It's all about pleasure. It's all about for your own benefit. God created marriage and it's good. And it has pleasure and it has joy and it is great. But God also blessed marriage to have children, to be fruitful. You could even call this a theology of fruitfulness. And it runs all through the scripture. Now, of course, and I acknowledge this morning, and I have grieved with people in this church who have been infertile and suffered with infertility. And it's hard, and it's a great pain to have the desire to bear children and to be unable. This is a result of the fall, and it's a suffering that produces tears, tears that Jesus will wipe away on the last day. I'm not belittling that suffering today. But with that in mind, it is a tragic thing for a couple who is able to be fruitful to not do so, to not be willing to do so, when this is one of God's designs for marriage, that we would be fruitful, that we might bear children. In Malachi, he's addressing an issue with some of the priests and their unlawful divorces and all these wicked things going on in Israel. And he says something in 2, 14 and 15, Or I think it's 15 and 16. Did he not make them one, talking about husband and wife, with a portion of the spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? He was seeking godly offspring. Listen, God designed marriage that we might bear children. And like I said, God is, his intention has been fulfilled and the earth is filled. But guess what? Because of the fall, it is filled with a bunch of wicked sinners who are rebelling against the living God. And God has an intention for Christian marriage, for his people, that we would raise up godly offspring. That we would raise up children who worship the living God. God wants Christian parents to have children so that we might raise them to love the Lord and to serve him. Furthermore, it's not just that it's, you know, this burdensome command. Children are a blessing from the Lord. Are children not a blessing? Is it not a blessing to see the children who run around this church and the joy they bring to our hearts? Psalm 127, 3. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. Children are a blessing. Children are given to us and they bring great joy to our hearts. Children are such a joy from the Lord. They're not an inconvenience, a financial burden, a nuisance. They're gifts from God that are given to you to enrich your life. Furthermore, fatherhood and motherhood doesn't just have this creational purpose, this purpose of God accomplishing things, accomplishing his blessing, but fatherhood and motherhood is meant to be a reflection of the fatherhood of God. In Ephesians 3, 14, the Apostle Paul says this, That word family is patria. It could be translated fatherhood. It's from the fatherhood of God that all fatherhood, all parenting, gets its name. He is the Father for all eternity. He is the Father of the eternal Son. And He has produced many children who have been adopted into His family through His Son, Jesus Christ, in His church, which is His bride. You see, children is much bigger than us. God is a faithful father, and yet in his infinite wisdom, and for whatever reason, I don't know why, he would want me to reflect his fatherhood, because I fail to reflect his fatherhood on a daily basis. Because he is so great and such an awesome father, that it seems impossible that any of us would live up to the fatherhood of God. But listen, you want to know what it looks like to be a godly father? you look to God the Father. We don't do it the other way. A lot of us can get that twisted in our minds, right? We begin to think of God the Father like we know our earthly father. And we think of him in that way. But we need to live by faith and look at the word of God and see how God the Father treats his children. See how God the Father loves his children. That's what fatherhood is. And all fatherhood is to live up to that name. All fatherhood is to live up to the fatherhood of God. And fathers and mothers, we are called, we have a great duty to reflect the fatherhood of God. Now, as I said, children are entrusted to us that we might raise the next godly generation. Listen, I know that we believe that God is in control of salvation, right? That he is the one who calls us from before we were even in the womb, who sets us apart, who draws us to himself, and who saves us. But listen, God works through means. He works through means. And one of the means that I believe that God works to bring many to faith in him is to place his elect children in godly families of believers. And you are intended to raise them in the way of the Lord that they might not depart from it. Now, that's not a guarantee. You don't have a, you know, you can't save your children, but you are to raise them in a way with faith and hope and expectation that God will save your children and that he gave them to you so that you might steward them and teach them their need for Jesus and to help them know what it means to walk in godliness and righteousness. Many of you did not grow up in a Christian home. And God saved you even out of that. Praise the Lord, right? But do you want that for your children? Do