Gospel Prism

Although these wouldn’t always be my best commentaries, they’re still really good suggestions.  And for anyone looking, you can’t go wrong here.

(HT: Tim Challies)

Tim Challies had this link up on the worst first page of a novel and I thought it was hilarious.  Sad to say, I think this was a real first page of a book.

I’ve been thinking a lot about baptism of late, and I’m really looking forward to doing baptisms soon.  Also, we’re very close to putting out a position paper on baptism.  But I thought I’d plug this book because it looks really good on the subject.

The three views are by:

• Bruce Ware (Believers’ Baptism)
• Sinclair Ferguson (Infant Baptism)
• Anthony Lane (Dual-Practice Baptism)

(HT: JT)

Wellspring’s 2009 VBS…

There is probably nothing does more harm to the church than a pastor’s sexual immorality (a stern warning for people like me and others like me). This list that Randy Alcorn puts out is a sobering reminder of what can happen:

* Grieving my Lord; displeasing the One whose opinion most matters.

* Dragging into the mud Christ’s sacred reputation.

* Loss of reward and commendation from God.

* Having to one day look Jesus in the face at the judgment seat and give an account of why I did it. Forcing God to discipline me in various ways.

* Following in the footsteps of men I know of whose immorality forfeited their ministry and caused me to shudder. List of these names:

* Suffering of innocent people around me who would get hit by my shrapnel (a la Achan).

* Untold hurt to Nanci, my best friend and loyal wife.

* Loss of Nanci’s respect and trust.

* Hurt to and loss of credibility with my beloved daughters, Karina and Angela. (”Why listen to a man who betrayed Mom and us?”)

* If my blindness should continue or my family be unable to forgive, I could lose my wife and my children forever.

* Shame to my family. (The cruel comments of others who would invariably find out.)

* Shame to my church family.

* Shame and hurt to my fellow pastors and elders. List of names:

* Shame and hurt to my friends, and especially those I’ve led to Christ and discipled. List of names:

* Guilt awfully hard to shake—even though God would forgive me, would I forgive myself?

* Plaguing memories and flashbacks that could taint future intimacy with my wife.

* Disqualifying myself after having preached to others.

* Surrender of the things I am called to and love to do—teach and preach and write and minister to others. Forfeiting forever certain opportunities to serve God. Years of training and experience in ministry wasted for a long period of time, maybe permanently.

* Being haunted by my sin as I look in the eyes of others, and having it all dredged up again wherever I go and whatever I do.

* Undermining the hard work and prayers of others by saying to our community “this is a hypocrite—who can take seriously anything he and his church have said and done?”

* Laughter, rejoicing and blasphemous smugness by those who disrespect God and the church (2 Samuel 12:14).

* Bringing great pleasure to Satan, the Enemy of God.

* Heaping judgment and endless problems on the person I would have committed adultery with.

* Possible diseases (pain, constant reminder to me and my wife, possible infection of Nanci, or in the case of AIDS, even causing her death, as well as mine.)

* Possible pregnancy, with its personal and financial implications.

* Loss of self-respect, discrediting my own name, and invoking shame and lifelong embarrassment upon myself.

One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
Luke 8:22-25

Introduction

Where is your faith? This was the question that Jesus posed to his disciples when they encountered Him with deathly fear, anxiety and dread on that small fishing boat in the middle of a violent storm on the Sea of Galilee. The disciples had seen some incredible miracles by Jesus thus far. They had witnessed people being healed of dreadful diseases like leprosy. They had seen demons expelled. They had heard teaching that was unlike any other. They had observed multitudes come and listen to Jesus speak. And after all of this, the disciples still forgot who they were with on that day in the midst of the storm.

But let’s not get caught thinking that the disciples were a bunch of unbelieving, faithless men who had no spine. Remember, these were men who had left everything, their livelihood, their families, their friends, their reputations behind in order to follow Jesus. They had obviously exhibited some faith and they backed it up by their actions. And so we must not believe that if we were in their shoes, we would have been at peace in the midst of the tumult on that boat. No, you and I are asked this same question each day that we live by our Lord, where is your faith?

And in this story in Luke 8:22-25, Jesus is essentially confronting not only their lack of faith, but also their faith in things that are far inferior to Christ Himself. And so, as you examine the disciples’ faith in other things, I believe you will understand why placing your faith in Christ rather than trusting in anything else in this world will bring you a delight that will never be matched.

So where do we place our faith in according to verses 22-25?

Experience/Expertise

First, we can place our faith in our experience and expertise. Let’s look at verse 22 where Luke records: “One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” Now we don’t receive that much information here other than the fact that Jesus and the disciples board a boat, probably a fishing boat to cross the lake, which is actually the Sea of Galilee. We know that Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, as well as James and John, were fishermen. And if you’ve ever watched the movie The Perfect Storm, you know how fisherman are. They’re grizzled sea veterans who know their boats and know their seas. After all, they’ve lived by the sea and have fed their families from what they catch from the sea. These men have probably seen many a storm on that sea and have had their own close calls.

So when they’re on this boat and they see this terrible storm, probably the first place they turned to was their experience and expertise. They turned to what they were trained to do in such circumstances. They probably recalled the challenges they faced in every other storm they encountered on their fishing excursions. With four experienced fishermen on-board, I’m sure they must have believed that they had enough men to weather this storm.

