Treasures on Earth: Family, Church, Unbelievers, and Work

This Sermon begins a Series on the three ways a Christian spends the majority of their time: Family, Church, and Work.

Transcript:

Well, welcome to Grace Bible Church. It's, as always, just wonderful to be here on a Sunday, the day that our Lord and Savior rose from the dead, to worship Him, to praise Him.

Now, you may have seen in the email that this sermon was going to be about the Christian view of retirement. And I think we're going to get to that next week. But as I was writing that sermon, I realized that in order to discuss the end of our work life, we needed to understand what the Bible says about work in general. And as I started to dig into that, I realized that in order to understand what the Bible says about work, we needed to understand how work fits into the priorities of our life overall. And because this topic was sparked in my mind by three little words in our study of Third John, let me start by reading Third John verses 9 and 10. If you'd like, you can turn there. Third John 9 and 10. Those are the verses we're typically in on a Sunday. And yeah, I never expected these three little words to stir up so much in my heart. They actually stirred it up two weeks ago when I originally preached it, and I had to cut it short because I'm like, "This is not a sermon on Christian retirement." So, um, Third John 9 and 10 says, "I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not welcome what we say. For this reason, if I come, I will bring to remembrance his deeds, which he does, unjustly disparaging us with wicked words. And not satisfied with this, he himself does not welcome the brothers either, and he forbids those who want to do so and puts them out of the church."

Let me pray before we begin.

Lord, I do pray that You would help us with our perspective, our priorities, our motivations, our desires, our affections today, Lord. I pray that You'd help us to see things clearly. I pray that You'd help us to see Your Word clearly. Lord, help us to see what Your Word is prescribing to us today. Help us to set aside any preconceived notions we have about what we should be doing, Lord, and what this society says we should be doing, and all of these different things that we're going to talk about today. Lord, help us to learn. Help us to understand. And we just love You and praise You in Jesus's name.

Well, as you can see, I've named this sermon "Treasures on Earth: Family, Church, and Work." And if you remember a couple weeks ago when I preached on those words, specifically in verse 10 there, "If I come," I went into a discussion about retirement based on the fact that the Apostle John had no intentions of retiring or slowing down. As I was preparing to talk more about that, I realized that retirement is a deeper issue, a deeper subject. And so, along those lines, the first thing we have to understand is that there are three ways a Christian should be spending their time. Three ways a Christian should be spending their time. And I think of these as three categories of life. These include family, church, and work. Now, church and work are pretty obvious. And anything that doesn't fall into church and work falls into family, if you're trying to think it through. And they should be prioritized in that order: family, church, and work.

Now, I don't want you to get these confused with something we talked about a couple of months ago, which were the three relational spheres of our life, or three groups of people that we prioritize. That's family, church, and unbelievers, if you remember us talking about that. Who do we spend our time with? What kind of people do we prioritize in our life? And your bulletin will help you with these distinctions. I tried to make it clear on there, but, or your outline, I'm sorry, which is in your bulletin. But what we're talking about today is how we spend our time: family, church, and work. The other is talking about who we spend our time with: family, church, and unbelievers. So, just one more time, just so we're clear: today, we're talking about how we spend our time. The other is talking about who we spend our time with. And if you remember when talking about who we spend our time with, our priorities should be family, church, which is one another, everybody here, and unbelievers, in that order. And if you remember that doesn't really leave much time for Christians outside of our church or Bible studies and in other places. And that's not just for this, but for a host of reasons, and things like parachurch ministries. Long story short, our spiritual center, our spiritual life, is focused on one another and focused on the church. But again, that's talking about who we spend our time with. But today, we want to look at how we spend our time. How we spend our time. And if you're someone who struggles with how you should be spending your time or what your life priorities should be, I would encourage you to put these two lists together, and you'll have a guide that makes a lot of seemingly difficult decisions, a lot of seemingly difficult decisions, really easy if you put these two lists together.

Now, your flesh might hate the decision that this formula kicks out, but that's how you know you're on the right track, is if you're like, "Huh, I don't know if I feel like doing that today." Right? So again, we're talking about how should a Christian spend their time. And the three categories are family, church, and work. And again, they should be prioritized in that order.

