(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

We're going to come back to Exodus chapter 2 here, this story about Moses, but if you would turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18 of the New Testament. First book of the New Testament, Matthew chapter 18. The Bible reads in Matthew chapter 18 verse number 1, at the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them and said, verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso, and listen to this verse, and whoso shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me. So it's pretty clear here that children are pretty important to Jesus Christ, right? He says, look, this is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven right here and if you receive a little child, you know, in my name you're receiving me. Look at Matthew chapter number 19, just the next chapter. It says in Matthew chapter 19 verse 13, then were 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. And he laid his hands on them and departed them. So here, there are people bringing children to Jesus and his disciples rebuked them saying, you know, don't bring those kids, right? Get those kids out of here. We don't need kids here right now. And Jesus gets upset at his disciples and says, no, suffer the little children and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Now what does the word suffer mean? Suffer means to put up with something, you know, to allow something. Now, children can sometimes cause disturbance or sometimes be distracting or be a lot of trouble or a lot of work. But Jesus said, hey, that's okay. I'm willing to put up with that. I'm willing to, you know, put up with maybe a little bit of inconvenience here because it's important to me to have these children here. So I want you to suffer them. I want you to allow them to be here, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. It says, he laid his hands on them and departed them. You know, the laying off hands in the Bible. A lot of times when, you know, you pray for somebody, you place your hand upon them and pray for them and bless them. Go to Luke chapter 18. We'll see a similar statement here. Luke chapter number 18, because I want to show you and actually take this even a step further in Luke 18 verse 15, the Bible says, and they brought up to him also infants. Now, what is an infant? What's an infant? A baby, right? And not only that, but you know, if you actually just want to go really deep into what the word infant means, who knows what the infantry is? It's the foot soldiers, right? Well, the word infant actually literally means a child who is too young to walk. That's what it means. So an infant would be anytime from being, you know, a baby that's born all the way up to where it starts working. Now, how old is Elizabeth? And she just kind of started to walk. Yeah, she's 13 months old. She's just starting to take this first step. You know, some children walk at nine months, some walk at 14 months, you know, but it's about that stage, about one year old, roughly is when they start walking. So an infant is a child that's basically from birth unto about one year old. That's what they brought to Jesus here in Luke chapter 18. And it says in verse 15, they brought in him also infants that he would touch them, but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. And Jesus called them unto him and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no lies enter therein. Now, why did they bring the children unto him? It says that they brought them unto him in verse 15, that he would touch them, you know. So they want Jesus to bless their child. You know, they want him to touch their child and bless it and pray for it. And the disciples get upset, but Jesus says, No, allow them, suffer them to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Now, let me ask you this. Do you think that that baby was able to understand any of Jesus' preaching? No. Do you think they were able to comprehend verbally the truths that were coming out of his mouth as he preached? No. They're too young to understand that, but still it was just a blessing for them to just at least be in the presence of Jesus. I mean, think about it. If Jesus were walking on this earth right now, wouldn't you want to bring your child just to expose it to him and just to show them Jesus? And maybe they could just hear his voice and even if they didn't understand exactly what he was saying, they could at least pick up something just from the experience of being with Jesus and being there. And tonight what I want to preach about, and I've got a lot of different scripts we're going to go to, and we're going to be back next to chapter 2, but I want to preach about why we have children in our church today. Now, there are a lot of church, pretty much almost every church in America, you know, most churches, 90%, you know, they want to take the children out of the church, and especially they want to get the infants out, you know, because the infants can cause a disturbance, they can cry, they can cause, like right now there's a baby crying, that's an infant, that was the exact infant I was using as an illustration a minute ago, you know, she didn't like that, she started crying. You know, why do we have the children in the service? Why not set up a children's church, you know, where they have their own separate church, or why not have a nursery and put them in a different building somewhere, get them out, you know, so that the adults could, you know, get together and have the preaching and not have to be bothered by children or infants. That's what I'm going to preach on tonight, why that is. Well, first of all, Jesus wanted them around, number one. We never see Jesus sending the kids away, sending them his way, they were really important to him, and he said actually they're the most important. They're the greatest in the kingdom of heaven right here. I want them here. But go back to Exodus chapter two, and I'm going to show you a big reason why I really believe in having the kids in church, and I'm so glad to have my children in church from day one, even as little kids growing up in church, how important that is. Now in Exodus chapter two we have a story about Moses. Now Moses is born here in Exodus chapter two, and the Bible says in verse number two, and the one that conceived and bare a son, this is Exodus 2-2, and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. You say, why was she hiding? Well in chapter one, Pharaoh had wanted to get rid of the Israelites and make sure they didn't multiply too fast, so he made a law that if the babies that were born were girls, they would let them live, but if their baby was a boy, they would kill him and throw it in the Nile River. So this is a very evil man, Pharaoh. Well, Moses' parents are trying to protect him from that fate, so they're hiding him. They don't want anybody to know that she even gave birth, so they hide baby Moses for three months, but after three months it got to the point where they can't hide him anymore, because when children are less than three months old, they don't make as much noise, they kind of get to a noisy age though, and they start crying more and making a lot more noise, and it just got to the point where we just can't hide him anymore. We're going to get caught here. So basically what they decide to do, look at verse three, what they're going to do with baby Moses, it says, and when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein, and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink, and his sister stood afar off to wit what would be done to him. So basically they make this basket, and put baby Moses in the basket, they made it nice and waterproof, they put it on the river, and then Moses' sister Miriam is going to follow along and just make sure that everything's okay with him. So they put him afloat down the river, and it says in verse five, and the daughter of Pharaoh came down to watch herself at the river, so she's taken aback in the river, and her maidens walked along by the riverside, and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it, and when she had opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. And she had compassion on him and