you want them to experience the kind of childhood you had in an unbelieving home? No, you don't. You want them to know Christ all of their days. You want them to walk with Christ all of their days. And so we are tasked with a serious responsibility. When God gives us children, and we all know this, every, I don't know about the mothers, but fathers, when you had your first baby, and you're holding your child, you're thinking, God gave me a baby? I can barely take care of myself. What am I going to do? And especially if he gave you, you know, well, I guess it goes both ways. I'm like, thinking what my daughter, my son, what my daughter, I'm like, what do I do with a little girl? And then I'm like, wait, what do I do with the son? How do I raise him to be a man? These are, yes, challenges, but it is a great, we know, we know it's a great responsibility. Now look, back to, now let's turn to Colossians. We'll read our text for today. Colossians chapter three. And also, we'll also reference to Ephesians 6, which is parallel to this passage as well. Starting in verse 20, So the first point here is very direct, very practical. Children, obey your parents. Listen, I know there's young people in the room. I know we have many in our children's ministry right now, and it's hilarious. And I run our Kids for Truth ministry for the young kids on Wednesdays, and we've been going through the Ten Commandments right now. And you ask the children, what are the Ten Commandments? And you know what all of them know, number one? Honor your father and mother. I'm like, that's probably the commandment you've all heard the most, haven't you, so far? But listen, children in this room, older children and teens, God has ordained the family that it would have a structure and that in this structure, children are under the authority of their parents. And everybody knows this. The world knows this. Even though the world hates authority, we understand that parents have authority over their children, though there is much work being done to put the authority in the state's hand and not in the parents' hands. But this authority, like all authority, is a delegated authority. God Almighty has all authority in heaven and earth, and He alone is able to do as He pleases. You do not have all authority in heaven and earth. And any authority, parents, that you do have, that you have over another human being made in the image of God, is one delegated to you. It is one delegated from the one who holds all authority. There are three spheres of government in the world. There's the church, the family, and the state. And each has their role. And the family, the parents, are in charge, have authority over their home, over their children. In the home, the father and mother have authority over your life's children. They have authority until you reach maturity of adult responsibility. They have the responsibility to prepare you to walk responsible as an adult. And so you are under their authority. You are to obey them in everything. Look at that, verse 20. Children, obey your parents in everything. You say, no, it can't mean everything. Well, it says everything. Obey your parents in everything. Now children, understand that obeying your parents is not a matter of whether you agree with them or whether you think they are worthy of your obedience, but it's a matter of obedience unto God. It's a matter of obedience unto God. Young people, particularly the teenagers in the room, listen up. If you are committed to Jesus Christ, then you will be committed to honoring, respecting, and obeying your parents out of reverence to Jesus. If you love Christ, then you will do that even when it is hard. And I know it can be hard. I know that you think you know better than your parents right now. I know that you think they're maybe behind the times, but you need to have faith and trust that God gave you your parents and that you need to obey them and respect them. Have faith in God's word and trust and know, as it says in Ephesians, and it says in the law, it will indeed go well with you. And you will live long in the land, that's what it says, if you honor your father and mother. Now yes, the reality is that some of you have fathers and mothers who are not following Christ and who do not treat you right. Trust God to deal with your parents and conduct yourself in a way that is honoring to God. And I'm not saying that if your parent asks you to do something that is blatantly evil and sinful, that is scandalous and against your commitment to Jesus, that you ought to do that. Remember, your allegiance is to Christ first and all authority comes from him. But you do have an obedience to Christ, even to ungodly parents. You are to honor them and respect them. And parents, this is a word to you too. Authority comes from God, so know that you do have authority in your home, and you are to use it in a God-honoring way. But second, know that because you do not have absolute authority, but a delegated authority, that therefore you are to conduct yourself in a manner that is fitting to the authority that has been delegated to you. In a way, you are under authority too. You are under the