Is that?
Well, good morning. Thank you, Philip, if you're still here and ladies. And young man at the piano who I couldn't quite see but I appreciated the the singing and the music.
You can go ahead and turn your Bibles while I'm talking to Deuteronomy chapter 6.
I was asked by Ray a while ago if I could speak on this Sunday and I said yes. And I kind of had a message in my mind shortly thereafter as to what I thought would be a very nice message.
But there was a slight. Egling in the back of my mind thinking maybe that's not quite exactly.
What the Lord would have. And I think it was because I was thinking about Wawatosa and the Thousands of beautiful children that you have here.
And I thought, well, you know what? I'll just put it on Ray. I'll call him up.
Lord, as I prayed about it, and if he out of all the topics that I could pick, happens to pick that one, then I'll switch my message over to that one.
And he nailed it right on the head.
So. Couple years ago at Ozark Family Camp, I gave 4 messages, 60 min each.
And biblical parenting. I've got one message and maybe 35 min or something like that.
So there's no way I can possibly cover all of that and I'm not even gonna be able to cover my sub topic for today.
We're just gonna see how far we get. And then I guess we're done. So.
My, topic, you know, like I said was biblical parenting. Let me just read this verse and then I think we'll just begin.
I'm 59 years old now as of 2 days ago. Thank you. I've seen 3 generations of children go from birth to adulthood.
My generation, the next generation. Didn't have my first child wasn't born until I was 38 years old as 2 generations and then then the generation of me raising.
Raising my children and amongst my peers I would say you know spiritually speaking most young people did on the whole there was of course exceptions they did fairly well.
The next generation was Almost a disaster. The generation after that wasn't much better. I think we all know that there's a problem today amongst.
And and for some time about children following in the faith of their fathers and I just have some thoughts on that.
And we're gonna narrow the topic down a little bit as we go. Do you run me chapter 6 verse 4 the Lord dealing with his children Israel sets sets the stage.
Let me just quick check to see if I can. Pull up my I'm not up here. Oh yeah, kind of am sort of up here, huh?
Let, let me just get this ready. I don't have too many pictures but few.
There we go. Okay, good.
Youuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4, hero Israel. The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love the Lord your God with all your hearts and with all your soul and with all of your strength. So God gave Israel in the midst of giving the law, he now comes and speaks to them.
And he gives the the first command here or listen. When God said that to the Israelites, of course he wasn't saying, simply let the sound waves hit your eardrums.
He was saying, I want you to pay attention to what I am saying. And obey. And then the next thing he says is love the Lord your God with all your hard soul strength and mind Listen and love.
Obey and love. And you know, when we think of our Father God, if we love, if we love God.
That makes it easy for us to listen to him and to obey what he wants us to do. We know he loves us.
We know he has what's best in mind for us. We know he knows better than us. And so we, listen, if we love him, we listen to him and obey and it's not hard.
If we love him. And when we listen to God and we obey Him, we are blessed thereby.
And our relationship with God draws closer together and so we love him more. And we will love him more.
It is easier for us to listen to him and obey him. Hey, when we listen to obey him, we, our relationship draws closer and we love him more.
It becomes a positive reinforcing cycle. Our Father God with His children Israel set the example for us as parents.
This is what God wanted to see reflected in Christian parents as they raised their children. That there is a love for the parents and of course God's love is perfect for us but there's a love that parents have for their children and and in love the children if they are if they love their parents and they respect their parents it's not that hard for them to listen to their parents and obey their parents.
And as they listen and obey their parents, the relationship draws closer together. And there is a growth of love and it is positive reinforcing cycle continues.
And so. This positive feedback loop, feedback loop continues. Hi, my message that I had 4 4 sessions an hour each I covered 4 points that I wanted to really point out we're not gonna have time to cover that I just want to mention 3, all 4 of them.
One of them are gonna try to cover a little bit.
The first 2 points were 2 misunderstandings that I commonly see Christian parents make today. The first the first misunderstanding that they have is that they don't understand that their goal scripturally speaking is to raise godly children.
