BOOK SUMMARY: SHEPHERDING A CHILD'S HEART - CHAPTER 6 - REWORKING YOUR GOALS

 

BIG IDEA: Our sub-goals for our children need to point to the ultimate goal of knowing God and enjoying Him.

Rethinking Unbiblical Goals

The goals in the previous chapter are not ultimate goals in and of themselves.  

1.    Developing Social Skills

Are we putting kids in arts and sports to enhance their self-worth when Scripture teaches no such concept? Are we unknowingly encouraging pride based on the capacity to performance?  Are we inadvertently teaching our kids to trust themselves?  Many families have plenty of time for sports and leisure but lack time for Bible reading and corporate worship.  What are we teaching our kids when these other activities come before the Lord's Day?

Biblically, we are to teach our kids to be good stewards of their bodies. Abilities and talents are to be developed because that is what good stewards do with the gifts that God gives. Sports can enhance family unity versus family fracturing which sends everyone their own direction in their own sport. 

Being physically fit can help you serve in God's kingdom.

2.    Psychological Adjustment

What about our children's response to bullies? Is our first instinct to lead them towards self-defense? Or is our first instinct to lead them to pray to God for help and wisdom? Do we teach them to pray for their enemies and to overcome evil with God? Or is self-defense and running from the problem our solutions? Are they going to be taught to be peacemakers or will be teach them that they should end the provocation with their martial arts so long as they didn't start the fight? Does not Scripture say that a soft answer turns away wrath?  That is not to say that defense isn't necessary at times, but is that the first response and only response, or have we taught them to be on the offense when it comes to biblical behavior. 

3.    Saved Children

Rather than trying to force our children to be saved, we must remember that our job is to nurture their hearts and to parent biblically. It's the Holy Spirit's job to quicken the heart and make them alive so that they can repent and put faith in Christ to reconcile them to God.  Are we teaching them about the human condition of sin, not just sinful acts, but our sinful nature? Do they know God and His wrath, justice, grace, mercy and patient love? They need to trust God for salvation AND daily living. 

In our parenting, are we consistently reminding them of their need to repent and trust Christ to save them. Repentance is daily; both in actions and heart. Faith is daily; both for salvation and daily living.

4.    Family Worship

Family worship is a means, not an end. It is supposed to end in us knowing and loving God. At times we must be creative and flexible to accomplish this.

5.    Well-Behaved Children

Manners are a biblical way of loving others; being polite, allowing others to go first, saying please and thank you, etc. Is it not a end in itself. Are we teaching manners in a biblical way?

6.    Good Education

Is the American Dream a biblical objective achieved through great education? What Scripture would you use to support such a goal for one's life? Do we bribe our kids to get good grades? Is this biblical? 

Should we not care about their grades or education? Is this other end of the spectrum biblical? Not at all.  What is biblical is teaching our kids that they are to develop their minds, gifts and abilities for God. Knowing God comes from general revelation which means studying the universe and how it's made (biology, math, chemistry, astronomy). Knowing things like history and economics serves other functions like seeing God's common grace in history or seeing man's sinfulness. Knowing economics helps us to learn how to function financially for the benefit of the kingdom and others, not just our own families.

Your overall objective in parenting should be to teach your children to live for the glory of God.

BOOK SUMMARY: SHEPHERDING A CHILD'S HEART - CHAPTER 5 - EXAMINGING YOUR GOALS

 
BIG IDEA: We may have well-intentioned goals that are actually unbiblical.

Unbiblical Goals

Every parents wants their children to do well and be successful but the definitions of those terms differ from person to person. Christians should strive to raise children biblically so that they are successful in the things of the Lord. This especially includes believe the gospel and submitting to Jesus as Lord.

1.    Developing Special Skills

Skills and activities like sports and arts are not evil but success in rearing children is not defined by how many activities our kids are in. We must also remember that coaches and teachers have values when they lead these activities.  Will any of these activities have biblical content? Will they receive biblical instruction (loyalty, integrity, friendship, perseverance, respect for authority) from you in these activities? What does success look like in these areas, from a biblical standpoint.

2.    Psychological Adjustment

Will you listen to the world's pop-psychology? Are these psychological goals the same as biblical goals? What Scriptures direct your goals for their psychological development?

