The NXR Podcast - CONFERENCE - Keep Your Kids with Jared Longshore

00:00:00.000 In less than a year, our podcast has gone from an average of 10,000 downloads a month

00:00:04.300 to 50,000 downloads. What made the difference? You leaving us a five-star review. The more

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00:00:16.360 and gospel of Jesus Christ. Help us press forward the crown rights of King Jesus by leaving us a

00:00:23.480 five-star review on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks. My particular assignment has been

00:00:30.440 keep your kids, the message on keeping your kids. And I want to situate that within the broader

00:00:36.480 structure of our civilization that we are all too aware of and then a call for us as the sayings of

00:00:46.120 God to actually do what God has required of us in our homes by keeping our kids. And that's going

00:00:51.740 to start with, to knowing what the home is, knowing what kids are.

00:00:57.940 Because when it comes to keep your kids,

00:01:00.420 it's not hard for us to see that you can do that in the wrong way.

00:01:05.540 So you can lose your kids and hand them over to the world

00:01:10.800 because of a lack of faith.

00:01:14.460 But you can also try to keep your kids by a lack of faith.

00:01:20.900 You need to keep your kids by doubt, and then you suffocate them.

00:01:26.200 You're a wet blanket upon their lives,

00:01:30.800 and you're ripping them until they spying out when they're 17 or 18.

00:01:35.920 If you're saying something like, as long as you're under my roof, you'll obey my rules,

00:01:41.000 then that 17 or 18-year-old son says, okay, well, then I'll be under your roof anyway.

00:01:45.080 so i'm going to start at the outset by saying the key the central thing that we must remember

00:01:54.760 something we must do the cops keeping our kids is we must keep our kids by faith

00:01:59.800 so keep your kids by faith now what's involved in that uh is uh there's a lot involved in that

00:02:10.080 and I want to basically take

00:02:12.480 this whole message to talk about what that really

00:02:14.540 means. What does it mean to keep your kids

00:02:16.620 by faith?

00:02:19.600 Because we

00:02:20.460 have problems with our understanding of faith.

00:02:23.460 So,

00:02:24.260 he said, you know, somebody says

00:02:26.380 I'm just, you know, the guy after

00:02:28.480 he wins the Super Bowl and he

00:02:30.360 talks about, well, it's just my faith.

00:02:32.840 The announcer

00:02:34.480 says, like, what? Tell me about your faith.

00:02:36.640 I don't believe in myself.

00:02:40.080 that's not really it that's not it and then if you go to the evangelical church and find that

00:02:46.240 same kind of sentiment about faith a faith of course is to trust god and to trust god you have

00:02:51.560 to trust him for what he's promised you you can't trust god for what he has not promised you

00:02:55.220 okay there's certain things that he hasn't promised us and we're not to we're not to

00:03:00.640 fabricate faith and those things that would be presumption but there are other things that he

00:03:04.680 has promised us and we need to know what those things are and i'm going to tell you a fraud that

00:03:09.380 He's promised you things about your children.

00:03:12.840 And you have to trust him for what he's promised you about your children.

00:03:18.080 That's the way to keep them.

00:03:20.800 And that faith is essential.

00:03:24.620 Okay, with that said, let's first talk about the world.

00:03:27.540 And kind of a Sons of Issachar moment, understanding the times, what's going on in the world.

00:03:32.100 I like to illustrate this by talking about four men in a coffee shop.

00:03:35.820 Now, I've said this a few times at different places.

00:03:37.760 So I'm going to try to judge by head nodding how many of you have heard me say this before

00:03:41.540 and how many of you have not heard me say this before.

00:03:43.860 It's like about 35% of you have heard me say this, maybe.

00:03:47.320 So for you to be a refresher, those of you who haven't,

00:03:49.720 I think this is very important when it comes to understating the times in which we live.

00:03:53.880 Four men in a coffee shop, and we'll say that those four men are Christian man,

00:03:58.080 rational man, postmodern man, and pagan man.

00:04:01.000 Those are the four men. 0.60

00:04:02.560 In American society, it started with Christian man and rational man.

00:04:05.360 they were sitting inside this coffee shop

00:04:07.360 and there was a blue chair beside them and they both were

00:04:09.400 agreed upon the fact that that indeed was a blue chair

00:04:11.560 now the Christian man said it's a blue chair

00:04:13.140 because God has created it so God

00:04:15.320 is sustaining it so by his kind providence

00:04:17.580 and by the present operation of his

00:04:19.340 kindness to his weak and ascertaining through human reason

00:04:21.460 that that indeed is a blue chair

00:04:22.780 his rational buddy said

00:04:25.180 I don't need all the God mumbo jumbo stuff 0.99

00:04:27.440 fellow but I agree with you it's self

00:04:29.440 evident that that is a blue chair

00:04:31.600 anybody who has

00:04:33.260 a brain that still works

00:04:35.400 knows that that's a blue chair

00:04:36.740 so there was peace within the coffee shop

00:04:39.260 although there were two different rationales

00:04:41.600 being given for the agreement

00:04:43.740 about the blue chair

00:04:44.920 and several decades ago now

00:04:47.860 a third man walked in, postmodern man

00:04:49.500 and he said, hey guys, take it easy

00:04:50.840 that might be a blue chair to you

00:04:52.520 might be a yellow sofa

00:04:57.200 to somebody else 0.59

00:04:58.800 might be a pink futon

00:05:00.740 to a third party

00:05:02.420 to each their own guys.

00:05:04.940 Now, a Christian man, a rational man, 0.94

00:05:06.120 looked at a post-modern man like he was out to lunch

00:05:07.800 because he indeed was out to lunch.

00:05:10.220 But it was okay because he wasn't putting a gun

00:05:13.200 to anybody's head.

00:05:14.240 So there was still some peace within the coffee shop.

00:05:18.620 But over the last few years, a fourth man has walked in,

00:05:20.740 and when he walked into the coffee shop,

00:05:22.180 classic Texas style, you know,

00:05:23.940 the double doors started swinging back and forth.

00:05:26.720 You heard that.

00:05:27.220 The barista ducks down behind the bar of the coffee bar there,

00:05:36.640 and he says, you're all wrong.

00:05:39.080 That object there is a purple elephant,

00:05:41.060 and you'll all confess it to be a purple elephant,

00:05:44.840 or often you lot do. 0.65

00:05:48.380 Pagan Man.

00:05:50.140 He is not postmodern.

00:05:52.380 Postmodern Man says, hey, man, take it easy.

00:05:54.180 To each their own. 0.98

00:05:54.980 But by that time, pagan man just slaps them in the face, knocks them down to the ground.

