Children and The Divine Design

Hey, hey, hey, Gospel City Church. Go ahead and find a seat. And welcome to the house of the Lord this morning. It is great to see you and I’m so excited that you came today. We’re going to save a few songs for the end of the service, so you can anticipate that. We’ll sing a little more together at the end. But go ahead and open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6.

So we’ve made it to the final chapter in the book of Ephesians, and this week we’re only going to look at verses 1-3. And so just so I give you a breakdown, we’ve got this week in Divinely Designed focused on children. Next week focused on parents. And then I’m going to be out for a few weeks on vacation with my family. And so we’ll finish up the Divinely Designed series on May 21st with that bond servants and masters part.

And then there’s going to be a couple of weeks where we’ll focus on some other things, and then I can’t wait to get back with you in June and we’re going to do a series on the armor of God and armoring up together and spiritual warfare and all of that. And so I’m beginning to read and pray about all of that. You can pray for that as well. But that’s kind of how the next month is going to look.

And just real quick. Tonight, come if you’re not a parent. Ok? This is a whole church community kind of thing, and I think that what God has laid on Ryan and Maryann Loveing’s hearts to share tonight is more about generations of holiness taking place in the Body of Christ. And so if you’re not a parent, come tonight and just glean the wisdom from the Word of God and from the teaching that will be there, and I think it will bless you and encourage you.

But today we’re continuing in the same vein that the apostle Paul has been in as he’s talking about Spirit-filled believers all submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. And remember, we talked about that last week. We all stand shoulder to shoulder in the kingdom of God. and then Paul, he kind of zeroes in on the nuclear family. But ultimately Jesus needs to be at the center of all these relationships. Wives submit to their husbands because they love Jesus more than themselves. Husbands love their wives because they love Jesus more than themselves. Children should obey their parents because you should love Jesus more than yourself. And parents should raise their children in the fear and discipline of the Lord because they love Jesus more than themselves, and so on and so forth. And this is the pattern that we continue to see in the book of Ephesians. So Jesus must be at the center of all of this.

And really the nuclear family should just be a shadow, should just be a picture, of the spiritual family that God is joining together. We’ve been joined to this Body; Christ is the head. And we need one another. So obviously God’s design has been marred by sin, and we’ve been talking about that. But God’s design for a Spirit-filled husband to take a Spirit-filled wife and together they would raise Spirit-filled children or children who love the Lord or operate their home in a way that points their children to Jesus. But sin has come into the world and it has marred those things.

But we are being built together as chosen, adopted, redeemed family in the kingdom of God, and so we need one another. And so hear this this morning. We can be spiritual fathers and mothers to those who don’t have them in the Body of Christ. We can be children under the rule and reign of God. We can be a help in the Body of Christ to single parents. We can be a help to overwhelmed parents in the Body of Christ. And the health of a local church is on display in every generation experiencing the beauty of Jesus as a family who loves and serves one another.

So if I could give you the sermon in one sentence this morning that we’ll go, it’s this: Children’s obedience and honor in the Lord is a pathway to experiencing God’s blessing. Children’s obedience and honor in the Lord is a pathway to experiencing God’s blessing. And here’s the thing. All of us children at one point, all of us want to experience God’s blessing. And our obedience has a big place in the life of someone who is submitting to the lordship of Jesus.

Let’s look in Ephesians chapter 6 starting in the first three verses. And let’s read them together. Now hear the Word of the Lord. Paul writes, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” (Ephesians 6:1-3)

Now I’ve got five points that I took from the three verses that we’ll look at today, ok, as we jump into this. And I want you to lean in and I think that this is important. The first point that I’ll give to you is this: children are massively important to God. Children are massively important to God. and I just want you to look at the first word that Paul writes in chapter 6 verse 1. He says, “children.” He writes to children. I want to point out what he does not say. Paul does not write, “now about your children.” He doesn’t say, “when it comes to your children, oh faithful saints in Ephesus.” Remember he’s writing to the believers, the Christians, who are in Ephesus. He doesn’t say, “now about your children.” He writes directly to the children that would be present as this letter is being read in the Body of Christ.

