Fathers and Their Children

, well, let's, let's get into this morning's message, which is a Father's Day message that we're entitling Children and their fathers. You can open up to Ephesians chapter 6. We'll be looking at verses 1 to 4. Let me just read the text for you from my copy of God's word.

I'm reading from the ESB. Children, obey your parents and 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.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that You would open up our minds by your Spirit to understand the text that is before us, and that you would fill us with your Spirit as we seek to obey it. Help each one of our fathers in their duty and role and privilege.

Help each of our children as they seek to obey their parents in your strength in Christ's name we pray. Amen. This is a book called Ephesians. Paul is writing this book to a colony or an area of the Roman Empire, and it would be good for us to know a little bit about the state of the family in Ephesus or in the Roman Empire in general to understand this text.

Fathers at this time in history, had what was called the absolute right of the Father. The patriapotesta in Latin. The idea was, is that the father was the dictator of the home. He could determine the life and death, the slavery, the freedom of his children until they die.

And he did not have to consider the needs of his wife or his slaves. He was the boss. He was the dictator. At this time, historians also tell us that we have the total dissolution of marriage, that marriage was no longer held in high regard because of the rampant sexual immorality.

It was very customary for men and women to exchange sexual partners, to be with one sexual partner for a while and then to exchange and go to another sexual partner and so the concept of marriage had become old, out, outdated and old fashioned. Because of this, children got in the way. A Roman baby always ran the risk of being repudiated by the father who had all power and being exposed to the elements and laid out to die. In the time that Paul was writing, the risk was even greater than at earlier times in the Roman Empire.

Since the marriage bond had collapsed. And men and women exchanged partners with bewildering rapid rapidness. Under such circumstances, a child was an inconvenience. The Romans were absolutely pro-choice, but not pro-choice in our modern sense.

The father had the absolute right to choose life or exposure of the infant. After a child was born, he or she was laid at the father's feet. And if the father picked up the child, then the child would live. If the father stood up and walked away, then the then the child would be exposed, laid out to perhaps die.

Unwanted children were commonly left in the Roman Forum. There they became property of anyone who cared to pick them up, which was normally slave traders who would pick them up and raise them to sell as slaves, or they were picked up to stock the brothels of Rome. Many, however, were saved by the church. So few children were being born or were living without being exposed that the Roman government actually passed legislation that the amount of any legacy that a childless couple could receive was limited.

They had to pass legislation to try to get people to start having kids and taking care of children. Into such an upside down world, the gospel begins to shine forth. And the apostle Paul is writing the words that we're about to read or to study in this context. You have people who had come to Christ, you have fathers who had come to know the Lord, who had this concept, who previously had this concept that they were the dictator and could determine life and death of their children.

You had mothers and fathers coming to know the Lord who had had multiple sexual partners, and maybe didn't even know who, whose, whose child this was. And this is the type of environment that Paul begins to write. We may well expect that Paul would avoid any talk of obedience of children to such parents, fathers particularly, but that's not where Paul goes. This morning we have 2 basic points.

There's 2 basic commands. There's, if you look at the grammar, there's actually a number of different commands, but we're going to focus on 2 basic commands in these verses. And the first one is, children, obey your parents. With Christ.

And then later we'll be talking about fathers raise up your children for Christ. Paul's first command is, children, obey your parents within the sphere, within the power of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Verse one says, children, obey your parents in the Lord. Notice that children are being addressed here.

that Paul is turning his pen. And as the lector would be reading this before the church, the lector is turning his gaze towards the children in the church. The children are being addressed. Children with the power to make decisions.

And whom are they to obey? They are to obey parents, children. obey Your parents, who are these parents? When you look at verse two, Paul reiterates the same concept by quoting Deuteronomy 5, Honor your father and what?

Mother. Parent equals father and mother. The prototypical family, the biblical family involves a mom, a dad, and children. But because of the fall and because of sin and the consequences of death, this could include, and, and may well have included in Paul's day, single parent homes, maybe grandparents had to raise children of sexually immoral parents, stepparents, foster parents, adoptive parents.

