Transforming Relationships Through the Power of the Gospel
Discover how the profound teachings from Ephesians 6 can reshape family and work dynamics. In this episode, we explore Paul's revolutionary insights and how embodying Christ's love can transform marriages, parenting, and work life, fostering a community steeped in spiritual growth and renewal.
Heartfelt Gratitude and Recent Events
We begin with heartfelt gratitude and a recap of recent events at Eastside Church, setting the stage for our deep dive into gospel-centered living.
Gospel-Centered Parenting
Parenting requires a delicate balance of control and understanding. Drawing from Ephesians 5:21, we emphasize the importance of mutual submission. We share personal stories about the emotional challenges parents face and offer practical advice on creating a nurturing home environment. Highlighting the significance of emotional check-ins using simple tools like a feelings chart, we provide parents with tangible methods to improve their interactions with their children.
Extending Gospel Principles to Work
The principles of gospel-centered living extend beyond the family to work environments. Encouraging parents to mirror God’s love in their interactions with both children and employees, we discuss the importance of spiritual practices such as prayer, solitude, and community service. By embodying these principles in all aspects of life, we aim to build God’s kingdom here on earth.
Finding Peace in Solitude and Prayer
We reflect on the peace that comes from solitude and prayer, urging listeners to cast their anxieties onto Christ and experience the transformative power of God's presence. Join us on this journey towards spiritual and relational renewal.
Transforming Relationships Through the Power of the Gospel
Discover how the profound teachings from Ephesians 6 can reshape family and work dynamics. In this episode, we explore Paul's revolutionary insights and how embodying Christ's love can transform marriages, parenting, and work life, fostering a community steeped in spiritual growth and renewal.
Heartfelt Gratitude and Recent Events
We begin with heartfelt gratitude and a recap of recent events at Eastside Church, setting the stage for our deep dive into gospel-centered living.
Gospel-Centered Parenting
Parenting requires a delicate balance of control and understanding. Drawing from Ephesians 5:21, we emphasize the importance of mutual submission. We share personal stories about the emotional challenges parents face and offer practical advice on creating a nurturing home environment. Highlighting the significance of emotional check-ins using simple tools like a feelings chart, we provide parents with tangible methods to improve their interactions with their children.
Extending Gospel Principles to Work
The principles of gospel-centered living extend beyond the family to work environments. Encouraging parents to mirror God’s love in their interactions with both children and employees, we discuss the importance of spiritual practices such as prayer, solitude, and community service. By embodying these principles in all aspects of life, we aim to build God’s kingdom here on earth.
Finding Peace in Solitude and Prayer
We reflect on the peace that comes from solitude and prayer, urging listeners to cast their anxieties onto Christ and experience the transformative power of God's presence. Join us on this journey towards spiritual and relational renewal.
Amen. Well, thank you, houston. Good morning, eastside Church and visiting family. How are you? Y'all know how I am. Well, if you don't, yeah, it was. I've experienced a full range of emotion this morning in the last 30 minutes alone, but it cannot dull my excitement to be with you. But it cannot dull my excitement to be with you and, uh, I was, I'm eager to be here and I just so appreciate houston and tim. They just said to me they said go, we got it, we'll figure it out. Um, and so I'm, yeah, I'm just really grateful to be, to be here.
Speaker 1:So we're in ephesians 6 this morning and I just kind of want to orient ourselves. I had some words to say about all the wonderful things that happened with parent commissionings on Father's Day, but I wasn't here for it. So that would be disingenuous, I'm not gonna say that. But I want to kind of bring us into where we've been in Ephesians and then bring us up to this passage this morning, because of where we're at, I'm going to address parents and children Feels apropos and I'm going to touch briefly on workers and employers, but not going to do the full thing that I had planned this morning. Again, want to observe our time, our permit here with the school, and yeah, I want to do that. So feel clear conscience Houston and I talked about that and grateful for the ability to be able to edit some things. So all right if you've been with us or even if you haven't.