Now, just because family is the most important, just because family is the primary one in this society, that doesn't mean we should spend the bulk of our time with our family, right? Even though that would be great, unfortunately, it's just not realistic for most people to do that. Most people would be broke. They'd be living on the street if they tried to spend as much time with their family as they did working. And just to give you a little sneak peek, I think that's kind of a sad thing. Instead, it should be our top priority, family, which means that nothing should get in the way of family time. Nothing should get in the way of family time. And I hope you'll see that reality really clearly by the end of today.

Now, there may be situations where the family unit is so broken that this is impossible. But putting family first should be the priority of every Christian. And I'm primarily talking about married couples with kids here. But it also extends to parents and siblings of those who are single. So if you're here and you're single, in other words, what I'm saying, if you're still living at home, your family life should still come first. Should still come first. I expect my kids to put their family first right now. Again, your family life might be so broken that this isn't possible, or you may be nearing a time of leaving home, but I'm trying to lay out the biblical standard here. So, kids should make their family life primary. That's my hope for my children, that until they leave their home, our home, they'll make their family life the primary, the priority in their life. But sadly, in this culture, in this society, we see the opposite of this. Instead, kids can't wait to get away from their parents while they're in their home and after they leave their home. And people laugh about this, but this is very, very sad. This is a really sad thing. You know, when you hear parents say, "Oh, I don't see him all day," or, "I don't know where he is," or, "You know, he's got his own life and his own friends." And you know, that's kind of just a funny, silly thing, but it's sad. It's not funny. That's not funny.

See, when kids can't wait to get away from their parents, when kids have their own life over there that their parents aren't really involved in, you know, I'm sure you've all had the situation. I know this happened to me in my life where I'm at in school and high school or something like that, and my mom has to pick me up, and I'm embarrassed by that, right? You know, because that's my other life over there. I've got this is my cool life with my friends. Brothers and sisters, you don't want that. You don't want anything like that. Because what that's showing is that the relational bond between the child and the parent has been broken in some way. It's been fractured. And this is why a lot of parents and kids really barely blink an eye when they leave for college, because really very little is going to change. That kid's already been living a separate life for who knows how many years. And now they're going to go live a separate life somewhere else. And this is mostly due to schooling outside the home and mothers working outside the home.

Now, just as a side note, I think fathers should be striving to spend more time with their kids as well. They should be praying for jobs or businesses that allow them to work less and be home more. But because of the fall, this is very difficult today. And we're going to talk more about that later. But see, when kids spend a bulk of their life away from their home, they can't help but center their life away from their family. It's a natural consequence. And when mothers only see, and not even talk to, but only see their kids for a couple of hours a day, kids are forced to center their social life outside of their families. And this is the result ultimately of not making the family relationship primary. Do you see that? Do you understand that jobs might be primary in that situation? Finances might be primary in that situation. Leisure and selfishness might be primary. But the family is not primary in that situation. That family unit, that family bond, and all the wonderful things that are supposed to be happening there is just not primary. And there's a price to pay for that.

See, brothers and sisters, the devil knows that the family is primary and most important. He knows it. He's an expert on it. And that's why he has almost every gun in this culture pointed right at the family. Everything in this culture is trying to tear the family apart. Don't ever forget that. I don't care how rosy your family looks. I don't care how comfortable you are. I don't care what is going on in your life. You need to know that everything in this culture is trying to tear your family apart, tear your marriage apart, tear your kids away from you: sports, school, even church in some cases. And you're going to have to fight tooth and nail to combat that all the time. You're going to have to be vigilant all the time to combat that.

So the family is primary, both for married couples and single people living at home. Now, keep in mind that the moment you get married, those parents and siblings should drop way down on the priority list. I mean, you have a whole new primary relationship in your life that should take up the bulk of your time and energy outside of church and work. But you might say, "Pastor, where does the Bible say that the family is primary?" Well, I'm glad you asked that question. If you would turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. And chapter 5 of Ephesians sits right in the middle of three chapters of application. Three chapters of Paul explaining things about life, right after three chapters of doctrine. And this is how Paul writes. Paul will write out the doctrine and follow it with the application.

