Love Worth Finding

Guest (Male): Are you raising your children on the principles of faith? Listen to Adrian Rogers.

Adrian Rogers: These are dangerous days. And in these dangerous days, you have got to raise your children. Now today, you're not going to be successful raising your children as you ought unless you have the kind of faith that Amram and Jochebed had. They were not afraid.

Don't you throw up your hands. Don't throw in the towel. Don't say there's no hope. Don't give up the battle, but have the vision and the valor to be the parents that God wants you to be.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring the timeless lessons and teaching of Adrian Rogers. In part one of today's message, we learned the most powerful and influential people on the earth are mothers and fathers of faith. Hebrews 11 tells the story of the prophet Moses, which began with his parents, Amram and Jochebed.

As parents of faith, they had vision and valor. They recognized the spiritual conflict hidden in their present circumstances. Likewise, in these treacherous days, raising children is a spiritual battle, and our only hope is a solid faith in Jesus Christ. If you have your Bible, turn to Hebrews chapter 11 as Adrian Rogers shares part two of Faith for the Family.

Adrian Rogers: Beyond the shadow of any doubt, the most powerful and influential people on earth do not occupy the houses of elected office or run the machinery of industry or handle the business of Wall Street. The most powerful and influential people on earth are parents of faith. And that's why we're speaking today about Amram and Jochebed.

Their claim to fame is that they raised a child whose name was Moses, who literally changed the world. I cannot overestimate the importance of family. The Bible says in Psalm 68 and verse 6 that God sets the solitary in families. And you can understand why the devil has unleashed all of the artillery of hell against the family.

But going against the tide were Amram and Jochebed. And I want us to learn four things about faith for the family today. The title: Faith for the Family. And the very first thing I want you to see is what I'm going to call faith's vision. Faith's vision. Look if you will now in verse 23, "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw that he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment."

Now, what does that mean, a proper child? Some translations give it a beautiful child. Taylor translates it, they saw that he was an unusual child. Now, I believe that Amram and Jochebed were people of great faith. Obviously they were because the Bible says that they were. They were people of great faith, but you see, they were students of the word of God.

They were both born of the tribe of Levi. They both were raised as we could say PKs, preachers' kids almost. And they had been studying the scriptures, and they knew that God had prophesied that the children of Israel were going to come out of Egypt after 400 years. The clock had been ticking. The pages torn from the calendar. And now 400 years had transpired. It was time to come out.

A leader was needed. And they looked, and here's a child, an unusual child. I believe that what engendered and inculcated the faith in the lives of Amram and Jochebed was twofold. Number one, they had the written word. And number two, the Spirit of God had spoken to their heart and said, this child is the proper child. This is the unusual child.

Well, you say, Pastor Rogers, how about my child? Is my child special? Absolutely. You better believe it. Your child is special. Every child is special. And parents need to see every child as a special child. You just take that child and say, my child is a gift from God. And say, oh God, give me the faith that Amram and Jochebed had to see a destiny for my child. This is faith's vision.

But now let's move on and think not only of faith's vision, but to get more serious, faith's valor. Look again if you will in verse 23, "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid." Underscore that phrase in your own Bible. "They were not afraid of the king's commandment."

Now, they had every reason to be afraid because the king, old Pharaoh, and you can read about it in Exodus 1:22, had commanded that all the little boy babies be drowned in the Nile. But they were not afraid. Now, it was a dangerous time for them. But the reason they were not afraid is they realized that their battle was not primarily with Pharaoh. Their battle was a spiritual battle.

That's what the Apostle Paul teaches us in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Now, they were dark days for Amram and Jochebed, but the Bible says they were not afraid.

And I want to say to all of you parents: put the fear out of your life and say, by faith, we're going to raise this child in these dangerous days for Jesus. Now today, you're not going to be successful raising your children as you ought unless you have the kind of faith that Amram and Jochebed had: faith's vision and faith's valor. They were not afraid.

Don't you throw up your hands. Don't throw in the towel. Don't say there's no hope. Don't give up the battle, but have the vision and the valor to be the parents that God wants you to be. Now number three, I want you to see also faith's venture. Look again in verse 23, "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw that he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment."

They did something. They hid their child from Pharaoh's henchmen. And later on, we're going to see that they built an ark that was used to deliver this little baby boy. The point is that they did not just sit around and saying, well, we're going to trust God. Faith without works is dead. When you have the vision and the valor, then you've got to have the venture.

James says in James 2:17, "Faith without works is dead." True faith is belief with legs on it. It does something. Now, these parents did not have fatalism. They didn't say, whatever will be, will be, just let it happen. You take a garden and leave it alone, it's going to turn into weeds. It wasn't fatalism, it wasn't fanaticism. They didn't say, well, we'll just throw him in the Nile and let God take care of him. They didn't do that. They did something.

