Man, look at verse number 18, the Bible reads,
Chasing thy son while there is hope,
and let not thy soul spare for his crying.
And this is a very sobering verse
that we have here in the Bible,
and I want to focus on this verse for my sermon.
But the Bible makes it clear
that we're supposed to discipline our children
and that there is only a certain amount of time
that that discipline is going to have
a great effect on the child.
And so the Bible says right here, while there is hope,
because there can become a point
where there is no longer hope
for you disciplining the child
and them receiving that discipline
and changing their behavior and their attitudes.
And it's kind of a sad reality
that a lot of people decide to forego
disciplining their children in the early stages of life.
And then it gets to a point
where that child's never going to be a godly person
or they're never going to be well behaved
and they're never going to even love the Lord.
And the Bible makes it clear
that obviously when you're chasing your children
or you discipline your children,
they're not going to enjoy it.
Notice it says, let not thy soul spare for his crying.
So if you discipline your child correctly,
they will cry because obviously it's not fun.
No one likes to be disciplined.
No one likes to be punished.
And really, why do we need to have
these type of verses in our Bible?
Or why preach a sermon on this?
Well, there's so much Bible,
but the thing is is when you study the word of God
and you study all the men in the Bible,
there's a lot of great men
that end up raising really bad children.
And so if the men of the Bible
can end up raising really bad children,
then we should also take heed
and not think of ourselves more highly
than we ought to think
and realize that it's possible for us too
to raise bad children.
And the title of my sermon this morning is this,
avoid raising reprobate children.
Avoid raising reprobate children.
Now, go over to First Samuel chapter three,
First Samuel chapter number three.
Now, what's incredible about this
is the fact that there actually is
plenty of men of God in the Bible
and plenty of stories
where they literally raise a reprobate.
Now, what is a reprobate according to the Bible?
The word reprobate simply means to be rejected.
Now, the word reprobate could be different
in a few different contexts,
but generally, it's just being rejected.
If you're rejected of God,
that means you're beyond hope of salvation.
That means that you're never gonna go to heaven,
that you've gotten to the point
where God has given up on you.
And obviously, the Bible clearly teaches in John 3.16
for God so loved the world.
So the Bible makes it clear
that God loves every single person
and God gives every single person
an opportunity to go to heaven
and he loves them,
but that love can turn into a love duh,
meaning it's a past tense word,
meaning it gets to a point
where God will even give up on someone
and they will never believe on him,
they'll never trust in Jesus Christ as their savior,
and they're destined for hell.
And the Bible warns that even Christian saved parents
can raise a child that ends up becoming reprobate, okay?
And the Bible also though teaches us
and gives us information
on how to not raise a reprobate child.
And so that's what the emphasis of the sermon is,
avoid raising a reprobate child.
I can't think of a worse thing to happen to a parent
than literally raising a reprobate child.
And so we should avoid this at all costs.
And we see in the Bible, a man of God, Eli,
he ends up raising two reprobate children.
Look what it says in verse 13.
First Samuel chapter three, verse 13.
For I have told him that I will judge his house forever
for the iniquity which he knoweth,
because his sons made themselves vile
and he restrained them not.
Now this is God speaking about Eli
and he says he's gonna judge his house,
meaning his family, because he knows his sons are wicked.
Eli knows that his sons are vile.
And vile is disgusting, it's putrid,
it's something that's very gross.
And he's saying that his sons were just very evil,
it's very obvious, yet Eli did nothing about it.
Eli was not willing to restrain his children.
And point number one is this,
if you wanna avoid raising a reprobate,
you have to restrain them.
You have to restrain them.
That is the most important point
probably about raising children is restraining them.
Now go up to chapter two, just flip the page,
and look at verse number 11.
Let's learn more information about these two sons.
It says in verse number 11,
And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house,
and the childhood minister
unto the Lord before Eli the priest.
Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial,
they knew not the Lord.
So when the Bible describes a reprobate,
they're often described as a son of Belial.
Belial's a false god, which represents the devil.
And the Bible's making it very clear
that these children, they are children of the devil,
which if you're a child of the devil,
you're beyond hope at that point.
You know, you've already crossed over.
We're all a creation of God,
but then you can believe on Jesus Christ
and become a son of God,
or if you reject the Lord and hate the Lord,
you could end up becoming a reprobate,
meaning you become a child of the devil.
And the Bible makes it clear
that these people knew not the Lord.
If you don't know the Lord, you're not saved.
And so his sons were not saved.
It says in verse 13,
And the priest's custom with the people was
that when any man offered sacrifice,
the priest's servant came while the flesh was in seething
with a flesh hook of three teeth in his hand.
And he struck it in the pan or kettle
or cauldron or pot,
all that the flesh hook brought up
the priest took for himself.
So they did in Shiloh
unto all the Israelites that came thither.
Also before they burnt the fat,
the pre-servant came and said to the man that sacrificed,
give flesh to rose for the priest,
for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw.
And if any man said unto him,
let them not fail to burn the fat presently,
and then take as much as thy soul desireth,
then he would answer him, nay,
but thou shalt give it me now.
And if not, I will take it by force.
Wherefore the sin of the young man was very great
before the Lord,
for the men abhorred the offering of the Lord.
And so the sons of Eli,
they're also priests, according to the Bible.
And they were in participation
with the offerings of the Lord,
helping with the offerings,
but they weren't doing it correctly.
They're taking the meat offerings from them
and they're not burning the fat,
which fat, according to the Bible
in the Old Testament,
sacrificed a picture of sin.
And the fact that it was supposed to be burnt
and that, you know, you weren't supposed to eat the fat
because that would be a representative
of eating something evil or wicked or sinful.
And Jesus Christ, he literally became sin for us.
And because he became sin for us,
the Bible says his soul descended down into hell
and that he was in hell for three days
and three nights.
Just like the fat and all the leftover parts of the animal
that are a picture of sin were burnt on the altar,
that's a picture of Christ's soul being burnt for us
because he became sin for us, okay?
Now, this is saying that these guys,
they liked to eat the fat.
And the Bible tells us the sons of Eli,
they were fat, okay?
Not only were they fat,
they lay with the women assembled at the door.
So they were committing horrible acts of fornication.
They were supposed to be priests of the Lord.
They were sons of Belial.
They're not even doing the sacrifice correctly.
They have no restraint.
And here's the reality.
Someone that's very overweight,
someone that's very obese,
which is how the Bible describes the sons of Eli and Eli,
is someone that has no control over their actions.
They can't say no to the flesh.
And we see there are children
that cannot say no to the flesh.
They lay with any woman that'll lay with them.
They'll eat as much food as possible.
They'll even eat the fat, which is a no
according to the commandments of God here.
And so what we see is a picture of children
that are not restrained,
where they can't say no to anything
because their parents never taught them
self-discipline.
Their parents never taught them to restrain themselves
or to say no to anything.
And so they just want everything
they can possibly get their hands on.
And the reality is some people don't like
coming to a church like ours
because it's family integrated.
In fact, a lot of times when I go out soul winning
and I talk to parents and I'm talking to people
after I've gotten them saved
or people that are already saved,
they say, well, do you have a place for my kids to go
during the service?
And I say, no, we never separate families.
We keep everybody together.
And they're like, oh man, we really want to put
this tyrant somewhere while we're in church.
We want to put him off in the daycare
or put him in the Sunday school
or put him off in the children's church
or some other area.
And in fact, that is one of the most important factors
for a lot of people
when determining what church to go to.
Now here's the reality.
