The sermon titled 'The Jurisdiction of the Family' explores the importance of the family as a temporal institution and its role in spreading the gospel. The speaker discusses how the family has been under attack in various aspects of society, including education, entertainment, and medical establishments. Biblical order is emphasized, with husbands being the heads of their wives, wives submitting to their husbands, and parents raising children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The sermon highlights the priority of Christ's spiritual family over flesh and blood families, while acknowledging the importance of earthly families. It urges the church to maintain the proper balance between family and worshiping God.

Well, welcome to the Jurisdictions Under Fire Conference, Church's Family in the Balance. Our organization, Church and Family Life, is the sponsor of this conference. We exist to proclaim the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life for the spread of the gospel across the generations. And we produce conferences, we push out resources, we operate a church network of about 500 churches, And tonight, well, this is the last night of our conference. We've never had an online conference like this to replace our national conference, but here we are.

And we have already covered the jurisdiction of the government. We have covered the jurisdiction of the church. And if you missed those sessions, let me just say, I thought they were fantastic. I think everyone needs to get under their belt what was communicated in those two sessions. They were some of the best things I've ever heard on the doctrines of the government and the church.

But tonight we've got three men to help us to consider the jurisdiction of the family. And so I'd like to pray before we begin and then let's move into the time. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your all sufficient word. It's powerful.

It's so helpful. It's so wonderful, Lord. We pray that you would use us to communicate the beauties and the truths that are in it for families. We thank you for creating families for your own glory. And we pray, Lord, that you would help us to speak rightly of this great institution that you've created.

Amen. Amen. Well, it's often said that strong families build strong churches and strong churches build strong nations. We know that that's true. At the same time, the family is a temporal institution.

It's been designed by God for the communication of the gospel for the for the explicit purpose of of gathering an eternal family in heaven while the the the family on earth is temporal. It is really designed to be the means of building an eternal family. So we're going to focus on this jurisdiction. The truth is, and everybody knows this, this institution is under attack. It's interesting that the first thing that God created after He created the world was a family.

And the coming together of Adam and Eve in the narrative, it really is the pinnacle of the creation narrative, the creation of this family. So the Bible begins with a family on Earth, and it ends with an everlasting family in heaven. And we happen to live in a period of history where the family has been attacked viciously. The massive institutions surrounding us have been waging war against the whole biblical doctrine and functionality of the family all around us, our public education system, our entertainment industry, even our medical establishment, the philosophies of the day, the sexual revolution, the abortion movement destroying the next generation. It's astounding to consider.

We could talk about attacks on marriage and you know the very fabric of the authority of the family is is being attempted to be dissolved before our eyes And it's for the Church of Jesus Christ to maintain and to operate this institution. I just want to read something that Richard Baxter wrote. He said, we must have a special eye on families to see that they are well ordered and the duties of each relation performed. The life of religion and the welfare and glory of both the church and the state depend much on family government and duty. If we suffer to neglect this, we shall undo all.

I beseech you therefore, if you desire the reformation and welfare of your people, do all you can to promote family religion. Well, that's really what we want to try to say in a lot of different ways here tonight. And so tonight we have with us Jared Longshore. Welcome, Jared. Glad to be here.

Thanks for having me, Scott. Thank you. Jared is a pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida, and he's the vice president of Founders Ministries. You need to catch his podcast there that he does with Tom Askell. It's absolutely fantastic.

I think it's one of the clearest, most powerful, needful voices in the Christian space today. So check that out at Founders Ministries. We also have Jeff Pollard here. Hey, Jeff. Hi, Scott.

Jeff, your picture is pulsating. And the reason your picture is pulsating is because you had a hurricane down there in Pensacola, and the internet connection is terrible. So instead of you looking like a blob, we thought we'd make you look like Jeff. So I'm sorry for all the viewers. Jeff's picture is going to be fixed, but when he does talk, you'll see the picture pulsate.

It'll be very, very helpful. We're all wishing we could have that too. But anyway, Jeff, thank you for joining us. Jeff, of course, he's the pastor of Mount Zion Bible Church in Pensacola, Florida. He's the head of Chapel Library, the author of the Free Grace Broadcasters, and a whole lot of other stuff.

One of my dear friends, Jeff, Thanks for joining us tonight. Well, it's wonderful to be here with you Scott and there are two pastors here for the Clarence Simmons and so yes, I always want everybody to know that. Amen. And we and we've got Pouyan Hello. Pouyan.

Hello, Scott. Good to see you. It's midnight in London and you're in London. So, we really, really appreciate you joining us. Puyon.

Puyon is a pastor of Providence Baptist Chapel in Cheltenham, England. He is the chairman of Parsa Trust, a ministry dedicated to translating and publishing and distributing evangelical and reform literature all over the world in Farsi in this Persian language. So, Pouyan, it's great to have you here. I really, really appreciate you joining us. And I'm really looking forward to hearing the things that you have to say.

Now, if you're on the online audience and you have questions, feel free to ask them. We'll try to answer them. We'll try to get to them. So we're going to start off with Jared. So Jared, we would like you to start us off by developing the doctrine of the family, explaining the biblical order of the family to kind of lay a foundation.

So why don't you give us that? Yes. Well, Scott, it's such an important topic. As soon as you spoke with me about discussing restoring biblical order in the family, I was delighted to do it because we see that order demolished. You see it under fire, you see it attacked, and grasping the situation we are in is very important.

You know the Old Testament talks about the sons of Issachar who understood the times and understood what Israel ought to do. And very similarly we need to understand the times of what's going on all around us. I'm glad you've dealt with these other spheres because the family can't really be dealt in isolation with what's going on in the church sphere and what's going on on the Bible sphere also. There is a breakdown of all order. There is a breakdown of all order.

There is a breakdown of all of what God has designed, and that touches upon the family. It indeed needs to be restored. That order needs to be restored. We know this because in the beginning, God created man upright, and He created Adam and Eve, gave them their roles and assignments and their relationship. And because of our fall, because of our rebellion against God, that order has been greatly troubled.

We hear about it in Genesis three, and it desperately needs to be restored. It can only be restored through the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect man who lived for us, died for us, and has risen again. But by faith in Him and in obedience to Him, we can actually see restoration. We can see that restoration in the home. But while the family is disordered throughout the whole world because of the fall, it's particularly disordered in the United States of America here.

And I know we got a brother from across the pond and you struggle with the same situation over there. We see a rebellious mindset. We are seeing anarchy. I mean, we're seeing it in our streets, and when you grasp what's going on around us, it can really help you to think about the family correctly and see what's involved in actually restoring order in the family. I'm convinced that one of the most important verses in the Bible, if not the most important verse in the Bible, is Genesis 1-1.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and because he did so and he is not his creation. He's not equated with his creation. He is distinct from his creation. He's the one who set the design for the world. He's the one who says how it is to operate.

He's actually the one who says, what is beautiful and what is not? So it is a restoration of biblical order that is God's very word, a restoration of what God has intended from the very beginning. So think about the the what you hear very often in kind of modern culture there's a rejection of the binary. We don't want that anymore. We want some kind of almost like John Lennon's song imagine imagine imagine there's no heaven it's easy if you try no hell below us above us only sky well you know the problem is that's you can imagine if you want to but you know the ostrich isn't any better for putting his head in the sand.

The lion is still there so you don't want to really make that kind of decision. When God created the world, He created the heavens and He created the earth and He made these distinctions and we should acknowledge what He has done. He created sun and He created moon. He created land and He created sea. He did these things.

He went and made distinctions with this in his creation and then he made male and female And that's going to be right at the heart of what the family is all about you're going to have a husband and you are going to have a wife and You are going to need that relationship in order to see a family, in order to see obedience to the command to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth. So God is the one who designed it that way and what we're experiencing right now is an attempt to distort the very image of God in man to be rid of the binary to be rid of manhood to be rid of womanhood and if you get rid of these ideas then you see all the problems you're gonna have with the family you cannot get restoration of biblical order in the family if you don't have a restoration of what it means to be a man, what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a father, what it means to be a mother, what it means to be a child. So all of that background is wrapped up in the Apostle Paul's instruction in 1st Corinthians 11 where he says that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.

