Seduction Prov.12:26 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

This lesson is about seduction.  To seduce means to lure or entice away from duty, principles or proper conduct – to lead astray – to tempt and to lead into iniquity.

Here is a picture of a righteous man [say a Christian, God fearing, Bible reading, church going young man] and his neighbor [a school mate or a neighbor or a relative] who is not so with the Lord.  The Christian is more excellent than his neighbor – BUT the way of that wicked neighbor is going to seduce that young man because what he’s doing appears FUN.  He is going to be even more tempted to do something wrong because his neighbor is doing it – he might not have even thought about it if he weren’t exposed to it by a friend.  How many young people were introduced to sex, drugs and alcohol by a friend?  A neighbor can pull a Christian down quicker than that Christian will pull that wicked boy up – that wicked way is like gravity pulling on an object – the way up is much harder than the way down – so what are you supposed to do to protect your children from a wicked neighbor?

Limit their exposure – TV, movies, music, sleepovers and time away in unsupervised activity lead to trouble – evil communications corrupt good manners – you are going to have to stay right on top of what they are doing – be sure your sin will find you out [most kids have been able to get away with very little that they do when their parents pray for God to help keep tabs on them] – punish the sin and instruct them through what they are doing – some want their kids out of public school – we’ve done it both ways – certainly they are going to have less contact with the wicked but don’t think for a minute that they aren’t going to see it or be seduced by it – they know what’s going on.

Train them – I don’t think there is any way that you can actually keep them out of trouble [sheltered] – so you would be far better off to train them on how to deal with the seduction – Pastor Thompson said train them in the fear of God, accountability [do the crime do the time; gotta take what’s coming], compassion on the suffering of others, the gospel, prayer [God’s only a prayer away] – they have to know they can make the right decisions in the face of temptation and survive the pressure from peers – and it is far better for them to do that while they are with you and you can walk them through it than when they first leave home – be somewhat moderate in your training, too, recognizing that kids mess up – but don’t be too lenient or too tolerant – and remember that most children are very individual and need to be trained differently – keeping them involved with service for the Lord will help – no idleness.

Don’t pamper them – invariably when children allow themselves to be seduced by the wicked, one parent is like the Gestapo and the other is like Mr. Rogers – both parents have to be in agreement on how to deal with the child after he has fallen and they should be firm and yet merciful – that is there should be punishment that fits the sin and there should be mercy that encourages the child to do it right the next time – and if you come to the end of the road [i.e. one more time and you are gone; abide by these rules or else] then be ready to enforce your policy or else don’t lay down the law like that – be consistent – and if they have to go out then pray and only when they have come to themselves like the prodigal should you be ready to give them the full privilege that they would enjoy if they were doing right – they have got to learn that righteousness has privileges and sin denies those privileges – the prodigal lost some of his privileges for ever; he came home as a servant not a son.

Pick your battles – you usually can’t win all of these battles against sin in your children’s lives because you can’t win them in your own life – so pick the ones that you need to really help them on – perhaps the ones with the greatest consequences – remember you are trying to help them be the excellent not the wicked.

Love them – and often this has to be done at a long distance because they aren’t ready to be righteous, they still want to be wicked – they want to be the seducers not the children that are excellent – by the way, if your child is the excellent [and don’t praise him for being excellent if he isn’t – bad mistake – you’re creating a monster] thank God!!!!