Implanting God's Word Into Children - Life of Moses Part 7

The famous Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier once said, Give me the children until they are seven, and anyone may have them afterwards.

You know, it's interesting, God says the very same thing in the Bible. Proverbs 22, verse 6, He says, Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he gets older, he will not depart from it. In other words, pour biblical truth into a child, and sooner or later, regardless of the struggles that that child may face in life, sooner or later, God will end up at the center of that child's life once again.

Now this is what we want to talk about today. We want to talk about implanting God's Word in children's hearts. We want to talk about saturating children's lives with the truth of God, and we want to talk about the lifelong impact that this will have upon a child's life. All of this, of course, grows out of our study of the life of that great man of God, Moses. We're going to go back 3500 years, and we're going to watch this principle in action in Moses' life, and then we're going to bring it all forward to the 21st century, and we're going to talk about, well, what difference does that make to you or to me?

So that's our plan for today. If you brought a Bible, I want you to open to Exodus chapter 2, the second book in the Bible, the second chapter, and if you did not bring your Bible today, if you reach right under the armrest next to you, you'll find a copy of the Bible. We're going to be on page 41 in our copy of the Bible, page 41 in our copy, or Exodus 2 in your copy, and while you're turning, let me give you a little bit of background since it's been a while since we've been here in Exodus. In Exodus chapter 1, we saw that the Israelites had grown into a massive nation inside of Egypt. We also learned in Exodus 1 that Pharaoh Thutmose I set out to reduce the Hebrew population, and the way he did this is that he authorized each and every Egyptian citizen to kill on sight each and every Hebrew baby boy that they came across. And so, here in Exodus 2, when Moses is born, it is essentially open season, if you will, on Hebrew baby boys in Egypt. Now knowing this, Moses' mother hid him, the Bible says, for the first three months of his life. And when she could hide him no more, she put him in a little basket and put him in the bulrushes on the bank of the Nile, and as God would have it, Moses was found there by Pharaoh's daughter, a lady named Hatshepsut, who came down to the Nile to take a bath. Well, she needed someone to nurse the baby, and so once again in God's wonderful grace, Hatshepsut ended up asking Moses' own natural mother to be his nurse, and as a result, Moses lived with his natural mother and with his natural father for the first three to ten years of his life. Verse 10 says in chapter 2, when Moses grew older, his mother took him to Pharaoh's daughter and Moses became her son. She adopted Moses, Moses moved into the palace with her, and he became a member of the royal family of Egypt.

Now that's where we've been, and so let's pick up now in verse 11 of chapter 2, but just before we read the verse, I want you to remember that between verse 10 in chapter 2 and verse 11 in chapter 2, there is almost 30 years between those two verses. Now the logical question would be, well, what happened to Moses during those 30 years that he was living in the Egyptian palace? Well, the Bible here in Exodus 2 doesn't give us any detail, but by piecing together a few verses of the Bible from elsewhere and some historical information from the Jewish historian Josephus writing in the first century, I think we can get a pretty good glimpse as to what happened in Moses' life during those 30 years.

First of all, the Bible. In his speech in Acts chapter 7, Stephen said this, verse 22, he said, Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, well of course he was, he was royalty, and he was powerful in speech and in action. Exodus 11 3 says, Moses was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people of Egypt. So according to the Bible, during the 30 years that he spent in the palace, Moses became a well-known man, a highly educated man, and a very powerful man in Egyptian society. Now Josephus tells us why this indeed was so. Josephus tells us that Moses was a military man, that he, according to Jewish tradition, had risen to be one of the commanding generals in the army of the Pharaoh, and that he became a national figure and the national hero by delivering Egypt from an invading army of Ethiopians that came in from the south. Moses was sent as the commanding general to stop them, which he did, and he became a public figure and a national hero as a result.

