The Teaching: Homemade Disciples
Review and Intro:
Ephesians 6:4 - Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
WHO
WHY
WHERE / WHEN
TODAY: - we are going to cover HOW and WHAT
How is a Parent to Teach? Specific Ways to Teach Your Children:
- By asking Questions and evaluating life circumstances.
Deuteronomy 6:7 - You shall teach them diligently to your sons 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 up.
- By being an Example.
Philippians 4:9 - The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things...
- By intentionally conducting a family "Worship Time".
What Is A Parent To Teach? Specific Things to Teach Your Children:
- Children (1st 5 years) – Teach Obedience.
Ephesians 6:1-2 - Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise).
- Youth (age 6-12) - Teach Character qualities.
- Attentiveness
- Initiative
- Contentment
- Gratefulness
- Teens (13-18) – Teach preparation for Adulthood.
- To apply the Word of God in decision-making.
- To find their identity in Christ.
- To make wise choices in the area of friendships and companions.
- To be strong against sexual temptation.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Like to review what we've been talking about so far, we're doing a series called Parenting on Purpose.
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Do you remember week one, we talked about the target.
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The target.
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And the target is your child's heart.
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And we said, "Ready, aim, fire." Remember, ready?
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Three trues that you have to get down before you can even think about this discipleship thing.
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Ready?
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First of all, it starts with your relationship with Christ, okay?
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You're not going to teach your kids something that you don't have yourself.
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So it has to start with you have to have a personal walk, you have to be born again, you have to walk in that love relationship with Christ yourself before any of this other stuff is going to make sense.
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The second key truth is, you've got to get this down, your kid is a sinner, okay?
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And I would challenge you to travel the world, You will not find any more beautiful babies than you will find in this church.
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You will not.
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But they are sinners.
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And if you don't believe me, parents, just wait.
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Just wait.
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They are going to prove that they are self-centered and selfish and they're going to think the world revolves around them.
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Why?
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Because we all have that.
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Every single one of us are born with that.
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We also saw that the Word of God needs to be your source of authority.
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If you're going to disciple your kids - like we talked about with marriage - marriage is God's thing, you've got to do God's thing in God's way.
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It's the same with parenting.
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Parenting was God's idea.
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Discipling your kids is God's idea.
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So if you're going to do God's thing, you're going to do it God's way and the Bible has to be the source of authority.
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So ready? Aim.
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The aim is to make disciples, to reproduce yourself.
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You've already reproduced yourself physically by having a child.
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is reproducing yourself spiritually, teaching your child what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
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That's ready aim. Ready aim, fire.
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We talked about going after the heart.
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That your child is going to make idols.
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And your job as a parent is to tear those idols down and to exalt Jesus Christ instead.
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You're going after the heart.
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You're going after the heart.
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You're going after the heart.
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It's not about modifying behavior.
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with a monkey or a dog, okay?
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We're talking about going after your child's heart.
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Okay, and then we talked about the team last week.
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Mom and dad unite.
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The best thing you can do for your kids is to have a strong marriage.
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We talked about last week how dads, the charge for you biblically is to not provoke your children, but to bring them up.
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And moms, moms, your job is to establish a home that is ordered and holy.
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So today we're gonna talk about the teaching.
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The teaching, Ephesians chapter six, verse four.
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Flashback, we started this last week, but Ephesians chapter six, verse four says, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, "but bring them up in the discipline "and instruction of the Lord." And today we're gonna focus on the last part of that verse, the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
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Each parent has a responsibility to help a child to build inner convictions based on God's word.
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And our goal in this series, this is very much a parenting 101 sort of a thing, but our goal is to cover the who, what, where, when, why and how of parenting.
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And we're not going in that order, but we've already covered the who, right?
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The parents.
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A parent is a disciple maker.
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Comes from the Great Commission, Matthew 28.
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Jesus said, "Go and make disciples of all nations." It has to start in your home.
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Children are to be won to Christ, and then discipled as they seek to become like Christ.
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And parent, here's your job.
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You must help your child to think through decisions from God's perspective.
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So that when the child is on his own, when your child is on her own, he or she will own their faith and they will make decisions based on their own convictions.
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Meaning you need to teach your child to own their faith.
