The NXR Podcast - December 05, 2023


CONFERENCE - Keep Your Kids with Jared Longshore

Topics
Hosted by
Mentioned
SUNDAY SERMON - Jesus Christ Is Praying DAILY TRUTH - The Problem With The American Church: You’re Not Angry Enough

Episode Stats


Length

50 minutes

Words per minute

166.06

Word count

8,459

Sentence count

642

Harmful content

Misogyny

29

sentences flagged

Toxicity

6

sentences flagged

Hate speech

67

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The key to keeping your kids is to keep them by faith, not by doubt, and then you're a wet blanket upon their lives until they spy out when they're 17 or 18. If you want to keep your kids by faith you have to trust God for what he's promised you about them. You can't trust the world if you don't trust God.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 In less than a year, our podcast has gone from an average of 10,000 downloads a month
00:00:04 to 50,000 downloads. What made the difference? You leaving us a five-star review. The more
00:00:10 positive reviews, the more the algorithm picks us up, and more people are confronted by the law
00:00:16 and gospel of Jesus Christ. Help us press forward the crown rights of King Jesus by leaving us a
00:00:23 five-star review on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks. My particular assignment has been
00:00:30 keep your kids, the message on keeping your kids. And I want to situate that within the broader
00:00:36 structure of our civilization that we are all too aware of and then a call for us as the sayings of
00:00:46 God to actually do what God has required of us in our homes by keeping our kids. And that's going
00:00:51 to start with, to knowing what the home is, knowing what kids are.
00:00:57 Because when it comes to keep your kids,
00:01:00 it's not hard for us to see that you can do that in the wrong way.
00:01:05 So you can lose your kids and hand them over to the world
00:01:10 because of a lack of faith.
00:01:14 But you can also try to keep your kids by a lack of faith.
00:01:20 You need to keep your kids by doubt, and then you suffocate them.
00:01:26 You're a wet blanket upon their lives,
00:01:30 and you're ripping them until they spying out when they're 17 or 18.
00:01:35 If you're saying something like, as long as you're under my roof, you'll obey my rules,
00:01:41 then that 17 or 18-year-old son says, okay, well, then I'll be under your roof anyway.
00:01:45 so i'm going to start at the outset by saying the key the central thing that we must remember
00:01:54 something we must do the cops keeping our kids is we must keep our kids by faith
00:01:59 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 and I want to basically take
00:02:12 this whole message to talk about what that really
00:02:14 means. What does it mean to keep your kids
00:02:16 by faith?
00:02:19 Because we
00:02:20 have problems with our understanding of faith.
00:02:23 So,
00:02:24 he said, you know, somebody says
00:02:26 I'm just, you know, the guy after
00:02:28 he wins the Super Bowl and he
00:02:30 talks about, well, it's just my faith.
00:02:32 The announcer
00:02:34 says, like, what? Tell me about your faith.
00:02:36 I don't believe in myself.
00:02:40 that's not really it that's not it and then if you go to the evangelical church and find that
00:02:46 same kind of sentiment about faith a faith of course is to trust god and to trust god you have
00:02:51 to trust him for what he's promised you you can't trust god for what he has not promised you
00:02:55 okay there's certain things that he hasn't promised us and we're not to we're not to
00:03:00 fabricate faith and those things that would be presumption but there are other things that he
00:03:04 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 He's promised you things about your children.
00:03:12 And you have to trust him for what he's promised you about your children.
00:03:18 That's the way to keep them.
00:03:20 And that faith is essential.
00:03:24 Okay, with that said, let's first talk about the world.
00:03:27 And kind of a Sons of Issachar moment, understanding the times, what's going on in the world.
00:03:32 I like to illustrate this by talking about four men in a coffee shop.
00:03:35 Now, I've said this a few times at different places.
00:03:37 So I'm going to try to judge by head nodding how many of you have heard me say this before
00:03:41 and how many of you have not heard me say this before.
00:03:43 It's like about 35% of you have heard me say this, maybe.
00:03:47 So for you to be a refresher, those of you who haven't,
00:03:49 I think this is very important when it comes to understating the times in which we live.
00:03:53 Four men in a coffee shop, and we'll say that those four men are Christian man,
00:03:58 rational man, postmodern man, and pagan man.
00:04:01 Those are the four men. 0.60
00:04:02 In American society, it started with Christian man and rational man.
00:04:05 they were sitting inside this coffee shop
00:04:07 and there was a blue chair beside them and they both were
00:04:09 agreed upon the fact that that indeed was a blue chair
00:04:11 now the Christian man said it's a blue chair
00:04:13 because God has created it so God
00:04:15 is sustaining it so by his kind providence
00:04:17 and by the present operation of his
00:04:19 kindness to his weak and ascertaining through human reason
00:04:21 that that indeed is a blue chair
00:04:22 his rational buddy said
00:04:25 I don't need all the God mumbo jumbo stuff 0.99
00:04:27 fellow but I agree with you it's self
00:04:29 evident that that is a blue chair
00:04:31 anybody who has
00:04:33 a brain that still works
00:04:35 knows that that's a blue chair
00:04:36 so there was peace within the coffee shop
00:04:39 although there were two different rationales
00:04:41 being given for the agreement
00:04:43 about the blue chair
00:04:44 and several decades ago now
00:04:47 a third man walked in, postmodern man
00:04:49 and he said, hey guys, take it easy
00:04:50 that might be a blue chair to you
00:04:52 might be a yellow sofa
00:04:57 to somebody else 0.59
00:04:58 might be a pink futon
00:05:00 to a third party
00:05:02 to each their own guys.
00:05:04 Now, a Christian man, a rational man, 0.94
00:05:06 looked at a post-modern man like he was out to lunch
00:05:07 because he indeed was out to lunch.
