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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 18. And it doesn’t have to be this way. It shouldn’t be this way.

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Or even if you purchase courses and 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.

History.org join us as we start another important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world. Hey, welcome to the show, everybody.

Hey, guys.

So glad you’re here. Appreciate you being part of the ministry of the 10 Million Legacies movement. Please go check out all that’s happening at Be Courageous Ministries. Org make sure you’re on our email list. We’re constantly thinking about how can we help and send good things out to people. And also if you want to support the ministry, you can there too.

Hey, I also wanted to just say something. So this last Sunday was our first our church’s first Sunday. Oh my goodness. Unbelievable.

We’re allowed to get personal, right?

Okay. Yeah. This is just going to be a little personal moment for a second. Many of you guys have been following our journey of where, you know, the last 25 years we’ve been married. It almost. I hate to say this because I know God has a big plan. Big plan with this, and this is about him. But for our own personal journeys with the Lord, I feel like we’re arriving to this place that God’s been preparing us for all along. Even though we were like, there was definitely purpose in all of that. It just was like, incredible. I’m excited. I’m scared. I’m I have all these mixed emotions. I have more respect for pastors wives or church planters wives now than more than I’ve ever had before. I’m learning so much that I did not know.

Yeah. I mean, it’s been crazy. You guys know we’ve done home church and, you know, preparing full sermons and, you know, a lot of things involved with that, all of those things that are in the bigger church. But there is something to when lots of people are involved. And 164 came to the first Sunday. That’s way more incredible than we even imagined. So we were.

Shocked in a good way. They had.

To roll up the back of the tent and.

Bust open a wall.

The walls, all chairs used standing room only. Not enough communion for everyone. Uh, of course that’ll all be fixed for this Sunday. But yes. Amazing. Wow.

I know, it’s just incredible. Another church came alongside us too. After that, an elder came from another church and and said, hey, we want to support this church plant.

And just in time so we can expand the tent.

Yep. It’s going to have to get bigger. I’m excited for it too. That’s gonna be awesome. Anyway, we just wanted to give you guys an update because we want to say thank you for praying for the church rooted Bible Church. You can find it at rooted Bible.org and just be praying. We’re working hard on all things. Be courageous ministry and the church. And it’s fun.

It is fun and it’s incredible to see what God’s doing. Of course, that’s my part time thing. Be courageous. Ministry is my full time thing. Yes. As I was making my to do list this morning, it was interesting. I’m like, okay, I need to separate this out. We got church to do list. We’ve got be courageous Ministry to do list. Of course there’s way more on the be courageous ministry side. But it is it is interesting. So what’s cool about that. And you can take this to whatever with your own churches is that, you know, there’s a lot of pieces behind the scenes that are happening. And serving is so important. It has to do with today’s episode, but serving is so important. In doing it as a family is so important. But there’s more work than I think everybody may realize. I think I’m waking up to that fact of how much work goes into church and all the things behind the scenes.

Specifically, planting a church is different.

Make no assumptions that when in your church, if everything’s looking like it’s going great and all these things, it doesn’t mean you’re not needed. And and being needed is part of being part of the body of Christ. And we’re just experiencing once again, how important it is as a family to be serving. And you might serve differently than we are because we all have different gifts. But serving is so important, which is today’s topic.

So today’s topic, we went back and forth between two different titles, but we’re essentially talking about this concept of like raising your family and cultivating a culture that is about serving God together and not just serving God together, but also that they would really like that that seed would be planted in your kids hearts, where they have a desire to want to build God’s kingdom. Right? And so we want to ask you guys a question are your kids learning to build God’s kingdom? However that may look, which is exciting. This is a big conversation because it doesn’t look one way and everybody has different gifts. And we’re going to talk about that today. But before we do, we wanted to just give a shout out to one of our awesome sponsors, Master Books.com forward slash Courageous. You can go there and find out more about them. But today I wanted to highlight something. You guys, if you’ve been listening to the podcast, you know I’ve been ranting and raving about their homeschool curriculum. We love it. We’re using it with our high schoolers, with our middle schooler, with our eight year old and five year old. We’re using some of the things kindergartner’s going through everything. Um, but did you know that they have books? They have a whole, like, portion of their website is devoted to books.

