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- Adolescence: A time of confusion or term of confusion?
- Presentation can be found at http://swcassembly.org
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- 10 Yrs ago - A shocked “small group leader”
- “Will your daughters help with the children?”
- “They’ll help some, but they are part of the group… The Bible doesn’t
treat them different”
- The Big Question: What does the Bible say about “teenagers”?
- Now
- Homeschool father & “patriarch”
- “Master” to apprentices at RoleModel Software
- Pastor-Elder at a family-integrated church
- Board member of Association for Restoring Church and Home (ARCH)
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- We know we can’t trust feelings
- We know we can’t trust “man’s wisdom”
- So, we must distrust everything else!
- Culture
- “Common sense”
- “Conventional wisdom”
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- We live in an age of confusion
- Teenage years is carefree time
- Men and women are the same
- Adolescence is a time of confusion
- We hear it so much that we don’t even realize how deeply some of these
ideas have infiltrated us
- If we would just look to the Scriptures the confusion would go away
- That’s why we’re hear today
- To point to the truth
- To leave here committed to live by the truth
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- Moses
- Was a child (Ex 2:10, Heb 11:23)
- Was grown up (Ex 2:11, Heb 11:24)
- Paul
- When he was a child, he thought like a child (1 Cor 13:11)
- When he “became a man” he put away childish things (1 Cor 13:11)
- Is there anything else?
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- “The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned
child will put his hand on the viper's den” Isaiah 11:8
- “Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders,
gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out
of his room and the bride out of her bridal chamber.” Joel 2:16
- “But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things
that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple,
"Hosanna to the Son of David," they became indignant and said
to Him, "Do You hear what these children are saying?" And
Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, 'OUT OF THE MOUTH OF
INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES YOU HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR
YOURSELF'?"”
Matt 21:15-16
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- “Joseph, when seventeen years of age, was pasturing the flock with his
brothers while he was still a youth” Gen 37:2
- “Also if a woman makes a vow to the LORD, and binds herself by an
obligation in her father's house in her youth” Num 30:3
- “Then Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this
Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been
a warrior from his youth."” 1 Sam 17:33
- “Josiah was eight years old when he became king, … in the eighth year of
his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his
father David” 2 Chron 34:1-3
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- And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my
youth up." Mark 10:20
- “To deliver you from the strange woman,
from the adulteress who flatters with her words; that leaves the
companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God”
Prov 2:16-17
- “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth”
Prov 5:18
- “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil
days come and the years draw near when you will say, "I have no
delight in them"” Eccl 12:1
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- “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's
youth” Psalms 127:4
- “"So then, all Jews know my manner of life from my youth up, which
from the beginning was spent among my own nation and at Jerusalem”
Acts 26:4
- “But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter,
if she is past her youth, and if it must be so, let him do what he
wishes, he does not sin; let her marry.”
1 Cor 7:36
- “Abram said to the king of Sodom, "...I will not take a thread or a
sandal thong or anything that is yours… except what the young men have
eaten” Gen 14:22-24
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- “So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab…” Josh
6:23
- “Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers,
"Whose young woman is this?"” Ruth 2:5
- “And as he heard these words, Ananias fell down and breathed his
last… The young men got up and covered him up, and after carrying
him out, they buried him… And immediately she fell at his feet and
breathed her last, and the young men came in and found her dead, and
they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.” Acts 5:5-10
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- Children really only have/need a basic understanding
- They are sinners
- They are forgiven
- They have a Heavenly Father who is great and good
- Young men
- Are strong
- Need to overcome the evil one
- Need the word of God abiding in them
- Fathers/Older men
- “Know Him who was from the beginning”
- Have perspective
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- “The glory of young men is their strength, and the honor of old men is
their gray hair.” Prov 20:29
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- When does a boy become strong?
- What else should he be able to do?
- Does he have to move out of the house to be a man?
- “And when He became twelve, they went [to Jerusalem] according to the
custom of the Feast; …Then, after three days they found Him in the
temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them
and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His
understanding and His answers. …And He went down with them and came to
Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; … And Jesus kept
increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” Luke
2:42-52
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- “Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call a
nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for
you?"” Ex 2:7
- “Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son
of her womb?” Isaiah 49:15
- “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth. As
a loving hind and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all
times”
Prov 5:18-19
- “"We have a little sister, and she has no breasts; what shall we do
for our sister on the day when she is spoken for? If she is a wall, we
will build on her a battlement of silver; but if she is a door, we will
barricade her with planks of cedar."
"I was a wall, and my breasts were like towers; then I
became in his eyes as one who finds peace. ” Song 8:8-10
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- Talmud: onset of puberty
- Roman Law: Women 12, Men 14
- English Law, 1000 years ago:
Women 12, Men 14
- American “common” law, 200 years ago: Women 12, Men 14
- *English law up to 1928: 12, 14
- **As late as 1930, twelve states allowed boys as young as 14 and girls
as young as 12 to marry (with parental consent).