3.    Saved Children

Many parents strive to force a conversion; praying the sinners prayer, asking Jesus into their hearts, etc.  Some parents think that if their kids get saved then all their problems will go away. Consider the fact that we can never know with absolute certainty that our kids are saved (Matthew 7:21-23). Consider that a child's genuine salvation doesn't change the call to parent as God commands us.  We must still train them in the Lord.

4.    Family Worship

Just because a family prays together does not mean that the family will stay together. There must be a connection between family values and the family worship routine.  Is it a militant task, one that is so routine, that it's merely a checklist of various activities to be done for the day?

5.    Well Behaved Children

Teaching social etiquettes is not the end-all to parenting. While these skills are necessary in any culture, it is secondary to biblical training. Many of us know well-behaved children who do not believe the gospel and are bitter towards their parents and God's people.  Being well-mannered can not be divorced from biblical servanthood.

6.    Good Education

Academic awards and scholarly recognition are not the same a biblical training. Knowing sciences and arts are part of knowing God who created the heavens and the earth, through which His glory is revealed. To have good go to school to merely learn subjects falls short of the biblical mandate of parenting. You can be well-educated and not understand the One who is Life.

The Biblical Warning Against Cultural Influence

God did not want Israel to be affected by the Canaanites. So, too, God does not want us being affected by the world.  We must reject many things our cultures throws at us. 

There is a difference between being aware of ungodly objectives and principles. It's other thing to embrace scriptural objectives and principles. 

What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Or as John Piper puts it, "Man's chief end is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.

We must teach them to use their knowledge and abilities to glorify God. They were made by God for God. "Psalm 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you."

We need to make sure we don't send our kids mixed signals by doing things the world's way sometimes and doing things God's way other times. That is training them in unbiblical ways.

If we teach kids to do things to please us and for our approval, we present an unbiblical objective. We are to teach them to do all things for God's glory.  Another example: some parents teach their kids to ignore bullies; some teach to fight back. Neither is biblical. We are to do good to those who are evil to us and to pray for our enemies. We are not to fight back. So sometimes, well-meaning advice is actually contrary to the way we are to raise our kids.

BOOK SUMMARY: SHEPHERDING A CHILD'S HEART - CHAPTER 4 - YOU'RE IN CHARGE

 

BIG IDEA: Parental authority is assigned and derived from God for the purpose of helping children to properly relate to their Maker.

Confusion About Authority

Our culture does not like authority; neither being under it or exercising it. Children will suffer if parents don't know the nature and extent of their authority: where it comes from, on what grounds can they exercise it, is it absolute and whether it requires perfection.

Without a biblical understanding of authority we will follow the world's pattern and think authority over our children must be forced or given by their consent, rather that derived and assigned by God. When children are the decision makers we wrongly teach them about freedom and automony. Our freedom is found in obedience to God (Psalm 119:44-45).

Obedience from our children should not be seen as measure taken for our comfort and convenience but as our God-given assignment to help them live for and obey God.

Called To Be In Charge

God calls us to rule over our children. Thus, we are acting on behalf of God, much like an older sibling telling a young sibling, "Mom says you gotta clean up your room."  We are not to shape our children according to our desires, but on God's desires. This is the angle we must pursue all the time in our parenting. 

Abraham was chosen by God. One of his tasks was to direct his children and future generations to obey the Lord (See Genesis 18:19). 

Deuteronomy 6:2 reminds us that the Israelites and their descendants were to fear the Lord by keeping His decrees. Parenting must keep this in mind.   So speaking of God and His Word is to take place in various parts of the day; sleeping, rising, walking, etc. This is accomplished through God's chosen agent--the parent (see also Ephesians 6:4).

As parents we must not let our preferences or anger or sin ruin the process of parenting as God's agents. We must repent of our sin and ask God to forgive us as we seek to do this rightly before God--just as we expect and lead our children to do. If you are angry that your children are not obeying you then it shows them that the problem is between you and them NOT them and God. Their rebellion against you is first and foremost rebellion against God.

Called To Obedience

1.    Confidence to Act - When you realize that your authority is from God you won't have to second guess yourself. You don't need permission from your child to parent them.

