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How Do We Raise Up Our Kids? · Gospel Tech with Nathan Sutherland

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Speaker 1: Purposely your life, God's purpose. Listen it purposely dot com.
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Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Gospel Tech Podcast.
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Speaker 2: My name is Nathan Sutherland and this podcast is dedicated
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Speaker 2: to helping families love God and use tech. Welcome back
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Speaker 2: everyone to the podcast Lab where we are in a
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Speaker 2: parking lot in a vehicle because it's an awesome mobile office.
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Speaker 2: Don't judge me excited today to continue our conversation about
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Speaker 2: the gospel for the summer. Last week we talked about
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Speaker 2: the gospel for parents that we are not safe because
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Speaker 2: of our good works. Instead, we're saved in spite of them,
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Speaker 2: and that we are not to return to the yoke
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Speaker 2: of working hard for our salvation to prove it to God,
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Speaker 2: or to save our kids, or to make an impact
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Speaker 2: on the world on our own strength. Instead we are
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Speaker 2: called to wait patiently and to give the Lord the
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Speaker 2: fear and anxiety that comes with trying to be enough,
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Speaker 2: because we're not, and the Bible is very clear about that.
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Speaker 2: This week we then look at our kids and go, okay,
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Speaker 2: so this is specifically for parents, but let's say you're single,
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Speaker 2: or you are a kid, or your post the kids stage,
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Speaker 2: and now you've got grandkids, or you're living in another
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Speaker 2: season where like this just isn't hyper practical. You don't
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Speaker 2: have twelve, ten and seven year olds in your home
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Speaker 2: under your purview on a regular basis. Let's take that
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Speaker 2: stance then, too, and say, Okay, this still applies to
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Speaker 2: all of the young people that we are called to
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Speaker 2: serve in love. We are called to ministry of our
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Speaker 2: world and young people specifically. I'm talking to Americans right now.
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Speaker 2: In America, we see youth looking for hope in a
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Speaker 2: way they've never looked for it before. They can get
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Speaker 2: gratification on demand all the time, and they realize it's
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Speaker 2: running short. They can run their own kings and be
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Speaker 2: their own kings and queens, run their own kingdom and
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Speaker 2: queendoms from a very young age where they get to
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Speaker 2: build their own havatars in their own little worlds and
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Speaker 2: make their own decisions and make their own friends and
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Speaker 2: decide their own right and wrong, and like this is
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Speaker 2: America's dream for young people. Just go out and decide
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Speaker 2: right for yourself. We're going to introduce you to the
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Speaker 2: concept in school, in our public system. We are going
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Speaker 2: to push that at you through ads that we tell
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Speaker 2: you if you had this thing, then this thing would
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Speaker 2: make you enough. But you get to actualize yourself by
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Speaker 2: purchasing this thing. Or we tell them that it's knowledge
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Speaker 2: that once you learn enough, you're gonna be good enough
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Speaker 2: and you're gonna have the ability to choose right and
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Speaker 2: wrong because education has got you there. We say, we
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Speaker 2: actually will go so far as to tell them, well,
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Speaker 2: if you just don't do enough bad things, then by
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Speaker 2: default you become good. So just don't be like those
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Speaker 2: bad ones, go to church enough, and then goodness just
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Speaker 2: kind of flows out of it. We never say those
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Speaker 2: words out loud, but that is very much how church
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Speaker 2: culture in America can work. So we get to facto
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Speaker 2: cultural Christians who don't know Jesus but they don't do
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Speaker 2: bad stuff. We get self righteous Christians who do the
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Speaker 2: good stuff and because of that think they're fine. We
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Speaker 2: get rebels who believe that they are God because well,
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Speaker 2: people have just told them they're awesome in their whole
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Speaker 2: life and no one's loved them enough to be like, no, no,
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Speaker 2: you're kind of bad at this, And there's a God
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Speaker 2: who loves you and wants to save your badness because
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Speaker 2: he doesn't hate you. He hates sin. We need to
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Speaker 2: lovingly say that to them. So what does that look
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Speaker 2: like for our children? That's today's conversation for our kids.
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Speaker 2: The gospel is still good news of God save sinners.
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Speaker 2: It's still going to run through the two things we
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Speaker 2: talked about last week, which is Mark twelve thirty and
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Speaker 2: thirty one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart,
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Speaker 2: all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.
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Speaker 2: And the second is this, love your neighbor as yourself.
