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[01:00:13:03 - 01:00:17:15]
Chris
 That's why we've got to know God's word. And my theology really, truly does matter.

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Chris
 Why I love to preach God's word and why I try to do it so passionately, because it's not just facts or things that don't really matter to the day-to-day of our lives. They literally matter in everything we do, every environment we live, every relationship that we are in.

[01:00:42:19 - 01:00:51:15]
Brenton
 Welcome back to Further. I am Brenton Grimm. Nathan Williams, welcome. How are you doing? Good. Good to be here today. Yeah. It's a beautiful day. Nice

[01:00:53:00 - 01:00:53:19]
Brenton
 November day.

[01:00:54:20 - 01:00:58:07]
Nathan Williams
 Yeah, we'll take every one of these we can get in November, right? Sure, absolutely.

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Brenton
 So kind of wanted to just start today by

[01:01:04:19 - 01:01:14:11]
Brenton
 talking about your prep for the week. And especially because we've already been through a chapter that's pretty much the same, what was prep like for you this week?

[01:01:14:11 - 01:01:41:18]
Nathan Williams
 Right, well, as I'm preparing for this, my first-- even going back a few weeks ago, you know what I mean, when I realized that this was the passage that Chris had assigned me to preach on, my first thought is like, oh my goodness, what new can I bring out of this? It's the exact same story. Different circumstances that happened in Egypt, you know, with Abraham made the same mistake. And I'm like, oh, I need to go back and

[01:01:43:03 - 01:02:11:04]
Nathan Williams
 listen to that sermon so I'm not being repetitious and maybe come up with a different application. And then as I got thinking about it, I'm like, no, I don't want to do that because I don't want to be clouded by that, maybe influenced by that one way or the other. So I just say, OK, God, just let me just read the text. Let me draw from this and you put together what you want. And so I went with that. So that's kind of the way I approached it right, wrong, or indifference. So

[01:02:12:12 - 01:02:14:10]
Nathan Williams
 maybe it's repetitive a

[01:02:15:10 - 01:02:18:15]
Nathan Williams
 little bit, maybe it's not. But anyway, that's how I approached that, yeah.

[01:02:18:15 - 01:02:29:21]
Brenton
 Yeah, well, yeah, I think there is something to be said about just like the repetition of it, right? There's a reason that this is included in there, that he did this twice, right?

[01:02:29:21 - 01:02:33:19]
Nathan Williams
 Right. You know, it's a great lesson too for us because

[01:02:35:15 - 01:02:39:09]
Nathan Williams
 we repeat mistakes. Well, I say we, I do.

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Nathan Williams
 And sometimes when we just don't get it the first time, God says, OK, I'm going to give you and I'm going to give the same trial again. Let's see how you face this time. And sometimes it takes more than once to learn your lesson. So maybe this is the case with Abraham too, and it's a good lesson for us.

[01:02:58:05 - 01:02:58:12]
Chris
 Yeah.

[01:02:58:12 - 01:03:09:18]
Brenton
 Yeah, one thing that stuck out to me in this was the conversation between God and Abimelech in this dream.

[01:03:11:22 - 01:03:17:02]
Brenton
 It says something really interesting that he says, it was I who kept you from sinning against me.

[01:03:18:19 - 01:03:35:01]
Brenton
 How should we understand God actively preventing someone from committing sin? Is this something we should think about happening all the time? And this idea of God restraining evil in the world, how do you think about that?

[01:03:35:01 - 01:04:14:22]
Nathan Williams
 Well, obviously, God is supreme. He can do anything he wants. And ultimately, he's going to get his way. He's the one who sets up kings, takes down kings. The Bible says that. We think we do in our elections which have just passed, but really, God's in control. And sometimes he gives us who we want, who we need. Sometimes he gives us who we deserve. But God's in control. And I really think in this situation, another way to look at it is, does he just keep people from sinning or ungodly people from sinning? And I don't think that's necessarily always the case. And Romans chapter one, he says,

[01:04:16:04 - 01:04:28:07]
Nathan Williams
 because you're doing this, go ahead and do it. You're just causing your own destruction. In this case, I would like to look at that maybe a little bit differently. And God was keeping him from sinning more

[01:04:29:09 - 01:04:33:01]
Nathan Williams
 for protecting his own chosen Abraham.