00:05:58.920 Postpartum man says, well, that's okay because to somebody somewhere that was an act of love. 0.79

00:06:06.420 Rational man is inching his way closer and closer to Christian man right now. 0.90

00:06:11.380 And that's a silver lining in the mess that we're in. 0.94

00:06:14.100 He's starting to realize that he has to hang his observations on something more than human reason.

00:06:17.900 It indeed is self-evident.

00:06:18.920 But when a society is given over to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done, as we have experienced now for many years, Romans 1, as we're experiencing that kind of thing, you realize you need a based mind.

00:06:31.340 You need to have your thinking based in something that is true.

00:06:36.440 Indeed, who constituted that blue chair?

00:06:38.520 Who made it such?

00:06:40.600 Now, why that illustration?

00:06:43.420 Well, we don't know what children are.

00:06:48.920 And we don't know why they are what they are.

00:06:52.040 So for a while, replace a child with the blue chair.

00:06:57.340 Swap them out for a minute. 1.00

00:06:59.120 The Christian knows what a child is. 1.00

00:07:01.420 He knows what his children are.

00:07:02.760 He knows who they are.

00:07:03.800 He knows what God has made them to be, and he knows the promises that he's made to them.

00:07:07.480 Now, Rational Man fed off of that Christian consensus for a long time.

00:07:11.780 Now, they neglected God, but they tried to hold on.

00:07:14.300 We still kind of know who these children are and what they're up to and where they come from in a sense. 0.66

00:07:19.720 But all of that was feeding off of the Christian consensus. 0.96

00:07:23.300 But now the Christians, having neglected our duty to proclaim to the world and disciple the nations 0.87

00:07:29.600 and teach people about the nature of reality, we've neglected that responsibility.

00:07:35.840 And now what's happened is we're past postmodern man. 0.91

00:07:38.840 Pagan man is going to come in and he's going to tell you what your kids are, namely not yours. 0.96

00:07:44.300 he's going to tell you what your kids are because we've neglected actually what God has revealed

00:07:50.420 about our children. And we've neglected what God has revealed about the home. So if this is the

00:07:54.940 household in the war for the cosmos, we have to start with the nature of the household. What is

00:08:00.600 it? And the nature of the family, what is it? So all of that is somewhat of a preamble and an

00:08:07.160 introduction to where we're going. Let's talk a minute about this dissolving American family.

00:08:13.580 The clearest place we see it is in Obergefell. 0.83

00:08:15.820 So raise your hand if you're very familiar with Obergefell,

00:08:17.740 and you say, I could basically give you what Obergefell is.

00:08:21.460 Okay, so Obergefell is a Supreme Court decision

00:08:24.180 that alleged that a man has the right to marry another man.

00:08:29.180 So in our land, this decision has actually come down,

00:08:33.680 and there are all sorts of consequences from it.

00:08:36.880 Of course, this is Romans 1,

00:08:38.140 when people are given over to a debased mind

00:08:39.880 and they worship the creature rather than the creator.

00:08:41.580 It's what Paul says in Romans 1.

00:08:42.960 What happens? 1.00

00:08:43.880 The fruit of that kind of creature worship is homosexual practice. 0.98

00:08:48.180 And we are so far down the line in our own society of worshiping the creature rather 0.95

00:08:52.680 than the creator that not only is it culturally acceptable for men to exchange the natural 0.63

00:08:57.520 use of the woman and be debased with one another, but we have actually enshrined that kind of

00:09:02.320 thing in the standards of our nation.

00:09:05.060 So we have been worshiping the creature for a very long time.

00:09:08.120 We have that kind of decision. 0.80

00:09:09.000 And what Obergefell said is that that homosexual marriage, which is not a real thing, we'll 1.00

00:09:14.000 get to that in a minute, but that alleged marriage between those two men deserves all 0.68

00:09:20.260 of the rights and responsibilities of your real marriages, of your marriage.

00:09:25.320 Anything that you get, they have to get.

00:09:28.860 That's what Obergefell said.

00:09:31.220 And we quickly discovered how that's absolutely going to destroy parenting, parental rights,

00:09:36.220 and the very nature of what children are and to whom they belong.

00:09:41.740 We saw that with a case called Pavan v. Smith.

00:09:45.860 Pavan v. Smith was a case after Obergefell. 0.89

00:09:49.000 It came out of Arkansas, and there were two women that were in a lesbian relationship 0.99

00:09:53.780 and claimed marriage in Arkansas. 0.94

00:09:58.320 One of the ladies became pregnant. 0.54

00:10:01.320 Now, you naturally ask, how does that kind of thing happen?

00:10:03.500 in that particular arrangement? 0.84

00:10:06.880 Well, artificial reproductive technologies. 0.96

00:10:09.800 A random man provided the resources, 0.99

00:10:14.000 and one of the women in this lesbian relationship 1.00

00:10:15.960 became pregnant with a child. 0.99

00:10:18.600 When she delivered the child,

00:10:21.200 she said, I want to be listed as a parent of this child

00:10:24.240 on the birth certificate,

00:10:25.640 which as far as it goes was perfectly reasonable. 1.00

00:10:29.440 But then she said, I want my lesbian partner 0.99

00:10:31.600 to be listed as a parent on this birth certificate as well? 1.00

00:10:35.860 What would you do if you were there at the hospital?

00:10:39.560 What would you do if you were the civil authorities in Arkansas? 1.00

00:10:43.620 Does this lesbian partner who has no biological relationship to the child 1.00

00:10:48.200 get to be listed as a parent of this child? 1.00

00:10:52.240 Arkansas said, nothing doing.

00:10:55.300 We're not going to do it. 1.00

00:10:57.280 And of course, these ladies pressed the matter all the way to the Supreme Court.

00:10:59.960 The Supreme Court case, Pavan v. Smith, responded to Arkansas and said this.

00:11:06.640 You have to grant every right and responsibility of heterosexual marriage to this kind of transgressive marriage, this union.

00:11:17.980 And you, Arkansas, in your own code, if this were a man and a woman who were bound in marriage,

00:11:23.680 and this woman had become pregnant by artificial reproductive technologies,

00:11:29.860 Your own code says that you would have given the husband the parental rights,

00:11:33.680 even though he had no biological connection to the child. 0.95

00:11:38.880 So, Pavan V. Smith said, you have to do it for this woman.

00:11:44.000 Now, what does that mean for us?

00:11:47.980 I'm going to tell you, that means we have entirely lost what it means to actually be married.

00:11:54.900 and to understand that children are an essential unit to this particular union of man and woman.

00:12:06.520 So it's interesting to think about what you would do in the case of the heterosexual couple.

