Spirit-Filled Families

We have come to our time where we dedicate every Sunday morning to prayer. We don’t just want to be a church that sings songs, a church that occasionally prays, a church that gives financial gifts. We also want to be a church like a praying church. We want to be a worshipping church. We want to be a sacrificial church. So right now we are coming to the portion of our service where we just dedicate totally to prayer.

Throughout the month of July, we have been praying specifically for VBS, which does kick off tomorrow morning. I’m extremely excited for what the Lord is going to be up to. Extremely grateful for Christa stepping up to the plate to lead this for us. And this morning, we are praying for VBS fueled life change for the kids. We’re just begging the Lord that He would get a hold of what’s going to be three hours a day across five days, 15 hours total of us doing snacks and worship, Bible teaching, talking about missions, recreation. If God can even use me and Carter in recreation, then He can He can do anything. So, jury’s still out on that one. And we’re just begging that the Lord would get a hold of this week and He would create lasting life change for these kids.

So, I want to give it to y’all. Grab a neighbor. That’s what we’re praying for. And I’ll put a bow on it here in a moment. Y’all take it away.

Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom or Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God, we give You every Sunday. Obviously, every day of our lives is Yours. But God, there come special moments in the calendar that we dedicate to You in a special type of a way. And this upcoming week is one of those. God, as we come into vacation Bible school, Lord, this is a week that we are dedicating to You. God, please get a hold of it. Plans have been made. Preparations are being put into place. Folks have been invited. Kids are being signed up. Volunteers are gearing up. But God, if You don’t do something with it, then it’s all for naught. Lord, please use this week to fuel lasting life change in the lives of these kids.

God, we know that the next generation, Lord, we’ve got to pour into them. If we don’t, then we don’t have pastors. We don’t have missionaries. We don’t have Christian moms and dads that are going to raise their next generation. We don’t have business people that are going to bring the gospel to bear in their offices or at their jobs. Lord, we have got to win the next generation. That is paramount. So God, for the the kids that are going to come onto our campus this week that don’t know You, please God, please already be tilling the soil of their hearts, Lord, so that when the gospel is planted into them every day, multiple times each day, it would it would take root and it would bear some fruit in their lives and it will be undeniable that You have rescued them from the domain of darkness and transferred them into the kingdom of the beloved Son. Please God, save lost kids this week.

And Lord, for the kids that are going to come that already have a relationship with You, Father, please draw them more deeply into intimacy with You. God, there is no such thing as a junior varsity Christian. It does not matter their age. God, a second grader is a full-fledged follower of Jesus just like any 50 or 60 year old in here. And I pray for that second grader or that kindergartener or that fifth grader that’s coming this week, Lord, that they would step into a total relationship with You, no matter what their life stage is, God. May this be a week that kids and generations of followers look back on and say, “That’s when it began for me.”

Please, Lord, may today be a day that we do the same thing. Father, for the lost person that is in the sanctuary right now, I am begging that You would use these few moments to get a hold of them, to get their attention, and to help them come into a saving relationship with the God that made them. For the person in here that already knows You, Lord, would You please use these few moments to draw them deeper into life with You, Lord? That just a little bit more of their lives will be given over to You, Jesus. We call You Lord and Savior. I fully believe that You save us from 100% of our sin. You totally redeem us. Jesus, may You also rule 100% of our lives. You would totally control us that we would be a people wholly devoted and dedicated to You. Please, Holy Spirit, get a hold of this and let the people of this church and in this place hear a better sermon than the one I’m going to deliver. Thank You. It’s in Your great name that we pray. Amen. Amen.

Well, if you do have your copy of God’s Word, I would love for you to go ahead and open it up to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. We are beginning the final chapter in this incredible letter that Paul, the apostle and church starter, this incredible man that you meet in the book of Acts. This letter that he’s written to a group of Christians in a city called Ephesus. That’s why it’s called Ephesians.

