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

["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] Good evening, stronghold, master. Turn to song number 194. ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] Song 194. It's Jesus came to my heart. Song 194. Call it. ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] ["In the Hall of the Mountain King"] Many are all washed away, since Jesus gave it to my heart. This is the Spirit to my heart, since Jesus gave it to my heart. The joy of my soul I receive in the Lord, since Jesus gave it to my heart. I'm possessed of the hope that is fed past the shore, since Jesus gave it to my heart. In the dark, I'm so proud that my plan is sure, since Jesus gave it to my heart. This is Jesus gave it to my heart, since Jesus gave it to my heart. The joy of my soul I receive in the Lord, since Jesus gave it to my heart. In the light, in the love, in the death, come for me, since Jesus gave it to my heart. In the gates of the Spirit, in the heart, I can see, since Jesus gave it to my heart. This is Jesus gave it to my heart, since Jesus gave it to my heart. The joy of my soul I receive in the Lord, since Jesus gave it to my heart. In the light, in the love, in the death, come for me, since Jesus gave it to my heart. In the light, in the love, in the death, come for me, since Jesus gave it to my heart. In the light, in the love, in the death, come for me, since Jesus gave it to my heart. Amen. Turn to song number 229. Song 229, it's I Have Been Redeemed. I have a song I've longed to sing, since I have been redeemed. The cloud I've redeemed, the Savior I've redeemed, since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed, since I have been redeemed, I will go over you with me. Since I have been redeemed, I will go over you with my Savior's name. I have a right that satisfies, since I have been redeemed. To do is fill my highest parts, since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed, since I have been redeemed, I will go over you with me. Since I have been redeemed, I will go over you with my Savior's name. I have a weight that's bright and clear, since I have been redeemed. This valley, every doubt it fills, since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed, since I have been redeemed, I will go over you with me. Since I have been redeemed, I will go over you with my Savior's name. I have a whole free world for me, since I have been redeemed. Where I shall dwell eternally, since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed, since I have been redeemed, I will go over you with me. Since I have been redeemed, I will go over you with my Savior's name. We will be studying Jeremiah chapter 6 this week. We have the soul winning opportunities listed there, as well as the salvation and the baptisms for the month of August as well as for the year. Let's go ahead and count up the salvations for today. If you had any salvations today, slip your hand up real quick. One, two, three, four, five, six. Amen. All right, very good. Six salvations for the day. Praise the Lord. Keep up the good work. And please remember, just as a side note, keep track of your maps. Write names on here is helpful. If you worked on a map, write your name on there. If you complete it, write the completed date and put completed. And you can even put your name there. Sign off that you completed it. And then in my office, there are three, there's one rack on the wall where there's new, partial, and complete. So if you could, when you get back, just please return the maps to its rightful location. Whoever is the one responsible, sometimes there's big groups. Make one person responsible for the map for checking it off, marking it off, and then bring it back to me. Please, I appreciate that. More importantly, just put it back where it belongs. We do our best to try and make sure that we don't keep hitting the same areas. Brother Jeremy's been helping out tremendously with that. Is it easy, Jeremy? Is it just like, there's a cakewalk, no big deal? No, it's not. It's a lot of work, right? You thought it was. Yeah, you thought it was. So everyone there is like, oh yeah, these maps, no big deal. Yeah, there's a lot of work, a lot of work involved in that. So it's very helpful when you can provide the information to us and we can keep these things because we do want to be organized. We do want to make sure that we're knocking stuff that either hasn't been knocked in years and years and years and years, or especially new stuff to get some new doors knocked. So please help us out. It does help out a lot. I know it's not the first thing on your mind, but please try to return these for us. Really appreciate that. All right, continuing on. Offering totals, three month of August, and then the sword drills, Bible memory. I think it's going great. Kids are having a lot of fun with that. I know those kids now that hadn't in the past maybe, been doing Bible memory and are doing Bible memory. I know I've got a lot of kids at home asking verses and memorizing it. So I'm happy about that. I think it's great. It looks like a lot of fun. And I'm telling you, man, we're going to be, they're going to be prepped for the camp. That's what it's all about right there. We're going to get a chance to shine at the church camp with all this practice. So that's going well. Prayer requests. I did receive a couple of extra prayer requests this afternoon. So of course we added Donnie Lawrence, which is Mrs. Sadler's cousin, who just recently has lost his father and his grandfather in a short period of time. So please pray for their family while they're grieving that loss. We're adding Brayden Parris. Did they head home? Okay. Is that Brother Jared's brother? Brayden? Okay. I wasn't sure. Has an abscessed tooth extraction to come after infection goes away. So yeah, tooth pain, not a lot of fun at all. So we'll pray for Brayden Parris for his tooth. And then we have Dominic was diagnosed with severe combined immunodeficiency, SCID. That's Brother DJ's cousin, but it's a baby. Is that why you used to put a baby cousin? One month old. Okay. Right. Is that something they think they might grow out of or do you know? Like, just, people can. Yeah, just real, needs to be kept isolated. Well yeah, we'll pray for Dominic. So Dominic is a cousin, a more distant cousin of Brother DJ, who's one month old and has this immune deficiency disorder, so can't be around anybody. It's always a vulnerable time when there's newborns anyways because they're still becoming immune to things and interacting with the world around them. But when you have a deficiency, that obviously is a lot more scary. So we will pray that Dominic stays well. All right. Any other updates? Those are additions. We have updates to people who are on the prayer list. Oh, Mrs. Masler told me that Kelly is still, is not, is not doing well. Right? So. Yeah. So the medication they prescribed was not, was making her worse or had other side effects and things that were, that was not doing well for her. So, and she's still not healed from her, from her pains and stuff. So please, please continue to pray for her and their whole family. Obviously it's, when mom goes down, it's a big deal. So pray for Brother Logan and for the family and the kids and God will keep them all safe and especially that Kelly will, will recover. So yeah. And, and if anyone wants to help out there, I'm sure they would appreciate it. Any type of help that you could provide for them. I don't know how debilitated she is by just the fact that she went to the hospital for the, for the pain kind of speaks for itself. And then down there at the bottom of the page, Pure Words Baptist Church is getting prepared to ordain their current evangelist, Salvador Alvarez, as the pastor of that church. So pray that God blesses that church and that everything goes really well and just pray that, you know, with, with the protests and everything else that have been going on, that God will still bless, will especially bless the church, but, but strengthen them and, and, and help them to grow and to flourish in spite of the haters that are trying to shut them down. So pray that God's blessing will be upon them and especially on Brother Alvarez as he is taking this next step in his own spiritual walk with the Lord. So on the next page, Fundamentals Conference, hope we could be here for that. It's Thursday through Sunday, Thursday and Friday, preaching seven o'clock, just like we do on our Wednesday night service. It'll be seven o'clock on, and we, and by the way, we are still having our regular midweek service. So Wednesday night, we're gonna do a Bible study. Thursday night then will be the conference at seven. Friday night will be the conference at seven. Soul winning all day on Saturday, marathon. So from 10 till four, four thirty will be actually soul winning, hidden doors and stuff like that. This is home base for everything, for the soul winning, for the preaching. Everything's gonna be held right here. And then, of course, Sunday is gonna be the last day of the conference will still be the conference, but I'll be the one preaching on Sunday for the Fundamentals Conference. So hopefully you can make it out to that. Love to see you here. And I did create a video and put it out and it does have audio. Thanks for thank you for letting me know about that, by the way. That was awesome. We like made this video. I checked it before I left the office and then the battery died for my mic as soon as I got over here and I couldn't see that it was over there. And I was about ready to leave, turning lights off. We're getting out of here. And then it was like, oh pastor, there's no audio on that video you just uploaded. So thank you. We did get it uploaded. We got it uploaded. So it's out there. We got it on YouTube. We got it on Facebook. We got it on Rumble. So share wherever you like to share. Share on social media. Try to let people know. I mean, it's just a little less than two weeks away. So it's about a week and a half. Not giving people a whole lot of time to plan to get out here. But hopefully we'll still have some people show up nonetheless. I'm excited for Pastor Reyes, Pastor Mejia. Great guys. Looking forward to hear what they have for us for that event. And then we got the next men's preaching class on Saturday, September 7th, right here at 10 a.m. I just put it in print there. You've got to be a soul winner if you want to be able to preach and just prepare for a 5 to 15 minute sermon. But otherwise, all men are welcome to attend. And then the Bible memory passage. You can see that there. Upcoming birthdays and anniversaries listed down there at the bottom of the page. And that is about it for our announcement. So I'm going to turn the service over to Brother Will, who can lead us in our next song. Turn the song number 215. Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful day, day I will never forget. After I wandered in darkness away, Jesus, my Savior, I met. Oh, a tender, compassionate friend, He met the feet of my heart. For shadows just swelling with joy, I am telling, He made all the darkness depart. My soul, my sins were washed away. Heaven came down and glory fell on my soul. Lord of the Spirit, delightful above, into God's family divine. Justed by holy fruit, now where He's loved, oh, what a standing is mine. And the transaction so quickly was made when, as a sinner, I came. So could we offer a praise even proper, He said, we'll praise His dear name. Heaven came down and glory fell on my soul. When at the cross the Savior made me whole, my sins were washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down and glory fell on my soul. Now I'm a hope that was surely born after the passing of time. I have a future ahead for sure, there is no place to survive. And because of that wonderful day, when at the cross my belief, which is eternal and blessed, I see somehow the first that I received. Heaven came down and glory fell on my soul. When at the cross the Savior made me whole, my sins were washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down and glory fell on my soul. Proverbs chapter 22, which reads, A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold. The rich and poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all. A prudent man foreseeeth the evil, and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward, he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. The rich willeth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity, and the rod of his anger shall fail. He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed, for he giveth of his bread to the poor. Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out, a strife and reproach shall cease. He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend. The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor. The slawful man sayeth, There is a line without, I shall be slain in the streets. The mouth of a strange woman is a deep pit. He that is aboard of the Lord shall fall therein. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich shall surely come to want. Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge. For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee, they shall withal be fitted in thy lips. That thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee. Have not I written to thee excellent things, and counsels, and knowledge, that I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth, that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that sinned unto thee? Rob not the poor, because he is poor, neither oppress thee afflicted in the gate, for the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them. Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man thou shalt not go, lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul. Be not thou one of them that strike hands, or of them that are sure it is for debts? If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee? Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set. Cease thou a man diligent in his business. He shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for letting us worship you again, and getting to hear your word preached. Thank you for the souls that were saved today. Bless, Pastor, and fill them with your spirit, and give them clarity of mind and the words to say today. Give us ears to hear and to let it apply to our lives, and that we would take it and serve you, and to preach your word this week. Help us to win more people to you as we go out this week, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. So this evening I want to preach to you. The title of my sermon is Educate Your Children. Educate Your Children. Now, there's going to be some things when I preach that are going to be my opinion. Some things I preach are going to be more, you know, they're biblically based, but there's still more I would consider a preference and, you know, what I think to be right. We're going to be talking about things that might be more ideal situations, and there's not everyone has ideal situations. I get that. I understand that. So I'm kind of just giving this caveat up front because I don't want people getting, like, all upset, and the decisions that you make to educate your children and how you do it is totally up to you, right? There's ways that I think are better and worse, and I think that the Bible gives us some guidance and some outline on what we should do. However, whatever method you choose, and we'll get into some of the methods, I think, a little bit later, like near the end of my sermon, but I want to start off by just stressing the importance of education, of learning, of wisdom, of knowledge, of, you know, as fundamental Baptists especially, as Bible-believing Christians, we ought to emphasize education and learning and wisdom. It ought to be a value that we esteem very highly. And look, maybe traditionally, I don't know if that's the case. I mean, you never know the world kind of views fundamentalists different anyways, and you're going to get a lot of flack for it. Just because we hold to traditional values in the sense of the man should be providing for the household, the husband should be working, he should be providing the meat, he should be winning the bread, he should be doing whatever he can do to provide for his family, and the wife ought to be rearing the children, staying at home, running the house, keeping things in order at home, okay, just because we believe in that does not believe that we don't think that everyone should still be well educated. Okay, and I don't say this because here's what the world will tell you, oh, no, what, you're going to be a housewife, but you should still go to college and get your degree just in case, right? You're getting married, oh, yeah, but, well, you don't need a job because your husband's going to be working? Well, yeah, you still need to have this just in case. That's not why I think we should have an education. It's not the backup plan, it's not the just in case. Look, when you get married, it's till death do you part. Okay, we don't plan with backup plans on marriage. You're going to make a vow, so you plan up front. That's your backup plan, up front going, before I marry this person, I really want to make sure this is the right person. And let's treat this really serious, and this isn't just a glorified boyfriend-girlfriend thing, where if we get sick of each other, we're just going to split up and get divorced. Like, no, we're committed to this relationship, and it's going to work, and we're just going to make it work. Whether it's rough or not, we're going to make it work. So, I don't care, the world's going to look at us and say, you're crazy, and you're going to say, and look, even the kids, like, I don't want my daughters going, oh, well, I just want to be a mommy, and I just want to be a housewife, so who cares, I don't need to learn this stuff. No, you do need to learn it. You do need to learn the education. You need to get smart. Everyone ought to have intelligence. One, because, and we're going to get into all the reasons why the Bible says, but we are responsible, you're responsible for yourself. No matter who you have as authority over you, you're responsible for what you believe, you're responsible for what you do, and the more you know, the more wisdom you have, the better off you're going to be in life. All the decisions that you make in life, the things that you do, are going to revolve around the wisdom and the knowledge that you have. There's a reason why, you know, the Bible talks about seeking counselors, and who are counselors supposed to be? Counselors should be people who have a lot of wisdom, right? Knowledge, you go and seek guidance from people who have knowledge and wisdom, and that can help guide you, because they know, and they know all these different pitfalls and traps, and hey, look out for this and go this way, this is the right way. It's knowledge. We all ought to have that and strive to continue to increase our understanding and our learning. And look, obviously in the Bible, and especially in the book of Proverbs, we're going to spend a lot of time there today, has a lot of life lessons, and real valuable life lessons, which are extremely important to live a righteous life, but the knowledge and the wisdom will continue to go beyond that, and I do believe the Bible teaches that as well, that it's not just the moral wisdom that you need, right, in the sense of, oh, I shouldn't commit adultery, or I shouldn't steal, right? Those are some things that, of course, you need that wisdom, but beyond