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There was a young preacher who just graduated from Seminary. He was about to preach his first sermon, and it happens to be on the subject on parenting. And so, he entitled his sermon, ‘10 Commandments on Parenting’.

After a while, after a few years, he got married, had his first child, understood a little bit about the difficulties of parenting. And now, he preaches the sermon again, but the title is called, ‘The 10 Suggestions for Parenting’.

After he had his second child, he preached this again. And the title now is, ‘10 Hints on Parenting’. When he had his third child, the title became, ‘10 Prayers for Parenting’. And when his children grew up to be teenagers his title is, ‘Help me, Jesus’.

Parenting is really hard! I have been a parent now for 11 years and I'm not an expert by any means. I fail in many ways but still you're not here to listen from me, to me. You're listening to the Word of God, the principles of Scripture.

Now, this is really part two. Because last week we looked at what it means or how do you really raise a pagan child. We looked at it from the angle of perhaps, Satan disseminating instructions to his demons to lead families astray - How do you raise a child who doesn't want God, doesn't know God, doesn't love God?

1]. Don’t Let The Parents Spend Time With The Children
Number one, perhaps last week - Don't let the parents spend time with the children. Let the parents buy toys. Let the parents send them for CCA. Let the parents give them the best kind of food, but don't let the parents spend time with the children.

2]. Don’t Let The Parents Discipline The Children
Number two - Don't let the parents discipline the children. Tell the parents that their kids are actually very, very good kids. Tell the kids, er, tell the parents that their kids will grow up and be better. You don't really need to discipline them because that would just strain your parent-child relationship. So, one way you can raise pagan kids is - Don't discipline your kids.

3]. Don’t Let The Parents Teach The Gospel Themselves
Number three - Don't let the parents teach the Gospel themselves. Tell their parents, they come to a good church. They good, they got Sunday school. They have Bible stories here in church, so you can farm that out and as parents, you just need to delegate. That's one way, I think when your kids will not get to know the Gospel. Because once a Sunday, once a week, that's just not quite enough.

4]. Make Sure The Parents Are Obsessed With Success In Our World
But, like that coconut milk that binds the whole mango sticky rice dish together. You know how is it, right! You need that coconut milk to bind the mango and the glutinous rice and the beans. That just makes it so beautiful! What makes the deception and the scheme of Satan so powerful is number four - Make sure the parents are obsessed with success in this world.

Let them chase the Singaporean dream, so that now they have no time to spend with their kids. So that, they will be filled with guilt, that they will not want to discipline their kids. So that, they have no bandwidth now to study the Bible for themselves, to teach the Gospel to their kids. So, I think these are ways we should avoid.

But today, we are going to swing to the positive side. So, we're not to, of course, fall prey to Satan's ploy. What are we to do? In sermon number eight, in ‘Home Fix’, I like you to consider - What it means to gospelize your child?

Now, I understand there's no such English word. You give the Gospel. You teach the Gospel, but you don't really have this gospelize, I think. But I trust you understand what it means. It means we are to raise our children in such a Gospel saturated environment that perhaps God would use our five loaves and two fishes. And let that Gospel be received deep into the heart of a child.

I want to first remind parents that this is really your job. It's really your job! The responsibility to help your children get the Gospel is not the Sunday school's job. We help you. We support you. We do our little part but the responsibility, according to the Bible, squarely is laid upon your shoulders. The Sunday school is almost like vitamins; supplements. As I've said last week, “You can't survive on supplements alone. You will die if you just eat vitamins every day, for a few months, you will die! It's not enough!”

And parents, we need to understand that the responsibility lies with you and me, not Sunday school. The Bible is very clear, for example, when God spoke about Abraham, He said, “For I have chosen him…” That is Abraham, “that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the law.” [Genesis 18:19]

So, it is God's will that Abraham would teach his children; his household. And then we read in Deuteronomy 6:6-7, which is our main text today, “You shall teach your children diligently the ways of the Lord”. What it means to love God. What it means to know His love. You are to teach your children, not your rabbis, not your scribes or your priests. You learn from them, so that you can teach your children.

