“Protecting Your Family From Wayward Philosophies of The Day”

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Episode Summary

Check yourself by listening to this episode. Do you contribute to future confusion or unbelief with your children about the Bible or sound doctrine?

Main Points in This Episode:

  1. There’s a spiritual battle and the enemy using the tool of confusion.
  2. We must parent differently than most Christians if we want a better outcome.
  3. So many conspiracy theories have become true in the last few years but that doesn’t mean every philosophy or theory is true, even ones circling through believers.
  4. Small things matter. They can be big negative influences to your kids because what you say and do holds so much weight.
  5. A desire for knowledge is good but it doesn’t mean you are growing in wisdom. 
  6. A good question to ask is if you are actually implementing the knowledge you already learned. Sometimes heaping more and more knowledge we don’t implement isn’t as helpful as we intend.
  7. Don’t get wisdom from people who are being led astray

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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 I’m Isaac from Resolute Man.

We’ve been married for 21 years and have seen the fruit from raising our eight kids biblically. Based on the raw truth found in the Bible.

We can no longer let the culture win the hearts of children. Too many children from Christian families are walking away from their faith by age 18. And it doesn’t have to be this way. It shouldn’t be this way. Join us as we start an important conversation about effective parenting and the following. Hey. Welcome, everybody. We’re so glad you’re here for the podcast.

Hey, guys. So today we have a really hot topic. I think this is super relevant. I know we say that often, but seriously, this is a topic that every parent needs to listen to.

A burden on our hearts right now. And it should always be a burden on parents hearts.

Have you guys noticed some things out there in the last couple of years called conspiracy theories? And have you noticed some of those conspiracy theories coming true and others not coming true and realizing, oh, that was a lie from the enemy. That was a scheme, right? Well, today we are talking about protecting your family from wayward philosophies of the day. You could also say conspiracies of the day, because there are many of those as well. This is a very important topic. I really hope that a lot of people listen to this. We have many scriptures that we have to nail, so we’re going to go kind of quickly. But I hope that this is a good conversation starter between you and your spouse as well.

It’s so important because sometimes we were thinking about it and when conspiracy theories come true and you’re seeing this happen on a repetitive level, then we can start to look for as many things as possible that could be true.

And actually fall for.

Things and fall for things. And so we just want to be aware of that and we want to seek truth because we want our kids to be brought up in truth. And we could inadvertently be confusing our kids when it comes to spiritual matters, when it comes to doctrine and what the Bible says. So this is a really, really important thing. So think about yourself as we go through this. Is there anything I’m doing as a parent, as a leader in my family that is causing potential unbelief inadvertently? So that’s something that’s important.

I mean, and unbelief is one. But what about like confusion, doubts? There are many different words that you could use to describe what could potentially be happening in the minds or hearts of a person of any individual. Absolutely. And this is something that a lot of people have actually brought up to us in the last couple of years, just constantly, hey, have you seen this? Have you seen this? Have you seen this? We get those kinds of messages all the time where people will send us links of things. And the truth is, you have to discern wisely and recognize that Scripture alone, the Bible alone, is the only true authority for life. It is sufficient, it is inerrant, and you do not need to add to it. You do not need to take away from it. And when people are doing that, you need to be weary of those people. Actually, if you don’t have the relationship where you can correct them because you should be correcting them, then you need to be careful.

And just be careful to. On somebody that has new revelation about what the Bible says. It’s it can be it can feel exciting, but sometimes that can lead you down a dangerous path. And if you’re leading your kids, you want to you need to bring certainty about the Bible. So we’re going to dive into all this. But it definitely is a spiritual battle and we want to be aware of what’s happening. But thanks so much for being part of the 1 Million Legacies movement. Sometimes I think that can be confusing because, you know, the podcast hit 2 million downloads recently and all these things.

Like, Oh, they hit their goal.