Speaker 1:But you know, kind of the book of Ephesians, there's been some building momentum coming through the first five chapters. We spent the first three chapters kind of Paul building up his introduction, right, it takes half the book to kind of say here's why I'm writing to you. Here's the kind of the full-orbed landscape of Christianity. The church is one body with one purpose to look like Jesus and to build itself up in love to do that right. This is chapter 4. And then last week and the week before in chapter five, houston and Tim helped us to see how all of this right, so everything that God had planned, everything that he's done for us in Christ, the fullness of his love for us in Christ, embodying the church, building the church, is supposed to play out in our lives. So we hit the Christian sexual ethic in the first 21 verses of chapter 5, and last week Tim took us through what does this look like played out in our marriage relationships. Well, this week we turn to parents and to children, we turn to workers, to employers, where we're continuing to widen the scope of what Paul is saying. Do you see it? He's saying all of these things that God has done for you, all of these things that he intends for you, take place in the church for the building up of everyone into Christlikeness, within the context of the way you interact differently from culture in your marriages, in your parenting, in your work context, of the way you interact differently from culture in your marriages, in your parenting, in your workplaces, the way you manage.
Speaker 1:And so in the first century the family and the household were central to social life. It's similar now, but it was even more so then. Children were expected to obey parents, without question. Slaves were a common part of household structure. Really, the kind of empirical structure of Rome dictated how a lot of the different structures would function. So husband, father, serving as little emperor in the home.
Speaker 1:And Paul's instructions here in Ephesians 6 are in a sense revolutionary. In light of that, the radical idea that even the most fundamental relationships could be transformed by the gospel was countercultural then. And family, I think it's countercultural now. So today, I believe that we will see how the gospel transforms family relationships a little bit of working relationships by reorienting them around Christ, his example of humility, the example of love, the example of service, the way that he put real and true humanity on display. For us, our central focus is going to be on how gospel-centered relationships can bring about renewal in our lives. Right, we've talked about this often. We've preached through excerpts of the Gospel of John. We wanted to get a good glimpse at Jesus, and now we want to see how God is renewing his people in light of what Christ did in living a sinless life, dying in our place and being raised to new life to bring kingdom living for us now and in the future.
Speaker 1:So we're going to take, we're going to walk through it kind of scripture chunk at a time, and before we do, I'm going to catch up with myself and you guys a little bit, and if you've been here, this won't be a surprise. But would you all just kind of sit up straight, put your feet flat on the floor with me? I have short legs and my feet are never really flat on the floor, but if you can reach the floor, put your feet flat on the floor. Would you just breathe in deeply with me and exhale, exhale. Let's do it one more time. I want you to keep your eyes closed. I just want you to listen the whirring of the fans, the tabletop discipleship rocking in the back, the sounds of babies. I want you to think about what's going on outside this building as I drove in people walking, dogs going to brunch, enjoying being outside.
Speaker 1:And now would you unite your hearts with me in prayer. God, you reign over all of these things. Father, if we sat here for the rest of our lives, we could not extend our minds or our hearts as far and as wide as you have. Everything in your mind at once, and we're in awe of you for that. So, father, what happened at my house this morning is not a mystery to you. You know the truth, you know the purpose, not only for my life, but for the lives of every single person in this room. Father, this is your word. I pray that you would help me to be faithful to it in proclaiming it and calling us to live in light of it. Father, I give you glory for what happened here today.
Speaker 1:Parents saying we want to follow God and live for Him. It feels like a vanishing thing in our culture today. God, we believe that you are with us, we believe that you have called us to this place, and so I pray by your spirit for the glory of Jesus. Would you be with us now, In Jesus' name, and my brothers and sisters say it with me. Amen, all right, well, open your Bibles or your digital bulletin to Ephesians 5 or 6, rather and we're going to be in the first four verses here for this first part to parents and children. Remember our aim this morning is to see how the gospel is reshaping us to function inside of the family dynamic. Let me read these verses as a way of reminder 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.
