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When peace like a river attended my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. Ladies, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. All right, second verse, song number 145, It Is Well With My Soul. Though Satan should not fit, Though trial should come, Let this blessed assurance control That Christ has regarded My helplessest day, And has shed his own blood for my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. My sin, all the bliss of this glorious dawn, My sin not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, And I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. All right, before we start on the fourth verse, kids, boys and girls, lift up your voices on this last one, all right? When we get to It Is Well With My Soul, girls sing loud and the boys sing loud, okay? On the fourth. And Lord, haste a day, When my faith shall reside. The clouds be rolled back as the scroll, The trump shall resound, And the Lord shall descend, Even so, It is well with my soul. All right, girls, raise your voices. Boys. It is well, it is well with my soul. All right, good job. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father of God, thank you for this conference and for this church. I just pray that you help us to glorify you as we worship your name. And I pray that everything will be a blessing to all these children. And I pray that we would be an example so we could raise this next generation. I pray that the sermon this morning would be a blessing to all of us and to our children. In Jesus' name, amen. Good morning. Thank you so much for coming. And we're going to sing a couple of kids' songs this morning. Thanks for coming to the Heritage of the Lord Conference. And since we are singing some kids' songs, what we'd like for you to do is, if you're a kiddo, have you just stand and help sing with us. We're going to do some choreography with some of these songs. And so we're going to sing I'm Happy. In fact, I want to get the other mic just so I have it. Sorry. One second. I'm happy and if you kiddos want to stand up. All right. Now, of course, you can't frown while you sing this song. Okay. You got to smile. All right. I see some of you. Okay. There we go. All right. I'm happy there on the first. I am H-A-P-P-Y. I am H-A-P-P-Y. I know I am. I sure I am. I know I am. I sure I am. I'm H-A-P-P-Y. I am L-O-V-E-D. I am L-O-V-E-D. I know I am. I sure I am. I'm L-O-V-E-D. I am S-A-V-E-D. I am S-A-V-E-D. I know I am. I'm sure I am. I'm S-A-V-E-D. Good job. All right. Y'all can take a seat, and we're going to go through our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, lift up your hand nice and high, and one of our ushers can come by and get you a bulletin. We have our Bible Mary passage, John 1-47, and also on the inside, we have our service in so many times. This morning, we still have a regular 1030 a.m. service, as well as all the other services. We have our Spanish service at 430, our Sunday evening service at 530, and then this week, we'll have our Bible study finishing 2 Samuel, Wednesday at 7 p.m. We also have our church-wide soul winning that meets here at the building, as well as regional soul winning that meets in different parts of the area. We have our church stats, and we also have soul winning captains that help us report our soul winning information. So, if you do participate in our soul winning, please make sure to update all of that information to your soul winning captains. We also have our list of expecting ladies in our prayer list. Please be praying for them. We have a couple just to add. If you'd be in prayer for Jimmy Stewart's family's health and Miss Anna Awe's health, as well. So, we want to add those to your bulletin. On the back, we have a note about a couple other upcoming events. October 29th, we have our Arlington Soul Winning Blitz, and so that's been something we've been trying to do at the end of every month. It's a very receptive area, and so I highly encourage you to participate in that. Also, because that's a Saturday, October 30th is not on here, but that would be the last Sunday of the month, so that'll be our Sunday Sundays, as well. October 31st is a Monday, so that's when you have Texas chili cook-off, not communist chili cook-off. Okay? So, you know, we don't put all the fillers and all the other junk in there, extra taxes and things like that. No. We just keep it straight to the chili, and it's pure, just like the King James Bible is a pure Bible. We have a pure chili, and instead of worshiping the devil, we'll worship the strong meat of the word, the chili. So we'll have a lot of fun and come out here. If you'd like to participate, you need to bring your chili in the competition before 5.30. Dinner will be around 6, give or take, but those that want to enter into our competition, it is 5.30. Of course, there will be winners and losers, so if you can't handle it, just don't even show up, right? But if you can handle some competition, we'll do it at 5.30. Also, November 5 is a music recital. Now, there is a sign-up sheet, and we've been having it, but the cutoff for the sign-up is going to be by midnight Wednesday. So if you want your child to participate in our music recital, you need to sign up today or by at least Wednesday night. If for some reason you're hearing the sound of my voice and you're at home and whatever, you could send us an email, but we need to know for sure. My wife is going to have time slots that she sends out for our rehearsal on October 22, and so she needs to know everyone that's participating. I don't think that we were explicit, so it is for ages 5 to 18. So if your child is between the ages of 5 to 18, they can participate in the music recital. Other related information is down below. We kind of have a little section down there. The recital itself will be November 5, 2 to 4. Everyone is welcome to participate and attend if you'd like to come and just support the children, even if you don't have a child that is doing it, or if you have no children, you're still welcome to participate in the recital and come and just fellowship with us and hear the beautiful music and singing. Also, we have the Matamoros Sony Marathon, November 10 to the 12th. I think it was like two nights ago or a night ago. It was like $230 to fly round trip. The flight is so nice because you're just like one hour straight down there. So if you want to strike while the iron is hot, there are some pretty good flights out there. It's a great area. If you can get yourself there, we'll take care of the rest. Also, if we don't have enough people that want to fly but just want to drive, we can probably provide the church band, just kind of depend on who's planning. So if you want to go, sign up. But our Sony Marathons, we try to provide everything that we can. So we'll provide your housing. We'll try to feed you and everything like that. Now, if you want some extra Twinkies and Ho-Hos on the side, you probably have to buy those yourself. But if you want, you know, la conseilla, you just stay with me and we'll find that place. So, no, it was great. We've been going down to Mexico for the last few years and we've gone to Reynosa and we've gone to Matamoros. And they're both very, very receptive. It's incredible how walking across an imaginary border, people are just that much more interested in hearing the gospel. But every single time we've done it, it's been very successful. And, you know, obviously there's a little bit of danger in our border towns and going into foreign areas. But every time I've gone, I've always felt safe. Like I've never felt like it was really anything different. Have you ever been to New Mexico? It feels about the same as Mexico as far as, you know, concerns for safety. And in fact, you know, if you go to certain parts of Houston, it's nice here. OK, so, you know, it's not it's all relative. You know, speaking, there's some parts of South Fort Worth you're kind of like, I don't know if I want to be here, but I'm glad it's really daytime. I mean, there are some neighborhoods I remember knocking. They're just like, do you even know where you are? This is super dangerous. And I was like, I'm fine. So, you know, that doesn't bother me. Obviously, you know, we still take a lot of precaution and we try to be safe and we're not even going to be staying in Mexico overnight or anything like that. We stay on the U.S. side. So if you'd like to participate, it's about the safest and most receptive soul you can have in a combination. All right. So if you want to go with us, please participate. November 23rd, we have a Thanksgiving dessert fellowship. And that's for you to just bring whatever chocolate dessert that you would like to bring. I mean, you can bring whatever dessert you like. OK. And then December 2nd is our