God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton on this edition of The Encouraging Word. The Encouraging Word A Christian response to daughters and sons, that's our topic over the next two days with Dr. Don Wilton. While we're studying, know that we're here for you. We'd love to connect with you on our website, www.tewonline.org.
And now Dr. Don Wilton. The Encouraging Word What road are you traveling? This is not an accident. It's not just like ho, hum, well. God designed for us to meet together. He said forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.
And this is one of the reasons. So right now in the next few moments, having already been blessed, not because I'm now speaking, I'm just part of a big flow. In fact, in some ways I'm interrupting it. God has you and me here for a purpose. And I want you to open your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 6. And I'm going to really insist that you look at this.
Now we're going to put it up on the screen. Because it's God's word. It's not Don's word. This is God's word.
This is what our students have been so blessed with even this week. Looking at what God has to say in his word. What is God? God's got something to say. And I want to speak to you today on a Christian response to daughters and sons.
How do you like that for a subject? A Christian response to daughters and sons. So who am I talking to today? Well, obviously to our daughters and sons. They're going to hear a lot.
They're going to receive a lot. But I'm talking to moms and dads. To grandparents like me. My kids are all grown. I've got grandchildren. Eight of them. I'm talking to someone's aunt, someone's uncle here.
A next door neighbor. I'm talking to church member here. Because you're an investor in sons and daughters. That's what we do. I tell you, if watching our students this week is any indicator of the quality of young person that's coming out of this church and this community. God's doing something incredible. I'm looking at some amazing families here. I'm looking at amazing people and I want to put this into a context here. And I've entitled this message, A Christian Response to Daughters and Sons.
So in first Timothy chapter six, here's the scene. This is grandpa talking to his grandson. This is dad talking to his daughter. This is older person. Hello, that's me.
I'll admit it. I'm older than a lot of sons and daughters we know. It's older person saying what God wants to be said to younger person. Because older person has done some traveling down this road.
Didn't say has done everything, has accomplished that. Just say older person has got some thing in the rear view mirror. An older person who loves Jesus is charged by God to respond to sons and daughters. God charges us to do that. So in this context, here's Paul, young Timothy. I'm just going to read a few verses, okay?
Let's have a look what he says to him here. Verse 11. He says, but you man of God, you daughter of God, you son, you daughter, you younger person, flee from all of this. And pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you are called when you made your good confession in the presence of all of these witnesses.
By the way, what do you think those 16 young people did this week? And right now they made good their confession in the presence. We all said, I see you. I bear witness.
Listen, let me read that again. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made good your confession in the presence of many witnesses in the sight of God who gives life to everything and of Jesus Christ, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession. I charge you, young man, to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which God will bring about in his own time. God the blessed and the only ruler, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever and forever.
Amen. So be it, for thus it is written and thus it is said. So what did Paul say? What did Paul say? Let's just first of all, just very briefly, let's just stick to here because I've got to come out of the Bible. Otherwise, all I'm doing is giving you a lecture on my thoughts.
I'm not saying that that's not important. I'm not saying we don't have a lot of wisdom to share. But there's nothing like God's wisdom, right? What does God say? So what did Paul say to the young person? If we're going to consider a Christian response to sons and daughters, what did Paul say in this context? He said five things.
Here they are, very quickly. Number one, flee from. That's what he says in verse 11, flee from. By the way, that word flee doesn't mean consider.
It doesn't mean get up, examine, and make up your mind if. What does the word flee mean? It means get out of there, run away.
It means turn your back and go in the opposite direction. What did he tell him to flee from? Well, I didn't even get to read all of that. It's all there starting in verse three. Flee from false doctrines and those who teach you untruth.
Can I put that in modern day terminology? He's telling young guy, don't listen to junk, man. Flee from it. Be careful who you listen to.
Watch who you listen to. Flee from it. What is he saying here?
I mean, there's so much here, I better not get bogged down. He said get away from, flee from conceitedness, empty mindedness. Flee from unwholesome controversy. Flee from quarrels about words that result in strife and envy and malicious talk and evil suspicion. Guys, listen, what is he telling the young guy?
That God wants you to know. Get away from this. Don't mess with it. Flee from it.
