Episode Transcript
Parenting Class #1 - How to Think about Parenting
June 25th, 2023 | Christ Covenant Church - Centralia WA
Read: Deuteronomy 6:1-9, 20-25
1. Covenant Authority - Granted By God
Proverbs 13:24
He who spares his rod hates his son,
But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.
Main idea: God has granted Christian parents authority (as viceroy) to raise their children and parents must exercise this authority (regardless of previous success or failures) if they desire to truly love their children and honor Christ.
2. Faith - In the Promises of God
Genesis 15:5,6
Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and
count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him,
“So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the LORD,
and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
Main idea: Christian parents must begin by believing God’s Promises regarding their covenant children. Before we can implement effective and fruitful parenting, we must first believe that God has already promised to give the growth.
3. Faithfulness - Obedience to the Promises
Ephesians 6:4
And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath,
but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
Main Idea: Having believed the promises, if follows we treat covenant children not as pagans but as holy (1 Cor 7:14) and covenantally tied to their Heavenly Father (Deut 7:9). Parent’s generally and father’s specifically are called to shape every aspect of their children's lives from birth (paideia) with Christ as King (Joshua 24:15).
The Progression
God’s Authority → Faith → Faithfulness
God teaches His children → We believe → We Obey
Covenant Authority → Faith → Faithfulness
We teach our children → We believe → We Obey
Covenant Authority: Hebrew word for Rod is Sebat and can mean something as simple as a switch to dole out discipline but it also has a deeper meaning tied up in the concept of authority.
Rod means authority
Scepter of authority. Genesis 49:10
Genesis 49: 10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Rod is held by Christ in the Psalms (2, 23, 45)
Psalm 2:7 I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”
Psalm 23 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Psalm 45: 6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
Rod means tribe.
Genesis 49:16 “Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.
We can think of this as holding our sons / daughters to the authority of their tribe or their people. We are telling them “This is the way” because this is where your people and therefore God’s people are.”
Parents should operate with Spirit-led confidence that God is with us in our work. He is leading and he is giving the growth. Pray for this confidence.
Our children belong to Christ (which is why we baptize them) and therefore we should all see ourselves as viceroys to Christ the King.
We are supposed to be rulers but only as those granted authority to rule. That is a viceroy. Christ is the true King and we are simply and confidently investing by faith the talent He has entrusted us with.
Therefore Don’t shun the responsibility of authority and bury your talent in the ground.
1 Cor. 13:11 “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”
Put away childish things and pick up the rod of authority in your child’s life.
Main idea: God has granted Christian parents authority (as viceroy) to raise their children and parents must exercise this authority (regardless of previous success or failures) if they desire to truly love their children and honor Christ.
Faith in the Promises of God: The most important thing we can “do” is simply believe the promises that God has given us regarding our children.
Genesis 15:5-6
If you don’t believe God is at work you will parent by fear rather than faith.
Begin by simply believing that covenant children already belong to God.
This will fundamentally change how you parent.
Malachi 2:15 “Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.”
If God is seeking Godly offspring from the union between Godly man and Godly woman, it follows that God is the one at work creating the faith in the hearts of the seed of those couples.
A fruitful covenant union is a child of the covenant who looks like Christ, talks like Christ, thinks like Christ, and loves like Christ.
Such fruit is obviously impossible for us to do on our own and yet we are told that we are responsible for the outcome of our children.
God requires us to raise up Godly children and then promises to make that happen if we will only believe.
If we believe these promises then God promises to credit this to us as righteousness. Believing God’s promises is quite literally what the gospel is all about. It is the foundation of our doctrine of faith alone.
Romans 4:1-5 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,”
Christian parents must begin by believing God’s Promises regarding their covenant children. Before we can implement effective and fruitful parenting, we must first believe that God has already promised to give the growth.
Faithfulness - Obedience to the Promises:
Once we truly believe the promises of God regarding our children, (Lord help my unbelief!) we will find ourselves treating our children as fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel. (Eph 3:6)
This referring to Jews/Gentiles but the modern church should apply it to Parents/Children
Modern fascination with wild testimonies as opposed to boring testimonies.
This means we will expect to see faith from the earliest stages of their life. This means we will teach them to pray, teach them to love Jesus, teach them to hate their sin, teach them to confess, repent, and trust in Christ daily. Teach them to remember their baptisms and come to the Lord’s table weekly in faith.
Instead of viewing our children as outsiders until they make a profession of faith, if we trust the promises of God we see them co-laborers and we will suffer the little children to come unto Jesus for we will understand that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.
Explain Ephesians 6:4
Father’s we are told not to provoke our children to anger but to rather shape their whole life around the Lordship and Rule of King Jesus.
One of the most dangerous ways we can provoke our children is to doubt their faith in Christ because we see their immaturity up close. We must have faith and we must expect to see faith in them.
Rather than provoke them by doubting their faith or some other form of provocation that leads them away from Christ, we are told to always lead them to the King and this means filling their every corner of life with the culture of Christ.
How do we do this?
Commitment to Worship?
How are they being educated?
First time obedience
Right Away, All the Way, Cheerfully
No disrespect of Mom
10 commandments
Fruit of the Spirit
SELF CONTROL!!!
Because they are fellow heirs to the promises of Christ that means they are also held accountable to the commands of Christ and are promised the indwelling of the Holy Spirit so that obedience to His commands will be possible.
Main Idea: Having believed the promises, if follows we treat covenant children not as pagans but as holy (1 Cor 7:14) and covenantally tied to their Heavenly Father (Deut 7:9). Parent’s generally and father’s specifically are called to shape every aspect of their children's lives from birth (paideia) with Christ as King (Joshua 24:15).
God’s Authority → Faith → Faithfulness
God teaches His children → We believe → We Obey
Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2 that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Covenant Authority → Faith → Faithfulness
We teach our children → We believe → We Obey
20 “When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?’ 21 then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 And the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. 23 And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. 24 And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. 25 And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.’
