Hello and welcome to another episode of The Bible Doesn't Say That and here's your host, Jack Potts. It's me, Jack Potts. Welcome back to episode number three of The Bible Doesn't Say That and let's meet our contestants for this week. Oh, casting guys, we had nobody else that's, literally nobody. Alright, can we welcome back for the third time Stephen an Savannah, yeah, give them a round of applause awesome. Are you ready Stephen for your question this week? Does the Bible say, "this too shall pass?" Um, I'm gonna go with no, Jack. Baby, it looks like Bitsy and Fergie, we're reading that scripture this week because Stephen, you just got five whole dollars to go buy your dogs a brand new collar. Well, actually Jack, I've got my eyes set on a couple of matching sweaters. That's weird. Well it looks like we've got a real barn burner here today. We got a tie ballgame. Can you imagine that out of all these weeks? Savannah, are you ready to get a leg up on Stephen? You bet your sweet bippy I am. Is that a yes? Yes. Okay, here we go. Savannah. Your question is, does the Bible say, to thine own self be trueth? To thyself? Sounds right, yes. Shakespeare two, Savannah zero. It looks like we got you again. The Bible actually says, "Trust the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Rodney tell them what they won. Well, Jack, Stephen and Savannah won a brand new car air freshener in black ice flavor. It couldn't get any more exciting. Man. My agent told me the same thing when I took this job. But thank you for being on another episode of, The Bible Doesn't Say That. It's me Jack Potts telling you to read your Bible. Oh, right. Hey, listen, I know that man, whether you're at home or you're here, man, it's such a good day, just to be able to pause today and come before God and just say God here. Here I am. Here we are. And man, I just want to say how thankful we are just as the leadership of this church, of how much you guys are involved, how much you guys are walking in this community and how much you're just watching how God just is working in your life. I want to start off this morning's message a little bit different, a little bit different than we normally do. And here's why. I know that this week has been a little bit of a crazy one. Actually, no, let me change that. A lot of a crazy one. There's some of you who have gone back to school and now you're back at home. There's some of you who are going back to school but you're really not. You're going to home. There's some of you now homeschoolers, and you swore you'd never do that. Or some of you now, in private school, you never been in private school before. We've had all of that going on. Some of you were starting tomorrow, God willing that the internet doesn't die tomorrow, back in school. And then there's also just a lot of just COVID stuff, right? Just that heaviness of what does this look like? And are we football or no football, and I hate you, and I love you. And all of this is across the, I mean, it's just across everywhere, and you throw in a little bit of political stuff in there, and you just had a trifecta of a week. I want to do something as a church this morning, that we don't normally do during the message time, but I thought was important. Today, I just want us to pray together today. I want us to pray just as one voice in one just kind of moment as a faith family today just to say God, here we are. And we're just asking you, God to move in us and to be with us. And so would you just do me a favor this morning? Would you stand wherever you're at. Hey, if you're online, take the blanket off and put the coffee down just for a second. And you laugh, but that's what you're doing. And I just want us to pray together this morning as one voice and I'm going to do it. I'm going to pray over us. Lord Jesus, today, God, we come to you with a whole lot of questions. God with a whole lot of just heaviness, and possibly even anxiety but God we come to you recognizing that we worship the God of the universe, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and the Sustainer, the Counselor, the Great Physician, God, the Comforter. God we don't know what tomorrow holds, but you do. And God today we just want to call on the name that is above every other name and we want to ask you to step into our business. And God I don't know what exactly that business is for everybody that is in this moment, but God I do know that there's a whole lot of different categories of business. God, walk with our kids tomorrow as they're in school or doing school, walk with our co workers tomorrow as we have conversation that we just disagree in. God walk with us in moments of just help or not help God, we pray for healing. We pray for this virus to be eradicated off this planet. And God we pray that the church of Jesus would represent you well, in everything that we do and say this week, God. Thank you for moments that we can stand in one voice as your faith family, here Jesus. And it's in Your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thanks. for that moment. I just thought today, man, it's incredibly significant to know that we're in this thing together. I do want to just remind you that one of the unsung heroes of this church is a ministry here that is a prayer ministry. It's kind of one of those that doesn't get a lot of press on a lot of things, but I want you to know that it's available for you. It's available in whatever situation you're in, we put some info up on the screen for it. And a lot of things that we're going through isn't exactly like big public stuff. But we've got just some faithful saints in this church, that want to on your behalf, put your requests before God, they want to lift those things up to God, this is how you can reach out to them, it's totally confidential. But we just want you to know as a service to you, and as an encouragement to you that we have hundreds of prayer ministry, people in this church that are waiting for you