That they Might Set their Hope in God, Part 2

We need a better shepherd. We need someone who never flattered the father with his own lips, whose heart was perfectly steadfast at all times, and who completely trusted the father's plan without demanding control of the outcome. Jesus. Jesus is that good shepherd. Jesus is our substitute who who never forgot the father. He absorbed the judgment for our hypocrisy to secure for us a hope grounded in God's grace alone. [00:24:11] (44 seconds)  #GoodShepherd

Grace says that because Jesus, the good shepherd, has already secured our future, and he loves my children, he loves your children more than you ever could, I'm free to simply trust him and live out of love for him. And so our our hope our our hope is no longer tethered to our performance. It's anchored in god's finished work. [00:27:59] (34 seconds)  #HopeInFinishedWork

But all of these narratives that are counter to scripture fail and they fall short. Right? They either abandon our soul and the children's souls to, the wind, just whatever happens, or we crush them under the weight of human performance. And none of these can give us or our children a new heart. None of us I said that wrong. None of well, certainly none of these ways, and certainly none of us can give our children a new heart. Parents, I need you to hear this. You cannot save your children. [00:20:03] (41 seconds)  #ParentsCantSave

The Holy Spirit redirects us through God's word and shows us how to make it home. Israel's hardheartedness and the wonderful praises of God's grace, they're not just a history lesson. They're a living connection to our new covenant relationship with Christ that reorients us in real time. Psalm 78 is is meant to lead us to faith in Christ. The the true David verses seventy and seventy two, the true bread from heaven that we see in verse 24, the true rock from which living water flows that we see in verse 15, and the true teacher of wisdom that we see in all of the Bible. [00:36:22] (60 seconds)  #Psalm78ToChrist

We can sing the right right songs. We can say the right words. But if it's not matched with what we're striving to do by helping our kids throughout the week see the faithful works of the lord so that they would put their hope in him, we are functionally lying to the lord and to one another. With the Israelites, we see that our hearts are often not steadfast. We prioritize earthly achievement and personal comfort over eternal realities because we fail to believe that the Lord truly is enough. He is enough. [00:11:51] (56 seconds)  #LiveFaithNotJustWords

And the consequences, friends, are painful. Deeply painful. On either side of the coin, the consequences are painful and destructive. And in our children, what happens is we replace what is intended to be a joyful feast of the gospel for a crushing weight of performance. And what they inherit from us is religious moralism rather than a relationship of god's grace, which we have inherited and we want to pass to them. [00:17:26] (37 seconds)  #ChildrenNeedGrace

We're not just passing down dry history. It's not just a a homeschooling class. That is bible history. We get to pass down the glorious deeds of the lord, his might, and the wonders that he has done. And so passing down this legacy is why we wanna open the word together throughout the week as well as when we're here because god's word is true north to help us know the living god. And that's why we wanna engage all of our kids at every age that we can in the worship service. We're not just trying to manage their behavior. [00:02:48] (51 seconds)  #GodsWordIsTrueNorth

God's not mean. He's holy, and he's righteous. And wrath is necessary because of sin, and Jesus absorbed all of the father's wrath for our hypocrisy in order that he would secure a hope for us that's grounded in God's grace. Even when we forget God and we flatter him with our own lips, Jesus remembered on the cross. [00:25:10] (30 seconds)  #JesusTookTheWrath