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Not I do this because this is what mom and dad want or I do this because mom and dad that are watching, because as soon as they get out of your sight, they're going to live by a different set of rules.
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But your faith, parents, your faith is not your child's.
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You have to get that down.
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I don't care how close your walk is with the Lord, you can have the Bible memorized, and you can be walking in the Spirit more than any other person on this planet.
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That doesn't mean anything when it comes to your child.
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Your faith is not your child's faith.
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I know some wonderful people, I know missionaries that have children - some are missionaries, and others are living a blatant, anti-Christ, rebellious lifestyle.
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Same children from the same household and the same parents.
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Like, what happened there?
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These children have their own will.
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They're going to be making their own choices.
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We talked about this before.
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Discipling your kids, It's not like making cookies where you just kind of throw everything in and you follow the instructions and then you bake them and then they come out and they're always the same.
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Chocolate chip cookies, always the same.
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Same ingredients, same oven, always taste the same.
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Kids aren't like that.
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Kids are not like that.
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It's your job, parents, to influence them, to encourage them, to love them, to teach them.
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Your child will not be saved because you are.
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that's not going to happen by accident.
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Okay?
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Your child is not going to come to Christ by accident.
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So that's who?
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Parents, this is on you.
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The discipleship of your children.
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Our job as a church, excuse me, is to assist you, but our job is not to replace you.
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We want to come alongside.
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But discipling your kids, parents, biblically, that falls on you.
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We'll help.
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So that's who.
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Secondly, why?
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And that's why I'm holding this arrow.
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Why Psalm 127 says that children are like arrows in the hand of a warrior.
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Why an arrow?
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Why not an axe or a sword?
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Well because an arrow is fired out and in those days you had to make your own arrows and you had to cut that thing straight and if you didn't cut it straight it wasn't going to fly where you intended it.
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So your job as a parent is to disciple because someday you're going to be launching your children from your home. You want them to fly where you aim. That's the why.
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That's who, that's why. Where and when? The answer for both of those questions is always. That comes from Deuteronomy chapter 6. We're going to be looking at that in just a moment. But where should we be discipling our kids? Everywhere.
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When? Always. Not just Sunday morning. Okay, not just Saturday night. It should be happening all the time but today I want to cover specifically the how and the what of discipleship okay so we're going to be getting really specific today can you handle that all right first of all how is a parent to teach how is a parent to teach I want you to write these down these are specific ways to teach your children. And the first one is this, letter A, by asking questions and evaluating life circumstances. See, this is one of the problems. See, we have kids that grow up and they go to Sunday school or harvest kids or whatever, and then they go to youth group, and then they go off to college, and suddenly we see this huge drop off. They go to college and They stop going to church.
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They stop worshiping.
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They're not interested anymore.
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Well, what happened?
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Well, here's what happened.
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The child never learned the connection between the word of God and everyday life.
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They think this is the Sunday thing.
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Okay, this is the book that we use Sunday morning, but Monday through Saturday, there's no relevance here.
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And when we disciple our kids to think that way, I go, dad doesn't use the Bible except he does it off for Sunday or when the preacher comes over or whatever.
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When you disciple your kids to think that this is just a Sunday morning thing, of course there's a disconnect.
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It becomes some empty religion instead of a lifestyle walk with Christ.
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So that's why, first of all, ask questions and evaluate life circumstances always.
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That's why Deuteronomy 6, verse seven says, "You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them." Look at this, "When you sit in your house." When you're sitting around the house, you should be talking about how the Word of God applies.
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And when you walk by the way, when you're out and about, you know, when you're going on vacation, you're going to Walmart or whatever, you should be talking about these things while you're out and about.
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And when you lie down, okay, even when it's bedtime, you're lying down to rest, you should be talking about these things.
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When you should rise up, it should be priority in your day.
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You should be looking, parents, you should be looking for teaching opportunities in the normal routines of life.
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The normal routines of life.
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We're talking about things like school, if your child is old enough to work.
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Talking about decision making.
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Talking about complaining over hardship, we'll talk more about that in a second.
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Talking about their friendships.
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You should be looking at every facet of your child's life as an opportunity for discussion about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ in that context.
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You need to help parents, you need to help your children think through issues biblically by asking good questions and working to help the child sharpen his or her answers.
