The Necessity Of Covenant Renewal Worship

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon. We pray that as we declare the Word of God that you would be encouraged, strengthened in your faith, and that you would catch a greater vision of who Christ is.

May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word, and may the Lord be with you. Over the course of the last several weeks, we've been asking, what is the church? What is she for? What is her purpose? Why did God create this thing called the church?

Why the Church Must Be Defined by Scripture

Why did he make us members of it? And why did he command us never to neglect it? Well, the first thing we ought to do if we want to understand those questions is we ought to go to the Bible. Because the Bible has sufficient answers to these questions, because the Bible is a sufficient revelation.

We've been talking about this in our small group, how the Bible is sufficient, which means that it's adequate. It's enough. It is God's revelation to us, giving us the answers to our questions. And if we want to know about the church, we ought to get our answers from the Bible.

In the same way, if I want to understand how my TV works, I ought to read the manufacturer's literature. If I want to understand how to pay less taxes, maybe I should read the IRS tax law, which is thousands of pages too long.

If I want to understand the church, then I should read the Word. Now, the problem is, is that there's so many churches today that have not actually done that. Instead of going to the Word to try to figure out what the church is, why the church is, we've prioritized everything under the sun except for that.

And mostly I'm going to argue that we've prioritized man over God. Churches have capitulated today to a capital or to a consumeristic culture that prioritizes our opinions, our thoughts, our preferences, our joys, our fill in the blank over the things of God.

Now, why do churches do this? I think it's a pretty practical reason because they want to keep people engaged. Because when you've defined success as people instead of God, when you've defined faithfulness as people are happy with me instead of God is pleased with me, then you want to keep people entertained and engaged.

You want to keep people coming and giving and participating. You want to have bigger buildings so that you can look like and project this posture of we are successful. That's what everything else in the world does.

When a business is successful, it has bigger buildings. It has more campuses. It has more employees. So the church has taken on secularism in order to project that we're somehow successful. And we haven't went to the word of God to find out what success actually is.

It's caused the church to behave in the same way as a whore. I'm sorry for using such strong language, but it is. We've prostituted ourselves out to please carnal people instead of living for the praise and honor of the living God.

Now, there's several ways that this has played itself out in the church. We've talked about this many times, but I think it's important. And I'm going to be honest with you, I am reading an excellent book right now.

And you're like, why is that different from normal? Actually, I went through a dry spell. I haven't been reading a lot lately. So I picked up a book. I'm loving it. It's by Jeff Myers called The Lord's Service.

And in there, he lists several different ways that the church is doing this. And I'd like to share a couple with you. Number one, instead of the church prioritizing God alone, we've prioritized evangelism alone.

Evangelism is not a bad thing, right? At the heart of the word, euangelion, we should, that's the gospel. We should be proclaiming the gospel. A church should be evangelistic in the sense that every single week we're proclaiming the gospel.

We put our hope in nothing else than Christ's finished work and his righteousness. But when you make the church and its fundamental purpose evangelism, then you divert your attention off of what God says and what instead, how people value you as a ministry.

I want you to hear me clearly. The biblical purpose for church is not evangelism. Evangelism is excellent. We should leave here today and we should look for opportunities to share the gospel with people.

We should look for opportunities, like Peter says, always be ready and willing to give a defense for what you believe. We should do that. But the church at its core is not an evangelistic institution, because if it is, you will move away from God being the object of the church to man being the object of the church.

Why do I say that? Because worship is inherently God focused. Evangelism is inherently man focused. How can I reach them? How can I talk to them? How can I share with them? How can they be converted? And if we go man centered in church, then we're already really far off.

And that is the heart of idolatry. The heart of idolatry is taking your eyes and your focus off of God and putting it onto man. The church should be where we gather to worship the living God. Evangelism is when we scatter to do the things of God.

Do you see the difference? When we make Sunday about man, we neglect the very clear commands of Scripture. For instance, let us come to worship him. Psalm 59, 6, ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name.

Psalm 29, 2, worship the Lord your God and serve him alone. Matthew 4, 10. When you deviate from this, the win for your ministry will be people instead of God. Your identity and your joy will be bound up in how many people come as opposed to the faithfulness of the Word and God.