00:05:10 But it was okay because he wasn't putting a gun
00:05:13 to anybody's head.
00:05:14 So there was still some peace within the coffee shop.
00:05:18 But over the last few years, a fourth man has walked in,
00:05:20 and when he walked into the coffee shop,
00:05:22 classic Texas style, you know,
00:05:23 the double doors started swinging back and forth.
00:05:26 You heard that.
00:05:27 The barista ducks down behind the bar of the coffee bar there,
00:05:36 and he says, you're all wrong.
00:05:39 That object there is a purple elephant,
00:05:41 and you'll all confess it to be a purple elephant,
00:05:44 or often you lot do. 0.65
00:05:48 Pagan Man.
00:05:50 He is not postmodern.
00:05:52 Postmodern Man says, hey, man, take it easy.
00:05:54 To each their own. 0.98
00:05:54 But by that time, pagan man just slaps them in the face, knocks them down to the ground.
00:05:58 Postpartum man says, well, that's okay because to somebody somewhere that was an act of love. 0.79
00:06:06 Rational man is inching his way closer and closer to Christian man right now. 0.90
00:06:11 And that's a silver lining in the mess that we're in. 0.94
00:06:14 He's starting to realize that he has to hang his observations on something more than human reason.
00:06:17 It indeed is self-evident.
00:06:18 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 You need to have your thinking based in something that is true.
00:06:36 Indeed, who constituted that blue chair?
00:06:38 Who made it such?
00:06:40 Now, why that illustration?
00:06:43 Well, we don't know what children are.
00:06:48 And we don't know why they are what they are.
00:06:52 So for a while, replace a child with the blue chair.
00:06:57 Swap them out for a minute. 1.00
00:06:59 The Christian knows what a child is. 1.00
00:07:01 He knows what his children are.
00:07:02 He knows who they are.
00:07:03 He knows what God has made them to be, and he knows the promises that he's made to them.
00:07:07 Now, Rational Man fed off of that Christian consensus for a long time.
00:07:11 Now, they neglected God, but they tried to hold on.
00:07:14 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 But all of that was feeding off of the Christian consensus. 0.96
00:07:23 But now the Christians, having neglected our duty to proclaim to the world and disciple the nations 0.87
00:07:29 and teach people about the nature of reality, we've neglected that responsibility.
00:07:35 And now what's happened is we're past postmodern man. 0.91
00:07:38 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 he's going to tell you what your kids are because we've neglected actually what God has revealed
00:07:50 about our children. And we've neglected what God has revealed about the home. So if this is the
00:07:54 household in the war for the cosmos, we have to start with the nature of the household. What is
00:08:00 it? And the nature of the family, what is it? So all of that is somewhat of a preamble and an
00:08:07 introduction to where we're going. Let's talk a minute about this dissolving American family.
00:08:13 The clearest place we see it is in Obergefell. 0.83
00:08:15 So raise your hand if you're very familiar with Obergefell,
00:08:17 and you say, I could basically give you what Obergefell is.
00:08:21 Okay, so Obergefell is a Supreme Court decision
00:08:24 that alleged that a man has the right to marry another man.
00:08:29 So in our land, this decision has actually come down,
00:08:33 and there are all sorts of consequences from it.
00:08:36 Of course, this is Romans 1,
00:08:38 when people are given over to a debased mind
00:08:39 and they worship the creature rather than the creator.
00:08:41 It's what Paul says in Romans 1.
00:08:42 What happens? 1.00
00:08:43 The fruit of that kind of creature worship is homosexual practice. 0.98
00:08:48 And we are so far down the line in our own society of worshiping the creature rather 0.95
00:08:52 than the creator that not only is it culturally acceptable for men to exchange the natural 0.63
00:08:57 use of the woman and be debased with one another, but we have actually enshrined that kind of
00:09:02 thing in the standards of our nation.
00:09:05 So we have been worshiping the creature for a very long time.
00:09:08 We have that kind of decision. 0.80
00:09:09 And what Obergefell said is that that homosexual marriage, which is not a real thing, we'll 1.00
00:09:14 get to that in a minute, but that alleged marriage between those two men deserves all 0.68
00:09:20 of the rights and responsibilities of your real marriages, of your marriage.
00:09:25 Anything that you get, they have to get.
00:09:28 That's what Obergefell said.
00:09:31 And we quickly discovered how that's absolutely going to destroy parenting, parental rights,
00:09:36 and the very nature of what children are and to whom they belong.
00:09:41 We saw that with a case called Pavan v. Smith.
00:09:45 Pavan v. Smith was a case after Obergefell. 0.89
00:09:49 It came out of Arkansas, and there were two women that were in a lesbian relationship 0.99
00:09:53 and claimed marriage in Arkansas. 0.94
00:09:58 One of the ladies became pregnant. 0.54
00:10:01 Now, you naturally ask, how does that kind of thing happen?
00:10:03 in that particular arrangement? 0.84
00:10:06 Well, artificial reproductive technologies. 0.96
00:10:09 A random man provided the resources, 0.99
00:10:14 and one of the women in this lesbian relationship 1.00
00:10:15 became pregnant with a child. 0.99
00:10:18 When she delivered the child,
00:10:21 she said, I want to be listed as a parent of this child
00:10:24 on the birth certificate,
00:10:25 which as far as it goes was perfectly reasonable. 1.00
00:10:29 But then she said, I want my lesbian partner 0.99
00:10:31 to be listed as a parent on this birth certificate as well? 1.00
00:10:35 What would you do if you were there at the hospital?
00:10:39 What would you do if you were the civil authorities in Arkansas? 1.00
00:10:43 Does this lesbian partner who has no biological relationship to the child 1.00
00:10:48 get to be listed as a parent of this child? 1.00
00:10:52 Arkansas said, nothing doing.
00:10:55 We're not going to do it. 1.00
00:10:57 And of course, these ladies pressed the matter all the way to the Supreme Court.
00:10:59 The Supreme Court case, Pavan v. Smith, responded to Arkansas and said this.
