Four Principles for Parents

A life-defining faith requires dedication to keep it alive.

Baby dedication Sundays are the best, aren’t they?

It gives us a great deal of hope to see this many couples and so many young children.

Seeing them lets us know that the Lord is growing His church.

Babies are not a distraction or a hindrance.

They get fussy sometimes and make a bit of noise, but praise God for the noise.

I suspect there are churches all over middle Georgia that would beg to hear a baby’s cry in worship.

We want to embrace those cries.

Those cries are the sounds of the future, they are promises of God.

The oldest cliche’ in the world is that children aren’t born with an instruction manual

But actually, they are.

You won’t be the least bit surprised when I say the name of the manual is the Bible.

That sounds a little cliched too and with good reason.

Culture has trained us to believe that children need experts in order to thrive.

We need some expert class of people to tell us what our kids need and don’t need.

But that’s not true.

That’s never been true.

Do you know what kids really need?

They need a mama who knows she’s a mama.

They need a dad that knows he’s a dad.

They are not interchangeable and they aren’t replaceable.

A mama band-aid and a daddy band-aid will never be the same, ever.

A daddy kiss on a boo-boo is different from a mama kiss on a boo-boo.

It just is - you can’t change it - and if you don’t like it you need to just suck it up

Because you didn’t make the rules.

A kid needs food

A kid needs water

A kid needs shelter

A kid need love

And a kid needs guidance.

And every last bit of that, Mom and Dad, you are more than gifted to deliver.

Now we are in the book of Exodus and knowing today was Parent Child Dedication Sunday I asked the text this question:

What do you have to say to parents?

And guess what?

It has a lot to say.

Turn with me if you will to Exodus 24.

Our text is the entire chapter but we’ll focus on the first 7.

Kids, your three words to help you follow on the worship sheet are Kids, Jesus and Church.

Hear now the Word of the Lord from Exodus 24:1-7

Exodus 24:1–7 ESV

Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.” Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Join with me in asking the Lord to help us this morning.

Dear kind and gentle Lord,

We love so much the children you have given us.

Help us to hear through your word not want we want to hear

But what we need to hear so we can our raise children to walk closely with you.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

So, four principles for parents.

Number 1: Pave the runway

Look at verse 3 - Exodus 24:3 “Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules.

Remember what we said the primary theme is for today?

“A life-defining covenant requires dedication to keep it alive.”

Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, big brothers and big sisters.

To quote Al Mohler at my breakout session at the Spark Conference: “We’ve lost the culture war.”

It is absolutely necessary for all of us who are over 30 years old - that’s right 30 years old - to realize

The world we were raised in is gone.

People say they believe in God but it’s a form of God.

In 1990, 85% of Americans claimed to be Christian.

in 2020, that number was 63%

And of that 63%, only 62% of them claimed to be members of a church.

Not church attenders, but church members - they have their name on a roll book somewhere.

And many, many of those don’t believe traditional orthodox Christian beliefs.

Parents, you don’t have the luxury of living in a place where everyone in your community shares your beliefs.

The Christian faith isn’t going to rub off on your kids from the other kids in school.

Allowing your kids to find their own path is simply child cruelty.

You’ve seen the rat mazes used in psychology right? You know what I’m talking about?

Allowing your kids to find their own path is like dropping them in the middle of a maze

But instead of dead ends, each dead end has someone with another world view telling your kid how to live.

Moses paved the runway.

He told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules.

That word rule is translated all kinds of ways in different versions of the Bible and for good reason.

It basically means - how it all works.

Moses told the people all of the word of the Lord and how it all works.

Very clearly.

Very succinctly.

Listen, you don’t have to be a seminary trained Biblical scholar

But you do have to have a clue of what it means to be a Christian so you can pass that on to your children.

Following Jesus is a life-defining covenant.

If Jesus is of any value to you at all, it’s going to take more dedication than ever before to keep that faith alive for the future generations OF YOUR FAMILY.

Remember, if you do a decent job and your kids have kids, you are teaching for every generation that comes after you.

Pave their runway.

Kids want direction.

Kids want discipline.

They want to know the boundaries.

They want the honest to goodness truth - not squishy junk that you know when you hear it somethings not right.

They want to know

Their desire is to say, Exodus 24:3 “..And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.””

They know you love them - they trust you - don’t betray their trust.

Pave the runway.

Number 2: Build traditions and memories

Look at verse 4 Exodus 24:4 “And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Moses built them an altar - he built them a place to worship and he led them to worship there.

You’ve heard old people joke, “My mom and dad raised me on drugs - they drug me to church on Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday.”