00:12:11.140 What would you do there?

00:12:12.440 If you had that peculiar situation arise, would you indeed say that the father is granted parental rights

00:12:20.240 over this child with whom he has no biological connection?

00:12:24.900 And I would tell you the answer is yes, he is the father of that child.

00:12:29.320 That Arkansas actually had the code right because he was in wedlock with that child's mother.

00:12:37.460 He was the head of the woman, and thus he had parental authority, parental responsibility. 0.73

00:12:44.000 He had paternity rights. 1.00

00:12:46.140 But that doesn't work in the case with the two lesbian ladies because there is no genuine wedlock between them.

00:12:53.100 so what we're discovering in our own society i have a legal friend of mine who said legally 0.79

00:13:00.840 speaking you need to understand that your children don't belong to you anymore

00:13:03.800 now the law is going to have to work itself out because we have a great tradition and

00:13:10.660 that would support that your children legally speaking very much do belong to you

00:13:14.560 but as soon as you destroy wedlock which we have destroyed

00:13:19.040 as soon as you turn your back on nature the very natural order of things how then do you know who 1.00

00:13:27.220 goes with who how do you make those kinds of decisions if this particular woman in a lesbian

00:13:33.040 relationship who has no genuine wedlock relationship with the pregnant woman and who has no biological 0.62

00:13:38.780 relationship to the child you're just beginning to assign these things flippantly and I'm going

00:13:44.980 to tell you that is absolutely destructive to children. Now, what are we supposed to do about

00:13:53.960 it? The Christian church has to recover the very nature of wedlock, and I would point you to two 1.00

00:13:59.560 texts to underscore what marriage actually is. The first is Malachi chapter 2, and the second 0.54

00:14:06.800 is Matthew chapter 19 and verse 6. So in Malachi chapter 2, God is telling the men of Judah that

00:14:15.800 they're going to be cut off out of the tabernacles of Jacob. So remember the context. This is a

00:14:21.420 post-exilic prophet. The people of God have come back from exile. There they are. And what happened

00:14:26.220 is the men of Judah began to forsake their wives and go after the daughters of a strange God. So

00:14:33.160 they were going after non-covenant women. They were entering into marriage with these non-covenant 0.99

00:14:37.540 women. And God said to them, if you do this kind of thing, I'm going to cut off you from the 1.00

00:14:42.840 tabernacles of Jacob. You're going to be cut off from the worshiping community as you go after

00:14:47.360 these women that are not of the worshiping community. They're strange women who worship a 1.00

00:14:52.000 strange God and you're forsaking your own wives. And when God was rebuking them in that manner, 0.97

00:14:58.260 He said in verse 14 of Malachi chapter two, the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife

00:15:04.840 of thy youth against whom thou hast dealt treacherously. Yet is she thy companion and the

00:15:11.300 wife of thy covenant, the wife of thy covenant. So I'm going to point to Malachi two verse 14

00:15:18.500 is biblical support for this notion that genuine marriage between a man and a woman is covenant

00:15:24.660 marriage. Now covenant marriage is not a particular type of marriage. You know how you have like

00:15:30.840 particular types of diets. You're like, I like the keto diet and I like this kind of diet.

00:15:34.980 I'm not commending covenant marriage to you as a particular type of marriage. I'm presenting

00:15:40.140 covenant marriage to you as the thing itself. Any real marriage is covenant marriage. That's simply

00:15:46.260 what it is. What do we mean by the term? Well, God says he was witnessed between

00:15:51.660 these men and the wives of their youth.

00:15:56.580 He's actually the one who joined them together,

00:15:58.900 which is what Matthew 19, verse 6 says.

00:16:01.040 Matthew 19, 6 says,

00:16:02.960 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh.

00:16:06.520 What therefore God hath joined together,

00:16:09.120 let not man put asunder.

00:16:11.720 What God himself has joined together.

00:16:14.640 So, a covenant is not simply a contract.

00:16:21.660 To walk into a coffee shop and to say that that blue chair is really a purple elephant

00:16:28.180 is to undo the very nature of reality or attempt to do so.

00:16:35.640 To say that a man can marry a man and that it's a genuine marriage,

00:16:40.340 it's a real thing, it's a real covenant marriage, is to do the exact same thing. 0.88

00:16:44.860 You are trying to undo the very nature of reality, what God himself has constituted.

00:16:50.600 He constituted the blue chair to be a blue chair. 0.91

00:16:52.920 He has constituted this man and this woman to be one new thing.

00:16:56.580 He bound them together by covenant. 0.56

00:16:58.880 And anyone that's trying to say that this other homosexual union is the same kind of thing as this, 0.95

00:17:04.260 that it's a genuine marriage, they are simply lying about the very nature of reality. 0.97

00:17:10.240 And you can't do that and not begin to lie about the nature of children.

00:17:15.620 if you do it in marriage you're going to do it with children but here's the tough part

00:17:23.640 i'm convinced that the evangelical church in america

00:17:27.460 doesn't really know what marriage is so we can't just point the finger and say you naughty people

00:17:35.060 outside there look what you've done you they did that because we neglected our duty we neglected

00:17:41.040 our duty to teach what marriage is, to teach what the family is, and then to embody it,

00:17:45.700 to actually put flesh upon it. What do I mean by that? Well, Matthew 19.6 says that God himself

00:17:52.620 is the one who joins man and woman together. And have you thought about what that really means?

00:17:56.220 It's not a contract, but it's a covenant. What do I mean by that? We're here in Texas,

00:18:02.200 so this might be fitting. Tractors, I think tractors would be around. You got, yeah, okay,

00:18:08.280 Bill and John are two men, and they're going to make a business deal.

00:18:13.420 They're going to make a business contract.

00:18:15.620 Bill's going to sell John 100 tractors for X amount of money.

00:18:20.240 They sign the contract. They leave.

00:18:23.140 The next day, Bill's tractor manufacturing plant burns down to the ground.

00:18:28.600 And John gets gifted the 100 tractors that he needed by a rich uncle who gets out of the farming business.

00:18:35.540 Can those men come together that next day?

00:18:37.560 Neither of them have any need for this contract.

00:18:39.580 One can't fill it, fill the order.

00:18:41.500 The other one doesn't need the order.

00:18:42.460 Can those men come together the next day and shake hands,

00:18:45.040 call it off with no harm, no foul, no sin?

00:18:48.940 Absolutely they can.

00:18:50.680 Okay?

00:18:52.100 All right, Jack and Jill. 0.97

00:18:54.460 Jill walks the aisle.

00:18:56.520 I now pronounce you husband and wife.

