Matthew Stuckey here from Verity Baptist Church Manila and I just wanted to give
a testimony and encouragement to the parents out there raising kids that are
like-minded and I want to just quickly give you the testimony of my life and
how I came to serve God and things such as that and you know I grew up in an
elementary school you know I was in the public school and when I was in
elementary school though my sister who was a few years older than me my parents
pulled her out of the public school and my mom stayed at home and was
homeschooling my sister and then when I was going getting done with elementary
school the same thing happened to me as well so once I finished elementary
school I was home schooled starting in middle school all the way up until I
finished high school in high school for I was half a day in public school and
half a day home schooled so I could play in the soccer team but also take college
classes but you know I was primarily taught at home after elementary school
and you know when you're young you don't necessarily realize all the sacrifices
your parents make and you don't realize how much your parents love you and how
great of a job they did but my parents did a wonderful job raising us and you
know my sister she has nine kids she has a tenth on the way her and her husband
are very conservative people anti-abortion they're anti birth control
a lot of you know anti vaccines a lot of positions that we also take you know as
independent fundamental that Baptists and what's interesting about this is
that we weren't raised in an independent fundamental Baptist Church you know we
would go to the United Methodist Church growing up and so you know I obviously
am an independent fundamental Baptist missionary you know King James only soul
winning fundamental sold-out very separated and things such as that but
even though we weren't necessarily taught these really strict standards
you know our parents did a wonderful job raising us and you know there was
definitely times where I was not allowed to watch certain things you know my
parents were the strictest when I was in elementary school my parents were the
one set of parents that would not sign off and let their son watch a pg-13
movie I was not allowed to watch MTV I couldn't listen to music like all the
other kids were doing you know and and very limited amount of time being able
to watch TV like you know two hours a day at the most and things such as that
and so my parents had a lot stricter stances and other other parents and I've
never heard either one of my parents ever say a curse word before or even a
borderline curse word which is probably the reason why I never curse just I
wasn't raised with it you know I've never smoked a cigarette because my
parents you know they didn't smoke cigarettes you know I I did try drinking
two times in college but you know I was really just like man this is definitely
not for me you say why well my parents didn't drink alcohol and so it's just
kind of amazing how they raised me with certain fundamentals and you know I
stuck with those things and I don't believe I would have become a
missionary without that and so what I want to do is encourage those that are
parents who are raising kids that are in these independent fundamental Baptist
churches because I think sometimes we get the idea that you know if we raise
them in an independent fundamental Baptist Church they're gonna
automatically turn out right because they're hearing the right beliefs but
quite honestly if you're at a church that's really preaching the truth and
saying you believe in the Bible the Bible commands you to be there and spend
time with your kids as parents and if they see the parents not spending time
with their kids or rejecting them very likely they could end up rejecting the
faith as well every single Saturday growing up my dad would take me out to
play sports and spend time and my parents were always there to spend time
with me and I didn't see other parents out there doing that now there's nothing
spiritual about hitting a baseball or kicking a soccer ball or throwing a
football it's just a matter of the fact that my dad actually spent time with me
and see what the Bible teaches in Ephesians 6 verse 4 is it talks about
nurture and admonition and when I first became a parent I really started to
think about that verse and it encouraged me because I realized there are two main
things I need to do I need to provide nurture and spend time and care for my
kids but I need to provide admonition and rebuke them when necessary and
growing up I definitely got spanked when I did wrong my parents were very strict
but they also spent a lot of time with me they had the balance of spending time
with me and showing they cared about me but also rebuking me when I did wrong
and so I think sometimes we think my son or my daughter's raised in an
independent fundamental Baptist Church they're gonna grow up and love the Lord
and yet you see a lot of very famous pastors you know from the old IFB from
from 20 years ago whose kids grew up and became reprobates or hated them or just
rejected them didn't love them didn't care about them and because you know you
could probably assume that they saw parents that were kind of hypocrites at
home and throughout the Bible there are people that are godly people and their
kids don't love God you say why does that happen when the Bible promises that
if you train up a child in the way he should go he will not depart from it
what happens when we don't provide that balance of spending time providing
nurture but also admonition now don't misunderstand me you know my son is less
than two years old and you know our daughter is about to be born and so I'm
very new at being a parent and so I'm not guaranteeing that my kids are gonna
grow up and just serve God and be soul winners that's obviously my goal that's
what I'm striving for in my mind I think that if I did as good of a job as
my father did of being a father then I'll have done a good job and my kids
will will basically become soul winners and love God you know I believe that but
obviously you know there's a possibility of not doing my end of the bargain my
kids rejecting the faith if I don't spend time with them and so this is this
is a video for me as well you know encouragement and motive motivation to
make sure that I'm not just serving God and rejecting my kids because look
we're called to be husbands as men or wives as women and also parents and you
know part of being a godly Christian is to be a good husband and to be a good
father and I need to make sure I'm spending time with my children spending
time with my wife and not just forsaking them for the ministry and it could be
very tempting for all of us you know for me I could just spend more time devoted
preaching my sermons or more time just going soul winning but you know honestly
I try to take a break during the week to spend time with my wife spend time
with my son because that's a very important part of my life and I hope I
never change that you know as much as it's important to go so winning and to
read the Bible it's also important just to be a good husband to be a good father
and I hope that I'll continue that but I just wanted to give you that just kind
of testimony because I just kind of find it interesting that you know I was
raised and my parents spent a lot of time with me and they were very strict
and they did a different job than other parents did raising their kids and even
though I didn't get saved until I was 18 years old just having a strong morals
and the fact my parents cared about me I ended up serving God and so I would just
like to encourage all of us as parents to put in the time to try to be good
parents and spend time with our kids and I understand maybe not everybody out
there has the capacity or ability to homeschool their kids that's not the
point of this video I'm just trying to impress the idea on us to spend time
with our kids spend time with our families and look you know the Bible
says not to be righteous over too much you know sometimes we can just try to do
a little bit too much yes we're called to be a living sacrifice but there's not
nothing sinful about just going out on a walk with your wife or your kids and
things such as that and look you know when I was growing up my parents were by
no means rich but it wasn't about going to the most fancy and most exciting
places in the world it was just a matter of the fact that my dad on
Saturday mornings would take time out of his busy schedule on his day off from
work and he would just spend time with me and especially as I'm older now I
really appreciate that and realize the sacrifice they made I hope that my wife
and I will do is as good of a job as being parents as my parents did and you
know I just hope to try to encourage you with this message to not only just serve
God but let's take a break to spend time with our families our wives our husbands
and our children thank you and God bless