Latest / Voddie Baucham Sermons / Voddie Baucham - The Centrality of the Home in the Evangelism and Discipleship of the Next Generation

Transcript

Voddie Baucham - The Centrality of the Home in the Evangelism and Discipleship of the Next Generation · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It is good to be here with you this evening.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: If I'd had an opportunity and was ready to come,
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: been able to come and get right in line with
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: the theme and do what I always try to do,
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: which is preach what I'm asked to preach.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: But they didn't ask me to preach anything, they just
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: asked me to come. So you get what I've been
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: sitting on and what I've been living with. I hope
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: that's all right. You just, if you'll allow me, I
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: see my former pastor, Dr. John Morgan, and his lovely
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: wife sitting up here in the front row. And you
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: need to know that one of the greatest periods of
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: ministry in my life was the time that I spent
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: as a teaching pastor at Sagemont Church in Houston. And
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: much of what I am today is because of my
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: time there. You know, there are two sides of my life.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: That's this one side where cultural apologetics is what I
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: live and breathe and teach and preach. And there's the
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: other side where I'm Bridget's husband and Jasmine and Trey
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: and Elijah's father. And by the way, we have another
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: baby who will be here any day now. And so
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: God continues to be good to us. And there is
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: a place where these two parts of my life merge.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: I want to share something with you tonight that has
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: been sobering to me. The place where these two things
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: merge is here. And I'm not real big on statistics,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: but I just need to share a few things with
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: you to paint a picture. And I want to do
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the best that I can to let you know where
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: these things come from. Those of you who know me
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: know that it just pains me to ever have any
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: notes when I preach. I just can't do it. I
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: just can't have any notes. but I had to have
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: some things here so I can tell you exactly where
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: this information comes from and where you can go and
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: find it. One is this, that we are losing a generation,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: and we're losing that generation rapidly. For instance, depending on
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: where you look, we're losing somewhere between 75 and 88%
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: of our young people by the end of their freshman
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: year in college. Somewhere between 75 and 88%. For that
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: low number, you can look at, Glenn Schultz's work on
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: kingdom education for that high number, the 2002 Southern Baptist
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Council on the Family. So these are not things just
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: made up, just grabbed out of the air. That's what's
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: been happening over the last few decades. We're losing somewhere
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: between 75% and 88% of our young people by the
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: end of their freshman year in college. There are a
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: lot of you in here, and you're upset about the
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: whole emerging church movement. You're upset about Brian McLaren and
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: some of the theology that he's espousing. I don't like
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: much of the theology that's coming out of the emerging
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: church movement, but can I tell you what the impetus
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: is behind the emerging church movement? 20-somethings are gone. The
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: emerging church movement is saying, what do we do to
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: recapture this age group? By the way, if you look around,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: you'll see that we have a generation gap in the SBC. Amen, lights.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: There is a tremendous generation gap among Southern Baptists. And
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: it's time that we got honest about it. And part
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: of it's because of what I'm telling you. Hold on though,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: I'm not finished painting the picture. In our culture, in America,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: for the first time, our birth rate is below replacement rate.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Replacement rate is 2.1 children per family. We're at 1.9. Now,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: we're not as bad as much of the industrialized world.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: For example, in France, I think there are around 1.5
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: children per family. In Italy, there's somewhere around 1.1 children
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: per family. Now, in case you don't understand what that means,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: what that means is we're not having enough children for
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: our culture to continue to survive. Our culture is dying
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: one generation at a time. Now, let me put skin
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: on that for you. France, they have a birth rate
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: of about 1.5. However, there are North African Muslims and
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Arab Muslims who have immigrated into France, and we saw
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: some unrest because of those folks. Their birth rate is
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: about six children per family, which means in two generations,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: France will be a Muslim nation by sheer numbers alone. Why?
