We're going to come back to Exodus chapter 2 here, this story about Moses, but if you
would turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18 of the New Testament.
First book of the New Testament, Matthew chapter 18. The Bible reads in Matthew chapter 18
verse number 1, at the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest
in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the
midst of them and said, verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as
little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall
humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And
whoso, and listen to this verse, and whoso shall receive one such little child in my
name, receiveth me. So it's pretty clear here that children are pretty important to
Jesus Christ, right? He says, look, this is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven right
here and if you receive a little child, you know, in my name you're receiving me. Look
at Matthew chapter number 19, just the next chapter. It says in Matthew chapter 19 verse
13, then 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 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 them. So here, there are people bringing children to Jesus and his disciples rebuked
them saying, you know, don't bring those kids, right? Get those kids out of here. We don't
need kids here right now. And Jesus gets upset at his disciples and says, no, suffer the
little children and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
Now what does the word suffer mean? Suffer means to put up with something, you know,
to allow something. Now, children can sometimes cause disturbance or sometimes be distracting
or be a lot of trouble or a lot of work. But Jesus said, hey, that's okay. I'm willing
to put up with that. I'm willing to, you know, put up with maybe a little bit of inconvenience
here because it's important to me to have these children here. So I want you to suffer
them. I want you to allow them to be here, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. It says,
he laid his hands on them and departed them. You know, the laying off hands in the Bible.
A lot of times when, you know, you pray for somebody, you place your hand upon them and
pray for them and bless them. Go to Luke chapter 18. We'll see a similar statement here. Luke
chapter number 18, because I want to show you and actually take this even a step further
in Luke 18 verse 15, the Bible says, and they brought up to him also infants. Now,
what is an infant? What's an infant? A baby, right? And not only that, but you know, if
you actually just want to go really deep into what the word infant means, who knows what
the infantry is? It's the foot soldiers, right? Well, the word infant actually literally means
a child who is too young to walk. That's what it means. So an infant would be anytime
from being, you know, a baby that's born all the way up to where it starts working. Now,
how old is Elizabeth? And she just kind of started to walk. Yeah, she's 13 months old.
She's just starting to take this first step. You know, some children walk at nine months,
some walk at 14 months, you know, but it's about that stage, about one year old, roughly
is when they start walking. So an infant is a child that's basically from birth unto about
one year old. That's what they brought to Jesus here in Luke chapter 18. And it says
in verse 15, they brought in him also infants that he would touch them, but when his disciples
saw it, they rebuked them. And Jesus called them unto him and said, Suffer little children
to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say
unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in
no lies enter therein. Now, why did they bring the children unto him? It says that
they brought them unto him in verse 15, that he would touch them, you know. So they want
Jesus to bless their child. You know, they want him to touch their child and bless it
and pray for it. And the disciples get upset, but Jesus says, No, allow them, suffer them
to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Now, let me ask you this. Do you
think that that baby was able to understand any of Jesus' preaching? No. Do you think
they were able to comprehend verbally the truths that were coming out of his mouth as
he preached? No. They're too young to understand that, but still it was just a blessing for
them to just at least be in the presence of Jesus. I mean, think about it. If Jesus were
walking on this earth right now, wouldn't you want to bring your child just to expose
it to him and just to show them Jesus? And maybe they could just hear his voice and even
if they didn't understand exactly what he was saying, they could at least pick up something
just from the experience of being with Jesus and being there. And tonight what I want to
preach about, and I've got a lot of different scripts we're going to go to, and we're going
to be back next to chapter 2, but I want to preach about why we have children in our church
today. Now, there are a lot of church, pretty much almost every church in America, you know,
most churches, 90%, you know, they want to take the children out of the church, and especially
they want to get the infants out, you know, because the infants can cause a disturbance,
they can cry, they can cause, like right now there's a baby crying, that's an infant, that
was the exact infant I was using as an illustration a minute ago, you know, she didn't like that,
she started crying. You know, why do we have the children in the service? Why not set up
a children's church, you know, where they have their own separate church, or why not
have a nursery and put them in a different building somewhere, get them out, you know,
so that the adults could, you know, get together and have the preaching and not have to be
bothered by children or infants. That's what I'm going to preach on tonight, why that is.
Well, first of all, Jesus wanted them around, number one. We never see Jesus sending the
kids away, sending them his way, they were really important to him, and he said actually
they're the most important. They're the greatest in the kingdom of heaven right here. I want
them here. But go back to Exodus chapter two, and I'm going to show you a big reason
why I really believe in having the kids in church, and I'm so glad to have my children
in church from day one, even as little kids growing up in church, how important that is.
