Treasures on Earth: Family, Church, Unbelievers, and Work, Part 3

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

Transcript:

Well, good morning, everyone. It's a wonderful blessing to be back with all of you. I think Tara and I both realized and agree that two Sundays is too long, and so we'll try to do better next time. But we did have a blessed time just with the family and enjoying God's creation, and so we're grateful for that. But we're back, thinking about the word of God. And if you remember way back, you remember that I'm finishing up the book of Third John. We last found ourselves in verse 10, where amongst other things, John mentions that he may come to Gaius's church. I mentioned how incredible this is in light of the fact that travel was very arduous back then, and John was probably approaching 90. And the fact that John was desiring to enter heaven at a dead sprint made me think about Christian retirement and what it should look like. And I promise that one of these days we will get there.

But as I was writing that sermon, as I told you, I realized that in order to discuss the end of our work life, retirement, we need 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 that's why I started this sermon series called "Family, Church, and Work." And this is the third part of that series. And if you remember, family, church, and work represent how we spend our time. And in the past, I made a distinction between how we spend our time and who we spend our time with. This series is talking about how we spend our time: family, church, and work. But the people we spend our time with are family, church, and unbelievers. And after thinking about it more, I'm not sure if we really need to make that distinction. I don't think we really need two sets of priorities. So what I really think it boils down to is that we have four priorities, and that's family, church, unbelievers, and work, in that order. Family, church, unbelievers, and work, in that order. And if it wouldn't be super confusing, I'd rename this series just that: "Family, Church, Unbelievers, and Work." But it's too late for that.

And I think they're in that order ultimately because for a born-again Christian, after personally pursuing Christ-likeness through the means of grace, the ultimate priority for a Christian is making disciples. Making disciples. See, we pursue Christ-likeness not just so we can know doctrine and live holy, but ultimately we're pursuing Christ-likeness so that we can be used by God to develop Christ-likeness in others. This is why Jesus said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." This is the mission of the church, and it's the mission of every Christian. Our life is about making disciples. It should be about making disciples: making disciples of our wife, kids, parents, siblings, our family; making disciples of those in the church, that's the church; and making disciples of unbelievers. So we get family, church, and unbelievers. And work, when thought of properly, is simply the thing we do to support making disciples. And of course, there's overlap there because a good Christian employee or business owner will be making disciples at work, will be evangelizing at work. Sadly, it's a pretty rare thing for a lot of different reasons.

And so even though our priority should be making disciples, and our priority should be family, church, and unbelievers, far too often, and I would say usually, work becomes the main thing, and making disciples becomes something rarely thought of. Now, to be clear, I'm not diminishing the importance of work. God gave us work before the fall. Work is not a result of sin. Work was there before the fall. And whatever work he has given you today, you should do it with excellence. "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him." And so you should do your work with excellence, unless excellence requires you to make your work your identity, unless excellence results in idolatry, unless excellence requires you to compromise on family, church, and unbelievers, unless excellence diminishes your ability to make disciples. And some of these are the reasons why I've been saying that if a person has the opportunity to work less and still support their family, or to retire early, or to have somebody else run their business, or whatever it may be, that there's a place for that. There's liberty for that. There's liberty to make your life about making disciples of your family and your church and unbelievers.

And ultimately, what I'm arguing for in this series is that instead of being so concerned with storing up for yourselves treasures on earth, you should be concerned with storing up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Because there are plenty of Christians who die and leave their family plenty of money, but very little discipleship. There are plenty of Christians who serve the master of economic security, but very little time serving the Master's church. There are plenty of Christians who spent a lifetime with their colleagues talking shop, but very little time talking to unbelievers about the gospel. And ultimately, there are plenty of Christians who have decades of faithfulness in their business or their career, but very little faithfulness when it comes to making disciples. And this is what a life of wrong priorities looks like. But someone might say, "But I have liberty in those areas to do those things." And I would agree. I would agree with that. But the question is, why does your liberty constantly pull you away from your family, the church, and unbelievers, from making disciples? That's the question. It seems like your liberty is constantly being used to justify your pursuit of the American dream instead of a laser focus on making disciples.

