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Voddie Baucham - The Centrality of the Home · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the teaching ministry of Grace Family Baptist Church.
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Speaker 1: GFBC's mission is proclaiming the supremacy of Christ to all
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Speaker 1: men with a view of biblical conversion and comprehensive discipleship.
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Speaker 2: Well good evening it is good to be here with
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Speaker 2: you this evening um if i'd had an opportunity and
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Speaker 2: was ready to come been able to come and get
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Speaker 2: right in line.
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Speaker 3: With the theme and do what i always try to
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Speaker 3: do which is preach what i'm asked to preach but
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Speaker 3: they didn't ask me to preach anything they just asked
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Speaker 3: me to come So you get what I've been sitting
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Speaker 3: on and what I've been living with. I hope that's
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Speaker 3: all right. If you'll allow me, I see my former pastor, Dr.
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Speaker 3: John Morgan, and his lovely wife sitting up here in
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Speaker 3: the front row. And you need to know that one
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Speaker 3: of the greatest periods of ministry in my life was
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Speaker 3: the time that I spent as a teaching pastor at
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Speaker 3: Sagemont Church in Houston. And much of what I am
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Speaker 3: today is because of my time there. You know, there
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Speaker 3: are two sides of my life. That's this one side
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Speaker 3: where cultural apologetics is what I live and breathe and
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Speaker 3: teach and preach. And there's the other side where I'm
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Speaker 3: Bridget's husband and Jasmine and Trey and Elijah's father.
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Speaker 2: And by the way, we have another baby who will
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Speaker 2: be here any day now.
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Speaker 3: And so God continues to be good to us. And
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Speaker 3: there is a place where these two parts of my
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Speaker 3: life merge. I want to share something with you tonight
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Speaker 3: that has been sobering to me. The place where these
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Speaker 3: two things merge is here. And I'm not real big
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Speaker 3: on statistics, but I just need to share a few
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Speaker 3: things with you to paint a picture. And I want
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Speaker 3: to do the best that I can to let you
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Speaker 3: know where these things come from. Those of you who
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Speaker 3: know me know that it just pains me to ever
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Speaker 3: have any notes when I preach. I just can't do it.
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Speaker 3: I just can't have any notes. But I had to
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Speaker 3: have some things here so I can tell you exactly
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Speaker 3: where this information comes from and where you can go
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Speaker 3: and find it. One is this, that we are losing
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Speaker 3: a generation. And we're losing that generation rapidly. For instance,
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Speaker 3: depending on where you look, We're losing somewhere between 75%
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Speaker 3: and 88% of our young people by the end of
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Speaker 3: their freshman year in college. Somewhere between 75% and 88%.
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Speaker 3: For that low number, you can look at Glenn Schultz's
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Speaker 3: work on kingdom education. For that high number, the 2002
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Speaker 3: Southern Baptist Council on the Family. So these are not
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Speaker 3: things just made up, just grabbed out of the air.
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Speaker 3: That's what's been happening over the last few decades. We're
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Speaker 3: losing somewhere between 75% and 88% of our young people
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Speaker 3: by the end of their freshman year in college. There
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Speaker 3: are a lot of you in here, and you're upset
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Speaker 3: about the whole emerging church movement. You're upset about Brian
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Speaker 3: McLaren and some of the theology that he's espousing. I
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Speaker 3: don't like much of the theology that's coming out of
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Speaker 3: the emerging church movement, but can I tell you what
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Speaker 3: the impetus is behind the emerging church movement?
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Speaker 2: 20-somethings are gone.
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Speaker 3: The emerging church movement is saying, what do we.
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Speaker 2: Do to recapture this age group?
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Speaker 3: By the way, if you look around, you'll see that
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Speaker 3: we have a generation gap in the SBC.
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Speaker 2: Amen, lights.
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Speaker 3: There is a tremendous generation gap among Southern Baptists. And
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Speaker 3: it's time that we got honest about it. And part
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Speaker 3: of it's because of what I'm telling you. Hold on, though.
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Speaker 3: I'm not finished painting the picture. In our culture, in America,
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Speaker 3: for the first time, our birth rate is below replacement rate.
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Speaker 3: Replacement rate is 2.1 children per family. We're at 1.9. Now,
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Speaker 3: we're not as bad as much of the industrialized world.
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Speaker 3: For example, in France, I think they're around 1.5 children
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Speaker 3: per family. In Italy, they're somewhere around 1.1 children per family. Now,
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Speaker 3: in case you don't understand what that means, what that
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Speaker 3: means is we're not having enough children for our culture
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Speaker 3: to continue to survive. Our culture is dying one generation
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Speaker 3: at a time. Now, let me put skin on that
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Speaker 3: for you. France, they have a birth rate of about 1.5. However,
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Speaker 3: there are North African Muslims and Arab Muslims who have
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Speaker 3: immigrated into France, and we saw some unrest because of
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Speaker 3: those folks. Their birth rate is about six children per family.
