The doctrines and doxology of the Christian faith are not to be viewed as abstractions, but are to be earnestly passed down to our children. The aim, Justin Miller will explain, is so they might be launched out into the world as those who know, love, live, and are willing to endure all costs for the glory of the Lord Jesus.

If you have a Bible, turn with me to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 5. It's always a blessing to be here and I'm grateful that of all the places you could have went and all the sessions you could have chosen, you chose this one. And so we're going to look at training men and women for a lifetime of service in the church a topic That really it's so big. It's hard to really narrow down on what we want to focus on family What does it mean to raise up leaders in the church, men and women for service in the Christ kingdom? And so I'm going to try to hit as much of those two areas as possible from this text.

Second Timothy chapter one verse five, and as is customary in our local church, Would you stay with me for the reading of God's Word? That's a tradition that goes back Old Testament into New Testament times, and it's our way of honoring God's Word and receiving it with thankfulness. So it's 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 5, And thus says God's word. I'm reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I'm sure dwells in you as well. Let's pray.

Father, you are holy and mighty. You're all powerful. Who can thwart your purposes? Who can steal your hand? Father, you reign over every hair that falls from our head.

You feed the ravens. Father, there's nothing that happens under the sun or in all the cosmos apart from your sovereign decree. But yet, Father, you are most good. And you work all things in this world for the good of your people, for the glory of your name. How profound is it Father that we can even come before your throne room in prayer and that Christ covers the instance of our prayer before your throne, making it acceptable in your sight, and that you hear us gladly as your people.

Father, please meet with us in the word today. Use this very broken clay instrument to convey your word. I pray we'd all walk away encouraged and strengthened about the great task of training men and women for a lifetime of service in your church. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. What do we really want for our children, our kids?

Now we know the biblical answer. Most of us can recite and say, well, we want our kids to know God and we want our kids to faithfully serve him in this generation. But I think we have to be really honest for a moment. What that will mean. I mean, a lot of us would love to see our son become like Spurgeon or Calvin or maybe Athanasius who stood against the world.

Our daughters like Ann Judson, Sarah Edwards, et cetera. But when you look at their lives, when you really look at Spurgeon's life and Calvin's life and you look at Judson's life, These dear saints suffered greatly as they followed Christ. I talked to a lot of pastors, I get the privilege of training men for ministry, and a lot of them dream of having Spurgeon's ministry, dream of people coming to Christ through their preaching and being built up in the faith and masses, and they don't realize that there are days that Spurgeon could not get himself out of bed. The Spurgeon suffered. When he moved to London, People don't see this reality, but he preached and he was in this Victorian era where everyone was wanting this educated rhetoric.

And he just preached the gospel as a Puritan in his time. And every day, literally every day when the newspapers came forth, there was some attack on Hillbilly Spurgeon. He was just some fool from the countryside. Or you think of John Calvin. Many of us may have had access to his institutes or read some of his writings.

And we know that he trained up a thousand pastors and sent them throughout the world, training men and women for ministry in life. But what you don't know about Calvin is that he suffered the loss of child after child. He didn't have any children. Saw through the loss of his wife. Geneva hated him for 15 years of his ministry.

It was only the last eight years of his pastorate that people really began to listen to what he was saying. They would actually, when Calvin was preaching, they would have dogs barking outside. They would cough real loud in the sanctuary. They would, when he would walk by in the alleyways, they would throw rocks at him, they would name their dogs after him actually as well. They hated him and they tried to get rid of him over and over again.

The first year and a half they succeeded. He goes for a three year reprieve, he comes back. He doesn't wanna come back, he actually makes a statement, I'd rather die a thousand deaths than go back to Geneva. But he serves Christ faithfully in his generation, writes books, trains pastors, pours his life into others, and he suffers greatly. Think about Ann Judson, whose husband was in Burma and she was trying to keep him alive when he was in prison and she sacrificed her own health for the good of her husband and her child for the glory of God and she ends up dying for the faith.

So We say we want our children to be raised to be men and women who serve God faithfully in this lifetime, but that comes with the cross, doesn't it? That comes with a life of trials and tribulations, but I want to propose to you in this message, it still is the best of all lives. It's the greatest of all ventures. When you come to 2 Timothy chapter one verse five, it's amazing that when you look at Timothy, Paul's son in the faith, it's easier to look at that phrase that Paul uses with Timothy, son in the faith, and to think that Paul was the first person he heard the word from. But that's not so with Timothy, is it?

