The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 2: Parenting

Episode Date: September 24, 2023

Never underestimate the impact and power of Godly parental instruction. Exodus 2:11-15

You know, when Trey was about four years of age, we had just finished seminary. We're in our first church. Deb and I had just built our first little home, and we had this neat little deck on the back of it that we were so proud of. Small, but it was ours. And one day, Deb had taken Courtney, and they were off doing something, and she left Trey there with me. And he came up, and he said, hey, he said, hey. I want to go outside and play. I said, we'll just go back there on the deck and just play right there. And he went out and in a little bit I heard him saying something. I heard him talking.

And I didn't know who he was talking to. I thought, well, one of the neighborhood kids had come up and they were out there on the deck. And he just kept, I could hear this, you know, just something he was repeating over and over. Well, I got up. I went in the kitchen to get a drink of water and I looked out of the kitchen window and I saw tray hanging up. upside down off the deck. His head was down his feet. I guess he was holding on by his feet is all I could figure. I ran out of the kitchen. I ran around out the door onto the deck to go grab his legs to keep him from, you know, breaking his neck if he let go and fell. But I could hear what he had been saying for about the last 10 minutes. I guess that's how long he'd been holding on. And just in that calm, non-excitable way, Trey was saying, somebody helped the boy.

And so I ran over to help the boy. Now, that's what I'm doing. I'm here to help the boy. I'm here to help the girl. I'm here to help the parents this morning. That's what Pastor Jobi asked me to do. And so that's what I want to do. And the reason I'm here to do that is because of my dad.

I doubt that very many men could stand up and say that they were able to take their dad's Bible and preach his funeral from it, but I did. I took my dad's Bible and I went to Proverbs. If you've got a copy of God's word, look with me at Proverbs chapter 4 for just a moment. And I preached my dad's funeral out of Proverbs 4 on the four things that my dad had taught me in life. Proverbs 4 verse 1, Solomon writes and he says, Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father and give attention that you may gain understanding. For I give you sound teaching, do not abandon my instruction when I was a son to my father,

tender and the only son in the sight of my mother. Then he taught me and said to me, let your heart hold fast my words, keep my commandments and live. Now look at what he says, acquire wisdom. The reason why I'm here, honestly, is because of the instruction of a dad who took seriously that he was to be the priest of his family. He taught me four things. He taught me about faith, to put my faith in God, to put my faith into Jesus Christ. The second thing he taught me about was,

family. And he lived that out in front of me. He taught me faith. He taught me family. He taught me finances. And number four, he taught me about females. You know, I could stop and preach on that. He told me, beware, blondes, brunettes, billiards, and booze. That was the part of the female instruction. Anyway, you want to build godly wisdom into your family. You're going to have to consistently and intentionally build a biblical culture into your home so that when your children or when you face a moment of crisis, you're going to make a godly choice. Now, let me tell you, not every choice in your life will bring a crisis, but every crisis in your life will bring choices. And I want to show you this morning, I want to just take a passage out of Exodus chapter 2.

And I want to show you in the life of Moses how to build that into your family. Now, some of you are sitting here and you're saying, well, look, I'm single, I don't have children. Well, let me tell you, statistics tell me you're going to be married. And statistics tell me that if you get married, you're going to have a child. So this is for you. And some of you here are single parents, and I know that must be one of the toughest jobs on the planet. And I want to help you as well. Some of you are couples and you say, we've never been able to have a child before.

Well, God has placed you literally in a faith family. for a purpose. And the purpose is you can be parents to a couple who have little ones who desperately need somebody to help speak into their life, into their marriage, and into the lives of their children. God's given you a family right here where you can pour yourself into other young couples. You do not know how through the years I've had wives come to me and say, can you find a godly man that will pour himself into my husband? We desperately need that. Young couples are very accepting of you if you will come and show a real care and concern. Now, many of you are in correctional facilities. I understand that. My son is an officer,

a correctional officer in one of the facilities, and you think I'm cut off. No, you're not. you can still have an impact. God can use you to still reach your children, and he wants to, and he longs to do just that. So I want you to listen to me as well and take your copy of God's word. Go with me to Exodus chapter 2. And while you're turning there, I want you to, let me just give you a little biblical teaching. If you get to the end of Genesis chapter 50, verse 26, and you flip the page to Exodus chapter 1, verse 1, that's 400 years right there. Chapter 1 into chapter 2 is

40 years down to about verse 10, and then from verse 11 to the end of chapter 2 is another 40 years. So you've got 80 years right there in chapter 1 and chapter 2. And then when you get to chapter 3 to the end of Exodus, you've got a year and a half, about 18 months. So that's the book of Exodus. It takes about six months to get them out of Egypt, and then they are at Sinai for a year, and that concludes the book of Exodus. But we're back at the very beginning. Most of you know the story of Moses, but I get the opportunity just to share a little bit about that.

