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Transcript

A.J. Sparks: The Forgotten Weapon in a Fallen World · CCC West Covina

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I'd like to switch it up a bit today.
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Today I'd like for you to stand as we read God's Word.
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We'll stand, I will read, I will pray, and then you'll be seated.
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So I asked this morning that for the reading of Scripture that if
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you're able to please stand as we read the authoritative word
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of God. So be in Joshua chapter 24.
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We'll start in verse 14 here. The living and active word of
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God speak now. Therefore fear the Lord, and
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serve him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods
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which your father served beyond the river, and then Egypt, and
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serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your
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sight to serve the Lord, Choose for yourselves today whom you
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will serve, whether the gods which your father served which
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were beyond the river, or the gods, the Amorites, in whose
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land you are living. But As for me, in my house, we
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will serve the Lord. The people answered and said Far
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be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other
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gods. He has ears to hear.
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Let him hear what God has said. Let's pray.
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Lord, we thank you for this day as we come before your word.
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We are so thankful for the authority of Your word and the
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assurance that we can have in the truthfulness. 7th We pray
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that your word would be clearly preached today that Your name
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would be glorified. We ask this all in your name.
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Amen. Please be seated.
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What a great day. People do not care how much you
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know and so they know how much you care.
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I read that quote last year and a greatly impacted the way that
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I do things. I love what I do.
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I love who I do with and I love who I do for.
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My name is AJ Sparks. I am the youth pastor or the
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director of youth ministries is my fourth year doing it.
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I also do a couple of other things.
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My main job is that I'm a speech and debate teacher at Arrowhead
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Christian Academy in Redlands, which is great.
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I also teach Bible there for freshmen and I also teach
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health. That was an add on this year.
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That was not very fun, but I thought it.
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And then I'm also a coach. I coach cross country and I
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coach swim, which has been a lot of fun.
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So those are both seasons and during the summer and then I'm
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also getting my master's online to hopefully teach college or
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teach college classes for communication studies.
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So I love what I do and but again, mainly the reason why I'm
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here, I had the youth pastor, the director of youth ministries
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here and whilst today won't be a youth update, we'll have that in
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August on Wednesday night. I'd be foolish to not talk about
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those amazing people in that room for just a little bit.
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I love them dearly. We have 36 souls in that room.
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Myself and my wife Maddie, we serve alongside 3 couples and
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David Lawler. David Lawler is in college right
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now. He's great.
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We serve alongside Pablo and Mia Thompson and Anna and Franco
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boats. And then we also serve alongside
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Anna and Ignacio Vargas, who've been there since I was in youth
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group, which is great. And then we have other esteemed
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people that come every now and then to either do the elders
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will come and they'll teach every now and then.
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But I, I love it. And then we have the kids in
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that roster. We have 27 souls in that roster.
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And I, I love them dearly. Every Sunday and Wednesday we
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have the opportunity to be able to preach them and it's
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wonderful. And so on Sundays, we've been
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going over John John's a great book.
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I know you guys are going over here.
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Hopefully none of the sermons are copied from whatever we did
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in there. But John, John's a great book.
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We love it. And we just went over John 5.
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And in John 5, you get to see how Jesus Christ was
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interruptible, and it's beautiful.
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Interruption is not a bad thing. You're on a mission towards
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something and there's a brief pause.
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That's what the word interruption means, a brief
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pause from what you're doing. Christ was very interruptible,
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but no matter who he was working with, whenever he was preaching,
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working on his mission, people came to him and he was
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interruptible. And so we talked to the students
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about interruption and how well they're able to be interrupted
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in their own lives for the sake of Christ, for the sake of the
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Kingdom of God, as well as the Sabbath and what it means to
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truly rest on Wednesday nights. We've been doing something a
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little bit different. We're going over biblical
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leadership. I like to call them Worldview
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Wednesdays. We basically just go over things
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that challenge the worldview of the students in there.
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And so we've been going over biblical leadership.
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We looked at First Corinthians 11/1.
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Paul says imitate me as I imitate Christ.
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And so we looked at essential aspects of biblical Christian
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leadership and what that means. We first looked at leadership
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and commencement. Then we looked at leadership and
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conversion, leadership and creed and chaos and charity and
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celebration and crisis and controversy and character and
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confidence and companionship and charging and confession and
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contending and carrying out our mission and in Christ.
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It was a wonderful series. And that we're having some guest
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speakers during the summer. Then on Wednesdays, we'll start
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up the Book of James. We also have events that we like
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to do in youth ministry. We try to aim for three big
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events each semester, and the goal is to get these kids to be
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excited for youth ministry, hopefully, to be excited to
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hopefully invite kids to come. That's one of the main reasons.
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Second reason is for us to get to know the kids more, of
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course, and just have fun with them, for them to enjoy them.
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The third reason, which is probably the most important, is
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a discipleship aspect. We want to make sure that the
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students can see the leaders doing regular things.
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How do I respond when I get beamed in the face with the
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dodgeball at Sky Zone? Well, they, they can come and
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find out. So we, we love our events, but
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again, that's not what we'll be discussing today.
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So let's discuss some semantics. What I teach, I want to try to
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maximize the impact of God's word.
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That's Charles Spurgeon said, the word of God is like a lion.
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We don't have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the
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lion loose and the lion will defend itself.
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So when I try to preach Christ, my goal is to put him on display
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as clearly as possible. That is all I try to do.
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So as I develop my lectures, I try to develop them based on
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strict principles of validity, soundness, and logic of the
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truth of God's Word. And so there was a man by the
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name of Petrus van Maastricht who wrote a book called The Best
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Method of Preaching, and it's a great book.
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And in his book he outlines if you want to make a sermon or a
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lecture or a lesson, God honoring, what do you have to do
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this? First you have to read God's
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Word, and then you have to exegete God's Word, and you have
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to pull a doctrine from God's Word, and then you have to apply
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God's Word. And at the end he has what is
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called the stirring of the affection, which is basically
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the charge to the congregation in some sense.
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So that's my framework, but my ultimate model is Jesus Christ.