[01:04:34:02 - 01:04:38:17]
Nathan Williams
 Now, I don't know. I'm speculating here a little, but God can do whatever he wants.

[01:04:39:18 - 01:04:44:06]
Nathan Williams
 But in this case, God did keep him from sinning.

[01:04:45:18 - 01:04:48:23]
Nathan Williams
 And it was in protection of Abraham and Sarah.

[01:04:50:01 - 01:04:52:02]
Brenton
 But there's also benefit to Benelik, right?

[01:04:54:00 - 01:05:09:16]
Nathan Williams
 Right, because if he'd gone through with it, he was going to be destroyed. God says, "If you carry through with this, I'm going to destroy." There's other circumstances too, where we can see Christians who, well, Godly people who may have been,

[01:05:10:16 - 01:06:02:09]
Nathan Williams
 God might have intervened to keep them from sinning. I love the story of Balaam. Remember when the king of Moab, Balak, basically bribed Balaam to say, "Hey, go and curse the Israelites. These, this powerful young nation that have come out of Egypt, go bribe them." And Balaam initially is like, "Yeah, well, I can only do whatever God tells me, so I can't go with you." But then they come back again the second time, or a Balak's man. And then this really, really strange story, how his donkey won't go. And he's caught in the pass, but there's an angel standing there. And the angel stops him, you know what I mean? And then God opens Balaam's eyes, and he sees this.

[01:06:04:03 - 01:06:33:17]
Nathan Williams
 This angel with a flaming sword. And I love what the angel says to Balaam. He says, "I have come to oppose you, because your path is a reckless one before me." Numbers 22, 32. And it's like, in that case, Balaam, even though he knew he shouldn't go curse this people, he was flirting with doing that, because he was getting paid a lot of money. And God says, "No." "I'm gonna stop you."

[01:06:35:07 - 01:06:35:14]
Chris
 Yeah.

[01:06:35:14 - 01:06:38:19]
Nathan Williams
 So God does interview, or he can intervene.

[01:06:40:00 - 01:06:41:10]
Nathan Williams
 So, you know, that's just-

[01:06:41:10 - 01:06:47:12]
Brenton
 So this isn't the only biblical example we have of God restraining somebody's sin, right?

[01:06:47:12 - 01:07:16:11]
Nathan Williams
 Yeah, but yeah, for sure. But a lot of times he'll just do it, because God's got a purpose. God's got a purpose in everything. And he will let us sin, you know, he will. And we do that. Many times. And because of our sinful nature. And, but he also, we bear the consequences of that. You know what I mean? We're talking about God disciplines those he loves. So we get the discipline, and that's not fun either. But we learn through that, hopefully.

[01:07:16:11 - 01:07:25:06]
Brenton
 Yeah. How should recognizing this change the way that we look at our own faithfulness?

[01:07:26:06 - 01:07:36:07]
Brenton
 Like how much credit do we tend to take for avoiding sins that we fall into, where, you know, in some way it is God restraining that in us?

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Nathan Williams
 Yeah. That's a tough one, because, you know, where do we draw that line? Because we are told to resist temptation. Yeah, for sure. And resist the devil, and he will flee from you. You know, so we're told to resist. And now how do we resist? Is some of that in my own willpower, or my own conscience? Is some of that because God gives me the, his Holy Spirit convicts me and gives me the power to do that.

[01:08:05:22 - 01:08:42:09]
Nathan Williams
 Maybe it's a little bit of both. I don't know, but I think we got to be careful that we don't take all the credit for that, because then we fall into the temptation of pride. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I was able to resist that, because I'm so great, and I'm so awful, and I can resist anything. So it's one of those things, it's like, we should try, we should be convicted by our sin, but also to realize that the only reason we can really ever do this is because we've got the Holy Spirit. We got, you know, for those who are believers, that we can conquer sin, and we can resist the devil with the help of Christ.

