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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Establishing A Godly Home, Part One | Morgan Dufresne | World Harvest Church | Murrieta, CA
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Hi, I'm Grant Dufresne, and welcome to Dufresne Ministries podcast channel. We believe that as you listen to this message, your faith will be stirred and you will be encouraged in whatever you are believing God for today. Stay tuned at the end of this message to find out more information about our ministry.
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Amen. I want us to go tonight. I don't know how far we'll get. We'll probably continue next week unless the Spirit of God has something different for us. But Genesis chapter 18. I want us to go to Genesis chapter 18, and I want us to talk and go a little bit different direction, something you've heard us kind of allude to. We say different things, but I want us to talk probably the next two Tuesday nights, depending on how far we get on having godly homes and having God in our homes. Genesis chapter 18. And I want us to look here. In verse 18, it says, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed through him, and shall bless themselves by him. For I have known, chosen, acknowledge him as my own, so that he may teach and command his children and the sons of his house after him, to keep the way of the Lord and to do what is just and righteous so that the Lord may bring Abraham to what he has promised. I want you to see here that depending on whether Abraham came into what was promised, it all came back to how he trained the generations. Abraham's promise, whether we've recognized it or not, it came through the way he trained his children. That's what this passage says right here. It says, for I have known, chosen, acknowledged him as my own, so that he may teach and command his children and the sons of his house after him, to keep the way of the Lord and to do what is just and righteous, so that the Lord may bring Abraham what he has promised him. For God to bring Abraham what he promised him, he had to first do the right thing with Isaac. And so there is a direct connection to what you can receive from God and how you raise and train your family. And I'm not just talking to parents tonight, but those of you who are grandparents, those of you who are step parents, those of you who are aunts and uncles, there is much responsibility that falls on the family, obviously the parents first and foremost. But as we're raising children, as we're training up, you know, those in our. Within our family, it's very important. The example and what we. The example that we give them and what we demonstrate to them, you Know, I believe for me, this is something that I have recognized for my. Just for myself and you may see different, but I see, you know, Grant and my husband has, you know, Grant, his brother, who's here involved in ministry and I have a sister, that their roles in my children's life are vitally important, that my parents role and of course Pastor Nancy's role are vitally important in my children's lives. And so I want us to. Don't tune out if you say, well, I'm not a parent, I'm not a parent yet, I don't have children. But there may be somebody in your home, in your family that you have a divine influence over. So this responsibility, we can all take responsibility in the things that we're gonna talk about tonight and maybe continue with. But here I want us to see first so, so that we understand the importance and the magnitude. And you could say, well, that was Abraham and he was to be the father of many nations. But what we have to always remember is I am the seed of Abraham. I am an even greater heir according to the promise. So everything that Abraham was promised to him, and he had a divine promise from God, it comes to me in an even greater measure. You know, it's been even more. We could say this, it's more in our terms today, concrete, because of the blood of Jesus, my cut, my covenant with him cannot be broken. So whatever God has promised Abraham, I have that in an even greater measure of power and promise. So if he says that your promise is going to come through the way you raise your children, that then how much more for us? Because when I leave here, what's left is the way my children live their life. You know, the recognition of, for me that my personally, what I have to wake up to every morning is, you know, being. Raising Ed and Nancy Dufresne's grandchildren. That's a very sobering thought that I teeter, just being honest, I teeter on the borderline. It's either gonna go fear or, you know, one day, sometimes it's fear, and then the next day I'm back on the other side and you just go, okay, you gotta stay in the middle. Because you can get afraid of failing because of the responsibility, but I want all of us to be aware of the responsibility. You can't just say, well, I'm not gonna be in fear and God's gonna keep my kids. And I'm in the right. And a lot of people do that. They just say, I'm in the right church, I'm Doing the best I know how. And God will make up the rest. Well, no, that's not the way that works. Because we see definite actions that Abraham made with his son Isaac. First of all, he sent Ishmael away, half brother or not. That was not the right fellowship for his son. You got to go. He sent him away. Next, he showed Isaac, God is my God, not you. And I'll take you up to the mountain and, you know, cut your head off if I have to. I mean, because you're not my God. God is my God. And you're part of the plan that he's authored for my life. And so we see that if Abraham hadn't done that with his only son, the one son that he had been promised, that Jesus himself appeared to him and his wife and told him, you're going to have this child. How? What foolishness is it to take him up and now sacrifice him? But he did it without having to get counsel. He did it without telling those around him what he was doing. He did it without even sharing with his son and trying to pump him up with faith. He marched him up that mountain by himself. Because Isaac was not his God. He was his promise and not his God. We all know that we've been promised, as we talked