Sunday Morning Worship Service July 5, 2020

Well, good morning, see you on this Lord's Day, hope you've had a good weekend celebrating our nation's independence and rejoicing in our freedoms that we have as citizens of this land.

I trust when you reflect on your freedoms as a citizen, you also reflect on the true freedom that is found in Christ.

Our sign outside has said for a couple of weeks that true freedom is found only in Christ Jesus.

And the freedoms that we have in this world can come and go, they can ebb and flow.

Sometimes they're granted, sometimes they're restricted, and sometimes they're taken away.

And even though we have these certain unalienable rights, it doesn't necessarily mean that every government and society recognizes that.

But the freedom that we have in Christ is a timeless freedom, and it's an eternal freedom. And we rejoice in that for sure on this particular holiday weekend.

So a couple of announcements on your sheet there, you can see those, we're doing the daily devotionals every day, and hope those are an encouragement and a blessing to you.

Midweek service at 7 o 'clock on Wednesday. And then next Sunday is a resumption

Sunday of a couple of things. One is we'll be resuming having the nursery available during the morning service, if you have children that need that care that's available at the intended nursery next

Sunday. And evening service will resume at 6 o 'clock.

So look forward to those events. Now, in all these things, we are still wanting to be careful about keeping the distances and that kind of thing.

And I know that is a little bit of an aggravation when you come in and you see these full, full empty pews.

That's an oxymoron. Pews that are completely empty, and they're blocked off. And it's your pew.

It's your favorite spot. And yet, nevertheless, it's an important thing, I think, to do.

If for no other reason, I noticed of all of the venues in which people can get this

COVID, you know, you had all the riots and protesting and everything else. You didn't hear anything about anybody getting

COVID, getting infected from the virus. But if an outbreak, it's big news.

And so we want to be careful about that for our own testimony, as well as for our own health, obviously.

But please, we just need to take care of these things.

All right. Well, the Lord has called us together to worship today. And we want to begin with Psalm 149, a couple of verses.

It says, Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song and His praise in the congregation of saints.

For the Lord takes pleasure in His people. He will beautify the people with salvation.

So we open our service this morning. We're going to sing one of the newer hymns in our psalm supplement book, hymn number nine.

Jim's going to come and lead us in this call to worship. Jim? Number nine in your blue books, supplement books, call to worship.

Let's all stand together, please. Sing all three verses. Number nine, call to worship. Let's stand together.

Remain standing for prayer, please. Father in heaven, we thank you, O God, for your goodness to us.

Your greatness as you've exalted yourself above all others. O Lord, we thank you for that in Jesus Christ which we have, we claim our hope in Him.

We thank you, Father, for this Lord's day for this country, even based upon the principles and the foundation of God's word.

Father, we just ask now your blessing upon this time as you would receive our praise and our thanks for who you are and what we have in Christ.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Our psalm reading today, we want to read

Psalm 78, first eight verses of this psalm. Psalm 78, verses 1 through 8.

Follow along there on your handout, your sheet. The psalmist writes,

Give ear, O my people, to my law. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable.

I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the

Lord and His strength and His wonderful works that He hath made. For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which

He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep

His commandments and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of this portion of His word today. Jim's going to come and lead us in our next hymn, in our hymnal.

Jim. Thank you, Pastor. Number 75 in your hymnals, 75, the

God of the impossible. We'll just sing first and third verses, one and three of number 75. I don't...

Number 75, verse three, together. I don't know... As we pray together today, we want to pray for, first of all, a missionary of the week, the

Hammermeisters, serving in Surrey, British Columbia. Continue to pray for them as they are still unable to have services together and their church is in a very precarious situation.

An infant church, if you will, and has not been able to meet, and the only connection has been by email and some of that kind of thing.

So pray for the stability of that work. And then we also want to pray for the Rails, John and Joyce, serving in Brazil.

Got an email from him this week that the person who was their housekeeper and cleaned house for them actually had contracted

COVID and died of some complications related to that disease.

And there is quite an outbreak in Kiaba and the area where they live. So we want to pray for their protection.

Also want to continue to pray for Bob Klein and Jerry. Bob began chemotherapy last week and will be doing that every other week for...

I forget how long, how many sessions. But anyway, it's a drawn -out process. Pray for him to continue to handle that well and not suffer from some of the side effects that are very common in chemotherapy.