that, gaining intelligence, being smart, and gaining just more, because look, how much wisdom does it take to say I shouldn't commit adultery? It's pretty basic, right? You don't have to be like, wow, you are the wisest person in the world that's going to tell me not to steal from people, right? Like, look, there's a lot more to it than that. There's a lot more to learn, and there's a lot of decisions that we have to make in our life on a day-to-day basis that aren't going to be as simple as just like, well, this is just stealing. Now, some of them should be that simple, no doubt, right? Maybe your job is trying to get you to do something that is really looking a lot like stealing or being really dishonest. Yeah, you shouldn't do those things, right, and you need the wisdom to be able to identify that stuff, but there's a lot more than that. We started in Proverbs 22. If you look at verse number 6, a real famous passage of the Bible says, Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. So the topic of my story is educate your children. Why is that so important? Because the training that they receive as a child will impact the rest of their life. Because if you train up a child, and look, training, it's not yelling, it's not just saying something one time and expecting them to just know. Now, I said it once, that's all you should need, right? No. Training, right? Training is repetition. Training is work. Training is, all right, we're doing it again. We woke up, we got another day, okay, it's another day of training, another day of training, another day of training. It's consistency, it's repetition, it's work. This is why we have the model of one parent going off to work and one parent staying at home, because the rearing and the training of the children is a lot of work. And there's a high value to that. Train up a child in a way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. I love that problem. It's a great word. That's a great piece of wisdom right there. This is why you invest. And look, every parent is going to have their own doubts, every parent has their own struggles, every parent has their own failures. You try to do everything right the best you can, but you know what, you've got to invest the time in it. Don't throw up your hands and give up when things get hard, because when you're trying to raise kids, it does get hard. It's not easy. Flip over back to Proverbs chapter 1, please. Proverbs chapter 1. Like I said, we're going to spend a good bit of time in Proverbs this evening, because Proverbs is a book of wisdom. So if we're looking at the value of education, we're looking at the value of getting wisdom and understanding, where else are you going to turn to? I mean, obviously, the whole Bible is full of wisdom, but this literally talks about the subject over and over and over again. Proverbs chapter 1, verse number 1. The Bible says the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment and equity, to give subtlety to the simple, to the young man, knowledge and discretion. The young man, right? Notice he just kind of points that out, too. Knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. To understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark saying. So this is like starting out. These first six verses are kind of giving us the purpose of the book of Proverbs. It is to know wisdom and instruction. It's to know all these things, and it's revolving around wisdom, justice, instruction, increased learning, understanding, right? Six verses telling us that. Verse 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. The beginning of knowledge starts off with instilling a fear of the Lord. You want to educate your children? You better make sure they got a fear of God. And look, this doesn't matter what method you choose to educate your children. They need a fear of God first and foremost. They need to have that settled down deep into their heart that there are certain things, that there's lines they're not going to cross and there's things they're not going to do because they have a fear of God, and it's going to help with their control because here's the thing. When it comes to education and discipline, when it comes to education, you need the discipline. You need kids to be able to pay attention. So as they grow up, the fear of God's going to help with that, right? I'm not going to, you know, go crazy and just do whatever I want to do because I have a proper fear of God and the repercussions of what might happen if I'm not being obedient here in receiving the knowledge. But that's the beginning of knowledge. How are you going to know everything, anything, excuse me, if you don't have a fear of God? Because fools are the ones that despise wisdom and instruction. The fools, they don't want to be taught. They don't want to get instruction. Don't tell me the rules. Don't tell me, don't give me that instruction from the Lord. Verse 8, my son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head and chains about thy neck. This is the plea from father to son. Don't forsake. Don't forget about my instruction. Don't forget about what I've given you. Don't forget about the law of your mother. Look, we've been teaching you and training you. Don't forget about these things. Why? Because they're going to be an ornament of grace unto thy head. You're going to be adorned with grace. Grace is going to allow you to receive things that you don't deserve because you've received this instruction. It's going to help you in your life. We're going to see this over and over again. Turn to Proverbs chapter 2 of the benefits and the value of having wisdom and instruction and learning these things. Okay? This is written, too. The vast majority of Proverbs are a father to a son. Son, listen. Son, listen. Son, receive the instruction of your father. Son, please listen to me. It's instruction. It's instruction, and there's a reason. It's father to son. And again, I'm going to get into a little bit later methodology and what I think we ought to be doing in ideal situations, and I get it, not everyone necessarily will be there, but the obligation of the parents to teach their children cannot be refuted. Now, obviously, no matter what method, if you're going to send your kid off to school or something, you can still teach your children, and you ought to, and you still have that responsibility of teaching your children. Even if you employ other people to help teach your child, you are still responsible, according to Scripture, for teaching your child, and especially the things in the way of the Lord, in the way of God, and in how to be a good person and how to behave and all those other things. So this, again, we'll get into what people do a little bit later, because I don't want to preach for doctrine the commandments of men. We're going to let the Bible speak on what it speaks on, and everything else allow to do with what you will, apply that to your life as you will. I don't want people to walk away thinking that if you don't do things, teach things a certain way in this particular environment, then you're in sin, and you're like, no, let's not go that far. But like I said, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's get into that in a little bit. Proverbs 2, verse number 1, My son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding. Look, if you do this, if you receive what I'm trying to teach you here, if you can receive this wisdom, just open up your ears, get your heart ready to get some understanding. Son, if you can do this, yea, if thou criest after knowledge, verse 3, that's a yearning to know. I want to know more. I want to learn. I want to grow. If you could have that desire, if you cry after knowledge and lift up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver, if you see the value in getting education and learning and growing more, I want to know more. This is way more valuable than just getting some money. If you could have two options in front of you and just be like, hey, here's a hundred bucks or here is a way for you to learn and get some really good understanding on some important subjects, you ought to be going for the learning, and especially as kids. Don't go for the easy way out. Don't be so influenced by the cash and the quick, easy way, well, I don't have to think about anything. I could just take this money and then I'll just be fine. Yea, you'll be fine for a moment, but the wisdom is going to last with you a lifetime. And has so much more value than whatever the immediate is. So here's what he's saying. Look, if you're going to receive my words, take this to heart, get your ears ready, get your heart ready, cry after knowledge, lift up your voice for understanding, seek it like it's silver, like it's money, and search for her as for hid treasures, then, here's what you get, verse 5, Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous, he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. Look at verse 8, He keepeth the paths of judgment and preserveth the way of his saints. If you have the desire to learn, like he's trying to instill in his son and his child, he's saying, God will give you that knowledge, and knowledge is going to come from the Lord, and then God is going to direct you in your life. Now, it's a foolish thing to not care about or not want to have God's guidance in your life. Of all things that you can do in this world, of all the things you can do, you might have aspirations, and you might have these desires to do this or to do that, and you might think of some great things. I want to be the president. I don't know who would want to do that anymore. That job just seems terrible to me. I don't think anyone in their right mind would want to do that. But you want to be an astronaut. You want to be whatever. I mean, whatever, right? When