Thank you very much for watching.
and turn to him number 42 my latest son is sinking fast
him number 42
we'll go ahead and start there right there
Good singing this morning will open with a word of prayer. Dear father thank you for this church
and thank you for this opportunity that we have to sing praises unto you lord thank you so much
for the souls that were won yesterday and I pray at this time that you'd bless the remainder of the
service as well as fill pastor Oz with your spirit as he preaches for us from your word lord in
Jesus name I pray amen. For our next song if you would turn in your hymnals to hymn number 255
please raise your hand and Usher will come and bring you one. On the front we have our Bible
memory verse of the week, Genesis chapter number one verse 11. Make sure everyone keeps working
on that chapter. On the inside our service times are listed there Sunday morning at 10 30, Sunday
evening at 4 30 and our seven o'clock on Wednesday Bible study through Proverbs. We do also have all
church building first, then we go out into the community and preach the gospel. We do have our
up-to-date year statistics for soul winning and baptisms. We had a great day at our soul winning
marathon yesterday in Ardmore. So thank you very much to all those who participated in that and
prayed for that event. It was much needed after our Anadarko soul winning marathon, you know where
we had four salvations. So praise God we had 25 salvations yesterday, very receptive area. So
And that brings us to 1906 for the year for soul winning.
So I'm really hungry for that 2000 number
and I'm very confident that we'll hit that.
So keep being faithful to soul winning
and I'm glad to see the Lord blessing our church
in that area.
We do also have our upcoming events.
Just as a reminder, this evening is the men's preaching night
at 430 and then following the preaching night,
we'll have our game night and potluck.
So please do stick around and join us for those events.
Then the next big thing coming up is the Bahamas mission trip October 6th through the 11th.
We do have just a reminder of our church rules to go through there.
Then on the right hand side, we have our online visitor card and our online giving platform if you'd like to help us with that
we also have our prayer list and
Something that's not on the prayer list, but it just seems like so many people
I know right now are sick with the what I call the fire breathing Baptist plague
It seems like everyone went to that conference and just got really really sick
So be praying for our members and other churches as well. Everyone seems really sick be praying for them
But that's going to be it for announcements.
We'll go ahead and go to our third song.
All right, for our third song, if you would, at this time,
turn in your hymnals to hymn number 10, near the cross,
hymn number 10.
We'll go ahead and start there right on the first.
G.
to Psalm chapter 127. Psalm.
127
Accept the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it
Accept the Lord keep the city the watchman walk what wakeeth but in vain
It is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late to eat the bread of sorrows
for so he giveth
His beloved sleep
Low, children are in heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man, the hath his quiver full of them, they shall not be ashamed, but they
shall speak with the enemies in the gate."
Let's pray. Gracious Lord, thankful to have those that are gathered here today.
Thankful Lord for our families and children.
Pray Lord that at this time you fill past Ross with your spirit.
Lord, help us to be edified and instructed out of your word today.
Use them and pray it. Amen.
Amen. All right. We are in Psalm 127.
And let's start reading in verse number three, famous passage here.
The Bible says,
Lo, children are in heritage of the Lord,
and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man,
so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.
They shall not be ashamed,
but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
The word I want you to focus on there in verse number three is that word heritage.
The Bible says children are a heritage of the Lord.
And that's not really a word that we use commonly today in our modern vernacular,
but just to refresh you with this word basically means something that is handed down
from the past as a tradition, something that comes or belongs to one by reason of birth.
or an inherited lot or portion.
So the Bible says children are inherited of the Lord.
And what that means is two things.
Number one, we realize that the source of our children
is God.
God is the one who gave us our children.
Our kids are a blessing and a gift from God.
Also, we can learn from this
that these children ultimately belong to the Lord.
And, you know, God is the owner of us all, really.
Children belong to God.
And I want to show you in Malachi chapter 2 if you'll turn there.
Malachi chapter number two, this idea.
But you know, of course, we as Christians,
we recognize that our children are a blessing.
The world today thinks that having kids
is something negative.
Many of them, many people today will praise young couples
if they intentionally wait until their 30s
to start having kids and they'll act like that's the,
you know, thing to be desired in this world.
But we realize that kids are a blessing.
And while God doesn't necessarily bless every single person with that, or at least not at certain times,
if you do have kids though, realize that that is a blessing from God.
And because we have these blessings, we should want to be good stewards of our children.
Because we recognize that these kids ultimately belong to God, we are just stewards of these kids.
We want to raise them for the Lord. Look at Malachi 2 verse 14.
It says, yet ye say, wherefore, because the Lord hath been witnessed between thee and
the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet is she thy companion
and the wife of thy covenant.
And did he not make one?
Yet had he the residue of the spirit, notice this question, and wherefore one?
God's saying, why did I make man and wife one flesh?
What is one of the biggest reasons that marriage exists today?
Notice that he might seek a godly seed.
Therefore, take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
One of the biggest reasons why marriage exists is because God is seeking a godly seed today.
What does that mean?
He's looking for the next generation of Christians to be raised up by other Christians.
You have this idea today out in the world where people are getting married but intentionally never having kids.
their goal is just to live their whole life and never have children. Let me tell
you that's wrong. That's a bad attitude. And if you go into marriage not desiring
kids, you're just like purposely saying I don't want any kids whatsoever. I say
that person shouldn't even get married because the Bible says that God is
seeking a godly seed today. And notice he's not just seeking us to reproduce
human beings, raise people that just exist. No, he's seeking a godly seed. He
godly children and raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
And so I want to preach a sermon about that this morning.
The title of my sermon is tips for raising young children,
tips for raising young children.
And what I mean by that is I really want to focus on child rearing for those
ages of like 10 years old and younger.
Obviously, I don't have teen kids, I don't have adult kids, I can't speak to those areas
from direct experience, but you know, I do have four young children and I definitely
read what the Bible says on this subject and I want to give some tips for raising young
kids this morning.
And one thing I want to say just by way of introduction is do not be the person that
gets offended at a sermon like this.
And if you really have their best interests at heart,
you would want to hear correction
if you're doing something wrong.
If I'm parenting in a way that is stifling my children's
physical, mental, spiritual, emotional growth, I would want to know about that
and fix it because I love my children dearly. And the type of parent
that hears correction about their parenting and just bristles and doesn't
want to hear it
and changes their attitude towards you and gets mad at sermons like this,
let me tell you what that is, that's a parent that doesn't love their kids enough.
because if you love your kids, you should want to hear correction.
I want to read for you, Proverbs 9 verse 8, the Bible says,
Reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee.
rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.
So if you rebuke someone, and their reaction is to hate you,
the Bible says that person is a scornor.
That person has a character issue, has a heart issue,
whereas if you rebuke someone who is wise,
they'll actually appreciate that.
They'll actually love that.
And while it may not feel good at the moment,
it's for your betterment, it's for your children's best interests.
And also I want to say,
As you're turning to Deuteronomy 31, please.
You know, when you listen to sermons like this
about child rearing, you should be thinking about you.
You should be thinking about your children,
not someone else's kids, not someone else's parenting
that you may have seen problems with.
You know, you should be focused on yourself.
And you know, I understand many people here today
don't even have kids.
Well, you should start, you know,
tucking these things away in your mind
so that when that day comes, you can have this wisdom.
from the beginning.
There's a lot of people who learn things in the Bible
when they're old and they say,
man, I wish I would have learned that when I was younger.
So you know, if you don't have kids,
this sermon should still be a blessing to you
so that you could carry this knowledge into the future.
Number one, I wanna say,
start training your children as young as possible.
As young as possible.
Deuteronomy 31, verse 11.
The Bible says when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose,
thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
Gather the people together, men and women and children and thy stranger that is within thy gates,
that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and observe to do all the words of this law.
It sounds to me like God has a pretty high expectation even for children here.
And he doesn't say, hey, just bring your children so that they could just sit in a seat and not pay attention and not listen and not try to learn.
He's saying, bring the men, the women, and the children so that they may hear, right, so they're paying attention and that they may learn.
You know what that means? They're hearing information.
and they're actually retaining information,
they're gaining wisdom, they're gaining knowledge.
Notice this, and fear the Lord your God.
You know, what a blessing it would be to instill the fear of the Lord in a young child.
That they could have that respect and fear of God from a young age, you know, that's
going to be a blessing to them throughout their life.
Because the Bible says, by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil.
You know, so if you want your kids to grow up living a godly life, you know where it
starts?
It starts with the fear of God.
This is, by the way, why we don't have separate church services that are catered towards children.
Because, let me tell you what, children need to hear hard preaching.
Children need to hear all the gnarly Bible verses that we read out of the King James Bible.
You got some people today that say, like, oh, don't read Revelation to children.
That's what Stephen Crowder says, the conservative commentator.
He says, Revelation is too scary, it's too jacked up to read kids.
Or, you know, don't read Song of Solomon to young kids.
There's nothing impure in those books.
And you know what? Kids should read Revelation. They should hear about the wrath of God.
They should hear the fear of God. That's what this is specifically saying here.
Notice, and observe to do all the words of this law.
So kids are expected to hear, they're expected to learn,
they're expected to fear God, and they are expected to do the commandments of God.
Today, parents are doing their kids a major disservice because many people today start
training their children once they're way older than they should be.
Right? A lot of people today, you know, they'll never take their kids out soul winning until they're in their teens or something like that.
Or they just wait to start teaching them the Bible.