But reading verses 23-24, we see that this was not the case: “So they set out, 23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” What would cause these 4 experienced fishermen to turn to someone who had absolutely no experience on the sea as their help? Luke describes the storm as a “windstorm” or a ‘whirlwind.’ Matthew actually describes the storm as a seismos or ‘earthquake.’ This was no regular storm at all. It was probably a storm that far exceeded their experience. This past Monday, I was taking a nap and suddenly it felt like someone had taken our house and thrown it a few feet. An 3.5 quake had hit with what felt like our house being the epicenter. Well, I have a feeling, Peter, Andrew, James, and John and the rest of the disciples had probably felt as though someone was literally tossing their boat to and fro, a storm beyond anything that they had ever experienced. In fact, it was beyond their experiences.

So when Jesus asked them, “Where is your faith?” one area He was questioning was their faith in their experiences and expertise. Every person has a collection of experiences that allows us to make sense of the world. We’re taught as parents that we should allow our children to experience as much as possible through their hands and mouths and eyes. We spend over two decades learning through education, further developing our base of knowledge. And then we spend our whole lives living through trials, tragedies, joys, traumas, pleasures, etc., all of which allows us to live in this world. And so when the disciples entered that boat that day with Jesus, of course, they would go back to every one of these experiences and everything they knew about fishing before they would turn to Jesus.

And this is the same for each one of us. Where is your faith? Or in other words, where have you placed your hope and trust or what do you count on to make sense of the world you live in? Every one of us is somewhat like the disciples. We are tempted to place our hope and faith first and foremost in our experiences and expertise rather than in Christ. So how do we do this?

We do this when we decide that we are and deserve to be the final arbiters of our lives. What so many people can’t stand about the doctrine of the sovereignty of God is the relinquishing of control over one’s life. When Satan tempted Eve, what did he say that was so alluring to Eve that she and Adam would decide to turn away from God? Genesis 3:5 tells us: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Satan tempted Eve with being the final arbiter of her own life. She didn’t need to trust and depend on God. She could do things her own way. She would be ‘like God’ and she would determine for herself what is good (best for her) and what is evil (not good for her). She simply didn’t need God anymore.

And ever since then, we don’t like thinking that our lives are ultimately not in our own hands. Instead, we do everything we can to maintain control over our own lives, which of course leads to anxiety and worry. But what we fail to realize is that we regularly allow someone else to hold our lives in their hands. A few weeks ago, a few of us went to Great America with our children. Ever since I was a kid, I have never enjoyed rollercoaster rides or any thrill ride really. So I go on these rides not because I enjoy going on them, but because I don’t want my children afraid to experience anything they haven’t tried at least once. Well, we went onto one ride and though outwardly I had a look of peace and tranquility, inside I was praying the whole time, saying to myself, “Lord, if you wish, I am ready to come home now, but if you would allow it, please help me to survive this ride.” There is a helplessness that comes with being on a ride. Your life is completely out of your hands and your faith is in the mechanics of the ride, the inspector who last checked the ride, and the operator of that ride. I couldn’t help fret and worry.

Placing your life in someone else’s hands can be scary because you have no control. But though we dislike relinquishing control to God in our lives, we continually trust in something that is completely out of our own control. How many people had faith that the real estate market would always go up and invested heavily in property and lost everything. Those men and women who lost their lives on the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis had faith in the engineers of that bridge and the inspectors who checked it for trouble. One time a group of us guys went on a bike ride. We started on top of a very large hill and we were going down this hill at speeds close to 40mph. I placed my life into the hands of a bike that I bought second hand. I had faith in that bike, but both literally and figuratively, it was a shaky faith. Every time you step into an elevator, you have faith that those cables can hold your weight. You have faith that the building you walk into will not collapse. You have faith that when the doctor says you’re healthy that he is not overlooking the tumor in your brain that can kill you at any moment. The point is, we are always trusting in something. We are continuously placing our lives into someone else’s hands. And we believe that we’ve researched enough, or evaluated enough, but ultimately we still have faith in someone or something. Faith in our experiences is ultimately still faith. So it’s not a question of faith vs. reason but rather it’s a question of whether we believe the faith in ourselves and our experiences or faith in the God of the Bible will lead us to our ultimate satisfaction.

We are also tempted to place our faith in our expertise and experiences when we believe that what is material is our only hope. Do you remember Thomas? When the disciples had told him they had seen the resurrected Jesus, he responded: “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Thomas could not move beyond what he could see and touch. Reality for him was only based on the tangible. And therefore, he could not truly believe in Jesus. Ultimate faith in the tangible kept him from ultimate faith in Christ.

And again, like Thomas and his heart, we too are kept regularly from trusting in Jesus. If you are single, you will be tempted to be place your faith in your ability to find a suitable marriage partner rather than in Christ. And so, as time passes, you might think, “I’m not getting any younger, I think I’ll just have to marry any person who seems great, regardless of whether he/she trusts in Christ.” And so, one’s experience dictates ones faith or lack of faith in Christ. Or perhaps if you are angry and embittered by someone in your life. It takes faith in Christ, rather than your experiences (whatever happened that should cause this anger), to decide to forgive even if there is no mutuality in sorrow over sin. Our experiences might dictate to us that taking the job that makes the most money or provides the most career advancement makes the most sense, even if it is at the cost of our relationship to Christ. It takes faith to move beyond our expertise and experiences to trust that in making our faith in Christ ultimate before anything we’ve experienced or anything we know and have strategically figured out. Where is your faith? Is it in your expertise and experiences or is it in Christ, the God of all creation, who loves you and gave Himself for you?

