The Family Matters | Sharing Your Faith With Your Kids

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Sign up at harvest.org. The statistics show that the age most kids start to churn away from their faith is the age of 13. Coming up today, Pastor Greg Laurie offers insights on family matters and how to pass the baton of faith to the next generation. When my child comes and says, I don't know if I believe the Bible, Mom, I don't know if I really understand who Jesus is, Dad, instead of saying, never doubt your faith.

No, work with them. Explain it to them and help prepare them for the real world. Teaching our children to walk and talk is not usually intimidating. Teaching them to tie a shoe or pedal a bike is in our comfort zone. But we parents sometimes stall when it comes to sharing our faith with our kids. We acknowledge it's the most important subject of all, but few parents feel like they've mastered the assignment.

Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie brings a solid insight based on the Ten Commandments found in Exodus chapter 20. Glad you're along. This is about the family. So before I dive into this, I want to take a quick poll. How many of you are single? You're not married. Raise your hand up. Okay.

How many of you who are single want to be married someday? Raise your hand. Okay. Keep your hand up. Other singles, look around. Now everyone pull their hand up.

It's called prospects. Okay. How many of you are married? Raise your hand.

You're married. How many of you are married with children? Raise your hand up. All right. How many of you are grandparents? Raise your hand up.

How many of you are happily married? Raise your hand up. Okay. All right. Good.

How many of you who are married wish you were single again? Now don't. Don't. Don't do that. So before a word is said about not stealing or lying or other interactions with people, don't cover what belongs to them, we begin with the family.

Why? Because God created and God loves the family. And God's template is for a man and woman to come together, commit to each other for life in a monogamous relationship. Ultimately God willing to have children and to raise those children in the way of the Lord. And it starts with a father and mother.

And what's our point of reference? Our father who art in heaven. Now I don't know what kind of earthly dad you have but I'm telling you, you have a father in heaven who is perfect. He is flawless.

He has no limitations whatsoever. What is he like? Well Jesus answered that in what we call the parable of the prodigal son. But it could just as easily be described as the parable of the loving father. Because it is a story, according to Christ, of a father who has two sons.

One of them goes astray, leaves home, blows all of the money his dad gave him and loses everything and comes to his senses and returns home. And according to Jesus that father ran to the boy and threw his arms around him, kissed him and hugged him and welcomed him again. What is God the father like? He is like the father in that story. He is a father who loves you. A father who longs for a relationship with you.

A father who is broken hearted when you are away from him in sin. So with that in mind we come to this first commandment, honor your father and your mother. This of course starts with the marriage. And let me say this to you who are married. There is a lot I could say to hopefully encourage you in your marriage. But let me give you one biblical principle from Ephesians 5 verse 21.

It says submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. So my point is put the needs of your spouse above your own. See the idea is I go into a marriage not saying how can you fulfill me. I go into a marriage saying how can I fulfill you. How can I love you.

How can I put you first in my life. So we are here to hold one another up and then children may come. And we need God's help. Our kids to us are a gift from the Lord. Actually in Psalm 127 verse 3 it says children are a heritage from the Lord. A reward from him.

That could better be translated a gift. Listen our kids are not ours to mold but to unfold. They are not ours to keep but to nurture. So do everything you can to raise your child in the way of the Lord. Sometimes parents will say well I don't understand these rebellious kids. My kids have never rebelled. They have never been disrespectful. They love the Lord with all their hearts. They love to go to church and they love to pray and love to hear Bible stories.

They are amazing. Really how old are your kids. Three and four. You don't know what you are talking about. Tell me how it goes after you have raised two teenagers. If you have lived to tell the story I might start listening to you. You ever heard of Mark Twain. A humorist.

A writer from days gone by. If it doesn't ring a bell he has a boat at Disneyland right. Here is what Mark Twain said about raising kids. Quote things run pretty smoothly until your kid reaches 13. That's the time you need to stick them in a barrel.

Hammer the lid down nice and snug and feed them to the knothole. Wow. And then he adds this. And then when they turn 16 plug up the knothole. Wow.

A little harsh. Ok let's look at Ephesians 6 for a moment because Paul picks up where Moses leaves off. First he quotes the fifth commandment and then he elaborates on it. He says children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother which is the first commandment with promise and it may be well with you and you will live long in the earth.

That's a quote from the ten commandments of course. Then he gets more specific in you fathers. Don't provoke your children to wrath but bring them up. Underline those words. Bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

Point number three. Fathers need to step up and lead. How many of your Christian fathers raise your hand up. You're a dad. Well God bless you.

I'm glad you're in church. Now let me lay something heavy on you. And it's on me.

It's on us. A father is a visible representation to a child of God in heaven. But it's kind of a lot of pressure isn't it?

Yeah it is. But it's true. Because a lot of people form their view of God based on their relationship with their earthly father. So for people that had great dads it's very easy for them to think of a loving caring compassionate father in heaven.