Not just spiritual and not just moral children, good kids who do well. Godly children. There's a big difference between those 2.
The second misunderstanding that I see many parents have. Is that they fail to understand that they need to take full responsibility for the rearing of their children.
God is given it to you and and that they should not
They should not depend on other outside influences for the godly rearing of their children. God has put them in charge of their children.
And then 2 mistakes that I can only see Christian parents making today. Number one, the failure to teach the child.
From a very young age to respect them and to obey them. From a very young age to teach them to respect them and to obey them.
And then the second mistake I see Christian parents frequently making is that they lose relationship with their children during the teenage years.
And that last one is the one that I want to cover mostly today.
God set the example with the listen and love and in disciplining one's children, real biblical discipline can only be made in the context of a loving relationship.
It only really works properly in the context. Of a loving relationship.
Discipline training and teaching must be done in the context of a heart that has been won over by the parent.
The child must love, honor, respect, and enjoy the companionship. And fellowship of the parent.
In Proverbs chapter 23 The writer says my son give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways.
Give me your heart and let your eyes and let your eyes observe my ways. Watch what I'm doing.
And imitate what I'm doing. We want our parent, we want our children to watch what we're doing and we want them to follow in our footsteps.
But the premise of that is, give me your heart. If you have your child's heart, they love you, they enjoy being with you, they respect you.
It is not hard. It is it follows through that they will watch you and they will seek to imitate you.
They will seek to please you.
What if you lost your child's heart? There's distance between the 2 of you. The child resent you.
Then they actually want to do the opposite of what you would like them to do. Their rebellion.
That's the natural outcome of that. And so the importance of having your child's heart and not losing it.
Through the teenage years. Warren Henderson writes, parents need to affirm their desire for intimacy with their children.
Relating to your children only through authority will keep them at arm's length. And only relating to them as a PAL will undermine your authority and spoil the child.
Always be apparent, but endeavor to be a companion and a friend also. So I just covered a couple simple biblical principles.
We've got a couple more. Today's message is mostly going to be a practical application of those simple principles.
When it comes to the principles, the Word of God I think is clear. I expect that we can all easily understand the principles and agree upon them.
When it comes to practical application. It's possible that you'll say, well, Brian, I'm not quite sure I exactly agree with you on that point.
If that happens, I ask you, just listen. Consider it, pray about it. And if in the end we disagree on some minor points, at least for my end, I'm sure that confident that we can still be friends.
If you want to cancel me, that's up to you, but. I think we can still be friends if we have disagreements on minor issues.
So, the parent, not a drill sergeant? Not a PAL. Authority. But love.
When the authority foundation has been laid, parents should regularly search for opportunities to build into intimacy with their children, especially fathers who are often away at work.
When your child's hard early, we're gonna be talking about teenagers, but I can't not talk about children at the same time because they start off as children and you have to have their heart by the time they it's a teenager or teenager dumb or preferably from a very early age.
And there's principles that overlap. When your when your child's heart early, if you begin to lose your teens heart, work hard to win it back without compromising your parental authority.
Work hard to get it back without compromising your parental authority.
In Selma 100 the Lord relates to his people as a shepherd with his sheep. So we can take that example as well.
And learn from the example of the shepherd and the sheep. And in John chapter 10, the Lord speaks about the Good Shepherd.
Now listen and apply the context to the parent child parent team relationship. The man who enters at by the gates is the shepherd of his sheep.
The sheep listened to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all of his own, he goes on ahead of him and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
They will never follow a stranger. In fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.
Can you see how important that is in the context of raising children? To follow your voice and not the many stranger voices that are out there vying for their attention.
I am the good shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
We think of course of the Lord Jesus, thank you for the lights. But we think of the Lord Jesus sacrificing his life on the cross, but he sacrificed his life before he went to the cross too.
He lived his life for the good of others. And our children ought to be able to see us sacrificially living our lives for them and and and considering them and raising them for the Lord.