2.    A Mandate to Act - This is not optional. It is a command. To not do what God says to do is sin. How do we expect our children to obey God if we do not?  Some parents act as advisers or suggestion makers leading their children to think that they are the decision makers. ie, "What do you want for breakfast? What do you want to do today? What do you want to wear?" Children brought up this way, without parental leading begin to think they are their own boss and can terrorize the home when they get older.  Some argue that children must learn to make good decisions--true! But they learn to make good decisions by watching their parents make good decisions, not by being the ruler of the home. 

Parenting Defined

God has called us to do more than being providers of food, shelter and clothing. We are more than care-providers.  It's not a task based on convenience of schedule. The training is happening all the time. It's just a matter of whether it's good or bad.

To parent effectively you must know them and what makes them tick.

1.    Clear Objectives - Do we know our children's strengths and weaknesses? Do we have goals to help their weaknesses? Do we have a plan to encourage their strengths? Short-term, long-term goals? Do we have a plan to help shape their heart? 

Correction and shepherding should not be a by-product of public embarrassment or personal frustration.

Parenting includes pointing our children to the grace and mercy of God in Christ's saving work.

2.    Humility In Your Task - You are God's representative to your child. You are an ambassador. We are to correct our children by God's command. This task means more than correction. It includes setting an example, even asking for forgiveness of them when you have not parented correctly.  If you speak to them in unholy anger you must humbly seek forgiveness from God and your child. This helps them to see that you are not serving your agenda but God's. They are more apt to follow you when they see that you are trying to rightly relate to God as well.

3.    No Place For Anger - Discipline and correction are not the time to display raw and uncontrolled anger. We do not want them to learn the fear of man but the fear of God.  James 1:19-20 reminds us to be slow to anger because it does not produce the righteous life that God desires. 

4.    Benefits to the Child - When parents correct and lead based on God's authority then the child begins to see this. God willing, they will learn to accept correction from God. We aren't perfect, but God is. It's His correction we want them to be under.

Summary

We don't need to be timid in our parenting. Our authority is derived from God and we are commanded to parent in a godly way that leads our children to know and love God.  Neither should be we overbearing.  We are not the boss--God is. We are likewise sinners in need of grace and mercy. We want that shown to our children as well so that they'll come to salvation. 

1.    Discipline: Corrective, Not Punitive - The correction we provide our children needs to be focused on God as the offended party that way discipline/correction is seen as corrective not punitive.

2.    Discipline: An Expression of Love - Proverbs 3:12 The Lord disciplines those He loves. There is no distinction between discipline and love. Discipline is an expression of love. Discipline should not be revenge.  Discipline should not be done in anger or out of selfishness. That is an unbiblical view of marriage. Discipline is fatherly because it comes from God our Father. If we don't see ourselves as God's agents, then all of this will be missed in our parenting and we won't do it correctly.

You are harming the child and their soul when you use expressions like "I am fed up with you. You are making me mad" and other expressions that don't point them to God. They learn to fear you and not God. Any change in behavior will likely be man-centered versus being God-centered. 

Disciplined children are a blessing (Proverbs 23:15-16, 24). But discipline should be done with a proper perspective, proper motives and proper methods. Parenting and correction should all come from God's Word. Discipline is restorative not punitive. We are helping them to be restored to God. 

BOOK SUMMARY: SHEPHERDING A CHILD'S HEART - CHAPTER 3 - YOUR CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT - GODWARD ORIENTATION

 

BIG IDEA: The fear of the Lord is what makes someone wise and thus determines their Godward orientation and how they respond to correction.

Godward Orientation

Children are not neutral. They worship God or something else. Romans 1:18-19 makes it clear that all people have some sort of Godward orientation: one that responds to Him by faith and thus they serve Him, or they have a Godward orientation that suppresses the truth in unrighteousness and thus they serve creation rather than the Creator.

Choosing Between Two Ways

You either bow before the Creator and lovingly serve Him or you serve and love the idols of your heart. This is not always a conscious decision, but a child is never neutral. Psalm 58:3 says that from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies. See also Psalm 51:5. We do not become sinners when we sin. We are born sinners and prove it by our corrupt deeds.  Godly spanking is justified in light of our sin (Proverbs 22:15). 

The Heart Is Not Neutral

Children have idols of the heart just like adults. Idols of the heart are fear of men, evil desires, lusts, pride, conformity to the world, worldly mindsets, etc.  Their motives, desires, wants, goals and hopes all reveal their heart and the degree of their Godward orientation. They do respond to life circumstances and thus they are not neutral.