authority of Jesus Christ. And so how you conduct yourself, how you discipline your children, how you raise your children, how you take care of your children, needs to be in reference to Jesus. Needs to be under the lordship of Jesus. Children obey your parents and everything does not give you a license to treat them wrong, to abuse them, and to get away with any kind of evil that you intend. Our hearts are so twisted that we'll take the Word of God and twist it to our own selfish ends, won't we? This is not what we are given a license here. We are given a responsibility. Whenever anybody who has an authority that God has delegated, you should hear authority synonymous with responsibility. Authority, any authority that you have, comes with a corresponding responsibility. And as a parent, you have a responsibility. And that's what the Apostle Paul gets right into. Turn over to Ephesians and we'll read that one as well. Ephesians 6, 4. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. You see, in Colossians, he said, do not provoke your children so they don't become discouraged. Here he says, do not provoke them to become angry. And we can do that, can't we? And he addresses particularly fathers here, but I think it applies to mothers too. But by pointing out fathers, Paul is acknowledging your responsibility as the head of your household to see to it that your children are not provoked to discouragement or anger. And furthermore, whenever Scripture singles out a particular group of people, it's usually because they are more prone to this type of sin than others. Fathers, you are prone to conduct yourself in a way that will provoke your child to discouragement or anger. And we all know this, right? Like consider the recent holidays. Father's Day and Mother's Day. It's no secret that for most, Mother's Day is a great day of celebration and everybody loves moms and celebrates moms. And then Father's Day is like, oh wait, is it Father's Day today? Right? Because, you want to know why that is? Because most of us have some kind of resentment and bitterness in our hearts towards our fathers. And listen, fathers, you need to conduct yourself in a way to make sure that kind of bitterness and resentment isn't rooted in your heart of your child. that you don't conduct yourself in a way and treat them in such a way that will provoke them towards this. Now if you are, this morning, bitter and resentful towards your father, maybe you're grown and your father did provoke you to anger and provoke you to discouragement. Listen, resentment, bitterness is a poison that poisons everything. And it's ruining your life. You need to forgive your father. No matter what evil he's done to you, you need to give it to the Lord. You need to give it to the Lord and trust him and know that you have a heavenly father. Don't let that poison your life. Don't walk in bitterness. Don't walk in that being because you were provoked to anger. Don't use that as an excuse for other sin. Fathers, mothers, we are called to raise our children in a way that honors Jesus. And that means we are not to provoke them unto discouragement. Some children are more prone to become discouraged when they are treated wrong. And other children are provoked towards anger. It all depends on the temperament, I think, and situation. But You need to not provoke your children. So, I just have this kind of a shotgun approach. I'm just going to give you a bunch of things to think about as a parent. 13 ways to provoke your children to anger or discouragement. Be inconsistent. That's a great way to provoke them to discouragement. You know, they don't know what to expect. This moment, they're allowed to do this. And the next moment, they're not allowed to do that. And it's all because it's on your own whims of how you're feeling at the moment. Don't be inconsistent. Be consistent with your children. It's unkind for you to be inconsistent with them. Another way you might provoke your children is to discipline in unrighteous anger. To come at them with anger and fierceness because they made you so upset and to discipline them in that manner. That will provoke them. The third way, discipline them out of embarrassment. You embarrassed me at church today. You embarrassed me at the store. And now guess what? It's all about you. And your child knows that it is not about their conduct. It's not about honoring God. It's about how they make you look. Don't do that. Four, relentlessly tease them. You tease them over and over again. They're going to get discouraged. Play cruel jokes on them. Discipline them publicly. You should do that privately and give them some dignity. Ignore them. Fathers, you are especially prone to this. You're busy. You're working. You get home. Don't ignore your children. They need your time. They need to see your eyeballs. They need to have time on the floor together. They need to play with you. They need to have time with their fathers. Do not ignore your children. Treating your children as beneath you. Oftentimes, and this has been true all through human history, we can treat children as being lesser, as they're just under us. They're beneath us. the command of