And I, I wanted to share this with you because they’re content. They’re a publishing company. So they’re the number one publisher for Ken Ham for Answers in Genesis. We’ve told you that before, but they have a whole bunch of other authors that they also publish their books as well and sell their books. And one of them, I didn’t realize that they were. It was bankruptcy of our nation. I read this probably five, ten years ago. It’s like a survival guide for financial wisdom. It is so good. I actually required my older kids to read this during high school for financial literacy. And so I just wanted to pinpoint like that there’s a whole selection. It looks like hundreds of books. There’s a few I want like ten things a minister’s wife needs to know. I need that book. You need the one that says ten things a minister needs to know. Yeah, yeah, but there’s a whole bunch in there. There’s stuff for parents of teenagers, of girl teenagers specifically. And then there’s one here that says it’s called remote control. The Power of Hollywood in today’s on today’s culture.

Yeah. So good stuff.com/courageous. That’s right. Make sure you add the courageous on. So important. Hey, let’s dive in. So, um, we, uh, are so excited to talk about the power of serving as a family, no matter how old your children are. This is vital. Think way. Fast forward for a second. We don’t know what the world’s going to be like. Exactly. But when your kids are older. But fast forward for a second. And do you want your children to be part of a biblically sound church? Do you want your children to be part of that body or just in a tender on Sunday? Do you want your children, when they’re older, to be running the race with other Christians that go to that church? And do you want them to serve and use their gifts to know what their gifts are, and to use those gifts for the glory of God? Of course you can do that outside of the church. Absolutely. Lots of ways to do that. Most of my life. I’ve done lots of that outside of the church and some of it in the church. But what do you want for your children? And then the question comes back to what are they seeing happening today. Mhm. And are they seeing it.

That’s right. Are they seeing it on a daily basis. Not just on Sunday mornings. Right. And I think that that’s part of like our heart for even with the church plant has been like oh that we’d be running the race during the week and recognizing people from church and being a part of this bigger community, which is part of like, I want to I want to share that vision with you because wherever you are in the world, like, who is your biblical community and are you running the race with each other, or are you only seeing each other on Sundays? It shouldn’t be that way. We need that encouragement to continue running the race that God has set before us, whatever that race is, because we all have different lanes that we’re in, right? But all for the glory of God. Matthew 513 through 16 says, you’re the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand. And it gives light to all of the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to the father who is in heaven.

Let’s not forget the very last part of that sentence. See your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. This is the thing when we’re as Christians, when we’re when we’re working, we should be doing it diligently as unto the Lord. Not for our eyes, not as people pleasers like that we see in Ephesians chapter four and Ephesians six, but instead our heart should be to just serve the Lord and build his kingdom. But this is even saying that so other people see it and they glorify your God in heaven. That’s the whole point, is that people would be glorifying God in heaven, that they would be challenged and exhorted by the way we’re living our lives to be more purposeful and intentional in building God’s kingdom, not their kingdom. Right. And so our number one like mission statement, or if there was like four points that we’re going to kind of cover in today’s podcast, the first one is mission like, are you as a family on mission together for God but also are you. That starts first with the parents, like each individual. Are you on mission for God? Is your marriage on mission for God? And then it goes on to is your family on mission for God?

It takes doing things to discover things. If you’re not doing things, you don’t discover what your gifts are. Some things you try and do for the Lord may not be in your gifting, and it’s uncomfortable and it’s awkward. And maybe you don’t continue down that path, but you’re learning and your children need to learn that too. And so serving is a wonderful way for children to learn. You know, how to do that and how to learn things. So we have right here in Matthew 633 but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So that’s got to be the number one mission of our families. Not just said, not just heard on Sunday, but heard from the dad, heard from the mom, and who are the most important influencers in their lives. And we have to take that baton that God has given us to and insert ourselves the one of the biggest flaws in leadership. If you read the business books is leaders underestimate the value of their influence. They underestimate the power of their influence. They underestimate how powerful their words are on a daily basis. So then what happens is they don’t carefully choose their words because they’re just going through the motions. Just, hey, we’re just trying to get dinner done. Hey, we’re just trying to get them to bed. Hey, we’re just trying to get to church on Sunday.

Hey, we’re just trying. We’re just trying to. It might feel like survive. And I want to challenge you in how maybe you’re spending your time. Because if it is just a feeling of survival, we might need to to think about, okay, where are there opportunities to spend our time better? Where are there opportunities to be more efficient so that we can be a little more calculated in how we use our words, how we use our influence, and using our influence? Maybe we need to carve out some time to have a marriage date, and to really talk about how are we using our words in alignment, right. And if you want help with that, the Courageous Parenting program at Courageous Parenting.com is the answer. It is incredible. The Bible is the answer, but it is incredible. It goes through a lot of Scripture. Powerful because really, men and women are so different and we have to come together. But if you don’t have a tool to come together on, it becomes challenging, because we get in a rut of communication that’s hard to break out of, onto a better road, and to get out of that rut onto a better road. Sometimes you need tools to do that. God had us create an incredible tool to do that. So I just want to make sure you knew about that.

