TLP 237: What is Your Child's Sin?

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When we think of evil we often think of someone who used to be good who had all the chances and resources and potential to be

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Good, but who made a deliberate and defiant choice to embrace wickedness, but that's just not a biblical picture

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Welcome to truth love parents where we use God's Word to become intentional

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Premeditated parents here's your host am Brewster if you are new to the show

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I welcome you and encourage you to do two things number one check out truth Love parent calm and get to know us a little bit better.

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We are a growing ministry That's trying to become everyone's premier hub for all things biblical parenting and number two

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You should go all the way back to episode 1 in our pilot season and work through the material as we've published it

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Our content is evergreen and it's also eternally relevant And I want you to know that our material is not tied to cultural ideologies and current events

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We do our best to glorify God by staying firmly rooted in his word And we do this because the

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Bible has everything we need for life and godliness And we're excited to see how each chapter and verse can shed new light on our families and help us to lead them better Of course, you don't have to listen to every episode from the beginning

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You can hunt and peck for topics that are helpful for you or just go to truth Love parent comm where we have curated lists of topics and seasons and series

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So that you can work through the related shows And I also try to do my best in each episode to point you back to previous shows that will broaden the discussion or deepen

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Your understanding let's just be honest I mean there are 237 episodes, but most of them are only about 20 minutes long

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So that's not really long enough to fully grasp any biblical concept So we have many series and I'm constantly trying to build a group of shows that complement each other and build off the previous ideas

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So again, welcome or welcome back Please know that even if you've never met us and we have no idea who your family is

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We desperately love you really and we want your family to please God in all things. That's really why we exist

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I also want to take a moment to thank Kara Josh Heatherly and Taylor for making today's episode possible

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We are a listener supported ministry and God sustains us through the faithful giving of his people Now if you'd be interested in learning more about being a sponsor or a patron

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You can click on the five ways to support TLP link in the description of this episode Okay, let's talk about the sin with which your child is.

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So easily beset Hebrews 12 1 reads let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely

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Unless we're born again and finally ushered into the presence of God. We will never know what it's like to be sinless

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We're born with it. It clings so closely to us. It's actually in our DNA It's knitted up in our hearts and yet we're called to lay it aside

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And as parents we have an even bigger calling because we're put into our children's lives to help them do the same

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So in order to accomplish this we need to start with a solid biblical understanding of sin

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We need to see it the way God does Now the doctrine of martyrology or the doctrine of sin is a very big study

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And even though we haven't even scratched the surface We have created a number of resources that address this topic

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For example episode 199 is called your child's bungee the nature of sin and parenting

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The metaphor we use in that show was so helpful for me as I parent that I just couldn't wait to share it with you

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And then there's parenting a zombie that series is extremely valuable in helping us understand the delusional aspect of sin

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And all these episodes will be listed in the description with links So you can easily access them and they all do an awesome job helping us to have a biblical understanding of sin

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But today we're gonna go further in our talk by spring -boarding off an article written by Tim Challies Tim is a wonderful guy.

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He's a dad. He's a husband He's a pastor a blogger a speaker But he also has the distinction of being our first special guest his two -part interview is episodes 25 and 26

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And the first is called parental blind spots. You should definitely check that out Another note just before we get into the topic though I want you to know that the vast majority of our shows come with free episode notes on our blog taking back the family and If you want to fill your social media feeds with amazing

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All right. So Charlie's wrote an article in December of 2018 called sin is Immaturity and I want to build on that concept.

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Of course, I'll put a link to Tim's article in the description as well Let me start by reading his first two paragraphs quote

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There is a lot bound up in every sin Sin is missing the mark an arrow that has veered so far to the left or to the right that has flown past the target

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Sin is transgression disobedience toward a known law or standard sin is iniquity premeditated rebellion against God and lately

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Especially as I've been examining my own life. I've also been seeing sin as immaturity sin is a failure to grow up We expect that children will behave in immature ways

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It may dismay us but not surprise us when a toddler responds to his toy being taken away by throwing a temper tantrum

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It does not surprise us when a preteen rolls her eyes and slams her door when her parents take away her iPad

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Toddlers and children are immature and behave in immature ways. They lack the maturity to respond in more appropriate ways

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Then later Tim makes this observation thus in its own way sin is evidence of immaturity.

