At Home as it is in Heaven April 12, 2026

See you all in a second. Well, good morning, Fellowship, and I want to welcome all of our campuses today, the chapel, those of you that are joining us online, thanks for being here today. And, man, I hope your family had a great Easter. It was an amazing weekend last weekend, was it not? Just being reminded that Jesus is our living hope, and he is the one that we can trust in. And here at Fellowship, we had an incredible time across all seven of our campuses. If it's not the largest, it's definitely one of the largest Easter services we've ever had. We had over 10,000 people across all of our campuses. We saw people get baptized. We saw people make new commitments to Christ. We saw people who maybe had kind of walked away, kind of rededicating themselves. And, man, I just want to tell you, God is on the move. He is working in our church. He's working here in central Arkansas. He's working all across the world. Can we take just a moment and just praise him and thank him together? Give him some applause for the work he's doing. Yes, it's not anything that we're doing. It's the work that he's doing in and through each and every one of us and in our church as well. Well, hey, if you're new to Fellowship, my name is Mark. I'm one of the teaching pastors here, and we are so glad that you're with us today. Today's a unique day because we're broadcasting out this message to all of our campuses. We do that about six to eight times a year. One of the times that we usually do that is when we're starting a new series, which is what we're doing today. We have a new series starting that we're calling At Home As It Is in Heaven. If you've been around here, you know that our theme this year as a church, as a people of God, is your kingdom come. Our desire is that we would see his kingdom become up there, become down here. First and foremost, into our lives, into our community, in our world. Yes, even in our homes. That's what we want to be talking about together in this series. I think that fits beautifully with our mission as a church.

Our mission here at Fellowship is we want to make disciples who live by God's grace and for his glory where? At home and across the world. We want to talk about that at home piece. Here's what I know. Most of us in here have a home. Whether you're young, old, married, not married, whether you got kids or you don't have kids, most of us in here have a home. Most of us have a part to play as we think about making disciples at home. In fact, you may have noticed when you came in today in your lobby on your respective campus, you should have a map there of the area around your campus. What we want to ask you to do today after the service is we have some pins there. We would like for you to take a pin and stick it as close as you can to where your home is. Our hope is at the end of this series, we could take a step back, look at all those pins and imagine together that if we're working together as we think about making disciples in our homes, as we're doing that together, the impact that we can have in this community. I want to encourage you after the service, please take a moment, just stick a pin in an approximate location of where you live. That'll encourage us. If you can't do it today, I want to encourage you to do that next week. In this series, we're going to frame this series up using rooms in a house, using really the analogy of rooms. We're going to talk about the kitchen. We're going to talk about the closet. We're going to talk about the living room and so on. It's really as you think about rooms in a house, they all have different functions, but they work together to make a home feel like a home. We're going to be talking about these rooms as we think about this whole idea of making disciples at home. Today, as you can see there on the outline in the back of your bulletin, actually talking about the living room. Because the living room is really the place in our homes where we do a lot of our relationship building. With family and friends, if we're in a small group, that's where we oftentimes will meet with our small group.

And so today, what we're gonna do is really use this room to talk about how we as a parents can help our kids relationally connect with Jesus. Now, this is not a parenting series, but you can't really talk about making disciples at home without talking about the unique responsibility that parents play in helping their kids walk with Jesus. Now, you may be thinking, I don't have kids, so this doesn't apply to me. But I think it does, because you need to start thinking now about how you wanna disciple your kids should you ever have any in the future. Maybe begin now thinking through a plan of what that's gonna look like for you. If your kids are grown and out of the house like mine, you may have the opportunity in the future to spiritually influence your grandkids. So I think there's something in today's message for every single one of us. I think one thing that's true about parenting is everybody wants to be a great parent. I mean, no one starts out as a parent and says, I wanna be a horrible parent, right? I mean, none of us start out that way. We all start off with good intentions, but then we get tired. I mean, life gets hard. Life gets busy, right? I mean, who in here knows what I'm talking about? And that's the way it is with parenting.