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in what areas. Drop these three things down. These are some areas, specifically, that you should be looking at as teachable moments.
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The first one is the most obvious one. Let's talk about trials.
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Let's talk about trials when there's a death of a loved one, for example, or when a family member has a serious physical illness. You know, some families have not yet had that happen to them.
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I've talked to some people very old in life to say, "I haven't had a major death in my family." Are you prepared to walk through that with your children when that does happen?
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Because it's going to happen. Again, somebody gets a physical illness, you know, we had a family member that had such a severe stroke and is still recovering from that, That should be something that we're able to walk through with our kids, teaching them.
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A great way to teach again is by asking questions.
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Even sometimes if we don't have all the answers, it's okay to seek them together.
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Asking questions in trials, any trial, asking questions like, "What are some possible reasons that God might have allowed this trial?" "What good can possibly come from a trial like this?" Even through this trial, are there some things that we can be thankful for despite how hard it is?
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Ask those types of questions.
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Otherwise, you're going to have your children grow up thinking that as soon as the trial comes, it's all bad, it's all horrible, the world is falling.
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Can we look at this trial from God's perspective?
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Does God use trials?
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Does God bring good from trials?
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And what could possibly be happening here?
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Your child is not going to think like that by default.
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parent, your job is to help them walk through that process.
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Another area, not just trials, but let's talk about authority.
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We'll get more in this in a second, but this is an area you need to keep your kids thinking through, authority, now more than ever, right?
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What's going to happen when you don't obey authority?
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What's going to happen when you go to work and you're disrespectful to your boss like you're disrespectful to your parents, or you speak to your boss, or you use that tone.
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What's going to happen if you treat a police officer that way, thinking through issues of authority, thinking through decision making?
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When your child is faced with decisions, whether it's how should I dress, or which job should I take, which college should I attend, which decision you think God wants you to make?
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Or what's going to happen in either scenario?
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If this happens, let's walk through this.
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What's going to happen if you make this decision?
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On the other hand, what's going to happen if you make this decision?
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So first of all, parents, you should be - this is how - you should be asking questions and looking at every life circumstance your child's going through.
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And let's talk about this.
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Let's kind of examine this together.
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Walk your child through that.
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Letter B.
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"How is a parent to teach?" Here's a big one, "by being an example." By being an example, Philippians 4:9 says, "The things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice such things." This verse applies more than anywhere in parenting.
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Your children see who you really are, not who you say you are.
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Okay?
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Your children see who you are, not who you say you are.
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I remember asking somebody one time, "Is your dad a Christian?" And they said, "Oh, if you heard him pray in church, you would sure think so." That was all they said.
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And I said, "Message received." Meaning, he puts on a front in front of the church people, but when he's home, he lives like the devil.
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Your children see that.
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You can fool me.
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You might even be able to fool Mark or Jay or Darren or one of our elders.
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You might be able to fool us, but you cannot fool your wife and kids.
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They know who you really are.
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They see your example.
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They see your example.
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So what do your children see in the way you handle things like anger, frustration?
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How do your children see you handling that?
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I remember years and years and years ago we had foster kids.
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I was teaching my one foster kid how to play the PlayStation or whatever, I can't remember what game he was playing.
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He wasn't even mad.
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I don't even know what was going on, but he just, he took the controller and threw it.
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He goes, "Oh, your pee stinks!" And we're like, "Your pee stinks?" Then it hit me what he was doing.
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He saw me playing some stupid game and my guy got killed or whatever, and I threw my controller down and I said, "Oh, for Pete's sakes." He thought I said, "Oh, your pee stinks." And my point is, he had no idea what I was doing why I was doing it, but he was imitating that.
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Like this is what we do.
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When the game's not working how we want it to work, we throw it down and we comment on the smell of our urine.
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Well, your pee stinks.
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He saw the example.
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Boy, was that convicting for me.
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He's watching.
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Even the little things.
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Your kids see how you handle giving.
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The example you set in giving.
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whether it's to that needy neighbor, to the church, whoever.
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Your kids see how generous you are, or how generous you aren't, or how generous you want people to think you are.
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Your kids see that.
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Thankfulness.
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We're talking about being an example.
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Your kids see how thankful you are.
