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Full Transcript:

Note: This is an automated transcript and misspells or grammar errors may be present.

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous.

Mom and Isaac from Resolute Man Together pursuing the mission to impact 10 million families and their legacies for the Kingdom of God.

We’ve been married for 23 years and are seeing the fruit from raising our nine children biblically. Based on the raw truth found in the Bible.

We can no longer let the culture win the hearts of children, as too many from Christian families are walking away from their faith by the age of 18. And it doesn’t have to be this way. It shouldn’t be this way.

We’re praising the Lord. That ministry continues to expand and impact more legacies. We couldn’t do this without you. Whether you pray for us, give us five star reviews, or share on social.

Or even if you purchase courses in merch or join the Be Courageous app community, enjoy the coffee or support financially. We’re so thankful you are a big part of the 10 Million Legacies.

Movement If you want access to all the episodes, show notes, and other biblically based resources, go to Be Courageous.

Ministry. Org. Join us as we start another important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world. Hey everyone! Welcome to the podcast. Hey everybody, so glad you’re here talking about some good practical insights here, relevant to what’s happening in the world, practical to what the Bible says.

Be alert, hate evil, and love your enemy. That’s today’s podcast title, and you may be thinking, wow, this is a parenting podcast. How does this relate? But trust me, this is probably one of the most, um, motivating parental motivation podcasts you will hear for a while. This is we’re going to actually talk about what some of the vision was, why we started Courageous Parenting. Right? Was to really wake people up and say, hey.

Oh, it’s so important because, you know, normal Christian rhythms are largely failing when you look out there. How do I know? You look at the stats, about 70 to 80% of kids raised in Christian homes are falling away from the faith by age 18. So despite more efforts in church with youth programs, more efforts at putting kids in great schools and all of these things, we’re We’re still seeing these stats, and it’s because of what it really comes down to. Is the noise controlled by the enemy in the world is becoming stronger, and a laser beam target towards children to confuse their minds. And parents must be more intentional than ever.

You know, one of the verses that we often use in the podcast is Romans chapter 12. It’s one of the chapters that we quote a lot, right? Romans chapter 12 two specifically. Um, and today, you know, one of part of the title is Hate Evil. And so I thought that I would share from Romans chapter 12 also, which verse nine says, let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, and hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. And do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit and serve the Lord. But this is this is the point is that this is a command from God. This is him giving us direction and guidance in his holy Word that is going to outlive all things. There’s another scripture that says Heaven and earth will pass away, but his world word will endure forever. So, you know, recognizing the power and importance of God’s Word and that he wrote it for us to read and obey.

And when you hate something, you distance yourself from it. You’re not wanting to participate in it. You are opposed to what it represents. And nowhere does the Scripture or what we just said say anything about people. Mhm. No, no it’s interesting. It’s all about hating what is evil. The evil things that are happening, the evil behind what people are doing. And it’s really important to think about that and then hold fast to what is good. When you hold fast, when you look up that word, it is completely embraced with all your might. It is to hold on strong to what is good. And there has to be both of those things happening in Christians. And we have to be educating and living out by example to our children in these things.

You know, Ecclesiastes chapter three, verse eight, you know, chapter three is the whole seasons of life, chapter a time to heal, a time to kill, a time. You know, we all know that verse pretty well. But verse eight even says, there’s a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. And I think that, you know, for us as Christians to recognize that there are seasons and in our lives where there’s going to be more of one than the other. Right? And as we are aware and not asleep as some are, but as we are aware and we’re seeing what’s happening in the world, we might feel disgusted. We might be overwhelmed at times with like thinking, wow, there’s just so much evil happening. And I hear this from a lot of moms, Isaac, I hear that there’s a lot of anxiety or just even just sick to their stomach thinking about the influence that it could have upon their kids. And that’s why we’re talking about this today, right? Is that parents need to have their eyes wide open. We need to be awake and alert.

And not operating in fear. Not at all. In fact, the more intentional you are with your children. I’m not talking about helicopter mom in the negative sense. I’m not talking about overprotective in the negative sense, but intentional in discipling in the purest sense is what we’re talking about actually equipping so that your children can stand on their own two feet in this world. Gradually, as they get older, the more intentional you are, the more proactive, the more you work at this and work this muscle. There’s nothing to fear because you trust God, right? And you completely trust God. But it’s not a naivety in trusting God. You trust his sovereign power, all powerful. But at the same time, we don’t mistake or forget our responsibility, right? We have a responsibility to protect, equip and disciple our children. God gave us that authority, the most important authority in our children’s lives. And so those have to go together. And sometimes subconsciously, you might not be even be aware of it. You might be just on one side. Right? And if you’re not trusting God in His sovereignty, then you might be really fearful. And being the negative sense of overprotective.

Well, when I think about fear, if I’m just transparent, honest about times when I struggle with fear, it’s usually when I believe the lie that what I do, it’s all weighing on what I do or don’t do like, as if somehow my what I do has control over it.

And that problem with that is, you know, you’re not perfect, right?