So at least in the West we have to deal with the sexual Revolution and what was really going on there so that we can understand just how indicting it is upon modern man when we live as God intends in the family. And so a bit of background, I want to dive into a couple texts in the New Testament to really get to the nuts and bolts of restoring the biblical order of the family. But one citation here from back in the 60s that helps us to understand the times in which we live, this is actually from a woman named Kate Millet. She was a part of kind of the second wave of feminism in America, and it's striking to see what the sexual revolution was really all about. They were not only about rampant sexual immorality, they were about a revolution in the culture which involved deconstructing the family.

It would involve a Genesis 3 attempt to break down the order of the family. This is from a book by Jean Veith, or not a book, but an article where he speaks of her sister's feminism, Mallory cited what went on in one of the call and response meetings in the 60s. She said they would gather in these meetings and this is what was said. A leader would say why are we here today and the response would come to make revolution? What kind of revolution the cultural revolution and how do we make cultural revolution?

By destroying the American family Now that's very important to understand the purpose behind the destruction of the American family. Actually, Kate went on and the leader said, and how do we destroy the American, or it says, how do we destroy the family by destroying the American patriarch? How do we destroy the American patriarch? By taking away his power. How do we do that?

By destroying monogamy, which is striking to me because it signals that even even those who are against the family and want to destroy it understand the power in a godly wife. They understand that Eve was a helper suitable to her husband and if you can destroy monogamy, if you can destroy covenant faithfulness in marriage You can destroy the American patriarch and you can destroy the American family so that you can bring about this cultural revolution the call and response actually ends with how do we destroy monogamy And they say by promoting promiscuity eroticism prostitution and homosexuality This was the agenda the agenda was to promote all of this sexual immorality that you would destroy Monogamy that you would destroy take away the power of the American patriarch, that you'd actually disassemble the whole American family in order that you could make a cultural revolution. Or you would be pursuing this kind of utopian notion of equality that is somehow out there in the future, as John Lennon said, where the world will live as one. If we get rid of the binary, if we get rid of possessions, he says, and these other kinds of things, well then we'll live as one.

Well, that's simply not the world that God made. And the family is a testimony to the fact that that is not the world God made and it's not the world that we want either. God's world, God created the world and it was good and we destroyed it and we have severely damaged it in our fall but Jesus Christ has come to cause us to be made new. And in that we can see a restoration of this biblical order in the family. So we're going to have a generation of people that are growing up that even hearing about the word order and hearing about the word authority and hearing about the word hierarchy, these kinds of concepts just seem like bad words to any that have been discipled by the spirit of the age in the West throughout the 20th and 21st century.

So where do you go as far as your text? Well with all of that you say you go to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians 5 and Ephesians 6 are just the bread and butter of what it means to restore order in the family and we hear there in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 22 Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife Even as Christ is the head of the church his body and is himself its Savior now as the church submits to Christ so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. And you know we hear that text and people immediately want to qualify the text that feels so strange to be saying such things in our modern day and yet this is God's word to us. Wives are to submit to their husbands and the text says they're to submit in everything to their husbands.

Now we know by considering all of Scripture, God has revealed throughout the whole that the sense of this text is that she should submit in all things lawful, but we know that a woman is not to submit to her husband in sin. She is not to follow him into sin, but rather she is to acknowledge the lordship of Jesus Christ over their marriage and stand there faithful to the Lord Jesus. But she is to submit in all things lawful. That's her, that's the marching orders that God has given to her and as she does that she is a helper to her husband. You go back to Genesis and see the way that God designed that relationship between Adam and Eve in the very beginning.

I think one of the problems we have in the home is that we don't understand the purpose and the function of the home. The purpose and the function. Even if you go back to Genesis 2, well be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, exercise dominion, subdue the earth. And so there is this advancing of the image of God across God's earth, a glorifying of God by a fruitfulness that comes from man and woman. And you need man and woman coming together and having children in order for that glorious reality to happen.

And I often tell people in Genesis 2, it's important to see, we're used to the comment, it's not good for man to be alone we hear that and we know that but that that word actually came in the context of his work it came in the context of his watching over the garden working and keeping the garden it was in in that situation in his vocation that it wasn't good for man to be alone. He needed a helper so that he could be about his work so that they could do what God had told them to do and being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth. And that's a wonderful vision for the woman to understand she's submitting so that that glorious vision of glorifying God and of raising up children that will be sent out into the world like arrows, Psalm 127 says. You know, We are quite worried today about all that the world is going to do in discipling our children. We need to be aware that the world is discipling.

They have a 24-7 discipleship program going on, but We're raising up little arrows to be sent out to do damage. We're sending out little children who are going to go and disciple the nations, not be discipled by the nations. And so there's this courageous vision that can come from taking God at His word and seeing, yes, I see my job from the beginning was that cultural mandate in Genesis two, which we failed, but the Lord Jesus Christ has come. And in Matthew 28, he tells us, again, we hear a renewal of it in a higher tone that we are to go out into the world and to make disciples of all nations and that's what these children are going to do. So we're raising them sharp-eyed with joy from the beginning, aware of what's going on around them, aware of how silly it would be to buy into some universal egalitarian way of thinking about the world that submission becomes a bad word.

The kids at 10 years old need to understand what a foolish notion that would be. So you're raising them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The wife now sees she's submitting For that glorious vision. Yes, because our holy God told us to do So in the word and now we see there's a purpose behind it so that this marriage can glorify God and function How he has called it to function. So that's the order That's the responsibility on the wife sin.

What's the husband's responsibility? Well verse 25 the Apostle Paul goes on husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word and he goes on and so you know and when you're marrying a man and a woman you can give the woman her marching orders you are to respect her husband you to submit to him and all things lawful and You know that can be difficult You have to be like those holy women of old in first Peter 3 that we hear about who hoped in God and did not Fear what was frightening because there's some frightening things on the world There's some frightening things about not being the one in charge, but you hope in God And that gives you the fuel to submit To your husband to respect your husband and so that's that's hard But then you get to look at the man and say your job is to die That's what you get to do you get to die and everybody then it all makes sense. Okay, I see. She's going to submit to her and he's gonna die for her again and again and again, sacrificing himself.

You know, we all wanna prepare for the big day when we jump in front of the bullet, right? And take the bullet for our wives and amen, be ready for that day. But that comes by daily sacrifice, moment by moment, sacrificial love in the same way that Jesus Christ laid down his life for our welfare. And what Paul has in mind here is a love of benevolence. When he says in verse 25, love your wives, You know, Jonathan Edwards and others have coined about a love of complacence where you complacently enjoy the beauty of the of the loved Thing and we indeed love our wives like that But what's in mind here particularly is a benevolent love like a benevolence offering Like it's a sacrifice to the husband that he would see the welfare of his wife.

And therefore, he needs to know what that blessing ought to look like. What is the ultimate goal? Conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you need to wash her with the word and you need to sacrifice an intercessory prayer that you would see her built up and love that you would see her faith strengthened It's remarkable to me how I have seen God answer my prayers again and again and again for my wife And it's remarkable to me that when I have become negligent in those duties the consequences the discipline that I've seen in the troubles that just come upon and whatever it is. And it's so kind of God to answer prayers and to teach that lesson that as husbands we are to be interceding for our wives.

We cannot do for her what must be done. Only God can and we've been given the responsibility to wash with the word, teach the truth, model the truth, love her, sacrifice, and then cry out to Almighty God that he would bring the fruit. So here's the marching orders, husband and wife. Love your wife as Christ. Love the church.

Wives see that they respect their husbands and submit in all things lawful. And then Paul goes right on in Ephesians 6, giving marching orders in the parent-child relationship. 6, 1 says, children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.

Now, who wouldn't want that? That sounds like a wonderful thing. Paul's reminding them of the blessing that will come as they obey. And they're honoring father and mother. And in so doing, they are honoring the Lord Jesus Christ and they're a testimony to this universal egalitarian mindset that has set in in the West.

