Seasons of Parenting

Introduction

And so I’m thankful we can start this today and look at some things together. We’re going to be focusing primarily on families, but hearts and homes in heaven. That’s that’s the most important things to us as we think about our roles together. And it’s good to be with David and Karen Bunch. I’ve known them I chased them from Illinois to Indiana now to Florida. And uh I’ve known them known for a long long long time. They’ve always been very dear to me.

And uh it’s good to connect with them once again. And we’re glad to do this. So let’s begin now. Psalms 127. The Psalmist says, “Behold, children are a gift of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is the is a reward like arrows in the hand of a warrior. So are the children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.” Immediately, we learn four simple principles from this passage.

Number one, that children are a gift from the Lord, and it’s a non-returnable gift. Once you’re a parent, you’re always a parent. And one of the things we’re going to talk about in this lesson is that your role as a parent changes. Changes through the seasons. And when we don’t get that, we make a lot of mistakes. And we’re going to be talking about some of those as we go through this today. Second principle we get of this is that they’re a reward.

They’re they’re a blessing. As we’ll see again in just a moment, he he compares them to a warrior with arrows. That’s strength and confidence and support. Today, we would say they’re like bullets in your gun. If you got a gun with no bullets, it doesn’t do you much good. Back in the ancient day, you have a bow but no arrows, you better run fast. The children were his support. They were his defense. They were his help. And then the idea that they are a blessing from the Lord.

Writer John Wilmouth said this. He says, “Before I was married, I had three theories about raising children. I now have three children and I have no theories.” And there’s a lot of truth to that. You know, we we read a lot about parenting and until you are in it with both feet, you realize this is not as simple as they write in the books. years ago, one of my kids gave me this picture in my office. And when they first gave it to me, I said, “Oh, lovely.

A green tree. There’s only a million of those in Indiana.” You know, that’s lovely. But what’s interesting about this picture is you could stand here and look at this and see this green tree, but someone could be standing over here to the right and it looks like that at the same time. And someone could stand over here and at the same time I see green, they see a fall tree. I don’t know how that works, but it’s amazing. And that illustration gave me the idea of seasons of parenting.

And that’s what we’re going to focus on today. Now, a couple of understandings here we need to have. Number one, it’s important to know what God says about the family. It’s God who defined the family. It’s God who designed the family. It’s God who knows what family is supposed to be like. And so, we are created in his image. And so the active role that parents are supposed to hold to must come from the word of God. We cannot let someone else do this.

We cannot pass it off to someone else. This is our role, our responsibility and our blessing to do these things. Some time ago I was asked to uh do a lecture on parenting and this is how I began it. I am a dad. I have four grown children. They are married and among them I have 13 grandchildren. My children are now parents. We’ve experienced the drama of sports from little league to college volleyball. We’ve seen championships and we’ve tasted the agony of defeat. We’ve experienced the drama of teaching the kids how to drive.

We’ve seen honor rows and missed scholarships. We’ve been in choirs and bands. We witness the ups and downs of dating and broken hearts and frantic days of weddings. We’ve had trips to the hospitals. We’ve had surgeries. There has been car accidents. I sat in the stands and watched them on the field or on the stage. I had the honor of baptizing all four of them. I conducted the funerals for them when their little pets died. There were times when those little ones would put their tiny hands in my hands as we walked down the road together.

They sat in my lap as I wrote many sermons. I am a dad and every one of you parents not only understand but you have your own stories. The book of James in James chapter 5, James says this in verse 7. He says, he says,”Therefore, be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it until it gets as early and late rains.” There are four principles about farming or seasons we gather here.

First of all, what happens in one season impacts another season. I recently retired from local preaching. I tell people I’m a freerange chicken now. I just preach anywhere and everywhere. But but I recently retired from local preaching. Uh I went to get a watermelon at this local farm produce place. They were hiring. So I said I got nothing to do. So I started working there two days a week. Loading pumpkins is what I did on Friday. Just loading pumpkins after pumpkin.

