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Amen. Deuteronomy chapter number 28. So keep your place there. You're going to keep your place in there. We're going to get there in detail in just a few minutes, but Deuteronomy chapter 28, you know, that's a long chapter, but it's important that we read that whole thing because I wanted you to kind of get the feel for what's happening there. Look at verse number 20 or look at chapter 29 and just verse number one. Who is the Bible talking to here? Who is Moses talking to? Look at verse number one. It says, these are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel. In chapter 28, chapter 27, he's talking to the entire nation. This is something that Moses is telling the nation of Israel before they head into the promised land. This is a message to the nation. It's a message to every nation. All right. And it's a warning. And if you notice in verse number 15, we'd start talking in the first few verses about blessings, but in verse number 15, I mean, it's a long chapter. There's 68 verses, but in verse number 15, there's a shift of gears and it goes from blessings to curses for the entire rest of the chapter. So most of the chapter is curses. All right. And if you know the Bible, if you've read the Bible, you know that with the nation of Israel, this, all of these curses, even the ones where they're talking about eating their own children actually took place. These things happened. All right. So this is a lesson for nations right here. You know, curses. One of the curses is that, you know, a nation that is being, that has walked away from the commandments of God, you know, will be a borrower, not a lender. I mean, I don't know if you can apply that today, but that's not the point of the sermon, but keep your place in Deuteronomy chapter number 28. And we're going to talk about that in detail with application of the title of the sermon this morning in just a few minutes. What I want to talk about this morning is children. I want to talk about children according to the Bible. Now, this is a church full of small children. We have a lot of small children in this church. We're a growing church. Children are great blessing to this church. I want to give you three points on children this morning. I want to talk about how our church is different regarding children than most churches that you will find today. And look, we're not different because we're trying to be different. We're different because we're just following what the Bible says, all right? If people ask you what it means to be Baptist, what I always tell people is we just believe the Bible, nothing more, nothing less. That's it. That's what it means to be Baptist. When the Bible is your boss, you're a Baptist. All right? So look, we're going to talk about what it means to be family integrated. I'm going to give you three points on children this morning. The first one, turn to Psalm chapter 127, if you would. Keep your place in Deuteronomy chapter 28. So put a bookmark there. But turn to Psalm chapter 127. If you turn your Bible right to the middle, most likely you will fall in the book of Psalms. Psalm chapter 127, look at verse number three, or it's actually the verse of the week on the front of your bulletin. The first point I want to make on children this morning is the easiest point, and that is that children are a blessing. Children are a good thing. I don't care what the world tells you today. Children and having children is good. This is what God wants. All right? And just like almost everything else that you will find today, if the Bible says it's good, the world is teaching that it's bad. All right? That's why you see people putting off having children, people saying, you know, you know, people just aren't having children in the newer generations coming up today. But look at the Bible in verse number three of Psalm chapter 127. The Bible says, lo, a children are in heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Children are in heritage from the Lord. In Psalm chapter 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, you know, it says that thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever. So the Bible in Psalm chapter 119, the whole chapter is on how valuable the Word of God is and how valuable the law is to us, but the law of testimonies of God is called an heritage, meaning it's something God has given to us, and children are put in that same category. Children are in heritage from the Lord. They are a literal gift from God, the Bible is telling us. If you have children this morning, those children were given to you by the Lord. They're given to you up there with God in heritage, right up there with the Word of God. Think about how valuable that is. The point is, it's a good thing. It's a good thing. And look, it's a good thing not just for you. A nation, a family full of children is a blessed family, but a nation full of children is a blessed nation, is what the Bible clearly teaches. I'm going to show you that if you want to flip back to Deuteronomy chapter number 28. But our nation today is not being blessed in this area. I mean, our nation, along with many other nations that people would consider the West or Western culture have declining birth rates. And this is a huge problem for many people who are just, frankly, just economists. They're just like, this is not a good thing. So you have this teaching today that says, you know, you have teaching from the 1970s, we've talked about, that says, oh, we're going to be overpopulated, and we're all going to starve to death, when we've just been more productive, the more people that have populated the earth. So that was proven completely false. But U.S. birth rates at this point, to be a replacement population, meaning people getting older and dying, to replace a dying population, the birth rate needs to be somewhere around 2.1. 