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Speaker 3: Which means in two generations, France will be a Muslim
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Speaker 3: nation by sheer numbers alone.
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Speaker 2: Why?
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Speaker 3: Because they want prosperity more than they want children. And
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Speaker 3: it's the same for us. Now let me put these
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Speaker 3: two pieces of statistical information together. At two children per family,
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Speaker 3: Southern Baptists, because we're no better than the rest of
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Speaker 3: the culture on this. Our attitude toward children is a
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Speaker 3: boy for me and a girl for you and praise
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Speaker 3: the Lord we're finally through. Amen. It's an unwritten rule
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Speaker 3: that you can only have two kids. However, there is
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Speaker 3: one exception to the unwritten rule where you can have
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Speaker 3: a third child. And that is if your first two
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Speaker 3: children were the same sex, you get to try one
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Speaker 3: more time for the other. That's the unwritten rule. We
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Speaker 3: despise children in our culture. We despise children in the
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Speaker 3: Southern Baptist Convention.
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Speaker 2: You don't believe me?
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Speaker 3: Find a woman with six or seven kids and follow
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Speaker 3: her into a Southern Baptist church. And watch the way
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Speaker 3: we mock her. Watch the way people who don't even
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Speaker 3: know her come up to her and say, haven't you
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Speaker 3: guys figured out how that happens yet? Now let me
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Speaker 3: put these two statistics together. We lose 75. Let's take
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Speaker 3: the most optimistic number. We're losing 75% by the end
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Speaker 3: of their freshman year in college. We average two children
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Speaker 3: per family. That means it currently takes two Christian families
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Speaker 3: in this generation to get one Christian into the next.
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Speaker 3: Let me make it even more plain. There's 16 million
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Speaker 3: Southern Baptists.
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Speaker 2: On paper.
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Speaker 3: By these numbers, next generation, 4 million. Third generation, 1 million.
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Speaker 3: Fourth generation, 250,000. More than numbers now, aren't they?
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Speaker 2: Oh, but that's okay. We'll just replenish those numbers through evangelism. Interesting.
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Speaker 3: In order to replenish those numbers through evangelism alone, what
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Speaker 3: we would have to do is reach three lost people
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Speaker 3: for every one Christian. Currently, we only reach one lost
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Speaker 3: person for every 43 Southern Baptists. Now let me make
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Speaker 3: it plain and bring it home. Christianity in America is
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Speaker 3: dying one generation at a time. One home at a time.
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Speaker 3: Christianity is dying. Among the Jewish community, the same thing
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Speaker 3: is happening. Two scholars, Anthony Gordon and Richard Horowitz, have
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Speaker 3: done a study on what's happening in the Jewish community
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Speaker 3: and listen to what they say. The research targeted three
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Speaker 3: key quantifiable elements of Jewish survival. Intermarriage rates, that's believers
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Speaker 3: marrying other believers instead of non-believers so that they lose
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Speaker 3: the faith. Birth rates and levels of Jewish education. When
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Speaker 3: all these factors are tabulated and correlated, a troubling picture
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Speaker 3: emerges of the future of American Jewry. Skyrocketing intermarriage rates,
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Speaker 3: declining birth rates, and inadequate Jewish education continue to decimate
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Speaker 3: the American Jewish people.
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Speaker 2: We're right behind them.
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Speaker 3: There was a front page article in the Wall Street
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Speaker 3: Journal just yesterday about Zoroastrians in India. Now what do
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Speaker 3: Zoroastrians in India have.
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Speaker 2: To do with anything?
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Speaker 3: I'll tell you. Here's what they were saying in the article.
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Speaker 3: Front page article in the Wall Street Journal. Because of
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Speaker 3: low birth rates. And because people are getting married later
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Speaker 3: and having fewer children than ever before, the Zoroastrian religion
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Speaker 3: is about to be wiped off the face of the
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Speaker 3: planet simply because they're not having kids and retaining the
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Speaker 3: kids that they have. You smelling what I'm stepping in?
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Speaker 3: What has been our answer? Here's been our answer. Our
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Speaker 3: answer has been to divorce ourselves from the issue and
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Speaker 3: hire youth pastors to make it better. If you can't
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Speaker 3: say amen, you ought to say ouch. That's been our answer.
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Speaker 3: By the way, Alvin Reed in his book Raising the
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Speaker 3: Bar makes this observation. Over the last 30 years, we
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Speaker 3: have seen the largest increase in the number of professional
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Speaker 3: youth ministers.
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Speaker 2: youth.
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Speaker 3: Ministry degrees being handed out, and parachurch organizations designed to
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Speaker 3: reach youth. And we have seen the greatest decline in
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Speaker 3: youth baptisms.