[01:08:42:09 - 01:08:54:00]
Brenton
 Yeah. Well, it also makes me think, you know, as we look at other people that struggle with things that we don't, right? Like, I think it's easy for us to look down on other people that,

[01:08:55:02 - 01:09:18:16]
Brenton
 I don't know, you could list a whole list of sins here that we look down on other people for, but, you know, there is an aspect of like, had God not restrained that in myself, right? Like, we'd be in that same situation. And so I think there is a measure of just humility that should come from recognizing that we're not the only ones that keep ourselves from things.

[01:09:18:16 - 01:09:31:22]
Nathan Williams
 For sure. I mean, Paul addresses this in Galatians 6.1, where he says, "Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently, but watch yourself,

[01:09:33:10 - 01:09:57:20]
Nathan Williams
 or you also may be tempted." So it's just like, that's the warning against pride. You know, you are spiritual, you're a godly man or woman, but don't always just go around looking where you can whack someone over the head and say, you know what I mean? Because we should be looking at ourselves, you know what I mean? And all of a sudden, I can be tempted in a lot of the ways. Pride being the big one.

[01:09:57:20 - 01:10:04:12]
Brenton
 Yeah. Yeah. One thing that we saw out of this passage was part of that conversation

[01:10:06:06 - 01:10:33:11]
Brenton
 was that God is saying that he stopped Abimelech from sinning against him, against God, right? And so, like, there's this idea that it's even as we sin toward another person, we're ultimately sinning toward God, right? So why is that such an important distinction, and how should understanding it change the way we think about our sin?

[01:10:34:20 - 01:10:35:01]
Nathan Williams
 Yeah,

[01:10:36:04 - 01:10:54:05]
Nathan Williams
 I can't tell you, Brent, in how many times I've read this story, and I never really noticed that before, but somehow when I'm reading it through this time and reading it, that just literally just jumped off the page. When God said to Bim, like, that is why I kept you from sinning against me.

[01:10:55:06 - 01:10:56:21]
Nathan Williams
 You know what I mean? You think, okay, no,

[01:10:58:02 - 01:11:15:13]
Nathan Williams
 committee indulge through a sire, even whether we knew it or not, was sinning against Sarah or against Abraham, but no, that's why I kept you from sinning against me. And as I thought about that, and I thought about David saying practically the exact same words in his

[01:11:17:03 - 01:11:24:13]
Nathan Williams
 psalm of confession against you and you alone, oh Lord, if I sinned and done what was evil in your sight, you know what I mean? I'm just like, wow,

[01:11:26:01 - 01:11:34:11]
Nathan Williams
 how often we do try to excuse or belittle or minimize our sin? It's like, well,

[01:11:35:22 - 01:11:43:19]
Nathan Williams
 it's no big deal. You know what I mean? It's just like, well, they're jerks anyway, so if I slander them or mistreat them or whatever, it's like,

[01:11:45:13 - 01:11:49:12]
Nathan Williams
 but I'm sinning against God. And I don't think we think about that enough.

[01:11:51:00 - 01:11:53:15]
Nathan Williams
 It's just like, I answer to God for

[01:11:54:16 - 01:11:57:08]
Nathan Williams
 literally everything. Jesus

[01:11:58:10 - 01:12:15:11]
Nathan Williams
 is going to be the judge when he comes back, not Joe or Mike or Brenton or someone else that I may or may not have sinned against. It's God. And I think if we get that in our head and we think about that a little bit more,

[01:12:16:12 - 01:12:24:10]
Nathan Williams
 it might make us think twice in how we act toward someone or in anything we do. It's a really good reminder for us, I think.

[01:12:24:10 - 01:12:25:03]
Chris
 Yeah, for sure.

[01:12:25:03 - 01:12:59:09]
Brenton
 Something that we hear a lot from our culture is this justification for sin that it's not hurting anyone. It's not hurting anyone else, so how can it be wrong? And maybe I think we can fall into that same thinking as well, but sin isn't wrong simply because it causes harm. It's wrong primarily because it violates God's character and the commands that he's given us. How should that distinction shape the way that we understand sin?

[01:13:01:13 - 01:13:09:13]
Nathan Williams
 Yeah, you're so right. Well, it's the whole libertarian view of it's not hurting someone else. So what? Who cares?

[01:13:10:15 - 01:13:18:03]
Nathan Williams
 I think a lot of us kind of like a little bit of libertarian, but you can go overboard on everything, right?

