The Parent's Seats | Tyrone P. Jones | A Seat At The Table

All right, well, welcome to Church for the City, where we will teach the Word of God, we'll encounter the presence of the Lord as we just did. Can we give it up for the worship team? We're so thankful for them leading us into the presence. And, of course, we'll spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so thankful for you to be here. How many happy to be in God's house? Amen, amen, amen. Well, I do want to thank you for the prayers while I was in Slovakia. The trip actually was, it proved to be even more fruitful than what I had anticipated. We've had a team there before, and they came back and let me know the work that was being done and where they thought we could invest in it. And sure enough, it turned out to be that and much more, and looking forward to doing more with the Roma people there in Slovakia. I know Pastor Ty and Abel was in India, and that was fantastic. And I want to say I know last week there were some folks that was on the stage with our marriage panel. First of all, OJ and Candy, thank you guys again for your leadership and just a great job with it. I don't know who's in the house that was on that panel, but Will and Amanda Mason, Tony and Amy Botticelli, Mike and Connie Sharp, Brandon and Jessica Thayer, Eddie and Sandra Orozco, Jeannie and Isaiah Wong. I want to thank each of you for your vulnerability of being willing to share your story and experiencing what I experience every week, which is terror, to be in front of these folks and share

and say things which, you know, sometimes you don't always know what's going to come out of your mouth, and it goes into infinity. And somebody watches on YouTube three years later and said, do you know you said? I'm like, oh, shoot. That was three years ago. Kind of forget that, right? But thank you for your courage and for sharing, and it was a great... I was so, so blessed from hearing it. Now, the men were on the retreat yesterday, well, the weekend, and great reports from that. We're going to see a video of that. And so, yeah, let's do that video from the retreat. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ We made it. Oh. We made it. A house. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Ooh. Never again. Can't wait to eat. I'm super excited for what God has in store.

Oh, yeah. People's properties or what? 40 bucks. Let me know if I can squish something. Let me flex. You ready, Pa? Winning team, baby. Let's go. Like enjoying the weather, baby, and golf. Let's go. Where'd he go? One of us are out of the green. So, you need to be out the green? Yeah. That's... You can't fix that. They might've wanted to cut that off at the more spiritual stuff, but no, no, it seems like they had a great time and I'm so, so grateful for Chris and his leadership. Amazing. Brandon, I know Brandon led worship. Elder David gave a message. Pastor Bob Meck have great, great job and thank you guys for doing that. One other thing before we go into, I'm going to talk a little bit today. I'm going to point out some things from my book, Ripped by Hope. There's still opportunities to get the book. The book is $15. I think there's a QR code you can snap or you can hit the disc in front of you and you're able to order the book in that way. If you have not read it, then I'm encouraging you to do so. I know you'll be blessed by it. Now, every time you come into the building, there's opportunities to give with the offering boxes and we share that with you each time. It is your generosity that helps us do what God has called us to do. It is true, God doesn't need money, but the church does. How the church operates and expand the kingdom of God is by your generosity and giving. So thank you so much for being faithful and obedient and giving of your tithes and offering for the work, the ministry, the impact upon the kingdom of God. And honestly,

you are making a difference around the world. So thank you, thank you, thank you for your giving. All right. If you don't mind standing now, let's go into the Word. We're going to look at Psalm 78 and we're going to look at Psalm 128. We're in the series, A Seat at the Table, and I started out with setting the table, which dealt with the foundation, building your house on a biblical foundation. Last week was seated together and, of course, that dealt with marriage. Today, I'm going to talk about the parent's seat, the parent's seat, two passages. Psalm 78, this is by the psalmist Asaph. It says, Give ear, O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but to keep his commandments, and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. That's Psalm 78. Let's go to Psalm 128, and we'll read the entire psalm. It's only six verses there. Psalm 128, and we'll read verses 1 through 6. Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands. You shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children will be like olive shoots and around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. The Lord bless you from Zion. May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. May you see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel. So far, the reading of the word. Can you say amen? Father, help us this morning, Lord, as we bring forth the word. I thank you for the message that you've given. And Lord, I know when you speak,