The first half of Ephesians 1 through 3 talked a lot about what it means for Jesus to be our Savior. How He has reconciled us with God. How He has redeemed us from our sin. How He has saved us. Now chapters four through six talk about if you have received that truth then what should that do in your life?

Last week I made a statement that in Christ nothing is off limits. If you follow Jesus, if you can sing the words of Amazing Grace or I Can Only Imagine, then Jesus is not just your Savior, He is also your Lord, which means He gets to touch on every part of your life, including your family. This morning, we’re going to look at what it means to be a Spirit-filled family and how to have that.

So, as you’re turning to Ephesians chapter 6, I want to remind you of the ultimate father-son relationship. Jesus, He came onto the scene. This is God being born as a man. Jesus came and He lived a perfect life for us. He died a sacrificial death for us and He rose a victorious resurrection for us. But at the beginning of His ministry, He had a pretty interesting moment, one that I wish I could have been a witness to.

You see, Jesus had 30 years of preparation for His public ministry. He grew up like a child, something that we’ll touch on here in a moment. He learned what it was like to be a young man in Israel at that time. And He gets to 30 years old and He knows it is time. It is time for me to begin what I was sent here to accomplish. He finds His cousin John the Baptist out in the wilderness. You see, John, John’s particular role was to set the stage for Jesus. It was to prepare the way of the Lord.

John is preaching this message of repent. The Lord’s at hand. God is coming. You must repent. You got to get ready. Start confessing your sins. Get yourself in a good posture to receive the teaching of God. Let’s go ahead and get all this stuff out of our hearts. Let’s repent. And as an outward display of that, he’s baptizing people in the Jordan River.

Jesus came to accomplish all righteousness in our place, even repentance. Because we are touched by sin, we can’t do anything totally right. We can’t even repent of our sin totally right. So Jesus even does that in our place. So He goes and finds John and His public ministry begins by repenting not of any sin He had done, but repenting for us in our place for our sin.

Jesus goes into the water. When He comes out of the water, do you remember what happens? Heaven is torn open and a voice comes from heaven and it doesn’t just say, “Hey, that is a man.” It does not say, “Hey, this is a good teacher.” God from heaven declares in the hearing of multitudes of people. And for Jesus Himself to hear this, God calls down from heaven and says, “You are My beloved Son and with You I am well pleased.”

Children in the room, Braxtons, I’m talking to you guys. And because I don’t see any others, I’m really talking to y’all right now. I like your dad. Imagine what it was like for Jesus to hear the voice of His Father calling down from heaven. Behold My beloved Son. With You I am well pleased.

For the children in the room, what if you felt so completely approved of and embraced by your dad like Jesus does here? Dads, parents in the room, remember what it was like growing up. What if it What if you had heard your dad calling on you the same way the Father called on Jesus here? And for dads in the room, what if you communicated the same love and approval to your kids that the Father does on Jesus right here? You see, none of us is God in the flesh. None of us is God on the throne. But all of us, I believe if you are here, all of us want our families to have this sort of essence, an essence of total approval, an essence of total embrace. All of our families can be empowered by God to look like that. God wants that for you. That’s why God put this in the Bible. This morning, my prayer that I am begging the Lord for is that we would all walk away from here knowing what it means to have a spirit-filled family, a family of total approval and declaration like this.

So, if you should be there by now, Ephesians chapter 6 verses 1-4, Paul says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord because this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with the promise, so that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life in the land. Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and the instruction of the Lord.”

So, do you want a spirit-filled family? Do you want a spirit-filled family? If you do, then this is for you. Keep Christ at the heart of your home. If you want a spirit-filled family, you must keep Christ at the heart of your home. You see, the heart of something is its core, its essence, its foundation. And without Christ at the heart of your home, you cannot have a spirit-filled family. I know this because the Lord is brought up twice in this passage. This is a passage about being good parents and good kids. But God is brought up twice. This passage begins and ends with the Lord. Because of that, I know that homes will be healthiest when family members consider Jesus as they fulfill their roles. When I’m thinking about God as I’m being a dad or being a husband, I’ll be the best dad and husband I can be. When my kids are thinking about Jesus as they are being my daughters and my sons, then they will be the best kids they can be.

