Our message today is about parental responsibility in the teaching and training of children. The Scripture says, "A wise son makes a father glad, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother." And, so it is. Let us see what else the Scripture says about that.
My friend, it is so good to have you with us for this Bible study In Search of the Lord's Way. Let me remind you again that all our programs are closed-captioned for the hearing impaired. And, did you know? Have I told you before? Seven percent of the people in America are hearing impaired. Well, I pray the program's a blessing to you, too.
The first paragraph of An Associated Press story in our newspaper one day last month, said, "Dan McCauley had seen one too many kids at his cafe lying on the floor, careening off the glass pastry case, coming perilously close to getting their fingers pinched in the front door. So he posted a sign: "Children of all ages have to behave-- and use their indoor voices. To him, it was a simple reminder to parents to keep an eye on their children and set some limits. But, the newspaper said, "to some parents, the sign might well have read, 'If you have kids, you are not welcome.’” Well, strangely enough, on the editorial (opinion) page in the same newspaper there was another article by a nationally-known columnist about adult behavior in public places. So, misbehavior in public seems to have become a very "hot topic" these days. Our program today is about parental responsibility in teaching and training children. We will be reading from the Bible book of Ephesians chapter 6, verses 1 to 3 in a moment. If you think you might want a free printed copy or an audio cassette tape of the message, you may have it by simply writing In Search of the Lord's Way. P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083, or by e-mail, searchtv@aol.com. Or you may use our toll-free telephone number if you prefer to call. That is 1-800-321-8633. Ken Helterbrand will lead us now as we sing, and then I will be back for Bible reading and prayer.
Our Bible reading today is from the book of Ephesians chapter 6, and we will read four verses, the first four. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise: that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord.” Now with that brief reading, let us go to God in prayer. Holy Father, we are so thankful to You that You have blessed us with life and with the choices that we have to serve You and to honor You in the way we live. We are thankful, Father, for our families and for the divine appointment that You have for us to live together in families. We are thankful for children and for the child-rearing responsibilities that You have given to parents to bring them up right and we pray that You will bless this message as an assistance to them in so doing. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
This is a great time to be living. I feel blessed to have lived a large part of my life in the latter half of the twentieth century, and I am enjoying living part of it now in the twenty-first century. Despite all the good in modern life, the modern world has its problems though, doesn't it? B-u-t, that has always been so, hasn’t it. Some seem to think that evil is getting worse. If so, it wouldn't surprise those of us who are familiar with the scriptures, because the Scripture says, "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse..." (2 Timothy 3:13, King James Version). And if so, considering that many of our problems are associated with the nation's decaying moral conditions, it is important that we teach our children what is right.
Normally, when we talk about education, we think in terms of schools. But a child's education begins earlier than even pre-kindergarten. A child needs both a mother and a father, not just for the purpose of procreation, but for the teaching and training they should have. A child receives his very first impressions about himself, his family, about God and love, human dignity and relationships, and about rights and responsibilities, and his work ethic and his values, and well, a whole lot more than that from mom and dad at home. Well, the Scripture says in Proverbs 22 and 6, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." And that is the truth. Of course it is; it is the word of God. While there are exceptions to it, as there are to all rules, a child doesn't usually depart from the teaching and training that he receives from his parents at home-- whether it is good or bad. Again God says, "Chasten your son while there is hope, and do not set your heart on his destruction" (Proverbs 19:18).
The very first public schools in America were begun by religious groups, and they were taught by church personnel and they were conducted in church facilities using the Bible as a textbook. The American Encyclopedia says that "Education first developed in New England, particularly in the Massachusetts Bay colony." And the reason, it says, was that "The Puritans felt that since understanding the Scriptures was essential to salvation, basic schooling was a necessity." So, “Laws of 1642 and 1647 encouraged education and even required local public schools . . . The elementary school curriculum included reading, writing, ciphering, and religious instruction.”
The earliest universities were established principally for the training of ministers. Harvard for example was among the first. And it bears the name of a Puritan minister, John Harvard. Princeton was established by the Presbyterians and others came along later. So, it can't be argued that the framers of the Constitution in the early colonies intended to keep religion out of the schools.
State-supported, compulsory education, paid for by tax dollars, came in the 19th century and took over almost completely by the end of the 20th century. But the big turn in American education came in the 20th century. It was described by its architect, John Dewey, who was a humanist, as the "Copernican revolution" because it did in education he said what Copernicus did in astronomy. Replacing God as the central figure in education, Dewey, being the humanist he was, put man at the center, thus Humanism replaced God in the education of America's children.
Well of course, none of us want the public schools to provide religious instruction in our modern society; that is the responsibility of parents, and that is what we are talking about today. But neither do we want the free exercise of faith to be prohibited anywhere on American soil-- including school premises. The freedom to speak the name of God in a reverent way should be as protected under the First Amendment as it is to speak it in an irreverent way. And, that is no longer true in our country.
Daniel Webster said, "If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering, but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury us and our glory in profound obscurity." Well, we know he is right, don’t we?