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Speaker 2: There's no commandment greater than these, so Jesus sums up, yes,
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Speaker 2: the ten commandments. But if you read through Deuteronomy and
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Speaker 2: you're like, oh, there's the ten commandments, then it goes
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Speaker 2: on to and you will also, and it starts listing
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Speaker 2: all these other things you're supposed to do. Some of
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Speaker 2: them are moral codes. Some of them are what would
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Speaker 2: you call them, their cultural codes. So these are Jewish
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Speaker 2: specific like their circumcision piece. This is a cultural peace
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Speaker 2: that you're going to do. So it's not an ethical
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Speaker 2: don't murder it, say like, this is how you're going
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Speaker 2: to be right before me as a separate people group.
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Speaker 2: And some of them are the what I say, I said,
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Speaker 2: cultural I said, and I'm forgetting my third one right now.
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Speaker 2: Oh the law, Nah, some of them are going to
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Speaker 2: be like specificallevitical laws, and they're going to be spiritual practices.
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Speaker 2: So we have those three. Of those three, only one
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Speaker 2: survives the moral code. It's still not okay to murder.
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Speaker 2: It's still not okay to lie. It's still not okay
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Speaker 2: to rebuke your parents and disrespect them. Like, these are
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Speaker 2: things that we still see in the nature of God.
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Speaker 2: Now I share all that because he's asked which of
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Speaker 2: these commandments is the greatest, and he's like, two, love
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Speaker 2: God with all you are, love your neighbors, yourself. You
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Speaker 2: do these two, you keep the rest of the law.
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Speaker 2: And we just went through the like how do we
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Speaker 2: live in the light? Oh, it's love. What is love?
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Speaker 2: And it's an intimidating list. So for young people, then yes,
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Speaker 2: love God with all you are. Go listen to the
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Speaker 2: last one about what it means to walk in the light.
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Speaker 2: And that applies to kids too, Like we need to
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Speaker 2: repent of our sin, recognize we need a savior by
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Speaker 2: God's grace, and then follow that grace up with confession
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Speaker 2: and replay. There is a grace that God extends to us,
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Speaker 2: just like Jesus extended the bitter herb to Judas and
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Speaker 2: was like, repent. This is going to be bitter. You
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Speaker 2: heard me say previously that it's better that you never
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Speaker 2: were born. Then do this repent. We're all offered that,
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Speaker 2: and some of us go nope, like I am going
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Speaker 2: to rebel and run and take matters into my own
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Speaker 2: hands literally and figuratively. So we have that for our
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Speaker 2: young people to recognize. Rebellion is our natural state. But
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Speaker 2: when we look at what does it mean to love
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Speaker 2: God with all of our heart and our soul and
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Speaker 2: mind or our strength. I want to focus on that
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Speaker 2: and then tie that in. I think in our conclusion
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Speaker 2: with Colostions three twenty three about whatever we do, do
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Speaker 2: it with all our heart, as for the Lord, not
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Speaker 2: for men. So let's run through these. When we're thinking
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Speaker 2: about our kids and we're praying for our kids, and
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Speaker 2: we're then we're speaking to our kids, we're thinking about
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Speaker 2: our heart, soul, mind, and strength. So heart being our affection,
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Speaker 2: our attention. When we set our heart on something, we
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Speaker 2: say this thing is worth attaining, and I'm going to
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Speaker 2: achieve it. Maybe it's good grades, maybe it's an athletic potential.
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Speaker 2: Maybe it's a fitness goal. Maybe it's an academic reading goal.
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Speaker 2: Maybe it's a like a I'm going to read a
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Speaker 2: book a week kind of thing. Maybe it's an individual
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Speaker 2: that you've set your heart on. You're like, I'm going
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Speaker 2: to achieve relationship with this person. Maybe it's a peer,
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Speaker 2: just somebody you really respect and want to be around.
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Speaker 2: Maybe it's someone that the Lord has put on your heart,
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Speaker 2: and like, no, I love this person in a way
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Speaker 2: that God loves the Church, and I want to live
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Speaker 2: the rest of my life loving this person. Like I'm
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Speaker 2: going to pursue this individual that's very real and that's
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Speaker 2: our heart or affection is set on that person. So
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Speaker 2: twenty years ago this July, I set my affection on
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Speaker 2: Anna before God and these witnesses and said, yes, I
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Speaker 2: do not because it's going to be easy or convenient,
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Speaker 2: but because I choose her, and I'm choosing her like
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Speaker 2: Christ chose me, not because she's somehow good enough and
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Speaker 2: has to live up to a potential. They're like, well,
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Speaker 2: I love you as long as you hit the bar,
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Speaker 2: Like I love you because I choose to, because God
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Speaker 2: loved me, and I want to extend I get more
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Speaker 2: love because I love you. You're not sapping my love.