2.1 children per family. Obviously, you can't have 0.1 children. We're just doing math here, all right? But the birth rates in the United States at this point is 1.63, meaning at this point, we are going to be declining in population in the coming decades. In other Western nations, I mean, nations like, I think Japan is the worst one, Japan has a birth rate of 1.3 at this point. I mean, they're saying in the next 40 to 50 years that Japan's population will literally be down 40% from what it is today. In the next 100 years, Japan is, you know, projected to have a population that is less than half of what it is today. That's shocking. So you say, like, what's the problem with that? Isn't there too many people anyway? Well, look, the problem is, is that, and the Bible is telling us in Deuteronomy chapter number 28, I mean, the problem is, like, quite frankly, it's economic right up front. Because, you know, you know, the impact of falling birth rates on a nation, you know, the burden of healthcare, the burden of taking care of, you know, older generations, that falls to the younger generations. When it comes to things like just in the United States, Social Security, Medicare, all these things, guess what? That's not like in some savings account somewhere. That's coming from you all who are going to work. That's coming from you all who are getting taxed, and you're paying for all those benefits that are going to, you know, aging generations in the United States. Essentially, there's too many retired people versus people being born is, you know, just the weight of the problem that you have. I mean, you have, you know, not enough people to replace the people that are leaving. It's very simple, and it causes massive economic, people are already predicting massive economic problems for the country. And if you look at Deuteronomy chapter 28, you know what you're seeing? Massive economic problems. Massive, you know, decline. They're like, we have all kinds of olive trees, but we have no oil. How is this happening? What's going on? I mean, quite frankly, in the United States, we're already seeing this with the job force. We're already seeing this with the workforce. They say that with every five, and this has been happening, this number that I'm about to tell you has been happening for 20 years with the retiring baby boomers, all right? And the baby boomers are pretty much all retired at this point. But for 20 years, every five people that retired, two replace them. You say, well, what's the problem there? Well, who's going to make all the stuff that we have that we don't need and fix all the stuff that we have that we don't need? This is the problem. There's no people entering the workforce when people are leaving the workforce. This is why it's hard to get things in the last few years. This is why things are, you know, you see things that are, you know, out of stock and all these things. You never used to see this 10 years ago. You never used to see things like that. But it's especially bad in the skilled trades, as most of you know. I mean, LinkedIn, I've tracked this number over the last few years, but LinkedIn now says there's 85 million, there's a shortage of 85 million in the skilled trades right now, meaning skilled trades jobs that just, there's no one to fill them. And it's because of this problem that I'm talking about this morning. And look, it's not just birth rates. There's a stigma on, you know, if you don't go to college, you're an idiot, you know, even though the skilled trades make more than college graduates on average at this point. You know, I mean, people are just, they're not able to think critically anymore. All right. College, universities, don't get me started. That's not the point of the sermon, but they're institutionalizing people. They're not thinking, they're not teaching them how to think. All right. So look, the point is this. Everyone's being taught that they need to be a doctor and a lawyer, and they're ending up a bartender, and, you know, they're being taught that work is bad. They're being taught that, you know, look, they're basically being taught that everything good is bad. And children is just one of these major things. Working nine to five is terrible. You need to get on the internet and become an internet millionaire like this one guy that I see on YouTube or whatever. I mean, it's fake. It's, if there is people on YouTube making millions, they're probably ripping people off doing so. Andrew Tate. The point is everything that is good, according to the Bible, is being taught that it is bad today. All right. So even up to the point where, you know, you need to, you know, hope to retire one day where you can just sit around for the last 30 years of your life doing nothing. Does the Bible teach that? The Bible does not teach that. All right. Look, look at Deuteronomy chapter number 38. Let's go back to the point. The point is a country with children that are, a country that is not a nation that is not having children, the economy will shrink. That's what Deuteronomy chapter 28 is teaching us. Taxes will increase. Everything will get worse. Children are inherited from the Lord. A good thing in a country with children is a