just to say, hey, here I am. And would you let me pray for you? All right? So I want you to know that just for today, because man, it's an encouragement to my heart to know that. Well, hey, welcome back to week number three in this series of, The Bible Doesn't Say That, and here our goal, just in a nutshell. If you haven't been here in this series, is to take a lot of phrases that we say or that we've heard, we might have it on a T shirt, maybe on a bumper sticker, or maybe we have it scribed on a poster in our office to take some of these phrases of life that we have attributed to God or to the Bible that aren't in fact, in the Bible. Because here's what I know, just because grandma said it, doesn't necessarily mean she got it from the Bible. It could have just been a good quote, or a good something that just kind of resonated in her heart. But what we have done, and this is something that's really big, we've taken some of these colloquial phrases, some of these cultural moments, and even some of these things that are generally accepted and we transfer them not to just good sayings, but we've brought them into our theology. Now on the first kind of drip of that it's not a big deal, right? It's not a big deal to kind of think some of these things. They actually bring us hope and they might even actually kind of get us over a bump in the road, but what happens over time is some of these sayings, they creep into our theology. And in moments, we really do need God to do something big in our lives or moments that we're reading the Bible, we recognize that man, these are not godly things. So our goal in these is to not bash any group. And we said that last week, it's not to kind of have ammo to go shoot grandma down today at the family dinner. It's really just to kind of dial in to who God is, to allow God's truths to shape us and to walk those moments out and maybe put the Pigeon Forge t shirt in the back of the closet. That's kind of the goal in this series. We've gone through a couple of them and you can go back online, they're all over the place and listen to them if you need something, just to help you sleep. But we've looked at a couple of them. The first one was this idea of, that God will never give us more than we can handle. And we've used that in our shade tree counseling before I'm not gonna lie probably most of us at some point have either said that or heard somebody say it. And we debunk that on week one and said, No, God will give us more. Because really and truly, that's the only way that he can pull us in to show us that He is in control, and to show us His power and to show us His presence, because here's the deal. If Matt is in control, Matt needs no one else. But at those moments that I don't know what to do and how to do it. That's when God says, hey, put the sail up. Let Me drive you and quit rowing. That's what we said on week one. Well, last week, we jumped into this idea that it doesn't really matter what you believe, as long as you're sincere. And we looked at this last week through this lens of culture saying, hey, all beliefs lead to the same place, all things that you can jump on to or just different paths up the mountain. And we said that culture is looking at it saying it doesn't really matter how you believe, it's just that you believe in something. And we said last week, that that's not true. And it can't be true. If you take all the major kind of theology moments of all religions and put them onto a chart, they can not, in their own exist in the same place due to the law of non contradiction. They have to contradict themselves, all right? It can't work together. So we said last week that yes, sincerity is incredibly important. But it's only important if you're running in the right direction. It doesn't matter how fast I drive my truck today, when I get out of this place to get to lunch. If I'm driving in the wrong direction, I will never get to lunch. That's what we said last week, in like 10 seconds and it could have been a lot quicker day, right? And we could have got the lunch a lot faster. But that's what it meant last week, right? That while God is calling us to sincerity, He's calling us to an exclusive relationship with Him. That's what Jesus said, that He is the way, the truth and the life, that no one gets to the Father except through Him. And look, I get it. I really do get it. Last week was not one of the most popular cultural messages of all time. I get that, all right, because that's not what culture is telling us. But it's true. And it's in the Bible. Look, week one and week two of this series have been literally, they've kind of been these conversations between me and God in the Christian world if you grew up in Christian kind of living and language, those would be considered our vertical relationship with God. This is kind of between me and God, God and me, and I'm in this vertical relationship with God. Well, this week's saying that we're going to get to. This week's saying is more of a horizontal relationship. It deals more with the people that are in our life, the people that God has entrusted to us that He has put in with us. That's what the Bible kind of refers to as kind of our horizontal relationships. And I did the vertical ones on purpose because I want you to know that our vertical relationship has to come before anything on this planet, has to become before any other people on this planet and 've got to get this thing between me and God first, but then it can begin to kind of roll out to others. So I want you to know this week as we talk about this kind of horizontal thing, my relationship with others this morning that some of you are going to feel like that I'm not speaking to you. Alright? And I know you're gonna do it. I've been in church my whole life. I was basically born there. I think we came straight from the hospital to church. It was before the days of you wait for like a year before you put your kid in childcare. I don't think my parents