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Because they want prosperity more than they want children. And
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: it's the same for us. Now let me put these
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: two pieces of statistical information together. At two children per family,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Southern Baptists, because we're no better than the rest of
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the culture on this. Our attitude toward children is a
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: boy for me and a girl for you and praise
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: the Lord we're finally through.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: Amen.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: It's an unwritten rule that you can only have two kids. However,
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: there is one exception to the unwritten rule where you
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: can have a third child. And that is if your
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: first two children were the same sex, you get to
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: try one more time for the other. That's the unwritten rule.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: We despise children in our culture. We despise children in
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the Southern Baptist Convention. You don't believe me? Find a
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: woman with six or seven kids and follow her into
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: a Southern Baptist church. And watch the way we mock her.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Watch the way people who don't even know her come
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: up to her and say, haven't you guys figured out
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: how that happens yet? Now let me put these two
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: statistics together. We lose 75. Let's take the most optimistic number.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: We're losing 75% by the end of their freshman year
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: in college. We average two children per family. That means
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: it currently takes two Christian families in this generation to
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: get one Christian into the next. Let me make it
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: even more plain. There's 16 million Southern Baptists on paper.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: By these numbers, next generation, 4 million. Third generation, 1 million.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Fourth generation, 250,000. More than numbers now, aren't they? Oh,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: but that's okay. We'll just replenish those numbers through evangelism. Interesting.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: In order to replenish those numbers through evangelism alone, What
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: we would have to do is reach three lost people
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: for every one Christian. Currently, we only reach one lost
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: person for every 43 Southern Baptists. Now let me make
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: it plain and bring it home. Christianity in America is
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: dying one generation at a time. One home at a time.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Christianity is dying. Among this Jewish community, the same thing
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: is happening. Two scholars, Anthony Gordon and Richard Horowitz, have
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: done a study on what's happening in the Jewish community
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: and listen to what they say. The research targeted three
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: key quantifiable elements of Jewish survival. Intermarriage rates, that's believers
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: marrying other believers instead of non-believers so that they lose
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: the faith. Birth rates and levels of Jewish education. When
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: all these factors are tabulated and correlated, a troubling picture
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: emerges of the future of American Jewry. Skyrocketing intermarriage rates,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: declining birth rates, and inadequate Jewish education continue to decimate
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: the American Jewish people. We're right behind them. There was
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: a front page article in the Wall Street Journal just
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: yesterday about Zoroastrians in India. Now what do Zoroastrians in
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: India have to do with anything? I'll tell you, here's
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: what they were saying in the article, front page article
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: in the Wall Street Journal. Because of low birth rates
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: and because people are getting married later and having fewer
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: children than ever before, the Zoroastrian religion is about to
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: be wiped off the face of the planet simply because
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: they're not having kids and retaining the kids that they have.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: You smelling what I'm stepping in? What has been our answer?
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Here's been our answer. Our answer has been to divorce
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: ourselves from the issue and hire youth pastors to make
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: it better. If you can't say amen, you ought to
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: say ouch. That's been our answer. By the way, Alvin
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Reed in his book Raising the Bar makes this observation.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Over the last 30 years, We have seen the largest
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: increase in the number of professional youth ministers, youth ministry
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: degrees being handed out, and parachurch organizations designed to reach youth.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: And we have seen the greatest decline in youth baptisms ever.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Let me make this statement and then I'll back it up.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: While you open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6, let
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: me make this statement. Our current approach to youth ministry,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: number one, is unbiblical. Number two, is antithetical to what
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: the biblical model is for the evangelization and discipleship of
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: young people. And number three, it doesn't work. Let me recap.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Number one, our current approach is unbiblical. I'm going to
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: show you that. Number two, our current approach is actually
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: antithetical to the biblical model. It's one thing for something
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: to not be found in the Scripture. It's another thing
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: for something to actually work against what is clearly found
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: in the Scripture. And number three, which shouldn't be surprising
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: at all, it doesn't work. Or do I need to
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: say it again? 75 to 88% is our current failure rate.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Ephesians chapter 6, verses 1 through 4. I want to
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: show you from the scripture the centrality of the home
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: in the evangelism and discipleship of the next generation. The
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: centrality of the home in the evangelism and discipleship of
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: the next generation. God has a plan for multi-generational faithfulness.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: That plan is the family. Unfortunately, many of the things
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: that we currently involve ourselves in actually work against God's
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: plan of the family. And so currently, what we're doing
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: is we're actually, this is, let me give you, for example,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: when I say that what we're doing is unbiblical, let
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: me give you what we say is the goal of
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: many of our youth ministries. What we say is this,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: the youth ministry at so-and-so Baptist church exists to evangelize teenagers,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: to disciple them, and to equip them to go and
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: evangelize other teenagers. Two problems with that. Number one, nine
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: times out of ten, we never mention parents. And number two,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: not your job. Whose job is it to evangelize my children?