about, Sonny, that we are redeemed from poverty, sickness, and spiritual death. So when we get money, how foolish. We all know you don't worship your money. That's just part of the promise. You don't get healthy and then start missing church because you got your healing back. Now you're worshiping what you've been promised. So why would we have our children and put them ahead and put them above and compromise with the word of God and what we know is best when there's simply a promise and a blessing in our life. We don't compromise the blessing in other arenas. We're not going to compromise the blessing. And Abraham understood that. So I. If you don't have that underlined and highlighted, meditate on that, parents. Meditate on that. That more was going to come for. For everything that God was going to have fulfilled in his life. He was going to have to do the right thing with his child for the generations to be blessed. Our generation, my generation, has become a very selfish generation. It's just the way it is. It's the society that we live in. It's getting darker and darker, but we're getting brighter and brighter. I believe we're growing in revelation. Amen. And what do selfish people do? They think about the moment they think about right now, they think about what I want. They think about what's going to make me feel good. They think about what's going to be best for me, myself, and I. And that's what happens with poor parenting, is they only think about the parent, only thinks about themselves and how to make things simple for themselves. So in making things simple for themselves, they choose to give in to whatever their child wants because it's easier, it's just easier not to have a fight. It's easier not to, you know, have a discussion. It's just easier. It takes a lot more effort to be a godly parent than it does to be one that just goes with society and goes with what you're. You're feeling okay with at that moment. You cannot expect in command of your children what is not taught and demonstrated to them. God cannot expect us to live what has not been commanded and taught to us. Therefore, I cannot expect of my children what has not been demonstrated and taught to them. If you want to expect something from your child, you first demonstrate it and teach it. You want discipline, you want a love for God, you want kids who want to serve God, you must first demonstrate it and teach it. You want respectful kids, you must first demonstrate it and teach it. You want hard working kids, you must first demonstrate it and teach it. Do not expect something from your children. Likewise, you can't expect kids who are going to be strong, mentally, physically strong in the Lord, in the power of his might. If you wake up whiny and grouchy and emotional every day because you're demonstrating and you're teaching them, this is our, this is the way we start our day. This is the way. Well, but I have adult responsibilities. It doesn't matter. They're watching how you start and finish every single day. Isaac was going to be able to look back and remember how Abraham started and finished that journey up that mountain. And he knew once he found out what was going to happen, he could look back and go, my father started this with faith. He didn't start this with a gripe. He didn't start this with a complaint. You show up serving to church with a complaint and a gripe. You're giving up what is to be a sacrifice and an honorable act to God, to your children will become a burden and something that they will turn away from as they get older because you've demonstrated to them that my emotions are going to dictate how I respond to what God has given me. I will not let my emotions and my feelings dictate how I respond to what God has blessed me with and the opportunities that he has given to me. Likewise, I won't let those opportunities. I don't want to demonstrate to my children that those opportunities are going to be worshiped by me either. You know, how do our children learn how to speak? How do they learn how to eat? How do they learn how to put on their socks? How do they learn how to put on their clothes? How do they learn how to walk, ride a bike? How do they learn how to do anything? Somebody has to teach them. Somebody has to demonstrate to them how to function in life. Somebody in your household is going to have to teach your children how to function spiritually. If your children are going to know how to operate and walk with God and live with him and learn from him and be honorable to him and grow with him, somebody is going to have to demonstrate to your children or to those in your family, you can demonstrate to those that God has put within your care, those around you. You can demonstrate to them you need to care enough about those around you that you care enough about your own life to live it for God. Living unselfishly. Not by the way we feel. Not by the way, you know, yesterday I felt good. Today I'm feeling, you know, it was a hard day. So I'm going to respond based off it's a hard day. Your children, when things get hard, will learn to respond based on the hardness and not by faith. We first demonstrated the fundamentals of living, their fundamentals and foundational instruction for living for God. But they must be first demonstrated at home. Abraham would not have received what had been promised him unless he first established the ways of the Lord to his Son. And those after. Well, turn with me real quick. Genesis 22. I want this to come across because these are things and I've shared with our staff here recently. These are actually, I was talking to God this evening, and I said, father, I just can't find what I'm supposed to minister on because we've been going over faith, it seems like every Tuesday in the direction of faith. And I. I'm looking to preach a real good faith message. And nothing's, nothing's flowing, nothing's working, you know, and I'm not one. I can't take somebody else's sermon and preach it. Some people are very skillful that I cannot do that. And I said, God. And I was flipping through my notes and I found notes I had written down about some of these things, and they began to come alive. And I Said father, I forgot I'd talked to our staff and been. You've been