And then we want to pray for our nation, of course, the unrest that is still going on in our country, and pray for God to intervene dealing with the hatred, the incivility, the strife, just the flagrant rebellion and animosity toward any kind of authority.

I saw a video someone posted in Des Moines. The Iowa State Police were involved in trying to minimize the disturbance of a protest at the

Statehouse, I guess it was. And just the language, the behavior, the attitude toward the state police and the police officers, it's just really very unfortunate and not a good place for our country to be in.

So let's pray for our nation, shall we? Our Heavenly Father, we do thank you today that we do not depend upon the civil leaders.

We don't put our trust in presidents or Congress or Statehouse.

We don't even put our trust in law enforcement officers. But our trust is ultimately in you.

And it is because of that that we come before you today and we intercede in behalf of our nation and its leaders, its elected officials, and those who are sworn to protect the citizenry and uphold the constitution of our land.

And we ask that you, Father, would intervene in this nation and that you would work in the hearts of men and women, young people, to bring peace and civility once again.

I pray that all involved would realize the futility of this kind of behavior that will only lead to greater unrest and greater division, which will lead to less stability and less happiness and no true joy.

Father, I pray that our nation would continue to grow and improve. There's always room in this fallen world with leaders that are themselves fallen.

There's always room to grow. There's always room to improve. And I pray that the desire for positive change would not result in negative destruction.

So, Lord, we pray for our nation. We also pray today for those in our congregation who are in need.

We think of those who are not yet able to get out and feeling confident in this time of a pandemic, some who are restricted by medical conditions that they're not to be in crowds.

And we understand that. Pray for them and pray that you would encourage them. And I pray that even if they are limited to watching a worship service on livestream, that you would encourage them through your word, even in that avenue, that form of media.

Father, we pray for those who are physically suffering. We think of Kathy and her continued recovery from knee surgery.

Give continued healing there. And may it be a swift process of getting strength back to that knee.

We pray for Bob, that you continue to bless him with health that responds well to the chemotherapies he's receiving.

Encourage Jerry during this time as well. We pray for John and Joyce Rayl, Father, as they have quite an outbreak of this virus in their region.

We pray that you would protect them from getting that themselves. People in their church,

I pray that you would protect their church. And I pray you'd give comfort to these loved ones and the church family and the loss of this individual that they knew so well.

We pray for Darren and Elizabeth Hammermeisters in British Columbia. And ask,

Father, that the years of ministry would not be hindered and ruined by this lockdown and the inability to meet.

I pray that the people that have been a part of that church through the last few years would have an eagerness to get back together, to fellowship together, to worship together.

And may that time come soon for them, we pray. Father, we pray as we reflect here in just a few minutes on the work of our

Savior on the cross, that our hearts would be blessed when we think of the richness of our lives in Christ Jesus and all that he has done for us.

We thank you for our freedom in Christ. We thank you for our freedom from the penalty of sin.

Thank you for the freedom that we have to have access to your very throne, to your very presence.

We thank you, Father, for the freedom from the power of sin and ultimately the freedom from the presence of sin.

And Lord, we thank you for all that you have done for us in the work of Christ on the cross.

This we pray in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. So in just a few moments, after we sing a couple stanzas of the next hymn, we will commemorate the

Lord's Table together. And I trust if you're participating, you will have picked up one of these little cups, prepackaged cups.

And you might even, ahead of time, just begin to lift off that top tab, make that easier to access the wafer here in just a few minutes.

But we will be partaking of the Lord's Table together. So Jim, please come and lead us in that next hymn.

And that is on your blue supplement books, page number 32.

Number 32, we're going to be singing all three verses, but for right now, the first and second verse.

And then, as Pastor mentioned, after the Lord's Table, we'll be singing the third verse. Let's all stand together, if you would.

Number 32, How Deep the Father's Love, on the first two verses together. How deep the

Father's love, how deep the

Father's love. How deep the

Father's love, how deep the Father's love. You may be seated.

One of the two ordinances the Lord left His church, is, in addition to baptism, the

Lord's Table. And He set that ordinance in motion on the night of His betrayal.

and he gathered his disciples around the eating area at that Passover meal and he took a couple of elements and he chose these two elements to serve as symbols of his own body and his blood.