Now before I tackle that, I wanna give you an outline where we're going. We're going to look at the how of training men and women for a lifetime of service in God's kingdom. We're going to look at the what, and then we're going to look at the weightiness of it, the eternal weightiness of it, and why this is the best of all lives and the greatest of all adventures for God's glory. When you look at the how, it really comes clear when you look at Timothy's own position in life. Verse 5, it says, I'm reminded, and as Paul writes this, understand what he's doing, 2nd Timothy is Paul's last letter.

It's around mid-60s A.D., Paul's in prison, he knows his time is up. Because he's a Roman citizen, he's not going to be crucified like Peter, but his head will be on a chopping block soon. And he is counting down that time and he wants to write to his son of the faith, one whom he sent out to countless churches as an apostolic representative of him going and taking the gospel. Someone he poured into and someone he's concerned about as well, by the way. When you read 2 Timothy carefully, right after he reminds him of his heritage, he says, we don't have a spirit of fear, but of a sound mind, love, and self-control.

Why would Paul say that to Timothy? He doesn't say that to Titus. It's because Timothy was reserved. Timothy was fearful. Timothy knew the cost of preaching the gospel.

He saw his mentor in prison, now for the second time. And so as Paul writes this great letter, he reminds on the very forefront, the very opening this letter of his heritage. And what a heritage Timothy has. Verse 5 it says, I'm reminded of your sincere faith. Sincere in the original language means genuine, authentic, real, your real faith.

A faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now I'm sure dwells in you. And if you just fast forward for a moment to the mid to end of this letter in 2 Timothy 3, this is what Paul will say about Timothy's heritage again. He says this, but as for you, Timothy, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it." Now, you'd expect it to be Paul there, wouldn't you? But look what he says. And how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

John Gill comments on this and I paraphrase, when you look at Timothy's heritage he had a grandmother, a Jewish grandmother, who loved the writings of the Word of God, but we don't know if she ever got to hear the gospel of grace from Paul's lips. Likely, she died looking forward to the Messiah to come. She died looking forward to the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the prophet like Moses, the greater David. She was looking forward to that through the Scripture. She was made wise unto salvation by the Word of God, and she passed that down to her daughter, Eunice, who passed it down to Timothy.

Timothy likely grew up every Sabbath day, which was Saturday in the Old Covenant, going to synagogue service. And at synagogue service, they would read the scrolls of the Word of God, and they would, by the way, stand for that. The teacher would then sit and expound it to the people. They would sing the Psalms. They would offer the prayers It was the Old Testament local church service commanded in Leviticus by the way They were to gather so Timothy grew up from grandmother to mother to him, going to the local church service every Saturday, hearing the Word of God, having access to scrolls.

And you think, well, how can you conclude that from our text? It's because most people in that time were illiterate, and scrolls were expensive to own. They were often housed in synagogues. So the place where you would have access to the Old Testament Bible was the synagogue. So that's where he had to go to get the Word of God.

He was raised in it. He heard it, memorized it, knew it. That's why Gil concludes that his grandmother, even if she died before Paul preached the gospel, was still a blessed, regenerate believer looking forward to the promises of God. How were Old Testament saints saved? Romans 3.

Looking forward to the Messiah. Seeing the sacrifices, seeing all the types and shadows, and they looked forward to the fulfillment. The seed of the woman that will crush the serpent's head, the seed that all nations are blessed in, of Abraham, the prophet like Moses that if you disobey you will be crushed. If you obey you'll be blessed. So Timothy was raised in this home and I want you to think about what that was like.

He had two influences. His father was a Greek, Paul's very clear about that. He lives in Lystra Derby area, which was not a heavily populated area by the terms of the time. And as he's there, he sees his grandmother's godly example. He learns the Word of God from her.

He probably hears from her about faithfulness of God to their family, and then he hears that from his mother. He goes to synagogue service, he's trained up in the word, he sits under the teaching, sits under the preaching, sits under the singing. There was no children's church for Timothy. He was in the service, hearing the means of grace. And all of this prepared him so that when Paul comes through, the second time, the believers in that region say, you need to know this Timothy.

He was a man of godliness and character that can be used of you for the church, the glory of Christ, for greater service. Of course, then Paul takes him with him. There's a lot you can glean if you know the context and the history from that simple verse about what it looks like to train someone for a lifetime of service. What does it look like to train someone to serve God in our generation. And if you look at Timothy's life for a moment, Timothy did heed Paul's admonition, did he not?

Remember we talked about Calvin and Spurgeon, a suffering they went through. When you look at the book of Hebrews, the very last chapter of the book of Hebrews, Timothy's mentioned, and where is he at? Where is he at when that letter was pinned? He's in prison. He's suffering for the faith.