Now you might say, Lon, Lon, Lon, that's great, that's great, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. I mean all of that's interesting, I guess, but really, what difference does any of that make to what we're going to study here in Exodus chapter 2? Well friends, it makes a lot of difference, because knowing all of this about those 30 years of Moses' life before we get to chapter 2 verse 11 gives us some context in which to understand the incredible decision that Moses is going to make right here in verse 11. So, understanding that Moses was a big shot, understanding that Moses was a public figure and a national hero and a military commander in Egypt, let's look at verse 11 now and see what happens. Verse 11, one day, after Moses had grown up, he was 40 years old now, he went out to where his own people were. You say, Lon, stop, how did he know the Hebrews were his own people?

Well, more on that later. He went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. Moses saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people, and so glancing this way and that and seeing no one, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. Verse 15, now when Pharaoh heard this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, out in what we know today as the Sinai Peninsula.

Now friends, here we see one of the most dramatic turning points in human history, in the life of any individual. Think about it now, Moses, we know, was popular with the masses in Egypt. He was respected by the elite in Egypt. He was fawned over by the palace staff in Egypt.

As a member of the royal family, his every whim was catered to. Moses enjoyed every luxury that a human being living in that day could possibly know. And on top of all of that, he was very possibly a candidate to become the next Pharaoh of Egypt himself. And then at age 40, Moses walks away from all of this and identifies himself instead, joins up instead with the enslaved people of Israel.

Now the logical question is why? Why in the world would Moses do something like this? And you know the Bible answers our question. The Bible tells us Moses did this because he had made a spiritual decision in his heart and the Bible tells us about that decision in Hebrews chapter 11 in the New Testament.

Let me read it to you. Hebrews 11 24. By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Instead, he chose to endure ill treatment with the people of God rather than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin in the palace of Egypt. Verse 26. Moses considered reproach for the sake of the Messiah to be of greater value than all the treasures of Egypt.

Why? Because he was looking ahead to the reward God had promised. Verse 27. By faith, Moses left Egypt not because of the king's anger but because Moses saw him who is unseen, that is, Almighty God. Now here in Hebrews 11, the Bible tells us that Moses made the incredible decision that he made in Exodus chapter 2 because he understood six pieces of biblical truth.

Let me tell you what they were. Number one, Moses understood that there is an unseen God running the universe. Number two, Moses understood that the Hebrew people were the people who belonged to this unseen God in a special way. Number three, Moses understood that these Hebrew people were his people by birth. Number four, Moses understood that the activities that went on in the Egyptian palace were sin and that the pleasures those activities gave were passing and temporary. Number five, Moses understood that there is a Messiah who asks people to stand up and serve him even if it brings reproach onto their life. And finally number six, Moses understood that God has a heavenly reward that he offers to all of those who will serve him down on this earth. Now let's agree that based on human logic, Moses' decision here in Exodus chapter 2 to walk away from the palace, to walk away from all of the luxury that was there and to identify himself with a bunch of slaves based on human logic, his decision was utterly stupid. However, and this is the point that I want you to see, Moses did not make his decision here in Exodus 2 based on human logic. He made it based on these six biblical truths that he knew and understood.

They were what formed the basis for the decision we just read about here in this chapter. Now that's as far as we want to go right now in Exodus because we want to stop and ask our most important question and you know what that is, don't you? Yeah? Okay, now nice and loud. Tell me what it is.

Ready? One, two, three. So what? Ah, yes. You say, Lon, so what? You say, I'm glad for Moses and I hope he got a great reward in heaven. But what difference does any of this make to my life in the 21st century?

Well, I'm going to try to help you with that. Friends, we just agreed, didn't we, that Moses made this totally life-altering decision that we find out about here in Exodus chapter 2. He made it based on his understanding of six biblical truths, six pieces of spiritual information. Now the question is for the morning, where did Moses learn these six biblical truths? Well, let me start first by telling you where he didn't learn them. Number one, he didn't learn these biblical truths from Pharaoh's daughter. Number two, he didn't learn them from any of his royal teachers. Number three, Moses did not learn any of these great spiritual truths from any of his playmates or companions in the palace. Number four, Moses did not learn any of these biblical truths from his buddies in the Egyptian army. Number five, Moses did not learn any of these biblical truths by reading the Bible itself.

