Teach Your Children Well - Impacting The Next Generation

II. THE NEXT GENERATION WILL BE IMPACTED BY YOUR WORDS… Now that you have your attitudes adjusted properly you are prepared to begin instructing by what you say. 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Look at verses 4-6. Three things of note here. 1) God is the only true God… 2) love Him with all that you are…3) His word is to be on (or in) your hearts. Next comes your responsibility to the following generations. 1) Impress them on your children. The word “Impress” in the Hebrew means to point them toward… As you teach this generation always point them toward the Word of God and what He wants instead of how you think they should act. 2) Talk about them… when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Do you want to impact people? Then you have to talk to them. Do you want to impact people for Christ? Then you have to talk to them about the word or God. Romans 10:8, 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming… One thing that I have found with our youth is that they like to ask questions. Once you get them started on a topic in the bible they are interested they will ask. 1 Peter 3:15, Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. 3) Look at everything as an opportunity to talk about Jesus… 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. You all know the WWJD fad. What would Jesus do? When kids have a question about the things of life it should always bring you to that question – What would Jesus do? Don’t be asking, WWBHOD – (what would Barrack Hussein Obama do?) or WWLGD (What would Lady GAGA do?) The only words that will positively impact the generation are the words from God’s word.

III. THE NEXT GENERATION WILL BE IMPACTED BY YOUR TESTIMONY. 10 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied. Moses talked to the people of Israel like everything was already done. Look at the terminology. … When God brings you into the land… to give you… cities you did not build… houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant… when you eat and are satisfied… Always be prepared to share what God has done in your life. 1 Corinthians 4:7, What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? There is nothing wrong with telling young people about the virtue of hard work and dedication, but it is wrong to tell them that it is by their own hand that they will have anything. It is all from the Lord. Your ability to work, to earn a paycheck comes from God. And if it does come from God why wouldn’t we want to use it in a way that glorifies Him? 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. What makes Royal Rangers different than the Boy Scouts? Both are in the character building business. Both teach life sills. But the Royal Ranger program points boys to Christ. You men who have agreed to help with Rangers have something that not everyone in Boy Scouts has – a testimony. Your testimony is simply this – Who you were before Christ came into your life and who you are since He came into your life. There should be a change. And that change should be seen in your attitudes and your words. Your testimony will impact lives