No matter how big we get, we're not gonna have that.
We're not gonna change.
You know what that does though
is it forces you to restrain your children.
It forces you to restrain your children.
And in fact, our sanctuary is not even designed in a way
that really helps people deal with rowdy children
because we're all together.
And you basically are forced to restrain your children.
And that's on purpose.
I don't want to encourage people
to be able to not restrain their children.
I don't want to make it easy or make it comfortable.
You know, what you should do is you should be motivated
to just learn how to restrain your children.
And that's an important aspect of church in fact
is learning how to restrain your children.
You say, well, I'm not getting much out of the sermons.
Well, then start restraining your children better
so you can.
You know, the better you are at restraining your children
the better your life quality is going to be.
You're only hurting yourself
by not restraining your children,
by not telling them no, by not punishing them.
And the reality is you need to have lots of opportunities
in your life where you're restraining your children.
Yeah, obviously it's nice to let them go outside
and play for a little bit,
or it's nice to get a little bit of a break.
But a life of a child should be one
of constant restraint, constant telling of no,
constant discipline.
Whereas our society is doing the opposite.
Our society drops their kids off at public school
where they're never restraining them, okay?
Where they take them to daycare.
And I'm saying from the parent's perspective.
The parent is not restraining their kid
while they're at school.
The parent's not restraining their kid
while they're at daycare.
Then they do what?
They take them to church
and they put them in children's church.
Again, the parent not restraining the child.
And I've worked in children's church
because when I grew up in church about the age of 15,
I got very involved in our children's church area.
I worked with kids that were about four to five, okay?
That was the age that I had and I worked with.
And I did this for years.
And there were certain kids,
they were just monsters.
I mean, they would come in,
they're just running around, screaming, yelling,
throwing stuff, hitting things, hitting kids,
spitting, biting, just everything you could ever imagine.
And we're sitting here
just trying to negotiate with terrorists.
But they tell you to not negotiate with terrorists, okay?
And obviously as a child, a children's worker,
I don't have the authority to discipline the child.
Obviously I can tell them no or please stop or whatever.
But that's not gonna do anything.
And really these kids, the only thing you do was feed them.
So guess what they do?
They just feed them as much snacks as possible
and they just sing songs, they get the music blaring
and bloody, woo, yeah, this little light of mine.
We're just singing and yelling
and our God is an awesome God he reigns.
We're just screaming and yelling
and they're just going having a good time and whatever.
Because what else are you gonna do?
And whenever you're in the room,
you try to make it like basically proof
where they can run to the walls safe or whatever,
kind of like an insane asylum where they pad the walls
and they put all this, they glue the stuff down
that they can pick up and whatever.
You have to make it childproof so they don't injure anyone.
But the reality is this is not gonna raise good children.
Or they say, okay, well, they're not in public school,
they're not in the daycare,
they're not in the children's church.
Here's another thing they do, television.
Or the tablet or the iPhone or whatever,
they just give it to them
because it shuts them down for a little bit.
It just distracts them from being forced
to be a good child.
It stops them from having to be disciplined.
And so in fact, many parents have minimal discipline
or restraining in their life and you say, why?
Because it's very hard work.
Look, I'm not gonna get up here
and say it's easy to discipline your children.
I'm not gonna say it's fun.
I'm not gonna say you're gonna enjoy it.
I'm gonna say it's very hard work
but I'm gonna tell you this,
it's very necessary for your children.
And just like God is gonna judge Eli
for not restraining his children,
God will judge us for not restraining
our children as well.
And you're doing yourself and your children a disservice
by not having them in church as much as possible
so that you're forced to restrain them.
You're missing out on three times a week
of practicing restraining them.
And in fact, you also need to be restraining them at home.
Home cannot be a sanctuary from discipline.
Home should also be a place
where they're being consistently disciplined.
And it's sad that kids often want to go to church
yet their parents won't take them.
When I was a little kid, I always wanted to go to church
and I'd be disappointed if my parents didn't take me
which was very rare.
We pretty much went to church all the time
and I love going to church
and I believe most children love going to church.
They like being there,
even though they may have to be restrained
or they may be disciplined every once in a while.
And the reality is, hey, discipline doesn't stop
at home either, it's also in public.
My children are not behaving themselves appropriately
in public, they will be disciplined, okay?
Now I'm gonna go in some really specifics here
in a moment on what that looks like.
But you need to realize
that we need to be disciplining our children
and restraining them in church,
restraining them in home
and restraining them in every area of our lives.
There's not a sanctuary.
The only sanctuary that typically happens is grandparents
which we could get them on the page
and we could get them on the right page
but man, grandparents, I guess they were so sick
of disciplining their own kids,
they just finally give up eventually, right?
They retire not just from their job but discipline.
But you know what, if you are a grandparent,
you should also discipline your children, your grandchildren.
And I would never discourage, hey,
when I'm around my in-laws or my parents or whatever
and my kids are disobeying, you know what,
if my parents or my in-laws give them instruction,
I tell my kids, you better obey
and you better listen to them
and you better hearken to them
and I wish they would discipline them more, not less.
I'm not looking at my grandparents as,
well, it's not your job to discipline my children.
Hey, they're the disciplinarian over me.
Yeah, they can discipline my children too.
Now obviously, I'm the one
that's primarily responsible for them
and I want the discipline to be consistent
with my type of discipline,
but I'm just saying in general,
we should encourage grandparents
to discipline their children
and they should be willing to correct
and discipline their children.
And go to Proverbs 23 for a moment.
Go to Proverbs 23.
This is an important point
that you need to restrain your children.
You need to work on it.
And I'll tell you what, it's very difficult.
And the world we live in today
does not promote or encourage this type of behavior
of restraining your children,
disciplining them on a consistent basis,
or doing it the way the Bible teaches.
But I don't care what the world thinks.
I'm gonna do however the Bible says.
Proverbs 23, verse 22, the Bible says,
"'Hearken unto thy father that begat thee,
"'and despise not thy mother when she is old.'"
Now here's another thing that children need
is they need two parents to discipline them.
Now obviously, some people don't have that
and so they're gonna do the best that they can.
But the reality is, ideally,
they would have a father and a mother
both disciplining them.
And if you don't have a father,
how are you gonna hearken unto your father?
If you don't have a mother,
how are you gonna, I mean,
obviously you can despise your mother
because she's not there.
But again, at the end of the day,
they need both a mother and they need a father
to teach and to train them
and to restrain them and to guide them.
Now, I'm gonna give you some real hard core evidence
and proof of why this is so important.
Because look, the Bible's just true.
And so if the Bible's true,
then everything I'm teaching you
would also be observed in the world today.
And it is very observed in today.
Now I have an article, it's called School Shooters,
The Myth of a Stable Home.
Now there's a doctor, Peter Langman,
he's a PhD, he's a psychiatrist.
He has a website called schoolshooters.info
and he's analyzed pretty much every mass shooting
or pretty much every school shooting
and other shootings that have gone on
in the United States and other countries.
And since he's a psychiatrist,
he's looking at the environmental factors
of these children.
And this is the conclusion of this article that he wrote
and he has other information too.
But he said he took a sample of 56 school shooters
over the course of the United States history.
I think there's been more potentially,
but this is like every major school shooting.
56 school shootings.
He says only 10 of those 56, so about 18%,
grew up in a stable home with both biological parents.
He said, in other words, 82% of the sample
either grew up in dysfunctional families
or without their parents together
for at least part of their lives.
Now, when it says stable, this is only on paper.