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Speaker 2: Ever.
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Speaker 3: Let me make this statement and then I'll back it up.
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Speaker 3: While you open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6, let
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Speaker 3: me make this statement. Our current approach to youth ministry,
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Speaker 3: number one, is unbiblical.
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Speaker 2: Number two, is.
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Speaker 3: Antithetical to what the biblical model is for the evangelization
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Speaker 3: and discipleship of young people. And number three, it doesn't work.
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Speaker 3: Let me recap. Number one, our current approach is unbiblical.
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Speaker 3: I'm going to show you that. Number two, our current
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Speaker 3: approach is actually antithetical to the biblical model. It's one
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Speaker 3: thing for something to not be found in the Scripture.
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Speaker 3: It's another thing for something to actually work against what
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Speaker 3: is clearly found in the Scripture. And number three, which
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Speaker 3: shouldn't be surprising at all, it doesn't work. Or do
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Speaker 3: I need to say it again? 75 to 88% is
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Speaker 3: our current failure rate. Ephesians chapter 6, verses 1 through 4.
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Speaker 3: I want to show you from the Scripture... The centrality
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Speaker 3: of the home in the evangelism and discipleship of the
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Speaker 3: next generation. The centrality of the home in the evangelism
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Speaker 3: and discipleship of the next generation. God has a plan
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Speaker 3: for multi-generational faithfulness. That plan is the family. Unfortunately, many
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Speaker 3: of the things that we currently involve ourselves in actually
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Speaker 3: work against God's plan of the family. And so currently,
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Speaker 3: what we're doing is, we're actually, this is, let me
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Speaker 3: give you, for example, when I say that what we're
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Speaker 3: doing is unbiblical, let.
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Speaker 2: Me give you what we say is the goal of
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Speaker 2: many of our youth ministries.
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Speaker 3: What we say is this, the youth ministry at so-and-so
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Speaker 3: Baptist church exists to evangelize teenagers, to disciple them, and
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Speaker 3: to equip them to go and evangelize other teenagers. Two
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Speaker 3: problems with that. Number one, Nine times out of ten,
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Speaker 3: we never mention parents. And number two, not your job.
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Speaker 3: Whose job is it to evangelize my children?
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Speaker 2: The church? No, it's mine. Whose job is it to
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Speaker 2: disciple my children? The church? No, it's mine.
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Speaker 3: Which means that at best, any youth ministry that's going
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Speaker 3: to exist at all had better have a mission statement
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Speaker 3: that says, we exist to equip and assist parents as
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Speaker 3: they do what God called them to do and not
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Speaker 3: the church. It's one thing for me to make that statement.
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Speaker 3: But I don't want you to just take my word
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Speaker 3: for it. Ephesians chapter 6, verses 1 through 4. Oh,
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Speaker 3: they're messing with me on my time. All right, Ephesians
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Speaker 3: chapter 6, verses 1 through 4. But trust me, you
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Speaker 3: needed to know all of that. Children, obey your parents
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Speaker 3: and the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father
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Speaker 3: and your mother, which is the first commandment of the promise,
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Speaker 3: that it may be well with you and that you
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Speaker 3: may live long on the earth. Fathers, do not provoke
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Speaker 3: your children to anger, but bring them up in the
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Speaker 3: discipline and instruction of the Lord.
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Speaker 2: The centrality of the home.
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Speaker 3: In the evangelism and discipleship of the next generation. The
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Speaker 3: centrality of the home. Now, please note, there's a difference
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Speaker 3: because what's happening now is people are looking at the
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Speaker 3: data and a lot of our youth ministry programs are
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Speaker 3: now moving toward ministry to youth and their families. And
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Speaker 3: so we were saying the kids are ours and it's
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Speaker 3: our job to evangelize them, our job to disciple them,
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Speaker 3: and our job to mobilize them. Now we say it's
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Speaker 3: still our job, but we want parents to help us.
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Speaker 3: That's still the wrong answer. Well, brother, but you don't understand.
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Speaker 3: These families out there, they're not doing it. Isn't that interesting?
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Speaker 3: For 30 years, here's what we've been telling them. We're
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Speaker 3: trained professionals. Please don't try this at home. You don't
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Speaker 3: understand your kids. Your kids don't like you.
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Speaker 2: Trust me. Just drop them off now.
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Speaker 3: And now we're mad because they're doing what we've taught
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Speaker 3: them to do for 30 years.
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Speaker 2: Alright, I'm going to get to this text. Come on.
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Speaker 3: Three things demonstrate the centrality of the home in this
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Speaker 3: process of evangelizing and discipling the next generation.
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Speaker 2: First, the context of that first verse. Children, obey your
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Speaker 2: parents and the Lord, for this is right.
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Speaker 3: Now, in order to understand the context of that verse,
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Speaker 3: you've got to back up to the paragraph before it.
