Psalm 78:1-8
Amen. You can be seated. Please
turn in your copy of God’s word to Psalm 78. Today we’ll be reading
and thinking about some themes from this wonderful Psalm. Make
your way to Psalm 78. As you already know, and you’re
catching by the themes of our service, we want to think today
about the covenant blessings of being included in God’s family.
But we also want to think about the covenant obligations. When
God makes a relationship with people, he never comes and says,
hey, here’s all the blessings I can dump on you. Do what you
want. Now, he says, here’s all the blessings you could ever
imagine, but you’ve got to walk before me. You’ve got to be blameless. You’ve got to put your faith
open. In Jesus Christ, my son, your savior, you’ve got to be
a person of worship and growth and service. And so we want to
think about those covenant blessings, those covenant obligations that
come with little children and are bringing them to him for
his covenant grace. Hear the word of the living God,
Psalm 78, verses one through eight. This is a psalm, a masculine
of Asaph. He says this, give ear all my
people to my teaching, incline your ears to the words of my
mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark
sayings from of old, things which we have heard and known that
our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their
children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds
of the Lord and his might and the wonders he has done. He established
a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel to which he commanded
our fathers to teach their children that the next generation might
know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their
children so that they should set their hope in God and not
forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. They should
not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a
generation whose heart was not steadfast and whose spirit was
not faithful to God. Let’s pray together. Lord, we
pray now that your word would be a lamp to our feet, a light
to our path, that it would guide us in the way of salvation, the
way of Christian living, the way of family living, the way
of living for you in this world. We ask now for your help and
blessing and we pray for it in Jesus’ name, amen. This morning
I watched a little bit of a 9-11 stroll down memory lane. I’m
sure some of you have been looking at those over the weekend. Last night in particular, I looked
at one. It was about a little island
in Newfoundland where a lot of planes landed. The little town
there showed great hospitality to all of a sudden five or 6,000
people, I believe, who stayed with them several days. And it’s
interesting to walk down memory lane and remember where you were
when 9-11 happened. That’s assuming you were alive.
I think maybe a few of you weren’t. But we always think back. Where
were we when this took place? We got some New Yorkers here.
You were a little closer by. This morning, I noticed one of
those services where they read the names. And you think to yourself,
for how many years will they read the names? How many years
will they have these services where they ring the bells, read
the names, and all the rest? And I imagine the answer is they’ll
keep doing it until we forget. They’ll keep doing it until it
becomes something that means nothing to the next generation. They don’t remember 9-11. They
don’t remember those events. They don’t know what it took
to come through that and to pull through it as a city, as a nation,
as a people. We can quickly forget history. We can quickly forget life events
that meant so much to a generation before but come to mean nothing
to us because that information is not passed down. And it’s
very much the same in the Christian life. It’s very much the same
in the family. It’s very much the same in the
church. Judges chapter two, I think is one of the saddest passages
of scripture. When we finished Joshua on Sunday
nights, we will make our way through judges and judges two
is a rather somber passage. It says this, there arose a generation,
Who did not know the Lord, their God, or what he had done for
Israel. So their grandparents came out
of Egypt. Their grandparents escaped the tyranny of Pharaoh,
making bricks without straw. Their grandparents crossed the
sea on dry land, and when they turned back, saw the seas collapse
in on Pharaoh and his army. Their grandparents sang the song
of Moses, the song of Miriam. I will sing unto the Lord for
he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and the rider have
been thrown into the sea. Their grandparents lived in the
wilderness and ate bread from heaven. They drank water from
the rock. Their sandals did not wear out.
Their tunics were not eaten by moths. God blessed them with
quail, with manna, with water, with provisions, with endurance
to live in the wilderness. And somehow when they died and
their children entered the promised land under Joshua and Caleb’s
leadership, they got so busy taking land and building houses
and hanging their flat screens and getting their spectrum internet
and cable. They got so busy trading cars
and getting established in the promised land. I’m joking, right? But they got so busy with life,
they forgot to tell their children about the Red Sea and the manna
and the deliverance of almighty God. And then the, the, the,
the ite, you know, remember our thing on Sunday night, all the
ites have got to go, but they let some live. And so the ites,
you know, married them, the ites hung around, they influenced
them. They went to school with their kids and all that stuff
we might think through. And so they began to influence
Israel. And within just a few years,
there arose a generation who did not know the Lord their God
or what he had done for Israel. That would be like you grandparents.
Sitting down with your grandchildren over supper and your grandchild
doesn’t say, grandma, grandpa, who’s Michael Jordan? Though
that would be a travesty, right? They would say, who’s Jesus?