Speaker 1:Other translations render provoke as exasperate, and what Paul is doing here is he's calling children to obedience, but not out of fear, as an expression of their part in the family of God. This is why he seats this perfectly inside of the command to children to honor their father and mother, which is the first command that comes with a promise. He says, if you remember, it's, honor their father and mother, which is the first command. That comes with a promise. He says, if you remember, it's, honor your father and mother, that you may live long right, dwell in the land. It's a promise of rest. It's a promise of being in the place where God was going to dwell with his people, that it may go well with you, that you may live long in the land. This is an opportunity, children, for you to practice honoring God through honoring your parents.
Speaker 1:So, kiddos, can I have all your eyes right now? Yes, they're all the ones that can give me. Your eyes are over here, okay. So in our house we talk about how God has. God is the authority of the whole world, right? We know that he's. He's written the whole world. He created everything. We rebelled against him, but he promised to make it right. He made it right in Jesus and now we live in the already not yet of him bringing about his kingdom again with us. And so God is reigning over the world, and your parents were given to you by God to help you learn how to live in the world. I'm telling you right now, and you can write it down. I'll sign it. You will all leave home someday Okay, this will happen, osers, well done. Launched Something to shoot for, launched and thriving Something to shoot for.
Speaker 1:And so, kids, your parents. The reason that you are commanded by God to obey your parents, to honor your parents, is so that you would learn to honor and obey him. And I know that can be a challenge sometimes, because I know all nine of you kids. I know your parents, I'm married to one of them, I am one of them and I know the other ones, and that can be hard sometimes. And so, as you listen to the rest of this part, I want you to pay attention, because I am going to instruct your parents now in a way that I hope is helpful to you as you engage in honoring them, in obeying them. Present kids. I'm sorry, I'm looking mostly at my kids, but I am looking at you too. They were just more down front In Paul's day. These instructions were revolutionary.
Speaker 1:Roman culture is marked by absolute authority of the father. Right, I said that at the beginning. This kind of empirical structure, and so Paul's admonition to fathers to not exasperate their children, was a command that would, in some senses, be seen as a direct questioning of their authority. But where does it come from? Do you remember Ephesians 5.21? Submit yourselves, therefore, to Christ, to one another, out of reverence for Christ as to Christ. And so this is no different in the parent-child relationship. The hope of all parents who live for God, who follow God, is that someday their kids would come up to what Live long, that they may dwell in the land to be in God's presence, to have relationship with Him, to follow him, to live for him, as they have demonstrated. And so I want to help us understand two things here from these verses so we can kind of look at what it means to apply them in our time today.
Speaker 1:And I want to make a caveat before I go. I originally had this at the end of the section, but single folks in the room. This is not a time to just kind of go on autopilot and just be like, wow, these parents, they got a bunch of stuff to do. It's really going after them, which I don't intend to do anyway. But I just want to say that if you're not married and you're a part of this congregation, there's a share that you have in displaying Jesus to the young kids who are coming up. It's not the same kind of thing, but you have a role to play. They look to you and in some ways, they're going to look to you far more readily than they're going to want to look to more, uh readily than they're going to want to look to their parents. It'd be easier for them to see you, respect you, honor you. So I want you to listen to these things too, because in some ways, the title we could put over all of this which I which I've been arguing for already and promise I will defend that argument soon Is that this is about gospel-centered relationship in the deepest and most important parts of our life.
Speaker 1:So I want to ask two questions what does it mean to exasperate someone, and is this only for fathers? So I want to answer those two questions as we move through this part, and I think it's going to be helpful to answer both of them at the same time. Are you with me, okay, val's? Here the word exasperate in the passage is translated from a Greek word that means to provoke, to irritate, to frustrate to the point of explosive anger. It's about actions and attitudes that stir up resentment or bitterness in children. So what do you do if you're in a house where your dad has absolute and total authority. And you read this passage. It's incredible. It's like whoa. I have felt exasperated by my dad a lot and here I'm being told that he is not supposed to do that. Well, in the first century Roman world, this had a huge impact on fathers, but we have to fast forward to 2024 to realize its impact.
