TLP 577: How Your Children Respond to Sin, Part 3 | Knowledge

When Adam and Eve sinned against God they knew they were naked and they knew they had done wrong But they lied to themselves about how the

Lord would respond to what they had done Parenting isn't about us. In fact parenting isn't even about our kids

Parenting is just one way Christian dads and moms are to worship God So welcome to the truth love parent podcast where we train dads and moms to give

God the preeminence in their parenting Welcome back to the show. I'm so pleased you are here I pray that what we talk about today sharpens you spiritually and equips you to help your children respond correctly to sin as Always today's show is accompanied by free episode notes a transcript and links to related resources

I encourage you to follow those links consume that information and apply it to your parenting This show is unique because it's formatted to be like a one -sided counseling session here

We open the word learn from it and seek to apply it to our lives in measurable ways via teaching and reproof

Of course It isn't a conversation at all like a regular counseling session would be but you should be talking about these things

With your spouse the men and women with whom you're in a discipleship relationship Your friends your pastor and anyone else who can help you grow in these areas

Today, we're going to consider the first response. Every person has to sin But even though it's the first it's the one response that doesn't register for most

Christians However to miss this truth is to miss an important dynamic of being a sinful human as well as parenting sinful humans in our homes

So let's get started the first response that all people have to sin is knowledge

Now that might sound strange because it's not a verb. It's a noun How does someone respond with a noun and not a verb?

But before we unpack that I want to talk about some other lessons We've learned over the years concerning the importance and nature of knowledge

Number one knowledge is imperative in belief. You cannot believe something you don't know

You can't put your faith in Christ's substitutionary death on the cross If you don't know who he is and what he did for you you can't trust

God's plan for your suffering if you've never learned what his plan is if Belief is the roots of our tree truth and knowledge comprised the nutrient -rich soil around those roots

Too little soil and the roots can't soak up the nutrients But the more fertile soil that's there the easier the roots can believe everything they need to believe

Therefore I preach often of the absolute necessity of biblical parents teaching their kids This requires that we the parents know and believe

God's truth ourselves And it also requires that we're communicating it to our children Sure Sunday school teachers and friends can be part of the process but the scripture makes it abundantly clear that we the parents need to be rearing our children in the nurture and admonition of the

Lord As well as reminding them of the glorious truths. He has taught us over our lives And I'll take it one step further though Not every parent should homeschool their children

Most Christian parents could if they correctly approach their schedules and finances and had a right view of the importance of discipling their kids

The more opportunities you have to educate your kids Even if those things are history and science and math the more you can weave the truth of scriptures into the learning of those topics

So knowledge is very important because your kids will never be able to believe that which they don't know Number two

Knowledge alone puffs up in 1st Corinthians 8 1 through 3 Paul starts a discussion about how

Christians should interact with meat sacrifice to idols But as he introduced the topic, he makes a very important observation now concerning things a sacrifice to idols

We know that we all have knowledge Knowledge puffs up but love builds up if anyone thinks that he has known anything

He has not yet known as he ought to know but if anyone loves God he has been known by him

Knowledge alone isn't good enough as we collect more knowledge than those around us The natural sinful tendency is to look at our growing collection and respond arrogantly

This point is similar to the last and that knowledge without belief is empty But so is knowledge without love only when we rightly love

God and our neighbors will our knowledge have any value Each faction in the Corinthian Church had a lot of knowledge about meat offered to idols

But they lacked the love God wanted them to pour on each other Teach your children to use their knowledge to serve

God and seek the best for others Then and only then their knowledge won't be completely useless later in chapter 13 verse 2

Paul writes and if I have the gift of prophecy and know all Mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but I do not have love.

