Colossians 3:21
Strategies for Successful Parenting
Introduction
A. God is watching the apples illustration
B. Review previous 2 sermons: Building Better Marriages & Moms
C. I do not feel necessarily qualified to preach this – but the authority for the message comes from God’s Word – not my life. By God’s grace we will become the parents God wants us to be.
D. One of the great challenges of life is to be a parent: a good one.
E. So many people claim that kids don’t come with owner’s manuals – but that’s not really true. God wrote the manual.
F. We all want our kids to grow up to be successful – but what does that mean?
G. Here’s how I want you to consider it: Psalm 127:3 says your children are a gift from God. They belong to Him, not you. You are simply a steward. Successful parenting then means that we raise our children in a way that would please the Lord.
H. Today I want to share with you three strategies that will help you be…
Understand Your Purpose
A. In order to best understand what a parent’s job is, let’s consider…
1. Colossians 3:20 – teach them obedience
2. Colossians 3:21 – don’t provoke them to anger
3. Ephesians 6:4 – bring them up in nurture & admonition of Lord
B. Those commands we know, but the Bible also teaches that parents are to… 1. Love their children (Titus 2:4)
2. Teach their children to walk in truth
3. Bring their kids up in the faith – which implies many things.
4. Teach them to live for the glory of God – to love the Lord single- heartedly.
C. According to the Scriptures, according to God, a parent’s responsibility is not to a child’s happiness – but to his or her character. “Train up a child in the way he should go…” What does that mean? It means you take what God gives you in the form of a unique child and shape it to become a lover and pursuer of God.
D. That’s why God told Moses in Deut. 6 to “love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might…to keep His commandments in their hearts and teach them diligently to their children.”
E. We have forgotten our purpose as parents and have redefined what it means to raise them successfully. Our ideas for success are more worldly than godly, shaped more by the media than by the Spirit of God.
Don’t Be A Parenting Wimp
A. The Bible teaches us to be gentle and nurturing with our children, but that doesn’t mean we’re to be parenting wimps. I’m amazed at the number of Christian homes where the kids are in charge.
B. Do you give your kids everything they want? Do you find yourself negotiating with your kids? Do you wait on them while they watch TV? Do you do all the chores (for whatever reason)? Are you afraid to discipline a child in public? Do you make rules and fail to enforce them, like bedtimes? Do you let them stay inside all the time because they don’t want to or like to play outside?
C. If so, you may be a parenting wimp.
D. The priest Eli was a parenting wimp. His two sons were getting drunk, taking bribes, stealing from God and seducing women, all at the temple of God right under Eli’s nose. Sure he scolded them, but that’s all he did.
E. I promise you that your kids are not always going to like you raising them by the Bible. In fact, they may hate it and hate you for doing it. Your friends may think you’re weird. Your family may think you a religious nut, but who cares? You’ll not be answering to them – but to God.
F. It takes some spiritual and emotional and even physical boldness to train up children in the way they should go. You’ve got to have some grit about you. Parenting is not for wimps or for the faint of heart.
Teach Them How To Hear God
A. Of all the things you can teach your children, I believe this is absolutely the most important. You must teach them how to hear God speak truth into their lives.
B. I’m reminded again of Eli and what he taught young Samuel.
C. However, I realize that most Christians cannot teach their kids how to hear God because most Christians never hear God either. Before you can teach them how to hear, you’ve got to learn how to hear, so let me give you a quick crash course. If you want to get better at hearing God, then…
1. Confess your sin
2. Get in the Word
3. Slow down – be still before God
4. Get out of your element: in nature, on a roof, in a cemetery…
5. Fast – food, TV, radio…
D. Do you expect to hear from God? Do you want Him to speak to your heart? Do you long for Him to reveal Himself to you? Listen to God expectantly, faithfully, quietly, and frequently.
E. When once you begin to do that – pass it along to your kids. You cannot pass along what you have never received.
F. And as an added thought – if you want them to get the most out of Sunday mornings…if you want to get the most out of them, then start preparing Conclusion
A. I cannot adequately express how important this subject is. The Bible is clear about how important children are to the heart of God.
B. God created three institutions…the most important is the family. Our church will never be stronger than our families. Nations rise & fall…
C. Everyone has opinions on how to be successful parents, but God is the original: the foremost authority.
D. God is going to hold us as parents responsible for raising our children, His children like He wants, and the good news is that you and I will not answer or how they do or did turn out. We’re responsible for what we taught and modeled, not for what they do with it.