Or they wait to get them saved.
It's like a kid's at an age where they could easily get saved
and for some reason, their parents just aren't getting them saved.
They're not even trying.
They're not even trying to make their kids pay attention in church.
They're not even trying to make their kids do the Bible verse.
They're not even trying to instill the fear of God into their kids whatsoever.
They're not doing any training.
Whereas in Deuteronomy,
The Bible is saying, hey, gather all the people together, the men, the women, and children,
and notice men, women, and children were all expected to do the exact same things.
Now, of course, we would give grace to children because they're going to be at a different level
than teenagers and at a different level than adults, but what we should all expect of our children
is for them to be doing something for God, trying to learn something from the sermon.
And I always ask my children what was the sermon about, and I expect them to give me
You know, for example, at the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship, we were listening to Pastor
Thompson's sermon, and he was preaching about the scary verses in the Bible, verses that
Christians should be afraid of.
And I asked my kids, what did Pastor Thompson preach about?
What did your grandpa preach about?
And Bethany gave me a really short answer.
She just said, the fear of God.
Amen.
You know, I expect kids to be able to understand that much, but people today, they're not even
trying.
They're not even trying to make their kids be trained in the things of God.
Notice verse 13.
It says, and that their children, notice this, which have not known anything.
may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God.
As long as you live in the land,
whether you go over Jordan to possess it.
So just in case in verse 12, you think,
oh, you know, he's mainly just talking about the men
and the women.
In verse 13, he just hones in specifically on the children.
And he says specifically your children should be hearing
and learning to fear the Lord your God.
And notice it says that your children,
which have not known anything.
Here's the truth about kids is that they are all an empty canvas at birth and they are just ready
to be poured into, ready to be invested into. You know, kids are so receptive to the gospel.
And this could be used for good, this could be used for evil.
You know, unfortunately, young kids that grow up in Hindu families,
young kids that grow up in Muslim families,
you know what they're going to do?
They're going to get indoctrinated with those false religions
and they're going to accept it.
Why? Because they have not known anything
and kids are pretty much going to accept and believe whatever you tell them.
Now, what we should do is we should use this idea, this advantage that we have for good
and teach them good things and instill in them the right things.
But you know what that takes?
That actually takes work of you actually training them.
Today, I think people think that if they just bring their children to church three times
a week, that that's enough.
But you know what?
It's not the pastor's job to train your children.
It is your job, mom and dad, to train your children.
They are not on their own going to get the adequate training they need just from church
alone.
They need mom and dad to care and mom and dad to invest into them.
Go to Matthew chapter number 19.
Matthew chapter 19.
Look at verse number 13 of Matthew 19.
So here we have some children, which the Bible says, hey, they've not known anything. They're an empty canvas.
They're ready to learn. These children are brought unto Jesus. What better place for children to be?
I mean, if there's anyone I want with my kids, it's Jesus.
But the disciples, it says, and the disciples rebuked them.
So there are some people today that have this attitude or this mindset that learning the things of God isn't for children.
Serving God isn't for kids. It's only for adults.
And unfortunately, this mindset has infiltrated like every church basically in America.
where almost every single church in America has families separate themselves
and kids go to a church service that's tailored towards their age.
But notice, the kids here, they weren't going to some Sunday school,
they weren't going to some low-level class,
they were going straight to Jesus Christ.
And you know what the equivalent of that today would be?
Would be kids going straight to the King James Bible.
Kids today don't need to go into a class,
be fed a bunch of candy, listen to a bunch of silly songs,
watch a puppet show, and act like you're getting some sort of real spiritual instruction.
They need to be brought to Jesus.
They need to be listening to the words of God being preached by a man of God,
and we should suffer the children to do so.
Look at the next verse.
Suffer, that means allow, suffer little children, and forbid them not to come unto me, for of
such is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus' attitude is, hey, let the kids come unto me, let the kids be ministered unto by
Jesus Christ, by the word of God, and you know what, that's the mentality we have today.
That's one of the reasons why we have a family integrated church.
We do not believe in this method of separating parents from their families.
We want kids in the service with mom and dad, not just to be their warming a seat, but to hear Jesus.
To come to the word of God, to pay attention.
And you know, while we have things like mother baby rooms, those are great tools.
We want you to use those tools, but those tools should be a temporary dwelling.
and then you should come back out into the service and listen to the Word of God.
Today, sometimes people in churches, they'll just use that mother-baby room as just like a permanent dwelling place,
where they go there so that their kids can watch the iPad and play with the toys and not pay attention,
and mom doesn't have to discipline her kids. Mom doesn't have to pay attention to what her kids are doing.
Mom doesn't have to correct or chase in anything going on so that she could pretty much be lazy.
What we should do is make sure that our kids are coming into the service and paying attention
and not stay in the mother-baby room the whole time.
Go to Proverbs chapter number 22.
You know, we have those things for, you know, if you want to go breastfeed your kid, if you want to spank your kid,
you've got to change a diaper. You know, there's times that those rooms are used legitimately. That's why we have them.
There's nothing wrong with that. But you and I know you've probably seen someone in church that abuses those mother baby rooms,
where it becomes a place where you scroll TikTok, where it becomes a place where girls just chat and talk the whole service.
You know, you're doing a disservice to your kids. They should be here listening to the words of Jesus.
Proverbs 22 verse number six notice this verse train up a child in the way he
should go
And when he is old, he will not depart from it.
So when does training start?
It trains when they are a child.
It starts when they are a child.
And I like this word here.
Train up the child in the way he should go.
So the idea is your kids are at a certain level of maturity,
a certain level of good or bad behavior,
a certain level of knowledge and wisdom.
They're at a certain level right now.
But what you should be doing, you should not be catering your training as a parent to where they are right now.
You should be catering your parent, parenting to where they should go.
And a lot of people today, they have this mentality where it's just like they baby their kids for way too long.
And they never challenge their kids and they never expect anything out of their kids.
You know, that's not training. Training, you're training them to where they should go.
And, you know, I've heard this quote that's been said by other preachers that us as parents,
we have to have this mentality that we are not raising children, we are raising adults.
And that is biblical because the Bible says, train up a child in the way he should go.
Now, this is a double-edged sword because here's the thing, if you train a child...
To be responsible, to pay attention, to be well-behaved,
chances are in the future, what does the last part of that verse say,
when he is old, he will not depart from it.
So the training that you give them at a young age is the most important age
because in general, how you train them at that age
is how they will stay when they are older.
and kids that are trained to be brats,
kids that are trained to not pay attention,
that the world just revolves around them,
that they could throw a fit and get what they want,
that they could disobey and nothing bad happens,
chances are, that's the type of adult they'll be.
That's the type of teenager that they will be.
And on the converse, when a young child is disciplined very strictly and they have high expectations
and they're given good training, you know what, when they're old, they're not going to depart from that either.
And of course, Proverbs speaks a lot in generalities.
We understand that we still have free will as human beings.
And you could instruct kids in the perfect way of God and they could still choose to be rebellious,
but this is in general a truth of life.
that those who are trained at a young age, trained in the way they should go,
they don't depart from it, whether that's good or whether that is bad.
So let me give you a few examples here.
Train up a child in the way he should go.
Think about how you are training your children right now.
And we have a lot of young children in our church.
Those who have kids are mostly young children.
One thing you should pay attention to is,
are you making them pay attention in church?
Are you making them? Pay attention, listen, sit quietly, or are you training them?
That church is a playground.
That church is a place where they get to eat fun snacks the whole time,
where church is a place where they get to play games the whole time.
I am preaching. I'm a pastor. I preach every service pretty much.
And so I don't get to sit with my children very often.
But it was nice going to the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship
and being able to sit with my kids and kind of get a firsthand account
of how they're doing, how they're behaving in church.
And I remember the first service that I sat with them,
they were doing really, really well.
They were doing a good job.
And I saw one of my kids, they started getting some toys
and started like wanting to draw on something.
And I just looked at that and I was just like,
what is this?
I'm not gonna allow them to do this.
I'm like, I'm changing this in my family
because of the fact that all of them are old enough
and well-behaved enough to pay attention and listen in church.
And my kids are six, five and four years old.
And it's like, if my six, five, and four-year-olds can all sit down without a toy,
without, you know, some sort of iPad, without all this crazy stuff going on,
and pay attention, why is it that 10-year-olds, 9-year-olds, and 8-year-olds aren't being expected to do that?
And look, I think it's crazy, I think it's crazy to allow 6-year-olds to just play the whole service.
I think you're doing your kids a disservice.
I think what you're doing is you're not training them in the way they should go.
And Pastor Shelley, I don't know if he still has this rule, but when I was going there,
at one point he had a rule where he just said,
no toys for kids in church.
No toys.
And look, I'm not saying necessarily we're implementing that right now,
but I'm not against a rule like that.
Because what's the point of taking your kids to church?
Is it to let them draw and play and play with toys?
Or is it to try to train them in the way they should go?
And look, here's the thing, it's going to be hard.
In the first years of training, it's going to be the hardest.
And yes, you're gonna have difficult times.
They're going to, they're kids, they're foolish, right?
But when you don't train them at all,
I mean, how are you gonna get out of that rut?
How are you gonna just expect that someday
they're gonna be mature, someday they're gonna pay attention?
No, right now, while your kids are young,
you should have higher expectations of them
and you should make them listen and sit down
and pay attention to the preaching.
