Guest Speaker Trevor McMahan: The Throne of Justice: Raising Children in God's Divine Purpose

Send us a text

The journey from brokenness to purpose unfolds dramatically in this heart-stirring conversation with Trevor McMahan, who shares how Christ transformed him from a homeless drug addict to a devoted family man with a burning passion for God's Word.

Trevor takes us deep into 1 Samuel 8, revealing a profound parallel between Samuel and Eli—two men who failed their families despite their spiritual prominence. The sobering truth emerges that Samuel, having witnessed the devastating consequences of Eli's parental neglect, tragically repeated the same mistake with his own sons. This powerful insight challenges us to examine where our priorities truly lie. Are we so consumed with work, ministry, or personal pursuits that we're neglecting our most sacred calling?

Drawing from Genesis 18:17-19, Trevor unpacks why God chose Abraham—because he would teach his children justice and righteousness, the very foundation of God's throne. With remarkable clarity, he connects the justice rendered through Christ's sacrifice to our responsibility as parents and believers. His own family practice of creating a "family altar" offers practical wisdom for those seeking to establish God's presence in their homes. By gathering weekly for worship, recording prayer requests, and celebrating answered prayers, even his youngest children have developed unshakable confidence that God hears and responds.

Perhaps most compelling is Trevor's fresh perspective on Proverbs 22:6. More than general religious instruction, he encourages parents to seek divine revelation about each child's unique purpose and calling. "Before God ever fashioned you in your mother's womb, He sat down and wrote a book about you," Trevor reminds us, challenging listeners to partner with God in discovering and nurturing their children's divine design. What might change in your family if you began actively seeking God's blueprint for each child's life? Join this transformative conversation and discover how to break generational patterns while establishing a legacy of faith that will endure for generations.

Support the show

Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved!
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life.
Shalom to you and your home.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, folks, I want to welcome you back to Life
on the Fire and we have todaywith us in the house, we have
Trevor McMahan, and this is areal treat.
You're going to love what he'sgoing to be sharing.
We're going to be sticking withthe book of 1 Samuel, but

(00:22):
Trevor has just a real anointingon his life to bring the Word
of God to life.
And Trevor, welcome and youhave free reign to go, brother.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Thank you, brother.
Thank you, brother.
It's my pleasure to be here.
So we're picking up in 1 Samuel, chapter 8, and this is a real
turning point for Israel.
Up until this time, god wastheir king, and so this is kind
of like a heartbreaking chapterof the Bible, but it opens up a

(00:55):
lot of different questions and alot of different revelation for
us.
So if we go into 1 Samuel 8 andwe move down to verse number 3.
It says but they were not liketheir father, for they were
greedy for money, they acceptedbribes and perverted justice.
And in this portion right now,it's talking about Samuel's sons

(01:16):
.
My brother David.
He opened up about Eli's sonsvery well and it's very
interesting because Samuel wasactually raised by Eli and he
was raised with his sons, andhis son had done atrocity in the
eyes of God and Samuel had towitness this.

(01:37):
And Samuel was actually the onewho God chose to bring the
prophetic word to Eli that youneed to get your sons right or
these horrible things willhappen to them, and actually
Israel will be cursed because ofthis.
And so Samuel, witnessing allof this through the lens of God,

(02:00):
chose to walk in the samefootsteps as Eli.
It's so interesting that hewatched all of these horrible
things happen to Eli and hischildren and Israel and then he
still chose to neglect raisinghis kids.
In the same manner, that's aneye-opening place for us today.

(02:23):
Yes, it is same manner.
That's an eye-opening place forus today that we cannot be so
busy with our own lives that weforget our first ministry.
And so Israel was foundedbecause of the covenant that God
made with Abraham.
So I always like to go back tothe story of Abraham and exactly
what God has said to him andpromised him, and look and

(02:47):
examine that to see where Israelis at, because a lot of
mysteries are opened up to usthrough that lens.
So if you go to Genesis, chapter18, 17 through 19, it says this
is this is God or Jesus or thethree angels speaking to
themselves.
So it's a very interestingconcept.

(03:07):
Right here there's a lot ofdebate whether it was Jesus, you
know, or if it was the angel ofthe Lord or God himself.
So it says in verse number 17,it says Should I hide my plans
from Abraham the Lord asked For?
Abraham will certainly become agreat and mighty nation, and
all the nations of the earthwill be blessed through him.

(03:30):
I have singled him out so thathe will direct his sons and
their families to keep the wayof the Lord by doing what is
right or the righteousness, andwhat is is just or the justice.
Then I will do for Abraham allthat I have promised.