you want everyone to hear. And Lord, I know you have a word for everyone here in this house today, everyone that's going to watch, everyone that's going to listen. Lord, you want to speak. I pray, Lord God, that we have ears to hear. And Lord, that we will embrace what you are saying, that the promises of your word will be a reality for each one of us. In Christ's name, we pray. May the people of God say amen. Men, you may be seated. I have three brothers that live in Columbia, South Carolina. Dion, the oldest, then Mikael, then Victor. And, of course, we stay in communication quite a bit, whether it be by phone calls. And thank you, Phillip. When you come back up, you can just go ahead and start playing a text or whatever the case may be. But nothing is like, and they come here, Mikhail probably almost every year, Dion and Victor accordingly, but there's nothing like being with them in person because they are truly the greatest storytellers on earth. Though Virginia can tell you, my kids can tell you, when we are with them, there's things that we do, but there is nothing like just sitting around, hearing them tell stories. And there's a lot to that. On the one hand, every time they tell a story, it doesn't matter whether we've heard the story 10 times, they tell the story the same way and same dramatics, same expression, and you're drawn into the story as if you heard it for the first time. All of the emotion, all of the laughter, et cetera, you're in it. But what I like about it the most is that I learn about my family

because I wasn't raised with my brothers. I was raised here on the matriarchal side by my grandparents, not on my patriarchal side. And so when they tell stories, I hear things and learn things about my family that I wouldn't have never known if they wouldn't have told those stories. A lot of those stories really help me understand some things about why my family has done what it's done, the things it's accomplished, the things that have been good, and even the things that have been a little bit of a challenge, knowing the tail end of some things when I'm with them, but then hearing the genesis of it when they tell the stories has just been so good for me to know my family. But it also says a lot about me. And there's a lot of things now that I know about me I wouldn't have known if I wouldn't have heard those stories. I wouldn't have known how much I am like my dad. And to the point now, Virginia's heard so many of these stories, she can almost anticipate, uh-oh, yeah, there you go, acting like your daddy, right? Who she never met, right? But because she's heard the story. When I walk out or something, yeah, there you go, walking out just like your daddy. Responding just like your daddy, right? But because it has let me, I've learned a lot of things

about me in hearing those stories. Now, Psalm 78 emphasizes the importance of telling stories. The importance of telling stories in which the people of God can hear, the children of the parents can hear how God's hand has worked. How God has done what he's done through the miracles and the leading of the children of Israel. Getting them settled in the land, bringing them out of bondage. These are stories that are told because the generation below them had not heard these things. They knew that they had a God, they were one God people, but why are we one God people and who is this God that we serve and why do we serve this one God? That was so important that the Lord has made it a commandment for them to do that. He talks about how critical it is and hear me on this, he doesn't say that it's optional, he say it's mandatory. It's mandatory if our future, if those that we're raising, children and grandchildren are going to know God, it's dependent on us telling them who God is and what God has done and the promises that God has for the progeny of his people and we'll see the fruit of that when we get to Psalm 128. But this vertical transmission that God wants us to have, it starts with the parents. They'll put back on the screen Psalm 78 in the NLT verses four through eight. I won't reread it, but he says it's imperative that you tell them the next generation

about the glorious deeds of God and the power of God and the wonders of God and that I'm commanding you to teach these things so the generation would know, even children who are not yet born, so that they would set their hope anew on God, so that they will know why they're trusted in God and why they're believing in God, so that they would stay faithful to God and not let their hearts become unfaithful. What Psalm 78 talks about is us as parents sitting in certain seats, not physical chairs, but positions of influence, where we can influence what our children believe and what our children know. And what I what our grandchildren know it's a it's a seat that parents have to occupy Because it's really not a question of whether you whether you're influencing your children or not. You are influencing them The issue is how are you influencing them? And how are you doing that from the seat that you that you occupy? And so so we have seats of influence Children are constantly watching What we do grandchildren Watching they're learning They're absorbing They're looking at what we model. They're they're looking at that And so you you cannot avoid influence. You're you're you're gonna be an influencer not maybe not like one of them Instagram influencers that make money. I want to know how to do that actually, but but you you gonna be an influencer But but scripture teaches that influence comes from where we sit How we love How we live What we tolerate and what we model I asked the high school principal