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You're constantly walking around, "Everything stinks.
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Everything stinks in Washington.
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Everything stinks in my job.
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Everything stinks in my church." And they never hear, "You know, we have so much to be thankful or look at how God's provided.
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Yeah, things are tough sometimes, but look at how God has provided for us.
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We should thank him for that.
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Let me see your example.
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A conflict resolution.
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Conflict resolution.
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Your kids see how you do that.
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You have a conflict with somebody in the church, in the workplace, in the family, willing to talk about it, willing to sit down.
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Do they see you do like so many do, just like I'm walking away, I'm not gonna have a conversation about it.
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I'm gonna pretend that this person doesn't exist.
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writing them off. That's what a lot of people do when it comes to conflict resolution.
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You're discipling your kids how to handle conflict by your example. Instead you say well here's what the Bible says about handling conflict. Matthew 18, Jesus gives us step by step. Here's how we should do this so let's go after that. Be an example. How should a parent teach? We're asking questions, we're being an example. The third thing is by intentionally conducting a family worship time or some type of Bible teaching, discipleship, worship time in the home, whatever you want to call it, I encourage you to try a variety of things. Whether it's discussing the sermon, maybe your child takes notes, like, "Hey, what are like three things you heard in the sermon today that really hit you?" Or stuff that you're like, "Wow, I really never heard that before." Or there's some things in the sermon you're like, "I'm not I'm pretty sure I agree with that.
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The Harvest Kids lessons.
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Mandy's been putting some stuff together for older kids to take home and work through with their parents.
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That's an opportunity for discipling your kids.
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That's the way the church is helping do that.
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Whether it's learning Bible verses, discussing current events, seeing things on the news, and how does that line up with the Bible.
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I brought a couple things I wanted to show you today, actually, just a couple of things that we do in our home.
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This is one, first of all, that I've done in Pioneer Club.
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Brooke, you probably remember this.
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Remember the Bible memory verse?
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I used to do this in the whiteboard at Pioneer Club.
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I do this at home in memorizing scripture with Cade.
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Cade knows a ton of scripture.
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And what we do is I just write the verse on the whiteboard.
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This is one of my favorite verses because this is one that I need a lot.
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I actually had this on the wall of my office in my old church because this is one that the Lord's really taught me so much.
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Proverbs 19, 11, "Good sense makes one slow to anger, "and it is his glory to overlook an offense." Like, we all need that verse, don't we?
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Proverbs has so many great verses to teach.
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I would say probably, you look at Cage verses, probably the biggest percentage of verses he has memorized from the book of Proverbs.
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But good sense makes one slow to anger, and his glory to overlook an offense.
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So what I do, we'll go through it, I'll have him say it, and then I'll say it, and I'll have him say it, and I'll go through it, I'll just start taking out words.
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Like good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.
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And then we'll go back through, okay, say it, then we'll go back through again, and I'll take out more words and put more blanks.
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So by the time we go through this a few times, we take out more words and it's nothing but blanks.
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Then we erase all the blanks and he has the verse.
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And I usually get some little prize, something from, you know, whether the dollar store, five below, you know, the dollar store for rich people, or, you know, we have some kind of little prize or something as a reward, but we'll memorize this verse.
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And we don't just, we don't just stop there.
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We memorize the verse, I wrote on my cell phone.
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We would talk about that verse in the car, whether it was on the way to school.
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Hey, what's your verse this week?
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Good sense makes one slow to anger and it is his glory to overlook and offense.
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What does that mean?
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Let's take a look at the first part, Kate.
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What does the first part of that mean?
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Good sense makes one slow to anger.
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It means I shouldn't get mad right away.
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It means I shouldn't lose my temper.
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It means that I should stop and slow down instead of just like flying off the handle.
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Good sense makes one slow to anger.
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It's his glory to overlook and offense.
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What does that mean?
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It means everything doesn't have to make me mad, right?
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And we'll talk about that verse in the car or on our walks or whatever.
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What's your verse this week? What's your verse this week, Kate?
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What's your verse this week? And we'll talk about what that means.
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Something else that we do, we pick this up at the Family Christian store.
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This is like this giant Bible comic book.
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And we'll take a story, and we're working through this now, actually, and we'll read a section. And then I'll ask questions.