And then in acts chapter 2:38-39, we read, “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off”. Do you see that movement? “You and then your children and then to those who are far off.” So often, we think about global missions as a man leaving his family, crossing the seas to give the Gospel to some unknown tribes. That's great! But often, we miss the middle piece. Mission begins at home, you are to teach your children the promise of God in the Gospel.

So parents, this is really our responsibility. So let me, having dealt with that, move to the practicalities now. Okay, we got to give the Gospel to our children. That's most important! How do you do that? How do you and I, on a regular basis give the Gospel to our kids? How do you do that? I know what it means to teach them mathematics. I know what it means to send them for tuition, but how do I give them the Gospel?

1]. Discipline
So I just share with you four, four ways that you may consider to help your kids get the Gospel. The first one might be a little bit of a surprise, but we alluded to that last Sunday. First, we can give the Gospel to your children via discipline. Discipline is very painful, I know that. But discipline is a wonderful opportunity where they can get the Gospel, when you can give them the Gospel.

Now, we spoke about discipline last week. I spoke about caning last week. We spoke about the rod that is spoken of in Proverbs, last week. And after the sermon, someone in church gave me a message that included a picture like this. I was saying, “It's very hard to find canes nowadays, right?” Immediately, he sent me this text and says, “Thank you for the sermon, Pastor Jason. If you just need help, just holler. The sundry shop in my neighbourhood got a lot ha, ha.” So both us, we can start a distributorship business here, alright! You need canes, tell me. I get from him.

Well, caning we all understand what it is. Discipline, we have experience that in our lives. And the Bible does tell us, it is absolutely necessary because we are not born good. We are not born holy. We are born as sinners. We are conceived in iniquity, in sin, rebellion and, and folly is bound up in the heart of a child. And according to the Bible, God disciplines his children, so that there will be the fruit of righteousness.

Now discipline for the moment doesn't seem to be pleasant, but afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. And it is the same for us as parents to our children. We discipline our kids because they are sinners, they are rebellious, folly is bound up in their heart. And it is discipline that will lead them to righteousness. And we do it because we love our children.

Now, when I was younger, I would be disciplined by my dad and mom. We are quite naughty, my sister and I. And when we do something wrong, they will call us to be spanked; to be caned. My sister will be running around the house because she doesn't like to be caned. But I'll be the one who ‘kwai, kwai’ [obedient in Hokkien dialect], just … let's get this over and done with. I don't want to live with the fear and trepidation the whole day.

So, what we will do is, we'll have to pull down our shorts and the 尚方宝剑 [shàng fāng bǎo jiàn, imperial sword in Chinese] comes out. You know, the cane comes out and piak [sound produced by the cane]. “Aiyoh!” Piak! “Very painful” The, the buttocks hurt like crazy.

But from that little encounter, I learned what is wrong. And I learned that when I do something wrong, when I disobey my parents, they will be painful consequences. That's what discipline does for many, many families, many homes. I'm sure you have been disciplined before, you know what I mean.

But after I became a Christian, after I study the Bible. I became a parent myself and understood more about this process of discipline. I realized whilst that experience I had as a child was good in some ways. It could be better off, if it is supplemented and accompanied with two other principles. Do you know what they are?

Principle 1: A Strong Assurance of Parents’ Love
Well, number one, I think that discipline process must be accompanied with a strong assurance of parents' love. I think it's so important! Your kids need to know that you spank them not because you hate them. They need to know you spank them not because you are frustrated with them, you are inconvenienced by them, you're impatient with them. They need to know that you spank them, not because you hate them.

Because when I was a child, when I was spanked, I do hear my parents say, “If you do this, I won't like you anymore. I don't love you anymore.” Or things along that line. In other words, they have conditioned me to think that it is my performance that will earn their favour. But it is so important to help your kids realize that when you discipline them, it's because you love them and not because you hate them.

And when they do something wrong, they do not lose your unconditional love for them. In other words, when you discipline your kids, do ensure as best as you can. Number one, to settle your own emotions first. Now for those of you who are not parents, you don't have kids yourself. You say, “Aiyah! So easy to settle your emotions!” You wait till you have kids, alright! You wait until they are naughty and rebellious, it really can rile you up.

