Colossians End Lesson 18, Start 19

OK, we're down to nine and nine. I forgot my glasses. I had to steal my wife's. So you know that she's not over there. Oh, yeah. So our verse is verse 20. Children obey your parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord. And I misspelled obey. Children are to obey their parents in all things. What does this word obey mean? What does it mean? To hear under? To listen under? I need you to listen and to hear what your parents have to say and then submit yourself to it.

What would be an example to the child's learning about obedience? How would he learn this? Just because you told him? Who's the example? Parents and how they obey the Lord. See, kids, I think it's interesting. Kids are under the parents legal system, but they observe the behavior of the parents, don't they? And they get they get most of their education from that observation. And if the parents are of a Bible-based family, they will begin to see how this under-business works. But how about when they're one year old?

I mean you can't sit down with your kids and go through this whole lesson that we went through last week and get them to understand. They're like your wife and they submit. Can you? Don't you have to discipline? What's discipline? Correction. I would say before discipline is education. The kids should know what is acceptable and what isn't. And notice that this verse says that they are to obey their parents.

And what's the motive? Because it's well-pleasing to the Lord, right? Do all the versions say that? Do some versions say just because it's right? No? Just well-pleasing. Okay. Why do they obey? Well, the issue is they probably don't always. I never did. But why would they obey? Because they don't understand what you understand. They haven't been down the road of growing up, and they're not grown up, they're little.

What's the most important thing they can learn from their parents? Trust. Who said that? Love is the most important thing. Because that's the big motivator. The problem with children, though, is they all have sin natures. You know? You've heard me say this a hundred times. When my son John was born, Donna was convinced he was the second Immaculate Conception. Guess what? He proved her wrong. And they didn't have to send him to Sinning Academy to teach him how to do it. He knew. Right? So, why would the Lord say, just children, obey your parents? He just says it and it's an issue. Why is it such a big issue? Why wouldn't he skip over it or think it's not that great of a deal?

Just so you notice, in 2 Timothy 3.2, the importance of this command is seen by viewing conditions that are absent. When Paul is describing human depravity at its worst, disobedience to parents is listed along with haters of God, inventors of evil. He describes society in its final corruption, and disobedience to parents is one of its characteristics. Why is it so important children obey their parents? Why would he even mention it? Why would Paul mention this as an imperative for children? Because your parents had the right to take you out. Bill Cosby, right?

Yeah, back then, back then that was true. That was true. You could put your kids in a chariot, take them out to the edge of town, kick them out, and that was it. Or if you were Jewish, you could take them down to the temple and tell the high priest, this child won't obey, and they'd stone him. They would. That's why they say so may go well with you. Do you want your kids to obey out of fear? Why do you want them to do it? Well, fear and respect are often interchangeable, I think, the word fear. You know, when you say fear the Lord, you're talking about respect in a way. Respect. Yeah, you're not talking about, yeah.

You want them to have this ingrained sense of respect for authority. Well, isn't it ultimately how form of loving the Lord. That's a good point because the Lord disciplines us, doesn't he? So when you're respecting your parents or others, you're also, in the big scope, loving the Lord by walking under He's not seeing this probably correctly. No, that's a good point. For me it's a form of loving the Lord and ultimately keeping your eyes on God first and not whatever.

Recognizing that maybe you don't want to obey something but in the big picture, you know, you're honoring the Lord first Yeah, because, you know, when you think about it from that perspective, the reason that Christ died for the body of Christ was because we were all so terrific, right? We listened under, we were just perfect. Isn't that why he did it? He probably did.

So there's an expectation, I think, that, well, let's put it this way, there's a spiritual education that goes on with the parents in terms of expectation of who their children really are. you know, that they're, at least initially, they're children of Adam and they come equipped with this thing called the sin nature.

And they do not understand what you understand. So educating them is important, but the way you function is a lot more important. This husbands love your wife and the wife submit to your husband is really important for the kids to see that. Because then they understand.

