Alright, we're here in Deuteronomy chapter 6, and we're continuing our series on the
old paths question mark.
And what we're kind of looking at is various kind of traditions that basically we don't
really have in our church, but a lot of other Baptist churches have them, and things that
are just not found in the Bible.
Now I apologize, but I forgot to bring my water.
Could someone possibly bring me my water that's back there on that chair?
I apologize, but I lose my voice when I preach, so if I don't have any water, we're just like
a cup of water or something.
But we're here in Deuteronomy chapter 6, and what we're talking about during this sermon
is we're going to be talking about children's ministries or children's programs, and why
we do not have them, okay?
Because if you've noticed at our church, you know, we have all the children with us, and
we don't have any children's ministries, we don't have any separate children's programs,
and so there's a reason why we do this, okay?
Now let me say this, that if you're reading the Bible, it's very clear that there are
no children's ministries—I appreciate it, thank you, brother—that if you notice, there
are no children's ministries or children's programs in the New Testament.
There is no verse you could point at or no passage where you say, well, here are children's
ministries.
There's nothing.
Now, I'm not going to say that guarantees that if it's not in the Bible that we can't
do something, but I would say this, if you're going to add a ministry that you do not find
in Scripture, you better make sure it lines up with principles found in Scripture, okay?
And so here we are in Deuteronomy chapter 6, and I want to kind of give two aspects
to children's ministries, the idea of having them in church with us and the idea of having
them in a separate room.
Because when it comes to most Baptist churches, at first they would say, let's just bring
all the kids in here and have them in service with us, okay?
But if we bring all of the kids with us in this room, and when I say all of the kids,
what I mean is children whose parents are not here.
Because I think it's great that we have lots of kids and babies in this room, and as our
verse of the week said, suffer the little children, which means allow them to come.
Don't be upset that they're here with us in church.
That's a good thing.
But I would say this, that if we're going to bring in kids without their parents here,
one of the big problems is we will have to babysit those kids, okay?
Notice what it says in Deuteronomy 6 verse 1.
Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 1, now these are the commandments, the statutes and the judgments,
which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land whither
you go to possess it, that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes
and his commandments, which I command thee, thou and thy son and thy son's son, all the
days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged.
And what you see in Deuteronomy 6 is it says, thou or you, your son and your son's son,
your grandchildren.
So you, your children and your grandchildren.
So what we're seeing is it's the same words for both anyone, whether you're an adult or
a child or grandchild, everybody hears the same thing.
And so at first glance, you know, Baptist churches would say, let's bring these kids
in, in the room with us, okay?
Notice what it says in verse 3, here therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it that it may
be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath
promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
Here O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.
And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart.
And so what the Bible says here is the words I'm commanding you, I want these in your heart.
I want you to know them, have them memorized.
I want you to know the Bible, okay?
Verse 7, pay attention to this, and thou shalt teach them diligently onto somebody else's
children.
Is that what it says?
It says unto thy children, okay?
And see, God commands you as a parent to teach your children, not somebody else's child,
okay?
That's what you're seeing in the Bible.
As a father, I'm commanded to teach my son, Zeph, and my daughter, Christa, the things
of God, okay?
I'm not commanded, obviously if I'm preaching the sermons, I'm preaching and teaching to
everyone, but I'm saying you as a parent, your job is to teach your own children, not
somebody else's children.
That is what the Bible teaches, okay?
And so in order to teach your children, you need to hear what's being preached.
He's saying I'm giving you words, and the words I tell you, I need you to pass them
on to your children and your family, okay?
Now this is true for husbands and wives, but if we're honest, the truth is husbands
will hear the sermons better than wives, usually.
Why?
Because if you have kids, the mom's taking care of the kids during the service sometimes.
She's not going to catch everything.
Look, I mean, kids take up a lot of energy, and look, when you have young kids, my wife,
sometimes I'll ask her about the sermons, and she's like, I didn't hear that part.
I was like, you missed the best part.
I was like, what do you mean you didn't hear it?
And she's like, I was taking care of Zeph, you know, he's getting a spanking.
I had to change a diaper or something like that, and the reality is that sometimes the
wives with young kids, they don't catch everything.
That's especially why husbands, you hear what's preached, and you make sure your family knows
about it, because the moms, as they're taking care of the children, sometimes they're going
to miss some of it.
It's just the reality.
As much as they try and they go to the mother baby room, with kids, you know, they're must
soon eat, right?
Sometimes they're just troublemakers, okay?
It just is what it is, and they're going to miss some of the sermons.
So husbands especially, you need to know what the Bible says.
Now as much as is possible, the room back there is not like a hangout or goof off room.
So as much as is possible, moms, pay attention to the sermons, hear the preaching.
I'm just saying it's not always 100% possible, okay?
But here's the thing.
If husbands are in this room, and they're taking care of other people's kids that are
running around, they're not going to hear the preaching, and they won't be able to pass
it down to their families and their children, okay?
And the reality is, if we have 25 kids in here without their parents, somebody will
be babysitting them.
That's what takes place.
And we haven't had 25 kids, but we've had up to like 10 kids in here, and you know,
there's been times when I'm preaching where it's like, hey, can somebody tell this person
to calm down?
It's like, you know, I'm trying to preach here, and then they're arguing or doing whatever,
and it's distracting, okay?
This is meant to be decently in an order in church, okay?
That's what the Bible teaches.
So in verse 7, teach them unto thy children diligently, and shall talk of them when thou
sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and
when thou risest up.
Teach your kids basically at all times.
Turn to Matthew 7, Matthew 7.
And look, there is going to be no exception to this.
If you have a lot of kids without their parents to discipline them, somebody has to babysit
them.
Now, here's the advantage when it's your own kids.
When my son's acting up, my wife just spanks him.
Here's the thing, you can't spank somebody else's kid, right?
Especially in today's world, you might go to jail or whatever, right?