said, this is one of the Hebrew's children. So here's the little boat that she made, the little baskets flowing down the river, Pharaoh's daughter, this is a very important person, very influential, rich person, this is the princess, you know, because Pharaoh's the king of Egypt, this is his daughter, and she finds Moses in the river, she opens the basket, and he starts crying, and you know, all of a sudden it just tugs on her heartstrings, it says she had compassion, she just feels bad for this baby, and she realizes right away, this is a Hebrew baby, this is one of the Israelites' children. So look what happens, it says in verse number seven, then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, go, and the maid went and called the child's mother, and Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages, and the woman took the child and nursed it, so here's what happened. Miriam's following along, she sees Pharaoh's daughter find the baby, so she walks up to Pharaoh's daughter and says, oh, would you like me to go find you a Hebrew woman that can nurse this baby for you? And she's like, oh, okay, well she goes and gets his real mom, okay, so basically now Moses is going back to his parents, which is great, you know, but she pitched it as, hey, somebody needs to nurse this baby. Back then they didn't do, you know, infamil, isomil, they didn't do formula. If there was a baby that needed to be nursed and the mother couldn't nurse it, obviously Pharaoh's daughter couldn't nurse it because she didn't have any milk and she hadn't had a child, so they went and hired someone to nurse the baby, and they were actually women who that was their job, they would actually nurse babies, okay, for a living. It's kind of weird to us today because that doesn't really exist anymore in this part of the world, but back then it was pretty common, and so they get the child's mother, so this is perfect. Well, you can imagine how happy Moses' mother is. She just sent her baby away, didn't think she was going to get to see it again. Now all of a sudden it's back, and she gets to take her baby back home with her. So this is great. Well, Pharaoh's daughter says, take this child and nurse it for me, and I'll pay you, and then bring him back to me when he's done, you know, when he's off the breast, once he's already been, what's the word? Weaned. Weaned, right? Weaned is when they're done breastfeeding. And it says in verse 10, and the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, and she said, because I drew him out of the water. So who named this baby? Pharaoh's daughter. Pharaoh's daughter named the baby Moses, okay, after he was weaned. Now, at what age is a child weaned? Well, typically probably one to two years old, you know, because after that, they've got big, gnarly teeth in their mouth, and they don't really nurse anymore. And you know, here's a tip that it's probably time to wean your child, if they start, like, telling you, okay mom, I'm ready to eat now, you know, and so they're probably too old to be breastfed. So obviously, I would say two, latest, even people who are just really, like, breastfeeding activists, right, isn't two about the oldest that they're going to breastfeed you to? Two is pretty much the limit, you know, of a typical, one would be like the lower limit, about one is when you sneeze and start getting them on solids. Two is like, you know, they're definitely on solids. When they start reaching out and grabbing the food and shoving it into their own mouth, you know, they're not, they're not nursed anymore, okay? So the bottom line is, Moses' mother didn't have him until he was seven. She didn't have him until he was five. She didn't have him until he was four or three. She probably had him until he was one or two. You know, just a few years, let's just say two is probably, you know, pretty realistic. One and a half, two years old. This child lived with his mom and dad until he was two. Then he's put into Pharaoh's daughter's home. He's told, this is your parents, this is your mom, this is your family, and, you know, you are going to be educated and trained our way and we're going to give you a name, Moses. Go to Hebrews chapter 11, the end of the New Testament. Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter number 11. And it says in Hebrews 11 verse 23, by faith Moses, when he was born, this is God shedding a little more light on this story in the Old Testament. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child, and watch this last phrase, and they were not afraid of the King's commandments. So they basically were not afraid to break the law because they, you know, they want to keep their child alive. They don't want their child to be killed. And so because of their faith in God, they weren't afraid. They knew they were doing the right thing. They knew it was going to be okay. They were not afraid of the King's commandments. Verse 24, by faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Does anybody know how old he was when he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter? 40. He was 40 years old, it says in Acts 7 and the book of Exodus. He was 40 years old when he got to the point where he refused to be called Pharaoh's daughter. Look what it says next in verse 25, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect under the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, look at this next phrase, what's it say? Not fearing the wrath of the King. Doesn't that remind you of his parents who were not afraid of the King's commandments? Now Moses grows up and he's not afraid of the King's commandments. He's not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Isn't this amazing that this baby who's just raised by his parents for only two years and then for 38 years, when he's three, when he's four, when he's five, all the way up to teenage years, all there is adult years. The Bible says in Acts chapter 7 that he was trained and learned in all the knowledge of the Egyptians. It says in Acts chapter 7. He was a man mighty in word and deed. He was brought up in all their education. I mean he grew up royalty. He grew up the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He was in all the best schools. He learned all the things that they taught him and yet when he got to 40 years old, he rejected everything he was taught. He rejected his whole family. He rejected everything and went back to what he was taught when he was zero to two years old. Isn't that amazing? I mean what kind of an impact must have his parents made on his life that at 40 he would go back to that? 40 he would give up everything, give up all his money, all his position, all of his faith and become a literal outlaw. Why? Because he chose to suffer with the people of God because of what he was exposed to when he was zero, one, two years old, just a little baby. You see, those are the formative years. This is what people don't understand today. Those are the important, most formative years and often times we would just blow it off like Pharaoh's daughter just blows it off and says, you know what? I don't even care who raises this baby. If it's just breastbed, just hire somebody, just send the baby away. Bring it back to me when he's two. Bring it back to me after he's through the diapers and through the nursing stage. That's a lot of work. I'm going to hire somebody to do that for me and then when that's all done, bring it back to me and then I'll raise it as my own son and I'm going to raise it to be like me. Wrong. He's not going to be like you. He's going to be like the one who taught him when he was zero, one, two, just a little baby. Why? Because we don't understand how impressionable those young minds are. That's why. Moses, who knows? The songs that his mother would sing. If you have children, you know what it's like when you have a baby. They love to be sung to and you're holding them and singing. I remember when my son Solomon was born. I would sit with the hymnal and literally sing to him for hours because he's always loved music and that would be the one thing that would calm him down. I'd get off work and give my wife a break and he'd be sitting in his car seat or sitting in a little chair as a baby. I would just