love your neighbor as yourself, it applies to your children, too. Have unreasonable expectations. You're disciplining them for things that are outside of their control. They have weaknesses. Maybe they're not very coordinated and so you're jumping on them for spilling some milk or not being able to do a chore that you never apologize. You should always apologize, parents. You're not above. Some parents, you can get into this rut of thinking, well, if I apologize, then that undermines my authority. No, no, no. You are under the authority of Jesus. If you sin and you do something wrong towards your children, you need to humble yourself and show them the gospel. You need to ask for their forgiveness and show them that you have a heavenly Father and that you need to ask for forgiveness as well. Another way you can provoke them is to never tell them you love them. I've met men in this church, people that I'm close to, who have told me that their father never tells them or never told them that he loves them. And that, actually, they walk around with great pain and sorrow in their hearts because of that. Tell your children that you love them. Another way is jump on them when they ask questions, to be easily provoked, to treat them so harshly. Don't jump on your children. Treat them kindly. Don't provoke your children to anger and discouragement. Look at verse 4 again of Ephesians 6. So that's the way you're not supposed to provoke them, but in the positive way, you are to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Now, what is discipline? What does it mean to discipline? Well, parents, you're to discipline your children in faith. That's the next point. I'm going to put the slide up. Yes, the word train. I've heard a couple people say train. Yes. The word discipline here means the act of providing guidance for a responsible living, and it could be translated upbringing, training, or instruction, as well as discipline and correction. It carries all these connotations. So the idea here, when we need to understand, when we hear discipline, is not always here negative, but that any form of instruction that is intended to train your child is a matter of discipline. There can be negative or positive discipline. Positive discipline could be take the garbage out. They didn't do anything wrong, but you're teaching them work ethic, you're teaching them responsibility. That's a form of discipline. A spanking is a form of negative discipline. It's meant to deter bad behavior. It's meant to associate pain with sin. That's the whole point of a spanking, is that we would instill in children, that we would know from a young age that pain is associated with sin. That pain, the wrath of God, is associated with sin. That's why we spank. requiring your child to apologize for an offense. That's a form of discipline. It doesn't always have to be a spanking. Sometimes we can get this wrapped up in our mind and think discipline means only spanking. No. Discipline comes in all sorts of forms. All discipline is meant to instruct and train. And so you are to be parents, godly parents, who discipline and instruct your children Notice that this is the discipline and admonition of the Lord. Your discipline and instruction of your children is to be in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. You, parents, are responsible to show your children their need of Christ and to lead them to him. You are responsible to teach them to live in a manner that is worthy of Christ and is under his rule. You are to be teaching them the gospel from day one. You are to be showing them their need of Jesus. When you discipline them, the purpose isn't to make you feel better or it isn't about your, you know, your status or you feeling powerful. It's about you humbling yourself and doing the hard work of training up your child to know Christ. That's what it's all about. It's all about teaching them to know Jesus. To raise them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. So that means that your discipline is under the lordship of Christ and that it's for the lordship of Christ. That it's for him. That what you do is meant to raise up godly seed. And so I am amazed how often, and even in my own life, we can somehow begin to disassociate faith from parenting. We are to raise our children in faith, and to discipline them in faith, to trust God, to know that he gave us these children, and to trust him with the responsibility he's given us, and to discipline them in his way, and to trust him with that. We need to have faith. We need to invite the Holy Spirit to be with us, to lead us in how to raise our children. We should not be trying to do this in our own wisdom, in our own way, but under the authority of Christ and being led by his Spirit. Parenting is a spiritual task. It is a responsibility that you have as a believer and it is something you are to do by the Holy Spirit. So God commands us to discipline our children. Parents, especially with young children, we need to be diligent about this, especially when our children are young. And yes, this includes spankings. Look at, I'll give you a bunch of passages because maybe you're arguing