What’s this cross business? And we’re living in a day and
a time where church is not on people’s to do list, it used
to be respectable to go to church, whether you love Jesus or not,
whether you worship God or not, you went to church because it
was a respectable thing to do. And nowadays, that’s not so much
the case. In fact, I don’t think it’s the
case at all. But could it be that there would arise a generation
from us who did not know the Lord our God and what he had
done for his church at the cross of Jesus? some 2000 years ago,
it’s quite possible. In fact, I think it’s very possible
and it’s quite happening before our very eyes. And so Psalm 78
is a wonderful Psalm to push us and to challenge us as we
think through the obligations of living in covenant with God.
It’s a Psalm that says we have a duty to tell, we have a duty
to teach, we have a duty to direct our children’s hearts toward
Almighty God. And these are duties which are
often neglected, not just in the greater world, that’s for
sure, but they’re neglected in the life of much of the church
today. And I think that’s why we wring
our hands sometimes and say, where are the young people? Well,
the young people we ran off. We ran them off with arts and
crafts and other little things, legalisms and whatever else.
And so they have no interest in the church because we gave
a generation or two no church at all. And so I think it’s a
wonderful opportunity for us to think about what’s important.
What’s the basic duty which is required of us as parents? What’s
the basic duty of us that is required as a church of the living
God? And it’s the duty to tell, the
duty to teach, the duty to direct the hearts of the generations
toward the living God. I think back to when I grew up,
I grew up in a little bit different era than today, though I’m not
that old. We lived in a home with a family. We went to church
and we went to school and that was about it. Nowadays, there
are so many distractions for young people. Recently I was
looking through a family photo stream and you know you see where
all your loved ones are. And I think at an increasingly
younger age we think a child needs to know how to play soccer.
We think at an increasingly younger age a child needs to know how
to dance or needs to know every Disney character there ever was
or will be or shall be world without end. Amen and amen. We think that our children need
all these life skills by the age of six. And so we wake them
up early. We put them to bed late. We ferry
them here. We ferry them there. And then
we wonder about the time they get to be about 18 or 22. Why
don’t they love Jesus like we did? Well, we distracted them.
I know I’m not that old and I don’t want to sound like I’m waxing
eloquent about a day gone by, but a simple home life, a simple
church life, a little education and not a whole lot else will
do a child very good. Sitting a child in the lap and
telling them who God is and what he’s done, bringing them to church.
going through the catechism with them. It won’t kill children,
contrary to popular belief. But we as a church, we as a group
of families have a duty to show and to tell with our children.
So let’s think through each of these three things. The purpose of this sermon is
to prepare all of us to make and keep the vows that we’re
about to make and keep. There’ll be vows of parents,
but there’ll be a vow from the congregation that we promise
to help. And so we want to think first of our duty to tell. Our duty to tell the young children
that are before us in the Church of Jesus Christ. To tell them
what? To tell them who God is. To tell
them what God has done. And to tell them what God has
promised to do that are still things yet to be done, but are
yes and amen in Jesus Christ. We do live in a day of distractions
and it’s hard for people to get to church. It’s because they
make it hard. It’s hard to sit around the dinner
table. That’s because we have all these sorts of distractions.
But I think two ways we can have an audience with our children,
have family time, have church time and tell them the stories
of the scriptures. One of the things that we love
to do when a family comes to our church with children or a
maybe they’re part of the church and they have a child for the
first time, we buy them this basket of books. And there’s
some parenting books, you know, Parenting in the Pew, there’s
Shepherding a Child’s Heart, there’s the Don’t Make Me Count
to Three, Mom’s Guide to Not Yanking Out All Your Hair with
Little Ones in the House. There’s those kind of books,
but we give lots of little books you can read to your child to
show them the building blocks of the faith. I think one of
the best ones is a Child Story Bible by Catherine Voss, a great
lady who took her own Bible reading and put it into words that her
children could understand. And it gives the building blocks.
It gives all the major stories from across the entirety of scripture. We use it down the hall in our
Sunday school class. And over 52 weeks, if your child
attends, they will hear who God is and what he’s done and what
he’s promised to do. We add to that the catechisms.
We add to that the hymns of the day, and we help prepare them
for worship in the church. Brothers and sisters, we have
to do the telling. Most of us loved that great theory. It was a theory, right? Kids
who are still students, where if you put a book under your
head, under your pillow, you learn about osmosis. And if you
slept with your biology book under your pillow, you would
pass the biology test the next day. Well, we all know that’s
false. It did not work. You flunked. And it won’t happen
by accident with your children. We have to sit them down. We
have to sit with them and tell them who God is, what he’s done,
and what he’s promised to do. We have a duty to tell. Now,
something we don’t often think of, we’re a TV culture, we’re
a tablet culture, and so we get most of our information by watching
and listening. The blue light does the teaching.