Circumstances

Second, not only can we place our faith in our expertise and experiences, but we often place far too much faith in our circumstances. In other words, we let our circumstances dictate our trust in God far more than we should. Listen again to verses 22-24: “And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm.” As the storm brewed and was worsening with each minute, even the experiences and expertise of the fishermen were unable to match the power of this particular storm. As I had shared earlier, this was a seismos, something beyond anything they had ever experienced. They realized that their very lives were in danger.

And so the disciples rush down to the lower deck where Jesus was sleeping! And with what was probably shouts of terror, they scream for Jesus’ help. Mark records another response, perhaps the response of one of the disciples: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38)

The thing about expertise and experience, we turn to it until we come to a point in our lives where are circumstances dictate a completely different perspective. In other words, I might be skilled as a teacher or engineer or pastor, but if I go to the doctor and he tells me I have stomach cancer and only have a few months to live, suddenly I no longer have faith in what I think I can accomplish by my skills. Suddenly, my life is no longer under my control and it is terribly unnerving. This is why with the advent of the internet, when a person hears terrible news about one’s health, what’s the first place one turns to? He turns to the web to find out as much as he can about whatever condition he has. Why, because knowing gives us a sense of control and when we have control, only then do we feel we can have peace. But without control, there is only worry and fear. And this is what circumstances, especially dire circumstances, can do, they can overwhelm our sense of control.

Why were the disciples so troubled when Jesus, the God of the universe, was on board that ship? Why, because their first hope was in themselves. They believed that everything was under their control. After all, they were experienced on the seas. But when that experience proved useless, they turned to their next controlling factor, the events around them. And the events were so harrowing, so deadly, so palatable, that they couldn’t help but be afraid for their lives. They ‘trusted’ in their circumstances more than they did in Christ. And this is where the Bible continuously reminds us that we don’t worship a God who is powerless and indifferent to our needs. On the contrary, we worship a God who says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Heb 13:5) In fact, his most repeated command throughout the whole Bible is not love one another, or do not sin, but do not fear. Texts like Isaiah 44:8, “Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any,” and Matthew 14:27, “But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid,” and John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid,” bear this out.

These are not empty promises. These are words from the God who created you and has numbered every hair on your head. But the problem lies in our response to these promises. Like the apostles, as they assessed their situation and saw the ferociousness of the waves and the seas, they panicked and therefore, they wanted a quick response. Faith in circumstances is unwilling to wait and trust in God. Faith in circumstances can’t see beyond the tyranny of the moment. Everything appears urgent and critical. Every decision seems like one wrong step will lead to some sort of catastrophe. Faith in circumstances believes God is watching from a distance while you decide what road to take. Faith in circumstances wants relief, answers, and solutions now, in MY timing and in the manner in which I believe the answer should be. And faith in circumstances nervously worries, constantly frets, and leads to quick anger.

Some of you are in the midst of making some important decisions. You’re buying homes. You’re deciding to make career changes. You’re praying about location changes. You’re wondering about marriage. Your children are entering into a new phase of life, the work force, marriage, college, teen years, etc. Some of you are wondering whether you’ll have a job in a few months to pay for your bills, let alone your lifestyle. And all of this is keeping you anxious and worried. Perhaps, there could even be far more pressing and dire circumstances: bankruptcy, tragic accident, severe illness, marital pressures, etc.

Will you allow your faith to rest in your circumstances? You know this is happening when your first response to worry is to rely on your expertise and experience. So you spend all of your spare time researching. You are cluttered in your mind with either dreams of your own glory (praises from your bosses) or nightmares of the worst possible scenarios. Such a person is the man or woman Jesus addresses in the parable of the sower in Mark 4:19: “But the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” When a person is cluttered with the circumstances of life and is ruled by them, when desires for ‘other things’ become all-consuming, such a person cannot receive God’s word regardless of how often he hears it. Instead, that word is choked out. Where is your faith?

Christ

The answer is not to place your faith in your expertise and experience, nor in your circumstances, regardless of how good or bad they are. Instead, place your faith in Christ alone. Let’s look at verses 24-25 and see what happens with the disciples: “And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” The word ‘rebuke’ in verse 24 is the same word that describes Jesus’ casting out the unclean spirit in 4:35 and the fever in 4:39. You have to imagine how dramatic this was. When I was younger, I was on a boat ride with my family in Lake Erie and a storm hit our sailboat. I can tell you, that even though we were down below, we felt it. And I remember seeing the look of concern on all of the adults’ faces, being a child, I was oblivious. Well, our storm was not ‘earthquake’ in intensity. So to go from the ranging seas to suddenly in an instant become calm must have been an incredible sight. Not only that, but you can imagine the winds howling, the waves crashing against the boat, and the men running back and forth pulling down the waves , screaming to one another directions. Then suddenly not only is there is the quieting of the wind and waves, but right after Jesus says, “Be still,” there is complete silence and calm. There is peace.

