Please open your Bibles to Acts chapter 2, find verse 42. My focus is about raising children, but I wanna use one of the most pivotal means of raising children arising out of this passage of Scripture here in Acts 2 42. This is the word of God. It's inerrant, it's all sufficient, it's sweeter than honey, it's all you need. Acts 2 42.

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and the breaking of bread and in prayers. Let's pray. Lord we thank you for your ways, your tools that you use to raise up a new generation and how you've ordained your church to be a chief means of raising up children. Pray Lord that you would bless us in our understanding of all these things. Amen.

So I want to focus on this one particular powerful means of raising your children and that is through engagement in the local church of Jesus Christ. One of the most important things you ever do is that you take your children to a local church and to help to establish them in love for the Church of Jesus Christ. And you know, you who are raising children, you're at a very pivotal time in your life. You'll never pass this way again. So I want to have a conversation with you about your relationship to a local church.

And what I want to say is really pretty simple. Give your children 10,000 reasons to believe that Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He's the Good Shepherd. He's the Bread of Life. He's the Water of Life.

He's everything good. And God has established local churches to do just that, to give your, not just you, but your family an engagement in another institution called the local church. You know, why would or Why should the church stand at the center position for your raising of your children? Well, first of all, because The church is one of two of the only institutions that Jesus Christ established. They're the two most powerful institutions, the church and the family.

They are the discipleship institutions. They are the evangelistic institutions. They are the institutions that socialize, and they also bring the knowledge of God. Both of those institutions are pivotal, and we neglect them to our own peril. The church also just presents a family with a golden opportunity because God has designed the church to come alongside parents to help them communicate the glory of the kingdom of God.

Nothing that a family does, nothing is more important than hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Nothing is more important than the people of God. The church is where God displays his glory and he gives us multiple ways to see the glory. You know, when Moses asked to see God's glory, what did God do? He said, I will show you my goodness.

And this is what God has designed a local church to do, is to show God's people his goodness in many, many different ways. The church is the center of history. That's why it should be the center of your family life. The whole storyline of the Bible is God's rescue of a bride and bringing that bride into a community, into a place of love, into a haven, a haven of rest, a haven of joy, with all kinds of things that he's designed. And why else should the church be the center?

This might be the most important reason, because Jesus Christ loves the Church. The Lord Jesus Christ loved the Church and He gave Himself up for her. And he dedicates the rest of the lives of those he saves to nourishing them and cherishing them and washing them in the water of the word. How do you know the importance of anything? Well, one way you know is by who loves it.

And it's Jesus Christ who loves his church. And the apostle Paul, he told that, the church in Philippi, he said, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And parents should think about that in terms of how they engage the church of Jesus Christ. You want to have the mind of Christ as it relates to the church and put on the mind of Christ and love the church the way that Jesus Christ has loved the church. So all of this to say, I wanna argue that local church life was designed by God to be the center of your life.

Most people make their local church the periphery of their life. They add up all the things that they want to do in life, And then if they can fit it in, if it's convenient, if they're not tired, if they're not busy, then they'll be engaged in a local church. So the church should be the center of your family life. My counsel to people, really my whole Christian life as a pastor for 40 years has really been the same. Put your local church at the center of your life, and if you can fit other things around that, fine.

But start with what Jesus Christ loves. Start with the center of history. Start with the things that God has designed and has told us are important. Start there and then you won't waste your life doing a bunch of peripheral things. And there's so many things that you get to do in a local church.

First of all, you show them the treasures of the kingdom of heaven. That's why David said, one thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. And then he goes on and he talks about life and he says, for in the time of trouble, you shall hide me in your pavilion, in the secret place of the tabernacle, you shall hide me. And it's this picture of being hidden in God, in the temple of God, in the worship of God. And In that experience, you see the treasures of God being played before you.

And I want to urge you parents to take your children on an adventure, to adventure them through the treasures of the kingdom of God, to be a good tour guide, to show them the treasures, to open up the glories, to lay it before them and then Explain it to them, talk about it even afterward. When you make the Church of Jesus Christ the center of your life, You also exalt the rest of God. The Lord's Day is a day of rest. To remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

In it you shall do no work, you nor your son nor your daughter nor your male servant nor your female servant nor your cattle nor your stranger who is within your gates." The fourth commandment. Unfortunately we live in a world today where many people, they act like there are only nine commandments. But actually, there are 10 commandments and one of them is the fourth commandment. And God desires his people to enter into a day of delight. That's what Isaiah calls it in Isaiah 58.

He says it's a day of delight. He says, you know, you shall delight yourself in the Lord. And then he says, and I will cause you on the high hills of the earth, and you will, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father. You know, I was preaching on this one time, I was talking about, you know, celebrating this day of delight. It's so wonderful.

