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Opening Prayer: Thank you, Savior, for all the people you’ve put into my life to
bless me. I would really be in trouble if I were all alone! I confess, though, there
have been times when I haven’t always treated them so well. Thankfully, you obeyed
the fourth and all the commandments perfectly in my place. Now, help help me show
my thanks by honoring your representatives. I know the jobs of my parents, my
teachers, my pastors, and even the government isn’t always easy. Help me to show
my love for you by honoring and obeying them. Remind me often how important life
is. Sometimes it seems so cheap and useless…and that’s the way some people treat
their lives. But you’ve told me life is important. All human lives are important
because it’s the only time we have to come to know you and without you, we’re lost.
I don’t want that for anyone and neither do you. Use your Word to teach me more
about a life with you and how I can live my life for you. You will do that because I
pray believing in Jesus Christ. Amen.
With the 4th & 5th Commandments we move into the Second Table of the Law—Love
toward our neighbor/those
God places around us.
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Fourth Commandment
Honor your father and mother, that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy
long life on the earth.
What does this mean?
We should fear and love God that we do not dishonor or anger our parents and others
in authority, but honor, serve, and obey them and give them love and respect.
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God lays out his expectations so that we know what we are to carry out His will in our
lives. God shares His expectations through the authority He gives to parents or His
representatives in the home; to the church—our pastors, teachers, and leaders; and to
government –elected leaders on the local, state, and national level.
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Have youth read this passage.
God gives authority to parents – ―obey your parents ―in the Lord.” I visited a family
in the hospital where God gifted them with their first child. Just like this family—we
all were infants at one time with parents who took care of us, fed, clothed—provided
for our day-to-day needs. God expects that we give our parents honor – namely love
and respect, for the role they have. There are situations where parents adopt children
or parents who have taken the role of foster parents. Despite these different
circumstances God’s expectations in our family relationships do not change.
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Parent read this Bible verse.
God gives people in the church authority over us.
There many different people with different responsibilities in the church. There are
our pastors, Lutheran Elementary School teachers, Sunday School teachers, Youth
Leaders, Executive Board, Leadership Team, circuit pastors, district presidents, and
the like. The important thing for us to remember is that, whatever position they hold,
they have been placed over us by God Himself.
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Youth read this passage.
God gives people in government authority over us.
On November 2nd we held mid-term elections of leaders to many levels of government
– US Senate and House of Representatives on national level as well as many state, and
local elections. There are many offices within these various levels of government—
governor, Senator, representative, judge, major, city councilman. There are others
whom we hire—police officers, fireman, public school teachers, and different people
in local government. We are to obey each and every one of these people to whom
God has given authority over us.
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Youth reads this passage.
Family situations truly vary. Sometimes the Lord takes a family member home to
Himself in heaven – and, in turn, this gives us unique opportunities to put our love for
God into practice. I can remember how my grandmother came to live with our
family after grandpa died. It took some added effort on our part to include Grandma
in our daily activities. If you have a special situation in your family, share it with your
youth and help them to understand why everyone needs to help to make it work.
Bottom line – we gave Grandma our love and respect.
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Have youth record this note.
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Parent and youth read this passage together.
We look at these verses again—2 things need to be noted.
First, we are concerned with the attitude our children portray and our own attitude as
parents. Paul is speaking to us as Christian youth—the Lord gives this command
―obey your parents’ as a way to show our love to our parents. At the same time it is
our love for the Lord, and especially as fathers – to instill spiritual values and
understanding in the hearts and minds of our children—that’s God design for the
family.
Second, the Lord God attaches a wonderful promise as we follow His design—we
will enjoy His blessings in our lives. At the same time we do not want to look at this
promise as a guarantee that every Christian parent will have a long life and reach 100.
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Youth reads this passage.
These are similar thoughts to the previous Bible verses. In the Colossian passage the
Apostle Paul goes a step further to speak about masters and slaves. This is no longer
our culture. A helpful parallel may be the work place and the employer – employee
relationship. We can out our responsibilities mindful that the Lord has placed us in
this work environment.
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Youth record this note.
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Scan these verses.
Absalom, son of King David, works to undermine the authority of his father and win
the affection of the people.
Vs. 6 “He stole the hearts of the men of Israel.”
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Scan these verses.
Absalom feeling he has gained adequate support goes to Hebron where he has the
announcement: “Absalom is king!” and he gathers his supporters. Absalom’s
conspiracy gains strength.
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Youth reads these verses.
King David did not want any harm to come to Absalom. Joab, leader of King’s
soldiers, disregards David’s request and kills Absalom. The conspiracy ends.
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Youth reads this Bible verse.
While our authority in home, church, and government comes from God we are not to
use it for our personal advantage. If our parents tell us to personally hurt or harm
someone we are to listen to God as our highest
authority and disregard our parents.
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Parent and youth read this verse.
God’s Word is clear – God desires our highest love. Placing our love for parents or
children over God is contrary to His will for our lives.
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Have youth record this note.
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The 4th Commandment is the one commandment that includes a promise of God’s
blessing for our obedience.