The owner said, “This is one of the worst years for pumpkins.” And the reason is it was real rainy in Indiana and then turned real hot. What happens in one season impacts the next season. Secondly, each season has its own challenges and blessings. Again, as we stretch this and talk about parenting, we’re going to see this. Thirdly, there is a growing time and one cannot put that off for another season. Well, here in up in Indiana where I’m from, the farmers are gathering the corn and the soybeans.

It’s harvest time. Now, had they spent the whole spring and summer down here going to Disney and said, “You know what? We’re going to plant corn in October in Indiana, it ain’t happening. It’s too late.” And there’s a lesson there about parenting. There’s a certain time period. We have to understand that. And then the fourth lesson is those that don’t recognize the difference will suffer. And that’s some of the lessons we have to appreciate as we look at this. So let’s begin by going through the seasons.

1. Spring: The Time of Teaching

We begin first of all with spring. Brand new exciting young parents. I see a lot of young parents where I worship at coming in. It looks like they’re backpacking over America. All the stuff they have. This little baby comes into your world. He doesn’t have a name. He cannot speak. He has no money. He has no clothes. But boy, he turns your world upside down. And as we think about this, the goal from Psalms chapter 1 is not just to get them to be 18 and out of the house.

The goal is get them to be disciples of the Lord. The goal is get them to be someone who’s going to be productive in the kingdom. We’re raising a generation to know the Lord. That is the key. And so when your child comes, he first of all knows nothing. And so the home is where they first learn. It’s where they first learn everything. It’s where they first learn about God. It’s where they learn to share and be a servant. It’s where they learn that life doesn’t revolve around them.

It’s where they first learn about money. It’s where they learn about grace and forgiveness. It’s where they learn accountability and responsibility and being obedient. It’s where they learn respect and authority. It’s where they learn that every single person matters. Now listen to me on this very carefully. Your child will grow up and learn about God. He’ll either learn the correct way from you or he’ll go to some university and a psychology teacher will tell you that Freud made up God because we have all this anxiety and we cannot deal with it.

But one way or the other, your child’s going to learn about God the right way from you or the wrong way from the world. Your child’s going to learn about the word of God either from you that it’s inspired from heaven and we need to follow it or he’ll learn from a college professor that this is just a bunch of stories put together that man made up. Just real recently, within the past month, a female pastor in a Methodist church said before her congregation that the Bible is no different than Asop’s fables.

make believe. So your child one way or the other is going to learn about the Bible. Your child’s going to learn about the church, either the correct biblical way, how we do things from you, or they’ll go to a friend’s church where they see all this stuff running up and down the aisles with cotton candy, all kinds of circus atmosphere, big band, rock concerts, and they’ll say, “Man, that’s cool. Why don’t we do that?” They’ll learn one way or the other and they’re going to learn about love and relationships either from you and through the Bible or from a boyfriend or a girlfriend.

And so when we think about this lesson, we need to see that spring is the time in which we are teaching them. And so as we think about this passage in First Kings chapter 1, it says his father never crossed him at any time. I could not say that about myself because I crossed my father a few times and he reminded me that I did that. discipline, teaching them. And so we think about this Deuteronomy passage, which we hear so much in parenting. The idea that when you’re sitting down, when you’re walking by the way, at home, on the way, over and over, you’re just talking about the word of God.

Little lessons here and there. Some families had set devotions. That’s awesome. But just here and there, things are going to be coming up. They’re going to have thousands of questions, and you’re going to teach them and teach them. And so, the emphasis in the spring is teaching. over and over and you mom and dad are the first examples of what a Christian is. And so if after services on the way home all we talk about is how bad services are, how terrible the song meeting was, how long the preaching was, that is what their impression is going to be through you.

But if they hear over and over, “Isn’t it amazing to sit among the best people on the face of the earth? Isn’t it amazing to be among the people of God? Isn’t it amazing that God is among us? What a different attitude that is.” And so that’s the concept we need to see. And so we have to see how important that is. And so my kids are right here in the stage and the word I hear over and over from my kids are, “We are so tired. We are so tired.” And I I understand that.