Once what was the saddest thing that he saw at a graduation? it was actually on the heels of him telling me a story about something that happened when a kid was going on stage and and Anyway, I actually thought what he was gonna say is You know, well like that incident I just pointed to you know that man that's hard to see or you know a Child responding this way or some child that I would expect the student I expect to be there that didn't cross the line, but that's not what he said. He said the saddest thing at a graduation is When students are looking in seats where they expect their loved ones or parents to be and they're not there That's the saddest thing he says I see at a graduation Because somewhere down the line listen your children, they're gonna forget about the gifts the vacations Even even the rules, but they're they're gonna remember when you were present They're gonna remember when you listen, they're gonna remember when you pray. They're gonna remember when you showed up and so so Psalm 78 reminds us that that we have an opportunity to influence a next generation from a seat now, I'm gonna talk about four seats and there's probably more seats that we could talk about but I'm gonna talk about four seats that we that you can choose to be in and the one seat is the empty seat of abdication and When I say empty, I don't mean that you're not present You might be in the room. You might be at the house You might be at the table, but you've abdicated or abandoned your God-given role That you you provide food. It's not that you don't take care of their clothing and activities, but you're absent from spiritual leadership You're absent from spiritual leadership You the characteristics you possess is passive leadership to the degree may eat maybe even spiritual disengagement and unfortunately that lives leaves a culture to Disciple your child or maybe you believe the church will do it or the school will do it if if not social media will do it, unfortunately, and and It's I'm not saying that you don't bring them to church As a matter of fact, sometimes when the kids get 15 16 17 years old 18 years old Maybe even in their 20s, maybe in their 30s and they're not going in the direction you want Oftentimes what I hear is but pastor I raised them in church. So what?

So what? You raise them in church, but you didn't spiritually engage You brought him to church, but you didn't have conversations They listened to the sermons, but you didn't take the time to talk about. Hey, Billy. Let's see how let's talk about that message How does that how does that affect me? How does that affect you? How can I be a better parent based on that message? what do you think your your your role is but spiritual disengagement and Here's what the scripture says Deuteronomy 6 6 through 7 and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart You shall teach them diligently to your children So you see what God does here? He's placing the responsibility on parents intentionally to shape the child's worldview and That worldview needs to be based on the Word of God. There's an intentional role that we have to do that We should never delegate discipleship to the culture We should never delegate discipleship in manners that we know they're going to be Disciple he assigned that to the parents and and whenever whenever we are spiritually Disengaged or don't act upon spiritual leadership We leave the children to be discipled by someone else Well, you're going to have to say amen somewhere as I'm going to just keep standing right here in this point. Somewhere you need to say, y'all all right? All right. Here's the second seat. The throne seat is bullying. Some parents actually make the mistake of leadership by control, lead through intimidation rather than inspiration. And I can tell you what the roots of that are, what the roots of that is. That comes from insecurity. When you're insecure as a person or insecure as a parent, then your way of getting what you want done is to bully or to control. Or if you have a concern about your image, if it's image management, then you'll bully or you'll want to control on what they do and how things are done or you'll bully them into knowing what you want them to know. That could stem from just an inadequacy of knowing how to encourage your children or how to guide them properly. The result of that leads to estrangement.

