Parents and children I

Pale Ni Sermon Genesis 5:22-27

Into: Father’s Day can be joyful and difficult all at the same time. Some of us have amazing fathers, who have cared for us really well. Others do not have fathers or have experienced a strained relationship with their fathers. 

– They are graded every day at school, by friends, by others

-treat them as Jesus treats you. You screw up every day, you make poor decisions, your actions hurt others. And how does God treat you? He never says, ”I’m disappointed in you.” When your heavenly Father looks at you, he already knows you’re a screw up, that’s why he sent Jesus to die for you. So now, God the Father sees the accomplishments of Jesus when He looks at you. 

Methuselah. He is known as the oldest man who ever lived. According to the Bible he lived 969 years. The reason for this I won’t go into this morning, but think about a person living for 969 years. Can you imagine how many tennis shoes that boy would wear out? 

How many clothes he wore? Enoch lived for 65 years and begat Methuselah. Then in verse 22 it says, And Enoch walked with God after he began Methuselah. 

1. Walk with God. Fale ruangah Pathian kan thei deuh, biakinn kan phan deuh. A little boy came home one Sunday morning..I told my teacher when I die I want to go where my daddy goes.

2. Love their mom. A father of five came home with a new toy and called his children to meet him in the den. Once they arrived he asked them which one of them should be given the present. ”Who is the most obedient and never talks back to Mother and does everything Mother says to do?” There was silence, then they all said together, ”You play with it, Daddy” and they all walked out. 

God wants our children growing up in homes where their Father loves their Mother and their Mother loves their Father and both Father and Mother love God! 

In fact .. the word ”Father” in the verb form means, ”the founder .. to be the foundation .. to author.” You Fathers are the authors of your home. And God wants you to author a home where Jesus is Lord … where love and forgiveness prevails .. where the word of God is practiced … and godliness is modeled! That’s the kind of home God blesses with blessings! 

Father: Direction! ”And you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” 

3. Do not  Provoke Colossians 3.20, ”Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.”

– To ”provoke” is the opposite of encourage. What every child needs is encouragement .. not provoking. 

”bring them up” (????????????????????means ”to nourish them .. to provide for them with tender care.” So how does a Father nourish his children? Look at the text: verse 4, ”bring them up (nourish them) in the training and admonition of the Lord.” 

”Training” (?????????speaks of discipline, educating them .. cultivating their minds and morals. And how do we cultivate their minds and morals .. how do we educate them? ”in the training and admonition of the Lord” .. that’s how! 

”Admonition” (??????????speaks of training and warning by your words! Psalm 78.5-7 says that God ”commanded our fathers, that they should teach .. their children, that the generation to come might know, even the children to be born .. to put their confidence in God and .. keep His commandments.” 

4. Time with children

And yet .. the average five year old spends 25 minutes a week interacting with their Father. That’s about 3.5 minutes a day. That same child spends 25 hours a week watching Television. Now let me ask you a question: who is cultivating the minds and morals of your children? Hollywood or Fatherhood? 

I remember a statement I read by Peter Lynch. He said this. No man, on his deathbed, ever regretted that he did not spend enough time in his office. Work is important but it is not the main thing. Jerry Vines

Proverbs 29.15b, ”A child left to himself bring shame to his mother.” Here is what every child needs from their Father: Direction! ”And you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” 

Billy Graham said that when the Father takes the first step toward Christ and becomes a man of God .. that 70% of the time the entire family will come to Jesus and be saved. But if only the Mother is a believer .. the percentage drops to 15%. 

Moms and Dads … let me tell you something: if you don’t guide and influence your children heavenward and Godward and churchward .. you will be on the only one who is not influencing them! The world will influence them away from God! The drug pushers will have their influence on them! How can you say that you love your children and not want to guide them to God? Dr. Ernest L. Easley 

5. Obey your parents Efesa 6:1-4 

Boys and girls …listen to your pastor! The Bible says that obeying your parents not only pleases your parents … it pleases God! Which means when you disobey your parents .. your disobedience not only displeases your parents … it displeases God! 

Now look what God intends for the disposition of children in verse 1, ”Children, obey your parents ..” You ought to circle the word ”obey” (??????????????????????It comes from a Greek compound word. The first word (???? means ”under” and the second word (??????means ”to hear.” When you put these two words together it means ”to hear under.” It refers to somebody that hears under the authority of somebody else. In other words .. ”to obey” is to have a disposition of submission to their parents. 

”What does it mean to honor my parents?” Well .. the word ”honor” (????????????means to ”to treat them with respect .. to be courteous to them .. to value your parents.” Do you know the secret of honoring your parents? Obeying your parents! That’s right! You don’t honor those you disobey and you don’t disobey those you honor! 

Paul is giving us a bible principle. He’s saying that when children obey and honor their parents that they are going to avoid things that could harm and kill them. 

You’re not going to drink alcohol or go to parties where there is going to be drugs and drinking if you’re obeying and honoring your parents. Therefore, you’re going to avoid things that could take your life prematurely. 

You put it down: disobedience to your parents is rebellion against God! And here’s a bible principle for you to learn: if you want to live a long time on earth .. then respect your parents. By respecting and honoring them .. you will stay out of trouble! Honor your parents! 

Jim Bakker of PTL fame. Remember he went to prison and his boy, Jamie Charles: thonginn in kan len khawh i na sin caan saupi ka hman khawh cu kai lomh bikmi a si. 

Conlusion:

I read a suicide note a number of years ago written by a girl who killed herself in the airport restroom in Chicago. She wrote a letter and expressed appreciation to her evidently godly mother. But the last sentence she wrote before she committed suicide was this. And tell my wicked daddy I’ll meet him in hell. 

Jesus said on one occasion to the Pharisees, ”You are of your father the devil.” (John 8:44a) The vast majority of people in this world today are, at this moment, children of the devil. But there are those who have become the children of God.

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