2. Summer: The Emphasis Is Upon Reasoning

But before you know it, you turn around two times and immediately you’re into summer and things change. And that’s what we have to see. Luke chapter 2 verse 52, Jesus kept increasing wisdom and statue and favor with God and men. Now, if you didn’t plant well in spring, summer’s going to be hard. I want to say this to the men particularly particularly when you’re in the spring of your family your career is starting busy at work you’re trying to get to a place you want to be sometimes the demands of work pull you away from your family you can’t hit the pause button and say let my get my career together first and then we’ll come back because the kids are growing and you have to see how essential that is.

And so what we’re seeing here is during this time period is there’s a transition to thinking for self. And during the summer, the emphasis is upon reasoning. You see, for the first time now, they’re starting to think deeply about themselves. They’re starting to hear other voices. The voices of friends at school, the voices of kids in the church, neighbors, other people. And so now they’re hearing all these ideas. They’ve heard your idea during spring, but now here comes all these other ideas in.

And so during this time period, you’re trying to get them to see how important it is. Your rose going to be challenged. They’re going to grow from a young boy, young girl to a young man, young lady. They’re going to learn to drive, start dating, and start thinking for themselves. And so reasoning and logic is the key. Let’s, if you got your Bible, turn with me to the book of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 1. And I want to just run through several of these passages here real quickly.

But I want you to notice how the book of Proverbs begins. Proverbs chapter 1. And Proverbs chapter 1 verse 5 says, “A wise man will hear and increase in learning. A man of understanding will acquire wise counsel.” Now verse eight. Hear my son, your father’s instructions. Do not forsake your mother’s teaching. It’s dad telling the child. Turn to chapter 2 verse one. Chapter 2 verse one. There it says, “My son, if you’ll receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, father to son.”

Turn the page if you will. Chapter 3 verse one. My son, do not forget my teaching. Chapter 4 verse one. Hear, oh sons, the instruction of a father. What’s going on here? Dad is impressing upon his son how important this is. Now go all the way to the last chapter, chapter 31. We remember this as the chapter about the virtuous woman. But let’s notice the front end of this how it begins. Chapter 31, it says, “The words of King Lamir, the oracle which his mother taught him.”

Mom used to say, and he remembers. Notice some things mom says here. Look at verse four. It’s not for kings, Olir. It’s not for kings to drink wine, for excuse me, for rulers to desire strong drink. You’re going to be a king someday. You’re going to be a leader someday. Alcohol is not the direction you want to go. Alcohol is not going to help you. Listen to mom as he says these things. Look at verse nine. Open your mouth. Judge righteously and defend the rights of the afflicted and the remember where you came from.

Don’t step on the little guy. Don’t step Don’t use your position and power to step on people. Remember who you are. And then begin verse 10. It describes the type of woman that’s going to make you a wife and be the queen. An excellent wife who can find her worth is far above the jewels. Nothing is said about her parentage. Nothing said about her lineage. Nothing said about how pretty she is, how wealthy her daddy is, but she is a person of character.

She’s a person you can trust. She’s a person who’s going to do you well. Now, what’s all this about? It’s about a parent teaching their child and that’s what’s going on here. And so we’re reasoning during this time period. And so it is here that character is built. It is here where they begin their habits. Now I’m in my late 60s. Guys my age don’t go to the smoke shop for the very first time. You know, I just retired. I’ve always wanted to take up smoke.

I don’t even know how to hold one of those things. How do you know? Guys my age are dying because they smoke. Guys my age are trying to quit smoking. When do they start? Middle school, high school habits. How about simple little habits such as telling a lie? Got your room clean? Yeah. You know you didn’t. You know you didn’t. And so that just grows grows till you get to school. You lie to your teachers. You lie to your boss. You start lying to God.

Habits. Now turn in your Bible, if you will, to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4 has Jesus going to Nazareth. Luke chapter 4. And it says in verse 16, “And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read. The book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He opened a book, found the place where it was written. He quotes from Isaiah there. And then in verse 20, he closed the book.

Three simple lessons right here. Number one, God opens a book. God closes the book. God found the place. He found the place. How many times have I taught a Bible class and somebody raised their hand? Brother Sha, I do not know where it’s at. It’s in the Bible somewhere that says aliens are related to Jesus. I said, “Well, I’ve read this book cover to cover more than once. I I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Jesus found the place. As a people of God, we have to know the book.

