One of the greatest teachers of all is life itself. We learn so much just by living life. Now – here’s a thought. What if, I mean what if we shared some of the challenges and trials that we face, with our children? What if they were able to benefit from the things we’re learning?

A good many years ago now, when I was in the Information Technology industry, I used to attend I guess 3 or 4 conferences each year; the sort of thing to do to learn and to make connections.

And often, one of the things I'd notice about the speakers at these conferences is that many of them would get up and just rattle off a bunch of facts. And you'd think, 'Well, I kind of knew that already and in any case, I could have read that in a text book.'

And then others would tell us about this IT project or that one and it seemed they always had such rose coloured glasses on. They'd tell us all the things that went well. The implication being that their organisation or their company had done such a great job.But anyone who's ever been involved in an IT project will know that it's not easy – technology, people, politics. It's actually quite complex changing an organisation and its business processes to fit with the new technology.

And so I'd often walk away from these conferences thinking … well … wishing that someone had shared something with me that was for real. You know, lessons from the trenches, lessons born out of real life so that I could take something useful away: some insight, some experience that would make a difference back in my trench.

You know what I'm talking about. And this is something we kind of finished up with on the program yesterday. If you've been with us over the last few weeks, you'll know that we've been talking about building a godly family.

There is such incredible fruit that comes from that; something that doesn't just give us more peace at home; something that just doesn't benefit our children. But it's a blessing that will flow down generation to generation as each new generation picks up the Godly habits, the godly perspectives of the previous generation.

So the things that you and I do, from this day forward in building a godly family where we live are going to leave a lasting godly legacy to so many generations to come. What an awesome thing!

And we finished up yesterday talking about the fact that if we want our kids to be godly; if we want them to have a powerful, dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ; if we want them to know the peace and the joy that comes from that; if we want them to see their lives through God's eyes, then we're going to have to tell them about Jesus; to share the word of God with them.

But you know what the temptation is? The temptation is to put a plastic positive spin on things just like those speakers at the IT conferences I was talking about earlier. We want our kids to get the best of God so we put a positive spin on things. We recite the facts. We preach at them thinking that somehow this is going to make a difference to their lives.

Kids are pretty savvy these days. They can pick up the phoney baloney from a mile off. Whether they realise it or not, what they really want and what they really need is to be part of our lives, warts and all. That's when they feel valued and when they share in our insights and what we've learned, that's when the gospel message really has an impact.

One of the reasons I love the apostle Paul is that the guy didn't pull any punches. Have a listen to what he writes to his friends in Corinth. It comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 1 to 11:

Therefore, he said, since it is by the mercy of God that we are engaged in His ministry, we do not lose heart. We've renounced the shameful things that one hides, we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God's word but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.

For we don't proclaim ourselves, we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for His sake. For it is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

We have this treasure in clay jars so that it may be clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and doesn't come from us. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed. Perplexed but not driven to despair. Persecuted but not forsaken. Struck down but not destroyed. Always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be visible in our bodies.

For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh.

Do you see what's happening here? Paul is writing to the Corinthian Church. Now he could be putting his best foot forward. He could be promoting his ministry. He could be telling people how wonderfully things are going. All the things we'd be tempted to do to build ourselves up in the eyes of others. But instead, what does he say? Well he tells them how it really is. "We do not lose heart." Well, you know, if he's saying we don't lose heart there's some stuff going down, right?

And he's saying, "Look, we're out there preaching the gospel but the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers and we have this treasure in clay jars so that people don't think it's us, they know it's God. We're afflicted, we're not crushed. We're perplexed, we're not driven to despair. We're persecuted, we're not forsaken."

Things are hard for Paul. Things are going tough but Paul is telling them, to the Corinthians, the way they really are; a realistic, practical view, from the trenches, view of the world; sharing with them the sorts of insights, the lessons that are really going to make a difference really going to have an impact because they're being mediated through the real life trials of this man whom they honour and respect.

Think. They know this is Paul. They know what an amazing thing God’s done to him. And yet, Paul writes to them, "We're afflicted but not crushed. We're perplexed but we're not driven to despair. We're persecuted but we're not forsaken. We're struck down but we're not destroyed." Isn't that powerful?

I wonder if we couldn't start sharing some of those things with our kids; sharing our faith through the things of life. Making sense out of the stuff they're going to encounter in their lives, the trials – the things that are going to be unfair at school and at work; the things that are going to happen to them along the way by sharing the fact that those same things have happened to us; those same things are happening to us. And we look at them through God's eyes and no, it didn't all come out perfectly. Everyone didn't all live happily ever after.

But you know something – my God reigns. My faith is intact; my conscience is intact. I'd rather lose a battle and honour God in losing that than to win the battle and dishonour God to please myself. That's my story, that's how I see things.

Now imagine if we started sharing those sorts of truths with them. Do you see the power in that? No-one can argue with your story. No-one can argue with my story because they're our stories. But as our children start to figure out that we're for real, that our faith’s for real, you know something, it's going to have an impact on them.

It's a powerful way of sharing the word of God with them because instead of preaching at them, we're opening up the door and letting them into our world and letting them see our humanity and our frailty. And through the cracked clay jars, the glory of God is bound to shine out into their lives.

So many of us have been brought up to shield our children from these things because that's just the way we did it when we were growing up. But look at the Bible, read it. Pick any chapter and read it. You know what oozes out of it? The glory of God through the "warts and all" telling of the story of peoples lives. That's what!

Just like this bit here, from Paul, to the Corinthian Church. What an incredible legacy we can leave – not only in the hearts of our children but in their children and their children's children. When we let them become part of our godly lives – however imperfectly we may live them.