What’s In Your Wallet?
Part 2 – Protect Your Nest!
What’s in your wallet? I mentioned last week that a wallet is more than just an accessory or fashion statement. Because in them you discover what is most important or dear to a person. We tend to put our most valuable things in our wallet. So as promised I revealed to you the contents of my wallet.
And if you will remember you found out that other than being a red neck you can basically boil the contents and my life down to two areas – family and finances.
How many of you stuffed you wallet with all kinds of items just in case I was handing out money again today? See if you will remember I talked about Monty Hall and Let’s Make a Deal last week. I made a statement to you that there is still a Monty Hall alive today. He is our enemy. I mentioned that he is attempting to get us to accept the unacceptable. I want to focus in on that statement this morning as we begin to look at our families.
I don’t think you would have a hard time believing this statement or even agreeing with this statement, but just in case you have realized it there is an out and out attack, assault, and war being waged on the family. The Monty Hall of our day wants us to get to the place where we will accept what is unacceptable in God’s eyes and plan. Monty Hall is trying to convince us that it is normal and acceptable for a family to be made up of two moms or two dads. That is normal for children to experiment sexually and chemically. That it is normal for parents to idiots and the children to be in control. That it is normal and acceptable for parents to provide the condoms and purchase the alcohol for the party. Just flip on the TV and every sitcom, cartoon, and reality show will boldly preach these messages to you.
Families are under attack. Monty Hall is on a campaign to redefine family until we no longer accept God’s idea which according to Genesis was that a man would leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and that they would be fruitful and multiply. Proven again by the fact that He created Adam and
Eve not Adam and Steve.
One man said this, “Those antifamily images have become so deeply ingrained in our national consciousness that few Americans can summon the courage or the strength to dismiss them as the destructive distortions that they are."
The family is under attack.
Linda Gordon, a radical feminist writer, announced, ’The nuclear family must be destroyed, and people must find better ways of living together...Whatever its ultimate meaning, the break—up of families now is an objectively revolutionary process. Families have supported oppression by separating people into small, isolated units, unable to join together to fight for common interests.’
The family is under attack!
Psychologist Nicholas Humphrey’s 1997 Oxford Amnesty Lecture, “Parents have no god-given license to enculturate their children in whatever ways they personally choose: no right to limit the horizons of their children’s knowledge, to bring them up in an atmosphere of dogma and superstition, or insist they follow the straight and narrow paths of their own faith.”
Atheist Richard Dawkins has decried “bringing up children to believe manifest falsehoods,” like the existence of God. “How much do we regard children as being the property of their parents?” “Should they be free to impose their beliefs on their children? Is there something to be said for society stepping in?”
It is time for us to rise up and protect our nest!
There was a hunter on a hunting expedition in the Amazon. It was the last day of the trip. He rose early in the morning to enjoy one more day in the jungle. As he was watching the sun rise, he noticed a family of large birds. The mother bird is tending to the baby birds while the father flies from place to place retrieving food for his hungry family. While watching this scene, out of the corner of his eye the hunter catches movement on an adjoining branch to the bird’s nest. He looks closely and realizes that the movement is a very poisonous snake slowly making his way towards the mother bird and the babies anticipating an easy meal. About the same time the father bird drops food of to the nest and spots the snake. In panic the father bird quickly flies away. The hunter is disappointed thinking that the father bird has abandoned his family to a sure and certain death. As the hunter watches the father birds retreat he sees the bird begin to land on one tree for a few seconds only to fly to another tree and leave. This is repeated over and over until the father bird finally lands on a small bush and then the bird breaks off a leafy twig from the bush and rushes back to the nest. The serpent is dangerously close. The father bird places the leaves over the front edge of the nest closet to the snake and then he retreats to a nearby branch to watch. The serpent draws within striking range. He forms the deadly “s” and launches himself in deadly arc towards the baby birds. However, when the snake is moving forward it touches the leaf and instantly recoils as if in pain and falls out of the tree. The hunter raises his rifle and shoots the snake. He picked up the snake and then he gets a twig off the bush the bird used and he takes it back to the village where he is staying. He shows the snake and the leaves to the villagers. He says, “I don’t understand why the snake pulled back.” The villagers explained that the leaf that the father bird chose was from the only bush in the jungle that is poisonous to the snake. The father bird new how to protect his nest.
We must protect our families! How do we do that?