you're a child, especially, everything just seems endless, limitless. You can do whatever you want. But the wisdom in being in the will of God and knowing, like following, you know what, I may want to do this or this, but I'm going to just see where God is going to lead me in doing what's right, and then you know that your life really can't be any better if you're walking in the path that God is laying out for you. Seriously, it's not going to be any better. You might think like, no, no, no, I don't really want to get married. No, I don't want to do this. I want to go off and do my own thing, and you start acting on more selfish impulses. You won't know it necessarily at the time, but then later on you might find out, wow, I wish I would have just done things this way because it would have worked out a lot better. I mean, I know my wife and I both are thinking like, man, I wish we could have just like met each other way early on, and been a little bit more mature when we were a lot younger to just get married and start a family way earlier on in our life than we actually did. And hey, praise God for all the blessings we got. Praise God for our kids. I'm thankful for our marriage. I'm thankful for everything we have and where we're at right now, but it's kind of like, you know, if we would have just listened a little bit earlier and done things different, it could be even better, right? Just saying. So we learn these lessons oftentimes the hard way, which is why, hey, kids, pay attention. Learn this stuff. Try to get it so that God is leading your path. Look to the scripture to guide you. He keepeth the paths of judgment, it says there in verse 8, and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness and judgment and equity, yea, every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul. And look, your flesh may not really care about getting smarter and getting intelligence and wanting to do things. I get it. It's a labor. It's a work. It's not as fun as, you know, just reading a book or going on a bike ride or going and, you know, doing some, planning some other fun. I get it. But you're going to have to, if you can see the value, if you can hear people who have wisdom, whether they be alive and in your life right now or like from the Word of God, and you're willing to put your trust in that and say, you know what, I'm young. If you could have enough maturity, young people, to say, I know I'm young. I'm going to recognize that. And I'm going to recognize that there are people who are way older that have a lot of experience and especially something as old as the Bible and coming from the Word of God to say, I'm going to trust this. I'm actually going to test this out. And you're going to have to be committed to it. I'm going to try to change my heart to allow wisdom to enter into my heart and that that knowledge is going to be pleasant to my soul. And I'm going to want to learn. And I'll tell you what, it may take time. It's going to take quite a bit of time. It's not an overnight thing. But just like anything that's good and worth doing, it has to, you just have to be consistent. You're going to have to fight your flesh and gain these desires. But I'll tell you what, with enough time, you will be thankful for the knowledge that you receive. And I'll tell you this much, the knowledge that I've gained through the Word of God, because I still have a secular job. I still work out in this world. I have gained so much insight into how people work and into how things work and how the world works, how the world works through the Word of God, through the Word of God, through the Bible, through all the stories, through all the things, because people are still the same. And people ultimately behave the same. And people have the same characters. And you start to learn these things. And I'll tell you what, it really helps. It helps in the difficult situations to be able to recognize and spot the patterns and be like, oh, wow, I know where this is going. And to help keep yourself out of bad situations or to be able to provide good counsel in bad situations and be like, no, you know what, this guy, this isn't really good here. I mean, being able to spot the signs of a psychopath was pretty helpful for me. It didn't take that long. At first, there was someone I worked with, and I was just like, this is really weird. At first, I didn't see anything. And then it was like, a guy was kind of charming and ended up deceiving a lot of people. But then I was just like, whoa, this isn't right. And then I pegged it. And look, these things help you. They help me. They help me. And then how I deal with people and how I dealt with him specifically in a matter of different ways. But I'm telling you, the impact is going to be throughout your whole life. The wisdom really does help you moving forward. But you have to learn. We don't live in a matrix where you can plug in and download all this knowledge into your brain, and then it's just there. You can't go to bed with the Bible on your pillow and be like, OK, wait, let me put it on this side so it sinks down into my brain. It doesn't work. You have to read. You have to study. You have to devote time to it. And especially when we're talking about children, parents, you've got to invest the time in teaching them these things. And hey, life is hard. There's a lot of time that you don't have, especially when you're raising children. Because dads probably going to be working even more. There's a lot more things done at the house. There's so many other distractions. But wait a minute, don't forget your priorities. Don't forget your priorities. What matters more? Having the floor swept or having your children with an education? What matters more? Now, hey, I say let's get it all done. Let's do it all. But when push comes to shove, you still have to make the priority and make the decision and make sure that you're not just losing all the time of being able to teach your children. And we've tried all kinds of different things. And just a little bit of practical advice, one of the things that we used to do when my kids were younger, I had it in my heart that I wanted to make sure that they're hearing the Bible out loud, especially before they could even read, at least once a year. So we carved out time and said, OK, here's this family Bible time. Every night, four chapters a day read out loud. And we did that for years. I mean, I don't even know how many years. But since Elizabeth was born, until it got to a point where they got a little bit older, at least the older ones got older. So we still had some young ones. And I changed it to say, well, you know what, though? They're hearing the word of God, but they're not being taught. They're not getting instruction. They're getting instruction here. And from time to time, we give them instruction along the way. So I changed it to say, OK, well, we're not just going to read through. I make the older ones read on their own now when they're able to read, make them read. And now I do preaching, sort of. I go through and do expository and tell them exactly what this stuff means. And you say, yeah, but you're the pastor. Yeah, but you're the dad or the mom. And you know what? When I'm not there, Leslie teaches the kids. I'm out of town? Yeah, she'll open up the Bible and read and explain what it means to them. That's our job. It's a job of parents. Give them the wisdom of God. And make sure you have to set up the time and you have to do it. It's not easy, but is it important? I hope you think so. I hope as we read through, and there's so much more here to even read, expressing the importance of knowledge, of wisdom of these things, it will guide them. I mean, I can't tell you. I don't even want to think about all the things, the mistakes that we made, because we just didn't have the knowledge. Stupid mistakes that you make when you're young. Boy, what a head start it would be if kids that are growing up don't have to experience and make some of those really stupid decisions that cost you and cost you potentially a great deal by getting the wisdom, by getting the instruction. So as adults, we should recognize that and realize that and do our best to impart that to our children. What verse did we leave off on? Verse 9 maybe, somewhere around there. Eight, he keepeth the paths of judgment and preserveth the way of the saints. Verse 9, then shalt thou understand righteousness and judgment and equity every good path. When wisdom enterth into thine heart and knowledge is pleasant unto the soul. That's where we were. Knowledge being pleasant unto thy soul. Discretion shall preserve thee. Preservation keep you going, keep you alive in some cases, right? Having that discretion, understanding, understanding shall keep thee, look at verse 12, to deliver thee from the way of the evil man. When you have some intelligence and you have some smarts about you, you're going to be able to identify more of the tells and more of the signs of people who are evil that are trying to do harm to you. Because people who are trying to do harm, what are they trying to do? They're trying to cover up their intentions. They're trying to be subtle. They're trying to be sneaky, right? They don't want to let on of what they're trying to do. But the more wise you are, the more sharp you are, you're going to be able to pick up and be like, this isn't adding up, this isn't right. Why? Because you got some smarts to you. You're not just going through life just ignorant like a bumbling idiot and just letting whatever happen to you. You're paying attention. You're learning. You're gaining understanding. I mean, the Bible gives all kinds of warnings about the flattering tongue and so many ways to see, wow, okay, the subtlety and all these different characteristics that you could learn through