Family Fight Round 4: Week #4

Introduction: Family Fight…Didn’t Pastor Brent do a great job last week…I know hearing some of the answers from our Children and Youth might have stung…but wow it was good for the Soul…

Title: Fundamentals for Our Children

Transition: When a boxers returns to his corner…the Corner man tells him one or two pieces of advice…because you can’t digest a ton of material and instruction when you’re in the middle of a fight…but every corner man…ALWAYS REMINDS THE FIGHTER OF THE FUNDAMENTALS…

Deut 6:6-9

6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and 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. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

NKJV

Deut 6:17-18

17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you. 1

NKJV

Transition: I’ve struggled like you have to raise Godly boys…One of the things I have learned though is “Don’t try to be a Perfect Parent but Try to be a Parent who helps your children discover their purpose.”

The text I read this morning is where we are going to spend our time today. Deut. is a book that every devout Jew had to memorize. Of all the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy is the most practical book of the five Mosaic Books. It has very practical insight for just about everything, relationships, family, work and worship as well as rest.

As a Parent we are to give our children: Rules, Boundaries and Limitations. The book of Deuteronomy addresses these principles but they are termed differently.

Things to Keep
1. In the text it instructs us to teach our children there principle: God’s commands, His Testimonies and His Statues
2. What Are these Things:
3. Commands
  1. Commands are pretty straight forward…they are what they are:
    1. We understand that the Moral Law that is in the Old Testament is very relevant for us today…
    2. So when we say we don’t have to live under the law…we are speaking specifically of the ceremonial and sacrificial laws…not the Moral Law
    3. We are to not only keep the Moral Law, such as the Ten Commandments, but we are to also teach them to our Children
4. Statutes
  1. Deut. 6:17 says, “We are to keep His Statutes…”
    1. Statutes are different than commands…statutes are the reasons or the underlying principles in which the command is founded upon…it answers the question WHY.
    2. A perfect example is: The Command “Honor your father and your mother…” The Statute is “God’s Nature and in His Kingdom life flows through honor…” So we are to Honor Life Sources…especially Mom and Dad.
    3. Scripture teaches us to Honor those in Authority because Life and Kingdom power flows out of Honor…
    4. Let me Give you another Example: Tithing…the bible commands give 10%…now the Statute is not about Money…it is a trust issue! Tithing has very little to do with Finances…it is more about Trust.
    5. God doesn’t want us to simply do what He says, He wants us to understand Why we do what He says…
    6. Haven’t you found with parenting…”I told you so…” Usually doesn’t work so well
  2. It Also says in the text….”We are to keep the testimonies of the Lord and teach these to our children…”

Transition: I’ve been thinking of this a lot lately…my personal testimonies of when God has come through for me, my family, in ministry…the Visions God has given me…the Dreams that He has spoken to me through…

To Keep Testimonies
1. The Word “Keep” in the Hebrew means to “watch or preserve”
2. It’s pretty simple to understand…”don’t get your eyes off of what God has done…and teach our children what God has done.”
3. In the Word Testimony…there is this underlying understanding or definition: “To Do Again.”
4. Deut. says, “the testimonies are to be in our conversations…”
  1. What consumes your conversations?
  2. With people and especially with your children…?
  3. Is it the testimonies of what the Lord has done…?
  4. Can I ask this question before we go deeper…”Do your children know what God has done in your life…the story that God’s gets the glory out of and not you or me.”
Our Minds and Our Mouth
1. Josh 1:8

8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

NKJV

1. Two key words in this verse:
  1. Meditate – now in eastern mysticism meditation is the emptying of your mind to reach Nirvana…but biblical Meditation means to fill your mind with the things of God
    1. Things like His Word
    2. His promises
    3. Worship
    4. Testimonies of all God has done and is doing
  2. Whatever fills our hearts and minds ultimately leads us to establish some kind of trust and agreement with it.
    1. If your thoughts are continually on bad things and the bad that can happen to you…you will come into agreement with a spirit of anxiety
    2. You continually think about all the bad in the world or why God didn’t seemingly come through for you like you thought He should…you will eventually come into agreement with a spirit of bitterness, doubt and ultimately to unbelief…
    3. But if our thoughts are filled with the possibilities of God, what He is doing and what He has done…we will begin to build an agreement with Faith….
  3. Now Know this…What you are in agreement with will flow out of your mouth…and it will flow into the ears, thoughts, hearts and minds of your children.
2. Meditation also means in the Hebrew: “to moan, growl, utter, sing about, or speak” it is a word picture of a lion growling over his prey….
  1. Your meditation is not to be passive but rather active…
    1. Where you are singing over the promises of God
    2. Testifying to one another the greatness of God, not the junk you are going through
      1. Abraham testified about a Son of Promise for 25 years before that baby was born
      2. Revelation says: “They overcame by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of Their Testimony”

Telling Your Kids
1. Ps 66:5-6

5 Come and see the works of God;

He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men.

6 He turned the sea into dry land;

They went through the river on foot.

There we will rejoice in Him.

NKJV

1. David is saying this as if it was happening in that moment and that he was on the banks observing it firsthand…
  1. Here’s the thing…it happened hundreds of years before David…but he had heard and studied the testimonies of God and those testimonies got so deep in His spirit that He believed the same God could do the same type of Miraculous things for him and his family as well as his nation.
2. David studied the Testimonies of God…
  1. The word Study means “to seek after”
  2. To study doesn’t mean to simply gather knowledge and information…it means “to seek after”
  3. David was tracking down his own personal encounter with these works of God
  4. If you notice in boxing…one boxer studies the other by pushing in…the other tries to study by backing up…the announcer always says about the person pushing in…He is controlling the Fight…winning the rounds…
3. So when I am meditating on God’s word…I am seeking after or tracking down those things of God to happen in my life, in my family, in our church, in our region, and in our nation.
Conclusion
1. You and I should be giving our children these foundational principles…
  1. His Commands
  2. His Statutes of why
  3. His Testimonies…
2. You need to tell your kids your testimonies…don’t take out the bad and don’t take out the faith…
3. Tell it all…they need to know you were afraid, BUT GOD
4. They need to know when you had GREAT FAITH, so they know there are times; they can have great faith…
5. Testimony of the time Trey and I prayed for a young man whose back was deformed from birth…Trey had his hand on the boys back when it popped in to place.

Family Fight Round 4: Week #4

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