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Speaker 3: You back up to the paragraph before it, and you
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Speaker 3: start with, Husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved
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Speaker 3: the church. But the problem with that is, you get there,
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Speaker 3: you've got to back up the paragraph before that one
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Speaker 3: to see the context of this section. Wives, be subject
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Speaker 3: to your own husbands as to the Lord. The problem
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Speaker 3: with that is that it is the beginning of the section,
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Speaker 3: but it's got no verb.
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Speaker 2: I know what you're saying. You've got a verb right there.
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Speaker 2: Be subject.
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Speaker 3: Isn't that the verb? It ought to be italicized in
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Speaker 3: your Bible. The reason it's italicized is because it's borrowed
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Speaker 3: from verse 21. In the Greek, there's no verb there
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Speaker 3: in verse 22. So it's borrowed from verse 21. Problem
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Speaker 3: with starting with verse 21? If you start with verse 21,
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Speaker 3: you start at the end of a paragraph, and you
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Speaker 3: can't do that. So in order to understand the context
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Speaker 3: of Ephesians chapter 6 verse 1, you've got to go
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Speaker 3: all the way back to Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 15.
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Speaker 2: Trust me, we're going somewhere.
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Speaker 3: When you back up to Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 15,
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Speaker 3: here's what you get. You get three contrasts, and then
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Speaker 3: you get three commands, and then you get three contexts.
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Speaker 2: All right? Three contrasts. Let's look at them, beginning in
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Speaker 2: verse 15.
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Speaker 3: That's contrast number one. Contrast number two, next verse. So
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Speaker 3: then do not be foolish, but understand what the will
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Speaker 3: of the Lord is.
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Speaker 2: That's the second contrast. Don't be foolish, understand the Lord's will.
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Speaker 2: Third contrast. Do not get drunk with wine, for that
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Speaker 2: is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.
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Speaker 3: On the third contrast, you get three commands. Those three
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Speaker 3: commands are connected to the third contrast. Look at what
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Speaker 3: he says, beginning of verse 19. How do you know
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Speaker 3: if somebody's living a Spirit-filled life? Verse 19. Speaking to
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Speaker 3: one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Singing and
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Speaker 3: making melody in your hearts to the Lord. If you
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Speaker 3: show me a worshipful person, I'll show you a person
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Speaker 3: who's more than likely being controlled by the Spirit of God.
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Speaker 3: Show me a person who's not a worshipful person, and
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Speaker 3: I'll show you somebody who more than likely is not
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Speaker 3: being controlled and is not yielding to the Spirit of God.
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Speaker 3: You can't tell me that somebody is Spirit-filled and they're
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Speaker 3: not worshipful.
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Speaker 2: The two just don't go together. Fair enough? Look at
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Speaker 2: the next verse.
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Speaker 3: Here's the next command, verse 20. Always giving thanks for
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Speaker 3: all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
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Speaker 3: to God, even the Father. So you're a worshipful person. Secondly,
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Speaker 3: you're prayerfully thankful. Prayerfully thankful. Show me somebody who's prayerfully thankful,
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Speaker 3: and I'll show you somebody who's probably being controlled by
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Speaker 3: the Spirit of God. Show me somebody who is neither
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Speaker 3: prayerful nor thankful, and I'll show you somebody who's not Spirit-filled.
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Speaker 2: Fair enough?
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Speaker 3: Those were easy. Verse 21. Be subject to one another
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Speaker 3: in the fear of Christ. Show me somebody... who submits
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Speaker 3: to proper biblical authority in their life. And I'll show
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Speaker 3: you somebody who is Spirit-filled. Show me somebody who does
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Speaker 3: not submit to proper biblical authority in their life, and
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Speaker 3: I'll show you somebody who's not Spirit-filled. Now, go to
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Speaker 3: chapter 6 and verse 1 and look at it in context. Children,
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Speaker 3: obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right.
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Speaker 3: In other words, three contrasts. Three commands. On the third command,
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Speaker 3: you get three contexts. Context number one, wives and husbands.
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Speaker 3: Context number two, children and parents. Context number three, servants
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Speaker 3: and masters. And here's what he's saying in verse one.
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Speaker 3: Show me a child who is not submissive to their
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Speaker 3: parents' authority, and I'll show you a child who's not
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Speaker 3: yielded to the Spirit of God. Which means if we
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Speaker 3: want to lead children toward being Spirit-filled, we don't lead
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Speaker 3: them toward a youth pastor, we lead them toward mom
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Speaker 3: and dad. Because the measure of their yielding to the
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Speaker 3: Spirit of God is whether or not when their parents
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Speaker 3: say something, they do what they're told, when they're told,
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Speaker 3: and with a respectful attitude.
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Speaker 2: That's what obedience is.
