Comfortable In Conforming

Our church, as a whole, is dealing with a season of suffering. We have several members either personally dealing with a devastating illness or have family members who are suffering a terminal illness. And it is not just the old but the young as well. There are several children associated with members of our church who are dealing with leukemia. There is a 25 year old grand daughter of one of our flock who is battling terminal brain cancer while having to care for 2 young children. Suffering seems not to discriminate by age. And the pain felt by those who are caring for the sick seems just as intense, in some ways, as those who are dealing with the sickness themselves.

A week ago Sunday pastor Dave, being sensitive to the current atmosphere in the church, preached a message on the comfort of God out of 2 Corinthians 1:1-11. The message was faithful to Gods word and weighty to my soul. Pastor Dave pointed out some misconceptions about suffering we tend to hold to in our society. He then reconstructed our worldview of suffering by putting a biblical context to words like comfort and troubles. In this blog I want to share two things I gleaned from my meditation of the sermon with you.

1. There is purpose in our pain.

There are many texts in the bible that would support this conclusion. For example, the book of Job is a powerful illustration of Gods sovereign hand in ordaining suffering to fulfill a greater purpose. Also, the story of Joseph in Genesis 37-52 where he suffers tremendously at the hands of his brothers and spends most of his life a slave in captivity. Only in the end to say “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (Genesis 50:20).” However, one of the strongest verses that supports that our pain has purpose is Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” It is hard for us to understand that the word “all” in this verse really encompasses absolutely everything. In America at least, we are more inclined to try to get God off the hook when it comes to the evil that floods our life at times. However, this verse, as well as the mentioned above, shows that God does not want to get of the hook. Instead He has a purpose in brining the rain to our souls. In this verse, the purpose is to bring good. What is this good might you say? The answer is in verse 29, that we might be conformed to His Son Jesus.

It is every believers desire to conform to the image of Christ. God gives us this desire when He transforms our hearts from stone to flesh, when He breathes life into our dead souls, when He shatters the scales from our eyes as they fall into a million pieces and our souls can behold the beauty of Jesus. From that moment on, our heart has one desire; that is to be like Jesus. Why? Because He is the radiance of Gods glory. He is perfect in every way. There is none like him. He is the essence of what is good, what is beautiful, what is powerful, and noble, and pure, and loving, etc. Just as a flower needs the rain to bring its beauty to life, so our souls need suffering to help us conform to the beauty of Christ.

In order to become like Christ we must go through a transformation. The word conformed in verse twenty nine is the Greek word “symmorphous”. This word is made up of the prefix “sym” which means the adjustment of parts; and the suffix “morphous,” which is to shape or to make resemble. The idea here is to fashion together to have the same form. Everyday we are conforming to Christ. Sometimes that conforming is painful. Paul alludes to that when he says “ I have counted those things as loss for the sake of Christ… I may know him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.” (Philippians 3: 7-11)

The word symmorphous is only used one other time in the bible; Philippians 3:21 “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” Here we see a transformation happening. Our old vile bodies will be conformed into new glorious bodies; a morphous if you will. God uses suffering to aid in this transformation process and to make us able to see the surpassing value and worth of Christ.

2. My Idea of Comfortable Is Not God’s Idea of Comfortable

Something I really took note of in the sermon was when Pastor Dave defined the word
comfortable in the text. My idea of comfort or comfortable is to have ease. When I think
of comfort I think of a soft chair or a firm mattress. I think of a cool breeze on an autumn
day. And when it comes to trials I want my comfort to give me ease. Unfortunately, that
is not what the bible says. The word comfort in this text is the word “paraclete.” It
means to come along side or to brave with. It is the word that describes the “comforter”
that Jesus promised the disciples. The promise that comes with the text is that God will
brave what ever you are going through with you. It coincides with the promise that God
will never leave or forsake you. That in and of itself is comforting. You will never walk
through the fire alone. You are never abandoned. Your not an orphan left to the streets.
God will always be with you.