00:11:06 You have to grant every right and responsibility of heterosexual marriage to this kind of transgressive marriage, this union.
00:11:17 And you, Arkansas, in your own code, if this were a man and a woman who were bound in marriage,
00:11:23 and this woman had become pregnant by artificial reproductive technologies,
00:11:29 Your own code says that you would have given the husband the parental rights,
00:11:33 even though he had no biological connection to the child. 0.95
00:11:38 So, Pavan V. Smith said, you have to do it for this woman.
00:11:44 Now, what does that mean for us?
00:11:47 I'm going to tell you, that means we have entirely lost what it means to actually be married.
00:11:54 and to understand that children are an essential unit to this particular union of man and woman.
00:12:06 So it's interesting to think about what you would do in the case of the heterosexual couple.
00:12:11 What would you do there?
00:12:12 If you had that peculiar situation arise, would you indeed say that the father is granted parental rights
00:12:20 over this child with whom he has no biological connection?
00:12:24 And I would tell you the answer is yes, he is the father of that child.
00:12:29 That Arkansas actually had the code right because he was in wedlock with that child's mother.
00:12:37 He was the head of the woman, and thus he had parental authority, parental responsibility. 0.73
00:12:44 He had paternity rights. 1.00
00:12:46 But that doesn't work in the case with the two lesbian ladies because there is no genuine wedlock between them.
00:12:53 so what we're discovering in our own society i have a legal friend of mine who said legally 0.79
00:13:00 speaking you need to understand that your children don't belong to you anymore
00:13:03 now the law is going to have to work itself out because we have a great tradition and
00:13:10 that would support that your children legally speaking very much do belong to you
00:13:14 but as soon as you destroy wedlock which we have destroyed
00:13:19 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 goes with who how do you make those kinds of decisions if this particular woman in a lesbian
00:13:33 relationship who has no genuine wedlock relationship with the pregnant woman and who has no biological 0.62
00:13:38 relationship to the child you're just beginning to assign these things flippantly and I'm going
00:13:44 to tell you that is absolutely destructive to children. Now, what are we supposed to do about
00:13:53 it? The Christian church has to recover the very nature of wedlock, and I would point you to two 1.00
00:13:59 texts to underscore what marriage actually is. The first is Malachi chapter 2, and the second 0.54
00:14:06 is Matthew chapter 19 and verse 6. So in Malachi chapter 2, God is telling the men of Judah that
00:14:15 they're going to be cut off out of the tabernacles of Jacob. So remember the context. This is a
00:14:21 post-exilic prophet. The people of God have come back from exile. There they are. And what happened
00:14:26 is the men of Judah began to forsake their wives and go after the daughters of a strange God. So
00:14:33 they were going after non-covenant women. They were entering into marriage with these non-covenant 0.99
00:14:37 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 tabernacles of Jacob. You're going to be cut off from the worshiping community as you go after
00:14:47 these women that are not of the worshiping community. They're strange women who worship a 1.00
00:14:52 strange God and you're forsaking your own wives. And when God was rebuking them in that manner, 0.97
00:14:58 He said in verse 14 of Malachi chapter two, the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife
00:15:04 of thy youth against whom thou hast dealt treacherously. Yet is she thy companion and the
00:15:11 wife of thy covenant, the wife of thy covenant. So I'm going to point to Malachi two verse 14
00:15:18 is biblical support for this notion that genuine marriage between a man and a woman is covenant
00:15:24 marriage. Now covenant marriage is not a particular type of marriage. You know how you have like
00:15:30 particular types of diets. You're like, I like the keto diet and I like this kind of diet.
00:15:34 I'm not commending covenant marriage to you as a particular type of marriage. I'm presenting
00:15:40 covenant marriage to you as the thing itself. Any real marriage is covenant marriage. That's simply
00:15:46 what it is. What do we mean by the term? Well, God says he was witnessed between
00:15:51 these men and the wives of their youth.
00:15:56 He's actually the one who joined them together,
00:15:58 which is what Matthew 19, verse 6 says.
00:16:01 Matthew 19, 6 says,
00:16:02 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh.
00:16:06 What therefore God hath joined together,
00:16:09 let not man put asunder.
00:16:11 What God himself has joined together.
00:16:14 So, a covenant is not simply a contract.
00:16:21 To walk into a coffee shop and to say that that blue chair is really a purple elephant
00:16:28 is to undo the very nature of reality or attempt to do so.
00:16:35 To say that a man can marry a man and that it's a genuine marriage,
00:16:40 it's a real thing, it's a real covenant marriage, is to do the exact same thing. 0.88
00:16:44 You are trying to undo the very nature of reality, what God himself has constituted.
00:16:50 He constituted the blue chair to be a blue chair. 0.91
00:16:52 He has constituted this man and this woman to be one new thing.
00:16:56 He bound them together by covenant. 0.56
00:16:58 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 that it's a genuine marriage, they are simply lying about the very nature of reality. 0.97
00:17:10 And you can't do that and not begin to lie about the nature of children.
00:17:15 if you do it in marriage you're going to do it with children but here's the tough part
00:17:23 i'm convinced that the evangelical church in america
00:17:27 doesn't really know what marriage is so we can't just point the finger and say you naughty people
00:17:35 outside there look what you've done you they did that because we neglected our duty we neglected
00:17:41 our duty to teach what marriage is, to teach what the family is, and then to embody it,
00:17:45 to actually put flesh upon it. What do I mean by that? Well, Matthew 19.6 says that God himself