Well, not only that, but a lot of what we see happening in the world, we don’t actually have control over. Right, right. And so and you clearly don’t have control over changing another person’s heart or another person’s soul or saving them. That’s not something humans have the ability to do. And so when you when you recognize that that should for a Christian, lead us to full surrender in the name of Jesus interceding on behalf of those people and saying, Lord, thank you for opening my spiritual eyes that I see this evil that’s consuming this person. And I’m going to pray for them because I know that it’s by the power of your Holy Spirit that that change and being set free from that bondage can happen. It’s not by anything that I have control over. Right? And when you give that to God in that way, that changes everything. Um, second Timothy, which this is one of the verses that we also share here a lot, you guys in verse seven, it actually I’m going to go before it because it’s half of a sentence. Verse six says, for this reason I remind you to fan the flame of the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self control.

And I’m reminded even again, when there’s crazy things happening in the world. Where do you go to church? This is God’s command to people to be fanning the flames of one another. Where else is that supposed to happen, if not in the family, in your home, and in your church? Your family of God? Those are the two places where we should be experiencing the fanning of the flames, the equipping, the this has happened. I’m going to shepherd you. I’m going to make sure that your heart is is doing okay with the Lord. That is the job of the pastor. It’s also the job of the the father in the home, right, as the pastor of the home. And so if there isn’t an acknowledgement, especially for wives, because we do see what’s going on, we’re not blind, right? Although some of us would like to hide under a rock, the reality is, is we know the reality of what’s happening in the world. And so we need to be encouraged to have our flames fanned, if you will. Because we’re doing the grunt work every day and raising our kids and praying hard that they’re not going to be deceived when they launch from our home.

Absolutely. Hey, thank you for being part of the Be Courageous ministry. Uh, be Courageous ministry.org, all the show notes, everything you can find there, you can give there. You can buy the coffee, you can purchase courses. You can encourage us by sending us a message. Pray for us. Most importantly, we really appreciate it. Double vision is important this year for impact and you’re a part of that regardless of the role you’re playing. But thanks for raising up your hand, listening to the episode and so forth. One of the most important things that has happened in the ministry as of late is sponsors coming on board to really help us to be able to fund the impact growth, um, uh, along with the people giving and so forth. All of it is extremely important. So we thank you for that. But we want to kick it off just for a moment and talk about master books.

You know, I have shared a couple times in the last two podcasts about some of the stuff I’m doing with my older kids for home school this year. But if you are new to homeschooling, or you have a kindergartener first grader and you’re thinking about homeschooling for the first time, or maybe you have a different kid. Maybe you’ve been homeschooling, um, one of your kids or a couple of your kids, but you’ve got another one coming up in the ranks and you’re just not sure what you’re going to use because they maybe aren’t wired the way your other kids were. I want to invite you to check out Master Books.com forward slash courageous. We actually have a giveaway going on with them right now. I think there’s about six weeks left. Um, 5 or 6 weeks. And you know, when you enter the giveaway. The cool thing about this is we made packages of like what my favorite curriculums are for age categories. Because I have so many kids, we basically are parenting in every season of life right now. Um, but I want to share with you guys if you’re watching our YouTube channel, which, by the way, go and subscribe to that. You can find us at Be Courageous on YouTube. Um, I am using their kindergarten curriculum this year with Eli, and he has been asking a lot of questions about heaven. And because, you know, my dad passed away in April and we had the memorial and there’s just been a lot of questions because Zander, he forgets and he wants to pray for Papa all the time.

So we’re doing a science curriculum called Heaven and Earth for beginners. And I think that the more I go through this as I’ve just been like flipping through it, it’s a great conversation starter that will teach basic principles from a biblical perspective. It’s all, um, very, very carefully sifted through. Right. And so this is a great way to start initiating more conversations with your kiddo, to show them that you’re not scared to talk about things like heaven, because if they have questions, that is like the perfect time to really engage with your kids. Um, the other thing I’m doing this year that’s a little bit different. We are doing their kindergarten math curriculum, which if you’re watching, you can kind of see it’s very colorful, which my specific five year old is very creative. He loves art, and I know that he’s looked at his brother’s other curriculum, which was all black and white pages, and he was like, I don’t want to do that, mom. And so this one, I’m hoping, is going to be much more exciting for him, because it’s kind of meeting the way he’s wired. So if you’re interested, find out more at Master Books.com forward slash courageous. All right.

So let’s dive in. Why is it important to be aware, to be awake and to be alert about what’s happening around us, about the changes in our local community, changes in our broader community and around the world. Why is this important? Because we have to make sure that we are not deceived. And part of not being deceived as a parent is being able to make decisions that are the very best decisions based on the world that our children are going to be launching into. Again, not in fear, but in wisdom. It takes wisdom like you would all agree, right? We’re not to equip our children the exact same way as parents were doing 30 years ago. I think everybody would agree that there are some changes, there are some similarities and there are some changes. But how do you know what those changes are unless you are being proactive and being aware?