This is not saying like they were actually in the home
and knew that it was not dysfunctional.
It's saying like there's not a criminal history
or obvious divorce separation
and horrible problems going on in the home.
So even of those 10, we don't know,
there could have been a lot of other issues.
And in fact, some of the ones
where they claim they had a normal upbringing,
if you read about it, like the Virginia Tech shooter,
Cho, he has horrible amounts of mental health issues
and all kinds of crazy things
that are going on in his life,
even though he had both parents present.
Now I'm gonna give you some examples, okay?
The first one, and this goes into chronological order,
this document, and you can look at it
after the service if you want to.
But the first one they have mentioned is Charles Whitman.
Now who knows who Charles Whitman is?
Anybody?
He's the University of Texas shooter, okay?
He was known as the Texas Town Sniper.
There was a man who went to the University of Texas
and holed himself up in a tower
and just continued to pick people off.
For a while, it was 90 minutes of active shooting.
And not only that, he killed his mother by knife,
he killed his wife by knife.
Then he went to the school,
he killed three people on his way to the tower,
and then continually shot tons and tons of people.
I think it was like, I don't have it written down,
I think it was like 30 plus people that were injured.
15 people died, including one baby in the womb.
Now, what was Charles Whitman's life like?
Well, his father beat his wife.
The father beat his children.
And then his mother left the father when he was an adult.
Not only that, I looked up his history,
he was an altar boy at Sacred Heart Catholic Church.
And he was also involved in Boy Scouts.
Now, because we know a lot of things
about these two institutions,
we realize where the reprobate factor could have come in.
But he had a horrible upbringing,
and then obviously he ends up
committing horrible atrocities.
Why?
Because is he really harkening to his father
when his mom leaves his father
and he's not even with his father anymore,
and the father was abusing their children?
Now, it gets even worse.
Let me give you a couple other instances of some people.
James Wilson, this is his upbringing.
He had four generations of mental illness,
violence, and drug abuse.
Father beat him with belt,
hit him in the head with a can,
hit him with shoes.
Father threatened to shoot him,
mother reportedly beat him,
grandparents reportedly beat him.
When he had psychological problems,
family didn't take him to professionals,
but gave him relatives' medications,
painkillers, sedatives,
anti-psychotics, and anti-depressants.
Here's another one, Eric Houston.
Mother physically abused by multiple relatives.
The aunt was molested by Houston's grandfather.
His uncle killed three people in a fight.
His father was a violent alcoholic
who cheated on his wife,
fought with her, and abandoned the family.
His mother was suicidal,
and his father reentered Houston's life
with still alcoholic and used hard drugs.
This is another one of the school shooters.
And it's like, virtually,
this is just like every,
almost every single one of these people.
I'm just giving you some highlights.
Evan Ramsey.
Evan Ramsey, father in prison for 10 years
for armed rampage and taking hostages.
Older brother arrested for armed robbery,
theft, firearm charges, and assault.
Mother, severe alcoholic.
Mother had series of violent boyfriends.
Mother had boyfriend with long list of arrests,
including firearms and sexual assault,
was registered sex offender.
Mother arrested for drunk driving and public drunkenness.
Ramsey placed in 10 foster homes over two years.
Abused and molested in foster home.
He was very poor.
Social worker found family in unheated apartment
with outside temperature of 22 degrees below zero.
I think it's the gun that's killing people,
not these horrible situation these kids are in, right?
Let me give you a couple other instances.
Nathaniel Brazil.
Parents never married.
Mother had multiple abusive relationships with men.
Stepfather beat mother, threatened her with a knife.
She got a restraining order against him.
Stepfather assaulted Brazil.
After four years of abuse, mother got divorced.
Mother married again.
17 domestic incident reports in six years
before Brazil's shooting.
Grandfather and uncle were alcoholic.
Mother got drunk to the point of vomiting.
Here's another one, Jeffrey Weiss.
Parents never married.
Father drank.
Father killed himself in armed standoff with police.
Mother alcoholic and physically abusive.
Mother jailed for driving while intoxicated.
Mother jailed for assault.
Mother suffered brain damage in car accident.
After mother's accident,
stepfather took his two children and left Weis.
Lived variously with mother, father, relatives,
and foster families.
I feel like I'm getting a pattern.
This is not normal, what's happening.
But notice, and again, I don't know.
I'm gonna assume a lot of these people
are probably reprobate,
but look at what's going on in their life.
Look what's happening in their life.
How about Eric Hainstock?
His household was filthy.
His mother may have been an alcoholic.
Father was unemployed.
Father hit him with belt and piece of wood.
Father charged with felony child abuses.
Charges later dropped.
Woman who dated father
had two restraining orders against him.
Both parents repeatedly beat him, kicked him,
slapped him, and threw things at him.
Father made him hold hot sauce
and hot peppers in his mouth.
Father made him run as a punishment
for so long that he wet his pants.
Father worked him like a slave
and used strange punishments.
Adoptive mother physically abused him.
Stepfather physically abused him.
Stepbrother sexually abused him.
Showed up at school with split lip,
another time with no shirt
and another time filthy and smelling.
Mother gave up parental rights
when he was eight and abandoned him.
I wonder why kids are shooting at schools.
TJ Lane.
Parents never married.
Mother and father both charged with domestic violence.
Mother reportedly had drinking problem.
Mother reportedly punched and bit father.
Mother jailed for violent behavior.
Father arrested for fighting with police officer
who intervened in domestic dispute.
Father in prison for beating and kidnapping a woman.
Father held woman's head under running water
and bashed it into a wall, leaving a dent.
Father charged with threatening to kill a woman.
Father in prison for attacking woman
for nine hours in front of three young children.
Father charged with attempted murder
and felonious assault.
Lane lived variously with parents
and both said of grandparents.
Look, I can just keep going on and on and on.
Jose Reyes.
Father violent toward mother.
Reyes witnessed domestic violence.
Father had affair.
Mother discovered affair and separated.
Father moved in with other woman.
Broke off contact with children.
Mother wanted a divorce but feared for her life.
Parents eventually reconciled.
Father hit him.
Once so badly they was arrested
and charged with child abuse.
Now, is it really any shock
when we understand what the Bible teaches
about this subject,
that when we look at the most wicked, evil people
that have ever existed going into schools,
shooting random innocent children, end up having what?
The worst childhood imaginable.
No consistent father and mother.
No consistent discipline.
No consistent love.
And reality is the horrible crisis
that's happening in our country is our leaders,
they don't care about the real problems.
They say that guns are the problem.
They don't say alcohol.
I mean, how many times did I mention alcohol?
How many times did I mention drugs?
How many times did I mention the fact
that there wasn't a father and a mother in the home?
Or just horrible abuse patterns?
Instead of telling them
to discipline their children correctly,
they're doing horrible things unto their children,
abusing their children.
And look, the reality is we need
to restrain our children correctly
and have a father and a mother in the home.
Otherwise, you could raise a reprobate child.
Go to Job 39, go to Job 39.
They need a father there present
that's going to lovingly discipline his children.
And if you abandon your children,
if you give up on your children,
if you don't care about your children,
if you're consumed with other things
other than your children, they can turn out horrible.
They can turn out like this.
Job 39, what about a mother that doesn't care?
Verse 13.
Gave us thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks,
or wings and feathers unto the ostrich,
which leaveth their eggs in the earth
and warmeth them in dust,
and forget it that the foot may crush them,
or that the wild beast may break them.
She is hardened against her young ones
as though they were not hers.