I’m not kidding. I don’t think that’s true. But I think that what the mission is is an indelible impact on 1 million families and their legacies. And just because there’s 2 million downloads doesn’t mean that the ministry has had that level of impact yet. And so we’re really looking for wow, people are raising their kids, according with the Bible says and the courageous parenting biblical truth that’s in the courageous parenting mentor program and things like that and the podcast and all the topics we’re talking about and just having a big influence. So, hey, every time you share, every time you write a review, every time you purchase something, it creates parenting or courageous moms. It really helps and it helps the ministry because we’re full time effort here and we’re walking by faith every single week on provision. We’re literally walking by faith. So when a donation comes in, we’re like, Thank you, Lord. And it’s amazing. And when someone purchases, it’s like, Thank you, Lord. When someone’s wearing a cap or a shirt or a mug and they’re raising it up on social media, we know you’re part of the mission, so thank you so much.

Thank you. So let’s dive in here. Isaac, we’re going to talk about protecting your family from wayward philosophies of the day. That’s the title of today’s podcast. We talked about putting protecting your kids, but we chose family. And I think that that alone is a worthy concept to just bring up quickly. When you’re in a married relationship, when you have a spouse, one of the callings that you have in each other. Life is to be each other’s accountability partner and to be a team, if you will. Right. I think of two are better than one and the the concept of oxen working together. Right. And when you’re raising a family, it is a lot of work and you have to work together. And so there are many aspects of this where you need to. I cannot urge you enough to listen to this podcast together to talk about things, because sometimes in a marriage relationship, a wife or a husband will start going down a road of believing something that is untrue, a conspiracy, a lie or something like that. Right. That is not necessarily healthy for their family. And they start making decisions and they start really dwelling on it to where it actually can become an idol.

And if the spouse doesn’t actually say, hey, hold on a second, I think we’re going too far here. What’s really important, let’s talk about what the Bible says. What does God call us to then? There isn’t an accountability there. And and and truth be be spoken. We want to encourage husbands and wives to be vigilant in holding each other accountable. And it is your job as the parents to be protecting your children. So you and your spouse need to be in alignment as much as is possible so that you together can be protecting. And another aspect of this concept of family is understanding that sometimes your kids are going to hear something that somebody else’s house and they may come and tell one parent and the other parent might not know. And so when you are protecting your family, if you will, from wayward philosophies of the day or false religions or lies from the devil, you need to be sharing intel with one another so that you can both be doing that proactively and working together.

And Hey, dads, we’ve got to lead. We’ve got to be aware. And as your kids get older, trust me, from parents who have older kids and even a couple that have launched, it’s really important that you’re attentive to what the Bible says is true and using the Bible to counteract any thing that has been told to your teenage kids, any age kids, or even if if your wife is paying attention to something out there and it creates a discussion, are you bringing biblical truth context to that situation? Are you refuting some of it and accepting some of it? That is true biblically, but then some of it isn’t. If you’re not good at that, it’s like a muscle. When you go work out what happens, you tear a muscle and then it repairs bigger, right? And so we have to be working the muscle in leading our families.

And so we just want to encourage you guys as we’re diving into some of these scriptures today, there’s if you have like a question about something, that is an opportunity for you to actually dive into working together as a team and really dig in things out.

So absolutely. In Matthew 24, 24 says for false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

Interesting, isn’t it? I mean, we got to realize that even though we are believers and we are potentially walking a community of believers, what did the Bible just say? This was Matthew. This is Jesus’s words. Yeah, we aren’t going to argue with the God of all the universe, right?

And we are living in times where we’re going to see more of this, where evil spirits, the enemy working through other people, maybe they don’t even know it, enabling great things to happen, but that are based in evil.