Now why is that important? Because children are so important to God that He speaks directly to them in His Word. The Bible is not just for adults. Young kids in the room, the Bible is not just for your parents. The Bible is God’s divine holy words, and He breathed them out for children too.

So are there any teens in the room or tweens or young adults living under their parent’s roof? Go ahead, raise your hand. I see those reluctant hands. That’s why we’re talking about obedience today. Throw it up loud and proud. But I’ve been there. And sometimes it can feel like this is over your head or maybe you feel like church is boring at times. Or maybe you’ve felt at times like the pastor is just talking to adults. Why do I have to be there?

But God loves you enough, kids, to speak to you directly. And in this amazing letter, this foundational letter to the church at Ephesus, we see that it’s not only written to adults but it’s written directly to children too. And through the Holy Spirit God wants to open every young person’s heart that you might recognize your need for God and your need to take heed to His Word.

Psalm 127:3 says this: Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward.

That means that if you were born into this world, regardless of your circumstances, regardless of your background, regardless of the family that you were born into, regardless of what has happened in your life over time, you are a blessing from God, a heritage to the Lord. you are massively important to God.

And Jesus, He often modeled this. Jesus came and He lived on this earth. He spoke and modeled the importance of children. His mission and His time, which was probably the most important mission on the face of the planet, did not distract Jesus from the importance of children to the heart of God.

In Matthew 18:3 we see Jesus saying, Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

In Mark 10:4 Jesus said, Let the little children come to me. Do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

In Matthew 18:10 Jesus said, See that you do not despise one of these little ones. And then Jesus goes on to say, You adults, you self-righteous Pharisees, if you’re to cause a child to even stumble, it’d be better for you to hang a millstone around your neck and jump into the bottom of the sea and die.

So Jesus loved children because children are massively important to God. And if children are important enough for God to write to them in His Word, then get this, the church ought to do all that they can to welcome, to serve, and to love the children of the world. Amen?

So when we as adults in the Body of Christ serve in Gospel City Kids, you are modeling the heart of God in the Body of Christ. That’s not some throwaway position. That’s not some position where you’re like I don’t know where else I can serve. I don’t have any gifts to utilize in the Body of Christ. I guess I’ll go serve in kids. No, this is modeling the very heart of God in the Body of Christ. When we foster and adopt children into our homes, we’re modeling the very heart of God who adopted us as His own beloved sons and daughters. That is a beautiful picture, maybe the best picture on the earth of the gospel of Jesus Christ taking us when we were dead in our tresspasses and sins and making us alive in Christ as HIs beloved sons and daughters.

Psalm 68:5 says, A father to the fatherless is God in his holy dwelling.

And we are called to imitate God who is in heaven. When we have fun with children in our homes and welcome their input and personalities, we are imitating a Savior that always had time for kids.

So singles that are in the room today, when you use your singleness to champion, to serve and to make time for the children in the church, you are acting just as Jesus did in His singleness. So man, serve in Gospel City Kids. be interruptible in the hallways as kids are running up to you and looking up to you. Be protective of this house and this community in a world that desperately needs protection. And lead a small group in Gospel City Students. And so many of you are, and so many of the teens and the young adults in this church look up to you. Praise God!

Children are massively important to God, therefore, they should be important to adults. And you should feel loved if you are a child in the house of God this morning because God writes to you in His book.

Now point number two is this: Children are commanded by God to obey their parents. Children are commanded by God to obey their parents. Look as verse 1 continues. And Paul writes this, “Children, obey your parents.” Let’s just take that phrase.

Has anyone in the room ever heard their parents say, “My house, my rules”? Anyone ever heard that phrase? Or how about, “As long as you live under my roof, you need to obey my rules”? You’ve heard that one? I’ve heard that one before.

So here is the thing about obedience, kids in the room, children in the room, teens in the room. You will not have to learn how to disobey. You need to learn how to obey. You are naturally bent toward disobedience because you are a sinner.