Ephesians 5:22. Ephesians 5:22. And again, we're asking, why is the family primary? Where in the Bible does it say that the family is primary? Verse 22, "Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord." Now, this is going to be difficult, ladies, because Genesis 3:16 says, "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." You're going to want to rule over him, but he rules over you. You're going to desire to rule over your husband instead of respecting them, which is what we're going to read about in a little bit. But he's going to rule over you. And that's what we see in the next verse. Verse 23, "For the husband is the head of the wife." Again, primary. This is a primary relationship. "For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything." So the husband is the head of the wife in everything. Everything. Now, the husband doesn't have a right to cause his wife to sin. We're going to see later that that's actually the very opposite of anything a husband would ever want to do. But the husband is the head of the wife in everything. And again, this is not again, but this is where the concept of biblical submission comes in. Again, primary relationship here.

Verse 25, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her." That's a high bar. If you read that, if you see that, actually, that's an impossible bar, just so we understand. And that's why we need Jesus. That's why we need Jesus every single day. That's why the women need Jesus to submit, and we need Jesus to love our wives. And they go hand in hand. If you're not very loving husbands, you're making it very hard for your wife to follow you. You understand that? Everything starts with the husband. Everything starts with the husband. But that's why we need Jesus. We both need Jesus. But it also shows us why so much of our time and effort needs to be focused on our family. This is not a side thing. This is not something to take for granted. This is not something to say, "Oh, you know what? I'm married. We can never get divorced. This is all just functioning over here by itself. I don't have to worry." No, it's the complete opposite of that. The complete opposite of that.

Verse 26, "Why is the husband doing this? So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word." See, husbands are to cleanse their wives with the washing of the Word. In other words, we are to teach our wives and children, we'll see, about the Bible, about the Scriptures, about God. And this is time-consuming. This takes time. This takes effort. This takes focus. This takes intentionality. This takes a plan. This takes communication. This takes organization. This will not just happen. And I promise you, this will not just happen. It's a ton of work and a ton of time. Which again tells you why the family is primary, because it requires so much of your resources. So much.

Verse 27, "That He might present to Himself the church in all her glory," talking about Christ, "having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless." That's what husbands are supposed to be doing: presenting our wives holy and blameless, shepherding them, caring for them, loving them, building them up, teaching them. Incredibly time-consuming, complex.

Verse 28, "So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body." Now, do you know how hard it is to love your wife like yourself? Again, it's impossible. It's impossible. That's the story of the Good Samaritan. You know, the Good Samaritan did all of these things for this guy, and Jesus says, "That's what love is." But we can't do that. You just All you have to do is just drive from here to the freeway. You're going to see three people that you're supposed to do that for. There's not enough time in the day. It's impossible for us to love our wife like ourselves. That's our goal. That's our desire. But it's impossible. And our only hope of even getting anywhere near that is to be saturated with Christ, to be desiring Christ-likeness above everything else in this world. And again, this is why we need Christ. And this is why the family is primary.

So how do we move toward loving our wives as ourselves? Verse 31, "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." So we see here how a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. And the woman also leaves her father and mother to be joined to her husband. And so the couple leaves the relationships that were primary with their parents, the one between parents and siblings, to be joined to the new primary relationship between the husband and the wife.

Verse 32, "This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ in the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife, even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband." Again, you know how hard it is to love your wife even as yourself. It's again, it's impossible. And again, this is why we desperately need Jesus. And so, it's not just the amount of time and effort and planning and consideration and thoughtfulness and kindness that goes into loving your wife, but all of that requires a plan. It requires organization. It requires communication. It requires having the right priorities in place. It requires and all of that requires being saturated in the Word of God and pursuing after Christ. I'm trying to paint a picture for you that this is a primary relationship that takes an incredible amount of time and effort. And so if you're sitting here and you're kind of coasting in your marriage or thinking about getting married and how that's just going to be sort of like you don't have to do very much, you've got a serious problem on your hands. Those chickens are going to come home to roost.