But I want you to know the the front end of this. There’s a little statement here that we overlook sometimes and that is in uh verse 16. He came to Nazareth where he’d been brought up as was his custom. Now, we don’t use that word. We’d say his habit. His habit. Look, if you will in John chapter 18, this comes up again. John chapter 18. You see, when we talk about habits, they’re not always bad. They’re not always telling lies and smoking. Some habits are good. the habit of coming to worship, the habit of being engaged and doing good things together.

But in John chapter 18, Jesus is in the garden. Judas has gone to bring the soldiers to arrest him. Look in verse two. John 18:2, it says, “Now Judas also who was betraying him knew the place for Jesus had often met there with his disciples.” Now imagine you got a whole bunch of guards and you know Jesus is in Orlando and I’ve got to find them. Where in the world do you start? Judas knew because we’ve been there before. That’s his that’s his normal place of going to pray.

What is that? That was his habit. That was his custom. Where are they going to find you on a Sunday morning? In a church building. Why? Because that’s my habit. That’s my custom. And so when we think about this season here, we’re developing this idea of of reasoning with them about these things. It’s here they’re building character, beginning their habits. If he’s an athlete, he’ll honor God on the field, respect coaches, play fair, and be a good winner or loser.

If he’s a student, he will honor God in the classroom. He will work hard and be honest. If he’s employed, he will honor God at the work site, working for the Lord. He will not cheat the system. He will use his money in the godly generous ways. He will not compromise his principles not to get ahead, not to get a victory, not to make a dollar, not to avoid trouble. He will understand these things. Now, if you will turn your Bible to Genesis 22, Genesis chapter 22.

Here we read about God calling Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Genesis 22 begins in verse one. Genesis 22 verse one it says now it came about after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him Abraham and he said here I am he said take your son your only son whom you love Isaac and go to the land of Mariah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you now two things I want you to notice there this is the first time the word love is used in the Bible and God is wanting him to identify I don’t want you to get the wrong kid.

There’s Ishmael out there somewhere. I’m not talking about him. The son you love. I’m going to identify him by name. His name is Isaac. Now, we we read what I just read and sometimes it just Okay, I cannot imagine killing any of my kids. Now, there’s been some days I thought about that, but never ever ever would I do that. But there’s a little phrase here I think we overlook in verse two. It says, “Take him as a burnt offering.” Later on in the book of Leviticus, it talk about lambs as burnt offerings. You know what they would do?

They tie up that lamb what’s alive and put up on top of the altar. And then they’d slice its throat what’s alive. And what’s gasping for blood, it collect its blood. And then once that lamb died, they’d cut it up and burn it. God did not say, “From a distance, shoot an arrow on the back of Isaac. I want you to make him a burnt offering. You’re going to tie tie Isaac up and put him on that altar. You’re going to slice his throat while he’s alive.

You’re going to collect his blood. And then once he’s dead, you’re going to cut him up and you’re going to burn him.” Now, again, we’ve often taught this and said, you know, for Abraham’s perspective, there’s been no resurrection up to this point. Beyond that, how can there be a resurrection if there’s no body? I burned him up. There’s nothing left. Let’s read on here. Verse three. So Abraham rose early in the morning. That’s an amazing statement right there. If you’re an underline, you ought to underline that. If this was Mr. Roger, we were kicking this can down the road as long as I can. 5 in the afternoon, we might get thinking about this.

He rose early in the morning because he’s obeying God. rose early in the morning, sat on his donkey, took two of his young men with him. Isaac his son split wood for the burnt offering and rose and went to the place which God had told him. Verse four, on that third day, Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance. Abraham said to the young man, “Stay here with a donkey. I and a lad will go over there and we will worship and return to you.”

Let me do a timeout. Verse five, let me chase one rabbit with you. A lot of things are being said in the religious world filtering into our fellowship that everything you do is worship. When you brush your teeth this morning, that was worship. When you drove your car today, that was worship. Now, you can worship while you’re brushing your teeth, if you’re saying a prayer to God. You can worship God while you’re driving your car if you’re thinking about the Lord.