Now parents in the room, you won’t have to teach your children to disobey. You will have to teach your children and cultivate an environment where they learn obedience in your home. And we’ve all experienced this. We were all children once. But our parents say, “Go to sleep,” and we scream and cry right at the earliest of ages. Our parents say, “Hey, eat your food,” and we spit the food across the room and chuck the bowl in anger across the room. A one-year-old’s anger is a wonderful thing to experience at times.

Our parents say, “Stay in here and play. Entertain yourselves during small group.” And the kids beat on the door and wail and scream and interrupt and all of that, because disobedience is at the core of every child’s nature. It’s at the core of every child’s nature. And if a child doesn’t learn how to obey at a young age, they won’t know how to obey as an adult, and this will lead to all kinds of heartache and trouble. I heard someone say even this week that if your kid doesn’t learn how to obey by the age of five, then they won’t know how to obey at fifteen, and that’s going to cause a lot of tension in your household.

I remember an article that I read about a year ago and it kind of had an extreme punchline, and yet it stuck with me. It was this pastor talking about how he was on a plane and the flight attendant came to this young boy who was sitting by his mother and he was on a tablet. And the flight attendant said, “Excuse me sir, can you shut off that tablet?” The boy didn’t even look up. The boy totally ignored the flight attendant. The boy just kept doing what he was doing, and so did the mother.

And then the flight attendant asked again, and a third time. And finally the fourth time after being completely ignored she said, “Sir, do I need to take that tablet from you so that we can take this plane off?” And he shut the tablet off, she walked away, and he turned the tablet right back on, went back to doing his thing.

And the writer says, “I sat there and I thought, ‘That boy is not being obedient to that flight attendant. The mother is not requiring obedience of her son. She’s preparing her son to be shot.’” That’s what the article said, and it’s kind of stuck in my head, because you get the point.

When we grow up to not obey the law, when we grow up to not obey the things we are called to do, it leads to all kinds of heartache. Adults who disobey get arrested. Adults who disobey get fired from their jobs. Adults who are told to stick up their hands better stick up their hands in the moment, right? You get the point.

But creating a culture of obedience in our homes is not only important to God, but it’s also important to society. This is a societal thing that is really a grace from God that is written into our hearts. But in America we’ve become a bit child-centered in our parenting. We’ve made our homes all about what our children want rather than what God wants. And that child-centeredness has led to entitlement in the nation of America.

I remember being in Thailand when I was in eleventh grade. And you think we have a long church service. In Thailand they’ve got long church services. And I remember being in this hut on a dirt floor and there were tons of little kids. And they were sitting shoulder to shoulder for four hours in a church service. And they were well-behaved and they sang the songs and they listened to speakers, some of which were speaking a different language. And they just sat there side by side.

And if they were getting a little squirmy, if they started to talk to their neighbor, there was a teacher walking around like this and he would twap them on the head with a bamboo or he would poke them. Maybe that’s what we need in our culture here at church today. I don’t know.

And what I’m trying to say is there was a societal norm. I’m not saying that that’s salvation. But it was normal for there to be obedience and respect in that culture. And we don’t want to lose that in ours.

Here’s something that John Stott, a theologian, writes. He says this: “Child obedience belongs to the realm which came in medieval theology to be called ‘natural justice.’ It does not depend on special revelation. It is a part of the natural law, which God has written on the human hearts. It is not confined to Christian ethics. It is a standard of behavior in every society. Pagan moralists, both Greek and Roman, taught it. Stoic philosophers saw a son’s obedience as self-evident, plainly required by reason, and part of the nature of things.”

So it should be a natural thing for a child to obey their parents. It should be a natural societal norm for children to respect and follow their parents. But parents, we’ve got to work at this because of sin, because of the natural bent of our children.

And so here are some helpful phrases that we use in our home often. I think…listen I have not cracked the code on obedience, and I have young kids. And so even standing up here, it’s a bit vulnerable to talk to you about parenting and obedience because I don’t got it all together, and neither does my household. But here are some helpful things that we talk about regularly. I think I’m confident if you were to ask any of my kids, any of my four kids, they’d be able to tell you these phrases. You might have to help them with the first word or something like that.