And some might hear this and be convicted. Some might desire a different path. But you have to understand that you ended up on the American dream path because you took in more of its indoctrination and propaganda than you did Jesus. And so the only way to get off of the American dream path and onto the making disciples path is to put off the worldliness that has polluted your mind and put on more of Christ through the means of grace. And if I've said it once, I've said it a million times that there's more to your media choices than just swearing and nudity. See, media is pushing worldly propaganda: feminism, disobedience to parents, rebellion of all sorts, violence, anger, revenge, and it's pushing the American dream all the time. And make no mistake, the American dream will mess up all of your priorities. The American dream knows nothing about making disciples. And I know that your movie and music and video game brain is addicted to that stuff. But there will be consequences for you and your family. You'll wake up one day after spending 18 years of forbidding swearing and nudity on your screens to kids who have all sorts of worldly ideas. This is the price the devil charges for Fox News and video games and movies and social media and TV shows. Brothers and sisters, like any good drug dealer, it might be cheap upfront, 20 bucks a month, but he'll take a hundred times that from your family's spiritual growth and eternal rewards, and all of it without any nudity or swearing. Are you willing to pay that price to be entertained? Because one way or the other, the devil will get paid for his productions. Either you'll pay it, or your children will pay it, or those you influence will pay it. Somebody's going to pay it.

So, all that to say that the American dream is the antithesis of making disciples. It knows nothing of family, church, unbelievers, and work. See, the goal of the American dream is to make you sacrifice current faithfulness to your family, church, and unbelievers on the altar of future financial security. Let me say that again: The goal of the American dream is to make you sacrifice current faithfulness to your family, church, and unbelievers on the altar of future financial security. Contrary to what Jesus commands, the American dream wants you to worry about your life as to what you'll drink and for your body as to what you will put on. The American dream wants you to worry about everything Jesus promises to provide. It wants you to store up treasures on earth, but God says store up treasures in heaven. And the primary way to store up treasures in heaven is by making disciples of your family, of your church, and of unbelievers.

And I want you to notice as we continue to go through this that the Lord has required so much of us in these areas as far as making disciples. And what I'm proposing, and I want you to notice, is that these requirements leave very little time for selfish pursuits, even when we consider that work takes a big chunk of most people's week, especially when work takes a big chunk of most people's week. There's very little getting around that for most people. That's just the way it is. I believe that's a result of the fall, not work, but the fact that we have to spend so much time working. That these things, they leave very little time for hobbies that isolate us from family, church, and unbelievers, very little time for video games and entertainment. Now, I understand you can play video games and have entertainment with your family, and I think there's a place for that. I don't think it's the best way to connect with your family. I don't think it's the best way to make disciples, so you should be careful. It's very little "me time" is what it comes down to.

And I think these requirements that Christ has for us about making disciples paint a picture that encourages fathers to pray for a way to work less while providing for their families, to raise up people who can run their businesses, or to retire early, whatever it takes to be more committed to making disciples while still providing for their family. I think they paint a picture for mothers to realize that having a job is incompatible with loving their husband and children, keeping house, and making disciples of their children. I think they paint a picture for parents to realize that sending their kids to school and sports, in essence spending less time with their kids, is antithetical to making disciples. So these sermons are about getting our perspective and priorities in order. These sermons are about measuring every decision we make: where we live, if we move, what job we take, does my wife work, do we homeschool, do my kids play sports, what are my hobbies? Measuring all of those decisions against what most promotes making disciples. In other words, what decisions will put my family, church, and unbelievers first? And this is what we see John doing. This is what we see Paul doing. Paul was a tentmaker, but he was tentmaking when he needed to. And this is what we see Jesus doing for three years. Everything was about making disciples for Jesus.