Speaker 1:For us today, the dynamics of parenting have changed. Mothers, you share authority in the home as co-heirs of grace and partners in marriage, and and Tim unpacked this last week where he talked about God's desire. This has to be in the context. This partners in marriage, co-heirs of grace is informed by last week's passage where Tim unpacked God's desire for wives to respect and submit to their own husbands, in the environment of a husband who is loving his wife as Christ loved the church, giving himself up for her. This is the picture of the home dynamic. It's no longer the husband ruling, his whim, his idea, the only thing that carries the day, but there is a partnership that finds its feet in Ephesians 5.21. Submit to one another, therefore, out of reverence for Christ, and so this is the shape of the home that we're building, while fathers are still accountable to God for the spiritual well-being of the household. Both parents both parents play crucial roles in nurturing their children's faith and emotional health. Mothers are accountable for how they instruct and discipline children as well as we are responsible and accountable for every human relationship that we have. And yet how much more important is this one?
Speaker 1:As I've parented over the last 12 and a half years, I've tried some different approaches. We have five people living in our house, five kids, and they are all a little different, so you've got to kind of try different approaches sometimes. But over the last two and a half or three years, as I have kind of addressed my emotional health, I'm realizing some of the methods that I was trying with desperate hope of getting some kind of result, of obedience, some kind of semblance of honoring Nikki or myself, and I don't know about you dads. But disrespect to me is tolerable. Disrespect to my wife sends me somewhere that Jesus does not want me to go and it's completely self-righteous. I mean, come on Right Like I'm capable of being just that disrespectful, but I won't stand it from them. All right, I get a little lost here. Let me gather myself again. So here's what I want to say.
Speaker 1:As I've parented over the last 12 years I've noticed a stark contrast between two different approaches that I've taken with my kids, and this is going to be a little general, but I want us to just kind of see this picture and see this contrast, because in the middle of this lies the defense of my argument that the gospel must be at the center of our parent and child relationships. When I emotionally push for immediate obedience out of my kids, when I react with punishment when they disrespect me, in those moments what God has revealed to me lovingly is my focus is on control, controlling their behavior, rather than seeking to understand their hearts. This often leads to frustration, rapid onset of anger, which we just define as being exasperated. My kids feel misunderstood, they feel hurt by me, and as I've delved more into my own emotional health, I've come to learn that there is an unhealthy fear that often drives my attempt for control. I so want them to follow Jesus. That's like Horizon. I so want them to get ready for bed without a fight Right, and I think I mostly want it for them like, if they're ever going to leave, they have to learn how to do some of these basic things on their own right. I so want not a fight over who gets to play with whatever toy I so want, not a fight over it's time to shower again, and so I want to do something.
Speaker 1:This was supposed to be done on paper, but would you open your digital bulletins and go to page three of the daily practice? I'm going to bring you into something that God has been doing in my heart and in my life, that has had direct feet out of this passage, and I want to share a little bit of my history with you with regards to this before I get into it. My emotions controlled me for many, many years. They threatened to control me every day. I was living an impaired life, not a spirit-filled life. This led to one of the hardest breaks in relationship that I have ever experienced in my life, and I hope to never experience it again, and it was the resulting pain from that relational break that drove me to find out what is going on inside of me.
Speaker 1:I can't see myself coming around the corner. I need to see myself coming around the corner, all for the purpose of living in greater dependence on the Spirit. I wanted to be more like Jesus, but I also didn't want to be in pain, and God's kind that way. I'm still in process. I always be, but I'm beginning to see how my emotions function. I've said this to many of you I'm starting to see myself coming quicker and quicker, and what I mean by that is that I'm no longer surprised when something just kind of like great white shark after a seal out of the water do you know what I mean? And I'm the seal and my emotions are the shark. And now I'm completely engulfed in teeth and I'm going to pull down and down and it can get dark really quick.
