Nature Vs. Nurture

1/12/25 A.M. Psalms 78:1-8

Have you ever heard the phrase Nature vs. Nurture? How much of WHO YOU ARE is due to NATURE, your GENETICS and how how is due to NURTURE, your SURROUNDINGS, the way you were RAISED?

ILLUS: I saw a program the other day about a couple who were not doing very well financially. They were barely making ends meet when the woman became pregnant. She was totally deaf and when she went to the doctor she found out she was going to have not one, not two but three babies. Triplets. I really don’t understand this but they decided to keep one of them and put the other two up for adoption. And that’s what they did. Two of the girls were adopted as twins and the one stayed with the birth mom and dad. And so when they were 11 years old they met for the for the first time since they had been born. Now this is the interesting part. They were very similar in some ways. Of course they looked a lot alike. But they also had some of the same mannerisms. And yet, they also were very different. And so RESEARCHERS have discovered that both NATURE and NURTURE make us who we are.

I am ME because of GENETICS but also because of WHO raised me and HOW they raised me. So if you don’t like me it’s NOT my fault. You can blame GOD and my mom and dad. So this morning I want to read out of the Psalms. Chapter 78. This was written by Asaph, a Levite, who was David’s song leader.

So let’s go ahead and read Verses 1-8.

“Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.”

This morning I want to look at the BLESSINGS of NATURE and the IMPORTANCE of NURTURE. But before we do let’s go to the Lord in Prayer.

Brother _____, would you lead us?

I. The first thing I want you to see as we look at this passage is the Blessing of God’s Nature. Look at the very first part of Verse 1. “Give ear, O my people, to my law”

Do you know why these people were HEARING the Law of God? Do you know why they had this OPPORTUNITY? Because they were God’s people!!!

Not everyone at this time had heard the Law of God.

Not everyone had been given the opportunities that they had been given.

Not everyone had heard Brother Asaph OPEN his mouth in a parable or utter dark sayings of old like it tells us in Verse 2.

So why? Why were these people HEARING these things? Because they had been born into the Lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were the CHOSEN PEOPLE of GOD. They were the Nation of Israel. They had been born at the RIGHT TIME and in the RIGHT PLACE.

Can I tell you something? They had absolutely NO CHOICE about this. They didn’t get to decide WHO they would be born to. WHEN they would be born. WHERE they would be born. This was just the Blessing of God. GOD’S NATURE. Their DNA was determined by HIM. This had NOTHING to do with any CHOICES or DECISIONS that they had made.

ILLUS: Now the Hindus believe this NOT to be true. They believe in Reincarnation. How good you act here in this life will determine HOW and WHERE you’re born in your next life.

So listen, some of you all better straighten up or you’re gonna wind up being born as a BUG the next time around!!! Ah, I’m just kidding.

Listen, the whole idea of REINCARNATION is silly and totally against what the Word of God tells us.

And so, just as those born during the REIGN of David and those born into the Nation of Israel had NO CHOICE about where, when or how they would be born, you and I are no different.