Sunday's Sermon Notes 2/8/09

Parent Traps: Avoiding Satan Traps For Our Families

For the LORD... will keep your foot from the trap”. Pro 3:26

The Trap of Provision: We should strive to foster worship of God over worship of material

1) Providing For the Needs of Our Children Is a Basic Responsibility: But if someone does not provide for his own, especially his own family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8)

2) Are We Guilty of Providing Too Much of the Wrong Things and Not Enough of the Right Thing: After all, we didn't bring anything with us when we came into the world, and we certainly cannot carry anything with us when we die. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. (1 Timothy 6:7-8)

3) The Right Thing to Provide Your Child is Instruction in How to Rightly Worship God : "There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. (Romans 3:10-11)

God has made your child’s heart to worship, what it will worship is going to be largely influenced by you as parents …

So be aware your parenting shapes generations to come: "These are all the commands, laws, and regulations that the LORD your God told me to teach you so you may obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy, and so you and your children and grandchildren might fear the LORD your God as long as you live. If you obey all his laws and commands, you will enjoy a long life. (Deuteronomy 6:1-2)

So make sure God is worshipped daily: Listen closely, Israel, to everything I say. Be careful to obey. Then all will go well with you, and you will have many children in the land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you. "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one (or The Lord Alone). (Deuteronomy 6:3-4)

So be warned about the failure to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength: And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today. (Deuteronomy 6:5-6)

Giving your kids only a little of God may have the affect of inoculating them from ever experiencing the fullness and the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ…

Your children will probably never raise any higher spiritually than where you are right now in your life…

So Don’t Let Striving for Material Provision Keep You From Providing For Them Spiritually : And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Mark 8:36

Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. James 4:17

Questions for Reflection

1. What do I provide more of for my child: spiritual instruction or stuff?

2. What am I as a parent intentionally doing to shape the spiritual direction of my child?

3. What am I as a parent showing my kids through my life is more important: stuff or God?

4. If my kids never grew any closer to God than I am, would this be OK?

Is worship of God in our house a daily reality or once a week event?