sit in front of him and just turn the pages and sing to him. He loved for me to sing to him. I wonder what Moses' mother was singing to him. Spiritual songs. Songs that had God's word. Songs of the Lord that were basically training his young mind and teaching his young mind. How many times did his mom read him the Bible? She probably knew, hey, I'm not going to have this child forever. I've only got him for these first two years. Then he's going to go to Pharaoh's daughter. So she read him the Bible. I'm bringing it into modern day but just like we would sing the hymns that we know. To God be the glory. Blessed assurance on Christ the solid rock I stand. Bring it into our day. Singing those songs. Reading the Bible. Training that child the way they should go. Disciplining him. Teaching him right from wrong from that very young age. And that was the training that stuck with him for the rest of his life. Look at Proverbs 22 verse 6. And see this ties in exactly with what we were just talking about with Jesus. Where they're bringing in infants. They're bringing in small children. And he's saying no, let them come. Bring them. Let me bless them. Let me lay my hands upon them. For of such is the kingdom of God. We need to get that attitude today that children are someone that we want to reach with the God. That we want to preach the Bible to. And that we want to have in church in God's house so that they can learn what they need to learn. Look at Proverbs 22 verse 6. A famous verse says this. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Now we think of that training as being much later. But really that training starts young. I remember when my wife was pregnant we read him the entire Bible covered a couple. We read Solomon the entire Bible covered a couple while he was in the womb. He said he can't understand that. He doesn't know what you're saying. You know what? He probably didn't. But you know what? As he grows up with that voice of God's word, of his parents reading him God's word, as he grows up hearing those words, they're picking up more than you think. Just like when they brought those children to Jesus. No, they couldn't understand his preaching. But what did they get out of that? They got something out of it. You see, babies or children being in our church today, you say well a one year old can't understand your sermon. You say it's all going over their head. Well you know what? Something didn't go over Moses' head when he was a baby. And I'll tell you right now, you'll be shocked how much little children can learn from a service like this. You know, sometimes we just think, oh they don't understand anything, they don't know what's going on. But later on you'll talk to them and they remember things. And they pick up things. But let's just pretend for a moment that they can't understand any of my preaching at all. That it's all going over there. Think about some of the things they're learning. They're learning the music. They're learning the songs. I mean even a little child, even just a one year old will hum these songs and chat along with these songs. I remember I used to have a cassette tape of myself when I was a baby. I don't know if I was a baby, I was like a toddler. A cassette tape where they recorded me singing the song from the hymnal Dwelling in Yuleland. And I couldn't even pronounce the word. It was just like, Praise God! And I would sing that song. And we'd play that tape and everybody would tell me, you know, your whole life that was your favorite song. When you were just a little kid, Dwelling in Yuleland was your favorite song, you'd sing it, you couldn't even pronounce it. Even at that young age, and let me just get into my own life right now. Even at that young age, I was being taught the hymns I was being taught about, but guess what? As I got older, we actually left fundamental Baptist churches and we started going to some really liberal churches. And we went to a lot of churches that had rock and roll, totally different music, totally different, I mean it was the NIV, it was not the King James Bible, no soul winning, nobody ever, we heard about like one person getting saved like in the several years that we went there. No one was ever baptized the whole time we were there. You know, it was just really totally different than our style of church. The preacher literally, I walked up to him one time as a teenager and said, how come you've never even said the word hell? And I read about hell in the Bible and it's like it doesn't even exist. And he's like, yeah, right shit, I just don't like to talk about it. So that's a pretty big difference, right? But let me tell you something, when I was a teenager, when I was 16 years old, I looked around the church I was in and I didn't like it. And I said to myself, you know what, this isn't right. And I remember every once in a while they'd pull out one of the hymns, because it was all the rock and roll and Christian contemporary music, but every once in a while they'd pull out the hymns and I would love it. And I was listening to, you know in my car I'm blasting all the worldly rock music and everything, but whenever I'd get to church and then we'd sing a hymn I'd be like, oh wow, great, we're actually singing one of the hymns. And I loved it and I didn't even know why. But I'll tell you why, it's because I was brought up with it as a child. And it brought back those memories. And I'll tell you this, when I was 16 years old or right about the time that I turned 17, when somebody walked up and invited me to an independent fundamental Baptist, soul winning Baptist church where the pastor preached hard and where there was all kinds of door knocking and all kinds of soul winning, when I walked into that church it was just like, yes, this is where I belong, this is where I want to be, this is it right now. So you see how even though all throughout my teenage years and a lot of my childhood years I was exposed to all this liberalism and I was just totally watered down. There was something inside of me that was implanted in me just from a little child, just like Moses, where I got to a certain age and I reverted back to that because it was ingrained in me from a young age. You see, the bottom line is, children are learning and picking up a lot more than you think. Don't discount it. But let's say they don't understand a word that I'm saying. They're getting the music. They're not going to grow up and think that church is like a rock concert. Does this church seem like a rock concert to you? No. But many churches do seem like a rock concert, but when they grow up they're going to go to a church that seems like a rock concert and say, this doesn't seem right, this doesn't seem like a church because this is what they're used to. And you say, well why do you want to get used to your style of church? Because our style of church is the one that's preaching the truth and going out and preaching the gospel to people and we don't want them to go to some kind of a fun center where it's a big rock concert where the word of God is not preached, where people don't get saved, where nobody's ever baptized, where nobody's life ever changes. That's not where I want my children to grow up and I'm glad that they're learning today what church is really like. It's people singing spiritual songs, not worldly songs. It's people getting Bible preaching from a man, a man up here, yelling and preaching and preaching it hard. That's what they're going to grow up and be used to. So they're at least learning the style of church. They're learning what it sounds like to hear God's word read from the pulpit. They're hearing the music. They're getting the feel for the church and that's going to stick with them for the rest of their life. But they're also picking up more than you think from the words. They're growing up. You know, I've noticed this. Let's say people have not been in church their whole life and then they start bringing kids that are five, six to church. A lot of times they don't even know how to behave in church. You know, they'll bring a four or five year old to church and the kids squirming around and making noise and horsing around. But you know, if you look at a five year old that's been in church his