You don't have to explain it. You agree? Well, I was thinking just about harmony in the home. Yeah. More easy that way. I have to tell you a story on my son. This is that. He's an adult and lives in Texas and this is when he told us when we were down there now that he's an adult.

He said, Mom and Dad, I used to sneak out all the time at night, out of the house. And I said to him, I said, well, I never saw the screen off the window. He said, no, no, you went. I could tell when you were asleep and I just walked out the front door. What's the extent that children are to obey their parents?

I found it interesting coming to Christ at age 35 and then for the first time in my life being exposed to Christian families. I was amazed at how well they worked. My sphere of influence before I came to Christ was not with Christians. if there was any religion that was Catholic. I was just amazed at how families worked and that there was a compliance and there was a harmony, the word you used, within a Christian family that actually was a little unsettling to me because I didn't think it was real at first.

But it is. It is real. A Christian family that functions pretty much in harmony is the real deal. And I think that's the atmosphere that children grow up in and are willing to submit in and obey in. I think this represents, you know, it's a picture of what our obedience should be like to Jesus Christ, or to God himself. You know, there's nerves perfectness, there's no leniency, really. There's no exception to the rule. You have to obey in everything. With our struggle with the sin nature, it's impossible.

I hate to say it's a goal to strive for, but It's something to shoot for. I know this even with the, like I teach the 7, 8, 9, 10 year olds downstairs and they're of an age already, they have begun to understand that the Roman 7 principle that they try and can't accomplish what they want to do. It's very interesting that early that they understand that principle. And if they do understand that principle then educating them about identification I think is appropriate. Because that's the answer. We're not the righteousness of Christ. We have no hope. None at all. None. None.

So what should be the child's motivation for obedience? Knowing that they're loved. Knowing that they're loved, okay. Boy, you guys are either asleep or afraid to answer. which can be pretty important. It's pleasing the Lord. That's the answer, I think. That's the real answer. Because if you live your life to be pleasing to the Lord, then do you think they pick up on that? Sure they do. Sure they do. You're the authority figure in the family, but you're subject to the Lord and they know that. And you know that it's pleasing to him. So, one last quote from Macaulay and then you're up. He said, Mom and Dad cannot be and are not always right. No kidding. This, however, is not the point. Pleasing God is the issue.

This relationship of obedience allows the child to benefit from the age and experience of his or her parents. If one is young, one only knows what it's like to be young. If one is older, he knows what it's like to be young because he has been there. And he also knows what it's like to be older because he's there.

I thought that was pretty profound. I remember saying to John several times, What I'm talking to you about is a train wreck that's down the street and around the corner, and I'm trying to give you fair warning. Sometimes he listened, sometimes he didn't. But guess what? When he didn't listen, he had a train wreck.

And you know, the one thing I've learned now that he's an adult is that I can trust him in the Lord's hands. I can put him there and leave him there. And God will take care of him. And is he going to make mistakes? Is he going to suffer pain in his life? Absolutely he is. And it's a good thing he is because he's going to grow. And when he walks or she walks out the front door, you can trust God with their lives because you've prepared them for that. A lot of times they're more prepared than you are. So any questions? I notice that all the people with big families had nothing to say. All right. We are on lesson nine. Everybody have a copy of that? All right. All right.

So we're going over versus Chapter 3, verse 21 through verse 41. And I thought, I always think on these things, we get so focused as we march through the verses, I like to go back and kind of put them all together. Because they go together. Remember, again, this was not a letter that Paul put together in chapters and verses and all this. This was one complete letter. So as we look back, from chapter 1 where he explains a lot of things that are just great truths, as we march through this, it all flows together. We've got to remember what happened in chapters 1 and 2 when we get into chapter 3. And then in this section, I just want to go back for context. Jim kind of went on several of these and Mike too. These all flow together from verse 18 through 4.1. We broke them up into two different lessons.

So I want to go back first and I'll just read Colossians 3.18 through 4.1 because again they all go together.