I'm the good shepherd, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep. And my sheep know me. Just as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep.
I know my sheep.
Do you know your children? Do you really know them? Are you in relationship with your children? And teenagers.
A relationship where you are the parent. You are in authority. And your authority is respected but also a relationship where they love you they want to follow you They care about what you think about things.
They seek your advice and they want to please you.
For a lack of a better word, there are 3 levers that I parents can pull on. That makes it sound like you're being manipulative.
That's not what I mean. But there there are 3 things that you use as a parent rightfully to influence your child.
Or wrongfully.
That is, your child is dependent upon you. God is given you the ride of correction. And number 3, you have relationship with your child.
The day your child is born, they are 100% totally dependent upon you for everything.
The route of correction. Begins at a very early age.
And it continues on through childhood and then it begins to diminish. Probably around ages 7 or 8 where it becomes much less useful.
The child begins his life totally dependent upon you. By the time they reach adulthood, they are independent of you and you want them to be independent of you.
And that is a gradual transition that takes place. But you know by about the time a child is 12 or 13 or 14 or somewhere in there they begin to realize that while they are dependent upon you.
You are required to take care of them. You must feed them, you must clot them, you must house them, you must educate them or you're gonna end up in jail.
And so in fact, They're not as dependent upon you as they once were. And so by the time the teenager, you hates the teenagers, the ride is no longer really effective or appropriate.
They're really not dependent upon you that much anymore. And you're left with one only thing left.
And that's relationship. That is why from the moment that baby is born and you have the blessed opportunity to begin to develop relationship, it is imperative that you develop, cultivates and deepen relationship with your children so that you can then speak into their lives and you you are welcomed to speak into their lives.
For the rest of your life. Until they bury you someday. That's what you want.
Each child is, do you know your children? Each child is unique and needs to be treated like an individual.
Summit children enjoy talking. And so listening is important. Teaching those children who like to talk, not to interrupt adults is also important.
As a child I'm talking about. Other children are naturally shy. Teaching them that is rude to walk by people and not say hi to them.
Is important. If they are shy, naturally. There's differences between children. You need to emphasize different things at different children.
Most young people, most teenagers, some adults, need to be taught good conversational etiquette is to show interest in what the other person is interested in and not to talk so much about yourself all the time.
You need to know your children. Philippines chapter 2 verse 4 says each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others.
Teach your children a list of questions so that they can ask other people so as to engage them in conversation.
But we have nothing in common.
Give of yourself. Give up yourself. That's what you're here for in the church. Different children enjoy different things.
They fear different things. Some children are naturally good at certain things and have natural difficulties with other things and they're all different between on the child.
Parent your children in the knowledge and wisdom of knowing these things about your children.
One more verse here we're going to look at, Ephesians chapter 6 verse 4.
Bothers do not exasperate your children. Instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Now, I've got several different translations up behind me here. That last phrase, which I read is the training and
Instruction of the Lord. The King James Version translates at the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Or the training instruction board or the ASB in the ESV, the discipline and instruction. Of the Lord.
This first word here over here on the left I looked it up. In the Greek it's Pedia.
I don't know Greek any better than you so I looked it up in the Bible dictionary and it said this word refers to the whole training and education of children.
Which relates to the cultivation of mind and morals and employs for this purpose. Now commands and now admonitions.
Now reproof and now punishment. So it uses these various things to bring about the complete training and education of the child.
But I like there the NASB and the ESV. They mentioned the word the discipline of the child.
You know, the word that's within the word discipline, there the roots is disciple. And I think that that is very helpful.
I believe that that helps us understand what this passage is saying. It's saying parents, fathers, you Disciple your children.
Disciple your children.
And when you look at the Lord with his disciples in Mark chapter 3 where he calls his 12 to himself, it mentions that he's going to send them forth to preach and to to heal and to cast out demons, but before he sends them out to do that the phrase that comes before that is he drew them to himself that they might be with him.
