Teaching Responsibility

Sermon Notes November 10, 2019 Proverbs 19:3 Short Review Review the main points of the morning message. Focus on: The wise accept responsibility for all their choices and grow wiser. Some Questions: 1. There is a generational divide – where do you fit? Some say that if they were disciplined by the teacher they’d never tell their parents or they’d be disciplined again; others say that if a teacher ever “wronged” them she or he better be ready to face the parents. 2. Read Proverbs 19:3. How is the rage/anger a true picture of human nature? a. Have you ever experienced anger even when it was your choices which caused the problem? Examples? (Be honest!). b. Why do we respond with anger – and at whom? [why is our rage – indirectly – often against the Lord?] 3. Discuss Genesis 3:11,12 and Matthew 7:1-5 and our tendency to evade responsibility. How does blaming others help us in this evasion? 4. What are some of the things/people we blame when life goes wrong? Consider what’s happening in the culture, in our children, in our own lives. a. Are these things/these people to blame partially? b. If other things (parents, institutions, genetics, social and economic conditions, wrong done by others to us) are to blame partially for the challenges we face, how do we discern our own part, what we are responsible for? 5. Discuss the challenge of each of the following for those in charge of training children (teachers, SS teachers, parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles….) a. Being consistent with rules. Why is this hard? b. Follow-through. What does it cost us – practically – to do this? What are the challenges? c. Planning. Why is this a complex and difficult task? How do you establish goals and practical steps? [How do you learn priorities of the Word, choose your battles, learn from mistakes in parenting, discern the unique needs/ gifts of each child etc.?] 6. Why DID Jesus have to die on the cross? a. Discuss Galatians 6:7. What are practical ways to teach this rule of life? b. How does the cross of Christ “break” this rule?