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- Sexual Purity and Divorce
(among God’s people)
- Poor work ethic
- Lack of integrity
- Lack of personal responsibility
- Late maturity!!! (if ever)
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- based on slow careful consideration
<a mature judgment>
- having completed natural growth and development : RIPE
- having undergone maturation
- having attained a final or desired state
- of or relating to a condition of full development
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- Mature person is wise
- Immature person is foolish
- Read proverbs
- (22:15) Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of
discipline will remove it far from him.
- Proverbs is a man teaching his son to get wisdom & grow up!
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- John Quincy Adams: in 1781 (at 14) held an ambassadorial post in Russia
- Laura Ingalls Wilder: in 1882 (at 15) was teaching school
- David Farragut
- Began military career at 9 (1810)
- Commanded his first ship at 12
- Charles Spurgeon
- Pastored first church at 17 (1851)
- One of largest churches in London at 19
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- Apprenticeships typically began between 9 and 13
- Look at art in periods before about 1850… only young children are
playing
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- Industrial Revolution: The father went off to work…
- Public school system, age segregation
- Since then:
- Child labor laws
- Women working outside the home
- More things for teens to do when they aren’t in school… not work;
usually “fun”; not with family
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- Unchaperoned courtships
- Turn into “dating”
- Women not prepared to be keeper’s at home
- Men not ready to support a family
- None of the responsibility,
most of the fun
- The family dissolves, new families get put off, pattern of “breaking
commitments” begins… each generation gets worse
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- Raising Boys to be Men,
Girls to be Women
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- You don’t have a choice…
- God-ordained it
- Can’t change it
- As she becomes a woman, there is a choice you and she have
- You/She can follow the world and produce/become a worldly woman, or
- You/She can follow God and produce/become a godly woman
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- You don’t have a choice…
- God-ordained it
- Can’t change it
- As he becomes a man, there is a choice you and he have
- You/He can follow the world and produce/become a worldly man, or
- You/He can follow God and produce/become a godly man
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- Every day, they have to decide what kind of man/woman they are going to
be
- Every day, you have to decide what you are going to teach them about
being a godly man/woman
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- Is training grounds for what God wants women to become
- They need to be a noble daughter first
- Every woman starts out as a daughter
- Start with God’s picture of an ideal woman (Prov 31)
- “Her children rise up and bless her;
Her husband also, and he praises her, saying: "Many daughters
have done nobly,
But you excel them all."” Prov 31:28-29
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- She is not a boy & will not be a man
- Treat her different from day one
- Train the boys around her to treat her differently
- Choose activities that will take her in the direction of being a godly
lady
- Surround her with godly ladies
- Hold them up with high esteem
- Point her to the goal & away from the world’s ways
- Show her the things God praises in women!
- Encourage her to learn everything she can from them…
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- Why do we want to encourage our daughters to be keepers at home?
- Because we want to oppress them?
- NO! Because it is sound doctrine!
- Say it with authority!
- Let no one disregard you!
- This is not just a call to men
- Any woman here, to your daughter and any younger female, you are an
older woman
- What does sound doctrine tell you to do?
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- Is training grounds for what God wants men to become
- Submissive to the Father
- The perfect man, was a perfect son!
- He gave up His life for His bride
- The sacrificial servant
- Ready to give up his life so that others can live
- The 7 P’s…
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- Picture - Ambassador for Christ
- Patriarch - Leader of his home and future generations
- Protector - Husband to the weaker vessel (“Woman and Children first!”)
- Professor - Teacher to his wife, children, et al
- Provider - Giver to his wife, family, God’s people
- Priest - Pray-er for his family and others
- Participant - Influencing the community and the world in which He lives
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- Being the biggest influence on His son
- Discuss, model, etc.
- Activities that encourage 7 P’s – skills & work!
- Find other godly men – skills & work!
- Guarding against foolish peer influence
- Don’t be fooled, a “Jonathan” is a rare find
- “But [Rehoboam] forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given
him, and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served
him.” 1 Kings 12:8
- “and as [Elisha] was going up by the way, young lads came out from the
city and mocked him and said to him, "Go up, you baldhead; go up,
you baldhead!" When he looked behind him and saw them, he cursed
them in the name of the LORD. Then two female bears came out of the
woods and tore up forty-two lads of their number.”
2 Kings 2:23-24
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- Older teaching younger
- God’s design for men
- God’s design for women
- Reflecting our Lord and Savior
- Giving His life for His bride!
- Preparing a place for us!
- Presenting ourselves in all purity, unstained by the world!
- Any other pattern is alien to God!
- Teach your children
- Teach your youth (young men & women)
- Teach your wives and brothers and sisters
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Notes