Whom Will The Child Worship?

Parents aren't just providing good shaping influences. The unseen dimension is that children are interacting with God in the midst of their environment and shaping influences. Children are either choosing to interact with God rightly or they are choosing to reject His rule and choosing a life without Him.

Implications For Childrearing

Most parenting books are about the parent creating good shaping influences in the hopes that the children will turn out okay. We want to learn how to also shepherd their hearts.  Life gushes from the heart (Proverbs 4:23).  We should want good shaping influences plus godly structure, stability, security, quality relationships that reflect God's grace/mercy for sinners, appropriate punishments to help reflect God's view of sin, scriptural values lived out, lack of chaos, etc. These things are crucial but still the child is not the product of these things alone. The child interacts with these influences and either moves towards God or away from God. Sinful actions are not matters of immaturity to be grown out of. Sinful actions are reflections of idols of the heart. 

The Importance Of Godward Orientation

Joseph was an example of how shaping influences don't ultimately determine your outcome. If that was the case then all the evil that happened to Him would have surely rendered Him a rebel, but that didn't happen. Joseph responded to God properly in those awful situations and Joseph remained faithful and loving to God (Genesis 50:19-21).

You must create a home of godly shaping influences. AND you must shepherd their hearts towards God through discipline, through expressions of grace and mercy and forgiveness, helping them to interact with God through their life situations. You must pray that God will move in their hearts.

BOOK SUMMARY: SHEPHERDING A CHILD'S HEART - CHAPTER 2 - YOUR CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT - SHAPING INFLUENCES

 

BIG IDEA: The person your child becomes is the product of life experiences and how they interact with them. While shaping influences matter, we should not take an attitude of determinism towards them.

SIX SHAPING INFLUENCES

1. Structure of Family Life

Number of parents, birth order, relationship between children, traditional family, single parent, etc

2. Family Values

How does the family spend time? What upsets the family? What's important to the parents? How is money spent? Is God important? Is family life based on human tradition or the principles of the world...or around the person of Christ? 

3. Family Roles

Who pays the bills? Are parents involved in each other's lives or in the lives of the kids? Who does what?

4. Family Conflict Resolution

How does the family communicate? Do they yell and scream? Do they walk away from problems? Do they use Biblical guidelines of confession, repentance, forgiveness, grace, mercy, etc? Do they listen to advice (Proverbs 12:15-16)?  

5. Family Response to Failure

How is failure treated? With understanding? With encouragement? With belittling or shaming? Abuse? 

6. Family History

Have there been deaths in the family? Was the family in poverty or well off? Was divorce a factor? Have there been health issues?

TWO MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE IN REGARDS TO SHAPING INFLUENCES

1. Shaping influences are the ultimate determiner of how we'll end up

2. Shaping influence don't matter at all

Some parents place to much important on shaping influences believe their children ell end up perfect if they shelter then and keep them in a Christian bubble. This is determinism dressed up in religiosity. While you want to have godly shaping influences, children are not passive clay that can be molded. They have varying responses to these shaping influences. If your child knows and loves God they will response positively to godly shaping influences. If your child does not know and love God they may kick and rebel against such influences. Ultimately, your children are responsible for the way they respond to your parenting. 

Determinism can lead to frustration later in life if your kids turn out bad even though you had godly influences. You expected a perfect child based on shaping influences but the truth is that the child must still respond properly to these influences. That's not guaranteed.  Proverbs 4:23 reminds us that the issues of life come from the heart--even the heart of a child. 

BOOK SUMMARY: GOD'S KINGDOM THROUGH GOD'S COVENANTS - CHAPTER 1 - THE IMPORTANCE OF COVENANTS IN GRASPING THE BIBLE'S STORY

BIG IDEA: The covenants of Scripture are foundational to our understanding and interpretation of God's Word.

INTRODUCTION

The covenants are not the focus of Scripture. They are not the central theme of Scripture. Rather, they are the backbone of the Bible's metanarrative.

The struggles that faced the early church were due to shifts in covenants--from old to new.

Dispensationalists and covenant theologians differ on how these covenants relate to each other.  This is why there are different views concerning Israel and the Church, the application of the OT law to our lives and other issues.

Progressive Covenantalism is the theme of this biblical theology book. It's progressive in that God's redemptive plan gradually unfolds from the old to the new. It's covenantal that this unfolding plan happens through the covenants.  