00:17:52 is the one who joins man and woman together. And have you thought about what that really means?
00:17:56 It's not a contract, but it's a covenant. What do I mean by that? We're here in Texas,
00:18:02 so this might be fitting. Tractors, I think tractors would be around. You got, yeah, okay,
00:18:08 Bill and John are two men, and they're going to make a business deal.
00:18:13 They're going to make a business contract.
00:18:15 Bill's going to sell John 100 tractors for X amount of money.
00:18:20 They sign the contract. They leave.
00:18:23 The next day, Bill's tractor manufacturing plant burns down to the ground.
00:18:28 And John gets gifted the 100 tractors that he needed by a rich uncle who gets out of the farming business.
00:18:35 Can those men come together that next day?
00:18:37 Neither of them have any need for this contract.
00:18:39 One can't fill it, fill the order.
00:18:41 The other one doesn't need the order.
00:18:42 Can those men come together the next day and shake hands,
00:18:45 call it off with no harm, no foul, no sin?
00:18:48 Absolutely they can.
00:18:50 Okay?
00:18:52 All right, Jack and Jill. 0.97
00:18:54 Jill walks the aisle.
00:18:56 I now pronounce you husband and wife.
00:18:59 Three days later on the honeymoon,
00:19:02 they both look at it and go, you know, this just isn't working out for me.
00:19:05 This isn't working out.
00:19:07 It's a really bad situation for that to happen three days in.
00:19:09 But nevertheless, three days in, can Jack and Jill come together,
00:19:13 shake hands, call it off, no harm, no foul, no sin?
00:19:18 You know instinctively they can't.
00:19:19 But there's no kids involved.
00:19:22 You're only three days in.
00:19:25 Ask yourself the question, why?
00:19:26 Why in the world do I know that that's different than the contract?
00:19:30 And the answer is because you understand covenant marriage instinctively.
00:19:35 What that means is God himself actually bonded them together and created one new thing.
00:19:43 So if you have Jack Thompson and Jill Williams that are soon to get married,
00:19:47 imagine there's a ceremony here.
00:19:49 Jill Williams walks down the aisle here.
00:19:51 Before the ceremony, you have Jack Thompson and Jill Williams.
00:19:54 You have two individuals.
00:19:56 And after the ceremony, you have this one new thing that God himself created
00:20:00 that's called the Thompsons.
00:20:03 indeed at the end of the ceremony the traditional way that the minister
00:20:08 announces that this union has indeed occurred is he says i present to you for
00:20:11 the very first time mr and mrs jack thompson
00:20:15 and if you've been infected by our modern sensibilities if you've been
00:20:21 infected by the various waves of feminism you would step back and say oh 1.00
00:20:25 my goodness did he just forget her name
00:20:27 i mean i feel bad for this guy he messed up the liturgy he did not
00:20:33 pay attention to his notes? And the answer is, no, he didn't forget anything. That's actually
00:20:39 the way it's pronounced. I'm sure it's the way it was pronounced for the majority of you
00:20:44 in this very room who have gotten married. I now present to you for the first time,
00:20:49 Mr. and Mrs. Jack Thompson. Why? Because they are one new thing. God himself has created them,
00:20:56 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 about patriarchy and headship, some of the young guys can get this really confused. They think it's
00:21:05 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 the boss employee relationship and map that on in ways to the marriage? Well, yes, of course you
00:21:16 can, but then you're actually, you know, you know how much more you need to say, right? About the
00:21:21 reason that the Bible talks about headship is because it's an organic entity. We are the body
00:21:28 of Christ. We're not just the servants of Christ. We are the body of Christ. The woman is not just
00:21:33 the servant who should submit to her husband in all things, by all means, that's true, but she's
00:21:39 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 up my students before, so I'll draw a stick figure on the board. I'll say, when I got married
00:21:51 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 my little stick figure tummy. I said, so when a baby comes, whose body is the baby in? 0.68
00:22:04 And they say, oh, yours. I was like, you're right. And I said, if you leave this place
00:22:10 and say Dr. Longshore said that men could get pregnant, I will deny it. I will deny it.
00:22:20 But do you see, stick with it for a minute, do you see? My wife, her name's Heather.
00:22:25 She's my body. 1.00
00:22:26 When she's pregnant, whose body is the baby in?
00:22:28 Well, you know it's in her body, of course.
00:22:30 But she's my body.
00:22:31 So it's in my body.
00:22:33 That kind of thinking is underscoring something called wedlock.
00:22:39 That's the legal, civil way that we talk about this thing.
00:22:42 And we need to recover that word. 0.97
00:22:44 Wedlock is wedlock.
00:22:45 God has actually bonded this new entity that did not exist before.
00:22:50 And as Christ loves his body, so men are to love their bodies.
00:22:56 They are to love their wives.
00:22:59 So marriage is more than the product of the will of the parties involved.
00:23:04 This is very important.
00:23:09 This is where we need to see the nature of things.
00:23:12 Go back to the chair again.
00:23:14 What's the blue chair?
00:23:15 It's a creation of God.
00:23:17 To deny reality is to try to undo what God in heaven has done. 0.99
00:23:24 For you to say, I'm just going to forsake my wife and go after these strange women,
00:23:29 is to try to undo what God himself has done. 0.88
00:23:33 So how does this play into children?
00:23:37 Well, stick figure, head, body, children come.
00:23:41 Are the children a part of the one new thing that God has now created called the Thompsons?
00:23:47 The answer is yes.
00:23:49 That's why you call the little kids by the last name Thompson.
00:23:53 They're Thompsons because they're part of that covenant family.
00:23:57 A covenant marriage results in covenant children.
00:24:01 A covenant marriage results in a covenant household.
00:24:05 God himself has constituted it.
00:24:07 He has created it.
00:24:08 It's this one new thing, and thus there's this last name.
