Core Values: Building Strong Families
Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Luke 2:52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
1. There is nothing more important than strong, united families
2. We will minister to the entire family, providing ministries relative to the needs of all age groups
3. Local church involvement should enhance the home, enrich marriages, and empower families to worship
a. Don’t sacrifice family devotions – it is powerful, formative, guiding, & biblical to pray together, study together, share together
4. We strive for early Christian training of children and youth using relevant children’s ministry to enable their life in Christ to begin at a young age
5. Children’s ministry must be vibrant, relevant and facilitate an experience with God’s word and presence
6. Family ministry shall bring the prophetic outpouring
a. Here the “sons & the daughters will prophecy” as the Holy Spirit fills every ministry – the nursery, the preschool, the Kid’s Church, the Teen’s Services, the young adults, the balding & bulging, the seniors – from the cradle to the grave the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh
7. Family ministry must develop three things in our kids:
a. Wisdom to make godly choices based on Scripture
b. A Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ and willingness to put their faith in God through every situation in life
c. Fellowship with brothers & sisters in Christ and demonstration of love & kindness
8. Invest in your Family
a. Warren Buffet is one of the richest men in America. In 1997, among the 70 or so people in this country who were worth 1 billion dollars or more, Buffet was the only one of only a few who acquired his wealth through investing. Many investors look to him for investment advice. His firm Berkshire Hathaway has one of the most widely read annual reports issued. And a book has been written about his investment strategies; it’s called The Warren Buffet Way.
b. If you could sit down with Warren Buffet for a while and get some investment tips would you?
c. Your family is your greatest treasure. If you could get some investment tips on how to grow it in quality would you be interested?
d. We hold in our hands a treasure of investment strategies for growing our family relationships. The Bible, God’s Word in written form, contains countless pro-family principles and precepts. If we learn and practice them they will make our family’s relationally wealthy.
i. How many of you own a VCR? How many of you know how to program it? There is a big difference between owning something and understanding how it works. People who have a nodding acquaintance with a second language know the gap between hearing words and understanding the meaning of those words.
9. See the Treasure in your family
a. One miner was asked how do you mine precious gold? You dig out a ton of dirt to find an ounce of gold. The challenge is making sure you see the gold as you dig through all the dirt.
b. Do you see the gold in your family? Do you see the gifts of the Holy Spirit entrusted to your children? Do you see the work of God in your spouse? Do you overlook the gold in the dirt?
10. Teach your family the Scripture
a. When God’s people were about to enter the promised land. They were less than one month away from the death of Moses, and the leadership of Joshua where, in a few more weeks, he would lead them to cross the Jordan river. There were giants in the land. There were over 40 other people groups inhabiting the place where God had promised His people a land flowing with milk and honey. There would be many battles and much anxiety.
i. What was God’s plan? What was the first and foremost item on the agenda to prepare for this most difficult time?
ii. Did He say increase defense spending? Or stockpile weapons? Did He tell them to roll over their 401K plan, or take out a savings account or a CD to prepare for a possible depression?
iii. No, He says you should diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and teach them diligently to your children. Why? That it may be well with you in order that you may go in and possess the good land which the LORD swore to give your fathers, by driving out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has spoken.
iv. This promise is for a nation, and it is a conditional promise. It is predicated on parents diligently instructing their children in the Word of God. Seeing to it that EVERY day, God’s Word stays in their hearts.
v. It doesn’t matter what they teach in school. It doesn’t matter how corrupt the government, or the Judges, or the City council gets, if you aren’t fortifying your family with God’s Word and Godly living, you are just putting a different label on the same bottle of poison.
vi. The greatest problem we have in this nation will not be fixed by who is in the White House, it must be fixed by the parents in our house.
b. Teach your children to have a personal relationship with the Lord
i. This is the heart of God’s plan for you and your family. You must teach your children from the time they are born until the time they leave home:
ii. The number one responsibility that we have as parents is to teach our children that we must have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. There is no other option. If your children leave home without a personal relationship and a lifetime commitment to Jesus Christ their only other option is a man made religion. That means man gets to make the rules. That means whoever has the most influence gets your kids. Think about that. Guess who is in charge right now? Are you sure?
iii. Question: What good does it do to raise a child in the finest home, in the finest schools, with the finest education, and in the greatest nation, to give him the greatest job in order to get the nicest things; only for him to end up in the grave, in the most beautiful casket standing before the Judgment of a God that he does not even know?
iv. We must teach our children to have a personal relationship with God. It is the primary relationship for which we were originally created.
v. If we can’t influence our own children for Jesus Christ, then we will have failed in our primary mission as parents.
vi. There is not a more important job for a parent on planet earth than to show your children this basic training step of life – to have a personal relationship with God.
c. Teach your children to love the Lord
i. And I’m not talking about the run of the mill attitude that is seems most folks have for God. It is one thing to acknowledge God. It is completely another to love God.
ii. There is a special kind of love that God is seeking. There is a special kind of devotion that God deserves, God desires, and God demands – just as you rightfully seek from your own family.
I. Completely and Faithfully (repeat v. 5)
II. Reverently (read vv. 13-15)
III. If you really care about your kids, you will teach them to fear the Lord.
IV. We must teach our children to have a personal relationship with the Lord that is a loving, faithful, and reverent relationship. We must also:
d. Teach our children to obey the Lord
i. The families of today are going to decide how the next generation will live. We must teach our children to obey the Lord diligently, daily, and deliberately. And we must set the example.
ii. Your children will walk your walk before they talk your talk. It has been well said that the footsteps a child follows are the ones that the parents thought they had covered up.
iii. The Word of God ought to be on display in your homes, in every area of your life. It ought to be hung up in your living room, your kitchen, your laundry room, and if you really expect your children to follow the Lord, the Word of God had better be hung up in your bedroom.
e. Teach your children to remember the Lord.
i. The is a danger of forgetting God. (v. 10) Then there is the danger of forsaking God.
ii. When a nation forgets God, it begins to ask the question “Who is God?” Then when a nation begins forsaking God, they ask the question, “Who needs God?” – this is exactly what happened to the nation of Israel.
iii. If you study the history of Israel in the Bible you will see four stages of spiritual corruption that cannot be missed.
I. Independence
II. Indulgence
III. Indifference
IV. Irreverence
11. Listen to your family – don’t JUST teach them
a. James 1:19 states that we should be “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” (NLT) Parents I don’t know of any child that would be repulsed by a parent who was quick to really listen to them.
12. Pray for your Children:
· My prayer is that my children will go to the heavenly Father with you
· A Father’s greatest prayer is for the salvation of their kids.
· More important than their prosperity, education, athleticism, or musical abilities, is that they are saved?
· What would it profit a man to gain the world, and lose his family?
· How great a failure to reach across the globe in missions but lose your flesh & blood from God’s kingdom?
· How empty a place would heaven be without my sons and my daughter?
· My prayer is that you go with me -- Beau.
· My prayer is that you go with me -- Colin.
· My prayer is that you go with me -- Abby.
· My prayer is that you go with me -- Zion.
· My prayer is that you go with me -- Noah.
· My prayer is that you go with me -- Solomon.
· If you don’t go with me to heaven, I have failed as a Father.
· I have prayed many times to God, please let all my children know you. Don’t let one of them be lost. Help me to show them a loving, heavenly Father. Don’t let my life turn them off to you.
