(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

The Bible says that we should train kids up to become all God has created them to be.

And it has a lot to say about us training ourself.

So we're gonna dive into that a little bit today.

The Bible says in Matthew 6, verse 33, as Jesus was teaching, if you have been around the church, this is in the context of where Jesus taught a sermon known as the Sermon on the Mount, one of the greatest talks ever given to humanity.

And it's found in Matthew 6 and 7, and invite you to 5, 6, and 7.

I invite you to go read that in context sometimes to see what Jesus said there in that particular passage.

But he says something remarkable in Matthew 6, verse 33, as he kind of talks about this idea of how we tend to worry a lot.

He says, hey, stop worrying about what you're gonna eat, what you're gonna wear, and where you're gonna live.

He says, God's got it.

He says, however, what you do need to do is you need to focus.

You need to focus and seek the proper thing.

And then when you seek the proper thing, all these things you tend to worry about oftentimes, God can add those to your life as well.

And I know we're all guilty of worrying about life and sometimes what's going to happen next, what's gonna happen to us throughout life, what's gonna happen to our kids.

But Jesus says, hey, if you learn to seek first in Matthew 6, verse 33, seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, God will provide all of these other things as well.

So today we're gonna talk a little bit about how to train up our kids to seek first God's kingdom, His kingdom and His righteousness, so that God can add incredible things to their life as well.

The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 22, a good word that comes from Proverbs is it says, train up a child in the way he should go.

Train up a child in the way he or she should go, even when he grows older, he will not abandon it.

And so here the scripture uses this word train as an opportunity for parents to begin to pour into their kids at a young age, and when they grow old, they won't abandon what has been deposited into them.

Actually, they'll grab hold of it and they begin to have a bright future.

This word train here in this passage of scripture actually means to dedicate or to initiate.

And what he says is to dedicate your time, parents, and initiate this training for your kids at a young age, and then you're gonna begin to see remarkable things come out of them as they get older, no matter what life brings.

And so this idea of training is a vital piece for all of us in accomplishing what God wants to do in our life and through our life.

But what do we need to be training these kids to do?

Well, again, to seek first, and that word first there in that passage in Matthew 6, verse 33 is a word called protos, which does mean first in rank and first in order, but it also has another meaning, which means that which everything else revolves around.

It says, seek first, everybody say first.

First.

Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.

And all these things we tend to worry about will be added to our life as well.

So this idea of first means to begin to put in the center of your life what's most significant, then all those things that revolve around that most significant thing will begin to have a new look or can change for your favor if you'll seek first or let your life revolve around his kingdom and his righteousness.

Think of a bicycle wheel with spokes and with a hub on it.

This word first means let Jesus, let God in his kingdom and his righteousness be the center of your life, the hub of your life, and then your life will begin to roll properly in the right direction no matter what's going on in your life.

And so what we're to do is to train up our children to know that truth, to know what it means to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.

And not only do our kids need to be trained in that way, we need to be trained in that way also.

You know, the Bible says this in 1 Timothy 4.

As Paul wrote a young leader named Timothy, he says this in 1 Timothy 4, verses seven through nine.

He says, don't waste time, Timothy, arguing, come on, over godless ideas and old wives' tales.

He says that is senseless.

He says instead, he says train.

Everybody say train.

Same word.

Dedicate, initiate, train who?

Train yourself.

Other words, exercise self-leadership.

Don't depend on somebody else to just lead you, Timothy.

Oh, no, no, you exercise self-leadership, he says, to be godly.

He says, physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better.

Promising benefits in this life, right now, this week, this month, this year, and in the life to come, in eternity.

So it says, if we will learn to train ourself in godliness, there'll be benefits today, and for eternity.

It goes on to say, this is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it.

So again, Paul is writing young Timothy, talking about this idea of training in godliness, and what that looks like.

And if we'll learn to do that with our life, week in and week out, then all these things we tend to worry about will begin to fade away, and our life will begin to go in the right direction, and we'll see God do what he says he'll do, amazing things in our life and through our life in the world that we live in.