So if some other kid comes in here and you say, hey, can you please be quiet?
Look, it doesn't usually work.
The backup plan is, here's some candy, okay?
But that will only last so long during a church service.
We have back-to-back services.
That's three hours, okay?
A lot of kids, they're just not going to last through three hours.
They're going to be goofing off, running in and out like a madhouse.
And I'm not saying they're bad kids.
I'm just saying this is reality, okay?
We can put a blanket over our heads and pretend this isn't the truth.
This is the truth, though.
If you have a lot of kids without their parents, someone will have to babysit them, okay?
And I don't think that's fair to anybody in this church because you deserve to hear the
Word of God.
Now, if your child, though, is just rebellious and acting up, it's just like, well, that
is what it is, okay?
But when some other kid is doing that, it's not fair to you to miss the sermon because
you're taking care of those kids during the church service, okay?
Matthew 7, verse 24, Matthew 7, verse 24 in the New Testament says,
Therefore, the ending of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7, verse 24,
Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto
a wise man which built his house upon a rock.
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house,
and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.
The Bible says if you're the person who hears the Word of God and you would apply it to
your life, then basically your house is founded upon a rock.
It won't fall, okay?
But notice verse 26,
And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto
a foolish man which built his house upon the sand.
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house,
and it fell, and great was the fall of it.
So here in Matthew 7 you have two types of people.
Both examples, the rain descends, the floods come, and the winds blow and beat upon that
house.
No matter who you are, the storms of life are going to come.
But here's the thing, the Bible's saying if you hear the Word of God and apply it, then
your house will not fall.
Here's the problem, you could come to church every single week and if you're not actually
able to hear the Word of God preached, your house is going to fall, because you can't
apply it.
Everybody in this room, you need to hear these things over and over and over again.
They're not always new information, but we need to be reminded of the same things.
Even if it's on salvation or soul winning or the King James Bible or things you've heard
preached 50 times, we all need reminded of these things.
And if you're not able to hear the sermons, you're not going to be successful in the Christian
life.
And it would be my fault for having a church that's basically operated in that way.
Where basically you have to babysit rather than pay attention to the preaching.
Now turn in your Bible to Acts 20, Acts chapter 20.
And look, I've never seen a problem with our church because it seems like people are paying
attention to the Word of God being preached.
People have respect for the Word of God here, but realize during church service is not the
time to be sending text messages or checking your email or find out what's going on online.
You know, if you go back to with the Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon, the Bible talked
about his servants sitting there to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
Because there is a time to sit down and pay attention to the Word of God being preached.
And everybody needs this time.
And look, you know, we would never just have people just go out soul winning during the
church services.
You say, why?
Because they need to hear the Word of God preached.
We'll go soul winning in the afternoon, but look, everybody needs to hear the Word of
God preached every single week, even more so in today's world than hundreds of years
ago.
Because the world is fighting against us every single day.
Okay, so number one, if we have all these children's ministries with the kids in the
room with us, and we're referring to children whose parents are not there, just random kids
that are eight, nine, 10 years old, 11, 12, or whatever, and their parents are not with
them, the result is somebody will have to babysit them.
Okay?
So that's a problem.
That's not the only problem, though.
The result of that will also be that if we have these kids in the room with us, the sermons
will start to get shorter.
You say, why?
Because we're trying to entertain those kids and try to get through the services, right?
We have three hours from 10 to 1, okay?
If we had lots of kids in here that are distracting, those services would be shorter.
Why?
Because it would just get annoying after a while.
We try to get through it so there's no problems.
And there would be a big problem with the sermons being short.
You say, why?
Acts 20, verse 26.
Acts chapter 20, verse 26, wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from
the blood of all men.
This is Paul the apostle.
For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
So Paul says, I preached everything to you.
Verse 28, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy
Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with
his own blood, okay?
Now when it's talking about feeding the church of God, it's not talking about the morning
pandesal, okay?
It's not talking about the kapeh on the back table, okay?
It's referring to like feeding with spiritual knowledge, okay?
Feeding the church of God, okay?
And the Bible says we need to feed the church of God, so this is referencing the preaching.
You need to actually teach people something.
They need to be fed spiritually every single week, okay?
Verse 29, for I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you,
not sparing the flock.
Also of your own self shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after
them.
Therefore, watch and remember that by the space of three years, I cease not to warn
everyone night and day with tears.
Now I want you to realize in verse 26 or verse 27, Paul says he's free from the blood of
all men, pure from the blood of all men, because he preached all the counsel of God.
Over the course of three years, he was able to say I preached all the counsel of God.
Now here's the reality for any of you who end up going into the ministry and running
churches.
What you're going to find is after a year, at least I found this, that I had not preached
all the counsel of God.
There's just a lot of information in this book.
And here's the thing, my sermons are not short, okay?
I preach long sermons.
My average sermon is probably about an hour long now, about 60 minutes long are my average
sermons, okay?
They're not short sermons.
But what I found over one year is basically there's some topics I didn't really cover.
I did not really talk about clothing for the first 12 months really.
Now if you're here last week, then it's like, all right, you know, you heard the sermon,
right?
And the reason why I'm doing this series is to basically cover all the things I haven't
preached on yet.
But basically what I found in one year, even by preaching one hour long sermons, there's
just a lot of parts of the Bible you don't really cover.
I'm not talking about every chapter, I'm talking about every topic within the Bible and how
it applies to our lives.
Here's what I'm trying to tell you.
If the sermons get short, there are going to be so many topics I'm not able to cover.
See, over the course of one year, I felt like there were things I didn't really cover.
And when Paul says he's free from the blood of all men, I think it means he's really adequately
preached in depth on every topic several times to give people a chance.
And that would be my goal after three years, that I can say I'm free from the blood of
all men because in Verity Baptist Church Manila, I've preached on everything over three years.
It doesn't mean I've covered every chapter in Ezekiel or every chapter in Isaiah or something
like that, but it means I've covered all topics.