Now in Exodus chapter two we have a story about Moses. Now Moses is born here in Exodus
chapter two, and the Bible says in verse number two, and the one that conceived and bare a
son, this is Exodus 2-2, and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him
three months. You say, why was she hiding? Well in chapter one, Pharaoh had wanted to
get rid of the Israelites and make sure they didn't multiply too fast, so he made a law
that if the babies that were born were girls, they would let them live, but if their baby
was a boy, they would kill him and throw it in the Nile River. So this is a very evil
man, Pharaoh. Well, Moses' parents are trying to protect him from that fate, so they're
hiding him. They don't want anybody to know that she even gave birth, so they hide baby
Moses for three months, but after three months it got to the point where they can't hide
him anymore, because when children are less than three months old, they don't make as
much noise, they kind of get to a noisy age though, and they start crying more and making
a lot more noise, and it just got to the point where we just can't hide him anymore. We're
going to get caught here. So basically what they decide to do, look at verse three, what
they're going to do with baby Moses, it says, and when she could not longer hide him, she
took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the
child therein, and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink, and his sister stood
afar off to wit what would be done to him. So basically they make this basket, and put
baby Moses in the basket, they made it nice and waterproof, they put it on the river,
and then Moses' sister Miriam is going to follow along and just make sure that everything's
okay with him. So they put him afloat down the river, and it says in verse five, and
the daughter of Pharaoh came down to watch herself at the river, so she's taken aback
in the river, and her maidens walked along by the riverside, and when she saw the ark
among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it, and when she had opened it, she saw the
child, and behold, the baby wept. And she had compassion on him and said, this is one
of the Hebrew's children. So here's the little boat that she made, the little baskets flowing
down the river, Pharaoh's daughter, this is a very important person, very influential,
rich person, this is the princess, you know, because Pharaoh's the king of Egypt, this
is his daughter, and she finds Moses in the river, she opens the basket, and he starts
crying, and you know, all of a sudden it just tugs on her heartstrings, it says she had
compassion, she just feels bad for this baby, and she realizes right away, this is a Hebrew
baby, this is one of the Israelites' children. So look what happens, it says in verse number
seven, then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the
Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her,
go, and the maid went and called the child's mother, and Pharaoh's daughter said unto her,
take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages, and the woman
took the child and nursed it, so here's what happened. Miriam's following along, she sees
Pharaoh's daughter find the baby, so she walks up to Pharaoh's daughter and says, oh, would
you like me to go find you a Hebrew woman that can nurse this baby for you? And she's
like, oh, okay, well she goes and gets his real mom, okay, so basically now Moses is
going back to his parents, which is great, you know, but she pitched it as, hey, somebody
needs to nurse this baby. Back then they didn't do, you know, infamil, isomil, they
didn't do formula. If there was a baby that needed to be nursed and the mother couldn't
nurse it, obviously Pharaoh's daughter couldn't nurse it because she didn't have any milk
and she hadn't had a child, so they went and hired someone to nurse the baby, and they
were actually women who that was their job, they would actually nurse babies, okay, for
a living. It's kind of weird to us today because that doesn't really exist anymore in this
part of the world, but back then it was pretty common, and so they get the child's mother,
so this is perfect. Well, you can imagine how happy Moses' mother is. She just sent
her baby away, didn't think she was going to get to see it again. Now all of a sudden
it's back, and she gets to take her baby back home with her. So this is great. Well, Pharaoh's
daughter says, take this child and nurse it for me, and I'll pay you, and then bring him
back to me when he's done, you know, when he's off the breast, once he's already been,
what's the word? Weaned. Weaned, right? Weaned is when they're done breastfeeding. And it
says in verse 10, and the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and
he became her son. And she called his name Moses, and she said, because I drew him out
of the water. So who named this baby? Pharaoh's daughter. Pharaoh's daughter named the baby
Moses, okay, after he was weaned. Now, at what age is a child weaned? Well, typically
probably one to two years old, you know, because after that, they've got big, gnarly teeth
in their mouth, and they don't really nurse anymore. And you know, here's a tip that it's
probably time to wean your child, if they start, like, telling you, okay mom, I'm ready
to eat now, you know, and so they're probably too old to be breastfed. So obviously, I would
say two, latest, even people who are just really, like, breastfeeding activists, right,
isn't two about the oldest that they're going to breastfeed you to? Two is pretty much the
limit, you know, of a typical, one would be like the lower limit, about one is when you
sneeze and start getting them on solids. Two is like, you know, they're definitely on solids.
When they start reaching out and grabbing the food and shoving it into their own mouth,
you know, they're not, they're not nursed anymore, okay? So the bottom line is, Moses'
mother didn't have him until he was seven. She didn't have him until he was five. She
didn't have him until he was four or three. She probably had him until he was one or two.
You know, just a few years, let's just say two is probably, you know, pretty realistic.
One and a half, two years old. This child lived with his mom and dad until he was two.
Then he's put into Pharaoh's daughter's home. He's told, this is your parents, this is your
mom, this is your family, and, you know, you are going to be educated and trained our way
and we're going to give you a name, Moses. Go to Hebrews chapter 11, the end of the New
Testament. Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter number 11. And it says in Hebrews 11 verse
23, by faith Moses, when he was born, this is God shedding a little more light on this
story in the Old Testament. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of
his parents because they saw he was a proper child, and watch this last phrase, and they
were not afraid of the King's commandments. So they basically were not afraid to break
the law because they, you know, they want to keep their child alive. They don't want
their child to be killed. And so because of their faith in God, they weren't afraid. They
knew they were doing the right thing. They knew it was going to be okay. They were not
afraid of the King's commandments. Verse 24, by faith Moses, when he was come to years,
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Does anybody know how old he was
when he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter? 40. He was 40 years old, it says
in Acts 7 and the book of Exodus. He was 40 years old when he got to the point where he
refused to be called Pharaoh's daughter. Look what it says next in verse 25, choosing rather
to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season,
esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect
under the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, look at this next phrase,
what's it say? Not fearing the wrath of the King. Doesn't that remind you of his parents
who were not afraid of the King's commandments? Now Moses grows up and he's not afraid of
the King's commandments. He's not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing
him who is invisible. Isn't this amazing that this baby who's just raised by his parents
for only two years and then for 38 years, when he's three, when he's four, when he's
five, all the way up to teenage years, all there is adult years. The Bible says in Acts
chapter 7 that he was trained and learned in all the knowledge of the Egyptians. It
says in Acts chapter 7. He was a man mighty in word and deed. He was brought up in all
their education. I mean he grew up royalty. He grew up the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
He was in all the best schools. He learned all the things that they taught him and yet
when he got to 40 years old, he rejected everything he was taught. He rejected his whole family.
He rejected everything and went back to what he was taught when he was zero to two years
old. Isn't that amazing? I mean what kind of an impact must have his parents made on
his life that at 40 he would go back to that? 40 he would give up everything, give up all
his money, all his position, all of his faith and become a literal outlaw. Why? Because
he chose to suffer with the people of God because of what he was exposed to when he
was zero, one, two years old, just a little baby. You see, those are the formative years.
This is what people don't understand today. Those are the important, most formative years
and often times we would just blow it off like Pharaoh's daughter just blows it off
and says, you know what? I don't even care who raises this baby. If it's just breastbed,
just hire somebody, just send the baby away. Bring it back to me when he's two. Bring it
back to me after he's through the diapers and through the nursing stage. That's a lot
of work. I'm going to hire somebody to do that for me and then when that's all done,
bring it back to me and then I'll raise it as my own son and I'm going to raise it to
be like me. Wrong. He's not going to be like you. He's going to be like the one who taught
him when he was zero, one, two, just a little baby. Why? Because we don't understand how
impressionable those young minds are. That's why.
