A Godly Family
September 7, 2008 Evening Service
Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK
Rick Boyne
Message Point: We must treat others fairly with honor and love.
Focus Passage: Ephesians 6:1-4
Supplemental Passage: Philippians 2:3-4 NASB Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; (4) do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Introduction: Owne Wister, an old college friend of Theodore Roosevelt, was visiting him at the White House. Roosevelt’s daughter Alice kept running in and out of the room until Wister finally asked if there wasn’t something Roosevelt could do to control her.
"Well," said the President, "I can do one of two things. I can be President of the United States or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both."
I. Obey & Honor
a. “Children” is not “little ones”. It is children of any age living under their parent’s roofs. (Boomerang generation)
b. William Barclay explains it like this, "The only way to honour parents is to obey them, to respect them, and never to cause them pain.”
II. Don’t provoke or exasperate
a. Proverbs 15:1 NASB A gentle answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.
b. Proverbs 12:16 “A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.”
c. Proverbs 18:2 “A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions.”
III. Train & teach
a. Costs over $200,000 to raise a child. If you were going to invest $200,000 in something, wouldn’t you take time to make sure that your investment is “doing well?”
b. 2 Timothy 2:2 NASB The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Invitation:
When the 10-year-olds in Mrs. Imogene Frost’s class at the Brookside, N.J. Community Sunday School expressed their views of "What’s wrong with grownups?" they came up with these complaints:
1. Grownups make promises, then they forget all about them, or else they say it wasn’t really a promise, just a maybe.
2. Grownups don’t do the things they’re always telling the children to do--like pick up their things, or be neat, or always tell the truth.
3. Grownups never really listen to what children have to say. They always decide ahead of time what they’re going to answer.
4. Grownups make mistakes, but they won’t admit them. They always pretend that they weren’t mistakes at all--or that somebody else made them.
5. Grownups interrupt children all the time and think nothing of it. If a child interrupts a grownup, he gets a scolding or something worse.
6. Grownups never understand how much children want a certain thing--a certain color or shape or size. If it’s something they don’t admire--even if the children have spent their own money for it--they always say, "I can’t imagine what you want with that old thing!"
7. Sometimes grownups punish children unfairly. It isn’t right if you’ve done just some little thing wrong and grownups take away something that means an awful lot to you. Other times you can do something really bad and they say they’re going to punish you, but they don’t. You never know, and you ought to know.
8. Grownups are always talking about what they did and what they knew when they were 10 years old--but they never try to think what it’s like to be 10 years old right now.