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Of course, the best speech, the best sermon ever given is
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Matthew 5 through 7, the Sermon on the Mount.
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That is a master class and how to give a sermon.
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There was no OK at your tables. You have a little notepad.
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It was Jesus Christ and he taught and people listen.
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I talk to my speech students all the time.
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You don't need props to be interesting.
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You don't need cool statistics to be interesting.
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Your content needs to be good. And if your content is good,
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people will listen and they'll be engaged and they'll be
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changed. So again, this is my framework,
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but my ultimate model is Christ. And Christ is a plethora of two
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things. First was metaphors and second
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was questions. People love metaphors.
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And as a communication major, my job is to make sure that people
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properly understand what I'm trying to say.
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And so metaphors are great. We're comparing something in
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some sense, which is why when I tell my speech students, the
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reason why we say the word like so much in our conversations is
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because you're trying to compare something.
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That's all we're trying to do is make our message relatable to
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the audience that we're giving it to.
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But those words like, and they decrease our clarity.
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But Christ used a lot of metaphors and pastors try to use
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metaphors all the time. Food metaphors are very common
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because everyone loves food, right?
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At the common one of sports, people love sports.
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The pastor will say, winning someone to salvation is like,
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don't want to touchdown. And everyone's like, yeah, I get
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that. I love that.
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And the other half of the congregation is like, I don't
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even play basketball. And if you didn't get that joke,
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that one was probably for you. But so some metaphors are great
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because again, they communicates for audience on a way that they
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can understand. Christ obviously used a lot of
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farming metaphors because they were prevalent in that time.
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But the second thing that Christ uses questions.
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Oh, if we could ask questions like Jesus Christ ask questions.
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Just examining his conversations with people and the questions
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that he asked. Zach Zender, an author, found
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that Christ asked 305 questions in the Gospels.
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It's astounding. Questions are so important
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because they get us to think. And so I have this chart here.
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Back in the early 2000s, there was two men that got together.
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There was a theologian and a mathematician.
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They got together and they made this chart and they found
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basically what it is. It's every single line is when
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the Bible references itself in some sense.
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They found that the Bible references itself 63,799 times.
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It is the most complex book in all of history, 1500 years, over
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40 authors, 66 books, 2 testaments, all saying the same
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thing about the same person, Jesus Christ.
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And so when Christ asked questions, it was all just
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leading back to what has been and looking forward to what will
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be. And so asking questions are so
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incredibly important. And our job as Christians is to
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ask good questions. We're to learn how to ask
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questions properly. The Gospels again are riddled
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with these specifically questions that Christ as drew
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people in to what he was doing. And so today I would like to ask
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you all a question I think the modern church would do well in
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answering effectively. The opportunity to speak before
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you today has excited me. I was told that things about 2
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1/2 weeks ago and I was like, great, I've already had
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something on mine for a while that I'd love to share with the
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church. And there's a plethora of things
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I could talk about. I could talk about the
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pervasiveness of the LGBTQ community and the ideology has
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on campus As I could talk to you about how homeschooling in light
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of the modern education system is a proper thing.
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Or the importance of worship and prayer in the personal and
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corporate life. The the sovereignty of God, the
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doctrine of election and predestination, the imago dei,
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the image of God. I could talk to you about penal
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substitutionary atonement. I could talk to you about
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spiritual disciplines. I could talk to you about the
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cost of discipleship, biblical forgiveness, post Christian
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world, living in a post Christian world, along with the
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lives of post modernism to talk about spiritual warfare,
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biblical manhood, and womanhood. There's Sermon on the Mount
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again. It's not even including
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exegetical topics like the Sermon on the Mount, Romans 5/8
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looking at sin, grace, struggle and assurance, or Acts and their
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early mission of the church. And why Acts as the most joyful
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book and all of scripture? Because all we see is people
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coming to Christ. But I found it necessary to talk
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about something else today. Today I wanted to talk to you
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all about the family. And as the title of the message
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state suggests, the family is the forgotten weapon in a fallen
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world. If you receive an outline in the
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back, great. I'll go along that briefly.
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Hopefully I'll talk slowly enough for you all to understand
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it. I don't want to affirm you in
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any way, because affirm affirmation without discipline
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just breeds delusion. My job is to really get to the
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heart of the matter of what family needs to be and why
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everyone is involved in this. So as in all important lectures
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or topics, begin with an investigation.
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Let's do that. What is the family?
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If you have to define family on your own, how would you define
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family? Are you a part of the family or
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are you not a part of the family?
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Do you enjoy your family? What kind of family you a part
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of? What are you doing to create a
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family around you? Is everyone involved in a
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family? Is it necessary to start or
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create or be involved in a family?
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So a couple of questions for you.
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What is the current state of your family?
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When was the last time that you checked the spiritual condition
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of your family? Husbands, are you leading your
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homes as Christ lit the church with sacrificial love?
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Wives, are you submitting to and respecting your husbands as unto
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the Lord? Children, are you honoring your
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father and mother because the Bible commands it, or just when
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it's convenient for you to get something?
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How does your marriage display the gospel to your children into
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a watching world? What intentional rhythms of
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discipleship exist in your home right now?
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What legacy of faith, or lack of it, are you actively leaving for
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the people around you and your family?
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How do you reflect God's hearts in the way you speak to or about
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your family? Are you contributing to the
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unity of the home or the division of your home?
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Who is in your family that you are currently failing to forgive
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or to reach out to? Are there sins in your family
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that have been normalized for the sake of comfort?
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If your family were the only Bible that your neighbors ever
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saw or were able to read, what would they learn about Christ?
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And what is 1 habit, tradition, or pattern in your family that
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needs to die at the cross? I think these are all good
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questions to ask about your family.
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Let's get into it. The first blank is the
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definition of the family. The family.