went home first. It was like, get out of the car. It was time to go. And here's what I knew. There were many times in my growing up in church where I really felt like the dude that was on stage was just speaking to a 40 year old man and not me. All right? I just know that was kind of part of the deal. But this morning here, I want to kind of give you a warning this morning is for all of us. But I realize it kind of focuses in a little bit more towards a group. But before, all right, before you kind of get off on this, well, that's not for me, why did we show up today? I need you to realize something today is for you. All right, today is for you. It may be for you today. It may be for you tomorrow. Or it may be that you could talk a friend off the ledge later on in life and it's something you just need to kind of put in the quiver as an arrow for later. But today is for you. And here's today's saying and I love the saying. Today's saying is this, it is such a misunderstanding. Today's saying is, "That a godly home always guarantees a godly kid." A godly home always guarantees a godly kid. Now I know when I say that there's a whole lot of smirking going on in the room. And I'm not sure if it's because you got one of those kids or you were one of those kids. I don't know where that is, but I need you to feel something this morning because I can also feel this tension of, Matt, I don't even know if that's true. I've never even heard that saying. To which I would say, oh, you've heard the saying. You've heard the saying, you just heard it in a different way. It possibly went like this, you were with a girlfriend of yours, if you're a female, at coffee and you're just totally stressed to the max, and you begin sharing about that teenager or that 11 year old, no pun intended. Now, I'm not being personal here that you got this just out of control, you begin to share kind of what life looks like. Or maybe you got this adult kid that is just kind of walking away from the Lord. They're not in a relationship that is flourishing with Jesus. They don't want anything to do with it. They're falling off the mat. You're just sharing your heart with this lady or maybe you're a dude, you're at the golf course. Maybe you've walked through those five things of dude language and now you're out of stuff to talk about, right? Sports news and weather. You've already done all that and now you're like, okay, and money and now it's like, okay, what am I talking about now, and all of a sudden you begin to share your heart about your son or your adult son. It's just walking away this one step that got arrested again, that doesn't know what's going on. And then you've got that one friend that begins to speak into your life. And I don't know if you've noticed this, but this whole series is about that one friend that has the shade tree counseling. And they say something like this, man, I hear you. And I know it's really, really, really hard. But I need you to know something. And this is what your friend will tell you. And this is when you know you're in trouble. The Bible says, if you'll just raise that kid up in the Lord, eventually, they'll always say this, they're going to do what? They're gonna return. They're gonna return. You may have said this before to somebody and shame on you, if you have. You may have said this, you know, I know that it's hard right now, but maybe they just need to spread their wings. Maybe, I don't even know what this means, but I heard my grandmother say at one time, maybe they need to sow some wild oats. I don't even know what that is. Maybe they need to just go get it out of their system. But you know that you raised them in a godly home and if you raise them in a godly home, it's like a big boomarang in Australia, it's always gonna come back. You've heard this, I can feel it. You've heard somebody say it. You've heard somebody allude to this, to which I would say you need a new counselor. You might need a new friend. In fact, because listen to me, never justify sin. Never, ever justify sin. Never, ever give up on praying for your kid. Never ever give up on disciplining your kid. And you've got to realize the Bible never says that if you will raise your kid up in the truth even if they boomerang out that eventually they're gonna culdesac their back their way back around, and they're gonna come back to you. But for some reason, we think that's true. For some reason, and I can tell you why I think we got to this point. It comes from a proverb. Proverbs chapter 22. If you got a copy of Scripture, I want you to get there with me because we're going to be all over that one verse today, and we're going to hit it and kind of come back to it and come at it for about five different ways. I think this is where this lie or misconception has come from. The Proverbs of King Solomon, he's talking to his son, he's the wisest man that has ever walked on the planet. In fact, he prayed for wisdom and God gave it to him. And the book of Proverbs is basically this idea of this dad passing down these memoirs that the Spirit gave him in God's kind of presence, that he should kind of put as part of his life to live and to be wise. And here's what Solomon said to his son, Proverbs 22:6. This is where we kind of get off on this misunderstanding. Here's what it says, "Train up a child in the way he should go; even", your Bible not might not even say even your Bible might say, "when he is old he will not not depart from it." Now I want you to pause in that verse for a minute. And I want you to feel the weight of this verse. And I want you to see how easy it is to miss this idea. So many of us we've heard messages on this. We've even used it in some shade tree counseling when somebody's kids kind of gone awry. And we've said something like this, hey, don't worry about it. It's okay. We know you grew up in Awana's, they memorize the verses, they came to the church, they even got their name signed in one of those blue Gideon