You'll ride on the high hills of the earth. And then a guy in my church was repeating that to his children, and their children said, ride on the high heels? He had a mountain accent. High heels. You know, high heels.

That's how the mountain people say it so children might misunderstand it but he'll make you ride on the high hills of the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. It's a day of rest. We need rest, a day to set aside everything. And think about this, you know, God gives his church so much time to just soak and meditate in the goodness of God an entire day to do that. So many believers don't think, how could I do that all day?

Well guess what? It is hard. It's really hard because your mind drifts all day long, but here's what you know about God. He wants to take you into the beauties of his kingdom all day long. And of course you're going to drift in and out of it for sure.

But think about God's desire for you. It's a day of rest. It's also a day of fellowship and gladness and sincerity of heart. That's Acts 2, 42 through 47. You know, they continued steadfastly.

In other words, they were on it. They didn't miss it. They weren't just picking and choosing. They were steadfastly devoted to the apostles doctrine and to fellowship and the breaking of bread and to prayer. In other words, they wouldn't miss it.

You know, what a lot of people do when it comes, you know, to the Lord's day, is that they decide that day, whether they're gonna be involved in it, rather than just devoting themselves to it, you know, every day. My counsel to families is this, hey, don't decide every Sunday whether you're tired or not. Don't decide to go to your church prayer meeting every Wednesday and say, well, am I too busy? Am I too tired? Have I had too much on my plate?

No, make one decision. Don't make a decision every single week. Make one decision and be there. And you'll save yourself a lot of consternation and soul searching and determining whether you're ready or you've been busy enough, anything like that. Those kinds of things actually just breed immaturity in a church.

That's why the language here is they steadfastly devoted themselves. Steadfast. You know what else you get when you make the church the center of your life, singing. Hey, nobody else sings like the church. When the church gathers, they can't help but sing.

We just can't help it. We wanna sing. We wanna engage our whole body in lifting our hearts to the Lord. That's why the apostle Paul to the Colossian Church, he said, let the word of Christ dwell richly within you in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. God wants his family to sing.

So he creates this culture of singing. And when the church gathers to sing, by the way, they're not just singing to an audience of one, okay? That's a totally unbiblical idea. Because here in this passage, you are singing to one another. You are singing to God, you are lifting up your praises to God, but you're also singing to one another.

You're encouraging one another. You know, like, if you notice how different songs are written, some of them are written personally between you and God, and many of them are exhortations that you make toward your brethren, And some of them are just declarations, like a mighty fortress is our God. That's everybody saying this. We're saying it to one another. Our God is a mighty fortress.

And of course, you know, God receives that praise, but actually we're singing to one another. In Romans it says that we're actually singing to the unbelievers too. So you ought to be singing really loud when the unbelievers are there to tell them how great God is. You don't want to be just mumbly, mumbly, mumbly, you know. Well, no, rip it out, sing, you know, because God is great.

And the Bible makes it very clear that God designs his people to sing and you should help your children to sing. You know, But here's just a little tip now. Not every child wants to sing. You know, they, and you ask them to sing and they say no. So what do you do?

You make them sing. Don't let your children just sit there mealy mouth and while you're pandering to their idolatry of self. Okay? They teach them to sing and in a while they'll break out of it. But you know to come into the fellowship of the saints and sing is such a wonderful thing because there's rich doctrine.

You're teaching one another. You're admonishing one another in the singing. And then there are sermons. Let, you know, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. You get prayer meetings where the church comes together and recognizes they're not very powerful.

We need God. That's what prayer is, prayer is basically saying, Lord, we're out of gas, we need help. Lord, come and heal and save. You know, when you bring your children to a local church, you're bringing them to the gates of everlasting joy. And that's what parents are supposed to be doing.

And so as you're raising your children, I just want to urge you to recognize how important it is to show them the treasures to bring them a day of rest, to bring them into the fellowship of the saints where all these strange people, where you get singing, you know, where you're listening to sermons and where you're displaying the glory of God. As you're raising your children, don't forget the local church. It's one of the most important things you'll ever do in your life. Here's my experience. The families that don't make the local church the center of their life end up weaker families.

It's just my opinion, it's just what I've seen over the years. Because they're not enveloped in this rich experience called the local church. So I'm here to say, as you're raising your children, make the church of Jesus Christ the center of your life. Now, I wanna shift gears for a second. I wanna speak particularly to you children right now.