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: The church? No, it's mine. Whose job is it to
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: disciple my children? The church? No, it's mine. Which means
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: that at best, any youth ministry that's going to exist
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: at all had better have a mission statement that says,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: we exist to equip and assist parents as they do
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: what God called them to do and not the church.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: It's one thing for me to make that statement, but
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I don't want you to just take my word for it.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Ephesians chapter 6, verses 1 through 4. Oh, they're messing
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: with me on my time. All right, Ephesians chapter 6,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: verses 1 through 4. But trust me, you needed to
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: know all of that. Children, obey your parents and the Lord,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: for this is right. Honor your father and your mother,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: which is the first commandment of the promise, that it
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: may be well with you and that you may live
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: long on the earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: instruction of the Lord. The centrality of the home in
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: the evangelism and discipleship of the next generation. The centrality
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: of the home. Now, please note, there's a difference because
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: what's happening now is people are looking at the data
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: and a lot of our youth ministry programs are now
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: moving toward ministry to youth and their families. And so
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: we were saying the kids are ours and it's our
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: job to evangelize them, our job to disciple them, and
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: our job to mobilize them. Now we say it's still
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: our job, but we want parents to help us. That's
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: still the wrong answer. Well, brother, but you don't understand.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: These families out there, they're not doing it. Isn't that interesting?
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: For 30 years, here's what we've been telling them. We're
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: trained professionals. Please don't try this at home. You don't
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: understand your kids. Your kids don't like you. Trust me.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Just drop them off now. And now we're mad because
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: they're doing what we've taught them to do for 30 years.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: All right, I'm going to get to this text. Come on.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Three things demonstrate the centrality of the home in this
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: process of evangelizing and discipling the next generation. First, the
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: context of that first verse. Children, obey your parents and
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: the Lord, for this is right. Now, in order to
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: understand the context of that verse, you've got to back
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: up to the paragraph before it. You back up to
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: the paragraph before it, and you start with husbands, love
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: your wives as Christ also loved the church. But the
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: problem with that is you get there, you got to
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: back up the paragraph before that one to see the
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: context of this section. Wives, be subject to your own
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: husbands as to the Lord. The problem with that is
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: that it is the beginning of the section, but it's
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: got no verb. I know what you're saying. You got
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: a verb right there. Be subject. Isn't that the verb?
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: It ought to be italicized in your Bible. The reason
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: it's italicized is because it's borrowed from verse 21. In
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: the Greek, there's no verb there in verse 22. So
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: it's borrowed from verse 21. Problem with starting with verse 21,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: if you start with verse 21, you start at the
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: end of a paragraph, and you can't do that. So
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: in order to understand the context of Ephesians chapter 6
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: verse 1, you've got to go all the way back
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: to Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 15. Trust me, we're
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: going somewhere. When you back up to Ephesians chapter 5
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: and verse 15, here's what you get. You get three contrasts,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and then you get three commands, and then you get
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: three contexts, all right? Three contrasts. Let's look at them,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: beginning verse 15. That's contrast number one. Contrast number two,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: next verse. So then do not be foolish, but understand
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: what the will of the Lord is. That's the second contrast.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Don't be foolish, understand the Lord's will. Third contrast. Do
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: be filled with the Spirit. On the third contrast, you
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: get three commands. Those three commands are connected to the
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: third contrast. Look at what he says, beginning of verse 19.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: How do you know if somebody's living a Spirit-filled life?
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Verse 19. Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: the Lord. If you show me a worshipful person, I'll
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: show you a person who's more than likely being controlled
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: by the Spirit of God. Show me a person who's
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: not a worshipful person, and I'll show you somebody who
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: more than likely is not being controlled and is not
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: yielding to the Spirit of God. You can't tell me
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: that somebody is Spirit-filled and they're not worshipful. The two
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: just don't go together. Fair enough? Look at the next verse.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Here's the next command, verse 20. Always giving thanks for
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: to God, even the Father. So you're a worshipful person. Secondly,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: you're prayerfully thankful. Prayerfully thankful. Show me somebody who's prayerfully thankful,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: and I'll show you somebody who's probably being controlled by
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the Spirit of God. Show me somebody who is neither
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: prayerful nor thankful, and I'll show you somebody who's not Spirit-filled.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: Fair enough? Those were easy. Verse 21. Be subject to
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: one another in the fear of Christ. Show me somebody...
