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All right, we're here in First Samuel chapter 3, and we're continuing our series on fundamental family tips, and we're talking about children here today. And, you know, honestly, we like the exciting sermons where I'm preaching against false religions and, you know what, that will be next week. But we need the practical sermons. Should I turn it on or just take off? We got this on? Or no? Okay, so anyways, we're talking about children here today. It's a practical sermon series, and honestly, this sermon is specifically geared toward those that are still under the authority of their parents and are not fully supporting themselves. And it's rare that you really hear a sermon geared towards children specifically. So if you're in this room and you're under the age of 18, or maybe even you're a little bit older, but you're not out there fully supporting yourself this time, this sermon is really geared toward you, okay? Now go to 1 Corinthians 13. First Corinthians 13. First Corinthians chapter 13, and we'll go back to First Samuel here in a little bit. First Corinthians 13, let me show you this verse here in verse 11. First Corinthians chapter 13, verse 11. And the Bible reads in First Corinthians 13, verse 11, when I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. And see, what Paul the Apostle is saying is, there comes a point in your life where you've got to become a man, become a woman, and put away childish things. There's a time where it's not all just fun and games and playing all the time, but you got to grow up and take life seriously. And here's what's important about this. Many people kind of look at it like this. When you're a child, you goof off for the first 18 years of your life, and then you just flip the switch when you turn 19 and take life seriously. It doesn't work that way. You have to build up to that point. And I'll tell you what, if you're a young person in this room, you want people to take you seriously? You want to be successful in life? You need to become mature at a young age. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2, 2 Timothy chapter 2, 2 Timothy chapter 2. I think it's great that children get to play and have fun, but you know what, there comes a point where it's just like, okay, you need to grow up, right? I'm not sure about here, but in the US, we kind of make fun of people that are... We call it going through a midlife crisis, but you'll see somebody who's like 15 years old and he's listening to rock music and he's banging his head, and it's like, yeah, when you're a kid, you kind of listen to dumb music, but it's like you're a lot older now. It's like we expect you to become more mature. It's like Led Zeppelin was popular in the 70s. It's like there's been several decades that have gone by, but they're still acting like a kid. Or can you imagine someone who's older and they're listening to Lady Gaga and Katy Perry say, man, I just love the new CD from Lady Caca. It's like, man, it's time to grow up. Or people that are like 50 years old, it's like, man, I'm just going to play video games all night where I'm having a video game party with my buddies that I went to college with in the early 1990s. It's like when you become a man, you put away childish things. And yeah, you know what? When I was a kid, I played Super Mario Brothers, but you know what? I don't know the popular video games now because I quit playing because when you become a man, you put away childish things. Look, I literally know people that failed out of college due to video games. People that were very smart and they failed out of college due to video games. Like, man, you're in college, put away your childish things. Grow up, get your degree and get a real career. But then they drop out of college due to video games. Look, when you become a man, you put away childish things. Go to 2 Timothy 2. Let me say this. There is not a bigger turn off to ladies in this world, especially ladies in this sort of church than a guy that's obsessed with video games that's an adult. It's like they look at a guy like that and they say, that's the guy who's going to provide for our family and take care of this home. This guy that's addicted to first person shooters and talking to his buddies for five hours. I mean, I literally hear stories of like, man, I just want to spend time with my husband. He's like talking to his buddies with this headset thing right on his Xbox. Is that the system? Xbox or PlayStation or whatever, Nintendo, whatever. And it's just like, no, that's like the biggest turn off to ladies in the world is a guy obsessed with video games. That's a grown adults. Right. 2 Timothy chapter two, verse 22. 2 Timothy 2, verse 22. Flee also youthful lusts. Flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. And the Bible says to flee youthful lusts. And what it's saying is that when you're a child, there are certain things that you are interested in. And those things belong to be as a child, not when you become an adult. Children want to play all day long. Isn't that right? Just play for hours and hours and hours. And that's normal for a child. It's not normal for grown adults. It's strange for a grown adult to just want to play all the time. No, you need to take life seriously, because life's not a joke. Go to 1 Samuel 3, 1 Samuel 3, 1 Samuel 3. You know, the great thing about serving God is that you can have fun while you're serving God. Man, these soul winning marathons, they're fun. We come back and we rejoice over the numbers. We have fellowship. And I mean, they're great. They're exciting. But here's the thing. We all had interest when we were a kid. Hey, we play basketball from time to time, but you know, that's not my life now that I'm a grown adult. We do things for fun, but we may need to make sure we put God first in our lives, okay? And point number one is this. As a child, while you're still under the authority of your parents, the number one thing you need to do is establish a personal relationship with God. You need to establish a personal relationship with God, because there will come a day when mom doesn't force you to read the Bible. There's going to come a day when your parents can't stop you from drinking alcohol. It's going to be your choice living on your own. You need to establish that personal relationship as soon and as early as possible in your life. 1 Samuel 3, verse 1, and the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days, there was no open vision. And it came to pass at that time when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim that he could not see. And here the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep. Verse 4, that the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, Here am I. So the Lord here in verse 4 is calling Samuel, but Samuel doesn't realize it's the Lord. So he's going to go to Eli, and he's going to ask him about it. And he ran on to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou callest me. And he said, I called not, lie down again, and he went and lay down. Verse 6, and the Lord called yet again Samuel, and Samuel rose and went to Eli and said, Here am I, for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son, lie down again. He said, Brother Stuckey, this is me. I hear voices all the time. Well, that's a whole nother sermon, okay? That's