And quite honestly, there's a lot to preach on.
So it's important that the sermons are not short.
Why?
There's a lot to talk about.
And look, when people take time out of their schedules to come here to church and drive
an hour and a half, they want something besides a 20-minute sermon on salvation every week.
They want to actually learn the Word of God and say, I was actually fed, it wasn't just
a waste of my time.
And if all I'm going to do is preach these really short sermons, I might as well just
tell you, listen online to Pastor Jimenez.
Listen online to some other pastor.
You need to be here in church and actually learn the Word of God, which means sermons
need to be long, not short.
I'm not saying you've got to preach for five hours long, but what I'm saying is you need
to make sure that you're actually covering topics and preaching in depth on everything.
Now turn in your Bible to 1 Samuel 13.
Now look, I understand some sermons are longer and shorter than others, depends on the topic,
depends on the style of the person preaching, depends on if they go on rabbit trails, but
I would just say I try at least to preach for 40 minutes every sermon of actual preaching
from the beginning to the end.
At our church here in Manila, there have been two sermons where my sermons have been shorter
than 40 minutes.
They were both Christmas sermons.
They were shorter for a reason.
We were fellowshipping.
And there's times like that, and sometimes there's topics where maybe they aren't as
in depth.
I'm not saying you have to look and say, well, I've got to keep preaching for 15 more minutes
even though I'm done with the sermon.
I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying that on every topic in the Bible, there's a lot to say about it.
And so honestly, there's just a lot of preaching that needs to be done on the topic because
you want to drive home the point to people.
First Samuel 13, not only do sermons become short if we have a lot of kids in here, the
sermons will become shallow, short and shallow, basically more about entertainment and stories,
less Bible being preached, less explaining, just trying to entertain the people rather
than actually preach the Word of God.
First Samuel 13 verse 7, notice what it says, and some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to
the land of Gad and Gilead.
As for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.
Verse 8, and he tarried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed.
But Samuel came not to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him.
So Saul is basically waiting for Samuel to make the offering.
And here's the problem, Samuel doesn't come in the set appointed time.
But the only person with the authority to do this is Samuel.
Saul doesn't have this authority.
And if you notice in the verse we just read in verse 8, it says the people were scattered
from him.
People are basically leaving the army because they're waiting for it, they're scared, and
they say, you know what?
We cannot wait for this, we're just going to flee, we're going to run away.
Now this is a true story, but it's also a picture of a church who would have members
leave because of the fact you're preaching sermons that are too hard, they get offended
or whatever, and they scatter away from you.
Now what do most churches do?
They change the sermon to make people happy.
Oh, if people are scattering, we're not running a hundred people, man, we're just going to
change the sermon to make people happy.
And that is basically what King Saul is.
Now King Saul was a good man of God when he started, and he was humble.
But he's also a man who really wasn't designed to be the leader.
He's not the sort of guy you could trust to end up being the pastor of a church.
Why?
Because when people scatter, he does something that's wrong because he's worried about people
leaving.
Notice what it says here in verse 9.
And Saul said, bring hither a burnt offering to me and peace offerings, and he offered
the burnt offering.
Verse 10, and it came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt
offering, behold, Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him, that he might salute him.
And Samuel said, what hast thou done?
And Saul said, notice these excuses, because I saw that the people were scattered from
me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered
themselves together at Michmash.
Therefore said I, the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not
made supplication unto the Lord.
I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering.
So Saul has three excuses.
And one of them is, Samuel, you didn't come in time.
It's like he blames, he's like, what did you do?
He's like, well, you didn't come in time, right?
He's throwing out all those excuses to justify his actions.
You can tell from reading that, he knows what he did was wrong.
And he's just throwing out these excuses, look, here's the thing, God tells you to preach
all the counsel of God, and we do not have the right to trim it down, and make it nicer,
and less hateful, so everybody loves it.
No, the Bible says preach all the counsel of God.
And look, there's sermons on the love of God, there's also sermons on clothing standards.
There's everything in the word of God, and we're not gonna hide any of it, why?
Because I wanna be pure from the blood of all men.
And the only way to do that is if you've actually taught people what the Bible says, okay?
Now turn in your Bible to Matthew 19, Matthew 19.
Here's the thing about this, Baptist churches are aware of this.
They know that if you have the kids in here, they'll distract you.
You have to change the sermons, shorten them, make them shallow.
So what do they do?
Instead of having the children in church with them, they go to some separate room where
somebody is preaching to them, okay?
So basically they'll call it junior church, Sunday school, or whatever they call it.
Basically it's like a separate church, okay, away from the congregation.
Now one big problem is everybody needs to hear the word of God, right?
The same preaching.
But not just the kids, the person preaching to them should be in the church to hear the
sermon too, okay?
Now let me say this, that I used to really work in children's ministries even though
I was not biblically for it, okay?
I used to work on bus routes and bring kids to church.
I was the junior church preacher at my church in West Virginia.
So every single week during the main service, I was just preaching to the kids, okay?
And I helped with the church because I just wanted to be a blessing to that church.
And so I'm not saying it's wrong to help with children's ministries.
I'm sure a lot of people in this room have done that before.
You help with children's ministries.
I don't think it was wrong of you to do that.
I'm just saying as we set up a church, we're not going to have that ministry.
It's not wrong to help that church and be a blessing, but I'm just saying we're not
going to have it in our church.
And you say, why?
Well, we're going to see here in a second, okay?
But I want you to realize that we need everybody in the same church.
And if we have a separate church over there, look, unless I'm giving them the same sermon
to preach and listening to every sermon, I can't be sure what they're preaching or teaching
over there.
I mean, they could be teaching, I don't know, something I don't even believe in over there.
They could be teaching them some other heresy or whatever.
I don't know, right?
And so we need everybody in the same service.
Otherwise it's like a separate church service.