You remember back in chapter one how Pharaoh came, and he said that he wanted all of the male children of the Heard's, Hebrews put to death. Now, we don't really know who the Pharaoh was in chapter one, but there were two midwives who had trusted in the Lord God of the Hebrews, and they had determined in their heart that that was life, and they would not put those lives to death. And we have their names. Both of the names of the midwives, isn't it fascinating who God puts in his book and who God leaves out? We don't have the strongest ruler of the world at that time included. We're not sure who we, but we know two names of two women who had determined they would not do what the Pharaoh had said, but would honor the life that God gives to parents.

That's fact. Just sit there. That's okay. I'm telling you, that's fascinating to me. when you come to a couple who is just seemingly this is an insignificant unknown little couple his name is Amram, her name is Jacobed and Amram and Jacobed have three children, Miriam, Aaron, and Moses. And out of this insignificant little family that everybody would think is insignificant, and out of this little unknown family, we are going to be.

going to get a man through whom God will change the ancient world, really will help change all of history. How do you know God's not got somebody in your family like that? How do you know back there in that nursery in one of those beds or in that preschool running around right now, terrorizing a teacher, is not going to be one of the ones who will help change this world in the years to come? Well, when Jacobed saw this child, he was beautiful. The Bible says, when she could hide him no more, she got him a wicker basket, covered it with tar and pitch, and she put the child into it and set it among the reeds. And we are told in the verse before that when she saw that he was beautiful. Lord help him, had he just been an ugly baby, but

he was a beautiful baby. She put him in this wicker basket and she put him into the reeds of the Nile River to hide him. Now, have you ever wondered why she most likely made this? that out of, I've stood in Cairo and I've watched these women take these reeds and weave them into baskets. The basket was probably reeds out of the Nile and she placed him into a thick patch of these bulrushes there out of these reeds, the bull rushes. You ever wonder why? I'm just getting, listen, this is on the side. This doesn't cost the church down. I'm just telling you this on the side. You ever wondered why she did that? Why she put him in the bull race? because the Nile is full of crocodiles, and crocodiles cannot stand bull rushes.

So she places him in that bull rush basket, and she places him into the midst of the bull rushes there. But you know the story, how the princess, the daughter of Pharaoh, the daughter of the man who had literally pronounced that every male child was to be put to death, she's going to come down to the Nile to bathe, find the basket, look in the basket. She's going to have pity on him. When she opened it, verse 6, she saw the child and behold, the boy was crying, and she had pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrew's children. God is going to use the daughter of the very man who commanded that all these children be put to death. he's going to use her to save this child's life. That is fascinating as well.

I can tell you all are breathless. Well, she's going to rear that child. And as she rears that child, that child is going to be educated in all of the things of the Egyptians. Now, I need for you to do this. There are two other passages in Scripture that give us real insight into Moses. One is Acts chapter 7, the other is Hebrews chapter 11. So put your finger right now in Exodus Chapter 2, go with me to Acts chapter 7. This is in the middle of Stephen's defense. Stephen was a deacon. He was out preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was performing miracles and the high priest

and all of the other chief priests put him on trial. They were going to put him to death. They do put him to death, they stone him, and I have always said there's nothing like the stoning of a Baptist deacon to get the church moving. So, in the midst, though, before they put him to death, he is going to give a history, and it is a fascinating history of the nation of Israel. And he comes down to Moses. Verse 20, Acts chapter 7, it was at this time that Moses was born. And he was lovely in the sight of God. That's fascinating too. And he was nurtured three months in his father's home. And after that, he had been set out. That is, his mother had taken him, put him in the basket, set him out in the Nile. Pharaoh's daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son. Moses was educated in all the

learning of the Egyptians. That is, he went to school. He went to Pharaoh's University. He went to P.U. And there, in the university, he learned everything that the Egyptians knew, and they were an extremely intelligent generation of people. He learned cosmogany, which was how the world came about. The Egyptians believed that the world was hatched from a winged egg, that it broke out of that winged egg and that it rested on the back of a giant tortoise and that's how it made its way. That's how it was stabilized was on the back of a giant tortoise. He studied also spontaneous generation. Y'all all know that as Darwinism.