And so let's take a moment to look at those priorities. Let's start by looking at the family because someone might say, "Where does the Bible say that family is primary?" Turn with me, if you would, to Ephesians chapter 5. And we went over this text in part one, but the more I think about this topic, the more concise my thoughts become. And so I want to take this sermon and the next to put everything in its proper order. Ephesians chapter 5. And I think these priorities are important to drive home because a church is only as strong as its families, and families are only as strong as their church. I want to say that again. I believe this with all of my heart: A church is only as strong as its families, and families are only as strong as their church. I want you to think about that as you prioritize your life. See, when you strengthen your family, you're strengthening your church. And when you strengthen your church, you're strengthening your family. Think about that when you're contemplating whether to attend the prayer service tonight, for example. But see, this unwillingness to prioritize the family is why so many churches and families are messed up. See, many Christian families try to do their own thing when it comes to marriage and raising their kids. They suffer for it. And many churches think their priority is attracting more people, or administration, or branding, or events, or programming, or programs, making sure everything goes smooth on Sunday, not realizing that's all for naught if the families of their church are struggling, if marriages are struggling, if children are struggling, if parents are struggling. See, when the family is out of order, then the home is out of order. And when the home is out of order, then making disciples doesn't happen. People are just trying to survive. People are just trying to make it day by day, trying to make it through the day without fighting and arguing and just chaos. There's no disciples being made in that situation.

See, the very mission of the church is compromised when pastors don't shepherd husbands and older women don't teach the younger women how to be wives. And there's a reason why a lot of churches don't do these things, because it's a lot of hard work. It's a lot of hard work for pastors to spend hour after hour after hour with husbands and fathers. It's a lot of hard work for women who have raised their own kids and had a different idea of what life would look like from 50 until 100, that that would be their own time to do their own thing. And now they've got a pastor, and really the Bible, telling them, "No, no, no, that's not your own time. Now it's time to pour into the younger women." That's hard work. It's a big commitment. So all of that to show you why a Christian's primary relationship is the family, and the most primary relationship in the family is marriage. So I want to look at this again quickly. Ephesians 5:22 says, "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord." And so we all understand that the husband is the head of the wife, and the wife submits to her husband. This means that the wife is humble, reserved, quiet, not opinionated, and she's seeking direction from her husband. And now this is going to be a lifelong battle, brothers and sisters, because Genesis 3:16 says of the wife, "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." Because of sin, because of the fall, there's going to be a butting of heads, to say the least. In other words, ladies, you're going to desire to rule your husband instead of respecting him, but he's going to rule over you. And that's what we see in the next verse. Verse 23 says, "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." And this is where we find biblical submission. And like I said, ladies, if you take that seriously, it'll be an everyday battle. And husbands, it'll take an incredible amount of time and effort to shepherd your wife in this area. But the Bible also commands the wife to bear children, to love her husband, to love her children, to keep house, and to be a worker at home. 1 Timothy 5:14, Titus 2:4-5. And we're already beginning to see the time and effort required to have a Christ-honoring marriage. And we've only considered what God requires of the wife at this point.

Now, let's look at the husband's responsibility. Verse 25 says, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her." So husbands are commanded to love their wives with the same level of sacrifice as Christ had on the cross for his church. And I hope you feel the weight of that, brothers. I hope you see how much time and effort that type of requirement requires. I think of, I just heard about one of the most godly brothers I know, one of my old professors, and he, I guess he broke down in chapel crying because he realized he didn't love his wife enough. And I know he loves his wife. He talks about his wife all the time. But I think he just has a better understanding of what the Bible's commanding him to do as a husband is what it comes down to. Now, ladies, you may not have a husband who loves you this way, but you still have to respect your husband. You still have to submit to your husband. And that's a whole another conversation. So, but as husbands, we're commanded to love our wives as Christ loved the church. Now, that's an impossible weight to carry. It's a weight we can't carry on our own. And husbands, this is why we desperately need Christ. We desperately need Christ just for this one thing in our life. But it's also why we desperately need the right priorities. It's why we desperately need pastors and discipleship and all the church offers, the church that Christ died for. And why did Christ love the church in this way? Verse 26: "So that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless." So Christ loved the church so that he could cleanse her by the washing of the word. And it follows that husbands should love their wives for the same reason. See, brothers, part of loving our wives sacrificially is giving up our time to build them up in the word, to shepherd them, to disciple them. And this is best done in family worship on a daily basis. And we do this so that we might present our wives to Christ holy and blameless. This is your responsibility, brothers. In a way, your wife's sin is your sin. Then it's your responsibility to shepherd her in these areas, to help her. What a time-consuming and serious responsibility.

