The sermon titled 'Tour Guides for Everlasting Joy' by Scott Brown focuses on a one-month church initiative centered around the book 'The Family at Church'. The sermon highlights the importance of the church as a generational community and emphasizes the need for parents, single individuals, and families to actively participate in church life. It emphasizes the special obligations parents have towards their children and the role of the local church in nurturing faith. The sermon encourages the congregation to read the book and transform their local church experience.

Okay, here we go. We're getting ready to do something we haven't done. We're going to launch a one-month focus in our church. We're going to focus our attention on the content of this book called The Family at Church, How Parents Are Tour Guides for Joy, 20 Days to Transform Your Local Church Experience. This is a book I wrote a couple years ago just to really help anybody who goes to church to squeeze the greatest amount of good out of such a good thing called the Church of Jesus Christ.

The truth is the church has always been, in Scripture, a generational community. It's been a place where you have a big family and married people and single people and families and people without families come together and they become a big family. And that's really the proposition that this book is presenting. You know, you do this, hopefully you do this 52 times a year. You come together to worship God together in a generational community.

And what are we doing? I'll make it really clear. We have always wanted to help people function beautifully in a local church. And we wanna change the way single people go to church, we wanna Change the way that kids go to church We want to change the way that fathers and mothers go to church and how to and really how to participate in church life first of all to receive and then also to give what God has called us to do in the church. This is a study for all ages.

I really, you know, this is particularly directed to parents, but you'll find it's written in a very simple manner. And the chapters are very short. You can read them in five to 12 minutes and I did that particularly for busy families and people who kind of want to get a thumbnail sketch of what we're trying to communicate. And what's helpful here will be helpful for a child. We really want children to so delight in the Lord when they come and sing with their brothers and sisters, and when they observe the fellowship and the connections that we have in the local church.

I want us to recognize the opportunity that local church life presents. We think that for many people, it's an enormous untapped opportunity. We want you to tap it. Now you know what, in our church, your elders are really happy with this church. We really are.

But at the same time, excel still more. And you know, the untapped opportunities in your life with the local church we want you to identify and and take advantage of. Now particularly with parents there are special obligations obligations that are given to parents by God. When God gives you children, he places you under obligation, and Your life is never the same again once you have children. And when you bring them to church, it's the same way.

And children are a blessing in many different ways. Here's one way they're a blessing. They are mobilizers. Children by their very presence require the mobilization of parents and actually God himself uses our children to draw us into better things, to use our time for eternal purposes, and not throw it away on other things. And so, he gives you eternal souls, and he gives you instructions for what to do, like to teach them when you sit in the house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

Children are such a blessing, and they mobilize parents into an eternal project, a project that pleases Him. God says, why marriage? I want godly offspring, that's Malachi 2. Children place an obligation on parents. And you've heard me say this before, and I'll say it again, a local church is the most important place you ever take your children.

How could I say such a thing? There's only one institution that Jesus Christ established when he was on the earth, and it was the local church. The local church is the most important institution that exists in the world today, and we really want everybody to take it that seriously. It's poised to bring the whole council of God to the people. You know, if we mapped out, even just today, the doctrine that we sang about, if we listed the various doctrines, the various commands of scripture, the various beautiful things of the kingdom of God, it would be a really, really long list.

We want everybody in this church to saturate themselves in the treasures of the kingdom of God. And that's why I say it's the most important place you'll ever take your family. It's the place where people are converted. It's the place where the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached every time you show up. It's a place where God calls for love.

And so it really is the most important place you'll ever take your family. Last week, I usually read a psalm to Deborah before we go to bed, and I read Psalm 87. And I thought, I have to read that on Sunday when I speak in the afternoon. There's this picture of people being born, being born in the city of God. It's so beautiful, listen to this language.

His foundation is in the holy mountains. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things of you are spoken, oh city of God. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those who know me. This one was born there.

I love that phrase. This one was born there. You know what? I can look out in this crowd and I can see different ones who were born, who were born again right here. This one was born there, that one was born there.

And he repeats it several times. And of Zion it will be said, this one and that one were born in her. And the Most High Himself shall establish her. The Lord will record when He registers the peoples, this one was born there. When you come into the Church of Jesus Christ, you come into the city of God.

And We want everybody to get born again here when we gather. Now, many of you are parents who are raising families, large families, you have a lot of little kids. Your elders understand how difficult It is to have little children. And we want to just encourage you to, if you have, if you've lost hope of having your children with you, if you've become dispassionate about it because it's hard and it is hard, we want to sort of have you review the way you think about it because we think it can be done. And So this book, it's like a family field guide, and it's really meant to help us see the treasure that a biblically ordered church is, and to encourage all of us together, married people and single people, to recognize that the church is the place to come and soak in the treasures of the kingdom of God.

And the earlier you get going on this as a young family, the sweeter life will be. This is the way Deborah and I have always lived our whole life together as with children. And we want you in this church to give your children 10, 000 reasons to believe that Jesus Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords, and He is the sweetest of them all. And His paths are peace, all His ways are good. So there is a divine design for the church, and We try as best we know how to provide that design for the gathered people of God with the various things we do.

Every element of worship is part of that design. Every element of even what we're doing now, the fellowship meal, All these things, they don't come from us. We didn't create this. They really come out of God's divine design. Now, how do you use this book?

I would like to encourage you to read the opening comments in this book. It'll only take you 10 minutes probably maybe not even that much it's about seven or eight pages of introductory material and then it Launches into day one day two day three day four day five, and we're just encouraging you each day read a chapter Monday Tuesday Wednesday all the way to Friday five days a week there are 20 chapters 20 days to transform your local church life. And we're gonna do this for four weeks. Next week, I believe It's Robert or Paul. Robert's gonna come and he's gonna give a tight 30 minute message or less in the afternoon.

And then Paul and then Trent and then I'll give a final one. And do your reading, come to church, locked and loaded. I think this book is, it's a vision of hope. I think this book is an encouragement, not to just live any old way, particularly regarding the most important institution that God has designed. So hey, the fields are wide into harvest, and we really want the Church of Jesus Christ to be focused on the head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

So there you have it. Read the introductory chapter. Actually, it's page 17 to 25. And then on Monday, pages 27 to 31, Tour Guides for Everlasting Joy, Tuesday, Your Golden Opportunity, Wednesday, The Church Needs Strong Families, Thursday, Love the Church, and on and on like that. And then Robert will come and just try to sum it up.

He's gonna come and try to even inspire you more to do such a thing. So there you have it, the family at church, how parents are tour guides for joy. Let's pray. Father, I bless you, I thank you for this congregation. What a sweet congregation.

And I pray that you would just even sweeten them more to help them. I pray that you would give them great victory in the preaching of the gospel and teaching the beautiful things of the kingdom of God to their children. Lord, I pray that every child, every single person would come here on the edge of their seat to see your glory in all of what's here. Lord, bless this church, equip the saints, send the devil to flight as we gather amen okay we are dismissed