Yeah, I think also when it comes to getting in alignment as parents, when you’re trying to come up like as a couple, as a married couple, when you’re a visionary together and you’re sitting and you’re planning out what, what is the mission that we want our kids to remember? Like when they look back on their childhood, what do we want them to walk away with? Remembering the most? Obviously, every parent wants their kids to have good, fun memories of their childhood, but there’s other things that are more eternal that we should also be focused on leaving as an inheritance with our kids, those spiritual inheritances. What are we leaving with our kids? Are we leaving them with this seed that’s planted in their heart of selflessness, of servanthood, of wanting to fulfill the purpose that God created them for? Do they even know what the purpose is that God created them for? And understanding that while there may be individual, unique purposes that every person has, and that’s a beautiful thing. That’s something we want to like individually, call out in our children and encourage them on. And we’re going to talk about that in the next point, in just a second, about how we all have different gifts. But understanding that there’s a collective calling that God has called all of his people to. And as each individual, a husband and a wife, understanding that we are a team, but we’re also a team of the body of Christ. We’re a team. We’re God’s people. We’re his children. We have brothers and sisters. We have spiritual segregate big sisters and spiritual mothers. In a sense, with the Titus two ministries and understanding that God has called us all to be activated with the Holy Spirit pursuing the Great Commission, that’s something all Christians are called to.

But what does that look like individually could be slightly different, right? Yeah. And so let’s just read that scripture together really quick. I think that this is super powerful. It’s in Matthew chapter 28. We’ve read this so many times, but today, something else stood out to me that was a little bit different. Yeah, let’s hear it. So verses 16 through 20 is a great commission Scripture, right? So just after, just before this, Jesus resurrected that he appeared to the disciples. And it was this, like mysterious time, right, Isaac? There’s some of the disciples are in shock. They’re all excited, but some are doubting and struggling also. Right. And then here’s the deal. So now the 11 disciples went to Galilee and to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. So Jesus had told them to go to the specific mountain. And when they saw him, they worshiped him. But some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of age. We have read this scripture specifically 18 through 20 a million times. I bet that it’s in at least 200 episodes in the Courageous Parenting Podcast, just relating to different topics over and over and over again. But you know what hit me today? When when I was reading it.

I can’t wait for you to share. It’s so cool.

It’s in verse 17 right before Jesus says to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. It says some doubted. And when they saw him and worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, he didn’t say to the ones that weren’t doubting, he said to all of them, go and make disciples. So here’s the thing. This is why I want to share this with you. Some of your kids may not be believers, yet. Some of your kids may be struggling and doubting with different aspects of faith. You know what the answer is? Jesus gives it to us right here. Serve. Serve. Go and make disciples. Start sharing the good news and the truth. And he’s really clear about what is supposed to happen. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

Well, what’s the best way to learn something? What’s the best way to embrace something more deeply is to teach it. When you teach something.

You learn it more, you.

Learn it more, and you discover more and you consider it more. And if your children are being raised up in a way where they’re doing things that are teaching or helping or serving or being around people that are teaching, being around the church, that it’s becoming on their heart in a stronger way. God is able to use that, so it equips them.

It’s kind of like, you know, I was thinking about gardening and just having the kids in the garden with me and all the things that they are learning without me sitting with a textbook, teaching them how to do something. They’re like experiencing it, right? Their hands are in the dirt. They’re there. Mom is saying, this is a squash bug. We need to vacuum up every single one of these. Here you go. Can you do this? This is a hornworm. Let’s go get the flashlights and go find them. This is what they look like. You know what I mean? Like the experiences that we have had with the kids. It teaches them the gardening skills so that that’s a life skill that they have. They’re never going to forget what hornworms are. They’re never going to forget about the need for what is happening to a tomato when there’s black underneath, and that they need to add calcium like baking soda to it. Right? Like there’s these different things that the kids have been learning over the years just by way of being with me in the garden. And I want to share this with you, because guess what? If you’re bringing your kids along with you as you’re going to serve in your church and you’re, let’s say you’re even cleaning up the property and you’re weeding and you’re doing maintenance stuff from all of that to sitting in the back of the room while you’re leading a Bible study, Steady. Your kids are learning. It is not in vain. It is 100%. They are literally experiencing God alongside of you. Which goes back. I’m sorry I didn’t even think of this. Deuteronomy six. How many times have we brought that scripture into podcast to teach them? When you rise, when you sit, when you lie, when you walk. That’s what you’re doing.

