In his sermon 'Christians Can't Live without the Church,' Dr. Joel Beeke argues that the church plays a crucial role in the spiritual life of families. He highlights that while homeschooling and protecting children from worldly influences are important, they are insufficient without the church's community and worship. The church serves as a model and support for family worship, likening its nurturing role to a mother's. Drawing from John Calvin, Beeke emphasizes that the church nourishes believers with spiritual food, aiding in growth and understanding of the truth. The church offers children a positive environment through fellowship, teaching, and exposure to the kingdom of God in action. Without the positive reinforcement of church life, children may rebel against solely negative instruction to avoid worldly influences. Thus, the church is portrayed as a vital friend and ally to the family, offering the sincere milk of the word and a community that embodies the faith.

So let's say there was no church. Let's say you homeschooled your family and you did a pretty good job, but there was no church. Your children never met really other believing children. Well, how impoverished your whole family would be. You'd become like a little nuclear family, a be-all and a do-all to yourself.

If you kept your kids away from worldly influences like you're supposed to do, they'd have a bit of a stilted life, wouldn't they? But the church opens them up to the larger family. And you need, Dad, You need the worship of the church to buttress your worship at home and more than buttress it The church is your pattern your model your family worship should be like a little mini church service a little more informal Of course, and there'd be a little more laughter and things like that. But you're patterning your family worship in a way after the public worship. You're worshiping God in your family.

And so it's critical, in my opinion, the role the church has to play John Calvin said God is our father, but when we raise God for in families The church is like our mother Nourishing us. In fact, Calvin even uses some pretty graphic language. He says unless the church is like a mother who nourishes her children with the food that God miraculously provides for her to do that, so the church provides, As Peter says, the sincere milk of the word by which the children grow up under the truth. So the church is catechizing our children, it's teaching our children, the children get to see the God-fearing people in the church. You know, we're pilgrims in the earth, but in the church, you see the building, the dwelling, the planting, and the building up of the kingdom of God is present and alive and our children need that.

So when we raise our children, we do so negatively and positively. Negatively we tell them flee the world. Positively we bring them to the house of God and say be like this, follow this truth and when you only have the negative it's an incomplete life and often if you don't have the positive children will turn against it, rebel against it. This is all negative. But the church can give so much positive influence in their life.

The friendships at church, the fellowship at church, the teaching of the church. The church is a tremendous friend of the family.