Well, Solomon said there's nothing new under the sun. Long before there was a Darwin, the Egyptians believed that life spontaneously generated out of the Nile. we know that to be a lie and to be pure paganism. We know that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. So he studied all of that. He studied the mathematics of the Egyptians. He studied the architecture of the Egyptians. He studied all of the language and the hieroglyphics and how to read and how to write. And then we're told that he was a man of power in words. Now he tells God the exact opposite. Back in Hebrews chapter, back in Exodus chapter three. But here we're told he was a man

of power in words. That is, he had been trained as a diplomat. He could negotiate. He was a ambassador. He was one who could speak to kings of other nations and work out deals. He was a man who was powerful in words. And then we're told he was a man who was a man who was powerful in deeds. That's a military term. He had been trained in their military academy. He was a man who knew battle strategy and battle tactics. He knew how to lead an army. He knew how to position an army on a battlefield. And so he had been trained and educated in all of those things. And beyond that, he was, as we've already read, he was a very beautiful person. In fact, Josephus, who was a Jew, who eventually began to write history for the Romans, writes about Moses and says that when

Moses would travel out of the palace and would go through the cities of Egypt, that the people would stop their shopping and they're working so they could catch a glimpse of a man who was known to be the Tom Cruise of his age. A beautiful man, a handsome man. He had everything in the world going for him. Now, take your Bibles and go. back to Exodus chapter 2, because now I want to get you to the point of crisis in his life. He comes to a point of crisis in his life. Verse 10, the child grew and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son, and she named him Moses and said, because I drew him out of the water.

Now it became about in those days when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren, and he looked on their hard labors. Now, he's 40 years of age or somewhere thereabout, right at 40 years of age. And he's at a moment of personal crisis in his life. He's at a moment where he is struggling with his identity. We're told right here that he goes out, you know, in one verse, verse 9, we're told that she's going to raise him. Pharaoh's daughter, verse 10, is going to raise him as her own son, that is in the past. as an Egyptian. I've just shared with you he's been educated as an Egyptian pharaoh.

Listen, let me tell you, Moses most likely was up for that position to become Egypt's next Pharaoh. But at 40 years of age, he's got this personal identity crisis, and in verse 11, he grows up, and around 40, he goes out to look at his brethren. when who told him those were his brothers. Who told him that he was a Hebrew and not an Egyptian? Well, I think his mother did. Who else? The princess surely did not. I think it was his mother who told him that.

And this is what I want you to see in all of this. I'm just going to give you two points today. You believe that, right? Here's the first. never underestimate the impact of godly parental instruction on the life of a child. Never underestimate it, because when you come to this point, what you've got here is you've got Moses expressing what had been put in his heart by his mother and most likely his father as well because he was reared for a period of time in their home and then handed back over

to the princess. They put something into him. They gave him some instruction. Now, I'm going to flip back very quickly to Acts chapter 7, and I'm going to show you something there in verse 23. But when he was approaching the age of 40, it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel. We're told the same thing here, but it says it entered his mind. Do you know what the Greek is? It came up into his heart. There had been something that had been put down deep inside his cart that at this point in his life bubbled up. He recalled it. It came up. Train up a child in the way he should go. Train up a child in the way she should go. And they will not depart from it. It will come back to them. And at 40 years, may take 40 years, may take 40 years.

But never parent underestimate the importance of your words to a child. What you say to a child sticks in a child's mind. Now let me give you three periods of learning in the life of a child, in the life of all of us, really. This comes from Kurt and Olivia Burner in their book. And the first stage is that of the imprint stage. That's from birth up until they're about seven, eight years of age. The imprint stage. That's when they're just constantly behind you like they're like little ducklings and

they're just walking right behind you, little goslings and they're just walking right in behind you. They're always underfoot. You know, so many times you just say, I'll be glad when these children are out from under my feet. Well, listen, let me tell you, that's a critical stage. in their development right there. I know we all feel that way.

I felt that way. You feel that way. They're constantly behind you asking questions. Well, what about this? Well, what is that? Well, what is this other thing? And then comes the question, well, why? Once you answer the question, well, it's why?