But it's very important first to be settled, to be clear why you are engaging your child in this disciplinary process. Not because you are frustrated with them, but because you love them and you want good to be done for them.

And then when you discipline your kids, you got to explain to them that you do all this because and precisely because you love them. And you might have to show that affection with a hug. You might need to show the affection with a prayer for them. But I think point number one is so important. Assure your children that you love them. If you don't show them that you love them, you may raise rebels. They know the law, but because they are not secured in love, they turn out eventually to be rebels.

Some of you, you don't discipline your kids. You just indulge them. You will raise spoiled brats. So love without discipline – indulgence. Actually, false love without discipline, leads to spoiled brats. Discipline without love, may lead to rebels. You really need the two to come together. So number one, assure your kids of your love.

Principle 2: Shepherd Your Children’s Heart To The Gospel
Number two, second ingredient I think, it's important to factor in. Is that you must shepherd your children's heart to the Gospel. When I was younger, when I was caned what I learned is - What I did is wrong or was wrong. And I will suffer painful consequences for it. So, I've learned to avoid doing that which is wrong. So, my parents has successfully, maybe helped me in behaviour modification. Change my way of living, change the way I act but my heart was never changed.

But as a Christian parent, your responsibility is not just to change their behaviour. Your privilege, your responsibility is to lead them to Jesus. And this is I think how we should do it. We should ask our children - Why they did that mistake or that sin or that wrong. So that, they will recognize ultimately it's because their hearts are sinful. And that they realize that they cannot help themselves, they need a new heart from God. And that can only be possible, if they repent and believe in Jesus.

Now, I know that sounds a little bit abstract. So, I need to demonstrate. And if I demonstrate, I need a volunteer. Can I have a volunteer from amongst you, some brave soul? Gabriel, alright!

“Alright, Gabriel, for the moment, I'm your dad.” So suppose, Gabriel is my son, alright, and he lied in school. The teacher called me up and now, I am a typical parent here in Singapore. I feel embarrassed by the call, from the teacher. “Wah, ‘lau kwee’ [lose face in Hokkien dialect], my son lied!”

So I feel upset, I feel angry, I'm frustrated. So when Gabriel got home from school, I said, “Gabriel, what did you do?” Too fierce! “OK, Gabriel, what did you do?” [Gabriel: I didn’t do anything] Exactly what I expected, so I get even more angry. “Pull down your pants, Gabriel.” You are supposed to demonstrate ah, no, no, just kidding, alright.

So imagine, he says, “Why?” I said, “Your teacher told me that you lied. “Did you lie?” [Gabriel: Never, never.] “Did you? Okay, so that's what we do, we scare them into intimidation, we intimidate them. After a while, I'm pretty sure, I'll get him to say… [Gabriel: I lied] Alright, so he admitted to that and I say, “Gabriel, do you know that's wrong? Pull down your shorts.” And I give him a good, a few canes, a few strokes. I'm still angry and I said, “Don't you ever do it again! Do you hear that?” [Gabriel: Yes] “Go!” That's pretty, pretty much what happens.” “Go!”

Now, let me ask you, how would Gabriel feel? Maybe he feels - I don't love him, right? Because I have expressed in my response maybe a care or regard for my face more than himself. And he might feel that I have disciplined him out of my own personal frustration. So, that's typically what's done.

He will still learn lying is wrong. He would learn, I think to be more clever the next time. If he lies, don't get caught. But suppose now I want to incorporate the two elements of assuring him of my love, and number two, leading his heart to Jesus. It might look like this.

I got a call from the teacher. I am super frustrated. But I say, “Lord, please help me to love Gabriel and to teach him the way you want me to teach. Help me not to discipline him in such a way that he fears me and does not fear You.”