Speaker 1:What I've learned is that our emotions tell the truth about what our hearts are desiring in any given moment. When emotions are impaired, we act selfishly. We seek to instantly satisfy desire. We get a quick hit of man-made comfort, approval of others to satisfy shame or loneliness, satisfy shame or loneliness. Medicating our anxiety and depression through excess food, drink, sex, drugs, porn, doom-scrolling social media, trying to get relief from deep hurt through resentment, holding on retaliating, getting even Running from situations where our anger for something good is being ignored or thwarted, and I could go on and on. But when the Holy Spirit is involved, with the power of the gospel at work, our emotions can become the gift that I believe God designed them to be. When this happens, the wants of our hearts lead us to get our real needs met in and through Jesus and his church for the glory of God. Approval from God through Jesus becomes satisfying. Approval from God through Jesus becomes satisfying. It protects us from the harm of seeking it from others. We seek and find relief from our anxiety by casting our cares on Christ and finding fulfillment for our deepest desires and relationship with him and his people. We bring our hurt before God and ask him to bring us healing. As we accept the sadness over the brokenness of this world that we face every single day, we voice our anger to God and we allow Him to shape our passions in a way that honors Him, in a way that contributes to the advancing of His kingdom, in a way that contributes to the advancing of His kingdom.
Speaker 1:Parents, I believe that our emotional health is the most important factor in our ability to be God's image bearers to our kids on a daily basis. So I'm assuming something there. I'm assuming that you've put your faith in Christ. That's number one. I'm assuming that you are seeking to follow Jesus and in your following of Jesus, that you are taking this seriously, that you are to raise your kids in such a way that you are not exasperating them and that you are enabling them to honor and obey you, and in that context, your emotional health is key to that. Continuing Emotions are a human thing. Jesus was not only human, but he was the only perfect human ever. To live like Jesus is to become emotionally healthy family.
Speaker 1:By the grace of God, I stand here this morning more emotionally healthy than I think I've ever been in my life, which has been regularly tested, like, maybe, people breaking into my house or printers running out of toner, and I wasn't planning this at all, but my center didn't move. Today, you guys, I remember times of things going wrong on Sunday mornings and Nikki would tell you the horror stories of me crashing around our house, not breaking anything. But I mean just like. Imagine me in our small house, like moving quickly, trying to get ready, doing the nine things that I could have probably done on Friday, 10 minutes after I was supposed to leave to meet the team to set up, and I'm just, I'm just emoting. Everywhere it's ugly, but I'm so grateful because Jesus died for that me and he's making me into a different person. And this morning, as the printer ran out of toner halfway through printing the first sides, quinn was there and I said okay, we got to make a plan, let's make a plan. I text Nikki to let her know. And I felt something that I have not felt very often and I hope to feel a lot more. And it was this center that just didn't shift.
Speaker 1:In boats they call it the ballast. It keeps the boat at the right level so it's not in danger of sinking or capsizing. That's the gospel at work in me. That's the truth that Jesus died in my place for all the sinful, impaired emotions that I have ever, ever had and will have again, and he is teaching me to trust Him for the outcome. My approach with my kids has completely changed. Nikki and I were just talking last night and let me just really say I'm going to talk in weeks and months here. Okay, I'm going to talk in 2024. So we're getting in. This is like a startup. You guys are getting on the ground level of my emotional recovery, okay, but it's the fruit of the last three years of the work I've been doing. And I'm saying it to you because I want you to know this is possible and I'm going to need you at some point in time. Houston has been learning these things along with me. Tim is starting to learn these things along with me, our wives are starting to learn these things. Our heart is that this place would be just an emotionally healthy place, that we would all feel that ballast in the center when the emotional tides come.
Speaker 1:I have been able to navigate some not all of my interactions with my kids in a way that is very different than it has been in the past. And dads and moms, you know that right, it's the heat that comes when, like all of a sudden, there's just this screaming going on across the house, or like right next to you and everything seemed fine, and it's like blood pressure goes up. Those are hard moments. I think that's like jedi level, master 99, like maybe someday I'll be, I will, I'll be able to approach that a little bit better than I do now. But in moments where, like my kids, are coming and they're crying or they're hurt or they're resistant, I'm finding the ability to slow down just easier and we're starting to do some check-ins.
