A Godly Home Guarantees Godly Kids

Well this morning we conclude our teaching series entitled Spiritual Urban Legends throughout this series we've explored a variety of myths such as God has a blueprint for my life, christians shouldn't judge, faith can fix everything, and everything happens for a reason and we're going to wind things up this morning by taking a look at the Spiritual Urban Legend, A Godly Home Guarantees Godly Kids and to kick things off I want to share with you two true stories. Two true stories about two different couples and these stories were taken from the book by Larry Osborne entitled "Ten Dumb things Smart Christians Believe" the first story is the story of Don and Sharon. Don and Sharon have three boys. Three sons. One son is doing absolutely phenominal he is a model citizen with a great job, strong marriage and a vibrant walk with God the other two sons, however, are a different story. Their lives, quite frankly, are a mess. One is in jail. One is approaching 40 but still trying to find himself. He is in his 15th job and third marriage. More disheartening he has developed a disdain for spiritual things while picking up a passion for hard liquor. He makes no attempt to stay in contact with his parents unless of course he needs something. and when he needs something, that's usually money. Their two wayward children have brought Dawn and Sharon a whole lot of grief. It far overshadows the joy and pride their good son brings. and it's caused them to battle all kinds of emotions, fear, frustration, embarrassment and shame but most of all, they've just felt guilt. a whole lot of guilt. You see they view their two reckless as irrefutable proof that they have failed as Christian parents. After all as 'the good book says' train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. So they live each day carrying this heavy load of guilt around with them while wondering where in the world they may have gone wrong. and then there's the story of Mike and Rhonda. In contrast, Mike and Rhonda feel no guilt at all over their wild child they are quite confident that one day she will return to God and possess the values she was brought up to possess. Their confidence stems from the fact that they've modeled a genuine and sincere faith. They took their daughter to church and Sunday school, got her involved in youth ministry. They made sure she was surrounded by all the right kinds of people. That she had a good group of friends. positive friends, Christian friends was in the right peer group. They made the investment of enrolling her in the best faith based education in their community. They did everything possible that you could do. They did everything they could do to provide a Godly, 'Christ Centered' home. however, when their daughter went off to college everything unraveled. by her fourth year of school she had dropped out of college abandoned her faith and moved in with her boyfriend. now several years later not much has really changed in her life. yet Mike and Rhonda are still extremely upbeat. After all the bible says If you train up a child in the way she should go when she is old she will not depart from it. so they live each day with the hope that one day she will come back. One day she'll come back to God because they've raised her the right way in a good and Godly home. So what we have here are two couples. One riddled with guilt. The other filled with hope. however, their vastly different emotions are both based on the same core assumption. The belief that a good and Godly home guarantees good and Godly children. Don and Sharon interpret that to mean that their home was far more messed up than they had ever imagined. and Mike and Rhonda interpret that to mean that their daughter will come back to the faith eventually unfortunately both sets of these parents have bought into the same spiritual urban legend. the belief that a Godly home guarantees Godly kids. the fact is though, that's nothing but a lie. so if you haven't already, will you reach into your bulletin, pull out today's sermon outline and follow along as together we take a closer look at this morning's myth: a Godly home guarantees Godly kids. first let's explore the question: What's up? in other words: Where did we get this idea? well, the myth that a Godly home guarantees Godly kids finds its origin in Proverbs 22 verse 6. which says: "train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it" now when we read this verse we often think it says: if we raise children correctly, they will come back to god eventually in other words if we do the right things as parents. If we create the right Godly environment. if we pray enough and set the right kind of example. if we are the Godly parents we need to be, then our children will walk with God. now they may venture, they may step out of the faith. They may walk away from God at some point in their life, but the promise here is that before they die, they will come back to god. now that's what most of us think this verse is talking about; however, let's look now at what Proverbs 22 verse 6 actually says