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Speaker 2: And she's an imperfect person who is also a child
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Speaker 2: of God, and we get to figure out more of
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Speaker 2: God's love by loving each other. So like that's the
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Speaker 2: heart part. We need to love God with all of
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Speaker 2: our heart, all of our affection. Again, romans Hate says,
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Speaker 2: we need to set our minds on the things of
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Speaker 2: the spirit, and there's a heart affection involved with the mind.
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Speaker 2: We'll get it to the mind in a moment, soul
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Speaker 2: our personality. This is okay. I'm not a full time theologian,
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Speaker 2: so bear with me on this. The parents, as we
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Speaker 2: strive to raise kids who love God and use tech,
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Speaker 2: it's intimidating to look at this next stage of life
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Speaker 2: and think about what academics may look like for them.
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Speaker 2: When you're thinking about college, considered George Fox University for
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Speaker 2: your children because of three things. First, it's going to
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Speaker 2: give you a more intimate, known environment where they have
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Speaker 2: a focus on being known personally, academically, and spiritually. Your
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Speaker 2: child will grow in their faith. Ninety three percent of
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Speaker 2: undergrad students at George Fox last year through the twenty
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Speaker 2: twenty five academic year said that being at George Fox
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Speaker 2: has helped them grow in their relationship with Jesus. We
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Speaker 2: also want them to grow academically, which means being a
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Speaker 2: part of the university with rigorous academic standards and opportunities
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Speaker 2: to be engaged. They have a nationally recognized engineering, nursing,
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Speaker 2: and education programs, as well as chances to study abroad
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Speaker 2: here within the US and then internationally and finally personally,
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Speaker 2: to be part of a vibrant campus atmosphere where you
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Speaker 2: can play intramural sports or part of their NCAA Division
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Speaker 2: three athletic programs with twenty three sports available. The goal
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Speaker 2: here is to go to a place that's going to
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Speaker 2: support your goals, not try to make you support theirs.
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Speaker 2: To have that goal be to raise you up to
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Speaker 2: be all God's called you to be, and to truly
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Speaker 2: equip your young person with my in my case, my
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Speaker 2: sons or my daughter to love God and then from
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Speaker 2: their love of God to go wherever God has called them,
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Speaker 2: and that includes being equipped with a degree that'll help
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Speaker 2: them do that, to be missionally equipped to love and
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Speaker 2: serve others, to lead where God has planned the man,
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Speaker 2: to know the Gospel for themselves and be able to
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Speaker 2: share it with others. Fox University is an amazing resource
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Speaker 2: for our kids, for our community here in the Northwest,
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Speaker 2: and for anyone who's looking to raise up a young
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Speaker 2: person who can love God and from that love others.
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Speaker 2: We've been given gifts and passions. We are told that,
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Speaker 2: and by passions I mean gifts and desires and interests
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Speaker 2: that the Lord has gifted us with him. We're told
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Speaker 2: this that we're all the body of Christ, and we're
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Speaker 2: given specific things that the Lord is going to work
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Speaker 2: in us and through us. And some of them are
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Speaker 2: things that we're good at, and some of them are
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Speaker 2: things we're not good at. We're gonna trust God in
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Speaker 2: So Moses not good at speaking, but going to be
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Speaker 2: used in that. But he did have a passion for
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Speaker 2: his people. He was viscerally passionate about his own people
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Speaker 2: and about seeing them freedom, about the justice of it all.
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Speaker 2: And he was a terrible speaker. So God used his
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Speaker 2: passion and his weakness, Willa, So that's our soul. This
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Speaker 2: is the part of like the part of you that
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Speaker 2: exists for all of time after this. Like you are
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Speaker 2: born and you're a unique DNA and God puts in
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Speaker 2: you a unique personality, and that personality will be there.
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Speaker 2: You do not see Jesus when he is resurrected come back,
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Speaker 2: and people go, yeah, we don't get you. He clearly
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Speaker 2: has a personality still because he eats the fish and
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Speaker 2: then it's like watch, it doesn't drop through me. Like
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Speaker 2: he still loves his peers, he still is friends with them,
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Speaker 2: and then he's glorified and he's terrifying because John passes
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Speaker 2: out upon seeing him. That's revelation one. But we have
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Speaker 2: a soul, and that soul will continue. Recognize that there
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Speaker 2: is an eternal part of us that God makes tick.