Now we're going to Matthew 19, and we're going to look at what I believe is the most famous
passage from Baptist churches to justify children's ministries, because they would say we should
have children in a separate room, and they would turn to Matthew 19, okay, verse 13.
Matthew 19, verse 13.
Then there were brought unto him little children that he should put his hands on them and pray,
and the disciples rebuked them.
But Jesus said, Suffer little children, which means allow the little children to come, and
forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven, and he laid his
hands on them and departed thence.
And so basically as I preach a sermon like this, what most Baptist churches would say
is you're basically like the disciples rebuking the kids from coming.
You should suffer the little children and allow them in the church.
Now I want to explain a few things about this.
For one, this is not a church service in Matthew 19.
This is not Jesus preaching a sermon.
I'm preaching a sermon, and a little kid walks up, all right, let's just stop the service.
Let's just stop for 10 minutes.
No.
Why?
Things are done decently and in order.
If anybody tried to stop the church service, then it's just like I'll just preach over
them.
That's not right in the house of God to try to interrupt a church service.
Now the kids, if they did that, they wouldn't do it intentionally.
I'm not saying they're bad.
They don't know any better.
But what I'm saying is that you should never interrupt a church service.
So in Matthew 19, this is not a church service.
But I want you to realize, if they're going to apply this to children's ministries, then
they should keep the children in the service and suffer the little children.
If you're going to apply that to a church, instead of putting them in a separate room
because you're not suffering the little children.
If you're going to apply that to church service, they should be in the church with you.
We already saw the problems with that, and no Baptist church that I know of basically
just has the children there.
They have them in a separate room, okay?
They don't suffer the little children.
Now I want you to understand in Matthew 19, I go out so many here all the time, and you
know a lot of these kids around this area, when I walk by, they say, Brother Matthew,
they know who I am.
And if you've been around me, you know, you've seen it.
It's like, hey, Brother Matthew, how are you doing?
You say, why?
Because when I see the kids out there, I talk to them.
I say, hello, we've given the gospel to those kids, I'm nice to the kids.
I don't ignore them, I'm not rude to them.
And here's the truth, when we've had kids that have been interested in coming to church,
what we always tell them is, hey, can you tell us where your parents live so we can
talk to them?
I would love to get those parents and families in church.
But not the kids without their families, okay?
And here's the reality, very few people that are kids in church without their parents are
going to end up growing up and really serving God.
You need to reach the whole families, and not just the children.
And our church is geared towards reaching families.
And if you look around, we don't have a small crowd here today.
There are plenty of people here, because we're reaching families, and that will always be
the model.
I would love to have kids we see on the streets that their parents would want to come to church
with them, and that would be great.
But that's not the same thing as just bringing in six-year-olds and seven-year-olds without
their parents.
That's just not going to work, okay?
So Matthew 19, if you're going to try to say, well, this is in reference to church, then
you should have children in the service with you.
And Baptist churches don't do that, because it's been proven not to work, okay?
Now turn to Genesis 19, Genesis 19.
So when it comes to taking children out of service, there are many problems if we brought
in 25 children and basically just had a separate church service or separate room where someone
basically is preaching to them, okay?
And make no mistake about it, our church could double in size very easily, very easily if
we started to try to bring in lots of children.
You can double your church very easily.
I was talking to Pastor Mendez about this just a couple months ago.
I think it was when I was in the U.S., and we were talking about children's ministries,
and we were talking about church growth, because church growth is not easy.
It takes time to grow, and you do a lot of work to bring new people to church.
You go soul winning.
God blesses the church.
You follow up on people, get them to church, bring them in.
That's not easy.
A church doesn't skyrocket overnight.
It takes time, and there's nothing wrong with that.
That's just the way it is.
But we were talking about how if you ran a children's ministry, you could just double
your church.
And he's like, yeah, he's like, you know, even in Sacramento, if they just bought a
couple buses and ran children's ministries like they do in most Baptist churches in the
U.S., Verity Baptist Church would be running like 450 people on Sunday morning.
You would double in size overnight.
Any church is going to double in size if they do that.
But the question is, is this something that God would be for?
Is this something that's biblical?
And we're looking at what the Bible says, and I would say, no, it's not.
One of the big problems with having children in the service away from their parents, or
in some other room, I should say, it's dangerous for the kids.
There's dangers involved for children if they're in some separate room where no one knows what's
going on.
Notice what it says in Genesis 19, verse 4.
Genesis 19, verse 4, but before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom,
compass the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter.
Now in Genesis 19, verse 4, it's referring to, this is Sodom and Gomorrah.
This is referring to homosexuals, Sodomites.
And it says both old and young.
Now look, nobody's born gay.
Nobody's born a homosexual.
So how do you have young homosexuals?
You know what's taking place?
You're having kids getting molested and they end up hating God.
That's the reality.
And you say, Brother Stuckey, why is it in our country there are so many homosexuals?
Because they're being molested in the Catholic Church.
That's the reason why.
But the sad thing is Baptist churches are setting their church up in a structure that
is attracting pedophiles and dangerous people to that church.
That's the reality.
And if we have children's ministries, some pervert's going to say, man, this is a church
where I could have access to kids.
And that person's going to be the one who's going to try to basically serve in the ministry
with the children's ministry.
Why?
Because he's a defiled, wicked person.
That's the reality.
It will attract dangerous people to our church.
Genesis 19 verse 11, it said both old and young in Genesis 19 verse 4.
You say, how do you know that's referring to young kids?
Genesis 19 verse 11, and they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness
both small and great.
So they wearied themselves to find the door.
So basically there's small people and large people.
Small people are referring to boys.
Now we don't know the exact ages, but young and small, that's referring to children that
are sodomites.
Now we don't know how old they are, but we're not talking about 18 years old.
We're not talking about a full grown man or even a teenager.
We're talking about children.
And the only way that's going to happen is if they're getting molested and they end up
hating God.