ladies Christmas party. That's fun for you ladies to have an event like that. Also, we have a business meeting next Sunday. So it's going to follow the evening service. And it really is just kind of flow like right after the evening service. And we'll try to get through it as quickly as possible. This is just a standard annual business meeting that we have in October for our church. However, there is a few updates that I would like to give to our church family about just the future of our church and things that we're planning. And so if you are a member, I would I would please encourage you to participate and to show up. If you're if you're uncertain what it even means to be a member, essentially to be a member of our church, you have to come three times within one month period to become a member. Once you become a member effectively, then you basically just have to show up once every couple months to not get taken off the list. So I guess it's easier to get in than to stay on the roll or whatever. But essentially, if you if you've been visiting three times, you know, within one month period, then you should assume you're probably on the list. And if you keep coming, then you're there. If you ever have a question about it, you could ask me and I can let you know if you're on a rolls. But more than likely, if you think you are, you are, you know. So that's just to give you kind of a heads up. That's pretty much all I have as far as the the bulletin announcements. Because it is our conference, we're going to do some more of our sword drills and Bible trivia questions for you, kiddos. OK, so and I still got some good prizes over here. All right. Now. In order to win a prize, you have to raise your hand up really high and you have to be able to answer the question correctly. Now, I always say this and it doesn't matter, but try not to help everybody by just screaming the answer as soon as I give the question. I notice that some of you because and here's the thing, sometimes they don't even give the right answer. So, you know, you can't just trust the multitude. You know, you don't want to follow a multitude to do evil. So but sometimes the the asking the audience question works. But now we did the younger first on Thursday and we did the older first on Friday. So we're going to go back to the younger this morning and then we'll do older again in the evening. But for the first round of questions, we're only going to let those who are eight and under answer. OK, so you have to be eight years old or under. So if you're nine, you're not going to say anything. You're not going to lift your hand up. You're not going to run the aisle. OK, you're not going to jump in the baptistry. OK, you're just going to be quiet and wait. And then as soon as we get through the questions, then we'll we'll keep escalating the age group and you guys can participate. OK, now I'm going to ask two questions and three sword drills for each one of these age groups. But if you're eight and under, you get to participate in any question. So if you ever know the answer, you just got to lift your hand up really high. All right, now I'll try to call I'll try my best to see who's raised their hand first and call on them. OK, if you win a prize, you're done for this service. You can you can still participate tonight, but you can only win one prize per service. It's all the same rules. OK, are you guys ready? Are you eight year olds and seven year olds and six year old? Are you five year olds ready? OK, here is our first question. How many thieves were crucified by Jesus? Nailed it. All right. Two is the right answer. Good job. Second question. How many books of the Bible are considered a gospel? Nailed it. I mean, this guy, he just knew his number one at first. All right. Come on down. Good job. All right. Now we're going to do Bible drill. So you've got to hold your Bible. You can't have it open yet. I'm going to say the book, chapter and verse. You have to pay attention to what I'm saying. As soon as you get it, you need to stand up. OK. And if I call on you, you have to read it right away, because if you're not ready, then I'll have to move on to someone else. Now, if you know it, just stand up, because the second person might get it. There's a couple of times people were on the right verse or they weren't ready. So we can sometimes have a second person that gets called on. OK. And yesterday, maybe I'll try to say I'm a little bit clear. I said Exodus 21, and it sounded like Exodus 21, but I was trying to say chapter 20, verse one. So I'll say the verse today. OK, so I'll say Exodus 20, verse one. That's how I'm going to say them. All right. But that's not the right one. OK, so you kids ready? Romans three, verse twenty three. You guys know it? All right. Who's next? All right. Come on down. For all of us, I'm sure. Good job. Second Bible drill. Matthew four, verse four. Sorry, that's not Matthew four four. Keep looking, maybe you're close. All right. Come on down. All right. One more for eight and under. Got to listen real close. OK, so I'm going to say the book, the chapter and the verse. Psalm one, verse one. It's right for the taking. Psalm one one. All right. Come on down. He got it. That's a blessed man right there. All right. So now we're going 13 and under. OK, 13 and under. What color robe did the Romans put on Jesus to mock him? Read. Nailed it. All right. Come on down. Next question. What disciple walked on water? That was not correct. Nope. Nailed it. Peter, come on down. Good job. All right. We're going to do three Bible drills. All right. Already. I'm going to say the chapter, the book, the chapter and then the verse. John, five, verse 24. Condemnation. Nailed it. Come on down. Good job. All right. Here's our second one. John, eleven, verse thirty five. John, eleven, verse thirty five. Nailed it. Jesus. All right. One more for this group. Ephesians two, verse eight. Bam. Nailed it. Good job. Come on. All right. So now it's all age groups, OK? So you older kids get a chance. All right. What was Jesus first miracle? Bam. Nailed it. Come on down. And I'm I'm asking some harder questions, OK? Who is the oldest man to live in the Bible? Nailed it. Methuselah. Good job. All right. We got three more Bible drills. All right. Everybody can participate unless you've already won. Acts chapter two, verse twenty one. All right. You got it. Nailed it. Come on down. Good job. All right. We got two more. Jude one, verse twenty three. Jude one, verse twenty three. All right. Liam. Verse twenty three. Jude one, verse twenty three. That one's not quite right. Keep looking. Maybe you can find it. Nailed it. All right. We got one more. Apparently, you know, you got a lot of time here, so if you haven't got a prize yet, you can get it right. Here's the last one. Revelation one, verse 18. Revelation one, verse 18. Nailed it. All right. Come on down. Good job. Good job. All right. Now, we were giving out some bracelets to all of our our kiddos that participated in our conference. So if you did not already get a bracelet and you're here this morning, come on down and get a bracelet, OK? Just pick one. Yeah, all of our kiddos, come on down. Don't be shy. And we're going to sing our our next song this morning. Give me oil in my lamp. Yes. Oh, here you go. What color do you want? No. All right. There you go. All right. Give me oil on my lap. I'm going to have all you kiddos stand up again for me, OK? Go ahead and stand up. Give me oil in my lamp. Keep me burning. Give me oil in my lamp, I pray. Give me oil in my lamp. Keep me burning, burning, burning. Keep me burning till the break of day. Sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing to the king of kings. Sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing to the king. Hide your word in my heart. Keep me learning. Hide your word in my heart, I pray. Hide your word in my heart. Keep me learning, learning, learning. Keep me learning till the break of day. Sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing to the king of kings. Sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing to the king. Give me hope in my heart. Keep me yearning. Give me hope in my heart, I pray. Give me hope in my heart. Keep me yearning, yearning, yearning. Keep me yearning till the break of day. Sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing to the king of kings. Sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing, oh, sing to the king. Good job. Keep standing. We're going to do one more. My God is so great. All right, y'all got some donuts this morning, so I need to hear some really loud singing on this one, all right? Because my God is so big, right? We're going to really sing it loud, all right? My God is so big, so strong and so mighty. There's nothing my God cannot do. My God is so big, so strong and so mighty. There's nothing my God cannot do. He made the trees, He made the seas, He made the elephants too. My God is so big, so strong and so mighty. There's nothing my God cannot do. My God is so great, so strong and so mighty. There's nothing my God cannot do. My God is so great, so strong and so mighty. There's nothing my God cannot do. The mountains are His, the valleys are His, the stars are His handiwork too. My God is so great, so strong and so mighty. There's nothing my God cannot do. All right, good job. Take a seat, and we're going to turn our Bibles to Ephesians chapter number six. Follow along with brother Nick as he's going to read for us. We'll pass our offering plates as well. Ephesians chapter number six, we'll read the entire chapter. Ephesians chapter six, Ephesians chapter six, the Bible reads, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long in the earth. And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and ammunition of the Lord. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, and singleness of your heart, as unto Christ, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will doing service as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good any man doeth, the same shall ye receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. But that ye also may know my affairs, and how I do. Tychius, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things, whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs, and that he might comfort your hearts. Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. Let us bow our heads in prayer. Father, thank you for this great church, and thank you for an opportunity to come to your house today and sing praises to you in your son's name. Thank you so much for all the children in this room, and I pray that you'll continue to bless them. Keep them safe and healthy, and please put a hedge around them, and protect them as they grow into great Christians. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Here in Ephesians, chapter number six, the Bible reads, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise. And children, if there's anything that you need to learn, the most important thing you probably need to learn as a child is how to obey. How to obey. And the Bible has a lot of commandments, and we even have the famous Ten Commandments. But within the Ten Commandments that God gave Moses' children, God gave one of these commandments with a promise. And that promise is that you would live a long life determined based on how you honor your parents, how you obey your parents, as the Bible describes it in Ephesians, chapter number six. And so, you children are actually determining how long you're going to live right now. Every single day of your life is determining how long and how prosperous of a life you're going to live. The Bible teaches that by honoring your father and mother and obeying them and doing right, God is going to give you a long life. So if you say, I want to live a long life, it's going to be based on obeying your parents. Now, you don't have to keep your finger here, because we're not going to stay here forever. But look, if you would at verse three, it also says that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. Go to Exodus 20. Exodus 20. You know, when I was a child, I didn't necessarily want to grow up. I liked being young. But at the same time, if someone had asked me, do you want to live a long life, I would have said yes. I think everybody wants to live a long life, and especially as you get older, time just seems to be on warp speed. It goes faster and faster. And so, of course, it's important to realize that the decisions you're making now are going to have a lasting impact on your entire future. And the Bible says in Exodus 20, this is where we get this promise from the commandment. Exodus 20, look at verse number 12. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. So not every commandment has a promise like this. It's a very special commandment. It's a very unique commandment. And children are supposed to obey their parents. Now, I heard a wise man once say, if you can't beat them, join them. All right. Pastor Mahia left me all this candy, and I don't know what to do with all that. Now, Pastor Mahia got to peg people that weren't paying attention. I don't know if I'm going to do that or not, but I'm just, you know, I'm just telling you what he did. Okay. So don't get too nervous because he's not here. But, you know, he was left handed, so it's probably a little weaker. I'm right handed. All right. So, you know, it's going to come with strength, not deception. Okay. Now, I do believe that it will be beneficial to also have some volunteers this morning. All right. So we're going to have who who in here has played Simon says what kiddos in here and played Simon says, you know what Simon says is all right. We're going to play Pastor Shelley says. Okay. So I need three volunteers to start off with. All right. Who wants to. All right. Michael, come on down. Ethan, you want to come on down. Come on down here. Sorry. I'm going to use your sister first. Okay. You can go sit back now. All right. I need all three of you. Remind me your name again. Hannah. We have Hannah. We have Michael and we have Ethan. All right. Now, I'm going to give you all some really clear instructions. Okay. And the only way to win in this game is to obey. All right. Okay. Now, when I say Pastor Shelley says, you're going to have to do whatever I say. Okay. But if I tell you to do something and it's not Pastor, I didn't say Pastor Shelley says, then you're going to lose. Okay. But I'll explain how. You're going to take five pieces of candy for me. All right. Take five pieces of candy. Hold them in your hands. Don't put them in your pockets. All right. Good job. Take five pieces for me. Whatever you like. Okay. Take five pieces for me. Yeah. Keep them in your hands. All right. Now, you're going to have to be brave for me because you may not get to keep them. Okay. This is how it works. Just like God gives you an opportunity to live a long life, you can have that, but you have to obey because otherwise you're going to have to give me the candy back. Does that make sense to you all? Okay. So, we're about to start playing the game. When I say Pastor Shelley says, you do whatever I say, but it's only going to be one commandment each. So, if I said Pastor Shelley says, take one step forward, you would do that, right? But then after, if I say go back, that's not what Pastor Shelley said, is it? Okay. So, you're going to have to pay really close attention. Now, if you get eliminated, I'll let you still get a prize from our box. Okay. But you have to give me the candy back. Does that make sense? Are you all ready to start? Okay. We're going to start now. All right. Pastor Shelley says, take one step forward. Give me your candy back. Give me your candy back. All right. You all get a good prize. You all were eliminated. I didn't say Pastor Shelley said to give me your candy back. See, this is how the devil works. Take a prize. I need three more volunteers. Who thinks they can actually do this? All right. Miss Aaliyah, come on down. Ethan, come on down. We'll try your sister, Michael. Okay. Come on down. Now, remind me your name again. I'm sorry. Natalie. Natalie. That's right. Okay. All right. You're going to get five pieces of candy. Let's see how long this can last. All right. Now, the devil is a cunning beast of the field. He likes to try and trick you. Okay. Whenever I say Pastor Shelley says, you'll do whatever that statement is. If I say anything after that, you don't listen. Okay. You don't obey that voice. Now, the devil likes to try and trick you. So, you know, you have to be really smart about it. You all ready to play? All right. Pastor Shelley says to jump once. Jump again. Okay. Give me your candy. Pastor Shelley says give me your candy. You can go get a prize. Did you see that over there? Pastor Shelley says give me your candy. Go get a prize. Now, this is mean, isn't it? But I'm going to tell you. It's right here. You can get a prize. All right. Here's the problem. The devil doesn't fight fair folks. And if you think that I'm mean, the devil's way meaner than I could ever be. Now, Pastor Shelley says to take one step forward. Step back. See, there we go. All right. We're getting better. Okay. Let's go, if we would, to Proverbs chapter number 30. Proverbs chapter number 30. Now, the Bible also says that, you know, and I'm not going to go to this verse necessarily, but it says to salute all of the brethren. Okay. In Philippians chapter 4 verse 21. And to salute is to address with expressions of kind wishes, courtesy, or honor. To give a sign of respect, courtesy, or to honor. And here's my first point of this morning of how to obey. And it's you have to obey with your