God will give you the right words at the right time.
For it is not you who will be speaking,
it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Matthew 10:19-20

Read: Micah 7:1-6, Matthew 10
Pilgrim’s Progress Stage 3 Part 13

Relate: Any good sermon is going to take a text and use it to point us in three directions: upward, inward, and outward. What does this scripture teach us about God? What does it reveal about myself? And finally, because of this text, what must I now do as I re-enter the world around me? This upward – inward – outward theme isn’t something new, and I certainly didn’t invent it. It has been around at least for the past 338 years as John Bunyan used it in Christian’s conversations with Piety, Prudence, and Charity.

After hearing questions about what God has done in his life (Piety) and his struggles and motivations (Prudence), Charity asks what is perhaps the hardest question yet. What about your family? Why are they not with you? Without judgment, Charity asks him in various ways what he said to them and how he tried to persuade them to join him in this pilgrimage. Christian weeps as he relates how he has done everything he could. He has said everything he could. Charity agrees with him on this point. She makes no promises. Her final statement on the subject is that, like Cain, who hated his brother, Christian’s family has shown that they are opposed to the good. She says, “You have freed your soul from their blood.”

React: I have heard over and over again, sad and hurting parents quote the proverb, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” They ask themselves, if this scripture is true, what have they done wrong? If that is you, I say along with Charity, “You have freed your soul from their blood.” None of us are perfect. We all make mistakes. But ultimately, the best we can do is the best we can do. Part of the fact of free will is that your children, or your loved ones, ultimately have the freedom to choose on their own, no matter how stupid those choices might be. Ultimately, Christians family will join him on this pilgrimage. Perhaps yours will as well. But even if they do not, the best you can do is keep praying, keep loving, and wait for the day when the Holy Spirit does his work.

Respond:

Dear God,
I am so thankful that so many in my family are serving and following You. But not all. Even as I call them out by name, I know that You care more deeply for their eternal destiny than I ever could. Help me to continue to love them. Help me to continue to intercede for them. And help me to share You with them until the day that they come to know You for themselves. And if that day never comes, help me to remember that I have done all that I can, and that You are still good.
Amen.