Train Up A Child
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
One of the most difficult and terrifying experiences for a parent today is that day when we drop our kids off at college. Not only are they no longer kids, but they no longer have us there all the time trying to steer them away from bad choices. We also know that many, many bad choices will present themselves to them during those years!
All these are tests that reveal their core values. Core values are what drive a person’s decision making. They are less about what someone says, and more about how someone lives…especially when they have the option to make their own decisions.
This morning we’ve been focusing on the bookends of childhood: conception to high school graduation...
All children within that spectrum are part of a world that in many ways is different from the world those of us who are adults lived in. Certainly there are certain aspects of the world that are the same, but most people would agree that the world is a very different place today.
Something that remains the same, however, is the fact that most parents want their children to live good lives; in many cases, lives that were better than theirs.
But an interesting question to consider is, “What does it mean to live a good life?” As we answer this question, we will discover a lot about our core values. Is the great purpose of life to get a good job?
To acquire stuff? To live for personal happiness (i.e. comfort, leisure, and pleasure)? Or, is there more to living a good life? We will consider this by looking at Proverbs 22:6
Focal Verse: Proverbs 22:6
Focal Verse: Proverbs 22:6
Read Proverbs 22:6
What is a proverb?
What is a proverb?
A proverb is a statement that is generally true, worded to be memorable.
Generally true...
Not necessarily a promise...
Key of Proverbs is receiving wisdom...
See Proverbs 1:1-7
Memorable...
Who is this proverb for?
Who is this proverb for?
Parents
Children
The church
What is this proverb saying?
What is this proverb saying?
Train up a child...
Train up a child...
To develop a person’s behavior by instruction and practice
Also, to set apart to a particular use.
How do we train a child up?
Training requires accepting responsibility.
Training requires accepting responsibility.
Perpetual adolescence
Thinking it’s other people’s responsibility
Education is not the school’s responsibility alone.
Christian education is not the church’s responsibility alone.
Training requires effort on the part of the trainers.
Training requires effort on the part of the trainers.
Personal growth
Biblical teaching happens through lessons and through modeling. But are absolutely vital.
The ministry of presence
Patience
Discipline
Folly is bound up in the heart of a child,
but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
Do not withhold discipline from a child;
if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.
The rod and reproof give wisdom,
but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.
The way he should go...
The way he should go...
What way should he or she go?
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 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.
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 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.
Even when he is old he will not depart from it...
Even when he is old he will not depart from it...
What does this tell us?
Many who are brought up in the way of the Lord will not depart from it.
Some who do depart for a time will come back.
Some who do depart will not come back, but it should be because we failed to fulfill our responsibilities.
Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.