TRANSKRIP 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:00.959 --> 00:00:03.839
All right, I'm a sinner and I tell my kids not to sin.
00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:05.679
Does that make me a hypocrite?
00:00:05.919 --> 00:00:09.919
Now, obviously, that's generally true for every single person.
00:00:10.080 --> 00:00:12.480
Uh, every single person without exception is a sinner.
00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:16.719
Every single father who loves Christ is trying to teach his kids not to sin.
00:00:16.879 --> 00:00:22.000
And so, on the one hand, everybody is looks like a hypocrite, but that's actually not really what a hypocrite is.
00:00:22.239 --> 00:00:26.559
Hypocrite comes from the Greek word, which means actor or to wear a mask or to put something on.
00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:28.079
It's basically being a pretender.
00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:31.760
So you're only a hypocrite if you say, I'm not a sinner when you are.
00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:38.479
It's not a hypocrite, it's not hypocritical to say, I sin and I shouldn't, and also you shouldn't.
00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:39.840
That's not hypocritical.
00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:45.280
And so sometimes we can feel like our guilty conscience gets in the way of our capacity to parent.
00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:50.320
Maybe as a dad, you've already ruined your previous marriage because you had committed adultery.
00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:53.600
Maybe as a dad, you've already lashed out in anger in ways that they've noticed.
00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:54.960
And you're going to tell them don't be angry.
00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:58.640
Maybe as a dad, you're terrible with your technology, and you tell them be good with your technology.
00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:02.960
Maybe as a dad, you tell them don't cheat in school, but you cheated in school.
00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:06.159
Maybe as a dad, you tell them be the same person everywhere.
00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:11.359
Don't be have two versions of yourself, but you go to work and you're one way and you go to church you're one way and you go with your buddies, you're another way.
00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:15.760
And so there's all this incongruity or lack of integrity.
00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:26.079
So integration is being the same person everywhere that we have to look in the face as a father, because under no circumstances will you not sin against your wife and kids.
00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:30.879
But also under no circumstances should you not help your wife and kids not sin.
00:01:30.959 --> 00:01:37.439
And so what you have to do is you have to be honest with your kids in age-appropriate ways about your sin.
00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:37.920
Right.
00:01:38.079 --> 00:01:47.519
So uh there's times where I've lashed out at my son, and then I have to circle back with him and repair that and say, like, hey, the way dad yelled, that was not right.
00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:48.879
Please forgive me.
00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:51.680
I should have done it like this instead of like that.
00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:59.200
And so then when I tell him, when he
Load full transcript
lashes out in anger against his sister, Jay, don't lash out against Olivia.
00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:08.080
I'm not telling him, do as I say, not as I do, but I'm telling him, he remember how dad's not the way he's supposed to be.
00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:08.479
Yeah.
00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:09.520
And we talked about it.
00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:12.080
And Jesus loves us even though we're not the way we're supposed to be.
00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:12.479
Yeah.
00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:15.599
And that God is forgiving us and calling us to be different and better.
00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:17.280
Yeah, it's the same for you.
00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:21.199
So I'm holding you the same standard I'm holding myself.
00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:29.120
And so the standard that I hold myself to and I model, which is sinner needing grace and in a repentance journey, is the same standard I'm giving to my kids.
00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:31.199
I'm a sinner needing grace on a repentance journey.
00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:43.360
The only time when your kids will grow up and say, my dad was a hypocrite, is if you gaslight them about dad's not a sinner, dad's doing fine, and you flinch the defensive and you go, dad doesn't lose his temper, and they know dad certainly loses temper.
00:02:43.439 --> 00:02:45.599
And they say, Dad doesn't struggle with sexual sin.
00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:48.400
Well, dad definitely struggles with sexual sin because I found the internet history.
00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:59.680
Or dad isn't greedy and he tells, but you they when they have this conflicting data about who dad says he is versus who dad is, they ogre up and learn that Christians are hypocrites, dad's a hypocrite, and they're all liars.
00:02:59.919 --> 00:03:12.159
But when you're able with appropriate or age-appropriate vulnerability to tell them, here is my sin, here is why I hate it, here's why I'm thankful that Jesus is saving me from it and has saved me from it.