If you believe God for a house, say amen with a hammer and saw. Sir, if you are believing God for a wife, use a little cologne. Say amen with work. The Bible says if a man won't work, neither should he eat. You do your part, and God is going to do his part. Remember our scripture that says, "Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he's old, he'll not depart from it."

Well, then that is your duty to train him up. Now, political correctness is against that today. They think that you're interfering with a little child's life. Political correctness says don't spank the child, that's child abuse. God's word says in Proverbs 22:15, "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him."

Political correctness today says, well, give your daughters birth control pills. The word of God says in Hebrews 13:4, "Marriage is honorable, and the bed undefiled, but adulterers and whoremongers, God will judge." Political correctness says that the government is to be partners with the parents. But the Bible says in Proverbs 127:3, "Lo, children are the heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward."

Political correctness says you let your children choose their own sexual preference. But the Bible says in Leviticus 18:22, "Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination." That's what God's word says. Now, political correctness says let your schools teach sex education. The Bible says train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he's old, he'll not depart from it.

When you do what God would have you to do, then God will move in and do his part. Are you training your children? The word train in the dictionary says this: to prepare for a contest, to instruct by exercise, to drill, to form to a proper shape, to discipline for use. You have to train and to coach your children. You have to pray, you have to teach, you have to plead, you have to show by example.

Again, go back. Do you have your children in a Bible-believing church? Do you have him in Bible class, Sunday school, under a born-again teacher? Are you training in the home by precept and by example? More people spend time sometimes training dogs than they do children. See these men who have champion bird dogs. Watch them and see how they train a dog.

Then go to the home and see how he trains his children. Spends more time with the dog than the child. Then he ties the dog up at night and lets the kid run wild. We're to train. You see, if you teach a child and that's all you do, you teach him one thing, somebody else can come along and teach him something else.

But when you train him, he gets something through the pores of his skin into his very psyche. When a child is trained, there's a difference between teaching and training. Perhaps you've heard the story of the little boy was on his tricycle running around and around and around the block. Somebody said, son, what are you doing? He said, I'm mad at mommy, I'm running away from home.

So why are you going around and around the block? He said, mommy won't let me cross the street. The child had been trained. Joyce was gone and I had to take care of myself, which is always pathetic. But I had to take care of myself. Had to pour my own cornflakes and everything. And when I got out of bed, I looked back at that bed and I thought when Joyce was here, the bed would be made.

But nobody else is going to be at this house but me. When I won't have any guest in the bedroom, I'm going to get right back in that same bed tonight. It doesn't make any sense to make up that bed. But I said Joyce would make up the bed and she would expect me to make up the bed. I found myself making up that bed.

And then on top of that, I put the two pillows there, covered them up, and then I put one, two, three more pillows on there for whatever purpose, I have no idea. And then on top of those other three pillows and in front of them, I set a teddy bear. Nobody's going to see that but me. And it dawned on me: Adrian, you have been trained. You've been trained.

That's training. That's what you have to put in the hearts and minds and lives of your children. And wives, in the hearts and minds of your husbands, to know how to train them. Now, this is faith's venture. Now, faith honors God and God honors faith. And it is amazing what God begins to do now for these parents.

Because the Bible tells us also over there in the book of Exodus that after they could no longer hide the baby, they made a little boat, a little ark out of bulrushes and went down and put it in the river Nile. And you remember the story. It's one of the favorite Bible stories of all time. The princess, Pharaoh's daughter, came down there to bathe.

Now, what is a princess doing bathing in the dirty Nile? She has her palace, her lavish baths, her marble tubs. Maybe she remembers the time as a little girl she used to play in the old swimming hole. I don't know. But she goes to that exact spot where that little baby is floating there in that basket. And she sees him there among the reeds there in the side of the muddy Nile and picks him up and says, well, this is one of the Hebrews' children.

At that exact moment, the baby cries. The baby cries. I don't think it was a diaper pin. I think an angel reached down and pinched that little baby. And her heart, her maternal heart was melted at the cry of that little baby. And about that time, Moses' sister Miriam steps up and says, if it please the princess, I can get one of the Hebrew women to come and nurse this child for you.

And she said, do it. Miriam said, guess what, mama? Guess what? You're going to get little Moses back and you are going to nurse him. You're going to be able to train him. And she trained this little child. Oh, how she must have poured her heart, her life, her mind, her prayers into the heart of little Moses. Isn't God great?

And here Moses now is being trained by his own mother, and she's getting paid for it. And besides that, he has his tuition paid to the University of Egypt. And he's going there, getting the finest education that money could buy. And the Bible tells us in Acts chapter 7 and verse 22, "And Moses was learned in all of the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in words and in deeds."

Oh, what a mighty thing God began to do when they did their part. When you obey God and when you follow God, God is going to move in and do something very wonderful. Now, let's move to the last and final point because it's the most exciting of all, and that's faith's victory. Because you see, friend, faith is the victory that overcometh the world.

