Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Dismiss Children

Happy Mothers Day

Introduction, QR Code

Taking a 1 week break from our Gospel Story series then we will be back on it the next couple weeks to finish it out.

We are not going to be looking at a woman from scripture today.

We are going to be in Psalm 78 and seeing the role of parents in general to their kids.

Being a parent, whether a mother or father, is an important role given to you by God.

You may not have received that title of mother, father, or gaurdian in a traditional sense like we heard about earlier but your responsiblity to the Lord and those children is no less important and vital.

In Psalm 78 we have a man named Asaph, not David, writing to the people of Israel.

Many, in fact most of the Psalms, are written by a man named David.

He was a king of ISrael and a man after God’s own heart.

This one is written by Asaph and we don’t know too much about him.

There are 4 Asaphs in the Old Testament and the one these ar believed to be attributed to isn’t really talked about outside of these Psalms.

I spoke last week about being ill-equipped.

If you are a parent or ever worked with kids in general, even if you went to school for it, I’m gonna bet you have felt ill-equipped in some way.

It’s been said that children don’t come with instruction manuals, in a way that is correct however I also believe we can go to the Bible and see the principles we should keep when raising a child.

If you are here today with no kids in the home or not a parent, don’t tune this out.

I’d like for you to hear the application made not onyl practicaly but spiritually.

Paul called Timothy his son in the faith.

The same principle we will be seeing today for literal parents is the same that we will see Jesus give to Christians in the New Testament.

Let’s pray and jump into the message today

Let’s look at a Parents Responsiblilty here in Psalm 78

Psalm 78:1-4

Exegete:

Asaph is letting the people know what this song is about.

In verse 3 he makes an important point.

“We have heard and known and our fathers have told us”

Moses wrote

Deut 11:19

The nation of Israel had been taught since their exodus from Egypt to pass along their faith to their children through the home.

Not the tabernacle or temple.

The parents that would have heard this knew what Asaph was speaking of.

They lived in a God honoring culture.

Did every Israelite honor God with their lives?

no.

However they were intimately familiar with the Torah and the Lord.

The adults of this culture would have been very familiar with the mriacles of God in the desert after the Israelites left Egypt.

They would have known about Adam and Eve, Abraham the father of the Jewish race, the judges and how God used David to defeat the giant Goliath.

It would have been easy to teach them these things as the number of distractions wouldl have been minimal during their time.

However today, parents and believers that underestand the great commission as passing on our faith, we have the same responsiiblity, the same God, but not the same culture.

Illustrate:

Have you all heard of that movie “Hidden Figures?”

The movie about the African American women who did the calculations by hand to put John Glen in space?

They were called human computers.

They did by hand what we do today with calculators and…computers.

How would you respond if I told you we were doing the complex mathematical calcualtions to determine how to get a man into space and land on the moon by hand today?

That would be weird…maybe even stupid…sure we may check the work but truly that method would be highly ineffective when there are better ones around…right?

Why wouldn’t that way work now?

There have been changes in the world that make it obsolete.

Can I challenge you and say that the same way you were raised is not the most effective way to raise your kids now.

It doesn’t mean your parents were wrong it means things are different.

In calculating the complex equations to send a person to space the principles of mathematics remain the same, the responsiblity of the engineers remains the same, but the world they are opperating in has changed from the time of the women in Hidden Figures.

Parents and believers that believe in passing on their faith to the enxt generation, the principles of scripture have remained the same, the responsiblity has not changed, but the world in which you operate is different than that of Charles Spurgeon (fmaous preacher form 1800’s), Charles Stanley, and others of the past.

This doesn’t mean you can negllect your responsiblity, it means you work to do the absolute best you can with the tools you have available to you.

Argue:

Think about it.

20 years ago cell phones weren’t glued to our hands, youtube wasn’t accessible on every device, marketers weren’t able to get into your home unless you turned your tv on, now at every turn someone is selling you something.

Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, and other social media apps are vying for your attention.

Developing algorhythems to keep you on their apps for as long as possible so that you can purchase whatever they want you to.

Parents, especially here in Bristol and central Connecticut, there is opportunity for everything every moment of the day.

Sports, hobbies, day trips, training camps, day camps, and everything in between.

It takes more discipline as a parent now to look at your child and say “No, we have church that day and that’s more important than...” or to say “no, that’s our family night, that’s our prayer time, that’s our time with Jesus…and that’s more important than...”

Why don’t kids love Jesus more?

Why don’t people love Jesus more?

Why is it communities are neglelccting the things of God for the things of this world?

I beleive it’s because instead of passing down or even estabalishing our faith with our children we are establilshing our hobbies, we are establishing our worldly pleasures, we are pointing them in eveery direcction, at every opportunity, except the opportunity to know Jesus personally.

Apply:

The God of the Old Testament hasn’t changed.

He is still the same strong, wonderful, and praiseworthy God of creation.

The responsibillity of parents and Christians that know Jesus to pass on their faith to the next generation is still there.

We are too accustomed to look to the “church” as the ones responsible for getting the message of the gospel out.

We allow the distractions of this world to keep us from the responsibility we have been called to.

Children and the next generation of Christians will learn to praise Jesus and glorify Him with their lives from only one person in your life…you

I. Parents teach kids to praise

No one else.

Christians, no one else is going to teach or show people in your life what it means to love Jesus.

That’s your responsibility.

No one else is going to teach others to share the life giving and life changing message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That’s on parents to teach children and on Christians to teach the world.

That’s on you and I as individuals to pick up our cross and die daily to self so that He maybe known.

Asaph reminds the parents of Israel of their responsibility and then goes to speak of some o the things God did

Psalm 78:5-7

Exegete:

The testimony in Jacob is a reference to Jacob recieving the name Israel from the Lord and being the father of the 12 sons that would become the 12 tribes of Israel.

The law was appointed through Moses and passed down through the levitical priests and judges.

And as we read, God commanded the fathers to pass along the law and history of God to the children.

Why?

So that they may know them and know Him.

Not only them but their grandchildren.

Asaph asks the question in verse 6 “Who should arise and declare them to their children?”

Who? Who is going to do it?

We have already said that it’s the Parents responsibllity.

But will they?

Will you?

How will you?

Asaph says who will “arise and tell” who is going to get up and do something who is going to be apart of the work God has called them and us to.

Who is going to be the ones that do what God desires?

Can I answer that question for you?

It won’t be every parent.