The problem with trying to find peace and joy in your experience and expertise and in the circumstances of life is that they lead you to places that are always changing, places where peace is for a moment until the next storm comes. And so if you run to your own skills or if you run to a job or a if you run to a relationship with the man or woman of your dreams or if you run to more money, you’ll find those things will never give you lasting peace. Worry and fear cannot be ended by something you obtain. They can only be met by someone, and for that peace to be lasting, that someone needs to be eternally stable. Ed Welch in his book Running Scared, observes about fear:

If fear slows down for a minute, it realizes that peace and rest can only reside in someone rather than something, in people rather than pills. A fearful child wants to sleep with her parents. On a walk through dark woods, our fears ebb in the presence of a companion–in a pinch, we will even settle for a small dog. Over the short run, anything alive will do, but we prefer an actual person who is big and strong…Fear calls out for a person bigger than ourselves. (Ed Welch, Running Scared, 63.)

And this is why it doesn’t make sense if my oldest daughter Charisa ran behind my 4 year old son because she was scared of a shadow. She knows that he provides no protection for her. If Shua saw a spider and ran to our 6 year old Elisabeth for her help to kill it, that would provide no protection to Shua at all from her fear. The problem with meeting our worries and fears with anyone or anything other than Christ, is that we will find that ultimately, others are unreliable and unable to provide the security and peace we need. And this is exactly why Christ is the answer to our fears and worry and why faith only in Him is the only means by which you will ever have lasting peace.

Let me close with the story of Rachel Barkley and then a final exhortation. “Rachel Barkley has enjoyed many of the best things life has to offer. She’s happily married and has 2 beautiful children. She’s also a successful business woman and writer. But she found out that she had a fast growing cancer in her liver and in her bones and has only months left to live. She had a history of cancer. 4 years ago she found a lump on her breast and was diagnosed with lung cancer. She had a double mastectomy and since she had the genetic makeup of cancer in her family, she also had her ovaries removed in order to avoid the situation she finds herself in today. She’s been on medications that make her sick ever since. Can you imagine such a life? One day her 5 year old little girl Kate came to her and asked what every child wants. There should stood with her arms outstretched: “Mommy will you pick me up please?” She sadly thought to herself that she wished her little girl was asking for something else. Something she could do because she couldn’t pick her up. She had to tell her the bones in her back are so weak because they’re riddled with cancer and they would collapse onto her spinal cord if she picked her up. Rachel’s best friend saw what was happening and said that she would pick her up, so Kate ran to her. But Rachel’s heart was still broken that she couldn’t pick up her little girl anymore.

Rachel gave these words in her talk called “Death Is Not Dying” to over 600 women in Vancouver. Her words sum up well what Jesus was looking for from His disciples and from us when He asks, “Where is your faith?”:

We all have faith in something, but not all faiths save. The faith I have saves. So when I say that death is not dying, the part of me that will die is only a shell…It will become harder and harder to eat or drink. Eventually the cancer will win and I will starve to death…In my life there have been many difficult things the Lord has allowed. In my life, I have known the shame of being sexually abused. I have made poor decisions in relationships and have hurt others and have been hurt as a result of them. I have known the searing pain of the loss with the death of a loved one. I have been diagnosed with cancer twice now and the second time barring a miracle will end my life before I reach my 38th birthday. In His providence God has used the tough things of my life to draw me closer to Him…I have learned I can never be perfect and I have the scars to prove it [from surgeries from the cancer], 13 of them, and they serve as a physical reminder of a spriitual reality that I can never be perfect on my own. I need a Savior. I have learned that the greatest eveidence of God’s love is seen when I stand at the foot of the cross. He took my shame upon Himself and rescued me…I have learned that being a Christian is the joy of knowing and trusting in a God who is loving and faithful no matter the circumstances.

Rachel understands. The storm that faced the disciples was obviously terrifying. Jesus wasn’t rebuking them for being afraid. Instead, it was who and what they turned to for their salvation, their hope that he was addressing. David understood that only God could truly be trusted to save as he says in Psalm 56:1-3: “Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; 2 my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. 3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. 4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?” When you’re afraid, when circumstances are overwhelming, when times are difficult, when you are on the verge of anger from repeated frustration, where will you turn? Where is your faith? Is it in your experiences, your expertise, your circumstances, your relationships with others? Or will you place your trust in the God who will never let you go, no matter how rough life can be upon you as Rachel Barkley understands so well? Will you experience the confidence of David: “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken” (Ps 16:8) and “He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken” (Psalm 62:2). Will you consider running to the God of the cross who according to Colossians 2:14-15 has canceled every debt that has stood against us because of our rebellion against God, and through the blood of God’s Son Jesus Christ has “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him”? So every storm, every cancer, every curse of an enemy, every unjust action toward you, ever word spoken to your mind of entitlement, every time you want to stay away from God’s people by staying home on Sunday, every unkindness, every point of suffering and death, when you run to Him, when you place your trust in Him, there is triumph over all of those things because of God’s great Son’s work on that cross for you.

Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. 20 And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” 21 But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”
Luke 8:19-21

Introduction

This is the last week that I am going to spend on Luke 8:19-21. A few weeks ago, I shared that Jesus’ words in Luke 8:19-21 remind us that though we must have a very high view of the family because it reflects the character and nature of God, our love for our family must never be prioritized over the worship of God. To do so is to engage in idolatry, in worshipping the created things (family) rather than the Creator. One application of engaging in this idolatry is when we worship our parents rather than honoring them. Another application of this text is where single people possibly make marriage the end goal of life and where married people succumb more to their idols than their love of Christ and love of one another in Christ. Both deprive us of the joy that we ultimately desire.

The last application I’d like to make from this text then is regarding parenting. As we have seen regarding honoring parents and the covenantal relationship of marriage, parenting is a gift from God, one that is viewed with utmost esteem and carries with it the weight of biblical responsibility. But again, as with the other two family relationships, even the best of things can be worshipped and idolized, and parenting is no exception. Without serious self-reflection and discernment, we can easily once again worship created things rather than the Creator.

The good news for us all as we wrestle with this balance, of giving a right weight to our biblical family responsibilities while worshipping God alone, is to remain faithful to Him by keeping Him as our greatest priority, and by doing so, the result will not only lead to an ever-increasing delight in worshipping Christ, but in the greatest and sweetest joy we can have for one another as family members.

The Family That Worships the Family Is Idolatry (vv. 19-20)

Let me summarize one more time the main point from Luke 8:19-20. Luke records: “Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. 20 And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” Remember, we learn much about what Jesus says here from Mark 3. In Mark we saw that Jesus’ mother and brothers thought He had gone berserk. They viewed Jesus only through an earthly lens. In this way, they idolized their family structure (which included Jesus as the obedient son who should perhaps return home to the family business) rather than having their family structure aligned with their worship of God. And so Jesus questions their premise by asking all those around: “Who are my mothers and brothers?” That is, as important as the family is, it is not more foundational than our relationship to God through Christ.

And we are prone to have the same view of the family as well. We are tempted in every way to think like Mary and his brothers. We can have good intentions, a desire to uphold the family which has been given to us by God to enjoy, but even these intentions can become distorted, and our priorities skewed when we no longer worship God, but instead worship our families. Thus, the third relationship where this distortion can take place is in parenting.

Parenting vs. Idolatry

So in what ways do we idolize children rather than parent them biblically?

1. We long for children more than God.

In Genesis 1:28, God told Adam and Eve: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And most biblical commentators see this fruitfulness primarily through childbearing. The rest of biblical history continues with babies being born and generations being continued through the birth of children. So it’s pretty clear that God delights in the birth of children and in the raising of children. However, we also know that something terrible happened in Genesis 3, where childbearing would no longer come with such ease.

After Adam and Eve and every human being since had turned away from God’s gracious leading by choosing their own rule over God’s kind care, nothing would happen the way God initially created it to happen. In fact, God tells Eve in Gen 3:16, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.” I wonder if this pain is not only the physical anguish of bearing children, but even quite possibly the inability to bear children. It seems to correlate to the regular biblical motif of women in the Bible who have difficulty in bearing children (Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth) and the anguish and grief that they deal with because of their circumstances. In fact, Romans 8:21-22 seems to bear this out, where Paul reminds us that “creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” Things are currently not as it should be and it won’t ever be perfectly whole until the Day of Christ’s return. But until then, there will be groaning and yearning and even sometimes grieving. And so, when a woman is unable to conceive and bear a child, there is a grieving that few understand.

Some of you know this yearning, some of you have faced this yearning, and many of you have family members or friends who are going through such times. Some of you as a married woman know this longing, but perhaps even as a single woman yet to be married, you know this longing. Scripture is very clear that God hears your cries to Him. David wrote in Psalm 56:8: “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” God sees and accounts for every tear shed by His people. Psalm 34:18 tells us: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” God understands pain and agony and grieving because God did not even spare Himself of such agony according to Romans 8:32. And God often calls His people to wait upon Him (Psalm 40:1-2) and to trust Him (Psalm 20:7) because He has suffered in a way no one else has ever suffered.

But it’s often during these times of waiting and trusting, that you will find the temptation to succumb to bouts of anger, depression, fear, self-doubt, jealousy. Dear women, you might experience the hopefulness that seems to come once a month, “Maybe this is the month I get pregnant,” and then the despair after another false test, “At this rate, we’ll never have a baby.” And of course, this leads to another cycle of emotions that lead you to the temptation of despair and discouragement. And then there are the external, uncontrollable factors that come one’s way, from the birth of new babies in the family, the church’s continual emphasis on the family (infant dedication, Gospel Train ministries, VBS, baby showers, new births, multiple births), and the loneliness one can feel since few can truly understand a woman’s troubles in childbearing. Clearly, there are emotions and feelings that few can understand. And yet, the same response I offered to singles applies to those who wrestle with troubles in childbearing.

