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Prayer
Parenting and the Gospel
Shooting Arrows for God's Glory
We have been studying the book of Job, but today we are taking a break from that study to address parenting and raising children.
Today’s message is different from usual but I felt was necessary.
It will be an exposition of Psalm 127, but my intention is to lay before you a vision for Christian parenting.
It’s impossible in one message to lay out everything that the Bible says about parenting wisely.
But today, I want to lay forward to you a vision for parenting with an eye toward dedicating our children.
Since God gives us children as a gift to steward, we must do so by sharpening arrows with restful wartime mentality for His glory.
The passage I want us to use as a launching pad is Psalm 127.
Psalm 127 could be best summarized as a Psalm on human flourishing.
Human flourishing could be described as the necessary elements for people to thrive.
This thriving being the building of dwellings, the security of the city as a whole, and finally the family.
This Psalm begin by reflecting on two different activities that are a result of human flourishing.
Building and security.
If the Lord doesn’t build it, it won’t last.
If the Lord doesn’t watch over the city, it won’t be protected.
The author is wanting us to see that all of human flourishing is a gift from God.
If this is true, then there is only one natural response.
Solomon is very clear, since God is the ONE who gives all of these things, we should be able to rest in Him.
We are NOT ones who eat the bread of anxious toil because our God gives all of these things.
What’s interesting though is what he goes on to say…
In Psalm 127, we see a clear picture of how Solomon viewed children.
The Reward of Children
“Gift from God”
What do we mean when we say a child is a reward?
The word that Solomon uses is “heritage” which could also mean a possession or a gift.
The word heritage has fallen out of common use...
but it was something that people would inherit after another person passed away.
Solomon here is viewing children as a gift from God.
Children, in every circumstance, are a gift.
They are never an inconvenience, a burden, or a “mishap”
Do you agree that children really are a gift from the Lord?
Maybe you would agree that some of your children are a gift from the Lord, except that one!
But what Solomon says here is more profound.
Every child is a gift from the Lord.
A Posture of Life
“Valuing What God Values”
Cultural Critique - Despising of Children
This concept that children are a gift from God has counter-cultural assumptions.
If you pay attention in our culture, you will see a tenor of people despising children.
Notice what happens when a child screams in the grocery store.
People become annoyed, frustrated, and over all angry about it.
From annoyance of a child screaming to the grotesque assumption that children are disposable in abortion.
This concept of children being viewed as a gift is critically important.
“Parenting is a lifelong commitment.
So no matter when you decide to become a parent, you’ve got to be totally sure it’s what you want to do for a very long time.”
— Planned Parenthood
As Planned Parenthood has said, they believe that deciding when to become a parent is completely up to us.
This is completely and utterly false.
Psalm 127, tells us that children are a gift from the hand of God.
This means that God is the ONE who gives and the ONE who withholds.
If children are withheld, then it is God who withholds them.
Or as Jacob reminded Rachel in Genesis 29:2
Genesis 30:2 (ESV)
“Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
So it’s important to know that the Lord withholds children..
But the flip side is also true.
If children are given, then it is God who gives them.
As Jacob would later remind his brother,
Genesis 33:5 (ESV)
“The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”
The Lord is the ONE who withholds and the ONE who gives.
Children are never an inconvenience, a burden, a hardship, they are a gift.
That means even if a child has deformities, medical issues, or even physical or psychological impairments.
They are a gift.
Now this applies to individual’s to regard their children as a gift, but it also applies to the larger body of Christ.
So church, this means we are to have a posture of life toward children.
Now more than ever, we as a church need to love and care for children.
Even when there may be more noise in service.
Hear that extra noise as God’s blessing upon our congregation.
Now because they are a gift to us, that means that we do not have ownership of our children.
There is a huge implication here for us.
Since children are a gift then we must be GOOD STEWARDS.
Stewardship of Our Gift
“Giving Up Our Rights”
We are entrusted by God to take care of our children.
To provide for them, and to protect them, but we do NOT own them.
They are NOT mini-slaves that we have for 18 years and then they leave.
They are to be stewarded for God’s glory.
Direction
“Course of Life”
Now like I have mentioned, the Proverbs are like the grain of how life normally operates.
I want to make something very clear in this moment, and its a distinction between promises and wisdom.
This Proverbs tells us what we should do if we want to be wise.
But it does not PROMISE us we will succeed.
“Dedicate a child according to what his way demands.”
(DeRouchie)
We are to be the ones cultivating potential we see within a child.
This does not mean we simply say,
“Let a boy do what he wants, and he will become a self-willed adult incapable of change!
Raise him in accordance with his wayward heart, and he will stay wayward” (Clifford, 197).
What this Proverb is presenting to us is the need to shepherd a child in the way we see he/she needs directed.
So it requires a close ear and eye of a shepherd to be in tune with what they need.
It is required that we direct our children in the way of godliness.
We pay attention if they are little rebels who like to break the rules or self-righteous rule keepers.
Because they will need shepherded differently.
But there is an intentional moral shaping which must take place from parents toward children.
SO how do we go about doing that?
Goals vs. Hopes
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