# Messy Children Sermon transcript from Cross Church El Mirage. Series: Family Date: June 8, 2025 Watch: https://crosschurchcares.com/el-mirage/episodes/messy-children ## Summary What does it mean to navigate the messiness of family life? Are we shaped by our parents' choices, or can we break the cycle? Discover how to embrace your past while forging a new path forward. Let's dive in together! ## Transcript Heat. Heat. Welcome to Cross Church. My name is Tyler and I serve as campus pastor right here at Cross Church Elmarrage. and I want to welcome you to service today. Before we get started, I want to make you aware of a couple of ways that you can connect with us today. The first, if you have a phone with you, you can send a text message with the word crossurch, no space, to the number 9400. Or if you'd like to use the cards that are in the seat back in front of you. We've got three cards that'll direct you on ways that you can get connected this week. The first is new card. If you're new to Cross Church over the last few weeks, we would love to connect with you. Take some time to fill out that card during our service today and drop it in one of the black boxes and then we'll follow up with you this week with some more information. The next card is the next card. Take some time to use that card if you're interested in taking some next steps in your faith journey. Things like baptism, joining a group, or even serving. And then lastly, and I believe most importantly, is the prayer card. And I want to guarantee you that if you take time today to fill out that prayer card, all of those come to me and I get to pray over each of them individually. So, if you got things big or small going on in your life, please feel free to share those with us. We'd be happy to pray over them. Hey, as we get prepared for some God-honoring worship, I want to encourage you to go into service today with an expectant spirit. We know that God will do big things in our midst. And so, I want to encourage you to enter this time with an expectant spirit. Now, let's get prepared for some God. Hey, good morning everyone. Let's all stand together. Let's all get ready to worship. Listen together. I believe I believe there is one salvation, one doorway that leads to life, one redemption, one confession. I believe in the name of Jesus Christ. [Music] I believe in the crucifixion. By his blood, I have been set free. I believe in the resurrection. Hallelujah. His life is desty. All praise to God the father. All praise to Christ the Son. All praise to the Holy Spirit. Our God has overcome. The King who was and is and ever more will be in Jesus mighty name. I believe. [Music] Oh, I believe. I believe. [Music] I believe in the hope of heaven. He's preparing a place for me far beyond what hearts imagine ears have heard or eyes have seen. I believe that a day is coming. Tears are turning to claim his bride. Like the altar, keep it burning. See the lamb will rose a roaring life. [Music] All praise to God the father. All praise to Christ the son. All praise to the holy spirit. Our God has overcome. The King who was and is ever more will be in Jesus mighty name. I believe. Oh, I believe in you. [Music] No, never be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How could I ever walk away from the one who saved my life? No one ever be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How could I ever walk away from the one who saved my life? Don't ever be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You'll never walk away from the word in my life. All praise to God the Father. All praise to Christ the Son. All praise to the Holy Spirit. Our God has overcome. The King who was and is ever more will be in Jesus mighty name. I believe. All praise to God the Father. All praise to Christ the Son. All praise to the Holy Spirit. Our God is over. The king who was and is ever more will be. Jesus mighty name. I believe. Jesus mighty name. I believe. [Music] Yeah. Let's give our God some praise. [Music] But those walls that we call sin and shame. They were like prisons that we couldn't escape. But he came and he died and he rose. Those walls are up. Now [Music] remember those giants we call death and grave. There were light mountains that stood in our way. But he came and he died and he rose. Those giants are dead now. [Music] This is our God. This is who he is. He loves us. This is our God. This is what he does. He saves us. He bore the cross, beat the grave. Let heaven and earth proclaim. This is our God, King Jesus. Remember [Music] that fear that took our breath away. [Music] They so weak that we could barely pray. But we heard every word, every whisper. How those altars in the wilderness [Music] tell the story of his faithfulness. Never once did he fail and he never will. This is our God. This is who he is. He loves us. This is our God. This is what he does. He saves us before the cross beat the grave. Let heaven and earth proclaim this is our God, King Jesus. Who pulled me out of the pit? He did. He did. Who paid for all of our sin? Nobody but Jesus. Who pulled me out of that pit? He did. He did. Who paid for all of our sin? Nobody but Jesus, who rescued me from the grave. Yahweh, Yahe, who gets the glory and praise. Nobody but Jesus, who rescued me from that grave. Yahe. Yahe. who gets the glory and praise. Oh my my name. This is our God. This is who he is. He loves us. This is our God. This is what he does. He saves us for the cross. and ever praisees our God King Jesus before the cross meet the grave that heaven and earth proclaim. This is our God in Jesus. [Music] This