And I've seen this happen all over the place. Little tiny changes will happen in the church when a church values this, and eventually you'll be completely off course. One degree of error for long enough a period of time, you'll be in a place you never actually imagined that you ever could be.

I've seen churches turn down the lights because that creates a better mood for the Holy Spirit to work. I've seen pastors dressing like an effeminate YouTube influencer. I've seen bands get louder and more dynamic so that we can keep people engaged and interested.

I've seen them say, we have to turn up the music this loud because if we don't, people won't sing. Now you can't hear them. Songs becoming more empty and egocentric. I call those the Jesus is my boyfriend songs.

It's what it sounds like. You throw in a dash of silly stories, anecdotes, and a little narcissistic self-help pop psychology, and that would describe much of what is happening in the modern church. I believe the church will be held accountable for this.

I believe that Derek and I and any officer that has ever raised up in this church will stand before the living God on how we conduct this church. Evangelism is a good thing, but it is not the thing, and it is not why we gather.

Why the Church Is Not an Evangelism Program

That's the first one that churches, I think, have gone astray. The second one may be a little surprising. The church as mere educator or educentrism. I had to look up that word. Educentrism is when you value and you prioritize education above everything else.

Education is not a bad thing. We should come here and we should learn the deep truths of God. Hebrew says that we should move on into the deeper things of God from the elementary principles. But if the reason you come to church is because there's deeper sermons here than another church or because we talk about Greek and Hebrew here or because we talk about ancient culture here, if that's the sum total reason why you're here, then you have got it wrong.

And let me just tell you this. This is such a fascinating thing. If you're that church that prioritizes entertainment, there's nothing different between that and the church that prioritizes education.

There's nothing different. One church looks more unfaithful. One church looks more pious. But at the bottom line, at the end of the day, they're both prioritizing a demographic. There's some churches that like shallow superficial party atmospheres.

And there's some churches that like deep cerebral nerdy theology. But at the end of the day, it's prioritizing demographics instead of God. It's still just as man-centered as the megachurch party. It's just as man-centered.

It's not the purpose why we gather. Now, if people are evangelized when they come here, praise God. If people are converted out of their sins and they come to know Christ, praise God. We know that angels in heaven rejoice over that.

If people come and they learn and they're discipled here, praise God. Those are consequences of what we do. They are not the purpose for what we do. Here's another one. We are not a bastion of political conservatism.

I said conservative on purpose. Number one, my goal is not to be offensive, but I will share with you what it is that I'm seeing. I cannot imagine a church or a person that prioritizes the left. There's nothing redeemable.

When you look at the demonic party of Mullick that prioritizes the slaughter of babies, I can't imagine anything there worth lauding. But that doesn't mean that we overcorrect and we go to the political right.

The church is not a political institution. Republicanism doesn't magically make you Christian. Being a part of one party or voting for a particular person may be a good moral duty, but it's not the purpose of the church.

I think politics are important. I think that voting is something that work out in your own conscience, but participate in the society that you live in. But it's not the purpose of the church. If we prioritize politics, then we'll hang American flags in here and we'll talk about how great America is and how worthy America is to be revived and saved.

And we'll talk about how particular political figures, I've heard Christians say this, are like messianic figures. I believe that stuff's disgusting to God because we are citizens of heaven, first and foremost.

Our identity is that we are citizens of a king. The machinations of American politics will be a footnote in a history book, but the kingdom of God will stand forever. If the sum total reason that you come to this church is because that we call out the LGBTQ movement for what it is or we make fun of Wokies, that's not good enough.

It's not biblical. That is the conservative golden calf that has snuck its way into evangelicalism and we cannot be that. I do want to see culture redeemed. All of us do. We want to see all of those deadly isms, Marxism, leftism, homosexuality-ism, because it's a religion.

We want to see all those things die a thousand deaths and bow to the feet of Jesus. We want to see revival happen in this country. We want to see it redeemed for the glory of God. But a political party is not how you get there.

Legislating morality is not how you get there. Electing Donald Trump for a second term or Ron DeSantis or whoever else it is, is not how you get revival. You get revival from the Spirit of God breathing out onto a society and a culture and people falling on their faces and say, I've offended the living God.

And then let the politicians think they've done something great. If we're here for anything other than the glory of God, this building won't be fancy enough. These services won't be interesting enough.

