FBC Morning Light – May 18, 2022

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. We are in the middle of the week, and I hope your week is going well for you. Well, today we start a new book of the Bible in our reading plan. We're in the book of Isaiah, first couple of chapters.

The Limits of Human Parenting

I want to offer a word of encouragement to some parents who may feel a little bit despair over adult children. Here's where I'm going with this. There is no guarantee about how our children are going to turn out.

We can do everything that we humanly can possibly do as parents in bringing our children up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. We're not going to be able to do so perfectly. We're fallen creatures.

We're sinners ourselves. So there's no perfection in parenting. I have never yet met a perfect parent. That being said, a lot of Christian parents, they work very hard to provide a good environment for their children to come to faith in Christ.

They make sure they're faithful in church attendance. They pray together. The parents live out the principles of Scripture and so forth, and they try to bring them up in a way that encourages obedience.

They teach them the word of the Lord, the principles of the Lord, and so forth. The kids can toe the line. They can be good kids throughout childhood, all the time that they're in the parent's home. And then they get out on their own, and they go astray.

There can be a great bit of hand-wringing on the part of parents for where their children have gone, what their children have done, the decisions of life that they've made. And it's easy to feel like a failure.

And some will sit on the sidelines and say, well, if you'd been a good parent, then this never would have happened. If you would have been the parent you should be, because after all, what is Proverbs 22 ,6?

What does it say? Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he's old, he won't depart from it. And here, your children, when they got old, they departed from the Lord. So obviously, you didn't train them up in the way you should go.

This is all your fault. There may be some parents listening today who have felt that way and have had that accusation leveled against them. That may not be true. It may be, but it may not be true. Don't jump to that conclusion just because somebody else levels it against you.

God as the Perfect Parent in Isaiah 1

Instead, what I want to do is I want you to listen to what God says in Isaiah 1. He says, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. And this is what he has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children.

This is the Lord speaking. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib. But Israel does not know, my people do not consider.

Alas, sinful people, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away backward.

Do you get the significance of that? You and I, there is no way possible for us to be perfect parents. We can't even be Mary Poppins' parents, practically perfect. We can't even be practically perfect.

We come nowhere near perfect. We fall short in our parenting. There's no question about that, because we're sinners, saved by the grace of God, but still battling with our own sinfulness, too. And yet we take seriously the responsibility of parenting, and we try to do our best to bring up our children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord.

If they go astray, is it our fault? Well, we can't be perfect parents, but God is. God is a perfect parent. And he talks about his children, the ones that he has called to himself, those whom he calls his children, the people of Israel.

And he says, they've rebelled against me. He says, Israel doesn't know, and my people don't consider. They are a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters.

Whose fault is that? Whose fault is that? Is that God's fault? If he would have just brought them up differently, would they have not corrupted themselves and gone off after other lovers and so forth?

Is this God's fault? I speak as a fool. Obviously it's not. No, there's a recognition that God is charging his people with this acknowledged fact. It's a recognition that they are responsible for how they have responded to the nourishing and the cherishing and the bringing up of these children that God has engaged in through their years together.

They haven't responded very well. So maybe you're a parent feeling a little despondent, a little despairing over some children who haven't turned out well in spite of your best efforts. You acknowledge your weaknesses, all of us do.

But in the end, we have to recognize that our children, they make their own choices, just as Israel did. And they are responsible for how they respond to that nourishing and that bringing up of that they have received in your household, in your home.

Faithful Parenting, Prayer, and Entrusting Children to the Lord

So let that encourage you. To you parents who still have children at home, don't despair, be faithful, be diligent, bring your children up in the nurture of the admonition of the Lord, pray for them diligently, and entrust them to the Lord.

That's your responsibility. So, Father in Heaven, thank you that you are our Father. And thank you that you have encouraged us to be a people, a children, who follow you faithfully, who accept your nourishing, and as you have brought us up, helped us to faithfully respond to that upbringing, to be a children of God that are pleasing and a delight to our Heavenly Father.

Father, encourage parents today, encourage those whose hearts are heavy, encourage those who are in the thick of parenting, and we pray it in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. All right, well, have a good rest of your middle of the week.

I trust the Lord will bless you in it. Good day.