Things We Should Tell Our Children

Introduction

Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. There are some things that money can’t buy. And one of the special things to me that money can’t buy, nor can anything else save the blood of Christ, is the commonality that exists between people who confess the name of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. You’re just a special people. And I have loved you a long time. And uh, as Brother Harkrider has said, we’ve had a wonderful, delicate, loving relationship for a long, long time. And that’s because I come and go, and so you don’t get to know me very well. That that makes it a little easier for you to get along with me. I I so appreciate the uh opportunity to be back with you again and to discuss some vital themes from the Word of God.

It’s so special. I uh will not bore you with my love and respect, admiration for Robert and Harley and Harkrider because they have been special to me for many, many years. I told someone out front, they said, Have you known Brother Harkrider a long time? I said, I knew him under the old law, actually. When we first moved to Houston, I’ll not bore you with this, but when we first moved to Houston, many, many years ago, Robert and Arlene kind of took us to raise a little bit, and they were so kind to us, and we’ll never, never forget that. Thank you, beloved brother. And Josh and his family have become special to us through the years too. You’re fortunate to have all these wonderful preachers coming around, and then another one coming in a little bit later this year.

So it’s just uh you’re doing wonderful things, and I appreciate you so very, very much. I’ve been asked to talk about some things that you ought to tell your children, and I’m going to surprise you a little bit about where I go to do this, but I think it’s very pertinent. I think it’s a good place to commence and lay a foundation. So I want to read for you from Luke the fifteenth chapter, beginning at verse eleven. And he said, A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give to me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. Not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

And when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that land. He began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine, and he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many of my hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and despair, and I perish with hunger? I will arise, and I will go to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son, make me one of thy hired servants.

And he arose and came to his father. But when he was a great way off, his father saw him, had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry, for this my son was dead and is alive again. He is lost and is found, and they began to be merry.

And he said unto him, Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, would not go in. Therefore came his father out and entreated him. He answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I that any time thy commandment, and yet thou never gaveest me a kid that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother is alive, and again after being dead, and was lost and is found.

1. Not Too Anxious to Leave Home

It tells us how to take care of situations, it tells us what to warn them about. It tells us how to make them go, it tells us how to receive them again when they make mistakes. So I want to call to your attention two or three things that we might tell our children from this parable. First of all, may I suggest to you that we should tell our children not to be too anxious to leave home. Here is a young fellow that all of a sudden he is bedazzled by the lights of the far country. And he just wants to get out in a hurry. There is a natural sort of proclivity in young people to want to get freed from the restraints of the home, from the father’s dictatorial uh demands and the mother’s loving care.

They want to go out on their own and try their own wings. That’s a natural thing. But we should warn them that the lights of the far country, while they can be very inviting and very mesmerizing, need to be watched carefully. We need to warn them carefully. Look carefully at the world, young people, or you will be deceived. You will be carried away. The devil dangles these things in front of the young people. He knows what he’s doing. Young people are always ready to go to the far country if we’re not careful. So we need to warn them about it. There’s a tendency in the youth, as I said, to be free from restraints. They don’t like to be buckled in. They have to be in at a certain time, they have to go at a certain time, they have to dress a certain way.

We need to understand that the world holds out the promise of freedom for these young people when in reality it’s offering not a thing in the world but a new enslavement. And we need to watch about that. We need to tell our young people look, that may look good to you, but you better watch. And please hear me carefully, ladies and gentlemen, when I say to you that we need to have a conversation with our young people. Part of the problem, it seems to me, with this young fellow, was that he was not on uh a conversal uh uh route with his father. He he wasn’t uh real close, it seems to me. And it seems to me that he was while he was bedazzled by these lights of the far country, he had lost his conversation with his brother.

He didn’t have much conversation with him. We need to talk to our young people. We need to sit down and visit with them. We did a little thing for your new uh television thing uh yesterday. And I tried to tell the people, we need to sit down and visit with our young people. We need to have some restraints that make sense to them. Like, for instance, we are going to have a family get together once a week. We’re going to sit down as a family. We’re going to turn everything off: the television, the cell phone, the computer, everything else. We’re going to turn that off and we’re going to sit and visit. We don’t even have to sit and visit about the Bible. The basis of our visit.

We should sit and talk about things. Get acquainted with one another. Understand that we love one another, and we ought to get together and pray together. How long has it been since your father or since your son or daughter heard you pray to God, other than at the table? I’m talking about when you got uh in in just the living room and you just sat there and said, We need to pray for a few minutes, and you just took the time to pray with your young people. Let’s all join hands and pray. See? Wouldn’t that be wonderful if you did that? Young people are impressive that you can make indelible impressions on their mind with such things as just that. I remember as a little kid hearing my dad pray when somebody was sick.