talking to me about these things, parenting, marriage, for quite some time now. For months, this has been just in my own personal time. So I wasn't expecting him. I wasn't sure when he was going to allow me to teach it. So it looked like today was good. Amen. So if you came to hear faith, then you're going to hear it. Okay. You can find faith in anything. Genesis 22. Because these things I want to share with us tonight are going to help you in believing. Faith for your family, believing for your kids, believing for your loved ones. These things are going to help you. I'm not. It's not going to be so much necessarily a preachy or, you know, correction or anything like that. It's going to stir us that we have it within the inside of us to have godly families and to demonstrate even those who've maybe walked away or those who don't live for God. We're going to see in the Word how we can live and demonstrate. And the Word will reach them. The power of God will reach them. Amen. Amen. Genesis, chapter 22. And this is the story of God testing Abraham. And I want you to look at Genesis 22, verse 14. So Abraham called that place. We all know this. He takes his son up, he's going to sacrifice him. But he knew God was going to provide. God was going to make a way, says, so Abraham called that place, the Lord will provide. And it is said to this day on the mount of the Lord, it will be provided. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, I have sworn by myself, says the Lord, that since you have done this and not withheld from me or begrudge giving me your son, your only son, in blessing I will bless you and and in multiplying, I will multiply your descendants, like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore. And your seed air will possess the gates of his enemies. And your seed, Christ, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed and by him bless themselves. Because you have heard and obeyed my voice, hearing and obeying God. How important is it that we hear and obey God for our family's sake? It's so vitally important that you learn how to hear from God, that you learn how to recognize his voice and not just the voices around you. Not what thinks good, what seems good, not what sounds good, not the direction you've been going. But you must learn to hear from God. Say, I must learn how to hear from God. I'm saying that for myself. You say that for you. We must learn how to hear from God. You cannot hope. You have a promise right here. This is demonstrating a promise that you can hear from God for your family. Do not leave that up to somebody else to hear for your family. Do you see that? I'm talking about something concrete as a promise that you can grab hold of. So that's what we're looking at promoting promises that I can hold on to for my family. You have. Do not have a promise that your child can come here and get straightened out with a word, with an angel, with a sign, with a. A manifestation, with the power of God coming on them. You do not have a promise for that, but you do have a promise that you can hear from God and it will set your family's life on course. It will impact your children. Children. It will influence the next generation by you hearing from God. This is where we must go back to. Where does the promise lie? It lies with you hearing from God. Do not leave it up to chance of your children hearing from God just because they go to a church that believes in signs, wonders and miracles. That's not going to be left up to chance for my children. If anybody could leave it up to chance. I feel like I've got at least a little bit to fall back on here, you know, oh, well, their grandma's, you know, Pastor Nancy, and we've got all these wonderful ministers. They get to be around. And, you know, if anybody can relax, you know, I would. But instead I've decided my husband. I have decided we will. It will make us grab hold even stronger and tighter to our responsibility. You know, nobody's going to take credit for raising my kid because nobody's going to stand before God for raising my kid but me. And whether or not your children should. Jesus, Terry, and your family and your children's children. What happens in their life is directly affected by what I do with my kids. What I do with my children is going to directly affect what happens to your children. If my kids don't take their place, then what will be there for your. Who will be there for your kids and for your kids if they don't take their place? What for those that they're to be influencing and they're to be affecting and their children? We must see past ourselves. We must see past the right now, how we feel right now, our needs right now. You can't ignore your children just because you have a Need, a financial need that's taking up all of your time and your children are just going to have to wait. We can't do that. We can't afford that. You can't afford to make money and let your children go to hell. You can't afford that. You can't afford to pay the bills while your children go unnoticed. You can't afford that. Amen. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son. It was God's plan as an example of what he was going to do. But through that act of obedience, we see a father demonstrating to his child that nothing comes before the will of God. And there is always provision in that perfect will. That's really what he demonstrated, son, in the perfect will of God, there's always provision. So how we have to look at our own lives, at what we must sacrifice to show our kids there is always provision in the will of God. If the will of God is not for you to take those extra hours, not for you to be away from your family for so long, then God will provide and you must demonstrate to your kids. If there's one thing I appreciate that my parents did, my mom had a really a good career getting going with an insurance company. And my mother is very sharp. She had been doing bookkeeping for a long time. Got in with this insurance company. They loved her for a year after she left they would call her and ask her to please come back. It was growing, she was making good money and our pastors asked her to be the church secretary. And you know, that didn't have the same financial opportunities for