Gospel Prism

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

Deuteronomy 6:7-8

Introduction

Last week I spoke about our fifth core value which reads:

We value the eternal souls of the NEXT GENERATION and their ongoing pursuit and proclamation of the Gospel of Christ.

Hopefully, parents, you got the idea. Your modeling the Gospel, instructing the Gospel, disciplining through the lens of the Gospel will not only lead to future generations to trust in Christ, but also will allow you to care for your own soul. This week I’d like to focus on the role of the church regarding three areas of concern for the next generation: 1) Supplements, 2) Eternal Destiny, and 3) Gospel Proclamation.

The Church Aids Parents With Supplementary Instruction

The church is responsible to aid parents with supplementary instruction. We must never forget that biblically speaking, according to Deuteronomy 6:4-8, parents are the primary modelers and instructors in the lives of children. This is not to say that the church has no place in children’s spiritual condition. But you must always remember that the church never replaces the parents’ role in providing primary instruction and guidance in the Gospel for children.

Wellspring will do everything possible to equip you as parents, to train you to shepherd and lead your children. But we will not raise your children. Our vision and goal as a church is not to be a fun factory for kids. Of course, we want children to enjoy the church. But we want joy to be long-lasting, not something that shifts as soon as kids get tired of churchy entertainments. So how will the church supplement you in your instruction of the next generation?

1. By leading you to a Godward perspective in life

Remember Deuteronomy 6? Moses begins his instructions with these words in verses 1-2: “Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2 that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long.” The end goal is that you and your sons and your son’s son will fear the Lord all your lives. God has to be absolutely central to our teaching, to our purpose of gathering together as a church, and to life. Anything less will lead the next generation to turn away from the Lord. Entertainments as an end goal will not lead generations to fear the Lord. And so as a church, we must continue to press on to keep this Godward perspective regardless of how many temptations there are to leave it.

We will work hard to first lead you to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the first place this will take place is through our preaching, whether it is from me or from anyone who speaks from this pulpit. There is a potpourri of messages that are coming from today’s pulpit that sadly do not reflect a Godward perspective. Some messages teach that if you trust God He will always bless you financially. Some messages teach that you do not need to know anything about sin because God is ‘gracious’ and people who are tired don’t need to have guilt piled on them. Some teach that since the Kingdom of God is now, we need not preach about salvation but only about caring for the ecology of the earth or fixing the injustices of the world. Some don’t preach at all because no one in our generation likes to be preached at.

But look at Deuteronomy 6:1-2 again. Moses is teaching and preaching to Israel that they might fear the Lord. In doing so, verse 3 is the result: “Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you.” The promise is that when we teach the fear of the Lord, it goes well with His people. But you must note that the wellness is not material blessings, but rather, a love relationship with God as we see in verse 4. There truly is nothing more important that a church can do for the believer and for his leading others including his family, than to preach biblically with a Godward perspective.

2. By providing biblical resources

If we look at 2 Timothy 3:10-17, we can see that Paul tells Timothy that it was from childhood that he was acquainted with Scripture through his mother and grandmother. According to verse 15, the Bible made him “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” I cannot overstate how critical Scripture and anything that makes us know and love Scripture is to leading the next generation to love the Lord with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength. And so we also want to equip you through the many wonderful resources that are available to us today and through books, audio and video resources, and the web that soaks us and our children in God’s Word. It is mine, Tim’s, and Linda’s joy to sift through the myriads of books out there related to Godward parenting for your benefit. And we will do everything possible to make sure that you have resources to turn to lead the next generation to love God with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strength. We will post them on our blog, on the website in our book review sections. We will provide handouts, training sessions, discussions. If you ever need counsel regarding biblical childrearing, please feel free to turn to any of us. But these resources will be of no help at all if they sit on your bookshelves and remain in your CD cases. So please, be diligent about your person pursuit of loving God’s Word, and be diligent about your children’s passion for God’s Word.