outside the scope of what we're preaching here today, okay? Verse 7, Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord. You know what the Bible's telling you there? Samuel was not saved at this time. He did not yet know the Lord. He was not saved at this time, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed on to him. So here's a person who's very young. Now we don't know how old he was. It doesn't give us an age. I would definitely say under the age of 10, but it could be five years old. We don't really know. And realize this, as we're raising our children, it's going to take them time to reach a level where they can understand the Gospel. Don't be one of these parents that tries to force your three-year-old to say a prayer so you can win the battle of my son got saved sooner than anybody. And then all of a sudden your child grows up and it turns out they never got saved because they were three years old, right? And they didn't understand these things yet. It's going to take time for your children to understand the Gospel. It might take six, seven, eight, nine years old. We don't really know. I don't know when my son and my daughter are going to get saved, but my son just turned three. He's not going to understand these things yet. And so Samuel's a young person here, but he hears the voice of the Lord and he doesn't realize it's from the Lord. Now the point I'm trying to make is this, that Samuel is involved in the work of the Lord before he's even saved. And it makes it an easy transition to getting into the work of God and serving God after he does get saved. Look, as parents, you want to get your children ready to serve God. Hey, get them involved in the work of God before salvation. You say, what does that mean? It means take them out soul winning before they're saved. Get them used to that pattern. Sing the hymns with them, the old fashioned hymns before they're saved. Have them in a church like this where they're hearing the word of God before they're saved. And look, they will pick up some things. Okay. And it's going to be a lot easier for them to end up serving God, not just getting saved, but actually serving God. Read the Bible with your children. Now, can they understand everything? No, but you know, you can start to slowly build on that. And here's the thing. One day you want them to just read the Bible on their own because they want to. Not because dad said, Hey son, I want you to read the Bible now. Or mom says, Hey, read the Bible or I'm going to spank you. Right? You want them to reach a point where they just have some free time. And they say, You know what? I want to read this story of Jonah and see what it's about. You as parents, me as a parent, we need to prepare our children for this stage. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 12, Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Just yesterday, my son asked my wife. My wife was talking to her sister and my son was just like, because he's starting to become more inquisitive. He's always asking what we're doing. And he's like, What are you doing, Mommy? And see, here's the thing. Kids will model what their parents do. And so if you're reading the Bible and then your child asks, Hey, what are you doing? Hey, I'm reading the Bible. And here's the thing. They're not going to understand all of that when they're three years old. But it's going to be a lot easier when they're five, six, seven to start picking up that habit of reading the Bible because they want to do what mom and dad are doing. Get your kids involved in the things of God before they're saved. Otherwise, it's going to be hard to transition them. Well, you know, I know, son, you've never gone soul winning, but now you're 18 years old. You need to go every week. Well, good luck with that. And look, here's the thing. It is hard. It is hard as a parent to take your kids out. So it's not easy. I mean, it takes work and then you forget to bring water and it's like, Oh, man, then they're crying and they're hot and it's a disaster and it's just like, Yeah, it's tough. It's not easy. But you know, here's the thing about this. It's important for us as parents to maybe take a step back so we can actually really get our kids involved in the work because you know what? If you know and understand math, it's going to do a lot more in the long run anyway. Maybe it's a little bit harder. Maybe you're so many times a little bit less, but you know what? You need to get your kids involved in the work of God. Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse one. Ecclesiastes 12 verse one. Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. And so the Bible says here, remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth. Remember God when you're young. Remember God before you grow older. This is the chapter that talks about the aging process. And what it says to start is remember God when you're young, not that, Hey, I'm an adult. Now I'm going to serve God. No, serve God when you're young, the Bible says. And here's what people do not realize when you're young, you think, Hey, there's 24 hours in a day. Now on a side point, there's actually not 24 hours in a day either because there's like a lost second, like once every year and a half. Okay. But anyways, you think there's 24 hours in a day when you're young, but then all of a sudden you find out, Oh, that 24 hours gets less and less with each passing year, right? Now that I'm in my mid thirties, a 24 hour day somehow equals 18. Now you say, what do you mean? I mean, time speeds up as you get older. Now I don't have any logical explanation for this, but every person who's an adult in this room would say, yes, you know what time really starts to speed up. It's like, I went to bed last night. I opened up my eyes and my son's three years old. It's like, what in the world? It's like, where did all this time go? Because when I was young, it's just, you're just playing and having fun and all day long that you got all the time in the world. And then all of a sudden, man, time just starts getting faster. It accelerates. Before you know it, your life will flash before your eyes. That's reality. So here's the thing. When you're young, you have a lot of free time to serve God. I wish instead of playing video games when I was young, I did something productive. I wish I had read the Bible. I wish I had learned an instrument. I wish I learned a foreign language. I wish I had done something that would be helpful to me as an adult. Now I'm not saying it's wrong to have fun and play games as a kid, but I'm saying if that's all you do, you know what? You are wasting your life. And as parents, yes, you want your kids to have fun. Don't just let them play 24-7 though for the first 18 years of their life. Get them involved in maturing, help them out in that process, because here's the thing. You as a parent understand how hard this world is. Your 12-year-old doesn't understand that. Your 15-year-old doesn't understand that. People only understand that once they're out in the real world. It's like, oh man, it's tough. You need to establish that in your children. Help them to develop that personal relationship with God. Let me tell you something. If you're in this room and you're under 18 or you're still under the authority of your parents, you need to just decide for yourself, I will establish a personal relationship