But for kids who had overbearing fathers or didn't have a father at all it's hard for them to wrap their mind around it. But you have a job to do. You've got to step up to the plate here and you need to lead.

The great evangelist D.L. Moody said and I quote, if you want to know what kind of father you were don't look at your children look at your grandchildren end quote. I love that statement. I don't know what it means but I like it don't you.

No I think about it. So you've raised your children in the way of the Lord and hopefully they're repeating the process and you're seeing it played out in the lives of your grandchildren. But when it says don't provoke your children to wrath the word provoke means a repeated pattern of treatment that causes a child to have anger and resentment that boils over to outright hostility. How do we provoke our children? One way is to show favoritism. To favor one child over another. Never compare your children to each other. Why can't you be smarter like your older sister? Why can't you be more athletic like your younger brother?

Why can't why can't you just stop doing that? Every child is loved by God. Every child is unique.

And when you show favoritism toward a child it can affect them into their adult years. A good example of this is in the Bible we see the the story of Jacob and Esau. Two brothers that were at odds with each other. Well that's because the mother favored Jacob and the dad favored Esau and the kids knew it and it affected them for the rest of their lives. Now you would have thought that Joseph the son of Jacob would have learned from this and not repeated the behavior of his dad. But then he had a bunch of sons one of whom was named Joseph and he favored Joseph over all of his other sons giving him a super cool coat. And Joseph is sashaying around ratting out his brothers. And let's say they overreacted a little bit.

They sold them into slavery. But so don't take off your brothers if you can avoid it. But the point of it is it started by a father favoring one son over the others. Kids know when you have a favorite. You think you're so clever. You think you hide it.

They know. You have to be even with your kids. I have two sons of course. One in heaven.

One on earth. I have five grandchildren. And when I buy one a gift I have to buy them all a gift. The other day I saw something I said I think I'll get this for this grandchild. Kathy says you have to buy five. And then I said never mind.

So don't show favoritism to one child over another. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everybody. Greg Laurie here and I want to personally invite you to the Harvest Ministries Israel tour.

April 9 to 19, 2024. Listen. This is your chance to walk in the steps of Jesus literally in what we call the Holy Land. Learn more at Israel.Harvest.org. Shalom. Today we're considering the biblical injunction to avoid provoking our children to wrath. As Pastor Greg presents his message the family matters.

Let's continue. Here's another way you can provoke a child. Never complimenting them. Never affirming them.

Now I don't know about how you were raised but and I don't say this to elicit sympathy but if you want to give it to me I'll take it. But my mother never affirmed me. She never not once and I can remember in my entire childhood said I love you. It was hard for her.

She was a broken person. And and so sometimes we feel it. I'm so proud of my son.

So proud of my daughter. They can't read your mind. You need to tell them. You need to affirm them.

So that's one problem. But the other extreme is you over compliment your children. And I think in some ways in our culture today a lot of kids are being over complimented. You know you have that bumper sticker in your car. My child is smarter than your child.

It's not that direct but it's like that. And you know they play games now. They go and play soccer and there's no winners. There's no losers. Everyone's a winner. We're all winners. No you're not.

No you're not. So that kid grows up and gets a job and they do the job poorly and the boss demands an explanation. He say well we're all winners. Boss says no actually you're fired.

Goodbye. Prepare them for the real world. You can over compliment them.

You can over criticize them. But our job as parents point number four is to bring our kids up not knock them down. Ephesians 6 4 says bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

The word bring them up means to nourish or feed. Proverbs 29 15 warns us a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. Here's what I'm concerned about today with a lot of kids. Is they're being left to themselves. Who's raising these kids?

Are you expecting the school system to do it? It's your job mom and dad to raise your own children. The other day I was in a restaurant and Kathy and I are sitting there is a beautiful view the sun is setting. I look over at a table a young family. Mom dad and a baby. Mama's on her phone.

Dad is on his phone. The baby the baby is on the iPad because there's an iPad holder in the stroller. I'm thinking what are we doing to these kids. Putting them in front of these devices with all this imagery with all this technology washing over them. I don't even know if their brains are forming properly. If they're even learning how to read social cues and how to communicate. We're just bombarding them with this information and your kids are going to get that information no matter what.

You have to protect them and watch over them and help them process it. You know you might say well we don't have a television in our house. Well congratulations.

What do you want? A medal. Well we don't want our children to be exposed to all of that media out there. Trust me they're going to get it somewhere else. A lot of kids don't even watch it on television anyway. They watch it on YouTube on their phones or their friend's phones. Well we don't have a TV.

They're just going to walk down the street and look in the window of a neighbor's house and watch their TV or see it in a mall. So instead of saying we're going to protect our children from all of these things why don't you prepare your children to process these things. That's the job of a parent. Listen to these words of Moses in Deuteronomy 6. Write these commandments that I've given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside of your children. Listen to this. Nothing can happen through you until it has first happened to you.