We'll partake of those in just a few minutes. What I want to do is read a passage of Scripture and we'll share the bread together and reflect upon Christ's broken body and then continue reading

Scripture, partake of the cup, and then reflect on his shed blood.

So first of all let me read from Matthew chapter 27 verses 26 and following.

It says then released he that is Pilate Barabbas unto them and when he had scourged

Jesus he delivered him to be crucified then the soldiers of the governor took

Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe and when they had platted a crown of thorns they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him saying hail king of the

Jews and they spit upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head and after that they had mocked him they took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him.

So at that table the Lord took a loaf of bread anticipating this event that was going to happen in less than 24 hours.

He took a loaf of bread and he broke it and he passed it around his disciples and he said this is my body which is broken for you take and eat.

Continuing in Matthew 27 we read verse 45 now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour and about the ninth hour

Jesus cried with a loud voice saying Eli Eli lama sabachthani that is to say my

God my God why hast thou forsaken me. Some of them that stood there when they heard that said this man calls for Elias and straightway one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink the rest said let be let us see whether Elias will come to save him.

Jesus when he had cried again with a loud voice yielded up the ghost.

So after that bread was passed around and all had partaken of the bread the

Lord took the cup a single cup filled with the red wine and he said this cup is the new covenant in my blood drink ye all of it.

So our Father we are grateful for our Savior's body that he gave to be broken for us.

Thankful Father for our Savior giving his blood to be shed for us.

What wondrous love what amazing grace you would save such as us by such a marvelous wonderful plan.

Thank you Father for the Lord Jesus bless now these thoughts to our hearts and your love to our hearts as well we pray in Jesus name amen.

All right Jim will come and lead us in that third stanza of how deep the Father's love.

And again number 32 in your song books your blue song books number 32 the last verse verse 3 how deep the

Father's love. Well I've mentioned before that I've been reading the biography of Ulysses S.

Grant and you read about the family dynamics so this is of course in the early chapters of the book but you read about the family dynamics in the

Grant household and it's really quite interesting. When Ulysses was growing up his father owned a tannery and that's that's not a business for the faint of heart and it's not the kind of business you want to live next door to either.

My understanding is at least at that time the tanning process was rather odorous process left quite a stench.

The Grants lived across the street from the business and Ulysses said when he was a child his in the hot summer is the windows would be open and the the fragrance from across the street would waft into his into his bedroom and he'd have to bury his face in his pillow to deal with the stench.

So that was not a wonderful place necessarily to work but when

Ulysses was a teenager his dad told him that he was going to have to go to work in the tannery and he was going to work in the most deplorable most deplorable area in the plant.

Well Ulysses didn't exactly like the idea of that prospect and he let his dad know that said he didn't want to do it but out of respect for his father he went to work in the tannery.

About a year later maybe a little more without his son's knowledge the dad fired off an application to West Point got the necessary recommendations from from the senator in their state and Ulysses had no knowledge of it whatsoever.

Then he said you're going to West Point you've been accepted and you're shipping out in however many weeks.

Well again Ulysses was not too happy about this he had no desire whatsoever to go to West Point he had even less desire of being in the military of being in armed forces that he'd had no desire for that whatsoever but out of respect for his father he packed up all his earthly goods and left home and from Cincinnati and went to West Point and it is because of that that he ultimately came the eight became the 18th president of the

United States. Can you imagine such a family dynamic is that in our enlightened, sophisticated, vastly superior 21st century a dad would tell his son you're going to go work here and the son says well

I don't really particularly want to but okay dad you're gonna go here to college and the son says

I don't particularly want to but okay dad because I respect you I will go. It happens but not too commonly does it?

I wonder I wonder if a lot of what we're seeing played out mostly young people in our television sets these days with screaming and violent attitudes toward police officers horrible language, terrible disrespect for any kind of authority.

I wonder if that has something to do with family dynamics I wonder if it has something to do with fathers and maybe the lack of fathers.

I wonder. Well one of the wonderful things about the gospel of Jesus Christ is its transformative power.

The gospel has a power to you personally.

First three chapters Paul is really addressing the individual believers that make up a local church and talks about what

God in his grace has done for them individually and personally but then beginning in chapter 4 he applies all that God has done for the individual to that individual and tells them need to walk worthy but in the walking of worth walking worthy there there are there are implications for the transformation of other relationships within the church within the broader scope of society but Paul has been zeroing in in chapter 5 and now into chapter 6 with the transformative power of the gospel on the family.

