Listen. How many of you heard that phrase coming in on a wing and a prayer? When I hear that, I think of sentences like this. Zach finished the marathon on a wing and a prayer. Amy made it to the gas station on a wing and a prayer.

Matt made it through high school on a wing and a prayer. Listen, that phrase was originally used to describe a damaged plane that was able to make it home in World War ii, the phrase perfectly captures the mixture of luck, faith, and resilience that allowed such a miracle. What a perfect phrase to describe how it feels to be apparent. Now, maybe, maybe you thought you would be the pin, the perfect aircraft at the ideal time with both engines and both wings in place. You thought takeoff was gonna be way smoother and you just knew there'd be no turbulence during the flight and the landing.

Oh, you expected there to be two wheels with no problems. You were gonna be a master of the air until you had a family. And then you realize that man, you were coming into this on a wing and a prayer. Parents, families that come in all different shapes and sizes today, we've got folks watching that are traditional families. We have single families.

We have blended fostering adoption. We have folks listening today that are believing for kids. They're praying today for the chance to have a family. We have grandparents that are back in it as parents again today. Can we celebrate the grandparents?

Let's give them a hand. I want you to know today as we kick off this brand new series about family, that this is a series that I asked for because this is a series that I need. I'm just telling you, I'm right there with you. I'm in the trenches with you. I have a 16-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter.

I will take you to lunch if you have broken the code on teenagers, right? It's just the season of life we're in. I want you to know that today, Katie and I were walking just this week actually, and she said to me, adulting is so hard. And I thought, man, that is so true. Parenting today is harder than it's ever been, and it's always been hard.

So I wanna do something for you today. I wanna give you hope. I wanna give you a sense of purpose, and I wanna give you some encouragement because what you're doing, whether you're a biological parent, whether you're a teacher, whether you're a coach, you have influence, and we have the chance to invest in the next generation, and we can't afford to miss it. So I want you to open up with me. We're gonna be in Luke today, Luke chapter eight, and I wanna set the scene for you.

And I want to kind of give you a challenge as to what we're trying to do as influencers, as leaders, as parents. So join me. Here we go. We're gonna be in Luke eight, and I'm gonna start us out in verse four. And this is a parable that I think speaks directly to parents.

Let's read this together. Says, while a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable. He said, there was a farmer that went out to sow his seed. And as he was scattering the seeds, some fell along the path, but it was trampled on. And the birds of the air came down and they ate it up.

Some fell on rock. And when it came up, the, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell along the thorns, which as it grew up, it was choked and the plants died. Verse eight, still some seed fell on good soul. It came up and it yielded a crop a hundred times more than was sown when he said this.

He called out, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Now, I want you to see one particular word as we begin to read through this, because I think it's incredibly important. He said, the, the seed fell on good soil. Listen, I want you to know as leaders, as influencers, as parents, this is our mission. We're to develop soul.

That's good. We're to develop homes and environments. We're to make classrooms, office space. Wherever we go, we walk into the room and we begin to create an environment that's different. Watch the word that he says, I want you to make good soil.

He doesn't say perfect. So here's how we're gonna start out the message. You ready? This is the truth you need to hear today. There are no perfect parents.

Can I get an amen? And we come on, you with me over there at the hunt club, right? There's none of us. None of us are perfect. And when we jumped into this on a wing and a prayer, some of us didn't know what we were jumping into.

And we are overwhelmed at times. I know I'm not the only one. So listen, let's find some common ground here. Is there anyone in the house that would say, you have said things at little league games that you wish you wouldn't have said, I'm guilty. I'm guilty.

One of our staff members came home, came back and said, Hey, listen, my roommate was at the soccer game that you were at Pastor Craig. And he said, you said some things you shouldn't have said. I'm guilty. Just like you're guilty. Anyone here goes, uh, kind of kind of tackles things in this way.

You've got a mouth that speaks now and regrets later. Anybody here ever temporarily misplaced a kid? Yeah, your babysitting gig is done. Now, if you just confess to that, listen, I, I, I've done it and I've been just as worried for my kid as I was for myself to have to tell my wife, right? It's like, not sure which one's worse.