whole life, he'll sit still. You know, because he's been brought up that way from the beginning. So isn't that worth something right there? Having a child that's three or four, because at three or four they can definitely understand a lot. Well thank God they know how to sit still, be quiet and listen because they've been trained that way since birth from the beginning. These are reasons why we want to have the children in church because number one, Jesus said, bring them to me. Suffer them. I know it can cause a little distress. And every once in a while a baby cries so he has to step out. Big deal. It's worth the trade off, my friend, to have them here and that from a child they can know the Holy Scriptures which are able to make them wise unto salvation. I mean, by the time that I get to the point where I was giving the Gospel to my children, they already have every verse that I'm telling them memorized because they've been soul winning with me. They've been brought in a baby sling out soul winning. They've been out soul winning, pushed in a stroller. They've heard that word their whole life and they're able to comprehend so much more because they start with, they don't grow up and say, oh I need an NIV, this is King James II. They grow up with it from the beginning. They didn't grow up on a dumbed down version. But today, and this is what I'm dealing with tonight, today we want to take the children out of the church and put them somewhere else in their own children's church. Now go to Isaiah chapter 28 if you would, Isaiah chapter 28. And I'll tell you what I've noticed. I've noticed that a lot of children and a lot of teenagers and pretty much, I'll put it this way, 90% of the kids that I grew up with in Sacramento, California, 90 some percent of the kids and teens that I grew up with in Sacramento, California, more than 90% of them are not in the kind of churches that they grew up in. They grew up with me in independent fundamental Baptist churches. They grew up in the same churches that I did. And yet you find them today in the most liberal, charismatic, watered down church and literally to the tune of 90 some percent, they're not in a fundamental Baptist church. They're not in a soul winning church. They're not in a King James Bible preaching, hymn singing type Baptist church. They're just not there. And you say, why does that happen? Why in the world do these children grow up and go to the rock band church and the party church instead of going to what they grew up with? Because they didn't grow up with it. That's why. Because while mom and dad were in a fundamental Baptist church, they were in another building in the children's church. Now, here's the problem with the children's church. And people will say to me that I'm wrong about this and that's why I want to preach this. They'll say, Pastor Anderson, you've got to bring it down to their level. Show me that in the Bible. Bring them up to the Bible's level. And the problem is they'll say, oh, it's all going over their head. No, it's not. I mean, I remember some people started coming to our church five years ago in the early days of our church. This family started coming and their son was pretty young. I think he was about six years old, six, seven, okay, when he first started coming. And he came to church and I preached a sermon about walking in the light and walking in darkness and so forth. And his parents told me, they said, yeah, we were on a trip and we stopped at a casino and they were just doing the buffet or whatever. They weren't gambling with their kids. And the kids stopped and said, wait a minute, this is one of those places that Pastor Anderson was talking about where they turn the lights down dark because people are doing bad things. So right away, they sunk in with it, comprehended. Because I was talking about in my sermon, bars, they keep it dark. They keep the casinos dark. Just because places where people are doing bad things, they turn out the lights because men love darkness rather than light. And this six year old completely comprehended that and restated that. And I think it was like a month or so after I preached it. Months later, he had it in his head. You know what? The light is good. The darkness is bad. And you know, going into this place where it's really dark atmosphere, this is probably not a good place. So you see how much kids can pick up and understand more than you think. I mean, I'm always shocked at what my children will know. And I challenge you, ask my children about doctrine. Ask my nine year old. Ask my eight year old. Ask my seven year old. Is John seven now? Six, he still says, yeah. Yeah, nine, eight, seven. We have to be having our kids a little too close together. They're not that close together. You know, ask my six year old, okay, Bible questions. He'll give you the Bible doctrines. He'll give you the right answer. And he'll know why. He won't just recite something to you. He comprehends many doctrines of the Bible because he's been in church his whole life. Three times a week, he's only six years old. What does he know? Hey, when I was six years old is when I got saved. And I probably, you say you were too young to understand. No, I understood it perfectly at age six. I didn't know everything about the Bible. There are a lot of things I didn't know. But I'll tell you what, I understood salvation crystal clear at age six, just as well as I understand it right now. I knew that it was all through Jesus. I understood heaven, hell. I understood the whole thing at age six. And I got saved. But you know what? I didn't just, as a six year old, have somebody walk up to me and give me the gospel and I got saved. No, it's because I learned so much gradually growing up that by the time I was six, I was ripe unto harvest because I'd already been preached. The seed had already been planted. It had already been watered. And by the time I was six, it was easy for me to get saved because I grew up hearing the preaching of God's word, hearing the plan of salvation preached, and getting it from my parents, getting it from church. And so that right there is an example of just a young person getting so much more out of it than we think. But we put them in the children's church and then we wonder why they grow up and go to a totally different kind of church. Because let's examine the children's church tonight. Typically the children's church, these are going to be the differences. You say, well what's going to be the difference between the main service and the children's church? Well I'll tell you one big difference is the music. These children's churches, they don't use the hymns. They basically use really shallow songs that are more of a wilder music, not quite the rock and roll, but I mean it's a wilder music. They don't come and sing, rock of ages cleft for me. I'm singing back because my throat hurts and just because I can't sing even my throat doesn't hurt. But the point is they don't sing blessed assurance. Basically what they'll sing is stuff like this. Somewhere in outer space God has prepared a place for those who trust Him and obey. That's what I grew up in some of these children's churches singing. And I've worked in children's churches where that's what we were singing to the kids. Well here's the problem. That's a totally different music style than this. So you're ingraining that style. They think, oh yeah, this is church. Somewhere in outer space. And then they grow up and it's, our God is an awesome God. But look, whether you like that music or not or whatever you think about the music, the bottom line is why would they go to a church that has this kind of music when we trained them on that kind of music? They're going to grow up and go to that and listen to the song. Somewhere in outer space God has prepared a place for those who trust Him and obey? Is that true? I remember I sing that song. I said, for those who trust Him and believe. If you have to obey God, isn't that like a work salvation? If you obey, you'll get there. And that's just one example. Somebody help me out with some of the other examples. Yeah, I like that song. But yeah, I mean you're not exactly going to grow up and go, you know, right arm left arm, right arm left arm. You know that