Cultivating Warmth & Intimacy

Driving home: Sustained pattern of exasperating or provoking a child to anger. Sustained neglect of those means ordained of God for the child's nurture. Or an aggravated act of inflicting permanent damage to the body or the spirit of …

The analogy of radon and asbestos, deadly influences in a home's physical climate, is used to represent spiritual and emotional elements like hypocrisy, coldness, tension, and ill will that have a noxious effect on children.

And using the analogy of the deadly influence of radon and of suspended particles of asbestos, we have continually carried on that analogy with reference to those things in the overall emotional, spiritual, and physical climate of the home which can have a spiritually, psychological, and emotional noxious effect upon our children. And the first of those is what we described as a home characterized by hypocrisy and sham as opposed to sincerity and reality.

5:01 - 5:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek to create a climate in your relationship to your children that will not exasperate and dispirit them, but rather one that is conducive to nurture.

The initial gushing joy of new parents holding their baby is contrasted with the exhaustion and different feelings that arise after several nights of sleep deprivation, illustrating God's realism about the challenges of parenting.

And He knows that whatever you dads feel when you look through the glass at the nursery and the hospital or in the birthing room at the birthing clinic, you first hold that little one in your arms after it's been washed and cleaned, after delivery, whatever you feel in those moments and whatever a mother feels when she first places that fruit of the womb to her breast, it isn't long before you realize that that bushy, overwhelming, marvelous, existential experience of the moments after birth sure get put in a different context before long. Say about the third night when you ain't slept for lon...

12:06 - 12:51 Read in full sermon

Driving home: For though among earthly fathers there may not be a compliance with the impulses of natural affection or a submission to the data of special revelation, though there may be earthly fathers who never chasten, our perfect …

The example of an earthly child running loose without a father's loving, consistent discipline is used to illustrate that such a child is effectively illegitimate, reinforcing the necessity of fatherly chastening.

Now notice how he moves to the human analogy. For what son is there whom his father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, whereof all have been made partakers, then are you illegitimate children and not sons. If in the earthly realm there's a kid running loose and no daddy cares for him and identifies with him as the fruit of his loins and is committed to his nurture and development so that he surrounds him with loving, fair, consistent discipline, he may as well be a bastard child, the scripture says.

21:20 - 21:55 Read in full sermon

Driving home: For though among earthly fathers there may not be a compliance with the impulses of natural affection or a submission to the data of special revelation, though there may be earthly fathers who never chasten, our perfect …

The image of a child laughing in the corner after a spanking, having felt nothing, is used to illustrate that chastening is only effective when it is grievous and produces sorrow, not indifference.

For they, earthly, they, our earthly parents, for a few days chastened us, as seemed good to them. But he, our heavenly father, for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. All chastening seems for the present not to be joyous but grievous. The chastening's done the work when the kid's crying, not when he's in the corner laughing at his siblings and saying, I had a book in my britches, didn't feel a thing.

23:25 - 23:53 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God says, I am not embarrassed to be brought down to the level of the warmth, the almost maudlin sentiment, almost maudlin sentimental bond of a mother to her distressed child. God says, that's my relationship to my chil…

The vivid scene of a mother comforting her crying toddler, stroking his head, quieting him, and listening to his story, is used to illustrate God's tender, warm, and empathetic comfort for His children.

As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you. Now you can relate to that, can't you? The little toddler comes running in, tears coming down his face like two little rivers.

38:45 - 38:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God's not content to just have the adoption papers. He wants you in warm, intimate, loving, closeness.

The parable of the prodigal son is used as a primary illustration of God's desire for closeness and intimacy, showing the father's active, compassionate, and profuse reception of his returning son, beyond mere legal recognition.

Can you tell me a passage in the New Testament where this is beautifully illustrated in the manner in which God receives sinners. That he does not simply juggle the records in heaven, but he delights to enter into intimate, fatherly closeness to them. It's a parable.

42:49 - 43:09 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: God's relationship is not just warm but also close and intimate. The parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15) beautifully illustrates the father's active pursuit of intimate…

The Eastern concept of eating with someone as entering into an unwritten covenant of closeness, intimacy, and friendship is used to explain the significance of Jesus receiving and eating with sinners.

And the Pharisees and their scribes, mermaids say, this man receives sinners and eats, eats with them. And remember in the Eastern concept, to eat with a man was to enter into an unwritten covenant of closeness and intimacy and friendship. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat, suck, dine with him and he with me. That's the crowning expression of the intimacy that the Lord Jesus promises to those who welcome him with the whole heart.

44:17 - 44:53 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Isaiah 49:14-15 uses the powerful image of a nursing mother to convey God's unbreakable closeness and remembrance of His children, even when they feel forgotten. Martin then…

The rhetorical question, 'Can a woman forget her sucking child?' is used to illustrate the depth of God's unbreakable closeness and remembrance of His children, surpassing even the strongest human maternal bond.

I've so abused my privileges, so utterly forfeited any claim to covenant intimacy with God. I've had it. Notice what God says. Can a woman forget her sucking child?

49:43 - 49:58 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Isaiah 49:14-15 uses the powerful image of a nursing mother to convey God's unbreakable closeness and remembrance of His children, even when they feel forgotten. Martin then…

The image of a little child running to his daddy and crying 'Abba' in Aramaic is used to illustrate the intimate, personal access to God that the Spirit of adoption grants believers, validating God's desire for closeness.

And forth the spirit is sung into our enabling us to cry daddy Abba. In the Aramaic, if a little kid was running into his daddy, he wouldn't say daddy. He wouldn't say father. I mean, he wouldn't say those words that are English.

51:45 - 52:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Be determined to attain and maintain the closest possible intimacy with your children, ensuring they never have grounds to wonder if they are loved or delighted in.

Personal anecdotes about a son who prefers piano to mechanics and a daughter who prefers blue jeans and dirt to frilly femininity are used to illustrate the challenge and cost of maintaining closeness with children who don't conform to parental expectations.

Jesus has maintained closeness when they're just a little bundle of fat and goo-goos and gurgles. But when it begins to be evident they have a will of their own and old Adam's done his work on it. And they've got taste of their own that aren't like yours. And you knew if you ever had a son he was just going to love to go out and work with you and he was going to love to pick up a song, lo and behold, every spare minute he runs to the piano.

54:58 - 55:32 Read in full sermon