Moses, who knows? The songs that his mother would sing. If you have children, you know
what it's like when you have a baby. They love to be sung to and you're holding them
and singing. I remember when my son Solomon was born. I would sit with the hymnal and
literally sing to him for hours because he's always loved music and that would be the one
thing that would calm him down. I'd get off work and give my wife a break and he'd be
sitting in his car seat or sitting in a little chair as a baby. I would just sit in front
of him and just turn the pages and sing to him. He loved for me to sing to him. I wonder
what Moses' mother was singing to him. Spiritual songs. Songs that had God's word. Songs of
the Lord that were basically training his young mind and teaching his young mind. How
many times did his mom read him the Bible? She probably knew, hey, I'm not going to
have this child forever. I've only got him for these first two years. Then he's going
to go to Pharaoh's daughter. So she read him the Bible. I'm bringing it into modern day
but just like we would sing the hymns that we know. To God be the glory. Blessed assurance
on Christ the solid rock I stand. Bring it into our day. Singing those songs. Reading
the Bible. Training that child the way they should go. Disciplining him. Teaching him
right from wrong from that very young age. And that was the training that stuck with
him for the rest of his life. Look at Proverbs 22 verse 6. And see this ties in exactly with
what we were just talking about with Jesus. Where they're bringing in infants. They're
bringing in small children. And he's saying no, let them come. Bring them. Let me bless
them. Let me lay my hands upon them. For of such is the kingdom of God. We need to get
that attitude today that children are someone that we want to reach with the God. That we
want to preach the Bible to. And that we want to have in church in God's house so that they
can learn what they need to learn. Look at Proverbs 22 verse 6. A famous verse says this.
Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from
it. Now we think of that training as being much later. But really that training starts
young. I remember when my wife was pregnant we read him the entire Bible covered a couple.
We read Solomon the entire Bible covered a couple while he was in the womb. He said he
can't understand that. He doesn't know what you're saying. You know what? He probably
didn't. But you know what? As he grows up with that voice of God's word, of his parents
reading him God's word, as he grows up hearing those words, they're picking up more than
you think. Just like when they brought those children to Jesus. No, they couldn't understand
his preaching. But what did they get out of that? They got something out of it. You see,
babies or children being in our church today, you say well a one year old can't understand
your sermon. You say it's all going over their head. Well you know what? Something
didn't go over Moses' head when he was a baby. And I'll tell you right now, you'll be shocked
how much little children can learn from a service like this. You know, sometimes we
just think, oh they don't understand anything, they don't know what's going on. But later
on you'll talk to them and they remember things. And they pick up things. But let's just pretend
for a moment that they can't understand any of my preaching at all. That it's all going
over there. Think about some of the things they're learning. They're learning the music.
They're learning the songs. I mean even a little child, even just a one year old will
hum these songs and chat along with these songs. I remember I used to have a cassette
tape of myself when I was a baby. I don't know if I was a baby, I was like a toddler.
A cassette tape where they recorded me singing the song from the hymnal Dwelling in Yuleland.
And I couldn't even pronounce the word. It was just like,
Praise God! And I would sing that song. And we'd play that tape and everybody would tell me,
you know, your whole life that was your favorite song. When you were just a little kid,
Dwelling in Yuleland was your favorite song, you'd sing it, you couldn't even pronounce it.
Even at that young age, and let me just get into my own life right now. Even at that young
age, I was being taught the hymns I was being taught about, but guess what? As I got older,
we actually left fundamental Baptist churches and we started going to some really liberal
churches. And we went to a lot of churches that had rock and roll, totally different
music, totally different, I mean it was the NIV, it was not the King James Bible, no soul
winning, nobody ever, we heard about like one person getting saved like in the several
years that we went there. No one was ever baptized the whole time we were there. You
know, it was just really totally different than our style of church. The preacher literally,
I walked up to him one time as a teenager and said, how come you've never even said
the word hell? And I read about hell in the Bible and it's like it doesn't even exist.
And he's like, yeah, right shit, I just don't like to talk about it. So that's a pretty
big difference, right? But let me tell you something, when I was a teenager, when I was
16 years old, I looked around the church I was in and I didn't like it. And I said to
myself, you know what, this isn't right. And I remember every once in a while they'd pull
out one of the hymns, because it was all the rock and roll and Christian contemporary music,
but every once in a while they'd pull out the hymns and I would love it. And I was listening
to, you know in my car I'm blasting all the worldly rock music and everything, but whenever
I'd get to church and then we'd sing a hymn I'd be like, oh wow, great, we're actually
singing one of the hymns. And I loved it and I didn't even know why. But I'll tell you
why, it's because I was brought up with it as a child. And it brought back those memories.
And I'll tell you this, when I was 16 years old or right about the time that I turned
17, when somebody walked up and invited me to an independent fundamental Baptist, soul
winning Baptist church where the pastor preached hard and where there was all kinds of door
knocking and all kinds of soul winning, when I walked into that church it was just like,
yes, this is where I belong, this is where I want to be, this is it right now. So you
see how even though all throughout my teenage years and a lot of my childhood years I was
exposed to all this liberalism and I was just totally watered down. There was something
inside of me that was implanted in me just from a little child, just like Moses, where
I got to a certain age and I reverted back to that because it was ingrained in me from
a young age. You see, the bottom line is, children are learning and picking up a lot
more than you think. Don't discount it. But let's say they don't understand a word that
I'm saying. They're getting the music. They're not going to grow up and think that church
is like a rock concert. Does this church seem like a rock concert to you? No. But many churches
do seem like a rock concert, but when they grow up they're going to go to a church that
seems like a rock concert and say, this doesn't seem right, this doesn't seem like a church
because this is what they're used to. And you say, well why do you want to get used
to your style of church? Because our style of church is the one that's preaching the
truth and going out and preaching the gospel to people and we don't want them to go to
some kind of a fun center where it's a big rock concert where the word of God is not
preached, where people don't get saved, where nobody's ever baptized, where nobody's life
ever changes. That's not where I want my children to grow up and I'm glad that they're
learning today what church is really like. It's people singing spiritual songs, not worldly
songs. It's people getting Bible preaching from a man, a man up here, yelling and preaching
and preaching it hard. That's what they're going to grow up and be used to. So they're
at least learning the style of church. They're learning what it sounds like to hear God's
word read from the pulpit. They're hearing the music. They're getting the feel for the
church and that's going to stick with them for the rest of their life. But they're also
picking up more than you think from the words. They're growing up. You know, I've noticed
this. Let's say people have not been in church their whole life and then they start bringing
kids that are five, six to church. A lot of times they don't even know how to behave in
church. You know, they'll bring a four or five year old to church and the kids squirming
around and making noise and horsing around. But you know, if you look at a five year old
that's been in church his whole life, he'll sit still. You know, because he's been brought
up that way from the beginning. So isn't that worth something right there? Having a child
that's three or four, because at three or four they can definitely understand a lot.