00:18:59.680 Three days later on the honeymoon,

00:19:02.220 they both look at it and go, you know, this just isn't working out for me.

00:19:05.780 This isn't working out.

00:19:07.560 It's a really bad situation for that to happen three days in.

00:19:09.680 But nevertheless, three days in, can Jack and Jill come together,

00:19:13.760 shake hands, call it off, no harm, no foul, no sin?

00:19:18.120 You know instinctively they can't.

00:19:19.960 But there's no kids involved.

00:19:22.460 You're only three days in.

00:19:25.020 Ask yourself the question, why?

00:19:26.880 Why in the world do I know that that's different than the contract?

00:19:30.860 And the answer is because you understand covenant marriage instinctively.

00:19:35.840 What that means is God himself actually bonded them together and created one new thing.

00:19:43.520 So if you have Jack Thompson and Jill Williams that are soon to get married,

00:19:47.680 imagine there's a ceremony here.

00:19:49.120 Jill Williams walks down the aisle here.

00:19:51.820 Before the ceremony, you have Jack Thompson and Jill Williams.

00:19:54.360 You have two individuals.

00:19:56.100 And after the ceremony, you have this one new thing that God himself created

00:20:00.380 that's called the Thompsons.

00:20:03.300 indeed at the end of the ceremony the traditional way that the minister

00:20:08.220 announces that this union has indeed occurred is he says i present to you for

00:20:11.940 the very first time mr and mrs jack thompson

00:20:15.520 and if you've been infected by our modern sensibilities if you've been

00:20:21.960 infected by the various waves of feminism you would step back and say oh 1.00

00:20:25.260 my goodness did he just forget her name

00:20:27.960 i mean i feel bad for this guy he messed up the liturgy he did not

00:20:33.220 pay attention to his notes? And the answer is, no, he didn't forget anything. That's actually

00:20:39.420 the way it's pronounced. I'm sure it's the way it was pronounced for the majority of you

00:20:44.280 in this very room who have gotten married. I now present to you for the first time,

00:20:49.220 Mr. and Mrs. Jack Thompson. Why? Because they are one new thing. God himself has created them,

00:20:56.120 and there's a head of the Thompsons, and there's a body of the Thompsons. This is why all the talk

00:21:00.860 about patriarchy and headship, some of the young guys can get this really confused. They think it's

00:21:05.720 like, oh, I'm a boss. Like I get to be a boss now. And you're like, well, are there, can you take

00:21:11.880 the boss employee relationship and map that on in ways to the marriage? Well, yes, of course you

00:21:16.740 can, but then you're actually, you know, you know how much more you need to say, right? About the

00:21:21.840 reason that the Bible talks about headship is because it's an organic entity. We are the body

00:21:28.040 of Christ. We're not just the servants of Christ. We are the body of Christ. The woman is not just

00:21:33.960 the servant who should submit to her husband in all things, by all means, that's true, but she's

00:21:39.020 the body. She is his body. Okay, so I've really teach at New St. Andrews College, and I've messed 0.74

00:21:45.340 up my students before, so I'll draw a stick figure on the board. I'll say, when I got married

00:21:51.220 to my wife, God created this one new thing, a head and a body, and then draw a circle around 0.60

00:21:56.200 my little stick figure tummy. I said, so when a baby comes, whose body is the baby in? 0.68

00:22:04.060 And they say, oh, yours. I was like, you're right. And I said, if you leave this place

00:22:10.960 and say Dr. Longshore said that men could get pregnant, I will deny it. I will deny it.

00:22:20.040 But do you see, stick with it for a minute, do you see? My wife, her name's Heather.

00:22:25.420 She's my body. 1.00

00:22:26.240 When she's pregnant, whose body is the baby in?

00:22:28.380 Well, you know it's in her body, of course.

00:22:30.200 But she's my body.

00:22:31.680 So it's in my body.

00:22:33.980 That kind of thinking is underscoring something called wedlock.

00:22:39.520 That's the legal, civil way that we talk about this thing.

00:22:42.320 And we need to recover that word. 0.97

00:22:44.740 Wedlock is wedlock.

00:22:45.860 God has actually bonded this new entity that did not exist before.

00:22:50.100 And as Christ loves his body, so men are to love their bodies.

00:22:56.600 They are to love their wives.

00:22:59.300 So marriage is more than the product of the will of the parties involved.

00:23:04.520 This is very important.

00:23:09.200 This is where we need to see the nature of things.

00:23:12.720 Go back to the chair again.

00:23:14.020 What's the blue chair?

00:23:15.140 It's a creation of God.

00:23:17.040 To deny reality is to try to undo what God in heaven has done. 0.99

00:23:24.500 For you to say, I'm just going to forsake my wife and go after these strange women,

00:23:29.580 is to try to undo what God himself has done. 0.88

00:23:33.280 So how does this play into children?

00:23:37.580 Well, stick figure, head, body, children come.

00:23:41.720 Are the children a part of the one new thing that God has now created called the Thompsons?

00:23:47.600 The answer is yes.

00:23:49.220 That's why you call the little kids by the last name Thompson.

00:23:53.480 They're Thompsons because they're part of that covenant family.

00:23:57.960 A covenant marriage results in covenant children.

00:24:01.780 A covenant marriage results in a covenant household.

00:24:05.780 God himself has constituted it.

00:24:07.820 He has created it.

00:24:08.880 It's this one new thing, and thus there's this last name.

00:24:12.000 Now, when Jack and Jill get married, does Jack lose his jackness, and does Jill lose her jillness?

00:24:16.760 And I'd say, no.

00:24:18.400 Jack doesn't lose his jackness. Jill doesn't lose her jillness.

00:24:20.760 But there is one new thing now that didn't exist before.

00:24:26.220 Called the Thompsons.

00:24:28.100 And when the little child's born and you call him Bobby Thompson,

00:24:31.460 does Bobby have his bobbiness?

00:24:34.120 Of course he does. Why do you give him a first name?