And then to send them out to preach and to heal. They first would be with the Lord to learn of the Lord, to to follow the Lord, to see what the Lord was doing to imitate the Lord.
And then becoming more like the Lord to go out and to do the work that he had for them to do.
That they might be with them. And this is such an essential part of parenting. To be with your children, to be with your teenagers.
And someday to be with. Though not not in the same way anymore with your adult children as well.
To spend time talking with them. To spend time doing projects together, having fun together, doing life together.
My son, give me your heart. The mind? Is based on logic. And could be and can be persuaded with reason.
The heart, your emotions are formed. And your heart behaves as it has been conditioned. You can't logic your child into intimacy and sweet fellowship with you.
Well, it'd be better if you just did what I said. Doesn't work. The heart.
The heart behaves as it's been conditioned. You can't logic your child into intimacy and sweet fellowship with you.
It needs to be developed.
So I said mistake number one was failure to teach the child to respect and obey you as the parent when they are very young, ineffective discipline.
Mistake number 2, losing relationship in the teenage years. That is losing the that intimate close connection of heart with your team.
It doesn't even mean that they hate you. It just means loss of that close connection. Let's talk about winning the hearts and maintaining that close connection.
What are the things that you do as a parent to win your child's heart? And to maintain that relationship that you have with them.
Number one, the catch all. Enjoy your children and your teenagers. God gave children to be a blessing in your life.
He wanted you to have fun with them. He wanted you to say, this is the best thing I've ever received.
My wife and I have ever received from the Lord is our wonderful children. There's so much fun.
That's what was intended by God. He wanted happy families. He wanted families that got along with one another, that enjoyed one another's presence, that work together.
I'm not saying never had problems, never had issues with one another, but loved their parents and love their children and love their siblings.
That's what God wanted. It's been messed up since the Garden of Eden, but that's still the plan that God wants us to have and to enjoy.
Enjoy your children! Look at them with pleasure! Smile at your children! Play with them when their little hold their hands!
Watch them when they play. Look at me, mommy. Look at me daddy. Yes, you've got some work that needs to be done.
But while you're doing your work, They should always sort of be able to feel your eyes on them.
Paying attention, appreciating, enjoying them.
You need to have fun with your children and teenagers, all while being the parent. Home and family should be a fun, sometimes exciting place to be.
When they're very young, Look at look at pictures and begin to read them book stories out of a book.
Watch the little shows that they put on. Keep the TV turned off for as much as possible so you're actually interacting interacting with your child.
Take them on errands with you when the only reason is to have them with you. Which is faster to go shopping with your children or without your children?
What are you actually doing in life? Shopping or raising children? You see the difference? Your real job.
Is raising children. Fathers! Engage in age appropriate rough and tumble play. You know, pick the kid up, throw them in the air.
Wrestle them down on the ground, blow on their belly, used to pick up my girls sometimes by the feet like this, you know.
Wouldn't do it here check before you do it you'll swing around in a circle like this screaming with delight.
You are not wasting time doing this! Number one, you were fulfilling what God wanted in the blessing of having children, enjoying your children.
And number 2, your Drawing your children into a love relationship with you.
Fathers, take your children out on outings of adventure and danger. Thank you. I used to take my girls down to the rocks by Lake Michigan.
I assume Walkie has similar breakwater rocks, the gigantic the big boulders right that you can kind of walk on and they get there first of all and I got them by the hand and this little child there and you get to a thing a crack and I step over it and they're like you know it's 3 feet high like this area they pick him up and pull them over and they do it again and and
pretty soon they're there let me try by myself that you okay be careful jumps away and they're having great deal of fun And then you take him on the, when is ready and you don't tell their mother this, you take him on the other side of the grates where it's a ten-foot drop down there, okay?
And they're back to holding their hand with you again and you're jumping over them and you're helping them develop how to space challenges in life and you're just having good fun.
