Cornerstone PLUS

Well, it's a it's a rare privilege to be able to, take a service on both mother's day and on a day when we're having a Thanksgiving for little children, and it gives us an opportunity to just stop and think a little bit about parenting, which is what we're going to do this morning, but I'm gonna pray first and then, then we'll look at it together. Father, we thank you that you have given us the Bible which is your word and is far, far wiser than we are. And we ask this morning for your help as we read it. That you would help us to understand it and that you would help us to know what to do with what we hear, that it would change that we would bow our knees to your wisdom and see that what you know is best and what you say is best. So help us to do that this morning, lord.

We ask in your name. Amen. Well, thank you very much for coming, if you're if you're a guest. I'm sure on behalf of the the parents that have been down here, they're very thankful that you're here to celebrate the the arrival of these little, wonderful little children. And, these services that we do just from time to time are a great opportunity for us to be reminded that we all as a church play a part in the raising of these children.

Maybe not as significant as the parents, clearly, but we all have a part to play. So we're gonna be looking this morning at some of what the Bible says about raising children. But I don't want you to switch off because of what I just said now, if you're not a parent, So whilst parents are the major contributors in the lives of their children, to some extent, each of us can play a part in teaching. And in instructing and encouraging and in caring for these little ones that we have amongst us and we have so many, don't we? 1 of the great things about church is that kids grow up in a place where they have loads of big brothers and big sisters of aunts and uncles and grannies and granddads.

And it's wonderful. I grew up in an atmosphere like that, and it was a real blessing. So especially if you're a member of Cornerstone Church, please tune in this morning. Another caveat, I'm not an expert in this. I've got 4 children who by the grace of god.

Seem to be keeping it together so far and are alive. Not thanks to me. And Sarah and I have found parenting to be the biggest challenge in our lives. Sometimes relentlessly so for the past 13 odd years. But god is an expert on raising children.

He is an expert on people. And so we're going to turn to him and to what he says. Jesus taught us to address our maker. Maybe you all know as our father in heaven. God is the 1 and only perfect father.

He's given us some excellent guidance as to our role of of raising children right here in the bible, which I hope you've you've gotten a seat near you and will open up in just a second. And so let's have a look at what god says. Now let me say up front as well that how our children turn out is of course not only solely as a result of our role as parents, how well we parent or not. We all know cases, don't we? Where you can't really fault the parents and the family that the kids grew up in, but they didn't turn out great.

Yeah. They go astray. We know cases like that. The Bible makes it very clear. Listen.

The Bible makes it very clear that we are all born with wayward hearts, even that little child. Wonderful, beautiful little children, but they're born with wayward hearts that often go astray They're foolish hearts, actually. They're full of pride, aren't they? And selfishness, and and and as they get bigger, you'll see it. You'll see it more and more in your children because they're human beings, and we're all like that.

And the role of parents then is to try to guide or maybe a better word is to shepherd like a shepherd with sheep guiding to shepherd that heart of the child. As it grows into adulthood so as that they would have the best chance of growing in godliness and wisdom. But ultimately, we need to be constantly engaged in prayer for our children, that god will bless them, that god will draw them to him. So please parents if you've gotten out of the habit of doing that, pray for your children regularly. Do it.

Make it the first priority for your child. Now those who've just been standing up here with us have made a pledge before you all to do that, and I hope they will stick to it. It is so crucial that we are bringing our children to god in prayer on a regular basis. Now do that and aside from everything else that I might say this morning, you're already ahead of the game. Seriously.

You've made a really, really good start. But this morning I want us to start, so we're gonna do 2 things. First of all, we're gonna start by looking at 3 boys. It's actually a little bit annoyed that there's 4 here this morning. That's terrific, but I thought we would have 3 because we've got 3 sets of parents.

But we're gonna look at 3 boys whose stories are found in the Bible. And I want us to consider some of the factors that played a part in the way that they turned out as adults. I hope it's gonna be fun for us to do that together. And then the second thing I want us to do is to look at some of the wisdom found in the bible. And, see how the Bible says we are to raise children.

And I've got 7 brief little nuggets there. So that's just it's lots of stuff to cover, but I hope it's gonna be really helpful for us. So let me tell you about these 3 little boys. Actually, the first 1 turned out to be a whopping great big fella, a really big hairy bloke. His name was Samsung.