So how do we train up someone in godliness?

Well, the first thing I wrote down in my journal is we have to train them in what forgiveness is.

You see, Jesus came from heaven to earth to live a perfect life, to go to a cross and shed his blood for the forgiveness of humanity's sin.

And that's what Jesus did on that cross.

He shed his blood to forgive humanity of their sin.

So we have to define what that word sin is.

Sin is basically going against God's plan for your life and picking up your own plan for your life.

In other words, God has a set-apart plan for your life, but oftentimes we go our own way and we sin.

What does sin mean?

It's a picture word.

It means missing the bullseye, a lot like this target over here.

And so when we sin, we don't hit the bullseye with our life.

When we sin, we hit all over the map and we don't hit the bullseye.

What is hitting the bullseye?

Hitting the bullseye is seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these other things that we tend to seek will be added to our life as well.

So it's putting God at the center of our life and first in our life and understanding what forgiveness really is.

And Jesus came to forgive every single one of us for our myths, for our sin.

That's why his blood was shed on a cross.

For every sin that has ever been committed against God since from the beginning of the time of the first man, the first woman stepping away from God's plan in the Garden of Eden, Jesus came.

One time to die a death on a cross for the forgiveness of humanity's sin so we could be back in right relationship with God.

Because what sin does is sin separates us from that relationship.

But Jesus came to forgive us of that sin, pay a debt you and I couldn't pay so that we could be forgiven and move back into that relationship with God.

But not only is that, do we need to define what sin is or what forgiveness is, we need to define what forgiveness is for.

And that's where a lot of us miss it.

See, we think God forgave us of our sin, what we did against him last week so that we could be forgiven and go to heaven one day.

And shoot, nobody don't want to not go to heaven.

So we say we receive that forgiveness, which that's awesome.

You will go to heaven when you receive the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus into your life and receive that forgiveness into your life.

But the forgiveness is for something different.

It's so that you can be healed.

See, sin leads to death.

Sin leads us away from God.

Jesus came to forgive us of that sin, watch this, so that we're not staying out here away from God, but so that we could know how to hit the target with our life, hit the bullseye with our life.

I gotta turn this over because that's kind of stiff.

Jesus came to teach you how to hit the mark of his glorious standard.

See, sin isn't just forgiving you for your miss.

I mean, forgiveness isn't just forgiving you of your sin and your miss.

Forgiveness also begins to teach us how to get it right.

And when we look at the life of Christ, we can begin to know how to get it right.

And so many of us say, well, shoot, I want that forgiveness because I wanna go to heaven one day.

But does that mean I should just keep on sinning so I can be forgiven more and more and just go to heaven?

And the Bible answers that question.

I'm gonna show it to you today.

But first, let's define this sin.

It says it in Romans chapter five, verse 17, for the sin of this one man named Adam in the garden caused death to rule over many.

But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, which is Christ Jesus.

Righteousness comes from God and righteousness has a name and his name is Jesus.

The Bible goes on to say this, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

So what this passage says is, you know what?

Jesus forgives us so we can triumph over sin.

So that not just for death, but for life.

In other words, he came to forgive you of the penalty and give you power over the misses.

But what you have to do is you have to begin to look at the life of Christ to learn how not to miss.

Begin to see how he handled circumstances and situations.

Begin to walk with him and see how he fought off, you know what, sin with his life.

And the Bible gives us all kinds of examples of how Christ fought against sin.

But one of the greatest ones is in Matthew chapter four, where Jesus was tempted by the enemy to sin, but Jesus fought that off by using something powerful.

You know what it was?

The word of God, but it wasn't the twisted word of God.

It was the word of God in context, exactly like God said it because what the enemy does is try to twist the word of God.

And when he can twist the word of God, guess what?

You keep on missing the mark of God's glorious standard.

But Jesus came to forgive and not only to forgive, but to heal our heart.