Bibles, they're going to be okay. They're gonna return one day. Listen to me. The Bible doesn't say that. There's two problems in this passage that I want you to look at number one, there's nothing in this verse about anyone returning to the Lord. There's nothing in there. But here's the deal returning to God, it's an incredible topic. Now Don't take me out of context, returning to God is a great study. It's all through Scripture, you will see people turn you'll see repentance happening, you will see God moving in people's lives that are far from Him. It's an amazing way that God brings people to himself. God brings people back into healthy relationship. But that's not where this verse is going. There's nothing in this verse about returning to God. There's nothing in it. There's a whole lot in this verse about starting in God. There's a whole lot in this verse about launching into who God wants us to be. There's a whole lot in this verse about the first years of our life, be moldable, being teachable, and that we should be pointing in God's direction. There's a whole lot in this verse about remaining in God. Walking and abiding in God and using this long term relationship and making incremental steps over time and when we're old, we're still walking with Him. But this is not saying if you will raise your kids, right, eventually they're going to come back. It's not saying that there's no idea here of just wait till after college. I know right now just doesn't ever seem like they're gonna come back, but just wait till they have a kid, just wait till they have a family, they're going to come back. There's nothing in this verse about that, but I get it. I get it. That is a big hope of ours. And we do hope and God wants that to happen. He really does. But that's not what this verse is saying. And I get it's easy even to take other verses out of the Bible as a proof text for that thinking. I got to thinking this week about Luke chapter 15. Luke 15 is a lot of lost things, coins and a lot of things. But one of those passages in Luke 15 is about the lost or the parable of the lost or prodigal son. It's about the parable of the prodigal. The prodigal son, he comes to his father. He's like, hey, I'm tired of the rules. I'm tired of the regulations. Give me my share the estate. The dad way better dad than I was gonna be straight honest with you. He's like, okay, here you go. He gives him a third of everything he has this protocol goes to the big city. He goes and squanders, one of my favorite Bible words, all of his money away and finally, this young kid, he comes to his senses and he's like, wait a minute, what in the mess am I doing right here? I gotta go home. I gotta turn my life back to who the father is. And he does. He turns his life around. He realizes where he's been living, and he turns his face back towards God or the dad in the story. And listen, I want to read it to you. Luke 15:20 it says this. "But while he, that's the son, "was still a long way off, his father", this represents God, "saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, he threw his arms around him, and kissed him." The son, kissed him and had compassion for him. "The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, quick bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate." The father said and then look at verse 24. I love this. "For this son of mine was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate." Now, this is an incredible story of God's redemption. But you got to understand that we're reading it through the context of it already happening and when you read this story. We come to it with this idea, of course, the son is gonna come back, don't we? We read things in the Bible through this 2000 year lens of it probably wouldn't have made the Bible, if the son would have just stayed in New York, living how he wanted to in college, right? We probably wouldn't. But what happens in the story is, we read it expecting the kid to come home. But let me ask you a question. Did the father expect the kid to come home? That's a good question. Isn't it? Ever thought about it like that? Did the father go through every day that the son was gone expecting? Oh, you know what? I raised him right? Oh, you know what? I raised him in the name of God. Oh, you know what I raised him in God's presence. One day he's gonna boomerang back around. Did he? No! You say Matt, how do you know? How do I know? Because the dad just said, hey, this guy was dead. He was dead. It never says in the story that this guy, oh he was just kind of wondering, I knew he would come back. It wouldn't been a celebration like this, right? If you're like, I was just wondering how long it's gonna take. So look, don't pull the proof text out. There is no promise. Here me, hear me. There's no promise in Scripture that just because you raised your kid, right that he's always or she is always going to walk out their faith for their life. There's no promise of that. That's a problem when we read this. This is not about returning to the Lord. It's about staying in the Lord. But number two, there's another problem with it and, and here it is this, verse that we're looking at right here. It's a proverb, it's not a promise. It's a proverb. It's not a promise. Now, I'm gonna have to put on my Bible teacher hat for a minute here because maybe you've been in church your whole life and nobody's ever said this to you. But here's the deal. Proverbs are not promises. Proverbs are not promises. Let's talk about what a proverb is. A proverb is just a general observation. Proverbs are not promises from God. Listen, promises from God always happen, they will happen because they rely on God's power, God's presence, and He, as sovereign Lord of the Universe has said, this is going to happen. A promise from God is that one day He will return. He will return to this planet to take those who know Him in a personal relationship with Him. That is a promise from God. A promise of the Old