They're rejecting that and saying that's not the way to blessing. We're not going to pursue some utopian vision of universal equality rather God has made a hierarchical world and so some it's been very troubling to see some evangelical leaders have been calling for the tearing down of all hierarchy well that's an attempt to tear down the patriarch you know the the people throughout the second revolution didn't really hate fathers they hated the father And so there's no place for submission, there's no place for obedience to parents, there's no place for obedience to authorities. And so what a glorious opportunity we have to raise children who are submissive to parents and in so doing Testifying that the foolishness of the world as they would structure this some other way What's the role for fathers if he's in six four fathers do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord and that paideia there is very important it's a full-on enculturating of the child in the ways of the Lord in the doctrine the teaching the practice of the Lord Jesus Christ and so we do need an expansive some of this one of the dangers is we can't just pull down the shades and hide inside and think somehow we're gonna protect the children from what's going on we do of course we don't go out there into the wilderness and toss them out to the enemy.

That's foolishness. We don't do that. So a lot of people have that that make errors on both sides. But there's an enculturating in the ways of the Lord Jesus Christ so that it becomes all of Christ for all of life. There's not a single thing that is not related to Christ that is not from Christ through Christ and to Christ as Romans 11 teaches us and so we're doing that in all things and the food that we eat and our in our corporate worship before the Lord and family devotion around the table and private prayer as we teach them how to confess sin and how to trust the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the responsibility of fathers and this is also the responsibility of mothers. We hear in Proverbs one, that children are to listen to their mother. Proverbs one, yes, is the text that teaches Proverbs 1, 8, that children are to listen to their mother's law. So to step back from the whole picture and kind of wrap up my thoughts here, We are living in times that's rejecting order in general, and it's been going on for a very long time, and we need to see that as the world that we live in, and we need to see the folly of that paradigm, of that worldview, and raise our children and talk in our homes about the glory and the goodness of God, God's ways and exercising authority and assuming responsibility and acknowledging those who are in authority over us and trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as the true King of Kings, who has come, lived, died, risen again, that we could see this order restored. Fathers, husbands loving their wives, wives respecting and submitting to their husbands, and parents raising up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord as those children honor father and mother and obey them.

Jared, Jared, thank you so much. That was from A to Z of the family. I really appreciate you taking us right from the beginning and then on through to define you know all all the relationships there. Jared what where where does the church get this wrong? Oh boy, you know when you say church, I just think there's so many different groups that make up that unit.

I think broadly, if you're thinking evangelical world in America, we have allowed the egalitarian spirit to infect us in ways that we don't even understand. And so you have, you know, we have not assumed authority and understood what it means to have that authority and to have responsibility and to not domineer over those in your charge as 1st Peter 5 tells us for elders or to Rule over people in the fear of God as 2nd Samuel ends with David's lovely lovely Picture, you know the sweet psalmist of Israel and he goes on And the Spirit of the Lord has said to me and you think what is he gonna say and he says, you know When one rules over men in the fear of God he dawns on them like the morning light We have not had fathers thinking that way about their responsibility and authority as the head of their wife and as the father who is to raise children in the nurture and admonition of Lord. So I really do believe our big error is in the buying into an egalitarian structure of the world and then still feeling like well maybe God said that we shouldn't do that in the home, but we're almost embarrassed about it rather than saying, no, God created the world.

He created a hierarchical world, you know, and it's striking to see how even unbelievers, some unbelievers, popular psychologists and others, yeah, psychologists and others see this kind of structure. God has given us to it in his word, and we really need to recover of the goodness of God's design and his order. Thank you, that's so good. So Puyon and Jeff, what are your thoughts? How do you how do you play off of what you've just heard from Jared?

I'll let Jeff go first. I think it was a wonderful summary. And Jodah said so many things that we could comment on. This is what we've been about in the years that we've seen Vision Forum, that we've seen in NCFIC and now Church and Family Life. These have all been issues that we have been dealing with for a couple of decades.

The institutions, the higher institutions are the ones that are teaching this stuff. You know, I mean it doesn't just happen. It doesn't just creep in. Pastors are being taught, seminary students are being taught stuff that we're talking about right here. It started bleeding in after the 60s and it has come in, unfortunately, I don't want to paint with too broad a brush, but the fact of the matter is it's coming through academia.

Academia is a home of the kind of thought that we see in the culture rather than what we find in the scriptures. So, you know, I mean, just take the issue of Marxism. This is just one in the middle of all those pictures. Those things of, Marxism has been penetrating all of our higher institutions since after World War II. And now it's coming to fruition right here.

As someone said to me, I guess it was probably about 15 years ago, I taught him a great deal about socialism, and he said, well you didn't need to teach me all that. Nobody believes that anymore. Now look at what's running. Look at what we see all around us. We see Marxism.

And very often people have had it given to them from the institutions so plainly for so long they read the Scriptures through those glasses. So I mean, it's up to the local churches, in my opinion, to stand for the Word of God, to preach what a man is, what a woman is, and not to budge from that whatsoever. My generation, you're seeing the fruit of my generation. That's what this is. The chaos that you see.

I mean, most of the music that has been around us since the 50s. I mean, essentially, they're catechisms from hell. What they do is a drill into everybody, a mindset. While Christians are screaming, it's my liberty to listen to this stuff, it poisons their mind and they drink in the filth that's all around them in the name of liberty. So we have invited most of these unwelcome guests, and we need people that will stand and preach from the pulpit the very things that Jared is saying, to preach them, to continue to preach them, to teach them to our children and model them to our children and above all to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and His order in everything.

Amen. I was struck by what you said about educational institutions. I remember it wasn't very long ago in this whole COVID situation where you have school children at home. There were teachers that were objecting to having parents in the room when they were teaching the children over the internet because they did not want the parents to hear what they were teaching the children, as egregious an overreach of authority that you see. Of course, it happens all the time in the classroom.

But so this kind of thing happens in every part of our culture. Poulian, What are your thoughts of this overview? I'll just say a couple of things. I wish Jared was given the whole time because I think everything that he said, it needed to be unpacked more and more. And So I hope in future, Jared, you would speak on this, give us a few more messages.

Just looking at, just responding to some of the things that Jared mentioned, I think the Western world, I'm thinking about those countries affected by Christianity historically, over the centuries and over the past, especially decades, They have fallen into some form of lethargy and sleep that is filled with pride. Pride of academia and the pride that we have arrived in some ways. And that we don't have to repeat the doctrines of the faith, we don't have to teach the word of God as the scripture teaches us and that if people are Christians they ought to know these things and I have talked to individuals, pastors that they have been surprised when Christians are acting very un-Christian like and they say well Christians in our day would have known these things But the issue is that we are so much affected by the world around us that we need the teaching of the word of God being repeated again and again. And that needs to happen at home, it needs to happen in the church, it needs to happen in every sphere of life that our families are walking in. And so there is, I fear we presume too much that we don't need to be taught the things that the scripture clearly teaches and we think that we are not borrowing from the world but that's why we need to keep recalibrating with the Word of God is this from the scriptures or not because Satan comes to us and says, oftentimes, have God said, has God said this?

Is it really true? And so these are some of the things that I thought to mention. Amen. Well, Jeff, let's move to you here. It's very clear that people can miss the doctrine of the family and not even understand it on the one hand.

And you also have sort of two ditches that a family can fall into and one is making too much out of their family and the other is making too little. We'd like you to talk about that matters of family idolatry and matters of family neglect just to help us understand what that looks like. Okay, I'm going to be reading from Matthew chapter 12, verses 46 to 50. This is the Lord's wonderful word. While he talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with them.

Then one said unto him, behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee But he answered and said unto him what or that told him Who is my mother and who are my brethren and he stretched for this hand? Tord his disciples and said behold my mother and my brethren whosoever shall do the will of my father, which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister and mother. Holy Father, I pray that thou wouldst grant us now light from thy word, and may Christ be exalted and his people edified. In Christ's name I ask it. Amen.