Wives, be subject to your husbands as fitting in the Lord. Husband, love your wives, and do not be embittered against them. Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. And then we begin on our lesson. Fathers, do not exasperate your children so that they will not lose heart.

Slaves, in all things, obey those who are your masters on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do you work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality than for one. Masters, grant your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a master in heaven.

If you look at it, this is almost identical to the passage in Ephesians 5, 22 to 6, 9. Very similar terms, similar in very many respects. And again, just if you look at those, you'll see a correlation between these two passages. So again, the way I look at it, if he did it twice, is it important? I think it's important when we look at this. The other thing which I think in answer to one of the questions Mike was saying too, you know, when we get this, and I think it was in Chester McCauley, one of them, he said, you know, if you do these things, if wives are in subjection, husbands love as Christ loved them, and children obey, if you do that, what's the household going to be like?

Peaceful. Harmonious. It's the way God structured it. if we do those things. So if we look at these scriptures and realize what they're saying and we do what they logically tell us to do, the home is going to be very harmonious. We choose a lot of times not to do these things and the house gets out of balance. And even in Christian homes, actually in non-Christian homes, they don't have the key to this, so that's not even fair. In a Christian home, if we do these things, you'll have a harmonious family, husbands and wives, harmonious life, which becomes an example to the kids who will then obey because they see this. If we look at these and follow it, It's great.

I always go, why do we choose not to? Why do we choose not to? And I think that's when we start listening to the old man and start digging in our heels and saying, my rights and my things and my, my, oh, oh wait, I, self-focused. we go out of balance to what God has told us about the family. So that just kind of is a start when I went through these passages and what Macaulay said. If we do this, it's harmonious. Why don't we choose that?

Why don't we follow what is outlined here for us? Do you want non-harmonious families? Do you want to be battling? Do you want to do this? For some reason we follow the old man a lot of times and choose that other path. Anyway, there are a lot of things in this passage and the last one. So, we'll get started. Question 1. The word for provoke or exasperate means to stir up. It is in the present tense. Why would you consider provoking to be something for fathers not to do? Is exasperate in both New King James and that? Fathers do not provoke and in the New American Standard is exasperate. So what does provoke mean or exasperate?

Start there with the term. Stir up. Embitter. All good synonyms. Intimidate. Goad. Strong says to stimulate, especially to anger. Good. So, I went back to Zodiatis, of course. The Greek word here is erythes, or whatever. Erytheso. Erytheso. I practiced it and looked at it, but I knew I was going to mess it up when I tried to say it here. Which means to stir to anger, to excite anger, provoke, irritate, over-exacting, exasperating.

Okay, so if we know that's what the term is, what about the present tense? What does that mean? What does present tense mean? It means you have to keep paying attention to this. You can't quit. Can't quit, okay. It means it's continuous. Continuous, right?

Present tense means a continuous action. Okay, so if provoke is in the present tense, when are we to provoke our children? Never. Never. This is continuous. It doesn't mean a short term, you know, just Monday through Friday, but on weekends, get them. This is present tense, which means never.

Don't provoke your children to anger. So, verse 21 reads, Father, do not exasperate your children so that they will not lose heart. So why would you consider provoking to be something for fathers not to do? What does the verse say? Well, first of all, it seems to be a purposeful thing on the part of the father. He's doing this just to provoke, just to exasperate this kid. Why would any Christian father want to do that? Well, one of the things is in the term exacting, and I'll get a little bit into it a little bit later.

What about just finding fault all the time? You know, you got all A's and one B. What were you doing? You know, you did everything perfect except for that last thing. That last thing, you know, why did you do that? You know, you were great all week, but you know on Friday, you just messed up. Everything was great, but that, and you're just always finding fault.

Always picking that one thing. And that's the exacting part. Fathers can do that. You know, you did great except for, I'm going to only point out the bad things. I'm not going to point out all the, you know, you did everything good, but I'm just going to get on your case about everything you did wrong. That's, again, the provoking part about what a father can do. The point of this verse, too, I guess the question I had was, why would you consider provoking to be something fathers not to do? And what does the verse say about it?