It’s deception. And we have to understand that the enemy is a schemer. That’s one of his character attributes, is that he is a schemer and a liar, and he’s the author of Confusion. And so when we understand who our enemy is, we have a better ability to be aware and detect and discern the spirits, which is one of the first things that we really want to encourage you guys in is as parents, you have you have to be praying for God to give you discernment. You have to be asking God, praying, maybe, maybe even fasting if you are tend to be the one that tends to be kind of taken by the worldly philosophies or conspiracies, if you will, or even if you struggle with taking thoughts captive and believing lies even about yourself. Like you need to pray for discernment and God will give to you generously without reproach. Like James chapter one says Yes. And so we just want to encourage you guys to, though, that in this this is a human problem. If you’re listening, you’re like, oh, yeah, me or my spouse, we are kind of struggling with this, maybe on a little bit.

You’re not alone. This is a human problem. Started in Genesis. Genesis chapter three. I’m just going to read briefly. If you haven’t read through Genesis in a while, I recommend you do so because it. Really ties in every other aspect of what we’re walking through in the world. We need to be reminded of the foundation of how God laid the Earth, how he created all things. And to have a true reverence and off for him and his word. It says in chapter three now the serpent was more cunning and crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. So there’s another character attribute. He’s cunning or he’s crafty. And he said to the woman, Has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree in the garden, I’m going to stop right there, because this is actually one of the traits of someone who is working for the enemy or who is oppressed by the enemy or someone who or just even the enemy himself. He creates doubt.

And if there’s doubt in you and you’re talking about that doubt in your marriage relationship, then in your kids are listening. Even when they’re young, you are cultivating unbelief in your family. So it’s really important now you should be able to discuss with each other if you do have doubt about something or wonder about something. But you have to be really careful because little ones are listening. They need parents that have a rock solid belief in the Bible that actually shows up in their lives, that they believe it so much, they live by it. It that is super, super important thing.

So another aspect of this is understanding that God has called us up. Yeah. As people, right? Like we’re parents. And if you’re listening, you’re likely a parent and understanding that God has called you to a position of authority in your kids lives. You don’t get to be child like he should be craving no longer spiritual milk but meat, as Paul exhorts us to. And so there is an element of spiritual maturity that we need to step up. We need to rise up as parents, if you will, and understand that we need to lead our kids with with without rocking their boat of unbelief. Now, that being said, Isaac and I talk about this a lot in the parenting mentor program about needing to cultivate a relationship with your kids, where your kids feel comfortable coming to you with their doubts, with their unbelief, and for you to be well read enough in the Scriptures to know where to go with them, to help them for God to answer their questions with His Word.

So important so they feel comfortable coming to you with their questions. But you need to be the rock solid teachers.

Yes, for sure. So I just I can’t help but want to exhort you right now. Like if you have struggling with even knowing, like, where is that found in the Bible? Start, start simple start going through proverbs. There is so much wisdom literature in proverbs. And when we were getting ready to do this, I was like, You know what is interesting about a lot of the warnings about friendships and different things like that, because that’s also an aspect of what we’re talking about today. Part of protecting your family from wayward philosophies of the day is being aware of what your friends are sharing with your kids, whether it’s in their home or in your home, or when they’re driving in a car on the way home from soccer practice. Right. And like understanding what are they pushing on your kids and are you coming to your children and teaching them the real word and helping them to be solid and strong in their faith, but also going, okay, so this is actually disrespectful to a certain degree. They’re usurping my authority by teaching something, right, or pushing a philosophy, if you will.

But if you and the same token, if you parent your kids really well, by the time they’re teenagers, one, they’re going to tell you everything. And too, they already have a biblical framework, even if they it caused a little bit of a question and then you go to the Bible with them and then they’re even strengthened even more. But if you’re not parenting biblically and well and educating them on the Bible from the young, then that’s more challenging proposition. And so we are in.

Deuteronomy, chapter 13, verse three and five. You guys.

Yeah, so good. You shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams for the Lord. Your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord Your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord Your God, and fear Him and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has taught rebellion against the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery to make you leave the way in which the Lord Your God commanded to walk. So You shall purge the evil from your midst. It is vital. That’s how serious this is. Are you going to church with people that are not of one mind and influencing your children, influencing you away from sound doctrine, biblical truth?