Now here's the truth though.
If we had church here and we had one person from our church preaching in that room to
a bunch of kids, that is a dangerous situation for those children.
Because we cannot be guaranteed that the person teaching them is basically a good person.
You don't know.
It could be dangerous.
And you say, well Brother Stuckey, you're just kind of making stuff up.
Look, this happens in Baptist churches all the time.
And we call out the Catholics for this, but why does it happen in Baptist churches all
the time?
All of the time throughout the world it happens in Baptist churches.
Why?
Because they have children's ministries.
And they have kids without their parents.
It's not just the Catholics.
I mean, let's be honest.
The Catholics are the biggest culprits, but let's not pretend that there's not a problem
in Baptist churches.
There is a problem in a lot of Baptist churches with this church.
And the reason why is they are attracting violent people to their church.
And look, that is not safe for the children.
What would be better for those children is if we reached their parents and tried to bring
them to church.
That would be much better.
Turn to Romans 1.
Romans 1.
But I want you to realize, and here's the thing.
My son's pretty young right now, but in most churches they have a nursery, where basically
before you get to junior church you have a church nursery where basically someone's taking
care of the kids.
I remember my parents, they visited a Baptist church like a long time ago.
I don't even know if I was born.
I know my sister was a baby.
I can't remember what my parents said because my sister's two years older than me.
But they visited a Baptist church.
They were just visiting a church and they got there and basically they had a nursery
and someone stopped them and said, oh, we don't have anyone to work in the nursery today.
Can you work in the church nursery?
My parents visited a Baptist church and they spent the entire time in the church nursery
and they didn't hear the sermon.
They were just watching other people's kids.
It's like they didn't even know my parents and they just have some random person watching
them in the church nursery.
Look, I don't want random people watching my kids that I don't know.
It's not just that something terrible could happen, but also just I don't know that person.
I don't know what they're going to do.
I don't know what they're going to teach them.
They could just pull up some video on their phone like, oh, let's just watch this TV show
or whatever.
I don't know what they're going to do.
So the reality is when you have these church nurseries and you have this junior church
away from the parents, that is just not a safe environment for those children.
But I want you to realize it's not a safe environment for any of us.
We don't want dangerous pedophiles and violent people at our church.
Romans 1 verse 31, it says, without understanding covenant breakers, without natural affection,
implacable, unmerciful.
In Romans 1, this is the passage referring to sodomites, homosexuals.
It says unmerciful.
What I think of is just basically a pedophile has no mercy on a child that's begging for
mercy.
It's disgusting.
And it's filthy.
And I want you to understand something, though, and I've mentioned this before, that when
my children are here, I pay attention to what's going on with Zeph.
When we're sitting at lunch, I'll get up every minute or so and look in the room, make sure
nothing's wrong.
I pay attention to what's going on with Zeph.
I make sure he's here in church.
But look, I don't really pay attention to what's Phoebe doing or what's Caleb doing
or some of the other kids in this room.
You say, why?
They're not my children.
Every parent cares about their own children.
What if you have 25 children in here that don't belong to any of us?
Who really cares about them that much?
I pay attention to my kids, not other people's kids.
99% of my focus is on my kids.
And as parents, we need to focus on our kids.
Here's the problem.
You have a bunch of kids in here, and they don't belong to anyone.
Nobody is really paying that close attention to them.
Because you care about your kids more than somebody else's.
That's just reality.
But I want you to realize this is dangerous to all of us because we don't want these violent
pedophiles in our church.
It's a dangerous atmosphere for all of us.
Now turn to Exodus 20.
But not only is it dangerous to those children and to all of us in general, it is especially
dangerous to us that are basically running the children's ministries.
It's a dangerous situation because, look, when I used to preach at junior church, one
fear I had was that some kid would basically complain to their parents or make up something
and I could get in trouble even though I didn't do anything.
And the reality is that when you're watching someone's kids, like if you preach something
there and some 8-year-old gets offended by what you say, they could go tell their parents
like, oh, you know, that brother Stucky is such a terrible person and just make up stories.
And you could legally get in trouble even though you did nothing wrong.
That's not a safe situation for the person that's actually preaching in there.
Now I'm glad that at the church I was at, they generally had at least two workers, but
it's not like that in every church.
Sometimes there's only one person watching them and, look, that's dangerous for the person
watching them.
And not only could they make up something that didn't even happen, what if some accident
takes place?
You could be in big trouble for what took place, okay?
And so it's not a safe environment for the person preaching in them.
Notice what it says in Exodus 20 verse 16, Exodus 20 verse 16, thou shalt not bear false
witness against thy neighbor.
And one of the Ten Commandments is not bearing false witness, but the reality is God mentions
this because sometimes people bear false witness.
And some kid could lie about you and say something that did not happen, and it could be dangerous
for you.
It's not a safe situation for anyone involved.
And let me just give you a story from junior church in West Virginia.
And there was a guy who drove the bus every single week, and he was basically the person
who oversaw the children's ministry, but he didn't preach.
And there was a husband and wife who were there.
The husband preached, and they dealt with the kids.
And me and my friends, we started going to the church, and we started helping.
And I was kind of like a backup to help at junior church.
And eventually the husband and wife, they ended up like leaving.
They left the church and everything.
So I started preaching the sermons, and I had one of my friends come, and he was there
with me.
So there was like three of us.
So there's safety in numbers if somebody tries to make a false accusation.
But there was one kid that was in church that was just a rebellious bad kid.
I'm not saying he was a reprobate.
What I'm saying is he probably had parents that didn't love him and never spent time.
And the parents wanted to have some free time away from their child.
So they looked at the church.
It's like a babysitting service to them.
And this child, literally during service, he was standing up on chairs and yelling,
and I'm trying to preach.
And here's the thing.
The person who oversaw that ministry, Brother John, who had been doing it for 30 years,
he was very good working with kids.