with me in your head and you're like, Well, spankings are optional or maybe they're not necessary. The culture says they're bad for children. Listen, God's truth trumps culture every time. God's truth trumps every scientific study that's ever come out. And if you will be faithful to God's word, if you will entrust yourself to his promises, you will not be disappointed. Tell me one promise of God that you kept that you were disappointed in keeping, in trusting. Tell me one. All right, Proverbs 13, 24. Proverbs 22, 15. Listen, there is folly bound up in your child's heart. In Proverbs, folly is synonymous with unrighteousness. Folly and wisdom are categories of righteousness and unrighteousness. And unrighteousness, folly, sin, is wrapped up in the heart of your child. And God's Word says that the rod of discipline drives it far from him. Now, the word rod, you're like, oh, that might just be metaphorical. No, the word rod in Hebrew, guess what the word rod means in Hebrew? It means rod. It means the same thing. It's translated pretty well. It means to discipline your children, to use corporal punishment, to use spankings. And God, you got to have faith for this, especially today because the culture is telling you, everybody's telling you, that no, that just provokes your children to discouragement. No, that is what provokes your children to anger. And no, it is not. Listen, what is more discouraging than a child? To have sinned? To get a spanking and be restored? Let's back up a second. The purpose of a spanking is to restore harmony and peace and fellowship in the home. Sin always brings disharmony and disfellowship, right? So there ought to, there already needs to be a relationship, a sphere of relationship, of fellowship, of harmony and peace in the home. And when there is sin, that is disrupted. That is, the disobedience against a parent is a breaking of God's law and sin brings a disconnect and a spanking is meant to correct that. And when there is real fellowship in the home and there is a God-honoring spanking, then guess what? It's typical. Every parent that is disciplined in a way that honors God, there's not a turning away in anger. There's an embrace of love. Your children are thankful for the discipline. And then you, guess what? You go back into the living room and everything's normal again. No one's thinking about the spanking. Your child's not pondering over it. You know what your child does ponder over? when you manipulate them, when you use coercion or you make them just go sit in a corner for an hour. And you know what that does? That highlights that disfellowship and that causes angst and that hurts. Listen, a spanking hurts far less than that. You know God spanks his children, right? Like we just learned about Jonah last week. Listen, I would take a few whops on the butt rather than be swallowed by a fish, okay? God is not averse to using physical discipline with his children. He's not averse to it. In Corinthians, we see that he used physical discipline. Some were getting sick and even dying. God is not averse to using physical discipline. Hebrews 12, God disciplines us. Why does he discipline us? Because he loves us as a father loves his children. If you spare the rod, if you don't discipline your children, then you are not truly loving them. And God, you have to have faith here. Back to the point about faith. It requires faith today because the culture, everything you hear, says that spankings don't work. And so you need to have faith that nope, God is wise, God has made things a certain way, and if I follow him and trust him, it will yield better results, good results, than anything the world can tell me. Now, as I already said before, spankings are not the only form of discipline. So you got two ditches you can fall into. One, everything's a spanking, and two, nothing is a spanking. You need to be wise. When spanking is present, it makes all the other forms of discipline work better. They actually work because there is a sense of authority, there's a sense of pain with sin, and it restores fellowship in the home. I love this proverb, Proverbs 23, 13 and 14. Do not withhold discipline from a child. If you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with a rod, you will save his soul from Sheol, from the grave. That's a contrast, all right. You spank your child, he's not gonna die. They're gonna be okay. And when I mean spanking, we don't mean abuse, right? Like everybody understands this in this room. You're not getting a license to abuse. Abuse means you're doing damage to your child. Spanking does not do damage to a child. A spanking does not leave injuries on your child. A spanking associates pain. It needs to sting. It shouldn't just be little love taps. It needs to sting. But it's not damage. It is not damage to your child. And this is not license to anyone in this room to abuse your child. God will deal with you if you do. So let us act in faith and understand that discipline, in any form, is an act of love. We ought not let our children do as they please, but to care for them. And don't be afraid of spankings because you think it's cruel, because you're afraid of DCFS, or