Examples of Good, Bad and Ugly...

For Us and Our Children

By Pastor Dan Kennedy

www.pastorkennedy.com

What are the most important concepts in life we wish our Children could learn?

•What do we want our Children to learn: That which we believe would make them successful in life?

•What do we want our Children learn to avoid: The mistakes we have made, which caused us sorrow, shame, grief, or pain?

The Education of our Children normally encompasses three basic areas:

•Body:

o Their anatomy and biology

o Their appearance

o Their health

•Soul:

o Their intellect - Mind

o Their feelings - Emotions

o The choices they make - Will

•Spirit:

o Regarding knowing who God IS – His Character and Attributes, Or, if we choose not to believe in God, the dimension of other spiritual presences or dynamics.

o Regarding a personal relationship to God, rejection of God, or involvement with other spiritual dynamics.

o Regarding an interaction with others in their relationship to God, their rejection of God, or their involvement with other spiritual dynamics.

Which of these three dynamics – body, soul, or spirit, has the greatest potential to affect and influence all three aspects of a person?

•A predominant emphasis on the physical.

o The body is temporal and will one day die, so it cannot sustain the greatest influence on all three areas.

•A predominant emphasis on the soul.

o The intellect, emotions and will have a profound affect on both the body and its own domain of the human soul, but it has not yet attained an eternal dimension unless it has experienced a spiritual New Birth.

•A predominant emphasis on the spiritual.

o The spirit has potentially the greatest influence on all three areas. A transformed spirit can bring health to the body, renewal to the soul and an eternal perspective through New Birth, in Jesus Christ.

Of these three areas – body, soul or spirit, what is normally left out of our public educational system? Why? Who then, is responsible to teach children about God and our essential relationship to Him?

What do you think of when you hear the following words spoken about a people group or an individual?

•Stubborn
•Rebellious
•Not loyal
•Not faithful
•Refuse to obey the law
•Forgot what others have done for them
•Continue to live a rebellious life
•Willfully questions and tests authority
•Speak against authority over them

What kind of people are those who fit the above description?

What is the potential outcome for people who fit this description?

The Psalm we are studying today uses these words to describe the demise and eventual cyclic destruction of God’s Chosen People:

•Stubborn
•Rebellious
•Not loyal to God
•Not faithful to God
•Refused to live by God’s law
•Forgot what God had done
•Continued to sin
•Willfully put God to the test
•Spoke against God,
•Did not believe in God or trust in His deliverance

Could these traits be truthfully written about you and I? These detrimental words were written about God’s Chosen People, Israel.

The following Psalm identifies the strongest area and dynamic, which we should be teaching our children: the domain of spirit, and our relationship with God, affecting all the realms of our life.

It reviews the obvious work of God, in the nation of Israel, throughout her history.

It sadly includes a cycle of rejection of God, demise and destruction of Israel.

It concludes with the hope God has for those who trust in Him.

Psalm 78

A maskil (a musical or liturgical term) of Asaph (a leader of Levite temple musicians in David’s time).

Telling and letting our Children observe Our Personal Relationship with God.

1 O my people, hear my teaching;

listen to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in parables,

I will utter hidden things, things from of old—

3 what we have heard and known,

what our fathers have told us.

4 We will not hide them from their children;

we will tell the next generation

the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,

his power, and the wonders he has done.

5 He decreed statutes for Jacob

and established the law in Israel,

which he commanded our forefathers

to teach their children,

6 so the next generation would know them,

even the children yet to be born,

and they in turn would tell their children.

7 Then they would put their trust in God

and would not forget his deeds

but would keep his commands.

8 They would not be like their forefathers—

a stubborn and rebellious generation,

whose hearts were not loyal to God,

whose spirits were not faithful to him.

Forgetting About God and Rebelling in the Face of God’s Miracles

9 The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,

turned back on the day of battle;

10 they did not keep God’s covenant [Stopped obeying what God had told them to do]

and refused to live by his law. [Rebelling – I want my own life, my way!]

11 They forgot what he had done,

the wonders he had shown them. [Forgetting – what causes “forgetfulness”?]

12 He did miracles in the sight of their fathers

in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

13 He divided the sea and led them through;

he made the water stand firm like a wall.

14 He guided them with the cloud by day

and with light from the fire all night.

15 He split the rocks in the desert

and gave them water as abundant as the seas;

16 he brought streams out of a rocky crag

and made water flow down like rivers.

Continuing To blatantly Sin Against God even as He Miraculously provides

17 But they continued to sin against him,

rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

18 They willfully put God to the test

People Continue to Sin in the Face of God’s Miraculous Work in their Life…Why?

•Each of us still has a carnal human nature.
•We are tempted by the world, our flesh, and the devil.

James 1:13–15

13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

•We somehow feel we deserve latitude and we do what we want to do.
•Other people around us can be involved in things dishonorable to God, which gives our carnality an excuse.
•We really don’t think God can see – and sometimes we become so blinded that we wonder if God even cares.
•We become not really sure God is as powerful as the Bible or others say.
•We want to do what we want to do. We want to enjoy the pleasures of sin, the glory of pride, and the dominance of personal power.
•Once we keep dabbling in sin we become more and more blinded to God and His Truth. He ceases to exist, or to be necessary in our life. “Out of sight – out of mind.” Until God allows something (sometimes a drastic something) to shake us out of our self-induced mirage. If you are not God’s Child, the spiritual mirage doesn’t even exist...you keep living your reality of life, without God – and could care less.