You say, oh yeah, well how can you be so sure of that? Friends, I'm sure of it because the Bible didn't even exist then for Moses to read. He wrote the first five books of it, remember?

And he didn't do it for another 40 years. There was no Bible for Moses to read. And number six and finally, Moses did not learn these truths by having God appear to him directly and tell him these truths because it is obvious in Exodus chapter 3 at the burning bush that when Moses and God talk there, it is the first personal encounter they have ever had. So, if Moses didn't learn these truths from any of these sources, then we return to our question, where in the world did he learn them? Well friends, I'll tell you where he learned them.

There's only one place in the world he could have learned them. And that is he got all of this spiritual data from his mother and his father. Remember that Moses' mother served as his nurse for the first three to ten years of his life. And during those three to ten years, Moses lived at home with her and with his father. Now Moses' mom and dad, Jacob and Amram were godly people and it is clear that while they had Moses in their care, they made an all-out effort to pour biblical truth, spiritual truth into this little boy's life.

And they did such a good job. Think about it now, such an effective job of doing that, that over thirty years of ungodly education and training in the palace of Egypt, over thirty years of opulence and materialism and luxurious living, over thirty years of Egyptian false religion and idolatry, over thirty years of moral debauchery that went on in the palace and degeneracy, over thirty years of the kind of power, prestige, fame, fortune and ego that filled the royal residence, over thirty years of all of that stuff, was not able to eradicate these spiritual truths out of the heart of Moses. And when the Holy Spirit was ready, at age forty, he was able to draw on these spiritual truths that had been drilled into this little boy's life when he was just three, four, five, six years old. The Spirit of God drew on that truth and used it to completely transform Moses' life, to completely revolutionize his life and to head him down a completely different path, a path of godly living and godly service for the rest of his life.

Now this is the so what that we see here. It's the so what about implanting God's Word in the lives of children, and I might add, especially into the lives of little children. Friends, I am convinced that one of the greatest errors we make today as followers of Jesus Christ is that we underestimate what little children can learn about God. We undervalue the impact that biblical truth can have on little lives. And I am convinced that when it comes to preparing a child to grow up and have their life really count for Jesus Christ, I am convinced the most strategic time in that child's life for doing that is the first five to eight years of their life.

I am also convinced that if God's Word during those early years, if God's Word is lovingly, tenderly and consistently implanted in that child's life, and if all of that is combined with authentic Christian living on the part of the parents who are doing the implanting, if those two things are true, I am convinced that there will be a lifelong tenderness of heart towards Christ in that child's life that, friends, all the forces of hell itself will not be able to pull out of that child's life. This is what God said. He said, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he gets older, he will not depart from it. This is why the prodigal son, sitting in the pigpen, suddenly the Bible says, came to himself and said, I'm going to get up and go home to my father.

Why did he come to himself like that? It's because his dad had poured biblical truth into his life when he was home and when he was younger, and all of a sudden in the pigpen, the Spirit of God was able to draw on that truth and turn that child's life around. This is why Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son, is a preacher today, because God was able to draw on the truth that his mother and father had put in him as a young man and turn his life back around for Christ. This is why Joseph could be sold into slavery and go off into a strange land knowing no one, not knowing a follower of Jesus anywhere for 30 years, and still live for Christ, because his dad Jacob had implanted the word of God in that little boy's life before he got sold into slavery. And this is why Timothy, in the New Testament, was such an incredible man of God, because as Paul writes about him, 2 Timothy 3.15, he says, Timothy, from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures. Your mother and your grandmother implanted the word of God into you.

Lois and Eunice, they're mentioned in the Bible. From the time you were little, Timothy, an infant, and that's why you're walking with God and serving in the way you are today, is to train up a child in the way he or she should go, and when they get older, they will not depart from it. That is God's promise.

And God keeps his promises. Now here at McLean Bible Church, friends, we understand the strategic importance of pouring God's word into children, and as parents and as grandparents, we want to help you realize that as well, we want to partner with you to get that job done. You might say, well, Lon, wait a minute, stop, stop, stop, time out, time out. I'm here today and I'm not a parent, Lon. I'm single or we're married and we don't have any children yet, and so you know what? The rest of this message really doesn't have anything to do with me, so God bless you, we're off to Starbucks.

