Family Fight V: Ready to Rumble

Family Fight Round V: Ready To Rumble-Uncommon Kids

Ps 128; 128 Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways! 2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;

you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. 3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. 4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. 5 The Lord bless you from Zion! May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life! 6 May you see your children’s children! Peace be upon Israel! ESV

Introduction:  We are in this Family Fight series where we have been discussing Family and Marriage…today we want to address Children.

Transition:  Today almost seems fitting as we are in this ring talking about READY TO RUMBLE…because this is where for most of us the fight gets too real.

  1. Changing Culture
    1. This passage of scripture has been teaching us that the best thing you can do to improve and impact society in a positive, Godly way…is to:
      1. First, begin with a healthy fear of the Lord in your own soul…
      2. Secondly, have solid marriages…understanding that Family, God’s way, begins at the Altar with a man and woman getting married…thus the family, marriage, and two people revolve around the altar and the fear of the Lord
  • Thirdly, strong marriages must produce healthy, strong, faith-filled Children…When God told Adam and Eve to multiply…it wasn’t for the sole purpose of filling the planet up with humans…it was to fill the planet up with Image Bearers…who knew they were created in the image and likeness of God…and took their identity from that framework.
  1. This is what will help a dying world…to come to know Christ.
  1. The imagery of the Text
    1. This Psalm is filled with all this imagery, and we have discussed some of it…
    2. But when it gets to Children it gives us a picture of all these Olive shoots around a table….when I read this I see a picnic table with all these kids, like olive shoots around it.
    3. The cool thing about the imagery is what it conveys.
      1. The marriage is like a vine producing grapes.
        1. It communicates that it takes time and care and special attention to produce a healthy, fruitful marriage….
      2. Now we see Olive shoots as it pertains to children.
        1. It takes a longer time to produce healthy, productive Olive trees…than it does Grape Vines
  • So, both images are communicating, we must be both patient and intentional…
  1. The other image that this communicates is: to a Jewish people…
    1. The grapevine and the Olive tree were sources of value…critical to the family’s income and overall prosperity and well-being
    2. What if we judge how prosperous we are, not by the size of our bank account but rather by the health of our marriages and kids…
    3. If I’m honest…there would have been times in my life I’d had to file chapter 11 for a restart.
  • Don’t Compare / Complement
    1. We spend too much time comparing marriages and families…
      1. Then we make critical statements toward others or even our own selves…
      2. They are or we are dysfunctional…
        1. Listen ever since the fall of Adam and Eve…every family has been dysfunctional…
      3. 2 Corinthians tells us “Know no man according to the flesh…” Scripture also says, “Man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart…”
        1. We make harsh judgments and often times live in guilt or shame…never knowing the full story of a family.
      4. So when I say Complement…I’m not talking about walking around and saying…man you guys look this way or that way…I’m saying complement as a server would ask…” can I bring you anything that will complement your meal?”

Transition:  So how do we Fight for a Generation instead of fighting with a Generation?

  1. Fighting for Your Kids
    1. 22:6 “Train up a child in the way they should go”
      1. Illustration of a tree with trains on it…
      2. Giving the child room to grow…but leading the child into their full potential of growth and according to their bent.
    2. Pray for this Generation!
      1. This generation needs our prayers not our criticism…
      2. Pray for them to fear and reverence the Lord!
        1. Ps 34:11; 11 Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. NIV
  • Pray to be surrounded by Divine Favor
    1. Pray for them and give them opportunities others may not get.
    2. Ps 5:12; 12 For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield. NIV
  1. Have you ever considered the Favor of God as a shield for your children?
  1. Pray for Godly Friends and Influencers
    1. 27:17 “As iron sharpens iron…”
    2. This means: iron is being shaped
    3. Who is shaping you and who are we allowing to shape our kids?
  2. Prioritize Church
    1. There is nothing like being in the room…
      1. Luke 4:16-17; 16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. ESV
  1. Is it your custom…?
  2. Even when family comes in from out of town…is it still your custom?
  3. When family would visit me…I’d tell them, we go to church, so your welcome to come with us or we’ll catch you afterward….
  4. When I was a kid…I had a major drug problem…my mom drug me to church every time the doors were open…now because we don’t and haven’t our kids are suffering from another drug problem…
  1. Stats
    1. Mom gets saved…18% of the time the whole family will come to Christ.
    2. Kid gets saved 22% of the time the family will come to Christ.
    3. Dad gets saved 94% of the time the whole family will come to Christ.
      1. That tells me that we need men reaching men…
  • Heb 10:23-25; 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching. NIV
  1. How To Fight for a Generation
    1. Be An Example – Titus 2
    2. Be Available for them.
  • Be Positive about their generation.
    1. They do desire God; they do not want to be lonely and alone.