He was calm.
But man, he came very, very close to losing his temper.
And I mean, he lost his temper.
I'm just saying he came very close.
I remember him saying, he's like, if you don't stop, I'm going to, and then he just
kind of stopped.
Like, he was angry.
And every single, this is why he quit the children's ministry, because of this kid.
And I talked to my pastor many times and I said, Pastor, can we please just not pick
up this kid for church anymore?
I was like, there's like 12 kids and most of them, they want to hear the preaching.
They love it.
I was like, this kid is just rebellious.
I was like, he will not listen.
He's just yelling during the services.
He's distracting.
Can we please just not pick him up for church?
Because it ruined it for all the kids.
And the pastor's like, have you tried giving him candy?
And I'm just like, it's like, how much candy can you give a kid in an hour?
You know what I mean?
And here's the problem with candy.
That works for like five minutes.
But after that, they're worse.
So you got to give them like a small dose of candy.
Well, here's a piece of chocolate cake.
Here's some mango sticky rice.
You know, here's mango bravo.
Just give them like everything.
It's like for every service.
It's just madness.
And the problem is with most of these kids, the reality is that their parents don't really
love them much.
And for a lot of them, it's like a babysitting service.
And I feel bad for those kids, but I want you to realize the way to reach them is reach
the parents.
Because those parents are the ones that are around them 24-7 to teach them and train them.
You must reach the families to reach those children.
That is the reality.
Now turn in your Bible to Ephesians 5, Ephesians 5.
So if you have them in a separate room, the problem is it's going to be dangerous to a
lot of different people.
But not only that, I want you to realize in a separate room, those children do not get
a real church service.
It's not the same sermon as you get in this room.
We sing old-fashioned hymns, okay?
They never sing old-fashioned hymns in those rooms.
You say, why?
They're trying to entertain those kids.
That's what they're trying to do.
Ephesians 5 verse 19, it says, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, Ephesians 5 verse 19.
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
I want you to realize that everybody needs the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
They need songs like, and can it be?
Here's what they don't need.
Somewhere in outer space, God has reserved a place for all those that trust Him and obey.
Well, first off, trusting Him and obeying is not how you get to heaven.
It's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
But singing about somewhere in outer space, look, that's a joke.
If you're not going to sing that song here in the church, why are you singing to the
children there?
You know what you're teaching those kids?
Man, preachers like Joel Osteen are more fun than these old-fashioned preachers, because
that's what they sing.
And so they're going to grow up and they're going to love the rock music in church.
No, kids need to learn to love this kind of preaching and this type of music and this
type of church.
That's what we need to teach the kids.
My son, my daughter, they need to learn to love this church.
Not some children's church where you're singing these fun songs and eating candy all the time.
That's not life.
That's not reality.
Turn to Nehemiah 8.
Nehemiah 8.
Baptists, they come up with these things that are nice and cute.
They say it's been scientifically proven that it's impossible for people to pay attention
for more than 21 to 23 minutes.
That's why the perfect sermon length is between 21 to 23 minutes.
That's what they say.
Look, as I'm preaching, I can see you guys looking at me, and plenty of you have been
paying attention for a lot longer than 23 minutes.
That's ridiculous to say it's scientifically impossible.
Now, obviously, your mind kind of fades in and out sometimes.
Maybe you miss certain things, but you're able to pay attention to a lot of preaching.
And you know what we need to teach these kids at a young age is to learn to pay attention
for a long time.
There's a time to play, and there is a time to sit down and pay attention, and if you
don't, you're going to get a spanking.
That's what we need to teach the kids at a young age.
They need to learn to pay attention.
You say, why?
Life is not all entertainment.
When you go to the workforce, it's not that you're just singing fun games all the time
and eating candy.
You're sitting there for hours and hours and hours working on stuff that's not the most
fun.
Kids need to learn to love this kind of preaching and be able to pay attention, and they're
not learning it in churches now, and we wonder why in the world they act rebellious.
And we wonder why Baptist churches are dying.
Well, because you have these children's ministries, and those children grow up, and they don't
want this type of church because they're not used to this type of preaching.
Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 1, and all the people gathered themselves together as one man into
the street that was before the Watergate, and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring
the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel, and Ezra the priest
brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all that could hear
with understanding.
Let me ask you a question.
Do little children have ears?
So can they hear?
So guess what?
The little children heard the same thing.
All that could hear with understanding.
Babies, they can hear.
Everybody, they can hear.
Now yes, I'm glad God has blessed us to be able to have a mother-baby room because children
will be rebellious from time to time, and that's a training center, basically, where
children, basically moms take them out because, look, obviously if a child's been really
distracting, then something needs to be done.
That's why you have their parents take them, the moms take them into that room, and as
I said, sometimes the moms miss some of the sermons.
Husbands need to pay attention and miss nothing so they can teach their family in case they
miss some of the sermons, especially at a young age.
There's those time periods where those kids are very distracting, and the moms might miss
some of the services, and obviously the moms go there and teach and train their kids, but
I want you to understand that the goal is for everybody to be able to sit here and hear
the exact same preaching, all that can hear with understanding.
Go to verse number three.
And he read therein before the street that was before the Watergate from the morning
until midday.
Morning until midday, does that sound like 21 minutes?
Twenty-three minutes?
Because what the Bible, you say, well, they weren't paying attention.
Well, let's keep reading.
Before the men and the women and those that could understand, and the ears of all the
people were attentive for more than 21 minutes.
They were attentive.
They paid attention.
That's what it means.
Look, we can teach kids at a young age to pay attention for hours.
That is the reality.
Everyone can learn that.
You say, well, no, just every child just has ADHD in today's world.
No, it's called parents don't spank their kids.
Look, when I was a kid, I was a very, very rowdy kid.
When I was at home, I was running and jumping over burners and everything like that, running
all over the place, playing basketball in the living room, soccer in the living room,
but you know what?
