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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] All right, everybody. We're going to go ahead and get started. Welcome to Anchor Baptist Church. At this time, if you would, take your hymnals and turn to hymn number 34. I know that my Redeemer liveth. Hymn number 34 in your hymnals. I know that my Redeemer liveth. Go ahead and start there right on the first. I know that my Redeemer liveth. And on the earth again shall stand. I know eternal life he giveth. And grace and power are in his hand. I know, I know that Jesus liveth. And on the earth again shall stand. I know, I know that life he giveth. That grace and power are in his hand. I know his promise never failed. Let the word he speaks, it cannot die. Though cruel death my flesh shall sail, and yet I shall see him by and by. I know, I know that Jesus liveth. And on the earth again shall stand. I know, I know that life he giveth. And grace and power are in his hand. I know my mention he prepareth, and there he is, there I be. Oh wondrous spot for me, careth any at last will come for me. I know, I know that Jesus liveth. And on the earth again shall stand. I know, I know that life he giveth. That grace and power are in his hand. Good singing this evening. We'll open with a word of prayer. Dear Father, thank you for this church and this opportunity that we have to sing praises. To you, Lord, help us to sing loud and sing with the understanding and that you fill us with your Holy Spirit as well, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. For our next song, if you would, turn in your hymnals to hymn number 202. My Redeemer. Hymn number 202. Hymn number 202. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. I will sing of my Redeemer and his wondrous love to thee. On the cruel cross he suffered from the curse to set me free. Sing of, sing of my Redeemer with his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free. I will tell the wondrous story how I've lost the same to save. In his boundless love and mercy he the ransom freely gave. Sing of, sing of my Redeemer with his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free. I will praise my dear Redeemer, his triumphant power I'll tell. How the victory giveth over sin and death and hell. Sing of, sing of my Redeemer with his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free. I will sing of my Redeemer and his heavenly love to thee. He from death to life hath brought me, Son of God, with him to be. Sing of, sing of my Redeemer with his blood he purchased me. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free. I will praise my dear Redeemer, his triumphant power I'll tell. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free. On the cross he sealed my pardon, paid the debt and made me free. It's one of those situations where you're like, alright, have a good day, see you later. I don't know what he was expecting out of that one, but yeah, weird stuff. Upcoming events, April 13th, that's next Sunday, is the men's preaching night for the evening service. So it's still time to sign up for that. If you do sign up, please indicate your sermon topic on the paper. It doesn't have to be necessarily your sermon title, but at least what you're going to be preaching about, please indicate that for me. And then please remember that there's a potluck right after that, so if you could bring something to share next Sunday evening, that'd be appreciated. April 19th, that's our Easter soul winning marathon coming up pretty soon. And there's a sign up sheet for that as well. We're meeting at Frederick Douglas Park at 9 a.m. for coffee and donuts. Then we'll have soul winning 10 through 12, lunch at noon, and our second round of soul winning at 2 o'clock on that day. The next day is going to be Easter, and that evening we're going to be taking the Lord's Supper. Hopefully everyone had a chance to look at that document I sent for musicians and ushers taking part in that. And please, like I said, if you have any questions or need some clarification, let me know, and I'll be happy to help you with that. May 16th through the 18th is the King James Conference at Shur Foundation Baptist Church. May 31st is the Durant, Oklahoma, soul winning marathon with Steadfast. June 28th is the Tinker Air Show Fellowship Day. And then on the 29th, Brother Ben Naim is preaching for us both Sunday morning and Sunday evening from Steadfast. August 27th through the 31st, Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship. And October 6th through the 11th, the Bahamas Mission Trip. Below that there's a QR code for visitors or people who want to update their information. And on the back is our prayer list. Please do keep all these in prayer. Remember, that's what this list is for. And if you have any requests, do email us and we'd like to add that to our list for you. Below that is some information about giving, if you'd like to do that. And that's going to be it for announcements this evening. We'll go and go to our third song. Alright, for our third song, if you would, take your hymnals and turn to hymn number 361. Did you think to pray? Hymn number 361 in your hymnals. Hymn number 361. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. There you left your room this morning, did you think to pray? In the name of Christ our Savior, did you serve for loving favor as a shield today? Oh, how great best the weary prayer will change our night today. So in sorrow and in gladness don't forget to pray. When you left with great temptation, did you think to pray? By His dying love and merit, did you claim the Holy Spirit as your guidance day? Oh, how great rest the weary prayer will change the night today. So in sorrow and in gladness don't forget to pray. When your heart was filled with anger, did you think to pray? Did you plead for grace, my brother, that you might forgive another who had crossed your way? Oh, how great rest the weary prayer will change the night today. So in sorrow and in gladness don't forget to pray. When sore trials came upon you, did you think to pray? When your soul was bowed in sorrow, all of Gilead did you borrow at the gates of day? Oh, how great rest the weary prayer will change the night today. So in sorrow and in gladness don't forget to pray. Good singing this evening. As the offering plates are being passed around, turn in your Bibles to Psalm 127. Good evening. Psalm 127, the Bible reads, Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late to eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are in heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them, they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. Let's bow our heads forward in prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for the salvation this afternoon, and we ask that you look over our church, help us set aside distractions of the week, and help us focus on your words, and give our pastor boldness, and help them to stop, focus on the Word of God, and keep them in prayer. Amen. All right. We are in Psalm 127 this evening. And the title of my sermon this evening is this, a biblical view on children. A biblical view on children. There's a lot of propaganda and different ideas about children out in the world. And we want to make sure that we approach the idea of children from a biblical perspective. And number one, very simply this evening, children are a blessing. Children are a blessing. Look at Psalm 127, verse 3. The Bible says, Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. So children are kind of like an inheritance that God gives his people. It's a gift from the Lord. And it says that the fruit of the womb is his reward. So the Bible speaks of having children as something that is positive. Yet today there's a lot of people that want to scoff and look down on having kids. And it's kind of becoming popular in our day and age for people just to purposely not have children whatsoever. I mean, I even had a family member who, upon marrying his wife, his condition on marrying her was that she had to basically sterilize herself before the wedding. And it wasn't like they just had health issues or just couldn't have kids for whatever reason. They just like said, hey, we're going to get married. We're going to make sure that we don't have kids. And this is a common mentality where people will speak very poorly of children. They'll say, if you know, if you find out that someone has a lot of kids, they'll say that they're sorry for you. Oh, that's too bad. Oh, that's awful. But the Bible says that this is a gift. This