Well thank God they know how to sit still, be quiet and listen because they've been trained
that way since birth from the beginning. These are reasons why we want to have the children
in church because number one, Jesus said, bring them to me. Suffer them. I know it can
cause a little distress. And every once in a while a baby cries so he has to step out.
Big deal. It's worth the trade off, my friend, to have them here and that from a child they
can know the Holy Scriptures which are able to make them wise unto salvation. I mean,
by the time that I get to the point where I was giving the Gospel to my children, they
already have every verse that I'm telling them memorized because they've been soul winning
with me. They've been brought in a baby sling out soul winning. They've been out soul winning,
pushed in a stroller. They've heard that word their whole life and they're able to comprehend
so much more because they start with, they don't grow up and say, oh I need an NIV, this
is King James II. They grow up with it from the beginning. They didn't grow up on a dumbed
down version. But today, and this is what I'm dealing with tonight, today we want to
take the children out of the church and put them somewhere else in their own children's
church. Now go to Isaiah chapter 28 if you would, Isaiah chapter 28. And I'll tell you
what I've noticed. I've noticed that a lot of children and a lot of teenagers and pretty
much, I'll put it this way, 90% of the kids that I grew up with in Sacramento, California,
90 some percent of the kids and teens that I grew up with in Sacramento, California,
more than 90% of them are not in the kind of churches that they grew up in. They grew
up with me in independent fundamental Baptist churches. They grew up in the same churches
that I did. And yet you find them today in the most liberal, charismatic, watered down
church and literally to the tune of 90 some percent, they're not in a fundamental Baptist
church. They're not in a soul winning church. They're not in a King James Bible preaching,
hymn singing type Baptist church. They're just not there. And you say, why does that
happen? Why in the world do these children grow up and go to the rock band church and
the party church instead of going to what they grew up with? Because they didn't grow
up with it. That's why. Because while mom and dad were in a fundamental Baptist church,
they were in another building in the children's church. Now, here's the problem with the children's
church. And people will say to me that I'm wrong about this and that's why I want to
preach this. They'll say, Pastor Anderson, you've got to bring it down to their level.
Show me that in the Bible. Bring them up to the Bible's level. And the problem is they'll
say, oh, it's all going over their head. No, it's not. I mean, I remember some people
started coming to our church five years ago in the early days of our church. This family
started coming and their son was pretty young. I think he was about six years old, six, seven,
okay, when he first started coming. And he came to church and I preached a sermon about
walking in the light and walking in darkness and so forth. And his parents told me, they
said, yeah, we were on a trip and we stopped at a casino and they were just doing the buffet
or whatever. They weren't gambling with their kids. And the kids stopped and said, wait
a minute, this is one of those places that Pastor Anderson was talking about where they
turn the lights down dark because people are doing bad things. So right away, they sunk
in with it, comprehended. Because I was talking about in my sermon, bars, they keep it dark.
They keep the casinos dark. Just because places where people are doing bad things, they turn
out the lights because men love darkness rather than light. And this six year old completely
comprehended that and restated that. And I think it was like a month or so after I preached
it. Months later, he had it in his head. You know what? The light is good. The darkness
is bad. And you know, going into this place where it's really dark atmosphere, this is
probably not a good place. So you see how much kids can pick up and understand more
than you think. I mean, I'm always shocked at what my children will know. And I challenge
you, ask my children about doctrine. Ask my nine year old. Ask my eight year old. Ask
my seven year old. Is John seven now? Six, he still says, yeah. Yeah, nine, eight, seven.
We have to be having our kids a little too close together. They're not that close together.
You know, ask my six year old, okay, Bible questions. He'll give you the Bible doctrines.
He'll give you the right answer. And he'll know why. He won't just recite something to
you. He comprehends many doctrines of the Bible because he's been in church his whole
life. Three times a week, he's only six years old. What does he know? Hey, when I was six
years old is when I got saved. And I probably, you say you were too young to understand.
No, I understood it perfectly at age six. I didn't know everything about the Bible.
There are a lot of things I didn't know. But I'll tell you what, I understood salvation
crystal clear at age six, just as well as I understand it right now. I knew that it
was all through Jesus. I understood heaven, hell. I understood the whole thing at age
six. And I got saved. But you know what? I didn't just, as a six year old, have somebody
walk up to me and give me the gospel and I got saved. No, it's because I learned so much
gradually growing up that by the time I was six, I was ripe unto harvest because I'd already
been preached. The seed had already been planted. It had already been watered. And by the time
I was six, it was easy for me to get saved because I grew up hearing the preaching of
God's word, hearing the plan of salvation preached, and getting it from my parents,
getting it from church. And so that right there is an example of just a young person
getting so much more out of it than we think. But we put them in the children's church and
then we wonder why they grow up and go to a totally different kind of church. Because
let's examine the children's church tonight. Typically the children's church, these are
going to be the differences. You say, well what's going to be the difference between
the main service and the children's church? Well I'll tell you one big difference is
the music. These children's churches, they don't use the hymns. They basically use really
shallow songs that are more of a wilder music, not quite the rock and roll, but I mean it's
a wilder music. They don't come and sing, rock of ages cleft for me. I'm singing back
because my throat hurts and just because I can't sing even my throat doesn't hurt. But
the point is they don't sing blessed assurance. Basically what they'll sing is stuff like
this. Somewhere in outer space God has prepared a place for those who trust Him and obey.
That's what I grew up in some of these children's churches singing. And I've worked in children's
churches where that's what we were singing to the kids. Well here's the problem. That's
a totally different music style than this. So you're ingraining that style. They think,
oh yeah, this is church. Somewhere in outer space. And then they grow up and it's, our
God is an awesome God. But look, whether you like that music or not or whatever you think
about the music, the bottom line is why would they go to a church that has this kind of
music when we trained them on that kind of music? They're going to grow up and go to
that and listen to the song. Somewhere in outer space God has prepared a place for those
who trust Him and obey? Is that true? I remember I sing that song. I said, for those who trust
Him and believe. If you have to obey God, isn't that like a work salvation? If you obey,
you'll get there. And that's just one example. Somebody help me out with some of the other
examples. Yeah, I like that song. But yeah, I mean you're not exactly going to grow up
and go, you know, right arm left arm, right arm left arm. You know that one where you
start turning? Yeah, right arm left arm, right foot left foot, turn around, right arm left
You know, have we sung that song lately here? No. And so you're giving them a totally different
style of music. And let me tell you something, the reason that kids don't love the hymns
is because you told them, oh this is boring, this is adult stuff. My kids love the hymns.