Last week I said nothing is off limits to God. And that includes everything. It includes kids, how you roll your eyes at your parents’ out-of-touch rules. Parents, that includes how you raise your voice at your kids. For all of us, it includes how we spend our time with our families. We cannot have spirit-filled homes without a fiery passion for Jesus warming it up. You cannot have a spirit-filled home without the fiery passion of Jesus warming it up.

See, parents, we can give our kids a lot of things. We can give our kids an inheritance for some future opportunity. We can give our kids life skills. We can give our kids athletic and academic opportunities. But there is something we must work to give them. That’s a home where everything is centered around Jesus. What you have to try to give your kid is an environment where Jesus rules.

So I want to ask you, just be honest with yourself and before the Lord. What’s competing for Christ in your home? What’s competing for Christ in your home? Is it your work obligations or opportunities? You’re always saying yes to new projects or new promotions or whatever the boss demands. So, you’re getting home later and later and later, and you just can’t really be very present with your kids. Is it sports? Sports are great, but if sports are always taking you away from each other as a family, then how can you really be centered around Jesus? Is it your hobbies? Just the personal things that you like to do to spend time. Is it like, hey, you’re home by a good time every day, but the moment you get home, you’re just thinking about going to the garage to work on something or going to the game room to play something? What’s competing for Christ in your home? Is it some vice? Is it some substance you’re consuming the moment you walk through the door, which totally takes you out mentally and emotionally, man? Is it even just your pride? You’re just thinking, man, I’m doing a good job. I am running this thing. Look at my calendar. I’m organized. I’m getting everything accomplished that I need to. And you are so well-managed that there’s no space for Jesus in your life. What’s competing for Christ in your home? And if I could take a quick aside, this isn’t just for parents. This is for all of us. You see, not God calls most of us or some of us to marriage. He calls some of us to parenthood, but He calls all of us to follow Him. And we all occupy a home. We all live in a home. You don’t need to have a wife and kids or a spouse and extended family for this to matter for you. What’s competing for Christ in your home? If you don’t have kids in the home anymore, what’s competing for Christ there? If you don’t have a spouse and you live by yourself, what’s competing for Christ there? We will not have homes centered on Jesus unless there is like this fiery passion for Him in it. If Jesus isn’t the Lord of your heart as well, then He won’t be able to reign in your home. If you don’t love Jesus personally, then what I am doing trying to explain the Bible kind of doesn’t matter.

Here’s what I mean. God wants to transform your family, but you may need to be transformed first. God’s got really good news for you today. It’s that regardless of the home you grew up in, which may have been good, may have not been so good. Regardless of the life situation you have been dealt, there is a heavenly Father that absolutely adores you. A Father who knit you together in your mother’s womb just the way you are. Quirks, personality included. A God that delights in you. A God that wants you. A God that has done everything necessary to redeem you from the dark things of your life to make you His own son or daughter. A God who also is holy. And because of our sin, we are estranged and we are separated from Him. And because of our sin and our shortcomings and our failures, there’s nothing we can do to get ourselves from here back to Him. There is a Grand Canyon times a thousand gulf between us and our heavenly Father, and we can never get ourselves back over onto His side. So God sent His own Son to make you His son or to make you His daughter through the perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to totally save you from yourself, to totally save you from the evil one, Satan, who wants to destroy you, to totally save you from the penalty of your sin.