I mean, I even see this there’s like three different verses in the Bible that we were going to share today, which you can go and look. Some more of them. One of them is Proverbs chapter 30, verse six. It says, Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar. And then again, I’ll go just flip to the very back of the Bible and Revelations 2218 We’ve used this one in many, many podcasts. God is literally at the very end of the Bible. It says four. I testify to every one of you who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to these things, God will add to Him the plagues that are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of this book, of this prophecy, God shall take away His part from the book of life, from the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this book. Let me let me just point something out to you. A lot of people fall back and get kind of cozy when their kids accept Jesus as their savior and they think, oh, I’ve done my job. We can’t do that. That is not a biblical concept, this verse alone. And there are many, many, many, many. We just read one about how even the elect will potentially be tempted to fall be be taken into different philosophies. But this is you can’t have something taken away from you if you don’t already have it. And this is saying that God shall take away his part from the Book of Life.

Now, some people beware because some people go they take the Bible here and they they go, Well, that’s the Book of Revelations. And that is talking about the Book of Revelation. And actually, no, do we not believe the inherent C of Scripture that it is complete, that God ordained what books are in the Bible and which ones were discredited for a reason? Right. It is the entire book of the Bible right now. Some things in the Bible are prescriptive and some are descriptive. Like we’re not actually supposed to gouge our eye out if we sin. For example.

God doesn’t literally lay us down in a green pasture when we’re walking through something hard.

But there are prescriptive things. And as you understand language and you read the full context of scripture, it’s important. Now, remember, sometimes if somebody is teaching you something that’s new and different than what you’ve been taught, being raised with the Bible or in your own Bible reading or from many, many sermons at your church and these kinds of things, someone’s starting to teach you something. What’s interesting, a lot of the time they are cherry picking scriptures to make a point, but when you actually go back to the scriptures, read the whole chapter in the context of those scriptures, it actually says a very different story, a very different meaning, or at least cast doubt. A lot of times on the narration they’re building towards a point, that’s man’s words, cherry picking scripture to make a point that is some kind of new revelation. So you have to be very careful. So that’s a warning sign to pay attention, to go actually read every single one of those scriptures in the context of it.

I think that when it comes to the validity of Scripture and not adding or taking away from it, not only do we look at Revelations, chapter 22, verse 18 through 19, but I had just read from Proverbs chapter 30, verse six, which said to not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar. But then also Moses says it in Deuteronomy, chapter four, verse two, it says, You shall not add to the word which I commanded you, nor take from it that you may keep the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I commanded you. It’s literally throughout Scripture that we do not add or take from there. This is something God is commanding of us. And not only do we, when we’re protecting our families like we’re called, to be protectors of our family, but we also need to be protectors of the belief that God’s Word is more than enough, that it is sufficient, and that it’s inerrant and it doesn’t need to be added to that kind of confidence in teaching our kids that confidence. Right, so that they don’t get led astray when people are like, Oh, but what about this book? Or, you know, because there are many other religions out there that say they’re Christian, but then they also have their other books. In fact, a lot of denominations even do this, and we need to realize that man’s words are fallible. Yeah, but God’s word is not. And we have a firm trust in preaching God’s word to our children that that so much so that we don’t even need to go to other man’s words. Because if their words that they’ve written in their extra books are inspired by the Word of God, you should be able to go to the Word of God and see the exact same things, actually.