That's their favorite music. That's what they sing around the house many times. They don't
have to have this kiddie music necessarily because nobody told them that this wasn't
for them. Nobody told, oh yeah, this is tired, old stuff. And I remember when we were teens
in these liberal churches, they'd get up and I'd say, hey, let's do some hymns. Why don't
we throw in some hymns? Oh, no, no, no, the teens don't like that. I think I am a teen
and I think I'm telling you that that's what I want. You know what I mean? And you know,
other teens agree with me many times. No, no, you guys don't like this. You guys like
rock and roll. It's like, why don't I tell you what I like since I am the teen. I'm the
teen with my bleach blonde hair pumped out and I'm telling you I want to sing the hymns.
You know, and it's like, they just have this idea, oh no, this isn't for you. No, no, you
don't, you need this other thing, you know. And they're like, okay. And they're going
to have that for the rest of their life. And what you're doing is you're putting a kid
at a different church, totally different church, different congregation, different
assembly, different music, different preaching, and then all of a sudden when they're four
or five, it's just like, okay, you just hit the five-year-old cutoff, now you're in the
main service. But today many churches are doing it at 12. But let's just say even at
five, when you've had that kid in a little fun center where he's eating cookies and drinking
Kool-Aid and jumping around singing wild music, and then all of a sudden you just put him
in the main service, what's he going to think? This is boring. I wish I was back there with
the Kool-Aid and the cookies and Father Abraham and somewhere in outer space. It's like a
shock. You know, and especially if they've never even sat in the main service and they're
like 12. Think about it. But even just if they spent the first four years in something
totally different, so the first difference between children's church and the main church
is usually the music is dramatically different. I've never seen one where the music was the
same. And then the next thing that's different, dramatically different, is the preaching.
Because nine times out of ten, they have a woman preacher in the children's church. Now
in the main church, of course, we only have a man preaching, of course. But in the children's
church, they have a woman preacher. And so what happens is these kids for the first four
years of their life are listening to a woman preach the Bible to them. And I'm okay with
mothers preaching the Bible to their own children, but they're coming to church and having a
woman up there preaching them. And then you wonder why these hair-legged men, when they're
adults, will sit and listen to Joyce Meyer preach and listen to all these women preachers.
How can they listen to that? Because they were brought up with it from a child. They're
just used to going to church and hearing a woman preacher. And then Joyce Meyer is no
problem. And then also, the biggest difference in the preaching is that the preaching is
totally toned down. Because it's like, well, these kids can't really handle the hard preaching.
These are just kids. We've got to take it easy on them. And so Noah's Ark, I grew up
thinking that Noah's Ark was all about the animals. Yeah, two by two. Cool story. What
they forgot to tell you was that God killed every human being on this planet, except eight
people. Now, that's not a fun time. That's not on the story carpet. And then, boys and
girls, he killed everybody. See, the problem is, in order to basically change the story
to make it suitable for kids, you turn it into a lie. You turn it into something that
doesn't even resemble... I mean, the big thing about the story is that God destroyed
the whole world. That's the big thing. He destroyed the whole world and saved eight
people alive. It's not really that... I mean, yeah, he did put animals on board. But to
a kid, your average kid, it's all about the animals. I mean, if you ask your average kid
who's seen all the flannel graph and seen the Children's Church and the Sunday School,
they're going to say, oh, Noah's Ark, yeah, animals two by two. Anything else? No. That's
about it, right? They went on a boat ride. And see, the problem is, they tone it down.
They don't get up and preach on hell. They don't get up and yell and preach and holler
and snore and really tell the truth. And you say, well, kids are too young to handle it.
No, they're not. No, they're not. They need to hear the straight dope from the beginning,
not tone down, water down, because you know what they're going to do? They're going to
grow up and go to a watered-down church. Because it's those formative years, in their
formative years, they said, hey, church is a fun place. Because of the other objection,
people will say, first the music, and then they'll say the preaching is too hard for
or they can't handle it. And by the way, if the preaching that's coming out of my mouth
is not suitable for children, maybe I shouldn't be preaching like that. You know what I mean?
Because some preachers will talk about stuff that they shouldn't talk about and they'll
get too explicit. Maybe nobody should be hearing that kind of preaching. If we have
to shelter children from it. But if it's God's word, I'm not going to shelter my children
from God's word. As long as it's God's word, they can handle it. They don't need to be
sheltered from it. And so they'll say, well, they can't handle it. And then they'll say,
well, the music's boring. But then the next thing they'll say is that, hey, we've got
to make it fun for the kids. Have you heard that? We've got to make it fun for the kids
so that they'll want to come to church. So you know what that teaches them? Go to church
because you want to because it's fun. And you know what they're going to do? They're
going to grow up and find the funnest church they can find. And let me tell you a word
that's never found in the Bible, fun. Seriously, show me one time from Genesis under Revelation,
show me the word fun once. Show me the word funny. You're not going to find it. Church
is not about having fun. And right now, some of you hear me say that and just bristle.
What do you mean? Of course I'm supposed to have fun at church. Why? That just goes back
to the programming. It just goes back to this exactly what I'm talking about, that people
have a mentality that says a church is a place where I go because I want to have fun. And
I'm going to go to church and have fun. And I'm only going to go because I like to go
there. But the bottom line is I don't go to church because it's fun. I go to church
because I want to serve God, because I want to learn the Bible, because I'm interested
in the Bible, because I want to get excited about the truth so I can go out and preach
the gospel and get people safe. I'm not coming here to have fun. There's other ways to have
fun. Go water skiing, go snowboarding, go bicycling, go hiking. Those are the fun times.
Church is not a fun place. And I'm going to make sure it's not fun for you. The point
is, what I'm trying to say is, there's nothing wrong with having fun. But is that really
what church is about? Fun? You've got to make it fun for them. Why don't we make it the
way that they're going to need to be for the rest of their life? I don't spend most of
my life having fun. I don't know that you do. Who spends 90% of their time, you're an
adult and you spend 90% of your time having fun. Spend 90% of your time working. You spend
90% of your time doing stuff that you need to do. Working, building something, doing
something, fixing something, reading something, studying something. You do something that
matters with your life, because fun is a waste of time. Fun has its place. You can do a little
fun, blow off a little steam, but you know what? Monday through Friday, just fun, fun,
fun all day long. That is a wicked way to live your life. You need to work. You need
to do something. And kids today, it's just they're being trained. Yeah, you go to church
and it's a fun place and it's all about jumping around and laughing and games and a five minute
little soft soap watered down. Noah's Ark, quick little thing. They'll change Sodom and
Gomorrah. I don't know how you change it, but they do. I guess they focus on the lady
turning into a pillar of salt and they try to stay away from anything else. And that's
fine, but you're not going to raise a kid that's going to come to a fire breathing church
when you've got a woman up there who's teaching with a flannel graph and just basically showing
you all these little stories. And there's just so much that is different from church.
