5th commandment—“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”
Was this one for kids and the other nine for adults?
Children will not naturally honor their parents, God, or any authority but their own. Why?
Gen 8:21—“The imagination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth.” (Born sinners)
Eph 6:1-3—“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. (Holy, righteous, just; in principle, in decision, in execution) ‘Honor your father and mother’ which is the first commandment with promise: ‘that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.’”
Since this will not happen naturally, continuing to be effective as God’s people generation after generation depends on parents teaching the following generations God’s ways.
Endeavored to enlarge our vision
This information may help you but it is especially to equip you to be able help others.
Is it really that important?
Deut 6:4—“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!
Shema = (Heb, for “hear”) Jewish confession of faith; recited twice daily by devout Jews.
[“The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.”]
Deut 6:5—“You shall love the LORD you God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” [Jesus said this is the greatest commandment]
Deut 6: 6-7—“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”
We saw that through Christ, the promises of God to the people of God were extended to include others outside of the nation of Israel.
1 Pet 2:9-10—But you are a chosen generation (selected offspring), a royal priesthood (kings and priests to God), a holy nation (a race of saints), His own special people (purchased possession), that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”
We are being transformed into the image of Christ that we might bear His image to the world.
Phil 2:14-16—“Do all things without grumbling and arguing, that you may become blameless and innocent, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.”
The church is the light of the world.
We are working within our families and within our churches to have God’s vision and work to continue it generation after generation and fill the earth with His glory.
[Effect of one family over 10 generations--- numbers on whiteboard]
Ps 146:3-4—“Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a human being in whom there is no help. His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; in that very day his plans perish.”
The hope of the nations is not in who they elect or what kind of government they have, the hope of the nations is Jesus Christ and the church is His bodily representative on the earth.
God has a big picture—His Vision (Macro-story)
God has placed the church, His people, His nation, His temple, His expression of Himself in the center of all things.
Each generation training the next generation is central to how the plan is continued.
Parenting is discipleship and building God’s kingdom (Macro story) at a micro level.
Personal Vision:
Focus (Micro-story)—How my little life—my micro story---fits into and is part of the big picture—His macro-story.
2 Tim 1:9—(God) “Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”
Eph 2:10—“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Older saints:
Finished raising their children—wealth of experiences + and -, others can be helped by them.
What about older saints that did not marry or have children of their own?
Ps 92:12-15—“The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar planted in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh (full of oil or sap) and flourishing (lit. green), to declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”
Ps 71:18—“Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come.”
Told our kids to stay in good relationship with us so they don’t have to learn it all over themselves.
Actively parenting:
Those in the child training years—always looking to learn more—seems more vital to them now
They are in the thick of it but do they have a vision and focus that carries them during this time?
Just getting desired behaviors falls short of the vision and the focus.
They are in the battle—the front lines—taxing and seems endless—“Will this ever end?”
Just getting through this period of life misses the vision and focus—God’s purpose.
Pro 29:18—“Where there is no revelation (prophetic vision), the people cast off restraint (to loosen) . . .
Without God’s vision people will tend to do get sloppy and lose their focus—then they end up doing what they do for selfish or self-serving reasons.
“ . . . but happy is he who keeps the law.”
Law = “Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
God’s word gives the vision and God’s word gives the focus.
Singles and young adults not married or not actively parenting yet, young adults still living in their parent’s home:
World:
Children 0-12—Children’s rights, “center of the universe”
Teen-agers 13-19—give them all they want—Super bowl halftime show, American Idol
20 to ?---Adults at 18, 21, extend the adolsecence?
New York times article:---“What is it about the 20-somethings?”
About young people failing to “reach adulthood” in their 20's
Author says this is because the 20's are a distinct life stage—“emerging adulthood” with
its own “particular psychological profile.” (Identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling
in-between, “sense of possibilities”)
Believes we should do for emerging adults what we did for teen-agers—accept their “failure to
launch” (prolonged un-settledness, self-focus, uncertainty, ambivalence) as normal (as
developmentally healthy) and culturally encourage and even subsidize them.
The world has it wrong—it is feeding people a lie—no vision beyond self-gratification
The vision for life is not Hannan Montana, Barbie and Ken, American idol or the super-heroes.
In Him was life and this life was the light of men.
Last week—“There is no such things as a teen-ager in the Bible.”
Read Luke 2:41-48
Jesus (age 12)---Customary for parents to take a 12 year old boy to Jerusalem in order to acquaint them with the temple customs in preparation for their bar mitzvah the next year
At age 13 a Jewish boy became a man (bar mitzvah ceremony)
Natural order:
Puberty—bodily changes---able to physically produce children—you are an adult–a young, apprenticing adult.
Adolescence = growing, Heb. To ascend (ascend to what—adult)
Youth—lad, stripling, young man
Webster’s—stripling = [primarily a tall slender youth, one that shoots up suddenly] A youth in the state of adolescence, or just passing from boyhood to manhood; a lad
Job 20:11—“bones are full of his youthful vigor . . .”
David
1 Sam 17—“Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God . . . You are not able to go against him; for you are a youth, and he is a man of war from his youth . . . The LORD, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine . . . You come to me with a sword, with a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all the assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give you into our hands . . . ran toward the army to meet the Philistine . . . Inquire whose son this young man is.”
Biblical order:
Ps 144:12—“That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner pillars, sculptured in palace style.”
“All who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.”
(Ex. 12-13 year old being asked questions by moms who had no idea what to do.)
Luke 2:49—“Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
“About My Father’s business”—about or in the things of My Father
At age 12 Jesus was already focused on doing what His Father was doing, on doing the will and work of His Father.
Mennonites—generation after generation
Ascension period—feel ready for many things (marriage, having kids, working, making all own decisions) but must be patient and keep learning and preparing for what is ahead.
Luke 2:51-52—“Then He (Jesus) went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, . . . And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
No generation gap when both parents and children are following God’s vision and focus
God has a plan and purpose—seek Him and prepare for a bigger picture