It almost make you cry. And it still makes me feel good to see people that are interested enough in their children to separate them from the existing circumstances and all of the pressures and duresses of life and just give a little bit of time to the Bible, to reading the Bible. Let me ask you a question. How long has it been since your children heard you read the Bible out loud? I’m not talking about where you get together and everybody lip synks the Bible. I’m talking about where you get together and and and the father reads the Bible to the children. How long since the mother, what’s wrong with her reading out loud at home? You need to hear that. So we we need to make sure that our children are not too anxious to leave home.

2. Not to Waste What They’ve Been Given

We need to provide things for them that uh are are interesting, things that are inviting, things that are enjoyable. And so the world, while it holds out a promise of freedom, offers independence and liberty, in reality delivers a drastically different form of destruction. It’s waiting to just uh open the mouth of the world and let them come in. Secondly, we need to teach young people not to waste what they’ve been given, not to waste what they’ve been given. I don’t know if you’ve noticed in this passage of scripture, but scripture says many, not many days hence, verse 13, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance. His father had given him everything that was coming to him.

Be careful not to waste it when you’ve been given it. It doesn’t make any difference much what it is. The road to the far country is a kind of a predictable course. The devil has it all lined up. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, noticed the progression, but were vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. How did it become dark? Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Professing themselves to be wise. There’s a tendency among young people, and it was my tendency too. I tell you, when I got about 14 or 15 years old, I was the smartest guy on my block. In fact, I might have been the smartest guy in Morton, Texas.

And there was 3,000 people there. But when you get right down to it, there are a lot of things like that that occupy a young man’s mind that need to be handled. We need to know that they’re there. We need to know that they have that idea, wanting freedom from restraints and they have certain uh talents and uh they have certain abilities. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he’s old, he’ll not depart from it. You know that passage. Most people think that means bring up a child and uh when he’s old he’ll stay with the course. I don’t believe that. I think what that passage is saying is you determine what that child’s abilities are, you determine what his talents are, you determine a course of proof suit for him that relates to those abilities and talents, and try to guide him in that direction.

Teach him in the way that he ought to go. Everybody’s a little bit different. Everybody has his own abilities, everybody has his own talents. There are no two children just alike. I have three brothers. None of us are like, none of us are alike. My brother next to me is a real quiet guy. Can you imagine a Bowman being a quiet guy? Well, he is, he’s just as quiet as he can be. And yet my mother and dad kind of rooted him in the right way, rooted him in the right direction. He was real reflective, and so he became a scholarly kind of fellow. And he uses that to a good ability, to a good extent using his ability in the cause of the Lord. And then my brother, who’s an elder in the church in Lubbock, Texas, for many years, he is uh he’s kind of like me.

He’s uh kind of loud, but he’s a good guy, and my folks just found out what he was all about, and they sent him in the right direction. I think that’s what Solomon is saying. Bring up a child in the way that he should go. And when he’s old, he’ll stay on course. He wants to get off course. Watch out. Children need to watch out for ingratitude. You need to tell them what they ought to be thankful for. I cannot imagine the pricelessness of the blessings that we have in this generation. It’s just phenomenal to me how many blessings we have. And we should tell our children, you need to have uh thankfulness. This you can’t waste what you’ve been given. You’ve been given all kinds of things, not only talent and ability, but you’ve been given opportunities and you’ve been given things that that just people haven’t had before you.

And you need to learn to use those, and we need to tell our children that the process is never changed. When you don’t use what you have in the service and devotion of God for the good of your fellow man, you will degenerate into an immoral person eventually. That’s just the way that works. Be not deceived. God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Whatever is given to you needs to be sown to the glory of God. I tell you how it all starts. We need to tell our children to have respect for God. God is who has given them what they have. God is who’s made them what they are. God has given them this talent and this ability to be used, and they should not waste it.

They should send it in the right direction, and part of that is going to be because you motivated to send it that way. You motivate them to go in a certain direction. You motivate them to take their talents and use it to the glory of God. But that all starts at the home. I tell you, we live in difficult times. We live in times when the home has been fragmented. I’ll talk about that a little bit later on this morning. But the fact of the matter is we need to do something about it, and it starts with us. It’s not going to be done until we start with individual homes, taking care of this. And one way we do that is we teach our children not to be too anxious to get out here and flaunt all they have in the world and not to be too anxious to spend what they’ve been given to use it to to the glory of God.