Speaker 1:So I pull out the feelings chart, the one that you have printed in your book, and I pull it out and I say, okay, what are you feeling right now? And all the preteen eyes just roll super hard, they almost fall out of their heads and I'm like, no, no, this is good, we're going to do it, I'll do it too. And we do a check-in. I say what are you feeling? And I started doing this because, as I was learning this, do you know what I was finding? I would ask them what they were feeling and they would say one of these eight emotions I don't know what that is. Before they could read, they would describe what they were feeling I'm angry, I'm sad, I'm hurt, the way you just talked to me. So I don't know about you, but I want to get into that moment. I want to be with them. I haven't always, but I do now. I about you, but I want to get into that moment. I want to be with them. I haven't always, but I do now. I want to be with them, I want to draw them out. And so we just talk about it. We kind of do our emotions and then we just kind of say, hey, where are you?
Speaker 1:You remember in genesis 3, when adam and eve sinned against god and God comes for the walk in the garden. What does he say? Where are you? God is giving Adam a chance to locate Himself. What does Adam say back? Do you remember? I was afraid, so I hid from you. He emotes. God gives Adam, right after the fall, the opportunity to speak the truth about his heart through emotion and to put distance between him and God. So we bring out the truth of the gospel. We say, okay, that's fearful. So I raged at you Because I'm really afraid that if this behavior takes root in your life, that it's going to bring ruin at some point in time, and I really want to see you live for Christ, and so my fear needs to push me into the presence of God, where faith and wisdom are found. That's what Scripture tells us, right, the beginning of wisdom, the fear of the Lord. So I need to trust that God is going to do this thing and not me, that he's going to work this out in your heart, not me. So would you forgive me for raging at you. It's a beautiful opportunity.
Speaker 1:It's hard, it takes time, and I know that we've got a wide range of parents in this room. Some of you are like they can't even talk. How do I do that? Well, that's a little harder, that you're going to have to start training your heart, get with your spouse. Hey, I need to process my feeling right now. I just lost it on our two-year-olds, three-year-old, whatever it is.
Speaker 1:This creating this, creating space for kids to feel heard, understood, is worth the time and if you can't take it in the moment, I encourage you to take it as soon as you can and tell them hey, that didn't go the way. I wanted it to guess what. I really need you to get in the car because we got to go somewhere. That's the thing. You don't go the way. I wanted it to Guess what. I really need you to get in the car because we got to go somewhere. That's the thing you don't want to do. I get it. We're going to circle back to this because I want to talk about how we just interacted.
Speaker 1:They respond really well to that. They're there. I mean, they don't have anywhere to go. They can't drive, they don't really know how to navigate without, you know, with map. They don't have maps. Map reading is like not a thing anymore. So they're there. They are, by the by the nature of their limitations, ultimately and for this moment, committed to being in relationship with you, and so will the gospel function in your parenting relationships, so that you show up with them in that, so you bring your full heart to them and let the gospel not just be imposed on them but to work in both of you. And when we do this, we create space for them to be heard, to be understood. And, once they're calm, I try to explain what it is I'm asking you to do, why it's important, why I think it's going to help them to live in the world, why I think it's going to help them grow up to be people who honor their father and mother, honoring God.
Speaker 1:As you can imagine just my, my experience alone with these two different ways. The one immediate obedience. I don't have time to talk to you, you've got to do it. That's the end of the story. I don't care how you feel and hey, I'd love to talk about this. I want to hear what you feel. And I know that sometimes what we've had to say, nikki and I, over the years, is, hey, we really want to hear from you. Right now, you are shouting and screaming at us. You have to stop that.
Speaker 1:So I one of the hardest things I ever did was to sit down with each of our kids at different times and just let them scream in my face until they were done. I didn't leave them. I don't want to teach them that they can come back when they are nice and presentable. I know that some of you have practiced that. I grew up with that. I'm not condemning that. We do what we know in the moment.
