One Youth Pastor’s Opinion (OYPO)…

Parents Parent. So, Parents, Parent.

Parents are to parent their children. That’s what they do. They parent. The parents parent, that is… not the kids. The kids don’t parent. That’s the parents’ job.

So, if you’re a parent, parent your kid.

Apparently, some parents think their parents should parent their kid, but a kid should not be parented by his parents’ parents, but by his own parents.

I seem to be confusing things. Here are someone else’s words on it: “Raise your kids; spoil your grandkids. Or else spoil your kids; raise your grandkids.”

My wife witnessed to a lady who is raising her grandkids while her daughter struggles to keep a job because she’s watching Netflix on mom’s couch. “This is NOT how I thought my later years would be,” she told my wife. “I just want to be a grandma, but my daughter won’t parent her child.”

Speaking of terrible parents, last week I heard of a gay couple who adopted a baby and chose not to give it a gender. They will let it decide on its own.

Sin aside, their decision as parents will only lead to Gender Dysphoria, a psychiatric condition in which a person thinks he or she is a different gender than they biologically are. Compelling the public to agree or go to jail doesn’t seem to help either, as a disparately high number of transgender people (including those who have had sex change surgeries) continue to suffer from effects of their condition (e.g. suicide, depression, etc.)

Without an anchor of timeless morals, those kids will flounder.

Forget letting the child decide. In what other area do we do that? Brushing their teeth? Choosing their meals? Bedtime?

Any self-respecting youngster will do his doggoned-est to uphold the code of the child: “I hereby vow to try to hurl myself off every high object including stairs, balconies, and tables. I will eat candy as often as I can find it, disembowel the vacuum cleaner, and never brush my teeth, so help me God.”

Kids don’t need to be parents. They need parents. They need to be parented.

They need to be taught values that benefit society–through forcible means, if necessary.

And Christian parents need to keep their eye on the main goal of all–not merely good kids, but godly adults.

So, parents, I commend you for parenting. It’s no problem to put limitations, and I think helping your children develop habits like Bible reading and prayer are great!

It takes discipline, though.

Parents parent. So, parents, I beg you… parent your kids. They desperately need it.

Sermon Summary

Sunday School

Continuing our preaching from Romans 9 lead us to questions about free will and God’s sovereignty. We learned that Romans 9 is primarily speaking about God’s sovereign control of the movement of the nation of Israel, and not, in fact, about salvation. The takeaway for teens was that God is so big, He can handle anything. Any level of weakness we impose on God is silly, and we ought to respond to his greatness as such. Last week, we showed the following video in our class: https://www.livingwaters.com/movie/crazy-bible/

Last Wednesday

Last night’s class lesson through the book Change Into His Image showed the “doing” side of how we respond to God’s grace. If Christ endured the cross, we ought to endure any little bit of persecution to serve God.

Teen Announcements (click to expand)

This section is relevant to our church members only…

Missions Trip Update

Since we are working to take a group of spiritually-prepared teens to help minister (serve) and not just a group of sight-seers, we are preparing weekly in personal devotions, prayer, memorization, and outreach. To qualify for the full discount (only $100 down payment in December and $100 final payment in March), each teen will need to maintain the following average score on their weekly sheets:

Prayer: 5 days/week
Journaling: 5 days/week
Thankful statements: 80% of weeks marked “YES”
Services missed: Less than 1/week
Tracts: 60% of weeks marked “YES”
Memory Verse: 80% of weeks marked “YES” (Can gain extra credit by quoting ALL the verses in one sitting directly to me—5 helps allowed.)

If these are not met, an additional charge of $125 per category will be tallied to offset the costs of the trip (for example, if “Edith” did not hand out 5 tracts for at least 60% of the weeks, her cost will go up by $125 to $325 total. If she also completed her journal only an average of 4.9 days per week, her cost would again increase by another $125 to $450 total.)

November 28, 2018, Sunday School

I Used To Think I Owned the Place.

When I was young, I was around church so much, I felt like I owned the place.

Every classroom was mine.

Every cabinet was mine.

Every candy was mine.

Every nerf gun was mine.

I didn’t realize until now that I didn’t buy that stuff.

Being a “steward” in old days was about taking care of the stuff that belonged to someone else. The lord owned the land but the steward managed the lord’s whole estate.

We are stewards of our bodies – we’re not our own, so things like abortion, tattoos, gluttony, or prostitutes, for example, are frowned up, if not outright condemned in Scripture.

We are stewards of this earth – we don’t own the land, so it’s a kind thing to do to not litter, for example.

We are stewards of the animal kingdom. We’re not their creators, but we are to manage their lives humanely, yet for our benefit, according to Scriptures.

We are stewards of this church – we’re all to do our part to benefit the whole and not act selfishly. We are to take care of what is ours and what is not ours.

I used to think I owned the place, but once I actually started working and paying for my own things, my perspective changed.

Don’t steal. Don’t be lazy. Don’t be selfish. Don’t be cruel.

A Christian worldview makes everyone and everything better.

-Bro. Ryan

ANNOUNCEMENTS

MISSIONS TRIP TRACKING – We changed a couple things on the tracking sheets, so please adjust accordingly.

BRING YOUR JOURNALS! When we started tracking for the missions trip, we provided journals that had space for 1) date, 2) passage, 3) journal, 4) thanks statements. You did not have to use those if you had something else, but all 4 written areas need to be included. We will do a spot-check of your journals in a couple weeks. Please bring your written and dated journals on Wednesday, Dec. 12 so we can verify all four areas noted above.