And God said in Proverbs chapter 1, verse 7 that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." That is the New American Standard Version. In Proverbs 9 and 10 He says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." So, a person hasn't even reached the beginning, or the starting point in knowledge and wisdom and understanding (education) until he has learned reverence for Jehovah. A child who is taught from pre-kindergarten through university that there is no God and that there's not a spark of deity in him; well, that he is a mere animal, is more apt to behave as an animal without accountability than one who has been taught that God is, and he is the offspring of God as the Bible book of Acts chapter 17, verse 28 says. Education that alienates the human race from its Creator, its Father God and strictly forbids not only the reading, but any reference to His word, is not complete education and does not serve our children or our families or our nation well.
God laid the responsibility for the education and training of children, not with government controlled schools, but right at the feet of the fathers. The passage we read from the word of God at the outset of this program today simply says, “fathers bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." That is the old King James Version. The New King James has it, "bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." The New American Standard Version says, "The discipline and the instruction of the Lord." Well, it just may be that the failure of American fathers in the discharge of that responsibility that we have developed what Don Feder describes in the title of his 1993 book, a Pagan America, as a pagan nation. A Christian father teaches, trains, and exhorts, and comforts, even charges his children. All of that is the educational process.
I had a friend, a professor in a Christian University, who used to visit me frequently. He is elderly and in poor health now, but once we were talking about our culture, as it has been described by many as the "culture of violence and fear." And he said, "This situation can not be reversed except by the fathers."
Whatever a person's discipline or study is, whether it is literature or science or business or medicine or communication-- whatever it is, he gets a different perspective of it when he studies it from the believer's vantage point. God makes a difference in the way a person views a profession-- well even life itself. If we want our children to grow up self-disciplined with a clear world view, a healthy respect for life and a purposeful approach to his living, his education must include God. Fathers must be more than bread-winners. Oh, (?) they must be that alright, but fathers must also provide spiritual leadership in the home as well. One generation of men in this kind of a role can be a breakthrough for the Biblical family and the consequent restoration of spiritual and moral values in our nation. Children left to do what they please, without restraint, with little or no teaching or correction along the way, as we did read a while ago from the newspaper earlier in this message, are being educated and trained to be as Solomon said in Proverbs 10 and 1, a "heaviness to their mothers."
There is such a thing as "public morality." It is that responsibility every citizen has to the welfare of the community. Another newspaper story (in the same issue) told of the confession of a convicted murderer. He is quoted as saying he "always wanted to kill someone." And according to the newspaper he said, "Killing is a thrill, with anticipation beforehand and a 'high' you can't believe afterward." Hey! We must not let our children grow up thinking they must do everything that gives them a "thrill" or a "high." I know that is postmodern philosophy, but it wreaks havoc and chaos on the community, my friend. Our children need to learn at an early age, how to behave in public. It is impossible to govern people, establish rules of behavior, apart from a public awareness of God. Let us go to God in prayer. Father, we are thankful to You for all your blessings on us. We are thankful for the blessings of our homes and our children, our grandchildren, and even our great-grandchildren. We pray your blessings on them as they grow to maturity. May we assist them, and have assisted them, well and prepared them for a beautiful life here and the hope of life in the world to come. In Jesus’ name we offer this prayer. Amen.
When Moses had successfully led the people of Israel through the Red Sea, delivering them from centuries, four centuries as a matter of fact, of slavery in Egypt, after they had wandered around in the wilderness for forty years, in Deuteronomy he was preparing them for entrance into the promised land. He reminded them of the law of God, You shall have no other gods before Me . . . You shall not make for yourself an idol or an image . . . You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain . . . Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy . . . Honor your father and your mother . . . You shall not murder . . . You shall not commit adultery . . . You shall not steal . . . You shall not bear false witness . . . You shall not covet . . .
Then He said, "And these words, which I command you today, shall be in your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in their house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up . . . The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; and a land where you shall eat food without scarcity, in which you shall not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you. Beware lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments . . . lest when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies, then your heart becomes proud, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt . . . And it shall come about if you ever forget the Lord your God . . . I testify against you today that you shall surely perish."
Moses died and Joshua assumed leadership in Israel's conquest of the land. They took the land and occupied it. That is the book of Joshua. Then in the next book, Judges in chapter two, it is said Joshua and his generation died, "and there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord." The fathers had failed to teach their children. In just one generation, they forgot the Lord and trouble followed just as Moses had warned them. That makes a strong case for Christian education in our present situation. It is better for the child and it is better for the country. It also makes a strong case for Christian education being a Christian education. There is no real justification for the Christian Academy or University if it doesn’t distinctively different from secular education-- unless it educates the student within the framework of a Christian faith and in a Christian environment.
Well, transcripts and audio cassette tapes of this message are available to you-- absolutely free. Simply write us: In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Or call us. Our toll free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. We are presented here each week by members of churches of Christ all over the country, and particularly in your area. Worship with us then, will you? And, join us again next week if it is at all possible for you to do so. And we pray that you have been blessed by the things that have been said today. May God bless our homes and bless our fathers and our mothers in the teaching and training of our blessed children. God bless you now. We love you. |