But think back to the days of Psalm 78. Think back to the days
of the ancient Near East. Telling was part of life. It was an oral culture. How did
we know about grandma and grandpa? Well, we talked about it around
the fire at night. We talked about it over meals.
We talked about it at the dinner table. And so this duty to tell
what’s natural to them because their lives were not so distracted
by soccer and dance and Disney and tablets and iPhones and movie
theaters and shopping malls and all the rest. They had a little
bit simpler life, Noah, way simpler life. And their life was centered
around God, family, and passing along this oral tradition. And
so I think the challenge for many of us today is to say, how
do we clear out some of the distractions so that we get to the bedside
Bible reading, so that we get to the dinnertime Bible reading,
so that we get to the Sunday morning gathering of the saints,
where we can meet our covenant obligations, our covenant duties
to tell our children who God is and what God has done and
what he’s promised to do that’s yet to be fulfilled, but as yes
and amen in Jesus Christ. There is this duty to tell, are
we keeping that duty? There’s also a duty to teach.
And maybe you’re thinking in your head, what’s the difference
between telling and teaching? Well, maybe there’s not too much
of a difference, but I think of Deuteronomy chapter six. And
I think of chapter six of Deuteronomy as we live life as families.
We live life as church people. It says that we should teach
God’s ways, his statutes, his commandments, uh, when we sit,
when we walk, when we rise, or maybe you could just translate
very loosely as we live life together. And so just think of
this example. If you teach your children, if
you tell them who God is, what he’s done, you’ve read the Bible
with them. You’ve gone through the catechism with them. You’ve
helped them to know the content of the scripture. the content
of God’s redeeming grace in this world. And then as your kids
get a little older, and yes, you do go to soccer practice
and violin lessons and whatever else it is you do, you wash the
cars, you cut the grass, you make drives to grandparents’
house. You have a foundation because you’ve told them. And
then you can begin to teach them the principles. Do you know,
dear child, so-and-so lost their temper on the soccer field. And
remember, we’ve learned about the fruit of the spirit and its
self-control. Did so and so bear the fruit of the spirit of self-control?
Or maybe daddy’s coach and daddy lost his temper. Now that’s in
a confession. I’ve never coached my kids, but you have a discussion
about the coach or the teammate or, or, or you dear child, you
lost your, you lost your way on the ball field tonight. What
does the Bible say about self-control? What does the Bible say about
the fruit of the spirit? How could you have been a better
faithful follower of Jesus? And how could you have been a
better witness to the grace of God in Christ? And so, as you’ve
told your children these things, you begin to teach them along
the way. As you walk, as you sit, as you
go to soccer practice and dance class and school and carpool
lines and all the rest, you begin to talk with them and teach them
the ethics of living in the kingdom of Almighty God. There’s also
this third duty, not just to tell, not just to teach, but
to direct their hearts. toward God. I think many of us
probably grew up in fundamentalism, legalistic America. In fact,
I think next Sunday, the historical theology class in Sunday school
is going to talk about fundamentalism and the effect it’s had on the
American church. But most of us probably grew up this way. No child of mine will ever act
like that. I know you heard it. It might
have had a accompanying thump on the back of the head in church
or a pinch of the hanging down part of the arm, that sort of
thing. But the goal of Christian parenting
for a large part of Americans, especially in the South, was
don’t embarrass me. And I think the Bible has something
way better in mind for us when it says that we should direct
the hearts of our children towards God. Dear little one, who do
you worship? Who do you love? Who do you wanna
please? If man’s chief end is to glorify
God and to enjoy him forever, how is that done? By loving him,
by keeping his commands. And so this duty to tell, this
duty to teach, this duty to direct our children’s hearts, even our
own hearts towards God, really comes through in parenting. Do we probe their hearts? Why
did you lose it on the ball field? Why is it you disrespect mommy?
Why is it you’re failing to do your chores when you’ve been
asked to do them? And it’s part of life in the household. You
begin to probe and don’t pop them on the back of the head
and say, no child of mine would never do this. Actually, every child
of yours for eternity without Christ would continue to displease
you and bring shame to your name. It’s but for the grace of God.
And so we need to direct our children’s hearts towards almighty
God, his worship and his ways, but most especially faith in
Jesus Christ. We need to teach our children
that He alone can save. He alone can wash away our sins.