Yeah, I think too, there’s a you know, there’s a lot of people who because they know that there’s nothing they can do to change it. They just want to hunker down and focus on what they’re doing. And I get that. I totally get that. I struggle with that desire sometimes because I can. My life alone is so busy that it’s like taking on knowing more of what’s going on. That alone can just be, like, too much, right? Actually, um, but that’s why Isaac and I have had this conversation many times before, and he really loves knowing what’s going on and equipping the family so that actually lands more in his jurisdiction. Although I do know and can have conversations with people, a lot of it is because of stuff that I see and I bring to him, and I ask him about it and he’s already researched it, or he brings it to me or brings it to our family, depending on what it is. And I think that that’s really important that there is this like team effort between the couple to figure out who’s going to be heading that up, Because somebody’s got to be aware. Um, like you said, God doesn’t want us to be deceived. And we see that in Scripture. Um, we’re going to go over a few different passages of Scripture here in a few minutes to see what the Bible says about that. But we see words like awake, alert, sober minded, aware that you are not deceived, that you are not led astray. We see these these terms by Jesus and in the Word of God over and over and over again. And while I love, I would love to go over all of them. We have handpicked just a few. And we’re going to start out with Matthew chapter 24, verse 36 through 39. And then we’re going to jump to 44. Just because we have so many scriptures here.

And I would say that you might want to jot these down because they’re good scriptures to weave into your equipping of your children to keep on hand and go, oh, here’s a time to teach this at the dinner table.

Totally. So obviously, Matthew chapter 24, the disciples are asking about when the end is coming, different things like that. And and you guys know from listening to the podcast, we are not of the mindset of like, oh, the end is coming. Now. We believe what the Bible says. There are birth pains where we read about that, the wars and rumors of wars. We do see this happening, but this has also been something we’ve seen all throughout history. There have been many of these things happening, but as time goes on, as Christians, we are still commanded by God to be alert and be awake so that we’re not deceived so that we are not led astray.

So if I could say something so I want to be like Paul, you know, I want to be Paul living in a way of fully extending myself for the gospel. And I can’t say that’s true all the time, actually. But I want to be like that, you know, we can want to be more of something, right? And I also want to be in a way of, wow, Jesus looking forward to Jesus coming back and that that could happen at any time, and at the same time, training up our kids that they might live long and prosper, have grandkids and they’ll have kids, and they’ll have kids and they’ll have kids. And I think that’s a really healthy perspective.

Because it could the truth is, is that nobody knows. Jesus says it over and over again, which you will see in some of these scriptures. In fact, Matthew 24 is one of those places. In verse 36 it says, but concerning that day and hour, no one knows. See? Who knows? No one knows, okay? Not even the angels of heaven, nor the son, but the father only. So if you’ve got somebody in your life that’s like prophesying that the end is coming, I would go look and read your Bible because this is really clear. It says not even the sun capital S knows, but the father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage. So they were ceremony was happening right until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came. I want to highlight that they were unaware until the flood came, like it came upon them all right. And they. And swept them all away. So will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men, and then it just continues on. And we’re going to skip ahead to verse 44 says, therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Who then is faithful and wise servant? Listen, who and I actually want to read the next part.

Who then is faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household to give them food at the proper time and just continues on? There is a need for us as believers to really just tune out what other people are saying about what’s going on in the world. Yes, we do believe that we are living in unprecedented times. That is a term that we have used many times. Um, not because we’re shocked. If you listen to this podcast for any length of time, you know, we’re not shocked. I mean, we live in a sinful, fallen world. Um, obviously we just read about part of what was going on during Noah’s day. If you’ve studied that account in Scripture and you’ve read through Genesis and studied it in depth, You know, the debauchery and the the level of just immense sin that was occurring among the world. You know how bad it was. This has been a problem in humanity throughout the ages. Sin is sin, and as believers we are called to be set apart. But that doesn’t mean that we close our eyes to it. Set apart means I’m going to be aware of what’s happening so that I’m not led into it. So my children are not led into it. I’m going to teach them about what God’s Word says about that, so that they know that that is off limits and that is evil, because we, God’s people, are going to abhor and hate evil because God’s Word says to absolutely.

First Thessalonians five two through nine, I believe for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying this, there is peace and security. Then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep. Others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. So we have to be vigilant. And, you know, this Olympics thing that just happened. Very interesting, isn’t it? And, um, you know, it was, uh, terrible. It was literally terrible. And if you haven’t seen it, I’m sure you have. So I don’t need to talk too much about it. But the opening of the Olympics was the most ridiculous, evil, demonic thing.

If children saw it, I’m just going to be the mama bear. If children were there, that’s like pure child abuse being pushed on them. There was what they were depiction.

To look at, depiction of threesome kind of things, all kinds of weird stuff, uh, woven throughout. There was even a child at the table. Uh, it looked like they tried to mimic the Lord’s Supper. Now, I understand there’s some controversy about that. Oh my goodness. You know.

There’s we’re going to talk about that.