And so this makes it very clear, you know, some people have a hard time with leaving and cleaving, and, you know, they struggle because, "I really love my mom," or, "I really love my dad," or, "I'm going to miss my sister." And hey, that's a sweet thing. But I hope you're seeing the picture that I'm painting here. There's just it's not it's not even possible anymore. And if you try to make that possible, it's going to cause all kinds of problems in your marriage. Now, we're not cutting anybody off. We're not saying we can't talk to our parents anymore. It's just a radical shift has to take place. And if you're dating someone who doesn't see it that way, you're going to want to talk about that. And ladies, some of you already know how hard it is to respect your husband. And this is especially true depending on who your husband is. But no matter what their disposition is, you're commanded to respect him. You're commanded to respect him. Doesn't matter if he's kind or loving. He should be, but sometimes they're not. You're commanded to respect him. And I think about I think about Christians who are married to unbelievers. Wives who love the Lord and whose husband isn't a believer. A very hard situation, but they're commanded to respect them. And that's a that's a sanctification that many of us will never even understand. But it's a beautiful way to sacrifice for Christ, a way to show that unbelieving spouse who Christ is by loving them unconditionally. But again, this is why those parental and sibling relationships have to significantly diminish.

You're leaving one family and creating another. One that requires an incredible amount of time and energy. One that requires a considerable amount of consideration and thought. One that requires excellent communication and connection time together. And so marriage becomes the primary relationship in our life. And then when you have kids, that only becomes more the case. If you would look at chapter 6 verse one there in our text in Ephesians, it says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may be well with you and that you may live long in the land." And again, we see here how children are to have their family as their primary relationship. That is your authority. You should want to spend time with them. You should want to love them. Again, I know there's situations where that isn't possible because things are very broken, but that should be the desire of your heart as a Christian.

Verse four, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." So, kids just add a whole another level to marriage. A wonderful level, an incredible and amazing level, but a level that requires a whole another level of commitment. And again, this continues to paint you the picture that the family is primary and most important. It's where we should prioritize our time. And too many couples take their eye off the ball, take their spouse for granted, take their marriage for granted. And so this idea that marriage is primary, the family is primary, and I believe that if Adam and Eve would have made it long enough to have kids in the garden, that they would have been spending actually a great bulk of their time with their family. I mean, the whole family would have probably worked the garden together or done something together. And without the curse, that work would have been a sweet and joyful thing. And interestingly enough, most families actually worked together for all of human history. But under the curse, that work was made painful. But at least the family was together.

Listen to Genesis 3:17. This is just after the fall. This is talking about work. "Then to Adam He said, 'Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, "You shall not eat from it," cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you. And you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.'" So work became a completely different thing after the fall. We had work before the fall. Work is not the evil thing. Work is a good thing. God gives us work. God gives us things to do, and we should do that joyfully. We'll talk about that in a future sermon. But work has now become a painful thing, a hard thing. But even those families that for really all of time worked together in that painful toil, working together in the fields mostly in an agricultural society, even that came to an end with the Industrial Revolution of the 1700s. It's only then that fathers began in any meaningful way to leave their property and family for work. And since then, fathers have had a smaller and smaller impact on the life of their wives and their children.

See, I'm not sold on this idea that fathers should be relegated to spending evenings and weekends with their families. I know that's what the culture says. I know that's what the world we live in. And I'm not here telling anybody to quit your job or take back your resume or any of those. We're not making any radical decisions here. I'm just not sold on the idea that fathers should be relegated to spending evenings and weekends with their families. Now, make no mistake, fathers do need to provide. They need to provide. Look at Ephesians 5:28 with me again. It says, "So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church." See, husbands are commanded to nourish and cherish their wives and by extension their children. And this no doubt includes physical care, but it also includes spiritual care. And far too many Christian husbands, many times because of the lifestyle that they choose, the sort of standard of living that they have decided they need, have more than taken care of the physical needs of their family while leaving them spiritually famished.

1 Timothy 5:8 says, "But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." Now, this verse is specifically talking about widows in your family. In other words, if your mother or grandmother is widowed, you should take care of her if necessary. Which, by the way, I do think assisted living is an option if the person, if the widow, prefers to live on their own in assisted living. But if the Bible says you're worse than an unbeliever for not taking care of your grandmother, how much more your wife and your kids? That's the question we want to ask.