[01:13:19:10 - 01:13:22:11]
Nathan Williams
 So hey, if it's not hurting you, let them do whatever they want.

[01:13:23:17 - 01:13:36:02]
Nathan Williams
 But that goes right back to the very first sin of mankind. Remember that? Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve, they're in the garden. Don't eat of the forbidden fruit. Now, was that hurting anyone?

[01:13:37:10 - 01:13:37:22]
Nathan Williams
 No,

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Nathan Williams
 but it was a heart issue. They chose to disobey God.

[01:13:46:05 - 01:13:51:21]
Nathan Williams
 They chose, literally chose to say, "You know what? I know this is what God says, but it

[01:13:53:10 - 01:13:54:12]
Nathan Williams
 shows rebellious heart."

[01:13:55:18 - 01:13:56:06]
Nathan Williams
 So

[01:13:57:17 - 01:14:17:07]
Nathan Williams
 how can I put that in today's terms? Think of a mother who tells her child to pick up the room, you know what I mean? Because the room is trashed, right? So is that trashed room really hurting anybody? Probably not. You know what I mean? It's only the kid that's in there anyway. But when that child

[01:14:18:17 - 01:14:33:09]
Nathan Williams
 throws a 10% and says, "No, I'm not picking it up," what's it do? It ruins that relationship between mom and child. There's a strained relationship, and now mom is upset, and the child is sulking. You know what I mean?

[01:14:34:14 - 01:14:38:19]
Nathan Williams
 And I think a lot of times we're like that with God. You know what I mean? It's like

[01:14:39:19 - 01:14:59:08]
Nathan Williams
 we have that same rebellious attitude as that child has. And we're like, "No, I just don't want to do it." And it's a heart issue rather than... And God knows what's best for us. And your mom knew what was best for that child. Like, pick up your room. It's trashed. And sometimes our lives get trashed, and we trash them

[01:15:00:12 - 01:15:02:12]
Nathan Williams
 within. You know what I mean? And

[01:15:04:06 - 01:15:21:11]
Nathan Williams
 the neighbors come over and see the child's room. "Well, I'll tell you what. We got neighbors all around us that see our trash in our lives when we're not following Jesus." You know what I mean? And so sometimes Jesus says, "Just obey me. Things are going to be a lot better. Your houses," meaning our body, our lives are going to be picked up.

[01:15:22:23 - 01:15:41:17]
Nathan Williams
 But it's all the result of just living in obedience rather than living in sin. Even though my sin may not be specifically hurting somebody, it's still a testimony of who I am as a child of the king that behaves in a way that a child of the king should act.

[01:15:41:17 - 01:16:05:16]
Brenton
 Yeah. Yeah. Well, you think of sins like idolatry or pride or unbelief, right? These are things that we see as internal, even though they will have outward effects. But maybe we see these things as not directly affecting anyone, even though I think we all know kind of inherently that these things are wrong.

[01:16:07:08 - 01:16:14:08]
Nathan Williams
 Yeah. I mean, we can go down the whole list and gamut of everything here, but ultimately,

[01:16:16:21 - 01:16:17:23]
Nathan Williams
 when God says,

[01:16:19:05 - 01:16:19:14]
Nathan Williams
 "Look,

[01:16:20:18 - 01:16:25:03]
Nathan Williams
 don't bow down to idols," one of the commandments, you know what I mean? Whether it's

[01:16:26:08 - 01:16:50:03]
Nathan Williams
 physical idolatry, adultery of the heart, he knows he's a jealous God, also in the commandments. And he says, "You know what? I'm jealous for you because I want you." And it's a rebellious spirit. That's the sinful attitude that starts all these things. So yeah, again, is it hurting anybody? Yeah, it's hurting me because I've got a broken relationship with God because I'm choosing to rebel against him.

[01:16:50:03 - 01:17:00:17]
Brenton
 So how should recognizing this idea that even as we sin against other people, we're ultimately sinning against God,

[01:17:02:02 - 01:17:06:06]
Brenton
 how should that change the way that we respond to our sin?