Well, in the inspired text that we've just read, Jesus Christ announced to his hearers the identity of his new family, a spiritual family. And he gives priority to that family in contrast to his own earthly family. Now with that in mind, I will set before you now, instead of at the end, I will set before you now the single doctrine that I will draw from our brief exposition of this passage. It is this, the Church of Jesus Christ takes priority over flesh and blood families. May God our Heavenly Father strengthen us with might in the inner man with his spirit and may Christ dwell in our hearts by faith as we hear that God breathed infallible words of Holy Scripture.

I have only one main point broken up into a few lesser sub points. And again, it is this arising from the doctrine. This is what the text plainly sets before us. Jesus Christ exalted his spiritual family over his earthly family. Now in this remarkably rich passage, we want to focus on the identity and nature of Jesus Christ's family according to his assertion.

And now for the children that are listening, an assertion is a forceful statement. And it's usually made as if it needed no evidence. So let us consider this situation out of which Jesus' assertion arises. Furthermore, let us carefully consider the Holy Spirit's emphasis on the word behold. Repeat it three times.

First from the pen of Matthew, second from the mouth of an unnamed messenger, and third from the mouth of Jesus himself. Let us take up God's Word. First we have a family request in verse 46. The sacred text says, while he, Jesus, yet talked to the people, Behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Now, Luke's gospel says that Jesus' family could not come at him for the press.

And Mark's gospel adds, the multitude sat about him. So this house was jam-packed, we would say. Christ is surrounded and his family can't reach him for the size and the crowdedness of the situation. So the word behold now means to look, to pay attention. The Greek-English lexicon by Loa Nida says that behold is a prompter of attention.

I like that. A prompter of attention, which serves to emphasize the statement that follows it. On what then does the Holy Spirit prompt us to focus our attention? Jesus' mother and brothers are standing outside the house, while Jesus is inside teaching disciples. Now we may assume that he is in a house because Matthew 13 one says that the same day went Jesus out of the house.

Jesus is inside and his family is outside wanting to talk to him which meant they expected him to stop his teaching and talk to them. Mark says a little earlier in his account of this, when his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him. They said he is beside himself. And without going into the details of the words translated his friend, most commentators understand him to refer to his family in this context. So hearing about Jesus's disciples and learning of the great crowds Jesus was drawing and things that he was teaching, his family apparently arrived on the scene because they were concerned about his mental stability.

Furthermore, John's gospel says, neither did his brethren believe in him. Mark also says that his family standing without, sent unto him, calling him. The word sent unto him lead us to our next verse. So secondly we have a request made known in verse 47. An unnamed messenger entered his house where the the crowd surrounded Jesus.

Then one said unto him, behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee. Now this is the second behold and it's spoken to Jesus. Jesus, look at this, the messenger is saying, your mother and your brothers are outside desiring to speak with you. That behold emphasizes the importance of who is waiting outside, Jesus's family. Jewish culture had a very high view of the family.

So the messenger obviously thought that that was something worthy of interrupting Jesus' teaching. After all, his commandment says, honor thy father and my mother. And Jesus' mother was standing outside. Honor and shame were very deeply important in that culture. So, Mary and her sons by Joseph could not get to Jesus.

They wanted to talk to him. They apparently thought they had family privileges and they sent a messenger to tell him, your mother, your brothers, want to talk to you. Thirdly, Jesus revealed, described, and explained his new family in verses 48 through 50. Jesus now teaches the multitude in three ways, by two questions, by answering his questions, and number three, by explaining his answers. First, the two questions, who is my mother and who are my brethren?

Those were rhetorical questions. Of course, a rhetorical question is a question asked to produce infecting the hearers, not to get information. But Jesus was not expecting an answer from the messenger or from anyone else. Who is my mother? Who are my brethren?

With his flesh and blood mother and brothers waiting outside those were surprising questions and they had an effect. He had everyone's attention And then he answered his own question. Verse 49, he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, behold, my mother and my brethren. Jesus delivers The third behold. And what did the God-man want us to focus on?

Matthew has spoken, the messenger has spoken, and now Jesus has spoken and he tells us what to behold, what to pay attention to. Now, He wanted us to focus on his disciples. We cannot imagine what all the people in the room thought when they heard that. But with the word behold and the one simple gesture of his hand, Jesus transformed the common concept of family in the minds of his audience. Despite his flesh and blood family standing outside, Jesus' disciples inside were his mothers and brothers.

This is a new family. This is a spiritual family. This is a new community that Christ is building. In verse 50, Jesus explained his new family. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, sister and mother.

And that announcement must have struck powerfully the minds of Jesus' hearers as it does ours today. Jesus was not discarding his flesh and blood family. This is crucial, I'll repeat it. He was not discarding his flesh and blood family and he was not directing us to do so, but he was giving us a clear, unmistakable message of priority. Spiritual roots are far more important than genealogical roots.

Jesus demands the priority and the preeminence in all things. As he told a potential disciple who said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father, Jesus said unto him, follow me and let the dead bury their dead. Jesus' eternal spiritual family does not arise from flesh and blood, but by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. This is a spiritual community. They've been made new by Christ and they walk in obedience to the living God, as does Christ.

The disciples of the Lord Christ are the holy community that is the most important family on earth. Or put another way, there's a greater way to be related to Christ than flesh and blood. We must remember this is not an either-or situation when it comes to our earthly families. It's just that our earthly families cannot take the place or usurp the place of Christ's holy family, the church. Now, I want to reiterate that earthly families, our earthly families are a blessing from God.

We love them. We should fight for biblical families. We should reform our families. But we truly need a clear understanding of the relationship between Christ's family and our earthly families. They must not usurp the legitimate place of Christ's church.

We are in a desperate need of biblical balance in this matter and having been involved in this for over 25 years I'm speaking from experience As well as as years of considering the matter from Scripture Now when I first began in biblical family reform, I regularly heard Malachi 4.6, He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. However, I never, and I do mean never, I never heard anyone dealing with these passages. In fact, remember, he who is the image of the invisible God, the express image of his person, the God who is love, said, think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword for I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against his mother and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law against your mother-in-law and a man's Foes shall be they of his own household He that loveth father or mother More than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." Once again, Jesus is being set before us in his preeminence.

He will take second place to no one and no thing. Again, he said in Luke, suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you nay, but rather division. And from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, the son against the father, the mother against the daughter and the daughter against the mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and the daughter-in-law against your mother-in-law.

And again, and there went great multitudes with him and he turned and said unto them, If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brother and sisters, yea, in his own life also he cannot be my disciple. John Bunyan beautifully pictures this at the very beginning of the Pilgrim's Progress where Pilgrim runs out of his home. He runs from his wife and his children to go on this journey with his ears plugged saying, life, life, eternal life. The family is broken. We can by God's grace see it redeemed and reformed but we also have to understand it is a sin-cursed earth and we are facing a great and glorious holy God whose decrees of election and reprobation touch every aspect of life.

With that being said, let me make some very quick applications. I repeat my doctrine. It is very plain and it is as simple as I could make it. The Church of Jesus Christ takes priority over flesh and blood families. It does not replace it as far as this earth goes, but it cannot, cannot usurp the rightful place of the holy church Jesus Christ is building.

So I want to be really clear once again, as God designed it, the Family is a good thing, wonderful, glorious thing. Reforming the family is a necessary thing. Worshiping the family is a damnable thing. Now I have a principle for us to consider that may help to see proper distinctions in church and family jurisdictions. We must not let things that are lawful but not commanded replace things that God has commanded.

I'll repeat that. We must not let things that are lawful but not commanded replace things that God has commanded. Let me give a few examples. These are examples I'm quite certain everybody hearing will find something to disagree with in the things that I delineate. I'm speaking broadly about these things.

