SPECIAL DAYS: Father's Day

June 20, 1999 - LESSON: Galatians 6:6-10

SERMON TITLE: Interior Decorating

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INTRODUCTION:

Sometime after Helga and I were married we went out to a party. As we were preparing to leave, helga looked at me and said, "Are you really going out looking like that?" It was said in a kindly and wifely way, but then I knew what it was to be married to an interior decorator.

1. An Interior Decorator is a consultant who guides individuals who want to decorate or redecorate a room or building.
1. Options are offered concerning wall colors and window treatments, furniture, and floor coverings.
2. You can enter a space and admire the results.
2. Parents are interior decorators.
1. Parents are not decorating living spaces, but children.
2. Parents are not dealing with externals, but internals.
3. The decoration is of the mind, the spirit, the heart.
4. The results are to be seen in the totality of the life of the child.
1. In the child's attitudes
2. In the child's speech
3. In the child's manners
4. In the child's activities
3. We struggle with ways to help our children child's
1. Newest mission for educators: Molding Morals⁽¹⁾ was the lead article in the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel of Sunday, June 13, 1999.
1. Some schools are attempting to "mold character along with intellect,"⁽²⁾
2. Consider these words: "Character is a cornerstone of the democratic society... Schools should provide instruction in core character qualities that transcend cultural, religious and socioeconomic differences, such as common courtesy, respect for person and property, civic and personal responsibility. When you plant the seeds of virtue, virtue will grow, for 'you reap what you sow.'"⁽³⁾
3. In 1992, a Boston College education professor, William Kilpatrick, published a book called "Why Johnny Can't Tell Right From Wrong." Kilpatrick said schools' non-judgmental stance toward ethical issues beginning in the 1960's had been "a resounding failure" and that the nation was raising a generation of "moral illiterates."⁽⁴⁾
4. "The core problem facing our schools is a moral one," Kilpatrick wrote. "All the other problems derive from it. Hence, all the various attempts at school reform are unlikely to succeed unless character education is put at the top of the agenda."
5. John Benson, Wisconsin's superintendent of public instruction, says schools must do both.
1. "More and more and more, we realize that our job in public education is to be sure that children and young people acquire the knowledge that they need, not just to survive but to thrive in the 21st century academically,"
2. Benson says. "But equally important is this thing called citizenship. We must help the community be sure that all of our young people grow up to be good people."⁽⁵⁾ child's

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6. This is good new and will have a positive impact on our children and young people.
1. They could use Character 101⁽⁶⁾, a chart that accompanied the article.

There is no single script for effective character education, but the experts do cite some important basic principles. According to the Character Education Partnership, a well-regarded non-profit based in Washington, they might include the following points.

• Character education promotes core ethical values as the basis of good character
• "Character" must be comprehensively defined to include thinking, feeling and behavior.
• Effective character education requires an intentional, pro-active and comprehensive approach that promotes the core values in all phases of school life.
• The school must be a caring community.
• To develop character, students need opportunities for moral action.
• Effective character education includes a meaningful and challenging academic curriculum that respects all learners and helps them succeed.
• Character education should strive to develop students' intrinsic motivation toward good behavior.
• The school staff must become a learning and moral community in which all share responsibility for character education and attempt to adhere to the same core values that guide the education of students.
• Character education requires moral leadership from both staff and students.
• The school must recruit parents and community members as full partners in the character building effort.

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Evaluation of character education should assess the character of the school, the school staffs functioning as character educators, and the extent to which students manifest good character.

1. The question needs to be raised, "What will be used as a foundation for this effort?"
1. Some form of current social or psychological theory?
1. I do not object to this, but will it be effective?
2. It may be some vague appeal to a Judeo-Christian ethic.
1. Representative Bob Barr of the Seventh District of George could be seen on Thursday's ABC's evening news holding up a copy of the Ten Commandments.
1. Why not appeal to the Ten Commandments?
2. Why not put them in our classrooms?
3. Why not put them in our court houses?
4. Why not put them on the walls of our meetings houses?
2. Because they have been replaced.
3. This is the message of the writer of Hebrews:
1. But Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted through better promises. [7] For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one. [8] God finds fault with them when he says: "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; [9] not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord. [10] This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [11] And they shall not teach one another or say to each other, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. [12] For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." [13] In speaking of "a new covenant," he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear, (Hebrews 8:6-13 NRSV).