It doesn't mean that the parents don't stay and, you know, you may hear from the child and the child from you when they get older, but the relationship is very...it's shallow. And unfortunately, the children never really learn healthy leadership, spiritual leadership themselves because of how they've been led. Here's what Ephesians 6, verse 4 says, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Provoke here is a strong word because, you know, children can get angry with you, even if you ain't messing with them. They can just wake up mad at you, right? Like, Johnny, I got breakfast for you. I don't want no breakfast. You know, they can...but provoke in this sense means that you're pushing, you keep pushing the envelope in a manner that is not drawing them in, but just keeps pushing them to a place to where their whole attitude is an angry one against you. Children are meant to be raised in the Lord's instruction, not by culture or by friends or not according to your personal preferences, not even according to secular philosophies. God's authority is not domination. Jesus possessed all authority and he yet led with humility, he led with love, and he led with truth. Now, I do think when I say love, I really mean...I mean love according to the Bible. This love that we got going on now is so doggone sappy, I can't stand it. You know, I'm so sorry. Oh, let's make up. Let's do this. It's okay. It doesn't matter. That ain't the kind of love I'm talking about. I'm talking about a love that has truth in it, a love that's based on morality, a love that's based on integrity, a love that's based on the Word of God, of what's right for people, even if they don't respond in the same manner on the other side of you loving them. Am I talking to the right church? And so there's that throne seat that you can be in where you're bullying. Then there's the beanbag seat. And I told the first service, I probably dated myself because I don't even know if people put beanbags in their house anymore. But when we were growing up and was broke and couldn't afford a couch, we just bought a big beanbag, right?

And that's where you slept, that's where you sat. No, it was on the beanbag. The reason I use this is because that beanbag will shape any way you want to shape it. It move any way you want to move it. And sometimes parents do that with their parenting. They just give consent and consensus however the kids want to flow. That's the way they'll go. And when you have that beanbag seat as a parent, you refuse to lead because you got a fear of losing the relationship. You don't want them to reject you. So you have a hard time doing what's right, discipline, correcting, having them walk the line because you're afraid that they're going to reject you. You know, some parents are more concerned about their children becoming their buddies than they are about them being the parent and having the responsibility that they ought to have over the children. They want to raise a buddy. Find a friend your age. Seriously, find a friend your age. You're not raising buddies. You're raising God-trusted children that are to carry out the mission that God began with you, carrying them. You all right? And so some of this though, some of that beanbag mentality is also an overreaction to harsh parenting that we've experienced. And so we say, I don't want to be like my dad, which I can't help it. Bless my heart. Bless my heart. Bless my heart. I didn't mean to say that, but there it is. But we have an overreaction. You've been wanting to say that for a long time, haven't you? So we have an overreaction. And because I don't want to be like them, then we swing the pendulum too far. We swing it too far, and then we don't have a willingness to discipline. And I'll tell you, anytime a parent tells me, well, I do it this way because I don't want to lose a relationship, the next thing out of my mouth is, you already have. If you got to change how you parent, that's not according to the Word of God, to keep a relationship, you've already lost it. Now, that ain't just parenting, by the way. If any of y'all in a relationship with somebody you ain't married to yet, or even in friends with, and you got to keep changing who you are to keep the relationship,

let that thing go. Let it go. You don't need to keep changing who you are for that. But here's the result of beanbag parenting. Children become their own authority, no accountability. They have no understanding of what it means to be in submission or responsibility. We see it on the news every day. When you see these mobs and these things going on, I have never seen a generation in my life, a generation of people who have no regard for authority and have no regard for responsibility of anything whatsoever. Let me tell you, folks, we did that. We did that. By advocating our role as leaders, by flopping around in beanbags, we did that. We allowed this generation to be raised up with no regard of authority. I'm telling you, I hate to do this because some of y'all may think I'm talking about you, but I've seen it with my own eyes with some of you. The child will say, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do it. Well, okay, just go ahead and do it then. You just...what did you just do? You just said your authority don't matter. You just said that. And responsibility don't matter because you just took responsibility for their ill-regard actions. Welcome to America, Tyrone P. Jones. So, you know, love is not the absence of boundaries. Love actually is the courage to establish them. It's the courage to establish them. Proverbs 22, 6 says, train up a child in a way that he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Now, this is not an absolute promise. The proverb, though, tells us the power of lasting influence through parental training, things that are instilled in the child, that they're not going to let go of. They choose how they respond to it, but they're not going to let go of it. But it's a training that implies direction, and direction that requires leadership, and leadership that requires some correction. So, that's the beanbag seat. Here's the seat that you want to sit in, and that's the teaching seat, biblical parenting. Parents are called to sit in this seat, Psalm 78, again, 5 through 8. I won't read it again, but they'll probably post it on the screen there. But the passage emphasized that, you know, we have stewardship over our children. And so, we have to transmit God's

