Home Life Discipleship - Our Responsibility to Make Disciples in the Home

If you would, go ahead and turn back in your Bible to Matthew 28. Start off in Matthew 28, verses 16 to 20, and then later on we will turn to Ephesians chapter 5, those verses that we read in our scripture reading. I think most of you know that for three weeks we have been in this series which is all about the structure and function of our church. We have been studying that handout that every single one of you have. I have titled that the Grace Life Wheel. Like I have said several times, I hope and pray that every single one of you have a copy, keep it in your Bible. Pray over those things.

Know that diagram because it does explain what we do and who we are. But we have been studying our Grace Life Wheel which is a simple diagram that illustrates so much. This illustrates and explains the basic structure and function of our church. And I believe this illustration really helps us to understand what we do and why we do what we do. And we have been learning that we can do all of these things well. We can work very hard here and we can do all of these things very good but without the Holy Spirit enabling us and empowering us in all of this work we are hopeless. I think about the Apostle Paul and how he ministered in Corinth.

I have read that account to you several times but just like the Apostle Paul needed Holy Spirit power and Holy Spirit ability when he went to Corinth we need Holy Spirit power and we need Holy Spirit ability to do what we do here in the life of the church. Now three weeks ago we started by examining the most important thing that we do in the life of the church and that is the preaching of the Word by God called competent men. And I am speaking primarily of the pastor but there are other men in the life of the church who can preach as well.

And not only should the pastor be called of God and competent in the work of preaching but the pastors calling by God and competency in the work should be confirmed and affirmed by the church and also by the work itself. But then we moved into that which flows out of and out from the preaching of the Word. Some who use the Grace Life Wheel and our anchored in truth network called that the spokes of the wheel. Two weeks ago we looked at the fact that we are to be working hard at every member of ministry through the ministry of small groups.

We saw that if small group ministry was necessary for the church at Jerusalem and for Paul and for Titus and for those churches on the island of Crete well small group ministry is good for us and it is necessary for us. Listen again to our Grace Life small group strategy statement and you tell me if it does it sound a lot like what we see in Acts 2 verses 42 to 47. The church is to be organized into small groups and it is to minister the Word, meet individual needs, equip the saved, provide fellowship as well as help evangelize the lost.

And then last week we looked at the fact that we are to be working hard at personalized local church centered missions. We saw that the Great Commission was given by Christ to His disciples and by extension an example as seen all throughout the New Testament the Great Commission was given to us as well. So we are called as Grace Life Church Brookhaven. We have been commissioned and we are commanded to go all into the nations to make disciples and that starts in our hometown, it starts across the street and we will see it starts in our families and beyond as God gives us opportunity. Now I like that word opportunity.

We should see that our Lord gives us opportunities and then we should make opportunities and then we should also pray for more opportunities. Now this morning we are still looking at that which flows out of or comes from the preaching of the Word. Again this is the last spoke of the will and this morning we will be examining whole life discipleship which is the responsibility to make disciples in the home. So that leads me to the title of the message. It is real simple, home life discipleship, our responsibility to make disciples in our home. But a question before we really get started.

I use this word responsibility but the question is this, whose responsibility is this? Whose responsibility is it to make disciples in the home? Is it mom's responsibility? Is it dad's responsibility? Is it only mom? Is it only dad? Or is it both? And I will ask you to do something right here and I want to ask you to discuss this with your spouse and me and I am calling you to lead the way now. Think about what your spiritual development was like in your home growing up when you were a child. Think about what role your father and mother played in your spiritual development in your growing up years and discuss that with your spouse.

You might ask pastor, why do you ask us to do this? What is the reason or reasons? Well there are several. From your childhood and from your life growing up first determine what was Christian, what was godly, what was biblical or not. And then second, be willing to call it for what it was. Did you know that there are people who were raised in ungodly homes and they had a veneer of being Christian and even as adults they are just afraid or they cannot admit that what they were raised in was ungodly. But then third, determine to learn from what your home life was like in your growing up years both the good and the bad.

And then fourth, determine to establish, maintain or continue to maintain a true Christian home and home life. I thought about it like this this morning and even last night. I think it would be good for us to make this part of a discussion in small group. Think about it. To discuss what our home life was like and what we are learning here. I think that would be good for all of us. Now this is how I will approach the message. First I will define the home. I will define home life discipleship. And then third, I'm going to give us two practical lessons that will help. So number one, basic question. What is a home? What is a home?