There would have been Christians who would have picked up babies from the forum that had been left behind and now are raising these kids as their own. And so there would be lots of different types of parental situations in which children were being called to obey their parents. However, there are no commands or positive examples in scripture where children are commanded to obey non-parents engaging in immoral relationships posing as parents. What do we mean by this?

The Bible does not say obey your mother and her live-in boyfriend. The Bible does not say, obey your dad and his common law wife. The Bible does not say obey your dad and his partner. The Bible says, obey your parents.

And he's speaking to a church and the expectation, and what will follow, what's come before what will follow this text is that adults in the situation will see the implications of what's being commanded of these little ones. Little ones need someone to look to who can be identified as their parents, as their mom and their dad, or in a single parent situation as the mom who is taking the role of both. They don't need a dad and a girlfriend. They don't need a mom and a live-in boyfriend.

They don't need a dad and a dad and a mom and a mom. They need parents, and that is what is laid out in scripture from Genesis to Revelation. This is the prototype. This is the family.

And children are being commanded, young children all the way up to teen years are being commanded, look to your parents. And submit yourself to them. Obey these people that God has sovereignly put into your life. Maybe you were picked up in the Roman forum.

Well, now these are your parents. Maybe like Timothy, your dad is an unbeliever, you still have an unbelieving dad and a, and a believing mom, obey your parents. In some cases, the parents would have just gone off into immorality and left their kids with mom and dad, with the grandma and grandpa. Obey your grandma and grandpa in that case.

Obey those whom the Lord has put over you. and then Paul gives reasons. That children are to obey. Why obey?

A child might be asking in the Ephesian church, And this morning there are many children. Children should ask, why should I obey my parents? My parents aren't perfect. My parents make mistakes.

Why should I as a six year old obey my parents? Why should I as an eighteen-year old obey my parents? Well, Paul's first answer is this. Children, it is right.

It is right. This almost sounds like Paul saying because I said so, but think about it. It is right. Paul is appealing to something very basic in the heart of every man, woman and child, and that is the fact that God has written this on your heart.

If you're a child this morning and if you can understand the words I am speaking. God has written on your heart, a basic knowledge of right and wrong. And part of that basic knowledge of right and wrong involves an intuition that that it is right to obey your parents. You can go throughout the world, you can find cultures that have never come into contact with the Bible or Christ or Christianity, and you will find children who know instinctively they should obey their parents.

How do we know this? We see in Romans 2:14, for instance, That for when the Gentiles who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law are a law to themselves who show the work of the law, written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness. Unbelievers, total pagans who've never heard of Christ, know right and wrong in a very basic way, and Paul is appealing to that image of God that is in every child. If you're a child here and you can hear and you understand the words I'm saying, if you're 18 years old, in your heart of hearts, it is right to obey your parents, to obey the, the folks that the Lord has put into your life.

There's a 2nd reason. That Paul offers, and we would say it this way, it is written, Paul appeals not just to general revelation in the image of God, he appeals to special revelation in the 10 Commandments. He goes back to the 5th commandment. And says, honor your father and mother.

This is, he's quoting the fifth commandment here. He's quoting Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 16. And so he's quoting the, the living word of God, obey your parents because God says so in his holy word. God wrote this with his own finger on tablets of stone.

If God wrote this, took the time to write this with his own finger on tablets of stone, this must be pretty important stuff, children. Obey your parents, give honor to your father, give honor to your mother. What's another reason that Paul gives? He says, obey because it is right, because it is written, but also because it is rewarded.

As he goes on with the rest of the quote, Paul inserts his own commentary in verse 2, he says, this is the first commandment with promise, by the way. That it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land. that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. Paul is assuming that his audience that these Christians and Ephesus would understand the context of what he's quoting in Deuteronomy 5, that here we have God's Old Testament promise to Israel, to these children, children on your mother and father.

Because if you do, when you go into this land that I have given to your people, I will cause things to go well with you, and you will stay in the land of Canaan, you will stay in the land of Israel, as you obey and honor your parents. So as children would obey and honor their parents, and as parents would be faithful to do the shamah and to teach their children in the ways they should go to teach the lot of their children, they would remain in the land. It's interesting and a sad note that one of the reasons that God gives for the Jews being sent into the Babylonian exile was a failure to honor parents.