However, it does not mean that He will lift the pain. He does not promise ease. Many
times in our pain we, rightfully, ask for the pain to be lifted. And if God does not lift it,
we are not comforted. Therefore, we get disgruntle and question God’s faithfulness. This
is sin. God does not promise to always take away your pain while you are on earth. That
promise is reserved for heaven. On earth we will walk through trials and tribulations,
pain and suffering, sickness and dismay. And as stated before, God uses pain as an
instructor and reformer to transform us into the glory of His Son. This process is painful
at times and will stretch us beyond our capacity. However, God will never abandon His
work. He is faithful to complete the good work He began in you. Our God is a faithful
God, keeping His convent of love to a thousand generations to those who love Him. This is in itself a comfort.

I see Gods presence as a comfort is a couple of ways. First, not to be redundant, we are not alone. In our suffering, we tend to believe we are the only ones who have suffered. Being in that state of mind leads us to believe we are all by ourselves. And sometimes it seems
that way. Sometimes our friends and family do not know how to handle certain tragedies
and seem to distance themselves from us. God will never do that. By His hand he brings
us to the river. By His hand He walks us into the river. And by His hand we are
delivered from the river.

Secondly, God is able to deliver us from any and all trouble. Because He is sovereign
and all powerful, He is able to overcome every obstacle in our way. When the Psalmist
says, “I lift my eyes up to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from
the Lord, the Maker of the heavens and the earth (Psalm 121:8),” his comfort and hope lies in the power of His maker. We have the same hope. Our trials are not bigger than our God. He
ordains them for His purpose. Therefore, when they are fulfilled He will end them with
certainty, accomplishing all that He intended. Again, Job suffered a great deal without
ever knowing why. But as we know, God was in the middle of it all from beginning to
end; orchestrating a magnificent display of His glory for many generations to see.

Knowing that there is purpose in every ounce of pain gives me tremendous hope.
Nothing is ever wasted. God is incredibly efficient in His sovereignty. If there is purpose in my pain, then pain has been allotted to me to serve me as an instructor. Ease would negate my learning and ultimately my intimacy with God. Very rarely am I as intimate with God on the mountain top than I am in the valley. My comfort is in the knowing that God is with me and will never leave me. He is sovereign over every second of my life and will only let things go this far and no further.

Charles Spurgeon was an incrediable pastor ans teacher. He suffered many physical ailments as well as depression. He has said many amazing insights to suffering with the experience to validate them. Here is one that speaks volumes to the soul.

“If you would find out the cause of most of your sorrows, dig at the root of your self-will, for that is where it lies. When your heart is wholly sanctified unto God and your will is entirely subdued to Him, the bitter becomes sweet, pain is changed to pleasure and suffering is turned into joy. It is not possible for that man’s mind to be disturbed whose will is wholly resigned to the will of God.”
Charles Spurgeon

God Is At Work; Even in The Hamas

I read an amazing article the other day that sent me into prasie of a sovereign God. The article was in small blue bold print on the foxnews website. I was just kind of glancing over the headlines and caught the small title on the lower lefthand side, "Son of Hamas Leader Turns Back On Islam and Embraces Christianity." Instead of blogging too much on it, I want to encourage you to read the story yourself. This guy is bold and on fire. He is an encouragment to me and my pursuit of God's glory. Reading this article opend my eyes to see hope in a hopless situation. God is big enough and powerful enough to work in and through such a staunch fundamental Islamic group to bring His people to Himself. Enjoy the read. The link is below.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,402483,00.html

Chief End Of Parenting Part 2

Here Are The How To’s

I would like to put a face on this for you and try to give you some application here. The first four points are philosophies that ground your biblical parenting. From here I will share some applicable things we do in our house to ensure God is at our center.

1. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of
your mind. (Deuteronomy 6 and Matthew 22:37)

If parent has lack luster love for God, the kids will do the same. Children have an uncanny way of smelling out a hypocrite. Unfortunately, they absorb the hypocrisy and become one themselves. If you want children who love the lord, you must first love the Lord. And this must show itself in your daily life. It shows in what you make as you priorities. If you value baseball or football games or school events, or work over church on Sundays, they will do the same. It is a sin to have a lack luster love for God for it violates the command to love the Lord with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Therefore your complacent love will lead your child to sin against God in idolatry and adultery; idolatry in that they will worship what they love, adultery in that they will love something over their God.