Now what I am about to share is very, very basic. It is foundational and we need to make sure that we understand, accept and live out these things because our culture is and has been defining and redefining what our home is. Now think about it. How are we going to talk about home like discipleship as God intends if we do not know what a home actually is according to God? But the scriptures tell us that God created the home and in creating the home God defined the home. So I want to quickly look into Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2 to see how God defines the home. And obviously I will not be exhaustive here.

This is one of those parts of the message that you could add to in your own study. But first, first God created man, male and female. Genesis 1.27 says, "So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him, male and female he created them." Now here it is plain to see that God created mankind as one of two genders. That is male or female. God created mankind either male or female. That is it. But there is more. We need to understand that God did not create them like the other animals. Man is not an animal. God created man male and female and he created both of them in the image and likeness of God or himself.

Now there are three basic things that we must understand in application. There are three things we must understand and if man distorts these things we are in trouble. First to say that a person can go from being a man to a woman or a woman to a man. That is a sin against God personally. It is a personal sin against the person of God because God created that person male or female as he chose for his purposes. That would be God's. And then second to say that a man can transition into a woman or a woman into a man. That is a sin against God's design for that particular person because God created them male or female.

Then third to say that a person can actually identify or change genders is a sin against that person as an image bearer of God. A part of that person being an image bearer of God is them being created male or female. And to deny that is to sin against that part of a person which God created in his own image. So we must reject any belief, any teaching, even any person that says that a man can somehow become a woman or a woman can somehow become a man. Look common sense tells us that that is physically impossible but this is a great sin and a great sin in many ways.

And then second God joined that first man, that first woman, that is Adam and Eve in holy matrimony. In Genesis 2 verses 5 to 24 we see quite a few things. Now right off we see the fuller account of the creation of man in chapter 2. Also we see how God created a home for man which was the Garden of Eden. And we see how God put that first man in the garden but we see that the creation was incomplete because the man was alone. Genesis 2.18 says, "Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone.'" So what was God's solution to man's loneliness?

God created out of the man a woman for the man and God gave the woman to the man as his helpmate. Listen to Genesis 2. 21 to 23. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept took one of his ribs and he closed up its place with flesh. In the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man." Now out of these events we see that God joined these two. That would be Adam and Eve in what we would call holy matrimony.

Simply God performed the first ceremony in the garden joining Adam and Eve in holy matrimony and I keep calling it holy matrimony because marriage is holy and created to be holy because it was created by God and given by God. Listen to verse 24 and 25, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh, becoming one flesh in holy matrimony and the man and his wife were both naked and they were not ashamed." But then third, God called Adam and Eve to be fruitful and have children. Now to see this we go back to the more brief account of the creation of man in Genesis 1.

In Genesis 1, 26-27 we see God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit creating man because verse 26 is using pluralistic language. The verse says, "Let us make man in our image after our likeness." And in verse 27 that verse says that God created man in his own image both male and female. Then in verse 28 we see that God blessed Adam and Eve and listen to how God blessed them. Verse 28 says, "And God blessed them and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.'" So God blessed the first man and his wife and he called them to be fruitful and to multiply and even to fill up the earth.

Simply God called Adam and Eve to have a lot of babies. And right here I want to make a few comments in application. First we must see that children are a blessing not some kind of a curse. And anyone who believes and says that children are not a blessing, well they are anti-God. I don't care if it's our family. Psalm 127.3 says, "Behold children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward." This means that children are a blessing. They are a gift. They are a possession and inheritance from the Lord. Children are a good gift from God but with this inheritance come great responsibilities.

And then second, "Having children and filling the earth is not a curse upon the earth." Look church, listen close. The earth was created for man. Man was not created for the earth and for the creation. And these wacko environmentalists who are really idolaters, they say it's reversed. They say that man is for the creation. But that's not what the scriptures say. And any belief, any teaching, any person who says that children are anything but a blessing from God, they do not have the thoughts and the mind of God here. And then fourth, "God gave Adam and Eve a home." Now this may surprise some of you but it's true.

Genesis 2.8 says, "And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden." It's commonly called the Garden of Eden in the East. And there He put the man whom He had formed. And later in Genesis 2.15 we see that God put man in the garden and He put man in the garden to work the garden and to keep the garden. Now there's another lesson here and I'll be honest with you, this is a sermon for another day. God created man to work and work was ordained by God before the fall. So Adam had a home and he had a job all in one. He was to work the garden and to care for the garden.