It says in Ezekiel 22:15, they have treated father and mother lightly within you.

This becomes one of the reasons, not the only reason, but one of the reasons for the Babylonian captivity in 586 BC and following. We see examples in the Old Testament of children who did not honor their mother and father and whose life it did not go well with them, and they did not live long. We think of Samson, who while he was used as a judge, died young because of foolishness. We see Absalom, the son of David, died young.

We see the sons of Eli, we see many examples. And while this is more of a truism than an absolute fact, this is more of a proverb that generally speaking, those honor their parents, life, they will live longer lives, they will be blessed. The idea here is that this is a, a commandment that is given with promise, and what does it really mean to live well? What does it really mean to live long in the land?

The most ultimate life is a life lived in the presence and in the joy of Christ. Amen. If you're obeying your parents, and your parents are teaching you the gospel, And you're imbibing the gospel, that is going to be a life well lived. Paul doesn't exactly tell us how to apply the exact Old Testament situation to the New Testament church.

But think about it. If you obey your mom, children, that blesses your dad, right? Teenager? Your dad's away at work and you're obeying your mom and you're submitting to her, and he gets home and finds mama happy, that blesses dad.

And it's a good example to your siblings, and it honors your parents when you're going out into the world and people see that these are children that honor other children, and these are children that handle themselves respect and respect other adults that brings honor to those parents. It makes it more fun for your parents to take you out places. I don't know about you parents, but when my children are submitting to me and when they're obeying, I want to take them places, right?

When they are not obeying and not listening, I don't want to take them places.

Life will go well with you. Your parents will take you places. If you are obeying and submitting to your parents, other families in the church will get blessed by you and your family. Your Sunday school teachers will be encouraged, and etc.

And so there's great rewards, but, but, and not the, not the least of which is that God is, is sovereign and providential over these things, and he knows how he is ordering his universe, and he has great power to bless those that are honoring his word. Amen. Now does this mean that children will never suffer hardships or have difficulties if you obey your parents? No, but God promises that if you walk in his commands, you will have what matters most, a life lived in the enjoyment of Jesus Christ the Lord, for as long as you live on this earth, and forever in the new earth.

That's a pretty good deal to me. So children, Young children, teenagers, this is God's grace to you. God is calling upon you to obey, to listen to your parents. Now, let's talk for a moment about what this does not mean.

This does not mean that you obey your parents in areas of sin. We have people in this room who were introduced to to pot by their parents, drugs by their parents, pornography from their parents. We have people, I know people who've been introduced to stealing and thievery by their parents. This does not mean that we go and break laws because our parents, in those cases, we have to say like Peter said, as we will it's better for us to obey God rather than men.

And, and pray that the Lord will, will give us the protectors that will come into our lives and And help us through those difficulties. And if you're in that situation, please be praying and, and we would want to be those that would come around you and pray with you and help you in those, in those types of situations. Let's talk also about how can we do this. Paul says, children obey your parents in the Lord.

What does that mean in the Lord? Well, clearly this doesn't mean children obey your parents who are in the Lord. And those that don't know Christ, you don't have to obey them. Nobody that I've ever read believes that that's what this says.

This little phrase in the Lord modifies obey. We obey in the sphere of, in the atmosphere of the Lord. And when you look back, who's the Lord referring to in the previous context? It's Jesus.

Christ. Verse 22, verse 23, verse 29, the fact that Paul uses over and over and over again in this book and in other writings uses the phrase in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in the Lord, in the Lord, in the Lord. The idea here is children, obey your parents in the strength of the Lord, in the sphere of the Lord, in the power that has been promised to you in the first three chapters of this book. Paul has already talked about all of the fullness that we have in Christ in these 1st 3 chapters.

He has told us that every child, this applies to everybody, but let's focus on the children. If Christ this morning, you've been blessed with every spiritual. Blessing. Teenagers who are here that know Christ, you have been chosen, you've been predestined to adoption, you've been redeemed, you've been given an eternal inheritance, you've been saved not of works, but by grace, and God has prepared works for you that you should walk in them.

