PARENTING 101: MAMMA SANG BASS, DADDY SANG TENOR
DEUTERONOMY 11: 1-21
NOVEMBER 3, 2002
INTRODUCTION: GREAT THEOLOGY! KIDS STILL HAVE IT RIGHT!
1. Dear God, Please put another holiday between Christmas and Easter. There is nothing good in there now. Amanda
2. Dear God, Thank you for the baby brother but what I asked for was a
puppy. I never asked for anything before. You can look it up. Joyce
3. Dear Mr. God, I wish you would not make it so easy for people to come apart.
I had to have 3 stitches and a shot. Janet
4. Dear God, If we come back as somebody else, please don’t let me be Jennifer
Horton - because I hate her. Denise
6. God, I read the bible. What does begat mean? Nobody will tell me. Love, Alison
7. Dear God, How did you know you were God? Who told you? Charlene
8. Dear God, Is it true my Father won’t get in Heaven if he uses his golf words in the
house? Anita
9. Dear God, I bet it’s very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world.
There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it. Nan
10. Dear God, Did you really mean, Do Unto Others As They Do Unto You? If you did then I’m going to get even with my brother. Darla
11. Dear God, I like the story about Chanukah the best of all of them. You really made up
some good ones. I like walking on water, too. Glenn
12. Dear God, My Grandpa says you were around when he was a little boy. How far
back do you go?
13. Dear God, Do you draw the lines around the countries? If you don’t, who does? Nan
14. Dear God, It’s O. K. that you made different religions but don’t you get mixed up
sometimes? Arnold
15. Dear God, Did you mean for giraffes to look like that or was it an accident? Norma
16. Dear God, In bible times, did they really talk that fancy? Jennifer
17. Dear God, What does it mean you are a jealous God? I thought you had everything you wanted. Jane
18. Dear God, How come you did all those miracles in the old days and don’t do any now? Seymour
19. Dear God, Please send Dennis Clark to a different summer camp this year. Peter
20. Dear God, Maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they each had their own rooms. It works out OK with me and my brother. Larry
21. Dear God, I keep waiting for spring, but it never did come yet. What’s up? Don’t
forget. Mark
22. Dear God, You don’t have to worry about me. I always look both ways before I cross
the street. Dean
23. Dear God, My brother told me about how you are born but it just doesn’t sound right.
What do you say? Marsha
24. Dear God, If you watch in Church on Sunday I will show you my new shoes.
25. Dear God, Is Reverend Coe a friend of yours, or do you just know him through the
business? Donny
26. Dear God, In Sunday School they told us what you do for a job. Who does it when you are on vacation? Jane
27. Dear God, In school we read that Thomas Edison made light, but in Sunday School
they said you did it first. Did he steal your idea? Sincerely, Donna
28. Dear God, I do not think anybody could be a better God than you. Well, I just want
you to know that. I am not just saying that because you are already God. Charles
29. Dear God, It is great the way you always get the stars in the right place. Why can’t
you do that with the moon? Jeff
30. Dear God, I am doing the best I can. Really. Frank
31. Dear God, I didn’t think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset you made on
Tuesday night. That was really cool. Carol
TRANSITION THOUGHT: Our text for today is the reply for the Dear God questions. Today we discover what it is to be a godly parent and exactly what it means to “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it (Proverbs 22: 6).” As always the word is our teacher and our disciplinarian. Our text explains for us God’s expectation of parenting.
THESIS SENTENCE: “TRAIN A CHILD IN THE WAY HE SHOULD GO, AND WHEN HE IS OLD HE WILL NOT TURN FROM IT (PROVERBS 22:6).”
TRAINING A CHILD IN THE WAY HE SHOULD GO IS…
I. SHARING THE PAST (VV. 1-7)
The Key Thought Here is Remembrance: “Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm; the signs he performed and the things he did …(11: 2-3a)” ALSO NOTE 4: 9 – 10 “Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the hings your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Remember the day…”
You see Moses knew that one day our children would ask! “In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?’ tell him: ‘We were slaves…(6:20-21a)’”
WHERE DO WE BEGIN? SHARING THE PAST IS TEACHING…
A. Captivity and Deliverance
1. The Story of Egypt! The greatest story in scripture until the coming of Christ Jesus!
2. The plagues and the plundering! The reality of the Power of God over the Greatest Power on Earth!
B. Exodus and Wandering
1. The Parting of the Red Sea!
2. The Destruction of Pharaoh and His Army
3. “It was not your children who saw what He did for you in the desert until you arrived at this place.”
4. The manna and the quale, and shoes that never wear out!!
C. Disobedience and Punishment
1. Numbers 16 tells the Story, but Moses left out Korah.
2. God will not tolerate sinful men trying to usurp the power of His anointed leader.
3. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram complained that Moses was claiming to be holier than Thou (verse 3)!
4. They also complained that Moses had taken them from a land flowing with milk and honey and had brought them to the desert to die (verse 13). 5. The story is powerful and God separates Moses and all Israel from these men and 250 others that He consumed into the earth and then closed it up again (vv. 31-36)
6. I wish this was the end of the story on disobedience, but as soon as this happened, another group of NAY SAYERS attacked God’s anointed and a plague from heaven came and consumed thousands before Aaron could make intercession for them (vv. 46-50). In total, 14,700 people died because they grumbled against God!