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What is it? God's first institution for
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discipleship, which is designed to reflect his covenant love,
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transmit the truth, and picture Christ's relationship to the
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church. I'll say that again, God's first
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institution for discipleship, which is designed to reflect his
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covenant love, transmit the truth in picture Christ's
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relationship with the church. As I talked to my youth
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students, I like to get them long definitions for things that
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we unpacked them. My favorite one we ever did was
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about 3 years ago, I gave him a definition for love and love has
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God as the primary object. It is expressed in obedience
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towards Him and it is sacrificial, continual, and
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impartial. So I like to have three parts to
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every definition which I have here.
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So again, the first institution for discipleship and then again
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designed to reflect his covenant love, transmit the truth and
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pictures Christ's relationship to the church.
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While the biological family serves as the primary context
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for these responsibilities. Every believer, every believer,
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whether married or single, is called to uphold, support and
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live out the biblical vision of family within the household of
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faith, the church. Whether you're single, married,
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widowed, divorced, or still a child in your parents roof, the
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topic of family is not just relevant, it is essential.
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God designed the family as the primary institution, again for
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forming character, for transmitting the truth and
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displaying the gospel to a world that desperately needs it.
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But more than that, every believer belongs to a greater
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family, which of course is the household of faith in Christ.
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We are brothers and sisters, spiritual fathers and mothers,
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sons and daughters, not by blood but by the spirits.
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So a biblical understanding of the family teaches us how to
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love sacrificially, teaches us how to serve faithfully, lead
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humbly, submit joyfully, forgive continually.
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And these aren't just family values.
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These are Kingdom values and things that we all have to take
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into consideration. So even if you're not currently
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raising children or sharing a home with the spouse, you are
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called to strengthen and support the families around you and the
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disciple, the next generation. I have countless teachers at
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where I work at who are not married and they see the
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responsibility as leading the next generation as spiritual
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fathers or spiritual mothers to these kids.
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And so this, this sermon that this passage, this lecture is
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not just for people with rings on their fingers or people with
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children. It is for the whole body of
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Christ because when families are strong, the church is strong.
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And when the church lives as God's family, the world sees a
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clearer picture of Christ. So this is necessary.
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Now some of you, when you hear the phrase family, I don't
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really like that. We don't like that for a couple
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of reasons. Number one, our culture hates
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family. And maybe that dropped off on
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you. I have no idea.
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Since 2007, the number of births per 1000 people in the US has
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dropped nearly 50% in the United States.
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It's a tragedy. China back in 1979 had a one
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child policy and they kept it all up to 2015.
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And it was so bad that they didn't have to make it.
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Now, OK, now you can have two children because the condition,
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the economic state in China was not thriving.
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So they changed it to 2. And then just six years later in
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2021, they changed it to, OK, now you can have more.
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And to go with that, an article in New York Times came out where
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they found there were more adults in diapers and there were
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children in diapers in China. And they live with the
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consequences of what they did. Our, our culture hates family.
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Secondly, we are single or we've been hurt by family in some
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sense. So we think of if I, if I don't
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have, if I don't have a husband or a wife or, or if I, you know,
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if I've been hurt by my family, I, I'm not really a fan of this
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topic. A third one then would be when
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you talk about family, people think it's a certain phase of
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life, right? You have a one, one son, one
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daughter, a dog, white pick, a fence, nice house, all that, all
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those sort of things. But that's not necessarily true.
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You will always be a part of a family.
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You've always been a part of a family.
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For those of us who have come to salvation, this extends to all
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of eternity, which is a beautiful thing because when God
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talks to us about this notion of Him and his redeemed people, he
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speaks to us using the metaphor of family, the bride, the
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church, and the bridegroom, Christ.
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When he communicates to us God the Father and God the Son, this
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is family language. So when looking at what I could
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speak on today, I wanted you all to walk away knowing more about
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Christ than you do about me. I think any good sermon, the
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congregation always walk away knowing more about Christ than
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they do about whoever speaking about Christ.
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And again, this this issue of family is of the utmost
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importance because it applies to all of us.
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So again, I want to kind of keep with the regular flow of what I
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said about we read the passage. We kind of we're not going to
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execute it as much. We'll look at different
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passages, but we'll pull a doctrine right now.
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Then we'll look at some application and we'll have a
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stirring of the affections. So let's go to our our doctor
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for today. Our doctor for today is that the
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family is a divine institution, a divine institution.
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It's typically whenever I give a doctrine to my students, there
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has to be scripture that backs it up.
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So please turn to Ephesians chapter 5, verse 22.
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This is of course, a classic verse on marriage.
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But again, to further drive from the point that family is a
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divine institution, it's going to get better and better and
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more convicting and more convicting because I haven't
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even gotten to the main point yet.
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The main point is going to be awesome.
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And it's something that's been right under your nose forever
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and we just, we just don't even know about.
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So Ephesians 5, verse 22, we'll start there.
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Those wives be subject to your own husband's ask to the Lord.
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For the husband is the head of the wife.
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Christ also is the head of the church, He himself being the
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Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to
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Christ, so also the wives ought to be subject to their husbands
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and everything. Husbands love your wives.
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Just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
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so He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of
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water, with the Word, that He might present to Himself the
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Church and all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such
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thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.
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So husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own
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bodies. He who loves his own wife loves
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himself. For no one ever hated his own
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flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ
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also does the Church. Go to Genesis chapter 2.
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This is the very beginning of course in Genesis chapter 2 we
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see in verse 22 through 24 again we get the picture of what
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marriage is supposed to be, an institution by God, and more
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importantly again as our doctrine stated, it is the
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family being the divine institution by God.
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Genesis 2 verse 22 says the Lord God fashioned into a woman the
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rib which He had taken from the man and brought her to the man.
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Verse 23, the man said this is now a bone of my bones and flesh
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of my flesh. She shall be called a woman
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because she was taken out of a man.
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For this reason, the man shall leave his father and his mother
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and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
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And then go to First Timothy chapter 3.
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I know we're bouncing around a bit.
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The verses are also on your outline in some sense, a couple
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of the main passages we're going over.
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But First Timothy chapter 3, we get a couple of good things and
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we get to see the relationship with family to the church.
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Because again, working at a school, my job is not to parent
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the students that I teach. I can't discipline them, you
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know, I can't spank them, I can't ground them.