Anybody here ever judge? Parents, man, you've been sitting over there at the table going, I'll never let my kids act like that when we go out to eat. You, you've been somewhere and you've thought, man, when we're waiting in line as a family, I'll never give my kid a device. Can't imagine doing that. You've said things like this, I will never drive a minivan.

And then you showed up down there in Stone County, in a Honda Odyssey, just booming. You know, right? You've done it. You've said you'll never do those things. And next thing you know, there you are.

Lemme give you a verse today. And this is what Jesus says to us in John 1633 things, A great verse to hold onto. It says, I've told you these things. So then in me, you may have peace in this world, you will have trouble, parents, leaders, influencers, all of us. He said, listen, I'm telling you it's gonna be hard.

It's not gonna be an easy journey. But then he says this, but take heart. I have overcome the world. You see where the hope's gonna come from today. It's not gonna come from the three steps I'm gonna give you.

I get it, man, that that's not gonna fix it. The hope that you're gonna get today is this. Take heart. Watch what this means. This says, I want you to be emboldened with confidence.

Does anybody feel that way as apparent? Not me, but he says, listen, when you take heart in me, I'm gonna give you peace. And I remember I overcame the world like this is Jesus. Like I lived a perfect life. I died for you.

I conquered death itself. I came up out of the grave. I can give you what you need for that teenager. I can give you what you need in the scene. And the stage of life that you're in there is hope for you.

Now, I wanna give you some seasons because, uh, I'm starting to see life as seasons like the older you get, you realize like it's just, it, it changes constant. We're always changing. I just finished a book by Andy and Sandra Stanley. It's called family. It's called parenting.

It's just real simple. But watch, watch the way they broke down the different seasons that we walked through. Here's the first one. It says, when you're going through seasons of parenting, the first thing you need to look for is what we call the discipline years. This is zero to five.

I remember this stage of our life, and I remember walking in the back door and been a long day at school and and for Katie. And so I just knew, didn't know what all we were gonna face that day. And I walked in and I saw this, this sticking outta the back of her pocket. And I thought, she's cooking today. Like, I can't believe it.

And then I realized, no, that this was the spanking spoon. You knew it, it was that stage. It's that stage of life where you, you're teaching your kids that there's consequences for your actions. This is an incredibly important stage where we begin to kinda show them that there's boundaries. We begin to teach them right from wrong.

And it's an exhausting stage. If you're in that stage of life today, just hang on, keep on, don't give up. We see you and we know you are so tired. It's gonna pass. Seasons change.

The next season you're gonna get after the discipline years. It's the training years five to 12. This is when you begin to answer the question. But why? And you hear it all the time.

Some of you're in that stage. Don't give up. This is when you have to. This is so hard. This is when you have to stop and you're explaining why these things you're teaching are important.

This is when you're connecting the dots in their little brains and in their little minds of why we do the things we do. Why we get up every Sunday to go to church. Why we go take care of the people that we love. Why we don't do the things that we don't do. You're explaining those things.

You're training while you explain. Here's the next stage. Uh, this is, this is, I, I get this because I'm kind of in this season right now. It's called the coaching years. This is when you're beginning to slowly let go.

It's being, you're giving them just a little bit more incrementally releasing them. It is when you connect more than you, correct? It's the stage where you give guidance and you give support. And this is an exhausting stage because it just scares you. It's the stage where they start to drive mercy.

You start to pray. The next stage is, is this is an interesting one. This the friendship years. I listen to what Andy Stanley says, their goal was with parenting. I really like this.

I this, this meant a lot to me. I think Katie and I are gonna kind of steal this. He says, we wanna raise kids who want to be with us and with each other when they grow up. What a great goal. So listen, the thing I'm trying to do is I'm keeping the relationship in mind through every one of these different seasons and stages of life.

Because one of my ultimate goals is that they enjoy each other. And that one day when they don't have to come home, they'll want to come home. Why? Because from each stage, from this stage to this stage, we kept the relationship in mind. It's pretty cool.

