This morning we are going to be looking at Psalm 78. I encourage you to turn there, or follow along and your bulletin. Psalm 78 is a historical psalm, it's the longest of all the historical psalms, 72 verses. It's kind of a depressing psalm because it speaks of people, of God's people and of their faithlessness. But, opera's incredible hope is it describes the amazing grace and patience. Indeed, the deep love of God our Father. Please stand for the reading of God's holy word. Give ear, O my people to my teaching, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sings from of all, things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us. 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. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children. That the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. And that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Last week, Skip began a focus on parenting by speaking of adoption. We have a parenting conference which Frank mentioned during the announcements that's coming up. Tuesday, a luncheon for moms of preschoolers, Thursday, a luncheon for moms with preteens and teens and beyond. And then Thursday night, it kicks off. I am going to preach this morning on parenting. And it's easy to attract an audience because children, well, we cherish them. Our own children. We cherish them as much as anything. Grandparents, you cherish your grandchildren. Nieces and nephews are cherished by their aunts and uncles and by their brothers and sisters. It's easy to get an audience when you talk about parenting because parents have so many fears. Fears of, am I doing it right? Is my child going to turn out okay? How's my child compared to another person's child? And the biggest question of all, will my child be with me in eternity? But when you speak about parenting, it's also easy to lose the audience because some of you, well, you're not parents. Some of you are single and desire not to be parents. Some of you are married but don't have children yet. Some of you haven't been able to have children. Others of you have had children and they're long gone. You're empty nesters for some of you, you celebrate that. For others, well, it's sad. You're very, very much in deep sorrow that your child is not there. But this morning, I want you to be clear in something that this is not a parenting seminar. This is a sermon. We're looking at the word of God and preaching from its text. There will be many seminars this week. And all of them will be about the word of God. But something's different. A sermon is where we worship. We worship God in the context of this message. And it is for all of us. It's not just for moms and dads of little children and older children. It's for everyone. The sermon that we are going to hear out of Psalm 78 is critical because of God's call on all of our lives to assist in this spiritual nurture. Of the children, the covenant children of this church. And I want to be clear that you understand something. You made a vow. I couldn't tell if everyone said we do or I do. But based on the noise in the room, we gave a hearty we do. Two, three children. Kaelin, Ella, and Owen. And either what we did is of significant importance and has incredible power or it was a lie. Simply us going through a tradition, not really embracing the power of what's said there. I want you to be careful. What we said was that we will assist the Freemans in the spiritual Christian nurture of their three beautiful kids. All of us. You may have said no or said nothing. I would want to know why because this is so powerful that God's body, the covenant church, would say I will be there to make sure these children know the Lord. It's the responsibility that we have said we do to. It's a vow. It's a promise. One in which I hope we all will take serious because it is a unique thing about our doctrine. Clearly seen in the word of God. This morning, I want to simply answer three questions. God tells us through this Psalm that we are to communicate something to the children. All of us are to communicate that. The responsibility primarily falls on mom and dad. But it also falls on us. The three questions I would like to ask this morning as we look at this text are, what are we to tell them? Why are we to tell them? And how are we to tell them? First, look at verse 5. What are we to tell them? ASAP is the writer of this Psalm. ASAP is speaking about the history of Israel. God's faithfulness. In verse 5, he tells us what it is that we are supposed to teach. One thing is obvious, but another is not. Let's read it. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children. When we read this passage, this one verse, it's easy to see that there's something that God has commanded us to teach. And it's easy to look at it and say, the law. What we all know what the law means. The first thing you think of when you think of the law is what? The 10 commandments. But that's not the first thing that's written here that we are to teach our children. There's something else. It is the testimony of Jacob. Now, don't get lost here. Really follow what I'm saying. In the 10 commandments, before there was one, thou shalt. There was, and I have. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. You shall have no other gods before me. God gives us first his testimony. The testimony of who he is, what he is done before he gives us the law. It's out of an understanding of who he is and what he is done that we obey the law. And that's what ASAP reminds us of here. And then he uses 72 verses to speak of what God has done and who God is. Verse 4 gives clarity to this. ASAP writes, we will not hide them from their children but tell the coming generation. Tell them what? You see it? The glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done. Well, what are these glorious deeds and wonders? In the next 72 verses, these are some of the highlights. ASAP urges us to teach our children that God parted the Red Sea. That he led them by day with a cloud and by night with a fiery light. That he split rocks and gave them water, verse 15. That the sky rained down with bread, verses 24 to 29. What are we to tell our children? We're to tell them of the mighty works of God, of frogs, of cattle, of locusts, of red water, of the Passover. And these are incredible works, mighty works that only God can do unless you don't believe they're true. But you should. They are. This is the word of God. These are not just stories, some metaphor about God's greatness. These are God's acts. And ASAP urges the people to tell their children over and over and over again that they might remember who God is and what he has done. ASAP describes them in verse 35 as the rock, the most high God, the Redeemer, the compassionate one, as shepherd. These are the things that he is urging his people, the fathers, to teach their children. First his testimony, who he is, what he has done, and then the law. There's something very significant though to note about this sum. In verse 2, ASAP writes, I will open my mouth and speak a parable. That's very unique to the Psalter. The Psalter is not filled with parables. When we think of parables, we think of Jesus teaching parables. And they were stories that would have a point that would leave you with a question. I struggled to understand what that meant. A few commentaries said much about it. I was listening to something John Piper said about this text. When he described his own struggle with this passage and why it's called a parable. And then he began to understand parables leave you with questions. And there are two questions that this Psalm leaves you with. The first question is this. Why is Israel so rebellious? Do you believe that God part of the Red Sea? If you do, give me some education. Do you believe God part of the Red Sea? If you don't, you're in the wrong church. You really are, I just want to inform you of that. We believe everything that the Bible says is true. Do you believe God part of the Red Sea? Do you think you... Do you believe it would have made a difference in your life if you saw it? Do you believe that they woke up with bread covering the ground that God had rained? Do you believe that when they were thirsty and complaining of thirst, he had a rock split open and water was given? We believe these things. But Israel, how could they not? How could they after walking through the Red Sea say, why have you brought us into this place, this wilderness, to suffer? Let us go back into Egypt, back into slavery. So the first question that comes out of this parable is, why is Israel so rebellious? Verse 40 clearly states it, I want you to pay attention to a word. And the word is often. Verse 40, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert? So there's that question. Why Israel? Were you so rebellious, so foolish, but there's another question and it's even more significant. Why is God so patient? Verse 38, listen again for that word often. Yet he, being compassionate, atone for their iniquity and did not destroy them, he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. The parable that we are looking at in the psalm is speaking of those two questions. Why are you so foolish, Israel? Why God, are you so patient? God wants us to teach our children his word, his testimony and his law. The next question I want to deal with then is why? Why are we to teach this to our children? Well, verse 5, starting there again, gives us the ultimate answer. He commanded us to. I don't really need to say much more than that. Do you hear it? He has commanded you, fathers, to teach your children, mothers, to teach your children, about the law, about his testimony. But there are other descriptions or other reasons also given as to why ASAP encourages us to tell our children. This is seen in verses 6-8. First, it's knowledge, verse 6, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn and arise and tell them to their children. So the other reason why God wants us to tell our children is that they would have knowledge of God's testimony, knowledge of his word. God wants you to stand before your children and may come alive the amazing stories of what God has done to redeem his people. What a privilege you get to be the one to instruct your child in the things of God. What he has done, who he is, and what he's calling us to. Unbelievable, incredible opportunity, incredible privilege. He also says, though, that we are to do this in verse 7 regarding their hope. It's not just their knowledge, but so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments. Hope. Knowledge of God, instructed correctly, gives hope. Think about the things you hope in. We all hope in things. Every one of us, a better career, a better paycheck, a more obedient child. We hope in a deeper relationship with the spouse. We hope in eternal, we hope in so many things. God instructs us that the word is what should ultimately give us hope in the greatest thing. The one who crossed for the people of the Red Sea, part of the sea, split the rock, all those wonders that we've just spoken of. It gives us hope, but here's the challenge. So many of us don't hope in God first. We hope in Jesus plus something else as Skip has said many times. Jesus plus this will make me happy. A few months ago, I began to teach our high school kids each week out of the Psalms with the title, Hope in God. I wanted that phrase to be just so ingrained in their mind and heart that when they encounter things that were discouraging or challenges they would think, hope in God first, not in my friends, not in my status, not in my awards, not in my scholarships, not in the college