What a Child Needs

If you could open up to Genesis chapter 5. We're gonna start off in Genesis chapter 5. I wanna give you guys a cry alert. I'm on low sleep.

I think I got about 3 hours last night, and this is a message that really touches my heart. So, If I start weeping, it's not you, it's me. All right. Genesis 5, starting in verse 1.

This is the book of the genealogy of Adam in the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them, male and female, and blessed them and called them mankind and the, in the day they were created. Adam lived 130 years and got a son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth. We see in these first three verses is Pastor Milton has covered them so well.

We see a couple of similar terms. One, we see that God created man in His likeness in verse 1 and then Adam has a son in his own likeness after his image. Part of what we can, infer from this passage is just as Adam and Eve were made in the likeness or the image of God, so Adam and Eve had children that were also made created in the image of God. and so, so on and so forth that every child that would be born to Adam and Eve and every child that they would have for the generations that would come forward would be made in the image of God.

It's amazing to think about that. When Adam and Eve had their 1st child and 2nd child, and so on and so forth, that everybody on the planet at one point in history all knew the true God. They all knew who God was. There was no debate about the true religion or the right way.

In fact, even with Cain, you'll notice that God actually speaks audibly to Cain, and Cain responds to the Lord as if this is a normal occurrence. Remember? As Cain is deliberating about what he's gonna do, the Lord just opens up his mouth and speaks to him, and Cain's not like, Whoa, what is that? It's something that seems to have happened.

It was a regular part of life back then. There was no debates about the one to religion and even after the generations that go by at least 1600 years, and then there's the wipeout of the flood, you have Noah and his family gets off the ark, 8 people, and everybody on the planet knew the true God. There was only one religion. There was only one concept of God when Noah and his children got off the ark.

And yet, as the ages went on, as the generations moved on, it doesn't take too many years before you have corruption of true religion, corruption of truth, and people believing things that are completely different and acting in ways that are completely contrary to God. Our children, one of the things this teaches us is our children will either carry the torch of Christ. Carry the torch of truth or propel darkness through their children and their children's children. Children really are our future.

Children mean a lot for the future of the gospel, for the future of truth. And while we know when we look at the book of Revelation, we know who ultimately wins. As we look at the course of human history, you can see where cultures go by what is passed on to the children and whether the children pick up the baton or not. That great theologian, Chuck Norris says this, control the future generations and you control the future.

very important children are, as Yoda once said, John J. Dunphy. In his award-winning essay, The Humanist in 1983 said this, the battle for humankind's future must be waged and won in the classroom. The classroom must and will become an area, an arena of conflict between the old and the new, the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with its adjacent evils and misery and the new faith of humanism.

Why did this award-winning essay speak of the classroom as being such an important arena for warfare? It's because it is the classroom where the future resides. It is in the classroom where the vast majority of our children reside, many, many, many hours every week. And so there has been and there will always be a battle for the children.

And so this morning we want to talk about children. We want to talk about, I want to suggest three needs that all children have. 3 needs that all children have. Now when I was talking to my own children about this message, I said, what are some of the needs that children have pertaining to the gospel?

And they, some of the responses I got were food. Clothing, things like that, households or a, a, a home. We're gonna be talking about the 3 spiritual needs. there's more than 3.

I'm sure you can come up with all kinds, but I think there's 3 main things that we could agree on, from the scriptures. And, so it's a very simple outline. There's gonna be 3 points. The first need that all children have is all children need Christ.

All children need Jesus Christ. Children are broken people who need help in their journey. They need help in their journey to wholeness through the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as we looked at earlier, children are created in the image of God.

And as such, they are loved by Christ. Christ, when he was on the earth, when the apostles, the disciples were trying to keep children away from him because they felt like Jesus was too busy, he says, let the little children come to me. Do not forbid them, for such is the kingdom of God. And so children are obviously very special in the eyes of Christ.

Children are made in the image of God, which part of what that means is that children reflect God and represent God. all of us that are made the image of God, we reflect God and represent God. We don't always represent and reflect Him properly. But whether we like it or not, whether you are born again or not, whether you're pagan, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, whatever, everybody reflects and represents God in some way.

Just by virtue of the fact that you've been given a body, that you've been given a mind, that things that you create, that people can discover, these reflect God's glory and attributes. And so children likewise are created in the image of God, and children reflect and represent God because they are created in the image of God, they're worthy of respect and honor. your little child who is now 3456 years old, will one day be 25, will one day be 50, have their own grandchildren, Lord willing.

