God's Plan for Parents

Notes: God's Plan for Parents

Ephesians 6

SPEAKER:

Greg Laurie

WORSHIP TEAM:

Harvest Worship Band

SERIES:

Live, Love, Fight

Thursday, June 18, 2015 — 7:00 p.m.

The church is under attack and we need to learn how to defend ourselves.

Children need their parents. They don't need you as a best friend, but as a parent.

Our children are not ours to mold but to unfold.

We need God's help to raise our children today.

Our culture is attacking the Christian way.

Psalm 127:3-5 NLT

[3] Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him. [4] Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior's hands. [5] How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them! He will not be put to shame when he confronts his accusers at the city gates.

Ephesians 6:1-3 NLT

[1] Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. [2] "Honor your father and mother." This is the first commandment with a promise: [3] If you honor your father and mother, "things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth."

One of the Ten Commandments is to honor your mother and father.

Honoring is giving them respect, esteem, value and prize them as gifts from God.

Do it God's way.

Bring your children to Jesus Christ. Their whole lives, you should pray for them and present them to the Lord.

Mothers need to do their jobs, nurturing and raising their children.

Captain America - has great strength and his shield.

Iron Man - Tony Stark

Thor - god of Thunder 

The Hulk- very large powerful men.

Superheroes need super powers in the comics.

Superman sort of trumps everybody.

The super heroes we see daily are dads, the ones that stand by his wife and children. They are leading their families and following Christ.

Almost all ills in society today can be traced back to fatherless homes.

Fathers matter and they matter a lot to the family.

On Mothers Day, church attendance goes up. On Fathers Day church attendance goes down.

Ephesians 6:4 NLT

[4] Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.

Paul addresses his comments to Fathers.

Fathers need to be in the homes doing their parts.

Many people base their thoughts of their Heavenly Father on the way they see their earthly fathers.

Fathers need to hold their course and do their jobs.

Fathers should not provoke their children to wrath.

How do you provoke your children?

1. One-way to provoke is to show favoritism to one child over another.

Joseph was shown favoritism by his father and his brothers resented him.

David was not shown favoritism, but his brothers were.

Psalms says, when your father and mother fore sake you God will take you up.

God can break whatever cycle of sin is in your life and family.

Kids know when you favor one over the other. You aren't as clever as you think you are.

2. We provoke children by never complimenting them.

Children need your approval. But they don't need over protection, helicopter parenting.

Life says there are winners and losers and kids need to understand that.

Proverbs 29:15 NLT

[15] To discipline a child produces wisdom, but a mother is disgraced by an undisciplined child.

Latchkey kids are all over our country today. Who is influencing these children?

It's a parent's job to raise up their children. The job is not the church's job, or teachers, or pastors. It's our job!

We need to "bring them up" because their sinful nature brings them down.

If we aren't close to Jesus Christ we can't expect our kids to be close. Some things are taught and some are caught.

Philippians 4:9 NLT

[9] Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me-everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

Nothing can be through us until it happens to us. We need to take a lot of time with kids.

We don't need to look at quality time but quantity time.

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 NLT

[4] "Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. [5] And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. [6] And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. [7] Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.

Use teaching moments through out the day. Even watching TV with them is time that is important to see what they see and explain what they are watching.

Develop a thirst in your child for God.

Kids want what their parents have. A relationship with God is a great thing to want.

Train up your child to know the Lord.

Create a thirst and build into your child a submission to God.

Do not live vicariously through your child. Live your own life.

Putting out parameters, putting strength and motivation together.

Train a child according to the way they are bent.

The way he should go means, "according to their bent."

Kids push back as they get older so make sure to lay the right foundation.

1. Even when kids are raised in a Godly home sometimes they rebel.

2. We must stay true to our beliefs.

Never lose communication with your kids. They always need to know you love them.

3. We should never give up on them.

Keep praying for them.

4. Always keep the door open for your kids to come home.

They always need to know they can come home.

Never give up and keep praying for them.

Parents need to get right with God.

If you don't have an earthly father, rest assured you have a Heavenly Father that loves you!