He's holding fast the truth. He hears Paul's admonition here and he clings to it as he was prepared for a lifetime of service in his home. Timothy's grandmother must have known Psalm 78. His mother Eunice must have known Psalm 78. They were faithful Jews, spiritual Israel, looking forward to the promise.

And Psalm 78 says this about how God intends for his people to be raised up. It says this, I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings from of old, things we have not heard and known that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord in his might and the wonders that he has done. We'll look at Deuteronomy 6 here in a moment, Deuteronomy 10, or even Ephesians 6, which by the way, what Paul does in Ephesians 6 chapter 4 is he summarizes all the Old Testament and what it says about training children for service. But as we look at this text with Timothy, we need to look at the how of training men and women for a lifetime of service.

Number one, if we were to train men and women, children for a lifetime of service as faithful men, faithful women, the local church is not just something that we attend. It's something that our life orbs around. You cannot separate Christ from the church. You can't say you love Jesus and not be intricately connected to the church. And I want to be very clear what I mean by this.

I'm not just saying you attend on the Lord's Day and that's it. I'm saying you're intimately involved in that faith family, that covenant community. You're serving, you're engaged, you're worshiping, you're diligent. On the days you don't feel like getting up and going and being around the people of God, and by the way, if you say that you don't ever feel like that, we all do, don't we? I'm a pastor.

There are some days, like, I look at my wife, I'm like, I don't wanna go today. I don't wanna go today. That's the flesh, that's feeling, isn't it? But love is not a mere just feeling. It's based in an unconditional commitment to others good.

That's how God loved us. That's why election is a doctrine of love. I don't understand so much why people hate election. It's a beautiful doctrine, think of it. He chose us before time in Christ.

And there is nothing good in us. I don't know the secret will of God and why He chose me. I know me. There's nothing good here in my flesh and fallen Adam. But He set His will on me and He works all things for my good in Christ.

Isn't that amazing? Isn't that profound? Well, knowing the love of God in Christ, that's how we love the church and be committed to the church. To say you love Jesus but don't love the church makes yourself a liar. We are to be intimately connected to the church.

In Ephesians 6 and 1, it's fascinating. When Paul writes this letter, I want you to see what he does. Ephesians would have been read to the congregation in the Lord's Day gathering. It says this, children, obey your parents and the Lord. That is right.

Do you notice what Paul did there? Who did he address? Who did Paul address in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 1? Children, it's a vocative noun. He addresses them.

So what does Paul assume? That kids are in the congregation. That they're being raised up in the church, that they're learning to worship and sing as they see grandpa and grandma or mom and dad singing their guts out after a hard week, be thou my vision in Christ alone. Or after they've had a loss or they've had some trials and they see their mom and dad singing to the glory of God. Maybe their dad's like me and off-key always, but he sings the glory of God and they witnessed this.

That's how they learn to worship. As they look at the dad with the notepad and the mom with the notepad as the sermon is being preached and they're really engaged. They want to know God from the Word. And they don't just want to know theology, by the way. They want to know more doctrine because they want to know the Christ that the doctrine points to.

They want to see Jesus. I love when I go and visit places and I see on pulpits, just give us Jesus, sir. I love when I see that inscribed. They learn the seriousness of the word of God as it's read and they stand in reverence and they see the imperative of the hospitality and the worship and they go on the Sabbath day and they fellowship with other believers around the table. And by the way, they learn how to love the church when they go home and mom and dad is not there criticizing every little thing the pastor did and didn't do or the elders did and didn't do and the mom and dad are not speaking ill of their faith their their church members and by the way we have to really be honest here.

Reformed people are really good critics, aren't they? They're really good critics. I'm always terrified sometimes at speaking reformed conferences, because You don't want to sound too Arminian and plead with people. And you also don't want to say something maybe that is gillish and sounds kind of hyper Calvinist either. We're good critics.

There's very little grace sometimes. We don't want to model that for our kids. Timothy likely didn't have any of that. He grew up in a home where the word of God was taught, and he probably revered it. He saw how his mom and his grandma spoke of the congregants.

You think, well, I'm just being real with my kids. That doesn't excuse slander, gossip, sin. If you want to be real, go to God in prayer, lay your case before Him, look at His law, see His gospel, And if that doesn't change your heart and how you speak, there's something seriously wrong. Timothy grew up in the congregation every Sabbath day hearing the word. When Paul addresses the congregation's emphasis, he assumes children are there learning.

You know the dangers of bringing people, bringing innovations into the church? Don't we see that pattern in the Old Testament and a little bit in history, often history. One of my favorite examples of this is Jeroboam. When Jeroboam is prophesied to and conveyed to about the kingship, he's given basically a similar promise as David was. And Jeroboam, when he lays hold of his promise and they make him king, he has a moment of crisis.