increase but it was the will of God. So we understood. And I don't know how I knew, but I just knew at a young age that that was, we were still, you know, we were not even, I wouldn't even say we were considered middle class by any stretch. But my parents, they worked hard. My dad had long hours. He got up early around 4:30 every morning, went and worked all day, came home, made dinner. We just were a hard working family. But there was not one church function. And when I say church function I mean cleaning day. We don't have these around here. But there would be what? We had department head meetings and it was like, it seemed like every month to me. I promise you, it seemed like every month. I don't think it was every month, but it seemed like it. And we would be taken, all the department, the kids of the department heads would be taken to the baby classroom. We didn't even get no big class. There was no ocean room. There Was no trailblazers. There was no minute to win it games. There was an old tv. It was, you know, not old back then, but you know what I'm saying? Old big tube tv. And there was all ages in there. So guess who they're gonna try to entertain first? The younger kids. So it was veggietales and all the, you know, we had those little cardboard blocks, you know, that were laminated. Anybody remember those? You remember those? And so we just had. It seemed like we were in there for eternity and that it was every month. And so we'd go in and department head meetings. We didn't miss any of that. My dad never missed any of those. We didn't miss Sunday morning, Sunday night, every special guest, you know, we'd be out late, he'd get up early. My mom I knew she took, you know, pay, reduction in pay and opportunity for growth because she knew she was supposed to be the secretary. And she has shared with me, you know, over the years of taking that job and how they would call her. And it was hard because the devil's gonna fight the will of God in your life. And the one thing she would always go back to is, A, that's where her life got set on course and she got set free. So serving my pastors was not a difficulty, but B, she always would go back to. If she were to go back to the insurance company, where would my mind and my sister's lives end up? She was very sober of that fact. Where would we be? Where would we end up? Because now her not being in the will of God, just like Abraham not being obedient with his son. Son. What would that have done? It was according to the promise there would be no blessing for the further generations. You have to look at the will of God for your own life as it is for the whole family. It's not just about you. It's going to affect the entire family unit. And I look back at those precious memories of being in the baby classroom with veggie tales and long nights and being tired and, you know, seeming like it never was going to end. And then we go home and seem like we were back there again doing something. We never complained because our parents never complained. There's a simple fact with that. Your kids are going to do what you do. They're going to repeat what you act out. My parents never complained. So we never complained. We never knew to complain. No, it wasn't fine, but we never knew to complain. We never knew that was something to complain about and to Gripe over. So now being in the ministry, there's nothing to complain about. I've never known to complain about anything with the ministry. It's going to affect the future generations and how they walk out the will of God for their life. My mother, she always said she was the discipline she represented. This is something I want to. We'll close with this and then we'll continue next week. But she always said she believed that she was the representation. Because whether you realize it or not, you're the first representation of God that you, your children, they see that you are in their little world until they come into the revelation for themselves. You are God to them because you meet their need, right? You take them where they need to go. If they're sick, you're responsible for their well being. Do you see that? So for them, you are the only God in their life. You are demonstrating from very early on who God is. And from very early on, my dad would not spank me. So my mom knew from very early on that she saw that she would have to demonstrate and be the discipline part of God in my life. She represented. And she'll tell you this, she said, I just was okay. You've heard pastor talk about her mom handled all four kids and had no problem with it. It. My mom knew that she was to represent to us God's discipline, his correction, his instruction. She was to be that voice and she was okay. My dad represented God's mercy, his love, you say, I'm not kidding. I mean, this has come out of her mouth. And she said, I knew that he would represent to you a different facet of who God is. And she was fine with that. She didn't try to make my dad be something that he wasn't. She took ownership of her responsibility in the scriptures of what her part was, and she let my dad be his part. Now, unfortunately, my sister, when she came along, my dad also became a representation of God's discipline to her. But he struggled with that early on. He didn't understand until I hit about 5 why I needed to be disciplined. And then once I hit about why, say about four, then he started seeing this, yeah, something's got to be done here. So. But I appreciate my mom recognizing that we were going to see God in my parents. You're not just mom and dad when they're young. You are God to them. You are meeting everything. You, you help them to know God through your character and your spiritual example and your love for God and the way you worship and the way you talk and the way you meditate on the Word, if you're okay with just being dad and Mom, God will just let you be dad and Mom. But if you want more for your family, you can get into the Word and find out. I can be a spiritual example. I can have the promise that the generations to come, because of the way I'm living are going to be affected and their lives will be set on course because I want more. I'm not okay with just being a mom to my kids. I need to be a greater example. Because