January 8, 2025 3:00 am
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 us solid insight based on the 10 Commandments found in Exodus chapter 20. Glad you’re along.
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A New Beginning is the daily half-hour program hosted by Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Southern California. For over 30 years, Pastor Greg and Harvest Ministries have endeavored to know God and make Him known through media and large-scale evangelism. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.
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A New Beginning presents something for the New Year from Pastor Greg Laurie. We want to help you get stronger in your faith and discover what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. To help you do that, we're offering a book called Discipleship, The Road Less Taken. I explore what the Bible says about discipleship and how we can grow in this area.
And we'll send this book to you for your gift of any size. Get your copy of Discipleship, The Road Less Taken at Harvest.org. The statistics show that the age most kids start to turn 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. Well, 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 and help prepare them for the real world. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Again you hear when the angels are singing.
This is the day, the day when life begins. 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 the day, the day when life begins.
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, right? No. 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's 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's 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's like the father in that story. He's a father who loves you. A father who longs for a relationship with you.
A father who is broken hearted when you're 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's 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're 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're 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've 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're amazing. Really. How old are your kids. Three and four.
You don't know what you're talking about. Tell me how it goes after you've raised two teenagers. If you've 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's 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 through the knothole. Wow. And then he adds this and then when they turn 16 plug up the knothole. Wow.
A little harsh. Okay let's look at Ephesians six 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'll live long in the earth.
That's a quote from the 10 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. Well 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 provoked 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 the son of 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 oh 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 I want to tell you about a major new ministry initiative that we have here at Harvest called the Harvest Discipleship Platform. So it's a major leap forward in our national ministry and we adapt teachings from the New Believers Bible.
Do you know about that? That's a Bible project I worked on years ago and they're all around the world. Well we have excerpts from the New Believers Bible and also we have an online community of believers who are looking for what's next in their spiritual walk. So at Harvest Discipleship you can find trusted Bible teaching in a community that cares for you and positive encouragement in your spiritual life.
That sounds pretty good right? So become a part of the Harvest Discipleship Platform and you can do that by just going to harvest.org. In one of the past year's most requested studies we are 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 that I can remember in my entire childhood said I love you. It was hard for her.
She was a broken person. 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 four 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 friends 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? And 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. 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 sons, 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 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 is 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 would have to pull the robe up above their knees. It just wasn't done. Not to mention the fact that it is 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 is my theory. I think that son could have been in a very dangerous situation. It is possible that people in the town were picking up rocks and 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 have 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 is 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 are a prodigal you can come back home. If you are someone who has 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 are going to pray and I am 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 are 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 are a prodigal Lord I pray that you will 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 today Pastor Greg will help you with that in just a moment before this edition of A New Beginning concludes. And then let us say a word of thanks to those who support us financially. Those who make it possible for us to bring you these studies each day. We're definitely a listener supported ministry. It's the generosity of listeners that help us be here with these programs. So if you've partnered with us thank you. And if you have yet to partner with us well I hope you'll get in touch today and let us know that you're standing with us. Even a small investment would help. It's actually an investment in changing lives. Thank you for partnering with us. You can donate securely online at harvest.org or write A New Beginning Box 4000 Riverside, CA 92514 or call us at 1-800-821-3300.
Again that's 1-800-821-3300. Well Pastor Greg a few moments ago you spoke of the need to get our hearts right with God. Could you help someone who wants to do that right now?
Yes I'd be delighted to. Listen as you've listened to this program today maybe something's been happening inside of your heart where you're sensing I need to do this personally but how do I do it and what do I do? Let me help you. It's very simple.
In fact it's so simple you may be shocked. God this relationship with him is just a prayer away. The Bible says if you will call upon the name of the Lord you'll be saved. So I'd like to lead you in a prayer where you do just that. You call on the name of the Lord. You know sometimes when I'm talking with someone one-on-one and they want to accept Jesus Christ I'll have them pray a prayer after me.
Maybe you'd like to do that right now. Thousands have done this over the years listening to our broadcast and the Lord has changed our lives. And if you and it can happen for you right now this can be the moment where you change your eternal address literally from hell to heaven. I'll pray a simple prayer and I would just ask you to pray this prayer out loud if you like after me.
Just pray these words. Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you're the savior who died on the cross for me and rose again from the dead. Jesus I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In your name I pray amen.
I know it's such a simple short prayer but you just called on the name of the Lord and you know what he heard that prayer and if you meant that prayer in your heart he answered that prayer. Now let me help you to get started on the right foot in your new life in Jesus Christ. The greatest adventure awaits you the life of walking with God. I want to send you what we call a new believers growth pack.
What is that? Well first of all it's a copy of the new new believers bible and by that I mean we have redone this from ground level up. I've rewritten the notes and it's a new living translation with a lot of notes on how to grow spiritually woven through this unique edition of scripture. So I'll send you the new believers pack that includes the new believers bible and a whole lot more and let me be the first to say to you congratulations and welcome to the family of God. And to get that free new believers bible along with the other items in our growth pack just let us know you prayed along with pastor Greg to receive Christ today. We'll be glad to send our new believers growth pack your way.
Call us at 1-800-821-3300. Call anytime that's 1-800-821-3300 or write a new beginning box 4000 Riverside California 92514 or go online to harvest.org and click know God. 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.
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