Look how Paul says it in Romans chapter five, verses 21 through Romans chapter six, verse four.

He said, so just as sin ruled over people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Well, then he asked a question.

Should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?

Should we just keep on missing the bullseye so God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?

He answers the question and he says, of course not.

That would be foolish.

He goes on to say this, since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

Or have you forgotten that when you were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, you was joined with him in his death?

For we have died when we were buried with Christ Jesus by baptism, and just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the father, now we may live these new lives.

So what he says here in this passage is because of the forgiveness of Christ, now you have the opportunity to have power over those things that are making you miss at God's glorious standard for your life in being all of who God created you to be.

The Bible says, now you have power over that.

Jesus came to forgive you of the penalty of sin, but he also came to give you power so sin don't continue to make you miss at what God's designed you to be.

And what you have to learn to do is realize that God didn't come to just forgive you to take you to heaven one day, but God came to forgive you, to heal you and make you all he's designed you to be.

And Paul says, if you wanna keep on sinning, going in the wrong direction, guess what?

That's gonna lead to a place of death, of separation because that's what sin does.

But what God does is God begins to realign us again with his purpose and his plan for our life.

Heal our heart so we can walk in the fullness of who he says we can be in life.

Train people in what forgiveness is, but also train them in what forgiveness is for.

It's so that we can seek first his kingdom and his righteousness so he can add all of these other things we tend to worry about to our life as well.

In other words, worry will continue to make you miss, but worshiping who Jesus really is and the forgiveness he offers will begin to help you hit the bullseye and help you become all God's designed you to be.

But next, what else do we need training in?

And again, some of us need to train our own selves, not just depend on somebody else to train us.

God calls us to lead ourself.

We're to be led by Christ.

We're gonna be led by leadership in the church, but the Bible teaches all of us to become disciples and learn how to lead ourself with the scriptures.

And so again, we have to train people in how to fuel their life with the proper things, how to fill up with the proper things.

And so we have to learn to teach our young kids if we want them to become all God created them to be, and we have to train ourself in filling up our life with the Holy Spirit of God and the Word of God.

You see, with those two things, whenever life comes at you, you'll begin to know the right decision to make in those circumstances.

You have to have the Holy Spirit of God alive and well in you and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And then as you're filled with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit partners with the Word of God, then you can know the right thing to do and who's speaking to you.

But what happens oftentimes is people, they fill up on the Word of God, but they're not full of the Spirit of God.

And because they have the Word, but they don't have the fullness of the Spirit in their life, they're not being obedient to the Spirit because if you're full of the Spirit, that means you're being obedient to the small things He's asking you to do.

And if you're filled with the Spirit, guess what?

Then you'll learn to discern what the Word says and make the right decision in the midst of it.

Takes training.

Listen to what the Bible says.

Says it this way in John chapter 16, verse six, Jesus said, it is best for you, this is before He ascended into heaven and He went to the cross.

He said, it's best for you that I go away.

If I don't, He says the advocate won't come, the one that's for you and that will begin to work with you.

If I do go away, He says, then I will send him to you.

He goes on to say in John 16, verses 13 through 15, when the Spirit of truth comes, that's the advocate, He will guide you into all truth.

He will not speak on His own, but He will tell you what He has heard.

He will tell you about the future, not just begin to remind you all the time about the past.

He will bring me glory by telling you whatever He receives from me.

All that belongs to the Father is mine.

That is why I said, the Spirit, He tells these disciples, will tell you whatever He receives from me.

So the Bible teaches the Holy Spirit of God is the third person in the Trinity.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus ascended back to heaven, He poured out His Spirit on, the Bible says, on men and women alike.

And when we put our faith and our belief in the finished work of Christ on a cross and have forgiveness of our sin, in that moment, we can receive the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit reminds you that God is for you, not against you.

And the Holy Spirit will begin to coach you in situations.

But the Holy Spirit, the coach, can't tell you what play to run unless you've been reading the playbook.

And this is what happens oftentimes.