[01:17:07:22 - 01:17:23:03]
Nathan Williams
 Yeah, well, we could even from this passage, you know what I mean? Or even David in Psalm 51 say, "Well, I've repented to God, so you know what I mean? It's like I don't have to go to repent to you if I sinned against you." You know what I mean? But that's also not

[01:17:24:12 - 01:17:35:20]
Nathan Williams
 it's both. I mean, ultimately, I got to repent to God. But if I've still got a problem with my neighbor or my friend or someone I've sinned against, I've got to go to that person. I mean, he

[01:17:37:18 - 01:18:04:18]
Nathan Williams
 literally addresses this in Matthew chapter 5 when he says, "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you, leave your brother there in front of the altar, go first and be reconciled to them and then come and offer your gift." It's kind of like God's like, I picture God standing with his arms folded and saying, "You want me to come and forgive you? And yet you

[01:18:05:20 - 01:18:20:11]
Nathan Williams
 are sinning against your brother, your sister, your friend, your neighbor in such an egregious way. And you're coming and you just want me to say, "Oh, it's okay. I forgive you." She's like, "No, no, go get things right." So it's really important that we do

[01:18:22:12 - 01:18:25:21]
Nathan Williams
 go to the person we've sinned against and sort of say, "Hey, you know what?

[01:18:27:08 - 01:18:28:10]
Nathan Williams
 I've sinned against you.

[01:18:29:15 - 01:18:42:11]
Nathan Williams
 Will you forgive me?" And what a Christ-like example that would be for us to our neighbor, especially an unsaved neighbor, because that takes humility. And you know, that's

[01:18:43:16 - 01:18:45:14]
Nathan Williams
 something we don't see

[01:18:46:19 - 01:18:48:04]
Nathan Williams
 modeled a lot of times.

[01:18:49:09 - 01:18:50:12]
Brenton
 Yeah. Yeah.

[01:18:52:06 - 01:18:54:23]
Brenton
 You pointed out that

[01:18:56:00 - 01:18:57:15]
Brenton
 later on in Genesis,

[01:18:58:23 - 01:19:04:13]
Brenton
 we'll actually find that Isaac eventually repeats the same sin as Abraham in 20.

[01:19:06:09 - 01:19:13:17]
Brenton
 And as an application of that, you challenge parents to recognize that their children are watching them.

[01:19:15:12 - 01:19:24:15]
Brenton
 What should parents understand about the influence their own faithfulness or unfaithfulness, as it were, has on their children?

[01:19:26:08 - 01:19:56:09]
Nathan Williams
 Oh, wow. We have no idea the influence we have, four negative or positive, that we have to the... The second commandment is one of my favorite commandments for this very reason. And I basically just touched on this. So if you've heard this before, this is one of my things that I just absolutely love, the second commandment. You know, when I was a kid in school, I had to learn the 10 commandments. And I'm like, "Well, why am I learning these?" You know what I mean? And now we know all the shortened versions, but the longer version of the second commandment is,

[01:19:57:14 - 01:20:06:14]
Nathan Williams
 "You shall not make it any graven in each other likeness of anything in heaven above or the earth beneath or the waters under the sea. You shall not bow down to worship them." Here we go. "For the

[01:20:07:14 - 01:20:35:18]
Nathan Williams
 Lord your God is a jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those who hate me." Now, think about that for a second. It's not like God is punishing the children. No, the father is passing down the sin. That's sinful behavior as an example to his kids to fall. And it's like, it's crazy. But I also love that because

[01:20:37:02 - 01:20:58:11]
Nathan Williams
 in counseling, a lot of times I'll have someone come in and say, "Well, well, I can't help it. I'm an alcoholic, but it runs in my family. My father was an alcoholic. My grandfather was an alcoholic." And I'm like, "Okay." So this commandment says, third and fourth generation, are you ready? Are you ready to break that family curse and say, "You know what? This stops with me."

