Joel chapter 2 and when you find your place would you stand as we read verses 12 and 13 The title of this evening's message is how can we bring our children to Christ? We've been covering the theme in the last few weeks about How to play catch-up with older children. What if you have older children who are not walking with the Lord? What can you do? Well, as we talked about two weeks ago, ultimately you have to trust in God completely to do the work in your children's heart. But there are certain things that you can do no matter what age your children are, whether they're 2 or 52. There is always hope in the Word of God. And so let us read this very pointed few verses here in Joel chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. Let us Tremble before the Lord's word. It is God's voice that speaks to us. Therefore, also now saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning. and rend your heart and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil." Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for being so slow to anger with us in this church, And we thank You that You saved us, Lord. And for those here who may not be saved, Lord, we ask that You would be merciful, that You would bring light to the heart. And Lord, for our children, Lord, whatever age they are, if they are not showing strong fruits of the Spirit in their life, oh God, we just cry out to You to save them, to bring them to Yourself. Lord, we know what what a Christian looks like in your word. So help us, Lord, to be vessels that you can use in our homes and that you could speak to us and make us what we ought to be and reach our children, Lord. All these things we ask in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. These verses were probably written just before Babylon sacked Jerusalem. So, those of you who have been with us for our study of Isaiah, you must be familiar with the context here. There was a real indifference among these people. These people were about to lose everything and they didn't realize it. And I believe that in our homes, Is it hot in here, by the way? Let's open that back door, turn on the cooler. Satan doesn't want us to preach. He wants us to be distracted. And we're not going to let that happen. Amen? This is utterly vital that we get this. There was an indifference in Israel. And they thought, no problem. They were very upset about their circumstances. the fact that they had a locust devastation on their crops, there was a drought, their throats were parched, their stomachs were empty, and they were weeping and wailing and asking God to send rain. They were all idol worshippers. They loved this world, and they weren't getting their comforts, and they were asking God for comfort. And God says, forget about your comfort! Forget about your circumstances. Rend your heart and not your garments. So many times we get so upset. Our prayers are so focused on our own circumstances. When God says, it doesn't matter about your circumstances. Your circumstances are a pathway to your heart. So the purpose of Joel's message was that people should not look for a change in their circumstances. They should beg God for God to change their heart, to accept their circumstances as God's sovereign will. Now, we as parents, I believe, so often are indifferent and we're so Concerned about making our children successful in this world many parents only motive is to make their child Successful so that they wouldn't suffer financial difficulty or that they would have a good education or that they wouldn't be embarrassing to the family name all of these are deadly motives that will inoculate your child from the gospel and It will act as a barrier around your child so that he never comes to the knowledge of the truth. Being financially secure and having a good education seem okay on the outside. But you see, your child can get a good education, they can have an upstanding moral life and be financially set and still be lost forever. Amen? Our main concern cannot be our child's comfort, but our child's heart. There are certain steps tonight that you can take as a parent, whatever age your child is, so that you can be a vessel of change for your children. What are those truths that we need to follow? Here's the outline. Number one, root out spiritual indifference in your family. It does matter what you do. Root out spiritual indifference in your family. Every sin that you commit has consequences. It does matter what you do. Root out spiritual indifference in your family. Number two, stop giving false comfort to your children. Stop telling them that they're saved when they are not saved. Do not tell them that they are saved unless they are righteous as Christ is righteous. It says, living as pure as Christ is pure. They have no assurance of salvation, none whatsoever. That's from the Apostle John. We're going to go through that a little bit tonight. Stop giving false comfort to your children. That's what the false prophets did in Israel. And they damned their country to hell. And then, lovingly and gently, call for repentance. Don't demand that they come to Christ. You cannot save them. What are you doing? Beating them over the head. Gently and lovingly call to them as God Himself sent His only begotten Son and said, Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Let them see the sweetness of Jesus Christ in your life. This is about their souls. So let's look at that first truth to root out spiritual indifference in your family. In this context, the problem with Israel, we like to relegate it as a country. But this country was made up of daddies and mommies. And those daddies and mommies were spiritually indifferent about their children. And that's why they had a whole nation of unbelievers. They were so concerned about their circumstances, they could make an outward show of repentance. But in chapter one of the book of Joel, we're moving into the context of where we are in chapter two, the prophet sought to jar this spiritual indifference in people. And they had received a devastating plague. They had received drought. They had received famine. And the Bible says in the end of chapter 1, the cattle are moaning out to me. They're crying out to me. And none of you are. Animals had more intelligence than these people. We cannot leave it relegated to Israel of old. Friends, that is us here today. That is us here today. Our country is devastated. Why? Because our families are devastated. Why? Because there has been a false gospel in our church and the church has lost its power. The true church has never lost its power. The true church is powerful. The true church goes forward in victory. and takes down strongholds. The true church overcomes. The true church has the risen Christ within them. And so we need to understand that we must get rid of this spiritual indifference. In fact, in Joel 2.1, He says, sound an alarm. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. Joel says, don't be indifferent to spiritual realities. The day of the Lord. What is the day of the Lord? The day of the Lord speaks of the final judgment of God on the earth. And there's coming a time when this earth will no longer exist, and very soon we will all stand before God. I was talking to Brother Marion today. You know, Brother Marion is turning 67 this year in November. Did you all know that? We're sitting there with Vincent, and Vincent is 15 years old. And Vincent, at this point in his life, he's not seeing a lot of spiritual realities. And so we're sitting there in the room with him, and we're talking about life, and how Marion, it just seemed like yesterday, he joined the Marines, and went into ROTC, and all of a sudden he's done with work, he's 67 years old, And he's looking to the end of his life. Now, he may live to be 103. We don't know. But we act as if our children have their whole lives to turn to Jesus Christ. But the fact of the matter is, if you don't reach them right now, if you don't root out spiritual indifference right now, you may lose them forever. Now God is a God of grace and a God of mercy and He can do anything. Amen? But we cannot presume upon the grace of God. You cannot presume upon it. You must, with your whole heart, root out spiritual indifference. Friends, this is all fairytale living right here. I'm telling you, this is all fairytale living. Forget this life, forget this world. If you love this world, you're not a believer. That's what the Bible says. The love of the Father is not in you. If you're living for this world, you don't know Christ. If you're living based on the fact that you're going to get more comfort from your job, You don't know Christ. You know how you know if you're living that way? Lose your job. How do you react? Do you say, God is sovereign? My joy is not diminished? Or do you say, that's my life. My job is my life. Well, if your job is your life, then Christ and your job cannot exist side by side. Amen? Christ is everything. This world is nothing. That's what a Christian is. And so you have to live this way. You cannot live as if it's not important. There can be no spiritual indifference in your home. You must always understand the cost of your actions in front of your children. You must understand what you say before them says something about what you believe about spiritual realities. And so if you can stomp your feet and scream in front of your children, is the grace of God in you? We're going to get into the evidences of a true believer in our second point. But if you are a believer, your eyes are awakened, you see the sin clearly, so repent of it right now. God is a gracious God. And give your whole life and destiny to Jesus Christ. You have to do that every day as a Christian, by the way. You can't relegate it to a date 10 years ago or 15 years ago. That is called inoculation. There's no gospel or good news in that. None whatsoever. Salvation is of the Lord. And when He saves, He saves you. And He makes that evidence of salvation every day. Faith without works is dead. By their fruits ye shall know them. If there is no fruit, there is no true faith. Spiritual indifference has to go. That's how these people were. They were totally indifferent. And Joel says, sound an alarm. Now, we don't like to do that. Because we like our comfort zone. We like this world too much. And we don't like to sound an alarm. Joel says the day of the Lord comes. It's nigh at hand. James says our life is a vapor. It appears for a little while and vanishes away. This week, I was reading in the news about some major league player that was killed in a car accident. Last year, he had won the World Series. This year, if he's without Christ, the man is in hell. Whatever pinnacle you're on, it will fall. There is nothing like the foundation of Jesus Christ. It never fails. It never cracks. It's always steady. And you cannot fall if you're founded on Him. Are you spiritually indifferent about the shortness of your time on earth and your children's time on earth? It is so important that your children see that you are not indifferent. That they see that you are seriously concerned about your actions before them and their soul. That you are concerned about living out Christianity before them in private where nobody sees. And let your conscience not be guided by this world. Let your conscience be guided by God Himself. And what that means is if you're going to root out spiritual indifference in your family, you have to remove everything, listen to me, everything that is doubtful in your home. Everything that is doubtful. You say, well, it's not a sin. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. It's a sin. It's like a rebellion against God. When you cross your conscience, when your conscience says no, And so if you are going to have spiritual wholeness in your heart and life, you must remove everything that is doubtful in your heart, in your home. We not only have things that are doubtful in our homes, we have things that are at the height of rebellion in our homes. Let me tell you right now that if you have a Hollywood movie that takes God's name in vain, or curses, You are in absolute rebellion against God and you need to repent. And how do you have any assurance that you're a true believer? Do you understand Mormons weep and cry? They make this outward show of repentance. God says, don't do that. Rent your heart. And the only way that you know that your heart has been rent is that you have this overwhelming conviction to get rid of sin no matter what the cost in your life. And if you're not willing to do that, you have no assurance that the Spirit of God is in you, because the Spirit of God is not wishy-washy. The Spirit of God is pure light, and there's no darkness in Him. And so if you are not willing to get rid of everything that is doubtful, and especially blatantly rebellious, number one, there's no hope for you. And number two, apart from the grace and mercy of God, there is no hope for your children. Think of the great harm, especially you men, the great harm that you're causing to your wife and your children. You will be held accountable. That day is coming. It is great. It is terrible. Don't be spiritually indifferent. You've got to respond to the Spirit of God. When God talks to you and you turn your back like this, you think you can do that to the Almighty without consequences, severe consequences? And we act as if we're saved. God says, if you're saved, my Spirit is in you and working out amazing things in your life. The power to be free from sin. Before you were saved, you didn't have the power to say no to sin. Now that you're saved, you have the power of Jesus Christ. And if you don't have that power, you don't know Christ. So, root out spiritual indifference. Secondly, spiritual indifference is deadly because eternity is too long to risk hell for even one second. Amen? Eternity is too long to risk hell for anyone in your family, even for one second. Why? I gave that illustration about that man that had the World Series one year, and the next year, who knows where he is. He risked his eternity. Hell is too long to risk your children's eternity for one second. Spiritual indifference is deadly because the consequences for sin are swiftly coming. In Joel 2 verses 1 through 11, Joel takes the trumpet in his hand and he blows an alarm. He says there's going to be all of these things coming in verses 2 and 3. Tell your children of it. And he speaks of all these kinds of different insects that would bring complete devastation. He says, that which the palmer worm hath left, the locust-eaten, the canker worm. He talks about the caterpillar. There's all of these vile insects invading Israel, and they're coming upon to destroy their crop. And God says, that's exactly how judgment's going to be for you. Every single little tiny sin that you've ever committed, if you're without Christ, it's going to envelop you like those insects. And they're all different kinds. And they're coming. They're coming. Judgment is coming. He says, sound the alarm. You cannot risk being spiritually indifferent for one second because judgment is coming and it may come tonight. There are wicked people in this world that take children. Do you understand that? You can read the statistics. They take children, they kill them. I'm not trying to frighten you, I'm telling you the truth. What if your child was taken? Do you know where they would go for eternity? There are many, many thousands of parents, maybe tens of thousands of parents across the United States that do not have children today. Are you certain where your child will spend eternity if he or she dies tonight? Friend, you cannot be spiritually indifferent. What if you were to die tonight? If a World Series pitcher, the best of the best, all the protection that this world could afford, If he could be taken out in an instant, what about you? What about you? And God says, it's coming. It's coming. It may not be today, but it might be. You can't be spiritually indifferent. Secondly, stop giving false comfort. Stop giving false comfort to your children. Stop telling them that they're saved when they are not saved. Do not tell them that they are saved unless they are righteous, as Christ is righteous. They say, living as pure as Christ is pure. They have no assurance of salvation, none whatsoever. He says in verse 5, Awake ye drunkards, and weep, and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. These people were like drunkards. They were drunk with the world. They were drunk with their comforts. And God says, I will cut off all of those things and make you sober. Sober up about eternity. Your children are going somewhere forever. You're going somewhere forever. There has perhaps been times in your life where you haven't taken your child's eternal soul seriously. But now is the time to sober up. And that's what you all need to do, every one of us. I need to do this every day. I need to stop being intoxicated with the world's comforts. Because they're all a sham. They offer nothing, zero. They give you a little bit of pleasure, but they take out your life. And so stop being drunk with the world's comforts. Sober up. How can we sound the alarm? Well, first of all, we need to stop giving assurance to our children if they do not show fruit of salvation. Stop giving them assurance. You see, your desire, your motherly and fatherly desire to have your children in the kingdom is not what saves your children. Amen? You may desperately want them to be saved. And you may say, you really are saved. You really are. Don't doubt it. Yes, they should doubt it. You shouldn't give them comfort. Stop comforting your children. Because by doing so, you're a false prophet. You're saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. If they are a child of God, God Himself will tell them that they have Him as Savior. We need to stop being selfish with our children and give them to God. We need to stop convincing ourselves that our children are saved. We simply need to apply the text of the scripture and hold them to it to see if they are saved. Jesus said, By their fruits ye shall know them. James said, As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. When I went to a Christian school, This Christian school was filled, and this was an unusually pagan Christian school. But the pagans were the sons and daughters of the deacons, the administration, not the pastor, thankfully. The