00:24:12 Now, when Jack and Jill get married, does Jack lose his jackness, and does Jill lose her jillness?
00:24:16 And I'd say, no.
00:24:18 Jack doesn't lose his jackness. Jill doesn't lose her jillness.
00:24:20 But there is one new thing now that didn't exist before.
00:24:26 Called the Thompsons.
00:24:28 And when the little child's born and you call him Bobby Thompson,
00:24:31 does Bobby have his bobbiness?
00:24:34 Of course he does. Why do you give him a first name?
00:24:35 but is bobby genuinely a thompson like really a top a part of this thing called the thompsons
00:24:43 absolutely he is so when the department of children and families comes knocking on your
00:24:50 door very soon to tell you that your children don't belong to you anymore what are you going
00:24:55 to say what arguments do you employ now some of you say i got a 12 gauge mossberg over there that
00:25:04 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 may your tribe increase i'm from florida i live in moscow idaho now idaho's pretty pretty pretty
00:25:19 good too but florida keeps a country just like texas so i'm 12 gauge mossberg would be the first
00:25:25 instinct but then what what arguments do you employ okay what arguments do you employ
00:25:31 do you do the paternity test like the afternoon talk talk show who's the dad come back after the
00:25:39 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 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 contrast something would you argue the natural biological don't you see he has my eyes don't
00:25:55 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 relation between me and the child. All of that's good and fine. But take the blue chair idea,
00:26:07 take the Thompson idea, take God himself constituting one new thing, and look at the DCF
00:26:13 agent in the face and say, have you lost your mind? God himself created one new thing, however
00:26:20 many years ago. It's called the Thompsons. God himself constituted it. And for you to come in
00:26:27 and tried to claim that these children are not covenantally mine,
00:26:31 that they are not a part of this one new entity,
00:26:34 this thing is to try to undo what the God of heaven has done.
00:26:39 You're trying to undo Matthew 19.
00:26:42 You're trying to pretend that God was not witness between me
00:26:45 and the wife of my covenant.
00:26:48 This is an actual bonded entity.
00:26:49 You're trying to undo this thing just like you're trying to undo
00:26:52 the very nature of the blue chair in the coffee shop itself.
00:26:58 So, where do children come from and why?
00:27:03 Psalm 127, verse 3.
00:27:05 Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord.
00:27:10 They're an actual heritage of the Lord.
00:27:13 So the Lord opens and closes the womb,
00:27:15 and children come from the Lord himself.
00:27:19 They actually belong to him, and he's the one who grants them to us.
00:27:25 It's not purely natural and biological.
00:27:30 So here, I'd say the same kind of thing happens with adoption.
00:27:32 Once an adoption has genuinely happened, that child is covenantally a part of the Thompsons.
00:27:40 You become a Thompson.
00:27:41 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 And you have the protections that those that are naturally born, biologically so, have as well.
00:27:53 You are a part of this one new entity that God himself has created.
00:28:01 Okay.
00:28:02 With that, we should step back and say, why?
00:28:07 Why has God done this thing?
00:28:09 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 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 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 Christians have reduced marriage to just that. 0.91
00:28:39 Jack and Jill came down. 0.83
00:28:40 They made voluntary decisions.
00:28:42 and by virtue of their voluntary decisions alone, they're now married.
00:28:47 But then Joe and Bob went to that same sanctuary
00:28:53 and Bob walked down the aisle, met Joe,
00:28:56 and they said the exact same words
00:28:58 and the minister announced the exact same words.
00:29:01 And we've already reduced marriage to being simply the product
00:29:04 of the will of the parties involved.
00:29:05 And, well, Joe and Bob seem to mean it, so isn't that a thing?
00:29:10 The answer is absolutely not.
00:29:13 It's not a thing.
00:29:14 Because God himself is the one who creates covenant marriage, covenant homes, covenant children.
00:29:20 Why does he do that?
00:29:22 Well, we see why in Malachi chapter 2.
00:29:26 Malachi chapter 2, verse 15, he's arguing with the sons of Judah again,
00:29:33 telling them that
00:29:35 they can't forsake 0.92
00:29:37 the wife of their
00:29:39 covenant. And he says
00:29:41 in verse 15,
00:29:43 And did not he make one?
00:29:46 Yet he had the residue
00:29:47 of the Spirit.
00:29:49 And then he says,
00:29:51 And wherefore one?
00:29:53 Now first, let's talk about what he's saying.
00:29:55 This is somewhat of a confusing passage.
00:29:57 I'm following John Calvin's logic here
00:29:59 in his commentary.
00:30:00 He says, And did not he make one?
00:30:03 what's he talking about with, as he's appealing to these men of Judah who are going after strange
00:30:07 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 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 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 either. Did not he make one. Okay. And really think about it. I mean, step back. God can create it
00:30:32 however he wants to, God, in the creation of Adam and giving him one helper who is a helper suitable
00:30:38 to him, God's telling us so many glorious things about the very structure of the world and the
00:30:44 structure of marriage itself. So God says, and did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the
00:30:51 spirit, which I think is basically a language of saying he could have done, he could have created
00:30:55 more. He wasn't, he wasn't limited by, by his power. In wherefore one, why did he make
00:31:02 one? Then he says that he might seek a godly seed, that he might seek a godly seed. Now
00:31:14 step back and say, who expected that? Really? Are you telling me he made one Eve
00:31:22 so that the children would be godly.
00:31:29 So he made Adam upright. 0.89
00:31:32 He gave him Eve.