00:24:35.720 but is bobby genuinely a thompson like really a top a part of this thing called the thompsons

00:24:43.000 absolutely he is so when the department of children and families comes knocking on your

00:24:50.480 door very soon to tell you that your children don't belong to you anymore what are you going

00:24:55.760 to say what arguments do you employ now some of you say i got a 12 gauge mossberg over there that

00:25:04.880 says they're my kids cleaned it cleaned it last weekend now if that's you i say god bless you and

00:25:13.440 may your tribe increase i'm from florida i live in moscow idaho now idaho's pretty pretty pretty

00:25:19.340 good too but florida keeps a country just like texas so i'm 12 gauge mossberg would be the first

00:25:25.860 instinct but then what what arguments do you employ okay what arguments do you employ

00:25:31.600 do you do the paternity test like the afternoon talk talk show who's the dad come back after the

00:25:39.660 break we'll tell you who the dad is we have we have the we have the results would you argue a

00:25:45.540 natural biological now I'm not actually I don't think this is a bad idea but I want to use it to

00:25:50.760 contrast something would you argue the natural biological don't you see he has my eyes don't

00:25:55.400 you see he looks like me don't you see get the get the paternity test and I'll show you the blood

00:25:59.380 relation between me and the child. All of that's good and fine. But take the blue chair idea,

00:26:07.580 take the Thompson idea, take God himself constituting one new thing, and look at the DCF

00:26:13.260 agent in the face and say, have you lost your mind? God himself created one new thing, however

00:26:20.800 many years ago. It's called the Thompsons. God himself constituted it. And for you to come in

00:26:27.720 and tried to claim that these children are not covenantally mine,

00:26:31.880 that they are not a part of this one new entity,

00:26:34.600 this thing is to try to undo what the God of heaven has done.

00:26:39.260 You're trying to undo Matthew 19.

00:26:42.080 You're trying to pretend that God was not witness between me

00:26:45.660 and the wife of my covenant.

00:26:48.400 This is an actual bonded entity.

00:26:49.960 You're trying to undo this thing just like you're trying to undo

00:26:52.820 the very nature of the blue chair in the coffee shop itself.

00:26:58.720 So, where do children come from and why?

00:27:03.320 Psalm 127, verse 3.

00:27:05.940 Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord.

00:27:10.920 They're an actual heritage of the Lord.

00:27:13.120 So the Lord opens and closes the womb,

00:27:15.780 and children come from the Lord himself.

00:27:19.040 They actually belong to him, and he's the one who grants them to us.

00:27:25.580 It's not purely natural and biological.

00:27:30.120 So here, I'd say the same kind of thing happens with adoption.

00:27:32.880 Once an adoption has genuinely happened, that child is covenantally a part of the Thompsons.

00:27:40.080 You become a Thompson.

00:27:41.360 You're going to get the last name Thompson to signal that you indeed are a part of this one new thing.

00:27:46.600 And you have the protections that those that are naturally born, biologically so, have as well.

00:27:53.440 You are a part of this one new entity that God himself has created.

00:28:01.180 Okay.

00:28:02.420 With that, we should step back and say, why?

00:28:07.620 Why has God done this thing?

00:28:09.320 If you believe this is the way God has wired up the world, and you should believe it's right there in Matthew, it's right there in Malachi.

00:28:14.540 If God has seen fit to actually create families via covenant marriage, real things that are more than just the product of the will of the parties involved, why has he done so?

00:28:28.060 Maybe one more point to highlight that marriage is more than the product of the will of the parties involved. 0.90

00:28:35.860 Christians have reduced marriage to just that. 0.91

00:28:39.060 Jack and Jill came down. 0.83

00:28:40.340 They made voluntary decisions.

00:28:42.060 and by virtue of their voluntary decisions alone, they're now married.

00:28:47.800 But then Joe and Bob went to that same sanctuary

00:28:53.920 and Bob walked down the aisle, met Joe,

00:28:56.720 and they said the exact same words

00:28:58.580 and the minister announced the exact same words.

00:29:01.760 And we've already reduced marriage to being simply the product

00:29:04.540 of the will of the parties involved.

00:29:05.880 And, well, Joe and Bob seem to mean it, so isn't that a thing?

00:29:10.600 The answer is absolutely not.

00:29:13.480 It's not a thing.

00:29:14.720 Because God himself is the one who creates covenant marriage, covenant homes, covenant children.

00:29:20.620 Why does he do that?

00:29:22.580 Well, we see why in Malachi chapter 2.

00:29:26.800 Malachi chapter 2, verse 15, he's arguing with the sons of Judah again,

00:29:33.200 telling them that

00:29:35.620 they can't forsake 0.92

00:29:37.300 the wife of their

00:29:39.760 covenant. And he says

00:29:41.220 in verse 15,

00:29:43.620 And did not he make one?

00:29:46.180 Yet he had the residue

00:29:47.540 of the Spirit.

00:29:49.780 And then he says,

00:29:51.300 And wherefore one?

00:29:53.120 Now first, let's talk about what he's saying.

00:29:55.020 This is somewhat of a confusing passage.

00:29:57.040 I'm following John Calvin's logic here

00:29:59.140 in his commentary.

00:30:00.880 He says, And did not he make one?

00:30:03.200 what's he talking about with, as he's appealing to these men of Judah who are going after strange

00:30:07.660 women, he's saying, did not he make one Adam and Eve? He made one Eve for the one Adam. Okay. So

00:30:16.240 polygamy seems to be in view here as well. He didn't make Adam. Of course he didn't make Adam 0.92

00:30:20.600 and Steve. He made Adam and Eve. He didn't make Adam, Eve and Jenny and Susan. He didn't do that

00:30:27.260 either. Did not he make one. Okay. And really think about it. I mean, step back. God can create it

00:30:32.820 however he wants to, God, in the creation of Adam and giving him one helper who is a helper suitable

00:30:38.520 to him, God's telling us so many glorious things about the very structure of the world and the

00:30:44.740 structure of marriage itself. So God says, and did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the

00:30:51.820 spirit, which I think is basically a language of saying he could have done, he could have created

00:30:55.700 more. He wasn't, he wasn't limited by, by his power. In wherefore one, why did he make

00:31:02.920 one? Then he says that he might seek a godly seed, that he might seek a godly seed. Now

00:31:14.260 step back and say, who expected that? Really? Are you telling me he made one Eve

00:31:22.040 so that the children would be godly.

00:31:29.780 So he made Adam upright. 0.89

00:31:32.500 He gave him Eve.

00:31:33.500 He told him to be fruitful, exercise dominion, fill the earth.

00:31:37.100 But all of that was to be a godly kind of thing.

00:31:41.580 And that's why he structured the family as he did.

00:31:45.640 Why has he given you children?

00:31:48.540 Because he wants godly seed.

00:31:49.940 doesn't he just want well-behaved seed nope 0.70

00:31:53.920 um can we fill the earth be fruitful multiply and have dominion

00:32:00.080 can we accomplish the cultural mandate the dominion mandate that was given to

00:32:03.840 our father adam without little christians

00:32:07.420 nope

00:32:08.940 is the very structure of the family designed to make christians 0.97

00:32:16.760 yes

00:32:18.500 the very structure of the family. 1.00

00:32:22.000 So this is one thing I would do with unbelievers who say they want to get married. 1.00

00:32:26.080 Do unbelievers have the right to get married? 1.00

00:32:28.980 Well, the answer is yes.