See, a coach can come to me and say, hey, you need to run whatever, wide right, left, whatever, however they call all these plays in football.

And I can be sitting there going, what is that?

But if I've been studying the playbook of the team, come on, and I've been reading the playbook, when he calls out the play, when he tells me what play to run, in whatever circumstance, against whatever defense, I can begin to advance and move forward and know what play to run because the Holy Spirit will never call a play that's against his word, against his playbook.

It's important.

It's important to train ourselves in the word of God and what the word of God says.

But again, unless you begin to have the Holy Spirit living in you, and that's a lifelong training, by the way, but unless you have the Holy Spirit living in you and you're being obedient to what play he calls you, then you're not living full of the Holy Spirit.

Because what the Holy Spirit does is oftentimes he helps you, listen to this, take small tweaks in your life to help you get to greater peaks.

In other words, he'll ask you to do the little things so you can do the great thing.

But if I'm disobedient, if he is training me how to get in a stance if I'm a football player, and I'm gonna do it like I wanna do it, come on.

I'm gonna get knocked on my rear end.

But if I'll listen to the trainer in the small little things, come on, and I'll begin to listen to how he says to do the small things right, and I take a step and do that small thing, he'll lead me to the next right thing.

And if I'll daily feel up on what the Spirit says and the Word says, I can begin to walk according to the Spirit and do great and mighty things with my life, you need to teach somebody.

How not to just read the Word of God, but listen for the voice of God when he speaks to you and calls you to do the next right thing.

And a lot of us are hearing voices, but they don't align with the Word of God.

God told me to do this because you know what?

I'm this.

No, no, what does the Word say?

Because God ain't gonna tell you to do something that's different from what the playbook says.

It's in unity, it's in partnership.

And again, we have to learn how to discern through the voices.

I'm telling you, you got them all running at you.

They coming on Facebook, Twitter, Prophet, whoever on the internet, come on.

They telling you everything.

But at the end of the day, I'm here to declare to you, if they're telling you something that contradicts the Word of God, it ain't the voice of God, come on.

Come on.

So we gotta learn to train up kids how to listen to God, how to pay attention to His Word, how to know, you know what, how to even begin to study His Word.

My friend, God's Word is written over a period of ages.

And again, these letters that are compiled throughout His Word are written in different times, in different places to different people with the same application for today.

But we have to know the context of who God's talking to in a letter.

If not, I'll just sap something out of the letter and make it say whatever I want it to say.

And the reality of it is, this is a lifelong learning lesson, you know.

Okay, well, what is God saying here?

Who's He saying it to?

Why is He saying it?

What was the culture like when He said it?

Who was being an idiot when He said it?

Come on.

Because what happens is sometimes, you know what, those cultural things in these writings that were inspired by God that people pin, they dictated what they said to that particular culture, and they had a significant meaning in that culture, but it might not mean the same thing in this culture.

And again, learning to discern this stuff is important, and God will begin to show you these things.

The Bible says the Spirit illuminates the Word of God.

And so we have to learn to let the Spirit illuminate the Word of God.

We have to read the Word and then ask the Spirit, speak to me, speak to my heart, speak to my soul.

Correct me where I'm wrong so I can get it right.

Listen, that's what the Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter three.

It says it this way about God's Word.

He says, you have been taught, Timothy, the holy scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes from trusting in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is inspired by God, and it is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our life.

It corrects us when we are wrong, and it teaches us to do what is right.

God uses it to what?

To prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

God's word will help you and me do the good work, and it's good work, come on.

Kingdom work is good work, come on.

It'll help us do the good work he has called us to do if we'll begin to say, God, I receive this correction.

You know, I say this to people all the time in smaller settings.

My theology of who God is has changed over a period of time because I only saw God through one lens, and it was basically what somebody spoke to me from one environment at one time before I began to dig into his word.

But years of study and years of walking with God on the journey, and I'm not there yet by any means, but what it has began to do is it's began to open my eyes to a world and to a God that is bigger than the one individual that taught me something, or let me put it this way, the one denomination that taught me something back in the day.