3. By modeling the Gospel as the church leadership

Another way we will supplement your parenting is by modeling the Gospel as a church leadership. Church leaders have a grave responsibility. James 3:1 states: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” And I take this warning very seriously. Paul also tells Timothy regarding elders in 1 Timothy 3:4-5: “He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?” Sadly, we hear the phrase ‘pastors’ kids’ and we tend to think of adjectives like ‘rebellious,’ ‘angry,’ ‘frustrated,’ ‘troubled’ to describe them. You might know pastors who have placed their order of priority as God, church, and then family, believing that the pastor need not spend time with his family, nor need to disciple them because he’s doing God’s work, God will take care of them. But that simply is not the biblical witness. What these pastors fail to see is that when we strive for a God-honoring, Christ-glorifying, joyous household where when wife and children are nurtured and cared for, the church receives tremendous blessings. It is far too short-sighted to believe that neglect of my family so I could spend more time with certain programs or more ministry will lead to the church’s love for Christ and His Gospel. I honestly believe that what has given me credibility to speak into your family’s lives is my continual pursuit of a God-glorifying, Gospel-centered marriage and family. By this pursuit, I believe I have gained more trust from you, especially in advice regarding marriage and family, than I ever could have if I had spent more time visiting people and running programs while my marriage or my children’s spiritual lives were in shambles. We as a staff and a Leadership Team must model the Gospel because that is our role as teachers, elders, and leaders. And in doing so, we equip the church to love the next generation for the Gospel’s sake.

Children Are Eternal Souls With An Eternal Destiny

So if the first major point was that the church is responsible to aid parents with supplementary instruction, the second point is that the church is responsible to view children as eternal souls with an eternal destiny. God sees each of us not only where we are now, but where we will be in eternity. As 2 Peter 3:8 declares: “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” And thus, He knows our children not only as youngsters, but as timeless souls. We must therefore view our children in this way, and we must never forget this reality as a church and as parents. We should see children as eternal souls, and future generations who will either reject or accept the Gospel. (Today’s children are tomorrow’s adults.) And this is what is at stake with children. How should this affect our parenting and how our church ministers to them?

We should ask the question are we parenting as though this world is here forever or do we truly believe there is an eternal destiny? Al Mohler insightfully notes in his book Culture Shift:

Christian parents can fall into this same game [as non-Christian parents], pushing our children as if worldly markers of success are to be our greatest goals and hallmarks of achievement. We must push our children toward excellence, but we must define excellence in biblical terms consistent with the Christian gospel. Our concern should be that our children are raised in the nature and admonition of the Lord and are pointed to God’s purpose for their life. A life spent in self-sacrificial service, on the mission field, or devoted to the cause of the Gospel will not win the plaudits of the world. (Al Mohler, Culture Shift, 87)

Al Mohler is right. The primary way parents treat their children is as though this life was final, that is a life without eternity. This is evidenced when we make God a secondary priority in our lives. Notice, for church-going Christians, the problem is not that God has no priority. Rather, it is that God is secondary to other things, perhaps even good things. We parents fall into this “worldly markers or success” temptation regularly. And I must admit, I am the first to fall captive to temporal thinking. Sometimes I have to catch myself because I can care more about my kids being ‘socialized’ because we homeschool than I do about my kids loving Christ with a passion. When Charisa and Sarah were playing softball, I wanted them to excel, perhaps too much at least in my heart. I would tell Henry, “Oh, I don’t think Charisa’s going to make it. She’s too scared of the ball.” And he’d always say to me reassuringly, “She’s fine. She’s getting better.” But in my heart, did I mind better, or do I want great? Shua and I ran into a situation where Charisa and Sarah have a piano recital the same day that Steve Shank is speaking to the men. Since the women will be away at the retreat, I have to watch the kids. But the recital falls at the same time Steve is speaking. It’s their first recital and they’ve practiced much for it. We were trying to find a way where they could attend the recital and I could still be at church. But there really was no way. Either they would need to attend the recital with me and I’d miss Steve, asking one of the LT to cover for me, or they’d miss the recital. And Shua and I both agreed that in the scheme of eternity, the recital simply would not mean much. When we asked the girls what they thought, they were willing to miss the recital as well. We don’t always see things from eternity’s perspective, but we’re trying.