There is no reason why a 6-year-old, a 5-year-old, and a 4-year-old cannot sit down for an hour and pay attention.
There's no reason for that.
And if you are in that situation and your kids just cannot do it, let me tell you something,
you are not disciplining them enough.
You're just not because it can be done. It should be done and look if you're starting this process from scratch
It's gonna be hard, but here's what you do. You sit them down
You tell them be quiet pay attention to the preaching and tell me what the sermon was about or I'm going to spank you after church
That's what I did and guess what they told me what the sermon was about
And it's like, oh, but you know, my kids, they can't sit down without toys or they're just
going to freak out.
Okay?
When they freak out, you take them out of the service, you spank the fire out of them,
you make them stop screaming and throwing a fit, and you bring them back in the service
and sit down and pay attention.
And you repeat that process until they learn to fear his mother and father.
Until they learn to pay attention in the house of God and you are just allowing your children to rule your life
If you can't do that you are stronger than them. You are smarter than them
You should be able to say kids you're gonna pay attention to service and if you don't you're getting a spanking and
By the way, if you spank your kids and they start screaming at you throwing a fit
Then you spank them again and if they keep screaming and throwing a fit then you spank them again
Until they learn to be quiet
And it's amazing to me how like, you know, I could do this with Heidi.
I can make Heidi stop throwing fits with enough spankings with my youngest.
But it's like people just let their seven, eight, nine year old kids rule over them.
It's embarrassing.
And you know what?
It's not just embarrassing.
It's harmful for your kids because you're training them in a certain way.
And when they're old, they're not going to depart from it.
Make them sit quietly.
Here's another one.
Hey, train them in the way they should go.
When they are old, they will not depart from it.
A child that is taught to respect adults
is a child that's going to grow up
to be a respectable human being that
can interact with other adults and look them in the eye
and shake their hand and say, sir and ma'am,
and just be respectable.
If your kid is disrespectful to an adult,
that should be an immediate spanking.
If your kid is disrespectful to a pastor,
that should be an immediate spanking.
And, you know, I teach my kids to say,
brother so-and-so, miss so-and-so,
not just call people by their first names,
not to mention pastors especially.
You know, you need to teach your kids respect of adults,
and some people have this weird attitude,
like, no one could tell my kid anything but me.
Well, here's the thing, at Anchor Baptist Church,
we have the church rules in our bulletin.
One of the things that says right on it is that
if the ushers see your kids breaking rules,
they could tell them,
And if you have a problem with that, you know what, you're not being very loving to your
kids because you should want your kids to respect adults and to respect authority.
And by the way, I expect the ushers to tell my kids if they're doing something wrong and
then tell me and I'll go spank them and not have this attitude of just like, oh, my kids
could never do any wrong, don't ever tell me about problems with my kids.
No, you should want to know if your kids are doing something wrong.
You should want to correct that because you want them to get better.
Here's another one. Make your young kids go soul-winning with you.
Make your young kids go soul-winning with you. Now look, I'm speaking from experience here.
It is difficult at first because you're taking these young kids and you're asking them to go walk around and knock on doors and be
quiet when you're preaching and not touch this and not touch that. It takes a lot of training at first, but you know what?
It's well worth the effort.
It's well worth the effort, you're giving all these great spiritual blessings to your kids
by allowing them to get involved in the work of God at a young age, be soul winners from a young age,
but you know what, you have to put in that hard work at first.
And look, there's been many times where I've taken my kids out soul winning
and it's like we get in the car and it's spanking time because they did a bad job.
But here's the result of that, is that I have a 6 year old, 5 year old, and 4 year old
that I can often take soul winning with me, where there is no major issues.
Where there is no major spanking at the end, because they can behave themselves.
But how do you get to that point through training?
And some people, I'm just like, are you just going to wait till your kids are teens
and then try to make them behave and then try to get them to figure out how to go soul winning?
No, start now.
And a lot of people, they themselves don't go soul-winning.
They themselves don't go out and preach as much as they should
because they're allowing their children to just drag them down.
They're allowing their kids to just, you know, make them not be a spiritual.
No, you need to step up to the plate and lead your family
and say, you know what, we've got a lot of kids, but guess what?
Kids are a blessing from God.
We are supposed to have this as a heritage of the Lord.
We're supposed to train them in the way they should go.
Start that as young as possible.
Take your kids out soul winning because what I've noticed is that people who just never take their kids out soul winning whatsoever
They'll every once in a while find themselves in a situation where they have to they have to take their kids out soul winning
And it's just a complete and utter nightmare the whole time. It's like you don't want that for yourself
You don't want that for your kids. You want to put in the work and take them soul winning
Here's another one make your kids do the memory verse make your kids at least try
Now, look, I understand there are some verses way longer than others.
There are certain ages where this is going to be very, very difficult.
But you know what? You should at least try to make your kids learn the memory verse.
And, you know, my kids, I'm not saying they get every single one down.
There are some that are long and difficult.
But, like, my young kids have memorized a lot of scripture.
So, why are 10-year-olds not doing it?
Why are 9-year-olds not doing it?
Why are teenagers not doing it?
Why are adults not doing it for crying out loud?
You just need to lead them and you need to start training them to do spiritual things young.
And if you think you're just going to waste your children's youth,
you're going to waste your children's childhood, not paying attention in church,
not soul-winning, not doing the Bible memorization,
not reading the Bible, not respecting adults,
and you just expect that they're going to end up turning out right?
You're crazy!
It starts now. That's why, like, it could be intervened at this age, at this young age.
If you've got a lot of issues that I'm talking about right now, it could be fixed.
They're still young. You still got lots of time.
That's why sermons like this are important for parents that have young kids,
because, look, if you stay on this path, your kids are going to turn out with some serious issues.
For sure they will.
You know, like I said, make them respect God's house.
Make them follow the church rules.
Make them realize that this is not a place to play games and run around and scream and
throw stuff and stand on top of the counters and not pay attention in church and scream
and play and fight.
Make them respect the house of God.
And when you make young children do that, you know what, as teenagers, they'll already be there.
They'll have respect for the things of God.
When they're young adults, they'll keep that respect for the things of God.
But it needs to start young.
Go to 1 Timothy chapter number three.
1 Timothy chapter number three.
You know, think about your family.
Are you training them to take church seriously?
Or are you training them to do whatever they want?
To act any way that they want?
First Timothy chapter 3 verse 15,
but if I tarry long,
that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself
in the house of God,
which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth.
There's a way that we ought to
behave ourselves in the house of God.
And there used to be this thing in society called
common sense.
common decency and common manners where you didn't even necessarily have to
have a list of do's and don'ts there would be things that adults just see
their kids doing and immediately know like this is not acceptable this is not
okay this is not normal behavior that we just tolerate it's like you know kids
running across the pews and just jumping off taking your kids to
restaurants they're just running on the tables and running on the chairs and
doing it's like what are you doing when you don't correct that stuff
You know, you need to teach your children to behave in the house of God.
There should be a lot of common sense used and realize that, hey,
you know, we're supposed to suffer the little children. We're also supposed to give grace.
And oftentimes, when I see kids misbehaving, I'm not even close to as upset with the children themselves as I am with the parents.
And, you know, we need to get back to some positive peer pressure, by the way,
where it's like, your kids acting a fool and like everyone is like,
Looking at you like you should take that cue that there's a problem and you should fix that problem
It's just like so annoying when you're around parents where you're just like obviously uncomfortable
Everyone's staring at your kids. Just la la la la la. That's called going out soul winning in the ghetto
And it's like, your kids are like literally throwing things through the walls and punching
each other and fighting and throwing food.
And then, you know, we're just like, do you need to take a sec?
We can wait a second.
You know, we can come back to the goth.
Do you need to go take care of that real quick?
It's like, oh no, we're good.
We're good.
Keep going.
It's like, you having to scream over them because they're kids.
You know, you all know what I'm talking about.
Like, we need to bring back some common sense and some social stigma and some positive peer
pressure where it's like everyone's staring at you.
Look, kids are foolish.
but fix the problem.
And you know what, my kids are foolish.
They're gonna do stupid things,
but I'm gonna fix the problem.
And I'm not mad at your kids.
I know they're just kids.
Hopefully you're gracious with my kids.
They're just children, but you know what?
We should correct them.
We should chasing them. So what are the church rules one on there?
If you if you look at your bulletin no running, right? That's an obvious one
We don't need people tripping and getting hurt. We don't need the kids themselves getting hurt
We don't need a damaged church property. No children congregating by the front door. That is a major safety issue
You know, because number one, we don't want the kids just wandering outside and getting
hit by a car, or getting kidnapped by some weirdo, or getting their fingers smashed in
the door.
And so, I don't care what adult sees it, if there's kids by the front door, please tell
them to get away from the front door.
Please just make them do that, and that doesn't even have to be an usher.
That is a safety issue.
When we see kids over by the front door, make them move.
Make them come back into the congregation.
And you know what helps with this is actually watching your children
and actually paying attention to them, keeping your eyes on them,
knowing what's going on.
Please sit in the sanctuary unless children need to be calmed, fed, or corrected.
Like I said, those mother baby rooms, they have a purpose.
Musical instruments and equipment are off limits unless you are practicing for playing in a church service.
So the piano, the guitar, it's not just a free-for-all for anyone to pick up, for kids to play with and stuff like that.
That is for the service of God.