I believe that that's why 90 some percent of kids that will grow up in a typical independent
fundamental Baptist church will grow up and go to a soft charismatic church when they
grow up. They'll go to a wild church. They'll go to a fun church. They'll go to a church
that waters down the message. They'll go to a church with woman preachers because that's
exactly what they were raised to do when they were little kids. And that is why I strongly
believe that we need to get our kids from day one, from the youngest age, from an infant
age, get them under this kind of preaching, get them under this kind of music, get them
under this kind of message, get them under the sound of a real leather-lung preacher
up here who's not going to water down the message. I promise you that's going to stick
with them for the rest of their life and when they're old they won't depart from it. But
the problem is you raise them on the watered-down version. When they're old they won't depart
from that. And you can try to make them fundamental. I just don't know why. I just can't get my
kids interested in church. They're just bored all the time. They don't pay attention. They
don't like the preaching. They don't sing the hymns. They want to listen to all this
wild rock and roll and rap music and I just can't figure it out. It's because you didn't
raise them with it. Because you didn't teach them right. You didn't train them up in it.
And that's why they get to a certain age and they revert back. This is what I call it,
coming full circle. I believe that most people in their life come what I call full circle.
Moses came full circle when he was 40 years old. You start out at a certain point in your
life. Your initial training when you're just that young impressionable mind, the most formative
ears, you're that blank piece of paper and you get certain things impressed upon you.
And you know you can change a lot of things about that but a lot of times you just end
up coming full circle. Now getting saved obviously dramatically alters a person and helps them
do right. But in a lot of areas there's going to be a tendency. I'm not saying you have
to come full circle. But there is a tendency to come full circle. There is a tendency to
get back to your roots. To go back and you know I realized that and there were some bad
things about my upbringing that I have to be aware of. Hey I don't want to get back
to that. I don't want to go back to that. I have to be aware of that. But the bottom
line is like it or lump it, it's just a fact. Those are the formative ears. You see today
many of the adults when they hear me preach they tune it out. And even the adult who's
here listening carefully to every word that's coming out of my mouth right now, a lot of
what I preach you know you might be kind of set in your ways a little different than what
I'm saying. And you're just kind of thinking like oh yeah you know he doesn't know what
he's talking about at this point you know. That's fine but it's just a fact you know
older people or adults. A lot of times they're going to blow off some of what I'm saying.
But you know what little kids right now man they're hanging on every word that I'm saying.
They're getting the most out of the preaching and literally if I had to say who's getting
more out of the preaching a 25 year old or a 5 year old the 5 year old is probably getting
more out of the sermon. And most people wouldn't believe that but it's true. The 5 year old
is probably getting more knowledge today because they're just soaking it up. And hey that's
good because I'm preaching the truth. I'm preaching the Bible. We're singing great songs.
But you know you put that same 3 year old in front of a bunch of wicked TV shows. You
put that same 1 year old and 2 year old and say oh they're too young to understand it
we'll just sit them down next to us while we watch this R rated movie. They don't even
understand anyway they're only 1 and a half years old. Oh they're picking it up. See the
negative is true too. Not only do they pick up the good things oh they'll pick up the
bad things too. You got to guard that young mind and train it up in the way that you should
go. Guard it from filthy things and guard it from wickedness and train it up in the
way it should go and when he's older not the proper man. Look at Isaiah 28. This is a great
scripture. I had to turn there. Isaiah chapter 28. And look it's just biblical. Suffer the
little children to come. Bring them to God's house. Get them under the preaching. Let them
be a little baby Moses today. And you know you don't know where life's going to take
you. You don't know. I could drop dead tomorrow right? And you know what I would no longer
be able to teach my children anything. But you know what I've already ingrained so much
in them. I've already taught them so much. Remember the book of Daniel? In Daniel all
his children were kidnapped and taken from their parents into Babylon. And their parents
had no more contact with them. And they were put in the Babylonian schools and trained
even their names were changed. They even took away their names and gave them a different
name. They changed Hananiah to Shadrach. Or they changed Mishael to Meshach. They changed
Azariah to Abednego. And they even changed their names. Brainwashed them in a totally
different system. But when it came down to it they wouldn't bow down to the golden image.
They stayed with the Lord God. They stayed with the Holy Bible. Why? Because they were
trained to that. What if the Babylonians came and took America captive tonight? You know
I know the Babylonians don't exist anymore. But you know, proverbially speaking. What
if the Babylonians came and took all my children captive? You know what? I would have no influence
over them ever again. I believe that they would grow up and serve God and do right with
their lives. Because I believe that they've already been trained even just as a young
child. They've already had so much training in them that no one will ever be able to undo
that training. Now I think bad training can be overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit.
But I think that good powerful Bible training at that young age, I don't think anybody could
defeat that. I don't think that my children could be brainwashed for something different
because it's already too late. They've already been through that impressionable stage where
they grew up and they were with mom and dad and getting the truth and getting everything
right pumped into them. This is what we need to realize. Look at Isaiah 28. I'll show it
to you here in verse 7. But they also, this is talking about the preachers, but they also
have erred through wine and through strong drink are out of the way. The priest and the
prophet have erred through strong drink. So basically they're drunks. These preachers
are actually drinking and drunken. And it says they are swallowed up of wine. They are
out of the way through strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment.
For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness so that there is no place clean. And by the
way, that's a good picture of alcoholism and drunkenness. A lot of vomit, a lot of filth,
a lot of dirtiness. You know, we go out slowly and we run into people who are getting drunk
and drugging. And you say, well your children are sheltered. No, my children are exposed
to drinking. But see the problem is most children when they're 1, 2, 3, 4 years old,
they're exposed to drinking through the TV. And it's a clean house. It's clean clothes.
