Countering The Culture Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. A solid defense against the liberal social agenda begins with some definite action steps. Today, Erwin Lutzer continues presenting his list of commandments for parents, commandments designed to protect your kids.

Please stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, why are the commandments for parents you're listing so important? Well Dave, I think the obvious answer is the fact that parenting can be very complex. It's quite a challenge. Rebecca and I discovered that.

We have three daughters and now of course we also have grandchildren. And what we discover is that oftentimes answers are difficult to come by. So these 10 commandments give some guard rails. They give some instruction to maintain a relationship with a child that is both loving and accepting and at the same time drawing lines in the sand and saying this we will not do. Now I believe that these messages are very important.

The commandments of course are important as you've emphasized. But those who would like to have these messages to listen to them again and again for a gift of any amount, we're making this resource available. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for the series Reclaiming the Family. And of course at the end of this broadcast I'll be repeating this contact information.

For now, let us listen. The purpose of spanking is to make sure that the will of the child is broken but not the spirit of the child. You must do it with care. Don't ever spank a child without later on putting your arms around him, taking him, assuring him that you do love him because if you want a healthy emotional child who can function well as somebody who loves God, he or she needs to be spanked, some more than others as Rebecca and I discovered with our own children. My children will ask at this point, please move on.

The other reason is because of humanistic ideas. Oh, your little child is so good, negotiate with him. Have you ever tried to negotiate with a three-year-old who has justified you?

Have you ever tried that negotiation? You know what I fear? There are more Christians getting their advice as to how to rear a child from Dr. Phil than they are from the Scriptures. And he may have some wisdom but he will never teach you how to raise children who love the Lord their God with all of their heart, with all of their mind and with all of their souls. Ray Comfort in one of his messages that I heard said that he disciplined one of his children. He gave the boy a spanking because of defiance. And then he hugged his boy and said, now you stay here until you're finished crying and then you come to me. And the little boy, still sniffling, found a sheet of paper and Ray wondered what in the world is he writing on it and he wrote on it, I love you, daddy. The very same day, neighbor child who's never been spanked, never disciplined, said to his mother, I hate you.

And that's the difference. Do you want your child to love you? Do you want your child to hate you?

I remember an adult woman who was probably in her 40s. She said, if only my dad would have spanked me. I'd have known that he loved and that he cared but he never did. There's always that feeling that there are no boundaries. So number three, lesson is essential. That's the third commandment. Number four, great lessons are not taught. They are caught.

For the most part, great lessons are not taught but caught. Those of us from Chicago, we know something about snow, don't we? We've all had this experience, those of us who have had children. We're outside maybe shoveling snow and then the little one maybe five or six years old is dressed up by mother and sent outside to enjoy the snow. And when you walk across a snowbank, what does a child want to do? A child wants to walk in the very same steps. Of course they can't because their steps are so much shorter but they try. There is a story of a man who was on his way to the beer parlor here in Chicago some time ago and it had snowed and he looked behind him and there was this little boy trying to take big steps to be in his father's footsteps and he says, I'm trying to follow in your footsteps, daddy.

Ouch. So you want children who love the Lord their God with all their hearts? Do you love God? Do you want children who don't see certain kinds of movies?

Do you see certain kinds of movies? You want children who are not caught up on some of the senior sides of the internet? Are you caught up on some of the senior sides of the internet? Yesterday will go down in my own life as one of the most memorable times and I need to tell you about it only for the glory of Jesus. Yesterday I spoke at Promise Keepers in Omaha, 9,000 men and I was asked to speak on the topic of fathers in the home, some of the material that I actually preached in the messages here, but I pointed out that there are many men who have lost all moral authority in their lives, many of them I said many of you are involved in in affairs right now, many of you one addiction after another, you're dishonest in your business and so all that you can do basically is come home and kind of put up with a family and give some advice, but it's not as if you can become involved in your child's life and actually give them some moral direction.

That's one of the things I said in addition to a lot of others over the 30 minutes that I had. The leaders at Promise Keepers told me that I could give an invitation after I spoke. I didn't know that anyone would come forward because I didn't necessarily feel filled with the spirit, though that morning I had claimed the verse in Romans 8 that Jesus makes intercession for us and I said, Jesus, if you're praying for me, that's what I'm counting on. Something happened that I didn't expect, the leadership didn't expect. Men began to come forward and literally run down the aisle until the whole front area was full and they were all kneeling and they couldn't all come forward. I had to tell them that in the aisles they had to kneel wherever they were in the aisles because the front was too full and obviously some men were weeping. You could hear the tears and the groanings and the moanings as they were dealing with issues in their life. It was a miracle of God. It had nothing to do with me.