It's a pretty cool win. But as I look through this, I wanna give you, I'm just give you kind of two overarching truths that are true for each one of these, each one of these stages. Here's the, here's the first one. And this is, this is a mistake that I made. Can I go ahead and start and lead with that?

Sometimes that helps us have common ground seasons change. And I'm tell you, my, my mistake is I rushed them. I love change. Change is exciting to me. But when my kids were little, I wanted 'em to be bigger.

As they've gotten bigger, I'm ready for them to be this stage. And I, I tried to, I think I, I pushed too much. Now here's, here's God's sense of humor. He put me with someone, my wife, who hates change. So for her, it's almost been harder to see change coming.

She doesn't want there to be change. She wants to keep them little and keep them at the table and never move. This. I'm trying to push too fast. And so we've had to help each other because seasons do change.

Now. Now there's a second thing I don't want you to remember in this. Not only do seasons change, but sometimes you're gonna have to remember to not judge the crop too soon. Remember, seasons, it's like a farmer. And seasons change.

And the whole time this, they're going, they see little things growing and they see things happening in, in every crop, every, every field, every season, every child, they're gonna grow and develop at a different pace and a different speed. Nobody likes a farmer that says, I got a terrible crop this year. Especially when they judge way too soon. No, no, no. Instead, what they gotta do is they gotta keep watering.

They gotta keep weeding. They gotta keep, they gotta keep investing in this harvest that is to come. Listen, there's no perfect parents. You gotta remember this. Your kid's brain's not fully developed till they're 25 years old.

Let's not judge 'em too soon. Let's not give up on 'em too soon. Instead, let's just keep harvesting. Let's keep investing. Now, here's what I wanna do.

I wanna, I want to kind of, this is, this is gonna be, everybody's in a different stage just watching today, but I, I want to give you a couple of things. And I've been learning to do this as a pastor, right? I know a message is coming. Like eventually I'm gonna preach again, right? And so, so when I hear things, I start to storm away A preacher, say it this way.

It's like, you wanna put things in your pantry. You wanna put some stuff in your pantry. 'Cause you're gonna need it sooner or later. So some of you, some of this message you may not need today, but you're gonna need this in time because there's godly principles that we're gonna talk about today that help produce godly children. And, and, and there's lots there.

There's not just these three we're gonna talk about today, right there. There's lot, there's way more than this. I know that. But I'm just gonna get you started on some of these. And none of these are make you feel bad.

They're just to encourage you to kinda, kinda zoom in on what the win is. Here's the very first one, is, I, I wanna expose the next generation to Christ-centered families. That's what, that's what our win is. Now, when I, when I wrote this, it was funny. I wrote this and the first thing, when I felt and saw this word, it, it, it's, that word seems negative to me, like exposed.

I, I think about the first time I was exposed to pornography. Now we've got our kids walking around with porn in their pockets 24 7. I thought about being exposed to the news. I still remember watching the news at my grandparents' house and it having a negative effect on me. Now, our kids get the news as soon as they need it, whenever they want it.

So I started thinking, well, maybe exposure doesn't always have to be negative because we all know the negative. So, so maybe there's a context here where as parents, we have the chance to expose our kids to some positive things, and maybe we have the chance to give them a picture of what they're shooting for and who and what we want them to be. So our exposure's not just gonna be the negative things. We're gonna begin to expose them to being a Christ-centered family. Now that's different because I know what you're thinking.

Oh, yeah, yeah. We're already that. You know, we're, we're, we're in America and we, we go to church and, and, and, and, and we we're, we're Christians. Yeah. And that's good.

That's, that's what we call cultural Christianity. We did a whole series on it. I don't think that's getting the job done. I I'm asking you to do something different. I'm asking you to expose your kids to be a picture to them, to be an example to them, to be a model to them of what it looks like to have Christ in the center of your life.

Christ-centered families. See where that's different? I think it starts with us as parents. Now, let me give you the text because, um, this is in Deuteronomy and this is where it starts. It says, I want you to model these things.

It says, love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your strength parents. This is what we're modeling. This is what we're exposing our kids to a relationship with the Lord where you love them with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your mind. And they get to see that. They get to get a picture of that.