A few weeks ago, I asked those of you who were single the same question, “Do you long for marriage as the end goal of your life, or do you trust in faith that the God who promises you pleasures evermore (Psalm 16:11) has your best in mind, regardless of whether you marry or remain single until you meet the Lord?” In other words, do you worship the created thing (marriage or the ability to bear children) rather than the Creator as Romans 1:25 warns us against? This is the same question that needs to be asked not just of those who are having trouble bearing children, but also every one of you who have children? Is your desire for a child or are your children the god that you ultimately worship, that is, the source of your ultimate joy? Does having children or do your children provide for you worth, value, esteem? For women who are struggling to conceive or single women who might never even have the opportunity to conceive, you will find that children will not bring you the joy and satisfaction you are ultimately looking for. I said the same to singles, the pursuit of marriage as the end goal will not bring such joy. One need only look at how many couples either are divorced or feel desperately lonely in marriage. Well, the same holds true with parenting. Children will never bring one ultimate joy. If they do (which I would contend Scripture would say such joy will always be short-lived and not ultimate at all), as I’ll address later, there are serious consequences. As the teacher spoke of in Ecclesiastes: “All things (even children) are full of weariness.” (Eccl 1:8)

Jesus’ point in Luke 8:19-21 is that though family relationships are a blessing from God and certainly worthy of respect, honor, and praise, they must never precede our love for Christ and our desire to worship our God. Not only is this idolatrous, it is self defeating. Your parent’s pride in what you do, your marriage to a beautiful wife or handsome husband, and your bearing of children can never fill the void that only God can fill. God is the One, through the work of Christ finished by his death and resurrection, who can satisfy your deepest longings. That’s why David exclaims in Psalm 34:8: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”

Kimberly and Philip Monroe have experienced the pain and grieving of infertility. They went through four years of fertility treatments, only to be met at every juncture without any results. I’d like to read to you their thoughts as they came to the conclusion of their treatments.

Kimberly:
One day I thought, God has so many promises for us. But one thing He didn’t promise. Nowhere in Scripture did He promise me a baby. He has not let me down. It’s good to desire a baby. But I cannot demand it of Him. Children are a blessing, but they are not promised to us individually. You do not receive blessings because you’re a good person or because you earn them. They just come. That was a revelation to me. Gradually I stopped feeling defective. I started to believe that “all things work together for the good” (Rom. 8:28). God is good and He wants good for me. But that good does not include biological children. I had to wait and trust Him. (Kimberly Monroe, “To a More Lasting Hope,” in Journal of Biblical Counseling (Winter 2005), 58.)

Philip:
Waiting safeguards our hearts. It helps reorient ourselves. We wait actively, not passively, not fatalistically. We don’t demand, “God, do something.” We don’t sit back and wait until He does what we demanded. Godly waiting meditates on God’s character. His goodness. His holiness. His justice. His mercy. His grace. His majesty. Godly waiting cherishes the comforts He does provide. Godly waiting asks, “Lord, let me see those unexpected blessings that You’ve been giving me all along.” That is waiting. That is worship. Active waiting also requires self-examination. You notice the places where you love things too much, where things have become a lust, like fertility treatments. You spend so much of your life centered on it that it controls your whole life. But you can wait and say, “No. I want to cherish God for who He is, for what He has done for me. I want to examine my heart. I don’t want to be consumed by this fertility quest.” (Philip Monroe, “Moving Through the Pain of Disappointed Desire,” in Journal of Biblical Counseling (Winter 2005), 56.)

Kimberly and Philip finally understood that they had cherished ‘it’ (the desire to have a child) and ‘it’ controlled them. They essentially were finding their worth and value in ‘it’ and ‘it’ had become their god. But once they waited on God and trusted in Him in faith, they finally were able to cherish God for who He was and not what He could give them. They began to worship the Giver rather than the gifts. They began to see that joy came not in created things but in the Creator. My dear sisters and women and men who are or will have trouble conceiving, may the Lord give you bountiful riches of grace in Himself, that He would be your joy, your delight. And in doing so, you would see that God is good to you, whether you have biological children or not. And for those of us who have biological children, please show your love, your understanding, your extra care, and your consideration through careful words and gestures to those who are yet to conceive or who will never conceive.

2. We are more concerned for our children’s earthly prosperity than their love of Christ.

In Ezekiel 14:4 God tells the leaders of the Israelites: “Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, 5 that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols.” The elders of Israel had come to Ezekiel to impart their wisdom on how to worship God and live as His people (v. 3, “Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them?”). But God noticed that in their hearts, though outwardly they appeared spiritual, inwardly they had no love for God but were cluttered with idolatry and they were leading Israel to worship idols. In other words, idolatrous leadership leads to idol-seeking followers. And parents, this is no different for you and me as we raise our children. If our love for comfort, for success, for privilege, for respect, for control is what we cannot lay down before our Father in heaven, then certainly our children will also wrestle with the same thing. In fact, we will inadvertently pass down this idolatry to the next generation. If you have heard of the term ‘generational sin,’ I think ultimately it is an idolatry of the heart that is undealt with through repentance and grace, and thus, from this sinful disposition, we act on the basis of this idolatrous heart, and parent on this basis even under the guise of our faith in Christ. Eventually, the next generation continues the same idolatry of the previous one in cyclical fashion. So how do we do this?

a. We act on the basis of our idolatry through our love of our own legacy.

