CHARGE: Goodbook 05-07-12

This past weekend I preached a message entitled "Jumpstart Your Family."  We looked at family through the lens of the Great Commission and considered how we can help our family know, love, and follow God.  If you'd like to listen to the message, you can click here: SERMON.

In the message, I talked about King David.  David was not a perfect person or a perfect father by any stretch of the imagination.  But there were moments when he was intentional about passing the faith baton to his family.  I ran across another instance in our Advanced Track readings from last week.

1 Kings 2:1-4: "When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son.  'I am about to go the way of all the earth,' he said. 'So be strong, act like a man, and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.'"

I like how David describes what it means to be a man, or to be a mature adult: walking faithfully with God.  Rick Warren descibes the role of a parent as moving your children from dependence on you to independence to dependence on God.

If you are on the path to maturity, here is the goal: to walk every moment faithfully with God.  Like David, we are not perfect people.  But we can grow in our walk with God.  We can learn more about God and how to walk with God.  We can rely on God's strength, wisdom, patience, and grace.  We can keep God in our mind and hearts throughout the day, and make our choices based on what we think God would want for us and for our world.  This Goodbook group is helping me with this.  I hope it is helping you too.

If you are a parent, think about how you can help your children move from dependence on you to independence to dependence on God.  Like David, consider moments when you can charge your children to walk faithfully with God.  Show them what this looks like through your walk with God.

1) Walk faithfully with God
2) Give the charge to walk faithfully with God

Advanced Track readings for this week: Proverbs 13-21

Share your thoughts, questions, and ideas about how to apply this…