Always be teaching them. Always be pointing them to Jesus. And that’s what you possibly can. Yes. It’s not these events. You know, I said in church yesterday, it’s it’s it’s not about programs. It’s about people. You know, it’s people over programs. Not that there will never be a program, but we have to be careful not to rely on events, but instead to equip parents, to equip adults to be there for their children. If the family is strong, the church is strong. If the church is strong, the family is strong. But it goes both ways. Yeah.

No, you’re totally right. And you know, as we’re looking at this, this first point of mission being on mission together. Yeah. Um, one of the questions you and I were discussing as we were preparing today was that question of, are you building your kingdom or are you building God’s kingdom? And I think that this has been, um, a topic for like, influencers online a lot, right? Especially Christian influencers. You want to make sure that you’re building God’s kingdom. Um, when we started Be Courageous Ministry, it was not about us. It was about it was about building God’s kingdom. And part of that was this motivation of like our hearts were heavy for parents out there, biblical parenting today because we’re seeing like a lack of that being taught in churches, for sure. Um, oftentimes feeling alone in the race, we’ve had seasons where we’ve felt alone. We’ve had seasons where we’ve been walking strong with a lot of other people who are being intentional parents, too. And that’s been really encouraging. Um, but understanding that it’s all under. It’s all under the the main vision of building God’s kingdom. And I think that for people who are not influencers, this is a huge this is a huge question to ask. Like, do my kids see me doing what I’m doing, whether I’m a garbage man or a pastor, but doing it to build God’s kingdom? Yes. Do my kids get are they going to leave our home with the heart of wanting to build God’s kingdom and contributing in whatever way God has for them to contribute, whether that’s like, oh, I have this side hobby of playing guitar.

So I’m going to be I’m going to contribute to the to the worship team. Or is it that I know how to keep a property tidy, and I’m going to come with my leaf blower and I’m gonna come with my chainsaw and trim up the trees like our our neighbors did just a couple days ago. You guys, like, one of our boys was down there helping them, but we had a neighbor and another guy that’s coming to church, and we just said, there’s cleanup that needs to get done. Can you guys help with this like haul? And they went down there and they went above and beyond. They did. I saw I saw Dave up there with the chainsaw and or clippers and he is trimming up the tree and I’m like, we didn’t even ask for that. Like all to God’s glory to be a light to the community of we’re going to keep this property cleaned up. And like I go, I say to myself, it’s the members who all have the giftings. God impresses things on their hearts and they just go do it. That is building the kingdom. Yeah, actually.

What needs to be done? What could be done even better? How could the church help these kinds of things and bringing your family into the fold with that? You know, it might take some prayer. It might take some thinking through talking through. It might take talking to another family. Maybe there’s some way to help the community, and maybe you’re probably you. Many of you are already doing these things and our hat goes off to you. But maybe think about how to involve the kids even more, right?

Kids can pull weeds.

How to involve them. You know, I can’t wait to wait for 0.4. It’s my favorite point. No, no, we’re not there yet. We’re not there.

Yet. Okay, let’s go to point two. It says, you know, one of the things we were talking about earlier with you guys is this idea that it’s going to look unique, right? That God has a unique calling on each person’s life in in regards to the gifts we read in first Corinthians 12 and in Ephesians that the Holy Spirit distributes the gifts amongst the body for the edification of the whole. Right. We also know that I’ll be honest, there are many things I’m just not good at, and there are other things that I’m better at. And I am really just so taken back and overjoyed and just kind of sitting like I was thinking about this earlier. I’m in awe, like after church on Sunday. Oh yeah. I’m in awe of the giftedness of some of my sisters in Christ and what they’re contributing and helping with it wants. I literally want to cry. Just even just saying this out loud because I can’t do it on my own.

Steve and I realized that we were getting too comfortable with the world’s vision of how to raise our.

Children, what Angie.

And Isaac have done in creating this is literally phenomenal.

This program provided awesome scripture based teachings and just some really great practical applications.

This class has just really rocked my world.

It has given me a vision for not just the different things that we might focus on as parents who are trying to raise our kids biblically, like how our kids are behaving or what we’re doing with discipline, but also the things of the heart.