And this middle wall has been broken down where there's no longer any Jew or Gentile slave or free. There's no division between men and women. We're all one in Christ, and we have everything that we need to obey the commands that God has given us here in the strength of the Lord, not our own strength. God is not commanding children to obey the Lord in their own strength.

He's commanding children to obey the Lord in His strength. And this implies something very interesting that I've never really thought about. And that is that Paul, in this passage is focusing on believing children. Not that he would say, unbelieving children don't obey your parents, and not that he would say, parents, don't worry about making sure that your unbelieving children obey you.

But for him to say, children obey your parents in the power of the Lord, means that these are children that can be filled with the Spirit, as he's just talked about in Ephesians 5:18. This whole context flows out of 5:18 where Paul command. us to not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. And as you're filled with the Spirit, husbands can love their wives, and wives could submit to their husbands and children can obey their parents in the Lord, as they are filled up by the Spirit with the Word of Christ.

Children can do this. This, this is very encouraging to me. That we have here testimony, not just in this place, but in other places, that children, even young children can know the Lord Jesus Christ, can be filled up by the Spirit with the Word of Christ, and can put biblical principles into practice. We don't, we can look at young people who can really come to know Christ and begin to do these things in the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is very encouraging to me as a father, that as I see my children professing faith in Christ, and as it seems that their, their faith is growing genuine, that I can see them growing in obedience in the power of the Holy Spirit. And then I can find them wanting to do the things written in the word of God, not just kicking against the goats. I experienced this in my own life. I, I do not claim to be a, a really super, I was not a super good child, when I was younger, we can get into my testimony later, but if you talk to.

My sister Michelle, my sister Melissa, they can tell you many different stories about things I did. I'm sure my parents can tell you all kinds of things. And yet, at the age of 14, I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal savior. And even though I was in a non-Christian home, a non-Christian father, A non-Christian stepmother, the Holy Spirit began to work in my heart that I needed to obey my parents, and I began to show respect for my parents that was never there before, and I began to be convicted and even challenged by people at church to do certain things that before would have been unnatural for me to do, and I was 14 years old.

The Lord began to get a hold of my life. To such an extent that some of my classmates used to call me the priest or the pastor or other parents would come up to my dad and say your boy is such a good boy. Is he gonna be a priest, things like that of course they, they don't know you don't know theology or what I believed, but the Lord was working in my life as a high schooler in ways that were very unusual. I can remember, again, I'm, I'm in a non-Christian home where I have influences in my life of people telling me, hey, go out and party and have a good time, loosen up.

I have people offering me alcohol in my, my marching band, and I'm giving them Bible tracts and preaching the gospel to them. When I turned 16 and got my license, my license, my birthday on my license came wrong and it said I was 21 years old and my sister said that would happen to you. And yet the Lord was, this is something I, I, I do not say this., if you just knew how bad of a kid I was and then saw what the Lord was doing in my life, it gives me great hope for young children.

It gives me hope for my children and, and all the way down in age, however the Lord would choose to work, children can obey their parents in the Lord.

Let's go to our second point, and that is this fathers. Fathers, raise up your children for Christ. Fathers raise up your children for Christ. Paul says, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Now fathers, the Greek word here is different from our word in verse one. In verse 1, it's the generic word for parents. And so it's appropriate for virtually every translation to translate verse 4 as fathers because of the different word. So this is talking about the men in the family.

Fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up. The idea here is, is to nurture the literal idea is to nurture children, to nourish them to a point of maturity. This word is actually used in secular Greek for nursing. I have made the agreement and I will nurse the infant slave for 2 years.

A secular Greek line reads. The idea here is that fathers are to, are commanded to continually nurture. And nourish their children up to the point of maturity, to have their maturity in mind. It's interesting how John Calvin translates this word.

He translates it as, let them be fondly cherished. Fathers, fondly cherish your children, and then Calvin goes on to emphasize the ideas of gentleness and friendship between a father and his children. So fathers are called to bring up, to nurture their children for Christ. OK, well, how, how are fathers to do this?

Well, let's talk about how not to do it first. When in Rome, don't do as the Romans do. Fathers, Paul says, do not provoke your children to anger. And you can see why Paul would have to give such a command in the cultural context.