one where you start turning? Yeah, right arm left arm, right foot left foot, turn around, right arm left You know, have we sung that song lately here? No. And so you're giving them a totally different style of music. And let me tell you something, the reason that kids don't love the hymns is because you told them, oh this is boring, this is adult stuff. My kids love the hymns. That's their favorite music. That's what they sing around the house many times. They don't have to have this kiddie music necessarily because nobody told them that this wasn't for them. Nobody told, oh yeah, this is tired, old stuff. And I remember when we were teens in these liberal churches, they'd get up and I'd say, hey, let's do some hymns. Why don't we throw in some hymns? Oh, no, no, no, the teens don't like that. I think I am a teen and I think I'm telling you that that's what I want. You know what I mean? And you know, other teens agree with me many times. No, no, you guys don't like this. You guys like rock and roll. It's like, why don't I tell you what I like since I am the teen. I'm the teen with my bleach blonde hair pumped out and I'm telling you I want to sing the hymns. You know, and it's like, they just have this idea, oh no, this isn't for you. No, no, you don't, you need this other thing, you know. And they're like, okay. And they're going to have that for the rest of their life. And what you're doing is you're putting a kid at a different church, totally different church, different congregation, different assembly, different music, different preaching, and then all of a sudden when they're four or five, it's just like, okay, you just hit the five-year-old cutoff, now you're in the main service. But today many churches are doing it at 12. But let's just say even at five, when you've had that kid in a little fun center where he's eating cookies and drinking Kool-Aid and jumping around singing wild music, and then all of a sudden you just put him in the main service, what's he going to think? This is boring. I wish I was back there with the Kool-Aid and the cookies and Father Abraham and somewhere in outer space. It's like a shock. You know, and especially if they've never even sat in the main service and they're like 12. Think about it. But even just if they spent the first four years in something totally different, so the first difference between children's church and the main church is usually the music is dramatically different. I've never seen one where the music was the same. And then the next thing that's different, dramatically different, is the preaching. Because nine times out of ten, they have a woman preacher in the children's church. Now in the main church, of course, we only have a man preaching, of course. But in the children's church, they have a woman preacher. And so what happens is these kids for the first four years of their life are listening to a woman preach the Bible to them. And I'm okay with mothers preaching the Bible to their own children, but they're coming to church and having a woman up there preaching them. And then you wonder why these hair-legged men, when they're adults, will sit and listen to Joyce Meyer preach and listen to all these women preachers. How can they listen to that? Because they were brought up with it from a child. They're just used to going to church and hearing a woman preacher. And then Joyce Meyer is no problem. And then also, the biggest difference in the preaching is that the preaching is totally toned down. Because it's like, well, these kids can't really handle the hard preaching. These are just kids. We've got to take it easy on them. And so Noah's Ark, I grew up thinking that Noah's Ark was all about the animals. Yeah, two by two. Cool story. What they forgot to tell you was that God killed every human being on this planet, except eight people. Now, that's not a fun time. That's not on the story carpet. And then, boys and girls, he killed everybody. See, the problem is, in order to basically change the story to make it suitable for kids, you turn it into a lie. You turn it into something that doesn't even resemble... I mean, the big thing about the story is that God destroyed the whole world. That's the big thing. He destroyed the whole world and saved eight people alive. It's not really that... I mean, yeah, he did put animals on board. But to a kid, your average kid, it's all about the animals. I mean, if you ask your average kid who's seen all the flannel graph and seen the Children's Church and the Sunday School, they're going to say, oh, Noah's Ark, yeah, animals two by two. Anything else? No. That's about it, right? They went on a boat ride. And see, the problem is, they tone it down. They don't get up and preach on hell. They don't get up and yell and preach and holler and snore and really tell the truth. And you say, well, kids are too young to handle it. No, they're not. No, they're not. They need to hear the straight dope from the beginning, not tone down, water down, because you know what they're going to do? They're going to grow up and go to a watered-down church. Because it's those formative years, in their formative years, they said, hey, church is a fun place. Because of the other objection, people will say, first the music, and then they'll say the preaching is too hard for or they can't handle it. And by the way, if the preaching that's coming out of my mouth is not suitable for children, maybe I shouldn't be preaching like that. You know what I mean? Because some preachers will talk about stuff that they shouldn't talk about and they'll get too explicit. Maybe nobody should be hearing that kind of preaching. If we have to shelter children from it. But if it's God's word, I'm not going to shelter my children from God's word. As long as it's God's word, they can handle it. They don't need to be sheltered from it. And so they'll say, well, they can't handle it. And then they'll say, well, the music's boring. But then the next thing they'll say is that, hey, we've got to make it fun for the kids. Have you heard that? We've got to make it fun for the kids so that they'll want to come to church. So you know what that teaches them? Go to church because you want to because it's fun. And you know what they're going to do? They're going to grow up and find the funnest church they can find. And let me tell you a word that's never found in the Bible, fun. Seriously, show me one time from Genesis under Revelation, show me the word fun once. Show me the word funny. You're not going to find it. Church is not about having fun. And right now, some of you hear me say that and just bristle. What do you mean? Of course I'm supposed to have fun at church. Why? That just goes back to the programming. It just goes back to this exactly what I'm talking about, that people have a mentality that says a church is a place where I go because I want to have fun. And I'm going to go to church and have fun. And I'm only going to go because I like to go there. But the bottom line is I don't go to church because it's fun. I go to church because I want to serve God, because I want to learn the Bible, because I'm interested in the Bible, because I want to get excited about the truth so I can go out and preach the gospel and get people safe. I'm not coming here to have fun. There's other ways to have fun. Go water skiing, go snowboarding, go bicycling, go hiking. Those are the fun times. Church is not a fun place. And I'm going to make sure it's not fun for you. The point is, what I'm trying to say is, there's nothing wrong with having fun. But is that really what church is about? Fun? You've got to make it fun for them. Why don't we make it the way that they're going to need to be for the rest of their life? I don't spend most of my life having fun. I don't know that you do. Who spends 90% of their time, you're an adult and you spend 90% of your time having fun. Spend 90% of your time working. You spend 90% of your time doing stuff that you need to do. Working, building something, doing something, fixing something, reading something, studying something. You do something that matters with your life, because fun is a waste of time. Fun has its place. You can do a little fun, blow off a little steam, but you know what? Monday