is our ador. [Music] Yes, this is our God. He loves us. He saves us. And he is also provider. This next song is is just about that. How he always provides. Look at the flowers and all of their beauty. [Music] I don't have to wonder know what you're doing. So why would I worry at all? You're faithful to supply. Everything I need. Everything I need, my father has it. My father has it. Every single time the Lord will provide. My father has it. My father has it. Oh, my brother. Look at the sparrow lacking for nothing. [Music] No fear of tomorrow. What it will bring. Oh, you are enough. If I have you, I have it all. Cuz your love will set it by [Music] everything I need. Everything I need. I know my father has it. My father has it. Every single time the Lord will provide. My father [Music] seek first the kingom and it's treasures. Everything else it will be adding all that I'm needing. I know the Lord will provide. [Music] I know my God's not empty. He gives us blessings upon blessings. I'm still believing. [Music] I know the Lord will provide. [Music] Oh, see first the king of heaven's treasures. Everything else will be added. All that I needed. I know. I know the Lord will provide. I know my God's not. I know my God's not emptying. He gives us blessings upon blessings. I'm still believing. Oh, I know the Lord will provide. Oh, everything I need, everything I need, everything I need, I know my father has it. My father has it. Every single time, the Lord will provide. My father has it. My father has everything I need. Everything I need. I know my father has my father. Every single time the Lord will provide my father asking for a sing the kingom and his treasures everything else will be added. All that I needed I know I know the Lord will provide. Oh, I know my God's empty hand. He gives us blessings of blessing. I'm still believing. Oh, I know the Lord will provide. I know. Oh, I know the Lord will provide. I know. I know the Lord will provide. Amen. That's a beautiful song, isn't it, guys? Hey, well, if you're wondering why things look a little different around here today, tonight is our first night of VBS for the week. Yeah, it's so amazing. You know what? We're glad that you're here. And if it's your first time here, do us a favor and fill out one of these new cards that's on the seat back in front of you. Or maybe you've been with us for a little while and you're looking for that next step. Then you know what to do. grab that next card, fill one of those out, or maybe you have a prayer request this week. We would love to pray for you. We are a church that prays and we believe that God answers prayers. So, make sure you fill out one of those. And once you filled out one of these cards, you can go ahead and drop them off in one of the give boxes in the back there. Hey, and if you're watching online, we like to say good morning. If you'd like to connect with us, go ahead and text Cross Church, all one word, to 9400. Well, we have a couple announcements for you this morning. The First Cross Church Collective is putting on a charity golf tournament to raise money for some new church plants or to help support some existing church plants as well. Um that's going to be on June 7th at Arizona Traditions uh golf course and Surprise and the Tea time is at 7 a.m. which is really early. So I won't be there and I also won't be there because I cannot golf. So can I get an amen on that one? Yeah. Well, you can register for that at crosschurchcares.com/events [Music] if you'd like to be a part of that. Well, something that I will be a part of and all of you can be a part of is our summer series that's coming up here with Bible groups and prayer meeting coming to a close. We're going to offer every Wednesday night youth group, a women's study, and a men's study as well. So, if you'd like to learn more about God's Lord, connect with others, then you can register for that at crosschairscares.com/events. and we'd love for you to do that because we're going to supply the study material. So, we'd like to know how many people will be there. And then on June 22nd, we're going to be having baptisms. So, if you've put your faith in Jesus and you're ready to take that next step or maybe you have questions, you're wondering about what baptism means, then come and talk to me or Pastor Tyler. Or you can fill out one of these next cards and in the other slot, write baptism. or if you haven't caught on already, you can register at crosschurchcares.com/events for any event that we're ever going to have. So, um, and speaking of baptisms, out of last VBS, we had eight kids get baptized. Yeah, absolutely amazing. And we have 90 kids registered for this VBS this year. It last year we had 65. And so, it's so amazing to see what God is already doing right here in our community. And we can't do any of this without all of our help and our volunteers and our staff. And they came out yesterday, about 40 of them, and helped decorate this whole building. So, we just want to say thank you for all uh that you have done to make VBS happen. And also, I want to challenge all of you. Could you commit this week to pray for VBS, to pray for the kids, for the parents, for the leaders, and let's take a moment to do that together uh right now. Lord God, we just thank you that you've given us the ability, the finances, and uh the resources to put on this VBS today. Lord, we pray that you would be with the leaders um that you would lead and guide them to just make an impact on these kids. We pray for the kids that you would prepare their hearts and their minds to hear your word, to