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I can give them attention, but that that only relates to what I
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have them at school. I can't do anything else outside
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of that. And so my job as a teacher is to
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partner with parents and the job of the church, again, a youth
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group, right, is to partner with parents because there are
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certain things that have been given to the church and certain
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things that have been given to the family and there has to be a
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distinction. So in First Timothy chapter 3 we
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verse 4. Is this he?
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Must be one who manages Speaking of overseers and deacons,
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manages his own household well, keeping his children under
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control with all dignity. But if a man does not know how
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to manage his own household, how will he take care of the Church
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of God? So right there we get to see the
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the relationship. Now we get to see the family.
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If you can't manage your family well, that will relate to how
20:30
you view the church. Go just the page over if it
20:32
applies to you. First Timothy chapter 3, verse
20:34
14 through 16, it says, I am writing these things to you,
20:39
hoping to come to you before long.
20:40
But in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how
20:43
one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is
20:46
the Church of the living God, the pillar and support, or the
20:49
pillar and buttress of the truth by common confession.
20:53
Great is the mystery of godliness.
20:55
He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit,
20:58
seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the
21:01
world, taken up in the glory. That is an amazing passage of
21:05
Scripture and that is a great summation of Christ's life in
21:08
the gospel. But in this I almost called the
21:10
sermon the family, the Pillar and buttress of the truth, and
21:13
how the family was to model the church.
21:15
But after a conversation with a friend of mine, we we came to
21:18
the realization that this is not the family, is not the pillar
21:21
and buttress of the truth, that is the church.
21:23
Again, there are certain things given to the Church and certain
21:25
things given to the family, and they have to know their rules.
21:29
Again, the Church is the pillar and buttress of the truth.
21:31
It is an institution that has been entrusted with the
21:34
receiving, guarding and proclaiming of the mysteries of
21:37
faith through men and women who are graced and gifted to
21:41
faithfully teach these truths. But still, the family plays a
21:44
vital role in supporting the Church.
21:47
Because the Church is made-up of families, fathers and mothers
21:50
are called to teach their children these same truths on a
21:53
daily basis as part of their duty to raise children in the
21:56
faith. The family exists by a natural
21:59
design. So that's why the issue with the
22:02
LGBTQ community is not that it's necessarily just sinful,
22:05
although it is. It's against a natural cause of
22:08
order that God created. Because the family is natural.
22:11
The church is a supernatural institution that God has given
22:15
to us. It has been established by
22:17
Christ for the purpose of God's glory, the making of disciples,
22:20
and the propagation of the truth.
22:23
This reality of family also teaches us what it means to be a
22:25
church. Bodhi Bakkam said that we don't
22:28
know what it means to be family and we don't know what it means
22:30
to be church. There is a reason we are wrong
22:33
on both. If you can't get one, you will
22:35
not get the other. It is hard to find somebody, a
22:38
strong, saved, God fearing Christian who gets it from a
22:41
biblical perspective what it means to be involved in the
22:43
local assembly through service and love, but doesn't get the
22:47
family thing. Vice versa, it's hard to find
22:49
someone who knows how to lead their family and understands
22:52
their role in the family but doesn't really get the church
22:54
thing. They are dependent upon one
22:57
another. A church is only as strong as
23:00
weakest family in it and we must understand that we are tied
23:03
together and without the strength of one another we
23:06
cannot get to places unknown to us as we currently exist.
23:10
So when looking at this, I want to drive home a singular point
23:12
today. Now we're going to get to the
23:13
main thing that I think is going to really revolutionize the way
23:16
your family is, and the main point of today is going to be
23:20
family worship. The key point to drive home
23:22
today is family worship. If the family, it's an
23:26
institution, has been given by God divinely to fight off evil
23:29
in this world, I believe the best possible way to continue to
23:33
grow your family is to partake in what is called family
23:36
worship. This idea was popularized by a
23:38
man named Joel Beak in recent years, but it's been popular
23:42
much before then. But again, it's something that I
23:44
think is necessary to bring to your attentions today, and I'll
23:47
discuss more about this in a bit.
23:48
In family worship, I'm going to emphasize 4 main points.
23:51
We're going to look at the, the reading of God's Word, the
23:53
instruction of God's Word, prayer after God's Word, and
23:57
then singing of God's Word. That that's it.
24:00
So if you came today expecting something cool from a guest
24:02
speaker or something different and profound, it's the simple
24:05
truths. Everyone has goals.
24:08
Winners have goals, losers have goals.
24:12
If you have the goal of creating a strong family, it's not just
24:15
about setting a goal that you think will hopefully one day
24:18
achieve itself. It's about the daily discipline
24:21
that separates yourself from every other family to actually
24:23
do these things. And hopefully today we'll give
24:26
you the encouragement to do so. Family worship would be a time
24:28
of devotion that you spend with your family every single day,
24:32
where the father leads his family in the worship of God.
24:34
Of course, when the father is absent, that would then be the
24:36
mother. This is a lost spiritual arts
24:39
and discipline. This is a full time job for
24:41
parents. I always tell people all the
24:43
time I have all these jobs, but my primary ministry is my wife
24:47
always has been and always will be.
24:49
She comes before everything else she has to.
24:54
In 1677 there was a church covenant put forth by Puritan
24:58
congregation in Dorchester, MA and it included the following
25:02
statement. They said we quote, want to
25:04
commit to reform our families, engaging ourselves to the
25:08
conscientious care to step before us and to maintain the
25:12
worship of God in them and to walk in our houses with perfect
25:15
hearts and a faithful discharge of all domestic duties,
25:19
edification, instructing and charging our children in
25:22
households to keep the ways of the Lord.
25:26
Family worship has saved millions of children throughout
25:30
the years because the necessity and dependence upon God's word
25:34
and family seeing their their their necessary command to raise
25:39
children. Puritans used to do things
25:42
called soul visits back in the 1600s.
25:45
And if some families were not practicing family worship, some
25:48
pastors and and elders in the church saw it as an abdication
25:52
of their role. And what they would do is that
25:55
some church would even withhold communion from their fathers
25:57
because they did not leave their families properly.