through Friday, just fun, fun, fun all day long. That is a wicked way to live your life. You need to work. You need to do something. And kids today, it's just they're being trained. Yeah, you go to church and it's a fun place and it's all about jumping around and laughing and games and a five minute little soft soap watered down. Noah's Ark, quick little thing. They'll change Sodom and Gomorrah. I don't know how you change it, but they do. I guess they focus on the lady turning into a pillar of salt and they try to stay away from anything else. And that's fine, but you're not going to raise a kid that's going to come to a fire breathing church when you've got a woman up there who's teaching with a flannel graph and just basically showing you all these little stories. And there's just so much that is different from church. I believe that that's why 90 some percent of kids that will grow up in a typical independent fundamental Baptist church will grow up and go to a soft charismatic church when they grow up. They'll go to a wild church. They'll go to a fun church. They'll go to a church that waters down the message. They'll go to a church with woman preachers because that's exactly what they were raised to do when they were little kids. And that is why I strongly believe that we need to get our kids from day one, from the youngest age, from an infant age, get them under this kind of preaching, get them under this kind of music, get them under this kind of message, get them under the sound of a real leather-lung preacher up here who's not going to water down the message. I promise you that's going to stick with them for the rest of their life and when they're old they won't depart from it. But the problem is you raise them on the watered-down version. When they're old they won't depart from that. And you can try to make them fundamental. I just don't know why. I just can't get my kids interested in church. They're just bored all the time. They don't pay attention. They don't like the preaching. They don't sing the hymns. They want to listen to all this wild rock and roll and rap music and I just can't figure it out. It's because you didn't raise them with it. Because you didn't teach them right. You didn't train them up in it. And that's why they get to a certain age and they revert back. This is what I call it, coming full circle. I believe that most people in their life come what I call full circle. Moses came full circle when he was 40 years old. You start out at a certain point in your life. Your initial training when you're just that young impressionable mind, the most formative ears, you're that blank piece of paper and you get certain things impressed upon you. And you know you can change a lot of things about that but a lot of times you just end up coming full circle. Now getting saved obviously dramatically alters a person and helps them do right. But in a lot of areas there's going to be a tendency. I'm not saying you have to come full circle. But there is a tendency to come full circle. There is a tendency to get back to your roots. To go back and you know I realized that and there were some bad things about my upbringing that I have to be aware of. Hey I don't want to get back to that. I don't want to go back to that. I have to be aware of that. But the bottom line is like it or lump it, it's just a fact. Those are the formative ears. You see today many of the adults when they hear me preach they tune it out. And even the adult who's here listening carefully to every word that's coming out of my mouth right now, a lot of what I preach you know you might be kind of set in your ways a little different than what I'm saying. And you're just kind of thinking like oh yeah you know he doesn't know what he's talking about at this point you know. That's fine but it's just a fact you know older people or adults. A lot of times they're going to blow off some of what I'm saying. But you know what little kids right now man they're hanging on every word that I'm saying. They're getting the most out of the preaching and literally if I had to say who's getting more out of the preaching a 25 year old or a 5 year old the 5 year old is probably getting more out of the sermon. And most people wouldn't believe that but it's true. The 5 year old is probably getting more knowledge today because they're just soaking it up. And hey that's good because I'm preaching the truth. I'm preaching the Bible. We're singing great songs. But you know you put that same 3 year old in front of a bunch of wicked TV shows. You put that same 1 year old and 2 year old and say oh they're too young to understand it we'll just sit them down next to us while we watch this R rated movie. They don't even understand anyway they're only 1 and a half years old. Oh they're picking it up. See the negative is true too. Not only do they pick up the good things oh they'll pick up the bad things too. You got to guard that young mind and train it up in the way that you should go. Guard it from filthy things and guard it from wickedness and train it up in the way it should go and when he's older not the proper man. Look at Isaiah 28. This is a great scripture. I had to turn there. Isaiah chapter 28. And look it's just biblical. Suffer the little children to come. Bring them to God's house. Get them under the preaching. Let them be a little baby Moses today. And you know you don't know where life's going to take you. You don't know. I could drop dead tomorrow right? And you know what I would no longer be able to teach my children anything. But you know what I've already ingrained so much in them. I've already taught them so much. Remember the book of Daniel? In Daniel all his children were kidnapped and taken from their parents into Babylon. And their parents had no more contact with them. And they were put in the Babylonian schools and trained even their names were changed. They even took away their names and gave them a different name. They changed Hananiah to Shadrach. Or they changed Mishael to Meshach. They changed Azariah to Abednego. And they even changed their names. Brainwashed them in a totally different system. But when it came down to it they wouldn't bow down to the golden image. They stayed with the Lord God. They stayed with the Holy Bible. Why? Because they were trained to that. What if the Babylonians came and took America captive tonight? You know I know the Babylonians don't exist anymore. But you know, proverbially speaking. What if the Babylonians came and took all my children captive? You know what? I would have no influence over them ever again. I believe that they would grow up and serve God and do right with their lives. Because I believe that they've already been trained even just as a young child. They've already had so much training in them that no one will ever be able to undo that training. Now I think bad training can be overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit. But I think that good powerful Bible training at that young age, I don't think anybody could defeat that. I don't think that my children could be brainwashed for something different because it's already too late. They've already been through that impressionable stage where they grew up and they were with mom and dad and getting the truth and getting everything right pumped into them. This is what we need to realize. Look at Isaiah 28. I'll show it to you here in verse 7. But they also, this is talking about the preachers, but they also have erred through wine and through strong drink are out of the way. The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink. So basically they're drunks. These preachers are actually drinking and drunken. And it says they are swallowed up of wine. They are out of the way through strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness so that there is no place clean. And by the way, that's a good picture of alcoholism and drunkenness. A lot of vomit, a lot of filth, a lot of dirtiness. You know, we go out slowly and we run into people who are getting drunk and drugging. And you say, well your children are sheltered. No, my children are exposed to drinking. But see the problem is most children when they're 1, 2, 3, 4 years old, they're exposed to drinking