Life Ministries

“We have got to Pass it on.”
Judges 2:6-12 and Ephesians 5:22-6:4

    “Honor your father and your mother” which is the first commandment with a promise…that it may go well with you, and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”  Notice that it does not say - honor only good fathers and mothers. It does not say - honor them only if they were good to you and you like them a lot!  It simply says “Honor your father and your mother.”

    Today’s scripture is concerned with the family structure and the leadership of fathers within the home. The problem today is that there are far too many homes where the father is absent. I found some statistics that tell us that when both father and mother attend church regularly, an average of 72% of their children follow their example. However, when the father is not present and only the mother attends, that figure drops to 15%!
    We are involved in a war today. The battleground is not Iraq or Afghanistan; the battleground is in our homes. And, what’s at stake is not our land, or our possessions, or our freedom, what’s at stake is our children and grandchildren! Make no mistake, it is a war! It’s an all out war against the family! And, I’m sorry, but we are losing the battle! And, I can tell you why we are losing the battle - Look at our scripture - Judges 2:6-12…
    Once Joshua and his generation passed away, the next generation turned their back on God and “worshipped the gods of the people around them”. What are those gods today? Television? Video games? Fashion? Convenience? Pleasure? Money? Work? Sleep? Drugs? One thing I can say about my parents was that they got my butt out of bed on Sunday morning whether I liked it or not; and our family went to church.
    Look at Romans 1:21-32 - What happens when a generation grows up not knowing the God of their fathers? … I’ll tell you again moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas, it’s a war; and we are on the front lines. Can we turn the tide of this battle? Yes we can. Let me give you three suggestions how we can win this battle over our children and grandchildren;
    First, with our words.  Deuteronomy 6 says “These commandments I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children!” We need to talk to our children and grandchildren. We need to be very involved in their lives. We need to tell them about the God whom we serve, and His Word that is our guide for everything we need to know in life. We need to tell them what God has done for us!  We need to teach them about faith and trust and morals and values according to the Holy Word of Almighty God! We also need to teach them the consequences! “You reap what you sow!”…Thus saith the Lord!…“There is no other name by which we can be saved”, than by the name of Jesus! “If you walk in the light, as he is in the light, you will have fellowship and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin!” “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the heavenly Father” who does not change…He is the same yesterday, today, and forever!” “Without faith it is impossible to please God”…and “What good is it for a man if he gain the whole world and yet lose his soul”? When was the last time anyone quoted scriptures like these to their children or grandchildren? They need to know that God’s Word is truth and God’s Word is absolute!
    Second, is with our time.  A study was done recently to determine the amount of interaction between fathers and their children. First, the fathers were asked to estimate the average amount of time they spend each day communicating with their children. The average answer was 15 to 20 minutes a day. Now, when you think that the school has them for 6 to 8 hours a day…The T.V. has them for 2 to 3 hours a day… Video games for 1 to 2 hours a day… How does that 15 to 20 minutes look? Well, microphones were attached to the fathers so that their interaction could be recorded. The results were that the average time spent interacting with their children was actually 37 seconds per day! Now, understand that this was an average, which means they may have spent 20 minutes one day, 5 minutes another day and so on…but when you average all that out, it comes to 37 seconds. If they are not learning their morals and values and knowledge of God from you, where are they learning? Deuteronomy 6 goes on to say “Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit down at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.”  Let me paraphrase that - “Talk about God and Godly things when you sit down for a meal, when you sit down for a devotional time with your children; Talk about God when you are driving along in the car; when you lie down at night and when you get up in the morning! As often as you can, tell your children about God’s love and care, and lead them into a relationship with Him!”  Time is a gift that you can’t get back. You can give money, and always make more. You can give gifts, and you can receive gifts back. But once time is given, it never comes back. We only have so much time to give…why not invest it in our children and grandchildren?
     We can win the war with our words and with our time, but most of all, we can win the war thirdly - with our lives.  Genesis 18:18-19 says this - “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.”  In 2^nd Kings 14:3 it speaks of a king in Israel named Amaziah. “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord…In everything he followed the example of his father Joash.” Yes, he had a good example to follow in his father…Some of us may not have had the best example to follow, some may not have had much of a relationship at all with their father, but this is why the responsibility falls on all of us. We must fight the war for our children and our grandchildren with our words; with our time; and by our example!
    It was a typical scenario of young boys debating whose father was best. The first boy said, “My dad knows the Mayor!”…He was soon topped by the second boy who said “That’s nothing, my dad knows the Governor!” The stakes were getting pretty high, and the eavesdropping father wondered what his young son would say…The third boy said, “So what, my dad knows God!” Oh, that our children would be able to say that about us!  Fathers, Mothers, Grandparents… are you willing to fight?