Only play those things if you are part of our church ministry or if you ask me.
Also, no children are allowed on the stage, and then, I said this, ushers will correct people who are breaking these rules.
Do not be so soft. Do not be so offended.
I expect and I want ushers to correct people that are breaking these rules.
Use discretion and common sense. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number 11. Ecclesiastes chapter number 11.
I think a lot of parents, they don't want to do the hard work of training.
They don't want to train their children as if they were raising adults.
One of the reasons why is I think that
childhood is just overly glorified today in our culture.
They overly glorify childhood. Look at Ecclesiastes 11 verse 10.
Notice what the Bible says.
Therefore, remove sorrow from thy heart
and put away evil from thy flesh
for childhood and youth are vanity.
And today people have this over-glorification of childhood where they just want their kids to stay kids.
And oh come on, they're just kids.
And I mean we can't really have any expectations of kids and let's let them be kids.
But here's the thing, yes we want to preserve our children's innocence for as long as possible.
Absolutely, no doubt about that.
But we want to have our children grow in maturity and in wisdom and in knowledge and in good behavior as soon as possible.
And this idea of just staying in a perpetual state of childhood,
the Bible says that it's foolishness that it is vanity.
Childhood and youth are vanity.
What does that mean?
It means it's just empty, it's meaningless, it has no profit.
Keeping your kids in just a rested state of development,
they are not producing anything with their lives.
They're not doing anything profitable.
But you know what?
A five and a six-year-old going out and being a silent partner,
they're doing something.
A five- and a six-year-old memorizing scripture, they are serving God from a young age.
Kids going and reading their Bible and paying attention in church, they're actually bringing some profit to their life.
That is meaningful.
Childhood and youth, though, are just vanity.
And today we've got a society full of overgrown children.
Children in their twenties.
Children in their thirties, where they're not doing anything with their life.
They're not building a family.
They're not even close to being able to raise the next generation
because they're not even raised themselves.
They're not even close to being able to minister to others
and train others and be a blessing to others
because they are just big babies today.
And they don't go to church. They don't read the Bible.
They just sit around all day and they're living in a life-long summer vacation.
By the way, summer vacation was a bad idea.
And I think it ruined a lot of young adults today.
Because kids grew up thinking, alright, this is so great.
End of May through August, you know what we do?
The epitome of life is to sit around all day playing video games, doing nothing.
Then adulthood happens, and you know what?
Train up a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
A lot of kids, they grew up with that lifestyle,
and they grow up, and they live that same lifestyle,
where the epitome of their life,
the main thing that they could do with their time
is to get that free time to sit around
and do nothing and play video games all day
and just waste their life.
So what am I saying?
Yes, protect your children's innocence, of course.
We've got to keep them pure for as long as possible.
But in behavior, in attitudes, in wisdom, in knowledge, in spirituality,
we should be trying to get them out of that vanity of childhood as soon as possible.
Because it's vanity, the Bible says.
Life is not one long trip at Disneyland.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter number three.
2 Timothy 3, verse 14,
but continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of,
knowing of whom thou hast learned them,
notice this in 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.
According to the Bible,
Timothy knew the holy scriptures starting at what age?
From a child.
You know, we need to raise our expectations.
And thinking of myself, I got saved in my teens,
and I feel blessed that I got saved pretty young in life.
But how much more would I be happy if I got saved as a child?
And if I started reading the Bible as a child, and I started memorizing scripture as a child,
you know, I missed the growing up in church part of life.
I did not grow up in church.
I did not grow up, you know, automatically hearing the songs about the Bible order, you
know, the books of the Bible order and all these stories.
You're like, I learned these things as a teenager.
Some of us have learned those things as an adult.
What a blessing.
What an advantage in life it would be to know all that stuff from a child.
I mean, think about memorizing one verse a week starting from a child to 18 years old.
You're going out into the world having memorized thousands and thousands of verses of the Bible.
You know, how many pastors today even have thousands of verses of the Bible memorized?
You know, if we take advantage of our children's youth, they could have a great head start in life, spiritually, physically, emotionally.
But you know what it takes? It takes starting training of them at a young age.
Go to Proverbs chapter 22.
at a young age.
Number two, young children need a lot of spankings.
And I just feel like you need to hear someone tell you this,
that young children need a lot of spanking.
And parents of toddlers and young kids,
they sometimes wonder like,
am I spanking them too much?
Like, do they really need this much discipline?
Do I really have to do it this much?
Yes, yes, yes.
Young children need a lot of spankings.
Look at verse number 15 of Proverbs 22.
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
So, here's what you have to realize about every single child.
I said they were what?
They were an empty canvas.
But you know what?
That's almost not entirely true.
Because yes, they are an empty canvas, but what they do have is a lot of foolishness.
That comes programmed in.
That comes built in.
That child comes out foolish.
And that child, at a young age, is foolishness.
In fact, the Bible says that foolishness is just bound in the heart of a child.
It's just chock-full of foolishness.
about your kids. Yes, that applies to your children.
Oh, their kids are foolish.
Oh, these parents' kids, they have really foolish kids.
No, no, your kids are foolish.
My kids are foolish.
And here's the thing, no one's mad at your kids for being foolish.
But what we do get mad at is when parents don't use that rod of correction
to drive it far from him.
The Bible says that spanking is effective.
Spanking will drive the foolishness out of your child.
You just say, like, I'm so overwhelmed with my kids,
I just can't believe how foolish they are.
I can't believe how many dumb things that they do.
You're not spanking enough.
That is most likely the case.
And you know what? Being in church for a long time,
one common denominator I've seen in the old IFB
and in the new IFB is that parents do not spank their children enough
and they do not spank hard enough.
And I think a lot of times, people have self-deluded themselves because they agree in theory with spanking.
They agree on paper that spanking is biblical.
They hear the preaching on spanking that it's right.
But then in reality, they don't carry it out.
Or they don't carry it. It's once in a blue moon that they spank their kids.
And you know, here's how you know when this is the case.
It's like when someone's kid is just being a complete monster.
A complete terrorist in public and they've embarrassed themselves and everyone sees it and everyone's looking at them
And they don't spank their kid in that situation
Imagine what it's like at home
Like if in public when you have all this peer pressure on you and you have all these judging eyes on you
And you still don't love your kids enough to spank them in that situation. What do you think it's like behind closed doors?
What do you think it's like at home? I bet you these people aren't spanking their kids hardly at all
Only if some sort of gigantic huge event happen.
Look, spanking should be happening a lot.
Toddlers, young children, they should all be getting spanked several times a day.
Several times a day.
And if you have toddlers, if you have young children,
and you're going days without spanking your kids,
you are not spanking them enough.
Because there's not just a bunch of toddlers in this world
that are just such well-behaved, wonderful people.
That doesn't exist.
Toddlers and young children, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child.
But the rod of correction will drive it far from them.
Please, please, please avoid this,
my Johnny would never and my Susie would never mentality.
Please, please, please avoid this.
and they're bringing something to your attention
about what your kids did,
realize that they probably had to overcome
a lot of nervousness and a lot of pressure
to bring you something that's uncomfortable.
They probably don't want to do it,
but they're letting you know.
Like Brother John was preaching about,
someone that brings a reproof to you or a rebuke to you,
that's actually your friend.
That's actually someone who loves you.
The person who doesn't love you sees you and sin sees you doing something that's wrong
or that's harming you or your family and just won't say anything about it.
That person doesn't really love you.
So if someone comes to me and brings something to my attention that my kids did,
I am going to buy default side with the adult.
That doesn't mean that adults are right in every single situation.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't do some diligent inquisition and find out the fact
and see what happened. But I think that most people, their default
is to side with their kids. And it's like you got two kids, you got two, you know, young boys coming to you.
One's got blood running out of his mouth and it's like,
hey, you know, your kid just hit my kid, you know, your kid just punched him in the face.
Oh, Johnny, did you punch him in the face? No. Oh, well, he said no.
So I'm not going to spank them.
Like, are you trying to raise a psychopath?
Are you trying to raise a compulsive liar?
Where it's just like, it's so obvious
that your kids are in the wrong,
but you just ask them, did you do it?
And you just allow them to lie?
You know what you're doing?
You're just teaching them, hey, lying gets out of punishment.
Lying gets out of consequences.
Lying is how you succeed in life.
You know, you are harming your kids greatly when you do that.
When an adult takes you aside and just says and here's the if you do this do it politely do it with love have some grace
Raising children is hard, but look if you do that to someone you bring that to their attention
You should accept what that adult is saying and you should punish your kids
And you know if some don't be afraid to come to me and tell me that my kids are doing something
Don't be afraid to do that. I will receive it. I will not get mad at you. I will not get awkward
I will not change my countenance towards you. I actually want to know
I want to know when my kids are doing bad because I want to drive that foolishness out of their heart.
Do not be, my Johnny would never, my Susie would never.
Well, if an adult is telling you, if a pastor is telling you, if a respectable member of church is telling you something,
you should realize that they're probably not lying and Susie probably is.
Johnny probably is lying.
Susie is probably lying and by the way if your kids do something wrong and then they lie on top of it
That should be a double spanking because you should not reward lying. You should punish lying
Go to Proverbs 19 Proverbs chapter number 19
Proverbs 19 look at verse 18 the Bible says chase in thy son while there is hope
and let not thy soul spare for his crying."