through the TV. And it's a clean house. It's clean clothes. It's nice, rich, healthy, athletic people drinking. Whereas when my children see drinking, they see when we go soul winning in the ghettos, they see people drinking who smell bad, who have dirty filthy laundry piled up, who have bugs flying all over their house, who are just living in a mess. You know, they get it in its real context of drunkenness. When they see drugs, you say, oh hey, are your kids your children? No, they see drugs, but they see it in real life. And they see the result of it. They see what it leads to. Not a little sugar coated. I mean, you know, my brother-in-law Bobby, we were talking about this. One of my brother-in-law Bobby's good friends that he grew up with, we were in Sacramento, was in the hospital, dying from drinking. And I talked to Bobby, I said, man, you know, I hope he, you know, is he going to make it? Is he going to live? Because they said, well, if he can live through Saturday, he might survive. But Bobby said it doesn't even matter if he makes it because he said, and he wasn't trying to be heartless. I mean, you know, this is a friend. But he said, you know what, because he said as soon as he gets out of the hospital, he'll keep drinking. He said he was already in a coma a couple months ago. He was already in the hospital. He was already in a coma. And he was told, you can never drink again. You're going to die. And he got out of the hospital and just drank, drank, drank, drank. And he said, even if he survives, he'll drink again. And I think he's already dead, to be honest, because we had this conversation weeks ago. But if he's not dead, he's drinking. You know, and let me tell you something. That's not what they show you on the Budweiser ad. They show you a bunch of good looking guys, you know, like this kind of physique. No, I'm kidding. They show you, you know, a bunch of bronze, you know, muscular guys playing volleyball with all the girls in bikinis, right? And say, hey, this Bud's for you, right? Isn't that what they show? The volleyball and the fun and the good looking and the healthy. They don't show you the vomit and the filth, but the Bible tells you all about it. And you say, oh, you need to shelter kids. That verse isn't for kids. This is the verse that I want my kids to hear. You hear this, kids? All tables are full of vomit and filthiness so that there's no place clean. I want my kids to grow up with that kind of preaching. Because you know what? I can't stop them from seeing the Bud ad. I can't stop them from seeing it. They're going to see it on the way to the grocery store. They're going to see it going down the freeway. They're going to see the Budweiser and the Coors and Tap the Rockies. And I have all the slogans memorized. We all do. You know, Tap the Rockies, king of beers. You know, whatever. I could probably quote it all to you. I could draw a picture of the billboard and the logos. But you know what? At least we can balance it out with the truth. At least we can show them some of the filth by taking them out soul winning in some of the ghettos and show them what life's really like. Show them where things really take you. But this guy, he just can't drink it. He just can't stop. He can't stop. Hey, that's the kind of real life that our kids need to be exposed to, not sheltered from. But let's get on with the next verse. That was verse 8 about the filth there. It says in verse 9, and this is the key. Whom shall he teach knowledge? And the he there is God. He's saying, who is God going to teach knowledge? The prophet, the priest, they failed. They're wicked. They're not preaching what needs to be preached. Who is God going to preach knowledge to? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Look at the answer. Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts, for precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little. You say, well, I don't think they're getting much from the sermon tonight. Well, that's okay as long as they're getting a little. As long as they're getting one line of what I'm preaching tonight. He said, that is the hope for our nation. We look in the pulpits of America, we see sin, we see compromise, we see failure, and then we ask ourselves, where is the hope for America? Where is the future? The future is in the young child that's weaned from the breast. That's what the Bible says. He said, you want to really reach the next generation? You really want to do something for God? You really want to preach the word of God to somebody? Preach it to the young child that's just weaned from the breast. That's the one who needs to be learned. He didn't say, take him from the breast, Isaiah, and put him in a little fun class with a little zoo animal cookies in a little box with a circus on it and have a little story rug and have some watered down thing. And don't read them from the Bible, just read them a Bible storybook. We don't read our kids Bible storybooks, we read them the Bible. You know what I did with my little son Solomon? I basically just searched through the Bible for all the parts of the Bible that I felt like were the easiest to understand. I just found the easy stories. And instead of getting some storybook that's not God's word, I just got God's word. And let's face it folks, some chapters are harder to understand than others, aren't they? So I searched the Bible for just the easiest passages and that's what I would read to him. And I would tell him what the words meant. And I would read him the same stories over and over again and tell him what the words meant and tell him what the words meant. And this was his number one favorite story and I would do this with Isaac and John too. This is their number one favorite story. The disciples in the ship. You know the story about how the disciples are out on the ship and the storm comes. And I'm reading them to him from the Bible. The actual word. I'm not changing any words here. And I'm making it exciting for him but I'm reading it with emphasis. But yeah, I'm doing that right now. In church to adults too. I've got to do this just to keep your attention. But anyway, the point is I read it to him with emphasis and tell him hey, the storm came and I'm reading word for word the story. And they love it. They beg me. Dad, read me the story about the disciples in the ship. And then another one I would do is baby Moses. Read me baby Moses. You know, Exodus chapter 2. And then another one that they liked was the book of Jonah. Read me about Jonah. Jonah and the whale. Jonah and the whale. And I would read him Jonah chapter 1. Jonah chapter 1. Jonah chapter 1. Jonah chapter 1. And when there was a word, we came to a word in Jonah 1. Mariners. I told them, Mariners are the guys in the ship. Kids are really quick at learning stuff. And I read them the real Bible. I just found easy stories. I wasn't reading them about the birth sacrifice in Leviticus or something. And then I would read them the story about where the devil is being thrown into hell in Revelation 20. They love that story. About how he's being chained up and thrown into hell. They like that story. Me too. And you know what? It didn't work their mind. They're fine. You know what I mean? And I'm telling you, they can understand so much more than you think. That is the hope tonight. That's where it begins. God said it, not me. When they're weaned from the breast, He said, that's where they need to be learning. But today's children that have just been weaned from the breast, they're not even in church. They're not even getting to King James. They're getting to what in many cases is a storybook or a flannel graph. Or maybe they're getting a tiny bit of Bible, but you know what? They're not getting this. They're not getting this kind of preaching. And I'll tell you what, this is what they need tonight. And I'm telling you, if we're going to reach the next generation, and let's get off this case. Everybody thinks the world's going to end all the time. Yes, it's eventually going to end. But did you know that people have thought it was going to end for the last few hundred years? They all thought, Jesus is going to come back five years from now. In the 70s and the 60s and the 80s and the 90s, they've