Raising Young Champions

Adrian Rogers was a motivator, an encourager, and a leader of the faith. He was also passionate about presenting scriptural application to everyday life circumstances, and you'll hear that in today's message.

Now, let's join Adrian Rogers. Now, if you can't raise your kids right, your family's not going to have much of a future, so we want to speak to you today about raising young champions. Your child should be a champion, not necessarily a champion in the spelling bee, not necessarily a champion in the halls of academia, not necessarily a champion on the football team, but a champion for Jesus Christ, and this book is The Breakfast of Champions.

Thanks, folks. And I want us to look in here and see what God has to say about raising a child. A familiar verse, train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old, he should not depart from it. Now, what does it mean to train up a child? May I tell you, my friend, there is a difference in teaching a child and training a child. We must have taught our children and then see them turn and go wrong.

Our problem is neglect and indifference. We think if we simply teach that that's all that needs to be done, but then we find out that the child becomes self-willed and self-centered and goes his own way. Let me tell you what the dictionary says to train means. It says to prepare for a contest, to instruct by exercise.

To drill, to form to a proper shape, to discipline for use. Now, nobody ever learned to play football by simply reading a book on football or simply sitting in a classroom with a blackboard up there and a coach drawing things on the blackboard as they used to call that skull practice when I was playing football. But you really learn to play football under the guidance of a coach out on the field. So, let me give you four things, parents, and I hope you'll take notes because there's an awful lot in this message, but there are four things I want you to learn that this verse tells us. Proverbs chapter 22 and verse 6, train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Number one, it is training that commences with childhood.

Do you see it? Train up a child in the way that he should go. It doesn't say train up an adult, but train up a child.

You must begin early. As a matter of fact, this word train up is a word that is used only four other times in the Bible. Solomon dedicating the house of the Lord to the Lord. And so the idea of training up actually has the idea, first of all, of a dedication. You should begin by just simply dedicating your child to the Lord because the word train up and the word dedicate are interrelated and interlocked. The very first thing you should do is just give that child to the Lord Jesus Christ. We've done that with all of our children. We've gotten on our knees and offered our children up to the Lord. Begin, my dear friend, before they are born, just dedicate them to the Lord.

Train up a child. Now let me give you some other verses. Proverbs 19 verse 18, chasten thy son while there is hope.

Now you see what that says? Start early while there's hope. Dear friend, if you don't start early, you're going to come to a hopeless situation.

Proverbs 13 verse 24, he that loveth rod hateth his son, he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. Now if you have a King James, that's what it says, betimes. But the word betimes literally means early. Early.

It has the idea of the dawn. That is in the dawn of his life while he is a child, then you get started. Don't ever think that little children cannot learn. Friend, little children are learning a language before they are learning to work. About the time they're learning to walk, they're hearing little words, they're beginning to articulate little monosyllables, dada, mama, and before long, that little two and three-year-old child can speak an entire language. How many of you know more than one language?

Well, the language that you know, you learned as a baby. Listen to Isaiah 28 verses 9 and 10. Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make knowledge?

And who shall he understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast. The Bible says little babies just being weaned from their mother's breast can learn. And then this verse goes on to say, for precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little. That's the way children learn.

a little and you don't think they're learning, but like a sponge they are absorbing it all. Let me tell you why to start early with your children. You see, with a child the curiosity factor is very high.

What is the word that you hear from a little child so often? Why, Daddy? Why, Mommy? Why? Don't despise them when they ask why.

What a golden opportunity that they're asking you why. But not only is the curiosity factor extremely high, the memory factor is incredibly high. Little children have a great ability to memorize things. And we often say, oh, if I were only a child again, if I could only memorize like little children can memorize.

The curiosity factor, the memory factor, and oh, thank God, the humility factor. But children are so humble. You see, when we get to be obstreperous adults like some of us, it's so hard now to break through that abominable pride and get in. That's the reason the Lord Jesus said to adults, except ye be converted and become as little children, you'll in nowise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Sometimes a little child will come forward to give his or her heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, and some well-meaning counselor will get that little child and ask that little child a lot of adult questions. And if the little child can't answer the adult questions, they say the little child is not ready.

Friend, you've got it just backward. It's not that the little child has to become like the adult. The adult has to become like a little child. Friend, when you have that curiosity factor and that memory factor and that humility factor and then that ability to believe, children have an incredible trust factor.

Oh, they can trust. Now, that's not bad. That is wonderful. That is the way that God intended it. So the Bible says that you must convince with childhood. You remember what the apostle Paul told young Timothy?