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I'll be like, if you get three out of five questions, we got a prize for you or whatever.
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And, but we read through this comic book together, different chunks.
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You understand what's happening here, what's going on, who are the main stories, what's happening.
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But these are just a couple of the things that we have done in order to teach the children about the Lord in our own home.
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I know somebody might be saying, well, what do you do for Owen?
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Because he doesn't really talk or interact much.
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And something that I've done with Owen, something we've done with Owen is just going on prayer walks with him.
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We'll walk and I'll pray for him, I'll pray over him.
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And then on the way back, I'll share the gospel with him.
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Like, well, what does he say?
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He doesn't say anything.
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Like, and why do you do that?
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I'll tell you why I do that, because I believe Romans 1:16.
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It says, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel, "for it is the power of God." Do you believe the gospel is the power of God?
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I figure exposing him even to the gospel is exposing him to the power of God.
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And we would walk and just share the gospel with him.
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Oh, and do you know how much God loves you?
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Do you know that Jesus died for you?
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Do you know that Jesus rose from the dead so that we can have eternal life?
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I'll just share the gospel with him.
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Just lay it out for him.
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And I don't know how much of that's being retained, absorbed, I don't know.
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But I know that he's being exposed to the gospel.
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Okay?
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So, just accordingly for your house.
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So, that's how, that's how a parent's to teach, right?
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You've got asking questions, you know, evaluating life circumstances, being an example, secondly, by intentionally conducting some sort of a family worship.
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So, what is a parent to teach?
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I'll finish up with this.
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What is a parent to teach?
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These are specific things to teach your children.
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Now, I'm going to give you an age breakdown here in a second.
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Before I do that, I'm going to say all ages, all ages, you should be teaching your child what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ or how to be saved.
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You should be teaching that to your child at all ages.
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What does it mean to be a follower of Christ?
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You should be teaching your child at all ages that the Word of God is the standard of truth.
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Okay, now let's get really specific.
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Some of the following comes from Shepherding a Child's Heart by Ted Tripp and The Age of Opportunity by Paul Tripp, and there's some other things added in there.
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But the primary focus we're going to look at in each of these age groups is simply the big picture, the thing that you wanna focus on, the key area that I need you to emphasize.
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And there's going to be some degree of overlap for each of the ages.
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But first of all, let's look at children for the first five years.
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If that's you, if you have children five and under, you're like, "Well, what should I be focusing on?" You should be teaching them obedience.
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Being a person under authority.
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Those first five years of life, you should teach your children obedience, what it means to be under authority.
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Ephesians 6 says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
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Honor your father and mother," which is the first commandment with a promise.
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The Paul says, "Of the ten commandments, the first one that had a promise attached to it was about honoring your parents, about obeying your parents." What does it mean to obey your parents?
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It means submission to God's authority through your parents that causes that child to do what he or she is told immediately without excuse, complaint, or question.
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And parents, that's something I really want to commend to you, is to teach your child immediate obedience.
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Immediate obedience.
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Because you know what we do? We've all done it.
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We've all done it.
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Get over here.
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Get over, one.
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Get over here, one, two.
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What, two and a half?
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Two and three quarters?
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Two and seven eighths?
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I mean, haven't we all done that?
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I've done that.
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What are you teaching your child there?
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You're teaching your child, oh, mom's really mad.
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That means I have about 15 seconds or so before she gets serious.
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You should be teaching your child immediate obedience.
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Like when mom and dad says to do something, I should do it immediately.
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I should be listening and do it immediately.
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The first five years, focus on that.
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Listen to what I'm saying.
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Act immediately.
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Youth ages 6 to 12-- and I'm going through these things very quickly.
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We could spend weeks and weeks and weeks in this stuff.
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I'm just trying to give you the flyby, OK?
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Youth ages 6 to 12, you need to be teaching character qualities.
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Children in this age group are capable of learning quickly and learning a lot.
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Children in this age group have a lot of questions and are able now to interact with and apply truth.
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And also, children in this age group are capable of very quickly establishing habits and very quickly able to break habits.
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OK?
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So your kid is like age 6 to 12.
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So easy to start and so easy to break habits.
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to go after that, character qualities.
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You should be going after character qualities like what?