You know, you who've grown up in a church, you know, you've grown up in a family where the word of God was honored. Your parents, they wanted to love the Lord with all their heart, they did the best they could. And you've heard it all, you know the gospel, but you're not sure if you're saved. And you have all kinds of questions. And I really want to address children and families who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but they're not sure they're saved.

And you know the facts of the Bible, you believe that God created everything there is, you believe his kingdom is a wonderful kingdom, you want to follow Jesus Christ but you're but you're not sure. And I want to I want to just ask you some questions. First of all, are you waiting for some dramatic moment? Because when you grow up in a Christian home, in an orderly home, and your father and mother did not make a wreckage out of your life or theirs. You may not have the dramatic conversion that that guy down the street had, you know, because he was on crack and was fornicating all over the place and was a thief.

When that guy gets saved, he's gonna fall on his face and maybe cry for a day. But she didn't grow up in a world like that. You have to remember that you're not saved by a dramatic moment. There's no such thing as salvation by electrification. Salvation is by grace.

Salvation is free to those who believe. You know, you may be waiting for some massive change, outward change, you know, in your life. But you, you, if you grew up in a Christian home, you probably won't see those radical changes happen in your life in contrast to those who lived a debauched life. Salvation is not by drama. Salvation is not by a dramatic change.

Salvation does bring about change. Are you waiting to be holy enough to have assurance of your salvation? Well, if I was holy enough, then I would know that I was saved. Well, here's the reality, you'll never be holy enough to be saved. Nobody ever got holy enough.

Nobody ever got to a place where they were worthy to be saved. I mean, do you think God, do you think God looks out, you know, across the whole landscape of the world and says, oh, there's Joe, he's such a nice guy, he's savable? No. No, not at all. God doesn't save the worthy.

You can't get worthy enough. People say, oh, I don't know if I have enough faith. I don't have, I don't know if I have enough faith. You'll never have enough faith. Faith grows, but if you're a real Christian, it's never enough.

The real Christian just wants more. And if you're wondering about your salvation, because you're worried that you don't have enough faith or you don't have enough passion, or you don't have enough holiness, salvation is by grace alone. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Oh, but I don't know if I'm sincere enough. Every person in my experience that I know has that thought when they actually become a Christian.

I don't know if this is just am I just going through a phase? Is this gonna be real? Is this gonna stick? That's what I thought when the Lord was saving my soul. But, well here's one more.

Are you trying to pinpoint an exact moment when you were saved? Like that moment when the lightning struck and boom, your heart, everything just changed like that. That does happen to some people, for sure. I'm pretty sure it doesn't happen that way for most people, that God brings people through a process and then they just have this realization that they wanna follow the Lord with all their heart. That's what happened with me.

It was almost, I can't even know exactly when I was saved, but it was almost like God was just pulling in this rope, just pulling it in. And God would send different people and different experiences. I was saved during the Jesus movement in Southern California, and God was just pulling in the rope. And then all of a sudden I just had this realization, Lord, I'm here, I don't want anything else. I just want you.

I don't wanna go that way anymore. So, You know, is there something keeping you from Christ? Some fear, something that you might, you know, might have to give up or something like that? Is it doubt, is it pride? Now, if you've been thinking like the way I've been describing, here's my last question.

Do you think it's pleasing to God to delay? Do you think it's pleasing to God to still be doubtful for things that you don't really need to doubt? If you want to come to Jesus Christ, then come. And if you come, it means that he gave you the desire to come, he changed your heart. It's the believer who wants to be more holy.

It's the believer who wants to be more passionate. It's the believer who wants to be more passionate. It's the believer who wants to have more faith. That's not what unbelievers want. And if you want those things, I just wanna ask you, Are you delaying something that you don't really need to delay?

And just resolve it. Just resolve it today and say, Lord, I'm yours. I wanna follow you. Thank you for saving me by grace and justifying me by your blood. Now, I was reading the Baptist Confession a while back, and there's a whole section on assurance of salvation.

And in the Baptist Confession it says that there are three infallible assurances of salvation. First, the blood of Christ. Secondly, that your life has changed. In other words, you want the things of God. And thirdly, that your spirit cries out, Abba, Father.

It's the adoption of sons. You're crying out to God, Lord, make me more holy. Give me more faith. Give me more passion. I wanna be like Jesus.

You know, if those things are part of your life, Maybe you're saved and you didn't know it. Would you pray with me? Lord, Lord, I thank you for these dear families who sacrificed so much to be here. And I pray that you would give them the richest experiences in their local churches, and that you would also give them victory with their children. You've made so many promises to them.

Oh God, fulfill your promises for their children and save the souls of their children. You've placed these eternal souls in their homes. Oh God, I pray that you would bless them and give these families favor in the salvation of their children and in the delights of your church. Amen.