I am nothing and Finally as far as the intro goes anyway, number three

Increasing knowledge is required for spiritual maturity when we're surrounded by truth We're believing it, but we're not consuming it for our own pleasures, but rather serving

God and others with it. We will be maturing 1st Peter 1 2 through 3 promises grace and peace be multiplied to you in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our

Lord Seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness Through the full knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence

It is through the knowledge of God that we have grace peace and absolutely everything necessary for life and godliness

If you've never listened to the evidence of spiritual life series I did for the celebration of God podcast

You really need to check it out it's a great way to determine if someone has spiritual life, but it's also a wonderful roadmap for increased spiritual maturity and Speaking of the year -long celebration of God if you've never checked out celebration of God calm you should do that I created the year -long celebration of God it's podcast the

Bible readings fasting journals and holiday guides to help parents grow in their love for the Lord and Worship him better with their families this year than they did last year

Check out celebration of God comm and subscribe to the celebration of God podcast wherever you consume your podcasts

We're not currently producing new content for that podcast But the 162 episodes that are there are evergreen and the perfect place to help you

Re -evaluate how you and your family worship God during the high days and the low moments of life

Alright, so knowledge is a really important concept we see all over the place in Scripture In fact, there is so much more that we could say about it

But we need to turn our focus to one more important truth about knowledge Before we do that. I want to read part of a passage.

We're going to be in over the next few episodes Let's start with Genesis 3 verses 1 through 11

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which Yahweh had made and he said to the woman indeed

Has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden and the woman said to the serpent from the fruit of the trees

Of the garden we may eat but from the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden Which I'll just say is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

God said you shall not eat from it and you shall not touch it lest you die and The serpent said to the woman you surely will not die for God knows that in the day you eat

From it your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God knowing good and evil Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was

Desirable to make one wise so she took from it its fruit and ate She gave also to her husband with her and he ate and the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they

Were naked and they sewed fig leaves together made themselves loin coverings Then they heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid

Themselves from the presence of Yahweh God in the midst of the trees of the garden and God called to the man and said to him

Where are you? And he said I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid

And he said who told you that you were naked. Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was very likely a unique yet normal tree

I don't personally believe it had any inherent magical powers or spiritually corrupting influence The tree simply represented the very first law of God and the opportunity to break that law aka sin

Two episodes ago. We talked about how sin is anything and everything that violates the law of God Again, Adam and Eve had never sinned because they hadn't transgressed any of God's laws up until that point

Their only rule was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil Up until that point they had no idea what it was like to sin

They didn't have any knowledge concerning the violation of God's law and even their knowledge of good was limited

They were like fish swimming in water completely ignorant of what water was How it worked and even how it would feel to be out of the water

The comfort and blessing and glory of being good or in this case innocent was not something they could fully understand without a knowledge of evil hence the temptation

So Satan approaches Eve and leans heavily into the value of knowledge He accuses God of knowing how wonderful it would be for Adam and Eve to have knowledge of good and evil and not wanting

Them to have that knowledge. Of course, a lot of people say that Satan lied to them He didn't actually technically lie to them.

He just spoke truths designed to deceive Adam and Eve did not immediately die after eating from the tree and their eyes were open at least they didn't die

Physically and it was this promise of knowledge that led to her taking the fruit. Let's be honest

She had tons of food available to her how many countless beauties were in the new creation? Sure, the tree was good for food and beautiful to the eyes

That's the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, but it was the pride of life Exemplified in Eve's self -possessed desire for knowledge.

She believed would make her wise that set this tree apart from all the rest But it wasn't the forbidden fruit that opened hers and Adam's eyes.

It was the experience of transgressing God's law for the very first time Number four the first response to sin is the gaining of knowledge letter a when someone sins they gain new information about good and evil in Genesis 3 22

God says behold the man has become like one of us to know good and evil in The moment that they transgressed

God's law They now practically and functionally knew and understood what it was to break God's law and in so doing they understood the beauty of obedience

That they had previously missed This happens to your children as well. I remember well the first time

I used the f -word I had been exposed to it a number of times and felt uncomfortable hearing it

But over time the discomfort wore off then came a time that I imagined myself using the word I felt dirty the first time but then

I remember thinking about what it would be like to say it out loud It's like I prepped for it And when the day came

I remember using the word in what was most likely the lamest moment to do something like that My point is when

I finally brought myself to say it I instantly knew a number of things I knew what it felt like to sin in that way.

