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More Four-Letter Words to Teach Your Children
Today, I look forward to an opportunity we can come back and be together again, which we pray would be this afternoon at 5 p.m.
God bless all of you that are mothers this morning and pray that there is definitely what's happening in your life.
You're living in such a way that it will be said of you as said in proverbs 31, in verse 30.
Grace is a seat. Full and beauty is vain, but a woman that fears Jehovah, she shall be praised.
I hope that is something that can be said of you, and especially coming from the mouths and the voices of your children.
Last month, we had a lesson on the idea of this subject, four-letter words that you would teach your children, and these are the four words that we talked about, love, Lord, love, true, and obey.
These words, along with the ones that we're going to talk about this morning, are words that are very much in contrast to opposite of all the other four little words that you hear mentioned in so many different places, some of which may even be in your home.
I hope that is not the case.
But it may not necessarily be voices that come from the people in your house, but maybe it's coming from the TV and the screen of which you're watching something or maybe in the music of which you're listening to.
Could be at work, could be at school.
Could be a lot of different places , but these words are definitely opposite of many times of what you hear in a lot of places.
I would think you would know how important words are in communication, especially in your house, how it is.
It just, it's like your children just hang on every word that you say.
They trust it to be something of truth of which they can live by and will continue to live by, especially the more you repeat those words.
They become to be words that they even repeat themselves.
But I want you to know, Sw in the book of Psalm chapter 139.
The last two verses, in Psalm 139, verse 23, and 24, just to get a very good bearing upon how valuable these words are, because this text here in Psalm 139 is going to be a reference to another four letter word that we'll talk about in just a moment.
In verse 23, he says, search me, oh God and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts and see if there are any wicked way in me and leave me in the way everlasting.
In the book of 1 Tim, chapter 4, verse 16, even though the instructions primarily focus upon the young man, Timothy, from an older man, Paul , he says, he needed to be one.
Timothy needed to be into one who took heed to himself and to his doctrine and continuing these things for it will not only save you, but will save those that hear you.
And this is very true when it comes down to an application of a parent talking to them, to their children in words that are definitely four-letter words.
I think we know and pretty well understand the value of words parents do, because we just seem to emphasize to our children the importance of what it is that you say.
For we come to our children, we even ask them the question, did you hear what I just said?
We want to make sure that they hear very clearly what we spoke to them.
So we want to make sure that they heard every word that we said.
Is there anything that I said that you did not understand?
I don't know how many of you have as a parent have stated those very words, but you probably have said, well, what did I say?
What did I say?
Can you repeat to me what I just said?
In some cases, it just went in this ear in some way it came out the other, and nothing was understood, nothing was grasped, it was like, you didn't say anything.
So therefore, we know how valuable these words are.
So we want to make sure we are heard and we are understood.
We don't want those children are going out doing something of which they didn't understand what we said.
Now, the two of the words that we're going to talk about this morning a lot to do with identity.
And I hope that you as understand the value of identity, because there's so many things that in this world , the identity of people are changing.
And there are two very important words that need to be understood when it comes down to an identity this morning.
And then the last word that we'll talk about has a lot to do with how those other two words are to be used and valued as a means of their identity.
And the first word happens to be the word very simple that you find a script of the word soul. A child's most precious possession.
Now, if I were to ask some of your children, those that are maybe under school age, what would you say, what would be your most important possession?
And I would say, if there's a little boy in this room that had a rock in his hand, he'd probably say, well, this is it.
This is most valuable possession I've got is this rock.
And not only is it but rock, but they'll tell you everything about how they got it, where it came from, how much it means to them , and they'll talk about how they're going to keep this rock because it's such a valuable thing.
Or it could be a doll.
It could be their phone.
It could be their most valuable position, could be either iPad or their video game.
It just depends in many instances.
But for a parent , a grate four- letter word to make sure your child knows is the greatest position they have, which is the idea of the soul.
