Fearless Parenting

Text: Heb 11:23, Title: Fearless Parenting, Date/Place: 6/10/12, AM

1. Opening illustration: Catholic test of fire video from YouTube

2. Background to passage: the writer is giving us more examples of faith that overcomes. What’s in view here is not saving faith, but triumphant faith in the midst of struggle. This is what the Hebrews were going through. They were ready to apostasize, go back to Judaism. Another note in passing is that this is one of the few passages in this chapter that deals with ordinary people and their faith. Application: ordinary people like us should, can, and must walk by faith. (aside: it wasn’t Moses’ faith in view here, but his parents. This is one of the reasons that we don’t baptize babies. They can’t believe, and the parents’ faith doesn’t count for them.)

3. Main thought: Two main areas of conflict that these fearless parents faced

1. Sanctity of Life

1. So the scenario was that the people of Israel had become numerous for Pharoah to contain. It had been about 400 years since Joseph, and the once refuges had become slaves to do the bidding of the Egyptians. And respect for life wasn’t a value that everyone shared. But the God of the bible has always been, will always be pro-life. He values the young and old, the sick and the well, the unborn and the incapacitated, every tribe and tongue, He loves them all. He puts a premium on any life. He calls children a gift. And when Amram and Jochebed saw the beauty of this child regardless of what they previously thought, they realized life comes from God, and they hid him as long as they could defying the government’s policy. They had been taught well, and they could see it on his face. And they were not about to give their child who is made in the image of God to be slaughtered or drowned.

2. Argumentation

3. Illustration: video from blackoutabortion.com on YouTube, “Abortion, contrary to our president’s pleas during his speech at Notre Dame, is not an issue on which we can agree to disagree. We can no more agree to disagree on the abortion issue than we could have on the slavery issue. There is an ethical right and wrong here... there is no middle ground.” –Voddie Baucham,

4. The main reason that we have 1.5 million abortions in the US each year, and people calling for euthanasia of various sorts is that as a culture we don’t value life. People will put their life on the line to save whales, but will speak of a woman’s right to privacy when speaking of the life of the unborn. We have left Christian values and theology that states that man uniquely bears the image of almighty God. Abortion and euthanasian and sex trafficing and slavery and oppression are crimes against the pinnacle of creation, against the representative of God to the planet. Abortion is murder, just legalized. Physician assisted suicide is murder. And we must work to change the culture. We must change our attitude toward large families. We must put forth our best efforts into groups that are trying to turn the tide. We must be fearless in our proclamation (although it should be in love, remember that many do these things without much thought). And there is much damage that comes with the guilt and aftermath of abortion. And we should be there ministering instead of condemning. If 7 out of 10 really claim to be Christians, we are doing something horribly wrong. We must teach our children that it is wrong to the point that if it were to happen to them (God forbid), they would choose life, no matter what! Wouldn’t it be great if we could end abortion by 2020?

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1. Government Interference

1. The writer says that Amram and Jochabed were not afraid of the kings command. They probably were afraid to a degree (this kind of rebellion could be easily punished by death), but their fear of God and the understanding of the beauty of life were more compelling in dictating their course of action. They loved their child and their God more than they feared the king. And God honored that, and by grace not only delivered Moses, but gave them the opportunity to rear Moses for the first several years of his life. And that paid off long term as Moses knew “his people” enough to protect them when he was an adult.

2. “...and he did what was right before the Lord,” over and over in 1-2 Kings,

3. Illustration: "To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."-- Thomas Jefferson, blog about their daughter not dating,