We now have a game plan to how we want to raise our children. We have so many answers to the questions that have been in our mind.

It’s not just these hypothetical situations or it’s not just this. Here’s what I think you should do. It’s let me show you where in Scripture this is, do.

Your legacy a favor and your self a favor and just do it.

One of the best things that we’ve done this year, one of the best investments we’ve made this year, and I could not recommend it more.

We’re no longer fearing dark days ahead, but we’re so excited to raise lights to be leaders for the next generation.

Oh, I was in awe just watching as too many people came for this big tent. 1200 square foot tent. Commercial grade. Huge tent. And they start putting chairs on the outside of the wall.

In faith that even more people were.

Coming, people would come and another gentleman comes up who had never met before and says, I’ve been praying. This is before everybody got there. I’ve been praying that there would be too many people to fit in this tent today. Really? And I’m like, wow, really? And then and then another gentleman was like, I think we’re gonna have too many for the tent. So we start setting up chairs outside of the tent and there’s a tent wall. And then what we’ll do when more people come is we’ll roll up the tent. And then it got even better. Then I have this video I just posted on the on on the Rooted Bible Church Instagram, on a story on Facebook of of the guys rising to the occasion and lined up across the back of the tent, rolling it together in synchrony, so that everybody else could see in all those chairs would be accessible to all being one together as we experience the service. So it was just beautiful.

It was crazy. But to, to really like, understand that building the kingdom is about God and His his name being magnified and people knowing him. And it’s about the Great Commission. But on the individual level, each of the little things that we do, whether we’re bringing something to potluck or we’re giving baskets to be used for communion, or we donate something for the little kid’s fingers to keep them busy. Like so many people, so many hands and feet on the ground, the AV setup, the sound system, the moving things. There was so much that went into a Sunday. You know, it.

Was interesting to. Sorry to interrupt, but it was interesting too, was we didn’t talk about giving one time. No I didn’t. It wasn’t in my sermon. It wasn’t in the service and people gave. There was an offering box. I didn’t even say where it was. And people gave and another church gave and and.

Now that’s great because we can. Lord willing, we can expand the tent for next week a little bit.

I’ve been all volunteer so far. There’s no no staff. People are getting paid.

Which is a lot of work. So we can be praying for that because we definitely it is a lot of work. And even the volunteers that are helping, we’re so grateful for them. But they’re working hard. I mean, even our friend, our new friend who’s coming to the church was up till three working on slides the night before for the sermon. And, you know, it’s because literally every day there’s so much that we’re doing, we’re just we’re working, you know, but what we’re seeing, I.

Think why we’re bringing it back to the topic is why we’re bringing this up in today’s episode is because we always want to be fresh and teaching you what we’re learning to in real time. And this just happened yesterday. We’re shooting this the Monday after the Sunday. This comes out on Tuesday. And, um, it’s just it’s just.

It’s so powerful, you guys. Even our kids like seeing the kids being involved with it. I came in, I came in here to shoot the podcast I want Isaac. I don’t want this episode to be about the church. I want like.

But that was the impact. Our children, what it’s doing to our family.

What we’re doing to our family is like, we’re it’s like we’re on a missions trip together and they’re.

All into it and they’re so fired.

Up. They’re all serving. And it’s but it’s here in our hometown. And it’s like, what can you guys do to build the kingdom together where you are? I mean, I feel like this is part of the legacy. Yeah, that we’re all called to leave with our kids. This is an eternal inheritance from the Lord. It’s not about your lives. It’s not about how much money you’re leaving them. Because wrath, rust, and moth will destroy those things. They will burn with the earth. But to understand that when you are planting seeds in your kids hearts, and they’re experiencing being part of the body of Christ. And they can’t forget that. And they desire that later in their life. I’m not promising that they’re always going to be faithful to following God, because that’s a personal journey between them and the Lord as they grow up. But it’s part of our command from God as parents to teach our kids God’s commands. And one of his commands is to go and make disciples of all nations, and love your neighbor and take care of the needy and the poor and all of those things. And I just I’m sorry, I’m overwhelmed.

But you know, what’s interesting about these unprecedented times is that when there’s challenges, when we experience challenges in society, it’s when we take less for granted and and we start helping each other again. Yeah. And people start seeing the value in having deep relationships because they need each other again. And so there is a flip side to challenge, which is people start banding together again. And I would just say proactively be doing that now because we believe it’s going to be even more important very shortly down the road. Yes.