00:32:31.000 There's something natural about this union.

00:32:33.900 We don't deny that.

00:32:35.400 But can they fulfill the actual purpose of the institution?

00:32:41.020 I'm going to tell you the answer is no.

00:32:43.040 because the purpose of the institution itself is godly seed godly seed

00:32:51.100 you know i love this uh i read this in an old puritan he said look look we have children to

00:32:58.560 build the kingdom of god i was like whoa can you imagine that does that come for some of you like

00:33:05.580 16 17 18 year olds 19 year olds 20 year olds you start parents are starting to think about this

00:33:10.820 You have a part of your counseling.

00:33:13.080 Yeah, I think I'm going to get married.

00:33:15.360 Why are you going to get married, son?

00:33:16.740 I want to build a church.

00:33:19.840 It's my church growth strategy.

00:33:23.940 That didn't come up in my seminary in the church growth strategy class.

00:33:29.240 Teach people to get married and have babies.

00:33:32.860 Because the institution itself is for what?

00:33:36.520 It's for godly seed.

00:33:40.180 Now, we hear these promises to our children all throughout Scripture.

00:33:46.180 I would point you to Malachi 2.15.

00:33:48.000 I'm going to give you several promises.

00:33:49.180 Remember what I said in the beginning.

00:33:51.200 Keep your kids by what?

00:33:53.220 By faith.

00:33:54.580 That means you can only trust God for what he has actually promised you.

00:34:01.740 He hasn't promised you that you'll have the ability to walk on your hands

00:34:06.300 and, you know, push yourself up to the moon and kick it with your left foot.

00:34:10.800 He hasn't promised you that, so you shouldn't be trusting him for that.

00:34:15.160 Okay?

00:34:16.760 But he has made promises to you concerning your children.

00:34:20.080 And the first is already indicated in Malachi 2, verse 15.

00:34:23.440 Did he not make one?

00:34:25.000 And why one?

00:34:26.000 That he might seek a godly seed.

00:34:27.660 Oh, so that's what this is all about.

00:34:29.640 This is what the institution is about.

00:34:30.980 Lord, I believe your word.

00:34:33.120 I'm looking for godly seed.

00:34:34.020 You're looking for godly seed, Lord.

00:34:35.560 I'm looking for godly seed too.

00:34:37.720 Okay?

00:34:38.420 Here's another text.

00:34:39.380 Jeremiah 32, verse 39.

00:34:42.060 I will give them one heart in one way

00:34:44.160 that they may fear me forever

00:34:45.840 for their own good

00:34:47.360 and the good of their children after them.

00:34:52.520 So God promises,

00:34:53.540 I'm going to give them one heart

00:34:54.500 in one way

00:34:56.060 that they would fear me forever.

00:34:58.040 Has God done that for you all?

00:34:59.800 You covenanted community.

00:35:01.280 You church.

00:35:02.060 Has he done it for you?

00:35:03.100 And he says, yes.

00:35:03.740 He's given us a new heart.

00:35:05.280 He's given us this one heart, one way to fear the Lord for you and for the good of your children.

00:35:12.420 So you can pray that, Dad and Mom.

00:35:15.260 You can go to the Lord, say, Father, we know that you have given us one heart and one way to fear you,

00:35:21.640 not only for our good, but for the good of our children, and we're asking you to do that.

00:35:26.660 We're not asking you to do any more than what you promised.

00:35:30.140 You promised to do them good.

00:35:33.500 We're asking that you would do it.

00:35:35.280 Isaiah, chapter 59, verse 21.

00:35:39.920 And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord.

00:35:47.460 My spirit that is upon you and my words that I have put in your mouth

00:35:53.020 shall not depart out of your mouth or out of the mouth of your offspring

00:35:58.140 or out of the mouth of your children's offspring, says the Lord,

00:36:01.740 from this time forth and forevermore.

00:36:06.560 What has God promised?

00:36:08.680 This is my covenant with them.

00:36:10.420 He's covenanting with Israel.

00:36:11.860 We are the true Israel.

00:36:13.980 He's covenanting with us.

00:36:16.140 And he's saying, my spirit that is upon you,

00:36:17.900 my word that I put in your mouth,

00:36:19.080 will not depart out of the mouths of your children.

00:36:22.300 The word.

00:36:24.340 You want to talk about a promise

00:36:25.740 that you believe that will just make you laugh

00:36:29.360 at the times to come,

00:36:30.900 like that Proverbs 31 woman laughs? 0.98

00:36:33.160 Like, Obergefell is ridiculous. 0.99

00:36:36.060 Pavan V. Smith that I told you about is ridiculous. 0.97

00:36:38.600 None of them are going to stand. 0.98

00:36:40.120 They are not going to stand.

00:36:41.600 Why?

00:36:41.840 Because God has told us something, and we believe God for it.

00:36:45.840 Are you meaning to tell me that you, Pastor Longshore,

00:36:48.940 believe that the word of God is not going to depart from the mouths of your children?

00:36:53.360 Yes, that's exactly what I believe.

00:36:56.600 What about your children's children?

00:36:59.340 Them two.

00:37:02.460 How many generations?

00:37:03.560 a thousand and more.

00:37:10.180 How dare you believe such a promise?

00:37:11.760 Well, God said it.

00:37:12.600 That's why I believe it.

00:37:13.360 Isaiah 59, verse 21.

00:37:16.060 God has made us these promises.

00:37:17.940 And so when your children act naughty,

00:37:22.960 as children do,

00:37:25.340 you have two options.

00:37:28.980 Lose your mind.

00:37:31.500 Okay?

00:37:32.460 Lose your mind because you're not trusting God.

00:37:35.020 And you can lose it in a bunch of ways.

00:37:36.520 You can lose it by actually losing your temper with your children.

00:37:38.720 You can lose your mind by not losing your temper with them,

00:37:40.620 but internally you're just a wreck because, oh my goodness,

00:37:43.140 I am convinced that this little child is a seed of the serpent.

00:37:45.580 He must be a seed of the flesh alone, a serpent seed,

00:37:50.200 and I am at enmity with him.

00:37:57.180 Or you say, no, I'm going to trust God.

00:38:00.540 I'm going to trust God.

00:38:02.680 And that doesn't mean I'm not going to talk to him about it.

00:38:05.380 Okay?

00:38:06.000 I'm going to trust him.

00:38:07.560 Apply all the means that God has given us for the discipline and discipleship and nurture of this child.

00:38:13.380 It's not about not using means.

00:38:14.680 You have to use the means.