blessed country. A country without them is cursed and will suffer, right? That's why the things regarding children are listed in the curses. Look at the verse number 15 where we shift gears into Deuteronomy chapter number 28. What's the cause of this? What's the reason for this? But it shall come to pass if thou will not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to observe and to do all his commandments and his statutes with thy command thee this day that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee. The United States of America has never been at a lower point in knowledge of the Bible. You could just go and you could just look up, you know, you know, stats on people that know the Bible or read the Bible. I mean, much less the King James Bible. And you will, you will find it. Look, if you're a soul winner, you know this. We're running into more and more people that have never even heard of Jesus. Adults that have never heard of Jesus before. It used to be 10 years ago where most people knew who Jesus was. Maybe they didn't know, you know, how to be saved and, you know, the gospel itself. But most people had been to church before. Church attendance all time low in US history today. And look, are we being blessed for it is what we have to ask ourselves. Look at verse number 62. Verse number 62. This is the after verse 15 is all of the curses. If a nation, look, this isn't that hard. If a nation walks away from the Lord, see the rest of the chapter. Look at verse number 62. And according to what we're talking about, you know, applying this to children, look at verse 62. Now that we know, you know, where our birth rates are, what's happening in the United States, what's happening in Western culture. And ye shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven for a multitude. Thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord thy God. And it shall come to pass that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do good and to multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and to bring you to naught. And ye shall be plucked off ye. This is why you need a King James Bible. Ye means plural. You know, here's the King James Bible. T-H is singular and the Y's, the Y's and the U's are plural. It's so hard to understand. It's impossible. No one could learn what I just told you in seven seconds. Ye, meaning the entire nation, all of you, shall be plucked off the land whether thou goest to possess it. The land in the nation of Israel, by the way, always had this. It was a contract. It was a contract. You stick to the Lord, you stick to my words and you can stay in the land. That's not the point of the sermon. Turn to Genesis chapter 22. But the point is, a nation that is being blessed by God will be multiplied. And a nation that is not being blessed by God will be few in number. It's not that difficult. I mean, we can go back all the way back to Abraham. Just look at Genesis chapter 22 and look at verse 17. That in blessing I will bless thee. This is God talking to Abraham. And in multiplying I will multiply thy seed. Does this sound familiar? Looking at Deuteronomy chapter 28 and verse number 62, verse number 63. I will multiply thee as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is upon the seashore. And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. So we see that a nation that has children is a blessed nation. And God is simply saying, you know, this very simple lesson that we need to take from the Bible this morning is that a nation that turns away, that turns their back on God will not be blessed. And they will be few in number. And what are we seeing today? But back to the main point, children are a blessing. If you have children, thank God for those children. He gave you those children. Those children are in heritage from the Lord. Point number two, turn to Matthew chapter number 19. Now we're going to get a little bit more. That was an easy one. All right, we're gonna get a little bit more serious now this morning. Look at verse number 13 of Matthew chapter 19. The second point is this. Children are a great responsibility. Children are a great responsibility because of the fact that God has given you these children. Children are a great responsibility. As a matter of fact, as far as human beings go, the Bible teaches that children are the closest fit for the kingdom of heaven. And I'll explain what that means in just a minute, but look down at verse number 13. This is Jesus with the disciples. And it says, then there were brought unto him little children that he should put his hands on them and pray. And his disciples rebuke them. But Jesus said, suffer the 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 thence. This is why, look, this is why young people, children are the closest human beings to the kingdom of heaven because they have an uncorrupted conscience. They have a conscience within them. This is why kids at a young age are so easy to get saved. This is why if you find a child that's 10, 11 years old, and you preach the gospel, it's just like, it doesn't even really matter if they've been in church, it will just fit their conscience. And it's so easy to get children saved because they don't have that corruption in them that adults do. They don't have, they haven't had those scars put on their conscience. They haven't had all those bad experiences happen to them. They haven't, you know, God forbid, but they haven't had, for the most part, they have a clear conscience. They know that they're sinners. They totally get that