reading a scripture over and over and over again and getting an understanding that's going to help you and deliver you from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh forward things, verse 13, who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice to do evil and delight in the forwardness of the wicked, whose ways are crooked and they forward in their paths. And look, as kids especially, you want to make your kids understand these ways and these bad ways and what are the characteristics of that so that they don't get sucked into some friends that they just enjoy hanging out with and, hey, we have a good time and they're going down this bad path. Don't you want your kids to be able to recognize that, to be smart enough to be like, whoa, I can see where this is going. I'm going to back out now before I get myself too involved in the direction that this is taking because I can tell I have enough wisdom and smarts to know that this isn't going to end well. I've learned enough. I've learned enough about booze and drugs and all these other things to know that if this is going to be introduced and we're going somewhere where all this is going to be, I'm just going to back out right now. I'm not going to let myself get in that position and then rely on being able to say no or get out of it. I'm just going to stop now. And that's just one example. Verse 16, to deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words, which forsaketh the guide of her youth and forgetteth the covenant of her God. The evil man and the adulterous, the strange woman kind of come up a lot in Proverbs. And hey, good teaching, right? That will have big influences on the rest of your life potentially, things that could really destroy lives. Flip over to chapter 3. Verse number 1, my son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. Receiving the law of the Father, receiving the commandments, getting this type of wisdom and this type of understanding that says, you know what that's going to do for you? It's going to help you to live a long, happy, healthy life. It's going to give you length of days, long life, and peace. Don't we want our kids to grow up and have long lives and long lives that aren't just full of chaos and drama? I mean, how many people do you know that have a lot of chaos and drama in their life? And where does that stem from? Bad decision-making. Really big mistakes that they make in your life. Now they're stuck with drama for a really long time. I want my kids to have peace and a long life and stability and a godly life where God can be directing their path and they're being able to understand that and recognize that and follow that path because it's good for them, because the Lord knows what's best for all of us. Jump down to verse 21. My son, let not them depart from thine eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion. Again, just referring to, you know, we kind of jumped in the middle here, but going over the importance of this. So shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely and thy foot shall not stumble. But you have to want to receive the instruction. You have to be able to be open to receiving. And parents, man, figure out the way of getting your kids motivated to want to learn. That's the hardest trick. And when I tell you how that goes, then I'll share that with you. When I find the secret to making your kids want to learn and study and grow in their wisdom and understanding, I will be the first one to get up here and tell you exactly how to do that. But all I've noticed so far is that it's kind of different with each one, which what I'll do with that then is stress the importance of teaching each of your, no matter how many kids you have, each of them individually to some extent. You have to be able to show some care for each one because they're all different and they're not going to receive everything the same way. And please, I'm not pretending to be the best parent either, so I'm not giving you an attitude of like, well, I've got it all figured out and everything. But we're looking at the scripture and this is what the Bible says. And there is a huge value in understanding wisdom, education, learning that is super important. And it's not just for kids, obviously, it's for us too. But see the value in this. Look at Proverbs chapter 4, verse number 5. Chapter 4, verse 5, get wisdom, get understanding. Forget it not, neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, so don't forsake wisdom, don't forsake understanding, don't forsake this education, this learning. Forsake her not and she shall preserve thee. Again, the preservation. Love her and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principle thing. Principle means like first. This is the first thing, therefore get wisdom. And with all thy getting, get understanding. Get the knowledge, get the wisdom, get the understanding. Exalt her and she shall promote thee. It will be good in your life. Trust me. There's no real way to express this other than it's in God's word and you've got parents that love you that are telling you the same thing. Trust me, kids especially. Get wisdom. Put an importance on learning. She shall bring thee to honor when thou dost embrace her. Does it? Everybody enjoys being brought to honor, right? Being recognized, receiving honor, being exalted, being lifted up. Wisdom is the principle thing. That's how you're going to get there. Hey, men, you know, out there, boys, you'll be learning. You want to be a good provider? You want to be exalted? You want to get the promotions? You got to learn the work ethic? And you're going to need to learn and just gain more wisdom. Because people who have more wisdom and intelligence and can be relied on to figure things out and do things with their mind get promoted. There are certain jobs. And look, hey, God bless anyone no matter what job you do. If you're working hard and you're trying to provide for your family, and I mean that, like if you have the character and integrity to do honest work and to provide for your family, God bless you. But look, it's a fact of life. Any man, that able-bodied man, can pick up a shovel and dig a ditch. Anyone can do it. Those jobs aren't going to pay very much. And it's going to be really difficult to provide for your family if that's all you're able to do. Now, if that's all you can do, then do it. Provide for your family and work hard at it and be a good worker. But if you can gain more wisdom and more understanding and more intelligence and add more value, you're going to find that you'll end up being exalted and honored more and be able to provide even better. Okay? It's good for you. Look, we're not teaching this to come out of a desire and lust for money. It's a desire to be able to provide more. And how about just maximize your time? Like, anyone only needs so much money, right? So if you could just be comfortable with, like, okay, hey, our needs are being met. If you can reach that point in the least amount of time, why wouldn't you? Because then you open up your time, which is super valuable, to then focus on all the things that really matter most to you. If you could provide in the least amount of work, you know, like, great, amen. Just don't get so sucked into and consumed then by that, oh, I'm making this much money, but if I just work, you know, now I'll just work twice as much and make twice as much money and then I could be this multimillionaire. And, you know, it's like, no, don't get caught up and go down that path. But wisdom will help prevent that because the Bible teaches you that that's not the right path and the right way and that it has its own pitfalls associated with that. Verse 9, we're in Proverbs 4, right? Proverbs 4, 9. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee. Here, O my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of thy life shall be many. Again, a promise of long life. Verse 11, I have taught thee in the way of wisdom. I have led thee in right paths. Who's doing the speaking here? Solomon. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom. I have led thee in right paths. The parent to the son is the one saying, look, I have taught you this. Don't rely on other people to do the teaching. Hey, bring your kids to church. Amen. But don't rely on me to be the only teacher for your children. You teach them. You should be teaching them way more than I'm teaching them. Bring them to church. Let them hear the instruction. Amen. Yes, that's good. But you are responsible for teaching your children. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straightened, and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble. Take fast hold of instruction. Let her not go. Keep her, for she is thy life. Proverbs 10, 1 says the Proverbs of Solomon, A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. And we're going to shift gears a little bit here, but I point this out because, hey, a wise son, a son that's receiving instruction and becoming wise, yeah, it makes Dad happy, right? But a foolish son, who's a foolish son? The one that's not receiving instruction, the one that's not learning, the one that's not increasing their education, is the heaviness of his mother. And I bring up this verse again to illustrate that it's the heaviness of the parents. It's the, you know, the parents are the ones who ultimately are going to be the ones responsible, not the teacher at the public school. They're not the ones that are the heaviness of, right? Why? Because they're not as invested as your child as you are. The Bible says that children are in heritage of the Lord. You could turn to Psalm 127. We're going to Psalm 127, then we're going to Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter six. The Bible teaches that children are a reward. It's a good thing, it's a positive thing to have children. And we need to treat them as such and not just some burden. Now, educating them and raising them and training them up, as I already mentioned, is a burden. It's a lot of work. It's labor, for sure. But if you maintain the proper view of like, man, these kids, though, I know it's a lot of work and I know it could be crazy and I know there's all these things going on and you might just feel like you need a break sometimes, but hey, they are a blessing and they are a reward and you thank God for them and treat them with the value and importance that they have because you are raising a whole other life, a whole human being that's going to be an adult one day that's going to go off into this world and live their own life once they get out of your house. And that time they spend in your house, the older I get, I realize how quickly that goes. It's not a lot of time. Psalm 127, 3, the Bible says, Lo, children are in heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. Full of what? Full of arrows. What are arrows? The children of the youth. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. We need to be rearing God-fearing children and setting them up for the best life that they could have here and not just the life here as in being cozy and comfortable as much as we have an opportunity to set them up to even receive a lot more spiritual rewards and blessings if we can really hone in and get to them and teach the truth to them and they can receive it to get that head start on living a righteous life and serving God with their whole life. Wouldn't that be great? I mean, some of us didn't start until later on in years of really serving God. I mean, I didn't. It took a while before I finally was like, okay, I'm going to get serious about this Christian thing, about this Christian life and actually doing stuff and doing as well. It took plenty of time. What does that mean? Years wasted. And not just wasted, but actually kind of going the opposite direction because it was not spent wisely at all. But hey, the children don't have to be that way. Did I ever turn to Deuteronomy 6 yet? Turn to Deuteronomy 6 if I didn't mention that already. We're going to look at Deuteronomy 6, we're going to look at Deuteronomy chapter 4 because here's where we're going to stress, where the Bible stresses, the Bible's going to teach us that the parents are responsible. We've already seen other passages that talk about this. You're responsible for the education of your children, for teaching them the things, especially the things of God. You are responsible. You need to take ownership of this. And again, as soon as we're done looking at Deuteronomy, I'll get more into now kind of methodologies and things that we can do and how you implement that and how you put that into practice and give you my thoughts based on what Scripture says. But there is no denying that God has given every parent the obligation and the duty for making sure that you are instructing your child. And again, how much time you spend doing that and everything else, we'll see what the ideal is, we'll see what the biblical model is and then, you know, go from there. Deuteronomy 6, verse number 6. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. This is after they receive the law, right? The law of Moses, they receive the law from God, the commandments of God. These words which I command thee today shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. And notice that word diligently is added there, not added to God's word, it's in God's word, but it's included diligently. That means you are putting a good emphasis and focus on this to make sure that it gets done. So it means to be diligent, like I am going to make sure this gets done. Teach them diligent. What? God's words. Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them. When you go to church, that's it. That's it, just you go to church once a week and that's when you talk about my words to your children. Oh wait, no, let's actually read the passage because that's what a lot of people just think is enough. And shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way. This would be maybe driving by the way for us, I don't know. There's probably not as much walking going on as there is driving, but hey, right, let's update it for our current situation. And when thou liest down and when thou risest up. Seems to be kind of like there really isn't a time you shouldn't be talking about these things with your kids. I mean, that's how I read it. It just looks like, yeah, it's appropriate pretty much all the time. When you go to bed, talk about it. When you wake up, talk about it. When you're traveling, go ahead and talk about it. Talk about the things of God. Talk about, you know, and when you're just talking about it, what are you doing? You're imparting wisdom. You're imparting knowledge. You're giving them little bits here, a little bit there, a little bit here and talking about the things of God, talking about the Bible, talking about them receiving this wisdom. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates. Obviously illustrating the importance of like God is expressing these words are really important. Take them. Make sure they're always in front of you. Make sure you're always teaching your children. Keep my words. It's your life. They will guide you. And Christians can just be really flippant with the word of God. Like, eh, well, if you think that's a sin, you know, like, well, no, look, how about we care about what the word of God actually says? Go backwards to chapter four. Chapter four, verse number five. Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments even as the Lord my God commanded me that you should do so in the land whether you go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. So you're saying, look, when you institute my words, when you institute my law as a nation, the other nations around you are going to be like, hey, they got it figured out. Hey, that's a pretty good law. That's, I mean, and they're unbelieving nations, but when they see how that operates, they're going to be like, hey, that's good. That works. And even innately deep down, people are going to have that sense of justice, like, wow, they're actually, you know, putting into practice proper judgment for people. I mean, let's face it, everyone in the world, whether you're a Christian society or not, knows what the punishment should be for pedophiles. Everyone knows that. And no one is happy when they just get these slaps on the wrist or just get a little bit prison time. Nobody likes that. No one in the world likes that. So if there's any nation just institutes that one law and says, you know what, we are just putting these people to death, the whole world will look at that and be like, they got it figured out. They got it right. That's an easy one. That's an easy example. It's easy to see that. But what the Bible is saying here is that like, look, when you put my laws into practice, they're just going to say that about all your laws because they do make sense because they are right because they're righteous and God gave us, created us even with those instincts to know right from wrong, to see that, yes, these things are correct. For what nation, verse seven, is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day? Verse nine, only take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently. More diligence. Lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life, but teach them thy sons and thy sons' sons. Make sure they don't forget. Pass this information along. Pass my law along to them. Make sure they don't lose it. Teach them to your sons. Teach them to your grandchildren. Make sure this continues to get taught forward. They need to know this, especially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb when the Lord said unto me, gather me the people together and I will make them hear my words that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth and that they may teach their children. Last scripture reference is in Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32 verse 45, the Bible reads, And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel. And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do all the words of this law. So God's commanding and ordaining here that the kids are being taught the law of God too. Now, specifically here, it's not saying that the parents have to do that, right? I mean, it's not what it says, but it's saying in general, hey, make sure you're teaching your children. But clearly, not just from this passage, but from other passages, God made the parents responsible for raising of their children, right? You have to raise them. He gave them to you. You have authority over your children. God's the one who set up the realms of authority, right? What's appropriate where? And it just makes sense that the parent is going to provide and raise and train up their child. And then when you get older, your kids are going to take care of you to honor your father and your mother. God designed it that way on purpose, and it just makes sense. It's kind of silly to think of it any other way. And you know what's kind of silly is to think that we can come up with better systems and better designs than what God has just built into with a family. I mean, think about how basic and simple it is. A man shall leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. And then you have a family, and you have children, and they're all there for each other. And there's the teaching and the training and everything going on within the family. And families, guess what? They should, and they have the most potential to love one another. More so than strangers. Because they're blood, because they're your children. You're going to love them more