From what I know this seems to be different than the dispensations touted in dispensationalism or the one covenant of grace in covenant theology.

BIBLICAL THEOLOGY AND ITS RELATION TO SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY

Biblical theology is the attempt to understand the redemptive-historical unfolding of God's redemptive plan in Christ. It traces God's salvation plan as it unfolds through history.

Geerhardus Vos argued that biblical theology seeks to trace out the Bible's unity and diversity and finds its consummation in Christ and the inauguration of the new covenant. It's reading the Bible on its own terms. 

Brian Rosner's definition of biblical theology: it's the theological interpretation of Scripture in and for the church. It proceeds with history and literal sensitivity and seeks to analyze and synthesize the Bible's teaching about God and his relations to the world on its own terms, maintaining sight of the Bible's overarching narrative and Christocentric focus.

Biblical theology must come before all other theology because you cannot properly do other theologies until you understand what the Bible is all about. 

Systematic theology seeks to apply Scripture to all areas of life. Hence you cannot properly do systematic theology if you don't understand how all Scripture fits together. Systematic theology must be grounded in biblical theology. 

Systematic theology aides us in our apologetics. So rightly understood, apologetics is a subset of systematic theology. 

Biblical theology then is primarily a hermeneutical discipline and assists our systematic theology. 

HERMENEUTICAL BASIS: BEING "BIBLICAL" IN OUR READING OF SCRIPTURE AND THEOLOGY

To properly interpret and apply Scripture and to be biblical in theology we must take seriously what Scripture claims to be and we must interpret Scripture in light of what it is: God's unfolding revelation across time.

The Scriptural Claim for Itself: Scripture's Self-Attestation

Scripture is God's Word written. It is the product of God's might action through the Word and by the Holy Spirit whereby human authors freely wrote exactly what God intended to be written and without error. 

There is unity between the testaments even though there is diversity. The unity comes from the fact that Scripture is unified in its redemptive plan as it unfolds progressively throughout history and time.

There is a "fuller meaning" when it comes to Scripture or the sensus plenior.  What this means is that the authors of Scripture did not exhaustively know what they were writing about. It's only through later divine revelation that their writings were expounded upon. What they knew was true but not the final word on the subject. God did not disclose all the details at once. Thinking back to Genesis 3:15, even the gospel then was minimal even though true. Through the covenants, we come to know more about hat God was doing. Again, revelation is progressive. 

Grammatical-historical exegesis needs to be set inside the bigger biblical canon. It's not enough to just know the local situation. You must know prior and after the local situation to see where revelation was in the past and where it was going in the future.

Interpreting Scripture According to What It Is

(1).    Scripture Is A Word-Act Revelation - this is God's own interpretation of His redemptive acts

(2).    Scripture Is A Progressive Revelation - that is, God's redemptive acts happened over time thus His revelation happened over time  

Michael Horton says that most biblical theology is the one that is redemptive-historical-eschatalogical. Scripture has an end in mind as well. Therefore, all of Scripture must be interpreted as it relates to the whole.

Putting Together The Canon: The Three Horizons of Biblical Interpretation

In regards to the covenants, we must understand each one in its own context. But then we must ask what came before it and what came after it.

(1). Context, Context, Context

    (a). We must consider the textual horizon or the immediate context. Using the grammatical-historical method of interpretation begins here but does not stop here. 

    (b). We must consider the epochal horizon.  We must interpret these texts in light of where we are in God's unfolding plan of redemption. Where are we in progressive revelation? What came before this? What came after? This is why we see later authors adding to what has been already stated. They are not arbitrarily interpreting or applying texts. They are adding to the fuller meaning and we must take that into account when dealing with any text. 

    (c). We must consider the canonical horizon. We must see the unity of all Scripture. 

To be biblical in our theology and reading of Scripture we must then use a grammatical/literary-historical-canonical method of interpreting Scripture. 

One of the ways that God has glued together the epochs of Scripture is through the promise-fulfillment motif. This is tied to the covenants which are promises. Thus, through the covenants we see God's unity and diversity in the redemptive plan.  We see the promises God made and their fulfillment in Christ. The culmination of this redemptive plan is in the New Covenant and what Christ has done for us in finality in the final state. 

(2). The Nature And Importance of Typology

Typology has an intertextual framework whereas allegory has an extratextual framework. One is rooted in Scripture, the other is not.