So let’s talk about some small things that really do matter, because small things matter to kids. Small things are big things to kids. Like when parents with their influence and we’ve taught them Obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. They’ve heard that over and over again and they’re trained to respect their parents. And although they’re not perfect because we all sin and these kinds of things, but you’re training them up in those kinds of things small. Things from your mouth, from your actions, more importantly, from your example, are a big difference maker. In fact, less about what you say, far more about what they see you do and what they see you and your spouse talk about than what you directly tell them. They’re looking. Is this what they’re telling me? True, based on what I observe? Isn’t that how we are to about people? Is what they’re saying true? By what I observed? Can I trust this person? By what they’re what they’re saying, by what I see in their life? And so that is in Bible says, look for the fruit, right? So small things matter.

Let’s just take a simple thing. How about have you had the discussion as a married couple about, hey, what Bible translation should we use? That is a really good discussion. It’s really valuable. It’s just not a great discussion to have amongst impressionable young kids. Now, once you’ve decided what Bible translation you think is the best, most accurate and readable, if that’s important to you, but also accurate, then you can come to your kids and say, We are switching to this Bible translation for this reason. That’s good leadership, but including them in that conversation is not the best leadership. It starts to what they think, what you think is a small thing. They start going, Wait a minute, are my parents deciding which Bible is accurate? A human beings deciding which Bible is accurate? Maybe the Bible all Bibles are not accurate. And then when they get hit by peers later, these little unbelief moments can build up. And so just be aware of that. How about the other kinds of conversations you’re having about philosophies about what somebody sharing?

Yeah, just even like if you’re scrolling through social media of some kind and you see something and you’re like, you get anxiety or overwhelming your heart, right? Because a new pandemic is hitting or whatever. Right. And you start talking about that to your kids, you could be potentially leading them into fear, leading them into anxiety and overwhelm. And so you guys know that we are all for educating your kids, equipping your kids. But there is a certain amount of discernment as to like what you should be sharing. You need to go to your spouse first and you guys need to talk about this. Is this a real thing that is going on that you like that needs to be just between husband and wife for a time being or until that child is more mature or whatever? Is it even real? Like you wouldn’t take something to your child that’s not real and tell them that it is real. And then later they find out that it’s not and then their trust in you is broken. Do you see how important this is? So you as we have to be the adults in this and we have to walk in maturity and in wisdom and in understanding that we need to verify things first and we need to take our thoughts captive and we need to go to the word and we need to go to each other in prayer. And then we are purposefully coming to our kids. You don’t just not purposefully go to your kids.

And should I add to go to your pastor to. Yes, go to the elders in your church, as long as they’re active elders with fruit in their lives and right. Living out what the Bible says elders should be, you know, those things are important, but go to them and get advice. And I think that’s really important. So small things, there’s other small things, but just to be thinking about that, what are small things I do that might actually create confusion about God or about what’s true that’s really important?

Or I even think that there is an element of like, you know, certain beliefs or family doctrines, if you will, that maybe you just believe because it was passed down from one generation to another and you just believe them because you’ve always believed them versus knowing what the Bible actually says. I mean, we’ve talked about like idioms that are in the world today that have been around for a very long time, that actually aren’t true, like God will never give me more than I can handle, for example, that’s actually not biblical. And so like, what are the things that you’ve even said to your kids that maybe are not biblical, that then could actually plant a seed of doubt, unbelief or confusion? The devil will use any foothold that he can get right. And so Colossians chapter two, verse eight, says, See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit. Those are two different things by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition. That’s what I was just talking about, like, why aren’t we going? What is this tradition that our church always does? Is it biblical? Why don’t we ask those questions as humans, right? Yeah. Or according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ. Gregory Colossians chapter two. Actually, the whole. Section above. It is also really, really important. But this is a warning to us. This is a command. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy or empty deceit.

It’s so important now, desire for knowledge. That is actually a good thing if you just take that sentence and go, is it good to have desire for knowledge? Yes, it’s a wonderful thing. Here’s a big mistake I think a lot of people make, which is they keep desiring more new knowledge when they aren’t implementing the most basic of things they’ve already learned. So I just want to warn you, I warn people this in business, because a lot of times you’ll see these people that are constant. I’ve read 30 leadership books for the year, motivational books and these kinds of things. And while reading is great, but how many actual principles did you actually implement from those or you just stacking knowledge upon knowledge because knowledge without implementation is almost useless. And I like saying that because it’s a little controversial and it makes you think you may.