00:31:33 He told him to be fruitful, exercise dominion, fill the earth.
00:31:37 But all of that was to be a godly kind of thing.
00:31:41 And that's why he structured the family as he did.
00:31:45 Why has he given you children?
00:31:48 Because he wants godly seed.
00:31:49 doesn't he just want well-behaved seed nope 0.70
00:31:53 um can we fill the earth be fruitful multiply and have dominion
00:32:00 can we accomplish the cultural mandate the dominion mandate that was given to
00:32:03 our father adam without little christians
00:32:07 nope
00:32:08 is the very structure of the family designed to make christians 0.97
00:32:16 yes
00:32:18 the very structure of the family. 1.00
00:32:22 So this is one thing I would do with unbelievers who say they want to get married. 1.00
00:32:26 Do unbelievers have the right to get married? 1.00
00:32:28 Well, the answer is yes.
00:32:31 There's something natural about this union.
00:32:33 We don't deny that.
00:32:35 But can they fulfill the actual purpose of the institution?
00:32:41 I'm going to tell you the answer is no.
00:32:43 because the purpose of the institution itself is godly seed godly seed
00:32:51 you know i love this uh i read this in an old puritan he said look look we have children to
00:32:58 build the kingdom of god i was like whoa can you imagine that does that come for some of you like
00:33:05 16 17 18 year olds 19 year olds 20 year olds you start parents are starting to think about this
00:33:10 You have a part of your counseling.
00:33:13 Yeah, I think I'm going to get married.
00:33:15 Why are you going to get married, son?
00:33:16 I want to build a church.
00:33:19 It's my church growth strategy.
00:33:23 That didn't come up in my seminary in the church growth strategy class.
00:33:29 Teach people to get married and have babies.
00:33:32 Because the institution itself is for what?
00:33:36 It's for godly seed.
00:33:40 Now, we hear these promises to our children all throughout Scripture.
00:33:46 I would point you to Malachi 2.15.
00:33:48 I'm going to give you several promises.
00:33:49 Remember what I said in the beginning.
00:33:51 Keep your kids by what?
00:33:53 By faith.
00:33:54 That means you can only trust God for what he has actually promised you.
00:34:01 He hasn't promised you that you'll have the ability to walk on your hands
00:34:06 and, you know, push yourself up to the moon and kick it with your left foot.
00:34:10 He hasn't promised you that, so you shouldn't be trusting him for that.
00:34:15 Okay?
00:34:16 But he has made promises to you concerning your children.
00:34:20 And the first is already indicated in Malachi 2, verse 15.
00:34:23 Did he not make one?
00:34:25 And why one?
00:34:26 That he might seek a godly seed.
00:34:27 Oh, so that's what this is all about.
00:34:29 This is what the institution is about.
00:34:30 Lord, I believe your word.
00:34:33 I'm looking for godly seed.
00:34:34 You're looking for godly seed, Lord.
00:34:35 I'm looking for godly seed too.
00:34:37 Okay?
00:34:38 Here's another text.
00:34:39 Jeremiah 32, verse 39.
00:34:42 I will give them one heart in one way
00:34:44 that they may fear me forever
00:34:45 for their own good
00:34:47 and the good of their children after them.
00:34:52 So God promises,
00:34:53 I'm going to give them one heart
00:34:54 in one way
00:34:56 that they would fear me forever.
00:34:58 Has God done that for you all?
00:34:59 You covenanted community.
00:35:01 You church.
00:35:02 Has he done it for you?
00:35:03 And he says, yes.
00:35:03 He's given us a new heart.
00:35:05 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 So you can pray that, Dad and Mom.
00:35:15 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 not only for our good, but for the good of our children, and we're asking you to do that.
00:35:26 We're not asking you to do any more than what you promised.
00:35:30 You promised to do them good.
00:35:33 We're asking that you would do it.
00:35:35 Isaiah, chapter 59, verse 21.
00:35:39 And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord.
00:35:47 My spirit that is upon you and my words that I have put in your mouth
00:35:53 shall not depart out of your mouth or out of the mouth of your offspring
00:35:58 or out of the mouth of your children's offspring, says the Lord,
00:36:01 from this time forth and forevermore.
00:36:06 What has God promised?
00:36:08 This is my covenant with them.
00:36:10 He's covenanting with Israel.
00:36:11 We are the true Israel.
00:36:13 He's covenanting with us.
00:36:16 And he's saying, my spirit that is upon you,
00:36:17 my word that I put in your mouth,
00:36:19 will not depart out of the mouths of your children.
00:36:22 The word.
00:36:24 You want to talk about a promise
00:36:25 that you believe that will just make you laugh
00:36:29 at the times to come,
00:36:30 like that Proverbs 31 woman laughs? 0.98
00:36:33 Like, Obergefell is ridiculous. 0.99
00:36:36 Pavan V. Smith that I told you about is ridiculous. 0.97
00:36:38 None of them are going to stand. 0.98
00:36:40 They are not going to stand.
00:36:41 Why?
00:36:41 Because God has told us something, and we believe God for it.
00:36:45 Are you meaning to tell me that you, Pastor Longshore,
00:36:48 believe that the word of God is not going to depart from the mouths of your children?
00:36:53 Yes, that's exactly what I believe.
00:36:56 What about your children's children?
00:36:59 Them two.
00:37:02 How many generations?
00:37:03 a thousand and more.
00:37:10 How dare you believe such a promise?
00:37:11 Well, God said it.
00:37:12 That's why I believe it.
00:37:13 Isaiah 59, verse 21.
00:37:16 God has made us these promises.
00:37:17 And so when your children act naughty,
00:37:22 as children do,
00:37:25 you have two options.
00:37:28 Lose your mind.
00:37:31 Okay?
00:37:32 Lose your mind because you're not trusting God.
00:37:35 And you can lose it in a bunch of ways.
00:37:36 You can lose it by actually losing your temper with your children.
00:37:38 You can lose your mind by not losing your temper with them,
00:37:40 but internally you're just a wreck because, oh my goodness,
00:37:43 I am convinced that this little child is a seed of the serpent.
00:37:45 He must be a seed of the flesh alone, a serpent seed,
00:37:50 and I am at enmity with him.
00:37:57 Or you say, no, I'm going to trust God.
00:38:00 I'm going to trust God.