than anyone else. At least that should be the case. Obviously we live in a really wicked, sinful, perverted world where maybe that isn't always the case. But generally speaking, that is the case. Parents are the ones that are tasked with making sure their children are trained to live and thrive in this world. And in order to do that, they need an education. And don't just think like, oh, well, it's just good enough because they're just going to get married or they're just going to go do this or they're just going to do that. No, it's not good enough. Try to increase that desire and that thirst for knowledge. We ought to be trying to increase our knowledge every day of our life. It is only going to be good. Now, obviously you need to discern between the vain philosophies of man and some other things just kind of in general. You don't want to get into some perverted things that are just not true. But true knowledge, right? I mean, we want to know. It's going to go beyond just the study of scripture, but the scripture is going to be the primary thing. The fear of the Lord, getting the truth from God's word. But hey, things that are true are true anyways. I mean, God is true. And if you can learn things that are true outside of scripture, then it's only going to help you. It's going to be valuable. So what are the things that are true that you're going to get outside of scripture, like math, for example? I mean, hey, that's a good one. The Bible doesn't say thou must learn math. It's not in the scripture. But it is going to help you. It's going to add to your wisdom and your understanding of things. It really will. It's going to help you out in the world. It's going to help you in the workforce. It's going to help you even at home. And you know what? For ladies that just really want to think like, no, my husband's going to do everything, you want to be the most valuable person that you can present yourself as. And a lady that's able to get things done at home, whether that be with the bills, with all manner of things, and you have smarts and intelligence, it's going to put a lot of value on you as a wife. If you want to be a wife to a good man and a godly man, they're going to be looking for a really godly woman who's not going to just be idle with their time or is not able to really handle anything because they're just not smart enough to do it. Like, not in favor of just having dumb people not able to do anything. I think it's a poor testimony of being a Christian, too. All right. Like I said, we're getting now into more opinion. So as parents, though, we do need to make sure that our children are going to learn the things of God that is clear, that is not an opinion. The Bible says that, and the parents are responsible for making sure they get that. So then the question is, well, how are you going to make sure that that happens? Right? And you do have options. One is going to be, hey, I could bring them to church. Hey, I could play some preaching for them. Great. I mean, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that stuff, but you have to actually decide, how am I going to make sure that my kids are going to learn this stuff? They need to know God. They need to get saved. You need to be able to teach them that. They need to get wisdom from Scripture. They're also going to need practical instruction and education to be able to provide for themselves someday and to be able to live and continue outside of mom and dad's house. And your job is to prepare them for all this stuff. So you have to decide how you will best raise your children. And there's kind of three main categories for education that I just thought of. You've got public schools, you've got private schools, and you've got home schools. And there's all kinds of variety these days intermixed between all of that. And you could do some things here and some things there and whatever. And look, I'm not going to get too deep into all of that, but you have to first just decide, okay, what's best for your child? Who's going to have the most vested interest in the success of your child? Obviously, the parent's going to care the most about the success of your own child as opposed to any other stranger, whoever that may be. But there are reasons why people will seek outside help. And again, as we're in the opinion area here, as a parent, you need to make sure your children are receiving the proper instruction. Hey, if you're able to do that and outsource some help to help you give the instruction, then I don't see that being wrong from scripture. Some people need more help than others. Some people are in bad situations. I get that, too. I mean, obviously, at the end of the day, you're going to have to make the best do with what you have. And I'm not going to go condemn someone if someone already made bad decisions in their life and got themselves into a bad situation to say, well, if you don't homeschool your kids, you're in sin. But it's like you've got one parent and they've got to work. Okay, now what? But you have to be looking at, okay, this is still really important. And if you're not able to do everything yourself and you need some assistance, you still are responsible for making sure your children learn the right things, okay? And it's still going to require a good bit of involvement. It's still going to require that you know what's going on. And I'll tell you what, I mean, yes, people can go into various systems of education and come out okay, but you know how they're going to come out okay? They're only going to come out okay if you're still really involved in their life and in their education and knowing what they're being fed. But it's a dangerous thing to be sending kids off to anyone for long periods of time to receive whatever is being taught by people, especially if you don't really know what's being taught. It just adds a lot more risk to the influence that is being given to your children. I think the best plan is to ensure as closely as possible that you know exactly what your children are being taught because you're there because they're with you. I think that's ideal. I think we could follow to the best of our abilities, if it's possible, to do things that way and to ensure that I am taking the full responsibility of my kids' education, that they're going to learn what they need to learn, that they're going to gain this wisdom from the Word of God and not from someone who's some heretic. Oh, someone was just asking me about this. I didn't even know this. I guess I think Oklahoma passed a law, and someone correct me if I'm wrong about this if you're knowledgeable, that they're going to have to start teaching the Bible in school. Is that true? Okay, so someone asked me, someone brought it up, and the only thing I like about it is just the concept that people care about the Bible. So as far as there's enough people to get some legislators to try to put that into law that actually have reverence for the Word of God, in that capacity, I think that's a good thing. But overall, what is that really going to do? Because now you're going to have teachers. What are they going to be teaching them out of the Bible? Do you want to send your kids up and just have some random person teaching them who knows what out of the Bible, and maybe even pervert their views drastically and just be like, okay, well, hey, look, the Bible says this, and really just pervert what the Bible's actually saying in some of these passages. I don't want them doing that. So it's kind of a two-edged sword there with that. I don't see that as being some great thing, because at the end of the day, what are they going to learn? And when you send them up, what do they get? And in the public school, you're going to get whatever the government system says that they need to learn. So it's not just education, it's indoctrination at that point, and things have gotten worse and worse and worse. I implore you, for the value of your children's education, if at all possible, try not to put them in public school. It's not going to be good for them, okay? And I'm speaking right now just as more of a counselor trying to give you some good advice. You're responsible for your kids, okay? And I'm not going to stand here and say you are in sin if you send them to public school. I'm not going to say that. You're responsible for making sure they get their education, and if you think that that's how they're best going to be served and that's what you're doing to make sure that they are receiving what they need to learn, that's on you, right? Because that's the responsibility that's been given to you. And you're not going to hear from me. Like, you're going to hear from me now because I'm preaching, but I'm not going to go up to people individually and tell them what they need to do in their life. That's not the type of pastor I am. I don't think that's appropriate for the role of the pastor, either, to just be telling everybody how they need to live their life. But the wisdom is going to say, hey, you know, there's a lot of really weird, bad things being taught as an agenda within government schools that they're going to teach your kids. And kids are really, you know, moldable and impressionable, and if they're spending more time with someone else than they're spending with you, they can build bonds and relationships and learn to trust and accept more what other people are telling them than you yourself. That's a danger. It's a risk. So you want to be aware of that and at least make sure that you are instilling godly truths and things from the Word of God to your children no matter what situation you put them in. That is still always your responsibility, what you need to do. Now, maybe you say, okay, not the public school, but maybe some kind of private school. Okay, well, then it gets expensive, right? And