Disagree with me. It’s not useless. You’re saying it’s almost useless because in some regards it is. And in other regards it’s not true.

It is good to gain knowledge, but knowledge doesn’t mean it’s wisdom either.

Right? So just just remember that.

And so are you somebody that’s constantly thirsting for new knowledge but is failing to implement the most basic of things in being a believer in.

And understand, like God’s word warns us about what he what he, what his word will do to the wise. Right. And so I just think that we need to walk. Faithfully to the Lord and reading the word, I’ll give you an example. Like recently, something just was super convicting to me and I was sharing it with Isaac. Yeah. Last week. But my, my mind kept going to certain loved ones problems, certain people that God has placed in my life and the issues that they’re dealing with. And my mind kept going to these things and I kept on trying to like in my mind, come up with a solution or a fix for the problem. Have you ever done that before? And so then I start like thinking and I’m trying to like be creative with solutions and then I start thinking knowledge wise and like looking things up. And then I go, I just had to stop and go, Hold on a second. This is not my jurisdiction. This is not the thing that I’m actually supposed to be doing. I need to spend more time in the world. So instead of just being in my own thoughts, every time I started struggling and I started like thinking about this problem or thinking about the problem that a friend was having. I would stop and I would go and saturate my mind in the word. And then all of a sudden, you guys, it’s like it’s it’s God does something. He literally renews our mind and we stop dwelling on other people’s problems, on our problems, on the things that we should not be thinking about, on the worldly issues, the worldly philosophies. I’m just going to say it. The things that literally have nothing to do with salvation today, they literally have nothing to do with it. Why do we dwell on these things? If we spent half the energy in studying Jesus and abiding in Him and walking faithfully and pouring into our families and the people God put in our life, if we spent half the time that we spend thinking on worldly philosophies into that, we would be so much better off.

And I would say, just be careful. What is the spear? The tip of the spear for Christianity. Jesus.

Amen.

Jesus dying on the cross for forgiveness for our sins. The redemption. So we could be right with God and have direct relationship with God. The Father. Amen. Yeah. So then if somebody’s communication, if isn’t about the tip of the spear as the predominant thing to talk about, then you have to sometimes wonder what there are evangelizing. And so here, first Corinthians 119 says, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

I love.

That. So God is making foolish look left and right. Let’s just take a pause for a moment. All the foolishness being revealed left and right. You’re thinking of the things, right? Whatever you’re aware of. So all this foolishness, the smartest PhDs, the smartest scientists, the smartest perceived to be smart politicians or leaders in the world, and one after another falling to foolishness once truth is revealed. Now, when we go to spiritual matters, we want to be for our kids, not the foolish. We don’t want our kids to be raised and then look back and go, Wow. Our parents were always changing what they believed about the Bible. Our parents.

Were.

Arguing about which Bible to use. Our our parents were, you know, constantly berating every church they went to. And there was never a church good enough for them.

You know, I have a scripture about that one. I mean, if if you go to first Corinthians chapter one, I’m not going to read from it today. But if you go there, Paul is literally exhorting the Church of Corinth for their divisions. And he’s like, Why? And he he says, I’m glad that I didn’t baptize you because you can’t be baptized in my name is Christ divided like guys who we are. Focus needs to be on Jesus Christ, period. That is the savior of our soul. Not any of these theologians, not any of these pastors or megachurch pastors that have awesome entertainment and ability. They’re eloquent with words. I’m sorry. It’s it’s about Jesus Christ. It’s about building his kingdom. Romans Chapter 16, verse 17 says, I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles. Contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught, avoid them.