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: who submits to proper biblical authority in their life. And
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: I'll show you somebody who is Spirit-filled. Show me somebody
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: who does not submit to proper biblical authority in their life,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: and I'll show you somebody who's not Spirit-filled. Now, go
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: to chapter 6 and verse 1 and look at it
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: in context. Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: this is right. In other words, three contrasts. Three commands.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: On the third command, you get three contexts. Context number one,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: wives and husbands. Context number two, children and parents. Context
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: number three, servants and masters. Here's what he's saying in
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: verse one. Show me a child who is not submissive
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: to their parents' authority, and I'll show you a child
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: who's not yielded to the Spirit of God. Which means
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: if we want to lead children toward being Spirit-filled, we
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: don't lead them toward a youth pastor, we lead them
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: toward mom and dad. Because the measure of their yielding
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: to the Spirit of God is whether or not when
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: their parents say something, they do what they're told, when
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: they're told, and with a respectful attitude. That's what obedience is.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: So number one, we see the centrality of the home
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: in the context here. He says, you want to take
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: the spiritual temperature of a young person, you take the
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: spiritual temperature of a young person by whether or not
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: they are submissive to the authority of their parents. That's
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: the authority in their life. That's the spiritual authority in
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: their life. The spiritual authority in my child's life is me.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: The spiritual authority in your child's life is you, which
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: means anything that the church does had better not robbed
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: spiritual authority from mom and dad. I don't write the mail.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: I just deliver it. Secondly, look at the centrality in
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: the home in his use of the fifth commandment. Look
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: at what he says there. The next verse. Honor your
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: father and mother, which is the first commandment with a
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: promise that it may be well with you and that
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: you may live long on the earth. Now, as Americans,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: we're rugged individualists. So the first thing we want to
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: do with this verse is we want to say, that's
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: talking to the individual child. Child, you obey me, you'll
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: have a long, prosperous life.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: No.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: No.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: No.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Understand the significance of the fifth commandment. First of all,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: the fifth commandment is the first of the horizontal commandments.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: There's ten commandments. First four, vertical. Last six, horizontal. Number
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: one on the hit parade of the horizontal commandments, the
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: man-to-man commandments, number one is honor your father and your mother,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: which means there is nothing that the church can teach
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: a child that is more important than honoring their father
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: and their mother. Now, not only do we see it
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: because of the position of secondly, we see it because
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: of a promise. That's the first one with a promise. Folks,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: that's huge. Do you know what the first four commandments are?
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Commandment number one, I'm God, you don't get another one. Lord,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: can we get a promise with that one? Uh-uh, no promise.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Just do it. Commandment number two, don't even make nothing
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: that look like me. Okay, God, can we get a
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: promise with that one? Uh-uh, just do it. Commandment number three,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: don't even mess with my name. Okay, God, that's kind
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: of serious right there. You got to give us a
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: promise on that one.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Uh-uh.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Commandment number four, Don't even mess with my day. Now,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: wait a minute now, you know, I want my boy
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: to be a baseball player. Most of the teams, you know,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: he'll have to go and he'll have to play on
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Sunday sometime. And God, I'm sure you'll, don't mess with
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: my day. Get a promise with that one, Lord? No promise.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Commandment number five, honor your father and your mother. Can
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: you get a promise with that one, God? You better
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: believe you can. On that one, I give you a promise.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Do you see the importance of the fifth commandment? It's huge.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Its order screams about its importance. The fact that it's
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: the first one with a promise screams of its importance.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Now listen to this. The fifth commandment was not for
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: the individual child. It was for the community of faith.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Here's what the fifth commandment is about. Remember, we get
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: them in Deuteronomy 5. In Deuteronomy chapter 6, what does
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: he teach us? He teaches us how to disciple our
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: children in our homes. He teaches us, listen Israel, hear
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: all your soul, and all your might. These words which
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: I'm commanding you today shall be on your hearts, and
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: you shall teach them diligently to your sons. when you
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: lie down, when you rise up, and when you walk
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: along the way. Disciple your children. Can I give it
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: to somebody else to do? No. It is your job
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: as parents. Listen to me. You're clapping, but almost every
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: one of you has a youth ministry in your church
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: that is operating unbiblically. Don't clap if you're not going
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: to change it. And I'm not talking about including more
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: parents in what we do. I'm talking about changing the
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: entire paradigm.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Because here's the purpose of the fifth commandment. God says,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: you are my people, but you're about to go into
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: a pagan land where they worship pagan gods. If you
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: want to continue to be my people, here's what you
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: must do. Number one, you must have a boatload of kids.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: That's what it means to multiply greatly. By the way...