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I have a list literally of, I think there's like 30 specific ones on that list.
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I'm just going to give you four specific.
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If you want more information, I can give you as much as you want.
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What character qualities, what kind of character qualities?
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You should be teaching attentiveness.
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Attentiveness.
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Attentiveness means showing respect for a person.
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When somebody's talking to you, you look at them.
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You listen to what they're saying. You answer appropriately.
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I encourage children and parents to disciple their children, especially when talking to adults, to use Mr. and Mrs.
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"Oh, that's so old-fashioned." You know what? It's respectful.
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It's respectful.
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To refer to people Mr., Mrs., Pastor, whatever.
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It's respectful.
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We're working on that in our home.
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You know, the other day, I guess it was more of a week or two ago, Cade called me old timer or something like that.
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Which at the time, to my shame, I just kind of brushed off.
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Until I heard him call somebody else that.
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Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
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Not so cute then.
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Even though he had no idea really what he was saying.
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It happened in the lobby.
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The church, he was greeting people and an elderly gentleman came and he goes, oh, hi, you're very old.
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Like, no, no, no.
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Respect.
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Teach your children respect.
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Attentiveness.
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Put your phone down and look them in the eye and talk to them.
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Attentiveness.
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You should be teaching your children initiative.
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Initiative.
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You should be teaching your children, look, see what needs done.
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And you should be able to start doing it without being told.
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We're working on that with our kids.
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feeding your animals taking the garbage when you see the garbage is full and it's your job to take the garbage out i shouldn't have to tell you what the garbage is full you should be able to see what you're not each children initiative here's another one contentment teacher children contentment realizing god has provided everything i need for my present happiness That's the tough one to teach your kids because the world is bombarding them with this.
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You gotta get the new, you gotta get the iPhone 9 or whatever and the iPad 6 and the PlayStation 7 or whatever. Like there's, you always have to get the biggest, next, newest, and...
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How about teach your children contentment? Look, God's giving you everything.
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God's giving you everything you need to be happy.
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The same vein. You should be teaching your children gratefulness.
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Teach your children gratefulness.
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Making known to God and to others in what ways they've benefited my life.
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Gratefulness. God, I am thankful for what you have done and express that to others. Hey, thank you.
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Like when our kids get something, when our kids get a gift, we make them write a thank you for it before they use the gift. Why? You need to learn how to be grateful.
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Let's just take that for granted. Grateful.
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Okay, ages 6 to 12, go after character qualities.
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Then finally, teens, ages 13 to 18, I would encourage you to teach preparation for adulthood.
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Kids in this age group, kids, they're not even kids, you know, the the whole teenage thing is a fabrication.
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We have in our culture this idea that there are kids and there are teenagers and there are adults, but that's not really true biblically, is it?
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What do we see biblically?
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There's two categories, aren't there?
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There's kids and there's what?
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Adults.
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You don't see this, well, there's this transition where you rebel and you don't take a bath and you listen to weird music or whatever.
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We call those the teenage years.
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And that is a complete fabrication.
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I hear people laughing.
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Did I strike a nerve there?
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Too far? Too much?
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I'm not talking about our kids.
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I'm talking about other people's teenagers.
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Unless it applies here.
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But there's children and there's adults, biblically.
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So we need to be teaching people in the teenage years, look, you're not some irresponsible, air-headed idiot.
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You are a young adult and you need to act like it you're going to be treated like it. You're an adult. And right now in these years you are becoming the man and the woman you're going to be for the rest of your life. There's some adult things to instill in this person during this season because this is the season really the bow is really drawn right. You know we've been spending the time when they were kids getting it straight and it's these teenage years that we're pulling it back and we're ready to fire and you You better make sure of some things.
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So if you have teenagers, and I'm sure Dan and Alicia would echo these things, because this is what they teach the kids in Arrow, four things, so much more, but just four things I want to commend to you.
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First of all, to apply the Word of God in decision-making.
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They're at an age that they're able to start doing some of this themselves.
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See life from God's point of view.
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Apply His Word, looking at the long view, understanding that decisions that I make now have a long range impact.
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Learn now, apply the Word of God in decision making.
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Let it be, it's so funny, I was working on this and then we went to men's group, our kickoff for men's group last Wednesday and this was the whole lesson.