I'm going to repeat that. Nothing can happen through you until it has first happened to you. You cannot take your children any further spiritually than you yourself have gone. As Paul wrote in Philippians 4 9. These things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.

So they need to see it in you first. And let me say a word about devotions in children. It's a good idea. Both of my boys I raised them telling them Bible stories. Do the same with my grandchildren. I try to keep it interactive. Involve them. I don't think you should ever make devotions too long because we're going to now continue our series in the book of Leviticus kids. We're going to do eight chapters and I'm actually going to sacrifice a lamb in your room so you fully understand you're not doing a good job.

How do you do it? You know yeah it's good to do a time of devotions but it's good to talk to them when they get up in the morning. When they go to bed at night. When you're walking down the street. It's a constant process helping them to develop their own faith.

Because sometimes our kids will turn away. I was talking with Jay Warner Wallace the other day. He's a great speaker and apologist. Actually was a cold case detective. Really smart guy. And he speaks a lot to young people.

He shared his staff with me. I had not heard. It was a little surprising. He said what age do you think most kids turn away from their faith? I was thinking maybe high school. Maybe college age. He said to me the statistics show that the age most kids start to turn away from their faith is the age of 13.

So really young. Why? Because they're being exposed to so much stuff these days that I honestly can't completely control. It could be a teacher in a classroom. It could be something they saw online.

It could be something a friend said to them. So I've got to help them. And when my child comes and says I don't know if I believe the Bible mom. I don't know if I really understand who Jesus is dad. Instead of saying never adult your faith.

No work with them. Explain it to them. Help them understand it. And well I don't have all the answers.

Then get the answers. And then share it with your children and help prepare them for the real world. But listen don't freak out if your child goes prodigal. Both of my sons were prodigals for a period of time. And that's hard to believe because I was the perfect father.

Why do you laugh? I was. No I wasn't.

I wasn't. But they did say to me both of them it wasn't because of your parenting or mom's parenting. We just had that sinful nature. And they went out and looked into some of those things this world has to offer. And they both came to their senses because we laid a good foundation for them. Train up a child in the way that they should go. Train up a child in the way that they should go. When they are old they will not depart from it.

So you lay the foundation. And don't beat yourself up too bad if your child has come prodigal. Because if having a prodigal child meant you were a failure as a parent that that means God is a failure as a heavenly father.

Is God a failure? No. Does he have any prodigals? Lots of them.

I'm talking to some of them right now. And by the way coming back to prodigals and wrapping up we call it the story of the prodigal son. But in reality you could describe it as the story of the prodigal son's plural. There were two. One left the home and went to a distant country and messed up his life. The other never left home. In fact the other older brother was resentful when his younger brother came home and was welcomed back into the family.

He didn't think that was fair. And he was a prodigal in his own way. Even though he was in the home with his father his mother his heart was hard against his father. So some people go out into our world and the culture and they do sinful things and they come back to the Lord. But sometimes we never leave the church but our heart is hard in the church. So as we get ready to wrap this message up maybe some prodigals need to come home today.

You know in that beautiful story that Jesus told showing us what the father was like. The boy is still a great way off. And the father runs to his son. And that culture was considered undignified for an older man to run. They'd have to pull the robe up above their knees.

Just wasn't done. Not to mention the fact that it's harder for an older man to run right. But the father willing to lose his dignity if you will according to Jesus runs to get to his son. And why does he run to get to his son.

Here's my theory. I think that son could have been in a very dangerous situation. It's possible the people in the town were picking up rocks and were preparing to stone him. Because that boy had drug the family name to the mud. That boy had been so sinful. And the father said I've got to get to my son. And when he got to his son he threw his arms around him because he knew that people wouldn't stone him.

Get it. That's what happened at the cross. Jesus stepped in and took my place. And the judgment that should have come upon me came upon him.

He died for me. If you're a prodigal you can come back home. If you're someone who's never believed in Jesus you can believe in him and be forgiven of all of your sin right here right now. In a moment we're going to pray. And I'm going to extend an opportunity for you to ask Christ to forgive you of your sin. And an opportunity for you if necessary to come back to the Lord if you're a prodigal son or daughter.

Let's help you make the most important decision of your life right now. Let's all pray. Father I pray that you will speak to the heart of every person here.

Every person watching and listening wherever they are. If they don't know Jesus I pray that this will be the moment they believe. I pray this will be the moment when they see their need for you and come to you. And if they're a prodigal Lord I pray that you'll help them to return to you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Pastor Greg Laurie with an important prayer. And if you'd like to do just that and make a change in your relationship with the Lord, Pastor Greg will help you in just a moment before today's edition of A New Beginning concludes. Well Pastor Greg the new movie Johnny Cash the Redemption of an American Icon is such an engaging film.