always been saying that. And the people just don't care about the kids. These kids aren't even going to grow up. No. We don't know when Jesus Christ is coming back. I think my kids probably will grow up. The chances are, He's probably not going to come in the next ten years or something. Well, we don't know that. So why don't you just plan on it? Why don't you just plan on living to be 80 and just do what you can? And I'm going to raise my children, because I believe that my little child, Anna, is going to grow up and win souls to Christ. I believe that Becca is going to grow up and be a great Christian, godly young lady. I believe that Miriam is going to grow up and go, I'm going to invest in those young lives. I'm going to read them the Bible. And you know, if a little chirp comes out or a little cry or somebody has to get up and walk out with their baby, you know what? I can live with that. Oh, I can't believe you're disturbing the service. What a pain in the neck. They are why I'm preaching. They're not a pain in the neck. They're not a burden. They're why I'm here. And by the way, if you have a child here, if you have a baby here, don't ever think that I'm just upset. Now, look, there is a time, obviously, to step out with your child. And that's why we have a room to take the children. And you can step outside and you can step into the little room here. That's why we provide that room. But you know what? If they're sitting still and being good, man, get them where they can hear the preaching. Get them where they can hear that singing. Say, well, when do they start going to sin? You know what? Bring them here when they're breastfed. That's what the Bible said. He said that's when you start teaching them line upon line, preaching upon preaching. He said, well, aren't you just against this children's church? I'm against dividing up the family and sticking kids off with people that they don't even know. I've been to churches for my first time. I've never even been there in a distant city. And they said, oh, we'll take your children over here. No, you're not. I mean, they're like, oh, your two-year-old goes fast. And I'm like grabbing my teeth. I'm just going to turn my child over to strangers. And you know how many weirdos and people, they flock to churches. Many times in churches where they have children in church, that's where pedophiles and weirdos will go because they think, well, everybody's just going to trust me because I say God bless you and hallelujah. They're just going to turn their kid over to me. And in many cases, they're right. But not at this church, brother. I'm not turning my kids over to any strangers. And they just turn their kids over to a stranger. You don't even know what's being taught in that class. You don't even know what's being preached about Noah's Ark. You don't even know what's being preached. You don't know what's being taught. Why don't you just get in church, sit in it. And a lot of people, I'll tell you right now, a lot of people don't come to our church because of this exact thing that I'm preaching right now. Tons of people have come to our church. Oh, you don't have a children's church? See ya. Because I don't want my little brat sitting next to me in the service. Well, you know what? Maybe if you had him sitting with you in the service, they wouldn't be such a brat because they've learned some character and learned some real Bible doctrine from day one. And people think, oh, we can't have the team with it. They don't even want the teenagers in church half the time. We've got to put them in the team service. And then they get some guy, you know, with like a cool goatee, you know, and he's going to reach the youth. You know what? Teenagers don't think I'm cool. You know what I mean? Like, it's like, you got to get him. He's kind of cool. He's kind of got spiked hair. Hey, what's up? You know, search up, dude. You know, he's like, he's got the white shirt. He's real laid back and he's got to reach them on their level. He gets with their music and, you know, he's like, he's like one of them. But you know what? It's funny how many teens have gotten our church and get this preaching, get out soul winning and totally or transform teens. You know, and then it's funny how many of these worldly youth groups that think they're reaching all the teens, when those kids become adults, it's like, see ya. I'm going to Calvary Chapel. See ya. It's true. I'm going to so and so community church. I'm going to rock for Jesus. You know, I'm going to the rock of, you know, whatever. And they're going to go to these other places and they're going to adventure community. Why? Because of the fact that we've dumbed it down to them. And instead of telling teens, hey, let's bring it to your teens and tweens and whatever, you know, oh, we got to break their level. Why don't we break teens up to this level? You know, I see some of these teens that are 13, 14, 15, 16 years old, worldly teens. I want to tell them, hey, it's time to start being a man. You're not a kid anymore. Grow up, be a man. You know, start thinking like an adult, you know, because when you turn 18, there's not just a light switch going to happen where all of a sudden you're just responsible. You got to start teaching them a little responsibility now. You got to get them used to this kind of preaching now. You got to get them used to maybe looking at a book that has white pages and black ink and no pictures now. This is what they need. And it's not just going to happen automatically when they turn 18. No, you have every, you take them to a special service where everything's all kid-ish and teen-oriented, and then they're not going to go to this church when they turn 18. It's a fact. And so I could go on and on tonight, but I've shown you in the Bible. This is why we don't do it. This is why I think the whole family, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, and this book and this preaching and these hymns are good for everybody. Let's just bring the whole family. We won't turn your kids over to strangers. Let's get the whole family. Let's have mom, dad, kids, whoever's in the family who's here, you know, and uncle, grandpa, you know, whatever. Hey, just get everybody, line them up in a row from the little baby that's being breastfed all the way up to the, you know, the old man, and let's just get everybody in the same church here in the same preaching. That's going to build a strong family. That's going to build adults that think to themselves, church isn't about having fun. It's about hearing the Word of God preached. And we grew up in faithful word from the time that we were drinking out of our mother's milk in faithful word Baptist church, and that's when we grow up. And when we grow up, we go to Calvary Chapel and we're just not being fed there. Because the preaching is watered down. We're not used to that. We can't handle that. We need a fundamental Baptist church. That's what these kids are going to go over and say. That's what I grew up and said. I grew up and said, I'm not being fed in this liberal watered down mess because I grew up as a young person hearing some letter while I'm preaching. Father, we thank you so much for our church, dear God. And God, I thank you personally for my children that you blessed me with. And I pray that you'll bless me with more, dear God, and those who are in the room tonight that have been blessed with children, dear God. I pray that they would just have the wisdom to understand that their children need the Bible, the Word of God from a young age. Deuteronomy 6 tells us that. Help them to realize their children need the hymns of the faith, spiritual songs, not a cheap copycat of the world's music. We need to understand, God, that church is for everybody and that church is the pillar ground of the truth. Help every single person who's here to raise their children right and not to think, well, I'll get serious about parenting when they're poor. Too late. Well, I'll get serious. When they turn three, I'll start thinking, no, it'll be too late. God, please just help them to get this story of baby Moses and let it sink in, dear God, and to raise their children from day one in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.