with God. And you will not regret that. But if you don't take heed to my advice, you're going to grow up one day and say, man, brother Stuckey was right. I wish I had read the Bible when I was younger. Because here's the reality, for us that are adults and have kids, it's a lot harder to get through the New Testament in January, isn't it? It's not too hard though for someone who's a teenager who has hours upon hours upon hours. But as you get older, it's more difficult. It's hard. Here at Verity in Sacramento, whenever they do the January challenge, all the teens are kind of getting excited and encouraging one another. After week one, like five of them are done. It's like they read the New Testament in a week. It's like, what in the world? It's like, how do they have that free time? Here's the thing. When you're in your youth, you do have that free time. And it's a question of how are you going to use that free time? Turn in your Bible to Daniel 1. Daniel 1. Daniel chapter 1. Don't just waste all of your free time on things that don't really mean much in your life. As parents, we should do the best we can to help our children prepare for that stage of life. As I've said, don't make life too easy on your children. Give them responsibilities. Make them become mature, teach them things, because you want them to just develop their own personal relationship with God, meaning they wake up 30 minutes early or whatever, and they say, man, I got 33 minutes. Let me read the Bible. I got 33 minutes. Let me pray. Serving God is exciting, but I'm afraid there's a lot of Baptist churches that are destroying the excitement for children by trying to make it exciting. They do all these fun games and entertaining things, and here's candy, and unfortunately they're not allowing those kids to experience the real excitement. Let me tell you something. Children love soul winning. They love soul winning, probably more than adults, because as adults, like, man, I'm tired. It's difficult. But you'll see kids, they're encouraged. They're excited to go, okay? We need to help our kids develop this personal relationship with God. Daniel 1 verse 8. Daniel 1 verse 8. Look closely at what it says here in Daniel 1 verse 8. But Daniel's father and mother said, you know what? You're not going to defile yourself. Is that what it says? But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Here's a young man, and we don't know how old he is, but he's not 25 years old, right? I mean, he's probably a teenager is my guess. But he's a young man who has a personal relationship with God. And he's not around his parents to take care of him. And I want you to realize, you as mom and dad are not going to be there when somebody offers a beer to your child when they're 20 years old. They get a job out in the workforce, and they're going to have their co-workers say, hey, come drink with us afterwards. And then they take that one drink of alcohol and their life can be destroyed. They're not going to be there when people try to tempt them to do wrong things. They need to develop their own personal relationship with God. So if they're thrown into this situation, I'm not going to defile myself. I don't care if my co-workers are making fun of me. I don't care what the world thinks. I don't care if everyone thinks I'm crazy. You know what? I'm not going to drink. I'm going to serve God. And make no mistake about it. Your co-workers will mock you if you don't drink alcohol with them. They will criticize you for not coming out. What are you holier than thou? I mean, are you such a Christian that you won't come out with us one time? It's like they will try to pressure you into drinking alcohol. And look, if your children don't have their own personal relationship with God, they could very likely bow the knee to bale, so to speak, because of the pressure. Because they're not ready for it. Because it's difficult to stand for God on your own. And one day our children are going to have to do that. Turn your Bible to Genesis 47. Genesis 47. Genesis 47. Now look, by all means, when your children are young and they say, I don't want to come to church, will you force them to come to church? I'm not saying, hey, just give your kids free reign. Your five-year-old says, I'm just going to stay home and play video games and eat chips. Well, hey, tell your son, hey, you know what? You're coming to church, right? Force them to come to church. But what I'm saying is, when they become an adult, you're not going to be there to force them to come to church. They're going to have to grow on their own. Now, by all means, when they're young, hey, put in the effort. It's the same concept for why we believe in follow-up here, because when people are babies and new Christians, they have to be forced to do the right things. But you want them to develop their own personal relationship with God, so you don't have to always call them on Saturday night, hey, are you coming to church? Are you coming to church? Now, by all means, if they're a baby, they're going to be dependent probably on the person who led them to the Lord, to really encourage them and get them to come to church. But you want them to develop their own walk with God. Same thing with children. Number one, a personal walk with God. Number two, personality. Children, you need to develop your personality and character as people, okay? Part of that, part A, is to work hard. Genesis 47, verse 5, And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee, the land of Egypt is before thee, and the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell. In the land of Goshen let them dwell, and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle. Now, it says, if thou knowest any men of activity. Now what does that mean? It means someone who's working, someone who's a hard worker, men of activity. That is the secret to being successful in life. Working hard, right? On the modern versions, though, they change this. It's not the men of activity that become the rulers, it's any man with special ability. Now is that the same thing as men of activity? It's like, well, it's just a difference in the Hebrew, right? I mean, they're just disagreeing on one word. It could be translated, you know, any men of activity or special. Those are completely different things, my friend. And what it says in the NIV and modern versions is, if you have special ability, then you become a ruler. Now let me ask you a question. Think about this logically. Let's say you are naturally the most talented piano player in the world. You're just amazing. I mean, you are a modern day Mozart, right? And you're just so talented, but let's say you've never actually played the piano. You have more ability to play the piano than anyone, but you've never actually done it. Do you think that you would just sit up here and just be the greatest piano player? No, you have to actually practice. No matter how talented you are. Look, Michael Jordan, you know how he became the greatest basketball player and 20 times better than LeBron James? Because of practice. Right? It wasn't natural. I mean, obviously he had natural ability, but you've got to develop that, okay? No matter how good you are at something, you have to actually develop it. That's the way it works. And so it's not somebody with special ability. This guy just has such a strong ability. Well, if he's never developed