hear the gospel, and come to salvation and to know you. And Lord, we just thank you and we just praise you for all that you are doing. And it's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. And you know, it's because of your generosity that we're able to put on events like BBS. So, we just want to give you a moment to take some time, see some ways that you can give, and also take a moment just to go before God and just thank him for all that he's provided you [Music] [Music] Well, hey, good morning and welcome to Cross Church Elm Mrage. My name is Tyler and I get to serve as campus pastor here. We're so glad that you've joined us for worship today. If you're joining us for the first time or if it's one of your first few times, uh we want to connect with you. So, I'll be outside uh outside in between the buildings between services and would love to connect with you there uh as we get to maybe share a little bit of our story with you, but also hear a little bit of your story as well. Well, I got to tell you, um here's the deal. I haven't preached the last few weeks. Um we have honestly just been blessed with multiple guys in our church that can preach. Um and that's been a blessing, but it also means I've saved up a few weeks of sermon. So, I've got a 60inute sermon for you. So, I'm just playing. You should have seen the look on some of your faces. You were like, "Uh, I got to call. I got to go." No, I'm just kidding. Uh, normal sermon, but no, we're excited for what God's going to do in our midst today. And so, if you got a Bible, you can go ahead and flip with me. We're going to be in First Samuel. Uh, so you can flip there or click there and make your way there. Uh, but yeah, it's been so exciting to see. It's a fun time in the life of our church where we got kids running all over campus and exciting stuff happening and we know that God's doing some really cool stuff in the life of our church. And so here's the deal. Uh today we're picking back up where we left off in this series that we've been walking through about family. And we've titled this series family less of the mess. Here's the moment in all honesty. um we have uh just as an experience the understanding that with family comes messiness. If we're just honest with ourselves, we understand that life isn't simple. It's oftenimes complicated, difficult, um there's tense relationships. And so what we want to do is focus on this key thought to kind of guide us through this understanding. The key thought that we've been using to walk through this series about family is this. To have less of the mess, we need to look to the book. We need to look to the book. And let me be very clear about this. You can listen to any number of podcasts. You can read all kinds of books. You can talk to your friends. At the end of the day, the recipe for success in your family and in my family is here. God's word, the source of truth, it can be trusted and gives us instruction for life. And so I want to encourage you with me uh to walk through this text as we look at First Samuel. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to read a couple of places in 1st Samuel. And then we are going to dive in. Here's the moment. 1st Samuel chapter 1 beginning in verse 26. She says these words. This is Hannah here. Please my Lord, she said, as surely as you live, my Lord, I'm the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this boy. Since the Lord gave me what I asked him for, I now give the boy to the Lord. For as long as he lives, he's given to the Lord. Then he worshiped the Lord there. We'll take a quick time out there. If you're studying the Bible for the first time or maybe new to the Bible, you say, "Hold on. What's happening here?" Here's the moment. There is Hannah who in chapter one is on her knees begging God for a child. She wants to have a child. She wants to be pregnant so bad. And she goes before God and God gives her what she asked for. And it's in this moment in verse 26 where Hannah goes to the church. She goes to the priest and she says, "God has answered my prayers. So I'm going to give this child back to the Lord." Understand this. Parents are entrusted with children. And as parents, we have received children as a loan from God. We have them for a season and then give them back or they go on their own. And it's this interesting moment where Hannah models for us a positive experience about being a parent. But what we're going to study today is the topic of messy children. Now, here's what I got to be honest about. Last time I preached, it was Mother's Day weekend and I was speaking to women. And I am not indeed a woman. So that was different for me, right? We alienated half of the audience by only speaking to women. today. Here's the moment. All of us have parents at some level, whether we have a good relationship with them, whatever that looks like. We all have parents. And so, we all have something to gain from this message today. And so, I want to balance what we see in this text because in 1 Samuel 2, Hannah gives us this positive model or example for what it looks like to be a parent that loves Jesus. She raises her child well and says, "I'm going to give this child back to the Lord." However, on the other hand, we have a negative option or understanding of parenting. Here's what it is in 2 Sam or in 1st Samuel chapter 2, excuse me. Here's what we see. Beginning in verse 31, look, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your forefather's house so that none in your family will reach old age. You will see distress in the place of worship. In spite of