Colossians 323. Sorry. 323. You guys have heard this. You probably have it memorized. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. That kind of wraps up like those first two, those first two points of being on mission together. What is the mission? Build God’s kingdom, not your kingdom. What inheritance are you leaving for your children? Spiritual inheritance is the only thing that is eternal. Yeah it is. That’s why we’ve said when we’ve had babies, we’re building treasures in heaven. Right? And to understand that when you’re sharing and you’re giving a Bible to someone, that’s part of the seed of building a treasure in heaven, that evangelism, the going to making disciples that’s building treasures in heaven. And what can you do as a believer in your community, in your neighborhood, in your church, to help build God’s kingdom. Is it supporting your pastor because they need prayer. They need support. They need encouragement. Is it actually mopping the floors or cleaning the toilets at your church? Is it running a mom’s ministry and touching the hearts? Is it leading Bible studies? Is it writing a Bible study? It might be.

Hospitality.

Oh yes.

Inviting people in your home. We’re not trying to put burdens on anybody because everybody’s in different seasons. You might have just had a baby. You might have, you know, four young children in your home. There’s seasons, right, for serving in different ways. But but maybe it’s making a meal for someone. Maybe it’s having someone over and not being so concerned about your house and things like that. But be concerned about relationships. Relationships over cleanliness.

That’s right. Okay, so let’s wrap up this, this section on like how we all have different gifts. Obviously we want to read from the Bible, Romans chapter 12, another passage of Scripture. We’ve quoted a ton here. And be courageous or the Courageous Parenting Podcast. You know we usually are sharing the ones that say verse one of chapter 12, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That’s. And then it talks about discerning, testing, and discerning what is the will of God, the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. But listen to this verse three. It says, for the by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. So God’s assigned measures of faith keep listening. Verse four. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. Did you hear that? Not everybody’s supposed to be a pastor. Not everybody is supposed to be a greeter. Not everybody is supposed to be fill in the blank maintenance.

We all have different functions. Verse five. So we though many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. This is exactly what we’re talking about. There’s a collective calling. And then we all have unique individual callings, right? Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Let him. Let us use them if prophecy in proportion to your faith. If service in serving the one who teaches in his teaching. The one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal. The one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. I’m going to stop there, even though verse nine. No I’m not. Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil, and hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Anyways, I. This scripture just it touches me so deeply because we experienced that in such a tangible way with so many different people actively working. And there’s something special about how that serving together builds stronger relationships, which is point three of today’s podcast. Like why we’re saying, are your kids learning how to build the kingdom? The thing is, is if they experience the depth of what it looks like when they’re invested, when you serve, your heart is invested. That’s just how it is. You know, one of my favorite.

Parts of yesterday was the people that stayed after and just cleaning up everything together.

That was your favorite part?

I think it was one of my favorite parts. That’s awesome. Which is strange. Normally that’s strange. Normally that wouldn’t be my favorite part, but it was just like, okay. I was like, we’re doing something together. And people, nobody had to be asked.

It was interesting. It was just cool. Okay, you guys have to know something like. So Isaac, Isaac’s an introvert. Yeah. And he gets tired around people. I was shocked after yesterday that you came home and you sat on the sofa in our room, and the little boys go, daddy, you want to play a game? He goes, yeah, let’s go play a game. And he goes out and starts playing games with the little kids. I’m like, I need a nap. And he usually needs a nap.

Well, I did, I could barely keep my eyes open, but there was something.

But you had a different energy about you. That’s true. And I think that when you are living on purpose and you’re fulfilling God’s calling in your life, God sustains you in a different kind of way. Not that you’re not going to be tired in the future, and I don’t have that expectation of you every week. It’s okay to be tired, but I think that there’s something so energizing about serving together and building it is stronger relationships. And so when your family is serving together and you’re serving with other families in the body of Christ, like you build stronger relationships and then those relationships are invested in, but you’re doing it all for God together. That’s why it’s like so the bonds that you have with people, if you’ve ever been on like a missions trip, like a short term missions trip, I did 12 of them when I was in junior high and high school and college, and every time I went on it, I came back closer and more committed to the church. But I was closer to those people, the other people who I served with. That was like the eternal. There was this eternal bond, right? Like we built houses together. We were in the dirt together. You know, we saw each other with no makeup, like, because we were we were in Mexico. We were working hard, you know, and being through.

Something together.

And serving God together and watching God move and witnessing it together. You witness the miracles together and you’re like, how did that just happen? And we just experienced that with our kids.

And I think it’s better that families do it together than one person from the family going and doing it without them.