It was just one of those divine moments where God showed up. But I need to ask you a question today. Have you lost moral authority in your family and therefore all that you can do is tell your kids you can never show your kids, you can never nurture your children or model for them the kind of behavior that you want them to have? Comment number four, great lessons of life are not taught as much as they are caught. Number five, stand with your children against the culture.

Could I weep at this point? Stand with your children against the culture. I was listening to Focus on the Family a couple of weeks ago. There was a woman who said that in her high school of thousands of parents, huge high school, a notice was sent out that there would be a discussion of the sex education curriculum that was going to be taught. Now you think that because there were thousands of students in this big school that hundreds of parents at least would show up and find out what our kids are going to be taught.

She showed up and the total number of parents was seven. And she said that the material was basically pornographic. You see, some sex education courses, they teach children how to be immoral. They say, this is the way to be immoral. Is that really what your children need?

Do they need films at the age of seven? Six, like one member of the church said that the school system here wants to show them and thankfully he's taking his daughter out of that. But listen, what is the agenda here? I'm going to read from a woman by the name of Tammy Bruce. Now the reason I'm reading her material is because she is not an evangelical Christian. In fact, she is a pro-choice lesbian who was the head of NOW in Los Angeles and nevertheless exposes the agenda of the political liberals like you have never seen. Her book will blow you away as the saying goes. She says, and I'm quoting her now, the radicals in control of the gay establishment want children in their world of moral decay, lack of self-restraint, and moral relativism.

Why? How better to truly belong to the majority than by taking possession of the next generation. By targeting children, you can start indoctrinating the next generation with a false construct that gay people deserve special treatment and special laws. How else can the gay establishment actually get society to believe that gay people are indeed more equal than others, to borrow a line from George Orwell.

Of course, the only way to get that idea accepted is to condition people into accepting nihilism that forbids morality and judgment. Speaking of the book that advocates sex with children, in the next paragraph or two, she says this, these ideas are widely accepted. That is, the sexualization of children, as she calls it, guarantees control of the culture for future generations.

She writes, it also promises sex addicted future consumers on which the porn industry relies. By destroying those lives, they strike the final blow to family, faith, tradition, decency, and judgment. Were you listening, parents? Team up, team up with even those who are not Christians. There are many non-Christians, you know, who also would be opposed to some of the things that they want to indoctrinate your children in. Take your kids out of school. You can't raise children and say, well, this child has to do everything that everybody else is because he's going to be emotionally crippled if I withhold him from something that others are doing in the school.

No, no, no, no. You may have an opportunity to teach him about God, about morality and decency and rationality. Are you going to allow your child to be sexualized? Stand with your children against the culture. The enemies are out there, drugs and sex and drinking and everything.

Stand there. Number six, sixth commandment. Appeal to the conscience in matters of behavior, appeal to the conscience. You know, when the Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter six verse two, the passage that we read, it says that you should teach your children what to fear the Lord. And the scripture talks about the conscience.

Why? Because it isn't enough to simply say you did this and you get punished for it. Develop in the child a sense of right and wrong.

Have a discussion. Now, do you think that this action is right? Do you think that this action is wrong?

What answer are you giving? Why are you giving it when you see this behavior in other children? How do you react, et cetera, et cetera? Because what you want to do is to develop the conscience so that they begin to understand that there is a law above your law. There is a law to which they are answerable, the law of God. And that can be taught in the home. The fear of the Lord doesn't mean that you scare them and say, no, no matter what you're doing, mommy and daddy can't be everywhere, but God is watching you and he's going to zap you if you disobey.

That is so devastating. Children grow up angry with God, angry at the church. They see God as this harsh, cruel, tattletale lawgiver. Now, never teach your children about God's judgment without also teaching them about God's grace, God's compassion, God's forgiveness, God's desire to help them, God's desire to help them in their struggles.

And all that has to be combined. But teach them, yes, there is a God who is watching and there is a God to whom we are accountable, yes, but that's not the whole story. There's also a God who is compassionate. As the scripture says in Psalm 103, as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. He knows our frame.

He remembers that we are dust. He is gracious and merciful. That's what needs to be taught to children in this world. Teach them the Ten Commandments.