There's nothing wrong with good fun with your children. It's important. And it's important that you spend time doing this with your children and enjoy it.
That graduated eventually took you know climbing the rocks up Devil's Lake bluffs get off the trail and just climb up Boulder all the way up to the top.
Lose our way, find our way. Good times.
Sometimes I had girls, so you had, you know, taking taking a girls to the coffee shop, even when they were little.
I remember taking Elizabeth in particular, she seemed to enjoy that more. She would, she would, I would drink my coffee and she would drink her chocolate milk and before she could actually form sentences you could see on her face.
This is a special time.
Dad. You can do almost supernatural things. When you've got a child. You can throw the ball completely over the house so the child can catch it on the other side.
You should make the biggest splash of anyone when you jump into the swimming pool.
Touch your children, hold hands with them, kiss them, hug them. Have meals together as a family as often as you can and if you can't still make sure you get your Bible reading time in with them.
When you read the Bible.
You would, if I gave you green eggs and ham. You would read it like
Would you like them with a train? Would you like them in the rain? Would you like them here or there?
I don't like them anywhere. And then you pick up the word of God and you read it like it's a dust dry old dusty book.
Genesis chapter 37. When my children were young, I predominantly read the
Narrative portions, you know, the true story portions of the Bible. Genesis 37.
Joseph is looking for his brothers. They have moved on from here the man answered I heard them say let's go to dophin So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.
But they saw him at the but they saw him at the distance and before he reached them they plotted to kill him.
Here comes that dreamer they said to each other. Come now let's kill him and throw a hit.
This is not how you read a story.
They moved down from here, the man answered. I heard them say, let's go to Dothan.
So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Gothen. But as they saw him in the distance and before he reached them they plotted to kill him Here comes that dreamer they said to each other.
Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. Cistern is a large pit in the ground in which water would be stored.
Let's throw in those cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. We'll see what becomes of his dreams.
That's how you read the Word of God to your children. The Bible is not a boring book.
God did not write a second-class book. God is the greatest author. He's written the best literature that is ever existed.
Let's give it its due course as we read to our children. You can use pictures as you read.
I recommend you read using a modern translation free Bible images. Calm free Bible images. Calm great pictures on there you can download PowerPoints with the stories on them.
You can put them on your computer free and sweet publishing as well as one of the other, and there's a whole bunch of different ones that you can pick from.
Surprisingly accurate, biblically accurate and historically accurate pictures in there. You can tell that the artists actually consulted archaeologists in drawing some of the pictures that they have drawn.
Touch your children. Oh, Geography. As you're reading through the Bible, even from a fairly early age, around age 9 or 10 years old, a child, if you put a map in front of them, will delight in finding the places that you're talking about.
And sweet publishing has got maps in there as well to use. But, but a point one of the children to be your geographer and as time goes on so they learn biblical geography as you simply read through the Bible.
Touch your children, hold hands with them, kiss and hug them, and don't stop as they turn into teenagers.
Tell them that you love them unashamedly and continue to do so into the into and through the teenage years.
My children, in public. Sometimes still come up behind me and take hold of my hand and just hold my hand.
And I think Bill Gates, you are a poor man. I'm the Richmond. Let them help with their work with your work.
Enjoy a accomplishing things together. Children like to be grown up. I walked into the kitchen while Elizabeth needed to stand on a chair in order to work on the stuff that she was working there on the kitchen counter and I came in and she turned to me and said, Daddy.
I'm cutting up the vegetables using a real knife.
Fathers, let them help you with the yard work. Give them the important jobs to do. Hitch and unhitch the trailer.
Push it. But those little boys work and brag on their accomplishments. As soon as they're able, let them operate the power tools and equipment.
If you're using the power tool all the time and they just got the grunt work, that's no fun.
That's boring, that's just slave labor. You know, let them as soon as they're able to drive the lawn tractor, teach them how to safely drive a long chat tractor.
Children on farms do a amazing things that they're capable of doing. A city people, oh no, we got to be safe.