Before I was homeschooled in public school, I never got in trouble.
You say, why?
Because I remember the first time I did get in trouble.
I got spanked so hard.
It's like I never acted up in school ever again.
I remember one time in church I acted up.
I still remember when my dad took me outside and just started spanking me during church
service outside.
Guess what?
I never acted up ever again.
I just sat there in that Protestant church, like bored out of my mind, just like I do
not want to get spanked by my dad.
Look, we can teach the kids to be attentive.
Quite honestly, church should be teaching in a lot of ways.
We need to teach these kids to learn to work hard and be attentive, even if it's not the
most exciting thing.
Honestly, when you learn in life, you learn by reading and being diligent.
It's not always the most exciting thing.
It's not always some movie where you learn everything.
It's actually working hard and learning things.
We need to teach kids at a young age.
Remember to 2 Timothy chapter 3.
I want you to understand that when science does a study, that they have scientifically
proven your attention span is 22 minutes.
As a Bible-believing Baptist, the first thought you should say is, what does the Bible say
about that?
It's refuted in Nehemiah chapter 8 what they said.
It doesn't even make sense.
It's completely not biblical.
It's because science proved something.
Look, science proved the earth is 55 zillion years old.
It's like, are you going to believe that, that the earth is just billions of years old?
Does the Bible say that?
No.
I mean, the earth's about 6,000 years old.
Adam and Eve were created a little bit more than 6,000 years ago.
If you just add up the ages, the flood took place roughly 4,400 years ago, I believe it
was.
If you just add up the ages, look, you're not seeing billions.
If the earth is billions of years old, this Bible would be so big.
This is only 6,000 years of human history, a little bit more than 6,000 years of human
history.
2 Timothy 3.
In verse 15, the Bible reads, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
What the Bible says here in 2 Timothy 3 is that from a child thou hast known the holy
scriptures.
You know what?
One thing that's exciting to me is that I did not grow up in this type of church.
I got started with this kind of preaching in this type of church when I was 18 years
old.
I'm excited for the prospect of my son and my daughter at a young age as a child, as
a baby before they're even saved, growing up with this type of preaching, this type
of music.
This idea that kids will just not like these types of songs is ridiculous because I started
singing to my son before he was born.
I'll tell you what.
My son loves the hymns.
He loves it when I'm holding a hymnal and just singing to him.
He loves that.
He loves it because we try to do that throughout the week and I'm singing to my son.
My son loves the old-fashioned hymns.
We can teach children at a young age to love this type of music and love this type of preaching.
Now turn in your Bible to Exodus 25.
But if we don't, what's going to happen is these kids are going to grow up and they're
going to want to go to CCF and victory.
You say, why?
Because at most Baptist churches, their Sunday school programs and children's ministries
are basically like victory or CCF.
That's the reality.
It's not that much different than what they do.
Those kids are going to grow up and guess what?
That's why you're seeing all these Baptist churches change because that is what people
are used to and they're trying to build congregations so they're changing everything.
Baptist churches would listen to this and say, well, wait a minute, but there's a lot
of benefits to children's ministries.
Let's talk about the so-called benefits.
First off, it doesn't really matter if it's a benefit in their mind because here's the
thing.
It's not God's method.
You don't see this in the Bible.
Exodus 25 verse 40, Exodus 25 verse 40, and look that thou make them after their pattern
which was showed thee in the mount.
Basically things were made in a set pattern.
This was a picture of the New Testament church, the tabernacle.
Basically you ought to do things the exact same way God does them.
Here's the thing.
You often see the apostles that are listening to preaching.
The reality is oftentimes probably their families were there too.
It just doesn't really mention them, but they have everybody there in church.
Here's the problem.
If we have a children's ministry, this is what could happen.
It's like, all right, go into that room and Judas Iscariot's going to teach you over there.
We trust Judas.
Judas is a great guy.
It's like that is the reality at a lot of Baptist churches because they did trust Judas,
and oftentimes they'll pick the person that's a bad person.
Now I want to read you an article because I want you to understand that when it comes
to children's ministries, not only is this not a biblical thing, it's been proven not
to work.
Churches have been doing this.
It's not causing these kids to grow up and be soul winners.
It's not causing them to grow up and be these great soul winners that love God and are becoming
preachers.
Those stories are very few.
Rarely does that happen.
This article basically shows some of the problems here.
I'm going to read a couple things, then we're going to talk about the history of where this
really comes from.
This is what it says.
What we're teaching the kids is this.
My church is here, and my parents' church is there.
That's the reality.
When the kids come to church and they have a separate ministry, the kids look at that
as their church and this as the church for the adults.
It's different.
They're learning that these are separate churches because they are separate churches.
They're different.
They're not the same thing.
It's not everybody in one service.
They're basically separate churches.
Also, they're learning this.
My church is fun, and my parents' church is boring.
That is what they think.
They think, man, my church is fun, and my parents' church is boring.
That is what they think.
That's why they're growing up looking for something else.
Let me talk about the history of where this really comes from.
Mainly this goes back to a couple hundred years ago in Great Britain during the Industrial
Revolution.
For the sake of time, I'm just going to summarize between 1760 and 1840.
What was taking place was there was a lot of homeless kids in Great Britain.
They were on the street, and basically they didn't have parents.
They didn't have families.
Basically a lot of companies that were basically assembly line sorts of jobs where you're working
with machinery, which is very dangerous, they needed cheap labor, so they were hiring these
kids at a very low price, which was very dangerous for a six-year-old, seven-year-old, eight-year-old.
These kids on the street, they needed money, and so at the age of eight years old, they're
doing something very dangerous for a very low price.
They're working for companies.
What took place was that there was a church that looked at them and said, man, we need
to try to help all these homeless kids that are orphans.
They don't have parents.
They're on their own, just on the street living, like eight-year-olds, nine-year-olds, and
ten-year-olds who did not have a home.
