Theme
It is still possible to be a godly parent and raise godly children, despite the wickedness of the world around us.
Introduction
As a Christian you may have found yourself asking one of these questions at some point in your life.
- How are we supposed to live godly lives as Christians in a world that is so godless and wicked?
- How can I, as a Christian, raise godly children in this wicked society?
- What sort of a world is this to be raising children in?
Today, I want to consider some of the challenges we face in raising godly children.
The reality is that the devil is very active in trying to destroy godly home and, with so few truly godly homes around these days, I think he probably has more time to focus on yours and mine.
The book of Exodus opens at a time when the nation of Israel was living in Egypt.
You’ll remember that God allowed Joseph to be taken as a slave to Egypt and eventually exalted to the position of the second most powerful man in the kingdom. While Joseph was around, the people of Israel were welcomed into the land because Joseph was respected by the Egyptians.
Verse 8 of chapter 1 introduces a new stage in Israel’s history, however, as Joseph has since passed off the scene and a Pharoah who didn’t know Joseph has come to power and is concerned about the growing population among the Israelites.
In keeping with the theme this morning, I want you to take the following two thoughts into consideration.
- The World in Which We Live — Exodus 1:8-22
- The Way in Which We Live — Exodus 2:1-10
The World in Which We Live
Exodus 1:8-22
A World That Knows Not God
In Exodus 1:8 we find the defining statement of the chapter.
Exodus 1:8
“Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.”
While Joseph was around, the people of Israel were welcome in Egypt. The Egyptians had been in great danger when Joseph arrived and gave them the advice they needed to prepare the kingdom for a coming drought.
Joseph’s advice, which came from God, had not only saved the nation of Egypt, but it saved other too, including Joseph’s own family who moved over from Canaan to be near Joseph and the source of corn they needed.
Joseph had also been instrumental in making Pharaoh extremely rich through the sale of the corn he had taken in taxes from the people over the previous 7 good years.
Now, however, Joseph had died and the new king over Egypt didn’t know about the history with Joseph and so he had no reason to continue treating the Israelites kindly.
Verse 6 tells us that the generation who had lived through the years of famine and who know of Joseph had all died and a new generation was now on the scene.
The result was that the new Pharoah began to see Israel as a danger rather than a blessing and he looked for a way to nullify the potential threat of Israel taking over the land.
When a society loses its knowledge of God, oppression of the people of God will quickly follow.
We live in a society that, by enlarge, has embraced atheistic humanism and rejected Christianity as its foundation.
“It is important to realize what a difference a people’s world view makes in their strength as they are exposed to the pressure of life. That it was the Christians who were able to resist religious mixtures, syncretism, and the effects of the weakness of Roman culture speaks to the strength of the Christian worldview. This strength rested on God’s being an infinite-personal God and His speaking in the Old Testament, in the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, and in the gradually growing New Testament. He had spoken in ways people could understand. Thus, the Christians not only had knowledge about the universe and mankind that people cannot find out by themselves, but they had absolute, universal values by which to live and by which to judge the society and the political state in which they lived. And they had grounds for the basic dignity and value of the individual as unique in being made in the image of God.”¹
A major change in the popular wordview in the west occurred in the period known as the Renaissance.
Concerning this time Francis Schaeffer notes:
“There eventually came a change which does merit the name Renaissance. But we should realize that it was not the rebirth of man; it was the rebirth of an idea about man. There was a change in thinking about man, a change which put man himself at the center of all things…”²
When a society loses the knowledge of God, it eventually loses the proper understanding of man.
“Beginning from man alone, Renaissance humanism – and humanism ever since – has found no way to arrive at universals or absolutes which give meaning to existence or morals.”³
Romans 1:28
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”
Humanism is now the basis for the society and world system in which we live. It is a world system that has rejected God and believes only in the rational mind of man as a guide for society.
¹ The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer, 1982; How Should We Then Live, Pg 86.
² The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer, 1982; How Should We Then Live, Pg 102.
³ The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer, 1982; How Should We Then Live, Pg 103.