00:38:02 And that doesn't mean I'm not going to talk to him about it.
00:38:05 Okay?
00:38:06 I'm going to trust him.
00:38:07 Apply all the means that God has given us for the discipline and discipleship and nurture of this child.
00:38:13 It's not about not using means.
00:38:14 You have to use the means.
00:38:15 You have to use the means.
00:38:16 You don't use the means, it's not going to work.
00:38:19 Okay?
00:38:19 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 Faith in what?
00:38:28 Faith that the word's not going to depart from his mouth.
00:38:31 The spirit that's upon us won't depart him.
00:38:34 This is what God has promised us.
00:38:37 Psalm 103, verse 17.
00:38:40 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
00:38:44 on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children,
00:38:50 to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.
00:38:54 So has God promised his righteousness to your children?
00:38:58 The answer is yes.
00:38:59 Those who love him and keep his commandments.
00:39:02 Isaiah 66, verse 22.
00:39:05 For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make
00:39:08 shall remain before me, says the Lord,
00:39:10 so shall your offspring and your name remain.
00:39:16 Are they going to remain?
00:39:18 Remain belonging to the Lord? 0.92
00:39:19 The answer is yes.
00:39:22 Psalm 102, verse 28.
00:39:24 The children of your servants shall dwell secure.
00:39:28 their offspring shall be established before you.
00:39:32 Notice the promise, the children of your servants.
00:39:35 Are you servants of the Lord?
00:39:38 Yes.
00:39:39 Well, Psalm 102, verse 28 says,
00:39:42 the children of your servants shall dwell secure.
00:39:45 Their offspring shall be established before you.
00:39:47 Are the children going to be established before the Lord? 0.82
00:39:50 Absolutely.
00:39:53 So, America has lost its mind.
00:39:58 Legally speaking, your children don't even belong to you anymore.
00:40:00 But that's the case because we forsook the truth that they genuinely belong to us as covenant children
00:40:07 far before the manifestation of the wickedness that we see in the world.
00:40:11 We lost something about the nature of marriage before Obergefell.
00:40:15 We lost something about the nature of parenting, the nature of the parent-child relationship before Pavan v. Smith.
00:40:22 And so the way we're going to solve this is by actually recovering what God has done.
00:40:28 Men, heads of households, heads of your wives,
00:40:32 you say, you know, if things are getting squirrely in your marriage,
00:40:37 and you could stand up as a man and you could say something like,
00:40:41 things are really bad, but I made a vow, and I'm going to keep my vow.
00:40:46 If you did that, you'd be doing something very manly, very worthy of commendation.
00:40:51 Here's a man that says, I'm going to keep the word that I made and fulfill my vow.
00:40:55 Praise the Lord for that.
00:40:57 But here's the thing, I want you to say more, and you need to say more.
00:41:01 Not only I'm going to keep my vow, because you see,
00:41:04 old Bob and Jim who came down and exchanged fake marital vows,
00:41:09 he could try to say that much.
00:41:10 I made a vow, I'm going to keep my vow.
00:41:13 What you say is, the God of heaven, the trying God, 0.63
00:41:20 condescended to bind me to this woman
00:41:24 such that there is one new thing.
00:41:27 They are no longer twain, but one flesh.
00:41:31 Who am I and who are you to ever think that this bond,
00:41:35 that I would try to undo what God himself has bound together?
00:41:40 You think I'm going to play around with the knot that God tied?
00:41:43 Do you think I'm going to play around by trying to sever head and body?
00:41:47 I'm doing this by faith.
00:41:49 He's going to be the one who nurtures this one new thing that he has created.
00:41:53 So in your home with your wife and with your children, it's all by faith.
00:41:56 It's saying, God, these are the children that you gave.
00:41:59 I'm here with them asking for you to bless them.
00:42:03 Now, a question comes, seeing what covenant marriage is between man and woman.
00:42:13 I'm going to push here for like, I have like 20 minutes left.
00:42:18 I might not take it all. We'll see.
00:42:22 Step back from what covenant marriage is
00:42:24 and ask yourself, does God have a marriage? 0.97
00:42:30 The answer is yes.
00:42:32 Yes, he does.
00:42:34 I'll give you a few texts.
00:42:36 Jeremiah 3.14.
00:42:38 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord,
00:42:41 for I am married unto you.
00:42:44 So God has a bride?
00:42:48 Isaiah 54, verse 5.
00:42:50 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 Thy maker is thine husband.
00:43:02 Revelation 21, 2
00:43:03 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 So God himself has a bride.
00:43:14 He has a covenant marriage.
00:43:16 And this can often go wrong in evangelical circles when we individualize this concept.
00:43:22 And so each person begins to think of him or herself as married to the Lord.
00:43:27 And then your modern evangelical songs speak that way.
00:43:30 And we sing songs about like, I am married and I'm so grateful I'm married.
00:43:33 And all the men are like, nope, I'm not singing it.
00:43:36 I am not singing that.
00:43:38 Because how many brides does God have?
00:43:42 One.
00:43:44 He has one bride.
00:43:45 And you step back and ask the question, okay, I've been brought in.
00:43:53 I'm a part of that bride and I have a household.
00:43:57 I have a bride of my own and I have children in the household.
00:44:02 Are they promised to be a part of this bride of Christ as well?
00:44:06 He set his love upon us as he set his love upon them.
00:44:10 His word and spirit won't depart from us.
00:44:11 Will his word and spirit depart from them?
00:44:14 We will remain before the Lord.
00:44:16 Will they remain before the Lord? 0.98
00:44:18 This one new entity that exists now between man and woman horizontally,
00:44:22 God himself has a bride and he's not going to forsake her either.
00:44:26 Can I trust God's promises that not only things will be well for my children,
00:44:30 but actually God is going to set his saving love upon them,
00:44:35 has set his saving love upon them in this remarkable way?