And then why to that? And then why to that? And then why to that? Until you are about to pull your hair out. That's called the imprint stage. You're imprinting on the life of that child. Do not let that period go by without constantly putting and imprinting the Word of God on their little lives.

Teach them in the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth because they're going to get to school one day and they're going to get to university one day and they're going to hear the exact opposite of that. And you want the Word of God to be the foundation of their lives. Teach them the little song, Jesus loves me. Have them in church every single week, week in and week out. so that here they are being reinforced. What you are saying, what you are doing is being reinforced here as well.

Man, the church and the family are just like this. They're like this. That's the imprint stage. That's about birth to somewhere around seven or eight years of age. And then you come to the impression period. The impression period is somewhere around eight years of age to about 14, 13 to 14 years of age. and it's during this period that imprinting is gone and now impression is being made. They are highly impressionable at this stage.

They're very open to discussion. They're very open to debate at this age. And let me just take a, let me time out and tell you, we are not losing our children in college. We're not losing our children in high school. We're losing our children in middle school. That's right at this impressionable age, eight to 14 years of age when they are being impressed. This age, this is what they want to know. They want some direction.

They're open to direction. They are open to your influence, but they're more impressed in how you live it out. Now, if you want to know why we are losing our children, it's because they see a disconnect between what we see. say on Sunday and what we do Monday through Saturday. Holy glory, amen. You don't have to amen. I'm going to amen myself. They don't see the practicality.

They don't see how this works out in your life, and that's what they are desperate to know. They want you to define what you believe, and then they want you to defend what you believe, and you say, but, Pastor, I can't do that. Then whose fault is that? You know everything else. You can tell me the name of the entire roster of the Jaguars and all the statistics of every one of them,

then why can't you give me a little bit of Bible since you've been in church for the last 20 years? Now look, I'm going to preach and leave, so y'all can get bad. I just want to help you. I'm trying to help the boy is what I'm trying to do. I just want to help you. It's that impressionistic stage that they're going to, and they like to debate. understand parents the difference between debate and argument. Now, when you get into argument, you've lost the war.

You may win the battle, but you lose the war. When you lose your temper, when your emotions get away from you, and you begin to argue with them, and you get red in the face, and you start raising your voice, you'll lose the right. Shrey is here. My other son will be here in the next service. These two boys used to get on the theological issue. and they would come to me, and they would try their best to make me mad,

and they would come to me, and they would want to debate some theology, and I would debate with them this theology, to the point to where they would finally come and say, oh, dad, thou art right. No, they have never done that, I can tell you. But they would. They all go through it. What you can't do is you just can't get.

get mad at them. They're learning. You can impress them. Show them. Lord knows how we need a generation that knows how to have differences without breaking out into fights. That's all you see today. People in McDonald's, people in Dunkin' Donuts, people at the football game, all they know how to do is just to sling a fist. That just automatically says, I don't have enough sense or enough courtesy to know how to talk to you. Well, you can impress them at this age. Just don't get emotional in it. Have a passion. Passion is different than losing your temper. Now, let me get to the third period, which picks up around 14, 15 years of age, sometimes if you're lucky, 16 years of age, and this is the coaching stage. And let me tell you something. Let me let me let

let me let you in on something. You'll do this for the rest of your life. And to your six feet under, you'll do this for the rest of your life. I have a daughter that is 41, two. What are you holding up there? Two. A son who is somewhere close to that. Another son who is a little behind all of that. Let me tell you. I still coach my children. Listen, I turned 66 this past. this past week. There's not a day that passes me that I don't think of my dad, and I often think I'd give anything if I could have five minutes for him just to talk to me. You'll be coaching for the rest of your life. It's a different relationship. It's different in so many ways, but let me tell you, there's certain things as a coach you have to understand. All coaches understand that I am

coaching them to play the game. I'm not coaching them so that they can watch me play their game for them. You coach them to play the game. Let them do it. Let them go out there and play the game. Number two, coaches also understand that players learn from their mistakes. Let your kids have some failures. We as parents today, I don't know what they call it now, they used to call it helicopter parents, but you can't hover over these kids and keep them from everything. Let them lick some dirt. It builds immunity up in them. Let them fall on a bicycle. Man, when I came along, we didn't have helmets and elbow pads and knee pads and shin guards and behind pads and everything like that. I fell on my back. I'd go in,