For heaven’s sake, raise your children in such a way that they won’t say, “Mom and dad drug me to every ball field in the state of Georgia.”

I’m proud for the kids who come to Wednesday kids dirty after ball practice or a ball game.

I admire parents who have the incredible courage to tell the world no to travel ball every Sunday that comes.

Because it’s not just ball.

It’s family trips and weekends away and sickness and before you know it, you’ve been gone for weeks and weeks and weeks.

And your kids see the sign on your door, “Church optional.”

Listen, there is something magical about church.

It’s where the body of Christ gathers to get re-centered - to remember just Who it was that gave us everything we have.

You know what’s cool - we have a whole host of young men who are our ushers every week and they do a dynamite job.

Why is that cool?

Because they see the faces of men and women old and young who come week in and week out to be reminded

That Jesus is Lord

That Jesus has the Word of life and if you follow Him, you’ll see how to figure out this life.

Build a tradition of church and group attendance.

Give your kids the opportunities to make memories that will be part of the foundation of their future.

Build traditions and memories.

I know it’s great to hear a young man’s story that involves a great coach who meant so much to him

But it does my heart a world of good to hear a young man bragging on how their mom and dad made such a difference in their lives rather than some random coach.

Number 3: Practice what you preach

Look at verse 5: Exodus 24:5 “And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.”

Remember at the end of chapter 20, Yahweh told the Israelites to have burnt offerings and peace offerings.

As reminder - the burnt offering was to be burned to dust to remind everyone that a life has to be given for sins to be forgiven.

The peace offering was a cook-out where the people sacrificed and animal and then roasted parts of it to eat as a family before the Lord.

The symbolism is real - Our sins are forgiven and now we can sit down and have dinner with the Lord.

Yahweh told them to do that in chapter 20.

Here we are in chapter 24, and Moses is making it happen.

My dad was a smoker while I was growing up.

And he would often tell me to not start smoking.

Dad would say, “Don’t do as I do, do as I say.”

Don’t give your kids that message.

Let them see you worship.

Read to them - listen - this is the easiest thing for you to do with absolutely the greatest impact

Read the Bible to them before bedtime every single night that comes and then pray with them.

Get an age appropriate Bible and read it.

When you pray, you don’t have to be eloquent.

They’ll pick up real quick how you feel about the Lord.

Pay attention to how you talk

Pay attention to where you go

Pay attention to how you treat your spouse

Pay attention to how you give to your church

Pay attention to your commitments

Make sure your life reflects the glory of the Lord the very best you can.

Practice what you preach, and finally,

Number 4: Rinse and repeat

Look at verse 7 - Exodus 24:7 “Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people...”

So in verse 3 he told the people “all the words of Yahweh and all the rules.”

In verse 4 he wrote them all down.

And in verse 7, he read them what he had told them.

I know this story reads like, bam, bam, bam - it all happened back to back, but it didn’t.

It was at the very minimum several weeks from verse 1 to verse 7.

And the whole time, Moses is paving the runway, building traditions and memories, practicing what he preached and then doing it all again.

One last little tidbit - look at the people’s response Exodus 24:7 "... And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.””

Another way to say it is, “It’s not only a good idea, we’ll do it too.”

We are suffering from inertia in the church.

Times have been good for a long, long time.

We look around us and see the world falling to the ground and we think, “we’ll be OK.”

No we won’t.

We’ll only be OK if we hear and do.

Parents, be your children’s heroes.

Give them the one gift that will last them forever.

You follow Jesus.

Do it with everything you’ve got.

In good times and bad

Hard times and easy

You follow Jesus.

So that when you aren’t around, they’ll know how to thrive.

It will be hard.

“A life defining covenant requires dedication to keep it alive.”

Buckle up - it’s time to rumble.

Kids of all ages - maybe you are a 70 year old kid of your parents

You know your parents want to see you follow Jesus.

Everything we talked about today, He made sure you heard it.

He wants you to know that a life had to be forfeited for your sins to be forgiven.

And Jesus forfeited His life for you.

He was the sin offering, totally consumed, so Yahweh could tell you your debt was paid.

In order to join His family, you’ve got to realize that you are a sinner

No more jokes - you know what you are.

Ask the Father to forgive you of your sins.

And then focus everything you have on following Jesus.

Don’t be a monk or a Jesus freak

Be a man or a woman who wants to do what’s right

And Jesus is right.

We’ll pray and then sing.

If you want to know more about Jesus, you’re invited to come down while we sing.

And parents, you’ve made your vows.

Let’s see you do them.

Let’s pray.