Turn your back on it. I mean, he goes on there. He says flee from loving money. I didn't say that. It's what he said here in this passage. He says be very careful about loving money in verse 9. What did he not say? He didn't say flee from having money.
What else did he not say? He didn't say flee from making money. He didn't say flee from investing wisely, working hard, doing well. He said flee from loving money because the love of money is the root of all evil. He says get away from it. It'll kill you, man. You'll end up with castles and everything anybody could ever have and be as miserable as a hound dog.
You can have all the fame, the fortune. That's what he's telling the young guy. I'm telling you God to flee from. All right, let's go on to the next one because there are five of them. The second thing he says is pursue after.
Pursue after. Look right there in verse 11. He says pursue five things. Righteousness. What's righteousness?
That's godly standards. He says godliness. That's living according to God.
Life. He says pursue after faith. Faith. Pursue after faith. What is faith, guys?
He's telling this young man, this young lady, he's saying I don't only want you to run away from, flee from, but I want you to go after. Righteousness. Godliness. Faith. Faith means you need to pursue. You need to make it your business to study and understand and take hold of what it means to really trust God. You don't always have to understand God.
Guys spend a lot less time trying to figure God out and a lot more time just trusting him. Now watch me. Listen. Listen. I'm telling you there are even quote unquote brilliant.
You've got to be careful what I say here because I'm not trying to throw anybody under the bus. I'm just telling you guys there are brilliant pastors and Bible teachers out there who go berserk and besotted trying to get you to understand God. And we must do everything we can to study about him and to learn about him and ask the Spirit to guide us. But Paul is saying the operative here is trust him. Don't spend your whole life trying to figure him out. Who can ever fathom the almightiness of God?
Let God be God and accept God for who he is. Forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the rest of today's teaching with Dr. Wilton in just a moment. But Dr. Don wants you to know we're here for you. Connecting 24 hours a day on our website at www.tewonline.org. While you're there www.tewonline.org. It's also the place to sign up for the daily devotion from Dr. Don. It's absolutely free.
Pops into your email or you can even ask for a physical copy if you'd like as well. Call online at www.tewonline.org. Now back to today's teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. He gives us a list there of pursuing after.
It's a fantastic list. Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Oh, that's a nice how do you do. He says pursue after gentleness.
Don't make it your business he says to young Timothy. That hot button that you've got. I'm going to serve you well, man. You can lead. You can stand up.
You can point people in the direction. You can be the best woman. You can be the best man. You can be at the top of your profession.
You can sit in the seat of leadership. You can do all of these things, but you never have to sacrifice the gentleness of the spirit of the living God. You don't ever resort to the same means of the in your face four letter world in which we live. That's what he's saying.
It's a tough word, eh? Flee from, pursue after, number three, he says fight for, look at verse 12. Fight the good fight of faith.
Fight for it. And by the way, that word doesn't mean, you know, I'm going to get out there and man, I'm going to fight this and I'm going to chop this and I'm going to do this and I'm going to get off of this. And that's not what he's talking about. That word there fight means that you are serious about your faith. Are you serious? Are you a serious Christian? How many of us are Christian, but we just not, we just sloppy, we're like bowls of jello, we just wobble around. He says, fight the good fight of faith.
Be serious about it. Number four, he says, hold tight. I like this one, hold tight. Look there in the second part of verse 12. I told you it all comes right out of the Bible.
Fight the good fight of faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made good your confession in the company of many witnesses. He says, hold tight to it. If you're about to get married, can I give you a little word here?
Give you a big, big hint, big clue. Hold tight to one another. Now what does that mean to hold tight to it?
You mean in this world? You're both going to have to go, you're going to have to go to this job. She's got to go this and you got to do that.
You got to do that. And beside, can I tell you the biggest separation between the two of you? He's a he and she's a she. I'm telling you, marriage is just stupid, okay? Right? And here I am sitting looking at everybody saying, you want me to give you a really good thing to do? Hold tight to each other.
By the way, it works. As soon as you let go, as soon as you let go, well, you go do your thing, I'll do my thing. You got your world, I got my world, you go do this. You know what happens in your marriage? You become estranged from one another. You can end up in a marriage sitting in the same house looking at each other saying, who is that man there? Who is that woman? We don't know each other.
You say it never happens in a marriage? Hello? Paul here is looking to the young man and he says, hold tight. To what? To what you confessed.