And this boy grew up to be a mighty warrior and a deliverer of god's people. Maybe you've heard the stories of Samsung. If you buy a tin of Tate and Lyle's golden syrup, there's a little quote from him on it because he's an awesome awesome bloke. But morally and spiritually, he was a complete disaster. His relationships were catastrophic and that's putting it mildly.

Samsung had all of the skills that you'd love to have in your kid, but none of the character. Skills without character. His story starts with a visit from an angel to his mom. And then also to his dad, a guy called Manoa. Now Samsung's mom had been unable to have children, but the angel told them that god was going to give the nation a hero and that he would be born to this particular woman.

A little baby son's gonna be a hero. And they were told together that the boy needed to be brought up in a very special and disciplined way. He had to be what the Bible calls a Nazirite, not a Nazirite, a nazirite. Now the rules for being a nazirite is a bit like being grape intolerant. Okay?

It's starts with grape intolerance. That's that's where it is. Essentially, he is not to consume any grape products whatsoever. Nothing that's been anywhere near a grape or anything to do with a great product, keep them away from this this little boy. To avoid coming into contact with any dead bodies, and never to give him a haircut.

So he's not to cut any of the hair on on his head, I think. This bloke must have been like a wookie head in a maybe shaved or if you just want to picture him, big muscly bloke with a great big fuzzy head. That would be fantastic. Now, Mrs. Manoa, his mom, was to be very careful even in pregnancy to stay away from grape products.

It's all rules here, isn't it? And I guess she took that role very seriously. I you've met moms like that. Haven't you? Really, really careful about what they're eating, what they're drinking, and how much a good thing, isn't it?

But it it's a particular mentality that grows, isn't it? Here was a couple, you see. Actually, it seemed to me who liked to do things by the book, Samsung's parents. They liked rules. Manoa even prayed after he'd heard the news because he hadn't been present when the angel visited his wife.

He even prayed that god would give him the instructions again in case she I don't know, in case she got them wrong or something. That god would send another messenger to repeat the instructions so that so that he could hear them himself. Sky control free career, isn't it? Now, perhaps it's reading between the lines and maybe you think I'm doing that already, but it appears that Samsung's parents spent so much time worrying about the externals with this boy, the do's and the don'ts that they neglected the internal issues of guiding of shepherding his heart, and they turned out a rebel. That's what they turned out.

They had turned out a rebel. Very soon we see that the boy ran the show. The first thing we read about this young man probably as a late teenager, maybe just entering his adulthood is in judges 14 and it goes like this. Judges 14 chapter 1, Samsung went down to Timna to town and saw there a young Philistine woman. When he returned, he said to his father and mother, I've seen a Philistine woman, in Timna.

Now get her for me as my wife. His father and mother replied, well, look, isn't there any acceptable woman amongst your relatives or amongst all of our people. Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife, but Samsung said to his father. Get her for me. She's the right 1 for me.

See Samsung knows best, doesn't he? Samsung knows best. Samsung will have what Samsung wants and mom and dad will just bend and they bend like doormats. And the unfolding story of Samsung's life is 1 of prostitutes and Philistine women, a trail of sorrow and destruction all the way through lust and lack of self control, it's really like a bad soap opera, Samsung's life. The woman he loves and actually, Marries, is given to another man in a misunderstanding situation.

And Samsung gets angry, does criminal damage of Philistine property. And in reply, they come and burn to death, his wife, and father-in-law. The last relationship attempt is famous, isn't it? For ending in fatal betrayal, Samsung and Delilah, the grizzly end Now through it all, god is working his plans because god god is bigger than our human sinfulness, but that doesn't excuse the sin in this story. The weak parenting on the part of those parents.

Samsung was a man of great ability At 1 point, he even killed a thousand men with a jaw bone of an ass. I mean, that's ability, right? But no character. No character. It is natural for parents to pay attention to outward appearance, isn't it?

We we look at our children and, you know, we want our children to look good and perform well and to do well. To look at their abilities and their skills, but more important by far is the heart. And I think the story of Samsung shows that to So parents, what will you prioritize in raising your child?abilities, skills, physical prowess. After all, you know, he could play for Chelsea or he could play for an even better team than that, perhaps. Or will you prioritize godly character?