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Parent and youth read passage together.
God’s promise is two-fold. First that our life – whether it be in the home, in the
workplace, in the neighborhood, or at church – all works out well. The Lord is
guiding our life with his protecting hand of love and care.
Second, God adds the promise of long life; namely, a full and complete life. There
are indicators that Christians on the whole live longer compared to other people. (The
purpose in stating this is not the reason we become Christians—it is the reality of
God’s blessing on us.)
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Youth records these notes.
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You shall not murder.
What does this mean?
We should fear and love God that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his
body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need.
God through this commandments want to protect human life.
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Think about the gift of life. Driven by our heart, six liters or so of blood makes a
round trip in our body every minute. In the span of 24 hours our heart receives and
pumps between 7,000 and 9,000 or more liters of blood. In a lifetime of 70 years the
heart beats
Some two and a half billion times, without a single shutdown for repairs.
God created our bodies. He gave us life, and He has the authority over it. By this
commandment he protects and cares for our earthly life that He has given us and all
people..
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Youth reads this passage.
God views life as sacred – as a gift from God – and He wants to protect life as a
precious gift. Further, our lifetime is our opportunity to know God and His salvation
in Jesus Christ. Therefore, we do not want to cut short or limit a person’s time to
know God.
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Scan these verses.
Hezekiah, King of Judah, became seriously ill. Hezekiah too this matter to the Lord
in prayer and God answered through the prophet Isaiah.
Read vs. 5: "Go and tell Hezekiah, 'This is what the LORD , the God of your
father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add
fifteen years to your life.”
God add 15 years to King Hezekiah’s life.
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Youth reads this verse.
God impressed on His people from the beginning that the life of a person is connected
with his/her blood. God’s Law clearly laid out that shedding the blood—taking the
life of another being—had the consequence of losing one’s own life. Why? To
safeguard our life and our opportunity to know God.
Man is the foremost of God’s creation—given body and soul—and made in the image
of God.
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Parent reads this passage.
God has given government the authority to protect human life. God has given
government the responsibility to set up laws to protect life and punish the
wrongdoing. Through the sword—the threat of punishment—government works to
ensure peace and good order.
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Youth records this note.
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Youth reads this passage.
Our lifetime is our opportunity to know the Lord. This is an important time and we do
not want to limit or shorten this opportunity.
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Have youth record this note.
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Youth and parent read this passage.
We noted this important Bible truth earlier.
There are many applications to this truth and we want to keep God’s principles in
mind.
Some examples are:
abortion – the ending of life while the mother is pregnant; some want to define a
time of human life being viable—able to live on its own power. Human life begins at
conception.
suicide – the taking of one’s own life
mercy killing or euthanasia – deeming a person is so seriously ill that one can have
his/her life ended of their or their doctor’s determination
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Have youth record notes 3 & 4.
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Youth reads this verse.
God’s Word takes this commandment further by identifying ―Hating our Brother.” Listen to Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5:21-23
21"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.”
When we get angry and upset with people we can and do things that we regret – yes, easily breaking the 5th Commandment. When these things happen we need to work to resolve these things speedily.
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Parent reads this verse.
Our sinful human nature likes to keep track or take score of how others treat us.
Rather in the spirit of Christian love we need to let go and let God deal with these
issues.
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Have youth record this note.
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Scan these verses.
David was given the opportunity to kill Saul, the King of Israel. In fact, King Saul
had tried on several occasions to take David’s life.
What does David do? David recognizes Saul in his God-appointed position and
refuses to use the opportunity to his advantage. David gives the matter over to the
Lord to work out in His time and His way.
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Parent and youth read this slide.
A spirit of Christian love and compassion is to be shared in our relationships with
others.
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Youth reads this passage.
We need to model Christ’s self-giving love and be willing to make sacrifices for
others.
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Have youth record this note.
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Have your youth complete the ―Assignment for Next Week”.
We have finished our third unit. Memory Work with the Commandments is much lighter amount than with the Apostles Creed. But I
learned from experience that one tends to follow the path of lower expectations. I pray that we are conscientiously partnering with.
our youth.
We are approaching the half-way point of our Confirmation Lessons. Patterns of behavior have become evident to me. Some parents and youth are being very conscientious in our PETT approach. What a blessing as we pass His Word on to our youth—we have more influence on them then we sometimes realize.
Some parents and youth are being inconsistent. I’m concerned that our youth are being short-changed. Just as they can’t get behind the wheel because of their youthfulness so they can’t get the help, instruction, and direction for their lives from God’s Word because they need their parents to show the way. I pray that you as parents see that this is ―too valuable of a time in your son or daughter’s life” to let confirmation take the back seat to other activities. If you are struggling with these issues—by all means– let me know and collectively we can be mutually informed and make some contingency plans.
December 8th, is a little more than a week away. I ask you to encourage your son or daughter to start preparing for it.
Questions: Please e-mail me at: [email protected]
Phone: 612-889-1789
The same is true for your youth. Have them get in touch with me.
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