He's fearful that people are going to go back to Rehoboam, the king in Judah, and so what he does is he comes up with a synchronized, altered religion that worships Yahweh. Instead of three festivals, there's one. And for convenient thanks, he has two locations. And because people naturally are drawn to aesthetics and externals, he has two golden calves, which represents strength and might. And to be fair, with the priesthood, it's not just Levi's anymore, Levi's, anyone can be one.

He integrates this. Do you know when that religion ends? Hundreds of years later, when northern Israel is destroyed, what began as an innovation became a tradition that they held to and defended and fought for and thought they were serving God with. That's why it's deadly to integrate tradition divorced from the truth of God's Word. Because what's New and faddish eventually becomes a tradition that people will fight for and hold dear to.

We need to make sure our children are with us in the service as best as possible, that they grow up seeing. I love that my kids, I always think about men of God who have gone on before us. I'm very fortunate that the church I pastor, when I first came there, even though they weren't a confession reformed church, there was a godly deacon board. They were all older men. We're a confession reformed church now, and I think a lot of that is because God blessed the efforts of these men who loved the word of God above all.

And one of these men, his name's James Wilfong, he's dead now, I've got to bury almost all of these men, it wasn't an honor, it was. But I love that my son, my oldest son, he's now married and following Christ faithfully, got to witness James Wilthong towards the end of his life who would will himself into the sanctuary. He would not miss the Lord's Day gathering. He was always there though he was in immense pain, the smile with joy, and he would sing his guts out. He would hear the word of God preached and he would delight in it and he'd talk about it.

He would still invite people over to his home afterwards even though he could barely get to his car. That's a man of God. And my son got to see him and still talks about him. He got to be raised with him. That's how you trade someone for a lifetime of service.

You introduce them to people who follow God for a lifetime. And they see men like that and women like that. We have to be careful that we make sure our kids are raised in such an environment. The local church is imperative. It's not an add-on.

Our life must orbit. I want to say one more thing. I'm going too much off script. I apologize. People will move places for a job.

People move places for a career without any thought of a local church to go to. The first thing you should look for when you look for a place to go is there a biblical local church there that will pour into your family's soul. Well, you have God the elders, faithful truth. Is that not important for training people for a lifetime of service? The local church is imperative.

Number two, families that properly discipline and train their children. Ephesians 6, this is what Paul says, as he summarizes, I believe, the whole Old Testament, and this is something that Timothy must have seen as he was disciplined by his mother, as he was trained in the word of God in his family. Ephesians 6, 4, Paul says, fathers, again he moved from addressing in verse 1, children, now he addresses fathers, do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Discipline and instruction, I don't have the time to go through this, but the two words are used together. You can't properly discipline your kids for a lifetime of service if you don't instruct and communicate to them.

And there's different forms of communication. There's admonishment. There's encouragement. There's transfer of information. This exhortation.

There's warning. And warning should be used in parenting rarely. But when it's used, it's powerful. What Paul is saying here in this text, Timothy must have experienced in his own home to have such a godly environment that Paul uplifts. So how do we discipline our children?

Well, the Bible has much to say about that in the Old Testament. Proverbs 22, 15 says this, Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. Proverbs 13, 24, he who withholds his rod hates his son. Read that. He who withholds the rod hates his son.

But he who loves him disciplines him diligently. Proverbs 23, 14 through 15, if you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol. Proverbs 29, 15, the rod and reproof gives wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. The Bible is explicitly clear, we are to use the rod. But remember the first part of verse 4 of Ephesians 6, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger.

I love Calvin's commentary on this. This is what he basically says. Fathers, you're not to be so harsh and abuse your authority as an ambassador of God to such a degree that your children feel like they can never please you. That's my paraphrase of what Calvin says. In essence, you're not to be that angry, rageful man.

When you discipline your children, you never discipline them in anger. God never disciplines His children in anger, never. There is now no wrath for us in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation for us in Christ Jesus. Romans 8.1.

The Father always disciplines us in love, but He does discipline us. He does correct us. He wills all things in creation to conform us to the image of Christ. Hebrews 12 even talks about how fathers, faithful fathers, diligently discipline their children to produce in them what? Good, holiness, godliness.

And the Father does that for us, his people. So if we're to be faithful to raise up men and women for a lifetime of service, to know God and enjoy him, we have to correct them when they're strained from the path of righteousness, but we have to be careful we do it rightly and wisely. When you discipline them, the last thing you want them to get from your discipline is I just have to do better to please dad. That's moralism. So what has God given us as the church to help in this area?