Now, nowhere does the Bible say that fathers need to spend a bunch of time and money getting a degree and then be gone most of the time to accomplish this providing. The Bible doesn't say that. I know that that's the culture we live in. That's the society we live in. And I'm there's that. I'm not saying that's sin. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. People have the liberty to do that. I'm just saying that's not the only way. Nowhere does the Bible say that a father has to provide a million-dollar house, new cars, vacations, eating out, iPads, iPhones, Apple watches, subscriptions, sports leagues, a college education for their kids, and leave an inheritance. The Bible doesn't say that's what providing is. I mean, I know that's what a lot of fathers want. I know that allows them to get out of the house and chase their dreams and build their career and build their businesses. I know that's a lot more exciting, so they think, than family worship and discipling their kids. They couldn't be more wrong. I know they think that's a lot more fulfilling than playing and working around the house with their kids and their families and their wives and their church. And again, they couldn't be more wrong about that either. I know that whole thing about building their career and building their businesses. And again, there's a place for that. We do need to provide, but it can get out of hand and it can feed their pride. I've been there. I know that's what the world says is success, but the Bible says success is raising up the next generation in godliness. That's what the Bible says is success. And I'm convinced if we're going to achieve this as the church, fathers are going to have to get more involved in the lives of their wives and their kids.

And again, I'm not prescribing any drastic action here. This is the world we live in. This is the world we live in requires a father, for the most part, to work a significant amount of hours outside of the home to provide for their family. But I do think we can ask God for something different. I do think we can desire something different. If you would turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy chapter 6. I think we can pray for something different. I think we can sense that something is off. I think godly fathers have a hunger to be with their families, that when they leave for work in the morning and they spend the day there, there's something pulling on them, trying to get, wanting to be home. But there's a lot that don't have any of that. Just so you know, a lot of Christians that don't have any of that.

Deuteronomy chapter 6. And here we have Moses explaining to Israel how they need to learn Yahweh's commandments and teach them to the following generations. Deuteronomy 6:1 says, "Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which Yahweh your God has commanded me to teach you." That's Moses. "That you might do it in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I am commanding you all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged." So, right off the bat, Moses said that he's teaching Israel these things so that your son and your grandson might fear Yahweh. Moses wasn't going to teach their sons and their grandsons. The fathers are going to be responsible for teaching their sons and their grandsons. Now, fathers can include their wives in this responsibility, but ultimately this responsibility falls on the head of the household. Falls on the father. Ephesians 5:23.

And what are the fathers supposed to teach the sons and grandsons? Verse four, "Here, O Israel, Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one." A familiar verse. "You shall love the Lord your God." I'm sorry, old translation. This is what this is what the fathers are supposed to teach their sons. "You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart." Now, before we get to your wife and kids, how is this going for you, Dad? Really not just Dad, but really all of us. How is this going for us? Do we love Yahweh our God with all our soul and with all our might? Me neither. I don't do that either. Nobody does that. And that's why we need Christ. That's why we need more Christ, because we fall short of this every single day, all day. When people tell me they don't sin, I'm like, "Hey, let me read you a verse. You aren't doing this. You don't even believe in this God. And if you do believe in this God, you don't you maybe do this for like 25 minutes a day on your on your good days." But that's why we need more Christ. That's why everything is pointing to Christ. But more than that, is this something you're striving after by God's grace to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Because if it's not, how can you spiritually lead your family? Just questions to think about. How do and so let's look at how does Moses say you should lead your family? He says, "By teaching them to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."

Now, if you know anything about kids, you know that teaching them anything is a full-time job, right? But to teach them to love Yahweh their God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their might is something even the most godly parents struggle with. It's a tall order. Nobody does it perfectly. Nobody even gets close to doing it perfectly. But how are we supposed to teach our kids something so grand and majestic as this? It's the greatest commandment. Verse 7, "How do we do it, Moses? You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up." So, fathers, how are we supposed to teach our kids something so grand and majestic as to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength? This lesson that our children need more than anything else in this world, anything else in this world, more than new clothes, more than new shoes, more than anything else in this world, this is what they need. How are we to teach them the ultimate lesson? Well, Moses tells us, he tells us how. He tells us where we're supposed to teach them. And he tells us when we're supposed to teach them. First, if you look at it there with me, he says, "We shall teach them diligently." How should we teach them, fathers? Moses says diligently.