Testament was that Jesus the Messiah would come Joshua 1:9 is a promise, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Matthew 6:33. It's a promise, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all these things will be given to you as well." That's a promise. Hebrews 4:16 is a promise, "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Those are promises, right? Proverbs were written by King Solomon to his son as wisdom statements that happen with incredible frequency, but not promises. There's, let me just put it like this. Proverbs are kind of like signposts that point us in a direction, but they're not a promise. They're the best route to an end, but they're not a guarantee. They're not promises. They're just the best way that we can do it, is what he is saying. You say Matt, I don't get it. Let me go a little deeper. In chapter 22, I want you to look at a couple verses that I want to show you how these are not promises. They're just general kind of directional things. Proverbs 22:4 says this, "Humility is the fear of the Lord; its wages are riches and honor and life." Now what is that saying? If that were a promise, every one of us that are humble and fear the Lord, we would be what? Rich. Thank you for the three of you that got it. All right? We would be rich. But are we all rich? No. All right, you may be but this guy right here is not all right? We're not rich. So what does that mean? That means one of two things. Either A, I'm not humble and I don't fear the Lord or B, this is not a promise. It's not a promise. It's a proverb or we would all be rich. Give you another one. Look at verse 16. It says, " One who oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth and one who gives gifts to the rich-both come to poverty." What does that say? That is an observation. If you take from the poor and only give it to the rich, you will be poor. Now, is this the case? No. How do I know? There's a lot of politicians that are still rich and out there right now, right? That's a joke. All right? I promise you. It's a joke. Here's what it's saying though. Generally speaking, God will bless those who give to the poor. That's what its saying. Let me give you another one, just because I'm not feeling that you're not with me yet. Verse 29. Look at it. "Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank." What is it saying? If this was a promise, that means every single artists in that is out there that is skilled in their work will be standing before Queen Elizabeth or the President of the United States every day. But does that happen? No. It doesn't happen. But what is the proverb saying? The proverb is saying that there is a wisdom and for skillful people to be in their trade to do what they need to do, and God will bless them. That's what it's saying. But for some reason, we've taken this proverb about kids, and about raising kids and we've treated it as a promise in our lives. And I'm going to tell you what it's done to us. It has brought us down, and it has completely caused some of us to feel like we have messed our kids up, and it's our fault. But that's not what it's saying. That's not what it's saying at all. You see, King Solomon, he's saying this. He's saying that if you will train up your child, when they're young, there is a good chance, the best chance you got for them to walk in the name of the Lord for the rest of their lives. That's what he's saying. So when we have a right view of this proverb, when we have a right view of the Proverbs in general, do you know what it can do for us? Number one, if we have a right view of this proverb, it can completely reset our guilt or our pride. It can completely reset our guilt. And here's what I mean by that. I want to deal with guilt first because here's what this proverb can do. This proverb can reset the condemnation that we put on ourselves thinking, here it is, that I messed my kids up. Because if this was a promise from the Lord and your kids are not walking in the name of the Lord, listen to me right here. That means you messed them up, right? But it's not. It's a proverb. It's not a promise parents. Look at me. Your responsibility is to raise your kid up in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's not your responsibility how your kids turn out. It's just not. There comes a point in every single person's life, students you need to hear this, because it ain't your parents fault how you're turning out right now. There comes a point in every person's life where God deals with the individual and the Holy Spirit speaks directly in our hearts and in our lives, and moves us to really realize that we need a personal relationship with Jesus. And it's not our parents fault if we do not respond. Parents listen to me, your job on this earth, ah this is gonna be so freeing, especially for me, your job on this earth is not to produce good kids. It's just not. Your job on this earth is to show them and to teach them the love of who Jesus is. And how they turn out, here it is, let me take the pressure off of you, it's not up to you. It's not up to you. It's not up to you. And I know, I know this. There's some of you out there with adult children right now that are just not walking with Jesus. And you've been living in the shame for a really long time blaming yourself that you messed your kid up. But can I tell you something? Could you have done it differently? Yeah. Could you have done it better? Probably. Is it your fault? No. It's not your fault. Why? Because this is not a promise. It's a proverb. It's a proverb. This is not a promise. It's a proverb. Parents your work is in pointing your kids to Jesus and listen to me students. Don't put that on your parents. Don't, if you're old enough to be sitting in this room, you're old enough to know that Jesus wants to move in your life. He wants you to be in a personal relationship. He wants to walk in you. He wants to walk in your life. And I know some of you could. I mean, I know it. I