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Speaker 2: Moses and Elijah were recognizable during jesus transfiguration. There is
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Speaker 2: a part that's unique to us that will be beautiful
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Speaker 2: when we are glorified. That will give God great glory
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Speaker 2: because this is how He made us, and it's going
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Speaker 2: to be like, you know, a thousand little fingerprints, a
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Speaker 2: thousand little snowflakes, not in the brittle millennial term, but
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Speaker 2: in the beautiful uniqueness that God imprinted himself on every
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Speaker 2: single individual with no repetition, and God gets glory from that.
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Speaker 2: So that's our soul. So the reason that matters is
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Speaker 2: God might have given you the ability to do art,
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Speaker 2: use art for His glory. God might have given you
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Speaker 2: the ability to speak, speak for his glory. God might
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Speaker 2: have given you the ability to create, to organize, to
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Speaker 2: design something beautiful, to make spaces welcoming, to make good food,
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Speaker 2: to come up with new ideas, to run businesses, to
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Speaker 2: raise money. Like, whatever the thing is that God made
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Speaker 2: you to tick, use it for God's glory. When we
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Speaker 2: think about the individuals around us, we don't simply go, well,
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Speaker 2: I need to raise all my weaknesses, so my stats
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Speaker 2: are maxed and I'm just one hundred out of one
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Speaker 2: hundred on everything. Instead we go, Wow, the Lord's uniquely
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Speaker 2: equip me in a few areas. Some of them are
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Speaker 2: public facing, some of them are inward facing, and just
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Speaker 2: people don't see them as much. And we're the body
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Speaker 2: of Christ and God has called us to work as
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Speaker 2: a body, to work in the areas of strength and weakness,
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Speaker 2: and trust Him in all of that. We need to
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Speaker 2: tell that to our kids too. Our minds is our intellect.
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Speaker 2: We can know God not perfectly, but know Him in
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Speaker 2: relationship and with certainty. Certainty is not the definition of faith.
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Speaker 2: You don't have to be one hundred percent certain of
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Speaker 2: all aspects of God in order to have trust in
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Speaker 2: God any more than what is it? Tim Keller once
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Speaker 2: said that it's not my certainty in walking on ice
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Speaker 2: that keeps me safe. It's the strength of the ice.
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Speaker 2: I can have certainty in all the wrong things and
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Speaker 2: be one hundred percent sure and still be wrong and
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Speaker 2: reach the consequences of being wrong in a world of reality.
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Speaker 2: So like, it's not one hundred percent certainty with our mind, Like, well,
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Speaker 2: wrap your mind around God and then you can be saved.
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Speaker 2: It's God can be known from his sunrises and sunsets,
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Speaker 2: from the spirit that he puts inside us, from the
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Speaker 2: call he has on each of us to bend our
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Speaker 2: knee into repent. We can know God, and we can
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Speaker 2: ask big questions. And every big question asked honestly will
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Speaker 2: lead us to bigger questions, which eventually will get us
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Speaker 2: beyond ourselves, to a world that we certainly didn't make.
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Speaker 2: So what is happening here or to the minutia of
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Speaker 2: we certainly can't even do this yet, like on a
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Speaker 2: molecular level, like what is happening out here in this world?
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Speaker 2: Who is running this? And what's our place in it.
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Speaker 2: These are questions that our minds can understand God, and
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Speaker 2: that God is knowable in the extent that our finance
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Speaker 2: minds can know God strength what we work for. We
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Speaker 2: have physical strength, We have the strength of time. We
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Speaker 2: have limited numbers of days how to use every day.
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Speaker 2: So we are heart, soul, mind, and strength, our affections,
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Speaker 2: our unique fingerprint of God in each of our hearts,
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Speaker 2: the mind of our intellect and the strength of days,
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Speaker 2: the strength of our youth, the strength of our age,
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Speaker 2: the strength of our intellect, the strength of our emotional intelligence.
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Speaker 2: Some of these can be grown and distracted from, and
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Speaker 2: some of them are just innate abilities we've been given.