Typology is symbolism rooted in historical and textual realities.

Typology is prophetic and predictive and thus divinely given and intended. 

Types are repeated and fulfilled in Christ. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Israel and David were all types of Christ who was the fulfillment or anti-type. He perfectly did what they all failed to do and they all pointed to Him.

Christ is the true Israel and by virtue of our union with Him we become the Israel of God and thus receive the new covenant promises made to Israel/Judah. 

Types always have a lesser to greater quality about them--a fortiori.

Types had a limited scope and timespan. When they were fulfilled in Christ they had their telos. There is a legitimate discontinuity between the old and new. 

BOOK SUMMARY: COUNSELING THE HARD CASES - CHAPTER 7 - BIPOLAR DISORDER

NOTEWORTHY QUOTES: 

A careful assessment allows us to connect with one another in a loving relationship, get accurate data, and begin to develop a clear direction for counseling. We cannot begin to reframe symptoms, behavior, heart issues, motives, and the formative influences into biblical categories if we do not know what they are.

It was not our place to undermine the medical regime he was placed on or to overstep our role as pastoral counselors.

A large part of good counseling is helping counselees see that at the root of psychological problems are theological problems. No one can have a proper view of self without a proper view of God.

Proverbs 20:5

We often waste energy on rabbit trails, focusing on problems that are not at the core of transformation and heart change.

One’s past, although influential—it is not determinative.

While sin is clearly involved and at the core of any problem, legitimate suffering needs a compassionate ear.

Our goal is counseling is threefold: (1). To get the counselee to see God’s character and compassion through the lens of Scripture; (2) to get the counselee to see himself and his problems as God does; (3) to get the counselee to feel God’s conviction and comfort as he peers intensely into the mirror of His Word.

It’s hypocritical to tell a counselee to trust God while you lean on your own skills, effort and rehearsed Bible knowledge. Sometimes more Bible knowledge only beads up on the hard heart, and prayer is often the only way to furrow the soil so the Word can take root.

Proverbs 28:13

BOOK SUMMARY: SHEPHERDING A CHILD'S HEART - CHAPTER 1 - GETTING TO THE HEART OF THE BEHAVIOR

BIG IDEA: Parents must not just address the sinful actions of a child. They must address the heart.

Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the well-spring of life.

Sin issues are heart issues. When a child sins there is a problem with their heart's affections.  They have failed to believe and trust God in some way. They must be shown their sin as it relates to God so that they can see their need for the Savior, Jesus Christ.

To address outward behavior only will yield Pharisees--people who honor God with their lips but have hearts far from him.  In my estimation, correcting behavior issues without correcting heart issues is one reason a lot of young adults abandon the faith when they leave home. Their hearts were never addressed. The behavior was primary and their heart was not.  Outward conformity to a set of rules was primary and nurturing a heart for God was not at the forefront of parenting. There are other reasons why young adults leave the church, but I believe this is one of them. This is where you hear the world decrying that strict religious upbringings confine people and when they get a taste of freedom, the person goes wild. That's a heart issue at it's core--a heart that has not yet developed a love for God and His glory.

Scripture makes it clear that sin issues are first and foremost heart issues. 

Mark 7:21-22  For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

Luke 6:45  The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Whether it be sinful speech, sinful emotional outbursts, fighting with siblings, selfishness, or disobedience to parental guidelines we must not write these issues off as issues that they will grow out of. Neither should we address them with the sort of parenting that only corrects behavior. The heart must be addressed. Sin must be exposed in light of God's holiness and the saving grace of Jesus and God's love must enter the picture in conversation and proper shepherding.

SERMON: MALACHI 3:5-6, GOD'S LOVE FOR JUSTICE - PART 3 - THE JUDGMENT OF THE LORD

 

SERMON: God's Love For Justice - Part 3 - The Judgment of the Lord

SERMONAUDIO: Audio

YOUTUBE: Video

TEXT: Malachi 3:5-6

SERIES: Malachi

SERMON: HAGGAI 1:1-11, WHEN GOD'S PRIORITIES ARE NOT YOUR OWN

 

SERMON: When God's Priorities Are Not Your Own

SERMONAUDIO: Audio

YOUTUBE: Video

TEXT: Haggai 1:1-11

SERIES: Haggai