that's where you start getting into worries of, can we even afford this? I don't know. And then you still need to know who is it that's teaching your kid. You're spending more money, but what is the curriculum? What are they teaching you, right? And then finally, of course, there's option of homeschooling. That's what we do. That's what I endorse. I think it's the best option. You could find ways of doing it where it doesn't cost you an arm and a leg. The hardest thing is just to make sure that you're being able to maintain someone at home that can help with the education, like the mom being at home while dad's working and being able to learn to live off one income. And there's a host of other reasons why I think that that's going to be ideal for your life. Having one breadwinner, having the man in the role of providing and having mom at home with the kids, it's what God has outlined for us to practice. You will see through time and experience that, wow, this really is a good way of doing things. There's less friction even over financial things when you've got one breadwinner who is the authority that's supposed to be in charge of the home. Because I'll tell you what, when you've got two people earning money or especially if you've got a wife who's supposed to be in a submissive role that's earning more than her husband, and then some kind of conflict comes up over money and how are we going to spend things or what are we going to do or what path is the family going to take, well, the flesh is going to say, well, hey, I earned this money and I think we should be doing this. And that's a result of the flesh. I mean, you get where that comes from, but that's not good for the relationship. So like I said, that could go on and on and on for reasons why we should follow God's pattern of having men in women's roles and doing things in that regard. But, you know, common reasons people don't homeschool, also things like, well, I don't know how to teach or I don't have a good education, right? So how can I teach my children to be smart? Well, if you start early, again, it's work, but you just stay a little bit ahead of the kids with their curriculum. You get the curriculum and you make sure you're going through it. You have to go through it as you're teaching them anyways. Stay a couple steps ahead. That's all you need to do. And if you didn't have the best education growing up, you can then take this opportunity to learn also, right? And you learn while you're teaching the kids. And, you know, maybe you think that someone else can teach better. Well, maybe, right? There's people who are better teachers than others, let's face it, for sure, right? And maybe you're not like the best teacher, but you're going to care the most about your kids. You will. No one's going to care more about your kids than you will. And, you know, if you're not the best teacher, don't just throw up your hands, strive to improve. And guess what? That's work too. It's all work. The Christian life is work. It's not easy. It's not just handed to you on a silver platter. But if you follow God's way, we see with the wisdom, with the learning, with this, it's going to do good for your life. In the long run, over the course of your life, those smarts, those understanding, that wisdom, that discretion is going to take you the right way. It is. I mean, one last thing, you know, I learned from, like, I always wanted to have a family and get married. Again, I didn't get married until I was a little bit later in life, but I still probably would have stopped. We probably would have stopped at three. If it wasn't for biblical understanding and knowing and having the faith that, look, I love the kids. We've always loved the kids. I mean, it's never been a question about that. But it does get really difficult. And when we had three in diapers, it was really difficult. It's just a lot of work. It's a lot of work, right? But the faith in knowing, hey, children are the heritage of the Lord. Hey, if God's going to bless us with more kids, then amen. I'm just going to, we'll just, we'll just do it. And we were just talking today about, you know, where we kept our climate control when we lived in Phoenix. And it wasn't very cool. But we didn't have a ton of money either. But guess what? God found a way. You know, God provided for us. God never promised for you to have AC anyways, by the way. He didn't say everything's going to be comfortable. But it worked. And you know what? Now, now I'm really glad. I'm glad we didn't just choose on our own to do things to prevent ourselves from having children. Hey, the Bible just showed itself to be true. Wow, children are heritage of the Lord. They are a blessing. It's great. This is awesome. It'd be cool to have more. I'm happy with what we have. But just having the faith to be able to just allow, okay, well, that's what the Bible says. So let's just do that. Have the faith to know the importance. I mean, there's enough in Proverbs to illustrate how important wisdom, understanding, it's the principle thing, knowledge. So take that understanding and take that knowledge and now implement it in your life. Do something, if you're not already. I mean, if you're already doing things, great. But think about it and say, like, how important is this really? Do I really care about if my kids even know anything or not? Does it really matter to me? Is it that big of a deal? It ought to be. And parents, if you're not teaching your children in the scriptures, start. It's not enough just to have them learn here in church. Start. Show them what it means. You don't have to be a pastor to show them. And if you don't understand something, then don't try to tell them what it means. Say, I don't know. It's a big book. I hope you understand what some of this means, right? Whatever you understand, show that to them. And even if it's just all in Proverbs, you're doing something. You're helping them. You're imparting that wisdom. And the Proverbs has all kinds of things in it that are, I think, pretty easy to teach and to instill and to reinforce, and there's a thing. It just needs to be over and over and over again. Every day it needs to be consistent. You need to lay that foundation, the training, the training, the training. I know you do training, Brother Peter. Do you just, is it always just totally different off the wall week after week? Systems. Systems. Sets. Right? Repetition. Repetition. Repetition. Repetition. That's how you grow. That's how you build. That's how you get stronger. Training. Repetition. Teaching the children. That's how they're going to continue to increase their wisdom and their understanding. Look, that's how we do it too. Anyone doing Bible memory? Talk about repetition. Repetition. Repetition. Right? Committing that to your heart. Committing that to memory. Amen. Anyways, I've rambled on long enough. Let's backwards that word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word. We thank you for the wisdom you provide for us. Lord, I pray that you would please help us all to do our best. Whatever our resources are, Lord, I pray that you would please help us in that area too. However we can get our children raised with the light of your word to light their path and to avoid the many traps and pitfalls that can come along in this life. Lord, help us to impart that knowledge. Help us to be able to motivate our children to want to learn and want to understand and for them to realize the importance of this in their own life so that they could get that desire to learn, Lord. And I pray that you would help us to teach, help us to know the truth and what's right and that we can be a people that could be pleasing unto you not just because our heart's in the right place but because we have good doctrine and you've opened up our understanding, Lord. Please help. God bless this next generation of people. We really need to raise children who are gonna be firm and solid in their understanding of the word of God and that can be a righteous generation to combat the evil, perverted world that we live in, Lord. We love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're gonna sing one last song before we're dismissed. Will, are you leading us? All right. Turn to Psalm number 367. Psalm 67 on the book. There's a dear and precious Lord Always born and fated now Which recalls those happy days of long ago When I stood at Father's feet With her hands upon my front And I heard her voice and gentle thoughts in the home I said, Go, Lord, precious, go All my dear old tears, dain't these I love to love With hours of sweet earth day by day As I walk the narrow way That leads at last to drive right from above As she ran thus far, we saw We all was mighty men of old But our dreams come when the Lord gave your way at last Oh, little David bold Who became a king at last The sea took in as many wicked ones Blessed Lord, precious Lord All my dear old tears, dain't these I love to love Thou art sweeter day by day As I walk the narrow way That leads at last to drive right from above As she ran of Jesus' love As he blessed the children dear How he stuffed her blood and died upon the tree Of his heavy load of care Then she dried my glowing tears With her kisses as she said, It was for me Precious Lord, precious, go All my dear old tears, dain't these I love to love Thou art sweeter day by day As I walk the narrow way That leads at last to drive right from above But those days are past and gone But they're made with fever still And the doable each day has been my guide And I seek to do his will As my mother taught me then And ever in my heart his words abide Blessed Lord, precious, go All my dear old tears, dain't these I love to love Thou art sweeter day by day As I walk the narrow way That leads at last to drive right from above Thank you for watching!