Raising Children To Serve The Lord
The Home As God Would Have It • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Last week we discussed “Godly Parenting.”
In that lesson we focused first on what is often missing from parents such as dad and mom being the authority of the home.
We then focus on some very basic practical points parents should focus on.
Such as providing financially for their children.
Such as providing proper discipline for their children.
We also focused on the “need to teach and train” one’s children.
However, we did not get into the specifics of what that train would and should look like when it comes to “Raising Children To Serve The Lord.”
6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
That is what we are going to focus on in this lesson, what it takes to raise children to serve the Lord for the rest of their life.
This of course is the “desire” of every parent that hopes in heaven but it is often the least understood by parents which is evident by the number of children that leave the church each and every year that were raise in the church.
Unfortunately, the greatest reason for a lack of raising children to serve the Lord is found in their lacking…
Preparation For Child Rearing
Preparation For Child Rearing
It Should Start Before A Child Is Born.
It Should Start Before A Child Is Born.
There are so many things in this life that before we ever endeavor to do we involve ourselves in preparation for them.
Before anyone goes skydiving they must go through the schooling or preparation for such.
Before anyone goes scuba-diving they must go through the proper preparation.
Here in Oklahoma you get a discount on your marriage license if you go through marriage counseling or marriage preparation with the home of helping your marriage not end in divorce.
However, when it comes to having kids, many if not most, make little effort to make sure they are prepared to raise them.
Those that desire to be parents should spend much of their “pre-child” time preparing to raise their future children in the Lord as there is much to consider.
Unfortunately, most parents end up having kids and only then do the husband and wife, now dad and mom, start trying to figure out how they are going to raise this new child together and often there are drastic conflicting ideas that reveal themselves only now.
Jeremiah 1:5 (ESV)
5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
Parents must determine and prepare for there children to be faithful to God before they are ever born, but how does one do this?
The reality is, how you raise your children in the Lord is determined by how you live your life for the Lord.
8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, 9 for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.
How can a father give instruction or a mother teach that which they have no knowledge or wisdom of?
9 “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children—
How can a father and mother “make known the blessings from God one has seen” if they are not diligently keeping their soul and seeking God’s word?
Summary
Summary
It is vital that future parents prepare for having children.
Not only must things like discipline and finances when it comes to children be discussed, but more importantly how spiritual matters will be dealt with.
So, the proper training of children “should” start before one’s child is ever born.
So then, what about when the child is born and the training must begin, what now?
Training A Child
Training A Child
The Word “Train Up”.
The Word “Train Up”.
The word “train up” in Hebrew is found in three other passages other than Proverbs 22:6.
Deuteronomy 20:5 (ESV)
5 Then the officers shall speak to the people, saying, ‘Is there any man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man dedicate it.
1 Kings 8:63 (ESV)
63 Solomon offered as peace offerings to the Lord 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord.
2 Chronicles 7:5 (ESV)
5 King Solomon offered as a sacrifice 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.
This word means then to build to completion for God.
As parents we must never forget it is our duty as parents to eventually dedicate our children to God, i.e., build them into a complete God fearing Christian for our Lord.
Genesis 18:19 (ESV)
19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.
15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
All this tells us that “training up” a child begins with…
A Home Full Of Wisdom.
A Home Full Of Wisdom.
Raising children to serve the Lord takes parents that are wise in the “wisdom that is from above.”
Proverbs 2:1–5 (ESV)
1 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, 2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
Notice, the wisdom from above comes from a home that is full of wisdom.
The most effective way a child grows out of foolishness and into wisdom is through proper parenting.
This is because a home full of wisdom is a home that is full of training.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
The word wisdom literally means, “understanding of war so as to be skilled at it.”
In other words, our home should be filled with lessons on how to fight skillfully in this spiritual war we are in.
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
So now what does a “home full of wisdom” then look like from a child’s perspective.
A child will see…
Principles In Their Parents.
Principles In Their Parents.
Children should see their parents principled in focus.
By that I mean they will see their parents focused on provoking righteousness not wrath.
4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Parents that demand the impossible, parents that are not consistent in their discipline, and parents that are “too angry” are not principled in their focus on raising godly children.
Don’t get me wrong it is difficult not sometimes do these things, but a properly principled focus on “not provoking wrath” in one’s child is vital to their spiritual welfare.
Children should see their parents principled in modeling.
In other words, parents must not give the excuse of “do what I say not what I do.”
14 I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 I urge you, then, be imitators of me.
Parents remember that kids are absorbing influence from you and if not you then someone else.
Let me be clear, parents don’t have to be perfect, and they won’t be, but they certainly must be striving to be perfect.
48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Children should see their parents principled relationships.
What I mean by this is that parents must be principled in seeking a proper relationship with their children.
Kids have to know two main things.
First, they are significant, which means their soul matters to you and God.
Second, they are secure in their home with you.
These two things help guard kids from believing the lies of Satan and not the truth of God.
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
11 Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, 12 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The stronger the parents are principled in their relationship with their kids the more their kids will seek their parents advice and not those that belong to Satan.
Parents must…
Communicate love.
Schedule time.
Focus their attention on their children.
Give their children eye contact.
Give their children meaningful embraces.
Have fun with their children.
Pray together, study together, worship together for God, and fight together against sin with their children.
The question is “how do parents know if they are being effective” in raising their children to serve the Lord?”
God actually gives us the measuring stick for this in Luke 2:52 where God describes the…
Fourfold Development Of A Child.
Fourfold Development Of A Child.
The Mental Development.
This is a child’s growth in wisdom.
Luke 2:52 (ESV)
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
The Physical Development.
This is a child’s growth physically.
Luke 2:52 (ESV)
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
The Spiritual Development.
This is the child’s favor with God.
Luke 2:52 (ESV)
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
The Social Development.
This is the child’s favor with man.
Luke 2:52 (ESV)
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
Summary
Summary
Raising children to serve the Lord takes a home full of wisdom.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Their is a bird that is called a “cow bird.”
Some of you might be familiar with it, as it is considered a “brood parasite” bird, which means that it does not make a nest, but rather lays her eggs in another birds nest and lets that other bird raise her children.
Neither the mother bird nor the father bird have anything to do with the taking care of or development of their young, rather they focus on “making as many eggs as possible, sometimes as many as three dozen” instead of raising their children properly.
Unfortunately, we live in a society that often acts like the “cowbird” instead of raising their children to serve the Lord.
What this means is that the church has a responsibility to “raise” the cowbird children, and if we do we can have a proper impact on their lives and help them break that cycle and godly parents themselves one day.
Raising children to serve the Lord isn’t easy, it takes a ton of time and effort, but the results are worthy every second, every pain, every moment it takes to do it.
Joshua 24:15 (ESV)
15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