So they won't lose heart. So, have you ever heard how people say that you're supposed to break the spirit of a child? You know, that's how you really get them to obey. You break the spirit. Is that what this verse says? No. Why do you think it's addressing this to fathers and not mothers? That's a great point. I was going to bring that up. Because it's interesting. When you look at these verses in Ephesians and this one, it logically follows. Wives, then husbands, then this one children. Now we start, and there's fathers, but does it say mothers? The next verses? Why is that? It's probably because she's placed under. Okay, she's placed under. She's probably going to do pretty much what he does. Okay.

Other thoughts? Mothers tend to be more relational and loving and maybe not necessarily worshipful, like when you said, you know, when your son was born. But they just, they have that compassion and that connection with the kids. Other thoughts? He's the head of the house. Head of the house? a man's nature to kind of be more harsh. Just mean. Just mean old guys. Or a woman's nature to be more loving. I think men are more goal oriented so let's make it a goal to make the child perfect. I want perfection or nothing. I've heard that men can really be bad about this with sports with their kids. You know, he helped win the game. They won 40 to 3, but he had said, you blew it here, you blew it here. But that's where you shouldn't be. That's the provoking, the exacting. So that's the warning we're not supposed to do. But he's telling us that we're to not provoke.

And the question is, why is it only fathers? The reason I have, because that's what God said. He doesn't have the most, which I think is very germane today, because it is the father's responsibility to, as the head of the household, I think there's some of that involved, but it's the father's role to be kind of the one who directs and builds up the children. Think of today with how many single families there are, no dad in the household. Look at where we are today. You know, it doesn't fit with today's, I guess, principles.

You know, that moms, you know, they're the ones who are either at home and stay home and do It's still what says here is the fathers are the responsible ones. And it was absent, the mothers, you know, Ches McCulley, you know, said that he was very specific and I think even Kelly, Kelly even said that too. It's noticeably absent that there isn't a requirement on the moms to do the kind of training up And this? So I, you know, my best answer is, that's the way God structured it. Just like husbands, wives, children, He has the fathers, who are the ones who are to be the head of the household, the ones who are the ones to build up their children. The initiator. Initiator?

I was just going to say, is this stirring up a sin? What's that? Exasperating, stirring up, is it sin? For a father to do that? Well, is it a sin in general to be quarrelsome with? Yeah, I think you're not supposed to. So though it's not addressed here, would it also be wrong for a wife or a mother to stir up in their children? I think the principles are there.

And I think also, if the house is functioning, the wives are listening under and respecting their husbands, they will back up the husband in the father's responsibility. So yes, if the mothers are doing exasperating and all that, it would follow that that would be a sin and you're not supposed to do that. But specifically, it's calling out the fathers. Again, a responsibility to the fathers in this.

So... All the moms are now... that in culture you could take a child to the priest and say he wasn't obeying, she or he wasn't obeying. So who did that? Was it the father's responsibility? The mother couldn't do that? Could the mother take the child and say?

I don't believe so. It's just the father. Again, the head of the household. My thought was that if the father, again, is aligned in this pattern that we're talking about, would he ever promote? It wouldn't fit, right? Exactly. And again, why do we choose not to do what the scripture says? If you want a harmonious family, am I going to be just... You're not going to do it. If you want a harmonious family and the children to obey, again, breaking their spirit, some are, I'm going to break them.

No, that's not what it says. love your wives. The gals have it easy. The onus is on the guys. That's kind of my point there. Just because it doesn't say wives love their husbands, is it right for a wife to love her husband? Yeah. So, I mean, there's an order here, but it doesn't exclude the principles that are not mentioned there, either. Because there's other places in scripture where we get a picture of other family, just general relationships between believers, right?