And they are, if, if, if they come to know Christ, they are co-heirs of redemption.

really, my children, from the perspective of eternity are brothers and sisters in Christ, right? As we, travel through this life together and as we head to heaven, we will just be brothers and sisters in the Lord. And so they are made in the image of God. I am made in the image of God.

We all reflect and represent God. But nevertheless, since the fall, children are by nature, sinners. They're sinners just like you and I. The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned.

And fall short of the glory of God. It doesn't just say adults have sinned. All have sinned. In fact, Psalm 51:5.

Write, write down Psalm 51 5 and Psalm 58 3. Psalm 51:5, David says, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. David is in no way saying that his mother sinned by merely conceiving a baby. What he is saying is, when I came forth, that is when I was given birth, I was given birth in iniquity.

And in the parallelism of this particular couplet in the Psalm, he says, in sin, my mother conceived me. So he's saying, from, from conception, I was in sin. And when I was given birth, or when I was birthed, I was in sin. The psalmist goes on later in 583 to say the wicked are estranged from the womb.

They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies, unless we think that's talking just about the wicked, the Bible indicates that all of us are wicked. There's none righteous, no, not one. And so every one of us go estranged from the womb, and we are born speaking lies. Those of you that have been parents for any length whatsoever, it doesn't take long to figure out that your children will lie.

They're prone to lying, right? I can remember just being a little kid myself and my grandpa, he used to make, he, he would get these volcanic rocks up there in Bishop Mammoth area and he would melt wax and create these candles. And one was freshly made and it was still soft and it was propped up in a certain way to keep the wax in a certain position so it would harden. And I didn't know what that little brick thing was doing underneath the rock.

I just went over and grabbed it and pulled it out, and all of a sudden the wax spilled out all over and my grandpa came up to me and said, did you pull that rock out? And what's, what's a child to do? Right? I said, no, I did not.

I had no idea what the consequences were. I didn't know what had happened, but I knew how to cover my tracks, at least I thought I did. I've told this shameful story in the past about how in my maturity before I came to Christ, how I decided I was gonna go to Alpha Beta. Does anybody remember Alpha Beta?

And just, in my mind, my, my dad came into my room in the morning and said, do you want to ride to school? And I said, no, because I'd already planned out that I was gonna go to the store and shoplift. I'd already planned it out. And so I go to Alpha Beta and I'm just grabbing nonsense like pins and potato chips and I don't know what else.

And, and all of a sudden I'm trying to walk out. Security grabs me by the shoulder. I thought the knee knocking thing was just in cartoons. All of a sudden my knees were knocking.

And when my mom comes to pick me up, I was glad it was my mom and not my dad. Said, the first thing I did was throw under the bus one of my siblings. This sibling does it all the time and they never got caught. What did I do that for?

Because if I'm going down, I'm taking somebody with me. Right? It's just, it comes out of our hearts. Children go apart from the womb speaking lies.

The Bible tells us there's none righteous, no, not one, there's none who understands. And, in, in Romans 5:9, write this down as well. The context there in Romans 5:9 is Paul has just talked about the depravity of the Gentiles. He's just, he's argued that Gentiles are sinful and depraved.

But then in verse 9 of chapter 5, he says, what then are we better than they? What does he mean by that? Are we Jews who have been given the law, and we know the Bible, and we follow the true religion? Are we better than they?

Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. And this applies to children. Adults and children alike.

None of us are. Innocent. So merely because we are made in the image of God doesn't mean that any of us are innocent. When we're made in the image of God, this side of the fall, what that means is we still are like God in some ways.

We reflect and represent Him in some ways, though one perfectly. it's like a glorious building that has been marred. You go look at the Colosseum in Rome and you can see the majesty of what was and yet you can tell that something is, something is wrong. When you look at humankind, you can see the majesty of what was and yet you realize that something is wrong.

And so children need Christ, because though they are made in the image of God, they are sinners, they are born sinners. And so their greatest need is forgiveness. The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but the Bible also says that the wages of sin is death. The paycheck that you and I deserve, the paycheck that our children deserve for sin is death.