Her labor is in vain without fear
because God has deprived her wisdom,
neither hath he imparted to her understanding.
The Bible talks about an animal that is foolish,
an animal that ends up becoming so hardened
it doesn't even care about its children.
It's abandoning its children.
And the reality is some people get to this point
where they don't care about their children
and then some foot may crush them.
Some wild beast may break them.
And that is what happens.
When the mother abandons her children,
he's left to predators.
You know, they're like, oh, let's take these kids
out of homes and put them in a foster home
where predators exist,
where horrible things can happen to them,
where they could be abused and physically harmed and hurt
and all kinds of horrible things
can constantly be happening to them.
Look, children need a father and a mother in their life
to teach them and to train them and to discipline them.
And you know what?
If you have a father or a mother in your home
that's disciplining you, you should be thankful.
You should thank God that there's a man and a woman
in your life that want to discipline you
and want to train you so you don't turn out
to be a rotten person.
You don't turn out to be a horrible person.
But like the proverb already told us,
there's a point when it can go past repair.
The Bible says, chasing thy son while there is hope.
Look, if you expect a child psychiatrist or a therapist
to fix problems and a young adult, it's too late.
It's too late for these children.
It's too late for their mental stability.
They're already broken.
They already have severe problems.
Look, the earlier the better when
it comes to disciplining your children
and having a consistent father and a mother
in that child's life so that it can be raised correctly.
Now, look at Proverbs chapter 13, Proverbs chapter 13.
Some people may not be gifted with a loving father
and a mother from onset, from birth.
And perhaps they do have to be raised by a grandparent,
or they do have to be raised by an uncle or an aunt
or a stepfather or whoever.
But that doesn't mean the child's doomed.
Whoever's playing that role should just
love that child like a father, like a mother,
and they can still basically avoid these statistics,
avoid these problems.
But they need a consistent father and a mother
in that life, someone playing that role, to love them
and to guide them so that they don't
go down such a dark road.
Look what the Bible says in Proverbs 13, verse 24.
He that spareth his rod hateth his son.
He that loveth him chasteneth him at times.
Look, if you do not discipline your children physically,
you hate your children.
I didn't say that, the Bible said it.
And I'm just repeating what the Bible said.
It doesn't say they're going to be spoiled.
It says that you hate them.
Don't let Gandhi twist your mind here, OK?
It's the Bible that says you hate them.
And let me say this.
Notice what it says in verse 24.
He, if you are a father and you do not physically
discipline your children regularly,
you hate your children.
You do.
It is not just the wife's responsibility
to discipline the children.
Nope, they need a loving father
that will discipline their children.
And notice this word at the end, betimes.
Betimes means early.
From a very early age, the father
needs to discipline his children lovingly.
Why?
So that his child will be a good person.
So his child will be a God-fearing person here.
And the Bible says you have to love your child to do it.
Why?
Because it's hard work.
Because it's difficult.
But loving someone is not doing something that's easy.
Loving someone is doing something that's hard.
Let me tell you what.
It's difficult to discipline your children.
I'm not saying it's easy.
I'm not saying it's fun.
I'm not saying it's convenient.
It's inconvenient.
At times, it's frustrating.
You can just not want to do it.
And frankly speaking, I don't want my children
to suffer any pain.
I don't desire my children to suffer any kind of level
of pain.
And they're going to cry.
They're going to be disappointed.
But here's the thing.
I do discipline my children physically on a regular basis.
And I've never seen them change how they feel about me.
My kids love me.
They want to give me hugs all the time.
They want to be around me consistently.
And a child understands that disciplining them
is a picture of love, not of hate.
In fact, when going to school, children that were not
disciplined or their parents did not restrain them
would often say my parents don't care about me.
Go to Proverbs 29.
A child inherently realizes that a parent that's
telling them no, it's because he loves them,
not because he hates them.
The parent that's not disciplining the child,
the parent that's not willing to correct the child,
the parent that's not spending any time with the child,
the child knows, oh, it's because my parents hate me.
It's because my parents don't want to be around me.
Now, look at verse 15.
The Bible says, the rod and proof give wisdom,
but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.
If your children are left on their own
to raise themselves, you will be shamed.
Just like these children.
They were left to themselves.
Do you think their moms are proud to have their son
on this list of school shooters?
In fact, the parents of these school shooters
are so embarrassed and so shamed,
and it's just the worst possible thing
that can happen to find out, oh, my kid is a serial
murderer.
My kid is a reprobate.
And it wasn't because the mom was active in life.
It wasn't because the mom was actively
disciplining her children.
They just let their children do whatever,
and they realize their kid ends up being a bad kid.
Why?
Because you have to be there.
Notice what gives your child wisdom.
The rod and reproof.
What's reproof?
Correction.
Telling your child, no, don't do this.
Don't stand on that.
Don't go over there.
Don't talk like that.
Constantly giving them correction,
constantly telling them what they're doing is wrong,
and then using the rod in addition, okay?
And I'm gonna go through these verses,
and then I'm gonna give you some practical ways
to implement these verses.
But pay attention, rod and reproof, okay?
Leaving them by themselves, you're gonna be shamed.
Look at chapter 22 and look at verse 15.
Chapter 22 and look at verse 15.
The Bible says foolishness is bound
in the heart of a child,
but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
The Bible makes it clear.
Your child is foolish.
You say, how do you know that?
The Bible already told me.
Your child is not gonna obey automatically.
Your child is not gonna do that
which is right automatically.
I mean, you can look at your kid
and you can say, don't touch the fire, it's hot.
Hey, Johnny, don't put your hand in the fire,
it's gonna burn.
Don't put your hand in the fire,
you're not gonna like it.
And they're just like, ooh.
And then they put it in there and it burns.
They're like, ah, it hurts, ah.
And you're like, why did you do that?
Because they're foolish.
Children are foolish.
They're not gonna do right.
You have to discipline them, you have to restrain them,
you have to tell them no.
And notice what gets the foolishness out of them,
the rod of correction.
This is why we have so many stupid liberals today
is because the rod did not drive out
the foolishness from them.
So they're foolish today.
They don't want to be disciplined.
They've never been disciplined.
They don't defund the police.
So I wonder why you want that.
Because you don't want any punishment.
And guess what they also don't like?
Parents spanking their children,
disciplining their children.
They want both banned.
They want everything banned.
No jail, no cops, no parents punishing their children.
Look, they go hand in hand.
And you know what also follows?
Reprobate children.
Now let me give you some statistics, okay?
For children born before 1946,
so this is called the traditionalist generation.
1.3% were sodomites,
which are the category of reprobates, okay?
Of boomers, these are born from 1946 to 1964.
2% were sodomites.
Generation X, so if you're born from 1965 to 1980,
3.8% were sodomites.
The millennial generation, from 1981 to 1996,
9.1%, that's a big jump.
Here, generation Z, if you're born from 1997 to 2002,
so this is the 19 to 24 year olds today,
16% sodomite.
You wanna know why?
Because they're not restraining their children.
Because they're not disciplining their children.
In fact, if you go all the way back
to that traditionalist generation,
you would be spanked at school
by the teachers and the principal.
They had paddles on the wall.
You would get disciplined.
And obviously, I don't agree with dropping them off
for someone else to punish them.
The parents should be punishing them.
But when you just take punishment away from a child,
you just grow and reprobate.
We have an explosion of reprobates in this world today.
Why?
Because parents are not disciplining their children.
And let me warn you, Christian,
if you say, well, I'm gonna discipline my children
like the world, you could raise a reprobate.