Now, if you think about that word, to apply that to other areas of your life, maybe golf or sports or your career or your business, like when you do something really diligently about something you care a lot about, you're in that thing, right? You're planning that thing. You're invested in that thing. That thing's taking up a lot of your time and effort. Well, Moses says we should be teaching this like that. And that word diligently means to speak or recite again and again, again and again. And again, if you've ever taught a kid anything, you're very aware of this process. It's a it's a painful process, right? It's a potentially tedious, at least initially when you start doing this. It's tedious. It's exhausting. It's boring. It's time-consuming. It's frustrating. And all of that is a blessing from God because it reveals our sinful selfishness, reveals our lack of love for our own kids. We should praise the Lord for that feeling when our heart and our chest is a little tight and we're feeling like we don't have enough time and this kid is just not getting it. That's a blessing from God. But the thing is, is if you stick with it and let God burn that dross off of you, it becomes a joy, a wonderful joy to see your children growing in godliness and righteousness and understanding and knowledge. And that's not just biblical knowledge. That's school knowledge, too. Academic knowledge. But see, that thing, that thing that's very, very hard, it's very, very sanctifying, doesn't compete very well with board meetings and traveling for work and eating in airports and lunches on the town and closing deals and getting promotions and doing what the parent is passionate about. It doesn't compete very well with that. And at the end of the day, this is why most parents don't homeschool.

Now, notice I said most. There's many reasons why parents don't homeschool, but I'm standing by that word most. Most parents don't homeschool because it is incredibly hard, at least at first. And I want to be clear, it's not sinful to let strangers teach your children. Instead, as usual with this type of thing, the sin is usually in the motivations of why you would want a stranger to teach your children instead of you doing it yourself. Now, it could be greed, could be selfishness, could be pride, could be fear, could be covetousness. But like many of these type of questions, the sin is not the active self. The Bible says nothing about saying we have to homeschool our kids. It's the motivations behind that. Why would you want to be away from your child more than you have to be? I mean, you have to have a really good reason for that. And so when it comes to our children, there's nothing more sacrificial than teaching them ourselves. And the truth is, most parents aren't willing to make that time or financial sacrifice. They've had a different idea of parenting their whole life, and that ain't it. The wife isn't, quote, "letting her degree go to waste," unquote. Instead, she has ideas of shuffling papers and sending emails for raises while strangers teach their children. And to be clear, I love teachers. I'm not saying teachers can't teach. I'm saying that nothing can replace a parent. Nothing. And so that might be the way. But the husband has ideas of his own. He's into building his career while his wife goes off to work so that they can have a bigger house, nice cars, fancy vacations, a good 401k, all kinds of reasons. But somebody is paying the price for all of that. That's not free. And it's the kids that are paying the price for that. The kids are paying the price. It's not free.

But make no mistake, in many cases, many, I said, not all, the bill comes due for those parents by the suffering brought into their lives by their children. The children they didn't invest in, the children they sent off to be taught by somebody else. Not always. It's not a hard and fast rule. There are plenty of parents who do everything right, so to speak. Nobody does everything right. Not even close. But there's parents that do everything right, so to speak, and are in agony because of their children. On the other hand, the worst parents in the world have children who are a complete joy. But more often than not, if you insist on outsourcing your duties as a parent, you'll end up paying top dollar in pain and suffering for every single convenience, comfort, and luxury you afforded yourself at your kids' expense. The kids pay the bill up front, but you pay double in the end. And this is one of the reasons why we have a generation of kids growing up on prescription drugs. This is why kids can't cope with the world around them. This is why we have so many dysfunctional families. This is why so many kids hate their parents because they didn't have parents. They had providers, not parents. They had daycare and babysitters and teachers, but they didn't have parents.

And young people, if you're here today, this is one of the areas where your ears should be perking up. This is one of those areas where you can start developing a different perspective today about what is work and how does the family work and all of these different things. This is one of those areas where you're going to want to know exactly how your boyfriend or girlfriend feels about this, exactly, because anything but a wholesale buy-in on this means it's not going to happen, and it's going to cause pain in your marriage. But see, homeschooling isn't just the best for the child, it's also best for the parents. And I've already hinted at this. See, nothing exposes selfishness like teaching your children. And while this is bad news for most parents, it should be great news for Christians because our top priority are the means of grace. That's our greatest. We're chasing after the means of grace. And one of the means of grace is obedience. And when God reveals our sin, he reveals our disobedience, right? And that results in repenting before God and confessing our sins to our kids and asking them for forgiveness. It's an incredible process, brothers and sisters. And nothing bonds parents and kids like asking for forgiveness. And all of that draws us nearer to Christ and grows us in Christlikeness. And you don't want to miss this, brothers and sisters. You don't want to miss this.

