These are notes on the sermon, Fresh Truths For Parenting Today, preached by Pastor Joseph Prince on Sunday, March 3, 2024, at The Star Performing Arts Centre, Singapore. We hope these sermon notes will be an encouragement to you!
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1. God wants the best for our young ones
2. Get them saved and resurrected from the dead spiritually
3. Embrace your child with the gift of righteousness
4. Cultivate your child’s taste for the things of God
5. Put God first and be led by His rhythm of rest
6. Prioritize the Lord’s Day
This sermon is a continuation of the first sermon of the year, Break The Cycle Of Misfortune.
In this Year of Living in the Upper Room, it’s important that we continue to study and be established in truths about the upper room. The upper room is a significant place for us believers because it was where our Lord Jesus, just before He went to the cross, shared many new covenant truths that continue to strengthen and guide us, especially in these last days.
Similarly, in another upper room in Troas, where Paul was visiting and fellowshiping with the believers there, we can learn several important truths. One of which is how we can reach out to and save our young people.
In this story, a young man named Eutychus fell to his death while Paul was preaching. Here, the upper room is a picture of the local church, the gathering of believers. And Eutychus, which means “fortunate” or “prosperous” in Greek, is a picture of our young generation today.
This story highlights the state of the church today. We’ve lost our good fortune (as compared to the days of the early church) because we’ve forgotten about the younger generation and strayed from Paul’s revelations and teachings, which we are to receive “not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe” (1 Thess. 2:13).
Even though youths today have greater access to technology and resources than any other generation, they are not as happy as we think they would be. In fact, more and more young people are feeling isolated and hopeless, and facing mental health issues such as depression to the point of wanting to take their own lives.
Many of them are searching for answers. Eutychus looking out of the window is a picture of the young generation looking out into the world for answers. Yet, the world, with all its advances and pleasures, cannot provide the answers they are searching for. Only our Lord Jesus can.
Whether you are a parent, a grandparent, a mentor to a young person, or a youth leader, the best way you can help the younger generation is to point them to our Lord Jesus and His Word. Once they are connected to the source of abundant life (John 10:10) and all that the Lord wants to do for and through them, then they will find their true purpose and destiny in life.
Our children are very dear to God’s heart. His desire is for them to flourish, to live strong, and to live healthy. And He has provided answers for us in His Word to address the troubles we see among the younger generation today.
The stories and events that have happened in the Bible were orchestrated by God for us to have types and examples to learn from today. In this sermon, Pastor Prince shared 3 different examples to draw out principles for parenting today. These are powerful truths that can resurrect the dead areas we see in our children’s lives and make them come alive to the things of God!
First and foremost is the salvation of our children. We were all originally dead spiritually, but when we receive Christ, believe on Him and all that He has done for us at the cross, we are resurrected from being spiritually dead. Now, there is no salvation by proxy. We all, children included, must make this decision to receive Christ and be born again.
As parents, more than just providing the best for our children materially, praying for and leading our children to salvation is our most important responsibility and greatest privilege. The Bible tells us that it is pointless to gain everything but lose our souls (Matt. 16:26). So even if a child becomes the greatest athlete, tops the Mensa test, or aces all his exams, but is not born again, then ultimately, he is still lost and will miss out on God’s best for him. The true abundant life is one with Christ in it!
Back in Acts 20, after Eutychus fell 3 stories to his death, Paul’s first response was to embrace him, followed by partaking of the holy Communion. And with that embrace and covenant meal to remember the Lord’s finished work on the cross, Eutychus was resurrected.
In the same way, if there are any dead areas we see in our children’s lives today, whether it’s in the area of their mental health, a bondage, or even in their relationship with us, we can experience resurrection and restoration in these areas when we embrace them with Paul’s revelations and teachings that are grounded in the Lord’s finished work.
In a world where they are constantly bombarded by very divergent views, opinions, and identity politics, our children are desperate to know who they really are and where they really stand. And as parents, we can embrace and remind them of their true identities in Christ—that they are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21).
Our children need to know that they are already righteous in Christ and that this righteousness is a gift freely given to them by God. The more they are established in their identities in Christ and receive the abundance of grace, the more they will reign in life! This includes reigning over sickness, depression, bad habits, or any area of defeat.
While this story of Paul resurrecting Eutychus shows us the spiritual importance of embracing our children with grace, there are also other benefits to us physically embracing our children! Pastor Prince encourages us to find time to hug our children every day.
Parents, your hug means so much to your children! It might not come naturally to you or seem like much, but more than what we can teach them with our words, our embrace shows them that they are loved regardless of what they are going through. It could even lift them up from their doldrums. In fact, research has shown that hugging our loved ones releases oxytocin, a hormone that can help repair the heart and also heal negative feelings such as loneliness and anger. So, make it a point to hug them regularly!
In this story, Elijah resurrected a young boy who had died from sickness. Notice what the prophet did before the boy was raised from the dead. He first laid the boy on his own (Elijah’s) bed. Then he stretched himself out on the child. What raised the boy from the dead was the anointing of God that was upon Elijah and his bed.