is something that is a blessing. And we should not look at the idea of having kids as being only a burden. Now, of course, having kids is a burden. Right. And especially when they're young, that's probably the most burdensome they're going to be. But the cool thing about having kids is it's probably one of those investments that as time goes on, it probably becomes even more and more of a blessing as they get older. You know, especially if they grow up and walk in truth, that's going to be something that brings a lot of joy to your heart. But look at verse number four. It says happy or I'm sorry, as arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. So the Bible kind of gives us a picture here of a mighty man. You're thinking of a man that's going out to war. And when you're going out to war, do you want to have a little bit of ammunition or a lot? You want to have a lot. And so it's making this comparison here that having a lot of kids, it's like a mighty man that has his quiver full of arrows. It's a blessing. It's something that's positive. Verse five. It says happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. You know, that's an important verse there that it says happy is the man that has these things because the world's constantly going to want to paint the picture of a family that has lots of children as never being happy. Right. They have no joy in their life. They have no rest. They're just super stressed out and strung out and there's no blessing involved and there's nothing good about their lives. But the Bible saying here that you're actually going to be happy when you have your quiver full. And it's interesting, like I used to be a part of the nursing home ministry at Sure Foundation Baptist Church. We have lots of people that do that here at this church. It's a great work. It's a great way to learn preaching and get to do these things, minister to people. But often when I would speak to people who are in the nursing home, they would often talk about how they wish that they had more children. Because a lot of the times, not every time, but a lot of the times the reason people end up in that situation is either because they didn't have kids. No one's left to take care of them or they had so few that they can't even financially do it. Right. No one's coming and visiting them. They're sad. You know, at the end of people's lives, they're thinking, I wish I would have had more kids, not I wish I would have had less. And you know, it's really sad and selfish when people make the conscious, purposeful decision to not have children. You know, that's not a Christian attitude. That's not something that we should be doing as Christians. Just deciding, well, we're just not going to have kids because we don't want to deal with the struggle. We don't want to deal with the heartache. It's like part of the whole reason of marriage is that God is seeking a godly seed today. He wants Christians to reproduce. Let's look at that in Genesis chapter number one. Genesis chapter number one. And you know, it's really sad when false religions beat us out on this. When false religions are having lots of children, having big families, and Christians often aren't. In Genesis 1 verse 26, the Bible says, And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it. So here we have what I believe to be God's first commandment to man. To be fruitful and multiply. You know, I've heard some people make a big deal about this saying that this isn't a commandment, but this is an imperative statement in your Bible. And you could, you know, people are like, Oh, that's not the first commandment. The first commandment was left there to be light. OK, the first commandment to man. How about that? The first commandment to man here is to be fruitful and multiply and to replenish the earth. God wants us to multiply. Go to if you would, while I'm going to read some stuff for you from an article here, but go to Psalm 128. So I looked up what the fertility rate is right now in 2025. And I found that in 2025, the fertility fertility rate for women in the United States is one point seven eight. So think about it. You got man, wife. That's two people. And basically the average number of kids that a American woman is having in her life is less than two. So that means that our population is replacing itself at a lower rate than exists right now. You understand what I'm saying? We have a lower than two fertility rate, which means that we as a nation are not even replacing our population. Now, the population is growing every year. And that's because of this thing called the Mexican border. OK, but it's not happening because of natural birds, because the fertility rate is literally below replacement. That is a problem for a nation. You realize that our nation, without all this craziness going on, like the people would literally die off with a rate below two. That's a serious problem. That's not good. Total fertility rate is the average number of births a woman would have over her lifetime based on current birth rates across all age groups. It's a synthetic measure, meaning it doesn't track an actual group of women over time, but rather estimates this average by taking the sum of age specific birth rates observed in a given year. So in the United States, the total fertility rate is one point seven eight seven. That means that on average, a woman would have one point seven children if the birth rates from that year persisted throughout her reproductive years. So that is not good for our country to be having numbers this low. And I'm sure that there's lots of causes to it. I'm not going to pretend to understand all the causes. I'm sure some of its health, I'm sure some of its diet, I'm sure some of its exercise. But you know what a lot of it is, is people just deciding to not have kids, people just deciding to not get married or people deciding to make sure that they have lived their 20s out in full, have traveled the world, have gone to college, have started their career, have saved up two hundred thousand dollars and then they'll start trying for kids. That's a bad idea, too. That's not what God wants. OK, so let me read this for you. The last time that the replacement rate was breaking even in the United States was two thousand and nine. So our fertility rate has been below two every single year since two thousand nine. The last time that the fertility rate was at three or higher was in 1964 at three point zero nine six. I mean, having three children is not that much like that's not a big family. That's never been a big family throughout history. But America, for some reason, the last time it was at that rate, three point zero nine six was nineteen sixty four. Here are some countries that are beating the United States in fertility rate right now. New Zealand, Sweden, France, Bahrain, French Polynesia, Aruba, New Caledonia. Who even knows what that is? Antigua, Barbuda, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Seychelles. Again, I don't even know what that is. Panama, Oman and Israel. Israel's beating us, folks. That is a shame. That is just insane that there's all these other countries that are beating us in fertility rate. And part of it, I just think that Americans need to renew their mind with the word of God and look at families again as being a blessing. Look at children again as being a blessing. Not something that you need to avoid. Not something that you need to abort when you get pregnant. Not something that you need to purposely prevent from having. No, you should realize that children are a blessing. And we shouldn't sit here and teach the next generation of women to just put themselves on birth control from age 14 to 35. I mean, that's insane. It's literally just destroying our country. Psalm 128. Look at Psalm 128, verse one. It says, Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord that walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands. Happy shalt thou be. And it shall be well with thee. Verse three, thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house. Thy children, like all of plants round about thy table. So when the Bible is talking about people that fear the Lord and it's kind of listing some blessings here, one of those is that your wife would be fruitful and that your children would be around you like all of plants. The Bible saying like when this happens, you should recognize that this is a blessing, not something that you should complain about or regret or discourage other people from having kids. Like that's what a lot of older people are doing now. They're discouraging