Yes. It highlights the spiritual journey of the man in black. But it does so from a number of different perspectives. You hear many people reflect on Johnny's unique story.

Tell us about that. Well when you order your copy of Johnny Cash the Redemption of an American Icon on DVD along with the streaming code so you can download it to your computer your phone or your tablet. You're going to see that a number of very well-known people talk about their relationship with Johnny Cash. One man in particular who actually narrates the film and was very close to Johnny in fact he toured as a member of Johnny's band is Marty Stewart. Marty tells us now a story of the last time he was with Johnny Cash and what happened. Give a listen. I went over to his house and I was about to go on the road and I just wanted to go check in on him hug his neck tell him I love him and I had recorded a song of his called the walls of a prison that I wanted to play for him and so I played it for him and I said at his feet he put his hand on me he said excellent son I said you got it I knew he didn't want to hang out too long so we talked a minute and before I left the room he says is there anything in this room you want I said just your love he said you got that and as I was about to leave he was sitting in his wheelchair with his back to the window and the late afternoon light was coming in and I had my camera all in my bag and I said JR let me take your picture and there was like four frames and the first three he just kind of looked like this I said JR he reared up and he looked like an old president and when I got the negatives back on there's the picture before I left the room I said how's your spirit he said good I said you got plenty of rope left he said I got plenty of rope I said all right I'll be home in 10 days whatever it was I didn't think it would come while I was gone on that trip but it did country music singer Marty Stewart from the movie Johnny Cash the redemption of an American icon you know the film could focus on all of Johnny's hit records or the massive crowds that came to see him it could focus on his tv shows or recording an album at Folsom Prison but instead it focuses on Johnny himself who grew up poor faced unbelievable heart ache but always in a home with a deep resounding faith in the Lord and that's what pulled him through the tough scrapes and failings of his later years now Pastor Greg refers to this as an evangelistic documentary and it's so inspiring it's great encouragement for the rest of us who've had some failings we want to send you a copy of Johnny Cash the redemption of an American icon on DVD along with a free streaming code so you can watch it on your phone or tablet or tv we'll send it to say thank you for your generous support of these daily radio studies so why not contact us today call 1-800-821-3300 call anytime 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org Pastor Greg you wrapped up your message today by talking about eternity that's right how can someone listening know that they're going to heaven well that's a great question and I guess let me take it a step further I know that is the most important question you can ask how can a person know they're going to heaven let me say at the outset I believe I'm going to heaven in fact I'll take it a step further I know I'm going to heaven is it Greg isn't that kind of arrogant not really because I know this because God has made a promise to me and I've believed that promise the Bible says we write these things to you that believe on the name of the son of God that you may know that you have eternal life I've believed on the name of the son of God thus I know I'll go to heaven when I die here's my question to you do you believe on the name of the son of God is there any more important issue than that I can't think of one so I'd like to lead you in a simple prayer and this is a prayer where you will be asking Jesus to forgive you of your sin and you'll be asking him to be your own savior friend Lord it's a prayer only you can pray pray these words if you would Lord Jesus I know I am a sinner but I know that you are the savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose from the dead Jesus come into my life I want to believe in you I want to follow you I want this relationship with you thank you for dying on the cross for my sin and rising again from the dead and I thank you that you've heard this prayer and I believe you've come into my life in Jesus name I pray amen I want to help you grow in your faith I want to help you grow spiritually so I have a free gift for you it's called the new believers growth packet what's in it no not a bag of seeds to plant in your backyard I guess it's sort of a form of a bag of seeds because I want to sow some spiritual seed in your life to help you develop as a follower of Christ so I'm going to send you a copy of the new testament in the new living translation but it's a special edition it's called the new believers bible and it's filled with notes that I wrote that will encourage you in this new commitment or recommitment you've made to Christ and there's some other materials in the new believers packet as well so order your copy today and I'm so glad I had this privilege today to lead you in that prayer god bless you you've made the right decision the decision to follow Jesus Christ and here's how to get that new believers packet you can call 1-800-821-3300 that's a 24 7 phone number 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org and click the words know god you know there's nothing like hearing the word of god and worshiping the lord together I want to encourage you to join us for something we call Harvest at Home it happens every Saturday and Sunday at harvest.org you can join Christians from around the world as we worship and we study the word of God together so join us for Harvest at Home at harvest.org well next time as pastor Greg continues our look at the 10 commandments he'll speak to the rampant cultural decline we see around us it's a good message to help us all remember that believers set the tone we lead by example join us here on a new beginning with pastor and bible teacher Greg Laurie the preceding podcast was made possible by harvest partners helping people everywhere know god learn how to become a harvest partner sign up for daily devotions and find resources to help you grow in your faith at harvest.org