Yeah, and loving. It's the freedom we have, and we've talked about this before, about stumbling and offense. If I'm going to offend somebody, I mean, do something, I'm offending them, and I know it's going to offend them. Is that doing it in love? Even though I have the freedom to do whatever, but if I know it just irritates somebody, and I know it, is that being done in love? So even though the offense is, you know, their problem, so to speak, if I'm doing it not in love, I have issues. You know, I'm not doing it in love, so even though I'm causing an offense there, I'm not doing it in love. Even though I have freedom to do things, I can't, I shouldn't, the principle, is do all things in love. I know it's going to irritate somebody and I do it anyway. Am I doing it in love?

Violating, you know, what the logical commands for us. As Christians, I think that we're, for the most part, it seems like Christians are legally oriented. And that this is the way our household, as for me and my house, we're going to follow the Lord kind of thing. And don't you dare act that way. And Christians do this and this and this and don't bring shame on our family. And it's more of a demanding attitude than the grace that God has given to us. He doesn't do that to us.

Yeah, well, that's, you know, that's again, in all this, I always, the Lord is really working on me. in seeing it from his perspective. You know, all these things. You know, I look at it and I've just really been pounded about, you know, as a husband I'm supposed to love my wife as Christ loved the church.

So, when my wife doesn't respond, and I get really irritated, what about us as believers? You know, when we don't Do we sin? Does God just come down with a big stick and walk you? Boom! No, He lovingly draws you back. He lovingly brings you back to seeing that relationship, that intimacy. So as a husband, if my wife isn't responding, am I supposed to step in line? No, that's not how Christ loves me.

So I'm really, you know, a lot of these things, I, you know, I can probably get in, one of the things I touched briefly on is, you know, the wives be subject. One of the things, and I was, I've been really hitting, this is my own interpretation of this.

You know, when you look at all the passages in, uh, was it first Peter, second, first Peter, and then Ephesians and this one, it was always wives. be subject to your husband's and da, da, da, da. And it was always in order. And we're really order-oriented in here. Chiasms and this and that. And I always wondered, why is it wives? I think deep in my Adamic heart, it was that wives have to be subject first. That's why I put it that way. Absolutely wrong. There's no if-thens. If the wife does this, then the husband. There are no if-thens. There is no correlation between how my wife responds and how I'm supposed to love her. as Christ loved the church.

But why was this order? I looked at it and I thought, at least what the Lord looked at me, and that was maybe the first question on the last set was, why is this order? And I looked at it and I said, why is it always why? If you look at Ephesians 5.24, I think, husband as As the church submits to Christ, also wives submit to their husbands. Yeah, so the picture is, in a marriage, as the church submits or loves the Lord, we're to do that. So I look at that wives being us as the body of Christ, the bride of Christ. That the first command is always wives be subject. Well, that applies to me as the bride of Christ.

And what are we supposed to do? Be subject. Listen under. Respect. So I take those verses, you know, Steve, I think you said, or whoever was saying, the dads have the onus of, we're getting pounded. Well, I think even on the verses of the wives, that applies to us as the body of Christ. And that's why it's always first. And what are we supposed to do? Just be subject. Have that trust, that relationship.

And so that's why I always thought, at least my interpretation, why it's always wives first is because that goes to all believers. Not only within the marriage, but as a body of believers. Because we are the bride of Christ. And that verse in 524 tells us the church's relationship to Christ as husbands to their wives.

So, that's just an order thing. I think it's important to point out that when Paul wrote this, There was not a single family ever that functioned like this. Never. And so this information was so new to persons who had become Christians and had families. And I think when you travel 2,000 years to the present, Christians' families have a smugness about them because they're legal in this environment and they don't really understand the grace that's here. and the responsibility of husbands and wives, moms and dads and children under grace is really what he's trying to get across here rather than, you know, here's a refrigerator list.

Grace is what he's trying to teach. And that's a great point. This is radical to these people. You know, loving your husbands, loving your wives. This is... earth-shattering to these people. This isn't just kind of an added corollary on the way they've been living. It was in a world, a Roman world, where women were pretty much poverty. And men, it was a man's world, kind of. And he's making that distinction for them. Yeah. No, I didn't. They're to be different from the world. Very much so. Two thoughts.

