This past Sunday, Will Jackson preached from Psalm 115, closing out our summer series in the Psalms. He called us to worship God alone, not for our sake, but for the sake of His steadfast love and faithfulness. We were given an exhortation to remember God, cast down idols, and abide in Christ.

Read: 2 Timothy 3:14-17

This coming Lord’s Day, Jason Finley will begin a new series for our congregation entitled, The Church and Me. This series will examine the importance of the believer’s proper role within and relationship to the body of Christ. Pastor Jason will open with 2 Timothy 3:14-17, and he will encourage us to hold forth God’s greater vision for the next generation in a world hostile to God’s Word. As we think about this duty to pass along God’s truths from one generation to the next, consider Spurgeon’s words on this vital responsibility. To those who are not in a season of stewarding your own children, read this in light of the truth found in Luke 18:29 that our family extends beyond our immediate, earthly context and now includes every brother and sister in the Lord Jesus. Therefore, in Christ, we are all privileged and blessed with the stewardship of our children.

Reflect: Morning and Evening, July 11 – Evening Reading 

“Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.”—Joel 1:3

In this simple way, by God’s grace, a living testimony for truth is always to be kept alive in the land: The beloved of the Lord are to hand down their witness for the Gospel and the covenant to their heirs, and these again to their next descendants. This is our first duty; we are to begin at the family hearth: He is a bad preacher who does not commence his ministry at home. The heathen are to be sought by all means, and the highways and hedges are to be searched, but home has a prior claim, and woe to those who reverse the order of the Lord’s arrangements.

To teach our children is a personal duty; we cannot delegate it to Sunday school teachers or other friendly helpers. These can assist us but cannot deliver us from the sacred obligation; substitutes and sponsors are wicked devices in this case: Mothers and fathers must, like Abraham, command their households in the fear of God and talk with their offspring concerning the wondrous works of the Most High.

Parental teaching is a natural duty. Who is better fitted to look after the child’s well being than those who are the authors of his actual being? To neglect the instruction of our children is worse than brutish. Family religion is necessary for the nation, for the family itself, and for the church of God. By a thousand plots empty religion is secretly advancing in our land, and one of the most effectual means for resisting its inroads is routinely neglected—namely, the instruction of our children in the faith.

It is time for parents to awaken to a sense of the importance of this matter. It is a pleasant duty to talk of Jesus to our sons and daughters, and the more so because it has often proved to be an accepted work, for God has saved the children through the parents’ prayers and admonitions. May every house into which this volume shall come honor the Lord and receive His smile.

Morning & Evening (7/11 – Evening), by C.H. Spurgeon

Sing: Song List for Sunday

1. “Yes I Will,” by Vertical Worship
2. “God’s Word Stands Sure Forever,” by North Wake Music
3. “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” arr. by Shane & Shane
4. “Speak O Lord,” by Keith and Kristyn Getty
5. “O Great God,” by Sovereign Grace Music