Parents, will you raise your children in the admonition of the Lord pointing to God’s purpose for their lives? Will your children see that your worship of God with His Body, the local church, is a future picture of what their eternity will be like? There will be no basketball games, recitals, Cub Scouts, swimming lessons, SAT classes, summer school in heaven. But there will be God’s people worshipping the Lamb who was slain for me and you. What will you teach your children, that those things have a higher priority than His Body the church, or that the church is a picture, though a flawed one, of what heaven will be like? May this church continually remind you that your children are eternal souls who will either reject the Gospel or proclaim it as their greatest news. May you do all that you can so that you will one day praise your Savior with your children.

Gospel Proclamation as a Church

The final point is that we are responsible to lead you and your children to proclaim the Gospel. Perhaps the greatest blessing that we as a church can do for you as parents is to lead you to cherish and preach the Gospel to yourselves regularly. By the Gospel, I mean that you understand how deeply wretched you are because of your continual rebellion and sin against God, but how gracious God is in loving us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). And this sincere knowledge so deeply impacts your soul that you worship God through your obedience. Thus, you don’t obey Him out of mere duty, but you actually desire to obey Him. You obey Him because you love Him and trust Him. And until you come to a full realization that every day there is a battle for this desire to obey, you will not experience the wondrous joy of God’s grace. This is exactly why Paul writes as he does: “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” (Gal 5:17).

Paul Tripp tells the story of the time he had spent all day fixing a broken door. He is a self-admitted unhandy man so when he got that door fixed, he was quite proud of the good work he had done. A couple of days later however, his wife had forgotten the door was fixed, and when one of the kids had propped it open, she yanked it shut causing the door to break again, as it was before. When Paul drove home, he was excitedly expectant to see the door stable, no longer flapping open in the wind. But he was shocked to find that the door was in its previous broken condition. All of his hard work had been completely unraveled. What would come over his soul? There was a battle raging, one where Galatians 5:17 was a reality. Paul Tripp writes: “That Monday evening on the porch, a war was raging. Would my heart be ruled by the Lord and the servant love to which he has called me, or would it be ruled by the powerfully motivating passions and desires of my flesh?…I stood on that porch, looked at that door, and prayed that, as I entered the house, I would not forget who I am in Christ…The fact that is that although I experience powerful emotions and desires, I can say ‘no’ and go in another direction because of the resources that are mine in Christ. I am indwelt by the Warrior Spirit who battles with my flesh.” (Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, 92)

Parents, every day you face this battle. Men and women, it’s not just parents, but we all do. How does one overcome the flesh? The Holy Spirit reminds you over and over again that you are saved through Christ and you deserve punishment, but He is incredibly gracious to you. Thus, you decide not to yell and scream and exact revenge and give in to your self-righteous sin. You actually extend mercy, grace, and forgiveness because you see yourself as a sinner with no hope by the power of the Warrior Holy Spirit who reminds you to look at the cross, where your sins are nailed there. When I was driving on the freeway the other day, I was cut off by a car. I decided to let it go, but in his obvious sense of self-righteousness, the man drove up next to me, and his friend in the other window who seemed both drunk and enraged, stuck his whole body out the window and blasted me with every expletive and gave me every coarse gesture he could think of. I could feel my own anger fire up and the battle began. Did I believe that I am Christ’s or did I believe that I am mine? By God’s grace, He restrained me from reacting in action and in my heart. But this happens with our children, when they act up for the umpteenth time, how shall we respond, in anger and frustration or will we remember God’s grace? No, we remember the glory of God becoming like us, being a curse for us, so that we might be His righteousness, so that we would be free and have a new identity as new creations. This is what our church must constantly and consistently teach you or we all will forget the Gospel.