[01:21:00:01 - 01:21:19:09]
Nathan Williams
 And to start a new generation of God followers, because the rest of that commandment says, "But showing love and kindness and mercy to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments." Can you imagine if you started that with your kids and they looked at you and said, "No, he's not a... My dad's not a fearful follower. He's not one who just

[01:21:21:12 - 01:21:38:16]
Nathan Williams
 shrinks and caves under temptation and just... He's one who stands up and fights and he has modeled for us what it's like to be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ and then to see your kid

[01:21:40:10 - 01:21:47:11]
Nathan Williams
 following them footsteps and pass that down to his kid and to your grandkids." And it's just a marvelous thing that

[01:21:48:20 - 01:21:55:19]
Nathan Williams
 we have the power, with the help of Christ, of course, to be able to break that family curse and to model something different.

[01:21:56:23 - 01:21:57:05]
Brenton
 Yeah.

[01:21:57:05 - 01:21:59:11]
Nathan Williams
 It's just a beautiful thing.

[01:22:01:08 - 01:22:02:19]
Nathan Williams
 As I was thinking about this,

[01:22:05:12 - 01:22:45:20]
Nathan Williams
 that's not easy. That's not easy. To be able to... Some of the things the Bible asks us to do is really hard. It's really hard. And I was thinking about actually this last week, I was actually talking to someone else about giving thanks in all circumstances. And I mean, it's like, "Aren't things come? How do we give thanks in all circumstances?" I was reminded of the story of Corrie Tan Boon when her and her sister Betsy were in a concentration camp in Germany and Betsy was... Corrie was... She was done. They were in this

[01:22:47:06 - 01:22:49:18]
Nathan Williams
 cabin, housing unit.

[01:22:51:01 - 01:22:51:03]
Nathan Williams
 It

[01:22:52:10 - 01:22:54:01]
Nathan Williams
 was infested with fleas.

[01:22:55:09 - 01:22:56:00]
Nathan Williams
 And

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Nathan Williams
 Betsy said, "Hey, you know what? This verse, you know what I mean, says, "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ." Thessalonians 5, 18. And she says, "Let's give thanks for the fleas."

[01:23:12:07 - 01:24:26:14]
Nathan Williams
 And Corrie says, "No. No, I can't even do that. No, there's a line to be drawn." But they ended up doing that. And it's only after the war was over and they were liberated that they talked to one of the guards and they said, "Why did you never come into our housing unit?" This is because of the fleas. Because of the fleas. And because of the fleas, Corrie and Betsy were able to start a Bible study that led literally hundreds of people that were there facing the gas chambers in that unit that were able to lead them to Christ before they were brought away to be killed. I mean, give thanks. I mean, to be... I love that story. And I ask myself, if I'm in a situation like that, would I be able to give thanks? But this is what we're called to as parents. You know what I mean? Because our kids are looking at, "Are you going to crumble in a time of difficulty or are you going to say, "No, guys, let's come around here. We're going to give thanks to God even in this situation. We're going to recognize that He is on the throne. He is supreme. And we're going to trust Him in that." So it's an awesome responsibility. It's a kind of a scary one. It's a daunting task, but

[01:24:27:17 - 01:24:32:00]
Nathan Williams
 wow. It can be really great if we really model that for our kids.

[01:24:32:00 - 01:24:55:21]
Brenton
 Yeah. Well, so I guess just leaning on your experience as a pastor, what are some ways you've seen parents unintentionally or probably unintentionally model a lack of trust in God? Like, what are the things that parents struggle with the most in this situation to teach their children to trust God?

[01:24:57:00 - 01:25:20:18]
Nathan Williams
 Well, I think it starts with, and I also talked about this a lot on my sermon on Sunday, is seeking Christ first, above all else, first. So part of that just models down is like, when your kids are looking at you, what do you see as first importance? I mean, is it a priority to go to church every Sunday?

[01:25:21:23 - 01:25:24:02]
Nathan Williams
 Now, I know that going to church doesn't save you,

[01:25:25:17 - 01:25:41:08]
Nathan Williams
 but it shows your kids, you model for your kids, what is a priority in your life? I mean, if I go, "Well, we go half the weeks." You know what I mean? So we're twice a month or once a month. Your kids are looking at you and say, "Well, that's not a priority."

[01:25:42:21 - 01:26:08:10]
Nathan Williams
 When you put them down, especially with smaller kids that can't read yet, are you going to sit down and read Goldilocks and the Three Bears before they go to bed? Are you going to read a Bible story? We're going to go through this and learn the stories of the Bible. Looking back, I'll be like, "You know what? I love all those stories. We were talking this morning, that story of Balaam just came up. I credit that back to my childhood."