that, then he's not going to be able to be a ruler. You have to have experience. Nothing beats experience for something. Right? I mean, experience is kind of the secret factor and that requires time. It requires effort. Go to Lamentations 3. Lamentations 3. You say, Brother Secchi, why are you talking so much about hard work during this series? What just comes up in the Bible a lot? And because that is really the magic key to having success in life is just working hard. That's reality. And because of the fact life is very easy in 2021, you say, no, man, life is so hard. Well, tell that to someone who lived a couple of hundred years ago and had to start work at 6 a.m. and go out to a farm till 6 p.m. and then tell us how hard it is today. People that are busy all day long and have just enough time to read their Bible and go to bed at night and then wake up early at five in the morning and just tell them how hard your life is. Tell ladies who had a dozen kids 200 years ago and did everything with very makalumong techniques compared to today's world. Tell them how hard it is in today's world. It's just so tough in 2021. I only have two and a half hours to get on Facebook every day. I only have like hours. I mean, our lives are so easy in 2021. It's easy compared to what it used to be. The Bible says that the secret is hard work. That's what the secret is. Lamentations 3 verse 27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. It's good to work hard when you're young. You say why? Because look, as you get older, it's going to become more difficult. And quite honestly, once you have your own family and kids, you're not going to have to you're not going to want to have to work as hard as you did when you were 20 years old, right? It's better to put in the work when you're young, establish a career, build your way up a company. And when you're older, you know what? You don't have to work quite as hard. Think about this logically. Take a 20 year old and a 50 year old and they work outside all day. Who has the ability to work longer? Well, the 20 year old, they're younger. You get older, you're going to get sore. You're going to get tired. You know, one of the most encouraging things to me about our church, especially here in 2021 and recently, it's really encouraging seeing people that are older than most of us going soul winning. I mean, literally, that's probably been the number one most encouraging thing to me. Because here's the thing. I'm not at that age yet where I can say, man, I've been soul winning for 50 years. I hope I can. I hope all of us can. And I'll tell you what, it's encouraging to see people where it might be a little bit more difficult, but they say, I love God. I want to serve God. It's encouraging. But the reality is, they might not be able to do a six hour all day soul winning marathon like you can when you're 20 years old. It's going to be more difficult, right? So here's the thing. Put in the work when you're young, and you know what, it's going to be easier for you and your life's going to be a lot better for you. If you put in the time when you're early in life, okay, go to first Timothy four, first Timothy four, first Timothy four. You see, we have kind of this false idea when it comes to character. And we would never take this belief outside of this. But let's say, for example, you're doing bench press for the first time. Okay. I don't know if everybody's been to the gym or done bench press, but the first time you do bench press, maybe 135 pounds is kind of a standard starting point somewhere around that range. You got the bar. I don't know if they do. Do they do things in kilograms here with the weights or pounds for the June pounds? Okay, 135 pounds on a bench presses. That's what I started at in college. If you got the bars, 45 pounds, and you got a 45 on each side. So before you've ever done bench press, depending on, you know, various factors, maybe how much you did sports when you're young, 135 pounds, or maybe 115 pounds might be a starting point, right? But here's the thing. Let's say you started 135 pounds, and then all of a sudden you go back to the bench press a week later. Well, I'm going to try putting 345 on each side, 315 pounds, right? Because I'm going to just jump from 135 to 315. No, it doesn't work that way. I don't care how many steroids you put in your system. You ain't going from 135 to 315 that quickly, my friend. That's going to take at least a few years, even with steroids, right? It's going to take a lot of work. It's going to take a lot of time. Common sense. Let's say you say, Brother Stuckey, 2021, my new hobby is long distance running. And my goal is to win the Olympics for like the marathon or whatever the events are for long distance running. But you've never done it before. You just started. Well, you're probably not going to qualify for the Olympics, my friend, because you don't have any experience with it. But people get this idea. What about with something like character or hard work? For the first 18 years of my life, video games, video games, video games, and once I become an adult, man, I'm going to be the hardest worker in the world. Does that make common sense? Doesn't work that way. Everything you build to that point. Now, praise the Lord if something like this encourages you to work harder, but it's still going to be time and effort to reach that point and become more and more a hard worker. It takes time to build character. One of the best things you can have, and look, I had a job like this where I just worked a lot of hours and it was miserable, but it teaches you the value of hard work. And with anything, it takes time to build to that point. So here's the thing. As parents, don't make life too easy for your children. If life is so easy for them when they're young, are they going to end up being the greatest worker when they first start work when they're 19, 20, 21 years old? Probably not. Don't make life too easy. And look, if you're a child in this room, hey, your life is not just about video games. Take it seriously. Work hard. By all means, hey, your parents tell you to do something, obey them, but here's the thing. You ought to establish this idea. I've got free time. I'm just going to help mom clean because I've got free time. I don't need to just get on Facebook and waste my time. Develop hard work at a young age because you don't just flip the switch. You go from lazy to hard working overnight. Doesn't work that way, right? First Timothy four, verse 12. So one thing is with your personality, hard work. That is something you need to develop inside of yourself, your character. You need to develop that in your personality. Another thing are manners. Manners are something we need to teach our children at a young age, right? First Timothy four, verse 12. Notice what it says. Let no man despise thy youth. Now this is a very famous phrase in the Bible. And look, there's a lot of young people in this room that are serving God. And this is probably a quote you've had in your head or you've thought of that, you know, there's maybe these people that have been around a lot longer, but you know, don't let anyone despise your youth. Let no man despise your youth. Here's the thing though. I would say this is one of the most misquoted verses in the Bible because I want you to notice the context of let no man despise thy youth. Okay. Let