truth to them. And the failure to do so leaves that child susceptible to rebellion and to unbelief. I want you to notice the progression of this passage. There's four things that it progresses to. We know God, talking about us, the things that we've heard and the things that we've known. And you might be sitting here thinking, well, I'm still learning. There's just not a whole lot I know. I'm new, and I'm trying to grow, and I get that. There are stages, and none of us gets to the place where we've arrived. But here's what I do know. As you know, make it known. When you learn something, teach it. You don't have to wait till you know it all. You'll never start teaching, because none of us know it all. By the time I know everything that I probably should know from the Scripture, my grandchildren will be having children. You can't wait till then. But as soon as you learn something, whatever God makes known to you, you make it known to them. You make it known to them. It might be something you learned in devotion. It might be something you learned in your CLG, your life group. be something you learn from the sermon. As soon as you learn it, embrace that truth and say, man, I may be riding around with my kid. I may be helping him fix breakfast. We may be out in a boat fishing. We might be on the way to school. You make known what God is making known to you. Are you all following me on that? We tell our children, he's saying, we tell the coming generation. They trust God. Why do we want them to trust God? So that they set their hope on God. Honestly, that was the main impetus of me writing Grit by Hope. Every story that's in there are stories that my children had never heard, had never heard. Now, there's a lot of things they have heard, but they hadn't heard those stories. And I wanted them to know, here's the foundation of your father's life and hoping in God. Every story starts out with something that could have led to a pretty much of a disaster. But every one of those stories ends with the trust in God, faith in God, how God changed the scenario, how God changed the picture, how the promises of God came through when I needed them most, so that my children

could see it wasn't all of the blessings that they now enjoy from me and Lady V, which is they're blessed. But that ain't why my hope in God is there. My hope in God is there was moments when the only thing I could hold on to was hoping in Him and hearing those stories and knowing how we got through those situations. So, future generations will follow God that the next generation might know. Here's the danger of not doing it. It's Judges 2.10. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that He had done for Israel. There's the danger. A whole generation that didn't know God because they didn't pass it on. It's the consequences of spiritual failure. It's the consequences of not wanting to have an impact and an effect on the next generation or not passing down those truths. Sometimes I'll hear parents say, well, I just need them to find God on their own. Well, can you take some responsibility to help them? I just want them to find their own truth. What truth? There's only one truth that you know is right. Anytime you use the language, their own truth, you've already messed up. We don't have our own truth. Folks, we got one. It's the B-I-B-L-E. We only got one truth. And so, it's leading them into that truth. And when we don't do it, honestly, it's just laziness or apathy. Nobody wakes up in the morning with the mindset, we're just going to raise our kids so they don't know God. Nobody wakes up like that. Nobody intends for the children to be rebellious. Nobody intends for the kids to have spiritual amnesia. But when we neglect our influence, that's exactly the result. Every parent is creating a legacy. Every parent is. The question is not whether you will leave one, the question is, what kind of legacy will you leave? And so, we got responsibilities. We got responsibilities to teach God's Word so people hear the instruction, to model God's character so people see authenticity. Now, I need to say this, I didn't say this last service, but even modeling God's character does not mean at all perfection from you. As a matter of fact, sometimes, many times, all times, acknowledging God's character is authenticity to say, I messed up. I was wrong. I didn't do that right. I said that wrong.