TRUTH: UNLESS WE TEACH OUR CHILDREN THE TRUTH OF THE PAST, THEY ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT! THEY MUST KNOW GOD’S PAST ACTIONS!!
ILLUSTRATION: THE TOP TEN THINGS YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR FATHER
10.When he was your age, kids had to walk six miles to school
in the snow and rain . . . uphill both ways.
9. If he had acted like you, his father would have knocked
him into the middle of next week.
8. When he was your age, kids had to make their own fun.
7. You weren’t born in a barn.
6. When he was your age, he had to work for what he got.
5. You don’t wanna make Dad stop the car.
4. “Because I said so” is a reason that makes perfect sense to an
adult.
3. You’d better stop crying or he’ll give you a reason to cry (like
you didn’t already have one).
2. You’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached.
And the #1 thing you learned from your father . . .
1. Money doesn’t grow on trees!
SOURCE: Submitted by Bob Hostetler, Cobblestone Community Church, Oxford, Ohio.
II. LIVING THE PRESENT (VV. 8-17)
PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH! IF WE TEACH THE TRUTH ABOUT DELIVERANCE, OBEDIENCE, DISOBEDIENCE AND PUNISHMENT, SHOULDN’T WE LIVE IT?
A. LIVING IS OBSERVING THE COMMANDS (verse 8)
1. “Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time (4:40).”
2. “And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us. That will be our righteousness (6:25).”
3. The key term in observation is obedience. To observe a the commands is not just to watch, but to obey. James states that we must be doers of the word and not just hearers only ( 1:22).
4. Our text reads, “Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess (verse 8).”
5. Observing is keeping, doing, and finding strength in the commands of God.
B. LIVING IS ENJOYING THE BLESSING (verses 9-12 and 14-15)
1. Possession is nine tenth of the Law.
2. The blessing for observing the Commands of God is possession of the land. 3. It is knowing the blessings of God for our Children and Grand children and even to a “thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands (7:9).”
4. Verses 9-12 tell the story: No irrigation is needed, God will water the crops! 5. Also read verse 14!!
C. LIVING IS FAITHFULNESS (verse 13)
1. Faithfulness is obedience! ARE YOU SEEING A TREND HERE?
2. Faithfulness is: to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
D. LIVING IS AVOIDING GOD’S ANGER (verse 16 – 17)
1. If we are careful, we avoid God’s anger.
2. Avoiding God’s anger is overcoming Temptation, not temptation overcoming you!
3. Avoiding God’s anger keeps the draught away!
4. Failure to avoid God’s anger ends in perishing from the land!
ILLUSTRATION: SPIVEY SHERRIN “WHO I AM MAKES A DIFFERENCE” EMAIL STORY ABOUT A CLASS PROJECT WHERE A TEACHER TELLS HER SENIORS IN HIGHSCHOOL WHAT A DIFFERENCE THEY made to her and to the class and then gave them a blue ribbon which read, “Who I am makes a difference.” She then gave each student 3 more ribbons and asked them to give one away and then let the person have the remaining ribbons until all were gone.
Junior Executive – BOSS – BOSS’S SON – SUICIDE NOTE UNUSED WHO YOU ARE DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
III. PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE (VV. 18-21)
IF WE HAVE SHARED THE PAST WORKINGS OF GOD, IF WE ARE LIVING THE PRESENT WITH GOD, THEN WE MUST TEACH OUR CHILDREN FOR A FUTURE!
A. TEACH THE WORD (vv. 18-19)
1. Teaching is being into the word.
2. Teaching is a verb, it requires action!
3. Teaching is a command!
B. TEACH ALL THE TIME
1. Back to living the present, teaching is not only what we say, but more importantly how we live, all day long!
2. Teach “when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up (verse 19).”
3. Chapter 6: 4-7 tells the same story. It is about a lifestyle of communicating the truth of our God!!
C. MAKE IT OBVIOUS
1. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on you foreheads (verse 18).
2. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates (verse 20). 3. Don’t hide the truth, display the truth!!
D. ENJOY THE FUTURE!
1. “So that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heaves are above the earth (verse 21).”
2. “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it (Proverbs 22:6)”
ILLUSTRATION: FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!
A little girl had been trying for months to learn the art of tying her shoes. She finally grasped the knack and was able to do it by herself. Her parents expected the child to be delighted, but were surprised by her disappointment. Her father asked why she was crying.
She sobbed, "I just learned how to tie my shoes."
He said, "That’s wonderful, Honey, but why are you crying?"
She replied, "Because now I’ll have to do it all by myself for the rest of my life."
SOURCE: "The Sermon on the Amount," Heidi Husted, Preaching Today, Tape 122.
CONCLUSION: Today we have heard the call to train our children. We can only do so by sharing the truth of God’s past actions, both positive and negative. We must live as God’s children before our children if they are to really know God as truth. And we must train our children in the word of God.
How are you doing? Are you sharing the past, living in the present, and training for a future? Do you want God to help?
Let’s commit our lives and our Children to God today! Will you?
BENEDICTION: COLOSSAINS 3: 15—17!