If you wanna avoid raising a reprobate,
discipline your children.
Restrain your children.
Use the rod of correction.
Give them wisdom.
Go to chapter 23 and look at verse 13.
What an explosion of reprobates today.
And I can't even imagine what the next generation
is gonna look like with the drag queen story hour
and with all the BLM nonsense
and just everything that's going on
in the public schools today.
Saying every white person's racist
and that every bad thing that happens to you
is because of systemic racism
and you're just a special precious person
and just change gender and do whatever you want.
You're trying to source Rex tomorrow
and a tree and whatever you wanna do.
It's insane.
Our society is insane.
And the generation they're gonna raise
is gonna be more reprobate than we've ever seen before.
Why?
Because they're not physically disciplining their children.
And in fact, there's a stigma against
disciplining your children physically in this world today.
But you know what, I hope we bring it back.
I hope we show a good example of that.
Now, Proverbs 23, look at verse 13.
Withhold not correction from the child.
For if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Thou shalt beat him with the rod
and shout the liver his soul from hell.
The Bible commands you to beat your children with the rod.
Now, obviously, the word beat in our modern vernacular
sounds different than what the Bible is saying.
The word beat simply means to spank
or to discipline your child appropriately.
Obviously, we would never physically damage the child.
We'd never permanently damage them.
We would never do anything that could cause them
any kind of bodily harm in a long-term fashion or effect.
And it could never kill them.
If you're doing any kind of physical punishment
that could result in death, then that's wrong.
Because notice, it's saying,
for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
Meaning this type of punishment can never kill a child.
It could never harm them in any way.
So obviously, you would never wanna discipline
your children on a part of their body
that could ever cause any kind of death
or some kind of a punishment that would kill them.
That's why God gives you the rod of correction
for the seed of learning.
Because guess what?
You can hit that seed of learning real hard
and it's not gonna kill them.
You can apply plenty of physical discipline
on your children and it will never kill them.
And it's never to do any kind of
permanent, long-term damage.
But you know what?
Kids need to learn to fear punishment.
And if they don't learn to fear punishment,
why would they be afraid of hell?
Because notice, if you beat him with the rod,
it says you shall deliver his soul from hell.
That's a promise.
That's saying, look, this guy can be delivered from hell.
Hey, you don't want your kids to go to hell?
Well, why don't you use the rod of correction?
Why don't you discipline him with the rod?
A parent that refuses to discipline him with the rod
is tempting hell with their child.
Is tempting them going to hell for all of eternity.
But you can't punish your children like God can.
Hell is infinitely worse.
And we need to physically discipline our children
so that we can deliver them from hell.
Go over to 2 Kings chapter two,
go to 2 Kings chapter two.
I'm gonna give you some practical tips here today, okay?
Now, I've given you a lot of Bible,
all kinds of different things.
I'm gonna make it practical for you.
This is my personal opinion, okay?
This is just me taking what the Bible says
and telling you what I personally believe
and how to interpret this, okay?
But you need to physically discipline your children
and here's some practical tips on doing that.
It needs to be immediate upon disobedience.
Because if you delay in disciplining your children,
sometimes they may not associate
the bad behavior with the punishment.
So whenever the child disobeys,
it needs to be immediately punished.
Also, if you don't immediately punish the bad behavior,
they will continue to act bad until they get punished.
If they realize I'm gonna be punished immediately,
well, they're not gonna wanna just disobey all the time.
Because also, if you're not disciplining them immediately,
sometimes they'll disobey for a little while
and then they'll kinda stop
and then you decide not to punish them.
So they realize they can get away with disobeying.
Whereas if you disobey and you immediately get feedback,
you're immediately disciplined,
you're immediately dealt with,
it's gonna curb the idea of being disobedient.
It's gonna curb the idea of doing wrong.
That's why discipline needs to be immediate, okay?
Additionally, the child needs to know
why they're being punished.
I believe that a child,
that's also why it should be immediate,
is because you've identified the bad behavior,
you're gonna tell them what it was that they did wrong
and then they're gonna punish them.
You should not punish your children
if you cannot articulate to them
what they did that's wrong, okay?
That's just weird, you know?
You don't want your kid to go around
and just like, dad just hit me for no reason,
or mom would discipline me for no reason.
No, it should be identified what the transgression was.
I told you not to stand on that, you stood on that,
this is why you're getting a spanking.
And oftentimes, especially if they get older,
I'll even ask them, why are you being punished?
Or what's the reason why you're gonna get a spanking here?
Why'd you get in trouble?
And then they have to tell me.
For them to be able to know,
you often have to tell them no beforehand.
You have to say, don't stand on that, right?
And then they do, now they're gonna be punished.
Just like the Bible,
how can I know if I'm breaking any of God's commandments
before he tells me, I can't, right?
So you need to set clear boundaries,
tell your children what's expected of them,
and then when they cross that line, they do wrong,
then they're gonna be disciplined,
and they are told this is why you're being disciplined.
Additionally, it should be done in private.
Now, this is a very important point.
Don't underestimate this point.
Because our world is full of reprobates
and psychopaths and freaks today,
if you discipline your child in public,
not only is it gonna cause potential extra shame
to the child and yourself and it's not appropriate,
you can have people take video of you,
try to make it look bad, call somebody in on you,
and try to do all kinds of horrible things to you.
You need to discipline your children in private.
Now, I'm not saying wait until you get home necessarily.
You know, take them to the car,
take them to the bathroom, discipline them in private.
But here's the thing.
You know, we need to be careful today.
And you would not be the first person
where someone evil, someone wicked
decided to lie about you, rail, exaggerate,
take something out of context,
and try to hurt them or harm them
for disciplining their children.
So you should be careful.
You know, if I'm disciplining my child physically,
I am gonna do it in private to the best of my ability.
Obviously, I'm not perfect,
but that should be our goal
is to always discipline in private.
Even this, don't even do it in front of the other kids
if possible.
Because sometimes the brothers and sisters
enjoy it a little bit too much, okay?
They're like, here's the spoon, you know?
And you're just like, no, you know.
They're like, he lied, here's the spoon, you know?
He wasn't cleaning, here's the spoon, you know?
And it's just like, that's a bad behavior.
You don't wanna foster that behavior either, okay?
That's the Derek Chauvins of this world.
No, I'm just kidding.
That's a different sermon.
But also, it needs to be consistent.
You need to be consistent in your discipline, you know?
If you tell them, I'm gonna spank you,
and they transgress, spank them.
Don't be inconsistent in your wording,
don't be consistent in your punishments,
and also don't be like,
well, we punish them at home, not at church.
Well, we punish them at church, not at home.
Well, we punish them here, but not in this area.
No, it should just be consistent.
It should just be, you disobey, you get punished.
You have a very consistent method of parenting.
Additionally, both parents, it needs to be consistent.
It's not like, well, when I'm around mom,
I don't get spanked.
Or when I'm around dad, I don't get spanked.
No, it should be the same from both parents.
Don't give them a refuge,
don't give them a sanctuary of,
well, if dad's in charge, he lets me get away with murder,
but if mom, it's every transgression,
or vice versa, or any combination they're in.
It needs to be consistent from both parents.
And maybe that requires a conversation between both parents,
but that's gonna be beneficial for your child to know,
hey, if I transgress, I'm getting punished,
whether it's mom or dad.
Additionally, use a rod.
I do not recommend using your body, okay?
Using your hand.
I believe you should use an instrument, okay?
And I believe a rod's best.
Some people might use even a belt or something.