the young generation from having kids. They've got this boomer mentality of you've got to make sure that you focus on your career first and that you're financially independent first. And you have to be able to afford to have kids. No one can afford to have kids no matter what you have. They'll just keep breaking it. It's OK. It doesn't matter. It's not about affording having kids. It's about doing what God says, being fruitful and multiplying and actually trusting God to provide for you. You know, not everything in life are you just going to have this clear trajectory where you could see how everything's going to work out. Sometimes you just have to look at the Bible and just say, OK, God wants me to do this and I'm just ready to follow him. And I'm just trusting him to take care of us. And, you know, when I first got married, I was not making that much money. It was difficult. Right. We were in a one bedroom apartment. It was very hard. We went to like the cheapest possible places ever. But here we are with four kids and we've never starved. We've never been homeless. You know, that is it's just God taking care of us, God providing for us. And you ought not to use finances as an excuse to not have children. OK, you ought to trust the Lord and realize that it is a blessing. Go to Matthew Chapter 18. Matthew 18. You know, the Bible says that I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. That's kind of why I say that. Yes, we should acknowledge and admit that children are also a burden. Like I'm not going to sit here and pretend like that's not true. But we should realize that while they're a burden, again, it's like an investment that over time gets sweeter and sweeter, is more and more of a blessing. You know, I really enjoy that some of my older kids are starting to understand sermons. And the other day, you know, I asked Bethany what my sermon was about. She said the wrath of God. And she was right. You know, that was great. And, you know, Bethany called upon the name of the Lord a few weeks ago. I believe that she saved trying to teach her about baptism. You know, that makes me happy. And yes, there's challenges. Yes, there's hard times. Yes, there's times where you write a sermon about children being a blessing. And they really want to test your doctrine on that for some reason. It just happens that way sometimes. But you know what? It is a blessing. Kids are blessing. You should cherish them. You should thank God for those gifts and not sit here and discourage other people from having kids. That is a wicked attitude. So, when it comes to a biblical view on children, number one, children are a blessing. Number two, children are a great example of faith. Children are a great example of faith. Matthew, chapter 18, verse 1. And become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. I mean, what a beautiful story there that the question is asked, who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And man's wisdom would obviously think of some person of great stature or wealth or some, you know, fantastic preacher or something like that. But Jesus just brings this little boy. And I often wonder, like, what happened to this boy later the Bible doesn't talk about. But, like, this boy was brought to the Lord Jesus Christ and was pointed at as an example of faith. And he's saying, in fact, if you want to see the kingdom of heaven yourself, you're going to have to be converted and be like a child. And, of course, we know that the reason for that is that salvation is a free gift, right? It's by faith alone. And children, they're 100% reliant upon their parents. Their parents take care of everything for them, give everything that they need. You know, kids aren't sitting here thinking about, all right, we've got the car payment, we've got insurance, we've got the mortgage. All right, we've got this type of income coming in. Where are we going to cut our spending? They're just existing and just believing that mom and dad are going to take care of them and they're always taken care of by their parents. That's what salvation is, is us trusting that, hey, Jesus paid it all. He's got all the work that he did. You know, we are getting to heaven simply by his grace, by trusting in him, believing in him. That is salvation. Look at verse four. It says, Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little child. The same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. See, children are a great example of faith because most children are humble. Most children are not going to sit here and think that, oh, you know, I've done so much good in my life and I've built this business. I've done such great works and I've repented of all my sins. You know, children really haven't done anything in life yet. And so they're great candidates for salvation because all they have to do is trust. And oftentimes people who don't get saved, it's because they refuse to humble themselves and realize that it's nothing about them that takes them to heaven. You know, we ran out into a we ran into a lady today out soul winning who her answer of what does it take to get to heaven? She says you have to repent of all your sins. And what is she saying? She's saying, I have to stop doing X, Y and Z. I have to make sure I'm living a good life, that I'm following the commandments, that I'm doing what God wants me to do. And what she's ultimately trusting in for her salvation is herself. Now, thank God this woman, she was humble enough to listen to the full gospel by brother Jeremiah. He preached her the whole gospel. He got her to repent of that belief and trust in Jesus Christ. You know, thank God that she had that humility. But, you know, people who don't have humility are not going to get saved. You have to have enough humility to realize, hey, I was wrong about whatever I was trusting in before. And now I'm turning away from that belief and turning to trusting in Jesus Christ. That is like being a child, being humble. Go to First Samuel, chapter number three. First Samuel, chapter three. But not just in regards to salvation. Children are just a good example of faith in general. And we don't want to write off children from serving God. We don't want to act like serving God is for adults only, that's soul winnings for adults only, that paying attention in church is for adults only. We want to realize, like, hey, Jesus said this is a good example of faith, a child. And we should include them in the house of God, include them in the work of God. Look at First Samuel, chapter three, verse eight. At this time, Samuel is a little boy and it says, And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he rose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. So notice God in this story is willing to communicate and have fellowship with a young child. So it's not like kids can't start developing a relationship with the Lord. You know, they have to wait until their teenagers or something like that. I mean, here's God calling Samuel, and Samuel is a little boy. So I want to impart to the kids here that you should start serving God as young as possible. You should start caring about the things of God and desiring to seek God's face as young as you possibly can in your life. Because I'm telling you, God actually wants to have a relationship with all people, even children. God's calling out to him here. Look what it says in verse nine. Therefore, Eli said unto Samuel, Go lie down, and it shall be if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place, and the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak, for thy servant heareth. Then Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son, and he answered, Here am I. And he said, What is the thing that the Lord hath said unto thee? I pray thee, hide it not from me. God do so to thee and more also if thou hide anything from me of all the things that he said unto thee. And notice verse 18. And Samuel told him every wit and hid nothing from him. So not only is God speaking to a young child, but the young child is also speaking God's word to other people. And you know, you should not just write off children and act like they can't do spiritual things. Look, I have seen children get children saved. I've seen children become soul winners. I've known of young teenagers who have read the Bible through cover to cover over 10 times by the time that they're preteens. Look, we should encourage that stuff and not act like, oh, no big deal. You've got to wait till you get older. No, serve God now. The Bible teaches that childhood and youth are vanity. It's