Will that be more important to you? I don't wanna get too preachy here. But will you be strong enough to say to your child no and to forcefully direct them onto a better path? Because you're perhaps just a little bit wiser than they are. No.

You should actually go to church instead. No. Those those friends will not be very good for you. Watch out how much time you're spending with them. No.

Our family believes there are more important things than that. God comes first. Here is where we draw the line. Will you will you do that with your children? Well, if Samsung was what our American friends would call a jock, boy 2 was a geek.

So let's look at boy number 2. Number 2 is Solomon. Now Solomon is a man who exemplifies intelligence Okay? He is mister academic achievement, but he's mister academic achievement without character without character again. Solomon's name is synonymous with wisdom, isn't it?

We talk of the wisdom of Solomon. He's as wise as you can get. He's arguably the most successful king that Israel ever had. And god gave him wonderful gifts and blessed him with vast wealth. This man had it all and then some.

And the Bible tells us he spoke 3000 proverbs. That's 3000 wise sayings that everybody would have wanted to learn and know. 3000 that's quite some doing, isn't it? A lot of work there. On top of that, he composed 1005 songs that's an amazing ability, isn't it?

And then we're told he also wrote textbooks on natural sciences. He described all of nature and life. He's a busy man, isn't he? And the whole world at that time was in awe of him. They sent people to go and have audience with with him and, and talk to and share some of his But his character was disastrous once again.

1 king's chapter 11 gives us a window into Solomon's personal life. Listen. Solomon married 700 women. 700 women. And then added another 300 mistresses.

Because why wouldn't you if you were Solomon? It's a Marvel the man achieved anything else, isn't it? Really? He loved. We're told and it's obvious in the story.

He loved luxury and wealth and power and women. And the influence of those things turned him into a horrible idolater. They they they owned him and his behavior brought god's anger against him and against the people he was responsible for his nation. Now I don't think that the blame can be entirely laid at the feet of his parents. We don't really know enough about that.

The Bible certainly puts the blame on Solomon himself, but I don't think his bringing would have helped. Have you ever thought about Solomon's upbringing? It's interesting. Solomon's dad was the great king David the first really great king of Israel and amazing, you know, the giant slayer, isn't he David who faced Goliath? And though David was a good king, he did make some pretty terrible mistakes in his own life.

Solomon's mum was bathsheba. Bashiba was a woman that David wickedly took from her husband covering the whole thing up with murder Not a great start, is it, to to the family life? But it's really interesting, I think, to see David's parting sort of advice and contribution to his son's Solomon and he hands over the throne, the keys to the kingdom. This is probably when Solomon's in his late teenage years just coming into manhood really. Solomon even describes himself as he takes the throne as being a little child, like a little child.

But have a look at what David says. Let me read it to you. This is, from 1 kings. When the time drew near for David to die, he gave charged to Solomon his son. I'm about to go the way of all the earth, he said.

So be strong and act like a man and observe what the lord your god requires, walk in obedience to him and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations is written in the lord of Moses. Do this and you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you go and that the lord may keep his promise to me. If your descendants watch how they live and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a success on the throne of Israel. Okay. It's good so far, isn't it?

He's telling him, you know, you know what, Solomon? You really need to walk with the lord. So that the lord keeps his promises to me. He's made some good promises to me, and I want you to be the 1 to make sure those promises are kept, Solomon. So here's your responsibility.

Then look at how he carries on. Now you yourself know that Joab's son of Zerowire what he did to me what he did to the 2 commanders of Israel's armies, Avna Son of Nurn, and Masna Son of Jetha. He killed them shedding their blood in peace time as in battle, And with that blood, he stained the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet. Deal with him according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to the grave in peace. Now this is not the only person that David says that about.

David wants Solomon to finish the work that he never quite got finished to tie up his loose ends from his life. David's dream is for his son to do the things that he could not. That really is what he's after. Build the temple I planned Sullivan. You'll be the 1 to build it.

I wanted to, but you do it. You do it. Establish my house the house of David Solomon. Bring vengeance on my enemies, Solomon. Now perhaps that's a little harsh on David.

But he does seem to put pressure on his boy, and that's something we need to be careful of, isn't it? We must be careful not to live vicariously through our children. I bet you all know parents who do this. I certainly do. To drive them to do the things that we wish we had done ourselves, to live through them.