There’s there’s people that are saying, uh, they’re really kind of coming out at Christians for mocking, mocking other Christians, uh, online thinking that that was a depiction of the Lord’s Supper when they are saying that it had to do with, uh, the dizziness, I think, is his name. Uh, he’s a Greek, uh, guy in history. That was all about craziness and debauchery and wine and all these things. Mythology. Right? Yeah. So thank you. And anyways, um, there’s a lot that’s debunking that. And what’s interesting is Christians started coming out with this, and then it seems like the liberals picked it up as, uh, an argument for no, no, no, no, that’s not what they were doing. Christians, you shouldn’t be upset. They’re not doing well. You just look at it. It’s obvious and the history is debunked. Anyways. Uh, people saying that was part of history, that it was this other thing. There is some speculation even that that that those, those things, those things in history were also mocking the Lord’s Supper. So, um, I’m not perfect on the history of Greek mythology. I’d rather be, you know, stronger in the biblical history and so forth. But you know what? History is important. It’s a very good thing. But I think we need to not create division amongst Christians about things like this, especially when it gets debunked anyways. And it’s obvious pastors around the country, I hope, were at least mentioning this this last Sunday. Um, just how terrible this is.

You know what’s interesting, though, is that whoever did this knew that it would be offensive to other people, even if that was I mean, the guy that, like, um, organized and orchestrated the whole thing is saying that he didn’t intend for it to offend Christians. Right? Okay. You can say whatever you want, but the reality is, is what was cast was evil. We know this because we know what God’s standard is for purity. And this was evil. And so the reality is, is that there’s a blindness coming from him. And and whatever prompted him to do that knew that it would be offensive. I’m just saying that Satan wants to offend Christians, but here’s and he wants to mock and he’s a counterfeit. He can’t come up with anything creative.

Here’s Jill Biden saying it was spectacular and Kamala Harris saying it was amazing and perfect.

That she’s like, this is something that we Americans should strive for. Oh, make me want to vomit. Yeah.

Wow. It was, uh, absolutely atrocious. And you know what? You know why I think it’s such a big deal. Isaac, why are you making a big deal of this? I think it’s a really big deal. Because it could be one of the largest moments in history. Yeah, I’m going to say this one of the largest moments in history that the normalization of sin was broadcasted because so many people watched the Olympics, so many families together. Young people are watching, people are sitting together all over the world watching this, and they kick it right off with complete debauchery. And I just think that, you know, we should hate evil. I didn’t say hate anybody. I said hate evil. We need to hate evil and hold fast to what is good. And so you have to decide on for yourself what you’re going to do with the Olympics and these kinds of things. But for us, that’s not going to be on in our house. Now, if I had a relative performing and so forth, of course I would tune in to support them and watch that, that thing. But you know, you have to decide for yourself. It’s like, I don’t want to support what they’re doing.

I don’t think that this is a thing that should cause division. And if somebody’s watching a specific game or something, right in the church. But I do think that there is an element of voting with your dollar. Dollar, like we’ve talked about many times, where we have choices as believers to be good stewards and recognizing that we fund things and that should actually cause us to do things differently than the world. It just should. Um, I also think that when it comes to unprecedented times, I just want to reiterate something. I do believe that we’re living in unprecedented times. And you mentioned why you and I have talked about this a lot. It’s technology.

It’s because never before has, uh, has these kinds of messages been able to be broadcasted simultaneously. In addition, the speed of change through technology is rapid. Some of it, by the way, is good. So you can say unprecedented times in terms of wow, it’s unprecedented times in evil and unprecedented times good, good change happening, actually.

I mean, imagine how many people are being reached with the gospel because of the advancements of technology. So while you have the spiritual darkness rising, you also have spiritual regeneration and revivals happening because of it. And so the truth is, though, is that as believers, we need to recognize the times that we’re living in so that we are able to parent and equip our children to be able to stand firm. So anyone saying that these are not unprecedented times, it’s really ridiculous. Like, are you aware of the power of technology and how things have changed even in the last 4 to 5 years? I also think that there’s this element of like this sort of thing might have been a common occurrence in other cultures around the world. Right. In Greece, in Rome, you’ve got the Olympic Games, as you will. Right back in the gladiator days, it was just horrendous.

Tearing people apart.

It was just terrible, terrible, terrible stuff. But this is the first time ever that this has been something that has been popular, promoted in America. And so it is a different time for our country. And recognizing that we’re just actually catching up to the way the world has actually always been. You know, for me, having traveled overseas, you and I have traveled overseas a lot in our first 14 years that we were married, but I also had done missions overseas as well. And seeing the darkness and the spiritual warfare that is there and coming back and seeing the exact same attacks. But people are just desensitized to it here in America. The truth is, is it’s been there’s been a quiet sleeping that has been happening and it’s dangerous. And as Christians, we need to wake up. We need to be aware of the battle, the spiritual battle in high places, and read scriptures like Ephesians six four and be praying earnestly. Here’s the thing. Like we are not going to be led to prayer in the way that God wants his people praying to him. If we’re in darkness and not aware of what’s happening. So for the mom, that’s like feeling overwhelmed. I want to encourage you like cast that burden on God, but don’t close your eyes and and and pretend like everything is okay. Hey guys, it’s that time of year when we’re figuring out curriculums and you might be looking for a Bible based apologetics curriculum. Have the confidence to teach your kids and students about a biblical worldview. Summit Ministries Homeschool curriculum helps kindergarten through 12th grade.