They didn't have parents, and they're doing these various dangerous jobs.
Basically a church brought these little children into their church, and this is what they did.
Before church started, they had Sunday school.
They were learning to read.
They were learning to write.
They were learning to do math because if you never learn to read, you will fail in life.
These kids did not know how to read.
They didn't know how to write.
They didn't know how to do math.
If you don't learn those things, what are you going to do?
You're going to just have to do whatever job.
They were actually trying to teach these kids so they wouldn't have to live on the streets
and they could make something out of their lives.
Now I'm not saying we would have taken up that ministry if we lived there.
We didn't live during that time period, but I want you to understand, Sunday school gets
its name because it was school.
They're actually learning.
There's basically people at the church that were being teachers to them and said, we'll
volunteer our time before and after the services, give them a free education to give them a
chance in life.
What took place?
Well, churches saw, man, their attendance is so much higher with all these kids.
Basically they said, we'll have Sunday school also.
We'll just give them candy and sing somewhere in outer space, God has reserved a place.
And 300 years later, all the Baptist churches are doing it.
It started because they were actually trying to teach kids so they wouldn't have to live
on the streets.
They were actually having school.
And quite honestly, you know what?
That is far more valuable than singing goofy songs to those kids, teaching them to read
and write and do math.
And we're not going to take on that ministry.
I'm just saying that is why it started.
That's why it gets its name Sunday school.
Now though, all the Baptist churches see it and they're just like, wow, we can double
our attendance and it looks like we're doing something big for God.
So just following this pattern.
That isn't even what it was there for to begin with.
Now turn to Ephesians 6.
We'll close up Ephesians 6, Ephesians chapter 6.
And see, quite honestly, the big benefit is the fact that your attendance is going to
skyrocket if you have children's ministries.
Your attendance will double in size.
And it's especially good if you're a missionary.
Because then you can basically take pictures of all these little kids and people are just
like, wow, man, they're really reaching the world over there, teaching those young kids.
Because at our hearts, we care about children.
We want to reach children.
You say, man, that church is really reaching those children.
Look, I want you to realize that I could find like 50 kids every single day here I could
take a picture with.
And it's like, man, Brother Stuckey's just turning this world upside down here in the
Philippines.
It would look really great, okay?
But the reality is the only way we're going to really reach these kids is if we basically
bring their families here.
And look, you know, I've given the gospel to these kids before.
And I remember I was with, if Brother JR remembers, we were going soul winning one time and we
gave the gospel to like 15 kids or something and I don't think we counted any salvations
from it.
You say, why?
Because at that age, it's really hard to tell if they believe it or not.
You know, when a six-year-old gets saved, they usually get saved because their parents
give them the gospel like every day at home.
That's the reason why Pastor Jimenez got saved as a young child.
Because every day, it's like, son, all of sin, for all of sin to come short of the glory
of God every single day, okay?
Look, I've worked on children's ministries and we would give the gospel to the kids on
the bus for like an hour every single week, week after week after week.
Then after like two months, it's like, man, the six-year-old got it.
He was saved.
I remember one time I was working with a church and there was like this family whose kids
came to church and the parents didn't come.
But we gave the gospel to kind of the older kids and we had like this baptism push day
to try to get a lot of kids baptized and like all these kids ended up getting baptized on
one day.
We'd given them the gospel over and over again.
But their young cousin Miguel, he was like six years old.
He just wasn't understanding the gospel.
And we tried over and over.
And I remember, you know, we visited on Saturday.
We just sat there for like two hours and he was trying to answer what we wanted to
hear.
He's like, yes, just believe in God.
But you could tell that he didn't understand it yet.
He was just too young.
And I remember as we had this baptism push, you know, we're doing the altar call, right?
Eyes closed, every head bowed, we're doing the altar call and it was time for baptisms
because we had lined up all these kids to get baptized.
And I noticed that Miguel had rushed to the front to get baptized with his cousins and,
you know, brothers and sisters and everything.
And so all of a sudden, I had to run up to the front during the altar call because the
lady was helping him get changed.
I was like, no.
I was like, he can't get baptized.
He doesn't believe.
And then Miguel started crying and he was mad at me for like months and everything.
I was like, man, because, you know, he just didn't believe yet.
And then he ended up getting saved a few months later and he refused to get baptized.
But at least he got saved, right?
But I just want you to understand with these kids, quite honestly, even hearing the gospel,
they need to hear the gospel over and over again.
And at most of these churches, like we talked about last week, they have the altar call.
They pray to get saved here at the front.
Usually they didn't really get it, though, because they need to hear it many times.
That's why we're careful with our numbers, especially when we're talking to children,
because you just do not know if they're getting it or not, okay?
Ephesians 6, verse 4, we'll close up here, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 4.
The Bible says, and ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Now the book of Ephesians is to a church, the church of Ephesus, and it talks about
being a good husband, a good father, a good mother in the book of Ephesians.
Good husband, good wife, good father, good mother.
And I want you to realize it's saying ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring
them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
So writing to a church, basically the focus is on basically families.
You're teaching the parents to be good fathers and good mothers to their children, okay?
What you see in the Bible is they're reaching families.
They're not seeing that they're just reaching children without their parents.
And look, I understand that in our hearts, you see these young kids and you care about
them.
I understand that.
You know, I care about these kids as well.
I'm just trying to tell you, you don't find this in the Bible.
It's been proven not to work, and the only way we're really going to reach those children
is if we reach those families.
And look, praise the Lord if we're able to reach some of those families and bring those
children to church.
But without that, it just is not going to work.
They're going to distract the service, and they're really not going to learn the things
that they need to learn.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here in your church here today and
just getting to see what you have to say about children's ministries and why we as a church
do not have these children's ministries like junior church and Sunday school and why they
aren't biblical, God.
But I ask you to help us to apply these things to our lives, God, and continue to bless our
church.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.