Fathers Bring Them Up

Ephesians 6:4 Fathers Bring Them Up CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

Fathers have the duty of seeing to the spiritual nurturing of their children.  Trouble with broken homes is that dad is not there.  He gets the kids ½ of the time or less.  What if the step dad is home with the kids, how much liberty is his wife going to give him to raise the kids up right?  It is a tough deal these days.  Bob McCarty said that daughter of eight came home dejected because most of her friends had two dads and two mommies.  They get two times the presents.  I only have one dad and one mom.  Wild!

There are two commands here:

Don’t  provoke them to wrath

1. Col 3:21
2. Doing something wrong that he gets mad about
3. Setting up double standards, Joseph
4. Children naturally love their dad and talk about him at school
5. But if he is a bum, he is an embarrassment to the kids
6. Johnny’s dad with shoes at Christmas – my dad worked for these
7. Another way to anger your children is to take your anger out on them – bad idea
8. Two bad emotions are fear and anger – the right kind yields wisdom and obedience – the wrong kind yields a snare and produces anger – once provoked, they’ll turn to drugs, alcohol, sex – these are not right but that’s the way it is today
9. Cussing them, driving them, beating them– no love

Bring them up

1. Nurture – the education or training that one receives or possesses
2. Moral training and discipline
3. Can’t let mom do it alone, nor school, nor church, YOU
4. Admonition – gentle or friendly reproof, warning, or reminder; counsel against a fault, error, or oversight;  expression of advice or warning
5. II Tim 3:15
6. Prov 4:1-4; 1:8-9
7. our children were taught Bible, swimming, hunting, fishing, camping, soul winning, teaching, preaching, studying – Ecc 12:6-12
8. Not the job od the youth group and pastor; this is the responsibility of PARENTS