The principle here is for us to sandwich our children with the anointing of God and surround them with grace. This could mean playing sermons or worship/praise songs when you pick them up from school, praying together with them, or surrounding them with the Word of God. Pastor Prince shared a personal example of how he would ask his son, Justin, to pray in tongues together with him when he picked Justin up from school and taught Justin to pray in tongues whenever he feels stressed or anxious in school.
“But my child doesn’t like to come to church . . .”
Beloved, exercise your leadership and authority as a parent! As long as your children are under your care and provision, you have a voice in their lives. Make it a point to bring them to church! Create habits that will give them a taste of our Lord Jesus and trust the Lord to work in their lives!
Don’t be afraid that you will upset them by going against their likes and dislikes. On the contrary, our children want their parents to parent them. They desire to see us lead them. In the future, they will appreciate the firm decisions you make now regarding their walk with the Lord.
“in the way he should go”—The Hebrew word peh, which means “mouth,” occurs here. The mouth speaks of taste. The things that we let our children taste from a young age will not depart from them. Be intentional to cultivate their taste for the things of God! Do not take it for granted that they will receive Christ with time just because they were born into a Christian family. Even if some of our children might not seem interested now, years down the road, they will remember and return to the things of God.
In this third example, the miracle child that Elisha had prophesied for a couple who had been barren for many years died unexpectedly in his mother’s arms. Even though the mother was devastated, she did something interesting: she carried her child up to the upper room that she had prepared for Elisha, laid him on Elisha’s bed, and rushed to where Elisha was at Mount Carmel, a 5- to 6-hour donkey ride (20-mile journey) from Shunem.
The mother laying her son on the prophet’s bed is a picture of her putting him in a place of rest while she went to entreat Elisha to save her son. Today, the Lord wants us to parent our children with a posture of rest.
Many a time, we, as parents subconsciously make our children the center of our lives. Out of love for them, we become overprotective and overly worried for their well-being. But this might just work against us and our children by opening up an area in our lives for the devil to attack.
Pastor Prince shared how when his daughter, Jessica, was young, he used to worry all the time about her falling ill. As she was his first child, his life just subconsciously revolved around her. In his moment of helplessness and worry, the Lord revealed to Pastor Prince how his overprotectiveness and fearful concern for Jessica was “squeezing” or “choking” God’s supply of protection and healing into her life. Pastor Prince realized that the best way to love his daughter was to refocus on Jesus as the center of his life and let the Lord look after Jessica.
This does not mean that we do not love our children or are irresponsible; we do what we need to for them but we do not let them take center stage in our lives, because that place rightfully belongs to the Lord. Whatever concerns we might have about our children, the Lord wants us to let them go into His hands. The more we let go, the more we will see His supply flow!
In all three examples discussed so far, we see the resurrection of a young person in an upper room. These examples show us God’s heart for the young generation and how resurrection happens in the upper room, a picture of the church! Beloved, be expectant for a resurrection of dead things in your and your children’s lives as you prioritize going to church this year!
In addition to seeing the Lord’s resurrection power work in our lives, there are also many other blessings we will get to enjoy as we gather together with other fellow believers! Let’s take a look at these verses:
Psalm 92 is a psalm for the Sabbath, a day of rest for the Jews, which today corresponds to the Lord’s Day for new covenant believers. Our week begins on Sunday, a day of rest, before we step into the work week on Monday. This verse tells us that when we gather together on the Lord’s Day, we receive fresh anointing for the week. When we have the Lord’s anointing within and upon us, it makes everything we do smooth and easy. We find that there is an effortless ease, whether it’s in the area of our parenting, business, work, or family.
Not only that, when we are planted in the house of God, we will flourish, live strong and healthy, and even be fruitful when we are advanced in years. These are blessings that we all want, not just for ourselves, but also for our children. So help them to be planted in church! Help them prioritize the Lord’s Day and the Lord’s house.
One way we can do that is by helping them see the practical benefits of being planted in a godly community. The world might paint them a picture that says Christians tend to “lose out,” but we can paint a new vision for them to see that the church is a place where they can expect great things to happen to and for them.
In Daniel 1, though Daniel and his friends were captives in a foreign land, we see how they had ten times more wisdom than everyone else because they prioritized and honored the Lord. The world might offer a lot of knowledge, but it takes wisdom to know how to apply the knowledge we have access to. And wisdom is something that we can find only in God’s Word and in the house of God!
So beloved, the more we embrace our children with grace, surround them with God’s Word, and help them see the practical benefits of being planted in church, the more they will come alive to the things of God and walk in the abundant life that our Lord Jesus has prepared for them!
We hope these sermon notes blessed you! If they did, we encourage you to get the sermon and allow the Lord to speak to you personally as you watch or listen to it.
© Copyright JosephPrince.com 2024
These sermon notes were taken by volunteers during the service. They are not a verbatim representation of the sermon.
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