Our children won't be quiet enough. Our sermons won't be short enough. Our songs won't be catchy enough. And our ideals won't be conservative enough. We are not a conservative church. We're a Christian church.

The heart of all of this is anthropocentrism prioritizing man instead of theocentrism prioritizing God. Another one that's affected the church is that the church has become a peddler of religious experiences.

We go to church so we can have an experience with God. In the church that I attended as a brand new believer, they actually called the worship service a worship experience because they're prioritizing that we are here to get experiences.

There's a church in Redding, California. Maybe you've heard of it. If you go, you can be slain in the spirit. You can be healed. Gold dust will fall from the sky. The eyeglass wearing pastor can't heal himself, but he can heal you.

They'll raise the dead. And if you're really lucky, you may be invited to the supernatural school of wizardry. And if you're even luckier than that, you might be invited to the graveyard to suck some old saint soul so that you can have some sort of new age aura.

I'm not making this up. And this church is a church that churches in this area sing their songs. Bethel is what I'm talking about. Bethel is one of the most popular Christian worship bands today. They use their music to fund their godless ministry.

And there's churches, 10 of them off the top of my head, I can name right now that sing their songs. But it's not just Bethel. It's any kind of church that prioritizes human experience over God. In our staff meetings, when we get together and we say, did they have a good experience this week?

Did we make sure that we greet them with a smile on our face? Did we give them a gift or something? Did the person who's on stage smile and appear to be welcoming? Did the band have enough spazazz? Did the parking lot folks wave at you in a way that made you feel like continuing your journey to your parking spot?

Was the room decorated in such a way that it felt like home? Like all of these things. When we make it about that instead of God, we've given into anthropocentrism and idolatry. Now, does this mean that I'm anti-experiential?

Absolutely not. We're not aesthetics here. But there's a fruit and there's a root. The root of our worship is God. The fruit of our worship is that, yes, people will be evangelized. Yes, people will be educated.

Yes, they will learn how to evaluate their culture in a more healthy way. And yes, they will have experiences with God. Because God is great and God gives us joy. And happy is the one who dwells on the law of the Lord.

But it's not our purpose. It's the consequence of our purpose. The final one may be the most shocking. It's called the church's mere exaltation or the church gathers only to praise. And maybe you're like, okay, this one's the best one.

They're not trying to entertain people. We gather to praise God. Isn't that the point? But this one is dangerous. Because if all we do from the start to finish, everything that we come here to do is praise God, we've missed half of why we're here.

And it's subtle. Because think about it. If we come only to give God praise, we get nothing in exchange or return. We come here like independent agents who are perfectly happy and healthy and have everything in our life put together.

And we don't need anything from God. We just come here to give to God. And this is especially dangerous in the Reformed world. Jeff Myers, the one that I mentioned earlier, who's writing the book on this topic said this, Reformed pastors and theologians are particularly vulnerable to this distortion of the purpose of worship.

The slogan we gather for worship to give not to get has become something of a Reformed shibboleth. We love to beat charismatics and others over the head with it. Makes us feel superior. And as if we don't go to church because we need anything, we Reformed Christians go to church to give glory and honor to God, not to get something from him.

That's wrong. That's wrong. Last time I checked, there's only one independent person in all the universe and you and I are not him. We come here because we need to receive from God. We come here because we're broken.

We come here because our lives are jacked up and we don't admit it. We need God's grace and his mercy and his love and his compassion just as much as we need to give it. And if you think about it, we come into his presence and need his help in order to praise him.

If we think that we come in here independent of the help of the Holy Spirit and that we can somehow offer some great gift of praise to God that makes him feel so special and honored, we have lost what it means to be a sinner saved by grace.

We need God's help in order to worship God because everything we offer to him is but filthy rags. We gather to receive and give to God. Now, I'm sure there's many more examples of how the church has prioritized man over God, prioritized their traditions or their pragmatism or whatever else over the word of God.

I'm sure there's many other examples. But what I'd like to do in the time that we have remaining is to simply go back to the Bible and to look at what God says about the church. And for today's purposes, we're going to do something a little different.

We've already talked about what the church is. The church is the people who gather in the presence of God. We talked about what we now are to do in light of that. And we talked about how do we get entered into that, which is by baptism.