2. The Word of God must be on your heart.

Again Deuteronomy 6: 5 commands the parents to not only know the word of God, but to be intimate with it as well. Psalm 119 speaks of those who walk in the way of the Lord are blessed. The blessing goes to those who seek God with their whole heart v2; who keep His statutes v8; who have His word hidden in their heart that they may not sin against God v 11; those who meditate on His precepts and contemplate His ways v15; and those who delight themselves in His statutes and refuse to forget them v16. To write them on your heart is to love them and ingrain His word in your life. The word of God should pour forth like a fountain in the mornings when you wake up and the evenings when you go to bed. You should be able to give your children the full counsel of God. Children will encounter a plethora of circumstances in their life in which they will need to see God. God gives you these circumstances as opportunities to put him on display so that your children can taste and see that he is good; even when mommy or daddy gets cancer.

3. Do not provoke them to anger; be consistent.

Ephesians 6:4 warns that fathers should not provoke their children to anger. I believe one of the hardest obstacles a child has to overcome is the inconsistency in their parents. Being inconsistent sends a confusing message that frustrates a child to the point of not caring. When a parent commits to going to church on Sunday and Wednesday, but shows not spiritual fever on every other day of the week, they are being inconsistent. This inconsistency leads to complacency. Your love for God must not begin and end on Sundays. It must be a continuous river pouring itself into your children. Just like our father does to us in Romans 5:5, where his love is poured into our hearts, so must we pour his love through our love into our children. This cannot be done sporadically and expect our children to love God and not depart form Him.

[Notice the call to fathers in this verse. There is a deadly epidemic in our country killing our children. It is the root to the many other epidemics such as obesity and moral depravity. It is the lack of the role of the father in the house hold. God has called men to be the leaders of their home. They are commanded to love their wives like Christ loved the church, not abandon them to a life of instability and insecurity. They are to raise their children up in the lord, not provoke them to anger and give them no example of our heavenly father. To be a daddy is a high and honorable calling. A daddy is one of the greatest forces against Satan claiming our children. Unfortunately, many men are tucking tale and handing them over to the reigns of hell. Men, start being men and honor your Father by being a father.]

4. There must be loving discipline.

The other end of Ephesians 6:4 speaks of discipline. I believe the context in theis verse incorporates the corporeal punishment of our children. We are not to beat our children. And we are not to punish them by an inconsistent standard. However, children thrive on structure and a firm hand. Spanking a child has an abusive stigma attached to it now so that to do so is considered unloving and unlawful. Even though the bible clearly states that if you spare the rod, you hate your child, but if you strongly discipline your child, you love them (Proverbs 13:24). It is loving to spank your child when they do something wrong. God has given us pain as an instructor. Pain teaches us about danger and consequence. Think about it. If you did not have pain, how would you know if you burned your hand reaching into a hot oven or an open fire? The pain signals that something is wrong and you need to immediately fix it. Discipline serves the same purpose. Spanking, along with loving discourse, tells the child that there is good and evil, right and wrong, a narrow way and broad way. The temporary pain leaves a lasting reminder that the wrong they committed is not expectable and could have an eternal consequence.

[I say all of this not to just advocate for corporal punishment, but to show that the Christian life style is not accepted by the world and the way you are called to train up your children will not be accepted either. ]

What We Do At Home: Practical Application

We have a routine everyday that consist of a strong effort in making God central in our family. In the morning before we eat breakfast, the children are required to recite scripture they have hidden in there heart. Right now we will typicall hear Proverbs 15:1, John 14:6, Psalm 34:8, Genesis 1:1, and Ephesains 6:1-3. (It is key that you incorporate a weekly fighter verse to memorize as a family. We use a lot of creative ways to teach our children scriputre; i.e. hand signals.) This is actually done before every meal. Then Naomi and Ethan will pick a couple of people to pray for and daddy will end with thanksgiving and a blessing over the food. It is not uncommon to discuss the scripture they recited over our meal.

