QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
Question: What is the reason added to the fifth commandment?
Answer: The reason added to the fifth commandment is a promise of long life and prosperity (as far as it shall serve God’s glory and their own good), to all who keep this commandment.
Scripture: Ex 20:20; Eph 6:2, 3
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HOW DEB HELPED ME UNDERSTAND FOOTBALL
(Maybe this really happened)
Deb grew up in a small town in Wyoming and had really not had much exposure to football before I met her at the University of Wyoming, where I was on the football team. To help her understand the game, I took her to a Denver Broncos pre-season game before our first game at Wyoming, in order to take the chance to explain football to her. I was able to get great seats right behind the Broncos’ bench so we could hear what was going on. I stayed pretty quiet to let her soak it all in and then afterwards asked her how she liked the game.
“Oh, I really like football but I really don’t understand why they were trying to hurt each other over 25 cents.”
Dumbfounded I asked her “What do you mean?”
“Well,” she replied. “They flipped a coin, one team got it and then for the rest of the game all they kept screaming was ‘Get the quarterback! Get the quarterback!’ I’m thinking to myself … Hellooooooo? It is only 25 cents!”
(Deb has come a long way since then)
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DAZZLE YOUR TEEN: Part 1
By Tedd Tripp
Teenagers need grand and glorious things in their lives. They are idealists and need grand and ennobling things for which to live. But parents too often focus on the do's and don’t's of daily living together and fail to point teens to the truly great things in life. If we are to be successful in influencing our teens in a godly manner, we must keep things (even the struggles) in their place and focus on the big picture that God gives us. Struggles of both teens and parents look different and play out differently when we keep them in perspective.
In this article, we’ll consider ways to give our teens biblical ways of understanding and interpreting their world. We will put the big picture of God’s glory in front of them.
Give Your Children a Vision for the Glory of God
We’re Made for Worship
Our teenagers go into the world every single day to find things to marvel at. They are on the lookout to be impressed by something. They love to be dazzled by things in their surroundings. But not only our teens, we were all made to be dazzled. We’re made to stand back and gape, to wonder and be overwhelmed by the glory and goodness and greatness of God. We’re uniquely designed to respond to this awesome glory with worship, adoration, reverence, and being awestruck with God’s glory. We’re made for worship.
What happens when people who are instinctively and compulsively worshipers fail to worship God? We simply worship something else in His place. We get impressed by things, people, and experiences in creation. We get dazzled by idols. But the glory of God is displayed through the things that God has made. People—teens included—are without excuse when they exchange the truth of God for a lie (Rom. 1:1921). They honor, praise, and marvel at created things rather than the Creator. They (and we) worship idols instead of the one true God.
What Rules Teens? God-substitutes!
My wife and I took our two granddaughters to a Chinese restaurant one day. As we were leaving the restaurant, one of them saw a statue of Buddha and asked, “Grandpa, who’s that fat boy?” That gave us an opportunity to talk about idols. But our kids do not worship statues of Buddha. Their idols are more subtle. They worship idols of the heart. Consider these common examples.
Pride and performance. Teens want to run faster, jump higher, throw the ball with greater accuracy, and score higher than others on SAT’s. Some teens exhaust themselves trying to excel, trying to be the best at something. They love the accolades and praise that comes with excellent performance.
Pleasure and sensuality. Teens love the rush of doing new things; going new places; finding heart-throbbing, adrenalin-pumping excitement. “Extreme sports” is an expression of that craving for the rush of something new, extreme, exciting, and thrilling. There is a direct connection between the drive for sense experience and pleasure and the culture of boredom.
Possessions. Teens are packrats. They collect stuff. They polish their stuff and display it. They want assurances that no one will touch their stuff. They’re oriented toward a life that consists of the abundance of personal possessions.
Fear of Man. Teens want approval and acceptance by others. Being cool, being part of the “in” crowd is of major importance. They often take their cues off the opinions of others.
Our teens do exactly what Romans 1 describes. Either they know the wonder and glory of God and are dazzled by His beauty or they bow before enticing idols.
To find the idols in your own life, ask yourself these questions: What rules me? What makes life worthwhile? What gives me so much joy and comfort that it pushes God into the background? The answers to these questions identify the idols of your heart. Parents and teens stand on common ground when it comes to the battle for the heart.
Our Calling as Parents
In heaven we will be glorified finite creatures—not infinite like God—only God can be infinite. The infinite God in His infinite glory will dazzle us. Every single day throughout eternity we will see new revelations of the wonder of God. There’s greatness in God that can’t be fathomed. He can’t be measured. That’s what the psalmist talks about. We are called to commend the works of God to the next generation by asking, “Have you seen how glorious and marvelous God really is?” Listen to the words of the psalmist:
“Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom.
One generation will commend Your works to another; they will tell of Your mighty acts.
They will speak of the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and I will meditate on Your wonderful works.