So I pray to settle my emotions. When I got home, I say, “Gabriel, your teacher gave me a call, would you want to tell me what happened?” “I, I understand that why you would say no, but Gabriel, this is for yourself and daddy has to help you, know God's will and do God's will. So, would you want to tell me what happened?” “Yes, father” [Gabriel]

Okay, he's playing it real well. So imagine, he told me the story. It might be a long story, right. “And so Gabriel, why did you do what you do?” “Because I’m a sinner.” [Gabriel] “Very good, could you have helped yourself? Could you, could just have stop lying?” “Yes.”[Gabriel] “Could you stop lying for the rest of your life?” “Probably not.” [Gabriel] “Why not?” “Because I’m a sinner.” [Gabriel] I nod my head,

I say, “Great! So Gabriel, we sin because our hearts are sinful. It's bad, it's rotten, we cannot obey God. That's why Gabriel, you need a new heart. That's why daddy and mummy will be praying for you that you will repent, you will believe in Jesus that He will give you a new heart. Papa loves you and I have to do this for your good. So, I have to discipline you now but I hope most of all, you'll not just change your ways, but you'll come to Jesus, and He will save you from your sins. Pull down your pants.”

I give you a, I, I give a few whacks and after that, I say, “Gabriel, come.” I'm crying because it's painful for me to cane him you know. And I pray, “Dear God, please have …” and so on and so forth. “Help me to love Gabriel. Help daddy, mummy to teach him well. Help his heart to be changed. We pray he will come to know Jesus. And after we pray, I say, “Gabriel, daddy loves you, alright.” Alright, alright, thank you very much, let's give him a round of applause.

I think it's just something very simple. Now, does it take more time? Don't say, “No lah!” Definitely take more, it will take longer because you got to talk more, hear more, explain more. You got to pray but actually, it's well worth the effort. So that your child knows your love. And number two, your child knows that the problem lies with his heart. And the only way he can be saved is, if he repents and believes.

Now Gabriel could answer, “I am a sinner.” Actually my two sons also. I always asked them, “Why they do what they do?” And very quickly they will say, “Because I'm a sinner” Some of you may have an objection saying, “Hey pastor, you keep saying that they are sinners, you remind them over and over again. Aren't you a little bit repetitive? Aren't you little bit ‘cheong hei’ [long winded in Hokkien dialect]? Do you really need to help them remind themselves of their sin and their sinfulness all the time?

I say, “I think so.” And I think is actually needful, particularly in our day and age. I think people in society today by enlarge, we are not confronted with the sinfulness of sin. We are not exposed to how God sees us and that reminder is actually very necessary. I take precedence from the Old Testament. You recall that in the Old testament, the Jews, every single day are given vivid reminders about sin and the horrors of sin.

You know how? You know how? Every day, every morning, every evening, there will be animals being slaughtered. They may scream. They may give out shouts. You may smell the burnt offerings on the altar. You will see the blood gush. Maybe flow from the necks and the whole nation of Israel is given a vivid reminder of sin every day.

Hebrews 10 tells us that's why sacrifices are offered ceaselessly. And I think in our families, we don't buy goats to kill, to remind them of their sins. But discipline is a way that they reminded about the realities of their heart.

Now, just before I end on this point of discipline, I also want to encourage you as parents, not just to play the strong, tough, hard disciplinarian role. But also to encourage your children to balance that all out. It was Martin Luther who said, “Spare the rod and spoil the child - that is true. But beside the rod keep an apple to give him when he has done well.”

Okay, so I have to move quickly because there's quite a bit coming up. Discipline is one way I get the Gospel to my kids.

2]. Instruct
Another way I think which is very straightforward everyone would know is that, I need to teach my kids, I need to instruct my children. I need to teach them so I don't leave the teaching of the Gospel to the Sunday school, to our Sunday school teachers, even though they are doing a great job. They can only spend less than 1% of the child's life with them, once a week. But parents, we have the privilege to give them the Gospel regularly

How regularly? At all times. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 tells us, “It is when you sit, when you walk, when you lie down, when you rise”. In other words, at all times, simply put! And you must seize such teachable moments. I have the privilege of bringing my two sons for lunch every week, once a week and their latest favourite is McDonald's.

For many years, they don't like McDonald's. Suddenly, they have a taste change. They like McDonald's, so we limit that to once in two weeks. And so two weeks ago, we went McDonald's. And they were eating their favourite nuggets and corn cup. And Matthias was scooping the corn and of course, he's a little bit clumsy. And excessive force was used and “bloop”, a few corn kernels flew into the sky and fell onto the floor.

