by Eugene Hor on February 8, 2010
Sermon notes from last Sunday’s sermon, “Saved For More” on Ephesians 2:10 and the accompanying sermon outline in powerpoint/pdf can be downloaded here.
“… When God saves you – he saves you for more, much more that you can possibly imagine – because the good works he has prepared for you is a life after his likeness, after his image, where you are moving towards him and becoming more like him who is of infinite greatness and worth in his beauty, majesty, power, perfection, love, kindness, mercy, peace, security, hope above any thing in your life and my life. There is no limits to the infinite greatness and worth of God which he has saved you to and now shares with you.“
by Eugene Hor on January 21, 2010
Over the last few weeks I’ve been slowly reading through Augustine’s ‘Confessions’. Augustine was born in 354 AD the son of an unbelieving father and a Christian mother. For the first 33 years of his life he lived as an unbeliever pursuing a hedonistic lifestyle, associating with company that was only interested in exploiting women for sex and power. Given every opportunity and as a gifted intellectual, at 30 years of age he rose to the highest possible chair academically and politically for the imperial court in Milan. During this time he also took a concubine on the side for 13 years and had a son by her. This was his life before God found him. The ‘confessions’ are really Augustine’s confession to God reflecting on the life he lived before becoming a believer. It’s been a compelling read, and though written almost 1600 years ago everything he says resonates so much with the struggles, challenges, temptations and issues in our culture and society.
One of the things that struck me was Augustine’s upbringing, and how his parents sought to give him the very best in life. His father was modestly well off and saved to give him an education so he could travel abroad and study. His mother a believer prayed for him regularly and sought to see him saved, but had higher ambitions for him in life. So much so that when he was falling into a godless lifestyle at 16, what he called ‘the age at which frenzy gripped me and I surrendered myself to lust … My family made no effort to save me from my fall … their only concern was that I should learn how to make a good speech and how to persuade others by my words’ i.e. to excel rather in his course of studies. His mother though a believer instead of actively intervening and promoting godliness in his life by marriage, Augustine tells us, ‘was afraid that that the bonds of marriage might be a hindrance to my hopes for the future – rather than the life to come, which she confessed in you, but instead in my hopes of success at my studies.’ Augustine continued to live this way until he was 33, a slave to every kind of lust, sexual experiences, power, acceptance, prestige, and academic fame, before God graciously intervened and saved him.
I believe there are some valuable lesson here for Christian parents. The great danger is that we encourage our children to put their hopes in, and treasure everything earthly that we think will give them a successful future, without any thought to their eternity. The greatest gift a parent can give their child is not the opportunities of a private education or money or material possessions, but a God entranced vision of life where Jesus is treasured above everything else in the family and in life. The former without the latter is nothing more than encouraging idolatry in your children with a sporadic dose of ‘churchianity’ on Sundays to appease the conscience. As parents the Biblical mandate is that we raise children who are totally given over to Jesus, where he is lifted up for them to be seen as the one who is to be their hope and treasure in life.
And it’ll be seen in the weekly priorities, disciplines and practices you pursue in your family.
We saw a few weeks ago in the sermon from Deuteronomy 6:4-9, that parents are to make God their first love above all in life, especially in their families. You may not realize this but as your children grow up it becomes very obvious to them what you love and treasure and place above all. The decisions you make or don’t make, the things you say or don’t say, the priorities you have or don’t have, the weekly disciplines in your family, the way you use your money, the way you spend your time, the way you pray or don’t pray, the place of the Bible in your family, the way you serve or don’t serve, what you encourage them to do or don’t do, what you teach or don’t teach them – it all reflects and will eventually play out in the lives of your children.
They’ll begin to model their lives off you, and what you love and treasure will soon be theirs as well. It’s the reason why parents are called to make God their greatest treasure, because it’s only when you have a God entranced vision of life, where you are loving God with all your heart, soul and strength, that your children will be raised in a family where God is treasured above all.
Successful Christian parenting begins when parents adopt a God entranced vision of life, where they are loving God with all their heart, soul and strength, and making Him their hope and treasure above everything else in life.
Successful Christian parenting begins when your children see this in your life and in the way you parent them, always with a view to helping them put their hope in Jesus and treasuring Him above everything else in life … even over their studies, sport, music and future careers.
A great place to start is to download a copy of Thrive, our monthly GracePoint newsletter to help make Jesus your treasure and delight above all things in your marriage and family.