It gets hard. It gets challenging. And so we try to do the right things, but we get worn out as a parent. And it shows up even in the little things. For example, when you have multiple kids, it's amazing how you can lower your standards over time. I remember with our first kid, Hunter, when his pacifier would fall on the ground, we would pick that thing up. Man, we would scrub that with antibacterial soap, put that thing in hot boiling water, sterilize that thing before we ever gave it back to him. Second kid came along, Hayden. Man, when his pacifier fell on the ground, we would take it and wash it in hot water, then give it back to him. That third kid, Hudson, came along. When that pacifier fell on the ground, you know what we'd do, we'd pick it up, we'd wipe it off on our pant leg, stick it back in his mouth. But man, when that fourth kid came along, our daughter, man, bless her heart, when that pacifier fell on the ground, you know what we did? Just stick it right back in her mouth, right? Why? We're tired. We're worn out.

We just, we didn't care anymore. And that's okay when it comes to little things like a pacifier, but not when it comes to really important things that have to do with parenting. Like giving your faith away to your kids. Like helping your kids love and follow Jesus. Man, that's important. That's not something where we wanna lower our standards. That's too important for us. And so today, we're gonna talk in a real practical way about how we do that. How do we help our kids relationally connect with Jesus? So here's what I wanna invite you to do. Take out your Bible or your Bible app, join me in Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter six. If you don't know where that is, start in Genesis, first book of the Bible, just turn to the right a few books. It's the fifth book of the Bible. Deuteronomy, we're given a great word here about a responsibility that we have as parents. Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four. If you don't have a Bible or Bible app, we'll put it up here on the screen. Here's what it says. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your what? House. in your living room. And when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gates. Now what we just read is often referred to by the Hebrew people as the Shema. The Shema is a traditional prayer that was recited every single day, day and night. Sometimes when it was recited, they would even cover up their eyes. It was a way of declaring their faith, their spiritual truth that the Lord God is one and he is great. And therefore, because he's the only God and he's a great God, he alone is worthy of our love, of all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our mind. The Shema. And by the way, Jesus borrowed on this, didn't he? Because later on, Jesus himself will get questioned by someone about what is the greatest commandment. You remember? Matthew chapter 22, verse 37, Jesus said it this way. Listen to what he says.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And so here in Deuteronomy 6, and really elsewhere in the scriptures, what we see is that we're called as parents to impress these spiritual truths on our kids. That we take the truth of God that's on our own heart and that we're passing that on to our kids. And we're gonna talk about practically how we do that. So as we think about the living room in our home, how do we help our kids love the Lord with all their heart, with all their soul, with all their mind? So here's what I wanna do today. Here's where we're going. I wanna take just a moment and at a very high level, talk a little bit about kind of what I call their three important truths that we need to all understand about parenting or being a parent. And then what I want us to do, we'll transition towards the end of our time and talk about three ways as parents we can help our kids love and follow Jesus. So that's where we're going today. We're gonna start first with these three important truths that I want all of us to understand before we get too far into this. Here's the first one. There are no perfect parents.

Can I get an amen on that? Yes, that's the loudest amen I've ever heard at fellowship. Here's the reality. Every single one of us is broken. And flawed. And imperfect people. You know what that means? That means you're an imperfect parent. And I can't say this clear enough. There is only one perfect parent that ever has been and ever will be. It's God the Father. And I share that because there should not be one ounce of pride in any parent that's listening to this message today because if your kids are thriving and doing well, that's awesome and I hope they are. But it's not because you were a perfect parent. It is because of the wonderful, amazing grace of God through Jesus Christ working in their heart and their life. James says every good and perfect gift comes from above. The gift of his work in the life of your son or daughter, oftentimes in spite of you and in spite of me. So let's level the playing field here. We're all imperfect. Every one of us. If you don't believe me, ask your kid. Here's the second thing. Parents have no power to turn their child into a disciple of Jesus Christ. What I mean by that is we can't change our child's heart.