I certainly know that in some cases there are what abouts and ifs, but right now I'm simply trying to show some of the things that we fall into or some of the things that we can do and become imbalanced in our understanding of family and the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ Take for instance a husband who's abusing his wife. Almost all of these come from real life experiences here He tells her that she cannot go to the elders of the church because she must submit to him and everything if he's in chapter 5 says so. That is a flagrant violation of the church's jurisdiction. It is a flagrant twisting of the scriptures of God. He has put himself above God's discipline by mutilating the word of God.

That happens. I say it happens in family reform families. Two, while there are certain matters that should be private in a family, no question about that, some fathers will not turn a law-breaking of-age child to the civil magistrates. But the 18 and above year old son or daughter is broken both man's law and God's law. The parents or parents, The parent or parents will not deal with the matter in the two jurisdictions that have been violated.

They violate a family and the civil government and they violate the church. The church should be involved in such a matter. Especially if the children are professing to be Christians a case of that I've had to deal with lately three not in my church a new family is visiting the fan is visiting the church You have not spoken to them much or maybe not at all. Your view is my spouse, my children, we're not really outgoing or we only have a few days and a week to spend with our family so we just stay by ourselves. So we do not open our home for hospitality to God's family which God has commanded us to do in order to keep our family's comfort zone which God has not commanded us to do.

Number four, on the other hand, a congregation can have so many activities and virtually demand everybody be there when the door is open that they can become destructive of the family because they keep them so busy and they usually segregate them. So the families aren't together and they're all doing religious busy work. There has to be a balance there. Five, some fathers and by the way some home schoolers have a strong and sinful attitude toward legitimate authority such as elders and civil magistrates. So they do not believe that the elders have any right to make corrections to their family.

Does anybody really think that way? I think most pastors know that. Yeah, they believe that they must be the soul teacher and the soul authority in their children's lives. This is utterly outside the jurisdiction of the family. Another example, number six, the Lord's day arrived.

It's the blessed market day of the soul in which God's family will celebrate the Lord's Supper. An opportunity for a family outing arises. So we put aside the Lord's Supper, we put aside the worship of God which Christ has commanded us, and our family event. Now that being the case, is there anything wrong with family events? No, but they cannot, they should not, usurp the worship of Almighty God who loved us before the foundation of the world and gave his blessed Son for us.

Those that are regenerate love the worship of God. They want to be there. They want to lift up their voices in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, But they'll put it aside for their event, which Christ has not commanded us to do. And yet He has commanded us to meet together. Seventh, family members come for a visit.

Again, it's the Lord's Day. We've not seen them for a while, so instead of worshiping God and his family, we just stay home. That is putting the earthly family above the worship of God. And I will tell you that numerous modern Christians in Reformed circles don't even bat an eye at such a thing. They will miss the worship of Almighty God on his day for almost any family event.

Now I could go on. I have others here but my time is up. So let me just say to the dear family of Christ, if we want to exalt the Son of God who loved us before the foundation of the world, who became a man for us that we might keep the law, that he might keep the law in our place and pay the penalty for our sins with his own life's blood. And rose again the third day, and learned to walk by faith in him within the jurisdictions. The church and the family are not at war.

Families are a part of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ along with those who are not married And that family is the one we're going to spend eternity with. Jesus has shown us that his new family takes priority. It doesn't take its place, but it takes priority. May our hearts greatest love above all earthly people and things Always be Jesus Christ our Lord Amen Great Jeff, thank you so much. Let's continue to to You know define this and nuance it Jeff one of the things that really struck me about what you said was, and really going back to something that Jared said right at the beginning, he talked about the enormous requirement that God places on Christian parents, for example, to teach when they sit in their house, when they walk by the way, when they lie down, when they rise up.

There's this comprehensive lifestyle that God calls parents to engage in with their family. So we're not talking about neglecting the family in any way. And at the same time, you have these other matters that really harm family government. But so Jared and Puyon, what would you like to add to what you just heard? I thought it was a wonderful word, Jeff, and certainly is a great danger of idolizing the family and then neglecting the public worship of God, neglecting the Lord Jesus Christ.

I particularly liked how you mentioned these two realms are not at war and where you find a godly Christian man who is pursuing the Lord Jesus Christ, he is going to become a better and better husband and a better and better father. It's not like he has to choose between the two. And then the questions, I think you mentioned questions Scott, the one that came to my mind just to kind of the broader evangelical world, maybe not as reformed or serious minded even about the home and the family. How do, what are some signs that a man says, well, I love Jesus, I'm committed to Jesus, you know, I wanna keep Jesus first, not my family, but in reality, he's really neglecting the family. What are what are some red flags that can we can point to to show a man like that or a woman mother that that might be occurring?

You know, I really like the way Jeff framed the way to think that through when he said when he talked about doing things that god did command and doing things that God did not command. In other words, is a man actually focusing on the things that God has commanded? That might be a first step. I think most of us understand that At least at the end of the 20th century, you could hardly find a father in evangelicalism who was having family worship. Very, very, very rare.

Well, he was not doing something that God commanded, And I think getting dialed in on what are the particular callings and commands of God for family life, it's with the word of God that we can help a man understand whether he's really obeying all the things that the Lord Jesus has commanded, as the Great Commission tells us to teach one another. Amen. Scott, in the list that I could have gone on with, It includes that very thing of family worship. Jared, when a man can take his children to go to debate, when he can take them to get violin lessons, when the wife is taking them everywhere around the country for great field trips, but they don't have time for family worship, they're in trouble. When things that are lawful, all those things are lawful, I'm not attacking those things.

I'm saying when something that is not commanded begins to take the place of That which God makes evident to us then we're starting to cross the line You know when when when I hear fathers say oh well, you know, I'm just so busy that I can't do family worship. I sit down and I ask you, I ask them, plot out your day for me and tell me what you're doing with your time. You know, and you'd be surprised how much everything goes for, now I'm talking about schoolers right now, everything between the wife and the husband, it's all about taking the children here, doing these fabulous things there, making sure that they're getting the greatest education possible, but they can't sit down and worship the Lord in their living room. That's when you're seeing somebody running off the rails. That's just what it is.

Right along those lines, here's a question that came in from the listening audience. Brothers, wouldn't some of these principles laid out by brother Pollard also apply to the holiday season where oftentimes families will forsake assembling with the saints in order to keep up with traditions of biological family gatherings in lieu of gathering with the saints whether on Sundays or midweek prayer meetings. You know, interesting, all around me, the churches around me just this last year, many of them suspended their worship on the Lord's Day because of Christmas. Yeah. So here you have, you know, these holidays that are not commanded by God.

Trump, excuse the term, use the word Trump, Trump in this election season, you know, Trump things that God actually has commanded. Pouyan, what are your thoughts? I completely agree with all that Jeff mentioned. It struck me, the point that he made regarding the fact that the father and the mother are not the sole instructor of the children. Sometimes it is put across in that way within various families that we are the only ones and yet God has given gifts unto his people, pastors and teachers to teach the flock of God.

I think it is so important to have that in mind. And for the families to be complementing the church and the church to be an encouragement and a support to families. It is so essential to have a healthy atmosphere in which we can glorify God and yes, I wish again Jeff had more time to unpack those things and yes. Amen, thank you so much. Well Pouyan, you're up next but before we hear from you, I want to talk about some of the things that are going on in church and family life.

Hey, we just started a podcast in October, And we're, of course, trying to direct these podcasts for the strengthening of churches and families. I mean, just this week, we launched an interview we did with Paul Washer on preaching to children, how parents can help their children, how children can listen to preaching. Next week on Monday, we're going to launch another one on the same subject with Steve Lawson. Both these guys have very helpful things to say, a little bit different, but we have tremendous interest in encouraging children to hear preaching. Puyon, you just kind of underlined this point of how important it is for there to be more than just parents teaching their children.

Well, the elders of churches should be teaching children as well. And so we did these two podcasts. Anyway, we're going to launch these on Mondays. We did two of them on medical tyranny earlier in the month. Those were very, very interesting.

So tune into those if you're able. Also, I just wrote a new book called The Family at Church, How Parents Are Tour Guides for Joy. My goal in this book really is to help young parents to get a quick start on church life and to make it the sweetest thing in their lives, make their local churches the center of their life. And this book will, it's a hardcover book, it's a beautiful book. We'll have it before the end of the year.