In the cultural context, fathers were the dictators. They did not have to give reasons. All they had to do is make demands. So Paul comes along and says, Fathers, You Gentile fathers need to know this.

They're in Ephesus. Everybody needs to know this. Don't provoke these little ones to anger. This is a very strange word provoked to anger is one word in the Greek.

It's the same word that we see repeatedly in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, where the children of Israel were provoking God to anger. In the wilderness, they provoked him to anger, they provoked him to anger with their idols, they provoked him to anger. In Psalm 106 verse 32, we see, and they moved Moses to wrath at the waters of Meriba. So the children moved, the children of Israel moved Moses to wrath.

We as fathers are to not set ourselves up as the gods of our homes. We are sinful men saved by grace. God has called us to nourish, to nurture those entrusted to us. So we are not to provoke them to anger.

What are some things that could, ways in which we as fathers could be tempted to provoke our children to anger or bitterness? And it may, as, children, it, it'll stay below the surface when they're young, and then it comes above the surface when they get older, right? When they're still young and you can put them under your thumb, they'll stay down here. But when they get bigger and they realize dad's not so big anymore, then it rises up.

Some of the things that we need to be careful of, dads, false conversion, saying we're Christians, we're coming to church, we're putting on the nice show, but we're not really saved, and our children can see right through it. Hypocrisy. Lack of authenticity. Not that we're, we never make mistakes, but they can tell that our Christianity is not authentic, lack of humility, we refuse to be a man under authority.

We won't place ourselves underneath the authority of a pastor or an elder or somebody else's ministry, not confessing our own sin. I can't tell you how many times, just in one week, just this week, I've had to confess my sin to my son or my daughter or my wife. I, I assume we're all sinners in this room. I think and knowing what I know about the doctrine of sin, there should be ample opportunities for every father in this room to confess sin on a very regular basis to family members and children and thus diffuse bitterness and diffuse anger.

Selfishness, everything's gotta go dad's way, lack of leadership. I won't lead in family worship. I'm not proactive in ministry. I'm not the one leading in education as this passage is commanding expectations too high or no expectations at all, do whatever you want.

Does Paul mean by this that we're not to ever do anything that makes kids angry? Is that what he means? I don't think so. otherwise, what is the Lord doing commanding us these things in the first place in this passage?

Our Heavenly Father sets the example by being a nurturing Heavenly Father, but yet he commands us and gives us things that we are expected to do. He's the one that chastises us in love. Hebrews chapter 12. If our boy, if we won't let our boy buy a video game and we won't let our girl wear a certain dress and, and they get upset, should we back off?

I don't want to provoke them to anger. No, follow the example of your Heavenly Father, who knows when to give the commands, when to give the chastisements, and also when to be patient. I remember one year, I think I was 11 years old and I was playing catcher on my baseball team. I love that position.

And in practice, our, our manager decided to put somebody else behind the plate. And as the mature 11 year old that I was, I got ticked off and left the practice and went home and I told my dad I quit. If he doesn't want me to be the catcher, I don't wanna be on that team. And my dad had always taught us from the, from day one, you don't have to start a baseball season, but once you start a season, you will finish it.

And as soon as I told my dad that, he got me in the car, he drove me back to practice, made me apologize to the manager, apologized to my teammates, and I went out to right field and I played right field. Was I angry? Yes. Did my dad do the right thing?

He sure did. He knew the balance in that particular instance. So we are to not do as the Romans, but to nurture our children. Another thing that Paul says is, is we need to be men that are nurturing our children in the discipline of Christ.

Fathers, do not provoke your children wrath, but bring them up in the discipline of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does this word discipline mean? there's lots of different dictionary definitions of this, this word and the next one we're going to look at instruction, but when you put the two together and you realize that there must be some difference, Paul's using two different words for a reason, it seems that discipline has the idea of methods or the training program. The big idea to help with behavior and actions and character, this comes from the Greek word that's the basis for our English word pedagogy, which is the philosophy of education.