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." And so if loving your wife as Christ loved the church was hard to grasp or too abstract or not practical enough for you, Paul says, "Love your wives as yourself." Can't make it much simpler than that. And that's something that'll take everything you have and then some. 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." And here Paul quotes Genesis 2:24 when God establishes marriage and in turn the family as the first and primary human relationship. A relationship so primary that it requires both parties to leave their respective families and form a new family. And we talked more about that in part one. All of this was expanded on in part one. Verse 32 says, "This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and 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." So what we're endeavoring to show here is that family is primary. And we know that's true because the commitment and unconditional sacrificial love required in marriage is compared to the ultimate unconditional sacrificial love that Christ has for his church. It's the ultimate priority, the ultimate commitment. Nothing demands more of us than this, than family and marriage. But that's only marriage. Marriage that seems like a full-time job in and of itself.

But what about children? Look at chapter 6, verse one continues. Verse one 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." Now, the family is a child's primary relationship, and they're required to obey their parents, and every parent knows that's a tall order for a child. This is why parents need to be shepherding their child's heart. And there's a book called "Shepherding Your Child's Heart," and I would say it's required reading for anybody who has anybody older than a three-year-old. But shepherding your child's heart is another full-time job for both parents. It requires unconditional love, encouragement, setting a good example, endless questions and discussions, constant direction and correction, and not sparing the rod, physical discipline, the Bible commands, Proverbs 13:24. In other words, all of this is what it looks like to make disciples of your children. And if you've lived a life or in a household or in a marriage that is foreign to all of this, it's because you don't know Christ. You haven't been born again. And there's no hope of you accomplishing any of this outside of Christ. So that the primary relationship for a child or for young people who are still living at home is the family. And it's not just between the parents and the child. This is what's lost on a lot of people, but it's also between child and siblings. Those siblings are your primary relationship. And this is true for children until they either move out or get married, which should happen at the same time, especially for daughters. And this idea of moving out, you know, going to college to find a spouse, this is why that is such a dangerous and ridiculous idea. I mean, you're going to leave your family and usually your church and go live with people who have made the same decision at the very same time you intend to make the most important and complex decision of your life. A decision that people are easily confused and deceived by. A decision that is best informed by the people who know you best, namely your family and your church. A decision that ruins numerous people's lives: who they marry. See, the goal is to keep your child's life centered on your family and your church for as long as possible. I told you before that I unapologetically pray that Tara and I go to the same church with our children for our entire life and our grandkids. And this isn't about sheltering or coddling them. It's about being the one to introduce them to the world. It's about making disciples. And nothing hinders making disciples more than sending them to school and sports when they're young and college when they're older. These things center their life outside of your family, which is supposed to be their primary relationship. And this weakens or breaks the bonds not only between parents and children, but between siblings. I mean, I remember growing up going to public school. I mean, we were unbelievers. We had no clue of any of this stuff. But by the time I was in fourth or fifth grade, I had my friends and my brother had his friends, and we were like oil and water. That is sad. That is so sad. I look back on that and I think how different life would have been. Additionally, there's no older siblings setting the example for the younger siblings. Everything centers on school friends. And later at the age of 18, a very formative time in a person's life, a time when there's much discipleship needed, they move away to be around a bunch of other immature young people with no family and many times no church oversight. And what do you expect to be the result of this? This is the way of the world, brothers and sisters. People have liberty to make these decisions, and my kids may choose to go to college, but it's not going to be something they learn from me. But all that to say that we as parents should not only be training our children to make family the priority, but also making decisions that are consistent with that training. And for the young people listening to this, make your family, parents and siblings, your primary relationship. If this is impossible because your family has wrong priorities, it's still your responsibility to love them and make them as much of a priority as possible.