Hebrews 12:7–8

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

Unbelief: Continuing To Sin Against God

17 But they continued to sin against him,

rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

18 They willfully put God to the test

by demanding the food they craved.

19 They spoke against God, saying,

“Can God spread a table in the desert?

20 When he struck the rock, water gushed out,

and streams flowed abundantly.

But can he also give us food? [Questioned God’s ability to provide]

Can he supply meat for his people?”

21 When the Lord heard them, he was very angry;

his fire broke out against Jacob,

and his wrath rose against Israel,

22 for they did not believe in God

or trust in his deliverance.

23 Yet he gave a command to the skies above

and opened the doors of the heavens;

24 he rained down manna for the people to eat,

he gave them the grain of heaven.

25 Men ate the bread of angels;

he sent them all the food they could eat.

26 He let loose the east wind from the heavens

and led forth the south wind by his power.

27 He rained meat down on them like dust,

flying birds like sand on the seashore.

28 He made them come down inside their camp,

all around their tents.

29 They ate till they had more than enough,

for he had given them what they craved.

30 But before they turned from the food they craved,

even while it was still in their mouths,

31 God’s anger rose against them;

he put to death the sturdiest [strongest] among them,

cutting down the young men of Israel.

Consequences when We Keep On Sinning against God

32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;

in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.

33 So he ended their days in futility [purposelessness]

and their years in terror. [a lot more than fear]

34 Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;

they eagerly turned to him again. [Severe discipline brought repentance]

35 They remembered that God was their Rock,

that God Most High was their Redeemer.

36 But then they would flatter him with their mouths,

lying to him with their tongues;

37 their hearts were not loyal to him,

they were not faithful to his covenant.

38 Yet he was merciful;

he forgave their iniquities

and did not destroy them.

Time after time he restrained his anger

and did not stir up his full wrath.

39 He remembered that they were but flesh,

a passing breeze that does not return.

40 How often they rebelled against him in the desert

and grieved him in the wasteland!

41 Again and again they put God to the test;

they vexed the Holy One of Israel.

42 They did not remember his power—

the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,

43 the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt,

his wonders in the region of Zoan.

Redemption from Slavery in Egypt – a “type” of Redemption that would be brought through Jesus Christ’s blood, shed on the cross.

44 He turned their rivers to blood;

they could not drink from their streams.

45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,

and frogs that devastated them.

46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper,

their produce to the locust.

47 He destroyed their vines with hail

and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

48 He gave over their cattle to the hail,

their livestock to bolts of lightning.

49 He unleashed against them his hot anger,

his wrath, indignation and hostility—

a band of destroying angels.

50 He prepared a path for his anger;

he did not spare them from death

but gave them over to the plague.

51 He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,

the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.

52 But he brought his people out like a flock;

he led them like sheep through the desert.

53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;

but the sea engulfed their enemies.

54 Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land,

to the hill country his right hand had taken.

55 He drove out nations before them

and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;

he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

The Cycle of Rejection and Punishment

56 But they put God to the test

and rebelled against the Most High;

they did not keep his statutes.

57 Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless,

as unreliable as a faulty bow.

58 They angered him with their high places;

they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

59 When God heard them, he was very angry;

he rejected Israel completely.

60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,

the tent he had set up among men.

61 He sent the ark of his might into captivity,

his splendor into the hands of the enemy.

62 He gave his people over to the sword;

he was very angry with his inheritance.

63 Fire consumed their young men,

and their maidens had no wedding songs;

64 their priests were put to the sword,

and their widows could not weep.

A Cycle of Deliverance

65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,

as a man wakes from the stupor of wine.

66 He beat back his enemies;

he put them to everlasting shame.

67 Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,

he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,

Mount Zion, which he loved.

69 He built his sanctuary like the heights,

like the earth that he established forever.

70 He chose David his servant

and took him from the sheep pens;

71 from tending the sheep he brought him

to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,

of Israel his inheritance.

72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;

with skillful hands he led them.

Asaph wrote this Psalm 1,000 years before Jesus Christ, The Messiah, He who would sit on the throne of David, in justice and righteousness, forever.

It is to Jesus Christ, God the Son, we pay the ultimate honor, worship and praise.

The Final Cycle of Deliverance

It is Jesus Christ who brings the conclusion of the cycle of deliverance from the curse of sin and depravity in this world.

What are the most important concepts in life we wish our Children could learn and we would remember?

•What do we want our Children to learn: That which we believe would make them successful in life?

•What do we want our Children learn to avoid: The mistakes we have made, which caused us sorrow, shame, grief, or pain?

Of the three primary aspects of life we must focus once again on the most overlooked and most important aspect of life, for ourselves and for our Children – our Spirit

•Body:

o Our physical person

o Our appearance

o Our health

•Soul:

o Mind

o Emotions

o Will - The choices we make…

•Spirit:

o Knowing who God IS

o Having a personal relationship with God ourselves through Jesus Christ

o Understanding the relationship that others around us have with God

Our Relationship with God has the greatest effect on others and ourselves throughout our life.

Our Relationship with God has the greatest effect on our eternal life!