We can't make them grow. We can't make our child love God. We just can't do it. No more so than I can make my grass grow at my house. Man, there's stuff I can do to my grass. I can fertilize it. I can aerate my yard. I can even water it, but I can't make the grass grow. All I can do is create a healthy environment where that grass has an opportunity to grow. And that is what we have to do as parents. Create a healthy, strong, vibrant, spiritual community at home where God has the opportunity to work in and through us and into the lives of our kids. Here's the last thing I'll mention. Parents can love and train their child to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and yet they turn away from him. In other words, what I mean is you can do all the right things as a parent. You can love your kids, you can train them up in the Lord, you can discipline them, and yet their heart ends up cold toward God. And maybe even you. And if that happens, you need to be careful not to beat yourself up, to constantly be trying to figure out as a parent what you did wrong to cause your kid to stray so far. Instead, I would encourage you to pray and to never give up on your child

because God has not given up on him. One of my favorite stories in the Bible is Luke chapter 15, the story of the prodigal son. It's a powerful reminder to a parent that no matter how far your child may turn away from God, they are never beyond his love, never. And there may be a day when they once again realize his love for them and they return home. That's what we pray for as parents. So I wanna start there, with those kind of important truths that's really set the table as we have this conversation about how we help our kids grow up how we help our kids relationally connect with Jesus how we help our kids love God with all of their heart, mind, and might. So here's what I wanna do now. I want us to talk about three practical ways as parents that we can help our kids grow in their love for God. There are certainly other ones. I'm gonna give you three that I think are very important and I think are laid out here in Deuteronomy. Here's the first one. Our children need to see a sincere love for God in us. I want you to look how this starts out in Deuteronomy chapter six, verse six. Go back there with me again. The writer says this. The words I command you shall be on your heart. Talking to parents.

It begins with us. If we're gonna help our kids love God then we better have the love of God on our own hearts. If we're gonna share spiritual truth with our kids then that truth needs to resonate and be on our own hearts. Now again, I'm not talking about being perfect here, perfect in our actions. What I'm talking about is having an authentic real, sincere love and faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, when someone looks at your life there's a general trajectory to your life where you are more and more loving Jesus and being more like him in your life. And it's evident both to your kids and I would say even beyond your kids. No matter who in Kentucky you are, and I would say even beyond your kids, no matter who encounters you, that there's this kind of sincere love that you have for God. And where this becomes a problem is that in a lot of homes you have culturally Christian parents. And what I mean by that is they're Christian in name only. Maybe you kind of love Jesus. Maybe you kind of go to church. And you would use the name of Jesus, but in reality at home your attitudes and actions actually say something totally different. And do you know what that creates in a home?

It creates hypocrisy. And if I can tell you anything, a kid can sniff out a fake. I remember a dad came to me and he was having all kinds of trouble with his teenage son and he was at his wits end and said his son was being disrespectful and drinking a lot and cussing and doing all these things. He wanted me to sit down and meet with him, so I did and I sat down with his son. And as we were talking and meeting and all of that, what became apparent. is the son began to tell me that the dad was drinking a lot and cussing a lot at home. And so I actually had to circle back around with the dad. Because you can't hold your kid to a standard that you're not willing to hold yourself to, right? And that's why what we talk about here at Fellowship is we wanna build Christ-centered homes. Where Jesus isn't just a part of our lives, he is our lives. He is our everything. He's not just an add-on to our life when we need him or when it's convenient. He is the essence of who we are. Everything about us is about Jesus. And when Jesus is the essence of your life and your heart, what happens is over time it's easy for you to impart that love and that truth that the writer here in Deuteronomy 6 is talking about.