I think we'll get to commandment number seven today. Teach a child how to confront, compromise, and temptation. How to confront, compromise, and temptation. Years ago, I counseled a broken young woman who came to me because she was involved in a party. You know, obviously, kids should go to parties, you know, and so she was involved in this party.

And kids began to pair off because mom and dad weren't home and there was drinking and so various relationships were being formed in the bedrooms and so forth and she got caught up in all this and had a horrific, horrific experience that stamped her with revulsion and pain for years to come. What would the wise parent have taught that girl? Number one, to avoid situations like this.

Number two, if you're in a situation like this, walk out. It used to be you used to have to give your kids quarters to phone home. Now they can use cell phones as long as they're not the ones where they can download pornography. They can use cell phones. They can call you.

They can even say, you know, there's an emergency that I have to attend to and there is an emergency that they have to attend to. Role play in the home. Tell them what to do when they're in a situation like that. Just like you teach your little ones, don't ever get picked up by a man who asks you to find his puppy with him or gives you candy. You teach the teenagers what to do and then you do something else.

Even better, you get those teenagers involved in a good youth program like we have here at the Moody Church with Andy and Lisa and then you'll have something that will help confront and counter the culture that young people are going through. Well, seven commandments. We'll save some for later. I want to end by reminding you of the beautiful story that Jesus told of the prodigal son. It's one that's been told many times and nobody told it more clearly and beautifully than Jesus himself.

I want to ask you a question. When the prodigal son was there being fed with the pigs, if he had married when he was in the far country, would he have raised good children? I don't think so. I think those kids would have ended up eating out of the same bucket that he was eating out of, frankly. What happened though was he came to his senses and said, I have sinned against heaven and against thee. I'm going to make my way back to the Father. I'm going to come in humility.

I'm going to admit that I sinned against God and against him. And he comes to the Father and what does the Father do? He puts his arms around the boy and the Father says, bring hither the best robe and put it on it and put shoes on his feet and a ring in his hand and bring the fatted calf and kill it. For this my son was dead and is alive and is lost and is found. In the process of being reconciled with his Father, his sense of dignity, his sense of wholeness, his values were restored. You want to rear good children, godly children? Whether you're here today as a non-Christian or a Christian, hurry to the Father. Our Father in heaven, he is the one, you know, who nurtures us even like a mother, it says in Isaiah. He is the Father to the fatherless. He's there to help us. He's there to stand with us against the culture.

And if you've never trusted his son the Lord Jesus, that's the only way you can get to connect with him because there is nobody else out there qualified to give us the gift of righteousness and the gift of forgiveness we so desperately need. That ultimately is the only answer to our cultural tsunami that is engulfing this great land that is being destroyed by thieves coming into our homes and taking our children's souls. And if you will, let us pray. Our Father, how can we ever stand against the onslaught?

You've created us with desires and those desires are inflamed by the entertainment, by all of the options that are available today. How do we raise children who not only are good but who love you? Grant, O God, strength to all who hear this message. And we pray in the name of Jesus that you'll raise up many godly families in this congregation and in congregations throughout this country and throughout the world. May there be mothers and fathers who say we will not cave in to the influences of a godless culture. Teach us that, O Lord, because we are very needy and very prone to failure ourselves. Help us. In Jesus' name.

Amen. You know, one of the things that we should do as parents is to spend time in prayer throwing ourselves before the Lord, so to speak, seeking guidance. Did you know, parents, I like to emphasize this, that you cannot convert your child? You can present the gospel to him or her, but God is the one who converts. God is the one who changes hearts. How desperately we need him. As for Rebecca and me, I'm so glad that our three daughters came to saving faith in Jesus Christ. But that being said, we always need God.

Let me ask you a question. As you were listening to this message, did another family or person come to mind that you think would benefit from these messages? We are making this resource available via CD so that you can listen to these messages again and again and share them with your friends.

They are so needed in a culture that is collapsing around us. For a gift of any amount, they can be yours. And by the way, thanks in advance for helping us, because as you connect with us, you are making an investment so that we can get the gospel of Jesus Christ to more people around the world.

But here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com.

Of course, ask for the series, Reclaiming the Family. Or if you prefer, call us at 1-888-218-9337. I'm going to be giving you that contact info right now again so that you can write it down so that you can connect with us today.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And from my heart to yours today, thank you so much for standing with us with your prayers, with your gifts. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you pick up that phone and invite others to listen to the next message in this series. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Next time, our final message from Reclaiming the Family begins with more commandments for kids. Plan to join us. Thanks for listening. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.