any other fear that you might have, but trust God's word. And God, as it says here, we're instructed, we're commanded to not only discipline our children, but also to instruct them. Another word here, like the idea of education. We're responsible that they receive a, this doesn't just mean, oh, they learn math and English, right? We are to instruct them in the things of the Lord. you are responsible to teach them the Word of God. It's not the responsibility of your Sunday school teacher at the church. It's not the responsibility of the pastor to come to your house and to teach the Word of God to your children. We do all those things. But God has given you the primary responsibility that your children would be raised in the education, the instruction of the Lord. You're responsible to open the Word of God with them, to teach them the way of righteousness, to show them the law so that they see their need of Jesus and when they know Jesus, that they can keep God's commandments by the power of the Holy Spirit. You are commanded to instruct them and that means you need to know your children. You should not just assume that they are Christians because they're in your home and go to church. You should be leading them to Jesus. You should be showing them when they sin, you need to show them their need for Christ. And you need to show them the way of righteousness. You need to show them that the only way they can be truly clothed in righteousness is in Jesus Christ. And that is every time you discipline, every time you instruct your children, you have an opportunity to do that. Last thing about discipline and instruction. The strictness of your home should correspond to the age of your children. I just want to say something about this because I think we easily can fall into some error here, some difficulties. It is very easy for us to get this backwards as parents, and it's very important that you try and get this right while your children are young. Your household should move from being more strict and stringent when your children are younger to less as they grow older. Too often, we let things go with children are young because they're just so cute. Right? Like, my children are so cute, they're even cute when they sin. And so, guess what? It's so easy to let your children's sin go because they're just so cute. And everything they do is so cute. Now, it's not always cute, especially when you're in the grocery store, right? But a lot of times we'll just let things go when they're young and we will pass it over because we just love them and they're such a bundle of joy. And so you're going to let, you're going to be tempted to let your two-year-old rule your household. I've got a personal story here. My second, my son, Michael Anthony, he was ruling our household for a little while. And he was ruling our household because he wanted my wife, Emily, at all times, especially at night. And I noticed after a while that my wife was so tired. She was exhausted. He didn't want me, so I actually was getting some sleep. But he only wanted her, and he wanted her at night all the time. And it got very difficult. And I realized one day, why are we living this way? Why are we being dictated in our home by a two-year-old? We are in charge here. And he's beyond the age of, you know, it wasn't, you know, hungry, diaper, all that stuff was all taken care of. This is older. You can tell when your children start to get some understanding. And if you can't, sometimes having some outside godly people look in, they'll tell you, oh no, he's, that's intentional rebellion, right? So you need to have interaction with other people. But listen, so he would not sleep. You know when the cry turns into an angry cry? It's not just like crying because I need something but I hate you right now. Right? Like that's the cry. You hear it coming through. Like my son has a temper. Like I think that if he was able, he might have actually murdered me a couple times. Like he is, he's got a temper. Well, he would not go to sleep. And so I said, why are we living this way? Listen, things are the way they are in our home most of the time because we're just letting it be that way. We're just living with it. And a lot of times we'll wake up realizing one day, why am I living like this? This is insane. So we began a process and usually when you've let something go like this, it's going to take a few days. But the hard work, and now I had to get up and let my wife sleep, get up and go in there, and I would tell him to lay down, and I would put his head down on the bed, and I would say, Michael Anthony, you need to lay down and go to sleep. And oh, was he angry. Oh, was he angry. And that anger went on for a few days. And we had some battles over sleep. But you know now, to this day, if he's in his bed fussing, all I have to do is walk in there and say, Michael Anthony, lay down and go to sleep. And he'll plop his head down on the pillow and go to sleep. It doesn't always, I mean, sometimes he's having a rough night or he's sick or whatever. Okay, it's not a cure-all. But listen, things are the way they are in your home, especially, I'm talking about little children, because