Just comes right out of you. And your kids can't help but see it and want to know Jesus and to walk with him. But it has to start with us first. Our kids need to see a sincere, genuine love for God in us as their parents. Here's the second thing I'd mention. Our children need us to be intentional in helping them to grow in their love and understanding of God. They need us to be intentional in helping them grow in their love and understanding of God. I want you to notice something with me in verse seven. I want you to notice the pronoun that's used here in verse seven. It says this, you shall teach them, talking about this truth, this truth about who God is, to your children. Notice it says you shall teach them, not they. Talking to us as the parents. It's the parents who have the primary responsibility to teach and impart Jesus and his truth to their kids. And I think this is incredibly important for us to talk about here for a moment. Because I think a lot of parents abdicate this responsibility. And what they do instead is they put their kids in spiritual environments and expect those environments alone to help their kids love and follow Jesus. So they'll put them in church,

which by the way is a wonderful thing to do. They'll put them in the kids ministry, which is an awesome thing to do. They might even put them in a Christian school. And God can use all of those different environments to grow a love and an affection for God in our kids. But those, listen, are all supplements. The most important environment is your home and my home. That as parents, we are loving and encouraging and training up our kids to love God with all of their heart, mind, soul, and might. And let me just stop here for a moment. And I wanna speak just to the fathers that are listening today, to the dads. Dads, it is on us to be spiritually leading out in our homes and with our kids. This is not something where we just sit back passively, particularly if we're married and expect our wife to do all of the spiritual encouraging and training and equipping of our kids spiritually. Our highest calling as a dad is to spiritually pour truth and faith into our kids. That is the highest calling of a father. The most important thing is not your kid's 40 time. It's not, your daughter's grades at school. It's not hoping that your son becomes a really good duck hunter. Or that your kid is the most popular person at school. It's not that those things aren't unimportant.

But they are not the most important thing. The most important thing as a dad and as a father is that we are loving, shepherding, and caring for our kids, and helping them, with God's grace, come to the place where they joyfully and willingly want to love and to follow Jesus Christ. That is what we're called to. And so I ask you this question, how are you doing in discipling your children? That's a great question to wrestle with. And I'll say this, not just for the dads, but for the moms too, for all of us. And listen, this thing, it can be discouraging, it can be overwhelming. And you may be here today and you're discouraged and you're overwhelmed at the whole idea and thought of kind of loving and encouraging your kids spiritually. Here's what I want you to know, I've got great news for you today. You don't have to do that in your own power and strength. I think one of the greatest parenting passages in the whole Bible is the Great Commission. Many of you know it, at the end of Jesus' life and ministry in Matthew 28, he gives us what's called the Great Commission. In essence, he says, go and make disciples. And we often talk about that around global missions, and certainly there's a huge global component to the Great Commission.

I would also say, it's also talking about making disciples in our home. And I love what Jesus says at the end of that Great Commission. Here's his words to you and me. He says this, verse 20, behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. What an assurance. That as we love and care for and train up our kids to love the Lord Jesus Christ, God is with us. We don't do it alone. It's his grace that's empowering us, giving us wisdom, constantly helping us to love, care for, and disciple our kids. As parents, we're never alone. We're always under God's watchful care. Man, how reassuring is that? That God is our constant help and hope as parents. He's always with us. We're not doing it on our own. The writer at Deuteronomy goes on to talk specifically about how we can help our kids love and pursue God. Look what he goes on to say in verse seven. He says, you, talking to the parents, shall teach them diligently to your children how? When you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise. In other words, as parents, we're called, spiritually speaking, to speak truth into our kids through the regular rhythms of life.

That's what the writer here is talking about. Notice he says, when you get up, when you lie down, when you walk, when you're at your house, just everywhere we are, we're sharing and imparting spiritual truth and life to our kids through the regular rhythms of life. And by the way, that doesn't happen by accident. Which is why you'll notice a very important word in the point that I gave you about this. You have to be intentional. Man, you really have to seize those regular opportunities where you can show and share Jesus with your kids. And the way we do this changes as our kids get older. Let me show you what I mean. Here on this TV here, I've got some kind of age-appropriate ways that we can help our kids love and follow Jesus. And I've divided them out into different ages here. And certainly, these are just some ideas. Anytime you put a list together, there's more ideas. You probably have better ideas. These are just some things that I think could be helpful. I want you to leave here today with a sense of, a real practical sense of what the writer here's talking about as we think about kind of helping our kids love the Lord with all their heart, mind, and strength. Here's some ways we can do that. In the early years, I would say this season of life in a kid is lots of repetition.