And if we study the rest of Genesis 2 from when God created the garden in verse 8 until God gave him Adam his wife, we see that God put Adam and Eve in the garden as their home. And then fifth, "God gave Adam and Eve certain commandments." Now notice what happened after God put Adam in the garden. God put Adam in the garden and He commanded him to work and to keep the garden which was his home. And then God gave him one more commandment and this one more commandment was life and death.

Verse 16 and 17, "And the Lord God commanded the man saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat it you surely shall die.'" So we see that God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now what is my point here? In Genesis chapter 1 and 2 we see that God created the first home. And in the home that God created we had man, the first man, that's Adam, and woman, the first woman, that's Eve. Of course God created them both and it was God that joined them both in holy matrimony.

Again, I call it holy matrimony because God intended marriage to be holy, meaning it was set apart for God and unto God. And Adam and Eve and their union and their home, those things were blessed by God and He blessed them and called them to have children because children were and are still a blessing or an inheritance from God. And God also gave them commandments to live by which were meant to bless them. So this is the first man, the first woman, the first marriage, the first parents, the first children because we do know that Adam and Eve did have children. This is the first home and the first commandments for the home.

Now what am I trying to say here? And how does this apply to our responsibilities in home life discipleship? God created the home and we have no right to redefine it and recreate it. God created the home and we as believers must live in the home according to God's purposes, plans, commandments and expectations. And look church, we can throw stones at those in the world who try to redefine and recreate the home. But we can sin against God by not obeying His plans, His commandments and His expectations for our home.

And we must see that we are morally obligated to approach everything about the home and home life the way God commands and God expects to do anything short of approaching the home and home life the way God commands and expects is sin. But a couple of questions that need to be asked and answered. Can we have a Christian home if we only have one parent? Yes, most definitely. We have one in our church who is a widow. Her home is just as Christian as ours. She's responsible to do these things just as we are.

So when a Christian spouse loses a spouse it doesn't mean that they don't have a Christian home because there's not a man and a woman, a husband and a wife. We've had to deal with folks who had to go through the awful pain of divorce. God hates divorce. But yet we know that is a part of the world that we live in. And I have seen some have to go through divorce and they were still a Christian parent on the other side of that divorce. But also another question, can a Christian home be a Christian home with no children? Well, of course. God ordains those things. And sometimes we don't know why Christians cannot have children.

But what I'm trying to show you is this. We live in a broken world and everything's not perfect. And so there are many people who have an imperfect home. So what is a home? We answer that question by looking into the scriptures. And of course there's a lot more we could say there. But number two, what is home life discipleship? Basic question. What is home life discipleship? Now when we ask this question, I think it is implied or understood that we have children in the home. In this question, I believe that it is understood that we have Christian parents in a Christian home.

And these Christian parents or the Christian parent sees their responsibility, their responsibilities in their home with their children. Of course we live in a broken world. I've already referenced that. So we may have a Christian mother or a Christian father and they see their spiritual responsibilities in their home with their children without their spouse. Well what is this responsibility in home life discipleship? I want to define home life discipleship in two ways from two portions of scripture. And I want us to see that we have two big basic responsibilities here. So first, our first responsibility is to make disciples in the home.

Now here is where I want us to turn to our Matthew 28 passages, verse 16 to 20. We know these passages as the Great Commission. Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him but some doubted. And Jesus came and He 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 the age." Now right here some of you may be saying, "Pastor, we studied those passages last week." You might be saying, "Pastor, we studied the Great Commission last week and everything about the Great Commission was and is about missions." Well that's right. But we must see that obeying the Great Commission starts at home. Missions starts at home with our own children.

And if we are not obeying the Great Commission in our home, then we are not worthy of obeying the Great Commission in some foreign land. If we are incompetent in obeying the Great Commission in our home with our own family without our children, then we are incompetent to obey the Great Commission across the street and across the oceans. But notice what we see here. At the heart of the Great Commission is seeing the lost come to saving faith in Christ, therefore becoming a disciple. Now look church, before disciples can be made and developed and grown, they must first be born. Think about it.

Because what I have taught you here, you should know this. And from last week's message, you should know this. We know that a disciple is someone who has come to saving faith in Christ. So they have become a follower of Christ. Through the new birth, they have become a follower of Christ and a student of Christ. They have come to saving faith, therefore they have begun a journey of walking with Christ day by day, not perfectly, but in obedience to His Word and in obedience to God's ways for their life. So our first responsibility in home life discipleship is evangelizing our children.