You know, when the Bible is saying there,
while there is hope, that implies that there could come a point in life
where there's not really that much hope to chasing your son, to correct your son.
And while, of course, you know I'm not against people
who need to chase in their teenagers and spank their teenagers,
of course, that could happen.
There could be a time and place where that's necessary,
but it should be obvious that the majority of the spankings
that kids are getting in their life
should be when they're very young, right?
That just makes common sense.
The majority of their spanking should be
when they are toddlers and young children.
Why? Because there's so much hope at that age
to mold them.
It's so effective to drive that foolishness out
from their heart to mold them into the adults
that you want them to be someday.
When they're very young it becomes much harder
when they are stubborn, rebellious,
know-it-all teenagers.
Look, I'm not saying give up when they're teenagers.
I'm not saying stop punishing them.
But of course, if you're raising kids,
I want this knowledge now when they're young
that hey, the most effective the Spankings are
is when they're young.
The most effective that the chastisement is, is when they are young.
We need to be constantly giving that to our children all the time.
Do not be lazy. Don't only spank your kids in public.
Don't be like, well, I don't want to get up off the couch and go deal with this.
Fix the problem.
Go chasing your children.
And look, it says, let not thy soul spare for his crying.
Don't let your kids talk you out of spankings.
Don't let them, you know, shoot out the bottom lip.
Or even worse, even worse than them being like humble and contrite like that,
is when kids will like scream and yell and fight their parents to get out of spankings.
Or throw a fit to get out of spankings.
You know, or something like that.
No, the Bible says,
Let not thy soul spare for his crying.
When you spank kids, it should hurt.
It should hurt.
Of course, I don't believe it's ever okay to harm a child.
That should just be obvious.
We are not for parents harming their child in any way whatsoever,
but you know what? Spankings should cause pain.
And if you're spanking your kids, especially your young kids, your toddlers,
and there's not some crying involved, you didn't do it right.
All right?
You need to give the Rod of Correction effectively. It needs to hurt.
Go to Proverbs 23.
Proverbs chapter number 23.
Look at verse number 13, the Bible says,
Withhold not correction from the child.
For if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
It is a commandment of God to not withhold the rod
when your children need it.
Let me say this.
If your children need a spanking and you do not give it to him,
that is a sin.
That is a sin right there, because the Bible says,
withhold not correction from the child.
That's a command.
For if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die."
Notice, the form of discipline of a child, it's not timeout, it's not taking away their iPad,
it's not lowering their data speeds.
All right, welcome to 2025 or something weird like that.
It's beating them with the rod, right?
Some sort of stick, some sort of spoon, something like that that's actually going to give them some pain.
That is the punishment that God prescribes here.
It says, don't withhold it from him.
You know yesterday I was out soul-winning with brother Dan and we got to the part of the gospel presentation
We were talking about chastisement from God whom the Lord loved it
He chastened it and scourged it every son whom he received it now
I was using the illustration of my children how once they're my kids
They're always my kids, but if we want to have a good relationship, they need to obey they need to be well-behaved
Otherwise, I'm going to give them a spanking and I told this guy that the Bible actually says that you must spank your kids
And he was just like what?
The Bible says that? What?
It's like, yeah, the Bible does say that.
You know, what to God, more people actually knew that in America.
And what to God, more pastors would preach this
instead of being afraid of what the world thinks about it.
The world's stupid.
The world is so moronic when it comes to child raising.
You know how I know? Go soul-winning and see how people's kids are.
Then come back to Anchor Baptist Church and tell me who's doing it right.
Spanking your kid is a commandment of God.
And notice this in verse 14.
Spanking your children can literally affect your children's salvation.
Verse 14.
Thou shalt beat him with the rod
and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
Why does the Bible say this?
Because a child that sins and is met with consequences, is met with pain, realizes that there are
consequences for our action in this life.
And that authority is not a paper tiger.
And that when mom and dad says something and you disobey, there is a punishment.
And when someone understands that carnal truth, they can transfer to the spiritual truth is
And when we break his law, there's a punishment called death, which is hell.
And if you don't get saved, you're going to go to hell.
And so this is like the OG swat soul winning.
You know, we have the soul winning action team where we go out to the community
and preach at like homicide sites.
Well, this is like swat soul winning.
And we need some swat soul winning in homes today
that yeah, you need to be preaching your kids the gospel,
but you know what, you all should be spanking them.
And that could literally affect the chances of them getting saved.
Go to Proverbs 29, Proverbs chapter number 29.
Proverbs 29, look at verse 15, the rod and reproof give wisdom.
Right, so there's two parts of this. The rod, what is that? Spanking. Correction. Then reproof. What is that?
Telling your kids, here's what you did wrong. Here's what the Bible says. Here's what you violated.
Here's what you need to do next time. The rod and reproof, the Bible says, gives wisdom.
But a child left to himself, bringeth his mother to shame.
So, what is the opposite of leaving a child to himself?
It's the rod and reproof.
So, if you're not spanking your kids and you're not reproving them,
you know what you're doing?
You are leaving them to themselves.
You are letting themselves raise themselves, basically.
And it's a dereliction of duty, but a child left to himself,
notice this, bringeth his mother to shame.
It's not the child's fault if they're not being disciplined.
They can't spank themselves, right?
They can't correct themselves.
It's not the child's fault when they're not getting this.
You know whose fault it is?
It's mom and dad's fault.
And specifically, the Bible highlights mom.
Why? Because mom is around the kids way more than dad is.
You know, obviously today we have like the work from home thing.
That's cool.
Not everyone's in that situation.
But most of human beings today and throughout history,
dad's out working.
Dads out of the house and a lot of the discipline should be coming from mom
You know, I don't like this whole idea of like wait till your father gets home
No, it should be spanking then and then maybe on top of that wait till father gets home
But moms should be spanking and correcting their kids and when you don't do that, you know what you have as a mother shame
You know, it's a shame for us when our kids do stupid things and they're not corrected
That is a shame for people today. We need to bring back shaming that kind of stuff by the way
But you know, don't let your children be to themselves.
Don't leave your children to themselves.
What does this look like today in 2025?
Don't let your kid be an iPad kid.
You know, it's really sad when you bring your kids to church with you and you're not
going to pay attention to them, you're not going to spank them, you're not going to correct
them, you're not even going to try to make them grow and mature in Christianity and just
You're just gonna give them a toy and you take them to the restaurant and you don't try to spank them and correct them to
Make them know how to behave like a normal human being at a restaurant. That's okay. iPad leave the child to himself
You know that's shameful
And we should not have that in our society.
And look, I'm not one of these people that think all screen time is bad and all that.
I'm not saying that whatsoever.
But you know what?
Again, just common decency and common sense tells us
that when our kids are in public, living life with other human beings,
they should be trained to act like normal human beings.
And if your kids can't go to a restaurant and sit down and behave,
there is a parenting problem there.
You should realize that.
If you take your kids to church and they can't listen to the church service without a billion toys and screens, there is a parenting problem there.
And who is it normally?
The mother, the Bible says,
that a child left to himself,
bringeth his mother to shame.
Look, I don't hate you. I love you.
I want your kids to get better.
But I'm saying this is a huge area today
in 2025 America,
because we have these built-in babysitters
called phones and called iPads
and called TVs,
and it's such a temptation.
But let me tell you why that temptation is there.
It's called laziness.
That's what it is.
You don't want to put in the work to correct
And to build character in your kids, so you just give them the iPad,
but here's the thing, you're harming them.
You're doing them a disservice.
You're not teaching them how to act right.
Go to Proverbs 13.
You know, a child left to himself, bringeth his mother to shame.
You know, when your kids are corrected, when you do finally correct your kids,
do not just allow them to scream.
If your kids are just screaming, throwing a fit, immediately spank them for that.
And if they scream again, spank them again.
Proverbs 13, look at verse 24.
He that spareth his rod, hateth his son.
But he that loveeth him, chasteneth him, but times.
Don't listen to all the psychologists and Jews and people that hate the Bible and hate God tell you how to raise your kid.
The Bible says that if you spare your rod, you hate your son.
And today, people are always loving to virtue signal, and they have beliefs that are actually
very hateful, but they want to call us as Christians hateful.
You know, for example, I saw that in Oklahoma, the governor's doing this like major cleanup
campaign of all the homeless camps.
And basically, in Oklahoma City and in Tulsa, the police are just bulldozing these homeless
camps, and they're getting the homeless people, and they're saying, you have two options.
We are going to drive you for free to a rehab center, or if you refuse treatment, we're
going to take you to jail.
Now you know what? I say that that's loving.
You want to know why that's loving? Number one,
it's loving to the taxpayers who don't pay to live in
a crap whole city. That's number one.
Number two, people that are addicted to drugs and
living this horrible life, they are living miserable,
horrific existences.
And it's so sad to see our fellow countrymen, our fellow human beings out here in some sort
of like fentanyl stupor where they sleep all day and sleep all night and in these homeless
camps there's all these sexual assaults happening, there's all these murders happening, they're
harming their health, they're dying of overdoses, they're dying at young ages, helping them
is somehow hateful to the left.
Oh, Oklahoma's so hateful.
Oh, everyone's so hateful towards the homeless because we're getting them help.
That's hateful to the left.
But what's loving to them is just letting them die in fentanyl overdoses every day.
That's somehow loving.
Okay, well, same thing with childrearing.
It's like, oh, a parent spanks their kids, gives them the rod of correction.
