We've had many debates and arguments with parents, who don't realise they're in charge of their children. God has given you that responsibility, and if He gave you the responsibility, He expects you to perform it. He gives you the ability and grace to perform it, and He expects of you, that you give account for what you've done. You cannot yield up something God entrusted to you, and put it in the hands of another. You need to be involved with your children, involved in what God calls you to do, and I'm going to show you two major things that God tells parents very clearly, some things He tells us very clearly what to do.
Let's have a look in Genesis 18:19. I have chosen Abraham. I know him. He will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord. Notice what it says. Abraham I know, and I've chosen Abraham. I know him, I know what he's like. He will command his children and his household after him, and they will keep the way of the Lord. Isn't that a wonderful verse? To do what's right, and to do what's just. Isn't that wonderful, God's mandate to a parent. So you notice here with Abraham, God said: he will command his children. Now what are you going to command them? Not to just do what he wants them to do. See parents, you've got to understand this, when God gives you the authority to lead your family, it's not to just do what you want them to do. It's not just that you'll do as you'll please. If you'll do as you please, you're modelling what it is to be a lawless person. We're not to do as we please as parents. We're actually to teach kids to walk right, because they're an inheritance of the Lord. They're something we're raising up for the Lord. They'll go on either - listen, your child that's born, is an eternal being, who will go on into heaven for eternity, or go on into hell for eternity, and you're the one who has the greatest influence in forming them. So He says: I know Abraham. He will command, he will give clear direction, clear leadership, and he will require his household to walk in a certain way. What way? To do what's right, and to act justly, and to keep the ways of God; so Abraham, the father of our faith, was a man who gave direction to his household, and directed them in godly ways.
Parents, you are charged with directing your household. You're charged with giving direction, and that will require setting boundaries. It will require establishing relationship. It will require setting requirements out. You've got a duty. This is part of what it is, to fulfil God's mandate to you. See God has given you that responsibility. Deuteronomy 6, Verses 4 to 6; If I was to ask you what is the great command, you say: that's you love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul. Well of course that's only a little part of it. You read the rest of it; You shall love the Lord with all your heart and all your soul, Verse 5, and with all your soul and all your strength, and the words I command you will be in your heart, and you will teach them diligently to your children, and talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You'll bind them as a sign on your hands, writing on your hands, and on the doorposts.
In other words He's saying, parents, He said you're called to passionately love God, and then you're called actually to raise up, train, direct and cultivate an environment where your kids will be followers of God as well. So there's a responsibility in the first commandment, not just to love God passionately, but to express it in what we do within our family. The first place we see your love for God, is in your family, in your marriage, and with your children. Make no mistake about it, you may be very good in business, or very good in ministry, very good at this or that, but if you're failing at home, you're failing your primary mandate - the primary mandate, the first one. In the marriage, and in the family, you have a mandate from God. You have a responsibility from God, something you're expected to fulfil; and you need to know what it is, and understand how to do it, so no government regulation rule changes or swerves you from what you ought to do. I know how these things work. I've been in education.