no man despise thy youth, but see, but is connecting. Let no man despise thy youth. You see the semi-colon there, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. And it says, don't let anyone despise your youth. And how do you do that? By being an example, by having character, by having faith, by not being worldly, by having the proper character, people aren't going to be able to despise your youth. Look, when you believe what we believe about the Bible, there are people that want to rip you apart. There are plenty of churches here in the Philippines that they would love to find something against me that they could rip me to shreds. Look at what brother Stuckey said and just use it to just slander me and attack me. Here's the thing. I'm not that old. I can't give them an opportunity to despise my youth. I'm kind of young to be a preacher, right? And look, I'm not really that young, but mid thirties, they could say, well, you know what? I'm in my fifties. I've been doing this for 40 years. They want to find a reason to despise me. Same thing with you, with your beliefs. Let me tell you something. You believe what we believe and you're a young person. Let me tell you something. Your family members that are Catholic, they want to find something to criticize you for. Your relatives, your old church members, they want to find something to criticize you for. Don't give them anything. Be mature. Don't give them an opportunity to despise your youth. And see, this is what Paul is saying to Timothy. Why? Timothy's a young man. And Paul says, hey, my stamp of approval is on you. You know the word of God. You're a mighty preacher. You're a mighty soul winner. But one thing, don't give the world an opportunity to criticize you. Be thou an example of the believers. That's what the Bible says. So what does it say? One thing it says is in word, be thou an example of the believers in word. Now there's many applications for this. One thing is just knowledge of the Bible, right? I mean, you can say I can prove every doctrine left, right, and down the center. But here's the thing, if you've never read the Bible much, you don't know the Bible much but you can disprove the preacher of rapture, you're giving them a reason to despise your youth. They'll say, well, you know, I've read the Bible tons of times. And literally they can win the argument by default. Like you give them all these verses on the poster of rapture and they say, well, you know what? How many times have you read the Bible? None. I've read it 10 times. And to them it's like argument's over, right? Don't give them that opportunity. Read the word of God February through December, right? In word, but also not just in knowledge of the Bible. What about in the things that just come out of your mouth? Having a pure tongue, not saying things that the world would look down on you at, right? This is probably the most shocking thing to me with people that are like-minded. Not everybody's like this. Because I see these videos on YouTube and somebody who's like-minded is just throwing out all these curse words at someone and it's just like, what in the world? It's like, because if my parents ever caught me doing that when I was a kid, out comes a tongue and here comes a soap. It's like, you know, I was taught, you know what, you know, people that are not intelligent curse and you say, brother Stuckey, you know, I've never heard that, but here's the thing. I'm not the only one who believes that though. I was taught that by my parents because they are very old fashioned and there are still old fashioned people out there. And look, that's the way I look at it because that's how I was raised. When people curse a lot, I'm just like, I don't like to hear it. I'm just like, man, I'm just going to turn this off. I don't want to hear people just cursing and just saying every word under the sun. Like no big deal. You might believe differently about that, but here's one thing you can't deny. If you curse like a sailor, you are giving people an opportunity to despise your youth. There are people that would look down on you and say, well, who could look down on me? I said, I would look down on you because I was raised that cursing was wrong by my parents. And look, I am not the only person with Makalumong values in this world, traditional old fashioned values. You know, would to God in the Philippines, we could go back to some of those old fashioned values and manners from a hundred years ago. I think it would fix a lot of our problems. We could go back to that in word and look, taking life seriously. The things you talk about, is it all just a joke or do you take life seriously? In conversation, in conversation is referring to basically your lifestyle, not just your words, but your lifestyle, pamamuhay, okay? So basically the way you act, could people look at you and say, well, yeah, he might know that about the Bible, but he does this. Based on the way you act, is there any way that they can criticize you? Or can you be like Daniel? What did they accuse Daniel of? Praying to God? That's the best they had on him. It's like, man, we got nothing. He doesn't check in late for work. He doesn't take long breaks from work and he doesn't gossip. What do we have on him? Oh, he prays to God. That ought to be the testimony for all of us that nobody can look at us and say, well, he does this. He does this. But that they have nothing except the fact that we're devoted to God. That ought to be the way that all of us are, in conversation, in charity. In charity basically means putting people before yourself. And I'll tell you what, we need to teach our kids that their lives are not about them. They're about other people. Because here's the thing with kids, when you're a child, life is about you. Because the parents are devoting their time to the children and it's all about the children. Here's the thing, they need to grow past that stage and realize though, hey, you know what? Life's not just about you. It's like the hardest thing for a baby when the brother or sister is born. When I was a kid, my sister started biting me after I was born. And she was just like envious because I was the new baby getting the attention. So I'm not saying I recommend this, but how my dad fixed that was he bit her and then she stopped biting me. Now, I'm not saying that's right or wrong, I don't know. We didn't have to deal with that, right? But what I'm saying is kids at a young age, life is literally all about them. But we need them to realize it's not always gonna be like that. They need to grow past that point, become more mature, okay? In spirit, in faith, in purity, you need to be living a godly life, a holy life, not a worldly life, not a life that people can look down on you. And here's the thing, if you do not do these things, you will give people an opportunity to despise your youth. And they want to despise your youth. They wanna criticize you for being a part of this church, right? And look, be very careful about ripping every Baptist under the sun on social media. Because quite honestly, often you are giving people an opportunity to despise your youth. Here's the thing, I usually agree with what you guys are saying, but here's what I'm saying, you are also giving people an opportunity to look down on our church, right? Now I think the same thing about these false prophets and churches and