26:00
And if you can't lead yourself properly, you definitely won't
26:03
be leading your family properly. So if they saw the family not
26:06
being LED properly, something has to be going on in your own
26:08
life. And if something going on in
26:09
your own life, communion will have to be withheld from you
26:11
this morning. So what does family worship
26:15
consist of? Basically reading, instructing,
26:19
praying and singing. If you do it twice would be
26:22
great in the morning and at night.
26:23
For some families, your schedule only a lots for 10 minutes in
26:26
the morning, maybe 20 minutes in the afternoon.
26:28
My goal is to give you all the tools and motivation for you
26:31
guys to be able to do this. Whether you are by yourself,
26:33
living by yourself with the family, just a wife, you're a
26:36
widow, you have grandchildren, whatever it is.
26:39
This is something that applies to everyone.
26:42
But consistency in this is key. So 4 things.
26:45
The first one again is daily reading of the Word of God.
26:49
Daily reading of the Word of God.
26:52
Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 14 through 17 says this.
26:57
You however, continuing the things you have learned and
26:59
become convinced of knowing from whom you have learned them, and
27:03
that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which
27:05
were able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through
27:08
faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by
27:11
God, profitable for teaching and reproof, for correction, for
27:14
training and righteousness, so that the man of God may be
27:17
adequate, equipped for every good work.
27:19
We love those last two verses because we use them to memorize
27:22
about the authority of God's word.
27:24
But the verse before that, Paul's instructing here in
27:28
Second Timothy chapter 3, you know these things from your
27:31
youth. That implies that he was taught
27:33
these things from his youth that the word of God has read to him.
27:37
You can read a Psalm a day. So, so I'm going to give you a
27:41
couple of things within each point, have a reading plan.
27:44
Again, one of you can read a Psalm a day with your children,
27:47
a proverb a day, whatever it might be.
27:49
JC Ryals said, fill their minds with Scripture.
27:52
Let the Word dwell in them richly.
27:54
Give them the Bible, the whole Bible, even while they are
27:58
young. It is so important to read God's
28:01
Word and to have a plan as you read it.
28:02
You can do the Bible in a year. You know, I, I've only read
28:06
through the Bible like twice in my whole life.
28:08
I know, I know, I'm young, but I never sat down from beginning.
28:12
Then I've had a devotion plan to read through the entirety of
28:14
God's Word. I've asked some prominent
28:16
pastors, what do you do for devotions and how do you
28:18
differentiate between preparing A sermon and doing devotions?
28:21
And some of them have told me plainly, I, I just do a couple
28:24
of Proverb verses a day and that is enough for me to then go out
28:27
and live that faithfully. I mean, whatever if you did read
28:31
this morning, whatever you read, like how much of it you actually
28:33
remember? Probably not a lot.
28:35
As soon as you go out to the world.
28:36
I no idea what I no idea what I just did whatsoever.
28:40
It's like what James says, you go and you look in the mirror
28:42
and then you walk when you instantly forget what you look
28:44
like. And so it's not you don't need
28:47
that. The issue is not more scripture
28:49
or more motivation that the issue comes down to, to
28:52
discipline and, and and application of God's Word.
28:55
Secondly, involve your family. Involve your family.
28:58
So again, in the daily reading of God's Word, have a reading
29:01
plan, Involve the family. Everyone should read as soon as
29:04
they're able to. Everyone should and you should
29:06
struggle with it. I have a student in my class,
29:09
his name is Lucas Kiros. He just graduated, he's a senior
29:12
and he has special needs. He has autism.
29:15
And so the special Ed teacher came to me and said we like to
29:18
have Lucas be in your Bible nine class.
29:19
Is that OK? Absolutely.
29:21
And by God's grace, I have a lot of students that really wanted
29:23
to help Lucas and work with Lucas.
29:25
And we sat there and had Lucas read scripture because Lucas is
29:29
a human being created in God's image and his job along with
29:32
everyone else's job in that classroom is to read God's word.
29:34
I don't care how long it takes, Lucas is going to read God's
29:37
Word, even if it takes, which it always took me whispering it
29:40
into his ear so he could say because he cannot read.
29:43
It is so important to evolve your family.
29:45
And then the third thing, be very simple in your explanation.
29:48
This doesn't need to be complex. You don't need to be a
29:51
theologian to do this. Be simple in your explanation.
29:54
So again, the first one, daily reading of God's Word.
29:56
Secondly, daily instruction of God's Word.
29:59
Again, daily instruction of God's Word.
30:01
Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 6 through 7 says this.
30:04
These words which I'm commanding you today shall be in your
30:07
hearts. You shall teach them diligently
30:09
to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your
30:11
houses, when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and
30:14
when you rise up. So these things should be
30:16
instructed to your kids, to your children, to those around you.
30:20
Again, if you don't have kids, this can be with a discipleship
30:23
group. You guys can do this with
30:24
weekly. So again, a couple of tips.
30:28
Encourage dialogue around God's Word.
30:30
There are multitudes of commentaries.
30:32
And again, the issue is that, well, they're expect.
30:34
Yeah, the commentaries are expensive.
30:36
I get it. John MacArthur, Matthew Henry,
30:38
they can have expensive commentaries.
30:40
John Gill has a free commentary on every single verse in the
30:44
Bible online. Everyone has Internet access,
30:48
and so you can access that online for free, and so you can
30:51
have these at your hands. Secondly, be pure in your
30:54
doctrine. So not only do you have to
30:55
encourage dialogue around God's Word, you'd have to be pure and
30:59
doctrine, as Titus 27 says, and all things showing myself a
31:03
pattern of good works and doctrine showing uncorrupted
31:07
sincerity. So where do we peer in our
31:10
doctrine as we live these things out?
31:13
People will always catch more than they hear always.
31:16
And I've taught, I just got done with my school year, taught 206
31:20
students and the things they came up and talked to me are the
31:22
things that I did, not even the things that I taught.
31:24
So people will catch things more than they will hear things.