00:44:40 I would say that is right at the heart of what we need to recover in order to see family strengthened,
00:44:46 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 It starts right there by heads of households saying, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
00:45:00 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 I mentioned the Joshua text.
00:45:08 I'm going to give you a few texts as I close out here.
00:45:10 The Joshua text.
00:45:11 As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
00:45:14 Ask yourself, you know, that's like our favorite evangelical verse.
00:45:16 It's definitely pasted on top of the doorway when we go out.
00:45:20 But then ask yourself, can he say that?
00:45:25 Now, hopefully you're like, well, yeah, he better because we're good Christians in America.
00:45:30 We put it all over our house.
00:45:33 But think about it.
00:45:34 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 Don't the kids all need to say this?
00:45:41 Like, did you check with every single member of your household before you made such a declaration?
00:45:48 Okay.
00:45:48 Now, first of all, they all need to say it.
00:45:50 Praise the Lord.
00:45:52 But Joshua had a right to say what he said.
00:45:55 Because he was the head of the household.
00:45:57 This is what we do.
00:45:59 God has constituted this entity.
00:46:01 He's made promises.
00:46:02 See, he's not going beyond God's promises when he makes that declaration.
00:46:06 He's actually receiving God's promise and speaking according to the promise.
00:46:11 What about Abraham?
00:46:12 Abraham in Genesis 17, verse 7.
00:46:15 There God says,
00:46:16 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee,
00:46:20 and thy seed after thee in their generations,
00:46:23 for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
00:46:27 Now, if Abraham were here, we'd ask him some questions.
00:46:31 Abraham, in Genesis 17, 7,
00:46:33 did God swear an oath to you to be your God?
00:46:37 Abraham said, yep.
00:46:39 And did he swear an oath to you to be God to your children?
00:46:45 Absolutely he did.
00:46:47 That's what the text says.
00:46:49 And so we're trusting God for what he has actually revealed.
00:46:56 Then there's Job.
00:46:57 He's another example of this.
00:46:59 Sacrificing for his children. 1.00
00:47:01 And if you're in the Reformed community long enough,
00:47:03 you hear people talk about Job sacrificing for his children.
00:47:05 It's a beautiful picture of a father serving as this priest in his home.
00:47:10 But again, you step back from him and go,
00:47:12 is that really something, is that okay?
00:47:15 Can you do that kind of thing?
00:47:16 He's commended for doing this kind of thing,
00:47:19 operating as a priest in his home.
00:47:22 You mean you can offer sacrifices for more than just yourself?
00:47:26 The answer is absolutely.
00:47:27 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 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 Then there's Acts 16, Paul and Silas to the Philippian jailer.
00:47:52 This is one of my favorite texts that underscored this particular principle
00:47:57 about the way that the household works and the way that we keep our children.
00:48:01 This is Acts 16.31. 1.00
00:48:03 The Philippian jailer, of course, is a Gentile. 1.00
00:48:06 And God does the miracle. 1.00
00:48:08 All of the prisoners are going free.
00:48:10 Philippian jailer is going to kill himself because he thinks I'm dead anyway.
00:48:13 And he says, what must I do to be saved?
00:48:16 And Paul and Silas look at this man and they say,
00:48:19 Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
00:48:21 And you will be saved
00:48:22 And your house
00:48:24 And that's the kind of text
00:48:29 You've got to read over and over again
00:48:30 You say what did they say?
00:48:33 What?
00:48:34 Did they look at him in the face
00:48:36 And say believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
00:48:39 And you will be saved
00:48:40 And your house
00:48:41 And how in the world was that allowed?
00:48:45 Who permitted that?
00:48:47 I mean I've been an American
00:48:48 evangelical Christian my whole life. I went to the last Billy Graham crusade, did Tampa Bay,
00:48:56 Raymond James stadium. All right. I mean, I've been in the every head bowed, every eye closed
00:49:00 situation before. And can you imagine being there? Like the preachers going in and he's like,
00:49:06 we've come to the moment of decision, every head bowed, every eye closed. He gives you Jesus
00:49:11 Christ up the middle, lived, died, rose again, ascended into heaven, returning to one day you
00:49:15 trust in him and you'll be saved. And then he says, okay, raise your hand. You trust in him
00:49:20 and you'll be saved and your house. I see that hand and all of the generations that it represents
00:49:29 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 the very nature of what covenant marriage is. And we've lost the very nature of what children are.
00:49:41 And that's why we're losing our children.
00:49:44 And we have to recover the way the Bible talks about the family
00:49:48 and the way the Bible talks about children
00:49:51 and the promises God has made to us and to them.
00:49:54 I'll leave you with one final text from Isaiah 65, verse 23.
00:49:59 There we hear this promise.
00:50:01 They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble,
00:50:06 for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord
00:50:08 and their offspring with them.
00:50:13 Just a moment of exegesis on the text.
00:50:16 You ask yourself, am I the seed of the blessed of the Lord,
00:50:20 my child of God, am I the seed of the blessed Lord?
00:50:22 And the answer is, well, yes.
00:50:25 And my offspring with me?
00:50:28 That's exactly what God has said through the prophet Isaiah.
00:50:32 Let's pray.
00:50:33 Father, thank you for your kindness to us.
00:50:35 Thank you for your promises.
00:50:37 thank you for our marriages
00:50:39 and thank you for our children
00:50:41 thank you for the wonderful marvelous
00:50:43 promises that you have made to us and
00:50:45 to them and we ask that you would help us
00:50:47 to live by faith, parent by
00:50:49 faith and in so doing we ask to see
00:50:51 the flourishing of your promises
00:50:53 far and wide. We ask all this in Jesus name
00:50:55 Amen