completely meaningless. What actually matters is serving God. And, you know, I got saved pretty young. I got saved at 16, but I wish I would have gotten saved when I was six. I wish I would have started soul winning when I was a little kid. And, you know, I look at my children and I just hope someday they understand how spiritually spoiled they are. That all of my kids go out soul winning every week from the age of like three and up, you know? And I think that's part of why children who grow up in church get saved at a young age is because they're just hearing the gospel over and over and over again. It's going into their heart. They're they're starting to soak these things in. So, you know, encourage your children to participate in spiritual things. Try to get your children as young of an age as possible to actually sit in church and pay attention to the preaching of God's word. Obviously, there's a time in a child's life where that's going to be hard for them to sit through a whole service. I get that. And, you know, us as a church, we want to be gracious with families and not sit here and be super harsh. You know, especially if you yourself don't have kids, have some grace to those situations. But at the same time, we shouldn't be just like enabling our kids with a crutch for as long as possible. It's like, bro, your six year old should be sitting through a service by now. Your six year old should not need to be looking at a tablet all service. Your six year old should not be needing to go to the bathroom every two minutes. You know, there needs to be some training that's done. And really what you're doing is you're not really showing your kid that spirituality is important when you take them to church and it's just a tablet every service. It's just a game or a toy every service. You want to, yes, help young kids as they're developing. But as soon as possible, get them involved in the things of God because God can commune with them as children. God wants to have a relationship with them as kids. They can do spiritual things as kids. Go to 1 Samuel 17. 1 Samuel 17. You know, children should, I'm sorry, children can do great feats for the Lord as well. When we see that in this story, David is a child at this time. Look what it says in verse 51 of 1 Samuel 17. Therefore David ran and stood upon the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of the sheep thereof and slew him and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistine saw their champion was dead, they fled. So here you got David, who is described as a stripling or stripling. I'm not sure how you pronounce that, but he's a young child. Basically, he's like a teenager. And David is going out and doing the work that a lot of the men refused to do. Because if you remember in this story, Goliath, he goes and challenges Israel for like 40 days, constantly challenging someone to fight him. And Saul didn't take him up on it. The mighty men didn't take him up on it. No one in the army took him up on it. But then all of a sudden, here's this teenage boy, David. He's willing to actually come in the name of the Lord. And he goes and he takes his head off. Look at verse 54. It says, and David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent. When Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the host Abner, whose son is this? Notice, youth. Right. So he is a youth. He is probably a teenager. And yet he's going out and cutting off the head of Goliath. So, you know, we should encourage children, teenagers to go out and learn to do spiritual acts as soon as possible. Teach them to go soul winning. You know, they can get a lot of people saved as children, as teenagers. And let me tell you something. Teenagers and children have a special weapon. It's called being innocent and being cute. OK. And when someone opens the door and there's a child that wants to preach them the Bible, most people are their hearts going to be a little stirred by that. They're going to be like, OK, you know, let's let's hear this kid out. And oftentimes a child having the boldness to do that can get lots of people saved. I knock on the door. They're like, who's this ugly dude? Get away from me. OK. You men, probably the same thing. But it's like a little child comes up is like, hey, if you were to die today, are you 100 percent sure you're going to heaven? A lot of times people's heart just melts and they're just ready to hear that. And so, you know what? Take advantage of this time of your life where and start practicing, you know, those boldness muscles so that you that could stay with you your whole life so that you could be a soul winner and do great works for God your whole life. But I'm telling you, don't let your childhood be a waste. Don't let your youth be a waste. Start doing great works for God. Go to Second Timothy, Chapter three. Now, of course, we want to keep things proper and in order. I'm not saying, hey, let's start ordaining kids as pastors. OK, we're not going to have kids preaching sermons. Kids are not welcome to participate in the men's preaching night. OK, it's the men's preaching night. We want men to be taking care of those things. But I do want to encourage kids to start doing spiritual things as much as possible. Right. I mean, just because in Israel, ancient times, you have some examples of child kings. That doesn't mean like, hey, this is the thing you should strive for. Let's start having kid pastors. No, that's too far. But we do want to encourage kids to do spiritual things. Look what it says in Second Timothy, Chapter number three, verse 14. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Verse 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures which are able to make the wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Hey, don't underestimate the things that your kids can learn from the scriptures. The Bible talking to Timothy here is saying from a child, you knew the holy scriptures. You know, Timothy, it wasn't just like on the surface. He actually understood some of the Bible. This is why we want even kids to do the Bible memorization, because kids can know the Bible. Go to Matthew, Chapter number 18. Matthew, Chapter number 18. And this is something that I'm a little concerned about because myself, I am a I consider myself a first generation Christian. I went to church like a handful of times as a child. My parents were not saved when I was a child. I got saved. I got my mom saved. My dad got saved watching Pastor Menes later in life. So I'm a first generation Christian. And what I've noticed amongst other first generation Christians is that they're often very zealous, very fired up for the things of God, kind of because that they, you know, had to build Christianity in a sense themselves. Right. They had to learn why you go to church. They had to learn why you go soul winning. They had to learn why you read the Bible. And it was never something that was forced on first generation Christians. It's always been their own decision. And anyone in here else is a first generation Christian. A couple of people. Now, here's the thing. Second, third, fourth generation Christians. Ideally, that's what we want, right? Because we want people to get saved and get their children saved. But sometimes there's a tendency in people that just grew up around these things to not really realize the gravity and the impact of the things of God and to realize how important they are and to take serving God for granted. And oftentimes I've seen second generation Christians that are just lukewarm. They don't care. And it's just because it seems like they never made Christianity their own, like they never internalized these things. And they as a child, maybe they went to church, but it was just mom and dad dragging them to church. They weren't in it in their heart. And so I'm talking to you kids. You need to learn to have a relationship with God yourself. You need to learn how to go soul winning and want to go soul winning and want to read the Bible and want to pay attention in church. Because you know what? Being zealous, it's not something that your parents can hand to you. I'm sure your parents want to hand that to you. I'm sure if we could all push a button, we'd want all of our kids to be as zealous as us, more zealous than us. But I've just noticed that oftentimes it doesn't happen. Oftentimes the second generation is just kind of lukewarm and doesn't care about the things of God. And, you know, I don't know how to make you care. You have to have that desire on your own. But I'm just telling you, you need to think about these things and pray and try to have a relationship with God yourself. Number three, children are to be protected. A biblical view on children. Realize that children are to be protected. Matthew 18, verse five. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me. It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come. But woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. So Jesus, he recognizes children as being precious, innocent, not deserving of harm or offense, and he does not want harm to come upon them. He's saying woe unto anyone that would offend one of these children. And because Jesus has that attitude, Jesus loves the little children like the song says, we should realize that we need to protect our children, and we need to protect children in general. Now, this word that he uses, offend, there's a couple different definitions for this word, and listen to what I found on the dictionary here. It says, to irritate, annoy, or anger, cause resentful displeasure in, to effect disagreeably, to violate or transgress, to hurt or cause pain to, or to cause to fall into sinful ways. You know, I would say woe unto the person that does any of those things to a child. Hurting a child in any way, harming a child in any way, offending them in a sexual way, causing them to fall into a sinful way. You know, Jesus says woe unto the person that would do any of those things. And we need to make sure that we are protecting children, that we're having policies in place that are conducive to kids being safe, not conducive to an environment where predators can thrive. And you know, unfortunately, a lot of Baptist churches, I'm sure a lot of them mean well, but the environment in a lot of Baptist churches is just like a breeding ground for predators to thrive. And not just Baptist churches, the Catholic church, a lot of churches, we need to make sure that we're having an environment where children are protected. And I'm not going to, I'm going to talk about this soon, but of course we're family integrated for one of those reasons. But go to Deuteronomy chapter 6, Deuteronomy chapter 6. What are some ways that people are harming kids today? Wow, it comes through the public school. Kids are definitely being harmed today in the public school, and we need to be careful of these things. You got ideas hurting them, like the big bang theory and evolution, right? Causing children to offend by turning them out of the way of Christianity and what the Bible teaches, and teaching kids all this nonsense that everything in the universe was created by nothing in a big bang. And here's the thing, children are simple, children will believe anything they hear. So when a child hears, oh, you know, everything started from this tiny little dot that exploded into everything, kids just accept that. And they hear it in elementary school, and in middle school, and in high school, and then they get to college, and they're now that super prideful, entitled atheist that would make fun of or mock the Bible, mock Christians, and it's because they were offended as children with lies. Let me tell you, lying to children is offending children. And that is what the public school is doing en masse today, is lying to kids. Teaching them the critical race theory, taking little kids that are innocent, that having done anything wrong, and telling them, you're bad because you were born white. And you should feel guilty about what maybe some of your ancestors did. Maybe they weren't even your ancestors, you don't even know. These people teaching this idea are just saying, like, all white people are bad because their ancestors were slaveholders in the South. What if that's not even true? Like, okay, my great-great-grandfather came over from Norway in the 1880s after the Civil War. So what you gonna do with that? Where's my slaveowning ancestors? Oh yeah, didn't happen. But even if it did, even if I had slaveowning ancestors, you know what percentage of that is my fault? 0.00. Why would we sit here and make people feel bad for being a color that they were born that God created them to be? It's like, I thought that we were done with the whole racist thing in the United States. Like, I thought slavery was done. Alright, we've had a black president. But here we are, in 2025, and public school is instructing children in the ideas of racism. Telling you, you're bad, you should feel bad because you were born white, that's a bunch of trash. And why do we even allow this stuff? I mean, it just blows my mind, like, thankfully my kids are not in public school, I don't plan on ever putting them in public school, I believe in home school. But it's like, if your kids are in the public school, why are you allowing this stuff? Why are parents not just en masse going to these parent teacher council meetings and demanding that this crap ends? Because it's wicked. It is evil to teach children these things. Then you got things even worse. Gender dysphoria. Now you've got little children that are foolish, that don't know anything, and if a girl likes playing with army toys, or a boy likes playing with toys that are usually used for girls, all of a sudden now you've got teachers telling the kids, oh, you're probably the wrong gender. You're probably, you need to get a transition. And you've got places like the state of Washington, where they passed laws where you are allowed as a child to get transitioned without the government notifying your parents. You could run away from home, go to a clinic, and the state of Washington will harbor you, and it is not legal for them to tell on that kid to the parents. They have to keep that little runaway, and it's just like kids are literally ruining their lives. Not every kid who's doing this is a reprobate, because a lot of these kids are being brainwashed from their youth with this communist crap. And I'm telling you, the public school today is offending children. And you should at all costs get your kids out of the public school. It is a dangerous place. It is a harmful place. And let me tell you, even in a conservative area, don't think that, oh, it's okay, I'm in Oklahoma, okay? I was educated in Idaho, an extremely conservative place, and you know, every single morning on the announcements, there was an LGBT club that was shoved in our face every day. And a bunch of faggots doing little dances and plays on the announcements every single day in Idaho. You know what? It's no different here. The public schools are trash in Oklahoma as well. And you should do everything you can to homeschool them. Why? Deuteronomy 6 verse 6 says this, And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And notice this phrase, Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. God says it is your responsibility to teach your children. Where did we get this idea? When did this happen in our country where we all just collectively decided, oh, it's actually the government's job to teach our children. That's communism, folks. That's ridiculous. Kids do not belong to the government. Kids do not belong to public schools. God gave you those children, and he expects you to raise them. And look, I am as pro-education as it comes. I love reading. I love knowledge. I want your kids to be as smart as possible. And I would not be recommending homeschool if I thought it would be damaging someone's education. I don't believe in unschooling. I believe in giving them the best education you possibly can. But let me tell you right now, that is not found in the public schools today. You will not give your kids a good education in the public schools if they get out of the public school unscathed. It's in spite of it, not because of it. And they probably have damage that you don't know about. You should avoid it. And let me tell you this. Private schools are not safe either. And there's been some stuff recently in the news that has blown my mind. Let's see if I can find this article if I brought it up here. Yeah. So this happened literally super close to where I live. This is terrifying. Here's the article. Former Yukon private school principal arrested once for child pornography is back in jail facing more charges. This article was posted April 5th. So yesterday, Yukon, Oklahoma. A former private school principal arrested last month for allegedly having explicit photos of minors, including one of his students on his phone, is back in jail again this week facing additional charges and a much higher bond. So last month, this guy was already arrested for having pornographic pictures of one of his students on his phone. Now, I believe this is