Deuteronomy 6:4-9
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lordyour God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today we are taking a break from the normal lectionary readings that we do during the church here to pause on a sermon series. Today is the first one of three Sundays, where we are going to look at the theme of raising children in the face. This is something that our youth ministry worker and I Kathleen have been talking about for a while. And so we're going to take an examination of this both to help parents who are doing that, as well as our congregation, think about what it means as we begin our strategic planning process. Over the course of this sermon series, I'm going to do three sermons. The first one is today, it's about parents and the role of parents in raising their children in the faith. Next Sunday, we'll be talking about the importance of having children in worship. And the final one is how the partnership of parents and the church can work together to grow and active and living faith in children as they practice that faith out in the world. Now, before we get to this, we have to ask the question, what is the purpose of raising children in the faith? That might seem like a silly question, right? But before you can say, this is how we do it, you have to say, what's the goal? Is the goal, to grow a big ministry? Is the goal to have lots of fun? Or is the goal to have a child grow up, live and die in the face? We have to remember that, for the Christian Church, the project of a child in the congregation begins with baptism, and doesn't end for hopefully, 9095, maybe 120 years, right. And that for men like me, when I come and greet an infant, and welcome them into the Church of God, the projects that has been begun that day, I will not see its end. The hope is that I die long before they do. And we will have to hand this on to someone else. And so what we want is a child who grows fully committed to Jesus Christ, and the sacraments of the church through their whole life. We asked this question, when we welcomed in new members. The same question we asked whenever we have a confirmation ceremony, it is this Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and church, and to suffer all even death, rather than fall away from it. And they say, I do so intend, with the help of God. This was our goal. That they can be constant in the word and Sacraments, where Jesus Christ comes to them strengthens their faith, deliver salvation, and confirms them in that faith all the way up until their end, so that when he returns, they will rise on the last day. And with that goal in mind, we think not just about what we're doing now, but what that will lead to as they grow the habits and things that they need, so that they can remain faithful their entire life. This begins with parents. The biblical role of passing on their faith begins with the life of a parent. Because the pastor cannot barge into your house, knock down the door and throw water at them, to get them baptized. As much as I would like to. Parents, bring them to church, establish their worship, attendance, build the foundation and the patterns of habits that begin at home. This is why Deuteronomy chapter six gives that instructions parents are it says, You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise. But I think it's even more beautiful when we look at the example of what Jesus's parents did for him. Mary and Joseph as they raised him We get this beautiful example of a child, 12 years old who goes to the temple. And he knows so much about God's words that the teachers there are amazed. Now, I do have to admit they had a bit of an advantage, their son was the Son of God. But at the same time, the only way he could know those things, is if Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to their local synagogue, talked about God's word at home, taught him how to read something that not everybody learned in those days. This joyful gift that Jesus's parents brought to the Son of God, is the same joyful gift that we asked parents to do with their own children. Speak the word of God, and by that power of the Word of God, deliver faith, and establish the habits that lead to faithful adult Christians. That's the job of parents. And if you're here, I probably don't have to convince you that that's your job. Most people who are here like yes, I would love to have my children in the faith. Yes, I would love our children's ministry to establish these patterns and help parents be equipped for this work. Because we know the joy that Christ gives us. He gives us eternal life by His death and resurrection. He promises that I will begin this project with you parents will see them on the last day when they are raised from the dead, will be face to face with Christ as he returns. So what do we need to do? How does this work? A faith centered household has two elements. First, is that there is a pattern of life in the parents, that shows how important the Christian faith is. And second, there is a living interaction with the Word of God in the home. Both of these things are important, because the Christian faith is not just doctrines and insight is also something that is caught by the example of the parents. I, myself, have to give thanks to God, because of my own father, and my mother. I couldn't ask for better parents. I am the man I am today. Because of their example in the face, I cannot be more thankful than I possibly am now for what they have done for me. And I think their example is where I learned what most of what I know about. You see, my parents were the ones who raised me in the faith. And they had an example of devotion of their own, that their faith was a living faith in my household. One of the ways that I could see this was in our living room, my parents were both avid readers, and we had two recliner chairs for them. And you know, they they've had the chairs, there was the table with the books and the magazines, it was