mouth. Okay. You have to obey with your mouth. And essentially, there's a lot of places in scripture that we're going to look at here in a moment. I'm getting a little ahead of myself for the point. We'll prove it in a second. But, if you really want to be an obedient child, you need to obey with your mouth. And, and your mouth is a really hard thing to teach how to be obedient. But, so, from now on, when Pastor Shelley gives you a commandment, okay, okay, not only do you have to do it, you have to say, yes, sir. So, when I say Pastor Shelley says something, like Pastor Shelley says take a step forward, you have to, yes, sir. Does that make sense? Okay. I'm not trying to trick you on this one. This is Pastor Shelley says this, okay? But, it's for the whole rest of the game, so you have to remember that. So, any time Pastor Shelley says to do something, you're going to have to do it and say, yes, sir. Does that make sense? Okay. So, Pastor Shelley says take one step back. Nailed it. All right. Yes, sir. She got it. Okay. Proverbs chapter 30 verse 17, the Bible says, the eye that mocketh at his father and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young eagles shall eat it. So, here's what's going to happen, whenever the next volunteer messes up, I'm going to take their can and I'm going to eat it. Okay. So, now we need two more volunteers. We're running low. All right. And, we'll take another one over on this side. Ms. Elizabeth, come on down. You're going to take five pieces of candy for me. All right. Take five pieces of candy for me. Perfect. Okay. Now, whenever I say Pastor Shelley says, you have to do whatever I say, right? Okay. And, you have to say, yes, sir. If, from now on, if you make a mistake, instead of giving me all your candy back, you just have to give me one. Okay. You'll have to give me one back. So, this is kind of how, you know, and I'm just giving you an example, but we'll just say the candy is the number of days of your life. Right. Every time you disobey mom and dad, it's like God's just taking one of those little days away, isn't he? So, it's really important to listen and to pay attention when Pastor Shelley says, lift up your right hand. Put it down. Put it down. Oh, give me a piece of candy. And, all of you have to give me one piece of candy because none of you all said, yes, sir. Pastor Shelley says, give me a piece of candy. Pastor Shelley. Now, some of these ravens of the field are going to come pluck it out. And, they're going to eat it. So, here you go. You can go ahead and eat it unless your parents say no. Parents, rule, triumph over Pastor Shelley, okay. Pastor Shelley says, take one step back. All right. Pastor Shelley says, you have to give me another piece of candy. All right. I'm going to eat that one. I was in Mims. It was good. All right. See, you know, it's just not fair how life is, right. So, you have to learn how to obey. And, this is good. This is a fun game. So, if you went to Genesis chapter 22, go to Genesis chapter 22. So, we have to obey with our mouth. Pastor Shelley says, say Genesis 22. Nailed it. All right. We're getting some obedience up here. Genesis chapter 22, look at verse number 15. The Bible says, And the angel of the Lord called on Abraham out of heaven, the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, say the Lord, for because thou has done this thing, and has now withheld thy son, and only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou so bade my voice. Now, notice what he says here, Notice that Abraham is going to get blessed because he obeyed God's voice. Now, who in here knows how old Abraham lived? 175. I couldn't quite hear you. Is that right? Nailed it. 175. You were really close if you didn't get it right. 175. Now, who in here is 175 years old? Who's 100? I mean, this guy lived a really long life. Why? Because he obeyed the voice of the Lord. So, he had a lot of pieces of candy. He didn't get them taken from him. Okay? Will you all just move up a little bit? Can you all just move up a little bit? All right. Pastor Shelley says give me some, give one of your pieces of candy. Pastor Shelley says will you give me, thank you. All right. We're going to keep distributing the wealth, though. So, their disobedience is your, is your victory. All right? Here you go. So, I keep getting all this candy back. It's really easy. Pastor Shelley says to look at that wall. Nailed it. All right. We're getting, we're getting better. That, that devil comes around. He just tries to trick you and deceive you. So, you've got to watch out for him. Go if you went to Matthew, chapter nine. Go to Matthew, chapter number nine. Now, I'm going to make kind of a modern day application of this. But, I believe when you study scripture and you kind of look at what these verses are saying, you can come to the conclusion that if you want to model yourself after the Bible and you want to live a way that's pleasing unto those who give you instruction, you will use some kind of a command or some kind of a statement to acknowledge the receipt of information. Now, I believe the best way in Texas, in our modern culture, if someone says for you to do something, you just say, yes, sir, or yes, ma'am, every single time, whenever you get an instruction. Now, that would be considered good manners. Okay? The Bible talks about manners, but not necessarily in that exact context and other contexts, but manners just simply means the manner of life that you live, the way that you handle yourself. But, notice how the people in the Bible speak to Jesus. Look at Matthew, chapter nine, verse 28, and when he's coming to the house, the blind men came to him and Jesus saith unto them, believe ye that I am able to do this. They said unto him, yea, Lord. Now, here's the thing, the word Lord could also be referenced to, you know, God or your master, but it's just simply also a synonym for sir. This is similar to saying simply just, yes, sir. Okay? Look at Matthew 13, just flip the page, Matthew 13, and look at verse 51. Matthew 13, 51, Jesus saith unto them, have you understood all these things they said unto them? Yea, Lord. Go if you went to John, chapter number four, go to John, chapter number four. So, when Jesus asks a question, what do they respond with? Yea, Lord. John, chapter number four, look at verse number 11. The woman saith unto him, sir, thou hast nothing to draw with. So, notice how she references Jesus, and she doesn't know that he's Jesus at this point, so what does she just customarily do when she talks to another man? Sir. Okay? Skip to verse 15. The woman saith unto him, sir, give me this water. Look at verse number 19. The woman saith unto him, sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Skip down to verse 49. The nobleman saith unto him, sir, come down ere my child die. You know why I like this? Because you say, oh, well, a woman, she has to be respectful to any man in the society, you know? No, no, no. This is a nobleman talking to Jesus, someone of high stature, arguably way higher stature than Jesus, at least in their minds and their culture, but how does he talk to Jesus, sir? You know, even myself included. You know, if I talk to people, even in a church setting, even though I'm the pastor, you know what I can still say to them? Yes, sir. Why? Because it's just respectful. It's a way to obey with your mouth, and really, whenever someone gives you a command, if you just say, nah, okay, it doesn't have the same ring to it. It doesn't really feel like there's that obedience factor involved. And I'll tell you, what you do with your mouth often will reflect how you live your life. Go to John chapter 11. Let me show you another example here, and we're just looking at a lot of examples. John chapter 11. So, kiddos, when your mom and dad tell you to take out the trash, you say yes, sir. Pastor Shelley says to say yes, sir. Nailed it. All right. Now, can y'all say no, ma'am? All right. Pastor Shelley says to give me a piece of candy. It's getting tight. It's okay. Do you just want to give me the other piece of candy? Okay. All right. You can go get a prize, Pastor Shelley says. All right. We need another volunteer. Ms. Lauren, come on down. Pastor Shelley says take five pieces of candy. Pastor Shelley says give me one back. You didn't say yes, sir. You started low. I mean, you had an opportunity here to do well, but you got to pay attention. All right. Pastor Shelley wants you to say, what is the first point of my sermon? You have to honor God with your what? Yep. Okay. Give me one piece of candy. You didn't say yes, sir. You have to say yes, sir, every single time. Y'all did really good. You got the right answer. Now, here's the thing. You say, I don't like this game. Well, this is the game of life. And here's the thing. God wants you to learn how to obey. And you got to say