anybody can be a mother, right? Anybody can be a mother. And I'm not diminishing that. That's a big job. But I can be more than just a mother. I can demonstrate more than just care and love and compassion and taking care of their needs. I'm more than a need meter. I want to be more than that. Amen. But that's up to you as a parent. So you decide, are you going to hope and wish and cross your fingers that somebody else's example will be enough for your kid? Or. Or are you going to step up to the plate? Will I step up to the plate when the demand requires it and calls for it? Am I going to step up to the plate and say, no? I will set that spiritual example. I will put the demand on my kids. I am going to not compromise the way Abraham didn't compromise. Because I'm not just thinking about myself and this child. I'm thinking about the children to come and who else it's going to affect. Does that help kind of lay a foundation with where we'll go with this? Because we're going to go a couple of places and like I said that you have a guarantee. You have a guarantee. You say, well, my kids are grown and they're out of the house and I feel like I missed my opportunity. No, you haven't. No, you haven't. Because your life is still speaking. It's still demonstrating. A parent is always a parent. You never stop being a parent. Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about, you're done. You reach place where you're done. Your voice may change and the role changes in how you. You know, we're still wiping hineys, okay? We're still doing that. We're out of diapers, but we're still wiping hineies. That's still a responsibility. There's just responsibilities that are always going to be there. Things that you. A role that you'll always be able to play in your children's lives. And you can Take a hold of that right now. And as we look in the next couple weeks, as we look at these promises, you can say, yeah, I believe that the word of God is true, and it's going to be true in my household and we'll get there. But as Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That was not a saying just for people to put in cursive over their, you know, if that's your thing, great. I'm not big for writing on the walls. Not big for live, laugh, love. I'm not. That's just not my thing. Some people, they love that. That's not my, my taste. But people think, you know, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord is a wonderful scripture and sign to put up in your home. And that's where they leave it as a picture and a sign. It's a promise, folks. It's a guaranteed promise that you can hold on to. Amen. So we'll, we'll go on with this now. I want to. We'll close right here. And, and you know, I'll say this. My kids are young. You could say, well, your kids are young. You haven't even successfully raised kids. No, you have a point. I'm not a perfect parent. And there is no such thing as a perfect parent. Just like I would hope we would all know there is no such thing as a perfect kid. I hope we would all know that there is no such animal. Not a one exists. Okay. Thinks my husband, thinks he came close. There's no such thing as a perfect child, and there's no such thing as a perfect parent. But there is such thing as a perfect Savior and a perfect Holy Ghost, a perfect helper. And he's full of perfect wisdom. So through these teachings, what I want you to understand is, yes, my kids are still young, but we'll get into this as well. The wisdom of God and how to seek out the wisdom of God. Whether your children are 5, 25 or 45, there's wisdom for your family. And you have a right and have the authority for your household, no matter how old your kids are, to seek for wisdom for your family. And God will answer because you're not perfect. I'm not perfect, but thank God, my Savior is perfect and the Holy Ghost is perfect. So he's going to help us. I need him to help me on his level, not on my level, so I can try to figure things out on my level. But I'd rather, rather just get answers from his level. That's why I want to go back to we must hear from God. We must, we must. We must, as families, hear from God. And can I say this, and y' all have heard me say this before, that growing up in a local church, I watched those besides my parents, I watched those men and women around me. Their example spoke volumes to my life. So even if you, your children are grown or they're already serving God or some are, some aren't, I want you to know that you're example and what you demonstrate in this household is, is something for my children to be watching and for other people's children to be watching. And as somebody who's raised in church, so, I mean, again, my kids are young, but I also went through a successful process. You know what I mean? I arrived where I was supposed to. So there's a little bit of working knowledge that I do have of good example in my life. And one thing my parents did was they kept me around good godly examples. They didn't just keep me around Christians, good godly examples who were people who were in the will of God, love serving God, and were just as thrilled with the plan of God for their life as my parents were for themselves. So in these teachings, recognize somebody's watching you. They're watching you. You're serving with people who are watching what you do, how you talk, how you respond to the word and to the move of the spirit. And they may either put a demand on themselves or excuse themselves from things based off of you. Kids will always look for somebody to excuse themselves from the right behavior.
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Yes.
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Don't let him find it in you. I don't want my kids to find in myself. Well, mama, you did. Oh, that'll be the day. I gotta have a conversation with God and repent. You know, I've already had to do that. You know, you hear, you see your kid and I'm like, oh, wait a second, Lord, I repent. They saw that from me. So I want you to recognize that others are watching. And that's an honor. That's an honor. That's not a negative. That's an honor that somebody can judge your life and get victory because of your life. Amen.
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