But just because I’m mowing my grass, just because I brush my teeth, does not mean I’m worshiping. Abraham says, “Now, we’re all over here right now, and y’all stay here. Me and Isaac, we’re going over here now.” Now, that’s not worship. This is not worship. We’re going to go over here, and we’re going to worship. And when worship is over, then we’re going to come back. And that’s not worship. And so, again, we see that worship is something that’s defined.

It’s specific. You don’t wake up and and just say, “Honey, weirdest thing happened this morning. I just accidentally worshiped God.” No, you do not accidentally worship God. And so again from the context verse five go we’re going to go over here and we’re going to worship God. Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering laid it on Isaac his son. He took his hand took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said my father.

He said here I am my son. He said behold the fire and the wood. Where is the lamb for the burnt offering? How did he know he’s seen daddy worship before? Well, I got a cricket. Can we give God a cricket? I pulled a couple leaves off a tree back yonder. Can we give God a couple leaves? He knew how to worship. And so, again, during this period of the summer, this is when you’re reasoning with your kids about how to worship God. Why is it the deacons are not running up and down the aisle selling popcorn and cotton candy like the ball game?

because we worship God the way he says so. That’s what you’re doing. And it’s during this time period that you’re developing within them a heart of a servant. For 10 years, we lived in Kansas City. And God doesn’t want people to live in Kansas City. He shows them that every summer we have multiple multiple weeks of over 100 degrees. When I first came there, somebody said, “Be sure and water your house.” house. I said, “I know I’m dumb, but I’m not that dumb.” No. I found out why.

Because if you don’t water the foundation, it cracks. Ours cracked. I never heard about such things. Wintertime, we get blizzards. Every spring, floods. Then there’s tornado season. I mean, God saying humans are not supposed to live in Kansas City. Now, we live there 10 years. And my next door neighbor, just a great guy, but he had a heart condition and he couldn’t shovel snow. So, I made a deal with him. let me borrow some of your tools. Me and my three boys will shovel snow.

We get a big old snowstorm. School’s canceled. They’d be sleeping in bed as guys up going next door. We’re shoveling snow and they’d gripe and they’d complain. And one of them said one time, “Dad, how much we getting paid?” I said, “You know what? You’re going to get paid exactly the same amount I am.” Sweet. How much you getting paid, Dad? We’re doing this because it’s the right thing to do. Oldest boy went to college. Me and the two boys get up. We’re shoveling snow.

Boy number two went to college. Me and my youngest one, Joel. We’re out there shoving one day just huffing, huffing real hard. He said, “Dad, what’s going to happen next year when I go to college?” I said, “I’m going to get a snowblower.” But you know, to this day, all three of them are servants. I’ll call them up and say, “Dad, I can’t talk to you right I’m helping somebody move. Dad, I’m over here at the church doing this. Dad, I’m doing this. I’m doing this. How did they learn? It wasn’t just me preaching it to them.

I took them along. And so, it’s during this time period where you’re going to do that. You’re going to take them to the funeral home. Mas, you’re going to get them out and say, “We’re making cookies. You got little ones. We’re drawing pictures for sister so- and so who’s not feeling good. We’re doing this. We’re doing Why do I have to do this?” Because that’s what servants do. We are servants of God. And you keep teaching that and teaching that and teaching that and teaching that and pretty soon they get that.

3. Fall: You Become an Advisor and Counselor

That’s what happens during the summer. Now we move on and we come into the fall. And in the book of Psalms, the psalmist says, “I’ve been young and now I’m old.” And what we see during this time period here is if you didn’t plant well in the spring, fall is going to be pl pain painful for you because it’s at this time period that the kids now are grown up. They moved out. They’re married. They have their own family. They may be in the spring of their life. They they have their own jobs.

They have their house payments and car payments. And it’s very busy. When Jesus said in Matthew 19:5 that a man should leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. He’s not talking about location but maturity and a separation of a home that we had a separate independent home here. And that is the idea that we have to see. And so during this time period your role changes. You become an advisor and a counselor. And let me let me speak to those of my generation.

Those of you that have grown children who are on their own, we make big mistakes here. We cause a lot of trouble in their home because of what we say. We have a difficulty with this. You see, there was a time when we picked out their clothes. This is what you’re wearing today. This is what you’re eating today. This is what TV shows you watch today. This is when you go to bed. If I was to call any one of my four kids and say, “You know what? It’s 10 o’clock. you need to be in bed. They would say, “Dad, do not move. They’re coming to get you right now.”