Now wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. This has a lot to do with you, don't tell me that. Friends, listen, you can still have a great ministry to children, even if you don't have any. You can be a volunteer, you can be a leader, you can be a teacher in Kids Quest here every single week and impact the lives of children, even if you don't have any. You can volunteer in Awana here every Sunday night and have an impact on children, even if you don't have any. You can go down with Daybreak into the projects of Lincoln Heights and work with young children down there every single week, even if you don't have any. As a matter of fact, we have an outreach this Saturday down in Lincoln Heights, and there's information in our bulletin about how you can go down there and be part of it. You can come here and volunteer in Access Ministry and be part of impacting the life of children with disabilities, and you don't have to have any children to do that. Don't tell me that because you don't have any children that implanting the Word of God into children is still not something that you can't do.

You can, and I hope you will. But I want to take the rest of the time I do have, and I want to talk to parents now and to grandparents, and I want to give you ten suggestions, ten practical suggestions how you can better implant God's Word into the life of your children. And so I want you to keep score here. What I want you to do is as we go through every one of these ten in your mind, I want you to check off and say either I'm already doing that or I'm not doing that, and then at the end we're going to total the score and we'll talk about it.

All right, so you're keeping score. Here we go, ten practical suggestions. Number one, play Christian music around your children, in your home, everywhere they go from the time they're first born. Every evening, let them fall asleep listening to Christian music in their bedroom.

It's amazing how much spiritual truth you can get by just listening to Christian music. Number two, pray with your children every night before they go to bed, even before they're old enough to even know what prayer is. Pray with them. Friends, the first word your children ought to ever remember you saying to them is not no, but amen.

You understand what I'm saying? Because they ought to hear you praying with them from the time they can even remember meeting you. Number three, how you doing so far? Number three, present the message of salvation to your young children early and often, and as soon as there seems to be a willingness to accept Christ, pray with them and help them give their lives to Jesus Christ. You know, my eldest son James gave his life to Christ. I prayed with him when he was two and a half years old. My middle son Justin, I knelt by his bed with him and prayed as he asked Christ in his life when he was three years old. And my last son Jonathan did it when he was nine years old in Israel with me. Now today my oldest son James is 28. My middle son Justin is 25. And my youngest son John is about to turn 21. And all three of them are walking with Jesus Christ today and they will tell you that they didn't have to go back and make a second decision to trust Christ. They still remember the first one when they were two, when they were three, when they were nine.

Don't you dare underestimate the power of a two-year-old or a three-year-old to make a decision for Christ that then lasts the rest of their life. Number four. Number four, print large, colorful verses of Scripture and put them up all over your house. Calligraphy them. Stitch them.

I don't care. Put them on the walls of your house, on your refrigerator. Friends, listen, after your children grow up, you can buy all the Monets and the Renoirs you want for your wall, but when they're little in your home, they ought to see the Word of God on your walls. Number five, read Bible stories to your children. As a fun time activity and every night before they go to bed, the routine should be we read Bible stories.

We have some wonderful resources in the bookstore. They ought to go to bed every night with the Word of God ringing in their heads. Number six, memorize Scripture with your children. Start them from the time they can talk, age one, age two. As soon as they can talk, start memorizing Scripture with them. You say, Lon, one or two? What, a one or two-year-old can't memorize Scripture?

What, are you kidding? You know my oldest son James, I worked with him and before he was three years old, he knew 50 verses of Scripture that he could recite by heart to you and get every single word right. Don't tell me a two-year-old can't learn Scripture. They can learn Scripture better than you can.

Trust me. Number seven, make sure your children are here every single Sunday and in an appropriate Kid's Quest classroom every week. You know I'm going to say something some of you aren't going to like, but you know I haven't made a living here at McLean Bible Church telling everybody what they like to hear, so why should I change now? Some of you here bring two-year-olds and three-year-olds and five-year-olds into this service and I'm here to tell you that that is a disservice to your children. There is nothing going on in this service spiritually that a two-year-old or a three-year-old or a five-year-old can benefit from.

