-
Parents, take this to heart.
-
Proverbs 4:20
-
"My son, be attentive to my words;
-
incline your ear to my sayings."
-
This means obey me.
-
Do what I'm telling you.
-
"Let them not escape from your sight.
-
Keep them within your heart,
-
for they are life to those who find them."
-
He's not talking to dead children here.
-
What does he mean by life?
-
He's not talking physical life.
-
He's talking spiritual life.
-
Eternal life.
-
He's saying, son, if you will heed
-
what I tell you;
-
if you will obey what I tell you;
-
if you will take these things
-
and apply them and keep them
-
within your heart,
-
they will be life to you.
-
God designed it this way, parents.
-
Parents, your child's good is and must be
-
your controlling motive.
-
Do we not live in the belief
-
that whatever might
become of our children,
-
that if they gain the whole world
-
and they lose their souls,
-
they've lost everything!
-
And yet, Scripture comes along
-
and says the path to everything
-
has a lot to do with parents.
-
Listen to this:
-
Proverbs 6:20
-
"My son, keep your father's commandment."
-
Now we might come along and say,
-
well, shouldn't he be keeping
the Lord's commandment?
-
Yeah, but you see, folks,
-
God is telling you to keep your children
-
obedient to you.
-
And what I'm showing you is
-
if your heart is after God's;
-
if your heart is after His truth
-
and His ways and His righteousness,
-
and you seek through your commandments,
-
and through your rules,
-
and through your discipline,
-
and through your instruction,
-
to impart to that child that.
-
Then what happens is,
-
this can be said:
-
"My son, keep your father's commandment,
-
forsake not your mother's teaching.
-
Bind them on your heart always.
-
Tie them around your neck.
-
When you walk, they will lead you.
-
When you lie down,
they will watch over you.
-
When you awake, they will talk with you.
-
For the commandment..."
-
What commandment?
-
The commandment of the parents.
-
"...is a lamp
-
and the teaching a light,
-
and the reproofs of discipline
-
are the way of life."
-
When you instruct and
discipline that child
-
you are setting them on the way of life.
-
That's what Scripture teaches.
-
Brethren, we are people who God has called
-
to live by faith.
-
And this is one of the
things He's called you
-
to live by faith in.
-
That you raise your children
-
in this kind of discipline and instruction
-
of the Lord.
-
Proverbs 19:18
-
"Discipline your son
-
while there's hope.
-
Do not set your heart
on putting him to death."
-
You know what Scripture's implying?
-
Guess what?
-
All these people, disobedient to parent -
-
they're people that don't acknowledge God.
-
That is the path of death.
-
He's saying if you don't discipline;
-
if you don't raise your children
-
in the discipline and
instruction of the Lord -
-
if there's no discipline,
if there's no rod,
-
if there's no correction
-
and instruction and rebuke,
-
if there's no bringing your children
-
into submission,
-
you're killing your children.
-
One of the proverbs says you hate them.
-
And you can say, well, no I don't.
-
I love them. That's why
I don't spank them.
-
Listen, God says you hate them.
-
Because what you're doing is
-
you're allowing that
child to go his own way.
-
Children that go their own way die.
-
Children that a parent -
-
a Christian parent -
-
will seek to say,
-
as for me and my house,
we're going to serve the Lord.
-
God said when He was looking at
-
going down and destroying
Sodom and Gomorrah,
-
He said this: "I have chosen Abraham
-
that he may command his children
-
and his household after him
-
to keep the way of the Lord."
-
You have Joshua saying,
-
"As for me and my house,
-
we're going to serve the Lord."
-
You have fathers who are saying
-
my children are going this way.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
The world out there can say
-
parents shouldn't force their
religion on their children.
-
That's not what God says.
-
God says you take those children
-
under your arm,
-
and you say, child,
-
as for you and me, we're going this way.
-
And you take them with you.