We got to be to teach them how to be safe and you're a mate is amazing what children can accomplish.
And they get a sense of ownership of the family that they're actually participating in family life and that they are important.
Help your child overcome their fears and their weaknesses. I gave the example of climbing over the rocks and jumping from from rock to rock.
It's important from being very young, but it's especially important as you move into your teenagers.
Time spent listening to them. Appreciate praise. When it's appropriate, use the words I'm proud of you.
There are many children who never Here their fathers say, I'm proud of you.
As a family we enjoyed going on family camping trips where we go out in the wilderness away from everybody so we could just spend time alone as a family.
You can find your thing that you like to do. Alone as a family.
Older children or teenagers, they still love and hope for this type of relationship with their parent, but they are much less willing to express themselves.
The child will say, mommy, mommy, look at me, look at me. Your teenage daughter isn't going to do that.
Nor your son. I was a son once.
They may act put off. Disinterested. That may be the only indication that you get. They sense something is wrong that they're upset about something.
And it might just be. You haven't been paying that much attention to them, Lily. You're busy.
Without compromising your authority or compromising God's righteousness, labor diligently to win them back, to win back their love and devotion.
Now listen carefully. If you have sinned against them by neglecting them or being selfish or being unnecessarily harsh with them.
Confess your sin to them and ask for their forgiveness. Where to ask? We are to confess our sins one to another.
And we were to ask for forgiveness and your children are not exempted from this. You must humble yourself as a parent.
And you're demonstrating what they should do as well. And you need to mean it.
They they they recognize reality in these things my children I said we started this when our children was young and they very quickly learned sweetie I'm sorry I should I shouldn't have spoken yes daddy I know I forgive you I didn't even have to I for a while got cheap.
I didn't even have to finish my confession and ask her for repentance. And the child wanted to be back in fellowship with me again.
You can ask them the question that I learned from a full-time worker in Jamaica. What are your brain thoughts?
When you want to ask your teenagers what they're thinking. I remember one of my daughters, I won't tell you who this time, she's about 14 or 15 years old and I thought to myself that girl needs a spanking.
She's snippy. She needs a spanking. But she's 14 or 15 years old now and I'm not going to give her spanking and it wouldn't work if I tried.
And I was truly mystified as to what I was supposed to do. So I went to my wife.
And I said, this daughter of ours needs a spanking. But you's too old to spank!
What should I do? And my wife said Why don't you take her out for coffee? And I thought to myself, coffee!
Just need coffee, she's spanking!
But I said, Why would I take her out for coffee? And she said, well, you've been busy.
And you haven't spent a lot of time with her lately. And she probably, she's a woman, then she probably feels a little distant.
Oh well, it's worth try. I'm up to a room. Would you like to go out for coffee?
She said, sure. No, she was 14. You try that in a 19 year old, it's probably not going to happen that quickly if you neglected for that additional 5 years.
Are we well for coffee? Magic. Absolutely magic. I mean, we're completely back in fellowship and it lasted and you I hung around with me for a while wanted to be with me.
And I never forgot that lesson. Until about 6 months later. When I again reported my wife that I think that she needs another spanking.
Tell me to go out for coffee again. It's happened 3 times before I finally got through my head that women need attention.
Even with her girls.
And they love being with their father.
Girls have a strong natural God-given desire to bond with a man
Daughters need a man to tell them that they are beautiful that they are loved, that they are appreciated.
That their cooking is appreciated. Their cleaning is appreciated. Their music, their art, the companionship is appreciated.
They need to. They need a man to touch them and hug them and kiss them. And they will need they need a man who will listen to them and pay attention to them and cause them to feel loved and cherished.
And appreciated and guided. Like somebody's in charge who knows what he's doing.
Fathers if you do not do this with your daughters Sooner or later, they will find a man.
Who will listen to them? Pay attention to them. Treat them gently and kindly. Until he gets what he wants.
Tell them that they are beautiful, that they are loved that they are appreciated and cherished who will hug them, kiss them and touch them.
And if it's just a guy that they met online or from some other place that they shouldn't have been in the first place.
Well, sadly for many girls. Any man is better. Than no man at all.
The teenage years are the years when if your teenager likes cars. You like cars. If your teenager likes art.
You like art. Your teenager likes fishing. Then you like fishing. When your when my children were little, we used to play deer hunting.
I would sit on the couch because I like deer hunting. And I'd stand the couch and my daughter's a drop down in all fours and they'd kind of come in the room like a deer.
And I'd shoot them and they would run away and die. And then I go and I got him and I throw him in the back of the truck and I'd take him home and it was great fun.
They have not wanted to play that game for a few years now.
They develop their own interests and their own things that they like. You want to do some with them? Do what they like.
Never been an artist, but I've been to a number of art museums now. And my daughter teaches me things about art that I never knew.
And you know, God created art too and there was things to be appreciated there and I'll never love art.
But I love being with my daughter looking at art. Pick out our favorite painting and tell the other one why.
Go out with your children, listen to them. You may be thinking, that is going to take a lot of time.
Yes. It's gonna take a lot of time. Your spouse and your children are your first ministry.
During this stage of life, raising your children is job number one. It's the job of supreme importance.
I'm not gonna back down from the statement. If you have too many responsibilities to take this kind of time for your family.
Then give your responsibilities back to the devil even if they are church responsibilities. Satan wants to distract you from this job more than anything else in this world.
No price is too high for him to pay to do this.
Well, I've run out of time. Long before I expected to. Let me just read you some of the topics that that I didn't cover.
Okay. Obstacles at church, obstacles to relationship, don't let the culture of today ruin your family's life.
The problem of friends. The problem of friends. The Bible speaks to seemingly contradictory things when it comes to friends.
It says, evil companions corrupt good morals. And that's true. It also says that Jesus was.
The friends of sinners. Do you understand? How those 2 things fit together and do your children understand.
And do you understand that today's message that showed that teenagers it is normal and natural, expected and desirable for children for teenagers.
To have, I think in society say it is it is expected that teenagers are going to spend lots of time away from their parents and lots of times with their lot of time with their peers.
I don't see that in the Bible. While my children were still young, I came to the conclusion, you know who I want my children's best friends to be as I looked around at the Other children there?
I wouldn't be my child's best friend.
And then as they get turned in the teenage years, I realized I wanna be my teenager's best friend.
And is there moving into adulthood, I think? I wanna be my adult children's best friend.
When I say friends, especially at the at the earlier age, well, there's still under my roof, you know, what I mean by friend is not just pale, but yes, we love one another to spend time together.
But the type, my friend is the person that when I have questions when I have problems when I have needs, when I need counsel, who is the first person I go to?
That's my best friend. I want to be that best friend. I trust you want to be that best friend too, but it doesn't happen naturally.
The world teaches quite the opposite and Example and by example quite the opposite as well.
Very briefly.
Discourage children, not not all problems are result of of disobedience. There's just general discouragement.
You're the parent. You can help in that situation. Fathers do not provoke your children to wrath.
You're not in bitter your children, they become discouraged. Wish we had time to talk about those things, but through the magic of electronics, you can go to Ozarks Family Camp.
Dot com if you wish. 2021. Week 2, my 4 messages are on audio tape there.
Let's commit ourselves to the Lord. Our God and Father. We thank you for the wonderful blessing of family.
Pray for parents. Who's children have gone a stray and whose heart's ache?
Lord, you love them. You love the children, you love the parents, we ask that you would bring Peace and love, repentance.
And return to the Savior into one another. Pray for these parents. I pray for the children and the teenagers in this assembly.
How wonderful a be to see 100% of them going on fully for the Lord 1020, 30 years from now and raising their children.
To serve you. Pray for the parents. It's a lot of work. But there's a lot of blessing.
I pray we help them be strengthened to be strengthened to be wise. We pray for strong family bonds in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.