Rules, rules, rules!

Sermon Topic Sunday 6/16/13 Elder Dennis Trudgen
Happy Fathers’ Day!!
Rules, rules, rules! … why all the rules? Safety laws, moral laws … where do they come from?
Rules for tiny infants … no solid foods, DO NO SHAKE!!, no too-mushy mattresses … safety issues.
Toddlers … stay out of the road! … a safety issue. Share your toys … why? That’s a part of loving others! So is saying thank you, praying, trusting parents, and respect for others.
We put filters on what they see and hear, where they go, and what they say … to shape their characters and teach them to be Godly … we want them to live with God.
Proverbs 22:6 … we all have seen and heard this one … and it is mostly true, but see Mosiah 11:105-109.
2 Nephi 3:6-16 … Lehi blessing the children of Laman and Lemuel, declaring that God would answer any curse on those descendents on the heads of the parents who taught them wrong.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7 … if we love God, what will we do? Keep His commandments … such as this one, to TEACH OUR CHILDREN DILIGENTLY.
1 Nephi 1:1 … i Nephi, having been born of goodly parents ….
3 Nephi 8:52 … Pray in your families … some parents send their kids to Sunday School. This is better than nothing, but what does it tell the kids? What do they do later?
Colossians 3:12-17 … Everything we do, everywhere we are, should be the result of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Why meet together often? …teaching and admonishing (and building each other up, Eph. 4:12, 29 msl) The previous verses told us what to “put off”; here we are told what to put on. We teach our children to forgive and to say “i’m sorry”. We also admonish and strengthen one another thru our testimonies. We are to do ALL in the Name of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:1-4 … parent/child relationships in Christ.
2 Timothy 3:14-16 … The Scriptures don’t save us, but show the way. Knowing is half the battle, the other half is DOING.
2 Timothy 4:2 … be instant in season, out of season. The seasons of a kid’s life …
Age 10 … I love you Mom!
Age 14 … My Mom is so annoying.
Age 18 … I wanna leave this house.
Age 25 … Mom, you were right.
Age 30 … Mom, forgive me?
Age 50 … I don’t wanna lose my Mom!
Age 70 … Mom, I love you so much….
Dennis showed a couple of pictures showing the kind of attitude our teenagers can have.
What new things do we teach our young adults? The things from the earlier years still apply. And why do we correct them? They have to be accountable in this life … they will be accountable to God! We teach them to not text and drive; be careful who your friends are; be safe on the internet, avoiding predators and bad sites. The schools teach them atheism and evolution….
We teach them the GOSPEL. We can still make them go to Church; they are still under our authority.
Hebrews 12:5-6 It’s not because He enjoys chastening us that He does it, it’s because He LOVES US so much. Godly love disciplines and corrects children.
1 Corinthians 5:9-11 … not to company with with anyone who is called a brother. We can’t help being among the ungodly outside of the church and our homes, but we can help companying with one who is called a brother but is in sin. (an old illustration is that we don’t put on our best white gloves and play in the mud, expecting the mud to get “glovey” … the gloves get muddy, but there is no such thing as “glovey” mud msl) When we do these things, we lose our testimony.
Moroni 8:11 … This thing shall ye teach…. We can’t be good enough to be saved; it is by GRACE. The best way to teach, is by example.
Jacob 2:46 … their bad example before their wives and children; 2:62-63 … you may bring your children to destruction, and their sins will be heaped on your head.
2 Corinthians 7:10 … godly sorrow works repentance to salvation (in contrast to Mormon 1:37, the sorrow of the damned)
Mosiah 1:119 … the natural man is an enemy to God … becoming a Godly person is a molding process, a marathon (Matthew 13, the 4 different groups)
Endurance –
1 Corinthians 3:2 … they could not handle the deep intellectual things of the Gospel – Paul compared them to babes who need milk instead of solid food. When we first come into the Church we are not developed; growing in Christ is a process. We are expected to grow.
1 Peter 2:2 … grow on the milk! … if you don’t grow, you shrink.
Isaiah 28:9-10 … who will understand doctrine? Those that are weaned from milk (ready for solid food).
Isaiah 60:16 … the milk of the Gentiles – at the end, Israel would be fed the milk of the Gospel by the Gentiles.
2 Nephi 11:93-101 … v. 99, He (God) saith to us, Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price (Isaiah 55:1)
Alma 16:164-173 … It’s a process! We have to stay in the Word and nurture the tree.
Which rules for our children do not apply to us? They ALL apply.
Dennis ended the message with a video of a very cute little girl singing that old Sunday School favorite “Oh be careful” … great words for us adults to ponder.