Look church, listen church, we must understand the new birth. We must understand conversion. We must understand what it means for an adult to come to faith in Christ and our nine year old son. We must understand these things. And one of the greatest tools you can pick up to help yourself is our church statement of faith. We define regeneration, what it means for someone to trust Christ and to accept Christ by faith. And it's full of scripture references to help you. But I'm showing you, we must understand conversion if we're going to evangelize our own children. But we must see and accept the fact that our children are lost without Christ.

Now church, it's easy for us to believe that the drunk on the bar stool is lost, but sometimes it's hard for some to believe that their little boys and girls are lost. Our little boys and girls, our teenagers who have not given a credible profession of faith and who live as a disciple for Christ are lost. They're lost. And lost sinners need Christ. So we must evangelize our children just like we would evangelize our coworker who needs Christ. But then second, our second responsibility is to bring up our children in the discipline in the instruction of the Lord. Now here is where I want you to turn back to Ephesians.

Now we read quite a bit of scripture, but I want to read it again because I'm going to note some scripture here that's going to surprise you when it comes to home life discipleship. Let's start with verse 22 again. "Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies, he who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is profound and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his own wife, ask himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Verse 1, chapter 6, "Children obey your parents in the Lord for it is right. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.

Fathers do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord." Now by no means will I divide all of these verses, but I have. Now I give you an assignment here. About a year ago we were progressing through these verses that deal with the home and the home life and responsibilities and duties with husbands and wives and children.

And I challenge you if you are new to Grace Life Church and if you have children still in the home, go back and listen to those messages and even get my notes because you desperately need to understand everything from verse 21 all the way through to those verses in chapter 6. But here we clearly see the biblical marriage rolls for husbands and wives. It is clear that God ordained that the husband lead the wife and the home while the wife submits to her husband in all of these things.

But I want to point out two areas of responsibility that is first for the husband, verse 25-26, clearly says that the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved his church. And a part of loving his wife as Christ loved and loves his church is to sanctify the church. But what does that mean? Well, as Christ Jesus sanctifies and purifies his church through a work of the Holy Spirit and a work of the Word of God, the husband is to sanctify his wife. Of course it is a work of God, the Holy Spirit, using the Word of God that sanctifies the wife but the husband is to be used of God in this work.

He is to be an instrument of God and for God using the Word of God, being empowered by the Spirit of God to help in his wife's sanctification is clearly taught in those verses. Alright husbands, do you love your wives with a sacrificial love like Christ loved and loves his church? Do you? The text says that's your job. And are you actively leading your wife? Are you actively investing in your wife, loving your wife, loving your wife out of your own life? Are you actively using the Word of God, enabled by the Spirit of God to sanctify your wife? And husbands if you're not, you're not doing your job. You are not doing your job.

The text says it. And what I'm getting at is this, home life discipleship starts with you men, starts with me. You husbands, you fathers, we must be born again, walking and living as a disciple of Christ and we must be leading our wives and discipling our own wives. And me and husbands, are you being used of God to grow your wife in her faith if you are not? No I am not, we are in sin. And husbands, are you confident in your wife's salvation? You can't make disciples unless they come to faith. Wives, are you confident in your husband's salvation? You see, home life discipleship starts with salvation in conversion to Christ.

And you may need to evangelize your spouse. You may need to evangelize your wife or your husband because home life discipleship begins with disciples. I challenge you to ask your spouse about their spiritual condition. I challenge you to probe your spouse about their spiritual condition. I challenge you to be honest with one another, be face to face. I don't have to do that with my wife because we've done that with each other for over 25 years. Some of you need to do that because it starts with a new birth. But there's more.

From chapter 6 verse 4, we see that the husband is not to exasperate his children, which is a negative, but he is to bring up his children in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord, which is positive. Now what does that mean? Well, to provoke your children means to treat them in such a way that you provoke or exasperate your children to frustration and anger. And the context here is parenting. So the father is not to provoke their children or frustration or even anger in their parenting.

I like what John MacArthur says here, and I'm quoting, "To provoke to anger suggests a repeated ongoing pattern of treatment that gradually builds up a deep-seated anger and resentment that boils over into outward hostility." Now fathers, let me ask you a question. Do you provoke your children to anger? You need to ask your wife, "Do you provoke your children to anger?" You might not think you do, but she might know that you do. Now I'm not talking about one time, no. Do you have an ongoing way?

Do you have a pattern within you whereby you provoke your children to frustration, and at times that goes over into anger, and at times that even turns into wrath, so much so that it is boiling up into deep-seated anger and resentment? If you're doing that, you need to repent. You need to repent. You will destroy your children. But the positive. The positive says that fathers ought to bring up children in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. So we need to take some time here to see what this means. To bring up simply means to nourish and to nourish up towards maturity to maturity.