31:28
And then the third tip for that, require attention through
31:31
affection. Be passionate about God's Word.
31:35
All right, let's do God's Word again.
31:37
Let's do family worship one more time, be if you're coming to
31:40
that or coming to family worship with that attitude.
31:43
But then on Saturday or Sunday, hey, we got a football game,
31:45
let's do this. The kids are going to see where
31:47
the parents priorities are. Third points is daily prayer
31:52
before the throne of God. Colossians 4/2 says to devote
31:56
yourselves to prayer, keeping alerts in it with an attitude of
32:00
Thanksgiving. Praying without ceasing doesn't
32:02
just apply to the individual, that applies to the family.
32:06
You can use the axe formula, right?
32:07
Adoration, confession, Thanksgiving, supplication.
32:10
But communication is always a two way St.
32:12
And so if you go to God's word, reading God's word, and God
32:15
illuminates truth of His word to you through His word, you must
32:18
go back to Him in prayer. When you're reading God's Word,
32:22
Jeremiah 1025 says pour out your wrath on the nations that do not
32:25
know you and on the families that do not call your name.
32:30
If you're not praying with your family, this verse applies to
32:34
you. Sheraton Thomas Brooks said that
32:38
the home without daily prayer, it's like a house without a
32:42
roof, exposed to all the storms of heaven.
32:46
It's a tragedy. It's not pray.
32:48
So again, a couple tips in prayer.
32:50
Be brief. No lead, no, no need whatsoever
32:52
to drag this out for 1020 minutes.
32:55
Be brief in your prayer with your kids.
32:57
Secondly, be buried. Switch it up.
32:59
Hey, you're going to pray for this today.
33:01
I'm going to pray for this. Then you'll pray for this
33:02
tomorrow, we'll switch it up. You pray for this.
33:04
You pray for this. I pray for this 3rd have a list.
33:08
You need a list when you pray. I have a list with me every
33:11
morning when I pray of people that I pray for in this church,
33:14
at my work, at my school, you have to have a list that you can
33:17
go through and then you add to it.
33:20
I'm, I'm a big user of pens. I think you should commit to
33:22
your mistakes. But in my prayer journal, I use
33:24
a pencil because the needs are always changing and I always
33:27
want to make sure that I'm able to pray for people as I should
33:30
be. Give assignments again.
33:32
This week I want you to pray for this person.
33:34
This week, I want you to pray for this person when you come
33:37
back. Hey, how did you do praying for
33:39
so and so this week and then follow up would be allowed to
33:43
follow up with them throughout the week.
33:45
How's your prayer life coming? How has your prayer been for
33:47
this individual? And these are awkward, hard
33:49
conversations. I'm of course being a
33:51
communication major, all for face to face communication.
33:55
But you have phones. There is no excuse to not
33:58
communicate with people. There's no excuse to now hold
34:01
people accountable. It's discipline.
34:04
That's it. Then the last thing, daily
34:06
singing to the praises of God. Daily singing the praises of
34:11
God. Psalm 118, verse 15 is a
34:13
beautiful verse. This is the sound of joyful
34:16
shouting. And salvation is in the tents of
34:18
the righteous. The right hand of the Lord does
34:21
valiantly. Singing is done in the
34:24
synagogues, but is also done in the tents.
34:26
So the synagogues was the places of worship, but the households
34:29
were in the tents and there was daily singing, daily joyful
34:33
shouting from the tents that was heard from the families.
34:37
Singing stays with you throughout the day.
34:39
It's memorable. You should own a good hymn book
34:43
or listen to Christian music with your kids throughout the
34:45
day. It's incredibly memorable.
34:48
So again, tip #1 you should own a own a hymn book.
34:51
Buy one online. We budget for other things.
34:55
Budget for a hymn book. Secondly, sing songs that are
34:58
doctrinally pure. We have a list here in the back.
35:01
You guys can sign up to hear the songs that we sing every week.
35:04
An e-mail gets sent out once a week.
35:05
These are the songs we're singing on Sunday, and then you
35:08
can start to sing them with your kids in the car.
35:10
We do for VBS, and those songs are annoying.
35:12
These ones are fine. We come up here, we get the sing
35:14
God's Word. You get the songs every single
35:16
week, and then you can sing those songs.
35:18
Third, sing psalms. PSALMS, Psalms.
35:22
John Calvin said that Psalms are anatomy of all parts of the soul
35:28
and other author said that they are the richest gold mine.
35:30
A deep living experiential scriptural piety available to us
35:34
today. And then forth sing heartily and
35:38
with feeling, sing with passion. Biggest thing that keeps people
35:42
from singing. My voice isn't very good.
35:45
I can't do it. We had daily sunrise worship at
35:48
our school and I sang with other guys at their teachers had to be
35:51
there. So I walked up there and there's
35:53
other teachers there and I don't sound very good.
35:56
I said, it's OK, man. I don't sound good either.
35:58
So we both belted it out together, you know, And that
36:00
encourage the other students to sing louder and then find their
36:03
own voice to sing that the father and mother don't sing.
36:05
The children are not going to sing.
36:07
You got to sing passionately. So these are essential to to
36:11
family growth. Again, these are Kingdom values.
36:13
Why are they so important? Colonel Richard Husband was the
36:16
pilot in the early 2000s of a spaceship, the Space Shuttle,
36:21
specifically Space Shuttle Columbia, which was destroyed
36:24
upon re entry in 2003. Some of you may remember it.
36:27
I was only two years old, so I don't remember it.
36:30
He died in February that year, 2003.
36:33
We lost 7 astronauts that day. It was the day of mourning.
36:37
And while he was a pilot, while he was on the space shuttle,
36:40
what you probably didn't know about him was that he was a
36:42
devoted Christian man and that before he left, he handed his
36:46
son and daughters 36 taped videos for the 18 days that he'd
36:51
be gone, one to watch in the morning and 1:00 to watch at
36:55
night. Imagine what those videos mean
36:57
to that family now. So a couple of objections,
37:02
because there always are objections.
37:03
I can't do this. And one reason is time.
37:07
Busy schedules, families, not always together all the time.