allotin, not in the money I'm going to make, not in the zip code I'm going to have, not in the square footage of my house. Hope in God. Period. Hope in God. The correct knowledge of God makes everything else you hope in, look foolish. Even good things look foolish like we confess in our sins, the confession of sin about children. Hope in God is so much more powerful and children today are in deep need of hope. How do I know? Well, I walk with them all the time. It's a privilege that I have in my job, but I also lead a group of people who walk with them. People, interns, volunteers, and they see this generation is broken, as hurting, and it's no wonder the world in which our children are growing up in is very godless. It is very different than it used to be. You may be thinking, oh, not really, it's the same issues. When I was in school, it's the same issues as kids are facing today. You're partly right. There are many of the same issues kids face today. Peer pressure, rejection, disobedience, you know, parents that bug them, all those things are there. One of the best books you could read on parenting, frankly, is your yearbook. Go back home today, pull out your annual, and begin to look at that. 1942, 1981, 1990, whatever, even in the last few years things have changed greatly. But as you flip through the pages, remember what it felt like. Remember the fear that you experienced. Remember the temptation that you felt. Remember those people that made fun of you, or the people you made fun of. Look at it, and you can feel a lot about what your child is feeling. Or your grandchild, or your niece, or nephew, or the kids in your Sunday school class. But it's not the same. It's just not. The world in which our kids live in now is graphically different. Going to a mall, you cannot escape what one day would have been pornography, used as displays to entice children to come and buy clothes. It may shock you, but what's scary is it doesn't bother them at all. Brian Chappell, president of the Covenant Seminary, has said, sexual sin has become the common cold in the church. And based on the counseling I do every week, he's right. Our world is a world of hurt, and our kids need hope. The challenge is that I think we have given them hope, but it's been in the wrong things. It's not been in the Almighty testimony of who God is. We have created a theology that says it's okay to hope in Jesus plus something else. And we must be careful because that is so dangerous. It does not lead to what God ultimately calls us to, and that's in verse 8, to obedience. He writes, we teach that they should not be like their fathers. A stubborn and rebellious generation. A generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. We are called to obey. And we need to give our children the knowledge of that which they should obey. Given the right knowledge leads to hope. Hope leads to obedience. Well, the ultimate question then is, how? How do we do this? Before I deal with this question, I want to offer some encouragement. And maybe a little bit of humility. It is not easy to be a father. Right. It is not easy to open your life before your family, to lead them in devotions, to encourage them spiritually. If this was just a men's gathering, and we were honest, most men in this room would say they have regret. They have fear. They're ashamed. They're clueless. I'm not sure what to do. If we had a meeting with just women, they would say, my husband is ashamed. My husband is fear. Well, my husband is clueless. The reality is, it is very difficult. Now, some of you might be saying, well, that's not me. I've done it well. And I pray that's true. But we need your encouragement. Many of us struggle deeply here. And I want to tell you fundamentally why first. It's because we're in a spiritual war. The enemy does not want you to open the word of God in your family. Of all of the spiritual armor which Paul speaks of in Ephesians, there's only one weapon. And it's the word of God, the sort of the spirit. Everything else is defensive. Satan, our enemy, does not want his arms. So he wants to take the word of God and remove it. And I'm telling you now, I minister to a flock of kids who are not passionate about the word of God. Why? Are we? I know we're passionate about saying it's true, but does it captivate us? Does it consume us? It should. And we'll talk about that in a minute. But I want to encourage you, you're not alone. It's hard. Satan does not want you to do this. Men who lead enormous companies with enormous budgets with large staff can look at the task of spending 10 minutes a week with their family in the word of God is if the hardest thing they have to do all week. It's not because they're incompetent. It's because there's something going on that's more significant. We're going to learn about that in the last part of this message. How do we tell them? Turn with me to Deuteronomy 6. I want to spend the remainder of our time there. If you were Jewish and were practicing your faith, and someone was to ask you, what's the most important verse in all of the Old Testament? This is where you would turn. Every Jew would. Deuteronomy 6, 4, 5, Shemaah. You know it well, too. Jesus quoted it. It's incredibly important. Here's what it says. Here, O Israel. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Do you hear what comes first, the testimony, who he is, what he's done? Verse 5. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. That's probably not new to many people. We know that that's in the Bible. You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. You can quote it. But what follows is very important for this morning. Verse 6. In these words that I command you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Did you hear all that? Diligently. Well, what does it mean by diligent? Well, you shall talk of them when you sit. When you walk, when you lie, and when you rise. Verse 8 continues. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorpost of your house, and on your gates. As we talk this morning about how do we tell them, I want you to see two things. First is, it's what they see, and second is what we say, and when we say it. First of all, verse 6 says that these words that he's commanding us should be on our heart. When you were little and somebody asked you, do you remember? Do you know it? You'd say, I know it by heart. It means that it has come in you. It's something that you have said is important. You know it by heart. We are told that we must have this in our heart. It begins with us. If it's not in you, it's not going to be in your children. Unless God does something amazing. But ordinarily, He calls it to be in us, that it might be in our children, that they would see it in us. Often in the last 20 years of youth ministry, I've been asked the question. It's a very good question. Very important. And the question is, Mark, what do you want the children to know before they get to your area of life? What that means is, by the time they graduate fifth or sixth grade and come into middle school and then come to you in high school, what do you want them to know? And I want you to understand that is a very important question. And one that we must answer. It usually has answers of what kind of catechism do they go through? What kind of verses do they know? What kind of stories have they been taught? But that question alone is not acceptable. It's not enough. We need something more. It must be attached to another question, and that is this. Not only should we ask, what do we want our children to know, but what do we want them to have seen? Great commission publication. It produces children's curriculum. It has a great title. It's Show Me Jesus. You see, this is not just for moms and dads. It's for Sunday school teachers and nursery workers and youth volunteers. It's for all of us to be so captivated by the gospel that when we had the opportunity to assist in the spiritual Christian nurture of a child, it begins not first with what we say, but what they see, that they literally see Christ in us. They see the fruit of the spirit in the way we live. But when we're teaching the great doctrines of the faith, it's not just some curriculum with the list of answers with the scope and the sequence, but they see that it's actually penetrated into your life that you as an adult are making decisions, establishing priorities based on what God's word said. And kids can see it. They can tell when someone is authentic and real. So we need to ask that question. What do they see? Parents, you ought to ask your children this question. When they're old enough, and three, four, and five is old enough. What do you think is the most important thing to dad? You may be so encouraged because they might say that you love Jesus. Their honesty might discourage you. But if it does, don't feel like a failure, repent. If their answer is, Daddy loves work. Daddy loves money. Daddy loves toys. Repent and turn with joy that you need God. Don't stay there because everybody else seems to. You by God's grace can do it differently. But it's not just what they see. It's also what we say and when we say it. And according to Deuteronomy, it says we should be saying it all the time. When you sit, when you walk, when you lie down, when you rise, Joshua 1.8 says that this way, meditate on God's word day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Certainly it's hyperbole. You can talk about other things. It's not wrong to talk about basketball. It's not wrong to talk about food. It's not wrong to talk about lots of things. But the word of God should so penetrate your heart that it is the primary thing in your life. It is the priority. And it's what you say all the time. Not just the commandments, honor your father, mother, but the testimonies of who he is. But there's another time to teach. And this is very encouraging. In chapter 6 verse 20, listen to what Moses writes. When your son asks you in time to come, what he's saying is that our children, we should expect that they will come and ask us questions. When your children, your son, ask you in time to come, what is the meaning of this testimony? And the statues and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you? Well, he teaches us what to say. Pay attention. Pay attention and look for what I've been talking about. You shall say to your son, we were Pharaoh's slaves. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with the mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders great and grievous against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household before our eyes. And he brought us out from there that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give us to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statues. What do you see there? The testimony. I have. And then thou shalt. This is what we are to say when our sons and when our daughters, our children ask us questions. But let's be honest, that can create a lot of fear. What if my child asks me a question that I can't answer? Well, count on it. If they haven't already, they will. And some of them are great questions. Some of them are silly. My children ask questions all the time. Dad, did Adam and Eve have a belly button? Well, let's talk about that. Dad, what about the dinosaurs? Dad, can you explain the Trinity? Fortunately, that one's easy. Dad, why don't I get to drink the cup? Isn't it just grape juice? And why is it grape juice? What about the bread? I want to snack. Could it be cheesets instead? Or what about other questions? They hear a sermon. They read a passage. And they talk about Ebenezer. John Piper used that analogy. It was