We do a work, that work is called sin, we deserve a paycheck, that paycheck is called death. And we can give our children, all of the advantages of a good education, teach them, reading, writing, and arithmetic. We can try to get them into the greatest college and the greatest careers, and, and, and have them marry just a wonderful, spouse and have children and just travel the world. And yet Mark 8, Jesus asked this question, what does it profit a man that he should gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? And when you can insert the word child. What does it profit a child if they gain the whole world and forfeit their soul? What does it profit a child if they get A's in all their classes and win all of the awards and all the competitions?

If they're best on the team, and yet, Do not know Christ, they forfeit their soul, and it is a loss. We must refuse to lay our children on the altar of materialism. We must refuse to lay our children on the altar of mere factual knowledge or academia. We must give our children to Christ.

Give them Christ, give them the gospel, give them the good news, give them forgiveness. The first and greatest need that all of our children have in this room, really all of the children in the world, the greatest need they have is Jesus Christ. Amen. That is, that's the greatest need.

And yet, as we consider that great need, you might ask, what else is there? If they need Christ and they get Christ, and they know the Word of God, and they have Jesus in their hearts, they believe in Him. Is there anything else where it's Jesus Christ himself that tells us, yes, well, I am what they need, I have also provided something that they need and what Jesus has provided is family. Children need a family.

This is the 2nd great need that children have. Children who are broken were never meant to journey alone, but they were meant to journey with others, and God has orchestrated that children don't just randomly travel throughout this earth just with other children. children are not like certain species where the mother dies right after birth is given. children are such to where a mother gives birth, normally within the context of a family, and then a family raises children.

God has ordained the family to be the primary matrix through which children can mature. In the Gospel, Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy Deuteronomy chapter 6, we recognize that parents have the foremost privilege and responsibility for the spiritual formation of their children. We see in Deuteronomy chapter 6, the great Shamah that is given to Israel.

Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, your soul, and all of your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. So these are what's been instructed to the adults, to the parents of Israel, and then verse 7, you shall teach them diligently to your children.

And shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. Here in this early ancient text, we have God speaking to parents saying, you shall teach them. You shall teach them diligently to your children. When you're sitting in your home, when you're walking by the way, when you lie down, implied in your home, when you rise up from your bed in your home, parents have the primary responsibility to train their own children.

The Bible does not say that the state has the primary responsibility to train their children. The Bible does not say that the church has the primary responsibility to teach their children. The Bible indicates that God has created the family as the primary matrix through which children can mature in the Gospel. And this is, this is a consistent tale that we see throughout the Bible.

Proverbs chapter 1, verse 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, fools despise wisdom and instruction. And then what does Solomon say? Here, my son. Your father's instruction.

Do not forsake your mother's teaching. Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments about your neck. A father and a mother speaking to a son or a daughter. This is the norm in God's system, in God's economy, that a family would be passing on the torch of truth to children.

we see this, in Ephesians chapter 6, where fathers are called to train up their children, fathers and mothers could be one translation, to train up their children in the nurture of the Lord. Again, the primary, it's not that nobody else has any input, but the primary responsibility biblically has been given to the family. So children need a family. And it's been proven.

there's, there's scientific proof of just the, the, the blessings of the development of minds of children within the context of a healthy home. it's statistically proven the, the, the growth, the spiritual growth that happens within an intact home, particularly a repenting home, a home where sin is regularly repented of, where the Bible is read, where, prayers are offered up. All that being said, We have children whom the Lord is bringing to us, who do not have Christian families, right?

Well, the family is God's primary matrix for spiritual maturity in the gospel, praise the Lord that we have children coming to us through a, through youth groups, through Sunday school here at this church, who do not have Christian homes.

And so what are we to do? When you, when you look at church history, it is, it has been the consistent story in the history of the church to take up the spiritual orphan and to make them part of the family of the local church. We need to continuously be on the lookout for those who need to be adopted, as it were, by spiritual mothers and fathers into our church body. This is what happened to me.

God in His sovereignty had, me living with, my, my father and my mother, who were wonderful people but didn't know the Lord, didn't teach spiritual things. my, my father, my stepmom, and. At the age of 14, my live-in babysitter, Mammer led me to know Jesus Christ. I professed faith in Christ.

I professed many times before that, but when I was 14, it's like the Holy Spirit really came over me. I was born again. One of the first things I did is I went to school and I walked up to a buddy named David and said, hey man, can I go to church with you? Cause I knew he went to church.