crying, Daddy, with a smile on his face, would go get the methylate. Let's put some methylate on it. Yeah, let's take that injury and just burn it completely up. Make them hurt. You went through it? Do it to them, you know? Listen, failure is never final. Never final. They'll learn from their mistakes. Let them make some mistakes. Don't hang over them all the time. them. Put some guardrails up. Put some guardrails up, even though they fuss about the guardrails. Let me tell you something. They will come back later and say, thank you for putting guardrails up, for helping me stay within the boundaries. My dad told me that his job was to make it hard for me to sin. And he did. Now let me show you what comes out of all of that. Go with me now to Hebrews

chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. This great passage there, this hall of faith, the roll call of the faithful here. And you're going to come down to Moses, by faith Moses. When he was born, was hidden. I'm in verse 23 of Hebrews 11 for three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child. We just keep hearing how pretty he was. And they were not afraid of the king's edict. By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Here is now he's making a choice. In fact, look at verse 25, choosing. There's your choices. He's come in this moment, 40 years of age, he's come to the place where he's going to make a choice in the midst of this crisis in his life. Choosing. Hegeoma is the word in the Greek. It means to be commanded, to be led, to be instructed,

to be guided. He is guiding rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God. He's leading himself. That's called discipline. He is instructing himself. He's got, he's been coached into this. Somewhere in the past, a mom and a dad poured into this boy all of this discipline and discipleship through the Word of God, they poured that into him so that he could make the right choice. I read, I think it was early this morning, having watched that disastrous game between Colorado and Oregon last night. But I read where Dion would walk every game, walks his son from the 40-yard line down to the zone, in-zone.

and on the way down he's coaching him, but on the way back, he's a father. Now, that's an incredible example right there. That's just a great example right there. You can't help but root for somebody like that. That's what happened to Moses. They were pouring into him as parents, and they were pouring into him and coaching him along the way, so he is choosing rather to endure ill-treatment, to be a slave, to be beaten, to be starved like his people were, with the people of God,

than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, than to enjoy everything that could be his back in the palace of Pharaoh. So he did that. Now listen, considering the reproach of Christ, Jimoni cricket, somehow they had put into his mind that there was a Messiah to come. You say, well now, where does that come? come from? Well, I'm glad you asked. Because you can go back to Genesis chapter 50 to the life of

Joseph and listen to what Joseph says there. Joseph is going to die. He's speaking to his 11 brothers and he said to his brothers, I'm about to die, but God will surely take care of you. Now he's going to prophesy about the Exodus, bringing you up from this land to the land which he promised. on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then Joseph made the sons of Israel Square saying, God will surely take care of you. That's coaching right there. I'm going to tell you this,

and now I want to hear you say it back to me. That's what they did with Moses. Moses, God is going to send someone. So in some way that I don't understand completely, but Moses in some way understood that a Messiah was to be. to come, who would lead his people out. So considering the reproach, considering that, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he was Apobloppo. Apo from the prefix, blepo to look, to look, to look, to look, to look,

Apopleppo to look away from. He looked away from the treasures of Egypt, and he was looking toward the coming Messiah. Now look, if y'all were Pentecostals, y'all be running around this room right now. That's a good word. Moses could see it. The fact of the matter is Moses could see all of this. He grasped this. This is what he was doing. Look, verse 24 and 25, and 26, he is turning away from Egypt and he's turning to because of everything that had been poured down into his life. Never underestimate. You'll hear that. Never underestimate. Never underestimate the impact of your words on the life of your child or your children. even at this stage in life, wherever they may be.

Now let me show you the second thing. The second thing is this. Don't overestimate. Don't overestimate the accomplishment of human achievement. Now, up to this point, Moses has not heard the voice of God. I want you to go with me back now to Exodus chapter two. for just a couple of minutes more. Exodus chapter 2.

And I want you to watch this in his life. He's not heard. He's heard the voice of his parents. I have no doubt that his mother poured into him. Listen, Moses, listen for the voice of God. Chapter 3, he's going to hear it, and he will immediately recognize this is God speaking to me. God's going to tell him to take off his shoes that he's standing on holy ground. he's going to immediately be obedient to that.

He is 80 years of age at that time. Now, this has taken him all this time. Let me tell you, God took Moses at 40 years of age after this incident into the wilderness. He took him there for 40 years because he had to get the Moses out of Moses. Now, some of you here, that's where you are. God's got you in a place of difficulty, in a place of struggle, in a place of hardship. You're in a wilderness right now because he's got to get the you out of you. So Moses goes out.