The problem with a belt is that it can cause whiplash.
So it could be, it could be more than you intend, right?
I could take a little tiny cloth
and just kind of go like this and snap you,
and it can hurt a lot, okay?
Whereas with a physical instrument like a rod,
it's gonna be a very consistent, measurable amount
of discipline that you're going to be applying.
And so I would recommend using some kind
of a physical rod or instrument.
We have a really, really solid wooden paddle
that we use, okay?
I think my wife bought like six of them or something
at one point.
I think we're down to three.
I don't know if they're hiding them or something,
but hey, we can buy more if we have to, all right?
Also betimes means very young.
Now let me give you some numbers here
because I'm making it practical again, okay?
I believe by the age of about six months,
reproof should begin, okay?
To the point where, you know, if the child,
especially if they're breastfeeding or something,
they start tugging mom's hair.
They start, you know, biting or they start scratching
or doing anything that's negative, the mom can say no
and even maybe tap them on the part of their body
they're doing something wrong.
You know, tap them here or tap them on the hand
or tap them wherever.
It's not causing really much pain,
but it's at least starting to teach them and train them.
No, you're not gonna be able to do whatever you want.
You're gonna be restrained in certain ways.
Now, as they grow up and get older,
it's going to increase.
It's going to elevate and here's a good rule of thumb.
If they laugh and joke after you discipline them,
it didn't work, okay?
Now, as they graduate,
the punishment's gonna graduate a little bit.
By the time they get to about age one,
you should probably be implementing the rod, okay?
Now, at one year's old,
the rod doesn't even really need to hurt that much.
In fact, just the fact that it's out visibly
will scare them, okay?
But just the fact that you are using it,
and again, if you're taking the rod
and you're just kind of going, no, no,
and they're like, ha ha ha ha, that's not working.
I literally see parents,
they chase their kids around with the rod,
quote unquote, okay, whatever they're using
and their kid's doing something wrong
and they're just like, no, no.
And it's just like, ha ha ha, no, no, ha ha ha, no, no.
It's like, that's not discipline.
That's not right.
That's not gonna work.
It should change their behavior.
If it's not changing their behavior,
if it wasn't a discomfort in some way, it's not right.
Now, by the time they get to about 18 months
to about two years, somewhere in that range,
you're gonna be applying a nice discipline, okay?
It's gonna hurt, they're gonna be crying,
they're gonna be screaming.
And again, this is to your discretion,
obviously there's gonna be a little bit of spectrum here
of where it's going.
But if it's not crying, it's not disciplining.
If they aren't changing their behavior,
you're not doing something.
Now, obviously, sometimes you tell your kid no,
you discipline them appropriately and they still do it.
Okay, and then you have to constantly,
you have to kinda, you know,
it's called parenting, all right?
It's not fun.
But the reality is, you know,
you need to be doing the discipline correctly
and at a very young age.
I think some parents literally wait
until they're two years old to start disciplining.
You've already missed out on so much discipline
that that child needed.
And if you expect a two-year-old to start behaving
when you haven't been doing any discipline
for the first two years, good luck.
But you need to have consistent discipline early and often
also needs to be appropriate.
You know, obviously the discipline needs to be appropriate
to the transgression, you know,
that's gonna be for you to decide exactly what that is.
But you know, if it's a major transgression,
it needs to have the severest level of punishment
you're gonna give.
If it's a minor transgression, you know,
you wanna have it be appropriate.
I always discipline, or for the most part discipline,
screaming, yelling, and mouthing off too.
If you lie to me, if you're yelling,
if you're screaming, you're gonna get punished.
I'm not gonna let that get away
because I don't wanna encourage that behavior.
If your kid screams, it's like, why not spank them?
Because the only punishment to you
was gonna be them screaming, they're already screaming.
You should actually discipline them
so they stop screaming.
In fact, that should be a main indicator
like discipline is needed right now
because they're screaming.
And if I discipline them, they should be told
they're gonna need to stop screaming
or there's gonna be more discipline, more punishment,
not to encourage it or to promote it.
Also, do not substitute time out for corporal punishment.
Now, you know, sometimes you need to separate kids,
sometimes you need to get them away
from a certain activity and I'm all for that,
but you should not substitute time out
or these type of things for corporal punishment.
Corporal punishment needs to be always apart, okay?
And another thing is there's a difference
between training and distracting your children.
If you take them to church and you just hand them a toy,
you hand them paper, you hand them a cup
and they're just playing and doing whatever,
you're not training them, you're distracting them.
If you set them in front of a TV,
you're not training them, you're distracting them.
If you can't let your kids sit and behave on their own,
you're just not even training them.
And you're like, well, it's not working
because you're not training them.
You know, my wife is really good at this
and I didn't come up with this,
she came up with it, but I like it.
She will literally sit the kids down at home
and they sit on the couch
and she'll make them watch a sermon,
just some random pastor, I don't know.
It's at least a good pastor, okay?
It's like Pastor Anderson or Pastor Mendez or something.
And they have to sit there and just watch the sermon
and they can't move, they can't get up,
they can't yell, there's no toys,
you know, they have to just behave.
And it gives her an opportunity
to immediately discipline too
because she's not locked in with holding another toddler
or she's not as distracted as she is at church.
So she gets them to behave at home so they can do what?
Behave in church.
What a novel concept.
That's called training, not distracting.
If your whole time at the helm is just distracting
and your whole time at church is distracting,
you're just hurting yourself.
Some people are like, oh, I hate going to church
because my kids are so terrible.
I know how to fix that.
You fix the kids, then you can enjoy church.
But here's the thing,
it's not like you only enjoy church.
You know you also enjoy eating out at a restaurant.
You know you also enjoy being at home.
You know you also enjoy being around friends.
Because I've noticed the same kids that can't obey
in church are the same kids that can't obey
at the restaurant, around friends, at home.
It's just a universal problem.
And so you're doing yourself,
it's like, oh, church is the problem.
It's not church that's the problem.
It's your kids not being disciplined that is the problem.
Okay?
Now I had to go to 2 Kings chapter number two.
What happens if you just let your kids roam, you know?
Not good things happen.
Look at 2 Kings chapter two, let's look at verse number 23.
Give me a second to turn there.
The Bible says, and he went up from thence into Bethel,
it's talking about Elisha,
and he was going up by the way,
there came forth little children out of the city
and mocked him, saying unto him, go up thou bald head,
go up thou bald head, and he turned back
and looked on them and cursed them
in the name of the Lord.
And there came forth two she-bearers out of the wood
and tear 40 and two children of them.
Now this is an incredible story
because it says little children.
And Elisha curses them, okay?
Meaning what?
Kids are gonna be held responsible
for their actions at a very young age.
And if they're held responsible for their actions
at a very young age, you know that tells me
I need to curb their behavior at a very young age.
And here's probably the most important thing you can do
beyond just physically disciplining them.
Number point two, save them.
And I'm gonna go through my last two points quickly
because we're almost out of time.
But point one, restrain them.
That's super important.
And you can't get them saved first.
You have to restrain them first
because they can't get saved at six months,
at two years, at three years.
It takes at least, I mean, I would say
at a bare minimum four or five years old.
I mean, someone that's four years old that gets saved
is like a very precocious, an exception to the rule.
I mean, it takes at least five, six years
for a kid to get to the point
where he can understand the concept of the gospel
and fully get them and get saved.
But you know what, you need to get your kids saved.
The Bible talks in Second Peter chapter two
about rabbit baits being cursed children.
And I think when I read you this list,
cursed children, isn't it?