And so we have the requirements of marriage, we have the requirements of children, but there's one more requirement for parents. Verse 4, Ephesians 6:4 says, "Fathers," or really it's parents, is the more proper term there, talking to both parents, "Do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." Now, Paul doesn't tag this to the end for his health. Paul's a very wise man. He says this because parents have a tendency to provoke their children to anger. And Colossians 3:21 says, "This causes children to lose heart." Causes them to lose heart. Colossians 3:21. See, parents have the tendency to be overbearing and critical and demanding and angry and impatient. Trust me, I know from experience these are the tendencies a parent has. In other words, parents have a tendency to be selfish is what it comes down to. And Paul says that's not going to work. It's not going to work. You're just going to anger them and cause them to lose heart. And brothers and sisters, if your kids lose heart, they lose respect for you. And if they lose respect for you, your relationship with them will be fractured, if not destroyed. And it is usually very difficult or impossible to repair. And so where is the place for absent fathers and fathers who are disconnected, fathers who are workaholics, fathers who aren't discipling their children, working mothers, kids being sent away to school and sports and college? Where is the place for these things when the stakes are so high with our children? And this is why verse four emphasizes that we should not only refrain from provoking them, but we're to move to the other end of the spectrum and bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. What does that mean? What does that look like? If you would turn to Deuteronomy 6 with me again. And we had a deeper dive into this in part one, Deuteronomy 6. But I just want to take this opportunity to remind you of what it looks like to make disciples of your children. And again, this is in addition to what we've already talked about with marriage and parenting. Deuteronomy is really going to hone in on what it looks like to make disciples of your children. And I'm going to tell you now, it's another load in addition to marriage and parenting, but it's a wonderful and sanctifying load when priorities are in order and everyone is looking to Jesus. It's a wonderful thing.

Deuteronomy 6:1: "Now, this is the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments, which Yahweh your God has commanded me to teach you, 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." Now, Moses says he's going to teach Israel so that your son and your grandson might fear Yahweh. Moses wasn't going to teach their sons and grandsons. No, the head of the household, the fathers, were going to be responsible for teaching them these things. And as I said, fathers should include their wives in this responsibility. But ultimately, fathers are responsible for everything in their household according to Ephesians 5:23, which we saw earlier. And just as a side note here, Moses is concerned with multi-generational faithfulness to Yahweh. Multi-generational faithfulness to Yahweh. He's not just concerned with the next generation, the sons, but also the grandsons. And it goes without saying that it would be the great-grandsons. And he wants to see this continuing forever. So does Yahweh. And I don't think that fathers are required to make disciples of their grandkids, but I do think they should share Moses's concern for future generations. I think grandparents should want nothing more than to be in the lives of their grandkids. And this again is best accomplished by families staying in the same church for generations, which again is going to require you to make all kinds of countercultural decisions. All kinds of countercultural decisions like working less, retiring early, eliminating the word "snowbird" from your vocabulary. Now, if you don't know, a snowbird is a retired person who goes somewhere warmer for half the year. Doesn't really apply here because it's always warm here. But this is very common even for Christian couples in much of the country. And many times this requires them to be away from their kids, their grandkids, and their church for half the year. And I can hardly think of anything more selfish or anti-family or anti-church than the idea of being a snowbird. I mean, how do you justify spending six months in one church and six months in another church? How do you make disciples doing that? I mean, somebody barely has a chance to get to know you and you're leaving again. And by the time you come back, they don't know you anymore. And if you live near your kids and your grandkids, how do you justify leaving them for half the year for warmer weather? For what? See, this whole making disciples thing will cramp the selfish Christian's lifestyle their entire life, their entire life. On the other hand, if your lifelong battle cry is making disciples, every part of your life will fall into place.