Now, I've covered half of verse 11. I've got six more points, but hang on. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw there was a Hebrew. was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hit him in the sand. He went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other, and he said to the offender, why are you striking your companion? But he said, who made you a prince or a judge over us? Now, that shocked Moses. Are you intending to kill me as you kill the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and said,

surely, the matter has become known. Now hang on to that, go over to what Stephen says about this, back here in Acts chapter 7. Verse 26. On the following day, he appeared to them and they were fighting. And he tried to reconcile them in peace saying, men, you're brethren, why do you injure one another? But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying, who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Now, you see, Stephen gives us here that this guy pushed Moses back. You don't mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you? You see, Moses had an understanding that God had tapped him to be the deliverer of his people. Now, you say, where do you get that right here? Look back up to verse 25.

And he, that's Moses, supposed that his brethren, understood that God was granting them deliverance through him. But they did not understand. Moses honestly believed, okay, I'm the only Hebrew in Pharaoh's palace. I'm the only Hebrew who's ever been to Pharaoh University. I'm the only Hebrew who's ever been taught all these things. I'm the only Hebrew who even stands a chance at becoming Pharaoh. I think that somebody must be me. How many times do you think in your life that you are God over the situation you're in? Moses thought that and he made about seven fatal mistakes that I'm just going to rattle off to you real quickly here. Because he hadn't heard God's voice. He's heard enough of the word, but he hasn't heard God speak to him. Number one, Moses acted out of passion rather than a godly principle. So many times we get it here, but not here.

We let our heads outrun our hearts. Number two, Moses moved in his time and not in God's time. We get God's timing all messed up. Number three, Moses tried to force open a door that God had not opened. Boy, I've done that. I'm going to assume you've done that too. I'm guilty of trying to open doors God has not opened. I'm guilty of shutting doors that God has opened.

Number four, Moses operated in his way and not in God's will. This is what I want to do, God. Number five, Moses took counsel with himself, not with God. That's why he was looking around. He looked this way, then he looked that way. What was he doing? He wasn't looking up, he was looking within. He was taking counsel with himself.

Number six, Moses operated out of a personal agenda rather than out of a godly directive. And number seven, Moses functioned from a position of human strength and not godly wisdom. What does the word of God say? It says, not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. So Moses at this point had wrecked an opportunity because he was not listening for the voice of the Lord. The one thing that my dad wanted to ensure was that I would hear God's voice. I remember very distinctly.

We were living at number five Dargin Avenue in Greenwood, South Carolina. We had this big old piano. They wanted me to take piano. I did not want to take piano, but they wanted me to. And I was sitting at it one day. It must have been a Sunday afternoon, and I was just plucking out on the keys. And I heard my dad call me, and I ran in.

I said, sir. And he said, I didn't say anything. So I went back to the piano and I heard it again and I ran in. I said, you called me. He said, I did not call you. And that's when my dad told me the story of Samuel. Now, I was a young boy at the time. And he shared with me and he said, you go back, just like Eli told Samuel, you go back and listen for the voice of God. And you always say when you hear that, hear him I, Lord, speak for your servant, listen. And I've never forgotten that. My dad always wanted me to listen for the voice of God.

Moses had not heard from God yet. I went to school with Erwin McManus. You probably know him from his books. We were in several classes together. One of them was an accelerated preaching class that we took together. And he tells a story in his book, The Barbarian Way, which is a story about my two sons. No.

He tells the story about his son in the barbarian way. I think his son's name is Aaron. And he said that Aaron was about five or six years of age and came running in one day and sat down to talk to him and said, Dad, I want to know, what does the voice of God sound like? And Irwin said, you know, I didn't know what to tell him. I said, I don't know what to say to you, but one day, you'll understand, you'll grasp, you'll know this. So about 10 years passes. His son is around 14, 15 years

of age, and he packs up and is going off to summer camp with Mosaic and out there in California. And so he goes off to camp and he's been there about a week of the two-week camp. And Irwin said, I got up and I thought, you know what, I'm going to go up and check on all the kids up at camp and see how they're doing and check on Aaron and see how he's doing. So he, he, Took off in the car, got up the camp, saw Aaron, and what he did not know was that Aaron and another boy had gotten into a fight. They pulled Aaron off of him. Aaron was furious. He was mad.