[01:26:09:11 - 01:26:27:04]
Nathan Williams
 My parents would read these stories before I go to sleep at night. It's like, "Oh, amazing." Because I saw that as a first priority. So model to your kids. What is a first priority? Is Jesus number one in your life? Is He the first place you go? Or are you modeling something else?

[01:26:29:05 - 01:26:43:12]
Nathan Williams
 Sunday sports. You know what I mean? Well, we'll go back to church once a traveling soccer, baseball, or whatever is over, but we're going to take away a couple months. You model to your kids what is first priority.

[01:26:44:16 - 01:26:45:17]
Nathan Williams
 I would say that.

[01:26:45:17 - 01:27:09:03]
Brenton
 So when our children inevitably see us fail, talk about the importance of us repenting and them seeing that process. First of all, what does that look like in practice? What should that look like? But also just talk about the importance of why they need to see us do that.

[01:27:11:19 - 01:27:12:05]
Nathan Williams
 Wow.

[01:27:13:22 - 01:27:19:23]
Nathan Williams
 Yeah. One of the things we hate as parents is letting our kids see that we're failures, right? Because

[01:27:21:02 - 01:27:28:02]
Nathan Williams
 we want to be the example, right? But I think in doing that sometimes, we come across as like,

[01:27:29:03 - 01:28:09:09]
Nathan Williams
 "Oh, I'm the parent. I'm always right." But we're not. So to be able to, even when we sin against our kids, which we do sometimes by losing our temper, yeah, maybe they're doing something amazing to lose their time, but it still doesn't justify that. I address their behavior in an ungodly way to be able to come along and say, "Hey, I'm really sorry. Will you forgive me?" I mean, it means so much to our kids. And I mean, the opposite. If I don't do that, what I'm really doing is hiding my sin and covering up. And our kids see right through that. "Well, dad,

[01:28:10:11 - 01:28:42:17]
Nathan Williams
 he's just a hypocrite. You know what I mean? He's telling me not to get angry at school, but he does it at home all the time." So to be able to say, "Will you forgive me?" And then even, "Hey, let's pray." And then ask God so they can see you modeling that for them. You know what I mean? Getting that sin out there in a way that you show your sorry and... We talked about David, right? In the sin of confession. When he wrote that song, also Psalm 32, when he talks about when I hid my sins, it was heavy upon me, but when I confess them, you forgave me.

[01:28:43:22 - 01:29:10:11]
Nathan Williams
 Were those two Psalms just written and stuck in a drawer somewhere? No, they were published, published in the hymn book for all Israel to read. You know what I mean? It was an example for everybody. This is what confession really is. And so we can model what it is like to our kids to sort of say, "Have a humble heart." If I never confess anything,

[01:29:11:15 - 01:29:18:18]
Nathan Williams
 what I'm really saying is, "Be prideful like me." But when I confess something, it's like, "It's okay.

[01:29:19:22 - 01:29:30:17]
Nathan Williams
 God's going to forgive me because I came with a heart of confession." And that's a really important thing to do. I know there's been a few times where I've had to apologize to my kids, and

[01:29:31:18 - 01:29:44:03]
Nathan Williams
 I could just see the difference it made in them knowing that I came with a humble heart. There's probably a lot of times where I didn't either. Probably. But yeah,

[01:29:45:13 - 01:29:46:17]
Nathan Williams
 we got to remember to do that.

[01:29:46:17 - 01:29:55:10]
Brenton
 Yeah. Be honest. Yeah. It's definitely a hard thing. It's humbling to do that, but I think it's so important for your kids to see that. Right.

[01:29:56:17 - 01:29:59:09]
Brenton
 All right. We'll wrap up. Thank you, Nathan.

[01:29:59:09 - 01:30:04:03]
Speaker 13
 Thanks for your work on this sermon, and thanks for coming in today. It was a pleasure.

[01:30:04:03 - 01:30:04:21]
Chris
 All right.

[01:30:04:21 - 01:30:09:03]
Speaker 13
 If you have any questions, ask at furtherpodcast.com. We'll talk to you next week.