all that's good in Israel and no one in your family will ever again reach old age and many from your family. I do not cut off from my altar will bring grief and sadness to you. All your descendants will die violently. This will be your sign that I will come to you. Take a time out there. Here's the moment. We see Hannah, who's a positive option or model as a parent. Then we go here and we see that Eli and his sons have chosen path two, the other road. It tells us this in chapter 2:12. Eli's sons were wicked men and they didn't respect the Lord. So we see a stark contrast here. And what it does for us is it helps us to see that there are multiple sort of understandings of what it looks like to be a parent. So I want to ask you to walk with me through this. We'll kind of do a compare and contrast here because in life we find that parents are not perfect. Parents are not perfect. Now here's this. Some of us have had parents that were a little little off that struggled in some areas. And we know good and well that parents aren't perfect. But some of us in the room had a Hannah as a parent. Someone who raised us in the church, who prayed for us, who put us on the straight and narrow. And for that, we should be thankful. But that's not everyone's story. Some people come to find Jesus later in life. Some never find Jesus. And so, it's this moment where we have to understand first, parents are not perfect. All of the book of first Corinthians tells us this understanding that we are mere humans. It is easy to idolize our parents. If you had a good parent, it's easy to look at them and think they were perfect. But understand this, parents are not perfect. They are mere humans. Uh as a matter of fact, let me give you um some light-hearted encouragement from scripture and from Jesus life. In the book of Luke chapter 2, we have this moment where Jesus is a teenager, 12 years old, so almost a teenager, and he goes with his family to a religious service in a different town. And here's what happens. They're in the church service and they go to leave. In verse 44, assuming this is Jesus' parents, assuming he, Jesus, was in the traveling party, they went a day's journey. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they didn't find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. All right, check this out. Verse 46, circle, highlight, underline. After three days, three days, they found him in the temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. We'll pause there. Here's this moment. Can you imagine, first of all, just being Jesus parents, how difficult that must have been earthly. I'm like, I I'm struggling with Yeah. So, that must have been tough. But here's the moment. They get a day away and realize, "Oh, yeah. Our son isn't with us." All right? So, if you've ever left a child behind, you're in good company. So did Jesus parents. If you had parents that missed the boat a couple of times, so did Jesus parents. All right? You are in good company there as well. We find here that parents aren't perfect. Even Jesus parents left him behind and couldn't find him for three days. But at the end of the day, parents are not perfect. The second thing that we see as we walk through this understanding of who parents are is that parents are people, too. Parents are people, too. Uh, one of the things that we do is we sometimes look back and realize all of the mistakes that the past generations have made. Sometimes it can be easier to see mistakes than it is to see victories in past generations. And I'm in the middle of reading this book on uh In-N-Out Burger. Any In-N-Out fans in the room? All right, good. Oh, we got a good church here. All right. Um, that's what I'm talking about. Like, all the hands went up. That's awesome. Um, here's the deal. U, I love that restaurant. And so, I started reading the book and found out that um, they're actually a really unique company. And in reading, Lisa Snder, the current CEO, writes about her family legacy and how they got to where they are and does a really good job of equitably speaking about the founders of the company. Humans fallen did some not great things. However, there was both bad and good in their family tree and did a great job of showing us both sides of it. It's a reminder to us that parents are people, too. I think for us, it is very easy as we look at past generations to judge other people on the outcome of their choices or their actions, but to judge ourselves on our intentions. And it looks like this. Well, I meant well. I didn't mean to hurt anyone. I was just doing my best, but fell short. And so, we judge ourselves based on our intentions. I meant well, but the actions didn't go out that way. And what we do is we look at others and we say, "Well, they did the wrong thing. It doesn't matter their intentions." And what we find here is the understanding as we look at both Hannah and Eli that parents are people, too. Parents are people, too. They are human. And here's one of the ways that I remember this happening to me vividly understanding that parents are people too. Uh we went to the hospital just down the road on Grand uh for the birth of our oldest daughter, our our first child. And we went to the hospital and it's something that you can't explain to someone who's not a parent. But we showed up to the hospital and uh you go to the hospital, you're there couple of days and then at the end of like the second or the third day they're like bye. And I remember this vivid moment of like, what do we do? They don't have a manual for the child. All right. And then you learn things