And one of the great reasons is because God sent his son to save our soul.
If you looked in Genesis chapter 2, verse 7, man became a living soul because God breathed into him, this living soul.
That's for every one of us, whoever we may be.
Therefore, to see how valuable our life is is to understand how it was that God placed in our life the soul, according to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 13, that needs to be pointed out as something we need to continue to place as valuable by fearing God and keeping his commandments because this is our whole duty.
This is all we're supposed to do.
Fear him and do what he says.
Just to let you know how valuable a soul is, let's just say you took a soul out of a body.
According to what is stated in James chapter 2, verse 26, it does exist.
There is no life without the soul.
So that just tells you even more so how valuable this soul is.
But if you ask a child, though, what is your soul worth?
Now, I don't know if they'll come up with a good figure on that.
I'm not too sure.
Some children don't even know how valuable their soul is , what it costs, what it's worth, how important it is.
Now, they do know, though, they do, though, know how valuable their phone is.
They know how much their doll is worth.
They do know how much their car is worth .
For in some cases, whether it's their doll or their phone, could be their car, they worked so hard to get this particular item that is their position.
So therefore, they know what it's worth.
And they work so hard in so many hours and they've gotten so many things as far as gifts given to them for money, they know what it's worth.
Even their job, they know what it's worth. For they have gone to school, maybe two, four, six, eight, maybe 12 years, to become the lawyer, the doctor, the teacher, the boss, the owner, whatever it may be.
So they know how much their job's worth for they put so much time and so much money into that.
They've borrowed so much money in their education to have this job.
So they know what some things are worth .
But do they know how much the soul is worth?
Look at it from this standpoint in.
The book of Mark chapter 8, Mark chapter 8, verse 36, Jesus was helping the people understand the value of life and also the value of the soul versus that which is in the world.
In Mark 8, he was discussing how it importantly is that we we deny ourselves and take about cross and follow him.
Then he says it's something in verse 36.
What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life ?
What value is it to give up everything you've got in order that you lose your soul?
I don't know if very many people that are adults even value that.
But if you notice in the book of Hes chapter 2, verse 9, you'll see just how valuable your soul is because Jesus takes it to death as it says in that text for every man.
More than anything in the world, he wanted to make sure that your soul and the soul of your children were saved.
I don't imagine that there's anybody here in this room that probably loves your children more than you do.
But there is someone that is present every day that loves your child more than you.
And that is God.
There will never ever be a time where you could say, well, God doesn't love my child.
It will always be that case.
So much so to the point that he allowed his son rather, to be the one that died for your child, as well as for you.
So let me just ask you a question.
If there's ever a point that your child ever comes close to death, and I don't mean necessarily their own life, but if they come anywhere close to death somewhere in their life, Parent, grandparent, friend, or maybe their own, what would be, if you talked to that child, what would be most valuable to them at the point of which they're close to death?
Even their dog, or cat.
It would not be that dog that they held so highly.
It would not necessarily be their phone that they thought so much all that they couldn't let anybody take it from them.
It was not their car anymore .
It is not the most valuable position that they could hold it in their hand.
Now it's what's important about what they do, with with what God gave them. That soul.
You as a parent will need to make sure that they know that their greatest means of spiritual identity comes from the gift that God gave them, that you nor anybody else could have ever given them.
No gift given to your child will mean more than that soul the which they possess.
Definitely, as a parent, it's worth our attention to make sure that we guide that soul.
But I want you to notice something in the book of Psalm chapter 107 and listen to the way at which the Psalmist describes the value of the soul.
Talks about his own, In verse 4, they wandered in the wilderness in a desert way.
They found no city of habitation, hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted, to them.
When they cried unto Jeovah in their trouble, he delivered them out of their distresses.
He led them also by that they go to a city of habitation, that wouldn'traise Jehovah for his loving kindness.
No one loves them like God.
For his wonderful works to the children of men, for he satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul he feels with good.