point every single time. And they just accept the fact that God sent Jesus Christ and all they have to do is trust on Jesus Christ and they're saved and they're saved forever. Kids get that so easily. And that is what Jesus is talking about here. He's like, they're a perfect fit for the kingdom of heaven. Now, some adult who's lived a wicked life for 40 years, you know, it's going to be more difficult to get that person saved because they have a lot of, maybe they have bad beliefs at that point. Maybe they have seared consciences in certain areas. Look, I'm not saying people can't still get saved, but I'm just saying for children, this is why it is so easy for them to accept the gospel. All right. So look, Jesus is saying that, you know, they're, they're the closest fit to the kingdom of heaven on earth. So you have to wonder about, you ever have people that say, I hate kids. Like you have to wonder, like, what, what's wrong with that person's conscience? That they hate children. All right. You have to just wonder, like, where's, where's your heart at compared to the kingdom of God? Where's your heart at compared to the truths of the Bible? All right. But look, the point is as a parent, what Jesus is talking about in chapter number 13 of Matthew 19, this is a huge advantage to you as a parent, but it is a massive responsibility as well. Turn to Ephesians, actually you turned Isaiah chapter 54. You turned Isaiah chapter 54. Let me read you Ephesians chapter number six, Ephesians six, one says, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Now the Bible here is telling children that they should obey their parents, not in anything that they do, but in the Lord. The Bible always gives that, that, uh, disclaimer there. So I can't really go tell my children, I need you to go rob a bank for me. And they have to listen to me. It's obey your parents in the Lord. And then in verse number four, the Bible says, fathers provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. So we have a command to the children to obey their parents in the Lord. And then a command to me, the father to teach my children in the Lord. So God's kind of covering both sides of the coin there, but look, I've said many times to people when I talk about, you know, sin and what sin is, sin is a transgression of the law. There's the 10 commandments, but there's hundreds of commandments in the Bible. This is one of those commandments. You know, bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That is a serious commandment to parents. That is a serious responsibility. Look at Isaiah chapter 54 in verse number 13. This is a serious responsibility. It's not one that you want to get wrong and look, you can get it wrong. You can mess this up. Look at verse number 13 of Isaiah chapter 54. I want you all to get there because I want you to see these words right here. Look at Isaiah 54 in verse number 13. Isaiah 54 13, the Bible says, and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. Now God could have just ended it right there. Just saying, teach your children what I tell you, but God always tells us why. He always tells us why. And I just, I love this verse so much because it says, he says, if you teach your children in the Lord, you can just, I can just tell you just to do that, but I'm going to tell you the benefits and great shall be the peace of thy children taught in the Lord, a child that is taught in the Lord equals a child at peace. Who on this planet who has children could say that they do not want their children to have peace? What do you have to do? Just teach them in the Lord. That's it. I mean, look, folks, that's why we push homeschooling here. You don't have to homeschool to come to church here, but this is why we push this as a biblical solution because being taught the things that the public school is now teaching is not going to result in peace. And you can see the fruit of that. You can see the fruit of that. This is why we teach homeschooling and what the public school is getting worse and worse and worse. Let me just say this. We were talking about this last week. The public school is getting worse and worse and worse. And let me just say this. I'm glad that the kids here are homeschooled and I know that they're growing up. They're being taught of the Lord and that they have peace and that there's no danger there. There's no danger for my kids from the public school. Let me tell you something. I care about the kids that are in the public school. It bothers me what's happening in the public school. I do not pray. So look, as the public school gets worse, I hope that more parents wake up and realize that there's danger there. But look, I don't pray for it to get worse because I care about those kids. I care about other people's children. This is why we go out soloing because we actually care about people. I care about people that don't know the Bible. I care about parents who have no idea what the Bible says and have children and that are just being abused by this system. I care about those people. And yes, I pray that more of them wake up every single day. But I don't pray for bad things to get worse and worse and worse. I pray that people wake up and understand what Isaiah 54. Isaiah 54 verse 13 is not a complicated verse. We're not talking about end times prophecy here. It's teach them what God says and they will have peace. And look, this is why talking about church and children, many people, there's a lot of small kids in this church and many people underestimate the value of having these small kids in church. They underestimate it. But let me tell you something. The convictions that you show your two and three and four year olds today, they will remember. They will remember these things. They will apply these things to their future families. They will understand how serious you took Isaiah 54, 13. They will remember these small children. This is why I turn to Deuteronomy chapter 31. This is why we're a family integrated church. It's not like children get to the point where they're eight or 14 or whatever, and they're like, okay, I'm going to remember everything at this point. Now they're going to remember things from a very young age. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 31 and look at verse number 12. This is talking about the general context here is what to, how to handle a stranger that comes into the nation. Because look, even in the nation of Israel, when a stranger came in and they got saved and they wanted to, you know, worship the one true God and give up, you know, repent from the other, you know, gods that they worshiped and they wanted to just, you know, salvation and they want to be part of the nation. The Bible says this, look at verse 12, it says, gather the people together, men, women, and children, and the stranger that is within that gates that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the Lord your God and observe to do all the words of this law. Sound familiar? The Deuteronomy chapter 28 and that their children talking about people who are new, which have not known anything, may hear and learn to fear the Lord, your God, as long as you live in the land, whether ye go over to Jordan to possess it and ye talking to everybody. He's saying the most important thing is that their children learn the word of God, that they hear it. How are they going to hear it? If they're not here hearing it, how are they going to hear it? If they're off in some Sunday school where they're just, you know, they turn the Bible into a cartoon and they're coloring pictures all day long. No, they're to hear the word of God along with the men and the women. Do not underestimate the power of the word of God, of the preaching of the word of God to small children. And look, we do have a mother baby room here. We do have a mother baby room here and look, we have new babies. We're about to be flooded with new babies. Praise God for that. I'm so happy about that. Words do not have, I cannot tell you the words on how happy I am for all the women that are about to have children this year. But the mother baby room has a purpose. The first one is it's there for privacy for mothers with infants for obvious reasons to feed their children. That's what it's there for. But the second reason, there's only two reasons, privacy and training, training, training them how to sit through a church service. Look, we got two and three year olds that are listening to my preaching right now, sitting quietly in a church service, understanding what I am saying. That is what the mother baby room is for. If you bring them in there and it's just play time and toy time and wherever, they're never going to want to come out. And hear the word of God preach. It's to simply prepare them to sit in church. That is the second reason. And to be what? To be admonished with the word of God. And many sermons I preach, look, I preach at the little children in many sermons and they understand what I'm saying. They're being taught the word of God. That's why if done properly, if you train your children properly and they sit in church, that's why we have six year olds in this church that know more of the Bible than the vast majority of adults in America today. These kids will say stuff to you at the dinner table. You're just like, what in the world? They're like quoting Leviticus. And they understand what the Bible says. They're going to get saved at a young age and they're going to learn the Bible. And what it doesn't, that's not a high bar because most people understand very little about the Bible today. But the point is, I mean, you want to talk about education. That is education. The Bible is wisdom. I mean, the Bible is judgment. Don't judge. No, I want my kids to have judgment and they're going to learn judgment from the word of God. They're going to learn wisdom from the word of God. They're going to understand what evil is from the word of God. The word of God is going to make sin exceedingly sinful. So when they're 16, 17 years old and they walk into the workforce and they see something wrong, they're going to say, that is something I need to be away from. That is the discernment and the judgment that children that grow up learning the Bible, reading the Bible, hearing the Bible preached will grow up with and will understand. I mean, that's education right there. That's the education kids need. Turn to 2 Kings chapter 21. 2 Kings chapter 21. So we see that children are a blessing. We see that children are a blessing and because they are a blessing from God, they're a great responsibility. And look, a society that values children is a society that values the word of God. It's a society that values the kingdom of heaven. And as one goes away, the other will follow. And that's exactly what we're seeing today. Look at 2 Kings chapter 21. Look at verse number one, example of this in the Bible. And Manasseh was 12 years old, King of Judah, the lower kingdom of Judah, when he began to reign and he reigned 50 and five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hevitzba. And he did that was evil in the sight of the Lord after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed and he reared up altars for Baal and made a grove as did Ahab King of Israel. It's never good when you're a King of Judah and you're being compared to a King of Israel, especially Ahab, which was one of the worst ones. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, which the Lord said in Jerusalem, well, I put my name and he built altars for all the hosts of heaven and the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he made, look at this, he made his son pass through the fire and observed times and used enchants, enchantments and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. He wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, revoke him to anger. When God finally passes judgment on Judah, this is what he references. This moment, several Kings down the line, a hundred some years later, he references back to what Manasseh did, even though Manasseh got right at the end, but what did he do? He threw away the blessings that God gave in the form of child sacrifice. They had child sacrifice going on in the kingdom of Judah under his kingdom. Now think about birth control. Now think about abortion. Now think about, you know, just this, this teaching. I mean, if abortion isn't throwing away a blessing from God, I don't know what is. Yes, you're murdering a human being, but it's literally, you know, my mom used to always put it this way. It's like you're taking a package, a gift from God and sending it back unopened. Well, it's like you're sending it back destroyed actually. But this is exactly what God referenced in destroying the nation of Judah with the invasion, the captivity of Babylon, with the Babylonian captivity. It makes me think of feminism, how we're teaching this culture to our children, to our young, these young girls are being taught this, this wicked mind virus of putting off having children and going off and trying to become a man and compete with all the men. And you know, you don't need to be married and you don't need to have children. And you know what? They're going to wake up when they're 40 and they're going to realize that they were lied to. It's the opposite of what the Bible teaches. So the point is this, this is not a good trend for our society. It's against what the Bible teaches. We need to appreciate the blessing of children and understand the extreme responsibility that comes with that. Look at verse, turn to First Corinthians chapter number seven. Let me give you number three. Let me give you number three. So children are a great blessing. Children are a great responsibility. A nation of children is blessed. A family of children is blessed. Look, a church with many children is blessed, but it's a great responsibility. Look at First Corinthians chapter number seven. The third point is this. I want you to understand the spiritual danger involved with children. You're like, what? Look at First Corinthians chapter number seven. First Corinthians chapter number seven and verse number twenty-five. It's kind of a unique chapter in the Bible because Paul does explain here that a lot of the things I'm telling you is just my experience and my opinion. He's telling you, but look, if I'm going to take advice from somebody, the apostle Paul, I'll take that advice. If I'm going to take somebody's observations on singles versus married people, I'll take, I'll take your observation, apostle Paul. Apostle Paul is definitely qualified to give me advice. All right. Look at verse number twenty five to get an example of what I'm talking about here. In verse number twenty five, he says, he's talking about marrieds versus people that are not married. Call, you know, and you know, guess what? If you're not married, you're supposed to be a Virgin. Another biblical truth that's completely lost today. People would be like, what? Now, concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give my judgment. He's saying, I'm just going to give you my advice. My observations as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. So Paul, throughout this chapter, Paul was single and he's like, you know, I'm able to stay single and stay pure. That's something that I can do. He says, he says, I understand that most men can't do that. They should probably just get married. They should get married because that's the proper route for that. But look at verse number thirty two, but then he gives kind of comparisons that he's seen between married people and single people. Look at verse number thirty two. It says, I would rather have, but I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord. So he's saying, when he says carefulness, he's like, I would rather have somebody that only cared for the things of God, that wasn't careful about a career and a house payment and all these things and taking care of a family. He's like, I would rather just have you only care for the Lord. I mean, we're talking about the greatest missionary who's ever lived here. And he's just like, he needs people that are hard charging and can work for the Lord and don't have any other carefulness, any other things that they care about. Look at verse number thirty three. But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. There's a difference also between a wife and a virgin. He's saying there's a difference between somebody who's a lady who's married and a lady who's not married. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the world that she may be holy both in body and in spirit, but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. And this I speak for your own prophet, not that I may cast a snare upon you. He's like, you know, he's like, I'm just telling you what I see, but that for which is comely and that you may attend upon the Lord without distraction. In verse thirty five, he's saying, look, this is my observation. I'm just giving you a warning is what he's saying. I'm just telling you that a married woman is going to have much more proclivity to care for things of the world, her husband, her family, these things. Look, these are good things, but it is much more likely for her to be overtaken by those things than a single woman who does not have those things. So look, ladies, I don't yell. I look, I yell at the guys a lot in this church, but ladies, single ladies, especially ladies with small children, ladies that are going to have children, ladies that don't have children, they may one day have children. The question that I have to ask you from this verse here is, do you have a spiritual walk? Do you have a spiritual walk or is your spiritual walk just your husband's? This is a question that you should ask yourself because look, ladies, you should have your own spiritual walk. If your husband, I know this is going to be hard for anyone in this church to picture, but if your husband said, I don't want to go to church today, like, look, let me tell you something. If I told, if I got up this morning and I told my wife, because my wife has to obey me as her husband in the Lord. If I tell my wife, you can't go to church, she should come to church because that is not a commandment. Her higher power is the Lord Jesus Christ. But let's say I woke up this morning and I said, I don't feel like going to church today. I know it's weird because I'm the pastor to even imagine that, but let's say I was just like a member of the church and I said, I don't really feel like going to church today. I don't want to go. My wife would still come to church. Why? Because she has her own spiritual walk. Ladies, you need to have your own spiritual walk. Even if, I mean, your husband shouldn't have to carry you every step of the way. Ask yourself that question. You should have your own. It should be your walk, not your husband's. I understand he should walk in his steps, but walk on your own. And one thing you need to realize is that your children, and especially the moms in this church, because the moms in this church are paying attention. The moms in this church are teaching their kids of the Lord. The moms in this church are the Deuteronomy 19 moms that are Deuteronomy 6 moms that are getting up in the morning and they are teaching their children the ways of the Lord from the time the children wake up to the time they go to bed. But all that being said, your children are a blessing, they're a gift, but they should never take the place of the gift giver. Children can become idols. Having a child can be a stumbling block for a mother. For sure. We have met mothers that when they had a child, they walked away from church and they walked away from their Christian life. Because of that change. Because of that. Look, major life changes are dangerous to the spiritual life. Whether it be moving to a different city, whether it be a new job, whether it be, you know, having children can be one of those things. Be careful. Make sure Jesus Christ is on the pedestal. I mean, just you think you're like, what? Like using your blessings to walk away from the God that gave you the blessing? That doesn't make any sense. Happens all the time. I'm sad to report to you. We've seen, we've seen women have children in this ministry where having a child marked the end of their church life. It was just over at that point. So be careful. Have your own spiritual walk. But remember the whole point is Jesus Christ. The whole point is that it's a blessing. The whole point is your responsibility to introduce and teach those children the word of God, which is Jesus Christ. It's everything. And there's danger with that. Just make sure you keep things in the right order because we have to help these kids have a spiritual walk of their own at the end of the day. And moms, it is impossible to teach your kids to have a spiritual walk of their own if yours dies. So your spiritual life. I know there's a lot of focus in the Bible and I preach a lot and I scream at these men in this church about working hard to support their families, about reading the Bible, about teaching their Bible to their families at home and being a biblical head of the family that you'll never hear taught today. But moms, you have to have a spiritual walk. You have a massive responsibility. My wife's job is much more important than me going off and making a paycheck. She is running the home. She is teaching our children the ways of the Lord so they can have peace in their lives. Is there anything more important? That's why we're a family integrated church, folks. It's biblical. It's a huge advantage. We need to take advantage of it. You need to bring your kids here every time the doors are open to this place. And you know what? They will remember that. I can't tell you how many adults I know today that will tell the story, tell the testimony of, you know what, no matter what, we were in church and they carry that forward to their children. They give that godly heritage, that goodly heritage to their children. That's the heritage that your children need from you as they're a heritage from the Lord. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.