He addressed husbands and wives at the end of chapter 5 and now in chapter 6 verses 1 to 4

Paul reveals that the truly Christian home is transformed as children and parents fulfill their respective responsibilities.

Notice this passage Ephesians 6 verses 1 to 4 we'll focus on for our message today.

Paul writes children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right honor thy father and thy mother which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long on the earth and ye fathers and let me read this verse 4 in the

ESV because of just the way some of the words are translated better understand verse 4 says fathers do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the

Lord. A brief prayer our father everyone in this room is either a parent or a child an offspring of parents and we therefore have gospel impacted responsibilities in that relationship give us insight into those duties today we pray in Jesus name amen.

So Paul opens up this chapter these first three verses sharing the responsibilities or the duties children have toward their parents and it's a twofold a twofold duties that duty that he expresses the children are first of all to obey their parents and then they honor their father and mother.

I want to point out that the word children here as he begins in verse 1 is a word that is general in its in its meaning but it can be specific in its application what

I mean by that is kind of what I said in my prayer everyone here is either a parent or a child in this broader sense an offspring of parents and so whether you're 80 or 8 you are a child of your parents now the first verse when he says children obey your parents and the

Lord I think he's zeroing in on a a parenthesis of time for childhood he's not talking about 65 year old offspring of a 90 year old parent and telling that 65 year old whatever your father who you have to do the children of verse 1 you look at what he says in verse 4 when he says that the children bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the

Lord and therefore the children would be those who are still in the training state of life it certainly wouldn't be applicable to a 65 year old but look at the obedience that is rendered here we can see a parallel passage to Ephesians 6 1 and following in Colossians 3 since 3 verse 20

I'll set children in all things this is well -pleasing to the

Lord so when you take these two verses together we find that the obedience that children render to parents is to be essentially total essentially total parents in all things in all things right away that says you know children are about to come up with some things well what about well what about what about I said essentially total it supposes directed what the parent is telling the child to do is not something that is immoral or illegal or unethical or unbiblical it's understandable that's that's the presupposition here and insofar as what the parent is not demanding of the child is is legal it's ethical it's the right thing to do then the child is to follow through but I also want you to notice that for children their duty their obedience is to be a spiritual service he says okay yourself giving the command as if the wife look at that Christ himself because not that the husband is

Christ by any means but that she recognizes that the husband is in a position of responsibility delegated by Christ and likewise here children are told their parents right

I think that mom and dad are in a position of responsibility and authority delegated to them by Jesus and so would expect obedience of himself parents have a right to expect obedience of their children as the representatives of the

Lord this is a spiritual service so so children should look at their obedience to parent as a an act of obedience to Christ as a as an aspect or an area of their own spiritual growth and development to be parents are to mother as well as father and again parent children can children are very good at around this right well what about what about if dad tells me to do something and mom tells me to do something contradictory to that or mom tells me to do something that would preclude what dad has told me to do whom do

I obey whom do I obey and the answer to that question is you you go to your point out of the piggy bank and you flip it and its heads its dad tails its mom no not really generally speaking you obey the chief authority so if if dad tells you to mow the lawn for example and mom says to you you don't have to mow the lawn you don't you don't let the parents pit one against the other you mow the lawn for example and there are so many other things in that regard we could talk about but but you the point that the both respected both parents are to be obeyed your obedience is to be impartial so one of the duties that children have to their parents is that of obedience the second is that of honor honor he says in verse 2 honor thy father and mother this idea of honoring implies it implies a lot of things it implies more than it implies more than putting them up on a pedestal it implies love they have a love for the ones who gave you life it implies a high regard for you say well you don't know my parent my parents aren't perfect mm -hmm

I know that and so do they they know it better than you do

I guarantee you I got a newsflash for you neither are you it's like wouldn't you wouldn't you like to just kind of grab some of these young people by the collar who are wanting to tear down monuments of great great leaders and heroes of the past because they had flaws

I mean it's like the only people on the planet that the ones wanting to tear down these monuments they're the paragons of virtue the paragons of perfection and so it's yes it's very easy to look at the moat in somebody else's eye and dishonor them or disrespect them because of that moat and fail to see the beam that is plunged in your own eye