Paul previously wrote to Timothy and said this in 1 Timothy 1 8, The law is good if it's used lawfully. Well, how is the law to be used? The law being the moral law, the summation, seeing the 10 commandments, how is the moral law to be used? The three uses of the moral law, it restrains evil, Proverbs 8.15, It's a mirror to us, the second use, to show us our sin, because we have a hard time seeing it in our self deception. Our hearts are wicked beyond compare, who can know it?

So it shows us our sin and our need for whom? A savior, a priest, a king, a prophet, someone who can reach down and save even me, see my need. I can do nothing to please God. It's a mirror. And thirdly, it reveals what is pleasing to God, to those who have been saved by Christ.

So if we're going to train our children and discipline them, I mean, Timothy was raised at home, but they had the Ten Commandments and they had all these things. He must have seen himself before the law of God and thought, I have lied, I've hated, I have been an adulterer, I put these things before God. Yeah, I didn't bow to an idol of stone, but there's this thing in creation that I love above God. He must have seen his heart and made wise unto salvation. Second Timothy 3, he must have thought, I need a mediator to go to God on my behalf.

I need to see the woman, to crush the serpent's head. I need something to save me. So when Paul comes into Lister and Derby and he preaches Christ, Can you imagine Timothy hearing the fulfillment of what he longed for and looked to? As he looked to Christ? And then in Christ, the law then becomes to us what?

A lamp to my feet, a light to my path, I hide its words in my heart so I may not sin against God. We want to obey the law because we love the Savior who redeemed our souls. If you love me, you obey me. So how do you discipline your children? It's hard.

It's really hard to do this, by the way. I've had people, when I say this, will think, Justin, if I do that, that's going to be like an all-day thing. We're so used to convenience that we don't want to do what's hard. Of course it's hard. Again, a lifetime of service is hard.

Trials and tribulations, difficulties, hardships. But Think of your child when they do something, you tell them don't do this, they do it. They break what you said. Now it's easy to get mad and just spank them and take them off and say don't do this again, you get spanked. You just taught them to be a moralist if you just say that and do that.

That's all you taught them. But if you go to them and say, let's call the child Charlie. I'm going to be a grandfather here soon by the way. My son's debating on all these different names. He thought about Augustus, which we were not really for.

Some of the names your kids come up with, but it's just, like my name is Justin. That's a plain name. My son, his name's, But they're thinking Charlie. He was really influenced by Charlie Kirk. So he's thinking Charlie.

So let's say Charlie, his dad tells him about to do something, he does it. What do you do? Well, then you go to Charlie, and this is assuming that Charlie's now able to really understand some things. So I know there's different ways of doing this as the kids grow older and younger and older. I wish I could go into that but I don't really have the time.

But you go to Charlie and he says, Charlie, why did you disobey me? And Charlie will say like most kids, I don't know. But my son's not to stop, is he? He's supposed to say, Charlie, why did you disobey me? What were you thinking about?

What was going on in your heart? And he said, well, I wanted that, dad. You said not to have it, but I wanted it. Well, what is that, Charlie? The Bible calls that covetness.

So Charlie, did you want something that wasn't yours that you're not supposed to have? Were you a covetor, Charlie? Yeah. Well Charlie, who were you thinking about in that moment? Well, I wanted that.

You were thinking about yourself, Charlie. So you're putting yourself above whom? God, you're an idolater, Charlie. Charlie, I gave you a specific command. God has given me as an ambassador to you for your good, and I gave you this command, And you disobeyed it.

You broke my command, so you dishonored the authority God put over you. It's the fifth commandment. What have you done with Charlie? You've taken the wall, you've shown him his sin, but now you get the privilege. But Charlie, here's the good news.

Jesus saves sinners. His sinless life, His death to remove our guilt and our transgression, His resurrection can make you pure and white as snow, forgiven before God. This is a gift that is received by his sovereign grace through faith. You've shared the gospel with Charlie and now do you stop there? He still needs to learn there's consequences in time and space.

I could rob a bank and then afterwards I can go to God and say, God forgive me for robbing the bank, I need Christ, save my soul. I could be a saved person but should I do it? Do I still have penalties to pay for the government? Is there still consequences in time and space for my actions? Yeah.

So you want Charlie to know there's consequences in time and space though God can forgive all the sin in Christ. And so you say Charlie, I'm still gonna spank you. And so you pull Charlie aside, You lovely wield the rod, you spank him, and after he's done, if you wanna model the father, what do you do? The father loves us, he never disciplines us in anger. You look at him and say, Charlie, I love you, and you bring him in until he's done crying and feels secure in his Father's love.