He said, let me ask my mom and dad. And so he asked his mom and dad, and then they came and started picking me up at my house and taking me to church every Sunday. And it was within the, within the environment of my church that I was adopted into several families. I was adopted into these families and they began to raise me up spiritually in the Lord.

And so, while family is the primary matrix, where we find people maturing in the Lord, we also have people who don't have spiritual families and so we become that spiritual family. More on that in a moment. but it is incumbent upon us as Christian parents, mothers and fathers to take seriously our role in passing the torch of the gospel on to our children. And not just, materialism, not just, various philosophies, worldly philosophies, but to give them Christ, to give them the gospel that they may teach their children and their children after them.

One of the sad tales in the history of the church is really what's happened in Japan since World War II. Right after World War 2, there was quite a revival of evangelism and repentance amongst the Japanese, and you had a first generation church that was beginning to grow. But as American materialism also entered into Japan at the same time and as we helped rebuild the infrastructure, Japanese culture really embraced the materialism but did not embrace Christianity as a whole.

The problem was, is that Christian families, Christian parents also embraced the materialism and worked so hard to get their kids the right education that they would hold their kids out of church for a whole year to get them ready for their high school tests so that they could make it to the right college.

What do you think happened to that whole generation of kids spiritually? It caved. And so now the Japanese church, the average age, last I read from my buddy Dice Kate, the average age of, of a Japanese Christian is around 50 years old now. They have failed to pass on the torch.

Brothers and sisters, we must not fail. We must not fail to pass on the torch of the gospel to our children. And parents educating their children is primary in the matrix of God's economy. Joseph Stalin once stated, education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.

Joseph Stalin knew this very well. Karl Marx knew this very well. Humanist Charles humanist Charles F. Potter.

knew this very well. In 1930, in his article, Humanism A New Religion, he says education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism. These folks know the importance of children. They know the importance of, of truth being passed on to children.

And so it has been, it has been, one of the goals of humanism to take the education of children away from parents and to put it squarely in the laps of the state. And brothers and sisters, we must make sure that we as parents take the highest priority for the education of our own children. However you choose to do that, you have the God-given responsibility to pass on the truth of the gospel to your children. As, as, as parents, Martin Luther knew this.

And established right after the Reformation, a system, a catechism for he and those in his church to disciple and train their children to worship with their children, to teach them the gospel. It's one of the reasons why the Reformation did succeed, is because the Reformation didn't stop with the first generation reformers. They had a vision for the future generations. They had a vision for their children to pass the gospel down because they knew that they were going to die.

And if they didn't pass the truth down to their children, the gospel would die with them, humanly speaking. So consider these things, brothers and sisters, and as you guys speak in your care groups this morning, I would encourage you to consider the great need of the family. Let me ask a question before we move into our final point and that is this. If children are being nurtured in the environment of a godly family, What else is there that a child needs?

If a child has Christ, and he's knowing he or she is getting to know the word of God and, and they're living within a family, and, and a family that is repenting of sin and, and is putting the gospel on display. What else is there? What other need do they have but to have Christ and a godly family? Well, I want to suggest to you this morning, that Christ himself says that it is not enough just to have your own personal relationship with Jesus, and even your own personal relationship within the confines of the family, but families need other families.

And that brings us to our final point, and that is children need the church. Children don't just need the church universal, just people who are just randomly fellowshipping with whomever they wish. Children need the church local. Children need the local church.

Before we look at a couple of passages, I just want you to consider the fact that most of you probably live here somewhere in the, in the one of the cities in the area, in the, in the Inland Empire. Some of you might be completely off the grid and have your own water system, but even so, this analogy would apply. think about your home. Your home has indoor plumbing, most of you, I'm, I'm sure.

When we go down, we visit our friends down in Mexico, some really good friends down there, they don't have indoor plumbing. We come back, we're like, thank the Lord for indoor plumbing, right? We have toilets, we have water that flows, we have sinks. is there anything outside of the structure of my home?

Outside of just the walls of my house that I need in order to enjoy indoor plumbing. Yes, there is. I need a water main, right? And that water comes from somewhere, right?

I need the aqueducts. I need the city that is helping cleanse the water, the utilities, there's sewage that goes out from my house to the street and I'm very glad for the fact that we never see that. There are, are things, even if you don't have a sewage system, you have leach lines, septic tanks. If you're off the grid, you have a well.