Your child's soul can only be satisfied in all that it needs and all that it hungers , the greatest means of identity spiritually is what God can do to satisfy every longing of that soul.
And as a result, you need to be the one one to helps them understand that they should love the God that made them and gave them that soul with all their heart, with all their soul, and all all their mind.
But it takes us to this next four little word, body.
I don't want to get a show of hands, but I just want to ask you if you have ever said to your child, you can be all that you ever want to be.
Does that include if there's a possibility that they don't like the body that they're in, that they could change it?
If you say you're a child, you could be anything you want to be.
Does it include that subject?
That they can change that body if it wanted to.
If they don't like it, maybe we can just get rid of it.
Change it into something else.
The book of Psalm chapter 139 that I alluded to while ago in the last two verses, listen to the things that are stated in the middle of the chapter in verse 13.
For that thoust inward parts, thoured in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks untoe, I am fearfully, th works and that my soul knows right well.
My frame was not hidden from the when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest part of the earth.
Thine eyes did see my unformed substance, and in thy book they were all written.
Even the days are ordained for me, as yet were none of them.
And then verse 17, how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, oh God, God, how great is the sum of them?
God made your child's body.
And as a result, that is their physical identity.
We have gone from spiritual identity of where God has placed the soul within every one of us, including your child.
Now we're going to look at the body.
We're talking about the physical identity, that God made them boy or girl, man or woman, male or female.
And to teach that child that God made them then, this is who they made them to be, is a worthy project, that it needs to be continually taught, and especially when you go back to the beginning in the book of Genes chapter 2, just let them see the difference between the two, the male and the female.
See how God made this honorable distinction between these two people that he made.
The reason this physical identity is so important is because there are people in this room.
And I'll say there's people outside this room. Who give your child physical identity.
God does.
Parents do. Brothers and sisters do.
Friends and peers do.
People on TV do.
People you go to work do.
Neighbors do.
Everybody gives your child some sense of physical identity.
In other words, they confirm to your child who they physically are.
Listen to Psalm chapter 119.
Psm 119, verse 73, this is the writer saying,Ty hands have made me and fashioned me.
Give me understanding that I may learn thy commandments.
Let me listen to this.
Each child is created and fashioned in the way that God wanted this person to be, man, woman, male, female, boy or girl.
And this four letter word is going to have to be the physical identity that you give your child when they're three. And when they're eight.
And when they're 12, when they're 16, when they're 18, and when they're 21. For there are some children that grew up in this world that when it gets to the point of being 18 or when it gets to the point of being 21, there's a tendency to want to change their physical identity.
And even beyond that.
So therefore, this four letter one word is coupled with the first four- letter word that we talked about to value God's physical identity in its beauty and in its wonder and all that God designed.
God created this.
It is God's gift to your child to be the male and the female .
And you were the ones appear to express that gift to them, that God made them this way.
And if you as a parent do not know the value of the gift of which God and a Jew as a male and female, then therefore your child may not ever know that.
There's been a lot of people that talk about I'm fine in my own body.
But what do you mean by saying I'm fine in my own body?
Is it really an expression and only in words that you know what the word means?
Or is it that you're truly honoring what it was that God made you to be?
Or is it one of those instances where I'm okay with it right now, but tomorrow I might not be okay with my body.
There are a lot of words, words that are more like adjectives in some cases, or modifying nouns, that really help us understand how valuable that identity is.
Image, dress, or modesty.
The word honor, the word purity, blessing, godliness, and respect.
All those words that you that I've just mentioned to you help you understand the value of what conversations you have with your child about their body, about the body that God made them.
There's no need to change what God designed, this beautiful, wonderful thing, no need to change this, but do we honor it in the ways that we should?
But think about this.
You think about all those words that I just mentioned .
All those words that I just mentioned, give you the opportunity to have conversations about who should touch your body.
What should touch your body?
What can we or should we mark on our body?