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Speaker 3: So number one, we see the centrality of the home
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Speaker 3: in the context here. He says you want to take
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Speaker 3: the spiritual temperature of a young person. You take the
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Speaker 3: spiritual temperature of a young person by whether or not
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Speaker 3: they are submissive to the authority of their parents. That's
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Speaker 3: the authority in their life. That's the spiritual authority in
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Speaker 3: their life. The spiritual authority in my child's life is me.
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Speaker 3: The spiritual authority in your child's life is you, which
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Speaker 3: means anything that the church does had better not robbed
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Speaker 3: spiritual authority from mom and dad. I don't write the mail.
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Speaker 3: I just deliver it. Secondly, look at the centrality in
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Speaker 3: the home in his use of the fifth commandment. Look
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Speaker 3: at what he says there. The next verse. may live
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Speaker 3: long on the earth now as americans we're rugged individualists
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Speaker 3: so the first thing we want to do with this
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Speaker 3: verse is we want to say that's talking to the
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Speaker 3: individual child child you obey me you'll have a long
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Speaker 3: prosperous life no no Understand the significance of the fifth commandment.
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Speaker 3: First of all, the fifth commandment is the first of
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Speaker 3: the horizontal commandments. There's ten commandments, first four vertical, last
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Speaker 3: six horizontal. Number one on the hit parade of the
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Speaker 3: horizontal commandments, the man-to-man commandments, number one is honor your
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Speaker 3: father and your mother, which means there is nothing that
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Speaker 3: the church can teach a child that is more important
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Speaker 3: than honoring their father and their mother. Now, not only
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Speaker 3: do we see it because of the position, secondly, we
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Speaker 3: see it because of a promise.
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Speaker 2: That's the first one with a promise. Folks, that's huge.
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Speaker 3: Do you know what the first four commandments are? Commandment
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Speaker 3: number one, I'm God, you don't get another one. Lord,
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Speaker 3: can we get a promise with that one?
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Speaker 2: Uh-uh, no promise. Just do it. Commandment number two, Don't
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Speaker 2: even make nothing that look like me.
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Speaker 3: Okay, God, can we get a promise with that one? Uh-uh,
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Speaker 3: just do it. Commandment number three, don't even mess with
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Speaker 3: my name. Okay, God, that's kind of serious right there.
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Speaker 3: You got to give us a promise on that one.
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Speaker 2: Uh-uh.
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Speaker 3: Commandment number four, don't even mess with my day. Now,
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Speaker 3: wait a minute now. You know, I want my boy
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Speaker 3: to be a baseball player. Most of the teams, you know,
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Speaker 3: he'll have to go and he'll have to play on
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Speaker 3: Sunday sometime. And God, I'm sure you'll. Don't mess with
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Speaker 3: my day. Get a promise with that one, Lord.
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Speaker 2: No promise.
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Speaker 3: Commandment number five. Honor your father and your mother. And
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Speaker 3: get a promise with that one, God. You better believe
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Speaker 3: you can. On that one, I give you a promise.
22:01
Speaker 3: Do you see the importance of the fifth commandment?
22:04
Speaker 2: It's huge.
22:06
Speaker 3: Its order screams about its importance. The fact that it's
22:10
Speaker 3: the first one with a promise screams of its importance.
22:13
Speaker 2: Now listen to this.
22:14
Speaker 3: The fifth commandment was not for the individual child. It
22:18
Speaker 3: was for the community of faith. Here's what the fifth
22:20
Speaker 3: commandment is about. Remember, we get them in Deuteronomy 5.
22:23
Speaker 3: In Deuteronomy chapter 6, what does he teach us? He
22:25
Speaker 3: teaches us how to disciple our children in our homes.
22:30
Speaker 3: He teaches us, listen Israel, hear oh Israel, the Lord
22:34
Speaker 3: our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the
22:36
Speaker 3: Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul,
22:37
Speaker 3: and all your might. These words which I'm commanding you
22:39
Speaker 3: today shall be on your hearts, and you shall teach
22:41
Speaker 3: them diligently to your sons when you lie down, when
22:45
Speaker 3: you rise up, and when.
22:46
Speaker 2: You walk along the way.
22:48
Speaker 3: Disciple your children.
22:51
Speaker 2: Can I give it to somebody else to do? No.
22:53
Speaker 2: It is your job as parents. Listen to me. You're clapping.
23:05
Speaker 3: But almost every one of you has a youth ministry
23:07
Speaker 3: in your church that is operating unbiblically. Don't clap if
23:12
Speaker 3: you're not going to change it. And I'm not talking
23:18
Speaker 3: about including more parents in what we do. I'm talking
23:20
Speaker 3: about changing the entire paradigm. Why? Because here's the purpose
23:25
Speaker 3: of the fifth commandment. God says, you are my people,
23:27
Speaker 3: but you're about to go into a pagan land where
23:30
Speaker 3: they worship pagan gods. If you want to continue to
23:33
Speaker 3: be my people, here's what you must do. Number one,
23:36
Speaker 3: you must have a boatload of kids. That's what it
23:39
Speaker 3: means to multiply greatly. When he sends them into the
23:43
Speaker 3: promised land, what does he say to them in Deuteronomy?