stuff like that, but you know what? It doesn't mean it's wise to say just because it's true. Don't give people an opportunity to despise your youth, okay? Turn in your Bible to Nehemiah 13, Nehemiah 13, Nehemiah 13. Don't worry, next week's sermon is gonna be the amen sermons. These toads will get stepped on, you'll be like, amen, rip them brother Stuckey. That's not this week's sermons though, okay? You gotta wait a week. Make sure you come back next week, all right? We change this now so that the song leaders, I don't tell them what the sermons are anymore for them to pick the songs. I just kind of give them a template of songs so nobody knows what the sermons are next week except me, right? You're gonna have to wait, okay? If you give me enough money, if you bribe me, I will let you be the first person to know. Do I have to just riddle with other people at church, no, I'm just kidding. So point number one is a personal walk with God. Point two, a personality in terms of character. Point three, proficiencies. Children need to learn to be proficient at skills of life, okay? One of those is just language skills, Nehemiah 13 verse 23, Nehemiah 13 verse 23. Nehemiah chapter 13 verse 23, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalm, Psalm's in the middle of your Bible, just kind of go back a couple books. Nehemiah 13 verse 23, in those days also, verse 23, saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashtad of Ammon and of Moab and their children spake half in the speech of Ashtad and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people. And here's a story where they're growing up and they're not learning the language of their own country, but they're learning the language of a heathen country. And they have no ability with their own language, okay? Now this is not the main application here, but let me say something that one thing that can really help you be successful in life is having language proficiency. Being good with languages can be a major advantage. I mean, even certain jobs here, being very good at English can give you an advantage on other people that might not have that skill, right? Language proficiencies is a very valuable skill. And here's the thing, it's a lot easier to learn when you're young than when you're older. Trust me on that. It is a lot easier to learn it when you're young than as you get older. It's a lot easier. And look, this is a proficiency, a skill that we can teach our kids at a young age, right? Go to 1 Kings 4, 1 Kings 4, 1 Kings 4. This is especially true if you homeschool your children that you're probably going to have the ability to have extra time during the day to teach certain things. That's actually a proficiency that could make them helpful and have an advantage on other people learning certain skills, learning certain, you know, I know there's people at a church, you know, Brother Matthias, you know, his job, he teaches German. Having a specific skill, and obviously he learned that at a young age, but that's my point. Learning at a young age is so much easier than getting older and trying to learn that language. And you can learn certain skills and it can give you a huge advantage on other people, right? Just having language skills at a young age. Also just education in general, 1 Kings 4, notice what it says in verse 29. And I want you to realize, you know what, children actually like to learn. You know why a lot of children don't like their Baptist churches? They don't learn anything. They like churches like this because they learn. They go to church, it's like, man, I've never heard that before. I've never learned that before. I've never heard that story explained. You know, kids actually like to learn. That's why kids like a church like ours. That's why we don't need to have some junior church and whatever because kids like to just learn and hear the sermons. 1 Kings 4 verse 29, and God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the East country and all the wisdom of Egypt, for he is wiser than all men than Ethan the Ezraite and Haman and Chalcol and Darda, the sons of Mahal, and his fame was in all nations round about. So Solomon's the wisest person in the world. And you say, Brother Stuckey, he's only the wisest person because he asked for wisdom. Well, that's kind of true. It's kind of not true. Here's the thing. I can prove to you he was wise before God gave him wisdom. Say what's your proof? Because he was wise enough to ask for wisdom and not for money. He was already wise. And you can see at the beginning that he's wise when he first becomes. I mean, you can see he already has wisdom and the fact that he, because here's the thing, you know what I would ask for when I was 18 years old, money, money, money, right? Isn't that what most of us would ask for? The proof that Solomon was wise is the fact that he asked for wisdom, okay? And he had wisdom. He had ability. You know why? Because he wasn't sitting around doing nothing all day. It wasn't just fun and games. Look, I don't know what they played back then, maybe chess or checkers or something or whatever, but he wasn't just sitting around playing these games, okay? Verse 32. And he spake 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. And he spake of trees from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even under the hyssop that springeth out of the wall. He spake also of beasts and of fowl and of creeping things and of fishes, and there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all kings of the earth which had heard of his wisdom. Now Solomon's a man who actually taught his people. It said, happy are thy men which stand continually before thee to hear thy wisdom. People listen to him teach the things of God and teach about life. He was a very smart, educated person. One thing that drives me crazy is this idea, well, if you're not smart, go into the ministry, right? There's this attitude, hey, you can't, you're not good at math, you're not good with computers, you're not good. Have you ever thought about the ministry? Right? Because you don't have to be smart in the ministry, right? I mean, that's a really insulting thing when people say that. And I've heard preachers say this, and they make a joke out of it, but it's really just not funny to me. It's like, well, you know, I don't know much, bless God, but I know the gospel. It's like, well, you better know much. You better get some education, because if you're actually teaching people, you need to have wisdom. You need to have intelligence. Look, the last thing you need is somebody standing behind the pulpit that's Bobo that has no knowledge, because you're learning from them. Well, what are you going to learn if they don't know anything? Right? I mean, people that are preachers, they need to be very educated. They need to not just know the Bible, but just life in general, because look, many of the parables in the Bible, right, the parable, when he talks about the olive tree, which we're going to talk about in the next sermon, hey, you know, it actually takes some knowledge of how things work to explain that. And if you're not educated about these things, you have to learn them in order to teach people. You have to be educated. It's like when I preached on drinking a couple months ago, I didn't know much about how alcohol was produced. I had to actually learn so I could teach, hey, this