10th October 2025

10th October 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 20:4-6 focus v6)


Message (Alan Burke)


“He’s his father’s son”. Ever heard that? I’m sure you have both positively and negatively. A long time ago my dad wanted to give me an object lesson. There was this house not very far from us that my dad would point out every time that we drove past and tell me the story of how it was lost on a game of cards. The result was that a this mans family were left homeless, in time news came out that the couple divorced and their children even though they had never played a game of cards in their entire lives were most effected by this. The sins of the father impacted that family for years. The man who won the house and this is just aside moved in and the local farmer who knew the family was so aggrieved at what had happened he planted 2m tall Leylandii’s all around the house and across the road in front of the house on this country road and within a few years all the light was cut off from it. For the man who lost the house his dad was a gambler too, back in the day when you could do such a thing his wife was paid his salary and not him because when he got it, it was more than often gone before he got home. 


Now we read what the Lord says here and we might think that this is abhorrent, that the children would be punished for the sins of their fathers, but take God out of the picture and we see this don’t we!?


The LORD here is giving his people, he is giving us a warning. Firstly the LORD warns his people of the consequences for their failure, and the reason why is that the Lord is a covenant God, while he holds us responsible, he deals with us not only as individuals but as families, the promises of God are for us and our families. We have responsibility before God not only for ourselves but for our children, that is how it is in society so why should it be any different before God that we have a responsibility for not only ourselves but our children. Ultimately when we look to anything other than God for their hope then they are idolatrous. The Lord hates idolatry (Deut 16:21-22) and those who do not worship the LORD are showing their hatred of the only true God. 


While the warning that is given is the third and four generation and the promise is for thousands of generations of those who love him. They are not equal in their extent are they, the warning lasts 3/4 generations, the promise to thousands! For those who come to him in repenting of their idolatry will be a source of blessing to their children because through them God will show his steadfast love, in a way that those who are not his do not. The fact that the LORD not only deals with us as individuals but as families. It has major implications especially for those of us who have children, not grown up children but young ones, because how we live, the seriousness that we show in worship will impact not only our children but their children’s children. We must teach our children the truths of the faith (Deut 11:18-21). It also means that we are to put worship at the centre of who we are and what we do, we make the upmost priority of worship, not only on the Lord’s days but at homes, teaching our children the truths of the faith as we are instructed by the Lord, these things impact our children for better or for worse. 


I know some of these things will be hard for you to hear, you may not have taught your children to bow down to worship idols, to use images, but you may have taught them to love this world before the Lord and now it’s too late, your children have grown up, you can’t go back, but you can be praying for them, pleading with the Lord to intervene. There are others of you who need to know that what the Lord is calling you to do is leave the old life behind and follow him, to know his steadfast love. The warning is given but also the promise by the LORD God.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q96 What is the Lord’s Supper?
A. The Lord’s Supper is a Sacrament, wherein, by giving and receiving bread and wine, according to Christ’s appointment, his death is showed forth; and the worthy receivers are, not after a corporal and carnal manner, but by faith, made partakers of his body and blood, with all his benefits, to their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace.
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