And I think a lot of Christian parents,
they take for granted taking their kids
to children's church
and they don't even get their kids saved.
I wonder how many Christians
have never preached the gospel to their child.
I bet you it's a high number.
I bet you it's a big number.
And that's crazy.
How could you not even preach the gospel
to your own children?
You know, we need parents.
You know, my wife was saved by her mother at home
and praise the Lord by that.
But you know, my household,
my parents never gave me the gospel.
My parents never tried to get me saved.
And you know, I'm not trying to put shade on my parents
but I'm just saying it's a reality
that they just are trusting of their church
or they're trusting of other things.
Look, you should not trust anyone
to get your children saved.
You should only trust yourself
and you need to preach them the gospel early and often
and you need to get them saved.
You know, Adam had Cain, reprobate.
Noah had Ham, reprobate.
Eli had Hophni and Phinehas, reprobate.
Now those are for sure.
I believe there's other ones.
Aaron had Nadab and Abihu.
I think it's very likely they were probably reprobates.
David had Absalom and Amnon.
I think Absalom was for sure a reprobate.
Amnon seems very likely
because David was comforted at his death.
What kind of a parent is comforted
at their child's death
unless they're a little reprobate, okay?
Josiah had Zedekiah.
I think he was probably a reprobate
and there's all kinds of other lists.
You know, don't think, oh, well, I'm such a good guy.
My children are turned out.
Okay, what about David?
Man after God's own heart.
I mean, Noah's a preacher of righteousness.
Yeah, obviously they had some imperfections.
Obviously they did some things wrong
and they did not raise their children correctly.
They didn't get their children saved.
Because let me tell you something,
if you get your children saved,
they won't be a reprobate.
Go to Matthew 19.
I'm gonna show you a few verses quickly.
But little children can get saved.
Some people get mad at this doctrine
because they believe in a workspace salvation.
But they're not saved.
But us that know that salvation's a free gift by faith
realize children can get saved.
In fact, children are the most receptive
when it comes to the gospel.
Hey, when you go out soul winning,
you know if you run into a young adult or a teenager
or someone even a little bit younger,
they're very receptive to the gospel.
It is very likely that they would get saved.
And knowing that, why would you not then
want to approach your own children at that type of an age
when they're very receptive,
they're more likely to get saved.
Matthew 19, look at verse 13.
Then they were brought into little children
that he should put his hands on them and pray
and the disciples rebuked them.
But Jesus said, suffer little children
and forbid them not to come unto me,
for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
So notice, Christ is saying in the kingdom of heaven,
there's little children.
Why?
Because they can get saved.
Go to 1 John chapter two,
go to 1 John chapter number two.
We need to get little children saved.
And we need to preach the gospel to our little children
and we need to ensure that they understand the gospel.
Now practically speaking,
whenever I'm gonna preach the gospel to my child,
it's gonna be kind of a lengthy presentation
in the sense that it's gonna be a lot of times
and a lot of concepts.
Because a child, especially with their parents,
is just gonna believe anything, okay?
So obviously you want them to fully understand
what sin is and what the punishment of sin is hell
and what Jesus truly did for us
and all the aspects of the gospel and who Jesus is
and then explaining to them what faith means.
Because a child can just repair things
and not even understand them at all, okay?
And explaining what eternal security is.
So for me, I sit there and I ask my kid questions
like what is sin?
Breaking God's commandments.
I say, okay, if I don't believe in Jesus
or I'm not saved, where will I go for my sin?
They say hell.
What is hell like?
It's a place of fire, it's punishment, it never ends.
I ask them questions, okay, well what did God do for us?
He sent his son, Jesus.
Who's Jesus?
He's the son of God, he's God, he died on the cross,
he paid all of our sins, he went to hell for us,
he rose again.
What do I have to do?
You say believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I say what does that mean?
It means that you're trusting in him,
that he paid all your sins.
And then I say, okay, well what if I don't trust in him?
What if I trust in being a good person?
You're going to hell.
What if I think that it's something that I could lose
and you're going to hell?
I explain all those concepts very thoroughly
and you know, for Clayton,
I had to explain this to him probably 30, 40 times.
Different aspects, lots of different things,
checking with him, but then it got to a point
where it seemed like he was understanding everything
and then finally my wife sat down,
went through a whole presentation again
and then he prayed and then he got saved
and you know, if I ask him any of those questions
at this point, you know what?
He got them, he knows them
and obviously a child can get confused a little bit
but again, I don't want my kids
to not be sure that they're saved.
I want to ensure my child's salvation
and praise God, I have so much time with them
so I can sit there and when we're walking on the way,
when we're riding in the car,
when we're hanging out at night,
I can explain any of these concepts to them
at any point in time and you should be.
You don't want your kids just going through the motions,
not understanding things and you know,
looking at certain false prophets like J.D. Greer,
who's the president of the Southern Baptist Convention,
he claims that he got saved like 600 times as a kid.
Because he didn't understand the gospel
and so every time they, you know, would ask,
he would get saved again.
He got baptized dozens and dozens of times.
Now I believe it's because he's reprobated
and he doesn't understand the gospel
but you know, if a parent would just sit down
and explain to their kids all the concepts,
they don't have to have fear and worry
and not understand if they're saved or do these things.
I mean, you're not even supposed to take
the Lord's Supper if you're not even saved.
So how many times have you like taken the Lord's Supper,
you don't even know if you're saved?
I mean, the Bible says, these things have I written unto you
that believe on the name of the Son of God
that you may know that you have eternal life.
We should know, you should either know that you're saved
or realize you're not, okay?
That's the two categories I put people in.
And children can get saved.
Look at 1 John 2, verse 12.
I ride in you, little children,
because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.
I ride in you, fathers, because you have known him
that it's from the beginning.
I ride in you, young men,
because you have overcome the wicked one.
I ride in you, little children,
because you have known the Father.
Notice he's saying, little children,
their sins are forgiven.
The only way you can have remission of sins
is by believing in Jesus Christ.
Additionally, they know the Father.
What did Hopni and Phinehas, they didn't know?
It says they knew not the Lord, okay?
So those that know the Lord are saved.
Those that have their sins forgiven are saved.
Notice the little children are saved here, okay?
2 John chapter one, look at verse four.
I rejoice greatly that I found of thy children
walking in truth.
Can't be walking in truth unless you're not saved.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter three,
go backwards a few chapters, 2 Timothy,
then the book of the T's,
1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter three, and look at verse 14.
But continue thou in the things which thou has learned
and has been assured of,
knowing of whom thou has learned them, verse 15,
and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
So notice Timothy knew the scriptures at a child's age
and got saved.
Go to chapter one, just flip back
and look at chapter one, verse three.
Paul talking to Timothy,
I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers
with pure conscience, that without ceasing
I have remembrance of thee in my prayers,
night and day, greatly desiring to see thee,
being mindful of thy tears that may be filled with joy
when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith,
unfeigned means real, okay,
that is in thee, which dwelt first
in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice,
and I am persuaded that in thee also,
wherefore I put thee in remembrance
that they'll stir up the gift of God
which is in thee by the putting of thy hand.
So Timothy, the Bible gives a picture of the fact
that his grandmother had a great faith
that she passed on to her daughter,
and her daughter, Eunice, I'm sorry,
Eunice is now passing that faith on to Timothy.
Just like my wife, she was saved by her mother,
and just like my son was saved by his mother.
And so we have a picture of that great faith
being passed down from grandparent to parent to child.