4 C’s this works for children, spouse, boy/girl friend, and friends (however, going to focus in on children)
I. Cover
I have a confession to make. There are days that I take God’s goodness and protection over my family for granted. I just don’t stop and think about the dangers they face.
I believe it is more and more imperative that we actively cover our family in two ways. First, in prayer. Second, with God’s Word.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood. Therefore, our weapons must be supernatural in nature. These two elements prayer and God’s Word have supernatural ability to ward off the attacks and schemes of a supernatural enemy. We must war in the heavenlies for our families! We must begin to use God’s Word as what it is – a sword. Covering them with two weapons doesn’t mean that you just pray and that you just quote Scripture over your kids. It also means teaching them to pray and teaching them to love and learn the Word. We have the promise that no weapon shall prosper – however, we have a role to play. We must build up walls around our family.
We need some family members like Abraham who will go to their knees and pray family members out of trouble, out of danger, out of death traps, and out of society’s pull and influence.
We must cover them by teaching them that Word is powerful, active and relevant. Like the Old Testament parents we must cover their children by reading them the Word, reaching them the Word.
Deuteronomy 6:1-2; 6-8 1This is the commandment, the rules and regulations, that GOD, your God, commanded me to teach you to live out in the land you’re about to cross into to possess. 2This is so that you’ll live in deep reverence before GOD lifelong, observing all his rules and regulations that I’m commanding you, you and your children and your grandchildren, living good long lives. 6Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you 7and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. 8Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder;
Did you see how often we should be teaching them the Word? In your house first. When you walk. When you lie down. When you get up. It should be right between their eyes at all time.
Our children/family must learn to live off over every Word that is coming out of God’s mouth. Not on feeling, not on society’s rules, or its approved course of action but on God’s absolute, inerrant, and unchanging Word.
II. Communicate
David and Absalom – 2 Samuel 14:28 “28Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two years, and not once did he see the king face to face.” Think about that! Same town. Same neighborhood. Same last name. No talk. No face to face visit. 2 years of silence. Is it any wonder that Absalom rebelled?
The average child 30 years ago spent 3 ½ hours each day in direct dialogue with family members.
• Now the Average Christian father spends less than 7 minutes each day in meaningful dialogue with their child.
• One in four young people surveyed in a Christian home state that they have never had a meaningful conversation with their fathers.
When was the last time you had a meaningful conversation with your kid? When was the last time you asked them what they learned in Passion Kids and refused to settle for I don’t know or nothing.
We must begin to communicate with our kids once again. We have settled for the TV as a babysitter. We have forgotten how to talk! We text, we email, but we don’t talk!
Our kids are surrounded by noise, but they are dying from silence. Turn off the TV and talk. Make it a point to ask your kids/family questions about the important things. Share what is important. Speak life into them.
III. Confront & Correct
David was a man after God’s own heart, was passionate about worship, prayer, and God but his son’s were out of control! Amnon raped his sister, Absalom was a traitor and had his brother Amnon killed, Solomon was self indulgent, excessive, and a womanizer. And perhaps the most revealing statement about David was regarding Adonijah who was spoiled rotten and a self promoter (I Kings 1 - 6His father had spoiled him rotten as a child, never once reprimanding him.). Not a glowing report as a parent. Mainly because he would never confront or correct. Perhaps it was due to his own sin? Maybe he couldn’t bring himself to confront them because he lived in such shame and depression over his own sin? But for whatever reason he always seemed to look the other way! How many of us look the other way and watch our kids/family members walk into destruction?
Eli was in the same boat. He was the priest. He was in charge of the house of God and yet he allowed his ungodly, evil sons to run rampant in the temple. They stole sacrifices and slept with women in the temple and yet when God pronounces judgment through Samuel he said in 1 Samuel 3:11, “13For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.”
He refused to correct them and it cost him his life and the lives of his two sons.
We must confront our family. Proverbs 27:5-6 “Open rebuke is better than secret love. 6Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” They may get upset, they may not like it, they may resist, but it is better to rebuke than to let them move to destruction.
Even God said in Revelation that those He loved, He rebukes! We prove our love by our willingness to confront and correct!
We must get bold again! We must be confrontational again. Get the lock off your kid’s door. Get the password to their email account. Meet who they are spending time with!
Some of you just need to have a good ole come to Jesus meeting with your kid and your family members. It must be done it love, but it must be done!