23:46
Speaker 3: That they're to multiply greatly so that when he sends
23:48
Speaker 3: them into the promised land, they won't disappear as God's people.
23:51
Speaker 3: When he sends them into exile, in Jeremiah 29, what
23:54
Speaker 3: does he say? Multiply greatly. You want to avoid disappearing
24:01
Speaker 3: in the midst of a pagan culture?
24:03
Speaker 2: Outbreed them. Let me tell you something.
24:16
Speaker 3: There's some of us in the room who need to
24:18
Speaker 3: repent because of our attitude toward children and because of
24:22
Speaker 3: what we've said to people, communicating our attitude and not
24:26
Speaker 3: the biblical attitude toward children. Some of us need to
24:29
Speaker 3: get on our faces before a holy God because we
24:31
Speaker 3: have mocked being fruitful. I've heard pastors from pulpit, from
24:36
Speaker 3: the pulpit, Talk about their children, like they despise the
24:41
Speaker 3: number of children that God has given them.
24:43
Speaker 2: I heard a pastor from the pulpit talk about their third.
24:45
Speaker 3: Child being named Miney. Yeah, Eeny, Meeny, and Miney, because
24:48
Speaker 3: we ain't having no more. That is a mockery before
24:51
Speaker 3: Almighty God. Children are a gift of the Lord. The
24:57
Speaker 3: fruit of the womb is a reward. Our attitude from
25:00
Speaker 3: here is why a lot of people out there aren't
25:03
Speaker 3: having enough kids. Starts with us. And it all goes
25:10
Speaker 3: back to prosperity. Poorest nations in the world see children
25:16
Speaker 3: as a blessing. The richest nation in the world, we
25:19
Speaker 3: talk about children in terms of how many we can afford.
25:24
Speaker 2: God help us.
25:26
Speaker 3: We're dying one generation at a time because we refuse
25:29
Speaker 3: to receive the gift that God wants to bring through
25:33
Speaker 3: the womb.
25:41
Speaker 2: Our attitudes.
25:44
Speaker 3: God says, you want to continue to be my people.
25:47
Speaker 3: You do two things. Number one, you gladly receive these
25:52
Speaker 3: blessings that I give you called children. And number two,
25:57
Speaker 3: you disciple them in your homes so that they don't
26:02
Speaker 3: look like the culture around them. The minute you stop
26:07
Speaker 3: receiving the gift of God through the womb, And the
26:12
Speaker 3: minute you stop discipling them in your home, they begin
26:15
Speaker 3: to look like the culture and the community of God
26:18
Speaker 3: begins to vanish before your eyes. Two Christians in this generation,
26:26
Speaker 3: two Christian families in this generation to get one generation
26:30
Speaker 3: into the next. I believe that's a plague on us.
26:39
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
26:40
Speaker 3: We always talk about how we want more souls in
26:43
Speaker 3: the kingdom. If we were honest, here's what we'd say.
26:48
Speaker 3: We want more souls in the kingdom as long as
26:51
Speaker 3: we don't have to birth them, raise them, and feed them. Finally,
26:59
Speaker 3: in case you don't understand what he said by the
27:02
Speaker 3: context of this passage, And in case you don't understand
27:06
Speaker 3: what he said by him pointing to the fifth commandment,
27:10
Speaker 3: how about a plain, black and white, straightforward word?
27:14
Speaker 2: Verse 4.
27:16
Speaker 3: And fathers. And fathers. And fathers. Everybody's trying to figure
27:27
Speaker 3: out how to make men excited about church again. Everybody's
27:31
Speaker 3: figuring out how do we challenge our men.
27:33
Speaker 2: How do we get our men involved? God's got an answer.
27:36
Speaker 3: Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring
27:39
Speaker 3: them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
27:42
Speaker 2: Let me get clearer than that, folks.
27:45
Speaker 3: The context of this passage says the home is central
27:48
Speaker 3: in the evangelism and discipleship of the next generation. The
27:52
Speaker 3: fact that he points to the fifth commandment. screams that
27:56
Speaker 3: the home is central in the evangelism and discipleship of
28:00
Speaker 3: the next generation. And then, in case we didn't get
28:03
Speaker 3: those two hints, he says it.
28:05
Speaker 2: In black and white.
28:07
Speaker 3: Fathers, disciple your children. Fathers, if we believe this, then
28:18
Speaker 3: why is it that we've done everything in our power
28:22
Speaker 3: not to allow that to happen? We don't expect that
28:27
Speaker 3: from our men.