They get to be exposed to that. It says, these commandments that I give you today, they're to be on your hearts, impress them on your children. As soon as I saw that word, impress, I thought about, uh, uh, you guys have been there, lookout Mountain, a Chattanooga, Ruby Falls. And you, you put the penny in and you, you crank it and the penny comes out and it's got an impression on it. It'll never look the same.

See, I I think we may be modeling these things too lightly. That penny is different because it went through that crank. Your children are gonna be different because the impression you leave on them. The, the thing we're asking today is what are we impressing on them? See, impress them on your children.

Well, here, here's what we're to be impressing. He says, talk about with them. Talk to them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up, tie them as symbols on your hearts and bind them on your forehead. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. He, he's saying, I, I just, I just want it to be normal for you.

It's just a part of your everyday life. It's, it's not this thing. You know, if, if you grew up, when I grew up, it was like you have to have a family devotion, and you feel guilty for maybe not measuring up to the family devotion. The, the word here just says, make it normal. If you have little kids, talk about God's creation, walk 'em outside and tell 'em, take their shoes off and walk in the grass.

Talk about how God created the grass. Talk about the butterflies and the beauty of butterflies. Ask them why God made mosquitoes and come back and tell me. He said, I just want you to make this simple. I just want you to talk to them.

I want you to see things around you and connect it back to God's glory and God's goodness. He said, I want you to begin to just grow together. Listen, here's a really simple hack that you can take from this message. And an older couple told us, he said, listen, when you go on on a trip this summer, just memorize God's word together. Pick a verse.

And from the time you leave the house to the time you get back, what's probably gonna happen to you is what happens to me. My kids will have it memorized. My wife will have it memorized. I'll be the one struggling. And that's okay because listen to me, parents go first.

You, you see what I'm trying to get you to do? I, I want you to start having conversations that maybe you haven't had. I want it to be an overflow of your heart. I don't want it to be a scheduled sit down, get out your Bible. Here we go now.

Yeah, we can do that. I just want this to be something that's natural for you, that you talk about, uh, that you begin to introduce them to these things. I want you to begin to pray together. Listen, if you desire to have kids that pray, then you need to pray with 'em. How do you do it?

What? Pick, make it Sunday nights. Call it, call it, uh, um, prayers on the stairs. And before they go up the stairs, just gather 'em together on a Sunday night. And you ready?

Now, this is gonna be hard, and I'm, I understand. But I want you to pray out loud with them. When they hear you pray, there's something powerful about, guess what happens? It it, it makes it where it's okay to not have a perfect prayer. 'Cause you're not gonna pray perfectly.

They're not gonna pray perfectly, but now you're connecting with them over something spiritual. So every Sunday night, just gather on the stairs, gather on the couch, Sunday night prayer. Before the week comes, pick your phrase, pick your phrase. And I want you to have one phrase as parents that you begin to speak over them over and over and over again. You say, why?

Why is that that important? Because they are hearing so much stuff from the world over and over again. So this is us going to bat for them. This is us competing for them. Here's the phrase, steal mine.

This is the phrase that I would tell them over and over again. I got this from somebody else. It's not original to me. There's nothing that you can do to make me love you more or less, and keep it up here. Because tonight, when you're just sitting there looking at each other, you don't know what to say.

You just look over at 'em and say, you know, there's nothing you can do to make me love you more or less. And guess what? We're connecting the dots to the Gospel. There's nothing that you can do to make me love you more or less. Remember, I went to the crosswalk even when you were still sinners, I died for you.

That's our goal as parents. We're, we're connected the way that we love them, the way we give them grace, the way that we remind them that there's nothing, it's the picture of the Gospel. When you're showing them, you're gonna get them that phrase because they're gonna need that. They're gonna need something to hold on to. Listen.

If you want your kids to be in God's word, guess where you should be in God's word? We gotta model it. Let them catch you. You know what kids do? They, they do the same thing you do when you're not home.

Where do they go? They go in your room and they snipe. They look all around your stuff and they see what you're reading. And then what do they do? What do they think?

Maybe I should read that. When they wake up in the mornings and they walk out the halls and they look for you, where are you? And they see you out there with your Bible open. Guess what they do the next day? Same thing.