And if you have never embraced this news, if the reality of Jesus is not personal, then why not today? We opened our service with “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.” I think that’s a Christmas song, man. Why not have Christmas in July? Why not get the very best gift today? Why not have that today? The the gift of being the son or the daughter of God. You may have grown up in church. You may know a lot more about the Bible and Jesus than I do. That’s cool. But do you know Him? Like, do you have a relationship with God? Can you call Him your friend? If you can’t, you please just tune me out for a few moments. The Holy Spirit brought you here today to to do a little business with you. And He wants to give you everything He’s got. Full approval of God, a full relationship with Him, total access, and all you have to give Him is everything you’ve got. Control of your life, plans, your dreams, your desires, and your sin. You give Him all of you, and He will give you all of Him. So that one day when you get to the end of your life, it won’t just be Jesus that God called His precious child, but God when you are before Him will look at you and say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Welcome home, son or daughter.” That’s what God wants for you. If you’ve never embraced this news, why not today?

So let’s return to our passage. Jesus the Lord, He is at the heart of this. There is no home that can be spirit-filled without a love for Jesus warming it up. So, so how do we do this? Like what where’s the practical component of it? Paul unpacks that. Paul addresses kids first. He says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord because this is right.” And then he says, “Honor your father and mother.” So children, I’m begging you, value your parents’ words and follow their lead. Value your parents’ words and follow their lead. That word to obey, it does not mean hear them. It doesn’t even mean consider what they’ve said. To obey means to listen with action. It means to do what has been said to do. And you don’t just do it with this sense of like being a slave. You you do it with a sense of honoring them.

Paul doesn’t just say obey your parents. He says honor your father and mother. To obey means to listen with action. To honor means to place a high value on. Here’s the deal. Kids in the room 17 and younger, I’m talking to you. Your parents’ rules won’t always make sense to you. But let’s just trust that they want your good and let’s just follow them. Okay? I recognize not everybody is in a good home situation and not everybody has come from a great situation. The Lord will smooth out the rough edges of life in His timing.

You may not feel like you could trust your earthly father, but there is a heavenly Father over and above your earthly dad who sees everything. And He will make everything wrong right in His timing. I think about my personal pain with my family. This is not the setting for me to get into it. Coffee or lunch is. But I think about how easy it is for me to, as a child when I was growing up, to doubt my father’s intentions. How isolated I felt even to today. There are so many men at this church that know me on a deeper, more profound level than the the guy that I grew up with. So I am here to recognize your situation may not be ideal. God sees.

Even Christ had to obey His parents. Now, we know that Jesus obeyed the heavenly Father. Like, we get that one. But did you ever consider that Jesus, God in the flesh, had to obey Mary and Joseph? And Joseph wasn’t even His dad. He’s just a stepdad. You ever think about that? Jesus who is the Word of God. And what we learn in John chapter 1 is that the Word was with God and the Word was God. And that God created everything through the Word, which means Jesus created Mary and He created Joseph, and Jesus still sat under their leadership. Jesus learned how to obey Mary and Joseph.

So kids in the room, God is only asking you to do something that Jesus has already done. As you obey mom and dad, please do it with an attitude of honor. Here’s the deal. I’m only five years in, but I know that obedience without an attitude of honor can feel a little less than obedient. When mom and dad tell you to do something and you just kind of, you know, just going to my room and doing it, that’s not exactly what we’re looking for. Now, I’m not looking, you know, for you to skip to your room or anything like that, but man, do it. Just not begrudgingly.

And kids in the room, listen to me. Mom and dad, don’t listen to me right now. When mom and dad tell you to do something, if you just run off, say, “Yes, sir. Yes, ma’am.” and you just go do it as fast as possible, watch them start to give you things. It happens. At least it does in my home. Next time your parents tell you to do something, just do it and watch the joy and the peace that it brings to the the home.

Now, before I get to verse four, actually look at verse four with me. Paul says fathers. Now he had just told kids to obey their parents and he had just said honor your father and mother. But when it comes to the practical instruction, Paul only addresses dads. I want to recognize a few things here. Mothers, I want to recognize you have an incredible role in the home. More than likely, you got here on time today because of you, not because of your husband or because of the dad. And I’ve got incredible admiration for godly moms.