There's things from outside of your home that you need for, in order to enjoy indoor plumbing in your home. And while God has created this wonderful thing called the family, the family was never meant to live in isolation from other families. The family was never meant by God to live in isolation from the local church. Let's look at a couple passages.

To let's consider a couple of things in this. How do we know that children And families by extension, need the local church. I want to give several answers to this question. You can jot them down underneath 0.3.

How do we know that families need the local church? How do we know this? I don't know about you, but I've, I, I have I have a lot of friends over the years, by extension, just people I love and the Lord, who have this idea that family is this independent unit that can exist all by itself without the local church. That we have Jesus, we have the Bible, we can worship in our own home.

We just fellowship with our different para church groups or this or that. We don't really need the local church. And there's a great temptation for that because, when you, when you get involved in a local church, when you get involved with people in general, people, there's sin, there's difficulties. When you get involved in a local church, there's issues of authority, who is answering to who.

there's lots of problems that can all be solved if I can just be the kingdom of my own little house, right? If I can just be the dictator that answers to nobody. If I can just control the berry kingdom and not have to interact with anybody else on the planet, in one sense, it makes, seems to make my life simpler. I make all the decisions.

I control everything. I answered no one. And I'm not able to practice the one another's the way God is designed in the New Testament. So how do we know that children and families need the local church?

Well, first, I want you to write down 1 Corinthians 12. For the sake of time, we're not gonna look up every one of these passages, but just consider the fact that families need each other. the fact that families need each other is proved by the distribution of spiritual gifts amongst the body of Christ. No individual and by extension, no family has all the gifts, but rather needs the gifts of other individuals and families.

I don't have all the gifts and all the spiritual gifts do not reside within the Barry household. We don't have all the gifts that, that might shock you. That the Barry household does not have all of the gifts. Yeah, it's, it's shocking.

It's a revelation. But guess what? The Lord has dispersed the spiritual gifts right here in this local church so that when the berries come to church and, and we gather together, we get to benefit from your gifts and you're benefiting hopefully from our gifts. And that's the way the Lord has designed it.

1 Corinthians 12:13 and 14, this is all local church stuff. This is not just people off just doing their own little thing. This is how local, this is like local church behavior 101, right? How do we behave within the context of the local church?

Secondly, how do we know that children and families need the local church? each of our families need the gift of pastors and teachers. Open up to Ephesians chapter 4. We all agree that every one of us needs Jesus.

Children need Jesus, right? But notice, What Jesus gives us, and so by implication tells us that we need. This is Ephesians 4. we'll start in Yeah, just right there in verse 11.

And he, this is speaking of Christ himself, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Why? For the quipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, body of Christ, that's church stuff. So what we're just gonna focus on the aspect of that verse that pertains to our message this morning.

And that is that Jesus Christ has given some special gifts to the church. And one of those special gifts is pastors and teachers. Jesus has given pastors and teachers to families, to children, which means families and children need that gift. If Jesus didn't think we didn't need it, if he thought we didn't need it, he wouldn't give it to us, but he gave us pastors and teachers because we need pastors and teachers.

So when you look at Pastor Milton up here every morning or every Sunday morning, you can say, that is a gift from Jesus to me and our family. OK, it's hard for me to say that standing up here that I am God's gift to you. Right? but biblically, if you understand that in the right sense, it's true.

every one of us in this room, needs pastors and teachers. So what does that teach me as a dad of my home? OK, so what that teaches me is, what, I've got a seminary degree. I've been pastoring since 1998, and, and I've been learning the Bible since, When was I saved?

1983, right? And so when I sit down to have family devotions with my family, I can give them a sermon. I can talk about Greek and Hebrew. I can talk ins and outs of theology and apologetics, but guess what?

My family needs more than me. My family needs the pastors and teachers of this local church, and if I don't give them that, I'm depriving them of one of the gifts that Jesus says they need. My children need Pastor Milton. My children need Pastor Carlos.

My children need the elders of this church. They need more than Mike Berry. And so, and this is a gift from Jesus Christ. And so this demonstrates that our children need the local church.

Thirdly, Paul, turn over to Ephesians 5. particularly, no, Ephesians 6, where Paul says, children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment, so on and so forth. Paul writes this letter with the intention that this letter would be read at least to the Ephesian church.