I mean, if marriage, I always say it's extreme sanctification, and I say that having kids is sanctification on fire, then teaching your children is like volcanic sanctification. Okay. It's intense at first, really. It's kind of always intense. It's hard. But you want that. The goal of our life is not comfort and convenience and pleasure. The goal of our life is to be more like Christ, to pour into others, to make disciples. Well, we have disciples right in our home, and we're sending them away. I just don't understand it. And again, it's not sin. There may be sinful motivations behind it. You have to have a conversation. You have to ask questions. But the whole purpose of life is to be more like Christ and to make disciples. And I know that mothers are currently the main recipients of this volcanic sanctification, but fathers, you want in on this. You want some of this. Your kids need you to be in on it. Whether it's family worship, discipleship, or homeschooling, according to Moses, you need to be engaged in the teaching of your children. But you might say you don't have time. But you do have time. And you know you have time. You just need to change your priorities. You need to make time to be obedient. And thirdly, you need to get with your wife and change the family schedule so that you can be involved. Again, it takes planning. It takes time. It takes effort. It takes intentionality. This is why the family is primary because it's complex. It's difficult. There's a lot going on here. It needs your attention because Moses says we're to be teaching our children diligently. And again, apply that word to all the other things you do diligently in your life. It means saying the same thing over and over and over and over. Takes a lot of time and patience. But that's what Moses said.

But Moses wasn't the only one who said that fathers need to be teaching their children. Paul said in Ephesians 6:4, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." Paul is explicit in his command for fathers to be teaching their children. Ephesians 6:4. And what are you supposed to be teaching them? It says the discipline and instruction of the Lord, which means that there should be a standing time where the father gets the family together and teaches them the Word of God day in and day out. Call it family worship. And we're going to talk more about that next time. And the question though is, are you obeying this command, fathers? If not, why not? If it's because of your job is too demanding, I'm not talking about a season. I'm not talking about like you're going to seminary for three years or, "Hey, there's this one six-month period that's going to be really rocky and I'm starting a new business." It's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying if the pattern of your life is going to be a situation, the pattern of your work is going to create a situation where you can't obey Moses, there's a problem. And Moses and Paul just made the decision about what to do about this easy. It's easy. You start taking steps toward faithfulness. Again, nobody's saying quit your job or do any. It's taking small steps toward faithfulness. It's praying, "Lord, show me how to do this. I got myself into a bit of a situation here. I got a mortgage. I got car payments. I got all this stuff that I bought. I didn't I didn't understand what my priorities were supposed to be. I didn't understand that I needed to take care of these foundational things first. And I'm in I'm I'm in a I have a problem. I don't know how to get out of it." You pray about that. You ask your pastors about that. You take steps toward faithfulness. Maybe it's asking for a different schedule at work. Maybe it's working less hours. Maybe it's time to look for another job. Because fathers, this is one of the last things you can afford to ignore. Because as I said, ignoring this will most likely cost you way more than you can ever earn. Way more than you can ever earn.

Now, if you're unfazed by these warnings, if you have no qualms putting work before your family, if you have no issue with putting finances before your kids, then welcome to the club because all of us would be doing the same thing if it wasn't for Jesus. See, it's only Jesus who changes people's perspectives and priorities and motivations and desires and affections. It's only Jesus who can cause a mother to give up her career to start teaching her family about God. It's only Jesus who can cause a father to cut back on work to train up his children in righteousness. See, without Jesus, you can never obey Moses's command. But with Jesus, it will be your joy to obey His command. Your joy because when you obey Moses, you obey Christ because Christ wrote Scripture through Moses. And because Jesus is God, this makes the Bible the Word of God. And now, if you're here today and you're only you only thirst for the things of this world, then turn then repent. Turn from that and turn to Christ, the one who ultimately can is the only one who can satisfy you. And He will give you living water, and you'll never thirst again. And that water will become a well of water springing up to eternal life. John 4:14. I plead with you, turn to the one who offers you life today, the only one who can satisfy you.