One is kind of what you and Mike were just saying about if the law was given to show how sinful pathetic the human race is, right? And all those laws about how the family should operate under the mosaic law couldn't be accomplished. This, like Mike said, this is a step above and beyond, right? And so, when I see this, as fathers not exacerbate your children, that's what we do in the flesh to make it happen, right? So like, I travel for a week, come home, and you know, Anne-Marie works her butt off when I'm gone. I come home, the first thing I see is a $50 horse ride along the fence. The horse is out of water.

You know, got to fix it right now. Whereas the real issue is what's going on spiritually in my kids' lives. Why aren't they trusting the Lord, walking in the spirit? And now I still deal with the $50 portion. And make the kids fill up the water. But there's something else going on. They need to be operating under God's grace. I need to be operating under God's grace.

Like you're saying, it's miraculous. If we do what, and this goes back to my whole thing which we're going to get into is faith. Do you believe what he says here? If you do, you have a harmonious household. It works. He designed it this way. If we just function this way, it works. So when we don't, we're functioning in the flesh. So, is there anything else? Oh, yeah. Uh-oh. That's a look.

Well, I keep popping my hand up today. I never do this, but here I go. So, going back to fathers and addressing fathers and the why, and Paul addressing that culture during that time, and this was radical, and to me My own personal opinion is we have a different version, but at the same point our society is in the same place, where men have not taken this seriously, and whoever made the comment about women having it easier, what I would encourage, no, I'm not trying to pick a fight, but instead of looking at it that way, privilege! It's a privilege, and I, in my own little analogies, look at it as a good captain of a ship is going to have a well operating system. When the captain of the ship is gone and everybody is left to fend for themselves, not only do you not have harmony and peace, you can have chaos and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So you go all the way back and you look at this as the Lord is giving me this privilege and when we look to him to try and create this in our own family, it also spreads into the community.

That's what I say. I think it's very germane for today. Especially the single families, no dads around. You know, I think that's why we're seeing a lot of this in the culture today, and the problems we have, and the chaos we have. It's because we aren't this way. We've made it so, you know, the dads are not...

God knows, and this can be what we have. It comes back, do you believe this? This is, you know, if we do this, it, what, is honoring, we'll get into some of this, why do you do it? It's honoring to the Lord. I was being a little bit light-hearted when I said that.

The point I was really trying to allude to was that there just seems to be this consistency through scripture, as did Christ, like Christ, as Christ did, so on and so forth. That seems to be a very consistent theme. And wherever the comment came earlier in the class, the more that whole system is applying, it works. And that's basically the point I was trying to make. Yeah.

And you know, if we do what Scripture says, it is easy. With the help of the Holy Spirit. No, no, absolutely. Not the motivation. And, you know, when I say it's easy, there are going to be times. Trust me, as a parent, there are times But when you start doing what Scripture says, it works. Because that's the way He structured it. It's not me doing it. It's Christ doing it through me. And that's when I say it's easy.

For me to love my wife as Christ loved the church, I can't do that. I cannot. It's only through the working of the Holy Spirit in me that I can do that. I cannot do that. None of this is going to happen without Christ doing it. Without the Holy Spirit convincing, convicting you of this and empowering you to do this, it's not going to happen.

Because the old man is going to take over and it's just gnarly. In essence, that was the point I was going to make, that all of these imperatives, we don't read them and say, oh no problem, I've got a handle on this. It will take, you know, I don't know how many families you're going to have to raise before you get it right. I just have one thought. We keep talking about if we do these things and if the Lord doesn't do it, then the result is harmony. Isn't that great? Another word is peace that we use. Peace, rest, all those. Who is that? Christ. So, I mean, it's not like I'm going to do this so that my family is harmonious.