Why? Because they’re grown. They’re on their own. All I can do is give them advice and counseling. And you know how advice is. Not everybody wants advice. In the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, it says there’s a time to speak and a time to be silent. The problem is we don’t know what time it is. And we make a lot of mistakes with this. I made some mistakes with this. Went to my son’s house one time. He had this big old picture on the wall. I said, “Man, that’s ugly.”

And it was. But you know what? He bought it and he hung it there. And so, listen to me carefully on this. You can be different. You can be odd, but you still go to heaven. It’s when you cross the line with the Bible that something needs to be said. So, there’s been so many times I’ll My youngest son is way, way too much like me. Sad. He called me up one day. Said, “Dad, are you sitting down?” Said, “Oh, boy. Here we go. What? What happened?” “Dad, I bought a car.” “You got two almost new cars.”

“Yeah, Dad. It’s a 1963 Austin Healey coming from Connecticut. A son, you live in Indiana. What’s being shipped here? Do you know the difference between a screwdriver and a wrench?” He said, “That’s a pretty car.” Now, the speedometer doesn’t work. The gas gauge doesn’t work. It has no seat belts. I think I almost said it. I thought you can go to heaven. I would never ever ever do that. But you can do that. And that’s what I want you to see because sometimes we parents still want to control their lives.

We want to say now you need to do this and you need to do that. And what happens is that causes friction within the within their families. M their mama says this, their and your mama says this. Everyone’s saying stuff and causes friction. And the point of all this is you are an advisor and they may not want your advice and you just have to learn until it crosses the line with God. So be it. You can buy every ugly picture of the other is. We were we were I was with I won’t say which one. I was with one of my sons one We were in the hardware store. We were cutting through the appliances over in the plumbing area.

He says, “Dad, they sell black toilets.” I said, “Yeah, they do. They also sell black sinks.” Coming back through, we went through the appliances. Dad, they sell black refrigerators. I said, “Yeah.” He said, “You know, when I grow up, I’m going to have everything on the inside black. I’m going to paint the walls black.” I said, “Son, that’s called a cave.” That’s called a cave. But you know what? You can live in a cave and go to heaven. You can do that.

You’re not going to find me doing that, but you can do that. And that’s the point we have to see during the fall. We cause difficulties when we don’t know when to speak, when not to speak. They’re on their own now. They’re doing things that you would never do. I’ve got one in my family. If I call at 10:30 in the morning, hello, I woke them up. I got another one to call me at 4:30 in the morning. Dad, are you up? Well, I am now. You know, you can be that way and go to heaven, but if you’re doing something God doesn’t say, we got to have a conversation.

4. Winter: The Children Now Parent the Parents

But the problem is we parents have a hard time with that. We we we just feel compelled to say that you don’t want to buy a blue car. You don’t want to buy this. You don’t want to do this. You don’t want Yeah, they do. Yeah, they do. You don’t. But they do. And so just have to be careful during that. Well, then we come into winter. And once again, the roles change. And so when we think about winter, 1 Timothy chapter 5:4, if any widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to practice piety in regard to their own family, to make some return to their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God.

And so if you didn’t plant well in the spring, winter can be very lonely at this time period. It can be a difficult time because of these things. And again, it’s something that can be very hard upon them. And so during this time period, the children now parent the parents and this becomes hard for some of us older folks. They’re having difficult conversations. How long should dad drive? My dad passed away five years ago. He was 95. He was still driving in his 90s, which he shouldn’t have.

So, there’s four of us kids. We all showed up. He was so giddy. It’s not even holidays. All four of you are here. I said, “You’re not going to like this conversation.” And my oldest brother’s an attorney. And we said, “Dad, it’s past time. You shouldn’t be driving.” He said, “Time to give us the keys.” He said, “You know, I got a gun back so I can shoot all four of you. My attorney brother says you’ll spend the rest of your life in jail. He says, “I’m in my 90s. It won’t be long.”