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It is immaturity unquote It's important for us to understand that sin is wickedness.

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It's evil. It's depravity It's everything that attacks the character of God, but we also need to understand why we're in this state

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When we think of evil we often think of someone who used to be good or who had all the chances and resources and potential

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To be good, but who made a deliberate and defiant choice to embrace wickedness But as we learned in the your child's bungee episode all human beings are incapable of glorifying

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God It's not so much a deliberate choice to defy God as it is an inability to submit in the first place

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We don't start as innocent babies who are later seduced by the dark side We're born into the dark side completely incapable of escaping into the light

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We need to submit to God's regenerating work and gift of faith in order to receive the

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Holy Spirit and then be able to grow in our sanctification through him away from death and darkness to light and life and Even when we've been born again, there's a process of growth from sin to righteousness now

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I've said it before but lest you haven't heard it. We will never be perfect this side of heaven There's not some second helping of grace for which we're waiting.

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We will never be perfect this side of heaven We will always have to war against the sin that indwells us and clings to us

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But we should grow in our maturity and conformity to Christ that we sin less often than we used to But what's interesting is that the more mature we become the more aware we become of the depravity dwelling within us

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So sometimes we can become more mature and yet think that we're bigger sinners than we were before Episode 215 is entitled the chief of sinners in your home and speaks to the fact that the more mature we are the easier it

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Will be to see the hole that sin has on us So all of this is say immaturity is a proclivity to sin

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Maturity is submission to Christ. So don't be surprised when your child sins in a way they have to It's not that they necessarily and high -handedly chose to spit in God's eye, though I firmly argue that is the inevitable outcome.

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It's simply that they are immature and can do nothing more than sin This is why our first and highest calling as parents is to introduce our children to the

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Savior through education and interpretation Once they've accepted and submitted to those truths

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Preferably, you know the gospel they can start the process of accepting counsel and training and for the first time in their lives

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They will be able to start saying no to sin in fact Your child's sin should bother you more if they're

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Christians than if they're not an unsaved individual cannot truly obey But a born -again person chooses to sin

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So what are our parenting takeaways today number one? Understand that your children were born sinners are still sinners and will continue to be sinners just like you

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Number two acknowledge that the amount of sin in your child's life is a direct reflection of their level of maturity

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Number three therefore don't be surprised that your child needs to be parented

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It's partially by parenting that God chooses to save and sanctify your kids. It's a joyous process not a burden

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Number four the less mature your child is the more you'll have to teach them what is right and wrong

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Five the less mature your child is the more often you will have to help them see their sin and lead them to repentance

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Six the more mature your child becomes the easier it will be for them to see their sin and seven the more mature your child

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Becomes the more they will want to cast off their sin so eight the more mature your child becomes the more you will have to engage in counseling and training and nine the more mature you are the more you will see the sin in your own life and desire to lay aside every weight and Ten the more mature you are the more you will want to be taught

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Reinterpreted counseled and trained by your mentors Sin is real and it's diabolical and every shred of it in your house is a testament to the immaturity in your home

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It's also a neon sign pointing to the areas in your lives where you need to apply God's truth

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So when you're parenting identify your kids immaturity and comb the scriptures for a better understanding of how life is to work in those situations

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So you can help your child learn how to set aside the sin that so easily clings to them You can also share this episode.

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We're all sinners and we all parent centers So no doubt your friends could desperately use this reminder and next time

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I hope to discuss something I've been hinting at for the past few weeks Recently, we've talked a lot about counseling your children to apologize, but I've not yet explained what that looks like So Lord willing on our next episode

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I want to explain what apologies and forgiveness look like what it's meant for what it means and how to teach our kids to do

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It to the glory of God. So to that end, I will see you next time truth love

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Parents is part of the ever mind ministries family and is dedicated to helping you become an intentional