Counsel, Advise, and Exhortations (b)

In this part of the sermon: Pastor Martin opens by reading Ephesians 6:1-3 and Proverbs 1:8-9, then reviews his previous two sermons on obeying and honoring parents, covering the commands, promises…

Martin uses the analogy of a hunter's crosshairs to explain that he is targeting children and young people with the Word of God, not to harm, but to help them find the way of their highest interest.

Amen. Well, children and young people, once again this morning you are in the crosshairs, of my biblical gun. You remember the analogy I used two weeks ago. When the hunter goes out to bring down his game, and he has a scope, he seeks to bring the crosshairs, the horizontal and the vertical lines in his scope, onto that most vulnerable part of the animal he's seeking to shoot and bring home as his game.

3:21 - 3:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Pastor Martin opens by reading Ephesians 6:1-3 and Proverbs 1:8-9, then reviews his previous two sermons on obeying and honoring parents, covering the commands, promises…

The youth subculture is described as a whirlpool, constantly seeking to draw young people into its edges, eventually sucking them into its destructive vortex, warning against even flirting with its outer swirls.

There must be rivalry. There must be rebellion, in contrast to submission, and rejection, in contrast to acceptance of their standards with respect to a whole gamut of what constitutes your life. And then I made this observation, that today's youth subculture is primarily, not exclusively, primarily defined and propagated by the music industry and its icons.

9:16 - 9:49 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Whatever gushy feelings you may have when you hear the old rugged cross played on a CD, whatever warm, fuzzy feelings you may feel when you see a crucifix, if you are not, as a matter of principle, keeping the commandmen…

The devil's temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden is used as an example of how he seeks to erode confidence in God's affection to shrivel affections for God and cut the nerve of obedience.

If you can get their love for that person to erode, to shrivel, to diminish, then the desire and the delight to please them will shrink and will diminish. Right? You follow me? Now, you go right back to the Garden of Eden.

15:44 - 16:05 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second exhortation warns children and young people to beware of any person or thing that erodes their affection for and obedience to godly parents, teachers, and pastors…

Paul's warning in Acts 20 about grievous wolves and men speaking perverse things is used to illustrate how false teachers seek to sever the bond of affection between disciples and their godly leaders.

And Paul is warning, the Ephesian elders of what will happen when he leaves. He understands this with regard to pastoral relationships. Listen to what he said in Acts chapter 20 and verse 28. Take heed to all the flock, to shepherd the flock.

17:50 - 18:06 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second exhortation warns children and young people to beware of any person or thing that erodes their affection for and obedience to godly parents, teachers, and pastors…

The situation in the Galatian churches, where Judaizers sought to alienate the people's affections from Paul, is used to show how destroying the messenger's influence requires first severing the bond of affection.

To draw away disciples after them. And that is exactly what happened with the Galatian churches. Paul writes to them in Galatians chapter 4, and I read from the NIV because it's helpful at this point in its more paraphrastic translation to capture what Paul is saying. He says in Galatians 4.14,

19:03 - 19:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Drawing from Deuteronomy 13:6-9 and Jesus' teaching on offending body parts, Martin instructs children to deal ruthlessly with friends or influences that draw them away from God's…

The biblical description of a friend 'as your own soul' is highlighted to emphasize the depth of intimate friendship, making the subsequent command to deal ruthlessly with such a friend even more striking if they entice to evil.

If your brother, the son of your mother, someone who shared the same womb, or your son, this could be an adult, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or now listen, or your friend that is as your own soul.

34:59 - 35:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: A practical test is given: how would children feel if their parents or pastors/teachers openly showed affection and walked with them in front of their peers? This reveals the true…

Children are asked to imagine walking through the church foyer with their parents' arms around them, talking, in front of their peers, to test their shame or pride in openly displaying affection for their parents.

I want you to imagine where your friends normally gather. For some of you, it's down in the foyer of this church. For some of you, go to the Christian school that's out in the parking lot. Maybe it's a place in your neighborhood.

42:15 - 42:28 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: A practical test is given: how would children feel if their parents or pastors/teachers openly showed affection and walked with them in front of their peers? This reveals the true…

An extension of the previous illustration, children are asked to imagine walking through the foyer with a teacher and pastor, arms on shoulders, to test their heart's disposition towards these authorities.

What would you be like? Tomorrow, school is over. Same thing. Then the next Sunday, to add insult to injury, one of your teachers from the Christian school speaks to one of the pastors and says, you know, I've been concerned about such and such.

44:18 - 44:33 Read in full sermon

The point: When making decisions, consciously think: 'Will what I'm contemplating doing make my parents glad or sad? Will it fill them with joy or with heaviness?'

Deliberately causing grief to parents is likened to driving a knife into their heart and twisting it, emphasizing the cruelty and wickedness of such actions given all parents have done.

They prayed you into conception.

55:23 - 55:25 Read in full sermon

Driving home: What a miserable, miserable wretch you are to turn around to such people, ram the knife in their gut and twist it.

The tragic example of children left to rot in a cellar in Newark is used to highlight the privilege of having loving, nurturing parents, contrasting it with the ingratitude of causing them grief.

Rather than saying, oh God, I could have been one of these kids born in a single parent home, left alone to rot in the cellar like those kids in Newark. And people find me dead four days after I'd died with bruises all over me. Did you choose not to be there?

56:43 - 57:06 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin emphasizes that the greatest joy children can bring their parents is to become a Christian, urging unconverted children to seek the Lord for this reason, among others, and…

Parents standing at a birthday card rack, unable to find a card that truthfully expresses pride in a child who has rejected Christ, illustrates the deep, ongoing grief caused by an unconverted child.

You've rejected that greatest desire of their hearts. Birthday time is coming. Put yourself in their place. And they stand by the card rack at CVS or at Target or at the local gift shop and they try to find a card for you.

58:58 - 59:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Make it easy for your kids to love you by being lovable, affectionate with words, deeds, and appropriate touches, and by creating a climate of loving, fair, but firm discipline rooted in the Bible.

Martin shares a counseling session anecdote where a grown man never knew his father's affection, highlighting the tragedy of parents failing to express love to their children.

It broke my heart when in a counseling session a few weeks ago a grown man said he never knew what it was once to have his dad sit him on his knee and tell him he loved him.

64:08 - 64:20 Read in full sermon