the covenant. It's called like the Covenant School or the Yukon Covenant School. Isn't this a Christian school? Does anyone know? This is a Christian school, right? Private school. So he got off on bond last month. Now he's back in jail with a higher bond. Says investigators say they've uncovered new evidence leading them to arrest him on suspicion of clandestine photography. So, you know, taking pictures of kids without their knowledge, without knowing what's going on, the principal of a Christian private school is doing this type of sick stuff. And this is not the first Yukon teacher in like the last two months that's been arrested. You know, a couple months ago, there was a public school Yukon teacher that was arrested for inappropriate texting with a minor, some sodomite. Now it's the principal of this Christian school. Canadian County Sheriff's Office deputies first arrested Kevin Cobbs on March 25th. I hope every inmate in prison knows his name. Kevin Cobbs, after investigators discovered a nude photo of a teenage boy in a hidden folder on Cobbs's phone. How disgusting. What a reprobate. You think your kids are safe. You think, oh, it's great. I'm going to send my kids off to a Christian school because the public schools are bad. Hey, I understand that mentality, but that doesn't mean that the Christian schools are safe either. This is terrifying that a principal would engage that. I mean, just think of how you would feel. It's like you send your child to school and you find out the principal's taking pictures of boys inappropriately, clandestinely. That's disgusting. Then it says this, as News 4 reported at the time of his arrest, Cobbs was working as a high school principal and boys basketball coach at Southwest Covenant, a private Christian school in Yukon. You know, when we go Christmas caroling, I believe that this is the church that we go and meet up at right there or the school. As investigators searched deeper onto his phone, they found an additional folder with more explicit pictures of minors. One of the minors was one of his own students at Southwest Covenant. Deputies booked Cobbs into the Canadian county jail later that day on March 25th on possession of child pornography charges. Cobbs posted his twenty five thousand dollar bone bond and left the jail last week. Southwest Covenant fired Cobbs last week. So, you know, what happens? This guy, he gets fired. He's probably going to go to trial. Who knows what type of punishment he's going to get. But, you know, we as a nation and as a state need to stop allowing this stuff from happening and anyone caught on child pornography charges, you know, taking pictures of kids, child molestation, any of that stuff offending children, you should be executed immediately. Being fired is not enough. This person can never be trusted around kids again. It's not enough to have a sex offender registry so you can look at your phone and see all the disgusting pedophiles that live by you. They need to be in the dirt. They need to be buried. We need to preach this stuff so that fags are scared again, that they're they're going back in the closet again and realize that we see them for who they are. And by the way, every single person that offends a child. Let me help you with something. They're faggots. Oh, it was just oh, it's a straight man. And he offended a little girl. No, no, no. There's straight and there's crooked. And anything outside of two consenting adults of the opposite gender is crooked. And if you're an adult and you lust after little girls, you're a faggot. And if you're an adult and you lust after little boys and take pictures of them, you're a faggot and you should be shot in the head. It's disgusting. We need to stop tolerating this in our society. It should never even get to the point where we have to find out about a Christian principal taking pictures of little boys. You know, this is absolutely on tolerable in our nation. It says this on Thursday. Deputies arrested COBS again, booking him into the Canadian county jail on an additional charge of buying, procuring or possessing child pornography. So that's his extra charge. Buying, procuring or possessing child pornography and a charge of using photographic, electronic or video equipment in a clandestine matter. So there's your there's your really safe, you know, Christian schools want to avoid going to public school. There's a really expensive, reputable school in a nice town. I mean, Yukon, Oklahoma, is a great town. Seems real safe. But I'm telling you, it's not safe enough. It's not safe enough to trust someone with your children. Your children are too precious. They're too valuable. God loves them. God gave them to you. You are the person that could protect them more than anyone else. You are the person that's going to be willing to do anything to protect your child more than anyone else. That is a responsibility that God gave to us. Go to Proverbs chapter number 13, Proverbs chapter number 13. Another way that children can be offended that we need to be on the lookout for is bad friends and bad relatives. Proverbs 13, verse 20. The Bible says he that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. You know, a lot of times kids end up going down the wrong path, getting violated, going down a path of sin because they were around wicked friends or wicked relatives. And, you know, us as parents, we ought to be able to control the influences in our children's lives to the best of our ability and don't have this mentality that it's like, well, I have to give my kids to Uncle so-and-so because he's family. You don't have to do that. You don't have to give your kids to anyone. And you know what? Even with family, you should be very careful who you give your children to. I'm not saying that you can't have relationships in your life where you do trust people that much. You know, I would trust my kids with my parents. I would trust my kids with Jasmine's parents. But, you know, I'm just not going to drop my kids off at the uncle's house or the cousin's house or just some random person's house that I don't know super, super well. Because, hey, things happen. It only takes one image being shown to your child to change them for the rest of their life. It only takes one bad friend to get them to make a stupid decision and drink that booze or take that drug to mess them up for the rest of their lives. It only takes one whore to mess up your teenage son for the rest of his life. It only takes one whoremonger to violate your precious daughter for the rest of her life. You know what? You ought to make sure that bad friends and bad family are not being an influence on them. And obviously it goes without saying that if someone is a sodomite in your family, you need to cut that person off from your children, period. I've heard of many preachers, many liberal preachers saying, oh, yeah, you know, involve them, show them the love of Christ. But if they start kissing each other, then tell them that's too far. No, no, no. If they're sodomites in your family, cut them off yesterday. If they're sodomites in your family, I don't care if it's your dad, your mom, your brother. Do not let them around your children. They are predators. They are pedophiles. They will defile your children. They'll do it through their words, through their actions or through physically, God forbid. But they will do it if they can. Go to Matthew chapter number 19. Matthew chapter number 19. And so, you know, that's Jesus's mentality towards children. He loves kids. He loves them. They're precious. He wants us to protect them. That's why he says, hey, if someone offends a child, they should have a millstone tied around their neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea. Jesus does not believe in a three strikes and you're out when it comes to child predators. It's you do it once, you should be executed. That's Jesus's view on the matter. Number four, biblical views on children. Children are to be welcomed in the house of God. Children are to be welcomed in the house of God. Matthew 19, verse 13. Then were there brought unto him little children that he should put his hands on them and pray. And the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me. For of such is the kingdom of heaven. So Jesus wants the children to come unto him. This is one of the reasons why we believe so strongly in the family integrated church model is because, hey, the kids went up to Jesus. Jesus received them. He wanted them to be part of his ministry, to hear his preaching, to be around him. You know, we want the same thing. We