Oh parents are to be of their their weaknesses and their failures and their imperfect there to give them consideration you're to give them deference all of these ideas wrapped up in the word honor your parents and this this shouldn't say secondary second actually their obedience because we all understand that we can obey without giving honor we can render what we're supposed to render and have a pretty lousy rotten attitude in the process of rendering it and be very disrespectful to those whom we are obeying no we not only need to obey children we need to respect and honor the parents and this aspect or this command is one that expands beyond childhood there certainly comes a point in our development when we are not to be subject to every women and directive that but the respecting our parents is is a lifelong responsibility we never lose responsibility to on and this honoring is again to both of our parents why why is children growing up and as even adult children of parents is it's the right thing to do it's the right at the end of verse one children obey your parents this is proper

I mean you don't have to do a lot of thinking to figure out

I mean who gave you life who has provided for you through the years of your life however long you've lived so far who has sacrificed incredibly for your welfare

I would encourage people who have the savvy to do a

Google search and that's pretty these days don't do it right now do it later do a

Google search that asks the question how much does it cost raise a child from birth to age how much does it cost and then ask yourself this question how many years would it take me to pay that to pay that off if it was a loan to me yikes

I'd be doing that the rest of my life and yet this is what your parents do sacrifice for you so to honor them it's only the right thing to do honor them because they are older and they are wiser they really are they have a great deal more experience to draw on and you do and you've heard the it's almost cliche thing but you know when

I when I was a sophomore I I couldn't believe how little my parents knew you know sophomore in high school

I couldn't believe they were so dumb so how could they be so so yeah then

I got to be 25 26 years old and I realized boy they have really gotten smart yeah they were just as smart when you were a sophomore why is it the right thing to do because those parents love you and care for you like nobody else will until you are yourself married it's the right thing to do the parallel verse where Paul says children obey your parents he gives another reason he says for this is well pleasing to the

Lord obey them because it pleases the Lord on them because it pleases the

Lord for you to do so and then verse 3 gives a third reason here in our text

Colossians 6 that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long on the earth it's actually personally advantageous for you to honor and obey your parents generally speaking generally speaking this is a maxim this is a proverb generally speaking the child that honors and obeys his parents will have a more fruitful greater quality life and even there are a lot of reasons for that and don't want to do it point but but God knows what he's talking about you have a right relationship with your parents and that will stand you in good stead all the days of your life children you have a responsibility to your parents now look in the husband -wife relationship the wife is to submit herself to husband's leadership but Paul said at the end of chapter 5 the husband is to make that submission easy by loving her well all right so you got that dynamic that interplay between husbands and wives wives are to submit to the authority or the responsibility and the leadership of the husband but husbands are to so love their wives that that submission is a relatively easy thing to do we got a similar kind of dynamic here between the parent -child relationship children are to obey and honor their parents but dad dad is to make that easier for them fulfilling duties by fulfilling his duties

I think of this in relationship to the grant household again

Ulysses was very respectful and obedient to his father he did a great job fulfilling his duties as a child to his father and he now watch he did so even though his dad didn't make it very easy for him to do it his dad was not a particularly kind and gracious man and he wasn't one to sit down with his son and talk things through with his son and ask him what are his aspirations what would he like to do with his life he didn't do any of that he just made the decisions for him yeah dad didn't do a very good job this part the

Christian dads you can you can help your children make the their responsibility fulfilling their responsibility of obedience and honor easier as you fulfill your duty as a dad and what are those duties well the first one is to avoid provocation here in Ephesians verse 4

Paul says fathers provoke not your children to wrath Colossians 3 provides a parallel for us and in Colossians 3 he he doesn't add the words to wrath and he actually uses a different word in our

King James translated provoke so there are two different two different things that dads can provoke their children to do or to be like you can dads you can provoke your children to anger that's what's going on here in verse 4 and or you show exasperation exasperation and that's what

Colossians is talking about and you're to do neither don't provoke your children and poke your children to exasperation and there are many ways that you can do that let me just share some of these ways with us that gets it down to the nuts and bolts for us as dads one of the ways that we can provoke children and operation civilly severe by me out a form of discipline that beyond if you would we can provoke to anger or of your old boy to go out and mow the lawn when it's 95 degrees do it now don't wait till the reasonable demand and we can provoke abuse our authority justifying those by playing when we sense that wondering but a rebellious spirit sometimes to play the trump card but it should be rare you know what the trump card

