Dave Harvey on marriage and parenting

I would like to recommend some sermons by Pastor Dave Harvey on marriage and parenting.

I believe Dave Harvey really addresses the fundamental problems in our marriages head-on. If we apply what he is saying, we would really grow in Christ. The first one on marriage is foundational for the others and is titled, "When Sinners Say 'I Do': Sin." Pastor Harvey applies to marriage 1 Tim 1:12-17, where Paul calls himself "the chief of sinners." The second one is titled, "When Sinners Say 'I Do': Mercy." Here Luke 6:27-36, in which Jesus commands us to be merciful to our enemies, is applied to marriage. The last one on marriage is titled, "When Sinners Say 'I Do': Grace." Here Titus 2:11-15, about God's grace in Christ, is applied to marriage. These messages really are applicable to all our relationships with people.

There is also one message on parenting titled, "Parenting in Weakness," that applies to parenting 2 Cor 11:30-12:10 in which Paul boasts in his weaknesses so that the power of Christ might rest on him. I am in the middle of this one right now. What I have listened to so far is excellent.

You can download recordings of these sermons at http://www.metrolife.org/marriage/. There you can also download the sermon notes.

Ryan Kelly Parenting Sermons

I ran across three very helpful messages on Christian parenting, preached by Ryan Kelly, pastor of Desert Springs Church. They were part of a larger series he is doing on the book of Proverbs.

I especially appreciated the first message, "The Wisdom of Parenting with Toughness." This was the first time I heard someone explain how, as parents, we should model God's righteous anger before our children. There is a lot of other material that, for good reason, warns against becoming sinfully angry with our children. Our anger tends to be sinful, and much harm is done to children when parents are sinfully angry toward them. We do need to show an enormous amount of love to our children, and we all are deficient in this. But there is still a need for righteous anger. There is more to the sermon than this. But this is the part that really stood out to me.

You can download the message here http://www.desertspringschurch.org/content_page.php?selectedCat=8&catName=Messages&subID=

The other messages are "The Wisdom of Parenting with Instruction" and "The Wisdom of Parenting Toward the Gospel." They can also be downloaded from the same page.