37:10
Everyone has 24 hours. People, everyone has 24 hours.
37:14
Time is not found. Time is made.
37:18
And you make time for the things that are essential in your life.
37:21
It is not an issue of time, it's an issue of priority.
37:24
We will do this before we go out tonight.
37:26
We will do this before we leave school.
37:30
Secondly, people say relationships.
37:31
I'm single, I'm widowed, my family's not saved.
37:34
I don't have a family of my own. Again, this relates to all
37:38
believers. This pattern of family worship
37:40
should be your pattern of daily devotion in reading,
37:43
instructing, praying and singing.
37:47
You were all called to strengthen and support the
37:48
families around you to disciple the next generation.
37:51
The third one, that would be knowledge.
37:52
People say I don't have enough knowledge.
37:54
I can't do this. I don't have the knowledge to be
37:55
able to do this properly or I'm not a teacher.
37:58
Again, there are guides to help you, which I'm going to come to
38:00
in a second, but the issue isn't knowledge.
38:02
It's it's cowardness in that sense.
38:05
Fourthly, people say I don't know where to start.
38:08
My family's in shambles. I can't do this.
38:11
My, my, my kids won't want to do this.
38:12
My wife doesn't want to do this. My husband doesn't want to do
38:14
this. No one wants to do this to my
38:15
family. Your household is not a
38:18
democracy, and it's not a dictatorship either.
38:22
Your household should be a theocracy, a house that is ruled
38:25
by God, An audience of 1. So many people are paralysed by
38:29
the fear of failure, of doing this with their family.
38:32
If you don't fail, you're not even trying.
38:35
If you want to achieve this style of family worship, you
38:38
have to do something you've never done.
38:39
If you want to achieve something you've never had, you have to do
38:42
something that you've never done.
38:46
So 2 great guides that I have for you today.
38:48
If you want to learn more about them, we'll come back to the
38:49
service for more than welcome to.
38:51
This is a great book called Raising spiritual champions been
38:53
mentioned here before. It's a great book.
38:55
This goes over children in some sense, how to raise children
38:58
properly. This is good for anyone to know.
39:00
If you're helping out VBS, these are good things to know.
39:03
Second one is the the book by Joel Peak.
39:05
It's called the family worship Bible guide.
39:06
It's about 30 bucks on Amazon and it has commentary on every
39:10
chapter in the Bible. So all you do is that you just
39:12
read the chapter and then you read what he says.
39:15
There's sometimes there's one question at the end, 2
39:17
questions, three questions. You can sing the songs we have
39:20
here in church and then pray with your family.
39:22
The resources are there. The discipline is what we need
39:27
and the discipline is hopefully brought by the stirring of the
39:29
affection, the motivation. So there's a couple of last
39:32
minute applications I think are important for your family.
39:35
Number one, you have to have sacred time for family worship,
39:39
a time in your day where nothing interrupts this portion of my
39:43
day. My wife and I, we like to do
39:46
something on Saturdays where between 12:00 and 5:00 we cannot
39:49
be interrupted. We are together.
39:52
We read God's Word, we read it separately, we read it together.
39:54
Then we read a book that we have and then we pray together and
39:58
that there's time where that is sacred time.
40:01
If something urgent comes up, then we do it in the morning.
40:04
But there has to be sacred time again.
40:06
It's not found. It has to be made.
40:08
Secondly, you have to establish a family mission.
40:11
My wife and I did this back before we got married.
40:14
And we wanted to come to the cross stick of my family name.
40:16
Jessica Lovos in our church graciously gave us a nice framed
40:19
portrait of it. But we wanted the Sparks
40:22
household to consist of six things that when our children
40:24
are raised, they know these six things.
40:26
We have to be submissive to the Lord.
40:28
We have to be practitioners of truth.
40:30
We have to be all things to all people.
40:33
We have to radiate with the joy of Christ.
40:35
We have to be keepers of God's beauty.
40:37
We have to safeguard the family. Those six things are what I want
40:40
people to know, that our family, that our kids have values as
40:43
they grow up. Even if you don't have a family,
40:46
have a personal mission statement for yourself.
40:48
Jim, Ron once said that you are the average sum of the five
40:52
people you spend the most time with.
40:54
Those five people, if you're not in the family, you're not
40:56
married, are your family. The five people you spend the
40:59
most time with are your family, especially if they are
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Christians, because that is a spiritual unity and a spiritual
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bond. Victor Frankel said that when a
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man can't find a deep sense of meaning, they distract
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themselves with pleasure. Don't be distracted with
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pleasure. Fight deep meaning that is
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rooted in God's Word. To have a family mission.
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This is what we do and this is how we act.
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Third thing, make family a hallmark of your life, a
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benchmark of your life. Be obsessed with the idea of
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family. The benefits of course, if in
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your marriage, marital smoothness, drawing in love,
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sharpening one another. And then if you're single
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benefits in this or a widow drawing in maturity, increasing
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and brotherly love and increasing and accountability
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for those around you. And lastly, the 4th point, 4th
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application, teach your family to fear the Lord.
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Teach your family to fear the Lord.
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George Barna has a great book where he outlines 7 things that
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kids need to know. He says they need to know
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there's one supreme being revealed in the Bible.
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All human beings are sinful by nature.
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The consequence that verse think could be forgiven and eliminated
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through Jesus Christ. The 4th. 1.
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The entire Bible is true and is the best moral guide for every
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person in all situations. 5th. The absolute truth, absolute
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moral truth exists and those truths are defined by God. 6th
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The ultimate purpose of human life is to know, love and serve
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God with all your heart, soul, might and strength.
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And then 7th. Success on earth is best
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understood as consistent obedience to God and he then he
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walks through all the statistics.
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If how many kids do not believe this anymore and how it is
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decreased because the family doesn't value these things you
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have to teach your family to fear the Lord in closing Psalm
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Chapter 11 verse one through 3 and the Lord I take refuge.
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How again, How then can you say my soul flee as a bird to your
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mountain? For behold the wicked bend the
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bone. They make ready their arrow upon
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the string to shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.