A World That Hates God’s People
Pharoah began to view the Israelites as a problem that required active suppression.
Pharoah no longer saw the Israelites as being compatible with the Egyptian nation and so he created a system through which to oppress them.
Although the Israelites, and specifically Joseph, were responsible in a large degree for the success the Egyptian empire was now experiencing, now they were viewed as a nuisance or even as a threat.
Notice that even Pharoah could see how God’s people were being blessed and were growing and had become a mighty people. — Vs 9.
It was all well and good to work with Israel in the building of the nation, but now that Egypt was fully established as the dominant power in the region, they new Pharoah did a risk assessment and decided they didn’t need to cooperate with the Israelites anymore they just needed to enslave them.
Pharoah put a two-part plan into action immediately.
First, they enslaved the Israelites and put them to work, making “their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.” (Vs 14)
Secondly, Pharoah commanded that the midwives to the Israelite women were to kill any male baby that was born to the Israelites.
This was an effective way to reduce the number of available fighting men among the Israelites. If this plan were put into action successfully, within 40 years all the Israelite men would be in their 40’s or older and would be physically wasted from a life of hard labour as slaves.
The goal was to destroy the children of Israel by running them down and killing their children.
We now live in a world that is becoming increasingly antagonistic toward Christians and especially hostile toward Christians who emphasize good moral values.
If you don’t think that the world and the devil are out to destroy Christian homes and Christian values, then you need to pull your head out of the sand and have a good look around.
Western civilisations were built on Christian values and, to some degree, a respect for the Word of God, but humanism has led to a change in the way our society views itself and a rejection of the very Christian values that built it.
Even though Christianity was at the very foundation of western civilization, that same civilization has decided that Christian values are no longer compatible with it and has begun working to remove Christianity from every area of public life in an attempt to shut us down.
There are some legislative changes that have been made in recent years that are clearly contrary to Christian values.
The Marriage Act 1961 was amended in 2017 to allow for same-sex marriage.
The government legalised something which God still views as an abomination. (Lev 20:13)
So called, voluntary assisted dying is now legal in all Australian states and the ACT, and in August 2026, just last month, the Northern Territory Parliament also passed legislation to legalise it, making it lawful throughout Australia.
This effectively a combination of suicide and murder, both of which are in opposition to the biblical view on live which is that all live is given by God and has intrinsic value which should not be interfered with by man.
Recent laws, particularly in Victoria, have put preachers in danger of facing legal consequences for speaking publicly against Homosexuality. The law in Victoria effectively says that you can be prosecuted if your speech or conduct may reasonably be considered offensive.
Which, if we’re honest, someone somewhere could take offence to most things the Bible says, so that’s risky.
So, how should we live today and what are some dangers we need to be aware of, particularly in relation to our young people?
The Way in Which We Live
Exodus 2:1-10
A Way of Godly Posterity
Exodus 2:1
They continued to build their family despite the world’s hostility.
Immediately after we read of Pharaohs command to drown the all the male babies, chapter 2 opens with the establishment of a new family.
As most of us are aware, the couple who are being spoken of here are the parents of Moses (mo-sheh). Exodus 6:20 identifies his parents as as Amram (am-rawm) and Jochebed (yo-keh’-bed).
In the face of this strong oppression, wouldn’t it have been easy to allow yourself to be intimidated into not attempting to raise a family at all? Surely it would have been easier on the couple and a mercy to their potential children?
Here they are living in Egypt, they are under the oppression of the Egyptians, they are living in bondage, theirs would seem to be a miserable existence but they didn’t allow the wickedness of their world to prevent them from fulfilling their God-given responsibility to create a godly home and raise godly children, to the best of their ability.
This is still God’s plan for the Christian home.
Are we allowing the condition of our society to discourage us from having and raising children for the Lord? I understand the concerns about and many of the struggles involved in raising children today, when there are so many ways in which the world is trying to corrupt them.