It's a sure recipe for actually ending up exasperating your child in the end. Our children have their own personalities, don't they? Their own ability strengths. We need to be careful to guide them in those paths. Don't we?

To help them to learn to live godly lives doing the things that they they are good at doing. But more importantly still, we must teach their hearts. Solomon could have used, couldn't he few lessons in self control, maybe as a child, moderation in all things, Solomon. You know, the the sort of enigma of Solomon's life is that really if you think about it, he was always the cleverest man in the room Yeah. No 1, you know, I was gonna be near him.

He could tell everybody else how to live. It'd be probably quite annoying at dinner party, wouldn't he? They could tell everybody what they should do. He knew and he knew for sure how he ought to live as well. Didn't he?

But he didn't have the carrot the strength of character to follow it through. It is quite possible to be the smartest, most academically disciplined person with more degrees than Fahrenheit and yet to end up a train wreck, isn't it? If you don't have godly character as well. So parents, what will your priority be? Is it your dearest wish that junior gets the opportunities that you never got?

That the way that you talk about your children? Go to the best schools, get the best grades, land the best career, Or is it that he or she grows up to be happy and contented living for g's whatever per lot in life might be. Something to think about, isn't it? Choose today where you will put your effort. What will you drive as the priorities for your children.

Well, it's not our time is short and I want to look at boy number 3 now. Buoy number 3 is Samuel Samuel. Now there's so much to learn just from this boy's mother alone. She's a mother's day sermon just right there waiting to happen. But Samuel was born into 1 of very few, I think, devout families in his nation at the time.

His dad was a guy named Alcona and his mom's name was Hannah. We just read her prayer, didn't we at the beginning of the service? Hannah was another woman who was unable to have children and so she poured her heart out to god and begged and asked that god would send her that blessing. And when god did, she was so thankful that she literally gave her child back to god. That was 1 real dedication service where she really actually gave her child back to god.

Samuel was sent to live at the tabernacle in Shiloh. Probably at the age of maybe 3 or 4 years old where he grew up under the care of the old priest Eli. Samuel grew up to be a great leader in the nation. He was god's man called a man of god. That's kind of his title really.

And he was a prophet and he was a judge. He was a terrific character. He loved god. He walked closely with him all lifelong and went to the grave in peace. My guess is there are 2 major parental influences on his life, as he was a child growing up and they would be Hannah his mother and Eli, the old man, the priest.

Well, first, this boy was raised on Hannah's theology, and we know what that was because we just read it. Every year, she would visit her precious boy taking him clothes You know? And so mum's listen listen to the influence that this mother had on her child. Have a a if you've got it open, it'd be really good to turn to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter 2.

Hannah recognized above everything else with this little boy that this boy belongs to god before he belongs to me. That's the foundation of where she was coming from. He belongs to god before he belongs to me. So she said she would tell him probably as a child. Samuel, you belong to god.

You belong God. Live for god, Samuel. You belong to him. Then have a look in chapter 2 of what she prays. Verse 1, Samuel, let your delight be in god's salvation.

God's the redeemer. God's the rescuer. Samuel trust him. Verse 2, Samuel. There is no 1 like our god.

No 1 like yahweh the god of Israel. Don't look at any other god, Samuel. Only look to him. Verse 3, Samuel, god knows and god weighs up all of our motive Samuel, you be careful. The lord is a god who knows and by him deeds await.

Samuel, live remembering that god sees you. That god knows god sees your heart. Verse 7, Samuel, everything we have including all of our success comes from god. Doesn't come from our skills and our abilities It all comes as a gift from god. Samuel, remember that.

The lord sends poverty and wealth. He humbles and he exalts. And Samuel verses 8 to 9 always remember god's in charge of the world. God laid the foundations of the world. He's in charge.

Not you, not me, not anybody else. Wonderful theology we brought up on, isn't it? Imagine a child brought up knowing and believing and trusting men And then added to Hannah's theology was Eli's experience, the old man's experience. Now Eli's an interesting character because he had 2 sons called Hoffman and Finias. Don't, but don't necessarily name your kids after these boys.

