From Fear to Love
God wants all of us to be born again so He might be our Father
If God is a father what would be His foundation for training His children?
When the Children of Israel came out of Egypt they were as infants
They were afraid of God and said to Moses
Go near and listen to all that the Lord our God says. Then tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey." Deuteronomy 5:27
The Lord heard their request and said
"I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good. 29 Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever! Deuteronomy 5:28-29
God like every good parent wants everything to go well with their children forever
The problem is the children were only used to being oppressed slaves in Egypt
There was a journey to get them to the Promise Land
A journey of maturity
From Fear to Love
Train Up a Child
From Fear to Love
Proverbs 22:6…
Train a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn from it.
More than likely you have heard this verse.
It is the key verse for every parent.
So, what does it mean?
How would you describe
the training parents are to give?
What is the way a child should go?
What is it a child should never depart from?
How comes so many parent’s hearts
are broken by the way a child has lived their life?
The answer is both spiritual and naturally practical.
God wants all of us to be born again
so He might be our Father.
So, if God is a father what would be His foundation
to training His children?
When the Children of Israel came out
of Egypt they were as infants.
They were afraid of God and said to Moses…
Go near and listen to all that the Lord our God says. Then tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey."
Deuteronomy 5:27
The Lord heard their request and said…
"I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good. 29 Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!
Deuteronomy 5:28-29
God, like every good parent, wants everything
to go well with their children forever.
The problem is the children were only used
to being oppressed slaves in Egypt.
There was a journey to get them to the Promise Land.
A journey of maturity.
Look at Deuteronomy 6:1-9…
These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you.
Here is where it starts…
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on 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. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
It starts with love God.
LOVE IS LEARNED!!!
The Children of Israel feared God
and had to learn to love Him.
The fear of the Lord is…
The beginning of knowledge and wisdom.
Psalms 111:10; Proverbs 1:7, 9:10
A fountain of life.
Proverbs 14:27
The key to treasure salvation,
wisdom and knowledge.
Isaiah 33:6
Love for God is to be learned by
tasting that the Lord is Good.
Proverbs 34:8
There is a second part to love
which Jesus teaches…
Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Matthew 22:37-40
Every commandment
every right action
comes from love.
Sadly, we are born with a selfish nature
that causes us to act foolish.
Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child;
The rod of correction will drive it far from him.
Proverbs 22:15 NKJV
Discipline in love brings correction.
Proverbs 3:12; Hebrews 12:6
The foundation to maturity must be LOVE.
Love that not only shows approval
but disapproval of actions and attitudes
because the child is loved.
Parents only have 18 short years
to train up their children.
Training that will develop them…
From immaturity to maturity.
From fear to love of God and others.
From foolishness to wisdom.
The parents’ training will be the foundation
they build on the rest of their lives.
Fear will hold you back
and keep you at a distance.
Fear is to be the beginning of better things.
Fear must be dealt with properly.
Fear is good when it teaches us respect.
Foolishness denies or ignores fear.
Foolishness challenges fear.
The Children of Israel feared God
and wanted to keep at a distance.
To remove the distance…
The Children of Israel needed to learn love.
Love causes respect.
Love transforms fear.
Love removes the torment of fear.
If our motivation is love…
Our fear will be transformed into respect.
If our motivation is only fear…
We will be tormented and limited
in growth and maturity.
John says it this way…
1 John 4:15-21 NIV
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Maturity is a path from Fear to Love.
Teaching our children to grow in love
will give them confidence they need
so they will not grow in fear.
Scripture Reading
Deuteronomy 5:27-31
27 Go near and listen to all that the Lord our God says. Then tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey."
28 The Lord heard you when you spoke to me and the Lord said to me, "I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good. 29 Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!
30 "Go, tell them to return to their tents. 31 But you stay here with me so that I may give you all the commands, decrees and laws you are to teach them to follow in the land I am giving them to possess."
1 John 4:15-21
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
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