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: When he sends them into the promised land, what does
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: he say to them in Deuteronomy? That they're to multiply
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: greatly so that when he sends them into the promised land,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: they won't disappear as God's people. When he sends them
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: into exile, in Jeremiah 29, what does he say? Multiply greatly.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: You want to avoid disappearing in the midst of a
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: pagan culture? Outbreed them. Let me tell you something. There's
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: some of us in the room who need to repent
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: because of our attitude toward children and because of what
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: we've said to people, communicating our attitude and not the
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: biblical attitude toward children. Some of us need to get
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: on our faces before a holy God because we have
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: mocked being fruitful. I've heard pastors from pulpit, from the pulpit,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Talk about their children, like they despise the number of
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: children that God has given them. I heard a pastor
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: from the pulpit talk about their third child being named Manny. Yeah, eeny, meeny,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: and miny, because we ain't having no more. That is
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: a mockery before Almighty God. Children are a gift of
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Our attitude from here is why a lot of people
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: out there aren't having enough kids.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Starts with us. And it all goes back to prosperity.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Poorest nations in the world see children as a blessing.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: The richest nation in the world, we talk about children
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: in terms of how many we can afford. God help us.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: We're dying one generation at a time because we refuse
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: to receive the gift that God wants to bring through
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: the womb. our attitudes. God says, you want to continue
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: to be my people. You do two things. Number one,
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: you gladly receive these blessings that I give you called children.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: And number two, you disciple them in your homes so
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: that they don't look like the culture around them. The
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: minute you stop receiving the gift of God through the womb,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: And the minute you stop discipling them in your home,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: they begin to look like the culture and the community
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: of God begins to vanish before your eyes. Two Christians
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: in this generation, two Christian families in this generation to
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: get one generation into the next. I believe that's a
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: plague on us. It's amazing. We always talk about how
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: we want more souls in the kingdom. If we were honest,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: here's what we'd say. We want more souls in the
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: kingdom as long as we don't have to birth them,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: raise them, and feed them. Finally, in case you don't
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: understand what he said by the context of this passage,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: and in case you don't understand what he said by
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: him pointing to the fifth commandment, How about a plain,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: black and white, straightforward word? Verse 4. And fathers. And fathers.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: And fathers. Everybody's trying to figure out how to make
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: men excited about church again. Everybody's figuring out how do
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: we challenge our men. How do we get our men involved?
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: God's got an answer.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Fathers.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Fathers. Do not provoke your children to anger, but bring
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: It doesn't get clearer than that, folks. The context of
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: this passage says the home is central in the evangelism
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: and discipleship of the next generation. The fact that he
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: points to the fifth commandment screams that the home is
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: central in the evangelism and discipleship of the next generation.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: And then, in case we didn't get those two hints,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: he says it in black and white. Fathers, disciple your children. Fathers,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: if we believe this, then why is it that we've
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: done everything in our power not to allow that to happen?
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: We don't expect that from our men. And I hear you.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: We go back to this whole thing. I understand that,
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: but they're just not equipped. They just don't know. Here's
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: what's interesting. If the people in your church are not tithing,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: you don't start a ministry to tithe for them, do you? No,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: you simply teach them and expect them to do what
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: the Bible says is their job. If it works for tithing,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Why don't we think it'll work for the discipleship of
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: the next generation? So what do we do with this?
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: I'm not telling you all to go fire your youth
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: pastors tomorrow. It's not what I'm saying here. But we
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: have to completely revamp our philosophies. In the last couple
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: of minutes that I have left, let me give you
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: a few things that we must do. Because currently, all
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: of our evangelistic efforts amount to no more than filling
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: up a bucket with a hole in the bottom. We
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: are not growing anymore. I want you to hear that today.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: And by the way, there's a lot of you out there,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: you know, yeah, 16 million, we're not going to go.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Of course not, we won't go down to 4 million
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: in just one generation. No, listen to me. Our churches
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: will continue to be filled. But here's what we do know.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Number one, we know because of Tom Rainer's research that
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: was published in the spring edition of the Southern Baptist
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: Theological Journal. According to their research, if their estimations are correct,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: somewhere around half of all Southern Baptist churches Members are unregenerate.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: By the way, according to the Nehemiah Institute, the Barna
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Research Group, and the National Study of Youth and Religion,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: less than 10% of professing Christian teenagers operate from a
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: biblical worldview. Less than 5% are theologically born again. By that,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: I mean they say they're born again and they trust
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: Christ as Savior and Lord of their life, but they're
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: wrong on the deity of Christ, they're wrong on substitutionary atonement,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: They're wrong on just about every important theological issue related