Also, don't forget about our national conference. Of course, as you know, we moved it to May 20th to 22nd at Ridgecrest next year, theology of the family, but also right before that conference, we're gonna do a singles conference. We've never done this before. The singles conference is called Holiness to the Lord. Joel Beke and Paul Washer are going to be joining me to speak to singles and we really hope to be in encouragement to them.

Also, every February, my wife and I do a really small marriage conference in our home. Only 20 couples are really able to come. This year, Joel and Mary Beakey are going to join me and I hope you can come. You'll need to kind of register quick because it fills up fairly quickly. Also, our website is is a rich treasure trove of resources.

We have over 5000 resources that have the explicit intent to equip churches and families according to the principle of the sufficiency of Scripture. So with that, let's turn to Puyon. Puyon, a family offers astounding opportunities. And I want you to just talk about those opportunities. One of the things that has has really struck me is you know in in the moment where we may be looking at losing some of our freedoms.

Will our children suffer because we didn't make the most of the opportunity that we had? So, Pouyan, talk about the opportunities of family life. Well, Thank you. I will read first of all from Esther chapter 4 and verses 13 and 14 where we read Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews for if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. Let us just bow in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we pray that thou wilt speak to every home that are watching, every soul speak to them, O God. We pray that each one of us might be formed more and more into the image of Thy dear Son. Blessed then we ask for Christ's sake. Amen. Now, I hope you understand that I have had very little time to prepare for this talk.

But as Scott asked if I could bring a word regarding making the most of the opportunity as families I began to think of the words that began the book A Tale of Two Cities And I thought it is very applicable for our times. It says, it was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom. It was the age of foolishness.

It was the epoch of belief. It was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. We had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, We were all going direct to heaven. We were all going direct to the other way. In short, the period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received for good or for evil in the superlative degree of comparison only.

And friends, we could add to that It is the most opportune time in which we are living in. We are living in the best of times in the plan of God. We are right where God wants us to be right now. And you families who watch, you individuals who are watching, you are placed exactly where God wants you to be. You have all the resources that the Lord through his son has purchased for you and the challenge for us is that in this day and age what we are going to do with all the resources and opportunities for our families.

It is the most opportune time. It is the most disadvantageous time as well. It's the most dangerous time in which to live in as well. It is in such times that God has placed you, God has made you a husband, God has made you a wife, a father, a mother, a daughter, a son, or for that matter a grandparent. For such a time as this, there has never been a time like this before and so God has placed us here now and I want us to think about this and making the most of the opportunity.

It's about our church, it's about the family, it is about our society and think about opportunity as the title of it is making the most of the opportunity. What is opportunity? It is a suitable word, It is about the time or set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something. It's a time that we can do something. And we are talking about doing something for the glory of God.

Doing something for the advancement of the progn of God's kingdom of his beloved son within our homes, within our local churches for the kingdom of God. And it is to discern the signs of the times as the Lord Jesus Christ rebuked the Pharisees about and said you don't know that and you do not discern the signs of the times or the the men of Issachar they were commended and they were told in 1st Chronicles 12 that which were men that had understanding of the times. Friends don't be the person who missed that limited opportunity to give the vision of hope and joy in the gospel to your children to those that who are under your care right now. They won't be always there. I personally myself feel so weakened, failing often, but sometimes that moves me.

And what moves me the most is God's glory. I want the Lord Jesus Christ to be glorified in my family, in my own personal walk with the Lord. And the thought that I don't be the parent, I don't want to be the parent who wishes one day that I wish the days could be turned back. I wish God would give me a second chance. Friends, I won't have that second chance.

You won't have that second chance. Your time with your children moves faster than you think. Their birthdays come so quickly. I have two points and then under those two points I have just a few things and really I want us to concentrate on the Word of God regarding certain case studies in the Bible and my first point is this opportunities lost I think we need to deal with the negative first opportunities lost and there are two or three case studies I want us to think about of individuals, godly people who missed out the opportunities. The first one is Eli in first Samuel, Eli the high priest who also judged Israel, he was a good man in himself but his sons Hophni and Phinehas they were wicked sons and you wonder as you read those passages what opportunities did Eli lose in the raising of them?

The scripture doesn't tell us much about that. Did he spend too much time in things that were legitimate, but he did not raise up his children as he ought to have done? Eli knew himself, the scripture says he knew that these were ungodly sons and yet what did he do? He let them minister in the temple, he reproved them at times but it was not appreciated. What was it that they were not respecting their father?

And it was so gently done. The rebukes were so gently done. The discipline was so gently done. That was ineffectual and it made no difference to these sons. And so no discipline seems to be used there in Eli's life.

They ought to have been stopped. They ought to have been, their actions should have been condemned according to the law of God. So here were the loss, this was an opportunity lost for Eli to train up his children, to correct his children. The old Puritans said, good old Eli mourned more for the loss of religion than for the loss of his relations. So in that sense, he mourned when he knew that his children had failed and so on.

He mourned not more for his children, Hophni and Phinehas, who died in the battle, if you remember, but his heart was broken over the fact that the ark was lost. And one Puritan put it, his heart was broken before his neck. So take God my friends and his service and his worship and his witness in this world and within your families and within the church seriously. Be careful and make the most of the opportunity that you have friends that's one of the case studies, Eli then Samuel, again put it in negative form Samuel, a godly man with a godly heritage and you have the record in 1 Samuel 8 and so on Samuel had a godly upbringing under his praying mother and a godly father and then he was brought up under Eli He served the Lord and knew the Lord from his youth. Yet there was a weakness somewhere.

Later on in chapter eight of 1 Samuel, you read that there was a weakness in the way he was treating his children favorably. And you see, he made his two sons to be judges and yet it was God who would appoint judges. It wasn't for a priest to set judges but he set his children to be judges and then what the outcome was that the nation wanted a king. That began the process of them calling for a king. There again, opportunities were lost.

So be careful and make the most of the opportunities. And then I want to come to the opportunities gained. You have the case study of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1 and following we find that godly woman Hannah making the most of her opportunity in life even though naturally all was against her yet the Lord was not against her her husband was not against her she had the privilege of prayer at her disposal she she prays and vows that if God was to give her a son, she will bring him up in her womb, she will nurture him and then return him to the Lord to serve in the temple. There was a praying woman, there was a supporting husband, a loving husband, there was the opportunity of prayer, there was opportunity of attending to the means of grace, these are the things that you have right now with your families, opportunity of witnessing to a backsliding servant of the Lord, and opportunity of as she was misunderstood by Eli, and she was able to speak to him gently and graciously, there was opportunity of proving the Lord that the Lord was going to meet her need.

There was the opportunity of the godly and biblical and educating and which was part of the training and nurturing and the discipling of of of her child Samuel the scripture says Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he's old he will not depart from it. William Secker, the Puritan, he writes in his sermon on the wedding ring these words, A mother should be more careful of her children's pious breeding than she should be fearful of her children's worldly bearing. Take heed lest these flowers grow in the devil's garden, though you bring them out in corruption, yet do not bring them down to damnation. Those are not mothers, but monsters, who while they should be teaching their children the way to heaven with their lips are leading them to hell with their lives. Godly training is the best library you can give them living and it is the best legacy you can leave them dying.

You let out your efforts to make them great. Lift up your prayers to make them godly that before you die from them you may see Christ live in them and so on he goes on to speak in such words but that's the case the case study of Hannah a godly woman she took everything was against her and yet with she used the opportunities that's what you have The same case study could be made with Lois and Eunice, with Timothy in 2 Timothy 1 and verse five, the prayers and the instructions of two ladies made with the watering of the grace of God, it made Timothy, that when he heard the Apostle Paul, he was converted, they raised a godly home. His father, yes, was a Greek, but we don't know much about him, but his grandmother, Lois, his mother, Eunice, a godly Jewish woman, they took up the opportunity to raise that boy, trained him up in the knowledge of the Scriptures that made him wise unto salvation. The Scripture says he wasn't a strong man physically but his gifts and graces were wonderful and Lois and Eunice made use of that opportunity that they had with Timothy.