really good. And he said, if your child asked you men, what does Ebenezer mean? What would you say? Would you lie and make something up? Would you tell them it's about the scrooge? Or would you take advantage of an opportunity? And what an opportunity is when a kid asks a question. Here's what you might do. When your kid asks you a question that you don't know the answer to, explore it with them. Use the computer. Get online to a website that answers doctoral questions. Our church has a website that does some of that. Our denomination certainly does. And that can lead you to all kinds of links that can help you. But how about next Sunday? The Sunday after your child asks a question. Bring them to church. Go downstairs to our bookstore and library. And go get a biblical dictionary after thing. Look up Ebenezer or something else. And discover together what it means. What will you do by doing that? You'll show your child's humility and you'll validate the significance of their questions and the importance of finding answers. If you don't want to take all the time to do that, call skip. If skip doesn't know, ask Barbara. He's not here. I can say that today. I'll have the second service tape. Seek Pastoral Council. Email us. Email is great. It gives us time to look up the answer. I encourage you guys to take advantage of these things. Ask other people in our church, elders. That's what the body of Christ is for. But quickly, let me run through a couple of other concerns. One concern we have is simply, I don't know really what to do. Well, don't get stuck there. You can do it. If you couldn't, God wouldn't have called us to do it. You can do it. You might be thinking, but it's never worked. My child is so quickly bored. I'm afraid they'll get bored with the faith if I do it. There's never been a time in devotion with my own children that they haven't expressed some level of boredom. And I'm pretty good at it. I get paid to be good at it. If I can entertain high school kids with it, why can't I entertain my five-year-old? But yesterday, praying after a week of vacation, the thinking God for the wonderful time we had, we prayed all of the kids thinking in for something and then I closed. And it wasn't long into this eloquent prayer that my son said, Dad, and how much longer is it going to be? What happens is we're tempted when our children express boredom to dismiss it, to not do it. You've got to fight through that. The founder of Young Life, Jim Rayburn, used to say, it's a sin to bore a kid with the gospel. And I love that. I love that. It is. But there's something we must say with that. Today's kids are bored with everything. They're so quickly bored. We have got to teach them how to deal with their boredom. That's an instruction that you're going to have to teach because their minds are filled with so much information coming at them so many times. They're easily bored. Don't be discouraged. Fight through that. Some of you might say, Mark, I just don't have the time. This is fun because it's the shortest application I can give. Change your priorities. Simple. The issue of time might be for you, but it's different. It might be, I feel like I've run out of time. My kids are older, out of the house, or they're in high school. We've never done this. How can I start? They're going to think it's terrible. I want to encourage you to not give up. If God could part the Red Sea and split open a rock, a dry stone, and a water gush for his people to drink, if God can do the things that this Psalm says he did, he can help you and enable you. He will. Seek counsel. Find men who have done it. Find families that are doing it. Talk about your successes and failures, but ultimately depend on God. And that's where I want to end. What I'm talking about is not easy. It's because it's a spiritual battle. But I want to encourage you to think with me about something I said in the very beginning. This is a parable. The parable asks two questions. Why is Israel so rebellious? Why are they so foolish? And the second question, why is God so patient and long suffering? When you spend enough time looking at a parable, something happens. The question, why were they soon becomes why am I? Why am I so rebellious? Why am I so faithful? Why, after all I've seen and heard that God has done, do I doubt? Why even a day when I hear this message about leading my family, am I scared to death? Why am I so afraid of failing again? Why am I so rebellious? But you can't camp there. You must ask the second question. Why is God so gracious to me? Why is he so patient? Why is he so long suffering? When you're asking those questions, what you are doing is the very thing ASAP says we should do to our children. You're preaching the gospel to yourself. You're reminding yourself of the wonderful works of God, of His glory and of His might. And that is what you must do. And that is where you must begin. What do you need to remind yourself of? The great and glorious act of God. Sending His Son because as a father He loves you so much. As you consider this as a mom or a dad or as an elder in our church or as a single adult, know that that is where we begin by depending on the very God who has such a rich history of His redemption. I pray today that all of us will not not amen to the truth. Not say we do in a blind and unheartfelt commitment to the Freemans and that children who are baptized last hour, but that we will say I must make this a priority. I must begin to think about how I can be involved in nurturing my own children and other people's children. And it is a command for all of us and it is one in which we should smile and take the light and look forward to the opportunities of seeing how God would use this body to take serious such a vow that could change a community and a world. For His glory, and by His grace, amen.