yes, sir, every single time. Pastor Shelley says to say, Jesus wept. All right. I got some yes, sirs in there. All right. Nailed it. Pastor Shelley says to take one step forward. Pastor Shelley says to take another step forward. Step back. All right. We're getting better. We're getting better. Pastor Shelley says to step back. All right. We're doing good. All right. I'm liking this game. Now, go to Acts chapter 16. You say, well, I don't know if it matters if I'm respectful or not. Well, maybe, you know, when you have an important question, you want to be as respectful as possible. How about Acts chapter 16? Look at verse number 30. And he brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Have you ever noticed that verse in your Bible? Yet, there's so many men that never say sir to anyone. You're a soul winner. You should learn how to say sir. Okay? Now, go if you would to Revelation chapter number 7. Revelation chapter number 7. You say, when should we stop doing this? When we become an adult? No, I don't believe that. We haven't even been seeing children say this. So then how much more should children say yes, sir, and yes, ma'am to their parents? Now, of course, you know, if your parents want you to answer in a different way, children, you do whatever your parents say. But I'm just saying, if your parents don't tell you not to, you should just say yes, sir, and yes, ma'am to be respectful to your parents. It will teach you to honor and respect them, to have a different attitude towards them. And, of course, I want to live a long life. Look at, you would, Revelation chapter number 7. We're going to look at verse number 13. Revelation chapter number 7, verse number 13. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? Now, this is John talking to the angel. He's saying, hey, where are these things coming from? Look at verse 14. And I said unto him, sir, thou knowest. Notice how the angel's talking to John. He's saying, hey, he's calling him sir. And, you know, the way that Revelation's written, it's kind of interesting, because it's like Jesus giving it unto an angel, and then, like, he's giving it unto John. But a lot of times the narrator of the Bible is Jesus, you know, speaking. And, again, this is, of course, in the context of the angels talking to the apostle John. But if the angels are going to call the apostle John, sir, then how much more should we also say, yes, sir, yes, ma'am, when people give us commands or ask us to do something? I would say that this is, falls right in line with what the Bible says to salute. Now, do you kids know how to salute? I'm going to teach you how to salute, okay? To salute is to take your right hand and go up like this, okay? So, can you all do, can you all lift up? All right, you have to give me, Pastor Shelley says you have to give me a piece of candy. You don't have, all right, get a prize. New, new, all right, come on down. New contestant. This is how you salute. You take your right hand and you go up like this, all right? That's how, that's like a military salute. Now, I'm not in the military, so if someone in the military is like, actually, it's this, you know, or whatever, I don't know. It's 45 degrees. It's not, you know, 38.7, Pastor Shelley, okay? So Pastor Shelley says to salute with your right hand. All right, you all have to give me a piece of candy because Pastor Shelley didn't hear any yes-sirs. You didn't get any yet. That's rough when you didn't even start with any. This is like Pastor Amina's sermon where it's like just death, okay? Now, those young ravens just keep plucking it out. Oh, watch out. Those ravens are dangerous, okay? All right, Pastor Shelley says salute with your right hand. Nailed it. All right. At ease. Oh, give me a piece of candy. You can go get a prize. We need a new volunteer. Come on down, Mr. Warner. Pastor Shelley says get five pieces of candy. Yes, sir. Nailed it. All right. Sharp one right here. All right, Pastor Shelley says to take one step forward. Nailed it. Nailed it. All right. I'm liking this game. We're learning, okay? Go to Matthew chapter 21. Go to Matthew chapter number 21 in your Bibles. Now, the Bible says thou shalt not steal. The Bible says thou shalt not kill. The Bible says a lot of things like this. And of course, the devil is going to come around and he's going to constantly try to trick you, but you know what the problem is? The devil is not God. The devil is not the Lord Jesus Christ. So when the billboard says thou shalt steal, I don't obey that because I obey the Bible. So in your life, you have to learn how to play this game whether you like it or not because there's going to be constant messages out there, buy the Big Mac, put beans in the chili. Go to the house church, right? There's going to be an advertisement. There's going to be the billboard. There's going to be the flyer. There's going to be the movie poster. And what is the devil constantly trying to do? He's trying to steal your candy, okay? We don't want the devil to steal our candy. We want to live a long life. And some of us don't realize, as a child, you're donating your candy to the devil every single day when you disobey your mom and dad. Every day that you're not obeying your mom and dad, that's just you're putting more and more days on the shelf every single day, okay? And so it's important to obey your parents, not just for their parents' sake, but even for your sake. Now, the first way was what? With a mouth, okay? Pastor Shelley says, what was the first point of the sermon? We obey with our... Just the mouth. Nailed it. All right. We got it. We had to think about it for a second. That's okay. Here's point number two. It's in Matthew 21. It's that we don't only obey with our mouth. We need to obey with our might. And in Matthew chapter 21, look at what it says in verse 28. But what think ye? A certain man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, Son, go work today in the vineyard. And he answered and said, I will not. But afterward he repented and went. And he came to the second and said, likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir, and went not. Now, notice this guy honored him with his mouth. Didn't he say, I go, sir? Wasn't that the right way to respond? But here's the problem. Saying that you're going to do it, but then not doing it, is that really obedience? Because then what is Jesus going to say? Verse 31. Neither of them twain did the will of his father. They say unto him, the first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go in the kingdom of God before you. So Jesus was trying to illustrate an important point that it's not really important to God that you say only that you're going to do it. It's important that you do it. And in fact, if he was going to even grade these two, which one was more important technically? Getting it over the saying it, because one guy didn't even see, he's like, I'm not going to go. But then, you know, he went anyways. Can y'all move like down a little bit? Okay. Y'all have to give me a piece of candy. Pastor says, give me one piece of candy. Yes, sir. Are you out? You can get it. You can get a prize. All right. We got a new contestant. Ethan, come on down. Pastor. Shelly says, get five pieces of candy. Yes, sir. You nailed it. This is a difficult game. Okay. I think you got six. Give me one back. All right. Now, go to Ecclesiastes chapter number nine. Ecclesiastes chapter number nine. That was really good. That was really good. Can you give me five on that one? Yes, sir. Okay. Pastor Shelly says, give me a piece of candy. It's a tough game. I think it tastes good, though. Okay. Would you like, would you like one of my M&Ms? All right. Pastor Shelly says, Ethan, eat these M&Ms. You're welcome, parents. Pastor Shelly says, give me a piece of candy. You didn't say yes, sir. It's a vicious game. Okay. Ecclesiastes chapter number nine. Look at verse number ten. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest. Notice that the Bible says, hey, when you tell God you're going to do something, you got to do it with all your might. Okay. So God doesn't want you to just say, yes, sir. He wants a yes, sir. You know, he wants, he wants, he wants some might in there. He wants you to put some effort in there. So pastor Shelly says to say yes, sir, as loud as you can. I liked it. That was good. All right. Can you say it louder? Say it one more time. Louder. That was good. All right. This is tricky. They're never going to trust me. So it's going to be a test. This is a big backfire. Go to Deuteronomy chapter number six, Deuteronomy chapter number six. Now, the devil uses a lot of really good tactics in an effort to try to persuade you to succumb to his pressure. You know, he'll come and he'll, you know, maybe you're looking really sharp today. You know, I really liked that black shirt. And, oh, you got a green bracelet. What color did you get? You might use a little bit of flattery. You know, he might butter you up a little bit and say, those, those pieces of candy look pretty good. Can I have one? Pastor Shelly says to take one step back. Pastor Shelly says to take two steps forward. Pastor Shelly says to give you one candy. All right. Pay attention. All right. Pastor Shelly says to jump one time. Pastor Shelly says to salute with your right hand. All right. You got it. Pastor Shelly says to give me a piece of candy. That was left. Sorry. That might've been a trick question. Oh, you're too close. Will you step back a little bit? Oh, Pastor Shelly says to give me a piece of candy. Just one. Oh, the devil's looking out for a safety. You know? Oh, thank you. This is a good one. Hey, you can have it back. All right. It's for you. Thank you. All right. Good job, buddy. But when you're going to do something, you got to do it with your might because God wants us to not only just say we're going to do things, he wants us to do it. He wants us to actually put in the effort, put in the energy. And, you know, if you're going to obey, you have to actually do it. If they just said yes, sir, and they didn't actually do the action, they would not keep their candy. You know? And so even in our lives, we have to make sure that we're always obeying God and what the devil will do is he'll come around and he'll flatter you and say, oh, you're so smart. You don't need church. Kids, you're smarter than your parents. You don't need to listen to them. You know more than Pastor Shelly. Who cares what he thinks about anything? Who cares about, well, dad's smarter than mom. You don't need to obey mom. No. You have to honor thy father and thy mother. Well, but my mom makes a lot of mistakes. You still honor them. Well, my dad, he does things that are, you know, I don't really like. Or dad, I've seen dad make a mistake. Or one time dad said a bad word, you know. It's like, but are we really supposed to sit here and judge our parents? You know, you're not supposed to judge your parents in the sense that you're not their authority. So someone who's not your authority, you don't tell them what to do. You know, just like when we go to the apartment complex and kids are misbehaving, I don't get to tell them what to do. Even though they're a child and I'm an adult, I don't get to tell them, you're not allowed to play in the street. Or when I tell you something, you have to say, yes, sir. You know, they're not, they're going to be like, whatever bozo, get out of here. You know. But the same works in every context. If I'm at work and my boss is rude to me, I don't get to say whatever I want back to him. You know. I don't get, I don't get to say like, you know, I don't like work today. Okay, fired. You know. I don't like the uniform. I don't like the outfit. I don't like whatever it is. No, you have to just do it. Or, or this is what I've seen in the workplace. I, because I work in the software development area, is a boss would come in and be like, hey, will you clean that up? And they're like, I'm not the janitor. I'm a software developer. And it's like, that's cringe. Okay. Because it's like when your boss just tells you to do something. It's like, I didn't sign up to be a janitor, sure. But you know what? If the boss just says to pick up some trash or whatever, you just pick up the trash. You know, that's, it's weird. Just like a lot of people today, they'd say like, oh, well, God didn't tell me to serve him or whatever. Yes, he did. Why didn't sign up to be God's servant? You don't get a choice. He created you. You're a creation. You know, it's like, some people think that like, I only have to obey the Bible if I'm a Christian. Wrong. Every single person is God's servant, whether they like it or not. Now some are really bad servants. Okay. Did you move? Okay. Pastor Shelly says, take two steps back. Pastor Shelly says, take one step forward. Step back. Look over there. Oh, Pastor Shelly says, give me one piece of candy. Now y'all didn't look over there, did you? Pastor Shelly says, look over here. Look up. Who's that? All right. Y'all are doing good. Pastor Shelly says, to look wherever you want. Can y'all look down? Okay. I'm getting some good kids up here. We're getting better. That first group got smoked. Go to Matthew chapter 15. Now here's what you got to do, kids. When you go home, you got to obey mom and dad like you're doing now. You guys are being so obedient to me for candy. But you know what? God is handing you eternal life for salvation. You believe in him for that. You want to do that. But then also he's giving you physical life every single day of your life if you obey your parents. Now what's more important? Living long or candy? What do you think? Oh, Pastor Shelly says, give me a piece of candy. Sorry. Go get a prize, all right? New volunteer. Clayton, come on down. This is going to be rough for him. I already know. Pastor Shelly says to get five pieces of candy. Yes, sir. Is your target green? No. Oh, Pastor Shelly says give me one piece of candy. Pastor Shelly says to lift up your right foot. Yes, sir. Pastor Shelly says put it down. You have to give me a piece of candy. That was left. Yes, sir. You know left and right. Pastor Shelly says to lift up your right hand. Yes, sir. Pastor Shelly says to salute with your right hand. Yes, sir. Put your hand down. All right. I know it's going to be rough for him. Pastor Shelly says keep your hand up. Can you put your hands down? Hey, raise your hand if you're a Christian. Pastor Shelly says give me, you just got to keep it going. Oh, you're one of those people that likes Jesus if you raise your hand, aren't you? Raise your hand if you go to steadfast. You must be one of those kids that obeys your parents if you raise your right hand, huh? See, this is what the devil will also do to you. God's telling you to do something and then he'll try to make fun of you for doing what God actually said. Oh, you actually dress like a woman? Oh, you actually dress like a man? Oh, you actually use the King James Bible? Pastor Shelly says put your hands down. Put them up. Put your hands up. Put your hands up. I thought you put your hands up whenever I say. What's going on? All right. Y'all are doing pretty good. I got to donate this to somebody. All right. Good catch. That was legit. Matthew chapter number 15. Here's my third point, all right, this morning. Matthew chapter number 15. We not only need to obey with our mouth and with our might, we also need to obey with our mind. Now look at Matthew chapter 15 and look at verse number 8. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Not only does God want obedience to be done with your mouth and for you to do it, he wants you to actually even obey internally. What that means is he wants you to actually have obedient thoughts about it and he wants inside of your heart for you to actually be pleased and enjoying what you're doing. You can do an activity and even say that you're going to do it, but your attitude will totally negate the obedience. Most of the time when you're being disobedient or you're having a bad attitude, it often causes you to complain, to say other things. Because you could say, yes sir, I'll do it. Man, this task really is a bummer. I don't want to do this. Man, I'm not the janitor. Man, I didn't sign up for this. I don't want to have to go to church. Who wants to go to church in Watauga? I can't even pronounce that. Who wants to go to church with a bunch of people that are dressed really fancy? I want to comb my pajamas. Some people do. I don't want to have to go to church three times a week. That negates it. That negates it. If you showed up to all three services but you're complaining about coming to every service, I don't want you to come. God is like, why are you here? People that just show up physically, but you don't sing the song, you don't want to be here, you're checking your phone, I don't want you here. And God doesn't want you here. I remember when I started Pure Words Baptist Church, I had someone ask me about certain family members and friends coming to church. And they're like, are you disappointed that some of those people won't come? I was like, all of them. I said, no. I said, I don't want anyone to come to my church that doesn't want to. And you know what, God's not any different. God doesn't want a building filled with people that just pretend like they're going to worship Him, say they're going to do it, go through some motions, but in their heart they actually don't love God. They don't care about the things of God. They're not going to go back out there in the week and actually serve God whatsoever. God doesn't like that. God finds that disgusting. He wants to spew them out of His mouth, He says, in the book of Revelation. The