Text: Ps 78:1-8, Title: Hope for Families, Date/Place: NRBC, 6/22/08, AM
Opening illustration: Play the trailer for the bible study • Nine out of ten parents of children under age 13 (85%) believe they have the primary responsibility for teaching their children about religious beliefs and spiritual matters, while 11% said their church is primarily responsible. (2003) • Nearly all parents of children under the age of 13 - 96% - contend that they have the primary responsibility for teaching their children values. (2003) • One out of every five parents of children under 13 (19%) has ever been personally contacted or spoken to by a church leader to discuss the parents’ involvement in the spiritual life and development of their children. (2003)
A. Background to passage: There is no need detail you with shocking statistics about the percentage of teenagers that have tried drugs and alcohol, or experimented sexually. There is no need to remind you of divorce rates within and without the church. No need to tell you that MTV, the public school system, the liberal media, and internet pornography want to destroy our families and our children, or at least turn them against Christ. I probably should remind you what a sorry job that men are doing across the board at loving our wives as Christ and training our families to love Christ above all things. And so among all the assaults against our family, there is still hope. Although let me gently remind you that Jesus placed family second to discipleship on the priority scale of life (and we could preach on that a while, but we won’t today). Family is extremely important to the plan of God for the nations and for His glory. Therefore…
B. Main thought: Point two in our vision statement is that we need to strengthen families.
A. Avoid Past Mistakes (v. 8)
1. This psalm is a teaching psalm to pass on crucial information to generations. And one of the things that it does is list in very clear terms the failures of those responsible. Fathers are commissioned in the word of God with the ultimate responsibility to family. Headship is not about authority, as much as it is about responsibility. And this psalm reminds us that the fathers will be held accountable for their failures to oversee the spiritual growth and faithfulness of their families. The specific things that are mentioned are that fathers: 1) forgot truth about God (v. 7), 2) failed to walk with God (v. 10-11), 3) rebelled against God (v. 17), 4) failed to trust God and believe Him (v. 22, 32), 5) failed to be faithful (v. 36-37), 6) and tempted God, provoked God, and apostasized from the faith (v. 56-57).
2. Heb 5:12,
3. Illustration: “Preach always, and use words when necessary.” Remind them of the statistics of effectively unchurched people in our area by age bracket—conclusion: we have failed to reach the generations. Look at the appearance of our church age wise, every service except for Sunday AM, tell about Tony’s parents calling the other day and talking about Jesus and repentance and salvation, Ronald Reagan’s daughter
4. Fathers in particular and parents in general need to be reminded of their God-ordained responsibilities. For God will hold us accountable for doing what the fathers in this text have failed to do. We are called to be a knowledgeable wellspring of life about God to our children and grandchildren. We are called not to have salvation experience, but to have a daily routine and living relationship with the living Christ. Part of our teaching as parents and grandparents is by example. And our example is much more powerful than our words. We are called to be submissive to God’s will and God’s word. Have in your head a preconceived notion of compliance once meaning has been discerned. Let you children and grandchildren know of this preconception. But beware, they will sniff out hypocrisy. We are called to have a deep abiding trust in Christ. Moms and Dads can be a rock in the storm if they hold fast to Christ. And it is a testimony to your children when He is where you turn. Constantly affirm your trust in him verbally when going through a struggle. We are called to be faithful, not successful, not popular, not wealthy, not pleasing to people. Faithfulness entails a long term pattern of serving the Lord. The whole in church out of church, go today, skip next week thing will not pass on the faith to the next generation. Listen, it is never too late for repentance. And repentance is the key. We must be broken over our failures. Because when we fail in the church, our society reaps the rewards like gay marriage, abortion, divorce, alcoholism, family violence, corruption, hypocrisy, AIDS, etc. In fact, I would suggest that before prayer every left school, it left the homes. Before abortion on demand became law, the sanctity of life left the home. Before gay marriage went to the Supreme Court, marriage’s reverence and permanence left the home. Fathers, you hold the keys to a better society. You hold the eternities of your great grandchildren in your hands.
B. Aim At Future Successes (v. 4-7)
1. Therefore, we must do what this psalm suggests. The whole point of this psalm is that they correct what was done wrong. We must strive to teach our children so that they set all their hope in God. The whole point of the psalm was to help the children and parents look back on failures (and also on God’s faithfulness), so that they might be different. So that they would raise up a generation that sets its hope and heart in Christ. And of course the desire of every parent is to do a better job than their parents.
2. Deut 6:5-9, 7:9-13,
3. Illustration: “To keep on doing the same old things the same old way, and expect different results in insanity.” –Einstein, tell about Martine planning trips to spend time with grandchildren in order to lead the to Christ, because the kids won’t do it. Tell about “Nana Camp” “What in your life is more important than teaching your children the very word of God? It will only take ten minutes to sing a verse or two of a hymn, read a portion of Scripture, draw out a lesson for life, ask a question from some good catechism and have one or two pray. If you say you are too busy, I beg you to rethink your priorities.” -Piper
4. As a church we must strive together to help families rear children that set their hope in God. How do we do that? Glad you asked. We must strive to go back to biblical instruction on the family. We must strive to reach men, and not only reach them but train them. This is why we must transform our Brotherhood into a full fledged men’s ministry that will reach men AND help them develop the skills, knowledge, and desire to lead their families spiritually. Our women’s ministry must include a discipleship component. Sunday School and Discipleship Training are not getting it done in the family. We must train moms and dads, and grandparents to do things different to achieve the results God desires. Parenting seminars and conferences like the one that we had on family worship, and the one that we are praying about Family Drive Faith are going to be helpful, because they force us to think outside the way that we were raised. We must make all existing children’s ministries family friendly. For ex, in SS, teachers must see their role as helping parents to teach their children, not simply to carry out the curriculum. We must also put in standards in our system to give teachers a goal. It is scary that our kids can get into the youth program and not know where to find books of the bible. By that time our kids should be able to give a descent explanation of the doctrine of the church or the substitutionary atonement, and share their faith. And we must teach and train them to deal with the issues that they are actually facing. We must involve them in the life of the church and not relegate them to “youth activities.” We must encourage them to lead in ministry and mission. We must help parents develop deep relationships with them, so as not to fall into the worldly model of antagonism in the teen years. We must also affirm and stand behind marriage as the foundational family structure. This doesn’t mean lobby against gay marriage. This means teaching and training and supporting long faithful marriages that display Christ and his church to a watching world. Finally we must develop great depth and maturity in our older members especially, so that the biblical motif of the older teaching/training the younger. Right now, most of the younger ones don’t want to be what the older ones are. This adds to the division within the body. Pettiness, spiritual immaturity, gossip and feuds that have gone on in the past have limited the desirability of discipleship relationships in the church. Sometimes we all act like a bunch of high schoolers.
A. Closing illustration: the fire alarms that went off and did not wake up the children, liken it to the church doing the same ol children’s programs and losing our kids to apostasy. Will we get new alarms?
B. Recap
C. Invitation to commitment
Additional Notes
• Is Christ Exalted, Magnified, Honored, and Glorified?