We need as parents to get our children saved.
Do not expect me to get your children saved.
You get them saved.
You preach them the gospel.
Hey, you wanna avoid raising a reprobate?
Get them saved.
Restrain them, save them,
and lastly, go to Proverbs 22, nurture them.
Nurture them.
Ephesians 6 says,
And ye fathers, provoke not your children into wrath,
but bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord.
We need to truly love our children today,
and if you love them, you'll discipline them.
If you love them, you'll preach them the gospel.
You'll get them saved.
The Bible gives a promise in Proverbs 22 verse six,
train up a child in the way you should go,
and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Unfortunately, the sad reality is this also.
You raise a kid to be a BLM protester,
he won't depart from it.
Oh, well, if we convict, you know,
Chauvin, they'll stop protesting.
If we convict Kim and Lee Potter, they'll stop.
They're never gonna stop protesting.
And the same can be true, though, with godly children.
You could raise a godly, zealous, on-fire Christian
as a child, and guess what?
He'll never stop being a godly, on-fire,
zealous Christian, just like Timothy.
Timothy was on fire from a child.
Timothy was, you know, a great person from a child.
Think about Samuel.
Samuel, from just a little, tiny child,
is such a great man of God.
And let me tell you what.
You're not gonna accidentally raise a great man of God.
You're not gonna accidentally raise a great woman of God.
You need to restrain them.
You need to save them, you need to nurture them,
and you need to teach them how to love the Lord.
Now, you know what's the best way
to teach a child how to love the Lord?
You love the Lord and example it for them.
You know what, you should read the Bible as a family.
Show your children that you love the Lord.
Sing hymns as a family.
You know, we read the Bible
and sing a hymn virtually every single night.
You know, I'm not perfect,
and obviously sometimes life gets busy,
but it's my goal to sit down.
We read a chapter of the Bible every night as a family.
We sing a hymn together every single night.
And guess what?
I let them pick.
What song do you wanna sing?
They really like singing This Little Light of Mine.
They like singing the B-I-B-L-E,
Joy to the World's a Favorite, you know.
They love singing lots of songs.
And you know, we would even,
when they were a little child, okay,
when they can't even talk,
I would sing hymns to them at night.
My wife still does.
What a friend we have in Jesus.
We just sing every single night to them.
They learn to love the Lord.
You know, we memorize the Bible.
Hey, you want your kids to get ice cream on Wednesday?
Do the memory verse every single week.
You know, every night we just sit down,
we just work on the memory verse,
we just talk about it, and you know what?
Then they can get an ice cream treat.
And in order to get the ice cream treat,
you have to bring them on Wednesday, okay?
Go soul-willing as a family.
You know, my kids, even though they're very young,
they like going soul-willing.
They wanna go soul-willing.
In fact, sometimes Clayton, you know,
it just doesn't work out, but he wants to go
and we're just not able to take him.
He's disappointed, because he likes going soul-willing.
He likes going out and preaching the gospel.
He likes going out there with me.
You know, get them a Bible, help them to read the Bible,
help them to learn how to sing,
help them learn how to read, teach them,
and teach them the concept of the Bible.
Hey, read something in the Bible to them,
and then say, what does this mean?
Or what does that word mean?
And teach them what words mean.
Teach them what concepts mean.
Teach them the principles of the Bible.
You know, it's a really good one.
Honor thy father and thy mother,
that thy days may be long upon the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Hey, you wanna live a long life?
Obey me.
That's a real easy one.
You should be teaching your children this one.
You wanna die young?
Disobey.
That's for you, children, okay?
Obey your parents, or otherwise God could just kill you.
You know those kids that weren't disobeying their parents
that I told you, bears came and ate them.
Tell them the Bible story.
That should be a favorite Bible story of the family.
If they had a hard day, all right.
Second Kings chapter two, let's go.
Hey, you just wanna go around and do what you want?
You laugh, but you know what?
I guarantee these liberals don't even know
what Second Kings chapter two's about.
And guess what those bears are the cops going around.
Pepper spraying them and doing whatever.
You pull a gun out and a cop will shoot you.
Don't go to 1 Corinthians 13, last place of eternal, okay?
In Genesis 18, the Bible talks about Abraham,
and God says this about him.
He says, for I know him, that he will command
his children and his household after him,
and they shall keep the way of the Lord
and do justice and judgment,
that the Lord may bring upon Abraham
that which he has spoken of him.
You know, God looking at Abraham said,
I know Abraham, he's going to teach his children,
and because he's gonna teach his children,
they're gonna be good kids.
They're gonna do right.
They're gonna keep the way of the Lord.
And it's not a shock that the kings of Judah
were a lot better than the kings of Israel.
Why?
Because they had examples like David.
They had examples of people, and you know the Bible say,
oh, this guy walked in the ways of his father, David.
Why?
Because he had a good example in his life.
Just show him how to love the Lord.
If you don't love the Lord, if you're a hypocrite,
if you leave church and you complain about it,
and you never read the Bible to your kids,
and you barely take them, and you don't go soul winning,
and you don't sing any hymns to them,
and you don't do these things,
don't be shocked when they don't want to go to church
when they grow up.
Don't be shocked when they don't really love church.
You know, if you don't like the servant,
or you don't like something I said,
tell your wife in private,
or just tell Jesus in private, or whatever.
But don't criticize the work of the Lord to your children.
And I'm not saying that because, you know,
oh, you better not criticize Pastor Shelley.
I'm telling you, I don't want your kids to hate the Lord.
I don't want your kids to hate the things of God.
They should love church.
I remember my parents would criticize church,
and I'm thinking like, why do we even go?
My dad literally, he was criticizing a church to me,
he's like, that church reminds me of hell.
And I'm thinking like, why are we going?
Because you come in, and they turn off,
it was, they had no windows, so it's just inside,
and they turn the lights all the way off,
and then they turn on these red lights
with strobe and smoke, and he's like, it made me of hell.
He's like, it's outer darkness,
there's all this screaming and yelling,
and there's smoke, and I can't see, and it's red,
and he's like, it made me think of hell, I was there,
you know, in their worship service or whatever.
And I'm thinking like, we go every week.
What's the point of coming here?
You should love the church you're going to.
Hey, if you don't love this church,
find a church that you love.
Find a church that you can get excited about something
that they have, First Corinthians chapter 13,
look at verse 11, when I was a child,
I spake as a child, I understood as a child,
I thought as a child, but when I became a man,
I put away child's things.
You know what, nurture children and help them become men.
Help them become young ladies.
Help your child to stop being a child.
And you know that takes nurture,
it takes a lot of things, and you know what,
if you don't wanna raise a reprobator,
you don't wanna raise a horrible child,
you gotta do some things.
It takes effort, you have to restrain them.
You need to save them.
And you also need to nurture them.
Brother Bird, thank you Father so much for your word,
thank you for all these great commandments
that you've given us and such clear instructions
so that we can raise godly children.
I pray that we'd fear your commandments,
that we would fear you,
and that we would understand the importance
of the children that you bless us with.
I thank you so much that you bless us
with so many children, that we have so many ladies
that are pregnant on a regular basis.
And I pray that you would continue to bless the women
in this room, to have children,
but that we wouldn't take this responsibility lightly,
that we wouldn't take the gift that you've given us
with disdain, that we wouldn't forget about them,
but rather we would realize the importance of children,
and that we would love them,
that we would restrain them through loving discipline,
and that we would try to preach them the gospel
and get them saved, and that we could pass on
the faith that we have in our hearts to them.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.