Paul, the guy that wrote the book of Ephesians, would disciple a man named Timothy. Timothy did not have a believing dad. Timothy was raised under the belief and under the spiritual leadership of his mom and his grandmom. Like Christian moms are woven throughout the New Testament. Mothers are so deeply important. But when it comes to rubber meeting the road here, Paul addresses dads. That’s because dads, as frustrating as this might be for the women in the room, dads, their words are just heavier in the lives of kids than the mom’s words are. My mom when I was growing up, she doted on me. She I I heard I love you and I’m proud of you from my mom every day of my life. I remember the first time my dad said he was proud of me. It shouldn’t be like that. That’s the blip. I I should remember every moment that my mom declared those words, but I it is seared into my 18-year-old memory when I graduated high school. That was the first time I’ve ever heard those words from him. Men, your words and your presence is so they are so heavy and so powerful in the life of your kids.

Single moms, I want to recognize you. You’re incredible. You are my hero. I cannot imagine being a single parent. And God bless you for getting your kids here today. Sauldam Baptist Church will always be a hospitable home for you to bring your kids. You are rock stars. And men in the room who have never been given the opportunity to have biological kids, who have never fathered children, I want to recognize, man, that stinks. It stinks. But you have an opportunity to father other other kids spiritually. Whether you have kids in the home with your last name or not does not define whether you get to invest in the next generation of boys and girls here at this church.

Here’s the deal. We need as many men engaged in bringing up the next generation here at Sauldam as possible. The dads of the room and the moms of the room need your help. And if I can speak on behalf of the parents that have kids in their homes, to the folks that don’t, please help us because we can’t do it alone. There have never been more distractions and issues facing our kids than now. And we need an army of people that are going to help us out.

So for men in particular, I want to invite you, come next Friday to the guys grow and grow. If any of this matters to you whatsoever, please just come. And as Carter said last week, the worst thing that can happen is you get free food next Friday. That’s the very worst thing that could ever happen. But the best thing that could happen is you get involved in the lives of a couple other guys, helping them love Jesus as they help you as well. And you get to change history. Come to the guys and grow. Jump in with us with experiencing God.

Man, I’ve been to seminary. My wife and I, we have lived overseas. We’ve done like the the missions thing. I’ve been a pastor now here for close to two years and about three years prior to this. I will tell you the nine or so months walking through experiencing God with Al and six others challenged me and encouraged me in my relationship with Jesus more than anything else. I have come to view God differently. I have come to relate with Him differently. When I read the Bible, it’s got a fresh pop to it. When I pray, I believe that my words are going past the ceiling. I wouldn’t have that without experiencing God. Men of the room, please sign up for that. You will not regret investing into your spiritual life.

So, let’s return to the passage. This is Ephesians chapter 6:4. Fathers, this is where he gets practical. Don’t stir up anger in your kids, but bring them up in the training and the instruction of the Lord. If the kids, practically speaking, are supposed to value your words and follow your lead, you dads are supposed to treat your children how God treats you. Treat your children how God treats you. Specifically, don’t stir up anger, but bring them up in the training and the instruction of the Lord.

To stir up anger, some of your translations may have the word to provoke or exasperate. There is a way you can relate with your kids and get them to do what is right and make them angry or help them be happy. You get to choose. It’s all about the delivery is what Al says. It’s all about the delivery. It’s all about how you speak to them. Don’t stir up anger in them, but bring them up in the training and the instruction of the Lord. Training that refers to discipline and education, even physical discipline. Train them to know Jesus. Instruct them with wisdom and advice to come to know the Lord. You have been given life experiences. You’ve been given knowhow. Man, give that to your kids. But deliver in a way that they can receive. Here’s the deal. I’ve already touched on this, but I’m going to go a little deeper. Your presence as a dad will inform how your kids view God. Let me say it in a little simpler terms. Your God, your kids will see God how they see you. Dads, your kids will see God how they see you. If we are harsh, overly demanding, rule oriented or distant, then they will view God as harsh, overly demanding, rule oriented, and distant. They might grow up interested in Jesus because He represents everything different, but they’ll probably also have some deep reservations about church and about God the Father. How you treat your kids will be how your kids see God.