The time was short But they used it prayerfully and God saved him and he was made a mighty man who served The Apostle Paul and served the church in Ephesus and served Silas and others So be careful and make the most of the opportunities We could talk about Stephanus and other cases study with his family they were one of the first households to be converted and they were baptized by the Apostle Paul and the scripture says this of them that In 1 Corinthians 16 and verses 15 onwards, he says, I beseech you brethren, ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first fruit of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. Those parents took the opportunity to hear the word of God with their families and then they served the Lord. They addicted themselves. They couldn't do anything else. This was part of their life.

This is part of their family and this was the part of the glorifying God. They addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints, they served the saints. You ask yourself this, where does your life match with this, the Stephanos's life? And Paul says copy them as well. We could talk about the case study of the warriors who went to the battle with and for David in 1 Chronicles 12 and verse 23.

You read those verses and you see it says the family of so and so they went out to war the family of so and so they were They were mighty they were trained. They were ready to go for the fight. These are the opportunities you have It's a window short window of opportunity The motto that we have in Deuteronomy 6 and 7 still stands today. That's the opportunity the Lord gives you and says, And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, when thou risest up. That's our marching order.

The Lord has given you this time right now opportunity these are the times that the church of Christ must find once again who we ultimately serve and who is our source of hope and joy and strength and life. Who do you serve? Who does your family serve? Are you bringing up raising your children up in the short time that you have with them to be men and women of prayer? Given over to prayer not to their own devices not to the arm of the flesh, but I desire that my children in the time that we have with them, the opportunity that we have with them, I seek the Lord on their behalf and to seek the Lord together, and as a family together to addict yourself to the service of the Lord to take up the opportunity to hear the word of God as much as you can in going to put yourself on the faithful preaching in the church.

Attend prayer meetings. What an opportunity. Go to the outreach of your local church. Share the gospel as a family. Keep a joyful and worshipful Lord's Day holy.

Worship daily together. Family worship should be a thing that you use the opportunity and that you're teaching light of line upon line, precept upon precept, the Word of God. Cultivate in your home. You have every day the opportunity of cultivating every day the atmosphere which is full of thanksgiving and rejoicing for it to be a blessed and happy home. The scripture says rejoice always.

And atmosphere obedience too. Obedience to the Word of God, obedience to both parents. That should be something you use the opportunity to instill in them what it is to obey joyfully and cheerfully. These times, friends, may be a test as well, or a foreshadowing of what is to come We don't know what tomorrow will bring for you. Don't know what next year will bring God is testing his people our families and and Right now it the Lord is is preparing us and we must prepare ourselves and our families and within our churches keep the word of God and the covenant promises of the Lord before them every day give warnings when they need from the scriptures, from history so that of those people who didn't finish well and those who did and tell them of people who gave in and threw in the towel use these opportunities and remember except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that built it.

Remember it's an opportunity that God is building, trust in the Lord, put your faith in the Lord, that it is the Lord who has said he will build our homes and so we must have faith in him. Witness to the world around you, let this time to be a time that your families would grow as faithful servants and disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Esther had been raised, we read that text from Esther. She had been raised in a godly home under Mordecai, but in a wicked and in a pagan land of Persia, Mordecai raised her to know Jehovah and to know the Lord and praise the Lord and the Lord saved her and when all were set for the destruction of the Jews as still to this day the Church of Jesus Christ is under attack from without and within. And Satan wants to destroy your homes.

Satan wants to destroy our churches. And it is the same thing that we are in. And we can sit there and wring our hands and worry and look at all the problems that are out there. But remember this friends, all things were set against Esther and her nation. And when all seemed to be dark and black and hopeless, when the plan of their demise was already made in the heart of Haman and others, Mordecai continues to lead.

He uses the opportunity, continues to instruct, continues to exhort her family, namely Esther. Here is the opportunity. Here is to make the most of the opportunities for that your family for the church for the society This is the time to shine and give glory to God and Stand up as a good soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the opportunity and and this is what Mordecai says Again, I will repeat he command a command to answer Esther it says Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews." And so he connects her with the rest of the family, the family of God. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place here's an opportunity he says for you because if you don't take the opportunity the Lord will raise up others and and he says this but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for this for such a time as this.

Well I will stop here but what a wonderful time we are in. We are in the best of times. We are in the worst of times. But we are in the place where the Lord has set us in. So let us seek Him.

Let us trust Him. Let us look ahead with great expectation that these prayers that we offer up to God every day in our homes, God will bring them to pass. Pouyan, those are such thrilling words. Thank you so much for painting that picture. So Jeff and Jared, what are your thoughts?

Jared, what are your thoughts? That was a wonderful word, Puyon. I really think we need to cultivate the ability to seize opportunities that are all around us. My guess, my sense is that many Christians lean more toward that it is the worst of times then they see that it really is the best of times. It's kind of like David, you know, David went out to that Philistine battle line and everyone there saw a threat.

But David was looking at the same thing and saw an opportunity. He said that's not a really big threat, that's a really big target. And we've got guys in our church right now that are facing situations where employers are gathering up the the staff and saying, you know, this particular man, Jeff, is now going to be Jenny and everyone needs to refer to her that way and she'll be using them in the bathroom, the ladies bathroom. And he said, I don't think I can do that. And I said, you know, I bet that there's a lot of employers that probably don't want to work under those conditions Perhaps you could start a business and I think we're gonna have to raise our children and in our homes have that kind of mindset This is the time where we should be rejoicing and giddy about all of the glorious opportunities there are to see the kingdom of Christ advance in our homes built up.

Jeff, what are your thoughts? Well, I guess I would just say two things. I really appreciated not only what my brother Pouyan said, but I loved Jared's follow-up. And, you know, it is the case. It seems to me that many of the Christians that I know are just in this hunker down, well, I'm ready for this to pass, and let's get back to normal.

God wasn't happy with our normal. So I'm thankful that he has fouled it up. He has made all of us say, OK, either I'm going to hide and just take my cave mentality and hope this goes away. Or we can say, this is the most wonderful opportunity. God has raised us up for this day.

We should be shining the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, sending the Gospel all around the world, and exalting the Lord Jesus Christ in every way that we can in our neighborhoods, in our city, in our state, in this world. So yeah, man, that's wonderful. Secondly, you said one thing that really struck a memory for me right at the beginning when you were talking about Christians ought to be taught these things. Jared echoed the same kind of thing. And as I was thinking about it, in my first pastorate, I had a woman that was 80 years old, and I did a series on marriage, just on marriage.

It wasn't even a huge controversial thing. I just laid out a number of messages regarding what man and woman ought to be in Christ. She came up to me afterwards and said, I'm 80, I've been in church since I was a child. I had never heard a single sermon on marriage. That's astounding.

That's one of the reasons we all know where we are. She had never heard, and then she told me that all of her friends said that she shouldn't listen to me and shouldn't sit under me because I wasn't preaching Christ. So it's like many that profess to be Christians are so unfamiliar with scripture. It grieves me deeply. It grieves me deeply.

And the fact that someone could reach 80, now at least I know that in churches such as Scott's and Brother Poullant's and Brother Jared's and many others that we know, you know, they're at least hearing the whole scriptures. They're hearing preaching from the Old Testament. They're hearing preaching from the New Testament. They're not just stuck on one or two things, but they're getting expositions. So that's certainly changed, and I'm deeply hopeful of that.

But I'm absolutely convinced your mainstream churches generally are not drifting into these things that are at the heart of day-to-day living. Amen. It's all surfacing. You know, Pouyan also, one of the things that really struck me about this opportunity is that God has given us the most powerful, effective, authentic way of teaching children. And that is according to the scriptures, which is a walk-along, talk-along kind of teaching pattern.

We walk with them, we talk with them when we sit in our house, when we walk by the way. It's very personal, it's highly customized. The opportunity that we have really is to exercise the greatest methodology of instruction that's ever been presented. And it's very simple, actually. The Bible just paints it out in very, very clear terms.