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4. They were good principles meant for an ancient people at another time.
5. They were based on the people's response to God's invitation.
1. (Exodus 19:8 NRSV) The people all answered as one: "Everything that the LORD has spoken we will do." Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD.
2. (Exodus 24:3 NRSV) Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, "All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do."
6. They couldn't, so God gave us something better.
1. In the words of Jesus: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. [35] By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another," (John 13:34-35 NRSV)
2. One that is to be "I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
7. An appeal to the Ten Commandments locks us back into legalism.
8. It didn't work before Christ and it will not work after Christ.
3. To this end Paul writes in Galatians 3:10-14, For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law." [11] Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law; for "The one who is righteous will live by faith." [12] But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, "Whoever does the works of the law will live by them." [13] Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"--[14] in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

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4. James calls love the "royal law" and the "law of liberty."
1. (James 2:8-12 NRSV) You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." [9] But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. [10] For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. [11] For the one who said, "You shall not commit adultery," also said, "You shall not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. [12] So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.
1. There is another way, the way of LOVE!
1. We approach it with the thought of the Apostle Paul.
1. Galatians 6:6:6 Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher.
2. Galatians 6:6:7 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.
3. Galatians 6:6:8 If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.
4. Galatians 6:6:9 So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.
5. Galatians 6:6:10 So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
2. Let us work for the good all, especially for those of the family of faith.
1. That includes all of us.
2. We are of the family of faith.

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3. We are to teach and share in what is taught.
4. What is it that we are to teach and share?
1. Teach patience
2. Teach kindness
3. Teach respect and humility
4. Teach contentment and acceptance
5. Teach sorrow for wrongdoing
6. Teach rejoicing for truth
7. Teach endurance regardless.
8. Teach activeness.
9. Teach the necessity of recognizing that all this is from God.
10. Without God there are no morals.
11. Without God there are no ethics.
12. Without God there is only darkness and destruction.
5. If we truly learn to love then we will learn how to become an individual who is maturing in life.
6. Mature people have the ability to live morally, ethically, ;lovingly and enthusiastically.
2. Two contrasting illustrations.
1. Mom pulled up to the convenience store with two children seated in back.
1. The rear door opened and a six year old got out.
1. Because she probably had been told, she forceful tried to shut the door.
2. The younger brother was also trying to get out of the car.
2. The door caught him around the ankles and he began to cry.
3. The older child looked and then walked away.
1. There was no "I'm sorry."
2. There was no "Let me help you."
3. The child sort of grimaced and simply walked away.
4. Mom was already in the store.
5. So the small child with tears streaming down his face tried to handle the big door and join the rest of the family.
6. The older child is sharing also with the teacher.
7. The "Interior Decorating" leaves much to be desired.
8. I do not believe that you would enjoy living in this space.

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3. In contrast Bud Frimuth tells a different kind of story.⁽⁷⁾
1. If you have heard it is worth repeating.

A woman took her five-year-old son into a restaurant for lunch. The boy asked to say grace. "God is good. God is great. Thank you for the food we eat, and I would even thank you more if Mom gets me ice cream for dessert. Amen."

Most of the nearby customers laughed, but the boy overheard a woman saying, "That's what's wrong with this country. Kids today don't even know how to pray. Can you imagine asking God for ice cream!?"

The boy burst into tears. An elderly man nearby approached the table and told the boy, "I'm sure God thought that was a great prayer. Too bad that woman never asked God for ice cream. Sometimes a little ice cream is good for the soul."

The mother ordered some ice cream for her son. But the boy picked up his ice cream and took it over to the woman's table and gave it to her.

"This is for you," he said, smiling. "Ice cream is good for the soul sometimes, and my soul is good already."

1. Here is a child who not only knows but is sharing good things with the teacher.
2. He is the beneficiary of excellent "Interior Decoration."
3. You would greatly enjoy living in this space.

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CONCLUSION:

1. We are all interior decorator.
1. We are not working with paint or wall paper, draperies or carpeting, furniture or cabinetry.
2. We are working on the minds and lives of the young and old.
3. Let us be excellent Interior Decorators.

1. Alan J. Borsuk, "Newest mission for educators: Molding Morals," Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel, Sunday, June 13, 1999, pp. 1A, 17A-18A

2. Ibid

3. Ibid

4. Ibid

5. Ibid

6. Source: Character Education Partnership, Bob VEIERSTAHLER/Journal Sentinel

7. Ice Cream for the Soul. -via Bud Frimoth, Portland, OR in the Joyful Noiseletter.

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