you let it be that way. You need to lead your home. You need to lead your children. You need to discipline them in the fear and in the admonition of the Lord. Now, when your children are young, they need boundaries. They need strictness. They need, you need to do this, and you need to do this, and you need to do it this way, and it needs to be done immediately with a happy heart, right away, all those things, right? Now, as they grow older, they should be growing in responsibility and more freedom, right? But we get it backwards. They're so cute, so we let them do what they want when they're little. And now they're a teenager, and they're out of control, so now we start laying the law, right? Now we've got all the rules and regulations, and guess what? It ain't working. Because they're done. They're rebellious. They don't want those rules. And that's hard work now. So it's important that you, us with young children, Be diligent when they're little to discipline them and don't do it backwards. Start with more strictness to less strictness. More strictness to more freedom so that by the time they're 16, 17, 18, they're flying. Your intention as a parent is not to keep your children with you at all times for the rest of their lives. It is not for them to need you for every little thing. It's to move from the most needful when your baby's born They need everything done for them, right? So it's moving from that to being independent of you. Now, that doesn't mean you don't have a relationship with them, that you don't have influence in their life. It doesn't mean they, you do, if you are diligent in this, your relationship with your children will be enduring forever. It'll be, it'll be tight. It'll be close because you have been faithful. So parents, young children, Be active in disciplining them. Last point as we close. It's not too late. It's not too late now. You heard all that and you say, it's too late. My children are teenagers and I didn't do all that so now they're all, they're rebellious. Or my children are grown and out of the home and I have no relationship with them. Or they're out of the home but they're not living for the Lord. Listen. God is in the business of restoring the years that the locusts have eaten. He is in the business of restoring what is broken down and destroyed. Look at what the world is like, what it was like. And what did God do? Jesus Christ came and died upon a cross and rose from the dead so that he might establish peace and restore all things and make all things new and wipe away every tear. Now, that's not a promise that your relationship with your child will be restored tomorrow. It's going to take hard work. It's going to take hard work and humbling yourself. Listen, if you haven't talked to one of your children in years, humble yourself and give them a call. Humble yourself. Ask for forgiveness for anything you've done. And give it to the Lord and do the hard work to restore that relationship. Allow the Lord to the transformation of what he's done in your life. Maybe you weren't a believer when your kids were young. And so now, you know, you don't have a good relationship with them. Humble yourself before the Lord. Pray the Lord and seek them out and let them see what God has done in you. Don't be proud. Let them see what God has done in you. Confess your sins to them and show them how the grace of Jesus is sufficient for you. Wherever you're at, whether your children are young, whether they're teenagers, whether they're grown, I wanna encourage you this morning to walk by faith, live by faith, faith in the authority of Jesus Christ, faith in the fact that he is supreme and has first place in all things. And maybe you heard all this this morning and you don't have children or you've wanted children and you've not been able. Listen, seek the opportunities that God can put before you to be an influence in children's lives and to be an influence in this church, to be involved. This is a family. We are the forever family. And so you have so many nieces and nephews, you don't even know what to do with them. We have like 90 of them in this church. Rejoice for all the children that God has given in this place and do your work to raise up the next generation to serve Jesus Christ. And as I said earlier, we need to do all of this through the leadership, the guidance of the Holy Spirit. You can't be a good parent in your own strength. You need to humble yourself before God. You need to ask for the Lord, for the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom. He's the spirit of wisdom. And the Lord promises in his word that if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God and he will give it. He will give it to us if we ask in faith, and he will guide us in how to be wise in these things. Let us pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that your word has so many practical things to say to us. We ask, Lord, that you would help us to live in a way that glorifies you and honors you, and that our children would love you and serve you. We ask that you would glorify your name through these things. It's in the precious name of your son, Jesus, that we pray.