pastor kind of came in after, it was like a mega church. These students knew so much about the gospel. And their parents kept telling them, you're saved, you're saved, you're saved. Do you know where those children are? They're adults now. And at the same time that that school was going on, they were out doing worse things than I knew about when I was in public school. They were doing worse things in the Christian school. So, we cannot give our sons and daughters comfort. Do you know what your sons and daughters are doing? Do you have any idea what they're spending their time doing when you're not with them? Do you have any idea what's in your son or daughter's heart? Do you talk with them about spiritual things? Do you talk about Christ and His coming? Is that what comes out of their mouth? If not, they're not saved. If their number one desire isn't to see Jesus, they're not saved. I'm going to prove that to you right now. 1 John chapter 2 says, The world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. The one who is saved is the one that does the will of God. And then 1 John 3, 3 speaks of everyone that has the hope of the second coming of Christ. And says, Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. The one who is a believer loves to think about the second coming. Do you think about the second coming? Do you love to think about it? And do you, when you look at the second coming, want to be pure as Jesus is pure? If that's not a huge part of your life, you have no assurance of your salvation. If it is a part of your life, you can glory and bask in the forgiveness of God, because He's converted your heart. Verse 6 says, Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not, whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, or whoever is practicing sin has not seen him, neither known him. And so John says, a Christian, when he sins, it's like a cancer. He can't stand it. It's like he's just been dropped into a pile of red ants and he's looking for the water. He's looking for the pool. That's what it's like for a Christian to sin. because he's filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And then verses 7-9, he says, little children, let no man deceive you. There are a lot of people trying to make deceptions today about Christianity. But he says, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he, the Lord, is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil. That is, the one who's practicing sin in his life is of the devil. For the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. How do you know if you're practicing sin in your life? If you can go on without repenting, you're practicing sin in your life. Of any sin. I'm telling you that when I pray, there are many sins. I'm certain it's not every single one. But there are many, many sins that he brings to my mind. Some of them are small. And God says, you need to write out a check for that because you stole that. Or you need to pick up the phone because you lied to someone. You're continuing in your sin if you're not repenting, if you haven't made full restitution. And so that's your life. That's what you have to do. You have to make restitution. Look at verses 9 and 10. It says, Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin. Because he is born of God, in this the children of God are manifest. He said, you want to see what the children of God look like? You want to see what the children of the devil look like? Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. You have bitterness in your heart. You're not loving your brother. If you can harbor bitterness and not want to repent of it like cancer, and if you're a believer, God will bring you to that. He'll show you your sin. He'll bring that to you, and it may not be exactly immediately. There are some sins that, as I go in prayer, God's brought sins to me from two or three years ago, and I've had to make them right. But God will bring those things to your mind. Alright, finally, lovingly and gently call our children to repentance. And I say lovingly and gently because that's how God demonstrated His love for us. God so loved the world, amen, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Look at verses 12 and 13. Joel says, Therefore turn to me with all your heart. Rend your heart, not your garments. Turn unto the Lord your God, he says. So we need to rend our hearts. In the Old Testament, a person on the outside would, when there was a great morning, the man would rip open this outer garment. He would rip it. And God says, don't worry about making this public demonstration. Rend your heart. True repentance is a rending of the heart. It is God getting to your deepest portion of your soul. God tears the heart in grief and sorrow. He exposes the sin. It's painful, but he does that so he can bring comfort to it and so that there's great joy. Let me close with this, verse 13, the last part. It says, For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Let me say this. Your children need to feel the suffering of the rending of the heart. They need to feel that. Don't take that away. And when they have come to that, then God will give them comfort. God is gracious. So much more to this verse. I have five more pages, but I need to not do that. I need to make my messages shorter. So listen, tonight I want your children to be saved. I want everyone here to have assurance that they are saved. That's what I want more than anything. And so let's not bypass God's way of doing things. Amen? Let's not give false comfort. Let's have this spiritual atmosphere in our home and in our church that comes to the spiritual heart and rends it and rips it apart. We can have superficial Christianity here, or we can have Holy Ghost rending of the heart, where the Spirit of God rends the heart. Yes, it's painful, but then The grace and the love of God comes in and that's what gives us the power to do what's right, to obey. The joy of the Lord is our strength. Listen, that's where we want to be. We want to be living for Jesus. We want to tell the world, joy to the world, the Lord has come. That's our heart and soul, amen?