I'm talking about is don't you because I said so because I said so the unfortunate thing is that many fathers because I don't want to deal with any questions to their authority or any questions to their directives or anything like that because they just don't want to deal with it they use that all the time because I said so and they do so in a harsh and an angry way and the result of that over and over and over again is it provokes the child to anger folks a child operation we can provoke to anger exasperation by showing favoritism that of course is a special danger in a family with more than one child showing favoritism we can do it by discouraging the child things in the category of you'll never amount to anything you do that or impression that they don't measure up in their appearance you remember the you're familiar with the story of the

Phantom of the Opera and you know Phantom was a man with a disfigured face and it was disfigured at birth and the reason that he wore a mask was not because when he got older he was getting taunts and all the rest of that from other people and it just easier thing to deal with or ask because his mother gave it to him when he was just a young infant a child he did she did not want to look at him what a discouraging thing for a child to grow up experiencing discouragement another way we can do it is by being overly protective and being a helicopter parent one writer has said if the little bird remains in the safety of the nest it will never learn to fly and this is one of the dangers that parents have as their children reach of age of maturity they don't know how to let go they don't know how to let them go out of the nest and they don't even push him out of the nest like they should instead they want to keep them in the nest and they the child will never learn to fly and by the way moms and dads let me there isn't there's an incredibly difficult balance to maintain here

I understand and I get it because I've been there but there is a danger for us as parents as our children grow up Christian izing them we so we're so overly protective and so helicoptering of them that we micromanage everything them so that nothing looks out of place like it doesn't belong for the ideal perfect Christian and we monitor everything so that sure that everything about their life so it's like we're trying to make them be window material you know like this is a

Christian and the problem is they may not even be Christians they may be very compliant and they may go right along with it and they'll have all of the appearance of being good little

Christians and underneath it all they can be seething you will not know about it until they have left the net and then you discover all your efforts at not seeing those run by your over protection and your helicoptering has been counterproductive instead of them living the

Christian life they've shunned the Christian facade and let the real person out another way that we can provoke to anger or exasperation is by expecting adult maturity expecting adult expecting our a child to have the self -control the emotional control that an adult would have to take initiative like a responsible adult would take to have the self -discipline that an adult should have when we expect child we can exasperate them we can provoke them to anger or exasperation by failing to allow them to grow up to grow up that is to make decisions of their own to fail we don't want them to fail so we do everything we can to keep them from ever failing and thereby learning from mistakes that they make we don't let them take any risks whatsoever and enjoy either the success or lick the wounds of taking that risk in this regard

I was listening yesterday last evening to a an interview that a podcaster had with Hugh Jackman some of you may know him he's a an actor of screen and stage and Hugh Jackman grew up in a

Christian home his dad was dad was believed dad came to Christ and a

Billy Graham crusade Jackman was just and Jackman tells the story that when he was 22 years of age he he had a decision to make it was an incredibly difficult decision for him because both choices were good choices one on one hand he he had the opportunity to go to to take a play a place a role in an ongoing weekly television program in Australia he grew up in Australia or he could go to a school and take it get it get some more education for three years so on the one he would make a lot of money and the other he would spend a lot of money the one he could begin his career in a high note and the other he's putting it off but he saw advantages to both of these things and he's side trying to decide what do

I do what do I do what do I do 22 years old and he went to his dad and he said here are my choices what do

I do what I do dad said yes you dad old son comes to you and such a thing what would you do what would you say his dad said

I can't tell you that son dad why you have to make this decision and he pulled his hair out with that he wanted his dad given the answer so he went back to more about it he finally realized well you know

I could make some good money if I went into this act you know that took this role but I would be limiting my career if I did that I would never be able to do

Shakespeare for the Royal Shakespeare Company I'd really kind of like to do that if I go get some more education

I might be able to do that someday so he finally decided on the education he went back to his dad and he said dad

I've chosen to I've chosen to go to school to take take the education course and his dad said oh thank

God you thought that was the best decision

I did absolutely so why didn't you just tell me and save me all the agony and then his dad said that he said because and you make decisions for yourself and accept consequences of those decisions you can't me to make your decision for you all your life now there was advice that went into that decision that there was background and I'll mention that in just a few minutes but what his dad was doing was allowing the years of training and impact in his son's life to have an impact on him at that particular time and his son respected his father and appreciated his father rather than being exasperated we can also provoke our children to anger or exasperation by not respecting how our child is wired you know that famous verse