Transition:  When I was in school, I would cram for exams…I’ve heard there are two exams you cannot cram for:

  • A dental exam
  • When our kids turn 18…
  • We find out what we’ve done and not done in both cases…dental hygiene and raising our children.

I’ve got some good news and bad news.

  • The bad news is our kids need a perfect parent.
  • The good news is they have one, his name is Jesus.

 

  1. 5 Things You Learn From Your Family…if not Life will be Tough for You
    1. What to do with Feelings
      1. Recognize them!
      2. Own them!
  • Express them appropriately
  1. Dumb things we say as Parents…
    1. Don’t you dare cry…
    2. Stop Crying…
    3. I’ll give you something to cry about…
  2. How to handle Conflict
    1. Mute – be silent.
    2. Martyr
  • Maniac
  1. How to Handle Loss
    1. Grieving Loss
    2. You NEED losses for your kids
  • Treat the losses for your kids as a big thing (Pets that die)
  1. Theology of Grief and Mourning
    1. Board Games…teach your kids how to lose and win successfully.
    2. Chutes and Ladders is a metaphor for life…
    3. Your degree won’t help you in a mean game of chutes and ladders…
  2. Prov.24:16 “Even if good people fall seven times, they will get back up. But when trouble strikes the wicked, that’s the end of them.” (CEV)
    1. Resilience is what we need to teach our kids!
    2. The leaders of the World are Resilient…
  3. What Values Matter Most
    1. The world teaches some messed up stuff…
      1. Image
      2. Money
      3. Sex
      4. The things the world says are of the highest value…
    2. The Three Temptations of Satan
      1. Lust of Eyes – Value comes from what you D0 – Salary
      2. Lust of the Flesh – Feel – Sex
      3. Pride of Life – Get – Status, Power Prestige, Popularity
  • All Add Companies Appeal to these 3 Temptations…
    1. These are Core-values being taught to our kids…
  1. Good Habits
    1. Heard a kid say, “Manners make the man.” This little guy was 6…good advice.
  2. How to Help People Grow
    1. Through Example – your kids want to see your sermon not hear one…
    2. Through Conversations
      1. Deut 6:6-8; 6 Memorize his laws 7 and tell them to your children over and over again. Talk about them all the time, whether you’re at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning. CEV
  1. 4 Best Times to Talk To Your Children
    1. At Home
    2. Our for a walk
    3. At bedtime
    4. At the breakfast table…
  2. A few ways that don’t Work
    1. Competing, Comparing, and Criticizing…
    2. We have to teach toward repentance…
      1. Repentance is focusing on what I should be doing…not on what I was doing wrong or bad…
      2. What you focus on will get larger…
  • Protection (Umbrella)
    1. Matt 5:45-46; For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ESV
  1. Your family is going to go through a storm
  2. When in storms you and I need an umbrella
  1. Awesome Families Protect Each Other
    1. Eccl 4:9-11; 9 Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! ESV
  1. Type of Storms We Will Need to Shelter Our Kids From:
    1. Change
      1. When you go through major changes…you need to be shelter for your kids…
    2. Harmful Ideas
      1. By the age of 18 years old a kid has been exposed to 18,000 – 30,000 hours of:
      2. Murder and Violence
      3. Sex Portrayed Inappropriately…
  • Rejection
    1. Worse storm for a kid but it’s coming and needs to….
    2. It’s a big deal, so cry with your child when they feel rejected…
    3. Do not dismiss it…
  • Care About the Whole World
    1. Families who are Rumbling for the right things care about others!
    2. Teach Generosity…
      1. Teach our kids how to be generous…
      2. Teach them to tithe and give to KB
  • Check out this verse…to all the tithers you are about to be blessed…
    1. Heb 7:7-10; 7 It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. 8 In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives. 9 One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, 10 for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him. ESV
  1. Teach Serving
    1. 1 Cor 16:15; 15 You know that Stephanas and his family were the first in Achaia to have faith in the Lord. They have done all they can for God’s people. CEV
  1. I met my best friend when he was 4 years old…he was standing next to his day at the front door of the church, and he greeted me…I was five.
  1. Closing
    1. DECISION TIME – RUMBLE TIME
      1. Joshua, the Leader of the People of God, Joshua was approximately 80 years old when he entered the Promise Land…
      2. We know that from Joshua 24:29 he died at 110 years of age…
  • So Joshua, in the Promise land, led the people for 30 years…
  1. His final words are…ARE YOU READY TO RUMBLE…Are You Ready to Make a Decision?…
  2. Then He informs them of His decision:

Josh 24:15; 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” ESV

  1. Today is the Day of Decision for You and Your Family…

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