Laodiceans. You know, they think they're great, but they're really trash. They're lukewarm. And look, that is the majority of churches in our area today is where they just say that they're going to serve God. They kind of go through the motions. But they're not really Christian. They're not really reading the Bible. They're not really, you know, sacrificing the Lord. They're not going out and preaching the gospel. And you know what, you children, your parents are the same way. You children, your parents don't just want you to say, yes sir, and just kind of do things. They want you to actually love them in your heart. They want you to actually think about what they're asking you to do and to do it. And not only just want to, but want to do your best job. Do it the best possible way. You know, there's a lot of ways to do something, but sometimes there's a better way to do it. And what God gave you is a mind to be able to do those things to the best of your ability. You know, think about church. Church, God gave us some clear instructions on how to have church. You know, we need to have a certain person as a leader. We need to make sure that the Word of God is at the center and is at the core of our doctrine. That we're not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. You know, what God didn't say was where to meet, how often to meet, what kind of chairs to sit into, you know, how to practically baptize. I mean, the Bible just says, see, there's water. What does hinder me to baptize? But what does that mean? You know, are we going to go out to some lake? You know, there's so many different decisions that have to be made. Do you think that God wants me to just be brain dead about that? Or do you think God wants me to actually use my brain and think about, you know, probably soft chairs over cactuses are better to sit on for church. Or maybe just even sitting. What if I just say, you know, from now on, you know, we could get more people in here if we didn't have chairs. We're just all going to stand the whole service. No rockers for ladies that are pregnant. You know, air conditioning, that's expensive. Let's get rid of that. I mean, what, you can't handle the heat? You know, I mean, at what level are you going to start using your brain to actually accomplish God's task? And here's the thing, children. Your parents want you to use your brain. When your parents say, hey, take out the trash, you know what they don't want you to do? Is to grab the trash bag and drag it on the ground all the way out to the curb. Because what's going to happen is that bottom of the bag is going to rip, and then all the trash is going to get slain all over the yard and all over the driveway. He wants you to use your brain to actually pick it up and do it correctly. But you know what your dad doesn't want to have to do is explain every single detail of every single task. Take out the trash. Then he wants you to use this. Your brain. You have to use your brain, children. Okay? Can you all move up a little bit further? Pastor Shelley says to move up. Yes, sir. Pastor Shelley says to move back. Yes, sir. Move up. All right, so we're going to have to try and use our brain, okay? Pastor Shelley says he wants you to pat the top of your head. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Keep patting. Oh, all of you give me a piece of candy. You all kept patting. You'll get a prize. Pastor Shelley says to pat your head and rub your belly. Yes, sir. Stop. Oh, Pastor Shelley says to give me candy. I need a new volunteer. Who wants to try this? Come on down. It's Asia. Is that correct? All right. We've got Asia coming down. Asia is a pretty obedient culture, so I think we're going to be good. All right? Pastor Shelley says to get five pieces of candy. Oh, Pastor Shelley says to give me one back because you didn't say yes, sir. All right? It's going to be dicey, okay? Where is it? Where is it? You stopped. You were supposed to keep patting. Pastor Shelley says... All right. Go get a prize for me. I need two more volunteers. Right here. Come on down. One more. Liam. Pastor Shelley says to take five pieces of candy. Yes, sir. I like that. Oh, she got a lot. All right. She knows what to do. Pastor Shelley says to get five pieces of candy. Yes, sir. Oh, man, I like that. These kids are smart. Go if you would to 1 Corinthians, chapter 14. Go to 1 Corinthians, chapter 14. I'm going to prove this point a little bit further. And as we're wrapping up our sermon, again, you know, this is not some hard concept. I don't think that God really... the majority of the things that God wants us to do are not actually hard in the sense that it's difficult to understand. It's something that takes a lot of brain power. Most of it's just simply just doing it, you know? And the hard part is accomplishing it rather than understanding the problem. But there are some things that are hard. You know, studying the Bible is difficult. The Bible talks about it being a weariness of the flesh. And of course, you know, there's very few people that actually understand the Bible, so there's limited amount of resources to go to. You have to actually put a lot of effort and energy into memorizing Scripture, reading the Bible, praying, being filled with the Spirit, and not even just being a hearer of the Word only, but a doer of the Word. And when you do these things, God will reveal to you, you know, more and more of the Bible. And it's not limited to pastors or men or even adults. It's to anybody. It's accessible to any single person. Pastor Shelley says to take one step forward. I like that. Can you all step back? Where's your five pieces of candy? You're hiding on me. Pastor Shelley says to give me one piece of candy. This is a neat trick. I can't keep tabs. Pastor Shelley says to salute with your right hand. Do you know right? Use this one, right hand. I'll just make sure. Pastor Shelley says use your right hand. There you go. Okay. Now, 1 Corinthians 14, look at verse number 13. Wherefore, let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. For if he pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Else, when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at the giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? Pastor Shelley says to say Amen. Amen. Oh, Pastor Shelley says to give me a piece of candy. Did it say yester or two? See, it's tricky. That was a good point. I read the Bible, and they said Amen. Okay, so they automatically can agree. Can you all say Amen again? Pastor Shelley says to give me a piece of candy. You can't talk unless I say Pastor Shelley, all right? How many pieces of candy you got in there? Pastor Shelley says take one step forward. Pastor Shelley says take one more piece of candy. Oh, wait, get a different one. Take another one. You want to take a different one? You want another one? See, the devil's not going to come around and offer you Brussels sprouts, okay? They wouldn't even have to know this game. They would have said no to that. So they had to think about it. You know, they're having to really use their brain here. And you know what? God wants us to use our brain. He wants us to use our mind. He wants us to think about it. You know, when I sing the songs, I don't want to just make the right vowel sounds. I want to actually understand the words. Do not I hate them, O Lord that hate thee? You know, I want to know the reprobate doctrine when I sing that song. You want to know why people don't want to sing that song because they don't understand the reprobate doctrine. It's like, how could you hate anybody? Where in the Bible does it say to hate anyone? What about all these verses? Old Testament. What about these verses? Not as New Testament. It's like, what? It's like, what do you think the place hell is like? Do you think it's like a cool alternative? Like a rock concert or something like that? I mean, if you were going to put someone in a lake of fire to burn for all eternity, outer darkness, with a sweeping and gnashing of teeth, no rest day or night, what would you say you think about that person? It's not love, folks. John 3.16, in fact, says for God so loved. Have you ever noticed it's a past tense word? Something changed. Something happened. Something means that God's feelings towards people have changed. Otherwise, it would just say God loves forever. God's unconditional love towards everyone. But it says for God so loved the world. How did God love the world? By tolerating their sin, by loving it. No, no, no, no. He loved them by having Jesus die on the cross. Okay? And, you know, children, your parents love you. I believe that the parents in this room love you. And they want you to reciprocate that love. How did Jesus and God the Father show us their love by their sacrifice? And the Bible says we love Him because He first loved us. So we have