I saw an interview with Dana White, the CEO of the UFC, the other day, and the guy was interviewing, and they they were going all around his office, and Dana White just has, I'm sorry, just so much junk in his office, like a fifth-century samurai sword and a Michael Jordan rookie card, and they're all behind glass and like all this all these collectibles. I'm just sitting there thinking, like, what a sad life. Like, this is your identity. This is what people are interviewing you about. This is where you find your satisfaction is in plastic and paper. And you have all the money in the world. And he wants more and more and more. He's playing blackjack hands for like a million dollars. He can't find it. He can't find it. It can only be found in Christ. Turn to the one who offers you life today. Everlasting life with Him. Everlasting life that can be yours because Jesus lived that perfect life. Everlasting life that He purchased with His blood on the cross, and everlasting life that you'll enjoy with Him when He returns in glory. What an offer. But if you reject such a gracious and loving Savior, such a wonderful offer, you will burn in an eternal, conscious, torturous hell forever. You reject Jesus in this life, and you will never be with Him again. You'll be separated from Him and everything good forever.

So I hope you can see here how family is primary. Moses and Paul have us shut on up under teaching our children, finding the time, so much time and focus. It requires I hope you see now why family worship is a non-negotiable. It's just it's just how you fulfill this. And the thing is, is that there's a whole another category that we haven't even talked about. We haven't even talked about the church. And the church makes demands on a member's life. And I don't know about you, but I'm already feeling like I don't have time even to do what Moses and Paul said. So, how am I going to do this stuff with the church? Well, that's why you come back next week, right? And my eyes have been open to a lot of things in this sermon. I've God's revealed a lot of things that He's doing in my life and why He's doing them in this sermon that I never understood. But one thing I do understand from this is that if you're with your family doing whatever you want to do pretty much as long as it's not sin, if you're with your family, you're winning. That's what this comes down to. You want to have hobbies that separate you from your family. You want to find these things that give you time alone, you're not winning. I'm not saying you can't do those things. It's fine. You can golf. You can do all these things. It's fine. I'm just saying we don't have that much time.

I was just driving here and on the way to church, and I turned the corner. You guys know that we've been running, so I've got a soft spot when I see people running. I'm like, "That's a hard thing going on right there." But here it is. A married couple. The woman is pushing a double stroller with her kids, and her husband is running right next to her. They're winning. Do you understand that? You find things to do as a family, and then you just naturally fulfill this. And you're going to see this is only one aspect of what Moses is commanding us. He's saying to teach it diligently. He's going to go into where and when we're supposed to do that. And let me give you a sneak peek: everywhere in your house and out and about, when, always. So if you're not feeling any weight now, you're going to feel the weight. And you're going to see that the picture that God is drawing is that you need to be with your family. Need to be with your family. And but brothers and sisters, what a joy to think that we have the power to obey Moses in this. We have the power within us to obey Moses. Let's do that. That's where the joy is found. That's where the satisfaction is found. That's where we make disciples of our own children. That's where we shepherd our wives and see them grow in holiness and present them spotless. What are we chasing after if it's not that? It's a beautiful thing. And if you're born again, you have that power within you to do all of these things in Christ Jesus.

Let me pray.

Lord, You're an awesome and holy God. And Lord, You don't leave us to ourselves. You've given us the Holy Spirit as a down payment of our sanctification, of our salvation. We know that we're Yours. And because of that, we know that we have Your power within us to obey these commands, to live this life. But it's only going to happen if we reject the lies of Satan. If we reject the lies of our TV, if we start sacrificing our movie head and our music heads on the altar of holiness and righteousness and purity in our families, we can't do this without You, Lord. There's no amount of trying hard. There's no amount of New Year's resolutions or making ultimatums or making deals with our spouses. It's only by beholding You that we will ever even have the desire to do the things that You're commanding us here. And so, let us chase after You with all of our hearts. Let us seek out the means of grace day in and day out. Let it let them be the priorities of our lives because when they're the priority of our lives, You are the priority of our life, Lord. And we need You badly in