3. Be Careful How They Choose Their Friends

If the parable of the talents teaches us anything at all, it teaches us that each man is responsible for what he’s been given. And little children need to be careful that they don’t waste their substance on riotous living. They need to be careful about it. Thirdly, we need to tell our children to be careful about how they choose their friends. Sometimes when I preach on the prodigal, I tell about the prodigal leaving. I have a picture of it in my mind. I think that every day he sat on the top of the roof of the house where they lived, which was not uncommon in this society, and looked out across the prairie toward the lights of the far country. And I think they just mesmerized him.

And so I think one day he went and asked his father all for all of his stuff, and he got it all together and stopped at the haberdasher and got him a long beautiful cloak. And then got him a horse and a carriage and got him a white horse with a plume on the top and off he went to the far country. And you know what happened when he got there? The minute he showed up, groupies, groupies. All of a sudden, all the guys in town rallied around him. All the guys in town are want to be his friend. All the guys in town want to help him spend his money. Where do you want to go tonight? Oh, that’s just where we wanted to go.

Oh, I don’t want to go over there. Oh, well, that’s where we want. We’ll just go where you go. We need to be careful and warn our children about how they choose their friends. I I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have friends when I was a young fellow that were members of God’s family. It just makes all the difference in the world. We should teach our young people to make friends slowly, especially with people out in the world. Listen to how I said that. We need to tell them to make friends slowly. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, said Solomon. The kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Fast friends are often false and fickle, and we need to understand that that’s the case.

When somebody all of a sudden puts the big rush on you, you better be careful. And we need to tell our children that. Can two walk together except they be agreed? asked Amos. That’s a principle, and principles don’t change. No man gave to him is a huge assertion. He he went to this far country and he wasted all his substance all of a sudden. Here came this big drought, and things are going bad and wrong. Where are the groupies? Where are they? These friends that he had, these friends, they’re all gone. Nobody came to him. No man gave unto him. That’s the saddest thing in this whole parable to me. All of a sudden, no man gave unto him. He didn’t have anything. He had a loincloth, and that’s about all.

And he was in a pig style feeding pigs with the millet that the pigs did eat. He ate himself. And so it and it all starts because he’s wasting his substance. We need to teach our children to choose our friends carefully. Fleeting popularity. Fleeting popularity is not worth the investment of your soul. I don’t care how popular you become. If you lose your soul, you lost everything. It doesn’t make any difference about anything else. Be not deceived. Evil communications, companions, corrupt good morals. There are some decisions that once made cannot be altered. And we need to tell our young people, you be careful who you choose to date, and you be careful what you do when you do date. Because you can make one mistake in the back seat of a car that will haunt you for the rest of your life and perhaps even to eternity.

4. Remember Where You Are and What Time It Is

Remember, extravagance and unrestrained excesses will gain you no real friends. If they make you possible, it won’t be for long because when the funds are gone, the friend will be gone, just like in this case of this. Then let me suggest one other thing. Remember where you are and what time it is. Remember where you are and what time it is. I think children need to be taught the value of repentance. Repentance is a change of your will with regard to something. Change of will with regard to sin in this instance. And it all takes place by one thing. It takes place when you decide that you’re going to make a change. That’s repentance. It’s the change of your will with regard to sin. And it comes because you take a look at yourself.

The scripture here says that this young fellow, while he was indulging in this quagmire of ungodliness and filth, came to himself. Now listen to that. Don’t just listen to those words. Listen to that concept. He came to himself. He saw himself for what he really was. He saw himself for what he really was. Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and abideth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. What a sad thing to look into the mirror and forget what you saw. But he came and saw what he really was. He saw himself standing in this pit of putridity. He saw himself mired in this ungodly, filthy condition, and he said, I’ve got to do something about that.

And so he said, I will go home. Repent when it’s time is a good habit to teach our children. Repent when it’s time. It’s never out of order to come to yourself. And only when you’re with yourself can you take care of yourself. And when you’re under control by other people, you will not take care of yourself like you ought to. Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? That’s the psalmist in the 15th Psalm. Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart. That’s coming to yourself. I just hate getting old, don’t you? I’ve not enjoyed it very much. I ache. I take enough pills to pucker every water pipe in Harris County. My feet hurt.

My hair’s falling out. My cheeks are sinking in. But you know what? I’m still growing on the inside. And as long as I speak the truth in my heart, as long as I look at myself for what I really am, not what I see, not my visage, but what I really am. As long as I look in that mirror and I say, okay, you need to do this, you need to not do that anymore. You need to make this correction, you need to turn this way, you need to back up a little bit and take a look at that. As long as you can come to yourself honestly and with integrity and examine yourself with care and consideration, you’re making growth. And the body, the visage that you are developing, which will be spiritual in nature, will be the one that you’ll have forever.

We need to teach our children that.