They don't belong in this service. They belong downstairs in the two-year-old class, in the three-year-old class, in the five-year-old class where they can get age-appropriate spiritual development. And if you feel badly because you haven't been with them all week, well then that's a different problem, but don't curse your children for your sake and bring them in here where they get virtually nothing. Put them in a class where we can teach them at their level and pour spiritual truth into them.

Number eight, get your children back to Awana here every Sunday night where we work on Scripture memory every single week and put the Word of God into your children. You mean I got to get in my car and come back again on a Sunday night? The football game is going on on a Sunday night. I'm tired on a Sunday night.

Well, you know what? The Redskins are out. They are. And even if they weren't, what difference does it make ten years from now?

Who wins the Super Bowl? It doesn't make any difference. But putting the Word of God into your children's lives ten years from now will make a huge amount of difference. And you only got one shot at this. So you get off your behind and you get back in that automobile and you bring your children back to Awana. And while you're here, you volunteer to help us in Awana.

That's what you do. Thank you. Number nine, make sure your children participate.

Thank you. Make sure your children participate in junior choir. They'll learn the Word of God through song and we memorize Scripture in there. And finally, number ten, you grade yourself.

How you doing here so far? Number ten, when your children get older, finally, and they become teenagers, you require their participation in the teenage ministry here at this church. You require that they come on Sunday and they go to the teenage ministry. That they show up mid-week and they go to the teenage ministry.

That they go to winter camp and they go to summer camp and they do the weekend activities. You give them a ride before they're old enough to drive. That too?

Yes, that too. And when they get old enough to drive, you make showing up at the high school group a prerequisite for using the automobile. You know, I never bought my children, never allowed them to buy their own cars when they were teenagers. And you know why? It's because when your children become teenagers, the automobile is the only weapon you got left.

So don't give it away, keep it. And I would say to my boys, you know what? You're either going to the high school events at McLean Bible Church or you're taking the big yellow car with all the windows to school tomorrow morning.

We called it the cheese wagon. Amazing how motivational that was. And you say, well, Lon, what if they didn't really want to go?

You know what? I really didn't care. I didn't care because I wasn't raising them for what they wanted to do right then. That's the same reason I made them eat broccoli and carrots. I wasn't raising them for what they wanted to do then. They didn't even know what was right and wrong then. I was raising them for the future, and that's why I was the parent and they were the child. And that's the way I saw it. And some of you guys out there just got to get a backbone.

That's all there is to it. And some of us have got to face our teenagers and say, I'm sorry, but the last time I checked, I'm running this family, I own this car, I pay the insurance, and that's just the way it is in our home. And they say, well, Lon, you know what, if you do that, you know, you make kids go to church and you make them learn all this stuff, they're going to grow up to hate God. They're going to grow up to resent God. No, they won't.

No, they won't. Not if they see you living an authentic Christian life in the home. Not if they see you excited about spiritual things and growing in your own spiritual life. Not if you're taking them to a godly church where the emphasis is not on attending church, but it's on getting to know God and learning to love God. Friends, you can't pour too much biblical information into your children in that kind of an environment. And you say, well, then, Lon, what about the idea that you let your children grow up and you don't force religion or God on them.

You let them grow up and you let them make up their own mind when they're adults. What about that? Friends, that is the biggest lie of Satan ever perpetrated on the human race. And in fact, it's exactly opposite of what God says in the Bible.

Thiametrically opposed. Listen, Deuteronomy 6, verse 6. These words which I am commanding you this day, God says, shall be on your heart.

Yeah, but there's more. And you shall teach them, what's the next word? Diligently.

Not haphazardly or casually or lazily. You shall teach them diligently to your children. How often? Every Sunday?

No. The next verse says, you shall talk to your children about these truths when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. Listen to me, as a parent, the greatest and highest duty that you have as a parent towards your children is not to feed them, to clothe them, is not to educate them or to house them or buy them an automobile.