And notice in what way the Father is commanded to bring up or to nourish His children. First fathers ought to bring up and nourish their children toward maturity in discipline of the Lord. And this discipline speaks of training children purposely, intentionally, and even systematically, systematically simply means having a plan. And this includes many things, correction and doing wrong, as well as instruction and doing what is right. This involves education, and not just spiritual education, but education in every area of the life. But remember, the goal here is bringing them up.

The goal is to nourish them and to bring them up towards maturity, not put them down. And second fathers ought to bring up and nourish their children towards maturity in the instruction of the Lord. And this speaks of giving instruction or the putting of something in the mind. This speaks of the kind of instruction and instructions we see all throughout the book of Proverbs, which is not primarily about information, but mostly about right attitudes and right principles that God informed behavior. And this would include putting in them the things of God, God's Word, but also who God is, his very existence, his perfections, his perfect laws.

And as Albert Barnes says, putting in their children God's claims on their hearts, minds, and lives as well. So notice what we see here. Home life discipleship starts with husbands being disciples and husbands being used of God to disciple and to sanctify their own lives. But it all starts with parents being disciples, you see? So if one parent is not born again, it starts with evangelism with the other parent. Then the next step in home life discipleship is this, evangelizing your own children with the husband being the chief evangelist in the home.

And this involves not exasperating your children to frustration or anger and wrath, but nurturing them, nurturing them, bringing them up, building them up towards maturity to maturity. Now the question, is the wife and the mother to be used in bringing up their children in the discipline, in the instruction of the Lord? Of course. Of course. And in many ways and in many circumstances within the home and the children, the mother can do this work in a particular way in which the father cannot. I give you an example.

Occasionally there will be a circumstance maybe with teenage girls or ladies that will come up and I'll say, "Time out, I cannot speak girl." And I'll say, "There's a lady right there that can speak girl." And in the home, mother, you speak girl. And there are times your little girls need you to speak girl to them. And by the way, mother, you cannot speak boy. Father, if your wife is trying to teach your sons how to be men, you are being lazy and you are not doing your job. Ladies cannot teach boy. They cannot speak boy. Men have to step up and teach their little boys how to become men. It takes both, you see? Takes both.

And then number three, two practical lessons for parenting. Now what I'm going to share with you here is just a fraction of some material that I shared back in August of last year after I had preached through Ephesians 5, verse 21 to chapter 6, verse 4, I preached two sermons giving seven lessons for parents in parenting. Now I strongly urge you parents to go listen to those messages. I would encourage you to get those notes. You can contact Angel and she can get those notes from me and get those notes to you. That will be very beneficial for you.

Now obviously, I'm not going to share all of those messages, or excuse me, all of those lessons, but I want to mention two, and these two lessons are needed more than you know. Reason number one, your children are not your trophy and they are not your project. What does Ephesians 4 say? I'd like you to look at it again. Fathers do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up, nurture them up in the discipline, in the instruction of the Lord. Now here is my point. Paul instructs fathers and mothers, but primarily the father, and he instructs them in how to parent their children.

So their children are at the center of this instruction, right? And what does he say? Fathers do not provoke your children. Bring your children up, nurture your children towards maturity and to maturity in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. Who is to be nurtured? Children. Who is at the center of this verse? Children. Now what I'm aiming at is this. What we have here is our little boys and girls. We have our children here, even our older children who are boys and girls. Look, these are children with hearts and with minds and emotions and souls. They are children with strengths and with weaknesses.

These are our children that are fragile and tender and very impressionable and capable of being formed for good and formed for bad. And it is even possible to crush and destroy them. Now this is my point and application here. Your children are not your project. They are not your trophy in life. Your children are not even your little spiritual Christian trophy or projects. Your children are little boys and little girls who are one of a kind individuals created by God and it is your responsibility to bring them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord in such a way that they become who you want them to be.

That they become a second version of you. That they become a second version of your dad or your mother or your grandparents or all the things you never were and all the things you wanted to be. Parents do not do this. But parents do it all the time with sports. You know you've got a dad who always wanted to be an athlete and he never was and you let his little boy show a little promise and athleticism and he's going to be living all of his athletic dreams through his little boy and he's already got a scholarship to Alabama or LSU and he's eight. And all the while he's screaming at him and hollering at him and crushing his little boy.