Now today, now that we've been made God's people, now that we're in God's presence, now that we're covenant participants, how do we worship him? At 10 .03 sharp, when we begin our services, what are we supposed to do while we're here?

That's what I want us to look at today. What does the church service look like? What does the liturgy look like? Every church on earth has a liturgy and only some of them are biblical. Every church has a liturgy.

A liturgy is the form of worship. It's what we do. That's what I want us to look at today. And the way that we're going to see this is through the covenants. So let's pray. Let's dive into the Old Testament and let's learn.

The Covenantal Pattern of Worship in the Old Testament

Lord Jesus, all throughout the scriptures, you have given us your word. You've given us commands. You've given us all kinds of things that we're supposed to obey. Lord, you've given us explicit things in your word and you've also given us good and necessary consequences in your word.

And Lord, we are not omniscient nor capable of ever attaining it. So Lord, we, your people, are constantly in a state of learning and growing. Lord, there may be someone here today who just knows that Jesus Christ is Lord and that's about it.

Praise God for that. And Lord, there may be someone here who could write a dissertation on this topic. Praise God for that too. But Lord, let us never fall privy to the sin of accepting where we are when there's so much great and beautiful truth.

Lord, let us also not fall into the sin of accumulating information and becoming spiritually flabby, putting none of it into action. Lord, let us, by your spirit, repent of our sins and to live for you.

It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. The basic premise of my argument this morning is that the covenants teach us how do we do worship. The covenants of the Old Testament is how God mediates a relationship with sinful man, a gathered sinful people.

So if the covenant is about God making a way for gathered sinful people to be in his presence, what are we here today? We're a gathered sinful people who've had, by God's grace, been mediated to come into his presence through the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are here to do covenant worship. Just like was true in Adam, just like was true with Noah, Abraham, we will see today that there is a covenantal pattern that the Old Testament lays out that we now enter into as new covenant Christians that will affect the way we do our worship.

Now, just as a reminder, there's five Old Testament covenants. There's the one to Adam, the one to Noah, the one to Abraham, Moses, and David. Five Old Testament covenants and each of them has a five-fold biblical pattern that we will look at.

Even though they're a little different in some ways, each of them follow this five-fold pattern which I'll lay out for you right now. The first thing that each of these covenants do is that God takes hold of something.

God grabs something that was not previously sanctified unto him. He grabs it and then he takes it unto himself. The second part of that covenantal form is that God separates it and then makes it new. The third part of that is that God speaks over that thing and gives it covenant stipulations and obligations and laws and commandments.

The fourth thing that God does is he gives that thing signs and seals so that it will understand that it really is in covenant with God. And then the fifth thing that God does is he provides for the future of the covenant so that it doesn't end with the covenant head, but it goes to the generations that follow.

Every single covenant in the Bible follows these five forms. And for a second, I want us to go through, maybe five seconds. I wanna go through each of these. So for instance, God takes hold. How did he do that in the covenant with Adam?

God literally reaches down and takes hold of the earth. It fashions it into a man. And then God separates man from the earth and makes him into a being, a living being. So the second thing that God does after he takes hold is he separates and he makes new.

God breathes life into Adam's nostrils so that he is no longer dirt, but a living man made new. The third thing that God does in Genesis 2, now that Adam is a real boy, he speaks the covenant stipulations over Adam.

And he says, of all the trees in the garden, you may eat except for the tree of knowledge in good and evil. That's the stipulations of the covenant. The fourth thing that God does is he gives him a sign and a seal of the covenant.

The sign and the seal of the covenant is the tree of life that you, Adam, you and your progeny forever will be able to eat of this tree and you will be able to be in relationship with me so long as you obey the covenant.

And then in Genesis 1, which Genesis 1 and 2 are interesting in their chronology, they're parallel accounts. Genesis 1 gives the capstone of that covenant where God provides for their future. By saying to Adam and Eve, God blessed them and he said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.

Rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on earth. So God takes hold of the dirt, separates it out, breeds life into it, makes it new, gives it the covenantal stipulations, gives it a sign, gives him and Eve a sign, the tree of life, and then blesses them to be fruitful and multiply so that he can preserve their covenantal future.