Now, is that hard and tedious? Yes. Will you be exhausted? Yes. But what have you just taught Charlie?

You've taught him the Christian life. See your sin, run to the Savior by faith, and in Christ, the law of God's for our good, to please God. Timothy grew up likely in such an environment. The Word of God was the centerpiece per Paul's admonition here. But there's another part of instruction that Paul intends, which Timothy's mom and grandma must have followed, Deuteronomy 6, I want to read this.

I want to read this because there's so much wonder in it that Paul's bringing forth. He says, Moses says in Deuteronomy 6 that Paul again brings forth, it says this, "'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your might and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart you shall teach them diligently to your children you shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise, she'll bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on your doorposts of your house and on your gates." Remember, they didn't have access to the Bible like we do in written form, So how did they take the Word of God? They posted it everywhere in their home.

They memorized it. They would talk about it often. And the parents were called to first themselves know God and have the law on their heart. Then they were commanded to tell it to the children. And this implies formal instruction and a household that daily centers around the word of God.

Those two cannot be divorced. Family worship is as old, at least, as the line of Seth. One John Schauer says it like this, how was God worshiped before the giving of the Mosaic law but in families? How did Abraham train his children? How they worship God in families?

How did Job worship God in family? And the line was set to begin to call in the name of the Lord. Well, how did they learn to call in the name of the Lord? The promises were passed down in the family. And the line was set to begin to call in the name of the Lord.

And The line was set to begin to call in the name of the Lord. Well how did they learn to call in the name of the Lord? The promises were passed down in the family. Now when you look at Deuteronomy 6, you have to know God yourself, and a lot of parents will say, I don't feel equipped to train my children the truth, and sometimes we'll say, well, it's okay, you just do your best. Brethren, Listen to me, please, please.

What a privilege it is to study for yourself the word of God, to see Christ. Don't take the easy out and say, I just don't feel equipped, or I don't feel like I can communicate to my kids, I'm not a pastor. Are your kid's soul not worth it? Is your own soul not worth it? The means of grace is how God meets with us in the word and prayer.

So maybe you don't know as much as you think you should. Get to work studying by His grace. Open the book, get on your knees and read it. Know God. That's what Deuteronomy 6 says.

And then it says, be diligent to teach these things to your children. Talk of them in a way. How families have done this is again family worship, a home filled with the Word of God during the Rumi 11 shows this paradigm. But the basic format that most have done throughout history and family worship is this. It's really simple, it takes five to 20 minutes a day.

You read the Bible, book by book, verse by verse, take small chunks, their kids are smaller. You explain it, you ask questions, you memorize certain verses, and a lot of families will make a mistake, I think, in this area, they'll think, we need to memorize huge chunks, that's fine. But what I want my kids to have are what's called fighter verses. I got that from Piper. I want my kids to have scripture in their mind that they can go to when they're struggling, when they're tempted, when they're tried, when they're hurting, when they doubt God's goodness.

I want them to have scripture that they can recite to themselves and preach to themselves. Fighter verses, then catechisms, and then singing and prayer. Men, If I can address the men, a lot of men today don't sing in churches. That's a tragedy. And they don't sing in families.

That's even more of a tragedy. And a lot of them will say, well, I don't know how to sing. Who cares? Get over yourself. If you can't sing, just be like our family.

They make it a joke that Dad is off key. I have a family of musicians, I'm not one. I'm the black sheep, but I'm the loudest singer. I had a mentor who really poured that into me. Let your kids always remember that Dad believed these things in his guts, that he sang it loud because he loves Christ.

So sing in Christ alone, the doxology, holy, holy, holy, all these things, but let your kids remember, dad burst it out. And when your kids bring their friends to family worship, let it embarrass them. Let them know that dad is unashamed of this gospel and maybe someday they will be too. Sing. I was gonna even model a family worship for you and some of you are thinking amen, please don't because we're almost out of time.

So I won't, we're running short. But family worship, Biblical discipline, Timothy must have been familiar with. If you read closely, it says, but as for you, continue what you have learned and firmly believe, knowing from whom you've learned it, who's that, and from childhood, you've been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ. One of my favorite stories that shows the power of this is John Newton. Most people know John Newton, the amazing grace.

What they don't know about John Newton is that he actually had a very godly mom. Like Timothy, his dad was not saved, but his mom was. God had got a hold of John Newton's mom. He had met with her. She saw Christ.