But Amram and Jochebed lived in a world that was far more immediately hostile to their children than ours is. Pharaoh had literally issued a death sentence against their sons. Still, they trusted God to build and protect their family.
Psalm 127:1
“Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”
Moses’ parents had enough faith in God to bring a baby into a world where, humanly speaking, he was destined to either be killed or become a slave for his whole life.
Surely, we can trust God to enable us to build a Christian home, despite the obstacles we face today.
A Way of Godly Protection
Exodus 2:2-4
They took deliberate measures to protect their child from the world’s evil.
This is primarily the responsibility of the Father in the home.
This being Father’s Day, a challenge to the fathers, and potential fathers in the room is fitting. As the leaders of our homes, fathers need to take their responsibility to protect the home from damaging influences seriously.
It has been said that:
“What you allow in moderation you kids will do in excess.”
In other words, your children will typically push the boundaries on the things that you only allowed to a small degree. That’s not a hard and fast rule, but it is reflective of a pattern.
For example, if you allow your kids to play moderately violent video games you can expect that, as they grow older, they will likely end up playing much more violent games.
If you allowed your kids to watch “mild” Hollywood films growing up, as they grow older, they will look for even more vulgar, violent, and secular films.
By the way, secular films affect the way we think about life situations, even if we don’t realise it. What films portray affects the way we see the world.
If the music you listen to in the home is edgy music, you kids will likely end up listening to CCM or even secular rock music.
Again, these are not guaranteed outcomes, just like there is no guarantee that if you do everything right your kids will turn out great. At the end of the day, they will still make their own choices.
The point is that, as parents, we ought to do our best to protect our children from those worldly influences that would corrupt them and undo all the hard work we are putting into training them up for God.
The Christian home ought to be a haven that is kept clean from the world’s filth, not a place where the worlds ideals and practices are imported and polished and Christianised to try and make them pass muster.
Ways the Devil Wants to Infiltrate Christian Homes
Here are a few ways in which the devil wants to infiltrate Christian homes.
Through public schooling.
Sending your kids to a public school is the same as sending them into a spiritual battlefield every day and trusting that they come home undamaged at the end of it all. The public school system is not a friend to the Christian home.
Movies and social media.
This is the enemy within the home. Most parents today treat movies, YouTube, and social media like a digital babysitter and then wonder why their kids are being morally wrecked.
Even the government has recently taken measures to restrict the ability of young children to access social media. If they can see the dangers, then we as Christians ought to be even more circumspect in our use of these platforms.
Rock music.
I have heard personal testimonies from people who were very nearly wrecked as a child because they managed to secretly listen to secular rock without their parents’ knowledge. The worlds music is immoral in its lyrics and sensual in its beat and it should be carefully guarded against in the Christian home.
A Way of Godly Provision
Exodus 2:5-10
They trusted God to provide when they could no longer control the circumstances.
There are things which are outside of our control that we simply must trust God with.
We can’t control the changes to legislation that our government is making. Of course we can fulfill our responsibility to vote wisely, but at the end of the day, when the government signs wicked laws into place, that is outside of our control, and we need to trust God with it.
There are spiritual dangers that will always be present, and we must do our best to protect our children from them while they are young and train them to deal with them themselves as they grow older.
There are things that we cannot totally protect our children from, such as the influence of rock music which is played in most public spaces or exposure to pornography on display in public places.
In today’s environment, we can do our best to avoid those things, but our children will eventually have to face them.
As parents, we need to do our best to train our children to think about these things from a biblical perspective and teach them how to overcome the temptations that come from the world and our own flesh.
When we have done our best to train our children right and to give them a solid foundation in the Word of God, we have to leave the rest to God and trust that He will enable them to live godly lives just as he has done in generations gone by and is able to do for future generations.
Conclusion
Yes, it is possible to raise a godly family, even though the world around us is increasingly wicked and hostile toward Christianity.
You can’t keep your children at home forever, so take the time to prepare them for the day they leave the home so that, when that happens, they will be able to stand on their own two feet and their personal walk with God will keep them going strong despite the worldliness around them.