MINISTRY MATTERS Churches Raising Godly Children June 3, 2012

Raising Babies The pitiful exercise of adults lamenting the demise of the next generations. Don’t complain; do something about it! Turn the negative energy into positive energy. Is out baby dedication a ritual or is it REAL? I want to talk about raising children as parents and as a church.

Scriptures Eph. 6:4 – Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Prov. 22:6 -- Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Deut. 6:6-7 – These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up… 1 Sam. 3:11-14 – And the LORD said to Samuel: "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end.

For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them. Therefore, I swore to the house of Eli, 'The guilt of Eli's house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.”

Matt. 7:3-5 – "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's (child’s) eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's (son’s or daughter’s) eye.”

Matt. 7:17-18 – “Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” Matt. 23:26 – “First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”

My List to Parents 1. Get your values straight—Jesus is Lord. 2. Get clearly in your mind that your kids are your greatest God-given responsibility as a disciple. Practice discipleship and make disciples of kids. 3. Determine that you will do your best job with your kids. 4. Realize that character is first caught and taught second. Work on your own character then. 5. Identify, confess, and put to death your own deeply-seated sinful desires for your kids. 6. Expose your kids and yourselves, early and often, to the very best Christian role-models you can find.

7.Do whatever it takes to get your kids in a great youth ministry. Then build it and support it. 8.Make your kids laugh. Lots of positive energy. 9.Desensitize them to needing to be “normal.” 10. Be their biggest fan, not their biggest critic. 11. Love and respect their other parent(s)! 12. Make them mind you. 13. Don’t make them play second-fiddle to television and the newspaper. (Don’t you either) 14. Pray fervently for your kids.

16. Be there, and when you are there, be THERE. 17. Threaten them early, often and consistently. 18. Snoop and be nosey sometimes. 19. Give them fun, meaningful traditions. 20. Lead in first things first. 21. Make them eat vegetables. Take care of their health. 22. And, for goodness sakes, be human and humble and learn to say you’re sorry. Be real, not some plastic, unreal fake.

My List to the Church 1. Build from the ground up. 2. Build from the inside out. 3. Love the kids and SHOW THEM you do. 4. Don’t do “normal”. Scoff at it as Jesus did. 5. Be an example and put it on a lamp stand. 6. Make the Christian life what it ought to be—fun and exciting. 7. Raise kids to be missionaries and deny yourself. 8. Don’t overly or covertly honor worldliness.

9.Don’t let “cool” set up in youth culture. 10.Don’t tolerate a worldly dating culture. 11.Cooperate and work together. 12.Have high expectations of each other AND be kind, gentle and merciful. 13.Buy into and support a strong JaM, NEXT, and FOCUS and make your kids missionaries in them! 14.Help with the ministries; work in them if you can. 15.Be excited about God and the church community. 16.Be Spirited and Spirit-filled yourselves. 17.Be consistent, persistent, and persevering.

18. Get involved in church and ministry planting and nurturing. 19. Have an incredible vision for you, our kids, our ministries and our churches! 20. Build relationships with them, know them, celebrate their victories, show them attention, go to their things both at church and in other arenas. 21. Make OUR kids YOUR kids. 22. Pray diligently for the kids!

Conclusion 1. Just do it. Put your hands to the plows and do NOT look back. Look at the results already. 2. As you sow, so you will reap—individually and collectively. 3. Always remember, it’s worth it. 4. Jesus is Lord.