He looked at me, I looked at him whilst waiting what he was going to do next. He didn't move much as I looked at him. I could sort of picture what was going on behind his brain. He must be thinking, “Oh no! I dirtied the floor, I need to pick it up. But then if I pick it up with my hands, it will be dirty and daddy would want me to go to toilet, very far away. It will be too much effort. What should I do?”

So I looked at him and he looked at me. We stared at each other for a while. And then I got up, I took a serviette. I went to the kernels of corn, picked it up. I sat down, I looked at him. I said, “Matthias, what should we do?” He said, “Pick them up.” “Why should we pick them up?” He said, “Because we are to be responsible.”

I said, “That's very good! But aren't there cleaners, there are people working in McDonald's, who are responsible to picking these things up?” He says, “Yes.” “Then why should we pick then the, the kernels up?” He says, “Because we should be kind.” I say, “Why should we be kind?” Shawn, sitting beside was happily munching, he said, “Oh because God is kind to us.”

And I said, “God gave His Son when we don't deserve it. He was kind to us.” And Matthias said, “I knew you were going to say that!” I can name you example after example of how little, little things and events in our life can be wonderful teaching moments.

I don't want it to be too cliché, of course. But it is important to help them understand how the Gospel really impacts our lives. How it changes us and how he speaks of God's amazing grace toward us. I still remember one of the most memorable nights I spent with my kids. Actually that time, Matthias was really young. Shawn was 5, 6 years old, Matthias was one. I can't talk to Matthias, so Shawn had his own room by himself when we were in holiday and I got into bed with him.

I laid beside him and we just talked, just daddy, son time, talking about the holidays so far - what he's enjoyed. Then slowly, we talked about God, about Jesus, about the Gospel. And I still remember that house we were in, that night we were in, it was the night he opened his heart and said, “I think I'm willing and I want to believe in Jesus.”

I'm grateful for that little time I could spend with my kids when I lie down. Hey, spend time with your kids! Watch out for this wonderful opportunities that you can gospelize your children. But also I think gospelizing our kids is not waiting just for the ad-hoc moments, for some esoteric time. But we can really structure regular time slots to talk about the Gospel.

So in my family, we spend some time every night to read the Bible with our kids. I can't do that every night, sometimes I'm away, my wife would do that. But we try our level best to read the Bible with our children. And that's a time where they can ask questions. We tell them biblical stories and lead them as best as we can, in word and in prayer, to Jesus in the Gospel.

Now, if you're a young family today. Your kids are real young, I would encourage you maybe if you want to read the Bible to your kids, don't start with the King James Bible. Thou shall not and, and read a whole chapter and bombard them with a lot of.. It … it will come, but it's important to read it in a simpler way, perhaps.

So what I found really useful in the earlier years of my kids is to use children's Bible; picture Bible. No shame to that, alright! You may say, “That's not the real Bible. Yah I know, but the stories are biblical and I think it's up to you to teach them in, in a wholesome way.”

So I want to recommend a picture Bible to you. I have no links to the author, to the publisher. I don't get commission. That's not the reason! I shared this before and I will share it again. I say, “If you are raising young kids, consider using Bibles like this.” This is not the ultimate one, but this is a good one. It's called the, ‘Big Picture Story Bible’. I recommend to every parent I meet. Because it is written in such a simple way, but that's not all.

What's more important is that is written in the Gospel-centered way. The stories are written and designed and selected in such a way you can't have the entire Bible in picture Bible form. So, picture Bibles are generally excerpts. They select stories. If you have the whole Bible stories, that is going be too thick. So, they select stories and they present it in such a way that it's so easy for me as a parent to lead on to the Gospel, whether it's about sin, about God, about Christ, about faith, about the law.

It's so easy to carry on that Gospel conversation with my child. David Helm is the author. He's a pastor by the way. And I found it useful. In fact, I even recommend this to those who don't like to read the Bible. Adults who don't like to read the Bible. I say, “You are a new Christian and you do not know what the Bible is about. The Bible is so thick, so difficult” I say, “Read this lah! Just read this first, my …” I say, “My son can read it, you can read it lah!”