(03:51):
The King James says that Abrahamshall keep all the way of the
Lord to do the justice andrighteousness of God.
God is showing us right herethat Abraham, the father of
faith, that he chose him becausehe would teach his children the

(04:15):
justice and the righteousnessof God.
This is such an importantconcept because in Psalms it
talks about that the foundationof God's throne is justice and
righteousness.
He said what proceeds out ofthat justice and righteousness
is love and truth.
Right, but what holds and whatlifts up and what produces the

(04:43):
atmosphere for the love andtruth of God to go forth is the
foundation of justice andrighteousness.
This is such an importantconcept for God that we
understand and that not onlythat we understand, but that we
actually teach our children thisconcept.
Now, the justice in the OldTestament is a little bit
different or, you could look atit, a lot different than the New

(05:05):
Testament, but essentially inthe Old Testament, sin equals
death.
There must be blood or life tocover sin.
Now, god showed Adam this fromthe very beginning, whenever he
slew the animals and clothedthem with the clothing of the
animals he slew.
Now, if you move all the wayinto the New Testament, god's

(05:28):
justice was rendered upon JesusChrist.
That Jesus Christ, he lived aperfect life.
He did no wrong, he only didgood.
He died on a cross for our sins.
It says in 1 Corinthians thathe actually became sin so that

(05:51):
we could become therighteousness of God.
That this sin issue kept us atenmity with God all the way up
until Jesus Christ came.
So now that we can become inright standing with God, this
concept we have to teach ourchildren.
Not only teach it, but live it.
A great wise man once told methat the definition of truth is

(06:17):
when word and deed agree.
So whenever we're raising ourkids in the justice of God, we
actually have to live thisjustice also, to preach Jesus,
to teach Jesus, to walk Jesus ineverything we do.
And then the righteousness ofGod, the righteousness, his

(06:39):
ability to be right, thatthrough the blood of Jesus
Christ now we can become therighteousness of God I'm talking
about.
In the Old Testament.
This was unattainable by thelaw.
Abraham understood this by justbelieving God that he became

(07:00):
righteous in God's eyes.
But through the law, throughour works, through our deeds
they're filthy rags to God, butby the belief in Jesus Christ we
can become righteous in God'seyes.
Romans 10.10 says for with theheart man believeth unto
righteousness, and with themouth confession is made unto

(07:25):
salvation.
This is awesome news.
Yes, it is.

(07:47):
A holy God would devise such anamazing, outstanding,
crazy-sounding plan that hewould send his only son, jesus
Christ, into the world to takeon millions and millions and
millions of sins, to take themon his own body on a cross.
To take them on his own body ona cross so that now we can come
to Father God.
Amen, boldly, humbly andlovingly, to experience him like

(08:15):
we've never had before inhistory, and that's available to
each and every person under thesound of my voice today.
There's no sin that is toogreat for him not to forgive Me.
I was a drug addict, I washomeless.

(08:38):
I've done horrible, horriblethings, but because of that
precious blood of Jesus Christ,I'm on a microphone right now
declaring how good our God isand how wonderful he is, and
only God, jehovah, could do thatfor us.
Father God, if there's anybodylistening today that is

(09:02):
downtrodden, or that just theworld has beat them down, that
they think that they've donethings that are just so horrible
that they can never be forgiven, there's hope that are just so
horrible that they can never beforgiven.
There's hope.
Jesus Christ has seen that, andhe still chose to give his life
just for you.
So I have one mission in thisworld, and that's to bring the

(09:24):
revelation of my Messiah, jesusChrist, to every person that I
can.
And so by that, jesus Christhas given me a family, a
beautiful family.
I had nothing at all, living onthe streets, a drug addict,
drug dealer that had been beatendown, but Jesus Christ picked

(09:46):
my life up, turned it around,and now he's gave me a purpose.
I have a wife and five kids.
Now I'm so astounded.
I wake up in the morning justsaying thank you Jesus, thank
you Jesus, thank you Jesus forsaving my life.
And now I have a wife and fivekids, and I don't want my kids
to turn out like Eli's childrenor like Samuel's children.

(10:10):
So this principle that I'mspeaking of, about the
righteousness and justice of God, is so poignant.
It's so poignant In 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17,.
It says all scripture is givenby inspiration God breathed and
it is profitable for doctrine,for reproof, for correction, for
instruction, for instruction inrighteousness.

(10:32):
So it's so important that weget into these scriptures with

(10:55):
our kids and just dive in and tobegin to teach them how Jesus
Christ works and the principlesof God.
I've been reading this book.
God Put it Across my Path.
It's called Fire on the FamilyAltar by Cheryl Sachs, and this
book has really opened my eyesand when I counsel people, I
bring them to this book becauseit causes the family to gather
together weekly and to worshipGod, sing hymns together, to

(11:16):
petition God on the family'sbehalf, because God created
family, he loves family and soyou can come together as a
family and worship him andpraise him and then petition God
on the family's behalf andwatch him work.
My kids love this.
I'm talking about my kids makelittle skits to Jesus, they'll
come together, they'll dance,they'll sing, they'll praise.