28:30
Speaker 2: And I hear you.
28:31
Speaker 3: We go back to this whole thing. I understand that,
28:33
Speaker 3: but they're just not equipped. They just don't know. Here's
28:35
Speaker 3: what's interesting. If the people in your church are not tithing,
28:39
Speaker 3: you don't start a ministry to tithe for them, do you?
28:48
Speaker 2: No. No.
28:49
Speaker 3: You simply teach them and expect them to do what
28:53
Speaker 3: the Bible says is their job. If it works for tithing,
29:00
Speaker 3: why don't we think it will work for the discipleship
29:03
Speaker 3: of the next generation? So what do we do with this?
29:08
Speaker 3: I'm not telling you all to go fire your youth
29:09
Speaker 3: pastors tomorrow. That's not what I'm saying here. We have
29:14
Speaker 3: to completely revamp our philosophies. In the last couple of
29:16
Speaker 3: minutes that I have left, let me give you a
29:18
Speaker 3: few things that we must do. Because currently, all of
29:22
Speaker 3: our evangelistic efforts amount to no more than filling up
29:25
Speaker 3: a bucket with a hole in the bottom. We are
29:29
Speaker 3: not growing. I want you to hear that today. And
29:34
Speaker 3: by the way, there's a lot of you out there,
29:35
Speaker 3: you're going, yeah, 16 million, we're not going to go.
29:37
Speaker 3: Of course not, we won't go down to 4 million
29:38
Speaker 3: in just one generation. No, listen to me. Our churches
29:41
Speaker 3: will continue to be filled. But here's what we do know.
29:45
Speaker 3: Number one, we know because of Tom Rainer's research that
29:48
Speaker 3: was published in the spring edition of the Southern Baptist
29:50
Speaker 3: Theological Journal. According to their research, if their estimations are correct,
29:58
Speaker 3: Somewhere around half of all Southern Baptist members are unregenerate.
30:07
Speaker 3: By the way, according to the Nehemiah Institute, the Barna
30:11
Speaker 3: Research Group, and the National Study of Youth and Religion,
30:14
Speaker 3: less than 10% of professing Christian teenagers operate from a
30:19
Speaker 3: biblical worldview. Less than 5% are theologically born again. By that,
30:28
Speaker 3: I mean they say they're born again and they trust
30:29
Speaker 3: Christ as Savior and Lord of their life, but they're
30:32
Speaker 3: wrong on the deity of Christ. They're wrong on substitutionary atonement.
30:37
Speaker 3: They're wrong on just about every important theological issue related
30:42
Speaker 3: to salvation. Only 5% of them theologically have the information
30:47
Speaker 3: that they need to be saved. So our churches will
30:49
Speaker 3: continue to look big, but the overwhelming majority of the
30:54
Speaker 3: people inside will not be Christ followers. So what do
31:00
Speaker 3: we do? Number one, I beseech you. If you don't
31:06
Speaker 3: have a biblical view of children, get on your face
31:10
Speaker 3: before Almighty God and repent. And if you have been
31:14
Speaker 3: mocking children from your pulpit, and if you, like one pastor,
31:19
Speaker 3: one pastor that I talked to recently, said, brother, when
31:23
Speaker 3: you said that, here's what I thought. The first thought
31:26
Speaker 3: that came to my mind was last week I talked
31:29
Speaker 3: to my people and I told them that we thought
31:31
Speaker 3: my wife was pregnant. And when I said that, I
31:36
Speaker 3: told them that after we found out that she wasn't,
31:38
Speaker 3: I said, we had a close call. He said, I
31:44
Speaker 3: need to go get on my face right now because
31:47
Speaker 3: I communicated to my people that children are a curse
31:50
Speaker 3: and a scourge and not a blessing. Do not make
31:56
Speaker 3: a mockery of children. You encourage people to welcome children
32:02
Speaker 3: into their homes. You throw a banquet when that woman
32:07
Speaker 3: walks into your church with six or seven kids behind her.
32:11
Speaker 3: You honor her and let everybody see you do it.
32:17
Speaker 3: Because if it wasn't for women like her, we'd have
32:19
Speaker 3: no future. Secondly, If you have a youth ministry in
32:26
Speaker 3: your church and you have a mission statement, you line
32:31
Speaker 3: it up against what we looked at tonight in Scripture.
32:35
Speaker 3: And if it's wrong on its biblical and theological merit,
32:39
Speaker 3: you crumble it up, put it in the trash, and
32:41
Speaker 3: start over. Because it will not change until we change
32:49
Speaker 3: our entire mentality about what it means to disciple the
32:54
Speaker 3: next generation. As long as you think it's your idea
32:57
Speaker 3: or it's your responsibility, as long as you think that
33:00
Speaker 3: our job in discipling the next generation means hiring some
33:04
Speaker 3: guy who's 25 years old and got spiked hair and
33:07
Speaker 3: has never raised a teenager himself, Lord, help us. Our
33:18
Speaker 3: entire mentality has to change. Thirdly, and this is the
33:26
Speaker 3: toughest one to talk about, we have to adopt a
33:30
Speaker 3: biblical view of church leadership. I want to tell you something.