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Speaker 2: But we have strength in the season God's given it
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Speaker 2: to us. How do we use it? God says love,
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Speaker 2: or Jesus says love, God, with all of your heart's, soul,
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Speaker 2: mind and strength. When we are to raise our children
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Speaker 2: up in the way they should go, we are to
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Speaker 2: raise them up to understand they have a heart, soul, mind,
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Speaker 2: and strength, and then to raise them up model for
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Speaker 2: them what it looks like to use each of these
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Speaker 2: in little conversations. This doesn't mean you have to set
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Speaker 2: them down and walk them through what I just told
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Speaker 2: you all that was for you and your benefit to
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Speaker 2: wrap your brain around what you think of your four
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Speaker 2: year old. But your four year old has affections, and
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Speaker 2: you're gonna watch them pivot. Every one of my children
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Speaker 2: at age four were different. Owen had different affections than
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Speaker 2: Henry had different affections than Hadley. Owen's affections were for organizations, structure, puzzles,
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Speaker 2: and trains. Henry's affections were for books and stories and
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Speaker 2: FaceTime and jokes. How these affections were for sparkles and
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Speaker 2: sports and running and her brothers as she calls them,
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Speaker 2: ever since she could talk boys and her boys, and
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Speaker 2: she thinks of the world in terms of her boys
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Speaker 2: and what her boys are doing in relation to what
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Speaker 2: she wants them to be doing. That is unique to
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Speaker 2: each of my children, That is part of their heart,
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Speaker 2: their soul, is that eternal part where there will be
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Speaker 2: a fingerprint of God. That okay, let me say it
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Speaker 2: this way. We have all seen things that are in us,
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Speaker 2: that God wired in us, that are actually amazing and
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Speaker 2: beautiful and good when they're submitted to God, and that
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Speaker 2: are horrific distractions and destructive to ourself and others when
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Speaker 2: we use them in our own strength. You might have
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Speaker 2: been given the gift of God for management, and if
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Speaker 2: you use it in your own strength, it will consume
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Speaker 2: you and it will consume the people around you. But
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Speaker 2: if you submit it to God and use it where
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Speaker 2: he calls you to, use it when he tells you to,
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Speaker 2: and lay off it when he says no, I know
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Speaker 2: that would be successful, and it would be great, and
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Speaker 2: it would destroy you. You lay off it and you
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Speaker 2: trust that God is better than your best strength. That's
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Speaker 2: what we want our kids to know about their souls,
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Speaker 2: that this is a gift you're going to use to
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Speaker 2: worship God forever. You don't just have to burn it out. Now.
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Speaker 2: Our minds are intellects. Let's use them to glorify God
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Speaker 2: and be great at whatever God's given us and strength.
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Speaker 2: The reason we want our kids to know these things
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Speaker 2: is because we are told in Colossans three twenty three
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Speaker 2: and twenty four, whatever you do, work at it with
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Speaker 2: all your heart as working for the Lord, not for
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Speaker 2: human masters, since you know that you will receive an
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Speaker 2: inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the
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Speaker 2: Lord Christ you are serving, so he is just at
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Speaker 2: this point, said husbands, wives, bond, servants, children, here's how
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Speaker 2: you were to act. And then in summary, all of
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Speaker 2: you do whatever you're doing for the glory of God.
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Speaker 2: Not achieve righteous us for God and then you're good
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Speaker 2: from there. But instead, whatever you're doing with your heart, soul,
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Speaker 2: mind and strength, work at it for the Lord. So
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Speaker 2: our young people, school matters, not because achieving enough knowledge
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Speaker 2: makes you good enough, but because God's giving you a
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Speaker 2: brain and it was made to learn. You are learning
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Speaker 2: language in the womb. You are learning emotions from the
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Speaker 2: second you come out and start trying to find faces.
