Taking Ownership of our Family’s Faithfulness
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TITLE: Taking Ownership of My Family’s Faithfulness
SUBJECT: Family and Faithfulness
PROPOSITION: To take ownership of my family’s faithfulness I must 1) Comprehend the contrast between the spiritual and the carnal. 2) Consistently cultivate the spiritual and cast out the carnal. 3) Care that my children copy my behavior. 4) Consider that it is never too late to change.
OBJECTIVE: In this lesson, I hope that each person will understand the responsibility that God has given parents to take ownership of their family.
AIM: It is the aim of this lesson and series to keep our families faithful to the Lord.
INTRODUCTION:
1. Read: Psalm 127:1a – “Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it….”
2. About the Text:
1) There is a way to build that is fruitful and a way that is empty.
2) Are we building our houses upon the rock or upon the sand?
3) “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).
3. We want to take ownership of our families and their faithfulness.
1) I resolve to own this issue.
2) This applies to everyone in some way.
3) There is always something that may be done.
4) This is an introductory lesson to a series of lessons on family and faithfulness.
4. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.
DISCUSSION: How do I take ownership of my family’s faithfulness?
I. Comprehend the consequential contrasts between the spiritual and the carnal.
1. What do we value?
1) To know what we value right now, we can look at our behavior.
2) Our behavior displays our values.
3) Are we valuing spiritual things or carnal things?
4) “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-2).
2. There are consequences to choosing one set of values over the other.
1) A single choice may seem inconsequential to us.
2) Choices become actions; actions become habits; habits become character and identity.
3) “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” (Galatians 6:7-8).
3. To have faithful families, our choices must be spiritual.
1) This is not instant gratification, but cumulative.
2) It takes eighteen years to educate a child to be prepared for adulthood.
3) Do we consider what it takes to be educated for eternity?
4) “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).
II. Consistently cultivate the spiritual and cast out the carnal.
1. We must make consistent spiritual choices.
1) Prioritize spirituality – “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
2) Spiritually inform decision making – “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Colossians 2:6).
3) Inculcate habitual spiritual practices – “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42).
2. We want to consistently cast out the carnal.
1) We cannot be proud of our carnality – “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:6-7).
2) We must end our pattern of sinful activities – “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them” (Colossians 3:5-7).
3. We want to be realistic about our pattern of behavior.
1) We will make spiritual choices; we will make carnal choices.
2) What will characterize our life: Our spiritual choices or our carnal choices?
3) “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).
III. Care that my children copy my behavior.
1. There are both biological and behavioral reasons for this.
1) Your children are a copy of you and your spouse biologically.
2) You are also their primary example for learned behavior.
3) They will copy what you do whether you want them to do that or not.
2. Children need a diet of steady, consistent instruction and examples to develop.
1) Children need attention.
2) Children need consistency.
3) “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
4) “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).
5) “Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern” (Phil.3:17).
3. If you are spiritual, they will be spiritual; if you are carnal, they will be carnal.
IV. Consider that it is never too late to change.
1. It is easier to start with the youngest because they are learning.
2. Older children may be changed if we will change.
3. Even children no longer in the home may be changed with time and effort.
4. Change begins with me.
1) “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance” (Matthew 3:8).
2) “that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance” (Acts 26:20b).
CONCLUSION:
1. Will we take ownership of our family’s faithfulness?
1) Choices have consequences both spiritual and carnal.
2) Cultivate the spiritual and cast out the carnal.
3) Caring about our children and their learned behaviors.
4) Consider that it is never too late to change.
2. Invitation