She came to Christ, and she wanted to raise little John in church, and every day she would take him on his her knee and she would read scripture to him she would sing with she would pour the word of God into him she dies when he is seven years old she dies early and then John gets thrown to the world of men His father's not too interested in him. He ends up growing up and lives a very hard life early on. He becomes a slave ship captain, a real immoral man, filthy in his language, ungodly in his action. And one day as he is on the seas, as the story goes per his report, they fear because of the storm that has come in that they're gonna die, and John recollects what his mother taught him on her knee in family worship about the gospel and the promises of God in Christ, and he calls out to Christ to save his soul. She never saw him become to Christ.

She never knew what he'd become. And this man who called it the Christ, eventually comes back, is ordained a pastor in Onley, England, pins the amazing hymn, amazing grace, and also trains up the man named William Wilberforce who ends slavery in England. All of that comes from the faithfulness of a mom to do family worship until John was seven, and God blessing those means. You never know what God will do with your faithfulness, whether you see it or not. So we train our children as men and women for lifetime of service through the means, the local church, being connected, discipline, family worship, a home centered around the word of God.

Now, I want to really outline what we're driving at, what we want them to become. Timothy, in 2 Timothy 2, this is what Paul tells Timothy to be. He says in verse 3, share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuit such as his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to rules.

It's the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. What was the aim that Paul had for Timothy? To be a soldier in the faith. Be hardworking in the faith like a farmer in the field. The picture he gave Timothy is a life that would have hardships and difficulties and challenges, but he was to be a soldier through them, not being entangled with the affairs of the world, giving his life for the glory of God and everything he touched, everything he did, whether it was secular appointments he may have had, family commitments, everything was for the glory of God and he was to endure as a soldier for the master the captain.

And think about who our captain is. Jesus knows our suffering. He's as C.S. Lewis says is the true realist. He was tempted in all ways we are never gave in which means temptation came on him in his fullest force.

He charged into the darkness ahead of the army and the heart of the Christian resounds and says to the king, to the king, He is worthy of our lives and our soldiering and our suffering. He's the king who laid his life down for his people. So what is Paul's aim? What is the aim of Timothy's life? What was he trained for?

To be a soldier for Christ. Now what does this look like for a man and a woman? It looks like a life that enjoys God in all things. 1st Corinthians 16, This is what Paul says about men. Be watchful, stand firm, act like men, be strong.

Do all you do with love. You notice the phrasing? Men, be strong, be faithful. Do everything you do in love. Love for Christ and his people.

For daughters, 1 Peter 3, we read about what daughters are to be. Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which in God's sight is very precious. I wish I could go more into that, But I want to hear on the weightiness of the task. I want to plead with you like a not so good reformed person. The weightiness of the task is this.

We want our children to serve God for a lifetime, to enjoy God, men and women, fulfilling their roles. We need the local church, biblical discipline, teaching for all these things to do this as the means God blesses. But remember, God must bless, God saves. But here's the weight of it. Here's what keeps us going.

If you truly love Christ, not just the knowledge of Christ, but love Christ, then what your heart says to all these things is I want to obey him no matter the cost, no matter the outcome. Why do parents keep going? Why do pastors keep going? Why do church members keep going when it's hard? They love Christ.

If that is not your motive, if something doesn't work out the way you think it should with your kids or with the church, you'll give up if your motive is something in that. But if it's loving Christ and Christ is your all, you keep going because He's the King you want to live and die for. But also remember the weightiness of what you're doing as a steward, parents, churchmen. It's interesting, 2 Timothy 1, after Paul says this to Timothy, he outlines the gospel and the eternal glory to come. He talks about the judgment day in 2 Timothy 1.

I want you to imagine with me for a moment. Your children, your children will someday stand before the king and you will not be there. When they draw their last breath, your children will either be in heaven or hell. Imagine an unbelieving child. They grow up, they live a life of rebellion, they die, they go to Hades.

And there in Hades, They're completely given over to their depraved nature, and they're raised when the king returns, and they're given a body fit for destruction. As they're going towards the great white throne, they hear the shrieks, the cries, and they know that judgment's coming. They see the king on his throne. It's a terrifying reality. They begin to think about their life.

They begin to think about all the things they prioritize, their golf game, their hobbies, doing all the right things culturally, whatever culture they were raised in. And by the way, this can even happen in reformed circles, they have all the boxes checked. They think about maybe they grew up in a family that had Christianity there but mom and dad were not the real deal, And the gospel wasn't really seen and heard. And they come to the king and he brings out all they've done and they have to agree with his verdict and then they're thrown into hell forever. Let it not be that they are thrown to hell because we were unfaithful.