That from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures that are able to make thee wise unto salvation. Oh, dear friend, that child that God has given you is a great bundle of potentiality and how you need to start so very early. Tomorrow, that baby won't want to be rocked. Tomorrow, my dear friend, that toddler will not be asking why. Tomorrow, that schoolboy will not want you to help him with his lessons.

Don't let this time pass through your fingers. Now, notice what it says. It says here, train up a child in the way, in the way that he should go. Now, look at the word way. The word way there has the idea of a bend in a branch.

It actually has something to do with a bend in a bow, like a bow and arrow. And what it means is this, that every particular child has his own particular way. Children don't just come in standard packages.

You have to read the label very carefully, in the way that he should go. And that's true with all of us. You see, my dear friend, God never makes copies.

He only makes originals. And every one of us have those little idiosyncrasies and proclivities and things that God has put into every one of us. And your child comes with a certain conglomerate of genes and a certain conglomerate of talents and abilities that later will become his spiritual gifts.

And how wise you are as a parent if you look at that child and see the way that he should go. And you see, dear friend, like a river. If you were to go out here and try to change the course of the mighty Mississippi, it would be difficult to do. But if you go up to the headwaters where it's just a little rivlet or trickle, then you could do something about it. If you try to bend the trunk of a mighty oak, you will not do it.

But if you take that mighty oak when it's just starting and just a little branch there, a little twig, then you can bend it. That's what God is saying. There is a way in which the child should go. And you need to study that child. Children are different.

Friend, it is incredible how different children can be with the same parents. If you were to study the children in the Bible, you'd find out that Cain and Abel were sons of Adam and Eve. How different was Cain from Abel? Absalom and Solomon were both sons of David. But who who studies the Bible cannot see the incredible difference between an Absalom and a Solomon? Jacob and Esau were sons of the same father and the same mother. But what a difference there was between Jacob and Esau. Now I think of our four children and the way they are so different, sometimes I wonder if they have the same parents, but I'm absolutely certain they do. And yet they are so different in their attitudes, their gifts, and in their demeanor, and in their psyche, they are so different. But thank God they have all one thing in common. All of our children love the Lord Jesus Christ. But you see the Bible says find out the way in which He should go and don't fight against it.

Cooperate with it. Perhaps I've told you about Thomas Alva Edison. He was an incredibly brilliant man. He was a genius.

But let me tell you something about Thomas Edison. When he was a little boy and he went to school, you know what the teacher said? Take this child out of school. He's too stupid to learn anything. I can't teach him anything. He is a stupid child.

Do you know what Thomas Edison's mama said? She said, my boy is not stupid. You just don't understand him. He's not stupid.

Give him to me. I'll teach him. And she taught him.

She saw something that a teacher could not see. And parents, if they are led of the Lord, will understand that they are to train up a child in the way that he should go. Now, dear friend, it is training. If you're going to train a champion, number one, it commences with childhood. Number two, it is training that communicates with creativity. It commences with childhood. It communicates with creativity.

Now the Bible says here train up a child. Now I told you that that word train up has in its etymology the idea of dedication. But it has another meaning also. And it has the meaning of putting something in the mouth to be tasted. In Bible times, the midwives, in order to get a little baby to begin the sucking motion or to create taste so the little baby would swallow its food, the Arab midwife and the Hebrew midwife would sometimes take crushed dates and mix them with honey or olive oil, put that on their finger, and then rub the palate of that baby. Now the word train up actually has in its root also to touch the palate. Just take your finger and rub it back there on the back of your mouth and you can't help but swallow. It just triggers the swallowing motion. And to get a little baby to swallow, they would touch the palate. Now that's very interesting because that is the word that is here in Proverbs 22 verse 6 which says train up a child.

What it means is this. Put something in their mouth to be tasted. Create a thirst, create a hunger for the Word of God. You will never force feed a child the Word of God. Oh how we need to creatively teach the Word of God. This is talking about a way of life. You can't teach what you don't know any more than you can come from where you've not been. And thou shall teach them diligently unto thy children.

Now watch this. And thou shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. This is not talking about a formal family worship, though I believe in that.

Just when you're going in and out, when you're lying down, getting up, sitting around the house, you just talk of them. Now the Bible teaches what a wonderful way this was to teach. Who was the master teacher? Who was the best teacher who ever taught in the world?