later. I don't know how you're supposed to just know this that like if a baby drinks just pure water, it can kill them. I'm like, water's supposed to be good for us. I don't know how you know all of these different things. I remember going and taking an infant CPR class in the hospital for my first daughter and like just like I feel like I need to be prepared, but there's no instruction manual. Parents are people, too. It's easy to look back and say the parents that we had got some things wrong, but understand they're not perfect, but our parents are people, too. They are human beings. It's easy to look back to idolize them, but also to demoralize them and say, "Man, they messed up in this way and this way and this way." But understand as we look at Hannah and Eli, there is something very profound about parents that we cannot miss here. It's this. Parents can position us. Parents can position us. And this is the moment as we walk through this text and this understanding here about parents that there is a good and a bad to this. A positive and a negative side to this. And as we walk through 1 Corinthian or 1 Samuel here what we see in this text is that there is a stark contrast in 1st Samuel 2:1. We see this. But the boy that is Samuel who Hannah dedicated to the Lord gave back to the Lord. the boy served the Lord in the presence of the priest Eli. So we have Samuel and then in the very next verse, Eli's sons were wicked men and they didn't respect the Lord. Check this out. Samuel was set up for success. His mother prayed for him. You can go and read her prayer of of victory, of success after God answers her original prayers. She prays for Samuel. points him to Jesus and then gives him back to the Lord. She does it right. She has set him up for success. However, Eli's sons were wicked. Positive where Hannah sets up the child for success and then the negative where Eli permits his sons to sin and participates in it. And this stark contrast reminds us that parents can position us. I'll put it to you maybe this way. Um, and man, in between services, I got to talk with some people who said, "I I was that change in my family tree." As you look back at your family tree, the unfortunate reality because of the messiness of family is that a lot of us as we look back on our family trees see brokenness and addiction and struggles and failures and divorce, all of these different things. And we have these difficult, dark histories in our family tree. However, the understanding here is that while parents can position us, you have free will. You have a choice in the process. And here's the way that we walk through this. If you look back in your family tree and all you see is brokenness, you can change that. If you find yourself here in this moment today full of brokenness and struggle and fear and your parents have positioned you for that, understand this. You have free will. You are able to make choices. You can change the direction of your family tree. What negatively has happened to you throughout your life can serve as a reminder that you need to do it different and do it better. You don't have to be like those that went before you. If you see addiction in your pasta and you want to change that, do it. You have that choice. You've seen the consequences, negative or positive, of those decisions. parents can position us. While it can be negative, it can also be positive. Some of us sit on the shoulders of our parents' spiritual victories. Some of us have learned how to study the Bible because our parents did a great job of it and they taught that to us. And it becomes this sort of legacy of following Jesus. But in the positive and negative, we find that there is a connection to our past. Exodus 20:5 teaches us this. Do not bow in worship to them, that is idols, and do not serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the father's iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. What we see in Exodus 20 is the introduction of something called generational sin or the generational consequences of sin. In this text, we find that your choices or your parents or grandparents or great-grandparents choices may well have an impact on you. And the reality of that is that things in your family tree may not be perfect. And it may have a historical connection. Whether we call it generational sin or we call it a propensity based on our biology, whatever we call it, our family history impacts us today. And in this moment, what we find is that parents can position us, but they cannot make the choice for us. I can't tell you how many parents I've sat in this room and other church rooms with and prayed for a parent's kids that they have begged to come to know the Lord who haven't yet. The understanding is this. You cannot make the decision for your children. You can set them up for success, but they have to make the choice on their own. We have free will. As we walk through this text, that is the parental side of this. But as I told you today, the focus is on us as the children because we all have parents. Whether it was parents or grandparents that raised us, whoever it might be, we have parents. And so here's the instruction for us as children today. As children, we should learn from yesterday. As children, we should learn from yesterday. As we studied in chapter 2, Eli's sons were wicked. They were stealing the meat and the fat from what was offered to the Lord. They were stealing extra. They were eating things they weren't supposed to. And Eli begins to get involved in that. He steps not only by not condoning or condoning, excuse me, his sin, the