It's nice, rich, healthy, athletic people drinking. Whereas when my children see drinking,
they see when we go soul winning in the ghettos, they see people drinking who smell bad, who
have dirty filthy laundry piled up, who have bugs flying all over their house, who are
just living in a mess. You know, they get it in its real context of drunkenness. When
they see drugs, you say, oh hey, are your kids your children? No, they see drugs, but
they see it in real life. And they see the result of it. They see what it leads to. Not
a little sugar coated. I mean, you know, my brother-in-law Bobby, we were talking about
this. One of my brother-in-law Bobby's good friends that he grew up with, we were in Sacramento,
was in the hospital, dying from drinking. And I talked to Bobby, I said, man, you know,
I hope he, you know, is he going to make it? Is he going to live? Because they said, well,
if he can live through Saturday, he might survive. But Bobby said it doesn't even matter
if he makes it because he said, and he wasn't trying to be heartless. I mean, you know,
this is a friend. But he said, you know what, because he said as soon as he gets out of
the hospital, he'll keep drinking. He said he was already in a coma a couple months ago.
He was already in the hospital. He was already in a coma. And he was told, you can never
drink again. You're going to die. And he got out of the hospital and just drank, drank,
drank, drank. And he said, even if he survives, he'll drink again. And I think he's already
dead, to be honest, because we had this conversation weeks ago. But if he's not dead, he's drinking.
You know, and let me tell you something. That's not what they show you on the Budweiser ad.
They show you a bunch of good looking guys, you know, like this kind of physique. No,
I'm kidding. They show you, you know, a bunch of bronze, you know, muscular guys playing
volleyball with all the girls in bikinis, right? And say, hey, this Bud's for you, right?
Isn't that what they show? The volleyball and the fun and the good looking and the healthy.
They don't show you the vomit and the filth, but the Bible tells you all about it. And
you say, oh, you need to shelter kids. That verse isn't for kids. This is the verse that
I want my kids to hear. You hear this, kids? All tables are full of vomit and filthiness
so that there's no place clean. I want my kids to grow up with that kind of preaching.
Because you know what? I can't stop them from seeing the Bud ad. I can't stop them from
seeing it. They're going to see it on the way to the grocery store. They're going to
see it going down the freeway. They're going to see the Budweiser and the Coors and Tap
the Rockies. And I have all the slogans memorized. We all do. You know, Tap the Rockies, king
of beers. You know, whatever. I could probably quote it all to you. I could draw a picture
of the billboard and the logos. But you know what? At least we can balance it out with
the truth. At least we can show them some of the filth by taking them out soul winning
in some of the ghettos and show them what life's really like. Show them where things
really take you. But this guy, he just can't drink it. He just can't stop. He can't stop.
Hey, that's the kind of real life that our kids need to be exposed to, not sheltered
from. But let's get on with the next verse. That was verse 8 about the filth there. It
says in verse 9, and this is the key. Whom shall he teach knowledge? And the he there
is God. He's saying, who is God going to teach knowledge? The prophet, the priest, they failed.
They're wicked. They're not preaching what needs to be preached. Who is God going to
preach knowledge to? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Look at the answer.
Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts, for precept must be upon
precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a
little. You say, well, I don't think they're getting much from the sermon tonight. Well,
that's okay as long as they're getting a little. As long as they're getting one line
of what I'm preaching tonight. He said, that is the hope for our nation. We look in the
pulpits of America, we see sin, we see compromise, we see failure, and then we ask ourselves,
where is the hope for America? Where is the future? The future is in the young child that's
weaned from the breast. That's what the Bible says. He said, you want to really reach the
next generation? You really want to do something for God? You really want to preach the word
of God to somebody? Preach it to the young child that's just weaned from the breast.
That's the one who needs to be learned. He didn't say, take him from the breast, Isaiah,
and put him in a little fun class with a little zoo animal cookies in a little box with a
circus on it and have a little story rug and have some watered down thing. And don't read
them from the Bible, just read them a Bible storybook. We don't read our kids Bible storybooks,
we read them the Bible. You know what I did with my little son Solomon? I basically just
searched through the Bible for all the parts of the Bible that I felt like were the easiest
to understand. I just found the easy stories. And instead of getting some storybook that's
not God's word, I just got God's word. And let's face it folks, some chapters are harder
to understand than others, aren't they? So I searched the Bible for just the easiest
passages and that's what I would read to him. And I would tell him what the words meant.
And I would read him the same stories over and over again and tell him what the words
meant and tell him what the words meant. And this was his number one favorite story and
I would do this with Isaac and John too. This is their number one favorite story. The disciples
in the ship. You know the story about how the disciples are out on the ship and the
storm comes. And I'm reading them to him from the Bible. The actual word. I'm not changing
any words here. And I'm making it exciting for him but I'm reading it with emphasis.
But yeah, I'm doing that right now. In church to adults too. I've got to do this just to
keep your attention. But anyway, the point is I read it to him with emphasis and tell
him hey, the storm came and I'm reading word for word the story. And they love it. They
beg me. Dad, read me the story about the disciples in the ship. And then another one
I would do is baby Moses. Read me baby Moses. You know, Exodus chapter 2. And then another
one that they liked was the book of Jonah. Read me about Jonah. Jonah and the whale.
Jonah and the whale. And I would read him Jonah chapter 1. Jonah chapter 1. Jonah chapter
1. Jonah chapter 1. And when there was a word, we came to a word in Jonah 1. Mariners. I
told them, Mariners are the guys in the ship. Kids are really quick at learning stuff. And
I read them the real Bible. I just found easy stories. I wasn't reading them about the
birth sacrifice in Leviticus or something. And then I would read them the story about
where the devil is being thrown into hell in Revelation 20. They love that story. About
how he's being chained up and thrown into hell. They like that story. Me too. And you
know what? It didn't work their mind. They're fine. You know what I mean? And I'm telling
you, they can understand so much more than you think. That is the hope tonight. That's
where it begins. God said it, not me. When they're weaned from the breast, He said, that's
where they need to be learning. But today's children that have just been weaned from the
breast, they're not even in church. They're not even getting to King James. They're getting
to what in many cases is a storybook or a flannel graph. Or maybe they're getting a
tiny bit of Bible, but you know what? They're not getting this. They're not getting this
kind of preaching. And I'll tell you what, this is what they need tonight. And I'm telling
you, if we're going to reach the next generation, and let's get off this case. Everybody thinks
the world's going to end all the time. Yes, it's eventually going to end. But did you
know that people have thought it was going to end for the last few hundred years? They
all thought, Jesus is going to come back five years from now. In the 70s and the 60s
and the 80s and the 90s, they've always been saying that. And the people just don't care
about the kids. These kids aren't even going to grow up. No. We don't know when Jesus Christ
is coming back. I think my kids probably will grow up. The chances are, He's probably not
going to come in the next ten years or something. Well, we don't know that. So why don't you
just plan on it? Why don't you just plan on living to be 80 and just do what you can?