This might have been a circuit letter, so it might have been read to several local churches in the area of Ephesus. And, so Paul is assuming That mothers and fathers and wives, husbands and children will all be gathered together as the pastor stands up to read the text and then explain the text. Paul very easily could have said, fathers and mothers, tell your children this, and just left it at that. But he doesn't do that.

He, he goes further. He speaks directly to the children, which means that Paul's assuming that children will be there in church, and that they need to hear the reading of the word and the teaching of the Word themselves. Not just via the parents. It's not just mom and dad going to Bible conferences and then coming home to impart to their children.

The children need to hear the word of God themselves. Paul seems to have expected that the whole family be gathered together for this. And so these are at least 3 reasons why we know biblically that children and families need the local church. Now, do all families in the church, is everybody gonna look exactly alike?

Is it, are we all gonna have just a mother and father and 2.3 kids? no, I wanna suggest to you that as we gather together as families, we create this macro family called the local church. This household of God, as Paul calls it in 1 Timothy 3:15, you can write that down. 1 Timothy 3:15.

we get, as we come together as this macro family, we get a greater taste of the magnitude of God's grace. Each of our households is gonna have a different look. We're gonna have moms and dads with their own biological children. We're gonna have empty nesters.

Raise your hand if you're an empty nester. Now, we got some of those. We have single parent homes. We have grandparent led homes, foster homes, stepparents, stepchildren, sometimes roommates that are living with other families or roommates just living together.

Families with special needs children, families with one or more members who are not believers. And together we make up the family of God, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers in Christ, and our children need this diversity. Our children need the local church. Now, let me answer, there's a couple, just Side issues that I want to get into and then we're gonna wrap this thing up.

Is that all right? You guys have a choice? Sure you do. You're in the United States.

You guys can just get up and walk out. you can still do that. Did that in this country you could still do that. does The local church have a degree of authority.

or does God intend for families to be autonomous? OK, I want to answer this question. Does God intend for the local church to have some authority within the life of the family, or are families just meant to be autonomous? Let me answer it this way, Christ, I believe, is delegated to the local church a degree of responsibility and authority in relation to the family.

And I'm just gonna fly by these verses and ask you guys to read them either in family devotions or in your care group, OK? cause we're running short on time. So how do we know that the local church has a degree of responsibility and authority in relation to the family? Well, first, Matthew 18, that has to do with church discipline that is given to the church, not to the family.

When we exercise what we call church discipline, that's never given to the family. No, nobody said, OK, Mike, as the head of your house, you have the authority to discipline somebody in some other household. No, but the church has the authority to practice church discipline within its own families. the church, so the local church has authority to carry out, church discipline, even in respect to areas of familial sin.

So when you have sexual sin, like it talks about in 1 Corinthians 5:1 to 15, the church can practice, discipline on families that are participating in interfamily sexual sin. Moreover, the local church has the responsibility to teach and guide in respect to marriage, right? The local church is supposed to teach about marriage. The local church is supposed to teach about divorce and remarriage.

as a local church, we as pastors will decide for, based on our own conscience and understanding in the reading of the text, whether we will marry you or not. And then, obviously, within a free country where we're not, bringing down, some acts on you. If you don't agree with our perspective, you can go get married somewhere else. But we have the authority to decide right here in this church, whether we're gonna marry this person or these two people or not., the church is called to teach on parenting.

and so I want to suggest this by way of application. And I've written this out to, to, to really be careful in the way that we word this. Families should be willing to place themselves under the local church ministry which they can trust with leaders to whom they can submit. Write down Hebrews 13.

That families should be willing to place themselves under the authority of a local church ministry. which they can trust with leaders to whom they can submit. if you guys, if you're at a church right now, which I hope this isn't the case, but you're, if you're at a church right now, where you cannot trust the leadership and you cannot in any way see yourself submitting to that leadership, you need to find another church. You need to find a church where you can follow the general direction of the leadership and be willing to submit to the leaders of that church.

Considering as Hebrews 13 continues, considering the outcome of their conduct and studying the scriptures to confirm that these, that their teaching is indeed biblical. We're not called to blindly follow our leaders, but considering the outcome of their conduct. And then like the Brian studying the scriptures to see if these things are so. So there is a relationship between the local church and its leaders and the families that involve some degree of authority.