And then he said, “Well, Dad, it’s not good for other people.” Well, if it’s their time to go. No, you’re not the angel of death. No, no, let the Lord decide if it’s their time to not you. I got money. I can buy another car. I said, “Yes, you can. We can take that one, too.” Round and round with finally we convinced him. But it was hard. It was very hard. It’s very hard when we’ve got to the point where, dad, it’s time to think about assisted living.

You’re living here by yourself and this is just not we’re too far away to come at the moment’s call. You need to think about this. And and so some those are some of the difficult difficult things that happens during this time period. Your relationship with each other is imperative at this time. You don’t have a good relationship, this is not going to go well. If you have a wonderful relationship, it’ll still be hard, but you’re doing things out of love and trying to make them better.

And so the psalmist would say in Psalms 92:12-15, “The righteous man will flourish like a palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon, planted in the house of the Lord. They will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age.” Understand, there is no retirement from Jesus. You may not be able to teach a Bible class like you once did. You may not be able to stand behind a pulpit like you once did. You may not be able to do lots of things you once did. But you can still do something for the Lord. For all you can do in life is stick your tongue out then put a stamp on it and mail a card to somebody.

For all you can do is point your finger then point it down to the phone and text somebody said, “I was thinking about you.” But even in their old age, what a blessing it is for a congregation to have senior citizens. You think about how many hundreds and hundreds of sermons you’ve heard, how many Bible classes you’ve sat through, how much wisdom you have, how you can be such a help to other people. That’s the honor and the blessing of that. Hebrews 13:7 says,”Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of the God to you, considering the result of their conduct.

Imitate their faith.” And what we need to see through this is is just leaving a legacy of godly living, walking with the Lord a long, long time. When we think about someone in their teens or their 20s, you know, they may think, well, I’ve been I’ve been a Christian a long time. You talk to somebody in their 70s and 80s and 90s. I’ve been a Christian a long time. I’ve seen things. Been to a lot of funerals. Been to a lot of family funerals. Seen some church troubles. Seen the ins and outs of churches.

Elderships that good. Elderships that were not good. But what you have is you’re staying on light years of experience. Examples of faithfulness and service. Examples of marriages that are strong and thriving. Examples of vitals fault and one for the Lord. Shame on us when we leave things worse for the next generation. Shame on us if we create more problems that the next generation is has to deal with. And shame on us if we give no thought to handling the baton to the next generation.

Who will be the next elders of this church? Have you given thought to that? Love Shawn. But Shawn’s not Methusela. I don’t think he’s planning on being here in 979 years. You ever thought about who’s going to take who’s going to take Sean’s place? You ever get any thought to that? What’s going to happen 20 years if there be a 20 years from now? See, those are thoughts congregations need to have vision, planning, mentoring, developing. And again, those are the things that will help us through these things.

Conclusion

And so when we go back to our principles now and we now put these things back into the realm of parenting, teaching, reasoning, advising, see how that works. I am a parent even today, but I’m not in the teaching mode. I’m not in the reasoning mode. I’m in the advising mode. If you don’t get that straight, it causes some bumps. And so when we think about these principles, what happens in one season impacts what follows next. So if I neglect teaching my kids, I neglect reasoning with my kids, they may be 40 or 50 years old, they don’t know nothing about God because I didn’t do my job.

So that impacts that. There’s a growing time and one cannot put that off. And so especially to you young parents, you got to realize this. This is where you’re at. And yeah, the ball game’s on. But you know what? There’ll be another ball game and another season and another season. Your kids need you right now. I’ve got a son that’s a gospel preacher. Sean knows him very well. Jordan. Jordan is just skyrocketing as a young preacher. But we’ve had this discussion.

He has four little kids. I said, ‘ You can be one of these preachers that saves the brotherhood and loses your family or you going have to tell some churches, “No, I can’t. I need to be home.” There’s a time for that. Again, you have to see that. And then there is a growing time that one can cannot put off. And again, that that is essential. Each season has its own challenges and blessings. I I was never a fan of newborns. I I just, you know, just I was afraid the arm was going to come off or something.