And they lived happily ever after. So God, after they sin and multiply sin across the face of the earth, God enters into a new covenant with Noah. Same thing happens. God takes hold of Noah. It says that he found favor out of all the people on earth.

It says that sin had multiplied across the face of the earth so that there was no one righteous. But Noah, he found favor in God's sight. It means that Noah wasn't righteous, but he found favor in the Lord's sight.

So God grabs hold of him and then separates him from the world. He breeds life into Noah and his family so that they're going to be what? A new humanity. He's going to be a new covenant head over a new covenant.

So God separates and makes new. Third thing God does after Noah goes through the waters of the flood, after his family come off of the ark, what does God do? He speaks the covenantal stipulations to Noah.

God doesn't give him the commands until after they get out of the ark. And when they get out of the ark, he says, you will be fruitful and you will multiply and you will fill the earth and rule over it and subdue it.

And then he gives him a sign. The sign, not the tree of life, but the rainbow of life that promises that God will never again flood the earth. The sign was given because God loves us and cares about us and wants us to know that we are in covenant with him and that his promises are true and that he's not a liar and that everything he says will come to pass.

And then what does God do? He provides for their future. A little strange passage in the blessings and curses of Noah's sons is that God sets apart one of his sons to be a priestly line that's going to minister to all the nations.

So he provides for the future of the covenant by setting aside one of his sons to be a priest who will minister to the nations. And isn't it ironic that when they don't spread out and they gather at Babel and when they're not fruitful, they're trying to build a tower to heaven.

Isn't it interesting that from that same priestly line is where Abraham came. The next covenant. God takes hold of Abraham. He separates Abraham out from the world. He brings him into a new land, new promises, new name, new family, new blessings.

See, he separates and he's making new. Grabs hold, separates, makes new. Then what does he do? He speaks the covenantal stipulations to Abraham. And this happens over several chapters, so we're not prone to noticing it.

Genesis 12, one through three is the promises. Genesis 15 is the blessings. Genesis 17 is the covenant stipulation. And this is what Abraham was told to do. I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.

And I will establish my covenant between me and you and I will multiply you exceedingly. Can you think of a more possible single command in all the earth to try to obey? Walk before me and be blameless.

That's all you got to do. Praise God that the punishment of the covenant already happened. If God said, you walk blamelessly and now join me as I walk through the animal parts, Abraham would have been eternally doomed.

God took the punishment upon himself and then commanded Abraham, walk blameless. That's the stipulations of the covenant. God gives Abraham a sign in that he was given the circumcision. Why? Seems like a strange sign, but to Abraham, that would have let him know that just as God would be cut apart for their sins, Abraham has been cut to be brought into the covenant with God.

And not just Abraham alone, Abraham's children and offspring so that all the Jewish males from that point forward would be circumcised to show that they've been cut into the covenant that ultimately would lead with the cutting of Christ and God who was to be circumcised.

It says on the cross. After God gives Abraham the signs and the seals, he provides for their future. How does God do that? After the sign and seal, God opens Sarah's womb. Sarah has a son and then that son is called the son of the promise.

And then that son has two sons and one of them named Jacob was called the son of the promise. And in that son, Jacob had 12 sons and one of them was set aside as the ruling tribe, which was Judah. You see what God is doing?

God is grabbing something and taking hold of it. He's separating it and giving it newness of life. And then he's uttering the stipulations of the covenant over it. He's giving signs and seals to let them know that they're in the covenant and he's providing for their future.

Everything about this is God centric. This happens again in the Mosaic covenant. The tricky part about the Mosaic covenant is that it was not a covenant just with Moses. Moses was a mediator and it was a covenant with the people of Israel.

They were grabbed hold of by God. They were removed from Egypt. They entered through the waters and were made into a new people with new laws, new commands at Mount Sinai where God gave them the stipulations of the covenant, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

God gave them the sign of the covenant which was the Sabbath and it was also the feast. Also circumcision is repeated there so that they know that they're now in covenant with God and God provides for their future.

Look at what it says in Deuteronomy 29, 9 through 15. So keep the words of this covenant to do them that you may prosper in all that you do. You stand today, all of you before the Lord your God, your chiefs, your tribes, your elders, your officers, even all the men of Israel, your little ones.