You look in the mirror for the soul. Not when you comb your hair, but when you take care of your mind. Not when you put lipstick on, but when you put the character of Jesus to work in your life. That’s what’s really important. And we need to tell people not to judge by externalities. Teach your children. Look, don’t you understand? Understand what time it is and see where you are and stop and look at yourself. Open up the mirror. What would it be like if I went to somebody’s house to eat supper? Now I got a big blob of my uh country butter on my cheek right there. And I look in there and I say, well, I’ll say I got a big blob of country butter on my cheek.

And I just walk off. Get to the building, Brother Harkwriter says, You got a big blob of country butter on your cheek. I say, Yeah, I saw that. Isn’t that something? And yet we’ll go to the services and hear Brother Creole preach, and he’ll say things that are calculated to call us to pardon me, cause us to examine ourselves and look at ourselves with a view toward uh getting better, and we just dismiss it and walk off as we never heard it. What a sad turn of events. We need to tell our children, don’t wait too long to come to yourself. In other words, be quick to consider where you are and what you’re doing. And then we need to tell them, repent when it’s time to repent.

When I was a teenager, I guess I was 13, maybe 12. I went to Pfeiffer Rambi’s drugstore one day. And he had a little thing there that looked like a little syringe. And if you put up put it up against your pimple, your zip, and push the thing, it’d extract that thing. I stole one of them. I put it in my pocket and left. And I got home and I was in the bathroom working on my face with that thing. And my dad came by. He said, son, what you got there? And I said, Well, this extracts your pimples. It makes your face better. Where’d you get that? I bought it at Pfeiffer Ramby’s drugstore. Is that right? Well, my dad knew that I got an allowance of 15 cents a week.

And he knew that was 39 cents, and I didn’t have 39 cents. And he should he said, You bought that, huh? That’s a lie number two. You can’t tell one lie, you’ve got to prop them up all the time, you know. Line number two, yeah. I bought that from Pfeiffer Rambies Drugstore. Well I’ll say, he turned and walked off. I knew he knew. That night I went to bed, I could not sleep a wink. I got up. We lived in a little old house, and we had a light up at the top, and there was a string from where you turned the light on to my mom’s bedpost. She could pull that string and turn the light on. I walked in there and my mom pulled the string, turned the light on.

My dad said, What’s the matter with you? I said, uh, you know that little thing I had. He said, That thing you bought from Fife Arambi? And I said, Yes, sir. He said, The one you bought with your allowance? I said, Yes, sir. He said, Yeah, I know. He said, uh, what do you need to do about it? And I said, Well, I stole that, Dad. I I didn’t buy that, I stole it. He said, I know it. He just reached over and turned out the light. Well, I thought, I’ve admitted my sin. What can I do? He turned the light on again. Why are you still standing there? And I said, Well, I I stole that dad. He said, I know you stole it, but you didn’t steal it from me.

You stole it from Fife Faramby. Go talk to him.

Well, I went and talked to him. He said, I’m not going to relieve your conscience for you. That’s what we need children to understand. Your conscience is yours. You come to yourself. He came to himself, you see. I went to Fife Faramby’s the next day with a heavy heart. And I handed that back to him. And I said, I took this. He said, You put it in your pocket and left with it. And I said, Yes, sir. And he said, Well, it’s okay, you can have it. He said, They’re not any good for anything anyway. Come back to see me. It’s never out of order to do right. And we need to teach our children to come to themselves, to look at themselves for what they are, and to be about the business of making corrections.

5. Religion Is Not Equal to Commitment

And so let me make one final point. We need to teach our children that religion is not equal to commitment.

So we need to remember the way home. Remember the way home. You know what he did? He came to himself and he went home. He went home. And that’s what we have to do. When we do things that are wrong or out of out of character or ungodly, no hesitation, no lingering, no dilly-daleing. He just went home to his father. Wretched, poor, spiritually impoverished, he went home. Home where God is.

Conclusion

It’s a place where love is and there’s no misery. And remember who’s there. The Father is there. He’s always watching for your return. So, young people. Sin, all of it, is a far country. It will turn you from God. It’s not a bad idea to stay close to home, at least early on. It’s a far better thing to come to yourself to prohibit sin than having sin to have to face yourself with the consequences of it. And don’t let the world fool you. Don’t fall for her enticements. You’ll be sorry if you do. Those are some things that I get out of the parable of the prodigal that maybe will help us tell our young people. There may be some people here that need to obey the gospel, need to come home to the Lord.

If you need that, we’ll be happy to assist you this morning. If you would like to care and if you’d like to come and give your confession of faith that you believe that Christ is the Son of God and repent of your sins, repenting of your sins can make the confession and be baptized. Or if you’ve been out in the far country and you need to come home, we want to help you. Would you come let us do so while we’re standing?