Students understand more than individual verses or stories about the Bible. Your child will learn the overarching story of Scripture, and how the same truths about God that guided David, Daniel, and Paul shape their lives today. And as your children become older, they’ll learn how to defend their faith and respond to false ideas. Together, you’ll find answers to questions like why do we trust the Bible? What do other religions teach? How do I stand for truth when my friends are against it? Learn more at summit org slash courageous and use the code 15 at checkout for a discount on any summit curriculum that’s summit. Org forward slash courageous. I want to share a really amazing personal testimony with you guys. The first 20 years Isaac and I were married, we primarily went the traditional health insurance route. Being entrepreneurs in those first 20 years, we had nine pregnancies, one loss, and eight babies birthed Earthside. Each time we were pregnant, we felt limited by our insurance coverage when making the decision on where we were going to have our babies. When looking into coverage for those births, home birth exclusions were a really big deal for us because of the risk of liability in case of an emergency. As we continued having babies later into life and being older, I was labeled geriatric. I was considered high risk, which made it even more difficult to find the care that I wanted with the assurance of support. Then, four years ago, we switched over to Samaritan Ministries, which is a health sharing organization.

A few years into switching, we experienced another pregnancy loss and then we became pregnant for the 11th time. Still desiring to have a home birth, we were so blessed and surprised to find out that all our needs were shareable within the organization and that I could choose the provider I wanted. So we move forward to have the home birth of our dreams. If you’re looking for an alternative option to being able to pay for medical expenses incurred in raising a family, and you desire the freedom to choose your own providers, including alternative providers like chiropractors and naturopaths. We want to encourage you to check out Samaritan Ministries at our link Samaritan Ministries forward slash. Be courageous. In the video, we share how it works and answer a bunch of frequently asked questions. So check out our link at Samaritan Ministries. Org slash be courageous because that’s going to change how you actually parent. It’s going to change the decisions that you make on whether you send them to a certain school or not. It’s going to change the decisions that you make regarding what movies you’re going to allow them to watch, or if you’re just going to drop them off at soccer practice, because that’s what happened to you when you were a little kid and you were fine. The reality is, is things have changed today, and I think that we would be in a much better place today if our parents and the parents before them had actually been more awake and been intentionally parenting to.

I know 20 years ago we were thinking along these lines, actually. Right. And so we parented very much the same way from nearly the beginning. And we remember looking around, why? Why are people.

Okay with celebrating Halloween?

We didn’t have a ministry talking about parenting. You had you had a blog going, but we didn’t have something so public. But anyways.

But everything was so I felt so out of the loop. Like I remember we were.

So ostracized for what we.

Believed was because it was like, why do I have this deep conviction that I don’t want my three year old daughter, four year old daughter going to Christian preschool and having to be around goblins and bloody costumes and witches. When it’s evil, it’s just evil and everything in me. Because I love Jesus, abhorred evil. That’s what we’re talking about. You guys. Like, if your kids are scared, don’t go, oh, it’s okay. You don’t need to be scared. It’s okay. And I’m I’m speaking this loudly to you now because there are stores that are already putting Halloween merch out everywhere. Costco’s filled with it, you guys. And you know how I protect my children when they’re really young and they’re affected by that kind of stuff and they’re scared. I tell them, yeah, that is evil. We shouldn’t like that. And I protect them from going to places where they’re going to be exposed to those scary things when they’re really little. And then I as they get older, I talk to them about that evil and what that evil represents, and I affirm those feelings that they have in them versus trying to get them to, like, be desensitized, which is really what a lot of parents do.

I’m sorry, I’m on a soapbox because this kind of stuff makes me very like there’s this righteous anger that kind of rises up in me when I feel like there is a game being played on. Kids and parents are falling for it hook, line and sinker because they’re embarrassed that their kids have spiritual discernment at a young age and they’re like, oh, that’s scary, mommy. We should be. Yeah, it is scary. Yeah, you’re right. That’s not good, is it? That’s a witch. Witches are not good. Witches are evil. And witchcraft is real. Like, you know, I just think that as parents, we need to have our eyes wide open. We need to be more prepared. And Ephesians six is one of those passages that’s, you know, it’s all about the armor of God, right, Isaac? Like we’re supposed to be putting this on daily as Christians, we’re supposed to be teaching our kids to put this on. But then you read a verse like deep down inside, a lot of times people will read the beginning and then they don’t keep reading. I want to encourage you to go to verse 18. It says, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. Here’s the deal. Keep alert. Why? Jesus tells us literally. God’s word tells us right here you will not know how to be praying with all supplication at all times. If you are not alert, when you’re alert and you’re aware, like when I’m driving and I see a fire like burnt on the hill, I am moved to pray when a fire truck passes by me. I am moved to pray. When I see evil in a store, I am moved to pray for Jesus to protect little kids eyes and hearts so that they don’t have night terrors. So it’s not a foothold for the devil when like. But what about you? When you see evil, when you see destruction, when you see theft, when you see hurt, when you see pain, are you moved to pray like that is what we’re called to as Christians. But if we’re just hiding under a rock and we’re trying to, like, not be overwhelmed by things, we’re not actually being activated by the power of the Holy Spirit to be praying, which is our main job right now. I’m sorry, I just get really. That was.