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: to salvation. Only 5% of them theologically have the information
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: that they need to be saved. So our churches will
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: continue to look big, but the overwhelming majority of the
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: people inside will not be Christ followers. So what do
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: we do? Number one, I beseech you. If you don't
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: have a biblical view, of children, get on your face
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: before Almighty God and repent. And if you have been
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: mocking children from your pulpit, and if you, like one pastor,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: one pastor that I talked to recently, said, brother, when
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: you said that, here's what I thought. The first thought
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: that came to my mind was last week I talked
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: to my people and I told them that we thought
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: my wife was pregnant. And when I said that, I
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: told him that after we found out that she wasn't,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: I said, we had a close call. He said, I
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: need to go get on my face right now. Because
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: I communicated to my people that children are a curse
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: and a scourge and not a blessing. Do not make
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: a mockery of children. You encourage people to welcome children
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: into their homes. You throw a banquet when that woman
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: walks into your church with six or seven kids behind her.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: You honor her and let everybody see you do it.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Because if it wasn't for women like her, we'd have
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: no future. Secondly, if you have a youth ministry in
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: your church and you have a mission statement, you line
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: it up against what we looked at tonight in Scripture.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: And if it's wrong on its biblical and theological merit,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: you crumble it up, put it in the trash, and
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: start over. Because it will not change until we change
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: our entire mentality about what it means to disciple the
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: next generation. As long as you think it's your idea
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: or it's your responsibility, as long as you think that
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: our job in discipling the next generation means hiring some
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: guy who's 25 years old and got spiked hair and
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: has never raised a teenager himself. Lord, help us. Our
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: entire mentality has to change. Thirdly, and this is the
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: toughest one to talk about, we have to adopt a
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: biblical view of church leadership. I want to tell you something.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: There's two skills required of a pastor and only two skills.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of character qualities that are required,
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: but only two skills. Number one, he must be able
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: to teach. Number two, he must manage his household well.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: Our churches are filled with biblically disqualified pastors. Titus chapter
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: 1 makes it clear. If you do not have faithful children,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: And if your children are accused of rebellion or dissipation,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: you are disqualified biblically. And you hear that. And I
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: know we hear that and we go, oh, brother, that's harsh.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Nobody's perfect. Listen to me. The same passage says, and
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: here's what boggles my mind, same passage, same paragraph, must
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: not be addicted to wine. That says he must not
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: be a drunkard. He must not drink in excess. We
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: say he can't drink at all. Listen to me. I'm
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: not a drinker. I'm not promoting drinking. I've never had
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: a drink. But this is what I want you to
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: hear tonight. Not drinking is easy for me. And it's
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: easy for most of you because most of you never drink.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: And you stick your chest out and pop your collar
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: because you don't drink. It means nothing to you unless
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: you've been an alcoholic. It is not hard for you
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: to do. Discipling your family is a different story. And
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: it amazes me that in the same paragraph, we take
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: one of those requirements and raise it and the other
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: one and lower it. You want to know why our
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: families are in turmoil? Because most of you, when you
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: got hired at the church that you're at right now,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: they never even met your family. They heard you preach
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: and voted on you. When the Bible says if you're
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: not discipling your children in an exemplary fashion, you're not
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: worthy of being called a pastor. From the top down,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: we are wrong on the family. And we are losing
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: the culture war. One family at a time. And we
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: have gotten so pathetic that now there's a euphemism in
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: our culture called the PK. PK. Why do we use
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: that term as a euphemism? Because pastor's kids who live
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: like they were raised by the devil has almost become
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: the norm. If the church is a corporation, that's completely
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: acceptable because all you have to do is stand at
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: the top of a machine and make sure that people
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: go in one side of it and out the other
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: and that there's more of them going through the machine
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: next year than this year. But if the church is
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: a family of families and if God is serious about
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: families being expected and equipped to disciple their children, then
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: the people who stand at the helm had better be
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: exemplary husbands and exemplary fathers. And until we believe that,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: we'll continue to lose the culture war, one family at
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: a time. Listen to this from Richard Baxter and the
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: Reformed pastor. If you are ungodly and teach not your
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: families the fear of God. nor contradict the sins of
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: the company you are in, nor turn the stream of
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: their vain talking, nor deal with them plainly about their salvation.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: They will take it as if you preached to them
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: that such things are needless and that they may boldly
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: do so as well as you. Mist in the pulpit,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: fog in the pew. We will never be able to
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: tell our children to raise and disciple a house full
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: of warriors for Christ if we don't begin to do
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: it from the top.