can give you hundreds of examples of parents that have two kids, one of them walking with Jesus, one of them. I mean, worshipping as a family, one of them pointing their lives and their families in the life of the Lord. But then there's the other one, right? There's always the other one. And where's the other one going? They're about to destroy themselves. They're in jail for the 17th time. They're basically a deist or or an agnostic at this point. Their kids are just absolutely off the chain. Their family is in destruction, they're on marriage number five, but these parents are looking at it going man, I raised them the same. What did I do? I just want to free you up parents to go. You didn't do anything. You didn't. You gotta let that guilt go. You gotta let that go in your life because it is not your job to produce. It's your job to train. We're gonna see that in just a minute. But there's also a pride factor in this right? There's a pride factor in looking down our noses at people whose kids aren't turning out just right, going, come on parent, what are you doing? No, no, don't even do that. Next time a kid cries in the grocery store. Don't be blaming that all on the parent. Maybe a little bit of it. Maybe like 30%, but that's on that little hellion kid, right? That's uh, can I say that? I cannot say that, right? I'm sorry. I don't know. Right? That's on the kid. Why? Because we're created with freewill right to make our own decisions. And we learned that about our kids real early in life. We really do. Parents your work is in raising your kid and you need to know this. No matter what you do, sometimes they just don't turn out walking with Jesus. Can I tell you something, you're not their Savior? You're not. And you can't be their Savior. That's Jesus's job. In fact, Ezekiel talks about this in chapter 18. You were just reading that the other day, right? Listen to this Ezekiel 18. He says, Yet you ask, why does the son not share the guilt of his father? Since the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to keep all my decrees, he will surely live." Now listen to verse 20. I love this. "The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the sins of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child." You might want to circle this one. Listen to me teenagers, you're not going to share in your parents guilt, it's not on you. You should never handle their problems. That is not your deal. Parents, listen to me. You're never going to share the guilt on the decisions your kids make, that is on them. Now, don't leave me because we got some more to talk about. "The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them." Here's my prayer this morning for some of you dealing with kids that are not walking with Jesus that you would see it's not always your fault. Teenagers don't put this on your parents, it is up to you to walk out your faith, right? But here's number two, I need you to see this not only does this see that we can, reset our guilt and pride. Number two, this proverb leads us to discover that we have some roles. We have some roles that we are to live out in our life. Remember, this a general observation, when we understand that students you're going to understand that here's your role based on this proverb, your role is to accept the authority that God has put on you. And I know that doesn't make me the popular guy in the room. I know that you didn't come to church today to have some guy like me tell you you need to enjoy the idea that God has put these people in your life point and you in a direction that you can live the rest of your life. I get that. And I know students. I know what you're thinking, well, if you knew my parents, you'd never say that. I get it. There's no manual on how to raise you, I promise you, they send you home with like two pieces of paper, five diapers and a little thing you got to carry and click into your car seats, that you don't even know how to use. That's all you get when you come home from the hospital with you. So we're trying to figure this thing out. But students your role is to know that God has put these people in your life, if they are believers, to point you in the direction of who God is. And parents, you need to understand this. Your kids cannot live your faith. Kids, you can't live your parents faith. It is on you. But parents your role, let me give it to you right here, your role is to train your kids. Your role is to train your kids. That's what the Proverbs is saying. I cannot say it enough. The sacred responsibility in parenting is the training, but we're not responsible for the outcome. That's God's business. That's God's work in them. In fact, look at the verse again. Proverbs 22:6, what does it say, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." I want to do something. I want to just divide this up into three little chunks. The first chunk says if you will train up. You will train up. That word train right there carries this idea parents and students that it is our calling in life students, as parents to train you. Training means this idea comes from this Hebrew word to train up means a beginning, a dedication or a pointing in a direction. It also has this weird little nuance in the Hebrew that it meant that you will put something sweet in your child's mouth when they are young, to teach them to begin to desire something. Man look at that as a word picture of what we're to do, right? We are to inaugurate this idea of faith in our kids life. We're to dedicate our kids in a direction to the Lord, we are to teach them and we are to give them enough of who Jesus is to put a taste in their mouth so that they will continue to walk it out for their entire life. That's what this word teach means. This word teach doesn't mean having a chart in your room somehow saying 79 Bible verses a year you're going to memorize together No, it doesn't mean that, it means that I am going to teach them to give them something to