want kids to be in real church. And obviously we know that babies aren't going to understand. But you know what? As a child, they're absorbing a lot. They're learning what a real church looks like. They're learning what real hymns sound like. They're learning what real preaching sounds like. And just that alone being instilled into their heart at a young age is going to stick with them on top of them growing and maturing and learning the word of God. And the goal is that hopefully they won't grow up and seek for Joel Osteen and Andy Stanley and all these weird pastors that are out there. You know, I can't imagine just like being raised in this type of church and then growing up and visiting one of these liberal churches. It would be a shock to these kids. To most of the kids that grow up in the new IFB, my prayer is that they're going to visit maybe their friend's liberal church when they're in college someday and realize, wow, that's terrible. I'm staying in an independent, fundamental Baptist church. But you know what happens often in these other churches is that there's all these kids programs and church is kind of a joke for the kids. It's a playtime. It's a babysitting time. It's a watch movies. I remember of the very few times I did visit church as a child. I went to the kids church and there's just like the whole wall is just lined with Xboxes and there's just like stations of kids playing Xboxes and there's basketball. There's all the stuff going on. And that was church. And is it any wonder where a child is being raised in that environment from being very young to being 18 years old? Now we're just expecting them to put on a suit and tie and sit up in church and pay attention to the word of God and have the character to have daily devotions. Reading their Bible and praying and going soul winning. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. And the old IFB and other churches are very misguided in trying to reach the youth. What's the point of reaching all this youth if you don't win them to fundamentalism? If you don't win them to keeping the torch when we actually pass it along someday, we don't want to just reach children. And then when they take over, everything becomes a fun church. Look at the state of churches in our countries. You know, millennials are in the past right now. Millennials have took over and a lot of churches are just a complete joke. It's a complete fraud. And it's because I think largely in part to the kid church movement. We want kids in the real church service because they're going to grow up. They're going to like it. They're going to keep liking it when they grow up. That's what we want for our kids. Go to, if you would, Nehemiah chapter number eight. Now, of course, there's obviously challenges with a family integrated church. There's going to be times where the kids are crying, where the kids are loud. And hey, that's fine. I'll do my best to be loud and preach over it. It doesn't bother me. Obviously, if it gets extreme, we have mother baby room. We want you to be able to take the kid out of the service. We encourage that if it gets too bad. But at the same time, you know, I expect everyone in here to be mature and not freak out when they hear a baby crying. You know, this isn't some, you know, few people high steeple Methodist Church where you hear a baby cry and everyone's like, what is that thing over there? It's like it's babies, man. It's all good. You know, we're going to deal with it. We want the kids here. Keeps them safe. They're with their parents. We do. We want to encourage that. Nehemiah chapter eight, verse two. Nehemiah chapter eight, verse two says in Ezra, the priest brought the law before the congregation, both of men and women and all that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh month. So if you notice, all the people are involved here, men, women and those that can understand. And you know what? Kids could start understanding at a pretty young age. Like I told you, my eldest is six years old. And we ask her all the time, what was the sermon about? And I was preaching that one sermon. God's not playing games. I said, what was the sermon about? She said, the wrath of God, the anger of God. I was like, that's right. That's exactly what it was about. Now, could she understand every doctrine? Could she, you know, show you every verse? No, but she's starting to understand some things. And kids can start understanding at a young age. But we need to actually give them the opportunity to learn by them being in church. We're not giving them opportunity when all it is is a movie day, a play day, a candy day, an ice cream day. No, bring them to church, real church. And it's so funny how soul winning people all the time ask, oh, what's your kids program like? And it's like the kids program is show up, hear God's word being preached, sing hymns, pray, go home, just like the program is for everyone else. That's the program. The kids program is called the New Testament local church. The kids program is called soul winning. It's called preaching. It's called fellowship. The kids are actually involved here. And you know what? I believe that we're going to raise some spiritually mature children. That's what we're aiming for. God willing, with God's help, with God's grace. That's the goal. But I think that this is a better plan than the alternative. Just keep them children for as long as possible. Don't challenge them with hard preaching. Feed them a bunch of candy and junk and then just pray that somehow they're going to be super mature. That seems like a bad plan to me. OK, this is the right thing to do. That's what Nehemiah did. Go to Nehemiah chapter number 12. Nehemiah 12. Ezra, excuse me. Ezra did that. Go to Nehemiah 12. Nehemiah chapter number 12, verse 43, it says, Also that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy. The wives also, notice, and the children rejoiced so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off. So this is the dedication of the wall. And everyone's rejoicing. The adults, the women, even the children are rejoicing at the dedication of the wall. You know, what that tells me is that the children, to some extent, understood what was happening and they understood some of the significance, at least, of this event. And so they were rejoicing. And I think another great thing about involving the kids in the day to day activities of the church is that when we do have big events, when we have things like baptisms, ordinations, conferences, guest preachers, you know, Easter, all these big days, these big days, these big events could really make a lasting impact on them. People who grew up in church, you probably remember big days like that. It probably has made a deep impression on you. And why? Well, because kids can understand more than we think. And by joining them in these events, it could be a great spiritual blessing to them. Go to Joshua number eight or Joshua chapter number eight. Joshua chapter number eight. And look at verse number thirty four when you get there. Notice what it says, Joshua says, So notice here the children, everybody in the congregation was being exposed to both the blessings in God's word and the cursings. You know, I've heard this mentality from a guy named Steven Crowder. He said, like the Book of Revelation is inappropriate to read to children, says what Bible verse? I mean, here they're getting the cursings, they're getting the blessings. Again, it's this mentality of just keeping kids kids for forever. We want to show them the truth of God's word. And the Bible teaches that every word of God is pure. There's nothing you could read to a child in the Bible that's going to defile them. And if there's things in the Bible that kids can't understand, well, they'll understand when they get older. Right. If I preach a sermon about due benevolence, kids don't know what that is, folks. Knowing due benevolence, it's going all over their head and that's good. Right. But we're not going to be ashamed to preach the word of God. There's nothing rated R in the word of God. There's nothing that we should, you know, shy away from or not be able to speak about in their presence. God presents everything in the Bible in a very pure way to where if we just stick to what the Bible says, anyone who's too young to understand those things, it's not going to defile them. It's not going to hurt them in any way. And when they get older, they'll start to understand those things. I mean, you think about the story of Noah and Ham doesn't get real graphic, does it? The Bible doesn't really