I hope that you will see this teaching lived out throughout our church in our sermons, during Homegroups, in personal conversations, at retreats, at Gospel Train, in the way we serve one another. We will unashamedly preach and proclaim the Gospel because it is of first importance (1 Corinthians 15:1-3). And in doing so, we know that there is no better tool we can give to you as parents than to live in light of the glorious Gospel. Tim Keller shares how significant this Gospel is to all of us:

The gospel of justifying faith means that while Christians are, in themselves still sinful and sinning, yet in Christ, in God’s sight, they are accepted and righteous. So we can say that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope — at the very same time. This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. It means that the more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God’s grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions and character of your sin.

Also, as a church, may we raise men and women who see children as eternal souls worthy of our time, energy, efforts, never believing it’s wasted time because of the Gospel. Jesus gave His life so that even children might come to believe in His Name. This was not a duty for Him but “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.” (Heb 12:2) Thus, we must never teach and lead children as though it were a chore, a duty, since our Savior never looked at children in such a way. And teaching children is far from a waste of our time and energy. And may I also add that in teaching children, as I have tried to promote these past two Sundays, has great spiritual benefit for the teacher. This is why we are asking some of you to consider the blessings of teaching the next generation on a prolonged basis, perhaps a few months at a time, perhaps even a year at a time. I know that some of you are concerned. You are concerned that your spiritual condition will suffer. And so it will, if we as a church fail to serve you. But I am asking that you trust that we value your souls because your souls as teachers will impact the next generation. And we will do whatever we can to care for you as a church as you care for the next generation.

But please do not consider your ministry to children as your sacrifice. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14) He didn’t say, “I will sacrifice my time and energy to care for children.” He believed that the kingdom of heaven is open to even the little child who trusts in Him. So I ask that whether you are teaching Gospel Train, or on Jungle Room or Nursery duty, that you do not consider it your sacrifice, but rather your ministry to advance the kingdom of heaven.

Also, through the Gospel, we must remember that we are one Body in Christ. And as members of this Body, and here I speak specifically to members, what joins us together is truly more than mere blood. It is our Savior’s blood with eternal ties and eternal consequences. So the children of our members are part of this covenant family. We are tied together by the precious split blood of God’s own Son. Thus, we must have a deep care and concern for other members’ children, regardless of whether you yourselves even have children. Truly, in Christ our children have many uncles and aunties. This is a spiritual reality that according to Ephesians 2:19 explains we are a part of the household of God.

Moreover, we want to teach your children that corporate worship must be central to a life lived in the Gospel. I already spoke about how you can do this by prioritizing Sunday Worship over all things to your children. When you’re on vacation, you look for a church to attend, perhaps even researching churches that love Scripture before you go on vacation as much as you would research airline and hotel prices. Please speak with me if you need some recommendations for good churches to attend while on vacation. Also, consider when your children are going to college, when you’re doing your college tours, to make sure that finding a local church on those tours are of top priority. The more you instill a love for worship and the church today, where everything else is subsidiary to that, the more they will deem worship as a priority as well. May there be no entertainment, no activity, no shopping more important that the corporate worship of God’s people on Sunday. May your schedules be planned around your worship rather than your worship planned around your activities simply because whether you eat or drink you do it for the Lord’s glory (1 Cor 10:31). Remember, that your children are watching you and will model their priorities after your priorities.

But there is something you can do even today to model corporate worship. You can train your kids to worship with us here even on Sunday. We handed out the little booklet by John and Noel Piper on children attending Sunday worship. I gave that to you parents so that you might equip your children on how to worship God corporately on Sundays. This is such an important time for you to actually be training your children to love worship, by instilling in them the value of Sunday worship. But it means you must actually put in some effort to prepare your children for Sunday. If your children come to Sunday when we sing with a no-holds bar attitude, where they can tell jokes with their friends, run around, stare and make faces at others around them, pout, grow angry, then guess what, they will do that as teenagers, as college students, and as adults. They will never learn to take corporate worship seriously. I believe that it is possible to take worship seriously and yet for children to have joy in doing so. But you need to be intentional about it. Get some of the music we sing and play it in the car for the kids. Teach kids the meaning of the songs we sing. Explain, communicate, and worship with your children during the week. Explain to them why you sing, clap, raise hands, give offering. If you don’t know the answers to those questions, ask your HG leaders or the LT. Children will follow your lead if you are gentle, gracious, communicative, and joyous in your leading them, even on Sunday.

