“The kids you teach this week have sinful hearts. They cannot obey God perfectly, and they need a Savior. Point kids to Jesus and help them understand that God is pleased with us because He looks at Jesus, who never sinned. Because of Christ, we can have a right relationship with God.”

As I read these sentences in preparing the Gospel Project curriculum on the 10 commandments this week for Redeemer Kids, I was stunned because culturally we don't talk about kids as sinners that much. They are sweet innocent little angel-like beings that don't really sin, they just make mistakes. The problem with that is then they only ever need behavior correction, not a Savior.  And I’m also a mom with 4 kids. I direct a kids ministry with 100 kids. I have an upfront view of sin seemingly all the time. And yet, I forget it.

The first two sentences struck me pretty profoundly because believing this as I am parenting is not my natural inclination. One of my kids threw food on the ground this morning so as not to have to finish breakfast. I did process through that the child was not “obeying” and I was frustrated, but sadly, I didn’t remember that the child needs a Savior - just as much as I do - because we do have sinful hearts. I have a sinful heart. I forget how much I need grace and then I fail to give them grace. I didn’t point that child to Jesus, who never sinned, so we can have a right relationship with God…which will, in turn, help us as mother and child have a right relationship as well.

Our number one job as parents, as primary disciple-makers, as mentors to future brothers and sisters in Christ is to help point our kids to their need for a Savior. Our kids are sinners which means the first thing we need to think they need, and the first thing we need to give them is the Savior. Rules and discipline can come, but they need to be reminded of Jesus and His grace. And guess where this will come? From you first remembering you a sinner. 

So I get to remind myself that my heart was sinful as I parented this morning because I wanted my child to obey, not for the good of learning to obey to have a right relationship with God, but because it was an inconvenience to me. I get to tell myself the Gospel - that Jesus died for my sin of selfishness and anger and took my punishment on the cross and gave me His perfect righteousness so that I can be forgiven and have a right relationship with God. Then I get to sit down with my child after school and discuss the event - this time pointing to our need for Jesus because of the sinful hearts we both have.

This blog post was written by Kati Berreth, who is the Redeemer Kids Coordinator, dedicated wife and caring mother of four. .

Do you believe that Jesus, the Christ, is the Son of God? Do you believe that He was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died a substitutionary death for your sin, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven?

If so, by God's grace, you have been saved.

And if you've been saved, you are a disciple.

Disciple means "student," and it's something you've been drafted into. This means you've been called into tutelage, called to behold, learn, and grow as an adopted son or daughter of the Most High God.

Once we're there, we often fail. But that's the thing. Being a disciple means you know you need grace, whether you're standing, running, falling, winning or losing. 

Being A Disciple Is Who You Are, Not What You Do

In this sense, being a disciple is as much passive as it is active.

I am certainly not suggesting that disciples sit around and do nothing, for nothing could be further from the truth. In the book of Acts, we see the people of God empowered by the Holy Spirit, working and serving, beat up and stoned, preaching and traveling to the ends of the earth as they knew them so as many people as possible would get to hear the Gospel of Jesus.

But the only reason they were able to do these things effectively was because they knew, and believed, the Gospel.

That God, in his mercy, looked down on people who would spit in his face if they could see it. People whom He created, served, and pursued, and whose only response was active rebellion against him.

And God looked down in love and said "I choose them". And He sent His Son to purchase them through His death, then rise to give them life. And He sent His Spirit to turn their hearts of stone into hearts that beat with the blood of the Savior and respond to His goodness in faith.

The disciples described in Acts knew and believed they'd been drafted, called to submit to the authority of Jesus wherever it led them.

But under that authority, we are to "be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim 2.1, emphasis mine). Only once you see that you've been made a disciple despite your behavior can you know what it means to truly be a disciple.

Changed Hearts, Changed Lives

As you behold the Savior, it's impossible to not be changed by Him. Before you were a Christian, you looked at God with scorn, indifference, or fear. But, once saved, we get to learn who God is not from the perspective of the condemned, but rather from that of a son or daughter.

We learn to love and trust Him more. And as we learn to love and trust Him more, the more we want to look like Jesus.

This impacts the way we see and conduct our relationships, our jobs, our studies, how spend our money, the food we eat, the clothes we buy, and the way we see and love and seek to serve our city.

We do this not to gain favor or standing with God, for in Christ, our standing cannot be any higher.

We want to look like Jesus and submit to Him as an act of worship in response to His grace.

We do things like talk with God and read His Word, and sign up to serve on a team in a local church so that people can get a chance to hear about Jesus in a positive and loving environment. We might join an organization that serves our city. We might join a Gospel Community to get connected with people who are either figuring out how to be disciples or maybe just checking out what Christian community looks like. 

A Joyful Response

At Redeemer, we want to welcome everyone, regardless of who you are or what you've done, because God has welcomed us in spite of what we've done.

We are disciples of Jesus. That means that because of what God has done in Christ, loving us and turning us toward Him, we love our King and want others to love Him too.

 

8 Thoughts To Encourage Your Kids In Schoolwork: As the school year begins I hope all of us – kids and adults alike – remember why we work. It is not to earn our salvation, security, or success. We work because God works. By working well wherever He has placed us, we can reflect His glorious image and worship Him.

How God Defines Success: From a worldly standpoint, they appeared to be failures. Yet, from God’s perspective, they were found faithful. They were true successes in His eyes – and ultimately, only His assessment matters.