Who was he? Of course, Jesus. And how did Jesus teach His disciples? Well, as He was going along, He'd see someone sowing and He'd say, Behold, a sower went forth to sow. And then He'd teach a spiritual lesson. He'd see some beautiful flowers. He'd say, Consider the lilies how they grow. And then the Lord Jesus would teach. I mean Jesus saw lessons in everything. He was the master teacher. Now that's the way you are to teach your child.

When you rise up, when you lie down, when you go out and come in and all of this. You see, put something in the mouth to be tasted. It doesn't have to be dull.

It doesn't have to be dry. There can be Bible reading, Bible stories, Bible games, Bible memories, Christian books, Christian music. Get them. Have them in your home. Learn to give rewards for work well done. Give rewards for memory verses. You say, Well, I don't believe in bribing people to do things. That's not a bribe. Do you know the difference between a bribe and a reward? A bribe is where you try to get someone to do what he ought not to do for money or for some other thing. It is a bribe is an inducement to do wrong.

A bribe is thanks for doing right. Teach the children that there is a law of sowing and reaping and reward them for these things. Don't ram it down their throat, but teach them.

Teach them. This verse teaches, if you raise a young champion, that it must be training that commences with childhood. Number two, it must be training that communicates with creativity. Number three, number three, it must be training that corrects with consistency. Did you get the word consistency?

That corrects with consistency. Now don't get the idea that your little darling doesn't need to be corrected. Now the modern behaviorist psychologist he will just teach you that your child is like a little rosebud and all you have to do is let him unfold, just let him bloom.

He'll unfold to black your eye. Let me tell you something, friend. Don't get the idea that your child is a little angel. The Bible says foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. It doesn't say that a child is a fool. No child is a fool. But foolishness, the word literally means silliness, is bound up in the heart of a child. Don't you buy into the psychology that says if little Throckmorton wants to cut the leg off the dining room table, you keep the saw sharp so it won't frustrate the little deer.

No, no. There comes a time, there comes a time when you have to correct and there is an endemic predisposition in that child, your child, my child, any child to do wrong and so there must be correction with consistency. Now you need to discipline your child.

Let me give you four reasons for disciplining any child. First of all, if you love the child, you'll discipline the child. Proverbs 13 verse 24, He that spareth his rod hateth his son. He that loveth him chasteth him betimes. That means he does it early. You say, well I just love him so much I can't do it.

You're telling a lie. You don't love him, you love you. He gives you displeasure and therefore you don't do it, not out of love for the child but out of selfish love for yourself. You're not better than God and the Bible says in Hebrews 12 verse 6, whom the Lord loves he chastens. Are you better than God?

Whom the Lord loves, he chastens. And by the way, my dad when he used to spank me said, son I'm just doing this because I love you. Your dad ever tell you that? Well I knew I was my dad's favorite.

He loved me a lot more than he loved my brother. I'll tell you another reason you need to do it, not only because you love your child but as I've already alluded to, because of the nature of human nature. Proverbs 22 verse 15, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. Now may I tell you that the word rod here, R-O-D, does not mean a stick like the handle of a shovel.

It's a word that can simply mean a branch, a twig, like a switch that will sting but do no harm. But children, my dear friend, need to understand that there is a moral nature in the universe, that there is retribution for doing wrong. Fear is a good lesson and now everybody needs to learn it. You say, well I don't want my child to be raised fear, not cringing fear. But dear friend, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The man, the boy, the girl who fears God the most loves him the best. The fear of the Lord is love on its knees.

I'll tell you what else it'll do. If you'll correct your child, it'll save you from so much disgrace. Oh, so much disgrace. Do you know what juvenile delinquents are? So many times they are the result of juvenile parents, excuse me, of delinquent parents and I could say juvenile parents. Proverbs 29 verse 15, the rod and reproof give wisdom but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. So many kids roaming the streets today. We call them latchkey kids.

They're raised with a television for a babysitter. Yes they bring their mother to shame. Proverbs 29 verse 17, correct thy son and he shall give thee rest, yea he shall give delight to thy soul. My dear friend, if you don't want to come to shame, if you don't want your children to be a reproach to you, then you better begin early. Now, I'll tell you the greatest reason though for disciplining and correcting with consistency, it'll keep your boy or your girl out of hell.

Out of hell. Listen to Proverbs 23 verses 13 and 14, withhold not correction from the child. If thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.

Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell. Now that does not mean that you'll beat sin out of a child. Nobody can beat sin out of a child. It does not mean child abuse.

The Bible is very clear and very plain against any kind of child abuse. But the child that does not learn to respect authority from his parents will not respect authority in the school room. He will not respect authority in the church house. He will not respect God's authority and ultimately he will become a rebel and a fool and he will die and go to hell.