00:38:15.800 You have to use the means.

00:38:16.720 You don't use the means, it's not going to work.

00:38:19.280 Okay?

00:38:19.520 But you have to use the means by faith, which is an entirely different thing than using the means not by faith.

00:38:27.560 Faith in what?

00:38:28.620 Faith that the word's not going to depart from his mouth.

00:38:31.760 The spirit that's upon us won't depart him.

00:38:34.660 This is what God has promised us.

00:38:37.920 Psalm 103, verse 17.

00:38:40.520 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting

00:38:44.960 on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children,

00:38:50.020 to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.

00:38:54.040 So has God promised his righteousness to your children?

00:38:58.260 The answer is yes.

00:38:59.660 Those who love him and keep his commandments.

00:39:02.240 Isaiah 66, verse 22.

00:39:05.280 For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make

00:39:08.460 shall remain before me, says the Lord,

00:39:10.860 so shall your offspring and your name remain.

00:39:16.280 Are they going to remain?

00:39:18.360 Remain belonging to the Lord? 0.92

00:39:19.620 The answer is yes.

00:39:22.040 Psalm 102, verse 28.

00:39:24.920 The children of your servants shall dwell secure.

00:39:28.640 their offspring shall be established before you.

00:39:32.060 Notice the promise, the children of your servants.

00:39:35.080 Are you servants of the Lord?

00:39:38.080 Yes.

00:39:39.600 Well, Psalm 102, verse 28 says,

00:39:42.020 the children of your servants shall dwell secure.

00:39:45.360 Their offspring shall be established before you.

00:39:47.980 Are the children going to be established before the Lord? 0.82

00:39:50.300 Absolutely.

00:39:53.000 So, America has lost its mind.

00:39:58.100 Legally speaking, your children don't even belong to you anymore.

00:40:00.420 But that's the case because we forsook the truth that they genuinely belong to us as covenant children

00:40:07.420 far before the manifestation of the wickedness that we see in the world.

00:40:11.520 We lost something about the nature of marriage before Obergefell.

00:40:15.740 We lost something about the nature of parenting, the nature of the parent-child relationship before Pavan v. Smith.

00:40:22.860 And so the way we're going to solve this is by actually recovering what God has done.

00:40:28.060 Men, heads of households, heads of your wives,

00:40:32.820 you say, you know, if things are getting squirrely in your marriage,

00:40:37.980 and you could stand up as a man and you could say something like,

00:40:41.560 things are really bad, but I made a vow, and I'm going to keep my vow.

00:40:46.260 If you did that, you'd be doing something very manly, very worthy of commendation.

00:40:51.180 Here's a man that says, I'm going to keep the word that I made and fulfill my vow.

00:40:55.440 Praise the Lord for that.

00:40:57.060 But here's the thing, I want you to say more, and you need to say more.

00:41:01.220 Not only I'm going to keep my vow, because you see,

00:41:04.500 old Bob and Jim who came down and exchanged fake marital vows,

00:41:09.000 he could try to say that much.

00:41:10.760 I made a vow, I'm going to keep my vow.

00:41:13.080 What you say is, the God of heaven, the trying God, 0.63

00:41:20.140 condescended to bind me to this woman

00:41:24.640 such that there is one new thing.

00:41:27.440 They are no longer twain, but one flesh.

00:41:31.420 Who am I and who are you to ever think that this bond,

00:41:35.640 that I would try to undo what God himself has bound together?

00:41:40.600 You think I'm going to play around with the knot that God tied?

00:41:43.860 Do you think I'm going to play around by trying to sever head and body?

00:41:47.240 I'm doing this by faith.

00:41:49.300 He's going to be the one who nurtures this one new thing that he has created.

00:41:53.020 So in your home with your wife and with your children, it's all by faith.

00:41:56.280 It's saying, God, these are the children that you gave.

00:41:59.460 I'm here with them asking for you to bless them.

00:42:03.920 Now, a question comes, seeing what covenant marriage is between man and woman.

00:42:13.700 I'm going to push here for like, I have like 20 minutes left.

00:42:18.960 I might not take it all. We'll see.

00:42:22.680 Step back from what covenant marriage is

00:42:24.720 and ask yourself, does God have a marriage? 0.97

00:42:30.760 The answer is yes.

00:42:32.640 Yes, he does.

00:42:34.180 I'll give you a few texts.

00:42:36.780 Jeremiah 3.14.

00:42:38.580 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord,

00:42:41.720 for I am married unto you.

00:42:44.880 So God has a bride?

00:42:48.360 Isaiah 54, verse 5.

00:42:50.100 For thy maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall he be called.

00:42:59.820 Thy maker is thine husband.

00:43:02.200 Revelation 21, 2

00:43:03.380 And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

00:43:11.160 So God himself has a bride.

00:43:14.100 He has a covenant marriage.

00:43:16.520 And this can often go wrong in evangelical circles when we individualize this concept.

00:43:22.360 And so each person begins to think of him or herself as married to the Lord.

00:43:27.420 And then your modern evangelical songs speak that way.

00:43:30.320 And we sing songs about like, I am married and I'm so grateful I'm married.

00:43:33.400 And all the men are like, nope, I'm not singing it.

00:43:36.320 I am not singing that.

00:43:38.980 Because how many brides does God have?

00:43:42.000 One.

00:43:44.800 He has one bride.

00:43:45.960 And you step back and ask the question, okay, I've been brought in.

00:43:53.100 I'm a part of that bride and I have a household.

00:43:57.360 I have a bride of my own and I have children in the household.

00:44:02.260 Are they promised to be a part of this bride of Christ as well?

00:44:06.920 He set his love upon us as he set his love upon them.

00:44:10.180 His word and spirit won't depart from us.

00:44:11.960 Will his word and spirit depart from them?

00:44:14.780 We will remain before the Lord.

00:44:16.400 Will they remain before the Lord? 0.98

00:44:18.520 This one new entity that exists now between man and woman horizontally,

00:44:22.180 God himself has a bride and he's not going to forsake her either.

00:44:26.100 Can I trust God's promises that not only things will be well for my children,

00:44:30.800 but actually God is going to set his saving love upon them,

00:44:35.240 has set his saving love upon them in this remarkable way?

00:44:40.520 I would say that is right at the heart of what we need to recover in order to see family strengthened,

00:44:46.000 in order to keep our children, in order to see the fruitfulness and the dominion that we want to see in the world as it disintegrates around us.

00:44:53.400 It starts right there by heads of households saying, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

00:45:00.860 And for wives saying, these are the children that you gave us, Lord, and we're trusting you for your blessing upon them.