to reciprocate that love. And as an obedient child, you will not only obey God with your mouth and obey Him with your mind, you'll obey Him with your mind. And, of course, how do you obey God with your mind at the ultimate culmination? Praising. Because you don't have to praise God. There's nothing that's going to force you to do it. You get that opportunity. No one forced you to come to church this morning. No one's forcing you to open your mouth. No one's putting a gun to your head and saying, sing, Jesus loves me. No one's putting a gun to your head today and saying, praise the Lord this morning. You're choosing to do that, and you know what? God wants you. God wants you inside. Not only to say, well, I don't steal, and I don't kill, and I said I'll follow God's commandments, but then you're just, you never praise the Lord. You never pray to Him. You never sing to Him. And, of course, what if you do all those things but you don't even mean it? It doesn't count, as 1 Corinthians 14 says. Hey, I'm not going to pray and sing when it doesn't matter. I could learn a song in another language and know nothing about what the words mean, and it's meaningless to God. I could sing, Jesus loves me, and to God be the glory, and all these songs in a foreign language, and it's meaningless to God because He doesn't want me to just vainly just repeat something or say something or sing something. He wants me to actually mean it in my heart. And you children, you need to learn how to love your parents because they've sacrificed for you a lot. You have to obey them, and not only should you obey them because it's right, you should learn how to love them, and when you love them, it'll make obedience even easier. Now Pastor Shelley says to take one step back. Pastor Shelley says to take one step forward. Bigger step, like can you all go a little bit, take a higher. Oh, Pastor Shelley says give me a piece of candy. Do you have any more? He's got a secret hoard over here. Do you have any more candy? Okay, he's got one more, he's in the game, all right? I gave you all an extra piece, that's right. Can you give me your other piece? Can I have the other one too? All right, go get a prize. This is mean. All right, we're getting too close. I'm not going to have any more volunteers, but I'll throw you some candy, all right? Pastor Shelley says to take one step back. All right, you all are doing good. I think I'm going to end with some winners here. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 10, it's the last place I want you to go. You know, the Bible says young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded. You know, we need to take Christianity seriously. And what I like about these children is they are willing for just a, you know, 25 cent piece of candy to be obedient as they possibly can this morning. I mean, think about that, that's some serious willpower, you know? It's probably awkward having to stand up here and be, you know, put on the spotlight. But for just this measly little piece of candy, how much more your life, children? You want to live to be 60, 70, 80, 90 years old? You want to have a prosperous life? You need to learn how to obey the voice of God. You need to learn how to read the Bible and pay attention to what your parents say. And when your parents say something, you just say, yes, sir, yes, ma'am. Pastor Shelley says to salute with your right hand. All right, I like that. Pastor Shelley says at ease, you can put your hands down. Pastor Shelley says put your hands down, sorry. Ecclesiastes chapter number 10, look at verse 10. If the iron be blunt and he do not wet the edge, then must he put to more strength, but wisdom is probable to direct. So the Bible is kind of just giving a general picture here that someone who's using a blunt instrument is not going to be as effective as when they sharpen it. You know, when you get like a knife and it's not very sharp, you file it and you try to get it really sharp. And then when it's really sharp, it just cuts through, right? And, you know, lifting up your hand takes a little bit of strength. So you want to work out so you can lift up your hand. Can y'all lift up your hand real high like this for me? Y'all are doing really good. Can you lift up your left, sorry, left hand. Can y'all do the left hand? Pastor Shelley says to lift up your left hand. Right hand. All right, you have to give me a piece of candy, sorry. Pastor Shelley says. That ceiling is just a cap. I'll tell you what. Pastor Shelley says, put your hands down. You're getting already all right. You know, in our lives, you can make your life easier or harder on you if you use this. You use your brain. You got to think about things. And God wants you to exercise your brain. He wants you to learn what the Bible says and to think about these things. We have to obey God with our mouth, with our might, and with our mind. All right, y'all can go ahead and sit down. Sorry, you have to give me a piece of candy. Not all of them. I'll just take this one, all right. Pastor Shelley says y'all can go sit down. All right, let's give them a round of applause. Now, again, I used a really silly example this morning. But, you know, it's to illustrate the spiritual truth, children, that you need to obey your parents. Because just like me taking that candy away is a reality of that game. God will take away days of our life when we disobey our parents. And so when our parents tell us to do something, we need to use our mouth to be obedient to them. To say yes, sir, or yes, ma'am, or to acknowledge what you're going to do. We need to talk with respect to our parents. We need to, you know, tell our parents that you love them. You know, you children, if your parents say, I love you, you know you should say to them, I love you, too. You should tell them that you love your parents back. But more important, you should mean it in your heart. You know, not only should you say it, should you do it, but you should actually mean it in your mind and your heart. Because your parents taking you to church this morning to get candy, that was nice of them. You know, now if they let you keep that or not, that's for your parents to decide, all right? Maybe they'll take it. But I want you guys to really think about it when you go home, not just for this candy game, but continue playing this game with your parents at home. When they say yes, sir, or when they ask you to say yes, sir, use your mouth. Whenever they ask you to do something, you do it with your might. And whenever they're asking you to do stuff or they're wanting you to learn things, use your mind to learn them. Let's close in prayer this morning, all right? Thank you Heavenly Father for giving us these great commandments and giving us the opportunity to not only have eternal life, but to have a long life. I pray that the children in this room, they would learn the importance of following your commandments, of honoring their father and honoring their mother. I pray that you would just help the children in this room to be obedient to their parents. They would realize the value that it has with that commandment. And I pray that not only would they do things with their mouth and with their body, but rather than their hearts, their hearts would be knit to their parents. They would understand why they should love their parents and that you would just help us to have a generation of children that love their parents and parents who love their children. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So for our final song, we're going to do, I've got the joy, joy, joy, all right? So I'm going to have you kids stand up one last time. We're going to get all those jitters out, all right? And we've got a couple hand motions with this one. I've got the joy, joy, joy. I've got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. I've got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart to stay. And I'm so happy, so very happy. I've got the love of Jesus in my heart. And I'm so happy, so very happy. I've got the love of Jesus in my heart. I've got the love of Jesus love of Jesus down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. I've got the love of Jesus love of Jesus down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart to stay. And I'm so happy, so very happy. I've got the love of Jesus in my heart. And I'm so happy, so very happy. I've got the love of Jesus in my heart. I've got the peace that passeth understanding down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. I've got the peace that passeth understanding down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart to stay. And I'm so happy, so very happy. I've got the love of Jesus in my heart. And I'm so happy, so very happy. I've got the love of Jesus in my heart. All right, you are dismissed. Pass was really said. Thank you.