Of Whom I Am The Foremost: Jesus goes around making enemies into friends, of himself and each other. He makes them family. How does this work? The gospel.

Do You Think It Happened, Or Not?: That’s what the Bible means when it says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). It means that Jesus, the resurrected and reigning King, the One to whom God has granted all authority in heaven and on earth, has the right and authority to save people from their sin.

The Most Important Thing My Parents Did: Why? I ask the question from time-to-time. Why are all five of my parents’ kids following the Lord, while so many of our friends and their families are not?

In Her Shoes: A Christian Woman Who's Had An Abortion: I ask you today, as I’ve done before, to take a walk in another woman’s shoes: a Christian woman who’s had an abortion. I’ve asked her to share her story so we see the power of Christ’s redemption and so we’re ready and able to respond when someone we know and worship beside confesses an abortion.

What Is A Disciple? 6 Expert Views: After all, the early disciples were called Christians because they were learners, students, and apprentices of Christ. Thus, just as “being Canadian” is a part of the identity of a Canadian citizen, “being Christian” or “being a disciple” is an identity issue. But what exactly is a disciple? What sort of definition should we use to understand our identity?

6 Things Jesus Does With Sin: John the Baptist commands a beholding of the sin-taking-away Lamb. What do we see in this beholding? How exactly does Jesus take away our sin? Here are 6 things Jesus does with sin:

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Evolution Of A Missional Community Vision: Are you allowed to change your missional community vision? Not only are you allowed, but your missional community vision should change if you are truly seeking to follow God.

How Do I Describe My Missional Community To Others: When your co-worker or your neighbor asks you what you’re doing tonight, how do you answer when you’re gathering with your missional community/community group/life group/city group/small group unicorn?

When Dad Doesn't Disciple The Kids: Three kinds of “single moms” exist in the church: the literal single mom who is raising children on her own, the mom whose husband is an unbeliever, and the mom whose husband professes belief but does not partner in the spiritual nurture of the family. For the true single mom and the mom married to an unbeliever, the task is clear: train your children in the Lord because no one else will. For the wife of the believing father guilty of spiritual absenteeism, the lines are blurry. She lives in the tension between wanting to honor her spouse and wanting to spiritually equip her children. All three “single moms” desperately need the support of the church, but in this post I want to focus specifically on the third mom, a woman trapped in a dilemma.

6 Costs To Real Friendships: Do you know how your “friends” are doing? How their hearts are? The spiritual condition of their soul? If we have no idea how our “friend” is doing in their walk with God, what difficult times they are going through, or the sins they struggling with, we have a superficial acquaintance, not a friendship. Maybe friendships are in low supply these days because of the cost of being a friend. Let’s take a moment to count the cost of friendship.

Sin Is Worse Than Hell: For some, the doctrine of everlasting punishment in hell feels like a divine overreaction. Take Clark Pinnock as an example: “How can Christians possibly project a deity of such cruelty and vindictiveness whose ways include inflicting everlasting torture upon his creatures, however sinful they may have been?”

The Most Honest Atheist In The World: What a refreshing blast of humble and honest air! You cannot but admire such a sincere, transparent, and honorable atheist. But the article ends on a painfully sad note, which may partly explain Sartwell’s atheism, and maybe even his humility.

70 Years Ago Today: The Conversion Of J.I. Packer: Packer states simply, “I had given my life to Christ.” He also recounts, “When I went out of the church I knew I was a Christian.” Packer went back to his room at Corpus Christi and wrote his parents to tell them what had happened. More than half a century later, Packer could attest regarding his conversion that “I remember the experience as if it were yesterday.”

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Mining And Refining: So, friends, when these trials and grievances come your way, preach the gospel to yourself and to others. God could not love you and be satisfied with leaving you as a piece of ore. You have so much potential in Christ, and the Lord will refine you so you can reach your highest level of strength and beauty!

The Danger of Coasting: I’ve been thinking about this lately because I see in my own life a tendency to coast—to coast in my relationships, to coast in my pursuit of godliness, to coast in my pursuit of God himself. And here are some things I’ve observed:

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7 Ways To Love Your Pastor: When my husband (my favorite pastor!) was ordained to be a minister of the gospel, one of the elders who ordained him, Pastor Paul Martin, spoke to our congregation and charged us with this: Beloved, let me give you this one charge: Love your pastor! In this charge, Pastor Paul shared seven ways that a congregation can love their shepherd, and his words of encouragement are applicable to every local church context.

Push Through The Awkward: There is one piece of advice I give myself and other women more than any other and it is this: push through the awkward. We are women who long for community and to live lives of purpose, but as anything that is good and beautiful and worth having, these things don't come just because we want them. They are invited by those who push through the awkward.

Gospel-Driven Productivity: I’m not saying that there should be no exceptions to this. But it is the foundational guideline for effectiveness. By working in this way, you actually get more done, not less, because you are able to get in the zone and reduce the amount of time that your tasks actually take. 

Television's Rape Epidemic: Here is what I wonder, and here is what we ought to be asking ourselves: If Christians won’t allow explicit scenes of sexual violence to keep them from watching television shows, what will? If scenes of rape are not over the edge, what is? If we won’t draw the line there, will we draw it anywhere?

Christ The Educator: There is a great richness of meaning in these texts that goes beyond our discussion here. But with renewed eyes as disciples of Jesus we can hear him invitation to learn and be trained in soul by our gracious Christ, the Educator.

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