That word means infants. It's just in case we think our children aren't a part of the covenant community. There you go. Your wives and the alien who is within your camp from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, i .e. all of you, that you may enter into the covenant with the Lord your God and his oath which the Lord your God is making with you today in order that he may establish you today as his people and then he may be your God.

Just as he spoke to you, as he also swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, now, not with you alone, am I making this covenant and this oath, but both with those who stand here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God and with those who are not here with us today, future generations.

So God has done all these things, taken hold, separated them, spoke the stipulations, given them the signs and the seals and provided for their future. The Davidic covenant's no different. You remember when Samuel goes to Jesse's house and he almost does the same thing that they did with Saul.

He finds the tallest and the most beautiful looking son of Jesse and he says, oh, that one must be the future king. And God says, no. And then he goes to son number two who was the second tallest and second most handsome.

And then he says, no. And then he goes down the list. I'm not saying that they get uglier as they go. It says David has beautiful eyes, but the seventh child is the one that got the anointing by God to be the king over the people.

Very strange way of God taking hold of someone, especially in that culture where the eldest would be invested, divested with the most authority. We read what it says in 1 Samuel 16, 10 through 13. Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel.

But Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen thee. And Samuel said to Jesse, are these all your children? And he said, there remains yet the youngest. Behold, he is tending the sheep. Then Samuel said to Jesse, send and bring him for he, for we will not sit down until he comes.

So he sent and he brought him in. Now he was ready with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the Lord said, arise, anoint him for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers.

And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. You see what happened? God took hold of him, poured his spirit on him, separated him out from his brothers and made him new. God took hold of him, separated him and made him new.

That's the first two things that are in every single covenant. Second thing is he gave David the signs and the seal. After David sat upon the throne in Jerusalem, God tells him to go get the Ark of the Covenant because the Ark of the Covenant was the sign and the seal that God's presence was with them and that he would continue along with them and help them be this blessed nation.

So David, he messed up the first time he went to get it. But the second time he went and got it, it became a sign and a seal of God's faithful presence for generations. What does God do on David's deathbed?

He provides for his future, the fifth aspect of all covenants. And he says, your son Solomon will be a king after me. And David, if your family obeys me, they will be on the throne of Jerusalem forever.

All five aspects and all five covenants where God takes hold, he separates and makes new, he gives the stipulations, he gives the signs and the seals, and then he provides for their future. Every covenant has this pattern.

What about the new covenant? Well, let me ask you this. Did Christ take hold of you while you were lost? Did he separate you out from the world and make you new? Yeah, he did. Did he, after that, give you the covenant stipulations, i .e. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, first and second Corinthians, you get the point?

He gave you his covenant laws so that you could obey him. So that now that you have the spirit inside of you, you can obey. Did he give you signs and seals? He did. He gave you baptism to show that you have been entered into his covenant and he gave you the Lord's table as covenant renewal.

Think about it like this. Baptism is the door in. Covenant renewal is the meal that you eat every day in the house. Yeah, he gave you signs. He gave you stipulations and covenants. Did he secure your future?

Or is it a deist type of situation where he made you all these promises and then he left you to your own devices? No. Gave you his spirit. And then he told us, one of these is neglected often by the Christian church.

Not here. We're fruitful and multiplying. You can hear it. He provided for our future by giving us the great commission. Go in all the world, make disciples of all the nations. How do you make disciples of all the nations?

Well, you start in your house and you disciple your children. You raise them up in the fear and the admonition of the Lord. And then if you have some time on your hands, and I'm saying this tongue in cheek, make disciples of the nations.

It starts at home. We cannot neglect that. But after that, after we've raised up our children, we don't treat our children like they're little pagans that one day hopefully God will save them. We treat them like they're Christians.

We pray with them. We sing with them. We catechize them. We bring them to church. We let them listen to the sermon. We let them listen to the singing. We treat our children like believers so that they'll grow up and be believers by the Lord's grace.

We can't make that happen. But imagine standing before the Lord one day and saying, well, God, you're the author of salvation. It's not my job. That would, like Paul says, right? Should we sin so that grace may abound?

Absolutely not. Should we neglect our children just because God is the author of salvation? Absolutely not. We do that and we also disciple the nations. That's providing for our future. That's why the church for 2 ,000 years has grown.