sins of his sons. What he also does is he participates in them. So Eli shows us what a bad parent can do and then Hannah shows us what a good parent can do by modeling following Jesus for her son. In this story, what we see is that we have to learn from yesterday. The reason that we study history is so that we don't repeat the same mistakes. We want to learn culturally in a spiritual context. The reason we study the Bible is so that we can know how to follow Jesus better. For us, it's that moment where we realize that sometimes we're doing things just because we've always done them. Um, it's one of those things that gets sort of passed down. Like the phrase, as a parent, you may have said this, I brought you into this world and I could take you out. Anybody guilty of using that recently? Yes. Right. Some of you like, it's around nap time and you're like, just go to sleep. Right. Here's the moment. We've got to learn from yesterday. There's some good lessons that we need to repeat. But there's some things that we've seen done in history that we want to change. One of the ways that it's worked itself out for my wife and I is this. My parents were good with money. They were great managers of the money that they had, but they never talked about it. It just always was taken care of. So when we got married and started making money, I just figured like it works itself out, right? Like things we go out to eat and do whatever we think we should do and it'll just work itself out. And then I learned that you have to do this thing called budgeting and you have these things called bills, right? So you have to plan for them, right? And so my change as I look back, as I look towards our kids is I want to teach them how to use money well so that they can manage it responsibly. Not just make it happen, but also to help them learn the lesson. We take what we can and then we scrap the rest. understand there are both good and bad lessons that we can learn from our past. Second thing we can do as children is respect our past. Respect our past. Let me be clear. Um not all of us in the room have great connections to our parents. Some of our parents uh based on their actions have not earned respect. However, scripture is clear in calling us as followers of Christ to live at peace with others and to be respectful in speaking to the government. Scripture would say this, render unto Caesar what is Caesars's and unto the Lord what is the Lord's. That is to say this, so long as our government and our parents aren't asking us to do something unbiblical, then we have been given those people for our good. We have to sit under other people's authority. All right? Right? We don't just get to be autonomous and do whatever the heck we want. We sit under this authority for our good. And as we walk through this, understand we have to respect our past. Um it's been funny to see I noticed it honestly this last week. Um the way in which I have turned into my father, right? When I was like I'll never be like my dad. And then even the way that like I have certain mannerisms and ticks are just like my dad and I do them like right I'm becoming my father who's becoming his father right things are passed down but we have the opportunity to respect our past and then to make our own decisions we can both respect our past while making our own decisions growing up in the house my parents had a rule that as a child I was not allowed to touch the thermostat okay now I understand why right because my children could choose they're always messing with it. Nope. Leave it. Here's the moment. My mom would tell me this line, and I've never forgotten it to this day. Started when I was younger. As soon as I could start figuring out that thermostat, I tried to change it. And she would say, "Tyler, when you get a house of your own, you could set the temperature to whatever you want." And so, I have made it a point, right? Because I have free will. I get to make my choice. I'll respect her and her rules, but when it comes to me, I'm making a change. So, every time she comes to my house, I crank the air conditioning. All right? I'm like, "Pack a parka." All right, I'm going to spend the extra money. It's going to be worth it, right? Respect your past, but make your own choices. It's up to you. All right. And then as soon as they leave, all right, we'll crank it back down. Let's save some money. All right, man. The APS bill seems like it just goes higher, and I don't whole different story. Respect our past. However, um here is the understanding throughout this. There are positive and negative ways that we get to view our parents. And it's this whole story for us around the way that we view our parents and giving them respect. I think there is something important about that. I understand that there are difficult situations and all of these different things, but scripture calls us to live at peace with people as much as possible. And I think as we walk through this process, there are so many sort of layers to this conversation. There's good parents, there's bad parents. I think one of the lessons that we have to learn is how to help our parents age with dignity. As children, we get to walk with our parents as they age. And it's a process for us of being reminded that we are all human people. And so for us, there is a weight of responsibility as well. When we respect our past, it means being prepared to help our parents age with dignity. That means that we respect them at whatever season that they're in. I I found, as respect goes, that uh working with teenagers for so many years, I got to say