During the day we will also go outside or find somehting inside to talk to the chidlren about God. For example, one day I asked Naomi why did God create trees? She responded that He made them so that we would know the different seasons (paraphrase). This led into a 10-15 minute discussion on God's glory on making trees. I try to do this often so that my children will see that God is applicable the everyday mundane things.

Throughout the day the children will do something that upsets us or each other in which we will have to discipline them. It is here where we apply Ephesians 6:1-3 and discuss how they are not honoring their mother and father, and it is not about to go well with them. We have them talk to us about what they did wrong and what God's word says about it. This is usauly followed up by a spanking or some time on the wall.

At the end of the day we have our family alter time. We sing several songs that are simple enough for them to sing, yet meaty enough for them to see God. (Be creative in doing this as well. I have taken an old nursury song and tunred it into a song teaching the trinity. You can have a lot of fun with your kids during worship. We even will let them dance during this time.) We pray and then we read God's word as a family. We follow this up with a discussion in which the children are required to tell us what they learned from the reading. (We use a childrens bible when we do this.) At bedtime we recite over them Isaiah 41:10 and pray for God to get us through the night. We also ask for God to help us treasure Christ more tomorrow than we did today.

The Blessing and the Warning

It is not enough to just come to church and expect your family to be saved. Many churches are filled to capacity with unbelieving hearts. Which means that many of them are living in unbelieving homes. And when there unbelieving children grow up, they will be unbelieving adults. And the parents will say that we were at church every time the doors were open. We prayed over meals. Why did my children depart from the way? They departed from us because they were not of us (1 John 2:19).

The blessing of this verse is clear. The bible says that if you diligently teach your children my word and consistently live it out before them they will develop life long habits that glorify God. However, the promise of salvation is not certain. Because we know salvation belongs to God and He chooses who He wills, salvation is up to the Lord. (See Romans 9 for further explanation.) We can all point to someone in our family or friends who grew up in a bible believing home with parents who were consistent in their godly parenting, who left and never came back. As general rule, we would like to believe that godly parenting will lead to a child’s conversion. However, salvation is between the Lord and your child.

The warning is just as clear. If you do not live to glorify God and enjoy him as a family, your children will depart. That is the negative side of the verse. The bible calls for radical faith and living and our parenting should be no different. We have been given the mandate to teach our children the ways of God and submit to his will for their life. That is what separates the blessing from the warning. The blessing offers hope for our children. The warning offers wrath. If you are complacent in your faith, you will be complacent in your parenting. This in the end will be the ruin of our children. This is not loving. The most loving thing we can do is consistently point our children and offer them the opportunity to taste and see that the Lord is good; in hope that they will do that and trust in him.

The Chief End Of Parenting Is To Glorify God And Enjoy Him Forever!

Insight To Text

(Here is s sermon I preached a week ago while my pastor was on vacation. The issue of biblical parenting has been weighing in my heart for some time. I truely believe the root of why our youth are leaving the church is becasue the parents of today are spiritually neglecting their children at home. Rarely is God worshiped at home through a family alter. Rarely is God seen glorious through consistency and character by the motives and actions of mothers and fathers. Rarely is God experienced as enjoyable before the hearts of our kids. So when pastor Dave asked me to preach while he was gone, I chose a fairly broad text to try to bring us to a narrow conclusion; it is the parents responisbility to spiritually nurture their children. And that is the most loving thing they could do. (I will display this sermon in two post becasue of its length.)


Two Points To Consider

It could be very condescending of me to stand here and preach a sermon on parenting or child rearing being who I am and where I am in life. It is not my goal to personally attack anyone’s parenting skills or abilities. However, it is my goal to present to you what the bible calls for us parents in rearing our children. And if this truth draws conviction in areas of my parenting or your parenting, then my prayer is that the Holy Spirit would make Himself so obvious to us that our immediate course of action would be to repent of our sin, incorporate a biblical model of parenting, and not kill the youth pastor. That being said, I would like to provide a couple scaffold supports to help us stand on the truth more clearly.

The verdict is out on my children.

I stand here preaching a truth that I am in the beginning stages of working through. My children are young and still impressionable. We are dealing with the terrible twos and threes; not the explosive teens. Therefore I cannot show you an end result of my own personal experience. I am preaching this message to myself in faith and ask you to take this message the same. However, please know that I understand where some of you could easily say “Who are you to tell me about parenting? You have not been through what I have had to walk through.” That is why I am approaching this subject with fear and trembling.