It's a broad term signifying whatever parents and teachers do to train or correct or cultivate or educate children to bring them up to maturity and so the question becomes, as a father. Are we gonna guide our children the way a captain guides a ship, or are we gonna just let the ship go wherever it wants? What is your program, dad? Fathers, what is your discipline and training program?

How will you help your children grow in stature and in favor with God and men? This is your job this is my job this is not the Sunday school teacher's job this is not the pastor's job, this is not the school teacher's job and according to this passage, this isn't primarily your wife's job. This is first and foremost your job. Your job is to bring up your children in the discipline you need to have a biblical pedagogy.

You need to have a philosophy of discipline in training. This means men, if, if we're not there yet, we need to pray. If we are there yet, we need to pray. We need to read, we need to pray, we need to read the Bible, we need to study the Bible.

We need to listen to good preaching with the ear of one who is responsible for your children's eternal welfare. When you come to a Sunday and you listen to the Word of God preached, don't just sit there thinking, how does this apply to me? Fathers, how does this apply to one who is responsible for the eternal welfare of those who have been entrusted to me in my household? We need to be discipled by older dads.

We need to feed on the gospel of grace when we fail. These are just some of the ways we need to put this into practice. And then lastly, we see here that the final power, the final command is, how can fathers raise up children for Christ, be a man by nurturing your children in the instruction of Christ. Fathers bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

How is this word different? The literal idea here is to put in the mind, place in the mind. It describes the exertion of influence, and it implies resistance that minds are not always open to our influence. And so we have to pray, and we have to strategize, and we need to work to get things into the minds of our young people, into the minds of our children.

It is a training by the word of the Lord, by the word of encouragement. Fathers, what is your program for your children's instruction? How will you help them grow in their understanding of the gospel? How will you help them grow in their understanding of their own sin and the doctrine of sin, the doctrine of salvation, their justification?

How will you help them grow in their understanding of the assaults that will come upon their faith when they're in elementary school and junior high school and high school and college? How will you prepare them for apologetics? How will you give them a biblical philosophy of marriage and parenting? How will you give them a biblical philosophy of finding a job?

Why do we work? What is the purpose of work? What is money for? This is your job.

This is not the Sunday school teacher's job. It is not the pastor's job. It is not the school teacher's job. It is not your wife's job.

This is your job. This is every man's job in this room. If there is a mother and father in your home, men, you have been given this responsibility by Almighty God. Carry it out in the grace of the Lord.

And yet you are not alone. You are not alone in this job. You can pray with your wife, with your children, you call upon the Lord Jesus Christ. God has given you this responsibility.

He's given me this responsibility. And with every command, there is a latent promise, right? He commands not where he does not supply. He's given us abundance supply in Ephesians 1, in Ephesians 2, in Ephesians 3, we read the scriptures, we study, we listen to preaching, we listen to Pastor Milton with an ear of one who is responsible for our children's eternal welfare.

We need to be discipled by older dads in this church. We need to feed on the gospel of grace when we fail. This is Father's our call. Children Your call is to obey the parents that God has put in your life.

And those of you that know Christ, you have ample power to do this and to grow in this. Children, if you don't know Christ, This is going to be very difficult for you, but that's a good thing. As you see how hard it is to obey your mom and dad. The Holy Spirit's gonna convict you of sin.

And as your parents and as your fathers especially are bringing the gospel into your life, you can see why it's so hard for you to obey mom and dad. It's so hard for you to obey mom and dad because you've been born into sin. And your heart doesn't want to do anything we've talked about this morning. Your heart wants to do the opposite.

Your heart is set on self. Your heart has made a treaty with the devil. If you don't know Jesus Christ, but your parents are on a rescue mission to save you from self, to save you from sin, to save you from the devil, to save you from hell. If you would just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, If our children If you children could believe.

What terrible things you can be saved from. The younger you believe, the better. There are people in this room. Who could tell you children horrible stories?

Because they were not saved till later in life. God would have mercy on you if you would believe today. Pull your parents aside, pull someone aside and say, I want to believe today. In the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior.

The Lord can save any child in here who understands the words. That I'm speaking today. Fathers. You can try to obey the things that we're talking about this morning, but if you don't know Christ, it's fruitless.