You have been taught. What does that quantitate? That parents were teaching? And it was a normal practice for parents to teach their kids to disciple their kids. It’s not it wasn’t a reference to the pastor, although pastors are super useful, super important, and that’s great parents. You’re with them every day. So abide in what you’ve been taught, right? Listen to that.

And trust God with it.

Don’t move away from what you’ve been taught. Don’t you want that from your kids? But if they see us shifting.

And wavering as what is the Bible say, like wind.

And if we’re allowing our kids to be influenced by shifty Christians, that’s a new word, I think shifty Christians.

Or shifting Christians, that’s a new.

Terminology. Now, it’s okay to have some new understanding about doctrine that is accurate. We’re not saying.

Growing, we’re.

All growing, but we’re saying don’t just be you need to present it with confidence and make sure you’re not creating doubt and confusion as you’re making those changes and you’re really doing an exhaustive Y on these things with biblical truth and you’re going through it and it’s okay to be growing. Yes. But we’re talking about not getting extra biblical and buying into philosophy, philosophies. And then ask yourself, what if one of these philosophies is partially correct?

Those are the most dangerous.

What is but what is the fruit of the conversation? I always ask myself, what is the fruit of this? What? Why is this so important?

Does this change if we’re saved or not? And if someone’s coming at it from this perspective, as if it does, then they’ve made an idol out of that philosophy when in reality, Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins is what saved us from our sins.

Hey, we brought this up because we’re seeing a pervasive. This isn’t like, you know, someone we ran into. This isn’t this. This is a we get a lot of feedback because we do an online ministry. So a lot of messages. We have to be courageous apps, a lot of really candid, transparent conversations in there and questions and so forth. There is a pervasive attack by the enemy amongst Christians to distort the truth, get extra biblical and get people down rabbit holes in a direction that is not about the most important things the Bible says.

And so it’s a distraction. It’s simply just a distraction, and it’s a tactic of the enemy. And so we need to be aware of this verse, John. Chapter two says, Let what you heard from the beginning in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the sun and in the father. And this is the promise that he made to us eternal life, really, that like at the end of the day, during our conversations at church specifically, like if we’re going to church and we’re gathering as a church to glorify God, to learn more about him, to worship him, to honor him, to fan the flames and exercise the spiritual gifts that God’s given us for the edification of the whole body. If, if those are like the reasons why we go to church, then why would we get on topics that are not going to have eternal life as the end thing that we are thanking God for?

And I’m concerned about this next generation. If parents are being shifty and entertaining strange directions, it’s a little concerning. It is about the next generation.

Both of us. The first John chapter two continues in verse 26. It says, I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you, but the anointing that you received from him abides in you and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught, you abide in him. He’s talking about the Word of God here. This is what teaches us. If it’s not in the Word of God, then we don’t need to be focusing on it specifically regarding salvation and different teachings.

I love this. You have no need that anyone should teach you. Now that’s not saying we shouldn’t learn biblical truth from other people and so forth. What this is saying, it’s saying people without the Holy Spirit. Actually, if you read this whole first, John is talking about the Holy Spirit and it’s saying, Hey, beware of people that don’t have the Holy Spirit and are teaching you things. And literally. So what does that mean now for our children? Are we putting them in situations where people without the Holy Spirit are teaching them things, just something to think about? Go look at first John, chapter two starting 24 down and read it for yourself because it literally says that. It says you have no need that anyone should teach you.