And so, it takes very quick and it doesn't take long to read a picture Bible and after a while say, “Hey, that's, that's good, at least I know what Genesis roughly is, what Revelation roughly is. And then it helps me to read then the actual Bible with greater understanding.” So, maybe Gospeliters, we all need to read this too, alright!

I found it great to go through the Bible with my kids in this way. And let me say this, “Truth be told, I don't always enjoy teaching the Bible to my kids every night. Because they are tired and I'm tired.” I'd rather chill. I rather do my own things. But remember Deuteronomy chapter 6. What does it say, “Teach your children diligently, alright! It takes effort but it's well worth your effort.

Now, I'm going to rush through the last two. So number one, I discipline my children, leading them to the Gospel. Two, I make sure I instruct my children in the Gospel, whether it's the ad-hoc times, the teachable moments or it's structured Bible reading times. By the way how long should you read the Bible with your kids? If you read less than 50 minutes, you are a sinner. No! No such thing!

So some of you feel so guilty. “I can't read very long.” It's OK, five minutes also can. Tell them the story of Nicodemus. Tell them the story of creation. It can be short, it's fine. The key is that you dialogue with your kids. The key is that you do it consistently and over time it can mean something for them, Alright! So don't beat yourself up if you can't to a 30 minute sermon.

3]. Model
So the third thing I want to say, “Importantly for your children is that you need to model the Gospel, you need to live that out.” They need to see the Gospel being lived out in your lives. Jesus did that, didn’t he. He did not just teach with words, He taught with His life. He taught with practical actions. He washed the feet of the disciples and said, “This is the example, you should follow.”

The Gospel is about ministries, is about service, is about giving of oneself for the other. And I think as parents, this is where we need to humble ourselves. This is where we know our desperate need for God. It's easy to teach, hard to do, hard to live. One way to correct your children is to correct the example you're setting for them.

One of the most powerful statements you can say to your kids is, “Did you see mommy or daddy do that?” “My friends all lie!” Question : do you see mommy and daddy lie? I think that's one of the most powerful convincement for your kids. And you tell them why, because we honour God. And it's all because God loves us and so on and so forth.

But parents, this humbles us to the dust. We are far from what we ought to be and so there are times we may need to apologize to our kids, confess our failure to obey God, to set the right example. And we bow before our Almighty God, knowing that He is gracious to forgive.

Parents, one of the best ways you can model the Gospel for them is the way you treat your spouse. Remember, the husband and wife relationship is meant to be a portrayal of the Gospel, right? The way Christ loves His church and gave Himself for her. So, the way you treat your spouse will reveal to your kids in vivid, visual form, the power of the Gospel.

Nothing devastates a child more than seeing a broken marriage. Nothing encourages the child like a happy, healthy, holy marriage. So, model for your kids the Gospel.
4]. Pray
Lastly, I discipline, I instruct, I model. The last thing you can do for your kids, that's right! Let's not forget it! Pray. It may all sound so cliche, in church ah, everything you say, “Pray, pray.” But I really think this is so important. Why? Because it's so easy for us to imagine that it's my clever discipline tactics; my brilliant teaching; my exemplary life that brings salvation to my kids. No! Even if you are perfect in doing these things, salvation do not come because you got all those things right. Salvation is of the Lord.

Salvation is the gift of God. It is out of His free grace and mercy and so all the more we are humbled to realize we need to pray, that God will save our children. They are not saved because their parents are ‘tak khong’ [excellent in Hokkien dialect] They are saved because our, our God is gracious. We may raise law-abiding citizens, we may raise kids who know the law, but only God can give us kids who really know Him and love Him.

So, do pray for your kids fiercely, regularly. And pray for your kids, not only pray with, for them but I would encourage you to pray with them. That they would know what is in your heart, alright?

So what's the goal? What's the goal in parenting? What's the goal? So that your kids will grow up and score straight A's in their O levels? What's your goal? So that they will be athletic and be some sportsmen? What's your goal? So that they would have a good career and have a good living?

We must understand that the goal of parenting is not raising scholars for Singapore. Our goal for parenting is raising a godly heritage. But what do you look for? How do you know if you have done it right? Very important, right? It is like cooking, you think your steps are all right then come out, your ‘Char Kway Teow’ like, like ‘Hokkien Mee’. How come like that?

So, how do you know if you have done parenting right? Of course, any progress, any success comes from God but still there are things I should hope to see. What do you hope to see in your kids? To many parents, I'm afraid all they want to see and I hope you're not one of these, alright! All they want to see or hear is that their kids would say, “I believe Jesus. I would want to get baptized.”

Now, don't get me wrong. It's fantastic, if your kids say, “I want to believe in Jesus.” It's fantastic, if they want to be baptized. Because that may reflect a true faith in God. That is fantastic! But if that is all you're looking for and you don't care how they live thereafter, it is also very dangerous.

According to the Bible, I think when someone really has a new heart, when someone is born again, when someone is a true follower of Jesus, they do not just profess faith, it's part of it. But they do not just profess faith. They will have a new walk of life. They will have a new manner of life. There will be a new pattern of obedience. That's what the Gospel is all about! The Gospel leads us to true obedience to God. The Gospel is not just a ticket to heaven. It involves that but it's more than that.

Real salvation is about a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ. There will be the obedience of faith. In Roman 6:17, there will be obedience from the heart. In Romans 16:17, we read, “Your obedience is known to all”.

Romans is about the Gospel and the Gospel is also about obedience. Of course, obedience from the heart. Not obedience that is enforced from the outside but from the inside. Because he or she knows the love of God in the Gospel. 3 John tells us, “I've no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth”.

And of course, the ultimate statement we hear from Jesus. He said, “Not everyone who says to Me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of My Father” [Matthew 7:21]. It's not that you obey the will of the Father to get saved. No! That's legalism. That would never work. But that a true follower of Jesus, does the will of the Father. If you really saved, there will be a pattern of obedience in your life.

In our church, we say, not sinless perfection but a sincere progression. And that's what I want to see in Shawn and Matthias in time to come. I long to see them obey God because they know the love of God in the Gospel, and because they love God. That's my goal! And if they could be people who know the love of God and love God, it really doesn't matter that much if they did not score straight As, or if they did not get a high-class job, or if they were not particularly athletic.

Now, that doesn't mean we don't want them to study. We don't want them to do sports. We don't want them to develop socially, intellectually, physically. No, of course we do! But above it all, there's no fight, I need to gospelize my children.

When Jonathan Edwards, the most famous pastor or well … not most famous, but he's popularly known as the greatest pastor, apart from Jesus, Paul, who ever lived. When he was about to die, he wrote a simple note to his daughter to be handed over to the family. And this is what he said, “Tell my wife of the uncommon union which has so long subsisted between us is, I think, a spiritual one and therefore is one which will last forever.” And now he spoke to his children, “Tell your other brothers and sisters that it is about time they look to a Father that does not die.”

Parenting is a kind of stewardship. God has given us children that we may lead them to the ultimate heavenly Father. Let's do our job well. Let's lead our children not to RJC or to some high-class companies, but let us lead them to Jesus Christ. Let's gospelize our children.

Let's bow for a word of prayer together. Father, we want to thank You this morning, thankful that we have a glorious message to tell the world, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How, when we are ruined and hopeless in our sin, You send Your Son, Jesus to die and to save us from our sins. We pray that this glorious message will be spread all around the world, for Your own namesake.

And Lord, let this message begin in our homes. Let us, as parents be regularly saturating our children with the good news of Jesus Christ. Lord, free us from loving this world so much that we would sacrifice our children on the altar of success. I pray that the simple sharing today will not be something that we simply hear about. But something that we would look to You, depend on you to do and to fulfil more and more in our homes.

Lord, we present our families to You. We bring our children to You in the place of prayer. Only You, O God can save our little ones. Have mercy, please to call them to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

Father, we want to pray for all who were seated here too. Maybe they are not parents, maybe this is the first time to church. But Lord, show them the beauty of the Gospel. Show them regardless of what age we are in, we all need Jesus to save us from our sins. So again, we pray that You'll lead them to repentance and faith in Your Son. Thank You for this time. Bless Your church, Your people. We pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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