And I'm going to raise my children, because I believe that my little child, Anna, is going
to grow up and win souls to Christ. I believe that Becca is going to grow up and be a great
Christian, godly young lady. I believe that Miriam is going to grow up and go, I'm going
to invest in those young lives. I'm going to read them the Bible. And you know, if a
little chirp comes out or a little cry or somebody has to get up and walk out with their
baby, you know what? I can live with that. Oh, I can't believe you're disturbing the
service. What a pain in the neck. They are why I'm preaching. They're not a pain in the
neck. They're not a burden. They're why I'm here. And by the way, if you have a child
here, if you have a baby here, don't ever think that I'm just upset. Now, look, there
is a time, obviously, to step out with your child. And that's why we have a room to take
the children. And you can step outside and you can step into the little room here. That's
why we provide that room. But you know what? If they're sitting still and being good, man,
get them where they can hear the preaching. Get them where they can hear that singing.
Say, well, when do they start going to sin? You know what? Bring them here when they're
breastfed. That's what the Bible said. He said that's when you start teaching them line
upon line, preaching upon preaching. He said, well, aren't you just against this children's
church? I'm against dividing up the family and sticking kids off with people that they
don't even know. I've been to churches for my first time. I've never even been there
in a distant city. And they said, oh, we'll take your children over here. No, you're not.
I mean, they're like, oh, your two-year-old goes fast. And I'm like grabbing my teeth.
I'm just going to turn my child over to strangers. And you know how many weirdos and people,
they flock to churches. Many times in churches where they have children in church, that's
where pedophiles and weirdos will go because they think, well, everybody's just going to
trust me because I say God bless you and hallelujah. They're just going to turn their kid over
to me. And in many cases, they're right. But not at this church, brother. I'm not turning
my kids over to any strangers. And they just turn their kids over to a stranger. You don't
even know what's being taught in that class. You don't even know what's being preached
about Noah's Ark. You don't even know what's being preached. You don't know what's being
taught. Why don't you just get in church, sit in it. And a lot of people, I'll tell
you right now, a lot of people don't come to our church because of this exact thing
that I'm preaching right now. Tons of people have come to our church. Oh, you don't have
a children's church? See ya. Because I don't want my little brat sitting next to me in
the service. Well, you know what? Maybe if you had him sitting with you in the service,
they wouldn't be such a brat because they've learned some character and learned some real
Bible doctrine from day one. And people think, oh, we can't have the team with it. They don't
even want the teenagers in church half the time. We've got to put them in the team service.
And then they get some guy, you know, with like a cool goatee, you know, and he's going
to reach the youth. You know what? Teenagers don't think I'm cool. You know what I mean?
Like, it's like, you got to get him. He's kind of cool. He's kind of got spiked hair.
Hey, what's up? You know, search up, dude. You know, he's like, he's got the white shirt.
He's real laid back and he's got to reach them on their level. He gets with their music
and, you know, he's like, he's like one of them. But you know what? It's funny how many
teens have gotten our church and get this preaching, get out soul winning and totally
or transform teens. You know, and then it's funny how many of these worldly youth groups
that think they're reaching all the teens, when those kids become adults, it's like,
see ya. I'm going to Calvary Chapel. See ya. It's true. I'm going to so and so community
church. I'm going to rock for Jesus. You know, I'm going to the rock of, you know, whatever.
And they're going to go to these other places and they're going to adventure community.
Why? Because of the fact that we've dumbed it down to them. And instead of telling teens,
hey, let's bring it to your teens and tweens and whatever, you know, oh, we got to break
their level. Why don't we break teens up to this level? You know, I see some of these
teens that are 13, 14, 15, 16 years old, worldly teens. I want to tell them, hey, it's time
to start being a man. You're not a kid anymore. Grow up, be a man. You know, start thinking
like an adult, you know, because when you turn 18, there's not just a light switch going
to happen where all of a sudden you're just responsible. You got to start teaching them
a little responsibility now. You got to get them used to this kind of preaching now. You
got to get them used to maybe looking at a book that has white pages and black ink and
no pictures now. This is what they need. And it's not just going to happen automatically
when they turn 18. No, you have every, you take them to a special service where everything's
all kid-ish and teen-oriented, and then they're not going to go to this church when they turn
18. It's a fact. And so I could go on and on tonight, but I've shown you in the Bible.
This is why we don't do it. This is why I think the whole family, what's good for the
goose is good for the gander, and this book and this preaching and these hymns are good
for everybody. Let's just bring the whole family. We won't turn your kids over to strangers.
Let's get the whole family. Let's have mom, dad, kids, whoever's in the family who's here,
you know, and uncle, grandpa, you know, whatever. Hey, just get everybody, line them up in a
row from the little baby that's being breastfed all the way up to the, you know, the old man,
and let's just get everybody in the same church here in the same preaching. That's going to
build a strong family. That's going to build adults that think to themselves, church isn't
about having fun. It's about hearing the Word of God preached. And we grew up in faithful
word from the time that we were drinking out of our mother's milk in faithful word Baptist
church, and that's when we grow up. And when we grow up, we go to Calvary Chapel and we're
just not being fed there. Because the preaching is watered down. We're not used to that. We
can't handle that. We need a fundamental Baptist church. That's what these kids are going to
go over and say. That's what I grew up and said. I grew up and said, I'm not being fed
in this liberal watered down mess because I grew up as a young person hearing some letter
while I'm preaching. Father, we thank you so much for our church, dear God. And God,
I thank you personally for my children that you blessed me with. And I pray that you'll
bless me with more, dear God, and those who are in the room tonight that have been blessed
with children, dear God. I pray that they would just have the wisdom to understand that
their children need the Bible, the Word of God from a young age. Deuteronomy 6 tells
us that. Help them to realize their children need the hymns of the faith, spiritual songs,
not a cheap copycat of the world's music. We need to understand, God, that church is
for everybody and that church is the pillar ground of the truth. Help every single person
who's here to raise their children right and not to think, well, I'll get serious about
parenting when they're poor. Too late. Well, I'll get serious. When they turn three, I'll
start thinking, no, it'll be too late. God, please just help them to get this story of
baby Moses and let it sink in, dear God, and to raise their children from day one in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.