I knew what I was capable of I knew the consequences that could come if my or my friends parents found out

I recognized that I had taken yet another step down a road in my rebellious behavior. I Knew the further

I got down that road the further it was taking me from God's will for my life And I even realized there was no taking back what

I did. It was done I was no longer an f -word virgin Now, maybe you've never had those moments when you've sinned

But I've experienced similar situations throughout my life as it relates to the increased knowledge I had about good and evil and myself when

I would sin The reality is that whether your kids can consciously articulate it or not Each sin provides new knowledge about the behavior the thought the word and themselves

But there's another interesting way God communicates this idea of gaining and having new knowledge Letter B.

When someone sins they see life more accurately After Adam and Eve sinned nothing is said about them dying or knowing good and evil for 15 verses

Instead we read a lot about nakedness The last words of Genesis 2 says Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed

In verse 7 the Bible says and the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed

Fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings When God finds Adam hiding in verse 10

We hear Adam say I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked

So I hid to which God replies who told you that you were naked Have you eaten from the tree of which

I commanded you not to eat? Then in verse 21, it says then Yahweh God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and he clothed them

So why all the focus on their nakedness? In their innocent state Adam and Eve were had absolutely no reason to understand or experience shame

They were the only two humans they communed with their Creator and since they had no concept of guilt or indecency or shame

There was no reason to imagine that anything was wrong or that anything needed to be changed

But Adam and Eve's feelings about their nakedness was like an alarm system for them By the way

If you use the link in the description of today's episode to download the evermind app and create a free account

In addition to all of the awesome free content there you can purchase the doctrine of emotions for only $10

It usually retails for $25 in that material You'll learn so much about why God gives us emotions and how we can use them in this life

But one of those ways is to be an alarm bell for us when we're in sin And this is what happened to Adam and Eve Listen nakedness is an embarrassing thing and it's not simply embarrassing because we're not good -looking or because we're sinners

Being naked as being as raw and transparent and intimate as a person can physically be

It's a picture of our need for the righteous robes of Christ the husbands and wives a relationship where they can bask in each other's nakedness as Uncomfortable as that often is in our flesh is supposed to be a picture of God's loving his bride despite her uncleanness

There's a lot of imagery and significance to all these mentions of nakedness And I bring it up here because the first and most significant consequence of their sin was their ability to see themselves as they really were

And even though there were still no strangers around and even though they were likely the most beautiful people to ever exist

They were instantly ashamed Now God is omniscient He knows all but God chooses to reveal to Adam through his own

Emotional response to his own nakedness that he knew Adam had must have sinned And this happens with us and our kids too

We see ourselves for who we are when we sin We see the consequences of sin for what they are

We see our tempter the way they are we see the thing for which we traded our righteousness for what it is

Now you may be thinking wait Aaron. I don't know about all that I see a delusion in myself when I sin and that's true

But when you've worked with as many counselees as I have and when you really sit with yourself and consider your own

Responses to sin you start to see patterns and one of the patterns that we see is that we lie to ourselves and pursue

Delusions in part to convince ourselves that the ugly I see in the mirror isn't really that ugly

Yes, we callous ourselves to sin. Yes, we lie to ourselves and we're gonna talk about each of those later

But those things happen as a result of our truly seeing ourselves the way that we are

Now we're gonna talk about guilt and shame more next time so I don't want to say much more about that here

But it's the presence of that guilt that sends us looking for distractions the kisses of the enemy and the desensitization of our hearts

Adam and Eve were ashamed of their nakedness because for the first time in their short lives They knew what it was to be ashamed they were ashamed of their sin, but they were even ashamed of something that had no direct correlation to their sin and Your children respond to their sin the same way they see with new eyes and they know things they didn't know before So, how are we to parent them in these situations number five parenting knowledgeable children?

Knowing that your kids gain information as they sin it would behoove us to take the following four steps letter a

Understand what they know When your kids sin they learn about the sin Of course, this is different for every kind of sin one simple example is a lie when a child lies

They learn what works and what doesn't they learn how it feels to lie? They learn what it takes to double down on a lie.