is what Proverbs is talking about. And look, if you're going to be a preacher one day, part of that is just being educated. Now, number one, be educated about the Word of God, but be educated in general, right? You need to be able to teach people something rather than just tell stories for 40 minutes. Turn to Exodus 31, Exodus 31, Exodus 31. And look, I would say, I'm not trying to say this to be arrogant, but I would say the reason why most people like this church is because they learn. I mean, there's also the fellowship. It's kind of a total package. You got the fellowship, you got people that love soul winning, and you know, people love to learn. I mean, why did you start listening to this kind of preaching online? Right? And I'm not saying with myself, with Pastor Menes, Pastor Anderson, whoever, because you learned and you were motivated. People like to learn. Well, I better make sure I have something to teach you. If I don't have anything to teach you, then somebody else needs to stand up here and say something because what good am I doing then? Right? Look, if you're going to be teaching, you need to actually have knowledge. And I'll tell you what, you know, Solomon had lots of wisdom in all areas. Lots of education, lots of knowledge. You know, we need to make sure our kids are not just learning about video games. They're actually learning about life and being educated. Exodus 31, another thing are laboring skills, ability to work with your hands. Exodus 31 verse one, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of her of the tribe of Judah. I filled him with the Spirit of God and wisdom and an understanding and a knowledge in all manner of workmanship. To devise cunning works, to work in gold and in silver and in brass and in cutting of stones, to set them and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship. And the Bible is talking about working with your hands, and I want you to realize, even if you don't go into a career with working with your hands, you can sure save yourself a lot of money around your house by being able to just fix things yourself. And I'll be honest, this is an area where, you know what, I just didn't learn it when I was a kid. It wasn't something that was really forced upon me, and I don't have much ability to work with my hands because I just didn't do it much. My parents really focused on education in the school system, math and grammar and stuff like that, and so I learned those things by practice, but unfortunately I didn't really work with my hands much. And I'll tell you what, at a church, it's a very valuable skill for people that can fix things. You say, Why? Things go wrong, and it will save you a lot of money when you have your own house, and you don't have to buy everything new, but you can actually fix things. It's going to help you out in life. And I'll tell you what, you know, these are the sorts of things we want our kids learning at a young age. It's going to help them be prepared in life. Turn in your Bible to Titus 2. Titus 2. We're almost done. We'll just look at two more places. Titus 2. So the big thing is instilling your kids a love for learning, and they can learn all of these different types of things. Now number one is obviously the Word of God, but you know what, you want your kids to actually learn practical skills, because if they don't learn it for the first 18 years of their life, are they just going to magically know it when they're 18 or 19 or 20 years old? Probably not. And it's going to be a lot harder for them to figure it out when they're 19 years old than when they're 5, 6, 7. Now here's the thing. If you're teaching your children something, sometimes you've got to take a step back, because you could do it faster yourself, but you need to basically slow down so your kids can actually learn. Our son, we make sure he cleans stuff up, and he throws certain things away and everything. And you know what, sometimes he might make a mistake, but that's part of the learning process. The other day, the kids, they love just throwing all the diapers everywhere and everything, so we made them put it back in the container. And then there's also paper on the ground, we're telling our son to clean up, and he's cleaning up paper. Then he starts taking the diapers, and he wants to throw them all in the trash, we're like, no, no, no. It's like, those are expensive, right? It's like, do not throw those away, right? But that's part of the learning process. And yeah, you know what, it would have been a lot quicker for me to just do it myself, but I need my son to learn that. And as parents, sometimes you've got to take a step back to teach your children. Another thing are motherly type skills, motherly type skills. Now I know in today's world, people will be offended by saying motherly type skills. And yes, I'm talking about cooking, cleaning, and those basic things. Well, these are things that our kids can learn at a young age. It's going to help them in life. Notice what it says in Titus 2, verse 3, the aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as become with holiness, not false accusers, not given a much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women in Titus 2, verse 4. Here's the thing, the Bible says the aged women can teach the young women about being a mom, being a wife, and there's absolutely an application in a church setting as someone is newly married or has a child for the first time. But how much more the mom to teach her own children these things, right? I mean, doesn't that make sense? That when your children are growing up, you can teach your children the cooking and cleaning and how to be a wife and how to be a mom. Of course, other people might have practical skills and if you're new at it, but once you develop that experience, it's kind of your job to teach your children, right? How much more can you teach your children at a young age? And look, as much as I'm calling this motherly type skills, I think young boys should learn how to cook and clean as well. I mean, look, I've got stories, I don't have enough time to go into them. I talked about a story yesterday about learning how to crack an egg, which is just like, man, that's something you should learn at a young age, not when you're in college, right? Or cleaning. It's just like, you know what? That's something learn at a young age. And here's the thing, you know, if you teach your children at a young age, they will end up doing the same thing when they get older, right? And I'll give you a couple of examples with myself. And here's the thing, when they're young, they're going to be like, they're going to make fun of their parents, but then when they become old, they're going to be just like their parents. Let me give you an example. I am a neat freak and a grammar Nazi. Now you might not realize that because I try not to, but I'll tell you what, my mom was a neat freak, like literally probably the cleanest house in the entire world. And I used to make fun of her. It's like, I mean, it already looks spotless, Mom, what are you doing? But she was a neat freak and she was a grammar Nazi, right? And I used to make fun of her for that. But guess what? I grew up and I'm a neat freak and I'm a grammar Nazi. I can't stand dust anywhere, right? Now look, I try not to just bring that to the table when I'm at church and stuff or something. But