Avoid fear – There are times when I feel like a captive in my home. afraid to let my kids leave the sanctuary of the home because the reality of the very real devil is much greater to me than the understanding that we have a magnificent savior.
Jeremiah 29:4-7? “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
I love this Scripture in Jeremiah; it tells the captives not to hide but live out their lives in such a way that people are drawn to you, because your fulfillment is in a promise, not in a program.
Exemplify the gospel to your kids – For us to parent our kids in an offensive way and not a defensive way requires us having a firm grasp of the gospel. How do we do that?
1. Understand that the gospel is offensive.
Luke 6:26: 26 “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
Our goal is not popularity but in knowing and conveying a beautifully offensive truth lived out by a God who loves you and me in a stunning unending fashion.
– The gospel offends the part of us that feels we have to do something to be loved
– The gospel offends the part of us that says living how we want is worshiping yourself
– We all worship something; very often the idols in our lives are good things we make ultimate things. That’s offensive to Christians and non-Christians alike.
2. Teach your kids doctrine in a practical and intentional way.
Deut 6:4-13 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[b] 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 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. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.10 “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full,12 then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13 It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.
The reason why we teach our kids is so they have a proper view of God as their father. Everything we have is because of him.
We have a limited amount of time that we will be able to influence our kids; we must leverage that time to teach our kids to honor to fear and to love God because he first loved us.