Should we cut our body?
Can we take our body and kick it it?
Can we take our body and kick somebody else's with it?
Can we take our body and beat somebody else with our body?
Or should we offer a means of arring our arms embracing somebody, touching them in ways that console them?
In other words, can we use our body of that which will help somebody in their pain?
Can we use our bodies in ways that will serve other people?
You can see that there's a contrast between a disrespect and the respect of a body, impure uses, as well as pure uses, as well as modest or immonest uses of the body .
Those words and conversations come up with how much we're going to cover this body or how much we're going to let everybody see this body. That the soul is in.
And you should be able to do it in a way that they understand and trust you in that description.
But if there's a child somewhere along the way that talks about their body, how fast it is, and their body is faster than anybody else's body and whatever athletic sport activity it may be, or how hard they can throw with their body or how smart they are with their body, or how well attractive they are with their body.
And on and on, if they start talking in those terms, then you need to be the one that takes them out of the world and helps them understand what God says about their body.
For they could talk about how smart their body is.
They could also talk about how dumb their body is.
They could talk about how fast their body is or how weak their body is.
They could talk about how well decorated their body is, or they could talk about how it is that I wish mine was like somebody else's.
But you need to be the one that takes them away from all that the world is saying to them and let them understand what God made their body to be.
Four, at three, they are this.
At eight, there are this, at 13, they're this, at 18, they're this.
And you need to be the one that uses Jesus out a reference in the book of Luke 25,2, where increasing, it says, in his age, or advancing in his age.
And there's a lot of changes that take place in the advancing of an age. To where Jesus increased in his stature or his maturity, and was in faith with God and man.
So therefore, this physical identity means so much to your child, as well as the spiritual identity.
Your child's body, no more than your body should be an object for anybody.
It should be revered.
It should be definitely designed by God because of what inhabits that body.
In the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 6, he mentions at the end of the chapterse 1, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which you have from God and you' not your own?
For your bought with a glorified God, there in your body .
Similar words were stated by Paul in the book of Romans chapter 6, verse 12, where it says, not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey the lust thereof.
Neither present your members of the sin as members of unrighteousness, but present yourselves in the God as lie from the dead..
And your members, as instruments of righteous has undergone, for sins shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under law, but undergrace.
So you see the value of that four little word body?
It is the dwelling place of the soul, of the spirit.
And that soul should not be jeopardized by what the body does.
But to be held in honor.
For the most important event that will ever happen to your child's body is a resurrection.
The first one, that Romans chapter 6, verse. 3, verse 4 talks about, it's the resurrection from the spiritual death of where the body comes out by the water, baptism, to be walking in newness of life.
The second event is also a resurrection, that your child's body and yours will ever experience and that being raised physically from the dead, as a second coming of of Jesus.
But to value this spiritual identity with the soul, in that four little word, and to value the physical identity of the body, that four- letter word has a lot to do with this next one.
It's the idea of keep.
If you see the value of it, the soul, as well as the body, then you see how essential it is just to keep this, where it ought to be.
Listen to these words.
In the book of Romans chapter 7, I want you to notice with me something that is say number 22.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.
But I see a different law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin, which is in my members.
Now, he's not saying that the body is sin or the body is evil.
What the body does, though, can jeopardize what soul that God placed in the body.
Therefore, it makes a lot of sense for the word keep to be used and taught by parent, that you'd make sure that you keep your body and your keep your soul in service to God.
We have been told through scripture, verse chapter 4, verse 23.
Keep your heart with all diligence, how to be the issues of life.
We've been told in the book of verse chapter 22, verse 1, keep your reputation.
We know how hard it is to have one.
According to Pri verse chapter 22, verse 1, a good name is to be held rather than great riches.
And he says, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.
Every heart is kept, every body that's kept, should see the sensitivity they should have for sin and not indulge himself and overcome by all those things of the flesh because there's this war that's taking place every day.