It’s interesting because as we are talking about and bringing some of these scriptures to you guys, you might go, why is it that my pastor hasn’t preached on this before? And I just would encourage you like guys, you have to be the protectors of your family, but also the disciples of your family. You have to bring these scriptures to your kids so that your legacy is preserved, not your legacy, but really God’s legacy that He’s commanded you to leave with your kids. Because the truth is, is if you’re if you’re teaching your kids about Jesus and you’re discipling them, are they also understanding that they, too, are going to need to do that with their children one day? Are you developing that kind of relationship with them, where they’re going to come back to you? They’re going to want you to be influencing their kids. We need to be thinking multigenerational about this when we talk about like who we are getting influenced by and who is influencing our kids. We should never be going and getting wisdom from people who are being led astray by other people. Like we need to look at the fruit in their life and go, Are they the kind of Christians that believe the Bible has it all just the Bible? Or are they the kind of Christians that have to go to other people and go to other books and go to their doc like they know we need to bring it back to the things that God has taught us from the beginning. And when He says the beginning, He’s talking about the first five books of the Bible. When God tells Moses to command the Israelites, he’s saying, Teach what I have commanded. You teach this. Teach me to your kids. This is it, guys. It’s not hard. It’s actually very simple when you just obey in this very this this kind of way.

So we don’t want to have tickling of the ears, constantly looking for new revelation and things like that. It’s good to learn. We’re not saying don’t learn. We’re all for reading books and so forth. But let’s not be shifty parents in front of our kids and let’s not lead them down paths that are just not fruitful. How do we want to spend our time and our mind space? We want to spend it in a way that’s most fruitful. Amen.

And I think there’s also this element of trust, like recognizing that if we do that, what are we doing for our kids? We’re actually helping them to trust God more. If we are shifty, then our kids are not going to trust God as much, actually. And we we need to understand, like the Bible even warns us. I think it’s Matthew Chapter six where he says It would be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and thrown into the depths of the sea than to lead one of these little ones astray. You guys, that is a big responsibility for parents. We do not want to be leading our kids astray. We don’t want to be leading them into unnecessary questioning. There’s a difference between a healthy questioning of their faith and making their faith their own and an unhealthy questioning because their their parents are like the waves of the sea tossed to and fro by every kind of doctrine and philosophy that is worldly. We need to be strong.

And when people become confident in their extra biblical direction, what starts to happen is an elitism. They start to believe they’re more enlightened, and it becomes very difficult to communicate about just believing and what the Bible says. And so just realize that and that might be frustrating in some of your relationships. That might be frustrating some of your friendships, but you really have to think about and look at what are the relationships that are drawing my kids closer to God, building confidence and biblical truth, and what our relationships that are not doing that for myself or my kids. Right. And you just have to entertain that. You have to think about that in these uncertain times. And when there’s open access, which is wonderful to all kinds of information and all, anybody can be a leader and influencer now and just put information out there with great editing and cherry picking scriptures. You can make all kinds of things.

You have to be so discerning.

You have to be so discerning. Like it’s so weird. The things I see, it’s like, okay, there’s aliens on Mars. Now here’s a picture like this. Things that come through my feed. Sometimes I’m like, Okay.

This.

All right, there is Photoshop, everybody. Hello. So, hey, we so appreciate you being here and part of the journey with us. This is a little different of an episode, but something burning on our hearts. We’d love to hear from you if this was something you needed to hear, because that always encourages us. Reviews on Courageous Parenting and iTunes and all that stuff is super helpful to keep the podcast up there with the algorithms working. So that’s.

Right. We’ll see you next time, guys. Hey, thanks for listening to this episode. For more resources, go to courageous parenting and courageous mom dot com for free online workshops, blog posts and best selling courses. 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 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 where we cover everything from obedience training to overcoming mistakes most Christians are making. But more than that, it’s a supportive community. You’ll have access to our private online group, Live Webcasts, and the courageous parenting text message line where Angie and I can send you weekly encouragement straight to your phone.

If you’re interested in joining our next online parenting mentor program, secure your spot now at CourageousParenting.com

Written By Angie Tolpin
Angie has been married to Isaac for 19 years and together they have eight children, whom she homeschools. She is the Founder of CourageousMom.com, a doula, the author of the best-selling book Redeeming Childbirth, and the creator of the first ever Christian Postpartum Course. Angie loves ministering to Women and has created a few online Bible Studies on Biblical Friendship and Motherhood.

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