taste. And to point them. Look at the second part in this. Train up a child in his way that he should go. In the way. So if the teach is to give a taste and to dedicate, the way has two meanings, and I love, love, love, Hebrew, it is such an incredible language. The word way carried two different kind of ideas. Now the word way is pertaining to heart stuff, all right? It's not talking about changing a tire. It's not talking about throwing a curveball or even a football. Those are fabulous things. I love that your kid knows how to catch brim. That's fabulous. I love that about them. That's not what the Bible is talking about right here. The Bible is saying the way he should go, it literally means the ways of God, how to study the Bible, why to study the Bible, how to memorize scripture, how to walk out our faith, in Jesus's name, how to show other people who Jesus is, this is used over 70 times in the book of Proverbs, this word way. This word way, it carries this idea that I'm going to give them the ideas of Jesus, but it also carries this idea of I'm going to train them in the way or in a manner that fits them best. Now, theologians are kind of split between which one of these is the primary, but I think they're both important. Okay? So in other words, as a parent, I'm going to give my kids enough faith and enough knowledge to point them in a direction in a way of God but also in a way that they are created. Now what does that mean? That means that I and every single one of my kids, I'm going to teach them differently. I'm going to show them who God is differently. That's why there's no one book that we can hand you as a ministry here that says, hey, here's 101 ways that your kids not gonna be messed up the rest of their lives. Because every kid is different, right? We're created different, you don't look at someone who's has a bent towards being tactile, and make them completely just philosophical. You can't teach like that. That's why school is hard for some kids, right? You look at your kid, you look at how they were created, and you train them in the way that they were created, not in the way that necessarily you were trained. Now, this is why some of your kids hate you. Because you haven't looked at their desires. You haven't looked at how their vents are. You haven't looked at how they were created. And you haven't come alongside them to say, hey, I know that it's hard for you to understand like this, let me try it like this. This is why the Shema is so incredibly important, in Deuteronomy 6. Deuteronomy 6 has this verse that says this, "These commands that I give you today are to be on your hearts." And look at what it says to parents, "Impress them on your children." That's the teaching, right? "Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads." Sounds kind of weird but, "Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." What is that saying? That's saying that you're going to teach your kids as you're doing life together according to what resonates in their hearts. For one of your kids, it might be, hey, we're going to read this book together. For another one of your kids, we're going to take a walk every single day for 30 minutes, and we're going to talk about what's going on in your life for one of your kids. We're going to go serve together for another one of your kids, hey, we're going to memorize this scripture together. You see how this is going right? You're giving them the taste, you're training in the ways, but you're looking at their bit at their personality and what they're good at. And you're doing it as you go in life. Now who is really good at this? Jesus, right? He was incredible at doing this with his disciples, was He not and they were all different. With different personalities, but if He came to a wheat field, and He needed to talk about something, He'd pick up a piece of wheat and He talked about it. If it was lunchtime and they needed some food, He'd say, hey, give me the lunchable over there, kid and watch what's about to happen. He takes the top three one day and He transforms Himself at the Transfiguration, to show them His godliness. And then He walks them through what just happened in their lives. What an incredible example this proverb is giving us of how to point our kids and look at the third part of the proverb, so that even when they are old, they won't depart from it. What is this saying? If we look at our kids, and we teach them, we constantly drip it. We constantly pause. We constantly do this, when they're old. Here's what it's saying. They're gonna continue to walk this. They're going to continue to know this. But you got to realize something, this has nothing to do with coming back. It has a whole lot to do with remaining. Remaining. Here's what I need some of you parents to know you need quit praying for your kids to come back to Jesus and you need to start praying for them to come to Jesus for the first time. Because I got news for you. I know that little Johnny signed that little blue Bible when he was 7 years old, but if he hasn't walked it from 7 to 29, chances are you need to change your prayer to a prayer of salvation and not prayer boomerang. You see what Satan does to us, right? He begins to distract us, so he bears on these proverbs and says, that's a promise they're gonna come back, they're gonna come back. And you know, they aren't coming back, because they've never been there. For some of you, it is a prayer to come back and I get that. But you kind of remember it's not a promise. You can be the best parent on the planet, and they might not make the right decisions. Remember Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve in the best place in the best environment, no sin with the best parent God, but what do they do they still chose to walk away from Him. It's not your fault. So here's what I want to do on the way out of here today. I want to give you 5 shotgun things that you can talk about at your house this week over