Thus, it would seem appropriate for members of a local church to seek out the teaching and counsel of their church on issues related to the family. Because the church has been given authority for church discipline, sexual sin within the family, marriage, divorce, remarriage, parenting, so on and so forth, it would seem appropriate for the church members to come to their church leaders and say, hey, I want to know what the Bible teaches on this. What does the church teach on that?

Can you give me counsel on such and such?

And that the church would try to teach what they believe the Bible is saying. And that the members would look at and, and see if that indeed this is what the Bible is saying. And if the leaders are, are, are, are consistent with their conduct and what their words are saying and be willing to place themselves underneath the teaching of that local church. Does this make sense?

This is a very important protection for families. brothers and sisters, I do not believe it is God's will. For any father in this room, including myself, to be a man that is not under authority. I need to be a man under authority.

And if it's not at this local church, it needs to be somewhere. I am not the dictator of my home. I am not an island unto myself. My wife can appeal above my head.

If I'm being a knucklehead. If I'm persisting in sin, If I am not repenting, my wife, the buck does not stop with me in the body of Christ. My wife can go to my pastor. Right?

And I praise the Lord that I've got pastors and elders that love me and I trust their leadership, and I'm glad that people can, that my family can appeal above my head. I don't want the pressure that says I am the dictator of my own island and it stops with me. We all need this, brothers and sisters. We need each other.

And yet, let me qualify what I've just said. There are limits to the authority a local church has in the life of a family. Elders are themselves broken people and members in need of the ministry of the body. Church leaders must be ever careful not to lord over those entrusted to them, but be ready to serve them according to Christ's example.

Our leader's household should be an example of good management, progress and growth. And so we want our elders to, there's no perfect families in this church. If you look at Pastor Milton's family, my family, and the elders' families, there's no perfect families, but we're hoping that you're gonna see repentance. We're hoping that you're gonna see growth.

We're hoping that you're gonna see example through the repentance and growth. And so, children need Christ. Children need families, but children also need the local church. How are we trying to apply these principles at Cornerstone?

Well, we want our children's ministry. And this is what we've been, we've been working towards, and, and you'll hear, Bill Payne get up here and continually talk about how we encourage you to have your children with you during the preaching time, but we make our children's church available so that you can go be a part of children's church and they can be blessed there, and we wanna come alongside of parents. You're gonna hear, you hear that term a lot that we wanna come alongside of parents as they minister to their children.

That type of phraseology recognizes that you have the ultimate authority and you will answer before God for the raising of your children.

And yet as a church, we want to come alongside of you and help you. And, and what we've started to call this is para-family ministry, Para meaning come alongside of, parafamily coming alongside of the family. You guys hear the term parachurch? People that ministries that try to come alongside of the church.

we want our children's ministry to be a pair of family ministry, which seeks to utilize the gospel in coming alongside of children and their families, and yielding up to them the benefits that can be obtained from the ministry of spiritual mothers and fathers, brothers, sisters, in the, in, in Christ's body. That we have a, a church full of mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters, and that all of us need each other. And, and we want to come alongside of our families and assist one another in this.

Let's, let's give a summary and final applications.

Three things a child needs. Three things a child needs. Christ, right? Every child in this room needs Jesus Christ.

And a child that can understand the basic words. The basic truths that we're talking about this morning. The spirit can fall upon them. Spirit can fall upon you and you can be born again.

Children in this room, you are not too young. If the Holy Spirit would help you see your sin, if you, if you recognize what the Bible says, that yes, you've come out of the womb with a problem with sin. There's, you come out of the womb with, with, with various sin propensities. Let me use a different word, various, you're driven towards sin in certain ways.

But you can be forgiven. If you would just say, Jesus, Jesus Christ, I believe that you died on the cross for my sins. I should have died, but you died in my place. And you can forgive my heart and wash me clean.

God will listen to that prayer, and he will save you. He will save you for himself and you can believe today. Talk to your parents about this message. The Holy Spirit is working in your heart and you wanna, you wanna know the Lord Jesus Christ.

Talk to your parents and tell them what you're thinking and let them explain the gospel to you. Families, we just wanna challenge you to, to continue the, there is, I don't know if there's a greater attack on the world today than on the family, because the devil knows, he knew it in the garden. He knew it when Noah got off the ark. He knows it today.

