The Home as a Training Ground

Topic
My Purpose is to convince the congregation to view their homes
as training ground for success in life.

1. Introduction

a. Training for the Olympics...
b. Us running for the 5k
c. Statistics of single parent households

2. Preliminaries

a. You must set the standard for your home:
"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"
Joshua 24:15
b. Set God's word as the standard in your home
i. You will break the standard, everyone in your home will
ii. Train your kids to recognize it when anyone violates the standards of the home
1. Example: Honesty or speeding
c. What is Training?
i. Giving them information and instruction
ii. Showing them how [Example]
iii. Allowing them to practice with oversight
d. Advantages of the home:
i. Daily Interaction
ii. Built in Accountability
iii. Opportunity for Consistency

3. Training for godliness

a. Ephesians 6:4
"And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath,
but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord."

b. 2 Timothy 1:5

"when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you,
which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice,
and I am persuaded is in you also."

c. Training - not just teaching (like you primarily get at church).

d. More than parental -
i. Experience
ii. Correction
1. Blind Spots
2. Weakness
3. Willfulness

4. Training for productive, successful lives

a. Titus 2:3-5
the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers,
not given to much wine, teachers of good things-
that they admonish the young women to love their husbands,
to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good,
obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.
b. Purpose in child-raising is to make them godly, productive humans in the course of 18 or so years.
c. Learning things such as discipline [its purpose is to train the child to discipline themselves], a good work ethic, financial responsibility, respectfulness, sharing, compassion, etc.
d. You/they will learn selflessness, a quality of Jesus, by taking care of those in your home (be it young children, an ill spouse, or elderly parents/grandparents )
e. You will learn that dignity is important in all stages of life.

5. Training for getting along with people

a. Various personality issues
i. You'll find these everywhere you go in life.
1. Ball teams, work, school
ii. Built-in, loving, usually forgiving, environment to make mistakes & learn in
b. There will be problems of many different types in a home
i. Sin problems
ii. Also just putting up with people' problems
iii. Learn negotiation & give-and-take relationships
iv. Haven of rest - You can mess up and usually parents/siblings still love you

6. Training for leadership in the church

a. Where will the church get its future leaders?
i. From Godly homes
b. This is clearly seen in the qualifications for elders/deacons
i. 1 Timothy 3:4-5
"one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?)"
ii. 1 Timothy 3:12
Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

7. Gaining the most from your training

a. Proverbs 29:1
He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck,
Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
b. Work hard to learn all you can in your training
i. Learn to be a godly husband/wife
ii. Learn to handle difficult situations and heartache as a man and not pass those painful tasks off to others in your home.
iii. Learn the value of consistency & accountability
iv. Learn to ask forgiveness where it really matters
v. Learn to get along with selfish, greedy, sinful people
vi. Learn that selfish, greedy, sinful people have their good traits too

8. Conclusion

a. Look at problems, challenges, heartache & tough decisions as training
b. Be careful what you train them to be, they will pick your nursing home
c. You are training yourself, your spouse & children in your home. Either for good or bad.
d. Luke 16:10
He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much:
and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.