get graphic about anything in that nature. And that's good. We want to keep it that way. But we shouldn't sit here and think like, oh, we've got to watch out certain chapters of the Bible kids can't listen to. No, we could all hear all of it. It's all pure. It's all good. Matthew chapter number 19. Matthew chapter number 19. But, you know, we should also think about this. I love this thing that Pastor Jimenez always says, is that we're not raising children, we're raising adults. And that's the mentality that we should have as a church, is that, hey, our goal is to produce God-fearing, zealous, serious Christian adults. So our mentality, our programs, the way of running things should be aimed towards that goal. Whereas, again, I think that a lot of these kids programs, it's thinking of children as children. And the goal is just kind of to keep them children, just to kind of keep them docile during the service. But we want them to grow to adults. We're going to keep them having the word of God. Number five this evening. Children should be reached with the gospel. Matthew 19 verse 14. But Jesus said, suffer little children and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Hey, children are naturally receptive to the gospel. We should reach children with the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are so easy to get saved. We should do that. And here, I think that this is the best strategy on how to reach kids, is first reach your kids. Reach your kids with the gospel and train them to become soul winners. This is the best way to reach children. You know, every church kind of has different demographics. But when I was attending Sure Foundation Baptist Church around 2017, there was like an army of children soul winners. And it was great because whenever we go out in public and there's kids playing around at the park, it's a lot easier and it looks a lot better to send a pack of kids to the kids than like six foot eight Pastor Thompson. Like, hey, kid, you're done today. It's like that could be a little intimidating, right? But when you got an army of kids, it's great to send them. And you know what? We ought to have discretion as soul winners in dealing with children. I want to get kids saved. I'm for people preaching the gospel to kids. But the best way to preach to kids is when their parents are there. OK, if you knock a door and a little kid opens the door, like eight, nine, 10 years old, my first question to that kid is going to be, hey, are your parents home? And if they say no, I'm going to leave. That's what I'm going to do, because I'm going to treat people the way that I want to be treated. And I teach my kids not to answer the door. But if they did, I would not be happy if an adult was speaking with my little child alone. It's not a good look. It's not a good idea. But here's the thing. What's great is if the parents are home and you knock on the door. Hey, is mom or dad home? Then you could start preaching the gospel to parents. And if the parents let you, you could then start preaching to the kids. Or if you're in a public place where adults are around. And especially if you could even ask the parents, that's even better. But at least be in a public place or something like that. If you're going to be preaching to kids, you know, you need to be sensitive of how things look. Avoid the appearance of evil. We live in a twisted time where unfortunately there's a bunch of sodomites and a bunch of predators. And I do not recommend going to some dark apartment of a dark corner of an apartment and just having a conversation with a six year old. I don't recommend that whatsoever. I don't think it looks good. And if I get a call about someone doing that, I'm probably be like, hey, I'm sorry. I will ask that person to stop. OK, because I don't like that at all. I want to get kids saved. But here's the again, here's the best way to do it. Let's reach our kids and let's teach our kids to preach the gospel. Or you go and talk to their parents and ask for permission. Or you go in a very public place where there's tons of people and everything's above reproach and preach them the gospel there. That's the best way to preach to kids. Don't take kids off into some dark corner by yourself. That's not appropriate. Obviously, you don't mean harm. Obviously, you're never going to do anything to kids. But just realize that we live in a crazy time. And if I saw that, if you saw that about your kids, how would you feel? Now, what does piss me off when here we are out in the open and I knock on some door and mom and dad talk to me and mom and dad doesn't want their kid to hear the Bible being preached. That does piss me off. And there's nothing we could do about that, unfortunately. But, you know, at least we did our job. We showed up. We asked. We are ready to preach to them. That's what we should do. Go to Psalm 78. Psalm 78, Psalm 78, verse four, it says, We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done. Verse five, for he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children. Verse six, that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise, notice, and declare them to their children. So the Bible here is kind of describing this generational handoff of preaching God's words, showing his wonderful works, so that the next generation, which should be born, are going to arise and they're going to declare it to their kids, right? And so we want to keep passing these things off. And in our church, we have a lot of young kids. You know, in the next five to 10 years, we're going to have a lot of kids coming to the age of being able to be soul winners. And we should start thinking and investing and planning for that time right now. You know, this is why I try to take my kids out soul winning as much as possible. It's not because it's easy, because it's hard. It's a burden. Kids are kids, right? So them just like standing by a door for 15 minutes, doing nothing while you preach can be difficult. But we want to train them so that when they are of that age where they're getting saved, where they can learn to preach the gospel, we could use them as a tool to go get other kids saved and even other adults saved. We need to start thinking about those things now and taking it seriously. You know, I would love to have, like Sure Foundation did, just an army of young kids ready to preach the gospel. That is a great tool. And that makes me feel a lot more comfortable than asking brother Cameron to go preach to a six year old or asking me to preach to a six year old. You know what I mean? Like all the parents in here know what I'm saying is right right now. We don't want to be appearing to be weird with kids. It's not good. We need to prepare for it. So number one this evening, children are a blessing. Number two, children are a great example of faith. Number three, children need to be protected. Number four, children are to be welcomed at church. Number five, children should be reached with the gospel. Every once in a while, we need to make sure that we're renewing our mind, not just getting our philosophy about parenting, child rearing or just view on children from the world or from backslidden churches that don't use the Bible. You know, everything tonight was right from the word of God. We need to make sure that we have a biblical view on children and pray that they grow up and become assets in the house of God. Let's have a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you for our church and we thank you for the blessing of children. I pray that we would treasure the blessings that you've given us, that we would steward them well, that we would do our responsibility of teaching them, training them, warning them of the pitfalls of sin, keeping them safe where we can. And we pray that you would show us lots of mercy and grace to make up for any of our errors or mistakes as parents. And I pray that the kids in here would grow up to love you, to want to serve you with all of their heart, to become soul winners and to be assets in our church. We love you Jesus and we pray. Amen. All right. At this time, we'll go ahead and sing one last song to conclude the service. If you would take your hymnals and turn to hymn number six. Beneath the cross of Jesus, hymn number six in your hymnals. We'll go ahead and start there right on the first. We'll go ahead and sing one last song to conclude the service. We'll go ahead and sing one last song to conclude the service. We'll go ahead and sing one last song to conclude the service. We'll go ahead and sing one last song to conclude the service.