Have Kids and Save the World

 Let me begin by stating what appears to be well understood in our congregation already – and yet bears repeating again and again.  It is a blessing, a great blessing, for a married couple to have children.

Let me also make a statement that is probably also well understood in our midst.  The reformation of our culture is not going to take place over the course of a couple rounds of national and local elections.  It is going to take generations.  It has taken us many generations to get ourselves into this mess as deep as we are in it – and it is going to take many generations to undo the mess – and even the undoing of the mess will be messy

            Let me make one more statement that I think we need to cultivate more and more in our midst.  God commands us to have an optimistic view of the evangelization of the world, the discipling of the nations by the church, and the future growth and sanctification of the church and the world which Christ purchased – over generations.

We are not in the middle of a story, the end of which no one knows – even God.  We are not in the middle of a cosmic crap-shoot – God’s betting on us but who knows how it will all go.  We are the militant church, we are the mighty seed of the woman who has and will crush the serpent’s head.  We are that mustard seed that grows up to be the greatest tree in the garden.

            Having children, and then in the grace of God and according to His promises, caring for, loving the little ones, including missing much of the sermon because you have to take care of all the squirrels sitting in your row, educating them in the fear of God in all things, training and equipping them with knowledge, wisdom, and skill according to their frames and giftednesses, bringing them up in the fear and admonition of the LORD, laughing around your tables and heading off to the room in your home where spankings are administered when necessary – these are THE MEANS God will use to bring about the changes we are praying for in our country.

            And so this is the army of God meeting around His throne and at His Table.  Parents – and especially moms of little ones – you need to hear this and you need to hear this with faith – the faith which Jesus gives by means of His Holy Spirit.  What you are doing, that mundane work that most of the world tells you is worthless and a waste of a real career you could be pursuing – is some of the most important work of world transformation and God-glorifying missions you could ever do.  So come, let us worship our God – with the kids!