33:35
Speaker 3: There's two skills required of a pastor, and only two skills.
33:41
Speaker 3: There are a lot of character qualities that are required,
33:43
Speaker 3: but only two skills. Number one, he must be able
33:48
Speaker 3: to teach. Number two, he must manage his household well.
33:55
Speaker 3: Our churches are filled with biblically disqualified pastors. Titus chapter
34:02
Speaker 3: 1 makes it clear. If you do not have faithful children,
34:07
Speaker 3: And if your children are accused of rebellion or dissipation,
34:10
Speaker 3: you are disqualified biblically.
34:12
Speaker 2: And you hear that, and I know we hear that,
34:14
Speaker 2: and we go, oh, brother, that's harsh. Nobody's perfect. Listen
34:17
Speaker 2: to me.
34:17
Speaker 3: The same passage says, and here's what boggles my mind,
34:21
Speaker 3: same passage, same paragraph, must not be addicted to wine.
34:26
Speaker 2: That says he must not be a drunkard. He must
34:30
Speaker 2: not drink in excess. We say he can't drink at all.
34:33
Speaker 2: Listen to me.
34:34
Speaker 3: I'm not a drinker. I'm not promoting drinking. I've never
34:38
Speaker 3: had a drink. But this is what I want you
34:40
Speaker 3: to hear tonight. Not drinking is easy for me. And
34:43
Speaker 3: it's easy for most of you because most of you
34:46
Speaker 3: never drink. And you stick your chest out and pop
34:48
Speaker 3: your collar because you don't drink. It means nothing to
34:51
Speaker 3: you unless you've been an alcoholic. It is not hard
34:54
Speaker 3: for you to do. Discipling your family is a different story.
34:58
Speaker 3: And it amazes me that in the same paragraph, we
35:01
Speaker 3: take one of those requirements and raise it and the
35:03
Speaker 3: other one and lower it. You want to know why
35:11
Speaker 3: our families are in turmoil? Because most of you, when
35:14
Speaker 3: you got hired at the church that you're at right now,
35:17
Speaker 3: they never even met your family. They heard you preach
35:21
Speaker 3: and voted on you. When the Bible says if you're
35:23
Speaker 3: not discipling your children in an exemplary fashion, you're not
35:27
Speaker 3: worthy of being called a pastor. From the top down,
35:34
Speaker 3: we are wrong on the family. And we are losing
35:39
Speaker 3: the culture war. One family at a time. And we
35:45
Speaker 3: have gotten so pathetic that now there's a euphemism in
35:48
Speaker 3: our culture called the PK. PK. Why do we use
35:52
Speaker 3: that term as a euphemism? Because pastor's kids who live
35:58
Speaker 3: like they were raised by the devil has almost become
36:01
Speaker 3: the norm. If the church is a corporation, that's completely
36:06
Speaker 3: acceptable because all you have to do is stand at
36:09
Speaker 3: the top of a machine and make sure that people
36:11
Speaker 3: go in one side of it and out the other
36:14
Speaker 3: and that there's more of them going through the machine
36:15
Speaker 3: next year than this year. But if the church is
36:17
Speaker 3: a family of families, and if God is serious about
36:21
Speaker 3: families being expected and equipped to disciple their children, then
36:25
Speaker 3: the people who stand at the helm had better be
36:27
Speaker 3: exemplary husbands and exemplary fathers. And until we believe that,
36:36
Speaker 3: we'll continue to lose the culture war, one family at
36:40
Speaker 3: a time. Listen to this from Richard Baxter and the
36:42
Speaker 3: Reformed pastor. If you are ungodly and teach not your
36:46
Speaker 3: families the fear of God, nor contradict the sins of
36:49
Speaker 3: the company you are in, nor turn the stream of
36:51
Speaker 3: their vain talking, nor deal with them plainly about their salvation.
36:55
Speaker 3: They will take it as if you preached to them
36:58
Speaker 3: that such things are needless and that they may boldly
37:02
Speaker 3: do so as well as you. Mist in the pulpit,
37:10
Speaker 3: fog in the pew. We will never be able to
37:14
Speaker 3: tell our children to raise and disciple a house full
37:19
Speaker 3: of warriors for Christ.
37:23
Speaker 2: If we don't begin to do it from the top.
37:33
Speaker 2: Thank you.
37:42
Speaker 1: For any questions or comments regarding Grace Family Baptist Church,
37:46
Speaker 1: call toll free at 877-651-8814.