look, that's my personality. You say, why did you become like that? Because that's how I was raised. Your kids are going to be like you. So what are you teaching them? When I say I'm a grammar Nazi, here's what I mean. It means if I type something on Facebook and I accidentally put Y-O-U-R instead of Y-O-U apostrophe R-E, I will always have a note afterwards. Actually it's Y-O-U, it's like my mistake or whatever. You say why? Because that stuff drives me crazy. Not knowing the difference between their, their and their or your and your. I'm a grammar Nazi. And look, I used to make fun of my mom when I was a kid. My sister and I would always say on accident. My mom was like, it's not on accident. It's by accident. I was like, yeah, but everybody says on accident. I know it's not right, mom, but who cares? And guess what? Now I became just like my mom, right? I'm a grammar Nazi. But here's the thing, your kids, they will become like you. And if you teach these things at a young age, they're going to become like that. And that's a good thing. You need to teach them at a young age, the cooking, the cleaning, the proficiencies. And look, your children will model you, they'll become like you. That can be an encouraging thing or a scary thing, depending on how you're raising your children. Go to Genesis chapter two, Genesis two, Genesis two. Genesis chapter two, last place we'll look, point one, children, develop your own personal walk with God. Point two, develop your personality or character traits. Point three, develop proficiencies. Become proficient at stuff at a young age rather than waiting till when you're old. Learn it when you're young. Point four, develop a plan for life. Develop a plan for life at a young age. Genesis two, verse 23. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave onto his wife and they shall be one flesh. One day, one day, most people in this room, if you're not married now, one day you're probably going to get married and it's going to be a new home, right? Now you might still live with your parents depending on the situation, but it's a new marriage where you become as one. And here's the thing, you can no longer rely on your mom and dad like you used to be able to. Now, look, I realized like my mom and dad, if something happened, I could send them an email or talk to them and say, and they would be immediately help me out. And I'm sure your parents are the same way where if you ran into trouble, but here's what I'm saying. You know what? You're going to jump to a new situation. You need to be prepared. And the biggest idea of having a plan really comes down to guys because the Bible does put the responsibility on us men to provide for our families. Here's the thing, develop your plan for life before you're an adult, when you're young. And that's also going to help with developing your proficiencies. You say when you're 12 years old, man, I just want to be a computer engineer. Well, you can start learning some of those computer programs when you're 13, 14, 15, right? Instead of waiting until, now here's the thing about having a plan, as parents, yeah, help make sure it's a smart plan, right? It's something that's going to provide them financially. Not just like, man, my plan is I'm going to be an astronaut. Well, I mean, it's probably pretty tough to break into the field of being an astronaut, right? It's probably tough to find a good church up there in space too, that you can attend. So I wouldn't advise you to become an astronaut, but I'll tell you what, kids, if they have a dream or desire, they can, you know what, try to help develop that and help prepare your kids. And here's the thing, sometimes people will go to college and they're not sure what they want to do, and then they change their mind after two years, but what if you could prepare them six years before that, and then when they got a little experience, they said, oh, I actually don't like that, like I thought I did. Then they can get a new plan, instead of just being thrown into a very difficult world. And look, it's totally up to you as parents to make the decision with college or no college I'm not preaching either way, but I will say this. If you go the college route, get a degree that will make you money. Don't pay money for nothing. It doesn't make any sense. Get a degree where basically it's actually going to get you money on the other side. And if you don't, then you're just wasting your time, right? And if you don't go the college route, you know, that's fine. Prepare those proficiencies and skills, and look, then you can be diligent to get either internships or get an opportunity at a young age, develop connections. Don't wait until you're older, because it's only going to get more difficult. It's a difficult world we're going to be throwing our kids into one day. We want them to be prepared. We want them not just be thrown to the wolves, but they're actually prepared in life. And yes, they're going to have to learn some things on their own as they get older, but we can help develop that experience when they're young to some degree, as much as is possible. And look, I'm speaking from the perspective of someone that did not fully prepare myself when I was 18, 19, 20 years old. I'm not standing up here saying, man, I just knocked it out of the park. It's like by the time I was 18, you know, I did this and this, and I, no, I'm not, I'm speaking from the perspective that life actually gets difficult if you're not fully prepared. And here's the problem. Children don't understand this. Until you're on the other side to really see what life is when you're dependent on yourself, you don't fully understand it. We need to help our children at a young age. Now that starts with number one, just having a personal walk with God. That's absolutely number one. And look, if that's the only thing that you instill in your kids, but they grow up and be a soul winner, then praise the Lord for that. Because that is the number one most important thing for God that you're, because I would rather my kids grow up and they're not prepared in any area, but they love God and they're soul winning and serving God, right? I would like that more than they make tons of money, but they're not serving God. But you know what? It's not just a personal walk with God. These kids need to learn what they need to learn their personality or character traits. Kids don't know these things unless they learn them. What's an example of this? Two adults are having a conversation and then a five year old comes over and interrupts to ask a question. That's bastos. That's rude. As parents, we need to teach our kids because here's the thing, a five year old doesn't understand that though. They're not intentionally being rude. They just don't know. Holding the door for people as they come in, basic etiquette. Now in today's world, people don't have that, but you know what? I believe in makalu among values. I believe teaching traditional old fashioned values such as that are a good thing. Having respect for elders, having respect for authority. These are things that we need to teach our children because they're certainly not going to learn it from the world, right? Number three, proficiencies. Help your children become proficient at skills that will make them successful at life and help them to develop a plan at a young age. Let's close in a word of prayer.