I can’t help but go back to Jerod Mellinger’s message at the SGM pastor’s conference and his exposition of Psalm 78. This psalm reveals the delight of passing a legacy of God’s renown to our children, but also it reveals the deadliness of forgetting God and striving to live by one’s own legacy and the destruction that brings to future generations. Look at verses 7-8 in that psalm: “So that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; 8 and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation.” The psalmist is addressing the Israelites and their worship of God. Their worship must be a continual remembrance of God’s past grace and this must be frequently communicated to the next generation. But the psalm states that the older generation did not do this. It wasn’t that they didn’t follow God externally. They still probably prayed and assembled for corporate worship. They still lived morally, especially compared to their Canaanite neighbors. But their hearts were far from God and so they lived and sought comfort without considering God as He was, God. He did not factor into their lives and their decisions. He was an abstraction, someone who made no real difference in the way they lived or thought. And this was most revealed in what happened to the next generation. In fact, what happened in verses 9-11 is that they ended up forgetting God just like their fathers: “They did not keep God’s covenant, but refused to walk according to his law. 11 They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them.”

The key words here are, “They forgot.” They forgot what God had done for their parents’ generation. Do you know why? Because their parents were busier with life, more concerned with their personal legacy, more concerned with earthly comforts rather than telling their children about God’s glorious salvation of Israel. And so when the next generation became adults, they had no reference point to God. They simply forgot Him. Sadly for many Christians, this forgetting continues today. I received a phone call while I was in Southern California for a wedding from a distraught mother of a person I barely knew. Somehow she had gotten my phone number. Well, she called me essentially crying telling me the story of her son. He was a successful doctor who she had taken to church with her his whole life. But now, he was no longer going to church and had no desire to know Christ. The sadness in her voice was palpable. I have had other parents tell me the same thing about their now adult children, they are very successful but they have no love for Christ and no love for His church. What do you think went wrong? They forgot. Who forgot? Probably the parents first forgot and then of course it would make sense that the kids forgot.

Here’s the problem. People love their own legacy and want it all. They want their children to be successful. They want their kids to have a great career, to make a lot of money, to be comfortable, to have the perfect family, AND to ‘go to church to serve the church.’ And this is where the heart of the problem lies. Church is just another part of the ‘success’ equation: career, money, family, church. Christianity is no longer about the pursuit of Christ and his glory and renown. Instead, it’s another piece of one’s personal, earthly legacy. And this pursuit runs deep within the church. I know pastors who do not want their sons to be pastors or want their daughters to marry pastors because they won’t be successful monetarily. There are church-going parents who are more concerned that their kids study deeply and with vigor for the SATs and their homework from school, than they are concerned about their kids desiring to know and love God’s Word. Some Christians are more anxious over our children’s athletic prowess or academic achievement than they are of whether their children truly know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The message for these children is clear, as long as a child succeeds in this world, whether that’s through academic achievement, good looks, musical or artistic ability, great SAT scores, college of one’s choice, athletic skills, respects authority, (and these days, it can mean that the child needs to succeed in everything), parents are satisfied and proud.

You see, this is what was in their parents’ heart all along, whether they wanted to admit it or not. Parents want their children to succeed because it satisfies the idol of their hearts, the idol of earthly glory and fame. As Ezekiel told the Israelite leaders, their idolatry would be seen in those they lead. And what these children bear is their parents’ legacy. The parent who says they love God but is more concerned with their children’s financial success, academic success, the family they marry into, is ultimately revealing their hearts, that they are fixated on their personal legacy rather than God’s renown. And without realizing it, we are fostering idolatry in the hearts of our children which Jesus reminds us is tragically self-defeating in Matthew 19:26: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” How many people strive to leave a legacy in their children, so that he or she will be remembered when they’re gone? As if this reason is enough for people to have joy and meaning in one’s life. But again the teacher in Ecclesiastes reminds us of the futility of living for personal legacy in our children: “I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, 19 and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.” (Eccl 2:18-19)

Parents, we have an incredibly important work that lies ahead of us. We must live for God’s renown and the way we do this most is to continually tell the next generation about Jesus and how He has saved ME. We need to tell our kids about how great salvation is, MY salvation, and this takes vulnerability and time and intentionality. Listen to verse 4: “We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.” This is not something we do on the side, or merely another subject matter like reading and arithmetic. Your loved ones eternal lives are at stake. We must TELL them about Jesus or they will forget Him. James Dobson recounts the story of his grandmother, whom he called ‘Little Mother.’ He writes: “My father told me how when he was a boy, Little mother would gather her six kids around her for Bible reading and prayer. Then she would talk about the importance of knowing and obeying Jesus. Many times she said, ‘If I lose a single one of you to the faith, it would have been better that I were never born.’ That was the priority she gave to the spiritual development of her kids. She and the others effectively passed this commitment to me.” (James Dobson, Bringing Up Boys (Kindle Version), 3854.) In other words, there was nothing hidden about God from her children. They knew that the Lord mattered to her more than anything else in their lives. And that story was passed down to the next believing generation! Do your children know that Jesus Christ matters more to you than anything else? More than their studies? More than your love for your spouse? More than where you live or what you own? More than the best and greatest vacation you could ever take? More than your kids’ success on the ball field or on the court? More than even your kids’ failures in life? Do they know that Jesus and His glory matter so much to you that you would rather not even be born than to see any of your children lose their souls eternally? May we tell of our Lord’s mighty works and wonder to them continuously.

b. We act on the basis of our idolatry when we take the place of God.