You cannot do these things. This will be, you're trying to build your house on straw and sand. You need to know Christ. If you don't know Christ as your personal savior, then nothing that we've talked about this morning means anything.

Your first step is to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll be saved. You and your household. Believe you don't need to do works of righteousness.

You don't have to obey all these commands to get saved, you just believe. You don't wash your hands before you get in the shower. You don't try to clean your life up before you come to Christ. Christ cleans your life up.

Let me talk about this final re. So, fathers and children, if you don't know Christ, if there's anybody here that doesn't know Christ, if you would like to talk to me after the sermon, if you want to talk to your parents. Make today the day that you come to know Christ as your Savior. Let me just offer one final challenge before we pray.

And that is Just the problem. Of fatherlessness. It's not moving. We'll just, I've only got one more slide.

The problem of fatherlessness, fatherlessness. We have a worldwide epidemic of fatherlessness. It was, it was terrible at the time of the Roman Empire. It's been terrible in many different epochs, but it's terrible right now around the world.

When you reflect upon Rome, the rampant fatherlessness caused by covetousness, matched with lust, matched with poverty, matched with sin in general and the devil, you have people that are more concerned about their own sexual exploration than about family and taking care of children, and so the children get thrown to the wolves, the children get thrown to the brothels, the children get thrown to the, into slavery. The children get thrown out to exposure. And this did not just happen in Rome, it's happening in Tijuana in the red light district.

There are orphans that we have visited down 2 hours away from here that people in our church have visited these kids who are the children of prostitutes in the red light district.

Some of them birthed by rich Americans that go across the border for a good time and don't know that they had a child from a prostitute. We have the same type of thing going on in Manila. The hundreds and hundreds of street children are largely the results of sexual immorality where people are sleeping outside of their wedding vows and going to prostitutes and women are going into prostitution because of poverty and then you have these children that are out on the streets and they're being sucked up as slaves or sucked up as sex by sex traffickers.

It's going on all over the world.

We see it reflected the United States where we have a 50% and higher divorce rate, where you have many, many children growing up without a father. The United States is becoming one of the great, the world's biggest importers of sex slaves in the world. This was, this was just would have been abhorrent just a generation ago. Now because of the on rise of pornography, the upswing of sexuality in our culture, we are importing sex slaves into our country.

The 15 freeway is one of the biggest highways of sex trafficking in the world. When a teenager just clicks on porn, he's voting yes, I vote for sex slaves. I vote for sex slaves. Think about that when you go online, man, and you're looking at porn, it's not an innocent click.

You are raising money for an industry. Is this being reflected in the church? How is this being reflected in the church? May the church be the place where fathers refuse to do as the Romans do.

May the church continue to be the place where the father of the fatherless is worshiped, and where the fatherless can find a home. There's an old Chinese proverb. That says this, this is from John MacArthur. One generation plants the trees and another gets the shade.

You and I are still living in the shade of some trees that were planted by our parents and grandparents and great grandparents. We are shaded to some degree by their moral standards, their spiritual commitment, their value system, their sense of right and wrong, their commitment to duty. We are shaded by what our parents and grandparents planted. The question that faces us today is, what trees are being planted today to shade the future generation from what, what may well be the blistering heat of an anti-Christ dominated world.

Are we planting anything? Or are we leaving our children totally exposed, literally? It is obvious or should be to every one of us that our culture as to its morals, values, ethics, duty, commitments is disintegrating. The very systems on which we base our life are convoluted, skewed, and out of sync with God's divine order.

Fathers, we have work to do by the grace of Almighty God, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this morning. We ask that you would take the things that have been shared. We pray that like Apollo that you would correct.

That you would use any of us in this room to crack and mold and shape like a Quilla and Priscilla, shaped Apollo. We ask God to help us to be a Bereans to study these things for ourselves. Help us to be empowered by your Spirit. We thank you, Lord, for each of our children.

We pray that they would grow up to be a mighty generation for you to enjoy you, to do damage to the enemy of our souls. We pray, Father, that they would rescue many from hell. We pray, Father, that we as fathers in this room would take up our duty and our role. With grave seriousness, and yet with joy in Christ's name, we pray.

Amen.