They also are learning about shame and guilt something We're going to talk about more later But they also learn about the consequences of their sin

Whether they're caught or not, they experience the primary consequences of sin, which we discussed in our consequences in series

Now they may not completely understand all the details about their primary consequences But they are intuitively learning about the hurt being caused them and others by experiencing it

The same is true for any secondary consequences once they know about those consequences They are definitely wanting to lie to themselves about these consequences

But the reason they have to lie is that they do intuitively understand the truth about their sin this is illustrated in Romans 1 the scriptures make it clear that everyone knows

God exists and It's because of that knowledge that they lie to himself themselves about him. That's the same situation going on here

So you need to work to understand what they have learned about their sin This will require knowledge of scripture the specifics of the sin committed the consequences and so on And once you better understand the knowledge that has been added to your kids through this experience

You need to let her be expose what they know. You need to talk through these things with your kids

Remember biblical parenting takes time it involves asking questions drawing out the heart

Teaching proving parables and metaphors and the variety of communication tools at your disposal

The goal is to help them realize the effect sin has had on them Now there are many effects sin has on a person and we're going to have to expose all of those to our kids

But for our topic today, it's important to talk with your kids about what their sin taught them How easy do they think it is to lie?

What have they found that works and that doesn't Now, please understand this is not about helping them sin better far too

Many parents are just painfully unaware of the knowledge kids glean as they sin I've worked with parents who knowing the sins their kids had committed in the past Couldn't believe their kids knew what they knew and thought the way they thought

But it was so clear to anyone who was familiar with the knowledge that comes through that kind of sin We need to understand our kids minds and we need to have open lines of communication

As we uncover their growing knowledge base that comes from sending letter C explain what they know

Part of the reproof stage is helping our child understand they were wrong But another part of it is helping them understand what they need to do with that information

Your daughter may have learned that referencing girl stuff with dad convinces him to back off the conversation

Even when the girl is trying to hide something that has nothing to do with quote -unquote girl stuff But your daughter needs to understand that the knowledge she's gleaned from that experience is dangerous

She needs to understand that information in light of God's Word How does the Lord want her to understand and use this information?

He definitely doesn't want her to use those lines those lies to test her father Also just as a side note if you're a

Christian parent You absolutely have to have open conversations with your boys and your girls about their bodies sexuality, attraction, medical issues, and the like I am sick and tired of dads who refuse to talk about girl stuff with their daughters and Moms who think boy stuff is off the table

Sure, it might be easier for the same -sex parent to explain these things, but you're both the child's parent

Nothing is off -limits here in your relationship Just think about a single parent. Is a single mom never allowed to talk with her sons about pornography and masturbation?

Of course not Anyway, I need to climb down for my soapbox The point is we need to understand what our kids know by doing our research

Expose what they know by talking with them But then we also need to explain what they know so they can relate to it correctly and lastly letter

D Challenge what they know When Adam and Eve sinned against God they knew they were naked and they were afraid

They knew they had done wrong, but they lied to themselves about how the Lord would respond But here's the thing they believe the truth about their sin as well as the lie they told themselves

They thought all of that information was true Your daughter may quote -unquote know that you're going to blow up at her for what she did and therefore she will then try to lie

To you and then once she's caught in her lie She might believe that she knows you're giving her consequences because you hate her

So as you unveil what she's learned through this situation You're going to have to challenge some of the knowledge they think they've gleaned

There's a very very tiny span of time between gaining knowledge through our sin and convincing ourselves of a lie

The point is you're going to find and as you talk with your kids that they now think they know things that really just aren't true

Challenge those beliefs and do it biblically. I know this idea of responding to sin by gaining knowledge is a new concept for many of you

It's definitely counterintuitive and I probably didn't explain it as well as I should So keep in mind that every experience your kids have teaches them things about life, themselves, others, and God The information they learn as they sin is life -altering.

Therefore if we're going to parent well We need to be knowledgeable concerning the knowledge they've gained and how they're responding to it

Please share this series with your friends Check out all the great offers and related resources in the description of this episode and please email us at Counselor at TruthLoveParent .com

or leave a voicemail at 828 -423 -0894 if you need a personalized biblical counsel parenting your kids through this season of their lives

As I alluded to earlier, our next episode is about another important response to sin, guilt and shame

So I'll see you next week Truth Love Parent is part of the

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