That's looked at as hateful by the world.
You're going to be looked at as abusive, hateful, the Taliban, wicked,
for spanking your kids, which keep in mind
that most people throughout human history
have always done this.
It is a new thing in America to not spank your kids.
Everyone spanked their kids throughout all of human history.
We're hateful, but you, just letting
your little monster child raise himself,
let the iPad raise him, don't ever correct him,
that's somehow loving.
It's somehow loving to raise a child who grows up to be a teenager that flips off cops,
that gets in fights with police, that flashes guns and shoots cops.
How did they get that way?
Because they weren't punished as children.
They weren't disciplined.
What kind of teenager goes and attacks police officers?
The type of teenager that didn't have his butt beat by his father.
And you know what? You think that's loving. You think it's loving to let teenagers grow up and get killed by the police because they don't know how to act right?
You think it's loving to have children grow up that can't succeed in their jobs and they can't interact with other people and they can't just function in society
because you didn't tell them that there was consequences for their actions? That's somehow loving, but it's hateful to spank your kids.
Or we could just believe the Bible that it's actually hateful to spare the rod.
And you know what the Bible says?
It doesn't say that if you never spank your kid, you hate your son.
It says if you spare the rod, you hate your son.
You know what that means?
It means that if there's a time that your son or daughter needs a spanking and you say,
nah, I'm not going to do it this time, that is a hateful act towards your child.
The loving thing would be to sacrifice yourself.
Guess what? It's not easy.
People that have never had kids don't fully understand this.
That spanking kids is a burden.
It's not fun.
It's not like we wake up in the morning and just like,
how many times can I spank my kid today?
I just can't wait to go spank my kid.
No, it's annoying.
It takes effort. It takes energy.
We don't want to do it.
I mean, I remember we had this like period of time
with our kids where they were stealing a lot
and they would do it early in the morning.
Well, and as soon as we woke up, we just come to find out that they were stealing and it just got annoying
That it's like you're gonna wake up in the morning and the first thing you got to do is spank your kids
That's not fun, but you know what it is. It's loving
It's the loving thing to do and so some people think like oh, you know
I love my kids because I spank them and what they mean by that is like once a month
When my kid like breaks something in the kitchen, they'll get a spanking once a month when my kid does something absolutely
Just over-the-top horrific then I'll give them a spanking but that whole month, you know, they've been doing sparing the rod
They spared the rod when the parent came up to them and said,
hey, your child did this.
Oh, my Susie would never.
Oh, my Johnny would never.
You spared the rod when your kids are throwing a fit in church
and throwing a fit in the restaurant.
You spared the rod when you decided,
I don't have to train my kids in church.
They could just play with the iPad.
They could just play with toys the whole time.
You spared the rod at home when you just went and hid
in the corner of the house, scroll TikTok all day,
and just let the TV raise them all day.
You spared the rod then.
You know what that is?
That's acts of hatred towards your children.
You know, we need to have enough love in our hearts for our kids to do the hard thing
of raising kids.
Raising kids is hard, folks.
It is difficult.
It does take work.
That's why so much of this world isn't doing it right, because it takes work.
And it's so funny how, you know, people come up to your restaurant.
or out walking about like wow you have such a beautiful family wow this is so
amazing wow I've never seen young kids behave like this you know who knows the
restaurant the ranch the ranch is like the steakhouse really nice steakhouse
over by the lake really really nice restaurant you know we take our kids
there and people are just like I would have never taken my kids to a restaurant
like this I'm just like well that sucks for you like we're having a fun time
Sorry you never had fun with your kids, but it's like we're at a nice restaurant, we're having fun, but you know how you get there by spanking them a lot.
What's the point? Young children need a lot of spankings. Hopefully as they grow up, it becomes less and less, I think it probably will.
But you know what? At a young age, they need a lot of spankings.
Notice the last part of that verse, but he that love with him, chasing with him, notice that word, be times. That means early.
Early in life, you should start spanking your children.
Obviously, it's going to be age-appropriate.
A little swat on the hand for a baby,
one-and-a-half-year-old, something like that, one-year-old,
growing up to working towards real spankings.
You know, Heidi, she's at the age she gets real spankings.
So if you want to look to that as an example,
Heidi gets real spankings.
All my toddlers get real spankings.
All my kids get real spankings because they've reached that age.
The Bible says to chasing them but times.
Let me give you some examples of what I believe are spankable offenses number one lying
When your kids lie to you, they should be spanked
And if they do something wrong and they lie on top of it, you should give them two spankings
This is this is my opinion here stealing. I believe a hundred percent. You should spank your kids for stealing. How about this violence?
You should spank your kids for violence. Now. Here's the thing. You know, you hear this term like boys will be boys
Oh yeah, you know, boys will just punch each other in the face and knee each other and
kick each other.
Here's the thing, I'm for teaching our young boys to have a certain amount of aggression
and I'm for teaching them how to fight and how to do all these things, but it should
be in a controlled environment.
It shouldn't be like, you know, Johnny and Tommy are learning how to fight over here
at church.
and punching each other at church.
I'm all four parents letting their kids fight in a controlled manner
and putting on the box of gloves and learning to be men.
We need some real men today in America.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not against masculinity.
We need more of it.
But it should be in a controlled manner.
And it's not like, well, you know,
we got a bunch of young boys that are in church just punching each other.
That's not acceptable.
It should be taught, hey, we do it at an acceptable time, an acceptable place.
Kids going around just attacking other kids.
You should spank your kids for that.
That's my opinion. Mouthing off to adults, screaming, throwing fits, blatant disobedience.
This is not some sort of exhaustive list, but these are things that's just like,
if I see my kids do, they will for sure be spanked. I believe that it's a good list.
Number three, go to Ephesians chapter number six.
Ephesians chapter number six. Number three this morning.
Do not negotiate obedience with your children.
This is just mind-blowing to me today.
How many parents will negotiate with terrorists?
Where it's not just like,
stop doing this and the child doesn't stop and gets spanked
or the child immediately stops.
It's like, stop doing this and then we're going to go back and forth
and have a dialogue for 15 minutes about whether or not you're going to obey.
That is a bad idea.
Look at Ephesians 6 verse 1.
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise,
that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth.
The Bible teaches that parents have God given authority over their children.
Parents have absolute authority over their children,
and when mom and dad says something, that should be law.
And parents cannot allow themselves to just be disrespected or disregarded by their parents.
When mom and dad says something, they need to obey or they need to be spanked.
None of this stuff where it's like, please stop screaming, Johnny.
Please stop throwing things. Please stop.
Like, I understand one admonition, hey, stop doing this right now or you're going to be spanked.
But then you know what? You need to follow through with that.
You hear parents, stop this or you're going to be spanked.
Alright, stop it this time or you're really going to be spanked.
Alright, I'm going to give you three more chances.
Stop or you're going to be spanked.
You just need to spank your kids.
And it's scary when kids don't have a healthy fear of their parents.
It's very scary.
You know, my kids, if they're running out into traffic, I want to be able to scream and they'll stop on a dime.
You should be able to have that level of control and authority over your kids
where you scream with your dad voice or with your mom voice,
stop and they stop.
If they're not at that point, that literally could be dangerous for their life
because let me tell you, it is a miracle that toddlers survive
because I feel like toddlers are trying to constantly commit suicide.
And it's just like, how do these creatures get to adulthood?
Look at that.
They're just constantly trying to kill themselves.
See, the parents know what I'm talking about in here.
And you want to be able to say, stop,
and it means something to them.
But if you're this parent that just constantly
negotiates obedience and don't follow through
with threats of spankings, well, your stop means nothing.
Or how about this?
You tell your kids to do something,
and they literally just smile at you.
They're just like.
Oh man, you got to spank your kid right there.
You got to fix that issue.
That's a big problem.
It could be dangerous for them.
Proverbs 20, go to Proverbs chapter number 20, verse 8.
Proverbs chapter number 20, verse 8.
The Bible says,
A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment,
Scattereth away all evil with his eyes.
I love this verse.
This king is in charge.
He is actually running the show,
so much so that he can just scatter away evil
just by a mean look.
You know, you got that boss at work that's actually in charge and running things and
he could just get things done by looking at his employees at a certain way.
You know, you got that mom death glare, you know, God gave you that for a reason.
Sometimes you got to give them that death glare so that they know you're not playing
games.
But here's the thing, in order to have that look that scatters away all evil, you actually
have to have some teeth behind your threats.
You know, if a parent can look at their kid a certain way and their children actually
they actually spank their kids.
Parents who try to give that look and absolutely nothing happens,
or their return with smiling, or laughing, or giggling,
let me tell you, that parent does not spank their kids enough.
Because it just shows that that child has no fear of their parents.
Speaking of that, let me read for you Leviticus 19, verse 3.
And keep my sabbaths, I am the Lord.
The Bible says that kids should fear their parents.
I'm sure that would make the liberals' heads explode today.
Oh, being afraid of m-
Yeah, you should be a little bit afraid of mom and dad.
There should be a healthy fear of all authority in life.
I mean, doesn't the Bible say to fear God?
Constantly, we're supposed to fear God.
You're supposed to fear your mother and father.
You're supposed to fear the boss at work.
You're supposed to reverence your husband.
You should fear authority.
And you know when you should especially fear authority is when you're doing wickedly.
When you're doing wickedly, hey, Romans 13, he beareth not the sword in vain.