A preacher must preach; even if he lacks experience.

There are many times when God has called men to preach truths that lack personal experience. For example, many of the Old Testament prophets preached the coming of the messiah, knowing that they would probably never see Him on earth. Many Godly men have preached on the sin of adultery without the experience of committing adultery. The experience is not the validating factor in the message; the truth is. The fact that I lack a certain degree of experience in parenting does not negate the message. The truth is the truth. I am responsible for doing all that I can to present it accurately and rightly. It is your responsibility as a believer to engage and apply it to your life.

Chief End Of Every Family

The Westminster Confession states that the chief end of every man (or human being) is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. They base this off of texts like Isaiah 43:7 which says, “ everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."; or Psalms 144:15, “Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall! Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD!”; Isaiah 12:2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." Everyone who is called by His name was created for the sole purpose of bringing Him glory. Our purpose in life is to make much of God, not ourselves. And some theologians like John Piper would argue that we make much of God by enjoying Him. When we enjoy God we delight in who He is as God, His ways, His commands, and so forth. In turn this creates a life of obedience that magnifies the name of our God.

That being said, I would argue that the chief end of every God ordained family is to glorify God and enjoy him forever; being an extension of our individual purpose. Once a man and a women unite in marriage, the bible says they become one. Genesis 2:23-24 says, “The man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” As seen in the text, God ordained marriage to be an indissoluble union where a man and a woman would become complete. John MacArthur put it like this in his commentary, “ One flesh speaks of a complete unity of parts making a whole with two people; one cluster, many grapes or one God with three persons. Thus the marital union was complete and whole with two people.” The man and the woman are so permanently joined that divorce should be inconceivable. What God has put together, let no man tear apart (Matthew 19:6).

One of the blessings that result from the perfect union of two is a child. Thus the family is born in one. As they begin their lives together they separate from their parents and become unified as one family. As they bear children the family extends never loosing its “oneness.” Therefore the purpose of the man and woman remains the same for the entire family; namely to glorify God and enjoy him forever. The question that comes to mind then is “how do we doe this?” But first, let us define our role as parents. This role has been ripped and shredded in our post modern society so much that the truth cannot be seen through the cloud of vague political correctness. It is essential that we begin here in order to catch hold of the vision God has for us as parents.

What Is Good Parenting?

In today’s society we have been given a slew of parenting styles. Most of them are unbiblical and miss the mark in accomplishing good behavior; let alone godliness. We are told that corporal punishment is unloving, that clear guidelines with consequences is to restricting, and that traditional values are outdated. But contrary to popular belief, the bible still holds to be the most supreme parenting resource. It explains why our children at two and three years old are naturally selfish and need to be taught the right way. The bible helps us understand why teenagers can be just as selfish and how they have the uncanny ability of pushing us to the very outer limits of our sanity, and how we should respond lovingly. The bible is clear that if we are to fulfill our purpose in life as a family, which is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Our parenting is radically different from the worlds. Our goal is not to just produce good moral abiding citizens who pursue good careers and take care of their families; albeit those are nice qualities. Our goal is to lead them to the one thing that can genuinely satisfy them and save them from the coming damnation; Christ Jesus.

With that being said I am proposing a very narrow definition of a good parent by the world’s standards to say the least. A good parent is one who’s life ambition is to rear their children up to taste and see that the Lord is good, in hope that they would trust in Him, because this is the most loving thing they could do (Psalm 34:8). And any parenting style that does not make this its aim is godless and unloving.

Train Up By Your Example

The connotation of the Hebrew word for train is to discipline. In this context it leads us to consistently and lovingly discipline our children throughout their upbringing. Discipline is not limited to corporal punishment or strong structure. Discipline encompasses a life style of Godliness. The apostle Paul explains this life style in 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27, “ Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we run for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified." Paul uses several athletic analogies to convey the walk of a true believer. Just as an athlete fine tunes his body by restricting his diet and consistently working his body with rigor, so does the Christian with is soul. We fight for our faith and purity in order to pursue our happiness in Gods holiness. And in order to do so we must be disciplined in our efforts. Not only as individuals, but as a family.