And we're not to build on those things, but we're to learn from the scriptures.

And begin to let the scriptures guide our life.

God's bigger than I ever thought he could be.

God does things in ways I never dreamed about.

But because I come from some different kinds of cultures that interpreted things from a certain way, the more I begin to dig into those things, God began to illuminate some of those things.

And again, I'm not gonna argue about all of these things, these old wives tales and all this kind of stuff, but I'm gonna stand firm on the word of God and I'm gonna execute according to what he's illuminated to me through his word, come on.

And I invite you to be the same way.

It's not to point your finger and say everybody else is wrong.

But the only way I'm gonna be right is to begin to read his word and let the spirit speak to my life and begin to walk fully in who he says I am.

Learn to feel up on the right things.

And the right things are the word of God and with the Holy Spirit of God.

And God promises that we'll begin to walk in wisdom and make good decisions.

It's why it's important to feel up because I'm telling you right now, life is coming at you.

And when it comes at you, when it comes at you, you need to be full and equipped to how to begin to handle the situation from the word of God and from the Spirit of God.

Whenever something begins to happen, sometimes it's difficult in those moments to exercise wisdom.

But if I have been filling up with God's wisdom and I've been filling up with those around me with God's wisdom, I'll know in spite of what everybody else wants to do, what decision I need to make.

It's inviting to know that you can fill up on the word of God and with the Spirit of God to make wise choices in life.

Teach your children to make wise choices.

The Bible also indicates that we also need to train people how to focus.

To not just focus on what is happening this week, this month or this year, what is happening to me and what is happening around me.

But to focus on what is still yet to come.

I talk a lot about the future.

I talk a lot about what is still yet to come.

Because the Bible paints a picture of it.

I can't fully see it yet.

But the Bible in the book of Revelation says that God is gonna make all things new.

The Bible says that God's gonna make a new heaven and a new earth.

And the Bible says that God is gonna put all evil in the abyss.

And the Bible says that we who have trusted in Christ Jesus are gonna live with God in this new heaven and in this new earth forever and ever and ever.

The Bible says that there will be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more pain in this place.

That's the future that is held for those of us who are in Christ Jesus.

But at the end of the day, we have to continually focus on that in spite of the trials and the challenges of life, because you have to really train people in endurance if they're going to get through life and begin to take hold of this prize.

It's one thing to tell you about the prize.

It's another thing to begin to train for endurance so I receive the prize.

And again, we don't talk enough about this, but the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 12, verses one through three, it says this.

The Bible says, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to this life of faith, let us strip off all the weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.

In other words, begin to strip this stuff off so I can hit the target of God's glorious standard.

And one of the ways we begin to do that is to recognize that we're surrounded by a lot of people that are gone before us in this huge life of faith.

We're surrounded by those people, they've gone before us, but they made it.

The Bible goes on to say, and let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.

Hebrews 11 lists some horrific things that people had to endure, but they made it.

The Bible says we do this by how?

By keeping our eyes on Jesus.

He's the champion who initiates and perfects our faith, who takes the initiative to start our faith, and he's the one that will sustain us and perfect our faith if we will pay close attention to this Jesus.

The Bible says because of the joy awaiting him, he did what?

He endured the cross.

They ain't none of us been nailed to the cross, the Bible says Jesus endured the painful cross.

The Bible said he gave his life on that cross, that he was beaten beyond recognition, that nails were driven through his hands and his feet, a spear shoved through his side.

The Bible says a crown of thorns was shoved on his head.

The Bible says he was ridiculed, he was spit upon, he was beaten beyond recognition, think about that.

He endured that cross even though he didn't deserve it.

But why did he endure that cross?

The Bible says because he had something set before him and it was joy.

And what he knew is that he could defeat sin and defeat death and offer forgiveness to humanity.

Somebody here today was gonna make a decision to trust who Jesus is and it brought him great joy to go to the cross to show that amazing love so you could begin to understand who he is.