The torch is either gonna be passed to the next generation or darkness will prevail. and, and so we need to pull ourselves up by the power of the Spirit, to continue the work, to disciple our children, to raise them up in the things of Jesus Christ, to point them to the cross, and to look for spiritual orphans right here in this body. Look for people, look for young people that don't have Christian families that we can minister to. And then finally, just to the whole church, I would just commend to you that the local church is where it's at, brothers and sisters.

Jesus Christ said, from the very beginning, the gates of hell shall not prevail. And he laid his blood down. He bled his own blood for the church. Jesus is jazzed about the church.

And, and we should too, give yourself to the local church. Give yourself to the one institution that will survive these other human institutions. Jesus Christ Church will survive. And this is the one thing that you can give to knowing that there is a sure outcome.

I wanna encourage you guys, we'll talk more about this next week, but while we're in the middle of summer, we're heading, it's September is coming, and this year in our Sunday school curriculum, we're gonna go with Answers Bible curriculum from K all the way through adult. we'll talk more about it next, next week. But basically, we're taking a worldview curriculum that teaches all of our families how to study the Bible chronologically, how to apply it to today's world's issues, to where all of us can be on the same page and discussing the same material.

throughout the week.

So from 9 o'clock to 10 o'clock, from K or pre-K all the way through adults this year, we're gonna be studying Answers Bible Curriculum. If you wanna go look at it, Answers Bible Curriculum.com we'll be giving you more information next week. We're very excited about it. it's one of the ways that we wanna come alongside of our families and help you disciple your children.

Also, please be praying for our hire. we interviewed, several people this week for a Children's ministry director. Please be praying for, our personnel staff and also for the elders as we considered who to hire. We believe this is a very important ministry as we've been growing in our understanding and vision for children as those that will pass the torch to the next generation.

We wanna make the right decision. We wanna make this investment in our children, and we need teachers. We need teachers that are gonna be teaching the Answers Bible curriculum this year. You can talk to Miriam Pascarello, you can talk to myself.

we need, people who will come and help out with the one on Wednesday nights. We need people that will minister to our children during children's church. As we come alongside each other as mothers, spiritual mothers and fathers and help each other. I am so glad that my children have more than just me.

I'm so glad that my children have their Sunday school teachers, Matt and Sierra Kaufman. I'm so glad that my children have their Sunday school teachers, or that Sammy has his Sunday school teachers. I just remember this is the last thing I'll say. I just remember going to my local church and just coming there without, without any spiritual knowledge.

I can remember the first time I walked into a church and saw people taking communion for the very first time. I'd never seen it before in my life. And it just looked weird. I had no idea what was going on.

I can remember people saying words like grace, repent. Peace. These are words I just, they were weird words to me. I can still remember that Gospel.

What is, that is a weird, I don't ever hear people using these terms. people would talk to me and explain things to me. When I do wacky things as a 14 year old, I'd have my youth pastor take me aside and say, hey, Mike, you need to submit to your parents and hey, they don't want you at this youth event, that's OK. The Bible wants you to submit.

Here's how the Lord's gonna bless you. I just had these spiritual mothers and fathers that just came around me, my Sunday school teacher, my youth group teachers, and these are the people that just nurtured me in the Lord. I'm so grateful, and you have the opportunity to do the same thing for one another in this environment. Let's go ahead and, and pray.

We'll have our, ushers come down for our offering. And we'll have the band come on up for a final song. Let's pray. Lord, we just thank you so much for the children that you've blessed us with in this particular church.

we thank you for just the treasure that they are. we ask, Lord, that by your spirit that we would see our children come to know Christ. We have young children, we have older children, we pray that you, that we would see a revival here amongst our children. We pray, Lord, that the torch would be passed.

We pray that you bless our mothers and fathers and families, as they take up their role. To pass on the gospel. To repent of sin, to ask forgiveness, to point children to Christ. And we pray, Father, that You would help us from just the spirit of independence that so easily rises up in all of our hearts, where we think that we can be an island unto ourselves when your word so clearly tells us we can't.

We need the gifts of the local church, we need the gifts of pastors and teachers. We need to practice the one another's. And so we pray God that You would help us more and more to throw down our independence, to see our need for you in your body. And that we would serve one another in this way that we would see this generation of children rise up, Lord, that they would rise up and take this nation in this world by storm.

Lord, that they would pass on that torch, avoiding the devil in darkness, extend your glory and kingdom, and we will praise you for it in Christ's name. Amen.