I didn’t know what to do with some people. But but but once they got to be toddlers, man, that was it, man. We get on the floor and we could play and we wrestle and do all kinds of stuff. And I remember thinking, man, I I wish God gave me about 20 years of this. This is awesome. It doesn’t get better. Then they then they got a little bit bigger. Man, this is great. We can go out in the backyard and throw ball. I can take them to movies. They they they get stuff. Nothing is better than this.

I got those teenage years. It’s like driving Miss Daisy, man. I’ll sit in the back seat. You drive me everywhere. I don’t care. That’s great. I love this time period. We can talk now. My kids are adults and we can we can have some serious godly conversations. They’ll call my my youngest one called me up and said, “Dad, got to have a theological question with you.” He asked me some Bible question about something. Man, that’s amazing. And what I want you to see is each season has blessings. Each season has challenges.

But what a great gift that is. And then those that do not recognize this going to suffer. And so again, we have to see how vital that is and how important that is. And so again, when we think about this this sermon today, we need to realize that God’s word is needed in every season and God’s word works in every season. It could be that you look at your life and say, you know, brother Sh, I blew past this the spring of my season. I didn’t do anything with my kids.

My kids are all grown now. They hardly talk to me. Let’s look in the word of God. Let’s see what God says about such things. Let’s see how we can help each other. It could be they said, “You know what? I was so busy in my career. I was skyrocketing my career. Didn’t have time for my kids. That’s traveling all over the world. I doing all kinds of stuff. Didn’t have time for my kids.” Well, God has given you today. God’s given you a second chance.

Now, you can’t go all the way back to the early se where you are today and where they are today. You can use God’s word and encourage and help and teach them. The author, Alex Haley, wrote this series, Roots. He has this picture or had this picture in his office. It was a turtle on top of a fence post. And all that was to remind him is that that turtle could not climb up there. Somebody or somehow someone put that turtle on top of that. And the idea that all of us stand upon the shoulders of someone else.

All of us have been helped by someone else. All of us will help somebody else. In your Bible, turn with me to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Now, this this is a Lord’s supper passage, but I just want you to notice the flow here. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. As Paul is instructing the brethren about the Lord’s supper, notice in verse 23, 1 Corinthians 11 23, he says, “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread.

I got it from the Lord, I gave it to you.” I ran track in high school. I ran the relay race. four guys. The first guy runs like a rabbit with his tail on fire. He comes up to guy number two with his baton in his hand. He puts it out. The guy here is holding it like this. He grabs it. He takes off as fast as he can. Goes to guy number three. That was me holding my hand out. Got that baton. Went to as fast as I could to guy number four. He was Jack Rabbit number two with his tail on fire. And off he’d go. We would practice and practice and practice.

But more than anything else, we practiced that one little thing of getting that baton. And it was always the same rotation, two to three, one to one to two, back and forth because the race, you could have the fastest guys, but you drop that baton and the race is over. It had to be smooth and slick. That’s what Paul’s saying. I got it from Jesus. I give it to you. And somebody from the Corinthians gave it to somebody else to somebody else and somebody else came over here to America.

Somebody else, someone else came over here to Florida, came over here to Bumby. Here you guys got it today. And someday you’re passing that baton on to someone else. That’s what this lesson’s all about. Seasons. And understand how important it is to know what season I’m in. Now, I dare say almost every one of us are in multiple seasons at one time. You may have aging parents while at the same time you’re in the summer or spring of your life. Or you may be in the spring and have something in the fall.

It it’s it’s easy to be in all kinds of seasons at one time knowing that okay for this person I’m spring I’m teaching him for this person it’s fall and I’m reasoning I can’t reason with somebody in the spring because they just don’t get it daddy why can’t I put a fork in a light socket because you’ll have a new hairdo the answer is no now over here because behind that wall there’s electricity and electricity bites you and you have to understand how this works but you tell this over here spring and you it’s over the head.

So, same thing with the Bible. I’m teaching these simple simple lessons about the Bible. Over here, the lessons have more depth, more understanding, more application. But what I’m doing through all of this is simply teaching the word of God. Well, that’s it. Seasons. Hope it’s helpful. Hope it gives you things to think about. Hope it makes you realize, okay, I’m planting. I better get busy doing what God wants me to do. Thank you so much. We’ll stop for now. Thank you.