But here is the first one: obedience brings joy. We try to talk about this a lot in our house that obedience brings joy. And this principle is seen all through the Scriptures, constantly in the Old Testament, right? The people of Israel, God’s people, when they did what was right, when they chose to obey the law, they were in right standing with God and they had harmony with God.

But continually in the Old Testament God’s people, we see this phrase “they did what was right in their own eyes.” And that brought heartache and that brought a lot of separation.

And so the same is true in our homes. When obedience is on display, joy follows closely behind. And so teens, if you’re having tension at home, if you’re having struggles at home, if you feel like you’re butting heads constantly with your parents and you just wish you could have a chill weekend rather than always be at each other, maybe the first thing you should do is check yourself. Check your obedience. Man, maybe I just need to be more submissive to my parents and come under my parents and listen to their instruction. And maybe that would create a joyful weekend. I would argue that it will.

Now here’s the second phrase that we use in our home: first time obedience. First time obedience. We try to talk about this a lot. I would probably argue that there really isn’t any other kind of obedience. You know, I thought of Jonah this week. Jonah is kind of a missionary, a prophet from the Lord. But he was the most disobedient missionary ever in the Old Testament. He’s told to go to Nineveh; he goes the other way. He gets swallowed by a fish; he gets spit up on dry land. He finally goes to Nineveh. He huffs and puffs and he hates what he had to do. And it just goes on and on.

And he eventually got to where he needed to go. God got him to the place where God was going to get Jonah, but he didn’t do it the first time, first time obedience, and it brought a lot of heartache. I think you can save yourself, kids in the room, a lot of heartache and a lot of hard, if you would have first time obedience, if you would listen for the first time and follow your parents’ instruction.

First time obedience can keep a child from getting smashed by a car. First time obedience reminds a child that they’re ultimately not the authority in the home. First time obedience creates a culture of mutual work ethic and respect in the home. And first time obedience protects a child from the consequences and the disciplines that follow when we disobey.

Nwo here’s the last phrase, and it kind of sums up the two phrases. Obedience is doing what you’re told to do, when you’re told to do it, with the right heart attitude. I’ve heard Pastor Trent say that in this church in the past. We learned it through Life Action Ministries. And you get the essence that’s there of the first two statements. But you should obey your parents, kids and teens, cheerfully and with a good attitude, ultimately because they have your best interests in mind. They want to protect you, they ultimately want you to flourish, and so there should be a cheerful, joyful heart in your obedience as you follow Christ.

Now I’ll tell you this, kids. No parents are perfect. Just as I said there are no perfect husbands, no perfect wives, there are no perfect parents. And so, yes, we are called to obey. Yes, we are called to follow our parents. But you’re going to need to pray, and this is why we need to lay the gospel over all of God’s commands. His command to obey comes with a promise when the gospel is laid over it.

That leads to point number three, and it’s this. Children are worshiping Jesus when they obey in the Lord. Children are worshiping Jesus when they obey in the Lord. And I want you to see where verse 1 continues. He says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”

There is a reality to what God’s Word is saying that if you want to please the Lord as a child, you need to obey your parents. One of the greatest ways for young people to show that Jeus is Lord of your lives. You know we talk about Jesus being Lord in youth group. We talk about Jesus being Lord in this church a lot. One of the best ways for you to show that Jesus is Lord of your life is not to come to church every week. It’s not to sing the songs and pray the prayers and go to youth group every week. It’s to start by obeying your parents in the home.

And the Bible doesn’t say, “obey some things.” The Bible doesn’t say, “obey the things that feel convenient to you.” It doesn’t say, “Obey the things you want to obey.” It says, “Children, obey your parents.”

Colossians 3:20 Paul wrote this in case there was any misclarification. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Now that sounds impossible. How am I going to obey my parents in everything? Ugh! It just sounds awful. But there is something that is even more impossible than that that we see in the text. What’s more impossible than obeying your parents in everything is pleasing the Lord as a finite human being. What’s even more impossible than obeying our parents in everything is doing what is right in the eyes of God as sinful men and sinful women.