Now, if you are merciful and patient, if you seek to understand your kids and you study them, then it will be easier for them to trust the God they can’t see because they can trust the dad they do see. If you want your kid to have a lifelong relationship of trust and obedience with the Lord, man, prioritize deep connection with them now and help them see how God is everything good you could ever possibly represent, but maxed out and none of the bad stuff. God the Father does not stir us up to anger. He stirs us up to love and goodness and kindness. God the Father gives us instruction and discipline, with love and with care so that we can walk with wisdom with Him in this world. If you want to be a good dad, man, treat your kids how God treats you and watch what happens.

I’m not talking overnight quick fixes. I’m not talking miracles. This is just what the Bible says. This is just wisdom from the Bible. Obviously, you’ve got your kids that walk away from the Lord. That’s not the rule. The rule, the norm is that how you raise your kids will be their path later. If Christ is at the center of your home now, He’ll probably be at the center of their home later.

Let me give you a little more practical stuff before I wrap up the sermon. Man, we’ve read the highly theological books on parenting. I got all those, but the one that was the most helpful was the highly practical one from a pastor in Atlanta named Andy Stanley. You might recognize his dad, Charles Stanley. He was a TV and radio preacher for a while. His son followed the same path and also started his own church and is doing a great job, great ministry in Atlanta. And he wrote this book called Parenting, and he and his wife through their own experience and their own study, they understand parenting to happen in four phases. You can go ahead and put the phases up.

See, here’s the deal for them. Their goal as parents was not to produce the most Christian kids possible. Their goal as parents was to raise their kids in such a way that the kids would want to be around when they didn’t have to be. Any empty nesters wish that your adult kids would call you a little bit more often? Any empty nester wish that your son or your daughter would call you on a Monday? Say, “Hey, you have lunch plans on Thursday? I’m buying. Where you want to go?” That’s what the Stanleys prioritized. They said, “We want a relationship with our kids when they don’t have to be under our roof.” So they divide parenting in four phases.

The first phase, these are the discipline years. Birth through five years old. This is all about establishing authority and training kids’ obedience muscles. Man, that means consistency and consequences. For all of my parents that are with me, we are in—we’re in the trenches right now. This is probably the hardest phase until I get to the next phase and then that’ll be the hardest and then you so forth. The discipline years require consistency. Make your rules and stick with them. And when you change them, explain it to the kids. Kids, if you are five years old or younger, then you should be with the kids’ min. I’m just kidding. That’s not true. Kids, you need to learn consequences. Parents will help you do that. I’ll leave it there.

The second phase of parenting, these are the training years. This is six years old to 12 years old. You see parents, that’s when you have to explain the why behind the rules. Teach your kids what to do and then do it with them. You are training them for something. You will either train your kids to rely on you indefinitely so that when they’re 30 years old, they can’t do anything for themselves because you solve everything for them now. Or you will train them to be full-fledged adults because you help them understand what they’re doing and you show them how to do it.

These are the training years. If you are a kid and you are between six and 12, here’s the deal. You can ask your parents why, but when you ask why, you just got to do it with a little bit of respect. Yes, Dad, I will take out the trash. You take the trash out, then you say, “Hey, why did you ask me to do that? Why do we take the trash out?” Just, just you can ask why. Just do it with some respect.