You should be afraid, right?
If you're doing well, you really have no reason to be afraid.
But if you're doing wickedly, you do.
We'll get verse number 17 of Proverbs 29.
Flip over to Proverbs chapter 29.
Now, here's a verse that has convicted me many times, and here's the thing.
I'm not coming up here claiming I'm some perfect parent.
I'm learning these things.
I'm growing.
I hope we're all growing together.
But this is a verse that's convicted me a couple of times, because look at Proverbs
29, verse 17.
The Bible says, correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest.
He shall give delight unto thy soul.
You know, we shouldn't be these parents that are constantly just ragged parents,
constantly just like barely hanging on to life by a single thread,
and you're just constantly being run bare and run ragged.
You know, there's something wrong with that picture.
The Bible says that when you correct your son, he will give you rest.
You know, how is it that you enjoy a meal at a nice restaurant?
It's by correcting your son. It's by training them.
How is it that you can enjoy a church service and not have to go spank them a million times every single service?
Well, it's because you did the training and you kind of got to a level where their behavior is acceptable.
But if you're feeling like, oh man, my kids, they can be described any other way than giving me rest,
Just know this about yourself.
You probably need more correction in your life.
You need more instruction.
And here's the thing.
It's not about the number of kids that you have because I'm thinking of a lady right
now that goes to Steadfast Baptist Church.
She's a great example.
I hope she doesn't even mind I say her name, Mrs. Spurgeon.
Mrs. Spurgeon is a great lady and she's a great example of this because she's got like
a quadrillion kids and I don't know exactly how many kids that she has, but she goes out
soul winning.
She takes all of them.
It's like she's got like two on her head, two on her shoulder, one on her foot and she's
like carrying them all.
She's always happy. She's always in a good mood and you know why it's because her kids are giving her rest because they're doing a
Good job of spanking their kids. Alright, so that's just a good example
And look there's many other good examples not going to list every single one
But you know you see someone like that with all these kids out soul winning and it's like they're doing a great job
That's a good example
But some some moms they have one kid they have two kids. Yeah, they can't take any of their kids out soul winning ever
Because otherwise, it would just be hell on earth and people's pots would be being broken and glass would be being broken and it would just be like a nightmare.
People can't take their kids out so wanting it all. Why? Because you don't spank them enough, because you don't train them enough, because you don't correct them enough.
It's not about the number of kids that you have. Go to Hebrews 12, Hebrews chapter number 12.
And you know what's funny? People that are doing a really good job with discipline, you know what I noticed about their kids?
It's so interesting, the kids that are the most disciplined, the kids that have the most strict, you know, lives imposed upon him are always the most happy kids.
And you want to know who are the kids that are always melting down, crying, whining, throwing fits, are the ones that don't get spanked.
Interesting how that works.
Look at Hebrews chapter number 12 verse 6.
Notice, for whom the Lord loveth, he chaseneth.
and scourgeeth every son whom he receiveth.
There's no better father than God the Father.
And God, in his love towards us, he doesn't spare the rod.
He chasens us. He scourges us.
Verse 7, if you endure chasening, God dealeth with you as with sons.
For what son is he whom the Father chaseneth not?
But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers,
then are ye bastards and not sons.
So God's dealing with us as with sons and as sons you know what he's gonna do to the sons that he loves
He's going to spank them. He's going to correct them and if God wasn't correcting us wasn't chastising us
You'd have to ask this question. Are we even God's children?
Because, you know, an adult that doesn't spank a child,
that's not a father-son relationship.
That's not a father-daughter-mother-daughter-mother-son relationship.
The people that you spank, the people that you discipline are who?
Your children.
You know, I'm not going around spanking everyone else's kids.
Now, if, you know, if family member leaves family members kids to watch,
I will spank their kids. I've done that. That's great.
You know, if I leave my kids with grandpa,
I want Pastor Thompson to spank my kids. Better believe it.
But here's the thing. Who am I mainly spanking? My kids.
Not spanking other people's kids.
Other people, you don't spank their kids. Look at verse number nine.
Furthermore, we've had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence.
So what's the result of correction?
Kids giving their parents reverence.
Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live?
So if we give our fathers reverence when they spank us, what's going to be the result of
God chastising us?
Reverence towards him.
And isn't it funny how kids who are spanked the most, they usually grow up to fear God
the most and to serve God.
Verse 10, for they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he, for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Now, no chastening for the present, seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
With this last verse, I want to debunk this foolish idea that some people have.
Some people have this idea of, well, I don't want to spank my kids
because I don't want them to hate me. I don't want them to dislike me.
Or some people have this idea, you know, I don't want to be strict with my kids.
I don't want to train them really hard and spank them a lot
That is not what the Bible says is going to happen.
You know what the Bible actually says?
Is that when fathers chasing their children, children reverence their fathers.
And when God chases us, what's our reaction?
Is actually to fear and reverence God.
You are not going to make your children hate you by spanking them.
In fact, it's going to make them love you.
Because what are you doing according to the Bible?
You're doing a loving act.
He that spareth his rod, hated his son.
But he that loveth him, chaseneth him.
You're doing a loving act to your children.
You know what, children love their parents
that actually that spank them.
And just from my experience, when I spank my kids,
they are always, always immediately wanting to reconcile.
They are always coming up wanting to hug,
wanting to love on me, wanting to have that reconciliation.
That is the natural way of life.
And it should be the same way for us and God.
When God chastises us, we're not supposed to resist his chastisement.
We're not supposed to despise the chastising of the Lord.
We are supposed to draw near to him,
knowing that the end thereof brings what?
The peaceable fruit of righteousness.
Spanking is not fun. Getting punished by God is not fun.
In the moment, it's grievous. Kids getting spanked by their parents.
In the moment, it's grievous. But you know what? Afterwards, it yields that
peaceable fruit of righteousness. Isn't that what we want in our homes?
It's just peace. Wouldn't you love to have peace
with your children? Don't you enjoy having peace
with God? What does that come from? It comes through chastisement.
So do not get this idea.
Oh, I don't want to be strict to my kids.
I don't want to spank them because I don't want to turn them away from the things of God.
That will not happen.
You will not turn away your kids from the things of God by doing the very thing that God told you to do.
That is just not going to happen.
Now here's what could turn away your kids from serving God is like you being a hypocrite.
If you're like, you know, this strict authoritarian coming down on them with all these rules,
but you yourself aren't living a godly life.
You yourself aren't keeping yourself according to the rules of the Bible.
You aren't paying attention in church.
You aren't respecting adults.
You aren't behaving well at the restaurant.
Well, then yeah, if you impose that on your kids, they might despise those things.
But that's because of hypocrisy.
So if you walk up rightly, the man that walks in his integrity, the Bible says, his children are blessed after him.
Why? Because you're walking in your integrity. And they see that.
Go to Proverbs chapter 20.
Number four, this morning I want to say this, raise your expectations for your children.
I've kind of mentioned this a little bit here and there, but you need to raise your expectations for your children.
Why?
Proverbs 20 verse 11.
Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure and whether it be right.
It sounds like even a child can be judged and even a child could obtain some sort of
a reputation by what?
By their work and by their doings.
Today we have this mentality of just like, oh kids are kids, just let them be kids, oh
they're just kids.
You know what?
in the world in general, because again, think about where we started the sermon.
He's saying, hey, gather all the people together so that the children would hear,
that they would learn, that they would fear God. That's high level of expectation, right?
Go to, if you would.
Second Kings chapter number two. Second Kings chapter number two.
Having this, they're just kids mentality, you know, not only is it going to make your life worse because you're not going to be able to enjoy church,
you're not going to be able to enjoy the restaurant, but you're also just harming your kids and it could lead them down a very dangerous path.
Look at 2 Kings 2 verse 23.
And he went up from thence unto Bethel, and as he was going up by the way, there came forth, notice these words, little children.
out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him,
go up thou bald head, go up thou bald head,
mocking Elisha here, the children are.
And he turned back and looked on them,
and cursed them in the name of the Lord.
And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood,
and tear 40 and two children of them.
Sounds to me like the, oh, they're just kids mentality wouldn't have worked for these children that got eaten alive by 42 she bears.
Oh, they're just kids. We don't need to have expectations for them. Oh, it's okay if kids mock the man of God, right?
What did I talk about? Making your kids respect adults. Making your kids respect authority.
Oh, but there would never be any consequences for me not actually making my kids do that, would there?
These kids were eaten by bears.
Sounds like we need to raise the expectation for children
and realize that even children could get extreme cursing in their life,
extreme punishment from God, even as children.
How would you like your kids to be cursed?
They mocked the man of God and those children were cursed by God.
And God sent out the she-bears.
to kill them. You know, if I were you, I would teach your kids to have the utmost respect for the things of God,
for the man of God, for the house of God. I would teach your kids to do those things.
Because look at what happened to these kids. Imagine what had to have been going on in these kids' hearts
to not only just, you know, not obey if the man of God said something, but to actually mock the man of God.
how little respect they had in their hearts, how little fear of God they had in their hearts.
These kids were not spanked, folks, and I can guarantee you that.
To where they see Elijah and they just mock him, and then they die as a result.
Go to Proverbs 20.
Proverbs 20, as I'll read for you, Proverbs 30, verse 17.