Discipline is striving daily to take up your cross and walk with the Lord. Discipline is reading your bible everyday and putting into practice the truths you have gleaned. Discipline is making the Sabbath holy and making it your number one priority over anything else. It takes discipline to come to church every Sunday. It takes even more discipline to make it a priority above sports or school events. Discipline is religiously teaching the word of God at home day in and day out. Training a child up consist of a life style that is committed to God’s supremacy in everything. And consistency in your commitment must be lead by example of the parents. If the parents do not hold to Christ as their supreme value, and discipline themselves to do so, then the children will not do so as well, no matter how much you tell them. That is why God gave us such a radical mandate in Deuteronomy 6:5-9 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7You 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. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

The "Way" Is The Way

Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father, except through me.” The word translated "way" in this text is equivalent to the word used in out text this morning. The “way” in both texts means a road or a path. Without trying to add to the text something that may not be there, I found something rather interesting with the root of the word train and the meaning of the word way. When you look at the root of the Hebrew word for train; it means narrow. If you put that context with the word way; you see that the way is narrow. It is a narrow road traveled on. It reminds me of Matthew 7:13-14 where Jesus warns “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” The word “way” used in both of these text is the same word used in John 14:6 and Proverbs 22:6. Now if we examine this text closely in relation to parenting we see things developing. Essentially Matthew 7:13-14 is speaking of salvation. Those who are of the world and not of Christ walk on a broad road leading them to hell. It is a very popular road with many people on it. On the other side of the text we see the narrow way. Only those who have placed their trust in Christ and love Him as Lord, Savior, and Treasure are on this road which leads to eternal life. Notice, very few are on this road.

A sad reality in today’s society is that there are many children walking on the broad road. It is not crowded with just murderers and rapist and Hitler types; you know the ones that are obviously going to hell. In actuality it is crowded with young boys and girls running and skipping their way to the place where the fire never stops, and the pain is so immense that your teeth are in a continuous state of gnashing. And the really sad reality is that it has become a family affair. There are many parents holding the hands of their children on this road galloping along with them s if they were walking in the park on their way to a picnic.

Why is this so? Because families are not taking responsibility for rearing the spiritual welfare of their children. Many families, at best are leaving it up to the pastor and youth pastors to feed and nurture the souls of their children. Many families are refusing walk on the narrow way. I’m not just talking about the lost. I expect it from the lost. I see more and more of it in the church. William Scribner, a puritan preacher says this, “Often children are not converted because parents leave their work to others. valuable though Sunday school teachers are, no parent can be released from the obligation of striving by his own personal efforts to lead his children to Christ. We are commanded to bring our children up "in the fear and nurture of the Lord."
One of the reasons why I believe so many of our young people are falling away from the church after their freshman year of college is because they were spiritually neglected at home. They were not trained up (or disciplined) on the narrow way by the ones God gave the responsibility to do the job; the parents.

Think about this reality for a minute. A youth pastor will spend about 2.5 hours of teaching time with their youth a week. The schools get the children 8 hours a day plus any extra curricular activity time; which is at least an extra 3 hours. So the schools get the children 55 plus hours a week. The rest is with their family. Now the average American home watches 8-9 hours of T.V. a day. If you are an average family, out of a 120 hour work week, 55 hours is spent at work or school, 40 hours is spent watching T.V. and 2.5 hours is spent learning about God. Who are the biggest influences? Which is the braod way and which is the narrow?

Do you see where this turns into a life style change? Jesus said the narrow way is the hard way. It is hard rearing your children up in a godless society. It is hard to make time everyday to have family worship; especially after you have worked all day. It is hard to live against the grain of our society, your community, and some of your family. But the commandment is clear in Deuteronomy 6 and 11 and Ephesians 6:4, bring your children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. And do not just teach, but live them out in your love for God and his supremacy in all things. This is what it means to train them up in the Lord. Radically living for Christ is the only way to ensure they will not depart.

(Part two will come in a few days. It contains more of the application part of the sermon.)