Stick with it, man. Hold it. You know, Chris, you and I were just so pumped about all these young people this weekend.
They gave their lives through baptism, our children in our children's ministries with Greg Springsteen and Martha and all the... You know, listen, coming to know Christ, hold tight, man. Brad, your kids, when they grow up, pray that they would hold tight. Don't visit your confession of faith only on a Sunday morning. Hold tight to it. And then there's one more. He says, keep always.
Well, that gets down right there. In verse 14, he culminates in his word to the younger person. He says, I'm going to charge you.
You ready for this? That's what he says. Verse 14, keep this command. That little word there is like persevere. It's like keep on keeping on.
It's like, man, I can't believe I've got to do this again. Oh, yeah. But here's the difference. Greater is he that's in you than the one that's in the world. All right. So watch this, guys, watch this. Paul talking to a young fellow here.
He tells him five things, very simple, flee from, pursue after, fight for, hold tight, keep always. All right, before we go, can I just be dad for a minute? Can I be a Christian dad? I just want to be a Christian grandfather for a minute. Here's my question. What is a Christian response to our daughters and sons?
It's like I'm preaching to the choir here, because you're obviously doing this, and I command you for it. I want to affirm you today. What is a Christian response? Number one, going to give you a few here.
You ready? Bless them. Bless your daughters and sons. Bless them. Verbally, positively, practically, heartfully, just bless them.
Can I just tell you something? They'll bless you back a whole lot more. Bless them. Number two, love them. Love your sons and daughters, man. You say, pastor, wait a minute. Of course, everybody loves their children.
Really? What does your love look like right now? What does it feel like?
What does it sound like? Dad? Mom? Grandparent?
Neighbor? Love them. Guys, listen, man. Love your children because of who they are, not because of what you think they should be. You'll find in your family you could have 10 children come from the same mom and dad, and every one of them is different. You know they're all your children, but after a while you wonder if they are all your children. You know? Because we all have personalities, you know?
Some of us are up this way and some are down that way. Just love them. Love them for who they are.
Number three, Christian response is a Christian. Nurture them. Nurture them. By the way, that word nurture is a great word, isn't it? You know what the word nurture means? It means to care and encourage growth in them. That's what the word nurture means. It means to care for them and to encourage growth in them. And it's not just physical growth. It's spiritual, maturational growth. It's the growth of life. Nurture them.
Make it your business. That's a Christian response. Bless them. Love them. Nurture them. Here's another one, number four, protect them. Protect them. You'll notice I haven't put an age group on this. That word protect means be the Christian mom or dad that never stops watching out for them.
And by the way, I promise you this. Your kids will grow up very quickly. Some of you got little ones. They grow up very quickly, man. I know you hear that all the time, how they grow up quickly. I'm just sorry, but it's true.
It happens. They do. They grow up real quickly, man. Don't ever stop protecting them, no matter how big they are. Protect them.
That means to defend them. The younger they are, it takes on the age appropriateness. You know, little children don't have a microphone.
Have you noticed that? That they can speak for protection. They've all evidently got a microphone.
Some of them never seem to stop talking into the microphone. Right? You want to bless your whole family? Get them a drum set for Christmas. You been there, done that? Defend them.
And if they're young enough, you got to speak for them. It's been a powerful day of teaching and preaching from Dr. Don Wilton, but as he steps into the studio, open your heart to what he wants to share next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God. This is exciting news. If you've just given your heart to Jesus, we want to speak with you, pray with you, and put resources in your hands.
Maybe you've rededicated your life to Christ. Dr. Wilton wants you to have these resources if you'll call us at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673, or meet us online at tewonline.org. And thank you for many of you who are giving prayerfully and financially to the ministry of the encouraging word. We are excited to announce that a friend of the ministry has donated $200,000 as a challenge gift and has extended a challenge to our donors to give an additional $300,000 by December 31st. This challenge is to fund our television broadcasting. Would you prayerfully consider a donation to this challenge? Please call 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 to give a donation and be sure to tell them that this is for the match challenge. Thank you for your support of the encouraging word. Be sure and join us tomorrow for the next edition of The Encouraging Word with Dr. Don Wilton. Until then, stay connected on our website at tewonline.org.
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