They weren't great. They worked at the temple, but they were wicked They used their position, their sort of religious leaders to do some abominable things and to take advantage of people. And Eli just couldn't seem to stop them. He couldn't be strong enough with him. They took no notice of their father, not a strong father.

And so god sent a messenger warning Eli is actually in 1 samuel too, if you want to look at it verse 29. He's god says, why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribe for my dwelling. Why do you honor your sons more than me? That's a shocking accusation, isn't it? Eli, you care more about your boys than you do about me and you're the high priest.

That's pretty poor. Eli had had his chance with his boys and they turned out wrong and they was they were actually killed in the air But though he'd failed with his own kids, Eli got a second chance and he did right by Samuel. Perhaps you know the story. It's a lovely story. Samuel's lying asleep in his bed 1 night, and he hears his name called out.

Samuel, Samuel. So he runs to Eli. Elon says, I didn't call you. Go back to bed. He goes back to bed.

Again, the voice, Samuel, Samuel. And so he runs to Eli. Eli, what do what do you want? Elai says, no, I didn't I didn't call you. Again, goes to his bed.

Samuel, Samuel, samuel, come and runs at you, and at this point, Eli figures out what's going on. He realized that it's god that's calling the boy. So chapter 3 says Eli realized the lord was calling the boy. So Eli's hold, Samuel, go and lie down and if he calls you say, listen, listen say, speak lord your servant is listening. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

And that night, the lord called Samuel to be his special servant and gave him a message actually concerning the judgment of Eli himself. Because he had failed to restrain his sons. And we read on that Samuel lay down until morning verse 15. And then opened the doors of the house of the lord, and he was afraid to tell Eli the vision. But Eli called him and said, Samuel, my son, samuel answered here I am.

What was it that he said to you? Eli asked, don't hide it from me. May god deal with you being ever so severely? If you hide from me anything he told you, So Samuel told him everything hiding nothing from him, then Eli said, he is the lord, let him do what is good in his eyes. It's an amazing attitude, isn't it?

That this old man who's learned some wisdom. Here was a parent given a second chance. We don't always get second chances, but he recognized what god was doing in this young man. He gave guidance to this young man to know how to respond. He encouraged him.

He guided him as to what he should do next and he modeled a godly response in taking responsibility for his own past sins. Great influencers, aren't they? And grandparents, please take note of and take heart. You can play a tremendous role in the lives of your grandchildren. What older members of this congregation little kids, you can play a tremendous part in their lives.

Well, I hope that encourages you. And the question is, where will we invest our effort? As parents and as members of this church, where will we invest our priorities? What will be our priorities in raising children and in guiding them? You might need to seriously rethink what the world calls success is not what god calls success in raising children.

Later in Samuel's life, God had to remind him, maybe you know this, that though man looks at the outward appearance, that's the way that the world does things. God looks at the God. God is interested in our hearts. That is the way that we think our desires, our motives, our priorities. He's interested in whether we love him and will live for him.

Not in our outward appear. Or in our skills or in our abilities. So how do we go about raising children with wise hearts? That's really the question, isn't it? Well, the Bible has a whole book full of wisdom to help us.

It's the book of proverbs. And I wanna give us a little sort of head start on this and pick out some things the Bible says about raising children that we can all get involved with. Now, Benjamin Franklin is credited with the proverb early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. You all know that 1? It's a good 1, isn't it?

Well, good luck with that is what I say, especially in our house. Unbelievable. I mean, I had to almost do mother's day cup of tea in bed on my own for mom this morning. It's like herding cats to get them up there. And anyway, that's not the real route to wisdom, is it, you know, early to bed and early to rise?

That'll make you wise. Really? No, it won't. But here are 7 wise sayings from the book of proverbs that are better than that 1. Okay?

So Now, I've given the title how to raise princes and princesses. And I've done that on purpose because actually the book of proverbs is about that. The book of Proverbs is actually advice that's supposed to be supposed to hear a king talking to a prince. Okay? The king talking to his son about how to take responsibility for the kingdom as it were.

So let's have a look at this for raising wise princes and princesses in our houses and in church. First of all, and this is an interesting love correction. Learn to love correction. My son Do not despise the lord's discipline and do not resent his rebuke because the lord disciplines those he loves as a father the sun that he delights in and then again on the next screen. Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.

You've got that. You even got that on there. And she's gone through. You might go back, Mandy. K?