And then they grow and they come back and they’re like, oh, you don’t know me. I felt that way. I felt that way as a teenager. When I went away and I came back, I was like, even to my parents. I remember thinking, they don’t understand. They’ve never done this. They don’t know me. They weren’t with me. They didn’t experience what I experienced. And it almost created a little bit of like because because it is hard to acknowledge the spiritual growth in your child’s life if you haven’t experienced it with them or seen them grow. But also, kids know that they’ve grown. But it’s hard to explain in words the spiritual growth that you experience in something like that. So when you as a family are serving God together in whatever capacity, taking care of the widow next door and mowing your lawn together and taking her meal or whatever it is you like, grow together and you acknowledge that growth.

Some people might be having a struggle with this, because maybe a certain vocation the dad has makes it hard to do things together to add anything into it. And I get that. I’ve had seasons like that. You know what? I gave a resolute man a podcast episode where it was just me on that particular episode. I can’t remember the name, but it was recently where I talked about, maybe you need to re-orientate your life. Maybe you need to re-orientate what you do. What are the priorities? What else is possible? How could life look different? How could a family look different? How could living somewhere else look different? You know. Sometimes we believe we start believing that there’s no other way. This is the path. This is the way I provide. This is your things. And I just. My experience is that you got to leave that your hands open and you’re not giving something up. I gave up an unbelievable career. I was an independent contractor, but it was like a career and unbelievable income, unbelievable freedom, unbelievable opportunity. And I’m so glad I did. God sometimes wants to disrupt what’s good for what’s better. Just like on the vineyard, you have to prune half the fruit off so all the energy goes into some fruit to make it worthy of doing something good. And so it’s the same thing. Sometimes we have good things, but what’s God’s best things? And sometimes we have to recalibrate. We have to think about and be willing to risk in a obedience to God. Maybe God’s calling your heart a little bit in a direction, it’s hard to see how that’s possible. It may take a couple of years, but if you don’t start being open to that possibility today and praying about it, you’re you’re not orientating your life in a way that could create the change, even if it takes two years.

You know what I also thought of when you were sharing? That was so good. Thanks. But I also remember those years, 14 years of our 25 years of marriage, where you were working as an independent contractor, but you we were always on purpose to glorify God in that and to witness. And I just want to put that out there too. Maybe God doesn’t have you leaving, but he has your heart shifting towards being open to being more evangelistic, more hospitable. Yeah. Um, being willing to go out on a limb and ask people, what’s your purpose in life?

And I do want to say, though, there is a challenge. Yes. Amen. Amen. And that works in a lot of cases. But as I think back to what I was doing, that would be impossible today. The way the world has changed for me to do it in the same way I was doing it back then. I would have had to be even more held back. I would have had to be.

More.

Careful. I would have been more muzzled in that environment because of how the population has changed and what people are allowed to talk about. Because you know what things I talk about impacted other teams around Washington, Oregon, and and those managers and their livelihood. And so if I said something that offended anybody on their team, that would have hurt their business, right. And so I think about when I used to use Scripture in front of a thousand young adults on a stage today, I don’t know, I really question, I really question if I would have been able to even do that today because my managers would have been starting to lose people, or not wanting people to come to those events, and that would hurt their business. So there’s a real that we are living in different times. There is a difference. So we have to think about, am I being muzzled to a level that is preventing me from doing all that God wants me to do. That’s a good question.

It is a good question. And I think that that is a huge witness to your children because they’re watching you, right? Like your sons are watching you choose, um, what’s more eternal over what’s more earthly in some cases, right. In some in certain situations. Like, you never want to compromise. You never want to compromise your faith or what God has called you to do as a Christian. Um, for a job. Right. And so, but, but but a lot of times there isn’t a compromise. So. But only you know that deep inside your heart. Know that we’re praying for you guys. In Philippians chapter two verse four, it says, well, verse three says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each one of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. I think that at the end of the day, you know, this is a scriptural exhortation, guidance, command from the Lord that he’s saying, Christian, living Christians, this is how you should be operating in your relationships with other people. Be selfless. Don’t think about yourself. And when you’re serving together, that is something that your kids are learning. They’re exercising a muscle. It’s a muscle. They’re you’re watering a seed, a seed of selflessness and servant heartedness, serving others that has been planted in their hearts. And guess what? Every fleshly human nature desire in them is going to fight against that spiritual character quality seed that you are trying to put in your child.