We want to have a clear, we cannot save our kids, but we can have a clear conscience in the church and with our families to know we were faithful to the Lord and gave him every access, the means of grace. Second Corinthians 7 14, Spurgeon said I wrestled that to the ground. But then think about the child who grows up like Timothy in a home where the gospel and the means of grace is there and they grow up and they die and they depart and their soul is taken in the very presence of God and they see the delight of the throne with Christ and the angelic host and the saints triumphant around the throne, Hebrews 12. And then their body is raised and their soul rejoined with the body at the return of the king. And as they go to the throne, their experience is quite different.

They begin to think about their life and the grace of God to them, how He's forgiven them of their sin. And as they get closer and closer, they know their sin, they know their guilt, and they begin to thank God. I heard the gospel every day from my dad, And I saw that he loved my soul, and he didn't prioritize the thing of this world. And he didn't care as much about how successful I was materially speaking, but more that I knew God and gave my all for his glory. And they began to rise with thankfulness like Timothy, that they had a heritage and a legacy from the grandmother to the mother to them.

And they stand before the king, and they have no sin to answer for. And the works they even do that they get rewarded for, they know is by the Spirit covered by Christ. The crowns given to them, they lay it at his feet and they enter into glory. They begin to think this is just the first day of forever. That's what's at stake.

And the reason we endure in this is we must love the souls of our children. I'll share this story, then I'll close. I had to learn this and really the Lord is graciousness. My first and my oldest son was a prodigal. God has graciously saved him.

He's actually married to a godly woman. They're having their first child. But I raised him. I did all the things, family worship. I made many mistakes.

I'm not paying too harsh at times. Didn't obey Ephesians six, four, like I should have at times. But I'll never forget this moment. We excommunicated my son from the church. The elders have analyzed my life, make sure I was faithful.

After we excommunicated my son, he decided about a year later to come to our yearly conference and Dr. Beeke was speaking our yearly conference and he was talking about soul love and my son got to sit and hear that sermon. Afterwards he says dad would you take me out and before I go back to college And so I took him out to the car and he looked at me and he said, you never were impressed with all my accomplishments. He was a very cerebral kid, a lot of accomplishments. You never were impressed with my accomplishments.

But he started bawling. He said, but you loved my soul. He got in his car and shut the door. And then took off. I thought, well, I just hope he knows Christ.

The next day he calls me. He listened to the second sermon Beke preached. He said, Dad, Christ has met with me. I just broke up with my unsaved girlfriend. I'm going to follow Christ no matter what.

And you know what the blessing was that I learned in all that? God was merciful to me. I didn't deserve this. Everything I poured into him, everything came out in the years to come. And he's become a robust Father of Christ, going further than I ever dreamed of in some things.

My prodigal. But I hope it's said by all my children and the faith members of our faith church that I love their souls, that we don't prioritize the world, that we see our kids go on forever, not their golf game, but their hobbies, but their souls. May we be a people who love the souls before us. Is the King not worthy to the King? Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for all who have come and chose to come to this session. I pray that they leave encouraged with what really matters. I pray we see all, we saw the how of training our children for a lifetime of service. I pray we see what we're training them for. It doesn't include crosses and trials, but it's a lifetime of knowing and enjoying Jesus in an eternity of living in the joy of his presence.

And Father, we see the weight of this. We want to Do this because we love Christ. The love of Christ drives all obedience. I pray all here love Christ, know His life, death, and resurrection is our only hope. I also pray that Father, each parent, each church member sees that every person before them, every stewardship given, is a soul that will go on forever.

What a wait. May we be a people who love the souls of our children and our children's children for your glory. Oh God may our heart resound tonight or today and say to the King, may we go to the King in all things in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you guys.

Free books team I want some. The few I have. The few I have. Just a quick announcement. We don't have too much time before the next session starts over in Spillman, but 10-15, so about 20 minutes here, we'll be doing singing, and Brian Borgman and then Dr.

Beeke will be talking. So quick bathroom break, coffee, and panel over there. Has anybody else just enjoyed the singing? You mentioned how important singing is. This week has been really awesome.

So instead of closing in prayer, We'll all pray together and let's sing the doxology. Okay, go ahead and stand. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above the heavenly host.

Praise father son and holy ghost amen. Amen. You're dismissed. See you over in Spoon. Oh.

I texted you, so you got my number. Yes, sir. Thank you. Good to meet you, yeah. Good to meet you.

I'll just grab your little watch. Oh, yes. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you.

You're good. Sorry. I guess we're thinking, I heard you some of your stuff about wine. How are you doing? Good, good.

How are you? River flows in you? Yeah, it's by either Japanese or Chinese guy, Yuruma. Yeah. Thanks.

I'll write that. Yeah, it's just it's only instrumental. As far as I know, there's no words. A river flows in you? Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.