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Speaker 2: You are learning how to communicate in a world made
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Speaker 2: of people with a relational God who loves them, loves
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Speaker 2: them personally and fully knows them. So you are then
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Speaker 2: to know others. You are to invest in them. You
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Speaker 2: are in to invest in the education that lets you
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Speaker 2: invest in them. So do your best at school. When
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Speaker 2: you're outside, do your best in nature. Nature shows God's
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Speaker 2: glory from his sunrises and sunsets to the stars that
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Speaker 2: are astonishing down to the molecular level where you got
16:43
Speaker 2: more cells in your body than we've got stars in
16:45
Speaker 2: the universe. Like I don't know how to not maybe
16:47
Speaker 2: not cells as molecules. It's something one of the small
16:50
Speaker 2: things are more than the big things, and there's a
16:52
Speaker 2: lot of the big things. This is mind boggling to
16:54
Speaker 2: me and it should be to our children. There's a
16:57
Speaker 2: sense of awe and helplessness that comes with that, and
17:00
Speaker 2: that's good. And then the Lord gives us common grace
17:03
Speaker 2: that allows us to do things like medicine, which allows
17:05
Speaker 2: us to fight some of the fall, not so we
17:07
Speaker 2: can live forever, but so that we can mitigate some
17:10
Speaker 2: of the brokeness, just like God mitigated it for us
17:13
Speaker 2: on our behalf through Christ, we can now break little
17:18
Speaker 2: bits of the fall and say, there's a little bit
17:19
Speaker 2: of freedom here. Here's freedom from your pain. Here's freedom
17:21
Speaker 2: from your anxiety. Here's freedom from your poverty. Here's freedom
17:24
Speaker 2: from these things that are breaking you down. God's given
17:27
Speaker 2: you a greater freedom. Right, So frush drinking water. We
17:30
Speaker 2: want you to have that, and have the water that
17:32
Speaker 2: never runs dry. The spirit that lives in you and
17:35
Speaker 2: overflows in wells of live and water will flow from
17:38
Speaker 2: you so that the world God puts you into now
17:41
Speaker 2: has the water of the Lord Jesus Christ, and has
17:43
Speaker 2: the eternal life that it brings. Whatever we do, work
17:46
Speaker 2: at it. So work at your school, work at your knowledge,
17:49
Speaker 2: work at your sports that God puts you in, work
17:51
Speaker 2: at your friendships, work at your repentance and humility, work
17:54
Speaker 2: at being like Jesus because you've already been saved. So
17:58
Speaker 2: now your day to day work is to faithfully follow him.
18:00
Speaker 2: So let's go with one of each of my children.
18:04
Speaker 2: These don't have to be okay, these don't have to
18:06
Speaker 2: be big sermons like the one I'm doing right now.
18:08
Speaker 2: I would never do this to my child like one
18:11
Speaker 2: on one. Please don't hear that. Like I say these
18:13
Speaker 2: words to you guys, because I found over years that
18:15
Speaker 2: they're helpful to just remind you of what you already
18:17
Speaker 2: know are true, or to filling gaps of what you
18:18
Speaker 2: maybe didn't know what's true yet by using God's word
18:21
Speaker 2: and by his Holy Spirit. He's very faithful to do
18:23
Speaker 2: that with my own children, it would look like this
18:25
Speaker 2: twelve year old I'm gonna walk beside him. I made
18:29
Speaker 2: this mistake recently where I was like, I'm gonna sit down,
18:31
Speaker 2: you know, face to face, and we're just gonna have
18:33
Speaker 2: a good hour conversation. No, it was terrible, and he
18:35
Speaker 2: kind of hated me for it. Instead, we will sit down.
18:38
Speaker 2: We're gonna bring a game. That was a Henry suggestion.
18:40
Speaker 2: We're gonna make time summer currently it's you know, Thursdays
18:44
Speaker 2: or Fridays. I'm gonna go out early. Yes, my day
18:47
Speaker 2: gets started a little later because of this. But this
18:48
Speaker 2: is an intentional, deliberate investment with a soul that has
18:52
Speaker 2: a mind, who has the strength of days, and who
18:56
Speaker 2: needs love the Lord with all his heart. And we're
18:58
Speaker 2: gonna spend some time together. We're gonna read scripture. We're
19:01
Speaker 2: gonna play a board game.
19:03
Speaker 1: Today.
19:03
Speaker 2: We played Hive. It's a great little one v one game.
19:05
Speaker 2: I lost. And then we have a snack. We went
19:08
Speaker 2: to a Starbucks here in Washington, because what else is
19:11
Speaker 2: there really, And then we went on a little walk.
19:14
Speaker 2: It's maybe ninety minutes including and driving, probably closer to
19:17
Speaker 2: like an hour fifteen total, and we just talked. I
19:21
Speaker 2: prayed to lead us off, I prayed to close us.
19:23
Speaker 2: We read some scripture because I taught him sixth grade
19:26
Speaker 2: this year. We were going through Mark, so we just
19:27
Speaker 2: picked up where we left off in Mark. We were
19:29
Speaker 2: doing another little book. It was a little JANKI for
19:31
Speaker 2: our relationship. That's okay, So we dropped it for now.
19:34
Speaker 2: Maybe we'll pick up a different book or the same
19:36
Speaker 2: book later. But like the point isn't get your kid
19:39
Speaker 2: to understand these in order from the scripture every single morning. Instead,
19:43
Speaker 2: it's modeled for your kids. And part of that is
19:45
Speaker 2: making space to deliberately be with them, just like the
19:48
Speaker 2: Lord made space to deliberately be with us. Maybe it's
19:52
Speaker 2: doing your kid's favorite activity. Maybe for your kid it's
19:56
Speaker 2: roller skating or going on a drive or having a
20:00
Speaker 2: picnic or doing whatever. The other thing is making space
20:03
Speaker 2: that was owens. For Henry, it is the board game.