He was focused.

He was focused on what could be, not what is.

And my friend, God calls us to focus on what can be and not what just is.

I know that some of us are going through some difficult moments, some difficult challenges, but I need you to know today that the blood Jesus offered on that cross is forgiveness for any sin that has ever been committed against you or any sin that you have ever committed yourself.

Receive the forgiveness only offered by Jesus and extend it to those around you.

Because if you don't extend the same forgiveness that Christ Jesus offers you, you're gonna die in bitterness.

You're gonna die in hatred.

This is why Jesus says, hey, come, do what I do.

Follow me, forgive as I have forgiven.

And then the Bible says that Jesus listened to the voice of his father all the days of his life, even though he walked through some difficult moments.

And he did what the father asked him to do.

I'm inviting you to do what the word says and what the spirit says.

And I promise you, you're going to get to the other side.

But also focus on there's an eternity waiting for you and waiting for me.

And it's gonna be a real eternity where there is no more pain.

There will be no more sorrow.

There will be no more sickness.

There will be no more death.

There will be nobody else there that don't like you.

There will be all of these things.

All of this stuff is going to be there.

All the evil things in life will be put in the abyss and you and I are gonna be there forever.

Let that be your focus.

Not what you're worrying about today and what you're going through today.

Because what Jesus said is if you seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, all of these other things you tend to worry about, He'll take care of them.

And today, if we trust that with our heart and learn to train others in that, God will begin to elevate and do amazing things in our life, in our family's life, in our church's life, in our community's life.

And I don't believe there's a person here today that don't want all of what God wants for them in their life.

Let me pray for you today.

God, I thank you so much for your word.

And God, I pray we would learn to train, train those around us in godliness.

We would learn to train ourself in godliness.

God, even when everybody else is doing what is wrong, God, may we focus on you and what you did for us and who you are and how you speak to us, what your word says about us.

Let us focus on these things and walk in it.

God, you have better days ahead for many of us in this room.

And God, I just pray your spirit would speak to us today in a powerful, powerful way.

In just a moment, our worship team is going to be singing a song about the beautiful name of Jesus.

And maybe you're in this place today and you've never allowed Jesus to become your personal savior by trusting, by faith, that he shed that blood on the cross to forgive you of that sin and help you walk in the fullness of who he says that you can become.

My friend, if you need to trust Christ during this next song, as we're singing about the beautiful name of Jesus, there's gonna be some prayer partners standing by these lighted crosses on each side of me on this platform.

And they would love to talk to you about that decision.

Just come say today, I wanna trust Christ and let them pray with you.

The Bible says that if we trust who Jesus is for the forgiveness of our sin, then God will begin to restore us, put his spirit in us and begin to give us eternal life and life abundantly.

And my friend, if you need to make that decision today and say, God, I wanna turn away from my sin, I wanna turn my heart towards you and let you become the Lord of my life.

Then I invite you in just a moment as they begin to sing to move to those crosses.

There's others of us in this room today that need to come forward and we have kneeling benches all across the front of this particular altar up here.

We're gonna sing a song together.

And again, if you need to leave today, I understand, but I'd invite you to stay there in this moment.

This is a holy moment.

This is a moment where God works in community, works in our hearts and in our lives.

Then after this particular song, we'll all leave together.

But if you need prayer today, there's gonna be prayer partners all across the front of this thing.

Maybe you need prayer in the area of your life.

I just pray that you just come forward and ask one of these prayer partners to put their arms around you and just pray with you.

Maybe you just need to talk to God on your own.

You need to kneel at this altar today.

This altar is open for any of us today.

But during this particular time, whatever you need, whether it's salvation, whether it's prayer, whether it's just you need to spend some time with God at this altar, I'm gonna invite you to do what God is leading you to do today.

And so today, God, I pray you would move in every man, every woman, every boy, and every girl's heart in this room today.

And help us realize how beautiful the name of Jesus really is.

It's in your most holy and precious name we pray, amen.