So good. It’s so good. So we must hold fast to what is good. And the byproduct of that is we’re not going to like what is not good. And don’t you want your children to be raised that way? Don’t you want your children to adopt that versus slowly be desensitized to what the world calls is okay? Well, the Olympics just showed us what the world thinks is okay. And I’m thankful that there actually is a lot of pushback because not all of the world thinks it’s okay. There’s, you know, a lot of conservative minded Christian people out there in the world. And let’s be honest, other religions probably also upset. And I think that pushback is good on that. And I hope a lot of pushback happens.

I do I hope that they experience, um, the consequences of what they’ve done. I hope that people vote with their dollar. I like seeing things like different organizations pulling out ads and and things like that because they need to. The people need to stand up and say, this is just not okay. And I feel like there are a lot of people that are standing up and saying that, but we need more. You know, as Christians, we need to not be divided about like, oh, when did this happen? Oh, this happened, you know, back in Greek mythology, they also did a feast of this as well. And like, okay, it’s good to know history. True. But it’s okay if you’re offended as a Christian, if you’re offended because it looked like they were mocking the Lord’s Supper, that’s called spiritual discernment. And I’m just going to say it’s okay if you were offended, because that means that the spirit inside you is waging war in the heavenly places. And that’s what God calls us to as Christians, is to be activated and be praying against it. First Peter chapter five verse. I’m going to start just at the end of seven. It says, casting all your anxieties on him. So are you anxious? I mean, this is what we’ve been talking about, right? Like parents are anxious. They don’t want to be alert. They want to avoid what’s going on. Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. That’s why he cares for you. And then it says in verse eight, be sober minded, be watchful. Here we are again. Be watchful. Why? Why be watchful? He says in verse that the last part of verse eight, your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Verse nine, resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world and after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

I wish we used. I’m talking about a populist now. I wish we used words as strong as the Bible uses words like the word resist. When was the last time you used the word resist? It’s such a powerful word, right? Hold fast. Mhm. Hate. What is evil? Mhm. Do we use that vocabulary good anymore? I don’t hear it very often. But when you actually start, when you read scripture look at the word choice by God. Mhm. And the powerful words that he chose all throughout Scripture.

It’s interesting because verse ten I just want to point something out like God is saying after you have suffered a little while, right, like you’ve been burdened potentially that would just that would be the most minor type of suffering that I would think of as just that burden of like, whoa, this is heavy. This is what’s happening in the world. That would be like the most minor form of suffering in a sense. Right? But it says after you have suffered a little while, why? Why are you suffering? Because you kept alert in your aware. Listen, after you’ve suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. It’s not before you’ve suffered a little while. It’s after you’ve suffered a little while. He will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you. And so recognizing that God has called us to do this because why? It’s sanctifying, it’s hard. We have to rely on the Holy Spirit to grow us. Our capacity grows for more, and we equip our kids with that same strength that we’ve gotten from God.

How do you grow? How do you become strengthened? It’s very difficult without resistance. Resistance is often part of the process of anything being strengthened. Right? If you work out physically, what do you have? You have resistance so that you grow stronger. And we see that throughout. You see that in your own life, right? We experience resistance and we have a couple choices. We can trust God and and trust him and keep moving forward. Or we can recede in our weakness and fear. And I think that he wants us to be strengthened. And strengthening only happens when we bear through the challenges while trusting him. When we bear.

One another’s burdens.

And we come out and we come out the other side, and we’re strengthened by that experience.

And by God and His Spirit, because we’re relying on him to get through it. Right. And then we we look back and we see the marks of his footprints and his hands all over what we walked through. And you can’t deny the power of God in your life when you’ve walked to the end of yourself and you’re waiting for God to show up, and he does, there’s no denying him. There’s no way that you could possibly ever doubt when you’ve experienced God in that kind of a way. And that’s what Jesus wants for all of his kids. He wants us to know him in a powerful way, to obey him, to follow him, to love him that much, that we would be willing to stand firm and speak truth at time. And so I it’s interesting. I sometimes when we do podcasts, the episodes that are like this. Right, like the one at the beginning of the year in 2024, we talked about like predictions for the year. We always do this like fun podcast episode at the beginning of the year where we say these are some things that we think could happen this year and based on trends, based on trends and current events and different things. And, and it’s interesting to go back and listen to that, because a lot of those things have happened so far, and we’ve only done that two years in a row. And it’s just more of like, what are we preparing our families for? That’s why we do it is like to share with you guys what we’re seeing and how that is activating us to do things a little bit differently with our family, to equip them to prepare them so that they’re more prepared for the time that they’re going to be launched into, because that is unprecedented. Meaning every year after this is going to be even more unprecedented times.

I’ll tell you one, I just told our kids the other day. I said, children, you’re going to see an increasing number of Christians going against Israel. And so I just want you to be aware of that. And then we had this wonderful conversation about all that. And how do I know that? Because for a while now I’ve been seeing this.

