True Values
Oct. 21, 2007
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Text: Ephesians 6:1-4
Family values - differ - ever seen how your values might differ? God has a design for families! True values - Functional Families have true values! What are the true values?
1)The Lord
V1 & V4 - In and of the Lord - He must be the center! My vision - How we ended every conflict in our house - Duet 6:4
”Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain."
Value #1 is instilled in and we become the expression of!
2)The life
V1-3 - do the two things that are right and find the life!!
The full measure of life God has for you! Acts 5:5-10 Do as to the Lord towards your parents
Obey - the expression of your faith! “Come under the hearing” under their roof, under their hearing! Actually listen and do what they instruct! Why? Grown up!
Honor - Value!
3)The lessons
V4 - raise them right! What about exasperation? “Provoke to anger”
a) neglect
"The cure of crime is not the electric chair, but the high chair." - J. Edgar Hoover
b) favoritism
c) inconsistency
d) criticizes instead of commends
”I praise loudly, I blame softly." - Catherine the Great
e) Abusive-name calling
f) over protective
Training - nurture -means to discipline - Instruction - to warn or admonish - The staking of a tree - apply the stakes that raise them right. The Pow-Wow
”He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.” - Proverbs 13:24
Unity
”A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone.” - Billy Graham
Consistency - “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”
Expressed affection
”When correcting a child, the goal is to apply light, not heat." -Woodrow Wilson
You are responsible for staking your child! Wal-Mart spasmatics - Embrace them as you stake them - The lessons of life are up to you to teach! Been there done that!
Conclusion
Being a functional family is tough! Values - Frog in pot - neighbor-said was a failure - Didn’t give him the right stakes. Choose to have a functional family! True values bring real blessings!