You're taking large spiritual concepts and you're talking about them constantly. By the way, I would say that is probably true in every aspect of their life. It's a lot of repetition. Make church a priority. Get a regular rhythm of maybe praying before bed. Read Bible stories to them. By the way, there's some great Bibles out there that can help you do that. I think one of those is called the Storybook Bible. Has great stories out there. It's super helpful. I'd say memorize a verse together could be a way you could do that. Kids love to do that. Listen to worship music in the car. How easy is that? We spend a ton of time in the car, driving back and forth to school, to practices, to different things. Why not turn on some worship music? Go on a hike, talk about God's creation with them. Just being, again, intentional about, in small ways and big ways, of how we're helping our kids along the path. Next is the middle years. This is eight to 12. I would label this time as lots of quality time. You know why?

You're still cool as a parent. That will change here in just a moment. But you're cool as a parent in this phase. What that means is that your son or daughter still wants to be around you. Make church a priority. Are you catching a theme here? Pray with them. I think you look for all kinds of opportunities where you can pray with your kid. Encourage them to read their Bible. Again, all kinds of resources and Bibles that are age appropriate. If you don't know who to ask about that, ask any of our staff, any of our children's ministry team. We'd be happy to share with you some different resources and Bibles out there that can be super helpful. Maybe have a family devotional night. Now, I say maybe there, okay? Because this didn't work in my family. I remember one night we were having a family devotional and I look up and my two sons are fist fighting on the floor, okay? I sent both of them to their room. And when I did that, I was probably, not probably, I was angry and pretty harsh with them. My wife, Jenny, got mad at me and we got in a fight. And all of this, friends, is me trying to share the Lord with my kids, okay? So it didn't work for our family.

But there are lots of families that had these kinds of times and places, but for us, it just never worked. I'd say ask spiritual questions in the car or at other times. This is a great one. What about serving with them at the church? Just you and them coming alongside and serving together in the church in the middle years. All right, teen years. It's where you may not be as popular to your kid. And here's something, I would say this season's lots of listening. Make church what? A priority. Bring Jesus into situational conversations. You're gonna have lots of conversations with your son or daughter in the teen years. Friends, school, sports, all kinds of issues that are gonna be going on and you have the opportunity to bring Jesus and the gospel into those in small ways and even big ways. Pray with them about things going on in their life. This is a great one here. Tell them what God is teaching you. There is nothing more powerful that you can do in the life of your kid than just share what Jesus is doing in your own life. Man, that way they can see that the gospel is real. That this Jesus we talk about, man, if he's working in my dad or mom in that way,

maybe he can work in me that way. A great way. Take them on a short-term mission trip. We did this with our kids. Super powerful. Get them out of this context into a different part of the world where they can see, you know what? Jesus is working over there and people live differently in a different part of the country, in a different part of the world. Make FSM a priority. Encourage them maybe to attend a Christian camp. We have one here at Fellowship called Winter Chill. Those are just some ideas that you can do in the teenage years. All right, this is where I am, okay? All of my kids are grown. I'd say you need lots of creativity at this stage. Ask them how you can be praying for them. Maybe text them a verse and share with them how it's encouraging you personally. Offer spiritual encouragement when life is hard. Man, when your kids are in their 20s or 30s, sooner or later, life hits them. And you can be there and just offer a word of encouragement to them. As many of you know, my oldest son plays in the NFL. And the Super Bowl didn't go his way. Rough game. He felt like his team played.