things that parents had said hundreds of times, but when I said it as the youth pastor, kids were like, "Wow, that's amazing." And I'm like, "Your parents said the same thing." Right? And then the parents are like, "Why'd you say it different?" I said the same thing. But it just occurs to them. Here's the moment. As parents, it is a difficult job. But understand this. As children, we have to respect our parents. For better or worse, our parents have set the conditions for us. And then we are the ones that have to live in the conditions. So we have to respect our parents. I believe also for us the way that we treat our parents begins to be a model for our children of how to treat us. At some level, this is the seeds that you sew you will reap. If we show our children that respecting our parents is important, someday our children also will understand and see that model. Sometimes when it comes to teaching people that are younger than us, there is more that is caught than is taught. It's not always about what we say, it is about what we do. And so for us the moment today is understanding that we have to respect our past. And the third thing that we have to do as children is we have to follow Jesus well. We have to follow Jesus. Well, there is a responsibility for us as followers of Christ to follow Jesus. Well, I can't tell you how many times I've sat with a parent in rooms like this who absolutely is begging God to do special things. They want to see God change their children's lives, but they can't do it. At the end of the day, you and I have a choice to make. It's not up to our parents to make all the decisions about our faith. You have to make the decision of who you're going to follow, of what you're going to do, of how you're going to raise your kids, of who you're going to be in this world. And for us, as we do that, we have to do it understanding that we need to follow Jesus. Well, uh, I was reminded of a story out of Luke 15. We'll spend our remaining time here in in Luke 15, and it's kind of a lengthy story, and I'll kind of catch you up to speed with it. In Luke 15, we have the the parable of the lost son. And it's this story that Jesus uses uh Jesus and the way that he speaks uses stories uh or heavenly earthly stories to illustrate heavenly principles. And so, it gives us an understanding of what we actually walk through. It's this story about a son who had a brother and a father. And the son looks at his father one day and says, "So, can I have my inheritance now? I know you're not dead, but could you just go ahead and split everything you have in half and give me half?" And so, the father takes everything that he owns, cattle, everything, homes, whatever it is, splits it in half and gives the son his. And what does the son do? The son takes it all and he goes to Las Vegas and he goes to all the nice restaurants and casinos and he gambles all the money away and it's gone. And the son has this moment where he loses everything and apparently a pretty short time. In verse 14, after he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country and he had nothing. So he goes to work for one of the citizens of the country that he went to. And in verse 16, it tells us that he longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything. And I just want you to to sort of visualize this moment. The son who's been rich, he's had everything at his disposal, squanders his inheritance away, looks at his father and basically says, "I wish you were dead. Give me my money." Gets his money, waste it all. He's sitting feeding the pigs, wanting to eat what the pigs are eating. These pigs were eating trash, the leftovers, just all thrown in a bucket or whatever. And he says, "I wish I had this food to eat, but he has a moment in verse 17 and he comes to his senses." He said, "How many of my father's hired workers, have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger." Don't miss this. Even in his darkest moment, he knows that his father will have some grace on him. Even in his dark, he's wishing for the food that the pigs have. And he he just I should probably go to my father. So he gets up and he goes to his father. And in verse 20, got up, went to his father. But while the son was still a long ways off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran and threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, "Father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son." The son here runs back to his father and as he's walking up the drive, it says his father's filled with compassion. when his father could have been filled with anger or frustration or regret that he gave the son the money. He doesn't feel any of that. He's filled with compassion. He runs in an undignified manner, hugs the son, and after the son apologizes and said, "I'm no longer worthy to be your son. Could I just could I work for you?" The father doesn't do that. The father instantly tells his people to throw a party because his son that was lost has come back home. He puts a ring on his finger, clothe him with dignity. And for us, this is a reminder that for you and I, whether we had good parents or bad parents, we have a heavenly father that loves us. And understand this. If you're in the middle of brokenness, if your family life is a mess, understand this. You have a God that is filled with compassion. He doesn't just have a portion of compassion. He is filled with compassion. And he loves you. And no matter what you've done, no matter how big your pigsty, no matter how bad you want the food that the pigs have, if you will turn and repent