I acted the wrong way. Model God's character so they see authenticity, correct with God's wisdom so people hear discipline, and constantly pointing them to God's grace. Every one of us who experienced God's grace has an obligation to pass it on. I'm going to say that again. Every one of us that's experienced God's grace, we have an obligation to pass that on, to pass that on. So, while the whole covenant community participates in discipleship, that's our job. Scripture consistently tells us what parents are to do. What parents believe, children absorb. What parents celebrate, children imitate. What parents neglect, children often lose. What parents faithfully teach, God often uses for generations. The goal, listen to this, the goal is not raising successful children. The goal is raising children who know God, who trust God, and who can pass that truth on to the next generation. That's the goal. It's troubling to me when I talk to people and I know them and I know their children, they went on for whatever, to school and different places. How are the children doing? Well, man, Johnny is... He's doing great. He's an engineer. He's making lots of money certainly making more money than I ever made as a big house And you know got a couple of children, and you know him and Sally aren't married yet, but they're doing great When did success become that When did success become how much money they make and what their career is? No matter what their morality is when does success become that? Success should always be determined on whether they know God whether they trust God and whether they follow him That's where that's where success should be found And and so here is a prescription and the promise. This is Psalm 128 verses 1 through 6 How joyful are those who fear the Lord? All who follow his ways Listen to this you will enjoy the fruit of your labor How joyful and prosperous you will be Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine flourishing from within Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table That's the Lord's blessing for those who fear him

May the Lord continue to bless you from Zion. May you see Jerusalem prosper as long as you live May you live to enjoy your grandchildren? May Israel have peace Listen to this this he uses the word blessing here four or five times Blessing it's it's a wonderful word. It talks about God's favor upon our life Oftentimes people say things. Well, man, you you really got lucky. No, I didn't Don't use luck with me. I Ain't looking around waiting for luck. I Ain't looking for luck to do anything for me luck from who luck from what? No, no, no, no, we are blessed because of God's favor Everything that we experience is because of the blessings of God not not luck But he says there's blessings on your home and fathers. I've been I've been easy on you so far, but here it comes now Here it comes because he says this about the godly man if you want your family to be blessed and To be prosperous and to be fruitful He says there's two things that we need to do as men one is to fear the Lord and walk in his ways He puts that on us as men This is how we lead our home how in the fear of the Lord in the all and the reverence of him Be it having a godly fear of God not a fear like I'm hiding around the corner It's hoping God didn't see me, but I have a reverence for who God is. I Know who he is and who is he is to be to me taking God seriously We don't we don't trifle around with this As man, I'm telling you we got to make God the center of our life the way we think the way we aspire The starting point of everything we do every project The strength that we seek the endeavor that we're all on it starts with us honoring God fearing God Reverencing have a reverence of God and walking in his ways not just merely thinking about the ways of God But walking in the ways of God. It was a great commendation that the Lord gave about Enoch in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 5 It says the Lord was commended because he was one that pleased God He walked with God that should be the verdict of our life And he says when we do that, there'll be a blessing on our work be a blessing upon our businesses