But we gotta model it. Here's the second thing I want you to do. I want you to expose me and you both. We're gonna expose the next generation to a life-giving church. I was talking to one of our elders earlier and, and he had this perspective of our church that was so rare to me.

He said, Craig, I, I've got to be here. I don't wanna miss it. It's like, God's put me here at this season at this time. Like I'm getting to see this. We're getting to see 73 people baptized in one night.

You're getting to expose your kids to that. What I'm telling you is there's people in communities all across Mississippi, all across the world that don't have this tool that you have that I have. But we got a lot of kids that can't drive themselves yet. I tell people this at the baptism waters every time we celebrate their child making that decision. And then we look at the parents and we say, thank you for driving them week after week.

They wouldn't be here if you wouldn't have made it a priority to expose them to worship and to life change. One of my favorite things is, I love House Church. And one of the reasons I love House Church is because at House Church, I have other adults that are speaking into the lives of my kids. I love that about movement. I show up at movement and we are, we are here at movement watching being a part of things.

My wife leads a movement group, but I have other adults that are speaking in the lives of my kids. You, you know this, there is a time when your voice becomes noise. Don't get mad at them. You were the same way. Your parents couldn't speak to you for nothing, but other adults could speak into you parents.

I'm just telling you, prepare for that. Don't be surprised by that. But if you're gonna win that game, then you've gotta put them in places where Godly people can speak into their lives. You're exposing them to other people that love them. Here's what God's word says about it.

Psalms 92, it says, I want you to plant them. Plant them in the house of the Lord. Now, don't, don't come back and get 'em, but, but plant them. Have 'em be here deeply involved in what we do. Look at this next one in Romans.

I read this this week. If you're doing the Bible Reading plan, it says this in Romans. It says, for I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gifts of strength that is, that we may mutually encourage. That means when we come together, you're, you're encouraging other people and they're encouraging you, but you're not missing your chance to speak into them. I wanna give you a tip, because this is so powerful.

You guys are all watching the screen right now. You know, there's a high school student that's running this. You, when your child starts to serve, it's over. When they start to serve in the life of our church, they're gonna be the ones that bring you every week. See, her mom's coming today to watch her serve.

But it starts with you. If you serve, then they're gonna serve. If you go to house church, then they're gonna go to house Church. If you decide to make Sunday mornings a priority, then they're gonna make Sunday mornings a priority. Here's a question I'm, I've noticed we start to, we ask this a lot.

Like we ask, do, do y'all want to go to church this weekend? Y'all say that at your home. You want, should we go? It's funny how we do that, right? Do you ask that on a Tuesday morning about school?

What about when it comes to the dentist? Hey, you wanna go this week? Should you go get your shots this week? Why is it optional? It's bad weather today.

It's good weather today. There's a game today. What I'm telling you is you're, you're gonna have to pick as a parent, I'm gonna expose them to this week after week after week, because it's a battle for their soul. I'm gonna battle with them. Here's the third one.

This is the last one. I want you to expose your kids to parents who will fight for them, not against them. I remember, uh, some of my favorite Sunday mornings were when, was when our legacy pastor Jeff, he would've kept his grandkids for the weekend and on like Tuesday, Wednesday going into the weekend, and he'd be so excited about 'em coming, and he'd tell me all the plans that he had for him on Sunday morning when we showed up. He would look like he got run over by a train. And he'd look at me and he'd say these words.

He'd say, I have forgotten. I did so much for me as a young parent, right? Somebody that did it right, but he was exhausted after one weekend of doing what I was doing every single day. And it meant something to me. See, I, I think sometimes we forget what our kids are walking through.

Can you imagine being a student today? Can you imagine having porn in your pocket? Can you imagine being exposed to all the things that they're exposed to? What I'm telling you is you're gonna have to remember and then multiply it times a hundred because it wasn't as bad then as it is now. And our kids are doing something so special and they need to hear you look at them and say, Hey, I see you.

I see you battling this. I'm so proud of you and you're not alone. I'm gonna fight with you and not for you. Here's how Nehemiah said it. This is one of my favorite verses about families.

