Numbers 30:1-2
I Should Understand
I came to this text because something happened to me this week and it
is bothering me. Someone had an item for sale (2 pallets of sod) and
I contacted them via social media. We did not haggle on the price. I
was willing to pay the price posted. They had four of an item. I said
that I would take two. The seller replied ok and added that I would
have to come in the evening after her husband got off work. I said I
will be there the next day and would call for an address before I
left.
Understand, the item was not very important to me. I did not find it.
Someone else did. It was not a great price. It was a fair price and I
believe I will find the same item at the same price if I want to look
for it. At the time, I was not looking for the item, but I had
mentioned a desire for something along these lines and the person I
mentioned it to saw this and sent me the link.
So the next day comes along—and I did arrange my schedule so that I
would be free to go on her time table—and called. She did not answer
but called back within 5 or 10 minutes to tell me she had sold all
four to someone else. I said, "Ok. Good-bye," but as I was hanging
up, she said something else and it is that something else that has
bothered me, She said, "Thank you for understanding."
I thought, "Understanding what? Is there something I should be
understanding here?" Then I realized, there was.
I. I should understand what has happened to our people.
A. Most have no integrity.
1. Integrity deal with honesty. It is our honesty trail.
a. We can be honest in our words.
b. We can be honest in our works.
2. Honesty is one of our "bag of traits" which make up our
character.
3. Our character is our complete bag of traits.
4. Everyone had character.
a. The problem is not everyone has a "good" character.
b. If the trails in our bag of traits are not good and
moral, we still have a character--just not a good
one.
5. As Christians, we do not want a good or even a moral
character.
a. We want a godly or god-like character.
b. We can learn that kind of character from the Bible.
B. Yesterday, hundreds of "March for Our Lives" rallies were
planned across the entire planet.
1. A website set up by some of the organizers said, "More
than 800 protests were planned in every American state
and on every continent except for Antarctica…."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/24/us/march-for-our-lives.html
2. Of course this is in small part a response to the mass
shooting in Parkland, Florida, in February.
3. The philosophy of the majority of the world is, "If we get
rid of guns, we will get rid of shootings." (And I am
not wanting to get involved in that issue tonight.)
4. I simply want to point out that there are more tried and
true ways to put an end to such behavior.
5. We could return to teaching character, integrity, right
and wrong, proper and improper, honest and dishonesty,
good and bad from the Bible.
6. That would fix the problems that we are having with our
schools, with our children, with violence, with drugs,
and with so many other problems.
7. If it did not completely fix them, it would drop the bad
statistics so much it would surprise the entire world.
C. We cannot focus on the entire bag of traits so let's just
focus on one, integrity.
1. Is integrity, honesty, important?
a. Absolutely!
b. Commerce does not work without integrity.
c. Ministry does not work without integrity.
d. Marriage does not work without integrity.
2. May I give you some helps to build integrity.
a. Don't commit to do something lightly or in haste.
b. Don't commit to do anything wrong or questionable.
c. Don't commit to do anything you know you can't or
won't do.
d. If you commit to do something, do it.
3. Someone says, "Well, there was no contract."
a. Character is not living up to a legal contract.
b. Character is living up to your word.
II. I should understand that this failing is of the home.
A. I like the meme that says, "We didn’t need gun control
when we had child control."
1. I know the times are changing.
a. The devil has stronger control today than just a few
years ago.
b. The church is failing. Compromise and false doctrine
is the way of the 21st century church.
c. Schools ae struggling. Children are out of control
and the teachers can’t do anything about it.
d. God seems more distant. It seems harder to see God’s
hand in the lives of others.
2. But I believe all of these are the results of failure in
the home.
Pr 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should
go: and when he is old, he will not depart from
it.
a. If the child is trained correctly at home, he will
behave correctly at school.
b. If the child is trained correctly at home, the devil
will not get into him outside of the home.
c. If the child is trained correctly at home, God will
walk with him and he will walk with God. That would
strengthen our country, our churches, our states,
and our world.
d. If the child is trained correctly at home, we will see
God’s hands in the lives of others.
B. Helps to train up a child correctly.
1. Start before birth.
a. A child does not begin to live at birth and a child
should not start going to church, hearing the Bible
being read or hear the preaching of God’s Word at
birth.
b. And he certainly should not start those things AFTER
birth.
c. Let that child grow in the womb in church. Let him
hear the songs of Zion through a bag of watery
fluids. Let his first words be AMEN and GLORY.
d. And keep doing those things every week as long as you
have him.
2. Memorize the Bible with our children.
a. Pour God’s Word into your child like milk into an
infant.
b. If you do not, you will regret it in the days to come.
c. Memorize it. Teach it. Sing it. Quote it. Apply
it.
d. Don’t leave the Bible on a shelf. Live it and show
your children how to live it.
3. Live the Bible yourself.
a. Let your children know nothing of profanity,
vulgarity, lewdness, lasciviousness, wrath, deceit,
gossip, thief, jealousy, and vice.
b. Rather, teach them love, mercy, holiness, diligence,
responsibility, respect, honor, loyalty, honesty,
sincerity, purity, and forgiveness.
c. Don’t you be the teacher of evil to your own children.
d. Mark it down: Most—the vast majority—of the
children who were raised in church and grow up to
cause their parents grief, learn it from the parents.
4. Worship and serve God together.
a. I think one of the things that helped our children
become who they are is the fact that they grew up in
a house that worshipped and served God together.
b. It wasn’t always easy. It wasn’t always pleasant, but
they got see that Christianity was not just weekend
visitation.
c. Don’t get me wrong.
(1) Our home is not the home that I would recommend
to model yours after.
(2) But despite the many failings, I believe God’s
prominence there throughout the week (and He
should have more prominence) provided a visual of
God that helped them to turn out at least as
well as they did.
5. Separate yourself and your family from this world.
a. Raise your children in God’s Word and world.
b. People will say, "You kids won’t know how to handle
reality if you shelter them."
c. Answers:
(1) And how well are the ones handling it who are
exposed to the world?
(2) That’s a lie. You shelter them as much as you
can. They will still have plenty of opportunity
to see the real world.
III. I should understand that we must teach such truths.
A. So many of the problems or our society could be helped and
even healed if we would return to the Bible, to teaching
God's is real, to teaching there is a heaven and a hell, but
the world is not going to do that.
B. The world we are living in has been created by liberals who
wanted to experiment with our children.
1. They wanted to teach them that they are animals.
2. They wanted to teach them that they are accidents.
3. They wanted to teach them that death is the end.
4. This world is what their teaching has produced.
C. So much could be fixed if they would just teach the truth, but
they won't.
D. So we must.
1. I love to teach and preach doctrine, but we have to also
teach and preach holy and righteous living.
2. May God help us to do so.
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