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So the the evil world is ready. They're ready to attack the
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family. And then verse three, if the
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foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
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The foundation that has been given to you clearly is the
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family, both in the physical, biological and the spiritual
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supernatural sense has been given to you by God.
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So many people fall in love with the idea of the biblical family,
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but they don't fall in love with the habits that create for the
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biblical family. Don't fall in love with the idea
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of it, fall in love with the habits that create for that
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family. Use whatever it takes to get
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your family to wherever it needs to be.
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In an age where the family, the fact that church is weak, where
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do you stand? Your job husbands, your job
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mother's is to stand the gap for your family to intercede for
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your family on their behalf. Again, using whatever it takes
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to bring them to where it needs to be.
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And family worship is key to this.
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It is what creates the ripples that fuels the tidal waves to
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destroy false ideologies and hatred towards the biblical
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family. I had a student come up to me
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and ask me one time why I teach. I teach speech and debate.
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That's the main class, but another class that teaches the
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Bible nine class. And so she came to me and said,
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why do you teach Bible nine class?
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And how did you begin to do it? I said, well, I just applied and
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they accepted me. Oh, what?
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What are you like your qualifications?
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I don't have a teacher credential.
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Never been to seminary. I I don't have any.
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You've never been to seminary? No, I haven't.
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That was a surprise to him from a freshman student.
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And she said, so how did you get this job?
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By the grace of God, I have no idea.
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But I know that I got this job because when I sat down in the
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interview, I looked at the principal that in the eyes and I
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said my job is to teach the whole student to practice truth.
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And that that's why I do what I do, to teach the entire student
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to practice truth. And in speech I tell my students
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again and again, you never have any idea how powerful your words
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are to your family and to those around you.
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That same student came up later and asked then, then why?
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Why do you do this job? Now I know how you got it, but
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why do you do this job? Because I believe that truth
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will save the world. The truth of Christ will save
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this world. It is the only thing that can
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save loss sinners like it did for me.
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It is life, and if you think I'm wrong, then you are too
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protected and too naive to have any idea for how this world is
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even constituted and constructed.
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There is suffering in this world and that can be ameliorated or
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done away with through the words that we use in our personal and
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our corporate life and our family worship that we do.
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I think if a student, a different one, that came to me
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and said, Mr. Sparks, could you help me write a speech?
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She was my Bible nine student. I said yeah, I can do that.
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So I asked some questions, what is the purpose?
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And she said I'm speaking at my parents divorce hearing.
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I need you to help me write a speech for that.
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That was the hardest speech I've ever written and helped a
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student through. To think the pain that can have
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been done away with if this family did worship together, if
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the father grabbed his daughter and said let's sit down, let's
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read God's word, let's be instructed by God's word, let's
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pray after God's word, let's sing praises to God in His Word.
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These words that we use are not vain, useless things.
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They are who we are. As Luke 645 says, what comes out
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of us are these words. So yes, I believe that truth
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will save the world and it's our job and everyone's job to
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support that. Especially in our families.
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We have to speak the truth. A lot of men shout boldly, I
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will die for my family and that's great.
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But will you change your habits for your family?
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Will you do family worship for your family?
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Will you change your unhealthy habits for your family?
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Start to live for your family. Your greatest challenge is in
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anything else other than to believe in Jesus Christ and the
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gospel, to believe that Jesus Christ is God.
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Could it be that there is a God that died for your sins and your
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job is to communicate that with your family?
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You must teach this to your children and there is no
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formula. Your own discipline, your own
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devotion, your own good works will not save your life will not
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save your marriage, will not set you free.
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There's only one, and it's Jesus Christ.
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It's the one who took your place.
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He's the one who stood silently on that platform as Barabbas
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walked down and he died for your sins.
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We are that Barabbas that walks down.
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Barabbas never thanked Christ for doing that.
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We are saved by the blood of Christ.
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He is the one that we live and the one who we do it for.
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There's only one. It is still Jesus.
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It'll always be Jesus. It'll never stop being the power
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of Jesus. His blood is sufficient to save
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you, and His power is great enough to sustain you through
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every trial, through every storm, and through every
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tribulation. So pursue the truth, have an
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adventure, stand up straight, articulate yourself, love with
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your whole soul, forgive as your Savior has forgiven you.
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Understand your calling. Live with exuberant passion,
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fear the Lord, keep His commandments.
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Do family worship, for this is the whole end of man.
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And for this we labor for the glory of our Savior, Jesus
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Christ. Let's pray.
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God, we thank you for this morning.
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We thank you for the opportunity we had to be able to come before
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you and discuss the importance in matter of family worship.
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You are such a good God and we are so thankful for this
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institution of family that you've given to us for us to
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understand what we need to do and how we need to live and how
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we need to act good. I thank you for the families
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that we have in this church. I thank you for those that are
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single in this church, for those that are widowed in this church,
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for the children of parents and families in this church.
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God, I pray that every individual in here would see the
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necessity of family and why this goes beyond a physical family.
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It's because we have a spiritual family, Father, that that is how
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you communicate to us as Father and Son, as Bride and
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bridegroom. But I pray that we'd be able to
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picture this each and every day to a world, to the picture, that
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the family is a divine institution and that the daily
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reading of Your Word, the daily instruction of Your Word, daily
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prayer before Your throne, and the daily singing to the praises
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of Your glorious name would be something that is forever on our
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mind. I pray that as a day drawn draws
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near of your virtue, Lord, that we'd be found faithful.
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That is, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.
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Lord, I pray that each and every family in here would be bowing
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the knee and confessing daily before the throne of grace.
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God, we pray that this would be a daily habit of our families,
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the OR the daily habits of ordinary households.
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God, we pray that this would be some that would transform the
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family. They would see the necessity of
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doing something that has been here all along, that the
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motivation has been given that what lies next is a discipline
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to do it properly each and every day.
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We pray that You give us grace to do that to God our Creator
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and Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, by the power of the
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Holy Spirit, be all glory, majesty, demeaning, and
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authority before all time, now and forever.
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Amen.