That's a good problem, isn't it? Whoever loves discipline, loves knowledge, but whoever hate correction is stupid. It's stupid to hate correction. Discipline is never pleasant actually at the time. It's not pleasant for child and actually it's not pleasant for the parent either, is it doing discipline?

But correction is the way that we learn a self disciplined life actually. Loving discipline though does seem like a tall order, doesn't it? To love to be corrected, mean, hands up here who love I can say that because no 1 will do it. Who loves to be corrected? We don't like people that correct us all the time.

Do we? But we need to learn to love it. When I enforce, like, like I have done just recently, a 24 hour screen back to a member of my household. Okay. It is very hard for them to do anything but be upset.

To rant and rave and to proclaim that the whole world is against them and that everybody hates them. And then it's totally unfair. But I have found that it is tow totally worth sitting down later when everything is calmed down and everyone's in their happy place again, and it explaining why the punishment was issued. How it means we actually love you. We don't want you to be ruled by this thing.

We're trying to set you down a better path because we care and you might not understand that right now, but we wouldn't do this if we didn't care. My prayer is that later on down the road, my children will, as I do, as I'm starting to, seek correction and discipline as a friend that does us good actually, that correction and disciplines a friend in life. So the first thing, learn to love correction. Second thing, Learn some self control. Learn self control.

It's such an important thing in our hearts, isn't it? I mean, that's actually a returning theme in the book of proverbs. The parents in proverbs tell their son, you can see it here, to give the immoral woman a wide birth. It's an introduction to the whole topic of self control. Keep away from her and do not go near the door of her house.

And that could just easily be applied to keeping away from the immoral man, couldn't it as well? They also warn the child about the dangers of alcohol. Wine is a mocha. On the next screen. Strong drink a brawler and whoever is led astray is not wise or whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man.

He who loves wine and oil will not be rich. Do you ever tell your children that? Now, the parents in proverbs want their child to understand the importance of boundaries and self control. They speak frankly through the whole book actually very frankly and specifically about sex and alcohol to their children. And wise parents will do the same.

And they'll teach them about the value of self control. Thirdly, to teach our children to be truth thought to be truthful children. Book of proverbs says this whoever conceals their sin does not prosper but the 1 who confesses and renounces them finds mercy That's radical in today's blame culture, isn't it? To own up for when you've when you've told a lie, Imagine a politician living by that proverb. That probably you'd say their career wouldn't go very far.

But children need to learn that the cleanest way through a problem is always by telling the truth. The Bible says, be sure of this, your sins will find you out. Confessions good for the soul. It's good for society, isn't it? And we must set that example in our homes too.

We can't spin truth with our kids. If you if your children find out that you've been spinning them along and lying to how can we expect them to value truth later on in life? Interestingly, we've taken the line of, telling our children there is no Santa Claus. Okay. Sorry if that's a shock to in in it.

Tending there's no santa clause, but we've done it in in a in a in a certain way. So we've said to them, no, of course, there's no santa clause. We don't want them to grow up later on and say, well, is there no Jesus then? You know, so so what we've said to them is, look, listen, at Christmas, the whole fun of Christmas is everybody pretends there is. So go to school and with everybody else pretend there is a Santa Claus, but we're not gonna lie to you and tell you that there is a Santa Claus that doesn't exist.

We need to be truthful. Don't we with our children and to teach them to be truthful too. Fourthly, make good friends. There's gonna be lots of discussion there later on today. Make good friends.

Prove says walk with the wise and become wise for a companion of fools suffers harm. Our children need to learn, don't they how to discern a good friend from a bad bad friend? How many children never really learn that? See, it's flattering when the popular kids want to be your friend, but it's devastating when they turn out not to very good friends. And they they don't care when you're hurting or sad.

They don't stand up for you. Our children need to learn how to be good friends and how to pick good friends. Friends who don't desert you when somebody else more interesting comes along or when it's hard to be a friend. So be a good friend and make good friends, how to be faithful, how to be caring, we need to teach our children that fifthly, we need to teach our children how to work hard to work hard. Proverbs says that lazy hands make for poverty.

Diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent sun, but he who sleeps during the harvest is a disgraceful sun. It's interesting how that's word, it isn't it? Because it's really saying, yeah, there isn't there's a time for rest, but there's a time not to rest. Harvest time is not the time to be putting your feet up.