Speaker 1:But I think that this call to not exasperate our children is one that doesn't have room for that kind To put them off by themselves and have them come back when they're ready. But it's to be with them. And I think when we parent this way, we join God in his mission to help everyone understand and learn, to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Because do you know where this kind of relating comes from? It's how God relates to us. Praise God that he did not put us in our room and say come out when you are presentable. We'd never come out. Come out.
Speaker 1:If you haven't figured out your pastor's a mess by now. He is God, entered into our messy, emotional, human, sinful life, became like us, but wholly not like us, died in our place and rose to victorious life so that we could have the power of the gospel functioning in our relationships to glorify God. To glorify God by standing out from the way that culture asserts itself in relationship. I'm going to get mine. I'm going to get what I can out of this. The ends justify the means of whatever it is that I'm trying to accomplish as I pursue my goals.
Speaker 1:In life, we live for something different. We live for something different. We live for something better family. We live empowered by the gospel, and this task of raising kids is overwhelming. We face countless pressures, distractions that pull our focus away from what truly matters to God. We face countless pressures, distractions that pull our focus away from what truly matters to God. But let's remember our ultimate goal. Our ultimate goal is to help our kids feel the love of God that we have felt in our lives, to experience and know who Jesus is, that they might follow him, that we might be agents of God working in their lives to form them, not just physically that's important. Not just emotionally, that's important. Not just spiritually that's maybe of the most importance but of all of those things put together that we would be in their lives to show them what it looks like to be in process as somebody who follows Jesus, and so the best thing that we can do to put the gospel on display in our relationship with our kids is to actually follow Jesus, to seek to be with him, to seek to become like him, to seek to do what he would do if he were parenting our kids and kids. I know you've been listening to this and I know it's messy and hard, but the key to you honoring your parents, the key to you honoring God in your life is to learn to live like Jesus, to learn to follow Him. That's what it is To learn to love Him, live like Him, speak of Him, do what he would do if he were 9 or 10 or 11 or 12 and a half or 4.
Speaker 1:Family our kids need to see us spending time in prayer, connecting with God daily. They need to see us practicing solitude, finding moments of silence and reflection. They need to see us honoring Sabbath in a culture that is so off the chain, crazed with work, resting, trusting in God's provision. They need to see us fasting at times, sacrificing comforts to draw closer to God, to discern His will. They need to see us practicing generosity, giving freely to those in need. They need to see us studying scripture, immersing ourselves in God's word, our anchor, our guide, our window into how God has set up this world to work. They need to see us engaging in community, building relationships with others in faith. They need to see us serving actively, helping and caring for those around us. They need to see us witnessing, sharing our faith and love of Jesus with others. This is a sacred calling. This is a big calling. It's not just about managing behaviors, it's about shaping hearts, and we get to do it at the same time that our hearts are being shaped.
Speaker 1:Paul David Tripp is on record as saying he rewrites the same book every year. It's true, because he basically just writes the gospel for all of life in different topics, and one of my favorites by him is the parenting book. Some of you I know have read it, and in it he brought this out and it just changed how Nikki and I saw parenting. We read it about. I don't know whenever it came out. It was like eight years ago.
Speaker 1:God is parenting us through our children, and so this is the other half of what I've been describing, and so this idea that we're coming and bearing the image of God to our kids. We get to see His image reflected back in them In the ways that he raises things in our life that need correcting, in the ways that we get to come before him and say it's happened again and be received with affection and accepted and accepted. And so the gospel has to be fully functioning in order for that to take place. So the gospel is to function in all of our relationships, specifically in the parent and children relationship with the church around us. Single folks, you're to follow Jesus too, so that all of this might be building a family, building a network of relationships called the church, where the gospel is the primary engine Driving building. Yeah, so I have a brief thought about workers and employers. No, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to trust the Spirit. Here's what we can do. There's a sense in which we can kind of cut copy paste.