The eye that mocketh at his father and despiseth to obey his mother,
the ravens of the valley shall pick it out.
the young eagles shall eat it. Oh, they're just kids. Yeah, but there could be some
serious consequences for your kids being wicked. There could be some serious
consequences for your kids despising mother and father. You know, never ever
let your kids despise you. Do not let them disrespect you. You need to meet
that when they're at a young age with the rod immediately. Because if they grow
up to respect their mom and dad, who will they respect?
Like, if you can't respect your mom and dad, who will you respect?
If you can't obey them, who will you obey?
If you curse your mother and father, who will you not curse?
If you smite your mother and father, who would you not smite?
Right?
It's like, if you're willing to punch mom and dad, I guess it's not really that far
off to punch a cop then.
I mean, if you're willing to curse or mock a pastor, who would you not mock?
Who would you, who could you respect?
You cannot allow your kids to disdain, despise authority, you cannot allow it.
Proverbs 20 verse 20,
whoso curseth his father or his mother,
his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.
What is that?
Just extreme cursing from God.
God hears children cursing their father and mother.
God could just curse them.
God could just kill them.
God could send the she bears to eat them.
God could send the raven of the field
to eat the eyes out of their skull.
That's how God feels about.
kids disrespecting their parents.
By the way, we would be wise in a society
if we didn't cheer on rebellion, by the way.
If we didn't cheer on when kids disrespect their parents,
that's wicked as hell.
If we didn't celebrate when people, you know, backstab their pastor and split churches,
if we didn't celebrate when employees turn on their boss and crap talk the authority,
we would do wise for all of our relationships and for all of the structures that God's given us in life,
if we just backed up authority and we all respected authority, that's the wise thing to do.
Go to Proverbs, or sorry, Psalm 128, Psalm 128, Exodus 2115 says,
And he that smideth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
Oh, they're just kids.
Oh, we don't have to raise our expectation for our kids.
The Bible put the death penalty on a child that would smite,
that would hit his mother or father.
And look, I would just wreck, because, you know,
babies will try to do this.
Babies don't know what they're doing.
I would recommend when they're babies to correct that behavior
and to not allow the baby to hit you, you know,
pull their hand down from a very young age.
Don't allow that because God looks down on a child
that would hit his mother and father as being a very wicked thing.
And if kids grow up and just punch their parents,
you know, that was the death penalty here.
Psalm 128, verse 1, the Bible says,
Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord.
That walketh in his ways.
For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands.
Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine
by the sides of thine house.
Thy children, like all of plants,
round about thy table.
You know, what a picturesque.
picture that the Bible is painting here. It's just like those that fear the Lord, they're blessed,
they're happy, family is sitting at the table, your wife is a fruitful vine, she's being blessed by
God, all your children are sitting around you and they're happy. And notice it doesn't sound like
the kids here are throwing food, screaming, yelling, burning the house down, making it
Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house thy children like olive plants round about thy table
You know, that is what I want out of a meal at home
That's that's what I want out of a restaurant experience is I want that nice picturesque peaceful environment
Wives happy kids are happy
You know, how do you get there raise the expectations that you have because some people in their mind?
They're thinking oh, we're gonna eat at home
And no big deal, kids are going to scream, kids are going to yell the whole time.
Wife and I aren't going to be able to talk to each other because the kids are being monsters.
And when we go to the restaurant, here's my expectation.
I'm going to give the kids the iPad.
You get the iPhone, you get the iPad.
Husband, give me your iPhone.
Okay, the other kid gets the iPhone.
Like that's what people just default do.
They don't even try to have something like this.
You know what?
This should be your expectation right here.
Raise the expectation in your home that this is what your dinner should look like
This is what your family should look like that you could actually sit need a meal in peace in tranquility
Happiness fear of God all of those things raise your expectations
Proverbs 23 Proverbs chapter number 23 last point this morning is this number five set a good example for your children
set a good example for your children.
I like this verse here, Proverbs 23, verse number 26.
The Bible says,
My son, give me thine heart,
and let thine eyes observe my ways.
Wouldn't we all like to be there as parents
and stay there where you have your children's hearts?
You know, mom, you've got your kid's heart.
Dad, you've got your kid's heart.
I mean, we all want that so much for our children,
for them to love us, for us to have their hearts.
But notice what he says,
and let thine eyes observe my ways.
You know how you get your children's heart?
Is when, yes, you're chastising them,
you're correcting them, you're telling them
this is the way that you should go,
but you know what, you yourself are going the same way.
You yourself are showing a good example. You could actually in a sincere heart tell your child hey observe my ways
That's where we should be as parents where it's like hey behave out soul winning because I'm actually a soul winner
And I want you to grow up and be like me where you're gonna go soul winning and get people saved
And hey act like a normal human being at dinner because that's what I'm doing observe my ways and be like that follow me
Right, so you go to soul winning you behave yourself wisely
You pay attention in church, you do the memory verse, you do all these things so that you
can say to your children, hey, let your eyes observe my ways.
I want your heart.
Look at Proverbs 20, Proverbs chapter number 20, verse six, most men will proclaim everyone
his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find.
Everyone will tell you how faithful they are.
Everyone will tell you how great they are.
Everyone's a great mom. Oh, everyone's a great dad.
But notice, but a faithful man who can find. It's actually rare.
It's actually hard to find people that are faithful.
I love verse seven.
The just man walketh in his integrity.
His children are blessed after him.
Why is the children blessed after this just man, because this just man is actually walking in his integrity?
You know what that means? It means that he is sincere.
He is a real servant of God.
When he's showing up at church, it's not just for show.
He's not going soul-winning to be seen of men.
He actually loves God and does the things that he does for the right reason.
He's not living some extreme wicked life on the side, not being some major hypocrite.
He's a just man walking in his integrity.
And you know what? Your children will find out someday
if your Christianity is real or not.
They will find out someday
if you put on this attitude and this show
and this personality at church
and, oh, you've got your Bible open at church
but they've never seen the Bible open at home.
And, you know, you act and dress a certain way
when you're around church people
but as soon as you're not, you're just a completely different person.
Let me tell you, spanking your kids is not going to ruin them
but being a hypocrite will.
Not having integrity will not walking as a just man that will
Last place. I'll have you turn to Ephesians chapter 6. I'll read for you Genesis 18 verse 18
Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him
For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him
And they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment
that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
You know why God liked Abraham?
Because God knew that Abraham was going to actually walk in the steps of the Lord.
He was actually going to be a real Christian and follow God and command his children after them.
And that's going to cause his children also to fear the Lord and to walk in the things of the Lord.
We can't hear God audibly speak to us today, but I wonder how many people God would say,
hey, I know insert head of the household here, he's going to set a good example for his kids.
He's actually going to lead his family in the right way.
You know, I would want God to say that of me.
I hope you'd want God to say that of you.
Ephesians chapter 6 verse 4, notice this,
but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
I want to close on this idea of balance, okay?
Of course, as parents, we need a balance of these things of nurture and admonition, right?
We need love, we need tenderness, we need care for our children,
and we also need the admonishment, the correction of the rod, the reproof that gives wisdom.
We need both of these things, but let me just be honest with you.
what's lacking mostly in churches today and what's lacking majorly in society in general
is not so much the tenderness and the nurture aspect of things. It's way more the admonition
inside of things. And you know what? I love my children. I have a great relationship with my
children. We laugh and we play and we have a great old time and my kids love me and I love them dearly.
And I punish them, I give them the rod, I give her proof.
And it's important that you play with your kids,
it's important that you love them,
it's important that you're tender with them,
but it's also important that you spank them.
And do not choose one of these at the expense of the other.
That's what a lot of people are doing today.
They're only giving the nurture,
we need both of those things.
And here's the thing, why?
Because I want to raise my kids to be a godly seed.
I am not trying to just put all this money and time and effort and energy into just raising
a human American to just live a life and existence on this globe.
No, I am trying to raise children that will fear and serve God.
I am trying to raise the next generation of people that are going to spend their Saturday
going out and preaching the gospel rather than rotting in front of a TV watching college football.
that are going to spend their Sundays when they get older,
coming to church and getting around God's people
and hearing the words of Jesus Christ being preached
rather than watching NFL football.
Right? The average American today sucks.
The average person today sucks.
Everyone proclaims their own goodness,
but a faithful man who can find.
I want to raise that godly seed, that godly generation.
There's only one way we have a chance at doing that,
and that's by following what the Bible says to do.
And look, those of you that are like me, that have young kids, we are at the best point
of their life to give them as much influence and instruction and correction that is effective
as possible.
We need to take advantage of that time.
We need to redeem the time that we have with our young children because boy, does life
go fast.
Boy, do things change really fast.
and becoming teenagers and getting married and living their lives,
we have a short time with them.
We want to make sure that we're being wise as parents and doing what the Bible says.
Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much.
For your word, thank you so much for the blessings of children that you've given us in this room.
Those who desire children but haven't had them yet, Lord, I pray that you would bless their womb,
that you would allow them to conceive and have children.
But for those of us that have kids, I pray that we would take these things to heart,
that we wouldn't get offended or angry by the things that were said,
but that we would truly just love our children enough to want to do things the right way.
to give them the best chance of growing up
and being godly Christians.
I pray that we would have grace with each other
as we raise our kids
and that we'd walk together in the fear of the Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, at this time, if you would take your hymnals,
we'll go ahead and sing one last song.
Hymn number 230, heavenly sunlight.
Hymn number 230.
We'll go ahead and start there right on the first.
singing this morning with that you