Proverbs 20 train up a child in the way he should go and old will not depart from it you know what that verse is really talking about train child according to his way that is according to the way he is built the way he is wired according to his gifts and his talents and and the way that God has invested him with abilities and skills you train a child in that way and he'll not grow old and he'll not depart grows old so if you have a child a boy that has a more artistic bent and you're a dad who loves sports and you want to get your kid into all kinds of sports and you keep pushing him towards sports and pushing him towards sports and there's just this sport setting yourself up for a child who's going to be angry and exasperated with you find out your child's bent discover that and respect it oh and then we can provoke our to anger or exasperation of course by the obvious through abuse emotional verbal physical abuse by neglecting child or her

Ian Hamilton said this he said parents must exercise their

God -given authority over their children a manner broad children who them and not way that repels them so pet dads are responsibility boy propagation just mentioned the other three responsibilities that Paul gives us here it's our responsibility to provide them sure means or to bring them up to provide for them rear them we are thirdly responsible to nurture them the

King James puts it that way nurture the ESB that I read earlier translates that word discipline and that's a better way of understanding this word this is a focus on their behavior so we work for our child a framework we give rules make sure they're reasonable we provide guidelines we provide responsibilities it's a framework that work if it's a good framework will discipline and build discipline into the life of our children with that framework there come rewards for faithfulness maybe of an allowance or or some kind of special treat should always be praise rewards but involves punishment punishment for failure but again that must be reasonable be understood and it must be fitting to the to the to the to the violation of the framework that's discipline nurture them and then we are responsible to admonish them to admonish them to bring them up in the nurture and the admonition of the

Lord the SV translates that instruction again I think a good discipline focuses on behavior admonition or instruction focuses on the heart and the mind so this would involve of course teaching it would involve warning it would involve encouraging things like I know you can do this but always be honest always be honest again in that interview that I was listening to with Hugh Jackman one of the things he said that it falls in this line of instruction or admonition was he said you know that rare Asians where we sat down and formal instruction but there were things he said from time to time that just stuck with me and one of the things early in my childhood that he said that stuck with me that influenced that later decision was he told me always get as much education as you can keep learning never stop learning his dad said he learned that he heard that when he was a child and when he's a 22 year old 22 year old young man and he's forced faced with a decision which way do

I go this instruction came back to his mind and it it shaped and influenced the decision that he finally made the way his father struck

Jackman says when he was a teenager 13 converted by four or six seven eight years by that time and Jackman himself was very involved in his church's youth group and one one day in youth group everybody got this packet of stuff to help them evangelize and in that stuff was a bumper sticker one of those fish bumper stickers you know was a bumper sticker and Hugh came home to his dad with his packet of stuff and he pulled out that bumper dad look we put it on a car and his dad said no son we're not gonna do that we're not gonna do that some of us might raise our eyebrows at that why why wouldn't you do that this is a good way and and and Hugh himself he was kind of taken aback by that he said well well dad this is we got to do this this is gets our this gets our message out this identifies who we are and dad very wisely said son who we are is not defined by a symbol on the back of our car it's defined by how we live well now here

Jackman was 52 3 years old and he shared that incident from his teen years that has with him all these years this was his father's admonition and then dad's it's our responsibility to provide a

Christian home we're to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the

Lord so we are informed in our child rearing we are informed by what

God and what God likes that established the foundation of our discipline and our instruction we nurture and admonition in the

Lord now and admittedly this presuppose that dads are dads who love

Christ there who are Christian if you are to have a

Christian home but it does mean can if mom and dad fulfill their relationship responsibilities toward one another and if dads their children right not perfectly please rightly if children obey and respect their parents they can have a

Christian home which of course leads us to ask ourselves the question how are our families let's pray and ask

God to answer that question for us it's our father I pray as we contemplate this this morning realize there are many many many ways these principles can be applied in everyday life and even as we looked at some of these today some of these truths the wheels were turning we were pondering we were considering what do we need to do how do we need to change to our right speak to us even in these closing moments

I pray in Jesus name and for his amen let's take our hymnals and turn to number 366 66 and just a stanza have thine own way lord have thine own way and I just want to sing the last stanza and let's stand together as we do so 366 thanks keep in mind as we depart today one is that there's for a benevolence offering we receive on Sundays where we do the