And Moses is all about making multi-generational disciples. And what is the main thing that Moses wants passed down to those generations? Verse four, he says, "Hear, O Israel, Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. 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." That's what he's saying. Fathers, teach your sons and your grandsons and the generations that follow you. This is what you are to teach them. This is what they need to follow. Moses says he wants the generations to learn how to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Wow, that's pretty broad, right? That's not something you can learn just sitting at the kitchen table. That's not something you can learn simply by going to church, especially if it's in children's ministry. No. To teach our children how to love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might is going to take another full-time commitment in addition to our marriage and just practical parenting. And that's exactly what Moses proposes. Look at verse 7. This is how he says you're to do it: "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." Now notice that Moses is very specific about what discipling our children looks like. He tells us how. He tells us where, and he tells us when. So let's look at how fathers are supposed to disciple their children. Moses says, "You shall teach them diligently." And that word means to recite again and again. Recite again and again. This is how kids learn. It's a and it's a very time-consuming and exhausting process. But this is what Moses is calling us to, fathers. Now, of course, as I said, you should delegate some of this to your wife, but that's hard to do if she's working. On the other hand, it's pretty easy to do if she's homeschooling. And homeschooling really brings so many blessings for a wife. I mean, it allows them to focus on loving their husbands, allows them to be home with their children all day, allows them to focus on their home. It results in incredible sanctification that results from teaching their own children, and they know exactly what their kids are learning. That's just a few of the wonderful things that mothers can experience by homeschooling. And if you want to learn more about homeschooling, you can listen to part one. But so homeschooling makes it easier for a wife to help her husband with training the kids in righteousness. But according to Moses, fathers are ultimately responsible for teaching their kids about God, which is what we saw at the beginning of this discussion in Ephesians 6:4 when Paul said, "Fathers, again, parents, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." And so, fathers and parents are to be teaching their children about God. And fathers are to not only be teaching their children, but are to be teaching their wives about God. Ephesians 5:25, which we saw earlier. See, husbands, we're to be teaching our kids and wives the word of God. And of course, these things can be done together. They can be done at the same time. This is why a time of family worship is so critical. And you can just let family worship get in where it fits in, but I don't think it's going to result in faithfulness. Instead, I'd strongly encourage you, Dad, to have a standing time each day for family worship. I don't know another way of being faithful in this area. And the best time to do it, if possible, is in the morning. There's nothing sweeter than starting your day first with personal worship, just you and the Lord, and then with your family at the dinner table or lunch table, breakfast table. Starting your day with God has so many benefits, so many benefits, and I know a lot of jobs make this very difficult, but it's something to pray about, something to pray for.