And that’s what Paul wrote in verse 1 of chapter 6. “Children, obey your parents, for this is right.” And that’s an impossible thing to do- do something that is right in the eyes of God- unless you take the three words that are in between. He says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”

And that sounds a lot like what we’ve been looking at in the book of Ephesians over the last year. Believers who have been joined to the Body find themselves in Christ. It’s the most important position you could ever find yourself in this side of heaven. And the only way to truly do what is right or truly please the Lord is to die to yourself, is to confess Jesus as Lord of your life and then allow your obedience to your parents to ultimately be obedience to God whom you worship with your heart, soul, mind and strength. This is God’s greatest desire for everyone in earshot today. This is God’s greatest desire for every person of every age in this room. Only those who are in the Lord can be saved, and only those who are in the Lord can do what is right and pleasing to a holy and blameless God.

And the only way to get in the Lord is by the work of the Holy Spirit that you are dead in your trespasses and sins and that you’re following the course of this world. And Ephesiasns chapter 2 tells us who we are when we come into this world. We are by nature children of wrath and we are sons and daughters of disobedience. You have to recognize, oh I don’t just obey because I need to obey. I need to obey my parents because the holy God of the universe has commanded me to. And I need to die to myself and recognize my need for the Spirit of God to not keep me dead in my trespasses and sins but transfer me to a new position in this life. I need to be in the Lord.

And the only way to get there is for the Lord to make you alive. And Ephesians chapter 2 says, “By grace you are saved through faith.” So we put our faith in a God who is able to save because Jesus Christ died on a cross in our place as a substitute for our sins and He rose again, defeating death and the grave so that I could come to Him and trust Him with my life and follow Him forever and allow His sacrifice to become my reward. And then I can obey my parents but know that I’m ultimately obeying God in this life.

Children are worshiping Jesus when they obey their parents in the Lord. And it’s ultimately worship to the Lord because it is right and it is worshiping Christ and it is being in right standing with God. And when children repent and believe, the Holy Spirit empowers them to obey God’s Word and to find blessing as they obey their parents on the earth.

So the gospel is so important to lay over this, and we’ll talk about it a little more as we go. But number four that I want to give to you is this: children can honor their parents for a lifetime. Children can honor their parents for a lifetime.

Look where verse 2 goes in Ephesians chapter 6. It says, “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise).

Let’s stop there and take this verse by itself. Paul was writing, just as he did in chapter 5 verse 31 when he took us back to Genesis. We see that Paul is a Bible guy. Paul is not peddling his own ideas for the family. Paul is not making this stuff up or these things up. Paul is simply taking us to what God has always designed in the Old Testament. And so he drew his ideas for marriage from the beginning of the world from Genesis at the creation.

And now he takes us back to Exodus when God gave us the Ten Commandments or He gave Moses. So Paul is drawing what he writes about marriage and children from the Old Testament. And in this case he takes us back to what he said in Exodus 20:12. Here’s what the fifth commandment says that was given to Moses. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

So when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai, the first four were vertical commands. They had to do with your relationship to God. So don’t have any other gods before Me. Don’t bow to idols. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. And then the fifth commandment is the first horizontal command, and that’s because the first relationship that we experience on the earth is children to their parents. And this always goes best when children honor their parents.

So honor means to give wealth to or high value to or to express worth in. So kids, you’re not honoring your parents when you pout, when you whine and complain, when you huff and puff, when you roll your eyes. Some of you all get that like roll eye at 13. It’s like, boom, in the room. And your parents are asking you to do something. Do you ever have the grunt in your household? Like I grew up with six boys, or five boys. And so when my parents would ask us, “How was your day?” we would just go “ugh.”

And my parents would say, “Don’t grunt at us,” when we would get home from school. Don’t raise your voice and yell at your parents. These things do not communicate honor, because honor means to value or to express worth in.

So don’t treat your parents like they’re lame. Treat your parents like they are a gift from God to you. And that gift is to help you. That gift is to shape you. That gift is to protect you. That gift is to nurture you. And notice what Paul said. “This is the first commandment with a promise.”