always a pile things that they wanted to read. But no matter how many books changed, or how many magazines shifted around, there was always one book that never left was the Bible. And I would see them on a regular basis, sitting quietly reading their bible on their own. You have no idea how important that is. For child justice see that they do what they tell you to do. Simply get to watch the parents live a living thing. You have no idea because I remember it to this day. Seeing my parents doing this on a regular basis. Parents also set a pattern for us of daily prayer habits was important for us to do this. They took time out of their day to make sure we would always come together as a family and pray happens before meals. We ate breakfast and dinner together every single day and we would always pray our prayer Come Lord Jesus VR guests, you know that one right? was important. We never missed it. The same thing happened in the evening right before bed. The whole family gathered together. When when we were really young. My brother and I were in bunk beds. So that was easy. And we did our evening prayer
They showed by this that no matter what we did, no matter where we were, whether we were out eating or at home, this life of faith was important that we could pause everything that we were doing, and we would pray to them. We also did things like during the season at home, my parents placed one of those Advent wreaths with the four candles in the middle of our dinner table. And every single night before dinner, we would say our prayers, and then we liked the appropriate number of candles. And it was a big deal, which brother got to light the candles. You have no idea how many fights there were no, I get to light the candle. But it was a big deal in our family, especially on Sunday nights, when we let the next can. And we can be ready one more week, before Easter, or Christmas, sorry. These are the things that I remember. But I know there's much more. I my memory only goes back to when I was you know, not too small. But like that. If you're interested in figuring out ways that you can establish these in your home, we have a staff member Kathleen, with all sorts of resources, we can talk about to be able to establish these habits and bring the Word of God and prayer into your life can talk to me as well. One of the other things that my parents taught me was devotion to hearing God's word, as they would discuss it with me as well. They were always willing to talk about the faith, talk about Jesus Christ, and mentioned how much they trusted in His mercy, and His grace in their own. As an example of this. They also were involved in the church, my home church where I grew up, I think my father was the president of the congregation more years than he was not. You know, people like that. And they made an emphasis of showing how important it is to be involved. Now, I don't say these things to say, to shame anyone, or to make you feel guilty. But simply as an example of the amazing grace that God gave me by giving me parents who did this, so I could be the man I am today. I can't be thankful enough for what they did. What they did is they exposed me how much they trusted in God. And just showed by their words and actions that this faith that they lived in was real, and true. The most important thing they did for me, was bringing me to church. Now my mother was an organist very often, which meant that my dad was a single parent during the worship service with two boys who ran every time you set them down. Very frequently, they would tell me stories of going to stores, they would set us down and we would go the opposite direction. And yet, we never missed a Sunday. As I grew older, I joined all the sports. I was in every sport you could think of. And in a small town a guy as short as me I could play basketball wouldn't happen anywhere else. We were in basketball leagues that had tournaments every single Sunday. And no matter what my teams always knew, we played on Sunday morning, Jim and David wouldn't be there didn't matter. I can count on two fingers. The number of times we missed for a sport. What it meant was that my family made sure I heard the word of God that I heard a sermon that I could receive Holy Communion when I was old enough. And that this was more important than basketball tournaments than letting down my friends than teams than anything else. This was the center of our lives. And it's what made me who I am. They were upfront with my coaches as soon as I joined they knew not available Sunday morning. And it turned out okay. This is how important it is for us to be faithful as parents to show them exactly what it means to be faithful to God. As it says in the Bible, for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world forfeits his soul. Now, after all of this talk about what parents can do examples from my family, I think it is always wise to remember what the role of the Holy Spirit. Parents, no matter how hard you try, you cannot plant faith in a child's heart. You cannot punch your hands in there and drop the word of God. It just doesn't work. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. Which means that just like everyone else, you can't control it. You do your best. You do everything you can, and trust the spirit to do the rest. So this isn't a step by step guaranteed way to make your children faithful. It is simply best practices, to give them as much encounter with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God through the means of grace as you can and show them by your life and faith. That this is the way to live. The rest is up to God. And we know so much so that even men like Samuel the prophet Samuel, when his children became judges over the land of Israel, they did not follow through. It happened and yet, God gives us the task nonetheless. To pass this pastors faith on using the habits and practices of the church. In Jesus name, Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai