God's Treatment for His Children
Intro.: l. God has paid us an "intolerable compliment," as C. S. Lewis says it. 2. Growing up is painful however, for a real child. A son raised right is not permitted to tyrannize the family. A son properly instructed is not permitted to do what he wants anytime he wants to do something. Growing up means that somebody is in control over you--or should be. Concerned parents are not going to let their children become lazy, or ignorant, or indolent, and if a child is made to work, study, or be industrious it can be painful. Children may come to question their parents. C.S. Lewis has a little story about a man who adopts a dog. The dog is adopted for the man‘s sake, he wants to express his love toward it, rather than the dog should love him. He adopts the dog so that the dog may serve him, and not that he may serve the dog. A little puppy has problems as it faces the world of man. These problems would not exist if it ran wild and were on its own. The problems that it has in man‘s world is that it has a smell, and in the man's house untrained, it causes other smells. It cannot live in the house going its own way and living according to its puppy nature. If it did, it could not really enter man‘s world in the house. But the owner has a solution. He house-trains it, he washes it, he teaches it that it can be in certain places in the house, but not on the carpet. He teaches it not to steal, or chew up house-shoes, or slippers. All this is done that the owner may love it more completely. From the puppy's viewpoint, the rigors of growing up seem harsh and arbitrary. The demands of the owner are contrary to the puppy's nature. But the end of the matter is that the puppy grows up healthier, larger, and longer-lived than the wild-dog. Moreover, he is admitted to affections that a wild- dog cannot ever attain. By sheer grace, the owner adopts him and now he has a world of interest, comforts, and affections that are the result of the master's love. I. Children need discipline 2. l. You are God’s child. What does he desire to do with you? A good parent doesn’t permit children to run wild. God wants to raise you up so that he can be proud of you. He wants to develop in you his life-style. He wants his children to adopt his values, his attitude of love and concern, His attitude toward evil. He wants his children to make decisions that are good just as any good human father would. Why does he discipline? So that you might live. V.10. A good parent disciplines so the child will be able to live a meaningful life. 2. Discipline usually involves two items: the right way and the wrong way. A. the right way is held up for imitation and example. The right way issues in a content attitude. There are no second thoughts about doing something right. One of the precepts around our house, coming from my wife, is that “if something is worth doing, it is worth doing right.” If a chore is done right there are no questions problems, regrets or calling to account about it. If we can talk of this as obedience to God, there are no further questions in the matter. God disciplines us, or seeks to train us up in living righteously. B. The wrong way is also outlined. Three items are in in Text: (1) failure to obtain the grace of God. What a tragic situation. God seeking to give his love and it is being rejected by man. Can you imagine a little girl coming to a little puppy in a loving and friendly manner expressing love, and then have the puppy reject it--in a normal situation? God wants to love you, will you let him? 3. The end result of discipline is that we live a life of keeping on our toes. Frederick Brown Harris tells the story of a fisherman who seemed to have a secret unknown to any of the others, with regard to fish. Every fishmonger knew that the fish from the tank of this particular boat of the fleet would be as fine and firm and vigorous as if they had been dumped there from a net. The fish of other fishermen, while alive, were soft and flabby and listless. In vain his comrades tried to unravel the mystery, but across the years he was silent as the Sphinx. After his death, his daughter carried out her father’s instructions and told the secret. It was simply that he kept a pugnacious catfish or two in the well of his boat. These fighting fish kept the others in a state of alert agitation and alarm. Compelled to live thus, with vigilance similar to their normal life in the see they maintained their stamina and strength. The utter security of all other pens resulted in the deterioration of the favored fish. 4. God’s discipline means that he keeps us on our toes and alert. This gives vibrancy to life. II. Children need encouragement. 12. l Life has its frustrations in growing up, even in discipline. I have sympathy for the father and the son in the story who was being spanked. The father was of the mind that his discipline should always means something to the son, it was not an impulsive beating. After he spanked his son, he said, "Now tell me why I spanked you." In utter frustration, the boy replied "that's the trouble with you, you wail the daylights out of me, and then you want to know why you did it. 2. Children, in general, and God‘s children in particular, need encouragement. These words, v. 12-13, are written the group also. Inasmuch as bitter is contagious, encouragement is also contagious, infectious. "Make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed." 3. God does encourage us. Every so often I ask myself whether I am accomplishing what I feel God has called me to do. I make evaluations of myself in light of goals. Now I am talking about spiritual goals. What kind of outreach am I having. When it appears that I answer myself with some sort of negative feeling I ask do you want me somewhere else? I get some word of encouragement. I believe that God sends someone my way and respond to that questions, so that in someone’s life I see what God is doing, and perhaps how I have helped in some way. This encourages me to go on. 4. Generally, I don’t think speakers should say too much about their families, and I have violated this considerably, of late, but want to tell you of an episode this week. On Tuesday Dalaine was home for parent-teacher conferences, and there was about an hour that I had to be gone. The dinner dishes were left in the sink and when I came home, to my delight, I found that she had washed, dried, and put away all the dishes. I was so thrilled at her doing this without being requested that III. Children need prudence 16.17. 1. Prudence? ’ "Means that one does not act rashly or unadvisedly and Hebrews refers to Esau as a prime of example of an impudent person. Remember that Esau the twin brother of Jacob, was an outdoors man, a hunter, came home one day hungry and saw Jacob boiling something that looked red. Jacob demands that he sell his birthright to him. The birthright refers to the advantages and rights normally enjoyed by the eldest son. Among other things, it included a position of honor as head of the family, and a double share of the inheritance. Esau's reply was that his birthright wouldn’t do him any good if he were dead.. So he did. He made the deal for a bowl of food. In this manner, Esau despised his birthright. Later he wanted it back, but it was impossible. Prudence means that you don't live your Christian life the basis of impulse. You can commit yourself to sins that you will regret and shed tears over, but there is no way you can return to un-sin. You can be forgiven, but they cannot be undone. 3. Prudence doesn't mean that you become so overly cautious that you never do anything either. I know people who hesitate, contemplate, but never make up their mind. That too is a wrong. At length the bear saw the error of his ways and began to reform. In the end he became a famous teetotaler and a persistent temperance lecturer. He would tell everybody that came to his house about the awful effects of drink, and he would boast how strong he had become since he gave up touching the stuff. To demonstrate this he would stand on his head and on his hands, and he would turn cartwheels in the house, kicking over the umbrella stand, knocking down the bridge lamps, and ramming his elbows thru the windows. Then he would lie down on the floor, tired by his healthful exercise, and go to sleep. His wife was great distressed and his children were very frightened. Moral: you might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backwards. What the bear should have done is to have gone home and loved his wife and children in kindness because he had been made into a lamb. (James Thurbers, The Bear who let it Alone.) 4. If prudence is a part of your life, you will ask—long before you become involves in particular sins--what will this do to me? How will it change my spiritual life? What will it do to others? What about my spouse? my family? my confession of faith? Conclusion: |