So what God is saying from His Word, if His people would honor their fathers and mothers in accordance with the law of God, their days would be long in the land that the Lord God was giving them. And He didn’t put a promise. He didn’t put that promise after the next five commands. He just simply said, “Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not lie or covet.”

And what I believe that what God was doing was saying that if you’ll learn to obey your parents in the small things, then you’ll be able to obey in the larger things down the road. If your kids learn right now to eat their broccoli, they’ll probably learn later not to steal from somebody else. Not perfectly, obviously. But if you can teach your kids. In the dating years, kids, if you’ll obey your parents as they teach you about relationships and dating and the importance of what God’s Word says about marriage, then you can obey God’s law later when it says, “Do not commit adultery, for this is sin.”

You understand, we obey Him in the small things, in our household, so that we might have a spirit of obedience as we walk out our call on the earth. So one quick distinction from this text that’s been really honestly convicting to me as I’ve thought about it this week. You can honor your parents for a lifetime. Every person in here was a child at one point. You have parents. Perhaps your parents have gone on to be with the Lord or leave this life. But you can honor your father and mother for a lifetime.

When we grow up and start our own families, we don’t obey our parents in the same way we did when we were under their roofs, but you can honor your parents and hold them with great value for a lifetime. This is what it says in Proverbs 17:6: Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children.

So one, just awesome perspective that I get to see from this platform on Sundays sometimes. Often I see an entire row, maybe a family, a generational family in a row in this church. And it’s awesome to see parents who have become grandparents and sons and daughters who have gotten married and their spouse is sitting in the row. And then sometimes there are children in the row or teens in the row or babies that cry out and shout “amen” every now and then and let me know I’m doing ok. I love it. This is a beautiful representation of generational honor to the glory of God.

And all of us have parents. So how can you honor your parents even today? And I’ve been thinking about that in my own life. And I want to honor my parents for the things that they taught me and for the things that they’ve done in my life. And I live seven hours away and I have for a long time. And so that creates a separation and that kind of thing. But how can you honor your parents wherever God has you in this life?

It might look like just picking up the phone and calling your mom or your dad. It might look like writing them a letter. It might look like taking care of them in their old age. And you know, I’ve been humbled as I’ve looked at some of my friends who are fifteen, twenty years older than me, and they’re taking care of their parents who are eighty and ninety years old. And it’s a humbling thing.

And you think to yourself, “Boy, I hope that I can honor my parents that way with gentleness in their old age because they did so much for me.” Ask the Lord what He might have you do to honor your parents even today, everyone in the room. And we can all honor our parents even if they don’t deserve it, may not deserve it. If we have Christ in us, we can certainly honor them somehow and know that it is pleasing to the Lord.

Now finally, the last point that I’ll give to you, and I just want to lean in and hear my heart, it’s this: children who obey the Lord are blessed and protected for eternity. Children who obey the Lord are blessed and protected for eternity.

So verse 3 Paul writes, and it’s really the command or it’s really the blessing that we saw in Exodus. “That it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

So don’t miss the importance of the pieces that are in this fifth point, ok? True blessing and true protection only come from obedience that is in the Lord. So what I’m saying is this. You can be the most obedient child on the face of the planet and still go to hell. You could have the most obedient household and your kids want nothing to do with Jesus. You can really love and appreciate your parents but never experience the blessing of an eternal Father who adopts us as His own.

So what Paul is writing, it’s not a formula for salvation. It’s not a formula for an easy life. There is a general principle being conveyed in God’s Word that if children will obey and honor their parents, it can be a pathway to God’s blessing, especially if the parents are in Christ and are Spirit-filled, just as he’s writing to the faithful saints in Ephesus. And it’s God’s design and it’s God’s intent. And this is Paul writing to believing families.

But there’s a far more important reality when we place this through a gospel lens. The goal in this life is not to have ease, is not to have protection here on the earth. But it should be to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And every child in every home that surrenders to the lordship of Jesus Christ can experience blessing and protection that goes far beyond what this life can offer.