There'll be a blessing upon our labor. There'll be a prosperity like I'm telling you young man You hear this there'll be a prosperity that will come a blessing on the family Look what he talks about the wife The wife is a fruitful vine now fruitful in one sense does talking about having a lot of children I get that but that ain't the only manner of fruitfulness But fruitful in life fruitful in expression fruitful in influence I'm telling you men if we do this, right, wherever your your wife goes people gonna know man. That is the wife of so-and-so Okay, whenever lady V goes anywhere. I want people to take pay attention. I Want people to notice her I want people to see this is a woman that walks in a fruitful household a place that is blessed place that's enriched Talked about the children be all of shoots around the table course all of trees as they mature They become more profitable and as you patiently cultivate them then over a period of time man They put our fruit and and and bring you a profitable crop for years and years It says that's what our children would be like It is a prayer and a desire and still God has been very faithful in doing so and even more I you want your children to benefit from what you've done Who you've been the faithfulness? I want my son-in-law to work and walk into a business and they may not know it's my son-in-law but soon He says Tyrone P. Jones is my is my father-in-law. They say, okay. Ho ho ho wait a minute We'll get this straightened out right now Are y'all following me on this you there's a benefit to you walking in the fear of the Lord and Doing the things the way that God wants you to do where even your children are blessed They walk in the favor that God has poured upon you. They walk in that favor And And and and and I love this because it even talks about the city when we are blessed as a people of God The whole city is blessed and and I'm telling you CTC. I thank you. You're making a difference in you, Marizona Things are changing in this city for the good. I'm telling you it is. I know there's nonsense. There's negativity Do you always gonna have that you always gonna have haters that hate I forget about the haters You just keep being prosperous keep being blessed keep doing the things that God wants you to do

So you might be sitting in that in the seat and you're thinking Man, I'm I think I'm in a seat of abdication. I Think I'm in a seat of control. I think I'm in I Think I'm in a beanbag seat. I Want you to hear this Psalm 78 is it's not about any of us being perfect parents raising perfect children The hope of Psalm 78 is that us Imperfect parents would look to a perfect father who will help us raise children in the admonition of the Lord That that's that's the hope that's that's the desire and even in our failures Even in where we've messed up even when things have been broken our Heavenly Father still loves us He still pursues us. He's still teaching us. He's still disciplining us and on our ultimate goal is That we would help our children know the Son the Son of God and they walk in him listen the gospel is Not for parents who got everything, right? So matter of fact the gospel is for those of us parents who haven't got much right at all That we know that we need him And so I I don't I don't know where you're sitting and listen, you can't go you can't go back and rewrite yesterday You can't go back and fix it. You can't go back and change the story But I tell you what he is telling you he's asking you to occupy the right seat right now Right now start occupying the right seat. It may start with a conversation. It may start with the prayer It may start being an example. It may start doing things of obedience It may begin with you being the one who leads your generation towards Christ And I'm telling you what will end up happening there There'll be a time in your life when your children won't remember they may remember all this stuff That you messed up but that ain't what they're gonna bring up to you They'll talk about what they've seen they'll talk about why they're doing what they're doing now because they see the seat that you that you've occupied and And my hope my desire is that my children my grandchildren do a whole lot better than I did But it begins with me getting them in the right direction, but you want them to do a whole lot better I'm waiting for the day when my grandchildren are so full of the Spirit of God So full of the things of the Lord that they come to me and say grandpa you sure left us a mess to fix

Because they're so overwhelmed By living for this God that we're teaching them right now. Everybody stand if you would prayer team you can come I'm gonna pray Father I do thank you for the Word of God. Thank you for the opportunity to share it And Lord, I know there's there may be two groups of people here one on the one hand Or people who don't know you who haven't come to a saving relationship with you and Everything in their hearts desire based on what they heard in this message is to do what you have you're asking them to do So Lord, I pray that you bring them to the place where they trust your son Jesus Christ That their sins may be forgiven Their conscious will be clear The things of the past will be washed away that they can begin today a new day and following you allowing you to be the Lord and Savior of their life where they have a relationship with God the Father and Become the people you want them to be the parent that you want them to be and Lord There's some here though who know you But they can identify with the seed and maybe it wasn't a seed I called off But they know where they've messed up. They know where they didn't get it, right? I pray today will be the day Lord. They make a decision. I'm gonna sit in that right seat I'm gonna sit in that biblical teaching seat I'm gonna start making known the things that I know and I'm gonna point my children and Grandchildren to the way of the Lord Jesus Christ father. Give them strength. Give them grace. Give them wisdom Give them help and Lord May we do such a great job among this community of CTC that there's an influence in our town that people know There's some folks who are pursuing the Lord Jesus Christ for generations in Christ's name. We pray. Amen Amen, amen. God bless you.