However, we must also confront and correct correctly. How? It must be done in love – Paul gives us insight in Ephesians 6:4, “4Fathers, don’t exasperate your children by coming down hard on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master.” This brings me to the 4th C.
IV. Copy (i.e. model)
Paul teaches us that the best way to confront and correct is by leading our children by example.
We need to remember that like produces like. In other words, an apple tree will never produce an orange. It will produce apples.
If you don’t like what you see in your children – look closer. They are simply you.
So if like produces like and we want children that love God with everything – we must model that, if we want children that read God’s Word – we must read the Word. If we want our kids to be color blind then we can’t tell or laugh at racist jokes. If we want our kids to be drug free then we must not allow anything to control us. If we want our kids to honor their parents then we must honor our spouse and those in authority over us. If we want our kids to worship then we must worship. If we want our kids to do their best at school then we must do our best at work.
Our motto should be that of Paul – follow me as I follow Christ rather than do what I say rather than what I do!
Law of Lid – they will only go as high and as far as you go! I am calling you up higher.
I remind you this morning, we don’t raise our children. We raise chickens! According to Proverbs 22:6 we train children. “6Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” In spite of what the atheist may say, in spite of what the psychologist or the radical feminist may say, I will protect my nest. I feel like doing an under armor commercial. We will protect this house!
And men it starts with us. In fact, Malachi says that God will turn the hearts of fathers back to their sons and then in return the hearts of the children will be turned to the hearts of their fathers! It starts with our hearts. Men step up!
A study of thirty-nine teenage girls suffering from anorexia showed that thirty-six of them shared a common trait: the lack of close relationship with their fathers.
Dr. Armand Nicholi’s research found that an emotionally or physically absent father contributes to a child’s low motivation for achievement, inability to defer immediate gratification for later rewards, low self-esteem, and susceptibility to group influence and to juvenile delinquency.
Pratt Memorial Hospital in Baltimore did an Avenger Profile of the 17 teenage shooters over the last couple of years and found that the only common factor of the shooters was: “they are from families that seem normal but are subtly dysfunctional especially with the father.”
A child raised in a two parent home where there is a fair to poor relationship with the dad is 68% more likely to get involved in drugs, alcohol, violence, and anti-social behavior.
A child raised in a two parent home where there is a good to excellent relationship with the dad is 94% less likely to get involved in drugs, alcohol, violence, and anti-social behavior.
And yet:
• 54% of teens and preteens in evangelical church families say they seldom or never talk with their fathers about their personal concerns.
• 42% (two in five) say they seldom or never do something special with their fathers that involves just the two of them.
• One in five say their fathers seldom or never show their love for them.
• When a child is the first person in the family to come to faith, the rest of the family will follow 31% of the time. When a mother/woman is the first person in the family to come to faith, the rest of the family will follow 17% of the time. WHEN A MAN/FATHER IS THE FIRST PERSON IN THE FAMILY TO COME TO FAITH THE REST OF THE FAMILY WILL FOLLOW 93% of the time.
Silence! It should produce calm, peace, and security. However, in my house silence produces the following question, “Where are the boys?” When I don’t see them or hear them for a short period of time, I get nervous and begin to look for them. I want to make sure they are O.K. and that they aren’t messing with something that will hurt them! Joseph and Mary were on the trip home. They were on the road, tired, busy, and distracted. They were focused on the destination, the journey, and the mechanics of getting there on time. In the blur of the moment they forgot Jesus. They should have been ashamed! Three days. Three 24 hour periods passed before they even noticed. Three nights in a row they fell sound asleep and never thought to ask, “Where’s the boy?” Embarrassing!!
But perhaps we should be the ones blushing. How many of us are so focused on our destination, our promotion, our applause, or our lives that we start moving toward our “place” only to forget and leave behind the children of destiny God has placed in our care. Young men and women of destiny left behind in the blur of the trip. Forgotten. Abandoned if not physically, emotionally and spiritually.
It is imperative to learn from Mary and Joseph. Go back!! We must retrace our steps and get our sons and daughters of destiny.
V. Close
Let me tell you what I am believing for this morning!
I am believing for a jailor experience to come over our congregation. When Paul and Silas were in jail and God intervened the Word says the jailer had an encounter with God and then he took that encounter home and his entire household was saved!
Our wallet reveals the importance of our family. It is time we protect our nest!
Altar: Men come down, women behind them.