There are a couple of questions here I'd like us to deal with. Going back to, Jeff, some of the things that you were saying about the Lord's day, this person is asking about vocations like medical and law enforcement that could affect church attendance. And I'll just quickly refer to chapter 22 of the Baptist Confession of 1689 on religious worship that says that there are matters of mercy and necessity that need to pay attention to. I think we would, at least in our church, we think that medical care and law enforcement fit in to those things. I mean, I think law enforcement might be one of the most practical and vivid applications of the duty of the civil government to prenice evildoers.

So the church should certainly allow that kind of thing. There's another question that I'd like to throw out to everyone here that had to do with encroachments of the church and the government upon the family jurisdiction. There are cases of churches encroaching on the jurisdiction of the family. We've talked about it the other way mainly here. How do churches encroach on the jurisdiction of the family?

Well, I'll jump in. I think Jeff made a good point when he mentioned I believe he said something about having so many events so many meetings that you and then you require those. So you hold them all for kind of a Sabbath day requirement that you position the family where it becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible, to fulfill those duties of raising children and the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That is a particular command to fathers and certainly the churches involved in teaching God's word and preaching God's word and then even training families for that. And the problem is churches can say, well, that's exactly what we're doing.

And that's why you need to come here five, five nights a week. But that really does become an encroachment to your straining that family. So the opportunities for family worship and the opportunities for training children, educating children, all of those can be hindered by too robust a church programmatic schedule. Amen. I think as well Sometimes it can be that churches may have some unwritten rules or distinctives that are not positively taught in the Word of God and they make the things that are not positively taught in the Word of God to be something that the families must adhere to.

Our task should be to preach and teach what the scripture says, not what the scripture does not say. And we can go out of balance and expect families to be doing certain things that the scripture doesn't say. It is part of the individual's freedom and liberty that they have in Christ and I think we need to be careful of that. When the Lord dealt with me years ago and I began to ask questions about churches and why we did what we did, why we didn't do other things, I continued scouring the scriptures. Continued scouring the scriptures, at first I came to the erroneous conclusion that just one pastor in a congregation was utterly unhealthy because he could become a tyrant, a dictator, with no accountability.

Well, that sounded good to me. It felt good to me, especially in some of the church situations I had been in. On the other hand, I've lived long enough now, sadly, to determine and to see that you can have three elders that are dictators. You can have three of them that are tyrants. You can have any number of them and they can be actually become almost like a spiritual mafia to the church.

There was just a horrible case of this here in Florida just a few years ago where we were getting people coming to the church. They were just broken in pieces from what they had seen. So encroaching is when the elders become the brains for everybody and become the consciences. We're to inform people's consciences with the word of God. But as Puyon was saying, there are many things that we can take and make into something that sounds very spiritual.

I knew of a church that the church's covenant was that if you wanted to be a member of the church, no one could own a television. And the whole church, which was a very small group, you know, went along with that. But in time it completely fell apart because they came to those kinds of conclusions just like brother Poullon was saying. So encroaching can come from the elders when you have men that lose sight that they are the representatives of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are to be the servants of God's people. Paul said that he did not have, he did not desire to have dominion over their faith.

Well, that's, you can have tremendous encroachment when you see elders doing that kind of thing. So that's a big one. Amen. Actually, in a little church. Yeah, I'd like to just wind us up this way here.

I'd like to give each of you just about two minutes to give a final appeal to the people that are listening on this whole matter of the jurisdiction of the family. And so, Jared, let's let's start with you. You know what what would you like to say to the people you know a lot of really good things are being covered. Anything in particular you'd like to leave them with? Yeah so many good things have been said.

I would end with fear God, not man. There's such a temptation right now to fear man, but take a look at a world around you and don't raise your children to fear man. Secularism is falling to pieces. It's like a drunken sailor trying to jump on a trampoline. I mean, show your kids the other trampoline and say, go do it how God says to do it.

Don't do it like that and don't be afraid of that. Fear God, trust him, obey his commandments and do it all with great joy because we're the ones who perceive the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. And hey, with all the crazy things going on in our culture, you know, don't teach your children to fear the government or fear what's going to happen.

God's in control. Absolutely. Amen. Let's see. So, Jeff, what what what what's your parting shot?

Well, This may not sound particularly exciting My parting shot though would be this I believe without any hesitation if we want to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, God's people must become desperately serious about properly interpreting and living according to the word of God. They need to understand first what it says. They need next then to understand what it means. And then to apply it and live it with all their hearts, with a faith that worketh by love." So just real Christianity, real Christianity. The Reformation was about sola scriptura, among other things.

We've lost that. Most people don't read the Bible well if they're reading the Bible. This is the day when we must give ourselves to a whole-hearted communion with God in the word, in prayer and in meditation. So I would say if you start there, it'll start going in the right direction. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Pouyan. My final words would be one of courage. It is the thing that is very much needed right now.

Courage. Courage means for the Christian to depend upon the Lord in this day. To have courage to depend on Him, to trust in Him with all your heart. That means we ought to be praying. Men and women and boys and girls who are given to prayer depending on the Lord that's the most courageous thing that you could do.

Second thing is courage in trusting in the Word of God and obeying it and that's the most courageous thing against all the tides that are coming towards us against all of the things that we are told to believe in or not to believe in to have courage in the word of God And to remember persecution comes, tribulation comes. We shouldn't be surprised about that. But what kind of a legacy do you leave behind if you do not show courage before your families? If you are seen by your children as being those who would compromise and give up and will not show courage in those things. The legacy of a man of God who might lose his job, a legacy of a father or mother who would have to stand against all kinds of things in our society and have to suffer for it.

You look at our brothers and sisters in different parts of the world who are suffering for the name of Christ, what legacy do they leave behind? And what would their children think? And throughout the history of the church, it has been the case that the children of those who have suffered for Christ and who have given much for the glory of Christ, their children have come through and they were the ones who are the children of Reformation. The Martin Luther's who suffered and the John Knox's who suffered and the Calvin's who suffered and so on, their children then look and see what a legacy they have left behind. Courage, I think, is the call of the hour.

Amen. Let me just quote you the scripture that I had in mind. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Oh, that's great.

Well, that will that will help me say what I want to say and leave everyone with Ephesians 5 18, which really communicates what is the most refreshing element in family life. And that is the filling of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle at the beginning of the family life codes in Ephesians 5 and Ephesians 6 says, be filled with the Holy Spirit. And this is the sweetener of family life. And of course it begins with conversion.

And the question a parent ought to ask is, have I been filled with the Holy Spirit? Which means, have I been converted? Do I love the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he filling me? Is the fruit of the Spirit manifesting itself in my home?

Well, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The apostle Paul is teaching families that the greatest thing they can do in their family is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And that really is the foundation of it all. It really begins with true conversion and then the manifestation of the of the glories of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. There's nothing more refreshing, there's nothing sweeter than a spirit-filled husband and wife and children.

And so I pray that that's the legacy of what we've been dealing with here tonight, that families would find themselves in order, but they wouldn't just find themselves in order doing the duties. But there is the energizing factor of all those duties and that is the filling of the Holy Spirit. Well brothers thank you so much. I really, really enjoyed the time. And for all of you who are listening, we'll be having these sessions up online.

I hope they're helpful to you. On Monday, we're going to launch a podcast with Steve Lawson on preaching. I really pray that your children hear thousands and thousands of sermons in their lifetime, but you're going to need to help them to engage those sermons and to make them very, very helpful to them. So you'll hear Steve talk about all that kind of stuff on Monday if you're able to join us. Well, thank you so much for being with us at this conference, Jurisdictions Under Fire, The Church and Family in the Balance.

The Lord reigns and he is in control of all the things that are upon us now. I'm so grateful for that. I'm so grateful that this isn't the most defining election coming up in the history of the world, because God is managing all of history toward his own glorious goals. So thanks for joining us and we'll see you next time. Goodbye.

Thank you.