He alone can forgive. He alone can give His spirit
and change your heart. So that on the soccer field or
in the ball field or in the classroom or in the backyard doing your
chores, as you aim to please God, you’ll also please mom and
dad. Someday you’ll please your boss. Someday as you work as
unto the Lord to please Christ, you’ll please men. And so on
and on, we can think through these ways where it’s important
to tell our children about God, to teach them the ways of life
in the kingdom, but especially to direct their heart towards
God, his love for them in Jesus Christ. I think of this whole
idea of parenting from the perspective of the Proverbs. And some of
you will recognize this maybe from your gardening. Maybe you
go to Lowe’s or Home Depot, wherever it is you shop for your plants.
You buy a maple tree, let’s just say. They look pretty, they produce
nice colors in the autumn. So you get your tree, you take
it home, you dig your hole, you know, twice as big. I don’t know
why they do that, because that’s more work. But you’ve got to
dig it twice as big, twice as deep, break up the root ball,
stick it in the ground, put some additives in there, and then
you get out your hose, stand there and water it. and you think you’re
done. Then your neighbor who’s a busybody
comes over and says, well, you better stake it, right? What
do you mean by stake it? You better put three stakes in
the ground, tie it three different ways. What do I do that for?
It’s got a nice stalk. Well, the first wind will come
along and that tree will blow over, it will snap, it will break.
And so the Proverbs teaches that our little ones are like saplings.
They need to be put in the ground just right. They need to be tended
very well. But they need to be staked. You
know, they need the greenhouse of the home. They need the protection
of parents and church. They need the blessings of living
in covenant with family and with church so that as the wind blows,
those stakes hold them. When we get lots of rain, it
doesn’t wash away the plant or when the world or the devil or
the predators and all come along, the tree can stay planted until
it’s rooted. until it gains strength. And
that’s the idea with children. They get to live with us. And
I know kids don’t like it, but you know, sometimes there are
stakes and there’s tie downs because mom and dad do know best. God has given the parents, he’s
given the homes so that you can live safely until you can stand
on your own two feet. Now, I mentioned earlier, oh,
we got so many distractions. Oh, we got, Soccer for age two,
age one these days. And that’s a problem in and of
itself. But we’ve come to think, I think,
today that our kids can handle anything. And there’s this idea
that there is too much too soon. This is an interesting little
fact that I think tells us a whole lot. Do you know that children
are hitting puberty sooner than they used to? Why is that? It’s
because they’re exposed to too much too soon and their bodies
are adapting to that. I’ve heard that studies have
shown that some children as young as seven or eight are hitting
puberty. It used to be 13 or 14 or 15. What about the stakes
in the ground? What about the straps to hold
them down until they can grow well and serve the Lord in their
own faith and in their own reliance on the Holy Spirit? Well, So
much more could be said, so much is in my heart to say to you. But as we look to the church,
obligating ourselves to the Snow family, and we got a couple more
families that will be presenting their children in the weeks to
come, as we look towards ourselves being a church and obligating
ourselves to this family and others, we want to think about
our obligation to help them teach and tell and direct their children’s
hearts to the Lord. But as parents, Some of you say
I’ve graduated. Well, you probably got grandkids
or great grandkids. Maybe you don’t have children
yet. It’s never too soon to start
thinking about these covenant obligations that God gives us.
We are given these children by God’s grace. Three have come
into our household and I don’t think an instruction manual came
with them. Nothing was tied around their
toes, but God’s word is sufficient. God has put your children in
your home with you and your wisdom and your sanctification to be
a blessing to them. It takes hard work. It takes
the assistance of the church. Your hearts may be broken. Your
hearts may be full of joy along the way. But what a great privilege. To be those who plant little
plants in the ground with hopes that they will become mighty
and giant, shade-giving blessings to others. It doesn’t happen
by accident. It comes by hard work. It comes
by trusting in God’s grace. It comes by relying on His promises
that I will be to you and to your family a God. I will be
to you and to your offspring a God. You’ll look back and see how
great and wonderful God is in this. But we need his help, we
need his blessing, and we need to get busy telling and showing
and teaching and directing. Let’s do pray together. God,
we thank you that your grace calls us by name out of this
world, and that your covenant signs mark us differentiate us
from the pagans of this world, the godless of this world, and
you put your name on us. You put us in fellowship with
other Christians so that we can grow together, walk together,
pilgrimage together to the heavenly city. Thank you that your word
is sufficient, everything we need for life and for doctrine
is so plainly put down in it that by your grace, through the
wisdom of others, we can walk safely to the heavenly city.
So make us diligent, make us joyful in this duty, help us
to do it together, and to strengthen one another for this walk along
the way to the great city. Lord, help us and bless us now,
we pray in the name of Jesus, our great savior, amen. We want
to prepare to be part of this great event in the life of our
church by singing number 550, and we’ll stand to sing.