Week 6

10/25/09

The Father Who Fears the LORD Is a Blessing to His Children

And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” Gen. 22:15 -19

Who is the man who fears the Lord?
Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.
His soul shall abide in well-being,
and his offspring shall inherit the land. Psalm 25:12-13

But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, Psalm 103:17

Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
who greatly delights in his commandments!
His offspring will be mighty in the land;
the generation of the upright will be blessed. Psalm 112:1-2

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
who walks in his ways!
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
who fears the Lord. Psalm 128:1-4

And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation. Luke 1:50
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“Those who think the fear of the Lord is an Old Testament concept believe that when Jesus unveiled God’s love at the cross, the fear of God died. After all, doesn’t 1 John 4:18 read that “perfect love casts out fear”? Perfect love does cast out all fear, but it is the fear of everything except the fear of God. No the fear of God is a New Testament concept. The fear of God so prominent in the Old Testament actually culminates in the gospel. The cross reveals the reason to fear God more clearly and accurately than everything in the Old Testament combined.” [1]

He will be the sure foundation for your times,
a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;
the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.  Isaiah 33:6 NIV

A Father Who Fears the LORD Is a Blessing to His Children (Proverbs 1:8-9).

1.  A father who fears God has a comprehensive understanding of his role.

2.  A father teaches the fear of the Lord and wisdom to his children. He understands that primarily, it is his responsibility.

3.  A father is skillful in the various ways of teaching wisdom to his children.

4.  He knows God’s purpose for parenting:

  • He has eternity in view. His parenting is God-centered and Gospel-centered.
  • He is equipping his children to live in a fallen world for God’s glory and as God’s servants with God’s mission in mind. (1 Peter 3:8-17).
  • He parents offensively not defensively. He knows that he cannot protect his children from the world, but he can equip them to live in the world as a child of God.
  • He knows that the Christian family is a part of something greater than itself (Deut. 6:20-25).
  • He teaches his children to love the church.
  • He loves his wife and knows that his marriage is a practical example of wisdom for his children.

5.  He knows that he not only teaches wisdom by his words, but that he teaches by example. By God’s grace, he strives to lead a godly life and act wisely.

6.  He knows that the defining characteristic of wisdom is humility. How he handles conflict in the home, with his neighbor, and in the church teaches wisdom to his children.

7.  He is wholly dependent on the grace of God. He trusts God to use his imperfect efforts to bless his children.

8.  He understands that God is sovereign. “God is sovereign. He determines how and when each child enters his kingdom. Yet God repeatedly tells us that he delights to bless certain principles.  A minority of the children of the Christian parents who do not practice these principles will follow Christ. On the other hand, the majority of the children of the Christian parents who practice them will enter Christ’s kingdom.”[2]

9.  He understands the difference between having a God-centered family, not a child-centered family.

Reaching the Next Generation is Harder and Easier than You Think: Grab Them with Passion[3]

  1. Grab Them with Passion – “We would do well to pay attention to Romans 12. “Let love be genuine.  Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection.  Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord” (9-11). We would be far less likely to lose our young people and far more likely to win some others, if the spiritual temperature of our churches was something other than lukewarm. People need to see that God is the all-consuming reality in our lives. Our sincerity and earnestness in worship matter ten times more than the style we use to display our sincerity and earnestness.”
  2. Win Them with Love – “The evangelical church needs to stop preaching the false gospel of cultural identification. Don’t spend all your time trying to figure out how to be just like the next generation. Be yourself. Tell them about Jesus. And love them unashamedly. I think a lot of older Christians are desperate to figure out what young people are into because they are too embarrassed to be themselves and too unsure of themselves to simply love the people they are trying to reach.”
  3. Hold Them with Holiness – “Look at what God says in 2 Peter 1:5-8—For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.Did you pick up on the promise in the last verse? If we are growing in faith, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love, we will not be ineffective ministers for Christ. If ever there was a secret to effective ministry, these verses give it to us. Grow in God and you’ll make a difference in people’s lives. If nothing of spiritual significance is happening in your church, your Bible study, your small group, or your family it may be because nothing spiritually significant is happening in your life.”
  4. Challenge Them with Truth – “Challenging the next generation with truth starts with honest self-examination.  We must ask, “Do I know the plotline of the Bible?  Do I know Christian theology?  Do I read any serious Christian books?  Do I know anything about justification, redemption, original sin, propitiation, and progressive sanctification?  Do I really understand the gospel?”  We cannot challenge others until we have first challenged ourselves.  The “average” churchgoer must think more deeply about his faith.  Many Christians need to realize, like I did one night in college when confronted with some of my own ignorance, that they don’t really know what they believe or why they believe it.”
  5. Amaze Them with God – “I beg of you, don’t go after the next generation with mere moralism, either on the right (don’t have sex, go to church, share your faith, stay off drugs) or on the left (recycle, dig a well, feed the homeless, buy a wristband). The gospel is not a message about what we need to do for God, but about what God has done for us.  So get them with the good news about who God is and what he has done for us.Some of us, it seems, are almost scared to tell people about God. Perhaps because we don’t truly know him. Maybe because we prefer living in triviality. Or maybe because we don’t consider knowing God to be very helpful in real life. I have to fight against this unbelief in my own life. If only I would trust God that God is enough to win the hearts and minds of the next generation. It’s his work much more than it is mine or yours. So make him front and center.  Don’t preach your doubts as mystery. And don’t reduce God to your own level. If ever people were starving for a God the size of God, surely it is now.

    Give them a God who is holy, independent, and unlike us, a God who is good, just, full of wrath and full of mercy. Give them a God who is sovereign, powerful, tender, and true. Give them a God with edges. Give them an undiluted God who makes them feel cherished and safe, and small and uncomfortable too. Give them a God who works all things after the counsel of his will and for the glory of his name. Give them a God whose love is lavish and free. Give them a God worthy of wonder and fear, a God big enough for all our faith, hope, and love.”

[1] Farley, William P., Gospel Powered Parenting: How the Gospel Shapes and Transforms Parenting, p.58-60

[2] Ibid, p.55

[3] DeYoung, Kevin, http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2009/10/19/reaching-the-next-generation-is-harder-and-easier-than-you-think-grab-them-with-passion/