John 10:10 Jesus says, The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, and I came that you might have life and have it abundantly.

So the Old Testament law was a preserving law that the people of Israel might live in harmony with one another and in communion with God. but this new covenant, this new covenant with Jesus Christ, is a sanctifying love that all who are in Christ might become holy and might be built up into the temple of the Lord and might walk in a manner worthy of their call and might stand shoulder to shoulder, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. And salvation is not only for adults, but it is for children too.

And every child who is in Christ has been given all that they need to honor and obey their parents to the glory of God. and so the general sense that Paul is speaking in in Ephesians chapter 6, it’ll go well for you this side of heaven. It doesn’t mean that you won’t face tragedy. It doesn’t mean you won’t face heartache. It doesn’t mean you won’t face sickness and loss.

But spiritually speaking, every child who is in Christ will be blessed and protected for eternity because you are already seated with Christ on His throne in heaven. You are already given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. You are redeemed from your sin and sealed for eternity. And God is not only able to save you, but man, He can help you obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

And some of you young kids in the room, I’ve been there, ok? I get it. I grew up in church, and there have been times when I probably didn’t honor my parents. And there were times when I struggled with things that I shouldn’t have struggled with, and that’s a real reality that the flesh or the spirit of this world so opposes the Spirit of God. And so your parents want what’s best for you if you’re a young person in the room. And my prayer is that this church would have young people that grow up to be older people in this church and serve this Body in this community because you’ve latched onto the holiness of Christ at a young age.

The world has nothing for you. Better is one day in this house than a thousand days in the tents outside of this house. And some of you are wrestling with that right now. Some of you are experiencing that right now. And there are parents in here whose hearts are broken because of children who have run astray or prodigal children who have gone down their own road and not listened to the counsel of the Lord. and we have a lot as parents to own up to because we miss it sometimes and because we’re fallible and we need the grace of God.

But children and parents, this relationship is so important to God because it’s the greatest way to make disciples of all nations. Households, leaning in to what God’s Word has said that we might honor Him. So I want you, kids in the room, if you haven’t surrendered to the lordship of Jesus, if you feel like you’re just trying to do the right thing because you don’t want to get in trouble, that’s not the gospel. That’s not the gospel.

The gospel says die to yourself that you might live. The gospel says come to Jesus whose yoke is easy and His burden is light. He’ll take all that heavy stuff off your shoulders if you’ll just give up your life and your control. And then He can help you with the obedience to your parents.

Can I pray for you? Let’s pray together. And I’m thankful that you came to church. Let’s pray.

Lord, we just need your Spirit. We need Your Spirit. We thank You that Your Spirit opens our hearts. And Lord, I pray for every young person in the room. Some of them are my friends, Lord. and I have joy just having with them or when they give me five like I’m not an old man. And Lord, I want so much for them to follow Jesus and to do great things for You. I think about the kids in Gospel City Kids and so many families that I love who have brought their kids to this church and trust the leadership of this church. Lord, would You protect our Body? Because children are massively important to You.

Lord, would You protect us and our children from the brokenness of this world? Would You protect our children from the harm of this world? Would You protect our church, Lord, from the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy? And Lord, would You let the gospel always be on display as we bring our finite efforts into this room and we do our best to follow Christ?

Holy Spirit, as tangibly as you can, would you open hearts today to love You and trust You more? Holy Spirit, we sang it earlier. Come and fill us again. Lord, would You fill up the broken? Would You fill up the child that is running from You and thinks that this is all boring? I pray that Your Spirit would make it alive to them today. Lord, I pray for the prodigal children in our church who have run astray. Lord, would You draw them back to You? Lord, would You draw them back to their parents? God, would You draw them back to the homes that love them and have shown them Jesus?

And Lord, we just trust that You are able to save. You are willing to save. You desire that all would repent and believe. So Lord, do what only You can do in the lives of our children. And God, would You help the children of this church to follow Your Word ultimately because it is worship to the King of Kings? We love You Lord and we hail You as King. our eyes stayed fixed on You today. In Jesus’ mighty name we pray, amen.