Parents do this with academics and education. They push them towards education maybe that they're not suited for or they push them to acquire academic dreams that they never could acquire. Parents do this with a career. They want them to be so much more than they were. But the worst is when parents do this with religion, Christianity. Some parents want their children to be perfect at Bible drill. Some parents want their children to be perfect at scripture memory. Some parents want them to be perfect at answering all of the catechism questions just right. Some parents want their children to know all of the doctrine and all of the theology.

Some parents want their children to dress just right and behave perfect in the life of the church. And what I'm trying to show you is this and the whole time those parents do all that they're doing trying to create for themselves a little Christian trophy. The whole time the parents who were doing this were treating their children like a project, not like a little boy. They forget that they're a living, breathing little boy, little girl with a heart, with a mind, with emotions and strengths and weaknesses and a will.

And look moms and dads, if you have a tendency to do this with your children or if you have more than a tendency and you are doing this, you need to stop. You will exasperate your children to the place where they will possibly rebel, they will possibly hate you, but they'll possibly hate the church and hate the things of God all because you exasperated them with the things of God. And I can name parents who have done this with their children and for some it ruined them. And for some children they had great struggles when they became adults. Lesson number two, our children were created for God's glory, not our glory.

Now parents right now I want you to come to an understanding. I want you to accept a fact. Your children are not your own. They may have your eyes, they may have your nature, they may have your name, but they are simply long to you. The children that you have are a gift from God and you are responsible to God and all that you do is a parent.

I will never forget when I was in the hospital in Jackson after we had just had Annie and I was holding Annie in my arms in the sunlight coming through the window because she was a little jaundice and my pastor called me, "Precious Brother Ben and Ken," and he said, "Brother, just remember she is long to you." And I never got over that. And God loaned me too. God loaned me too. But as fathers and mothers, God has purposely given us the children we have so that we would bring them up for God instilling in them that they were created by God and for God. Paul tells us how we should do this in 1 Corinthians 10.31.

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. This means that the way we parents should bring glory and honor to God and that we should instill in our children that they were created by God to live the life that God gave them for God and for the glory of God. Some of you use catechism in your teaching with your children. I'm not against those. Those are good tools. But a catechism is simply a verbal instruction used in teaching children. I have several different copies in my office around. One of my favorite catechisms is Spurgeon's Catechism.

And the very first question in Spurgeon's Catechism is this, "What is the chief end of man?" And the answer is this, man's chief end is to glorify God, 1 Corinthians 10.31, and to enjoy him forever, Psalm 73, 25, and 26. Now moms and dads, especially dads, in all that we do as parents and in our parenting for the Lord, the most important thing we can do is instill in our sons and in our daughters every day, all day, every day, that they were created to glorify God, not just in how they live, but in their purpose in life. I've said this before, if God calls them to fly the space shuttle, do it for the glory of God.

I think they can't do that now because they retired it. But if God calls them to drive a garbage truck, drive a garbage truck for the glory of God, you see? And three of the most important things we can do and pray for our children is this. First, pray that they'll come to saving faith because if they don't come to saving faith, they're lost. Second, that they would marry the spouse that God has for them. Third, that they would discover and live God's purpose and will for their life, therefore bringing glory to God in their life and with their life. Look, folks, it doesn't get any better than that.

If they come to faith and marry the spouse that God has for them and they discover God's will and purpose for their life, it doesn't get any better than that. And my question right here is this. Parents, especially dads, do we see that our children were created for God's glory? And are we instilling in them that they should bring glory to God in how they live and in their ultimate purpose in life? And if this is not your overall approach in parenting, you may be raising your children for you or for some other reason instead of for him. Now as I close, I want to do two things. First, notice what we have before us.

This is all about home life discipleship. We should be making disciples in our homes. But notice where home life discipleship fits in the total work of the church. Home life discipleship is connected to and flows out of the preaching of the Word because both dads and moms are sanctified through the preaching of God's Word within the church. It is affected by every member ministry through the ministry of small groups because dads and moms are being built up, built up, built up through the ministry of small groups.

Home life discipleship is affected by personalized local church center missions because dads and moms are all about pouring their lives into making disciples in their home, in their town, in their church and even around the world as God gives them opportunity, all being empowered by the Spirit of God. See how it all ties together? But the second thing I want to do is I want to confess a mistake. I said we would cover the grace life will in four messages. But I have meditated and prayed over these things and as I study what we see here, I see one more thing we've got to look into. But you've got to come back next week to see what that is.

So home life discipleship, our responsibility to make disciples in the home.