When Irwin saw his son, the boy just ran into the bunkhouse, packed up his clothes, came out, walked past his dad, opened the car door, threw his stuff in the car and said, I'm not staying here another minute. And so Irwin said, well, wait a minute, let's find out what's going on, what's happening here, what's taking place. And he found out from somebody what had happened. He went to his son Aaron, he said, Aaron, come on, you know, you need to stay here and work this out. And Aaron said, nope, not doing it. I'm not staying. And he said, well, will you at least talk to me?

Can we talk about this? And he said, they walked out into the woods and they sat down on a big stone. and he said, Aaron, just, you know, tell me what's going on in you right now? He said, a man, I'm angry. I'm not going to stay here. He says, well, Aaron, do you know what you should do in this situation? He said, yes, stay and work it out, but I'm not going to do it. He says, well, how do you know that?

Do you hear a voice inside of you? And he said, yes. Well, what is the voice saying? The voice says, stay and work it out. But, Daddy, I'm not going to stay and work it out. And then Irwin said, son, whose voice do you think that is? He says, that's God's voice, but I'm not doing what God's told me to do. And Erwin said, Aaron, you can do that.

You can ignore the voice of God. You can shut it out. You can walk away from it. But he says, I'm going to tell you. what's going to happen. He says, you're going to do that again. It'll be easier the next time to shut his voice down and out and to walk away. And then you're going to do it again and again until pretty soon, you're not going to hear the voice of God. And then it won't be long after that that you'll even forget God ever said anything to you. Aaron got up and he walked to the car.

And he got his bag, and he went back inside the bunkhouse. Now, let me ask you something. Is there a voice speaking to you right now? Deep down on the inside, who do you think that voice is? Some of you here this morning have never trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And right now, the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart. Those of you that are here, those of you that are at the other campuses, listen, the same God that is here is there,

those of you that are in the correctional facility, God is right there. He is as much there as he is here in this place, and he's speaking to your heart and your heart and your heart and your heart. What's he saying? Calling you to come to himself. Come to me. All ye who are weary and are heavy laden. Come to me. I'm tired of the life I'm living. I'm tired of the lives I'm living. I'm tired of the lies I'm living. I'm tired of the struggle that I'm going through. I'm tired of all that is happening in my life. And I'm ready to give it off to someone else. Come to me, Jesus says. In fact, would you just bow your heads with me? Others of you right now, listen, you need to be a part of a church family. It's in the family. Do you know the word of God says that God gives families to the lonely?

He has this church family here for you. They love people. I've never quite seen a church like this that loves people in so many ways. They're waiting for you. So many of you are parents and you're struggling with your children. Maybe you've even got one that's in its teens or 20s or 30s and they're running away from God. You need to pray for that child. You need to pray and you need to keep on praying and you need to keep on coaching every time you're with that child. But how many of you here this morning would say,

I hear God speaking to my heart and I want to give my heart and my life to Jesus Christ? Just raise your hand. Just raise your hand. Wherever you are, all of the campuses, they're in the correctional facilities. Here in this campus here, San Pablo, just lift your hand up and say this morning, I hear God speaking. I'm going to answer God's call on my life. I'm ready to trust him as Lord and Savior.

Just hold that hand up. Now, for all of us now, let's just stand up. Our head still bowed, our eyes closed, our hearts in prayer. I wonder how many of you here this morning say, I need to get to an altar. Maybe it's a mom and a dad, maybe a single dad, a single mom. People will come up and pray with you. I'll be glad to pray with you. You say this morning we want to come.

We want to rededicate our home, our lives, our families, my parenting skills. I want to rededicate it all to Jesus Christ. I'm going to invite you to come. Those of you who need to make a decision of some kind, you come this morning and get here to an altar. Let me begin to pray for you right now. Father, you're speaking to many hearts here this morning. I'm praying for them. I'm praying, Lord, that you give them the courage right now to slip out from wherever they are. They need to come as a couple. Maybe a family needs to come. Maybe a family needs to hear a dad pray over the whole family. I pray, Lord, you'd give them the courage to slip out,

to come and kneel at this place to make that a priority in their lives and their home I pray for those that are looking for a church for those that are looking for you that we would hear your voice that Lord we know if we shut you down how dangerous that can be in our lives

Lord I pray right now that none of us would do that but that we would come. And I pray it in Jesus' name.