That's what the Word of God says. Listen, the Bible says that if you withhold correction from your child, you're making him a candidate for eternal punishment. Now, let me give you some rules therefore for chastisement here. And moms and dads, grandparents and those who are going to be parents, I want you to take notes. Number one again, I want to say in disciplining a child, start early. He's old enough, she's old enough to be disciplined when they're old enough to willingly and knowingly disobey.

Some have waited too late. The Bible says in Proverbs 19 verse 18, chasin thy son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying. Don't let him bully you with his crying. Now, number two, use spanking as a last resort.

Not the first option, a last resort. You know, the Lord speaking to us, said in Revelation chapter 3 verse 19, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. The rebuke is God speaking first.

Chasing is coming later on. Speaking always comes before spanking. There are always times for explanations. There are always times for warnings.

There are always times for second chances. Don't just try to cure everything with a spanking. But if you promise a spanking, keep your word.

I've told ours if the rapture comes, you're going to get it on the way up. Now listen folks, keep your word. Don't make idle threats that you don't intend to keep. What you're doing is worse than anything in the world to say I'm going to spank you if you do thus and such and then fail to do it. And if there is a spanking that is due, administrate it promptly. Ecclesiastes chapter 8 and verse 11, because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

When you say I'm going to do it, then friend, as soon as it is practical, you need to do it. And husbands and wives need to present a united front. Don't ever let the child play one parent against another. When punishment is due, let both parents agree that none will show favoritism. Perhaps one parent shall hold and the other shall administrate.

Always be a team. Children are very wise. They'll learn to play one parent against another. And when you give a spanking, never ever cause bodily harm. Always, listen, always discipline in love whom the Lord loves He chastens. Listen to this, Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 4, and your fathers provoke not your children to wrath.

Don't provoke them to wrath. Have you ever seen parents who they don't discipline in love? They're not trying to discipline the children.

You think they're trying to get even with them. Whack, get out of the way of the television. Have you seen a mother in a grocery store kind of whacking her kids? Bap, bap, get out of the way. That's not discipline. That's just an irritated mother.

That's all that is. Just do it in love. The Bible says in James chapter 1 and verse 20, the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wrath produces wrath. Bitterness produces bitterness.

Remember, it's correction and not revenge. Whenever you have to chasten a child, always work for repentance in the child's heart. Remember that if a child has disobeyed, he is sinned because he has rebelled against his parents and that's breaking one of God's commandments. Teach the child that not only has he sinned against father and mother, but he's also sinned against God and ask that child to consider asking God to forgive. Now you cannot be the Holy Spirit. You cannot force that child to repent. All you can do is correct and pray that the child will repent.

You cannot do the work of the Holy Spirit. But my dear friend, there needs to be that discipline. Now let me say something else here.

We're talking about correction that is consistent. Listen, commence with childhood. Communicate with creativity and correct with consistency.

Pay much attention to what I'm about to say now. Set limits for your children. Set limits for your children. Every child needs to be given, number one, some goals and number two, some limits. Now if you don't give some goals and some limits, you don't love your children as you ought to. God, with His children in the Garden of Eden, gave them goals and God gave them limitations. Now when you set down certain limitations for your children, your children will test them immediately.

That's the nature of human nature. They're going to test those limits. And if that barrier that you've set up, if that limitation you've set up moves, then the child will have no security, whatever. He's going to push against it. And if when he pushes against it, it moves, it will give him no security.

These limitations and restrictions will be tested. And if you don't give the child limitations, it implies to the child that you have rejected him. And if you don't conquer your child, they will feel rejected and someone else will conquer them. Now, why is it that parents don't want to set limitations? Why is it that modern parents today do not want to say no?

May I give you several reasons? And you're going to hear yourself, if you're not careful, if you are what we call an indulgent parent, if you have refused to correct and if you have refused to set limitations, I'll tell you why. You're trying to avoid a confrontation.

That's what you're trying to do because you fear rejection. The Duke of Windsor, when he visited the United States, somebody asked him, what do you think about America? He said this, the thing that impresses me most about America is the way the parents obey their children. Why don't we set limitations?

Number one, we don't want confrontation that will lead to rejection. Number two, we give our children things and indulgences because of the fact that we have not given them our time. And we try to give them things as a substitute for time and ultimately, though the children will take what we give and do what we allow, they will ultimately resent us for our warped priorities and these meaningless gifts.