It’s percolating. Yep. It’s the stirring. The percolating is a way better word. That’s a good word for that. It has been. But you know, I think that, you know, as Christians when we do episodes like this, people can go, oh, Isaac and Angie, are you fear mongering? Like you’re getting people all worked up about something by the choice of scriptures that you’re reading? Well, are you guys being challenged with those scriptures and church? What about in your Bible study? What about in your personal reading time? Are you being challenged and having your flames fanned to stand firm in the faith, and to actually be activated to equip your children so that they’re prepared to stand firm against the lies of the devil when they launch from your home. And if you’re not, that’s why we’re doing it. We have felt so called to stand up and go, hey, parents, let’s go. Let’s do this together. Let’s not run the race alone. And this isn’t fear mongering. Otherwise, what you’re saying is that Jesus was fear mongering because all we’re doing is reading words from his word. And if you’re arguing with us, you’re actually arguing with God because it’s just his words to tell people to stay awake, be alert, be aware because there is a devil. But guess what? You don’t have fear. I hope you hear this. You will not have fear if you truly believe God is who he say, he says he is.

If you have faith in the Triune God, in the God who is sovereign over all things, whose omniscient, who’s omnipotent, who is the God of all gods, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Savior of all. He’s the creator. Nothing passes by me or Isaac and our own lives unless it’s sifted through the hands of God. And the same is true for you. If you believe in that God and the God Almighty, Yahweh, then you don’t have anything to fear. And when you believe in that God and you know him on an intimate level, then you have this deep desire to live the purpose that he created you for, which is the Great Commission. It’s like what Isaac was saying if we were to live like Paul, then we’re going to have this urgency, understanding that we don’t know when the last day is going to be here. So we live with an urgency to share the gospel with whoever we can, and to love people well, and to hate evil and to equip our kids because we just don’t know. But at the same time, like, you want to equip your kids for seven generations, for 30 generations down the road, because that is the God that we also believe in, that he’s commanded us to be responsible and intentional as parents.

And just a warning there’s a scripture about itching ears. Be careful that you don’t have itching ears to getting off into all kinds of other things, even if they are true. These wormholes you can go in because of the internet and our devices and how easy it is, and people saying things to go off in directions. I’m not saying don’t learn, learn, learn, learn, but make sure you keep the main thing, the most important things front and center of your mind. Because when you are learning things, you are influencing your mind in a direction. And if you keep learning in a direction, pretty soon you’re influencing and your life starts prioritizing that thought process towards that thing. And our thought process needs to be stay that God is powerful and he has a mission for us to share the gospel and first and foremost, equip our children and be discipling them and sharing the gospel with them over and over and over again, and raising them in our marriage and keeping our home right and not getting caught off guard where we’re exhausted by every which direction. And we need to keep focused on the main thing, while at the same time being awake and aware of what’s happening so we can do this main thing even better. Mhm.

And understanding that part of that teaching your children and equipping them is to train them up in the way they should go, so that when they’re old they don’t depart from it. Well what is that, Angie? I mean there are so many scriptures. It’s teaching them all the commands of the Lord. But it’s not just that. It’s teaching them Christian living. How do you do that? You do it by reading the Bible with them and teaching them what the word says by living it out. And then when they say, why do you do that? That doesn’t make any sense. You go, but that’s because God prompted me to because his word says this. And then they’re like, mind blown. Whoa. Okay. And understanding that teaching your kids about scripture on loving your enemies. Let’s wrap this up. We’ve talked about being alert. We’ve talked about hating evil. Now we are called as Christians also to love our enemies. Matthew chapter five verse 43 says, you have heard it, heard that it is said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven.

For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. I just want to encourage us that this is Jesus literally saying, don’t hate your enemy. Don’t hate people like I made them. They’re my creation. Love them. Pray for them, even the people that persecute you. But there are other scriptures as well that talk like even just the verse before. There’s the sermon on the Mount when it talks about blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God, which is in chapter five verse nine. And in recognizing that peace can’t exist without reconciliation into Christ, right. And reconciliation to Christ doesn’t happen apart from truth. And so what’s one of the best ways that we can love our neighbors? It’s actually to speak truth, not be silent. We’re not loving our enemies if we’re silent.

Yeah, passivity is often mistaken as being a peacemaker. Did you hear that? Peacemaker often goes. That title often goes with people that are very passive about their faith, because they don’t want to stir anything up. Well, I think we need to be loving in the way we say everything. We need to have a motivation of love and warmth, but we need to not be afraid of sharing what’s true. Persecution. Interesting word. Right? Well, the people that are persecuted are the people that are trying to influence people towards Christ. Mm.

So if you’re not being persecuted, maybe it’s because you’re not trying to do that.

And if you do try and do that, we’re starting to see in America it’s normal around the world. We’re starting to see America. You do get persecuted a little bit. Yeah, not comparatively to China and things like that. But persecution usually only happens to people who are proclaiming Christ publicly. Right, who are sharing individually with other people. And they might lose a customer. They might lose a friend standing firm for what biblical truth says with another Christian. Another Christian just isn’t holding to what’s true and letting anything go. And their kids are going in a tough direction that is having a bad influence on your kids. It is. It is not okay to sacrifice your kids for the sake of fake peace, which a lot of times in this world is called love.

