Thursday, September 5, 2013
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One way to make a lot of money in America today is to have a good book or seminar on the subject of management, especially time management. We are management crazy! Tell me how to get more from my time, how to get more done, and get other people to do things. Well, I've got some very interesting advice and it didn't cost me a dime. It was on a wall plaque. Maybe you'll like it. In fact, consider this: You might even want to make this your new life motto as to how to manage your life. It said, "When in charge, ponder. When in trouble, delegate. When in doubt, mumble." I told you you'd want to make a life motto out of this.
Actually, as our society gets more complicated and more stressful we try to delegate more and more; things that we all used to do for ourselves years ago; at least in other generations. You know, a lot of kids used to be raised and educated at home. Then our culture got to the point where we delegated all of the education out to others. And now, the pendulum is swinging back to homeschooling.
And, most of us don't work on the farm very much any more, so we have to delegate the physical development that our children used to get doing all those chores on the farm to P.E. teachers so they don't turn into blobs. We can delegate house cleaning to other people if you've got a little money. There are people who say, "We'll take care of your lawn for you." You can delegate cooking to McDonald's. You can delegate a lot of things. There's one thing, one assignment, you actually cannot delegate.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "That 'No Delegate' Responsibility."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Deuteronomy chapter 6. Here we find the instructions that God gave to the Jews when they were going to have to raise their children in an atmosphere that had two challenges. Challenge number one: after having been pretty poor, now He's going to put them in an environment where they have lots; where they have plenty. They'll be affluent.
Secondly, they're going to be in the middle of a pagan culture, tempted by pagan girls, pagan guys, and pagan music. Sounds a little bit like the world in which we're raising our kids: pretty affluent culture, pretty pagan culture. Well, in that kind of a setting, God gives these instructions; couldn't be more relevant. Our word for today from the Word of God; "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them upon your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."
You can delegate some of the education of your children, and some of their physical development; might get someone else to drive them around. But you cannot delegate this one responsibility - helping them fall in love with the Lord. That's your job if you're a mom or dad. "Love the Lord your God," and that's supposed to come through the parents. They'll teach the kids to do that. You just can't give that responsibility to any Christian school, or leader, or organization. Only a parent can get close enough to transfer a love relationship with Christ. Others can give your child information, encouragement, examples, but the buck for shaping your child's soul stops with you.
How does it happen? Well, there are two things here. First of all, there's time spent. You can tell. It says, "...as you're walking with them, sitting with them; you're there when they get up, you're there when they go to bed." We're talking about the classroom of everyday life; you have to spend that kind of time. Secondly, it happens through natural faith. "There's another person living at our house, guys." This isn't just formal devotions. You learn to love Christ as He is a real person at your house; somebody we relate to, we talk to. We talk about Him and we talk with Him in real and natural ways in the fabric of our everyday life.
Don't forget the Lord because of all the goodies of life. We fall in love with those goodies and get too busy to do our number one job. Our mission is not to create church members, or to create believers in their parent's faith. We're to raise God lovers, and that's got to begin in your own heart.
Maybe the epithet of your life will be, "He taught us to love Jesus." No one else can do that like you can.