Now there may be men sitting here today, may be saying to themselves, "I want nothing to do with making disciples. I want nothing to do with a life that prioritizes my family in this way. I want nothing to do with a marriage that requires me to sacrificially and unconditionally love my wife. I might give that lip service, but I don't want to do it. And I want nothing to do with discipling my wife and kids." And there may be women here today or watching some other time that say, "I want nothing to do with making disciples. I want nothing to do with a life that prioritizes family in that way. I want nothing to do with a marriage that requires me to submit to my husband regardless of what kind of husband I have. I want nothing to do with being a worker at home with my kids." And if those are the thoughts running through your head right now, it's because you don't know Christ. You don't know Christ. It's because you don't believe the Bible is the word of God. And you don't obey the Bible, which means you don't love Jesus because Jesus said, "If you love me, you'll keep my commandments." And friends, Jesus is so good to be pointing this out to you today. Such a kind and gracious thing for him to sovereignly bring you here today to hear these truths and to show you these things. He's so gracious to show you how rebellious you are, how much disregard you have for his word. But he doesn't desire to leave you in this condition right now. He's calling you to himself. He's your only hope. These things that seem impossible, that seem ridiculous, that are completely contrary to everything you've ever thought of for your life. He will transform you. He will regenerate you. He will give you the desires of your heart. He'll give his desires to you, and it will result in a radical transformation of your life. He wants to remove the heart of stone you were born with and give you a heart of flesh. He wants to save you from your life of selfishness and self-centeredness. He wants to free you from your bondage to sin. And he's willing to do this for you if you repent and believe. See, if you're willing to agree with Jesus that you are a vile, wretched, nasty, depraved sinner, just like the rest of us, if you're willing to redefine your standard of what a good person is, because Jesus said, "No one is good except God alone," Mark 10:18. And God requires every one of us to be perfect, not good, perfect. That's why Jesus said, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect," Matthew 5:48. And the problem is that none of us are perfect. Far from it. Instead, we all stand guilty before a holy God. And if you're willing to stop comparing yourself to all the other guilty people around you, if you're willing to stop using your standard for goodness and use God's instead, then you'll realize how far you fall short of God's standard. You'll realize how sinful you are, how sinful we all are. You'll realize how desperately you need a savior. And when that desperation hits you, you'll turn to the only savior in the history of the world. Did you know that? Did you know that there is no other religion that offers a savior? Somebody who's willing to pay the penalty for your sins, take your place, take your punishment. No other religion offers someone who's willing to die in your place and pay the penalty you could never pay, that you could never afford. No other religion offers a divine and perfect savior. No other religion offers salvation as a free gift. Not pray in this direction five times or travel here or go climb some steps on your knees. No, none of that. The only religion that offers salvation is a free gift. God has already done it all. No other religion offers a savior who adopts you into his family. No other religion offers a savior who's your advocate in heaven. Friend, won't you turn to the one true religion found in God's word, the Bible? Won't you turn to the savior of every people, tribe, nation, and tongue, Jesus Christ? Please, friend, it's your only hope of avoiding an eternal, conscious, torturous, burning hell. It's your only hope of being a faithful wife, a faithful mother, a faithful husband, a faithful father, a faithful child. It's your only hope. It's your only hope of having a relationship with the living God for all of eternity. Friend, God is being so good to you right now. So good, so gracious, so kind. Do not think lightly of his kindness and tolerance and patience. Instead, let the kindness of God lead you to repentance today, right now. Because it's this kindness that'll give you the right perspective on family and marriage and parenting and church and unbelievers and work. And brothers and sisters, God has given you the power of his Holy Spirit and the blessing of his church so that you can do what you could never do on your own. He's given you all you need for life and godliness. Second Peter 1:3. And because of this, you have the ability and hopefully the desire to put family first, to put marriage first, to submit to your husband, to be a wife who's a worker at home, to love your wife as Christ loved the church, to train your wife in theology, to disciple your children. What an awesome, awesome plan that God has for us, brothers and sisters. Next week, we're going to continue looking at the where and when of Deuteronomy 6. We're going to look a little bit at how this affects single people and those without children and start looking at the church and unbelievers and work. Let me pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for this clarity. We thank you so much for these simple and clear priorities. Priorities that if we take them seriously will make the decisions of life so much easier, so much more simple, so much more less complicated and confusing and complex. Lord, I pray that you would burn these priorities into our minds. I pray that every decision we make would flow through this matrix, flow through this set of priorities. Lord, that we would ask ourselves, "Does this decision put my family, my church, and unbelievers first?" Lord, we thank you for calling us to such wonderful things, Lord. I mean, of all the things you could call us to, you call us to spend more time with our families, to spend more time with our church, to spend more time with unbelievers who are on their way to hell, the same place we should be going, Lord, if it wasn't for somebody coming to us with the truth. And on top of that, you give us jobs. You give us ways to provide for our family. And we praise you for that. We thank you for that, knowing that every good gift comes down from you, Lord. But help us to keep the right perspective, the right priorities. Let us be about eternal things, Lord. The things that are unseen instead of the things which are seen, the things above instead of the things below. Let us be about making disciples, Lord, for your glory. Amen.