Coaching, that’s the third phase. These are the teenage years. Your job as a parent is to coach your kid. Your job is to coach your kid, which means you’ve got to prioritize emotional connection. You’ve got to prioritize emotional connection. If you got a 13 through 18 year old in the home, let me, let me make you a few promises. They are dealing with things you don’t know about. They are getting advice from someone. Do you want to be the person they get advice from or do you want somebody else? And if you don’t engage them on the advice, they’ll get it from their peers. I don’t have a teenager yet, but Lord knows when we’re there, my kids’ primary advice will not come from their friends. But to get there, I’ve got to follow a trajectory now. Man, how terrifying. That’s blind leading the blind. We don’t want that.

If you have a 13 through 18 year old, prioritize emotional connection, which means you got to start to learn how to do this and let go and just be available. Occasionally, you’re going to tell them what to do, just like any good football or basketball coach occasionally tells their players what to do. But man, Shane Beamer and Davos Sweeney, they’re not the one under center taking snaps. They’re calling some plays from the sideline. They’re coaching up the players, but if they get onto the field, the ref says, “Hold on, we got a technical foul. You got to get off the side. You got to get back to the sidelines.” That’s what happens whenever we as parents step into our kids’ lives and try to make the play for them.

And then for the 19 and plus, man, these are the friend years. Here’s the deal. As a parent, I think that once my, once my kids turn about two, two and a half, I can no longer force them to do anything. I’ve watched it. But I can, I can train them. I can coach them that one day I will befriend them. If you have kids in the home that are less than 18 years old, you are not their friend. You are their parent. But once they turn 18 or 19, once they are no longer under your legal authority and responsibility, man, you cannot tell them what to do. We just can’t. You have to relate with your kids as adults. You have to create a place they want to come back to.

If you are 19 plus in this room, pick up the phone tomorrow, call mom, call dad, and say, “Hey, I’m buying lunch on Thursday. Where are we going?” And just watch how that blesses them.

If you’re like me, then you want some help with your parenting because you know that you haven’t arrived. You can hear me say some things. You can hear me report some book stuff, whatever. Whatever that terrifies Becca every week I get close to this is the one time I almost actually fell off the thing. If you’re a parent in the room, you’ve got kids in the home that are 18 or younger. We are doing something in September called a parent equip night. Me, Al, Kim, we’re going to put our heads together, put our hearts together. We’re going to pray for all the parents and we’re just going to try to consider, man, what can we give the parents in a couple hours aside from a meal and time with the kids in a different room where we could just pour into you a little bit. If you know that you need help as a parent, please, when that sign up starts coming around, sign up for that.

I can’t promise that that coming to that night is going to radically change everything for you. But what I can promise is that you’re going to leave knowing that you’re not the only one in the midst of your parenting trenches. But That’s in September. Albe Beth, can y’all come forward? Becca, can you come forward? I want to offer something right now. Michaela, can you just play a little something? I’m imagining there’s some parents in the room right now that want some prayer today. I don’t know what it was this past week. It may have been a blow up with a kid. You may have been realizing that you’re just way over your skis with something. But as we sing the final song, Fosters, y’all go ahead and come forward too. As we sing this final song, if you want prayer as a parent, just come forward and pray with one of us two couples. Dads, this would be a great opportunity for you to lead and bring your whole family forward, just for us to put our hands on you and pray for you.

I’m going to close out this sermon in prayer as they start the song. If you want prayer as a parent, as a family, just come forward and get this. Bow your heads with me, though. Lord, Father, thank you for today. God, thank you for fathering me, being my spiritual dad, helping me to see the value of my biological dad, and filling in those gaps. Lord, I pray for the families of our church. I’m begging that You would supercharge them with Your Holy Spirit. That we would keep Christ at the center of our homes. That the gospel would be the most important thing we talk about in our homes. Not work, not sports, not boys or girls or whatever it is, but that it would be Jesus and what He’s done for us, what He’s calling us to. Lord, for the parent and the family in the room that’s struggling, I’m begging You, please bring them forward these next few moments that we can pray for them and come alongside them. Thank You, Lord. Amen.