Look again if you will, beginning in verse 24, "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward."

"By faith he, Moses, forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king." His parents were not afraid, neither was he. "For he endured as seeing him who is invisible." That is, he'd caught a glimpse of Jesus, and he endured. Now, Moses is faced with tremendous temptation. He's already been through a secular education.

But Jochebed has put in Moses' heart something that a secular university could not take away. She had pleaded with him, prayed with him, taught him, and trained him. And now he is being offered a choice. On the one hand is everything that royalty could provide. He would have pleasures. He would have treasures. He would have power. He would have position. He would have it all.

But if he turned his back on it, the king would be angry with him. He would face the wrath of the king. He would face reproach, deprivation, and struggle. But yet he would have the treasures of Jesus, the riches of Jesus. So he is faced with a decision. Now, here's where the victory comes in. Here's what I want for my children. Here's what you want for your children.

How did Moses make this decision? This is the crux of the whole matter. So I want to give you three words. First of all, there was an evaluation. There was an evaluation. Moses evaluated. Look in verse 29, "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." On the one hand is the reproach of Christ. On the other hand, treasures of Egypt.

And he has evaluated which is greater. Now, Moses, through the teaching of his parents, came to see that the riches of Christ, the treasures of Christ were greater than the riches of Egypt. Now, the word here is he esteemed. Do you see the word esteemed there in verse 26? That is a bookkeeping term. That is, he's balancing the ledger.

What he is seeing is this: that the glories of the future would outweigh the pleasures of the present. He saw that to be a child of God was greater than to be a grandchild of Pharaoh. He saw that it was better to have favor with the King of Kings than with the King of Egypt. Now, what I'm trying to say is this: that Moses is getting his values straight. That is so important for your children, to teach your children how to evaluate.

Because if you don't do that, you will never do the rest of it. So step number one is evaluation. Then step number two is determination. Look if you will in verse 24. He "chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." He chose. Now, he chose on the basis of an evaluation.

The determination came from the evaluation. Your child is not going to be determined to live for God without the proper values in his or her heart. Moses had to choose. Your child's life is measured by his choices. So is yours. Our lives are sum total of our choices. We're free to choose, we're not free not to choose, we're not free to choose the consequences of our choice.

We choose, and then the choice chooses for us. Moses chose on the basis of an evaluation. An evaluation led to a determination, and that determination led to an elimination. Look if you will in verse 24, "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter." Look in verse 27, "By faith he forsook Egypt."

Now, get it straight. First an evaluation, then a determination, then an elimination. What most parents are trying to do is to get the kids not to do this and not to do that and not to do that. They're saying, come out of Egypt, don't play footsie with the king and all of this, but they don't have any reason for doing it. You've got to get into their heart values. Once they see value, then they determine.

And once they determine, they eliminate. I've often used this illustration. If you try to take a nasty bone away from a dog, you just might get bit. But if you'll put some steak on the ground, the dog will drop the bone to get the steak. Now, what did Moses' parents put into his heart? Some steak: the riches of Jesus Christ.

And if your kids don't see that, if they don't learn that, if there's no evaluation, there will be no determination, and no determination, there will be no elimination, and Egypt will have them. But you can be parents of faith: faith's vision, faith's valor, faith's venture will lead to faith's victory. Some years ago, scientists created something called a bathysphere.

A big globe that men could get inside of, made of steel many inches thick. And they began to lower it into the ocean deeper, deeper, deeper than a man had ever descended. They got down to 37,000 feet below the surface of the sea. The pressure of that water was enormous. Had that thing not been built out of steel, it would have been crushed like an aluminum can.

They had a small window. They could look out and they saw something they never expected to see: fish swimming along. Fish with supple skin swimming under enormous pressure, pressure that would have crushed that bathysphere. And they said, why? How is this? And science answered. Those fish had pressure inside of them that equaled the pressure on the outside and allowed them to live.

Folks, there are a lot of pressures on our kids today. And you better be certain they have something on the inside. And that's up to parents to do it.

Guest (Male): Well, if you have questions regarding how to place your faith in Jesus, or maybe your children have those questions, we are offering an insightful resource on our website: the Find Answers page. There you'll discover resources and materials that will answer questions you or your children may have about beginning a relationship with God.

We'd also like to invite you to check out our Grow Your Faith page. You can get grounded and dig deeper in your faith right there. Go to lwf.org/radio and click the tab that says Find Answers or Grow Your Faith. We can't wait to hear from you today.

Carrie Vaughn: Hi, this is Carrie Vaughn, and this program has been brought to you by Love Worth Finding, a non-profit ministry showcasing the powerful preaching and teaching of Pastor Adrian Rogers. We operate solely through the generous gifts of individual supporters just like you.

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