Another reason that we do it is we're trying to compensate for our own deprivation. Have you ever had anybody to say to you, I don't want my children to do without things as I did without them? Have you ever said that about your own children? I don't want them to have to do without what I did without.

Well, why not? How did you turn out? If you are able to give things to your children, it means evidently that you have attained things. And if you're successful, you came out of poverty and now you live in a fine home and have a nice automobile and your boy graduates from high school and you just buy him a brand new automobile just like that because you didn't have one when you were a kid. Do you think you're really teaching that child right?

I'll tell you what you're trying to do, dear friend. You have become an achiever and therefore you're able to buy that automobile for that boy. But what you're teaching him to be is an underachiever. You're teaching him that he can get what he wants without working for it. Another reason that we often have indulgent children is, is just status. We're trying to keep up with the Joneses.

The Joneses let their kids do this and the Joneses let their kids do that and the Joneses buy this and the Joneses buy that. Set some limitations. I was reading the Proverbs that tell us to set limitations. There are so many in the book of Proverbs.

It is incredible. Often we just give in to our children because it's the easiest way out. Mother's working and daddy's working. Everybody is pushing, pushing, pushing. They're so harried.

They're so tired. They just let the kids do what the kids want to do because it is the easiest way. Let me say one other thing here. I'm still talking about training that corrects with consistency. I said use discipline.

Set limitations. Number three, assign responsibilities. Refrain from giving your child so many freebies. Don't use the television as a babysitter. It's not just simply what he sees on television that's so bad. But that television is absorbing that natural creativity and high energy.

It's dissipated into passive activities just sitting in front of the tube. Make your child complete what you tell him to do. You could clean up the room in 15 minutes. It may take him or her two hours to do it but see that they finish. See that they finish. See that your child is held personally accountable. Give them an allowance. See to it that they give away some money. Don't let your child come to church on Sunday morning without an offering. Give him an allowance that is his and let him give of his own to the Lord. Teach him to give money. Teach him to save money. And teach him to spend money wisely. Oh I wish I had time for all of these things but I must get to the last and final point.

Now listen to what we have said. Proverbs 22 verse 6 says number one, that there is training that commences with childhood. We have said that it is training that communicates with creativity.

We have said that it is training that corrects with consistency and last of all it is training that consummates with conversion. What is the goal of all of this? It is to bring a child to Jesus Christ. To help a child to have something that will last him all of his life. Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. It doesn't mean that when he is old he will come back to it.

It means that he will never ever forsake it. That is that he will have in his heart a principle that he will have the Lord in his heart. Now how old should a child be before we bring that child to the Lord Jesus Christ? Don't get the idea that a child has to have a PhD in sin in order to be saved. I hear people say, now I just don't believe in childhood conversions.

Well my dear friend I want you to know I do with all of my heart and soul and I'm going to tell you why. And if you are a parent as soon as is possible, practical, you need to lead your child to Jesus Christ. As soon as your child can comprehend the conception of sin, that sin is not just naughtiness but rebellion against God. The moment that child understands that, your child is ready for conversion. It is not unusual for children to be saved. Listen, 75 percent of all people who trust Christ... are you listening? 75 percent of all people who trust Christ are saved before the age of 14.

Did you know that? Have you ever read Matthew Henry's commentary? Matthew Henry was saved at the age of 11. Have you ever heard about the sermons of Jonathan Edwards?

The great revivalist? Sinners in the hand of an angry God? Jonathan Edwards was saved at the age of 8. Polycarp, one of the first Christian martyrs, burned at the stake for the Lord Jesus Christ, was saved as a child at the age of 9. He lived for the Lord Jesus Christ all of his life and was burned at the stake at 90. Saved at 9? Burned at the stake for Jesus at 90. When He is old, He will not depart from it. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, many who say was the greatest preacher who ever lived.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was saved at the age of 12 and by his own testimony said, I would have been saved much earlier had somebody pointed me to Jesus Christ. Now be careful with little children. Do not shove little children. That's wrong. But don't block little children.

That's wrong. Guide little children. Guide little children that they might come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. You want a champion for the Lord Jesus Christ?

How wonderful. If we will train them up with training that commences at childhood, communicates with creativity, interacts with consistency and consummates in conversion. Now I'm finished with my message. Let me just say this about this proverb. Is this proverb a promise?

Well, yes and no. It is a proverb. That does not mean that you can override your child's will. You can do everything right. Listen to me now.

Listen. You can do everything right and your child can rebel against God. But if you want to do everything right and give your child the best way, it's Proverbs chapter 22 and verse six. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with Him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, LWF.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at LWF.org or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.