from your ways, there is a God standing with open arms, ready to run down the driveway and meet you. In a moment where we often think that we need to get our lives right before we come to God, this story reminds us that it just takes one simple moment of turning from our ways and turning to God. And there's restoration. There's forgiveness at the feet of the cross. There's equal footing at the feet of the cross. Check this out. As you read into the story of the lost son, here's what you also find. There's the son that didn't leave that stuck around and he was angry. In verse 28, he became angry and didn't want to go. So his father came back out and the son said, "But dad, what the heck? I stayed. I I worked hard for you. I didn't mess anything up. I managed it well. But in verse 31, son, you are always with me and everything I have is yours." But we had to celebrate and rejoice because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. Understand this. As followers of Christ, we ought to celebrate every time someone turns and follows Christ. That's why baptism here is a celebration. That's why we hoop and holler and get a little crazy every time there's baptisms in our building because we know that heaven is celebrating. Anytime someone was dead and is alive again, someone was lost and found. And so here's my plea to you today. If you're in the room today, you say, "Hey pastor, I had a jacked up, messed up family tree. There's addiction and struggle and fear and failure and jacked up, messed up people all through my family tree, and you want to change it. Can I speak to you today? You've got a heavenly father that will help you to change everything." So, one of my favorite things to do as a pastor is to get to walk with families that are changing everything. families in this room today that have said, "My story, my yesterdays weren't good, but my tomorrows are going to be great by the grace of God." Amen. It's all because we have a heavenly father who's got his arms open wide, ready to receive us. Here's what I want to do today. I just want to spend a moment praying over you. So, wherever you're at, if you could bow your heads and close your eyes, I just want to pray over you today. As you consider where you're at today and where you could be tomorrow, here's the focus of our time together. Our earthly parents may or may not have been the best. They may have set us up or they may have not set us up well, but we have a heavenly father that did set us up well. And so God, I pray today specifically for this group of people today. God, I understand that for some of us, this conversation around parents is a mixed bag. But at the end of the day, God, we know that you can change lives. We know that you can change family trees. We know that you can change legacies. And so God, specifically today, my prayer is that this room would be full of people who've made the choice to repent. That we've left the pigs area and we have come running desperately back to the father, begging for forgiveness and receiving all the compassion and mercy that we could. God, my prayer today is that we would understand that and stay humble in our faith. That you would protect this group of people from getting to be like the other brother that had bitterness towards the son that was lost and is found. But God, that we would be people that are always celebrating that you change lives. And God, my prayer is that whether it's through vacation Bible school or studies of your word, that as a church here, God, we would be a people that have had our lives changed. That we have run back to the father who's shown us compassion and that we would be known for that in our community. God, I pray that today you change some families and that you would give us the courage to live how you've called us to. God, we pray all this in your name. Amen. Let's stand and sing about the goodness of God. [Music] I love you, Lord. Oh, your mercy never fails me. In all my days, I've been held in your hands. from the moment that I wake up until I lay my head. And I will sing of the goodness of God all my life. All my life you have been faithful. [Music] All my life you have been so so good. With every breath that I have made and I will sing of the goodness of God. I love your voice. You have led me through the fire. In darkest nights, you are close like no other known you as a father. I've known you as a friend. And I have lived in the goodness of God. Cuz all my life you have been faith. [Music] All my life you have been so so good with every breath that I ever made. And I will sing of the goodness of God. [Music] Your goodness is running out. It's running out to me. [Music] Your goodness is running out. It's running out to me. With my life laid down, surrendered now. I give you everything. Your goodness is running count. It's running out to me. Oh, your goodness is running out. It's running out to me. Your goodness is running out. It's running out to me. With my life down, surrender now. I give you everything. [Music] Your goodness is running out to It's running out to me. [Music] And all my life you have been faithful. All my life you have been so so good with every breath that I am able. And I will sing of the goodness of God. I'm going to sing. I'm going to sing. Oh, it's all my life you have been. You're so good. It's all my life. You have been so good. Every breath then I am able. [Music] I will sing of the goodness of God. Oh, I'm going to sing of the goodness of God. [Music] Hey, thank you guys so much for joining us today. You guys have a great week. We will see you guys next week.