Fles chapter 5 verse 17 talks about the flesh and the spirit .
So that's how valuable the soul is, and that's how valuable the body is, and it's also how valuable the word keep is related to these two words.
Keeping this soul, keeping this body in the framework of which God designed for it to be.
If your child's name is mentioned somewhere talking about this idea of reputation, if your child's name is mentioned somewhere, what would be the reaction and response from people when they hear their name?
Your boys, your girl's name?
Good, dependable, responsible, great person, or would it be evil, and corrupt, disrespectful, and ugly?
When it comes down to keeping, keeping this body and keeping this soul is very important when it comes down to the words of which that body says, just like it was in Matthew chapter 21, in verse 28 to verse 31, where these two boys, at the beginning, didn't keep their word.
But they turned around.
One didn't do such a good thing, and the other one changed it his way.
Keep their body.
Hebrews chapter 13, verse 4 talks about how honorable it is, to make sure that you keep this body.
It's not for a,ication and adultery, but he says that marriage bed is undefiled and needs to be kept that way.
This purity of body also is valuable to that soul, because when you keep the body, you keep the soul.
And when the Spirit is directed by God, then it works in a great way toward making the body what it ought to be. Valuable in the eyes of God, a way of which God can use that servant for His purposes.
Why is it important that this body and soul keep God's Word?
If you look in the book of 2, Timed chapter 3, you will see clearly that he talks about this keeping of this soulen body, even from a babe in verse 15.
This is exactly what it was that Paul recognized in Timothy.
That from a babe, that was known the secretary writings forrayal and make the wise into salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus, so that you will be the one who will profit from everything the scripture teaches.
In verse 17, that the man of God may be complete furn completely unto every good work.
Keeping God's word is so valuable , for God wants this body to be directed by the Spirit of which it gave them to remain pure and loyal and devoted and dedicated to him and loving with all their heart while all their soul, all their minds so that they will be the complete person God wanted.
And if you're talking about a true success story, this is it.
That's right here.
Let me leave you with something this morning.
In the book of 1 Theonus chapter 5, we're going to wrap all this up in one verse that contains both heart, excuse me, both soul and body.
In the God of peace himself sanctify you. Holily.
And may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When you read passages like 2 Corinth 5, verse 10, where it talks about judgment is going to be rendered to us, whether we've done evil or good, then it makes sense that he would include the spirit, the soul, and the body, all of those particular parts of our life of which are absolutely significant, the soul and the body .
It is true that the soul is going to leave us someday.
And that body is going to return to the dust of which it came.
Whatever that body has done in life impacts what the destiny of the soul will be.
I believe most of us know that.
Yet sometimes we don't honor what God made and us being wonderfully and beautifully made to let it be used in ways that will render us closer to the God that put the soul in it.
If we think about the first resurrection, those of us that are not children of God should consider very clearly how valuable is to save your soul.
And we speak in those terms.
Save your soul.
The body has to carry your soul to the death of where that soul can be saved.
You can say sit in the pube all you want to, and your soul, just tell you, you need to be obedient, you need to obey, you need to be a Christian.
But until that body moves, that soul will never be saved.
That soul may want to be saved, but unless you repent, you will perish.
All of you will perish.
Unless that body confesses in the name of Jesus Christ as a Son of God, then your soul could tell you all day.
You need to do that.
Yet your body has got a move to speak.
And when it comes to the actual point of salvation, your soul can tell you your spirit could really work within you to say, you need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this.
But unless that body moves, it will never have gone into the water and come away in newness of life.
You see how valuable those two four letter words are?
But then it doesn't only end there.
It starts there.
So where this body now is leading this spirit, this soul into living faithful, continuing the process of living.
That way, one day, they'll experience the second resurrection. The resurrection of the body to be in heaven, having honorably, respectfully, reverently , and devotedly, given theirself to all that God asks of them to be.
Consider these four letter words while we sing this song.