It's the whole thing from even the previous verse that before wives, Everything is unto the Lord, and at the end of this whole thing, everything is unto the Lord. And so, this heartbeat is a privilege for us to behold Christ in our home, and that can happen in a single parent-child relationship. So, you know, the life of Christ can... Harmony can happen in any family structure. Exactly. But where things are, you know, most, I guess, harmoniously expressed as in a complete ordered family, as God created us to be. But yet, the life of Christ can be revealed in any family, any type.

Exactly. And I'll get to the... You jumped ahead. I'm going to get to a little bit of that. But I want to get back to... why you shouldn't provoke is so that less they become discouraged or that they will not lose heart. And again, what does that mean? That we're not to make them lose heart or to become discouraged. So what does that mean? Because we're not to provoke them so they...

I try, I can never please them. What does it mean to make them lose heart or become discouraged? It might lead to them giving up. They're so disillusioned that they think, what's the point? And it can also lead to rebellion, probably. Yep. Zodiac sign's word is to be despondent, disturbed in mind, lose courage. It also means to be broken in spirit.

So, it's interesting to note also the verb for losing heart or becoming discouraged is also in the present tense. So when are we supposed to break their spirit? Never. Never. Okay? It's in the active voice and subjective mood, which there's some statement of uncertainty, but it's the present tense. We're never to break their spirit. Never to do that. So getting to where you're at.

So how does discipline work in this aspect of parenting? How many children are not exasperated by discipline? Do all children respond the same to discipline? So how do you discipline children without exasperating them? Just tell me how. A couple minutes. Reasonable and not over demanding. Huh? I said be reasonable and not over demanding. Okay. Others?

I think you do what the Lord did. You lay out the ground rules and you give the consequences. That's what he did to Adam. He said, here is the consequence if you disobey. And you have to carry through. Rick also mentioned the education factor that precedes the consequence. I think it's also important, what is the goal? So there's consequences in where you're going. There's a goal in mind.

My mother did the disciplining in our family and she would always say to me before she paneled in, I'm doing this for your own good. And it made it feel better, right? You understood perfectly at that point, said okay, I understand, go for it, right? We're not going to have time, I'll get into this next week a little bit because I do want to expand on this because I think it's very important. I'll tell you, my children will tell you, you know, how do you discipline without exasperating? Every time I discipline, I think, you're exasperating me. No matter what.

The other is, you know, we have four kids. And I can tell you that each one of them is different. Very different. There is not a playbook that says this is, you know, one size fits all, done. Every one of them had a different aspect of how they responded to discipline. Very much different, you know. One would be very strong-willed. Others were, you know, a word would crush them. Others, you know, I'm not naming names. They're getting nervous over there.

But they were very different, and it took me a long time to figure that out, actually. Especially, there's no real direct manual that says, OK, this is for A, B, and C. If this happens, go to B. There isn't a manual, other than the scripture that we have. That's the manual.

And so, we'll get into it a little bit about how you discipline without exasperating. We'll get into why that is unless how much time we have a week or is that the second for them? Okay? We'll get into that next week Why and how you can do it without the exact exasperating so?

Let's close and we will go on Heavenly Father we we thank you as we study a word in this section of scripture. We we just see a a scripture that can help us in our families and how we function and again we realize that all these things take one faith that we trust that your word is true and as we manifest Christ in our life we will begin to manifest these characteristics in a family and we realize that as we do that's how you structured the family and that that will bring peace and rest. And again we realize these are weighty imperatives to us and we realize that in and of ourselves we cannot do this. we realize that we must just rely upon the Holy Spirit convicting and convincing us of these truths and just relying upon the strength of the Holy Spirit to let us follow these logical imperatives. read the scripture and we see how as husbands, wives, children, and fathers, how we are to respond. And we just thank you that you have given us the scripture to see how we're to function in Christ, in the family. And Father, we just thank you again for this time, anytime we can study a word, and we just pray as we move into the next meeting, again, that Vern will present the word accurately and just prepare our hearts to receive that word. We just thank you for all these things in Christ's name we pray. Amen.