Your highest duty is to implant the Word of God and spiritual truth into their life. Now, let's see, how'd you do on the test? Okay, well, if you got a seven, an eight, a nine or a ten, then you know what? I applaud you as a parent. I say, God bless you. You're doing a good job.

Now maybe there's a couple you need to add, but if you got seven, eight, nine or ten, it's obvious that you are taking seriously your responsibility to impart spiritual truth to your children and I'm proud of you and I'm telling you, you keep doing it, don't you give up, and one day your children are going to grow up and call you blessed. You trust me with that. You say, well, Lon, what if I got a one or two or three or zero? What about me? Well, what about you?

You're not stupid. You know about you. You need a course correction in your life, my friend. You need a course correction in your family, my friend, and you need to make it quickly before your children grow up to curse your name. You know, your children are going to grow up and they're going to look back and they're going to say, Dad, where were you all those years of my life? How come you weren't involved in my life spiritually? How come you weren't involved in my life emotionally? What were you doing? They're going to say, Mom, where were you? What was so important that you didn't have the time to read the Bible with me and pray with me and take me to Awana or whatever?

Where were you, Mom? And I'm telling you there's not an answer you're going to be able to give that's going to be a good one. Friends, it doesn't matter whether you shoot scratch golf. I shoot 120 and I care less. I don't care because you know what? My goal in life is not golf. Golf does not define my success in life. So what if you're not the top producer in your company, ladies?

Who cares? That's not the highest goal in life. But you raise your children to walk with Jesus Christ. You raise your children to love God and serve God and obey God. You raise your children to do the very same thing with their children because they saw you do it with them and I'm telling you, you are a success and I don't care what Washington society says about it. You have been a success in this life and God bless you for that. And so I'm here to challenge you.

You got a zero on this test or a one or a two or a three? Friends, you need a course correction and I'm here to challenge you to make it today. You need to go to your children, ask for their forgiveness. Listen, children don't expect you to be perfect. They just expect you to be honest. They know you're blowing it. Go tell them that. Ask their forgiveness and tell them things are going to change in your house. And then you know what?

Change them. And I promise you, there'll be a day you'll thank me for telling you that today and challenging you to do that. You know, God had a great plan for Moses' life, let me say in closing. But if Moses' parents had failed to implant God's Word in his life as a little child, it is highly doubtful that Moses would ever have achieved that great plan because when God would have come along, Moses wouldn't have been spiritually ready.

And may I say in closing that God has a great plan for the life of every single one of your children, but their ability to grab that when the Holy Spirit is ready to offer it to them depends on you as their parents doing what Moses' parents did and putting the Word of God into their lives so that in the future the Holy Spirit can pull that Word of God back out and use it to change their lives and direct their lives. Friends, don't let your children down in this. It's too important.

Nothing else in Washington matters more than this. Be the kind of parent God called you to be. And it'll take some guts. You know what? That's why you're the leader of your home. It's time for you to step up, and it's time for you to act like it. I love what Joshua said.

He said, you know what? You other people can do whatever you want, but as for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord, and I'm going to be man enough to see to it. I'm going to be woman enough to see to it if you're a single parent, Mom. Or if your husband doesn't know Christ, you'd be woman enough to see to it. And friends, as I said, your children will grow up and call you blessed.

That's worth living for, and I hope you will. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for the privilege of studying your Word today. And I pray that you would remind us that we live in a very sick town.

People in this town, Washington, have their priorities totally out of whack. And if we're not careful as followers of Jesus Christ, that insanity can affect us. And we can lose all perspective of what really is important. And I pray you would use the Word of God today as a wonderful source of recalibration in our lives to remind us what is our real duty, both as a church family and as individual parents. Lord, help us not shirk our responsibility, and for goodness sake, help us not dodge it. But help us accept that responsibility and do what Moses' parents did for the blessing of our children. Change our lives because we were here today.

Change the very way we run our families. And we ask these things in Jesus' name. And God's people said, Amen. Amen.