Sermon from June 15, 1997

Sermon "Raising PG Kids in an X RatedSociety That Perfect Picture "
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Sunday June 15, 1997

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old hewill not turn from it.

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If there ever was a case for the church investing in ChristianEducation an Children's Ministries it's right here. I havenoticed a cycle in faith development. A child's faith, a journeyaway and then a return home. Like the stages of how some may feelabout their father as they mature. I read this the other day

four years old:	My daddy can do anything.
five years old:	My daddy knows a whole lot.
six years old:	My dad is smarter than your dad.
eight years old:	My dad doesn't know exactly everything.
ten years old:	In the olden days when my dad grew up, things sure were different.
twelve years old:	Oh, well, naturally, dad doesn't know anything about that. He is too old to remember his childhood.
fourteen years old:	Don't pay any attention to my dad. He is so old-fashioned.
twenty-one years old:	Him? My Lord, he's hopelessly out of date.
twenty-five years old:	Dad knows a little bit about it, but then he should because he has been around so long.
thirty years old:	Maybe we should ask dad what he thinks. After all, he's had a lot of experience.
thirty-five years old:	I'm not doing a single thing until I talk to dad.
forty years old:	I wonder how dad would have handled it. He was so wise and had a world of experience.
fifty years old:	I'd give anything if dad were here now so I could talk this over with him. Too bad I didn't appreciate how smart he was. I could have learned a lot from him.

Mercedes and I were told when we were having children that wewould have a harder time raising them than our parents in thepast generation did. Roles were changing, the economy wasuncertain, competing forces for time. I believe that you who areat the child bearing time will also have a challenging andrewarding time ahead. And the church is here for you!

I was surfing the net and I came a cross a "father's dayphoto album."(Family planet: the scrapbook.) It was acollection of photos of fathers and their children. These photoshad been sent in by people who wanted to share them. In onepicture a man was sitting with his son in a fishing boat. Inanother two fathers were with their children on the shore. Eachof the photos showed a father and his children smiling and happy.

at that same site there were surveys and discussions of thestate of fatherhood in the 90's. As I read this discussion Irealized that the photo album was not presenting the real lifesituation. I thought of pictures of the "ideal" churchand the "real" church. The photos were the ideal ofwhat fatherhood should look like. The discussions brought up therealities of absentee fathers, and of fathers who feel the needto work overtime or who are emotionally isolated from theirchildren.

There were some bright spots. Many people thought that fatherswere getting more involved in the raising of their children.There was a lot of discussion about changing diapers. One fathershared, "I have changed hundreds of diapers but my fatherbarely changed a dozen." We want fathers to be involved inthe lives of their children and grandfathers, too. We want thatpicture perfect relationship of father to child for all children.We fathers wish we could be that way and our wives do too. Wewish all children could have a relationship with their fatherthat fits the photo album ideal.

Father's Day is a little different in the church. In thechurch all men are fathers. Each time a child is baptized in thechurch the whole church promises to nurture one another in theChristian faith and include the child being baptized in thatnurturing. We also promise to surround them with a community oflove and forgiveness that they may grow in service and love toothers and to pray for them. Any Christian man who takes thosevows takes the responsibility of raising and nurturing thosechildren in the faith. So if we were to create a photo albumfilled with pictures of the ideal of Christian fatherhood whatwould it look like?

It would include men teaching children to pray. It wouldinclude pictures of men working beside children in servingothers. It would show men and children laughing and playing atchurch picnics, Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. It wouldshow men listening to young people as they talk about theirproblems. It would have picture after picture of men passing onthe faith.

That is what we want to see. We want to see the faith growingin the lives of our children. We want to see the same thing Jesuswas talking about in Mark. He said, "the kingdom of God islike someone who scatters seeds and then they grow." Thepoint is that all the farmer does is scatter the seed. The seedgrows on its own. And finally it comes to fruit.

Jesus further emphasizes this point with his next parable. Hesaid the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. It is so smallbut it grows into a huge plant. Faith is like that: it startswith a small seed but it grows into something big. Faith maystart with singing "Jesus loves me", "now I lay medown to sleep..." And pennies in the church school basketbut can become a giant faith like a mighty fortress.

We want to see faith growing like a mustard seed in ourchildren's lives. We want to see faith in God shoring up thelives of our children. We want to see youth who are standing onthe solid rock of Christ. We want to see the love of God comingto full fruit as young people serve others in the name of Christand devote themselves to his kingdom.

But in order to see all this we first have to plant it. And toplant it we first have to have it growing in our lives. Thekingdom of God is like a man who tried to get grass to grow in adandelion patch. Year after year he yearned for grass to growthere but only more dandelions grew until one year he got rid ofthe dandelions and planted grass seed. Our children are catchingthe seeds falling from our lives. Values are caught not taught.If we have faith and the fruits of the spirit growing in ourlives those are the seeds that will grow in our children's lives.But if we have the dandelions of the world growing, that is whatwill germinate and grow to fruition and its seeds will fall intoour Children's hearts.

Put simply: if we want our children to grow in faith we mustbe people of faith. We have to live the faith, to study the wordof God, to model the love of God. Then those things will fall inthe soil of our children's hearts and minds and grow.

Fathers - when was the last time you prayed with yourchildren? When was the last time your children saw you readingthe bible? When was the last time you told them that you lovethem and that God loves them? When was the last time you helpedwith children in the church?

Rules without relationships lead to rebellion. To train ourchildren to follow Christ we first have to be following Christ.To see faith growing in their lives it must first be growing inours. To see them devoting their lives to Christ, we must firstdevote our lives to Christ. To see the fruits of the spiritgrowing in the lives of our children they must first be growingin our lives.

If you want to be a picture perfect Christian father, thenyour life must reflect a picture of the image of your heavenlyfather. That perfect picture is yours.