And throughout their life there will be temptation over and over and over again for them to be pulled back into being selfish, to be. They’re going to be tempted to be selfish. They’re going to be told, no, it’s okay to care about yourself. How does what do you feel like? What does your heart say? And that is the opposite of what the Bible commands us to do as Christians. So the more that we can exercise this muscle, help them have habits of exercising the muscle of selflessness, the better off they are going to be, because that’s like one less thing that they’re going to be tempted to falling into. As far as sinfulness goes. And then in first Peter 410, we have another scripture for you guys. It says, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace. Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to him belong the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And I it just kind of sums up this whole conversation of whose kingdom are we building? To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Not our kingdom, right? We’re doing this for the for the Lord. But our final, our final fourth point. Oh, I.

Love this point. I can’t wait to give it to you. I’m going to give it to you right now. Is kids rise to the value you believe about them. Did you hear that? Kids rise to the value you believe about them. And somebody was asking me about someone shared something about wow, I was so it was so amazing because we’re rooted Bible churches, age integrated. We’re all sitting together in Sunday service and there was lots of children there. It was wonderful. And the children were so good. The children were not too loud. We heard some noises and I loved it. It was great, did not affect me. I loved the sound of children. I have nine children, okay, I can preach through and we can talk through just about anything. So we’re experienced in that, right? And so it’s like it was wonderful. But I think one of the reasons that it works is because you I would talk about the value of them from the front of the room. And I think that’s so important that when children feel valued, they want to rise to that picture you give them. And sometimes we’re catering to the way they are, but instead we need to have a vision for what they can be that they can rise up to, because that’s how humans are. And that’s part of leadership that’s so important. And you are leaders. You’re leading your family, husband and wife, you know, influencing your family forward in a direction. And we need to see that. We need to speak value the value that God has for your children. And we speak that into them and they rise up to it. Yeah. And I think that’s beautiful.

It was interesting because a lot of the kids were just so quiet and someone even mentioned, like they were shocked. They were like, I was doubtful this could work, but wow. You know, and it’s like, yeah, I mean, when you are valuing children and you’re, you’re including them and incorporating versus excluding them, there is something powerful about that. First, John 318 says, little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. The verse right before it, though, is really interesting. If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Question mark. Okay, so God’s like challenging his people, but he’s calling his people little children. He’s saying little children. He’s literally not necessarily talking to the little children. He’s literally talking to all of us. Let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. God is not being condescending to any of us. He’s calling us up to something. He’s patient and long suffering with all of us, and so we need to be with our children also, understanding that they are actually grasping so much more than we think. They are not just sitting in church, but in serving. Like, what is it that we can ask our kids to help with? Can you hand them a rag and say, can you go wipe down that table? Can you go pick up the little toys that got left on the floor and put them in the baggies? Can you like what is it I’m thinking through and trying to make a list of things that I can be delegating to Solomon and Eli and Zander after church for cleanup.

Sometimes, you know, we’re doing potluck after church. The mess of it is the opportunity.

Exactly.

The mess of it is the opportunity.

That was the problem yesterday. We had this. We had a mess. Yesterday we had something emergency happen five minutes before church. The streaming wasn’t going to happen to the tent. Right. And it was like a mess.

And we had a little building, 1000 square foot building. Then we had a 1200 square foot tent. I was going to be preaching in the building, and then we’re going to stream to the tent. Once the 68 chairs in the building are filled up, and then the video stream wasn’t working to the tent, big 70 inch TV.

But we always wanted everybody to be together. And so many people were showing up.

And I literally think because everything worked the night before, I literally think God’s like, no. And it was.

Working that morning.

My will, not your will, my will is you’re all going to be together, you’re all going to be in the tent, and I’m going to force you to switch that. And that’s exactly what happened.

And it was beautiful. What? What happened? Everybody helped and pitched in. Every member had to grab a chair, help.

Those 68 chairs from the building moved very quickly outside.

They did. But like, how many people were, like, experienced participating versus just being a spectator, which is what our whole thing has been about. Like why we were attracted towards home churches. I think it was a.

Catalyst for the culture we want for.

The church. But but in the moment, it’s easy to get frustrated. You didn’t though, know you were so calm. I mean, you just handle conflict and different things like that so well. But I was like, what? He literally told me afterwards I went, what? That’s crazy. Anyway, so our encouragement to you guys is to believe in your kids. And here’s our unprecedented times. Tip for this for this week. Okay, experience working together. Find something to build with your kids for the glory of God.

Because it’s even more important during unprecedented times. You’ve got to work that muscle now so you’re ready for what’s ahead.

Thanks for joining us. 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.

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