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Pretty blunt, you know. We need to recognize that the God who regenerated us, who who gave us eternal life, the one that we live for, the one that we surrender our our anxieties to our overwhelm, to our issues, to our health, to whatever it is that you need to surrender. That same God is calling us to rise up and be a light and be a part of the team. Be a part of the team of God to partner with him, along with the disciples and everyone else in the Great Commission. And really, when we’re being silent, when we’re being passive, we’ve lost our saltiness. We’re worthless, meant to be thrown out just like the word says. And so being silent isn’t actually an option for Christians. Not anymore. It never was an option. Tolerating sin is also not an option. It’s not an option because when people are in sin, we know that sin leads to death.

A lot of it comes down to self-preservation. The actual reason is not so much that we don’t want to stir things up because we love somebody so much. No, it’s actually that we hurt our self-preservation and we want to keep unity and peace with somebody. But again, peace at the sacrifice of truth is fake peace. And then what happens? You build friendships around yourself where you don’t have real friendship. It’s just fake peace because there’s things on your mind you want to share, you want to help with, and so forth. But you don’t because you’ve built your relationship on shallow ground.

It’s all fake. Yeah, I mean, this is a big deal. So there’s the there’s two things right there that if I was to teach my kids and just do like a real basic teaching with them, like what are two things you don’t do when it comes to loving your enemy? You don’t be silent and you don’t tolerate sin because you know that their sin is a bondage that has got them completely entrapped and ensnared in the devil’s hands. And if you love them, then you want them to have eternal life. You want them to be free from that bondage. So there’s two things they cannot do. They cannot be silent and you cannot tolerate sin. But there’s a lot of things that we can do. We can pray for them and pray for God to tell us if we’re the person that’s supposed to speak truth or not. Because sometimes God says, no, I just want you to know about this so that you pray because I have somebody else in mind to speak that truth. But we don’t in any way just accept it. There needs to be an acknowledgement of, I don’t agree with this or I’m worried about you, I love you, I’m concerned for you. So you speak truth and love and you seek what is best for them.

And what’s best for them is to be freed from the bondage of sin. What’s best for them is to be walking upright, to be walking in the in the light, not in the darkness. God’s word says that he disciplines those whom he loves. Like sometimes parents. I see parents do this, especially when their kids get older and they they do something sinful that has maybe some really serious consequences, like maybe they steal something. And so they’re in jail and they bailed them out. Right. Let’s just use that as an example. That is enabling. That’s not showing grace and compassion. That’s enabling. If that’s the only thing that’s being done. And I’m not I mean, I’m I’m kind of being cookie cutter in this because I’m trying to drive home a point and I get that certain situations, you know, you can’t just blanket statement things like that. So there is grace and compassion for people. But the truth is, is as parents, we need to allow our kids to experience the consequences that God has for them in their life when they are in sin. If we try to cushion that fall, they’re not going to learn the lesson, they’re not going to experience it. And then when the next thing happens, it’s going to be even more intense and more painful.

That’s why you got to get the ten Steps to Discipline in the Parenting Mentor program. You got to get the whole program. I mean, it’s so important. So it’s just essential. You’ve got to do that. It is built to parenting in unprecedented times, where there’s new realities with technology and the enemy over showing his hand. But it’s unfortunately working against the youth of today.

But it’s the same thing that God’s Word has been teaching all along the ten steps of biblical discipline. It’s just foundation founded in God’s Word, and it’s so helpful to have clarity and to be able to have scriptures that go along with it, to give you that motivation for why you’re going to obey God as a parent. But sometimes seeking justice, I would say that’s the last thing seeking justice, right? God is a God of justice and mercy, but seeking justice sometimes. There are times as Christians where we are called to do hard things because God is using us to discipline someone, right? Like when they do something that is so evil and you are standing up for righteousness and you’re seeking justice, you’re calling the cops on them, or you’re not bailing them out and you’re letting them experience the consequences, whatever it is, like you’re allowing them to experience justice in a sense, and that sometimes is what a person needs to snap them out of their selfish way of being or the bondage that the enemy has them in. But either way, like this whole parenting gig thing, it is hard. It’s not for the faint of heart. Yeah, you’re going to have times where you’re going to go. I don’t know how to have this conversation with my kids. How do I talk to them about gender confusion? How do I talk to them about this in a way that is going to help them to love people who are living in sin, while also standing firm for truth? Because that’s really what we need to do. We need to do that, and we need to teach our kids to do that. Well, we hope this is helpful. Thanks for joining us. See you next time. Hey, thanks for listening. And being a part of the 10 Million Legacies movement, go to Be Courageous Ministry. Org for more biblically based resources ways to switch where you spend your money that support the mission and information about the incredible Be Courageous app community for believers.

Also, we wanted to quickly tell you about our six week online Parenting Mentor program.

Isaac and I created a powerful biblical curriculum. Here’s how it works. Each week, we release a video session with a downloadable parenting packet to make it easy for you to incorporate those teachings directly into your parenting.

This is an incredible, self-paced program. We cover everything from tending to their hearts, handling obedience to overcoming mistakes most Christians are making. But more than that, it’s a supportive community. You’ll have access to our private group in the Be Courageous app, live webcast, and direct access to us.

If you’re interested in joining our next online Parenting Mentor program, secure your spot now at Be Courageous Ministry. Org that’s Be Courageous Ministry org.