00:45:07.320 I mentioned the Joshua text.

00:45:08.720 I'm going to give you a few texts as I close out here.

00:45:10.980 The Joshua text.

00:45:11.860 As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

00:45:14.020 Ask yourself, you know, that's like our favorite evangelical verse.

00:45:16.920 It's definitely pasted on top of the doorway when we go out.

00:45:20.960 But then ask yourself, can he say that?

00:45:25.900 Now, hopefully you're like, well, yeah, he better because we're good Christians in America.

00:45:30.960 We put it all over our house.

00:45:33.620 But think about it.

00:45:34.420 Can he say, as for me, you know, don't they, don't, Joshua, aren't you being a little heavy-handed?

00:45:39.600 Don't the kids all need to say this?

00:45:41.560 Like, did you check with every single member of your household before you made such a declaration?

00:45:48.120 Okay.

00:45:48.660 Now, first of all, they all need to say it.

00:45:50.840 Praise the Lord.

00:45:52.540 But Joshua had a right to say what he said.

00:45:55.240 Because he was the head of the household.

00:45:57.540 This is what we do.

00:45:59.640 God has constituted this entity.

00:46:01.400 He's made promises.

00:46:02.140 See, he's not going beyond God's promises when he makes that declaration.

00:46:06.440 He's actually receiving God's promise and speaking according to the promise.

00:46:11.960 What about Abraham?

00:46:12.940 Abraham in Genesis 17, verse 7.

00:46:15.540 There God says,

00:46:16.660 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee,

00:46:20.480 and thy seed after thee in their generations,

00:46:23.260 for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

00:46:27.740 Now, if Abraham were here, we'd ask him some questions.

00:46:31.720 Abraham, in Genesis 17, 7,

00:46:33.760 did God swear an oath to you to be your God?

00:46:37.140 Abraham said, yep.

00:46:39.980 And did he swear an oath to you to be God to your children?

00:46:45.440 Absolutely he did.

00:46:47.100 That's what the text says.

00:46:49.440 And so we're trusting God for what he has actually revealed.

00:46:56.300 Then there's Job.

00:46:57.520 He's another example of this.

00:46:59.080 Sacrificing for his children. 1.00

00:47:01.240 And if you're in the Reformed community long enough,

00:47:03.300 you hear people talk about Job sacrificing for his children.

00:47:05.480 It's a beautiful picture of a father serving as this priest in his home.

00:47:10.860 But again, you step back from him and go,

00:47:12.300 is that really something, is that okay?

00:47:15.440 Can you do that kind of thing?

00:47:16.880 He's commended for doing this kind of thing,

00:47:19.820 operating as a priest in his home.

00:47:22.240 You mean you can offer sacrifices for more than just yourself?

00:47:26.120 The answer is absolutely.

00:47:27.420 So when we gather to worship the Lord as living and holy sacrifices, we do so not only as individuals, but also as households.

00:47:37.840 And the head of those households are offering up their lives saying, Lord, bless those who are under my care, just as Job did in his day.

00:47:48.180 Then there's Acts 16, Paul and Silas to the Philippian jailer.

00:47:52.540 This is one of my favorite texts that underscored this particular principle

00:47:57.280 about the way that the household works and the way that we keep our children.

00:48:01.560 This is Acts 16.31. 1.00

00:48:03.100 The Philippian jailer, of course, is a Gentile. 1.00

00:48:06.620 And God does the miracle. 1.00

00:48:08.720 All of the prisoners are going free.

00:48:10.720 Philippian jailer is going to kill himself because he thinks I'm dead anyway.

00:48:13.560 And he says, what must I do to be saved?

00:48:16.940 And Paul and Silas look at this man and they say,

00:48:19.820 Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ

00:48:21.820 And you will be saved

00:48:22.980 And your house

00:48:24.060 And that's the kind of text

00:48:29.180 You've got to read over and over again

00:48:30.440 You say what did they say?

00:48:33.500 What?

00:48:34.940 Did they look at him in the face

00:48:36.880 And say believe in the Lord Jesus Christ

00:48:39.560 And you will be saved

00:48:40.400 And your house

00:48:41.240 And how in the world was that allowed?

00:48:45.400 Who permitted that?

00:48:47.280 I mean I've been an American

00:48:48.860 evangelical Christian my whole life. I went to the last Billy Graham crusade, did Tampa Bay,

00:48:56.020 Raymond James stadium. All right. I mean, I've been in the every head bowed, every eye closed

00:49:00.720 situation before. And can you imagine being there? Like the preachers going in and he's like,

00:49:06.680 we've come to the moment of decision, every head bowed, every eye closed. He gives you Jesus

00:49:11.000 Christ up the middle, lived, died, rose again, ascended into heaven, returning to one day you

00:49:15.860 trust in him and you'll be saved. And then he says, okay, raise your hand. You trust in him

00:49:20.420 and you'll be saved and your house. I see that hand and all of the generations that it represents

00:49:29.240 say what in the world? We don't talk that way. We don't think that way. Why? Well, we've lost

00:49:37.620 the very nature of what covenant marriage is. And we've lost the very nature of what children are.

00:49:41.900 And that's why we're losing our children.

00:49:44.600 And we have to recover the way the Bible talks about the family

00:49:48.860 and the way the Bible talks about children

00:49:51.120 and the promises God has made to us and to them.

00:49:54.880 I'll leave you with one final text from Isaiah 65, verse 23.

00:49:59.900 There we hear this promise.

00:50:01.540 They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble,

00:50:06.080 for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord

00:50:08.560 and their offspring with them.

00:50:13.720 Just a moment of exegesis on the text.

00:50:16.220 You ask yourself, am I the seed of the blessed of the Lord,

00:50:20.060 my child of God, am I the seed of the blessed Lord?

00:50:22.780 And the answer is, well, yes.

00:50:25.460 And my offspring with me?

00:50:28.880 That's exactly what God has said through the prophet Isaiah.

00:50:32.200 Let's pray.

00:50:33.100 Father, thank you for your kindness to us.

00:50:35.900 Thank you for your promises.

00:50:37.140 thank you for our marriages

00:50:39.660 and thank you for our children

00:50:41.800 thank you for the wonderful marvelous

00:50:43.760 promises that you have made to us and

00:50:45.740 to them and we ask that you would help us

00:50:47.720 to live by faith, parent by

00:50:49.760 faith and in so doing we ask to see

00:50:51.740 the flourishing of your promises

00:50:53.360 far and wide. We ask all this in Jesus name

00:50:55.640 Amen

The NXR Podcast - December 05, 2023

CONFERENCE - Keep Your Kids with Jared Longshore

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