played bad and he played bad and he was awfully discouraged about you because you work all season long to get there. Tough moment after the game. In that moment, just in a short way, I was able to put my arm around him and just offer him a little bit of spiritual encouragement. And we have those opportunities if we'll be intentional about them. Ask them spiritual questions occasionally. Here's a good one. When asked, notice that. When asked, offer spiritual wisdom into major life decisions. All kinds of key moments will come up in life. Job, marriage, kids, all kinds of things. And when you're asked, man, it's a great opportunity to offer that. And then I'll say this. Be careful not to overspeak about spiritual things with your kids, your adult kids, where you end up actually pushing them in a different direction than what you had hoped for. Now, those are just some of the things that we can do as we think about Deuteronomy chapter six. If you think about helping our kids relationally connect with God, to love him with all their heart, mind, and strength, those are just a few ideas and a few ways. And you may have many other that you could add to that,

but those can be some ways that we can encourage that in the life of our kids. Here's the last thing that I'll mention. The last way we can help our kids love God is by helping them be involved in strong spiritual community. If you were to ask me, Mark, what is the one thing that you and Jenny did to help set your kids up for lasting spiritual success, I would tell you it was working really hard to keep our kids connected into spiritual community, where they could be around other people, friends, and relationships that were like-minded in their faith. We wanted our kids to be tethered to other faith-filled people. And the best place for our family to do that was right here in the body of Christ, in the church. Psalm 92 verse three says this, they who are planted in the house of the Lord, they flourish in the courts of our God. Man, when we plant our kids in spiritual community, strong spiritual community, oftentimes it helps them flourish in their faith. Man, if I could say one thing parent-to-parent to you is, man, do everything you can to help your kids be connected into spiritual community. You say, how do you do that? Well, I'd say make church a priority. I'd say get them connected at FSK,

which is our kids' ministry. I'd say if you have teenagers, make FSM a priority. I can't tell you the difference that FSM D group leaders made in the life of my four kids coming through the teenage years. I mean, things that Jenny and I would have never been able to do alone. I can't tell you how many times my kids would come home from a night at FSM and they'd say, Dad, you won't believe what I learned tonight from my FSM D group leader. And I would think to myself, man, I've told you that 10 times, right? But somehow, somehow it had never connected with them. And it was awesome having other like-minded, devoted Christ followers who were coming alongside my kids and we were all moving in the same direction. And it made a lasting impact in the life of my kids. Listen, parenting, man, it's hard. It's challenging at times. It can be discouraging at times and we need each other. That's the power of the church. We need spiritual community. We also need the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ because none of us are perfect parents. We're all struggling. In fact, you may be here today and maybe you feel like, man, I failed or I am failing as a parent. Here's what I want you to hear.

You can hit the reset button today. Jesus can bring hope into any situation in any circumstance. You can't do it in your own power and your own strength, but Jesus can give you a new start no matter what the age of your child may be. There is hope in Jesus Christ. And he can help you become the kind of parent that he's called you to be and that he's called me to be. We can't do it on our own. We need to lean into him. He can do that work in and through us. It's the work of grace, his grace, working in us and through us. Let's pray together. God, thank you so much for really. incredible opportunity of being called a parent. Gosh, I can't think of any area in my life where I need you more than in parenting. At times, how humbling it can be, how discouraging it can be, how disheartening it can be. Oftentimes, how much I fail. And yet, sometimes you do your best work, not when I'm doing the things that are right, but even when I do the things that are wrong. Through the powerful work of your grace and your gospel, you're changing and shepherding not just me, but all of us. And would you help us to be a church full of parents who want to love and care for and share the love of Jesus with our kids? Jesus, we can't do it on our own, we need you.

Thankfully, you're with us, even to the ends of the age. Would you empower us, would you strengthen us, would you give us wisdom? Would you help us to love our kids no matter what their age may be? Would you help us give away your love and your truth to them? In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thanks again for listening to the Word of God. We are blessed to reach you throughout the week through whatever platform you're listening on. If you're needing prayer or you want to talk to someone about your walk with Jesus, reach out to us at fellowshipar.com slash contact. Have a great week.