20:07
Speaker 2: It is the eye contact. He wants to co read
20:09
Speaker 2: the book. He wants to stare into your eyes and
20:12
Speaker 2: talk deep questions. He wants to sit and think and
20:14
Speaker 2: chew and moll and that's like he'll walk too. That's fine.
20:17
Speaker 2: But like words and thoughts and by the way, I'm
20:19
Speaker 2: not redirecting everything. Ohen and I talked about airsoft and
20:22
Speaker 2: board games and friends and a family trip that's coming up.
20:25
Speaker 2: Like it wasn't all the deepest, but it leaves the
20:27
Speaker 2: space and it's the relationship and those things matter to God.
20:31
Speaker 2: When we care about them and they matter to us
20:33
Speaker 2: when our kids care about them. And then with Hadley,
20:37
Speaker 2: so we test ran this with the boys, and then
20:40
Speaker 2: with Hadley. It has been mostly just the car ride,
20:42
Speaker 2: the getting of the treat and then a simple little
20:45
Speaker 2: prayer and a conversation about what we're reading, and then
20:49
Speaker 2: about scripture because she's seven and like, I want to
20:53
Speaker 2: keep that beautiful. So we're doing the Jesus Storybook Bible
20:55
Speaker 2: as like an evening thing, and we're building her into
20:59
Speaker 2: the rotation as. Since it's worked well with the boys,
21:01
Speaker 2: I share that with you because whatever we do, we
21:04
Speaker 2: do it with all our strength. This is a theme
21:06
Speaker 2: you can return to. You could have every Bible study
21:09
Speaker 2: be heart, soul, mind, and strength. Pick one. Where's your
21:13
Speaker 2: heart at this week? Where's God working on your heart?
21:15
Speaker 2: What does that look like to have a heart. Where
21:16
Speaker 2: are your interests, your passions, your gifts, your parents? You
21:21
Speaker 2: see these things speak life into those. You have the
21:23
Speaker 2: unique ability to be like man, This kid is unique
21:26
Speaker 2: in this way. You may not know what that means
21:29
Speaker 2: for a job. I'm not saying. Encourage your kid to
21:31
Speaker 2: go out be a scientist. Encourage your kid to be great,
21:33
Speaker 2: to be great at whatever God is wired. I have
21:35
Speaker 2: a nephew who loves birds and is passionate about birds
21:39
Speaker 2: to a level where you're like, that kid's passionate about birds.
21:41
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's just going to be a
21:42
Speaker 2: hobby or be something that the Lord uses, but there's
21:45
Speaker 2: no wasted gift or ability on the Lord. And if
21:48
Speaker 2: you allow those questions to continue to spiral, he's going
21:51
Speaker 2: to know a lot about biomes. He's going to know
21:53
Speaker 2: a lot about nature. He's going to know a lot
21:55
Speaker 2: about what it means to be amazed by God's creation.
21:58
Speaker 2: And that is absolutely going to feed into something that
22:00
Speaker 2: he does. Maybe it's just to make a cool line
22:03
Speaker 2: of T shirts, but his passion for birds will not
22:06
Speaker 2: be wasted. And that's what we're talking about, is our affection,
22:09
Speaker 2: our attention. We are training our children how to use
22:12
Speaker 2: those not as diversions, but as direct forms of worship,
22:17
Speaker 2: be it something like a love of birds or love
22:18
Speaker 2: of board games, personalities, mind, and strength. We speak truth
22:22
Speaker 2: into them from what the Lord has put there. We
22:25
Speaker 2: remind them of what is true about their need and
22:27
Speaker 2: about the God that loves them, and we remind them
22:29
Speaker 2: that whatever they do, they work at it. With all
22:30
Speaker 2: their heart doing it for the Lord and not for men,
22:33
Speaker 2: because it's an act of worship. So whatever you choose
22:36
Speaker 2: to do with your kids, please come back to that again.
22:39
Speaker 2: I just want to reread this Colossians three twenty three.