dinner, wherever it is, as a family, I want to give you five things that are not promises, but they can increase the odds of your kids walking out their faith. Number one, here it is. These are quick. Number one, you need to know that the church is not here to raise your kid. I can emphatically say that we will do a poor job. A poor job. Why? Because it's not a role. Eighteen years in student ministry, I can say this. That's the general feeling for most Christians. Oh, yeah, yeah, the spiritual side is covered by the church. No, no, no, the Bible says that's on you. Kids, we're second. Your parents are first. Number two, here it is. Understand that we're all held accountable for our own decisions. All of us, Students, listen to me, you can't live your parents faith and your parents can't live your faith but you're accountable for your decisions. It's on you. It's not because of upbringing. It's not because of how you were bent. It's not because any of that. It's on you and you're going to be held accountable. Parents. we're all going to be held accountable what we did with our kids, not talking about being demanding or ruling or being all kinds of rules based up til now. I haven't mentioned a rule yet right? What I'm saying is we're all gonna be held accountable. Number three, I love this one, learn that consistency and authenticity will win more often than not. Now what does that mean? That means this. Parents you just need to apologize a lot. Listen, I'm not the best parent in my house, I get that I'm like, way down on the rung and I'm number two, but it's like a way number two. There's a lot of times I need to apologize. Can I tell you something parents, I'm just gonna let you into a little bit of our kids lives. They see your inconsistency. They see that you're different at home than you are when you walk in the church. And they are screaming for consistency and training. And I need to keep going. Number four, train your kids formally and informally. Formally and informally, in the ways of Jesus. Now, what does that mean? That means there are sometimes you just need to stop, and go, hey, man, we just need to talk about this for a minute. We need to talk about how that went. But there's also times, when you need to crack open the Bible, you need to crack open prayer and just go no, no, no, right here,right now. Here's what we're doing. Both ways matter. Why? Because some habits are caught and some habits are taught, right? They see us. Can I tell you something parents, our kids see you and your relationship with God. They see you. And here's number five. I love this. Offer your family to the Father. regularly. This ones for all of us. Because kids look at me just for a minute. I get it. I get it. Some of your houses are tough. Some of you, students, some of you students are the first faith walking person in your family. And can I just say that my heart breaks for you. And this church is here for you and we will be your primary disciple because we're all you've got. But students, you need to offer your family to the Father regularly because God can change your parents through watching you walk out your faith. Parents. you need to be on your knees for your family regularly. Why? Proverbs 22, Train up a child in this way, he will not depart from it, even when he is old. I don't know about you, but that's just the legacy I want in my house. Is it a promise? No, it's not a promise. But it's all I got. That's all I got. You know, I got to thinking this week about Luke 15, a whole lot. And there's a good chance that a lot of us in this room are a lot like that prodigal, or have been a lot like that prodigal. But here's my favorite part about that whole story. It's when the kid turns back to the Father and the father accepts him with open arms. Can tell you something about our Father? When you turn back to him. When you turn back to God When you turn to God, there's never been a moment in history that He did not accept the one that has turned back. Parents do you need to turn back in your parenting this morning and go, hey, I've blown it. That's okay. He'll accept you. Come to your senses, students, parents, do you need to realize that I need to meet Jesus today? Look, I realized that we're in a weird time right now with this whole COVID thing. But I just want to offer this church up in any way possible, to walk with you and to walk for you and to walk alongside of you. And to say this parenting is incredibly, incredibly hard. Living out as a student is incredibly, incredibly hard. We have full access to the King, maker of the universe, and we want to come alongside you. Listen, if you'll just text the word next this morning. If you'll text the word next to us this morning at 678-506-2462 Wherever you're at, if you need to meet Jesus today, if you'll text that, somebody will follow up with you and just say that to them. I need Jesus. Maybe today your home is spiraling out of control. And you just need somebody just to pray with you for a couple of weeks. And if you'll text that let them know they'll follow up with you. Maybe this morning you have almost but all given up on your parents coming to the Lord this morning. You just need somebody to pray with you. Hey, if you'll text that somebody will follow up with you. Maybe this morning, you need to meet Jesus. Something in your spirit is just drawing you back to Him. If you'll text that, one of the pastors will follow up within the next 24 hours. And here's my promise to you. We will walk with you. We will walk with you. Because here's what I know. That's the heart of the Father. Lord Jesus today, as we close these moments as we walk out of this place God allow us to see our role as parents is to teach but not to produce. Our role as students is to own our faith and to walk it out. But God all of us, God our role is just to follow you. Lord thank you so much for meeting with us today. It's in your name we pray. Amen. You guys have a fabulous week. You're dismissed.