They will tell of the power of Your awesome works, and I will proclaim Your great deeds.
They will celebrate Your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of Your righteousness.
The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.
The LORD is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.
All You have made will praise You, O LORD; Your saints will extol You.
They will tell of the glory of Your kingdom and speak of Your might, so that all men may know of Your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of Your kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; Your dominion endures throughout all generations.
The LORD is faithful to all His promises, and loving toward all He has made.
The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food at the proper time.
You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
The LORD is righteous in all His ways and loving toward all He has made.
The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them.
The LORD watches over all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy.
My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD. Let every creature praise His holy name forever and ever.” (Psalm 145:3-21)
You probably need to read this psalm again, more slowly. Underline everything about God. What’s left is how to respond to what you have underlined!
Your teenagers are hard-wired for worship. They go out everyday looking to be dazzled. One of your most important tasks as a parent is to give your teens this big picture of the glory of God. That’s your job description: one generation will commend God’s works to another.
Think of these words from Psalm 4:6-7 “‘Who can show us any good?’ Let the light of your face shine on us, O LORD. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.”
Think about the time when these verses were written. The psalmist lived in an agrarian culture. The people of that time had no ability to preserve the harvest in its freshness and no ability to extend harvest times or to rush harvest. They would have fresh produce for only a short time. They lived the rest of the year on food they had dried, salted, or stored in pots. Can you imagine the joy of their harvest time?
We still have some sense of the joy of harvest time in our own lives. I go into my garden in August and pick a nice, vine-ripened Beefsteak tomato. I cut it in thick slices, put it on thick crusty homemade bread, then add lettuce and some real mayonnaise. There’s nothing like a tomato sandwich in the summer! You cannot make a sandwich like that out of those hothouse tomatoes they sell the rest of the year. We sense, even in our culture, the joy of harvest time. Can you imagine how heightened that joy was in David’s day? “O LORD, You have filled my heart with greater joy than when grain and new wine abound.”
The greatest joys we can experience are found in knowing and loving God. The deepest delights and the most satisfying pleasures and joys that we can imagine are found in knowing and loving God. David speaks of true and lasting joys in Psalm 16:11. “You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.”
Our teenagers search for pleasure, for something to delight them. They look for something that will be exciting and dazzling. Part of our calling every day is to hold out for our teens the delights that they were made for— the delights of knowing God. As we see teens try to fill their appetites, we need to help them understand the greatest delight. We need to draw them into our confidence and share with them times when we have known the wonder of God’s presence and the glories of delighting in Him. Do you share the soul-satisfying joys of savoring the presence of God? Do you ever talk about God’s presence with your teen, first person. Honest? (That’s different than a lecture or exhortation!)
Teenagers need to hear this message all the time: We have a glorious God. Life is found in knowing Him. Life is not found in the abundance of possessions, satisfying your appetites, having a string of successes, or all those other things. The greatest joys you can possibly experience as a human being are those joys found in the presence of God. In eternity you will still expand your understanding of those eternal pleasures found in Him. The greatest beauty, the highest value, the deepest satisfaction, the longest lasting joy, the most satisfying delights, the most fulfilling pleasures, the most wonderful friendships, the most satisfying experiences are not found in going places, doing things, and owning things. They are found in knowing God.
The psalmist also speaks of men who attacked him.
“Arise, O LORD. Confront him, subdue him!
Deliver my soul from the wicked by Your sword,
from men by Your hand, O LORD,
from men of the world whose portion is in this life.
You fill their womb with treasure; they are satisfied with children,
and they leave their abundance to their infants.
As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness;
When I awake, I will be satisfied with Your likeness.” (Ps.17: 13-15)
Do you see the word picture in this psalm? The psalmist says, “I’m in the midst of this terrible situation. These people, whose pleasures and rewards are in this life, are coming against me. They leave their treasures for their children as in inheritance. But one day I’m going to awaken in the presence of the God and I’ll be satisfied.”
How much in life really satisfies? How much promises satisfaction without really satisfying? The soul-satisfying pleasures that your teenagers crave are ultimately found in knowing and loving God. Parents and teens stand on common ground. As we see our children seek satisfaction everywhere else, we have a wonderful opportunity to hold out for them the one God that truly satisfies.
In Psalm 27, David is confronted with extreme difficulties and distractions: evil men are bent on destroying him, armies besiege, foes attack, war breaks out. He is the strategic target of the enemies in the battle!
What’s the temptation for most of us? “Lord, get me out of this! Help! Remove me from this situation!” But what does the psalmist say? “One thing I ask of the LORD, that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple” (Ps. 27:4). In God there is true joy, peace, and comfort. In God there is true safety even in the midst of all these foes.
Tedd Tripp is Senior Pastor of Grace Fellowship Church in Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
(Next week: Helping your teen understand we live in a fallen world)
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