I was asked to be the speaker for our Mother/Daughter tea at church this past weekend. I figured I'd share my notes here. These weren't originally written with a blog post in mind or for anyone to read other than me while I spoke so please excuse any grammar/punctuation etc errors. :)
Galatians 5:22-24
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."
Theme
for today is mothers planting seeds of love, joy, & peace. As we
see in these verses love, joy, & peace are fruit of the Spirit. If I
want my children to develop these in their life they need the Spirit so
the first step is to give them the gospel.
Our
goal as parents/grandparents/ss teachers etc is not to raise good,
moral, happy kids but rather to raise godly kids. We teach them rules -
God’s standard - but not to make them good we give them law to make them
desperately hope for grace.
Law
that is given without the hope of grace causes rebellion or hypocrisy.
There are many who leave church say it is because it is a list of do’s
and don’ts or who leave and go to the other extreme and convert to a
works based religion like mormonism or catholicism (about 40% of mormon
converts grew up in baptist homes/churches) Both of these reasons are
the result of a child who was presented with God’s law but never came to
a true understanding of God’s grace.
Laws
and rules cannot save. Children need to realize they are not good -
they have sinful hearts. Apart from the gospel they cannot do anything
good. Even those things that seem good apart from the relying Holy
Spirit are done for sinful/selfish motives and God says they are like
filthy rags to a Holy God.
A child who is told they are bad without giving them gospel will despair.
But
on the flip side it is just as important to realize a child who is told
they are good apart from Christ will blind them to the need for the
gospel. (ie you’re such a good little boy/girl)
The
fact is none of us can do good but Christ came, lived a perfect life,
and then died to take the punishment for our sin which means when we die
we will live in a perfect heaven forever. But not only did Christ die
for the punishment of our sin the most exciting part of the story is
that he rose again and showed that he has power over death and sin. This
means that while we cannot in our own strength do good when we believe
Christ died in our place we are given the same power that rose Him from
the dead to help us live a victorious Christian life and we are no
longer bound by sin’s power.
I would like to read for you a short section from the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd Jones.
"Now, some people think the Bible is a book of rules, telling you what you should and shouldn't do. The Bible certainly does have some rules in it. They show you how life works best. But the Bible isn't mainly about you and what you should be doing. It's about God and what He has done.
Other people think the Bible is a book of heroes, showing you people you should copy. The Bible does have some heroes in it, but most of the people in the Bible aren't heroes at all. They make some big mistakes (sometimes on purpose). They get afraid and run away. At times they are downright mean.
No, the Bible isn't a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It's an adventurous story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It's a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne - everything - to rescue the one he loves. It's like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life!
You see, the best thing about this Story is - it's true. There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them."
Sharing the grace of God needs to happen throughout daily living not just specific witnessing opportunities.
- Look at that flower - God is good to create flowers. Do you know the best thing God did for us was sending Christ...
- I know it is hard for you to obey. It is hard for me to obey God but I believe that Jesus died to take away my sin and now when it is hard for me to sin I can ask God to help me.
- When a friend tells you about how their spouse or close friend has deeply hurt them. “I am so sorry to hear you were treat wrongly. The Bible tells us to love those who hurt us. That is something I could never do on my own but...” tell about Christ being hurt - now when I am wronged I ask him for strength to show the same love I was shown.
The
second aspect in helping our children/grandchildren develop love, joy,
& peace is discipleship and learning to live a spirit controlled
life.
Our
job doesn’t stop once our child says they have accepted the gospel and
prayed a prayer for two reasons: first because we can’t know their heart
and secondly because we are called to make disciples.
Our
theme is gardening today so I want you to imagine you were given a
tomato seed by a gardening friend. You have admired her garden and one
day she gives you a seed so you can grow your own tomato plant. You
plant it, water it, give it sunlight, check it every day - wonder if
it’s a dud, if it will ever sprout and then one day finally a small ½”
green sprout emerges from the dirt. You are ecstatic and rush to call
your friend and you tell her it was a lot of work and waiting but you
finally did it, you grew a tomato plant! Of course your dear friend will
assure you that while it is exciting to see a new sprout your work is
far from over. In fact the hardest part is still to come. If you were to
leave that small sprout on its own it will quickly shrivel and die and
all the work you put into getting it to sprout will be in vain.
The
plant grows slowly but one day you call your friend because it isn’t
looking very well. Your friend comes by and sees it is wilted. The soil
is dry and weeds are choking it out. You assure your friend you can’t
imagine what is going wrong because you spend 1 hr a week watering it
and pulling out a few weeds. Your friend lovingly tells you that
watering & weeding once a week is not enough to produce a vibrant,
healthy plant. It is a lot of work and you will have to sacrifice but
the fruit will be worth it. Put up supports to keep it from falling over
under the stress of storms, pull the weeds, water it faithfully. You do
all this without promise that it will produce fruit because you can’t
force it to bear fruit but you do everything you can to help it grow and
flourish so that one day you can enjoy a bush full of delicious healthy
fruit.
Coming
to the point of salvation is only the beginning the hardest part is
still to come as we disciple and learn how to live a life controlled by
the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:16 "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh".
After
salvation when you or your child are presented God’s commands we still
can’t do it on our own but we don’t have to because we now have the help
of the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit. who convicted before
salvation now provides the grace and strength to crucify selfish
desires.
Many
believers miss out on genuine peace, love, & joy God wants us to
have because we still try in our own strength to follow a set of rules
as long as we so or don’t do xyz we are godly and pleasing God. If I
read my bible, witness, give to church/missions/my children obey
me/children are attend church etc- then I am good and godly. They are
good things but done in our own strength they are not pleasing to God.
Fruit
of the Spirit is tested during trials and difficulties. Difficult
things will happen (siblings fight, people lie, cheat, hurt you,get
sick, die) I often hear people say difficult times either bring people
close to God or pull them away from Him and the reason that happens is
not usually because the difficulty significantly changes us it merely
magnifies what was already inside.
If
the person has a habit of relying on God’s strength when those
difficult times come they rely more deeply on Christ’s strength and the
love, joy, peace are evidenced in a magnificent way in their life.
If
the person has a habit of relying on self when things come that are too
difficult for to handle in our own strength it pushes us to despair,
depression, bitterness, and anger.
if
you have never come to the place where you realized the terrible news
that you are a sinner, someone completely incapable of doing anything to
please God but understand and believe God loved you and has the best
news for your which is Christ lived a perfect life and then died to pay
the punishment for our sin and rose again and gives us the power to be
free from the power of sin I urge you to consider what you’ve heard and
if you have questions I would love to talk to you.
If
you have made that decision your life should look radically different
from an unbeliever - even a very moral unbeliever. If you can give the
same parenting/marital/counsel etc as a moral unsaved catholic, amish,
or mormon something is very wrong. Christianity is not about living a
good moral life following a list of dos and don’ts it is about living a
life completely dependent on Christ that brings glory to God and how
good He is not to us and how good we are.
Your
children, grandchildren, co workers, family etc are watching you.
Because of the grace of God you do not need despair over missed
opportunities when your children were younger. We may sorrow over missed
opportunities but because of the grace of God there is just as much
hope for a hardened 70 year old to come to Christ and be transformed by
the gospel as there is for my 2 year old little girl. The world
desperately needs to see how the grace of God changes a life. It is
not by following a list of rules but by moment by moment choosing to
rely wholly on the Spirit. Christ said that the way the world would know
his disciples is by the fruit they bear.
Are you bearing the fruit of the flesh trying to follow Christ’s commands in your own strength or does your life bear the beautiful, refreshing fruit of love, joy and peace evident in a spirit filled and controlled life?