00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:31.599
And here's where I'm being called to walk in repentance and to change my mind and change my behavior to conform to the will of God, when I can cast myself as a person on a journey and tell them they also need to be on a journey, and that journey is toward intimacy and fidelity with Christ, then they're not going to see me as a hypocrite, and I actually won't be a hypocrite.
00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:35.199
The hypocrite is a pretender, not a confessor.
00:03:35.439 --> 00:03:41.280
So if you're worried about hypocrisy, the answer is more confession, more repentance, more modeling of the inner life.
00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:43.680
The older your kids get, the more important that is.
00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:48.719
But under no circumstances does your sin invalidate your authority to parent.
00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:53.919
Now, obviously, there's certain sins which do really cut you off at the knees, right?
00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:56.159
You're physically abusive to your wife.
00:03:56.479 --> 00:04:01.599
You uh you hit your kids in a way that's absolutely inappropriate, you scream and yell.
00:04:01.759 --> 00:04:08.479
There will be these ruptures, these trust gaps that are created that take a long time to repair, right?
00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:13.199
You don't get to hit their mom and then continue to parent as though nothing happened.
00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:16.240
And you don't get just to confess your sin and that's all better.
00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:17.839
No, there's certain types of sin.
00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:22.480
So it's important to understand, not all sins are equally damaging, but it's all equally damning.
00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:26.319
So God hates all sin equally, it all sends you to hell, but it's not all equally damaging.
00:04:26.399 --> 00:04:30.720
So raising your voice of your wife versus hitting your wife, same damning, different damaging.
00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:35.120
And the more damaging it is, the longer the trust building process takes.
00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:47.759
So you may be like, for example, someone may be violent to their wife, which leads to their marriage ending, and you and that, and that that person and their wife may never reconcile because of the physical abuse.
00:04:48.000 --> 00:05:01.439
The possibility then of you having a lane to speak into your kids, it's a really, really long road where you're having to own it, own it, own it, walk through and model repentance over probably years, maybe even longer than that.
00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:19.120
Um, but that doesn't invalidate your ability to speak into your kids' life, period, ever, because you are saying, yes, if you are actually owning and naming the impact and severity of your sin, and you're not minimizing it or justifying it or rationalizing it, but you're going, like, yeah, that was horrendous.
00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:20.800
Uh, Lord, have mercy on me.
00:05:20.959 --> 00:05:22.560
Jesus died for that sin.
00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:25.519
And so, my son, don't be like I was.
00:05:25.759 --> 00:05:27.360
Be different, be better than me.
00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:33.680
Like you're now parenting and speaking into your son by using yourself as a negative example and using Christ as the great example.
00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:40.720
And so uh you're never fully off the table as a dad, even if you've completely train wrecked uh so many things at home.
00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:45.680
Just that process and the earning the right to speak into a child's life may be a really long one.
00:05:45.839 --> 00:05:50.560
And so anytime you sin against your child, small way, you have to rebuild trust to repair.
00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:53.920
The bigger that sin, the bigger that trust repair process looks like.
00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:55.519
But it's gonna play out over time.
00:05:55.680 --> 00:06:07.439
But if you kind of insecurity decide that you don't have the right to parent your kids because of your sin, you're gonna kind of hang it up, mail it in, and be an abdicator rather than an engaged, loving father who's doing what God has called him to do.
00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:16.639
Now, my guess is most of the people listening to this podcast haven't already exploded or destroyed the household through their level 10 sinful behavior.
00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:19.759
But it's more these small ways that insecurity gets in.
00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:37.279
And I do think that's one of the things Satan uses is he's called the accuser of the brethren, the one who reminds you of your guilt, who reminds you of your sin, says you're not good enough, you're not worthy, and is teaching you or trying to get you to believe that the grace of God is insufficient for your calling as a father.
00:06:37.439 --> 00:06:46.560
And you have to rebuke that in the name of Jesus Christ and say, I was dead in my trespass and sin, but I'm made alive by the grace of Jesus Christ.
00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:50.399
And the Spirit is now working on me to do what he's called me to do.
00:06:50.480 --> 00:07:07.920
And so rather than kind of withdrawing into shame, which is what Satan wants hiding, covering, withdrawing, you want to cling to Christ, the sufficiency of his death, and then engage graciously and lovingly, not as a pretender, but as a clear conscience before the Lord, confessor and modeler of faith and repentance.