22:42
Speaker 2: Whatever you do, working it with all your heart as
22:43
Speaker 2: working for the Lord, not for men, since you know
22:46
Speaker 2: that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as
22:49
Speaker 2: a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
22:52
Speaker 2: That's true for us and true for our kids. And
22:54
Speaker 2: I find that encourage because it removes the weight for
22:56
Speaker 2: me to have to be good enough for my kids
22:59
Speaker 2: and moves the way from me to have to like
23:01
Speaker 2: convey every nuance to my kids. I can return on Hey,
23:05
Speaker 2: are we doing this the best we can? House chore, schoolwork,
23:09
Speaker 2: athletic event, practicing for an athletic event, like listen, we
23:13
Speaker 2: don't need to go spend ten hours, and you don't
23:14
Speaker 2: need to go pro but we said yes to this
23:17
Speaker 2: and we are going to do our best at it.
23:19
Speaker 2: Let's do our best with our attitudes, Let's do our
23:21
Speaker 2: best with our actions, Let's do our best with our reflection.
23:23
Speaker 2: Let's do our best with our patients, with ourselves and
23:25
Speaker 2: let's do our best with our patients, with others as
23:27
Speaker 2: they continue to learn and grow, and we recognize they're
23:29
Speaker 2: also imperfect. They need a savior, and whether they're saved
23:32
Speaker 2: or not, there's still people working to do the best
23:36
Speaker 2: of their ability. It might be following Wolf woefully short
23:40
Speaker 2: of their righteousness because you can't earn that. But we
23:44
Speaker 2: are going to be patient on both sides, others and
23:46
Speaker 2: with ourselves. I hope this is encouraging to you parents.
23:49
Speaker 2: I hope you hear that as you go to raise
23:51
Speaker 2: your children to Proverbs twenty two to six them to
23:53
Speaker 2: raise them up in the way they should go, that
23:55
Speaker 2: it's going to have to do with loving the Lord
23:56
Speaker 2: their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength,
23:58
Speaker 2: loving their neighbor as their go to last week's episode
24:01
Speaker 2: for that what that love looks like, and that whatever
24:05
Speaker 2: we do, we are doing it for the Lord. Pray today, Lord,
24:08
Speaker 2: what are you calling me to do? Where are you
24:12
Speaker 2: calling me to wait? And how can I do that
24:14
Speaker 2: with all my heart's, soul, mind and strength. I'm going
24:16
Speaker 2: to close some prayer. Lord, thank you for loving us,
24:19
Speaker 2: Thank you for sitting your son to die in our
24:20
Speaker 2: place and to rise again. To offer us new life
24:23
Speaker 2: and inheritance of your kingdom as children of Yours, that
24:26
Speaker 2: we have everything we need for life and righteousness when
24:28
Speaker 2: we are in Christ, That if we don't yet put
24:30
Speaker 2: our faith in You, Lord, I pray that those listening
24:32
Speaker 2: to this would bend their knee and repent, would take
24:34
Speaker 2: on this righteous mantle of Christ as children of Yours,
24:37
Speaker 2: and recognize it now they have everything they need, that
24:39
Speaker 2: they can now come before the throne of the God
24:41
Speaker 2: of the universe, not because they're good enough, because you are.
24:43
Speaker 2: And now we can truly love you with all our hearts, soul, mind,
24:46
Speaker 2: and strength. We can recognize that we are diverse individuals
24:50
Speaker 2: imprinted with the image of God, which gives us innate
24:53
Speaker 2: value and a call and a purpose that you empower
24:56
Speaker 2: us to do. Would we walk in that purpose, the
24:58
Speaker 2: good works you've called us to do, to see your
25:00
Speaker 2: kingdom come and to see your will be done on
25:02
Speaker 2: earth as it is in heaven. And we pray Lord
25:04
Speaker 2: this for ourselves, for our children, with the tech they use,
25:07
Speaker 2: with the places they go, with the content they study,
25:09
Speaker 2: with the minds You've given them, would we be amazed
25:11
Speaker 2: by them? Would we repent to them and with them.
25:14
Speaker 2: Would we model that when we fail? And would we
25:17
Speaker 2: call them to write action before you? Because Lord, you
25:20
Speaker 2: have a great call in their life and good works
25:22
Speaker 2: to do in them and through them. And we ask
25:23
Speaker 2: this in Jesus name.
25:24
Speaker 1: Amen.
25:26
Speaker 2: I hope this is encouraging to you. If it was,
25:28
Speaker 2: would you share it with someone? Would you send any
25:32
Speaker 2: questions you have to meet Nathan at Gospel tech dot net.
25:34
Speaker 2: And then would you join us next week as we
25:35
Speaker 2: continue this conversation about how we can love God and
25:37
Speaker 2: use tech talk with you that