Speaker 1:So if you are not actively engaged in a parent-child relationship, you're actively engaged in some relationships, and I believe that the ways that we function inside the most important relationships inform the ways we should function inside of lesser relationships. And so, how you're functioning in a parent-child relationship, we are seeking not to exasperate Employers. Managers, don't exasperate your employees, lesser relationships, and so how you're functioning in a parent-child relationship? We are seeking not to exasperate Employers. Managers, don't exasperate your employees. Seek to understand them. Don't hoard power. Seek to give it away. Train, let them make mistakes. It's the same thing we want to do in parenting right Workers. You're to honor and show respect to your managers. You're to make their jobs easy, not hard. The only way that you can do that is if the gospel is informing your value, if the gospel is informing your motivation, and this goes for every job.
Speaker 1:And I think probably the biggest comment that I wanted to make here is one of the things that Houston and I have been fighting hard against is this idea of some kind of dualistic view of work that says Houston and Ben have like really important jobs to God and like what am I doing with my life? That's not true. Everyone is co-opting the kingdom of God together. So if you're home with kids, I mean if you don't feel like that's a pretty big job after what I just said, let's talk after. But Lori, restocking, making sure the hospital has all the supplies it needs, building the kingdom, a place where people can get the common grace of God that they need.
Speaker 1:The other people I was going to say about are not here, but Carl, tending to information systems, keeping data private, is helping to build the kingdom. As you do that, unto the Lord and everybody else in here, with what you're doing, work as unto the Lord. Follow Jesus to work. He wants to go there with you. He wants to be honored there with you, just like he does in your family relationships. Okay, so where do we go from here? Maybe you're just like. I don't think I understood anything that you just said Was this emotional stuff. That's okay, I'd love to talk to you. I'd love to talk to you. I'd love for you to take the daily practice and do it this week, six days. It takes between 10 and 20 minutes, depending on how much time you have. It's not a challenge, it's not a race. Nobody posts on Slack how many minutes they spent in prayer.
Speaker 1:This is an opportunity for you to find solitude with the Lord, and so we started with prayer. Now we're in silence and solitude, and so we're kind of blending those things together. We're coming out of some passages of Scripture. This week is focusing on what do we do with all of our anxiety? Well, we're taught in Philippians 4, to cast our anxieties onto Christ because he cares for us. And so this is going to lead you through some ways of bringing yourself and all the anxiety and fear that can live in our lives, the desire to control and exposing it before the Lord in the quiet place that you can find in your busy life and experiencing him working deep within you.
Speaker 1:Some of us have been doing this regularly and it has been a very life-changing thing. But it requires intentionality, it requires the help of the Spirit. As elders, we regularly pray for you that you would find time throughout the day to be with the Lord. I mean, let's face it, in our fast-paced, constantly connected world, it's easy to lose sight of the deeper things of God, and he's just door open, inviting us in, those of us who put faith in Christ. I love the way Lewis sums it up in the seventh book, the last battle, when they're getting into Aslan's country and they keep discovering beautiful place after beautiful place, and the call is always further up, further in, there's more.
Speaker 1:So if you find yourself this morning just dissatisfied with the amount of peace you have in your life, you see the disruption in your family relationships. You see the disruption in your work relationships, dive into spending some time in God's presence. Ask him to change your heart with the power of the gospel, to be more like Jesus. Yeah, so I think that's just about it for today. This thing is all cut up and put back together in weird ways, so I'm grateful for you just being with me this morning.
Speaker 1:God cares a lot about our relationships, and my prayer for us as we close this morning is that we would learn how to become people who experience the depth of God's presence that actually transforms us. That we wouldn't be satisfied for just knowing things about God, but that we would seek and hunger after transformation and the peace that God provides. That we would be people helping to build his kingdom, a place where children honor and obey parents and where parents show and reveal the character of Christ. A place where businesses are run fairly and employees love to come to work. We can have that. We will have that someday when Jesus comes back, restores everything and takes us home. But we have the building blocks to work towards it now. Would you pray with me someday when Jesus comes back, restores everything and takes us home? But we have the building blocks to work towards it now. Would you pray with me?