Teaching principles to our children

A brief word about Abraham in Genesis 18, and we'll commence with verse 17 of Genesis 18. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. Verse 19 is my verse.

For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way and the Lord, the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. And the Lord said, Because of the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I'll go down now. Brothers and sisters, I have been burdened about this when I learned these statistics I'm going to share with you.

We've been talking about our heavenly hope, and it's rightfully so, and we've been encouraged in our hearts. But we have the principles of parenthood here with Abraham. And I was wondering, have we equipped our youth with the knowledge of the contemporary problems that we have in our world here in the United States even? I am a marketer, and I don't want to talk about what I do, but did you know in 2010 that 56% of the births in the United States were with unwed mothers? Over half of the babies born into this United States in 2010 were by unwed mothers.

That's startling, isn't it? In your neighborhood, about half of the babies born were from unwed mothers. Are we teaching the parental structure God has given to those that we have responsibility for? Whether we're Sunday school teachers or teachers from the platform or elders, outreach into neighborhoods, how the parental structure is so vital to be taught to that future generation. I know in the 24 years of outreach work, primarily with among children who have fortunately a father and a mother in their home, but almost everybody else does not, usually a single mother, that though I am a grandfather to those children because of my age, or 24 years ago, I could have been the father figure in their life.

And how vital it is to have that instilled in the minds of these children who don't have a father in their lives. To show them love to my wife Becky, who labors with me, that they can understand, at least to that little dimension of time, how important a husband and a wife are. And so there, to teach the principles of parenting in a father-mother relationship is vital.

So look for opportunities, I exhort you. To read Leviticus 18, and I don't know this statistic because it doesn't relate to my, the marketing that I do. And I want to say respectfully to the Lord and to the Lord's people, but to teach homosexuality is an abomination to our God.

Because today with the politics of the land and with the public education system in the land and the university system, it's promoted. Maybe not so much in elementary school or middle school or high school, but I know being formerly a high school student and a university student, but a high school student, there's cultural explanations given. In the schoolyards of the elementary kids that are playing, these topics come up.

Have you equipped your grandchildren? Have you equipped your children with God's mind on this topic? So they can have confidence, they have a standing, they know God's mind, that they won't be influenced with the doubt regarding these things. So God trusted Abraham, faithful Abraham, that he would teach the commandments and the ways of God to his children. And so that's my little word to you today, that we might understand these principles and then teach them to those who are in our lives, for his name's sake.

Because we don't know when he's coming and what will our assemblies be like in generations to come.