Nehemiah said, after I looked things over, I stood up and I said to the nobles, the officials, the rest of the people, don't be afraid of them. That's a great word for our kids parents. Don't be afraid of them. They're gonna get outta this stage. Don't be afraid of them.

Remember the Lord who is great and awesome, and you ready fight for your families. Some of you men need permission to fight. You're just fighting the wrong battles. Katie has to tell me this all the time. She's so much better at this than me.

I fight for a clean room. I fight for, yes ma'am. No ma'am. I fight to be on time. She fights for their character.

She fights for their faith. She fights for their friendships. Sometimes I pick the wrong battles, giving you permission today to say, listen, I'm gonna start fighting with them and for them because I've forgotten how difficult this may be. Great families come with a fight. Fight for your kids, not against your kids.

Catch them doing something right? Tried to think, I'm I, I haven't been doing this terribly long, only 13 years. I've never heard someone say I'm the way that I am because my kids bragged on me and they were proud of me and they showered me with blessings. Hadn't heard it yet. This is your chance to fight for them, not against them.

And here's how I wanna close today, because I know exactly how this message hits. About 90% of us parents, man, we, we haven't gotten it right. And you're human and you've made some mistakes. And so I want you to hear this message and, and stop judging yourself for the past and start parenting for the future. Lemme say it this way.

You deserve to be forgiven. It was a wing and a prayer. It didn't go the way you thought it might go, but let's not look backwards. Let's look ahead. And so I got one verse for you, and then I'm gonna pray over you.

And it's in First Corinthians. It's such a great verse. Here it is. First Corinthians, it says Second Corinthians. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you.

That is your verse. I don't know what the past has been like. I just know that there's more for you, that his grace is enough. Now, here's what I want you to do. I want you to bow your head at all of our campuses.

And I believe in all my heart that our kids are literally born on a battlefield. And they're born on a battlefield between good and evil. And we've got the chance, we've got the chance to invest in them. Gosh, We've got the chance to fight for them. And I wanna give you a verse because I'm gonna pray this over you.

It's one John four, four. It says, the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. And I want you to forgive yourself for not being the perfect parent. And I want you to go to war against the enemy. 'Cause see, I think he's locked in an idea that you'll maybe never be a parent.

You can never be forgiven. You're always gonna be this way. It's your fault. You should have done better and is keeping you from experience in his grace. And it's keeping you from parenting from here forward.

So I'm gonna pray over you today and we're gonna begin to look forward. God, I thank you for the power of your word. God, your word says so clearly that your grace is enough that the one who is in me is greater than the one who's in the world. So God, today, on a wing and a prayer, we say we are dependent on you. God forgive us.

Give us grace. God help us learn to depend on the one who is in us because it is greater God. There's no job more important. We need your grace. We need your strength.

We need your wisdom. God, we need your help. So Father, I thank you that we get to expose our kids to Christ-centered families that aren't perfect. We get to bring them every week to see life change and worship. And God, we get to fight for them.

That's why you put us here. So Father, thank you for fighting for us. Help us fight for them the way you fight for us. It's in your name we pray, amen. Hey, I'm gonna ask you to do this.

All of our campuses, I want you to stand up with me. And here's how we're gonna end today is, uh, man, at each campus, our team's coming and we're gonna worship strong. But I don't wanna miss this moment because I've got people that are gonna be down here that we'd love to pray for you. And here's how I wanna set this up, because I just know that there's parents who you just don't know how to pray for 'em any longer. It's like I've prayed all I can pray.

I want to give you permission to come down today and just say, would you just pray for me? Maybe you're praying four children. Maybe you need some encouragement today. Listen, the word says that we're to carry each other's burdens. I just, I'm pleading with you to give us the chance to carry some of that with you.

Maybe you wanna walk down to the crosses. Listen at the cross, you're gonna see a little sheet of paper and it's there for you to write down a lie that has been stumping you, that's been stopping you, that's been preventing you from being the parent you wanna be. I want you to write that on the paper and pin it on the cross. And then walk away from it. Walk away from it in freedom.

So let's worship today and you respond.