We seek to give you as parents the opportunity to lead children to worship God which is why we have the children join us for worship. We will do what we can to assist you to shepherd them in this, but you must be actively involved in training them to worship a great God who deserves our unceasing praise.

Finally, as a church we want to equip parents through every stage of a child’s life. Thus, as many of our kids prepare for the teen years, we want to tell you that we planning the next phase of ministry for the next generation. As our children prepare for Junior High and High School, since the Bible teaches so firmly that parents are primarily responsible for the discipleship of their children, we will not be typical in our Youth Ministry. The teen years are some of the most formative times in their lives, a time where parents are most needed. Sadly too many churches and parents abdicate these years to Youth Pastors and churchy entertainments. But we want to see a next generation of teens not merely entertained and ‘going to church’ and attending church retreats, but rather a next generation who will love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. And according to Deuteronomy 6:1-8, this can only happen if parents are actively involved. And so our Youth Ministry will be a ministry that parents will lead and the church will support. What will this look like?

Sovereign Grace Church in Gilbert, AZ has what’s called G2 (One Gospel, 2 Generations). Here is what they say about their Youth Ministry:

We want to see everyone treasure the gospel - youth included. G2 exists to support the parents in discipling their children. Therefore, much of what we do is to strengthen the relationships between parents and their young people. It is easy for this relationship to become strained but our goal is to give you a hand. So, through teaching, small groups, service projects and just plain fun we try and build that most critical relationship. We are built on one gospel. Since the gospel doesn’t come with packaging that says, “For Ages 20 and up” we look to make it clear to our young folks. Christ is the foundation and content of the life and teaching of G2.

They have Youth Small Groups that meet twice a month in homes and then they have a G2 Night once a month where they gather for fellowship with parents involved. Also, all Junior High and Youth sit in the whole Sunday Worship. This allows youth to prepare for their days in college where they will be attending worship with multi-generations. And this is where we will be heading shortly, as Tim, Linda, and I prepare for this next stage of our church’s development for the next generation. We will care for you as you care for your children. But you must take an active role in the lives of your children’s spiritual development. And together we will walk this journey together to make certain that your children will have every opportunity to receive the Gospel and to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Conclusion

Some of you might have heard this past week that Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman’s 5 year old adopted daughter, Maria Sue Chapman was hit by a car driver by her teenage brother by accident. This tragedy has made me think deeply about how precious our time with our children is. As I have spent these past two Sundays preaching about the next generation, I have been overwhelmed by the critical importance it is to love our children by preaching the Gospel to them. The reality is, whether it is college, marriage, and even death, one day they will be gone or we will be gone. This should lead us to be ever more vigilant in preaching the Gospel to children. Apart from the Lord, they will bear the penalty they rightly deserve. And so, the one thing we never want to hear, if like the rich man to Abraham they were able to communicate beyond the great chasm of heaven and hell, is that our children will say to us, “Why did you never tell me about Jesus and the glory of His Gospel?” Hence, this is why this two-part sermon is even more pressing.

I implore you today to stop and examine your life. What legacy will you leave to your children? Will you leave a legacy of a fine education for your children where you have worked hard, earned much money, but spent far too little time with your children? And if you spend much time with them, will you fritter that precious time away with nothing but mere frivolities and trivial entertainments? Will we always resort to sticking them in front of a TV so we can do what we really want to do? Or will we talk to our children and engage them in the Gospel and cause them to cherish Christ more than anything else? Are you committed to praying for your children so that they will love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength? Oh dear church, our children, the next generation are our joy and crown before the Lord. May they have a deep awareness of sin and a far greater joy in the vastness of the oceans of God’s grace through His Son. May this be our greatest desire for future generations that they would treasure the glory of Christ. And may Wellspring be committed to making certain that we do our part for His glory and for our joy.