Children need to learn to work when it's time for working and to rest then when it's time for resting and there needs to be control in our families. Doesn't there in doing that. That's a wise thing to do. Otherwise, they go through life and they're just gonna end up being last minute. Like so many of us are.

Tough, isn't it? But now we get to the heart of wisdom in the last 2 that here's what the the, the book of proverbs says. The next thing in wisdom teaching wise heart is to listen to god's word. Proverbs 2 says the lord gives wisdom from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Now, our children are exposed to hundreds of voices every day, aren't they?

Shouting to be heard in this world. Think about the world a child lives in, TV, movies, blogs, YouTube, YouTube, YouTube, YouTube all day long, social media, news channels, teachers, friends, parents, all of those voices trying to get their attention, shouting for them. Some of them are good. Some of them are bad. Some of them are useful.

Some of them are really not. So listen, it is crucial. We help our children. We teach them to stop each day and to tune into the voice of god. And doing that as a family is so valuable.

The voice of god is right in the Bible, and we should be so thankful that we have all these volunteers at the church who give their time to preparation in the weekend and teaching our children on a Sunday. But we need to do this in our homes too. It doesn't let us off the hook. Get the Bible open in your homes. Read at the meal table.

Read before bed. Make it a routine. Discuss it together. You will find actually, and I found it quite humbling. The profound things actually that my children will say, and the things way beyond them that they will understand from time to time.

It's a joy to teach them the word of god. But finally and most fundamentally number 7. We need to teach them to fear the lord. Proverb says the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the holy 1 is understanding. That's where wisdom begins.

So what does it mean, the fear of the lord? Well, it doesn't mean that we are to to use expression from when I was a child to put the fear of god into them. That is basically to scare them as much as possible by yelling at them about hell. I think that's what some people think it means. But really, the idea has much more to do with teaching our children how they are to live before a holy god, the holy that made them.

How they are to give god first place in their life and first place in their heart. That's what the fear of the lord really means. That the most crucial thing that we all need to understand If we are to live wisely in god's world is to fear the lord. We need to understand that we are sinful that our hearts even as grown ups are still foolish and rebellious. We need to understand that the god who made us in contrast with that is utterly holy and that we will 1 day be judged by that god for everything that we ever said or done or thought.

And we need to understand that our sin is serious and that it will on that day of judgment condemn us but that god has sent his son the lord Jesus Christ to be our rescuer to take car place to bear our sentence and to restore us into a loving relationship with a god who made us. And as parents we must do our utmost to keep on telling that wonderful good news and to make sure that children understand that thoroughly. Now that's exactly what the parents have been pledging to do right down here, isn't it? We must tell them that it is not by doing good things that we will be saved. It's not by saying our prayers or by reading the will not by going to church or getting baptized or taking communion that we will be saved.

It is simply and only by putting our trust in god's savior, Jesus. If we can get our children to understand that, that's the most important job done. They will grow in wisdom. They will grow in wisdom. Now I guess that some of you here will be guests and that you're only really here because what you thought was a good friend, invited you.

And you thought, yeah, well, well, you know, why not? I don't normally do church, but, you know, every now and then, that's okay. Seems reasonable, you know, that my friends seem like reasonably normal people, and they just want me to celebrate them having a baby. I can probably survive a bit of a preach. I I hope I hope you have survived it.

But listen. Now I know most of that talk was was about parenting advice, and you might wanna take it or leave it. But that's actually really the least important thing, isn't it? Assuming that you think that your human is that your friend is a reasonable sort of human being, then you might want to ask them maybe later on today Why on earth they believe the stuff that they just read out on that sheet? You've got it written on a sheet.

They're declaring to really believe that stuff. If you think they have a modicum of intelligence, ask them why? So so why do they believe it's true and why do they believe it's so so important. But for all of us now, as we close our time, I just wanna leave that list up on the screen just for 1 minute. And give you a chance to think about it.

What will your priority be as a parent in raising your children? What will be the focus of that work, will it be external or internal? How could you be involved in helping to shape the hearts of children and teenagers in this church. How could you help them with with that list of things that's up on the screen there? Just have a little think for a minute and then I'll hand back over to Dean.

Thanks