(11:38):
It's so beautiful they long tohave this time with the Lord and
God shows up so big.
We have a piece of paper thatwe write down our prayer request
on and the kids write downtheir prayer request on, and
then we put a time and a datethat we ask God for it, and then
we come back the following weekand we see that God had
answered it.
So we get to thank God for it.

(11:59):
So even my little children knowGod is a God who hears us and
answers our prayers.
I'm talking about God loves us.
And then Proverbs 22, 6 saysTrain up a child in the way he
should go, and when he is old hewill not depart from it.
And when he is old he will notdepart from it.

(12:21):
This is a beautiful promisefrom God to the family, to each
one of us, that if we train up achild in the way that he should
go, when he is old he will notdepart from it.
And this is encouraging for alot of parents today because
I've seen the heartbreak of alot of grandparents and parents
that are like you know.
I've taught my kids thescriptures, I've taken them to

(12:44):
church, I've taken them to youthgroup, I've taken them on to
these youth retreats, and thenthey rebel and go out into the
world.
Well, I'm telling you that youcan claim this promise for God.
He said that if you do yourpart, he'll do his part.
That's good, and so I thank you, jesus, for that.
Thank you Jesus, thank you,lord.
I take this scripture a littlebit deeper than a lot of people

(13:07):
and because we have arelationship with God.
It says train up a child in theway he should go.
So we should be petitioning Godabout our kid's future from day
one, because every kid iscreated differently, with
different giftings and differenttalents and a different

(13:28):
ministry.
So I go before God and I'm likeGod.
Will you please reveal to methe gifting set that you have
placed inside of my children, sothat I can encourage them and
help build them up into the waythat they should go?
And he'll do this for you.
He'll open your eyes to thispath, and because whenever you
realize that in Psalms 139, 16,it talks about that, before God

(13:52):
ever fashioned you in yourmother's womb, he sat down and
he wrote a book about you allthe days of your life.
So that means every child has adivine purpose God created them
for, and no child will found asmuch joy and as much peace and
as much love until they start towalk in that purpose.

(14:14):
And so as you get thatrevelation from God that, hey,
you know you can speak into yourchild's life.
I believe God wants you to be.
You know a cook.
You know just somebody whocooks food for the homeless.
As you get that revelation andyou start to speak that into
your kid's life, some joy sparksup into them.
Now they want to go out and tryto take culinary classes or do

(14:38):
whatever they have to do, andthis peace comes about them
because God created them forthis purpose, and so, as parents
, it's our place to petition theFather on what our kids are
divinely orchestrated for.
So this time in Israel'shistory is like no other.

(15:00):
Before they had God as a king,and now they're about to choose
man, and this will open us upinto our next segment.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
And this will open us up into our next segment.
These points that Trevor'ssharing are so pertinent to the
world that we live in today andwe and because of its importance
, we're going to be doing thisin two parts and, as Trevor said

(15:32):
, this is part one and we'regoing to be going into part two.
But, trevor, would you pleasepray for the individuals that
just come to your heart and mindand what the Lord might show
you right now.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
Yes, father, we love you, we love you, we love you,
father.
Yes, father, we just come to youwith such a grateful and humble
heart for everything that Jesusdid for us on that cross.
Father, father, I ask that ifwe've fallen short in any place

(16:10):
and, like Eli or like Samuel,have neglected our very first
ministry with our children,father, I ask that you'll bring
that spirit of conviction intoour lives, father, that we lay
this at the feet of Jesus and weturn from it and begin to walk
in the righteousness that Godhas provided for us, that we
begin to have an empowerment toteach and to train up our family
in the way that they go, and wecan claim your promises that,

(16:32):
when they are old, they will notdepart from it.
Father, father, I ask that, ifanybody does not know you out
there, that the revelation ofJesus Christ just be revealed to
them like never before, thatthe Holy Spirit would just draw
them right now and that they canlay their life down and pick
yours up, that they completelysurrender and abandon their own

(16:54):
lives to receive yours.
And, father, I just thank youin Jesus' mighty name, amen.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
Folks, we love you and if you have any thoughts,
questions, concerns, please feelfree to drop us a line at
lifearoundthefire at gmailcomthat's our email address or you
just type in liferonthefire andlook us up on the web.
We would love to hear from youIn the meantime.
Adios amigos.