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Here's something you need to teach your teenagers.
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Find their identity in Christ.
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find their identity in Christ.
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Not your job, not your abilities.
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And here's a big one for teenagers, not your friends, okay?
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You are not who your friends think you are, okay?
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The sum total of your persona is not, well, this is who my friends think I am, or my friends define me.
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Teach them to find their identity in Christ.
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Here's who Christ says you are.
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Here's what a born again child of God is according to His word.
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Find your identity in Christ.
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And speaking of friends, letter C, to make wise choices in the areas of friendship and companions.
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This is a big one that they're going to take with them the rest of their lives.
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But 1 Corinthians 15.33, Paul says, "Do not be deceived.
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"Bad company corrupts good morals." You need to make wise choices in the people you hang out with.
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The teenagers look around.
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Look around your friends.
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Are all your friends knuckleheads?
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I say this on the authority of God's word, you're probably a knucklehead too.
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Why? Because bad company corrupts good morals.
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When you surround yourself, I know this is true for me, when you surround yourself with people who love the Lord, love God's word, want to pursue Christ, when I'm around those people it makes me want to do that more.
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You become like the people you hang out with.
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That's reality. You need to make wise choices. Find people that are going to encourage you in your walk with Christ. Hang out with those people. Here's a big one. Not gonna get through a sermon like this without talking about this one, right? To be strong against sexual temptation. Parents are like, "No, I don't want to teach my kids that." Well, guess what? Somebody's going to teach your kids.
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Would you like it to be you?
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Or would you like it to be their friends?
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Would you like it to be the school?
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Somebody's going to teach your child about sex.
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Or your child's going to grow up with this idea that, "Oh, sex is a bad thing, and we don't talk about sex." "My church says that sex is this evil, forbidden thing." No, sex is a wonderful thing in its right context.
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You need to teach your kids that.
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Sex is a great thing. It's one of the greatest things that God created.
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You're going to use it in the way that he created it in order to maximize the joy and fulfillment that you get from it.
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Instead, people take this awesome gift and they misuse it and distort it and turn it into something wrong.
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So teach your child to be strong against sexual temptation.
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And we might be at this point in the sermon and you see your marching orders, you see how to teach, you see what to teach, and there's somebody here right now, right now somebody saying, "I changed my mind. I don't want this job." Well, guess what? If you have kids, you don't have a choice. You have a job. You are a disciple.
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So the question is not, "Are you a teacher?" The question is, "What kind of a teacher are you?" The question is not, "Are you a disciple maker in the home?" The issue is, "What kind of disciple maker are you in your home?" So we got the "who?" It's you, parents. We got the "why?" Because your child is like an arrow.
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And "A," how and what?
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Are you teaching your kids?
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Pray.
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Father in heaven, We can look at this task almost like your Word talks about the competency for ministry, and we can ask who is sufficient for these things, and the truth is none of us are.
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None of us are. None of us in this room have the creativity, the intelligence, the personality, the whatever to do this on our own, Father. We need you.
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And I pray, Father, I pray for every parent in this room.
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I pray for those who couldn't be with us today due to illness or whatever.
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I pray, Father, we would see our role as parenting as more than just babysitting or keeping kids protected and fed until they go out into the world.
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But it's our job to be intentionally teaching them.
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And I know with a sermon like this, there's so many more things that we could have said. But I pray Father, it's my prayer Father that this was just enough to get parents digging even deeper. To have a bit of a wake-up call to what this responsibility entails and that they're going to pursue even more.
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And yes, we've all failed. We thank you for the grace that you've already Father, by the power of Your promise, by the power of Your Spirit, we will try again today.
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In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Deuteronomy 6:7, Philippians 4:9, Ephesians 6:1-2
Part of fulfilling the command to "go make disciples" is teaching your own children. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Discuss specific ways you are actively teaching your children. If you are not currently doing anything, or if your children are still babies, what ways are you going to implement teaching in your home?
What's the best way to teach/encourage your child to receive Christ as Lord and Savior? At what age (of the child) should you start? How do you know when s/he has received Jesus?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for yourself, as a parent to see yourself as a disciple-maker. Discuss how you can do
this better than you currently are. What 3 changes are you going to make?