But when do we take the place of God over our children? I think Paul has a word of wisdom for us that addresses this question in Ephesians 6:4: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” That is, fathers and even mothers, when your leading of their children is not “of the Lord” but of yourselves, you will see your children continually act out in anger and ultimately in self-centeredness. Parents who are self-centered will raise children who are self-centered and self-centered children are no different than self-centered adults. They’re usually anxious and angry.

Parents, we are not in our children’s lives to mete out punishment, to abuse authority, to subject our children to humility through humiliation, to arbitrarily instruct and discipline them so that we can feel good about ourselves or feel like we have some ‘alone time’ and our comfortable in our lives. And they are not in our lives to be the fulfillment of our dreams of being a baseball player, or to be the cool person in class, or to dress like a movie star so we can show the world just how fashionable mom is, or to be our retirement piggy bank so that when we get older they’ll be paying me back for all that I’ve done for them and more. Paul is telling us that we are not to be their God. And what you and I do as we parent our children today, what we expect of our parents, how we treat and lead and shepherd our children will have a lasting impact as to whether they love idols or love the Lord. I am not saying that we determine our child’s salvation. But I am saying that God definitely uses parent’s faithfulness to Him to lead children to Himself.

For example, if you are screaming and yelling and angry when you discipline your child, if you have lost control over your child when he has sinned against you or another, should it really surprise you that your child also loses control and is angry when you or another (say a sibling) person sins against him? If you have mean words towards another, should it surprise you when your child does the same? If you have no love for God, if your child never sees you in prayer, in reading His Word, should it surprise you that your child finds Scripture and prayer dull and boring? If you are not amazed by God’s salvation, should it surprise you that your child is more delighted by Bob the Builder or Nintendo DS or an iPod than by the cross? If your worship of Christ on Sundays at church is merely ritualism, it shouldn’t surprise you that one day your child will not love Christ and His Church. If you are constantly unsatisfied with your child, always finding what’s wrong with him, always correcting him rather than encouraging him, it should not surprise you that one day he will come to deeply wrestle with his security and identity and he could even be embittered throughout his life towards you and anyone else in authority, including God. If you don’t treat your spouse well but demean him/her regularly, or if you show little concern for your spouse, don’t be surprised to find your child one day do the same to his or her spouse. If you fail to keep your promises to your child, don’t be surprised to find that your child will be dismissive of your words. Again, as God noted to the leaders in Ezekiel, the idolatry of your heart towards self-worship will be passed down to those closest to you, to those you were called to lead.

Christ: The Rejoicing and Renewal of the Family

All of this can seem rather hopeless, unless we see that there is hope after all. If we go back to Luke 8:21, after Jesus asked in Mark, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” He responds in verse 21, “But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” Again, Jesus is not minimizing the importance of family relationships. But think about this for a moment. Why do you appreciate your family so much? Why are you attached to them? Well, first, you appreciate all that they have done for you. Second, you were born into this family. Third, when trouble comes you can count on them. Fourth, you have years of lasting memories with them. And all of these reasons make you feel safe, secure, peace, and joy. If you think it through, everything that your family provides for you, God promises that ultimately even your family cannot provide those things perfectly for you, not your parents, not your spouse or a spouse, not your children or potential children. They are certainly windows into these experiences and they certainly are used by God to bless you to taste what joy and security and peace are like. But Jesus makes it clear for us that only by “hearing the word of God and doing it” can you receive the eternal and lasting effects that your earthly family gives you a taste of hear on earth.

The Bible tells us that Scripture is more than just religious intellectualism. Deuteronomy 32:47 says that Scripture is “no empty word for you, but your very life.” Romans 15:4 reminds us: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” And when many were leaving Jesus after His teaching on His eventual road to the cross and Jesus asked His disciples if they would leave to, Peter responded, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68) You see, Jesus is asking us in Luke 8, “Do you trust my words, my promises that I give (now in Scripture) that knowing me, pursuing me, loving me even before your family, is your ultimate road to the joy, the joy that you are looking for in your family relationships? And when you actually pursue me first, I will renew your relationships in your family, reorder them in a new way, in a way that I had always intended them to be when I created them.” Placing your family over Christ is self-defeating and joy is fleeting. But trusting in Him, worshipping God alone, even over your own family’s wills and desires for you, there will be joy. Why has Jesus spoken of such things as in Luke 8:19-21, for your punishment, your deprivation, your discipline? NO! Jesus tells us why in John 15:11: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Will you trust Him and take Him at His Words?

Conclusion

May 21st 2008, Will Franklin, age 17, Maria Sue Chapman, age 5

Greg Laurie said, “Maria is a bigger part of your future than she ever was of your past.” SCC: That’s the hope of the Gospel…Hope is all about looking ahead…If all of our hope is wrapped up in today. Our hope is about what is to come…

Part of going on Larry King and doing things as a family, part of the process of this is we have been so prayed for…part of that we felt that God has said, “I am saturating you with prayer so that you’re ready to share this hope that you have in a public way, in a broader way.”

You cannot think this way unless you have a right priority of the family, when you worship God before anyone else, including your own family.

An interesting article on the growth of homeschooling in the US.

My NT prof at GCTS, Greg Beale, is now at Westminster.  Good for them.  He’s a first-rate scholar.  WTS is now the place to be.  Watch the interview.