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

Hey man, so keep your place there in the book of Joel, we're just gonna look down at one or two verses here real quickly just to kind of set the tone for this morning's sermon. Joel is of course one of the minor prophets towards the end of the Old Testament. Joel is, he was a prophet during the reign of Joash in the lower kingdom of Judah and Joel here is warning the kingdom, the kingdom of Judah that they better get right, that they better get things together or they are going to be basically overthrown by this other nation of course that happened you know many decades later after this but Joel's warning the nation here and what I really want to point out this morning is in verse number three where Joel says this statement and I'm just gonna apply it to just the word of God here and it really has something to do with, kind of captures the essence of what I want to talk to you about this morning but where Joel says this, he says tell ye, I mean talking about the word of the Lord here that's come to Joel in verse number one, so he's saying tell the word of the Lord, he's saying tell the word of the Lord to who? Tell ye to your children, tell ye your children of it and let your children tell their children and their children another generation so it's interesting that Joel, he wasn't a prophet during the time of the Babylonian captivity, he was several generations removed from the captivity but what does he tell the nation of Judah here? He says tell your children of this that they can tell their children and they can tell their children, he's talking about you know protecting future generations by teaching the word of God to those future generations. This morning I want to talk about homeschooling and the necessity of the idea of homeschooling. Now we see this prophet you know really telling how important it is to get the word of God not just to themselves and get themselves right but to be able to pass that forward to the next generation and this is really the key that many people miss today. I mean a lot of people are very involved in politics, I know a lot of people that are very concerned about you know the direction of our country with all the different you know the competing views and I've said this before, we've never been the two sides of our country, the philosophies, the cultures in our country have never been more divided. Even before the Civil War people had much more culture in common than people do today. It's literally God's people versus Satan's people openly you know pushing these cultures in America today but a lot of people are like yeah it's a battle for the country and it's a battle for this and they look at it in the context of elections and things like this but what you're seeing actually happen in this country with mainly generation X, my generation and generations that follow my generation whether that be the millennials or generations even after that, not too many of them have kids yet at this point but they're throwing off what they've been taught before, they're throwing off the status quo and they're doing what, they're fighting for the next generation, they're fighting for their children and that's why this homeschool movement is exploding in this country today. It's not just a solely Christian thing even though that is the heart of it, the core of it and it's very biblical of course but basically Satan has two strategies. If you're a saved person this morning, Satan has two strategies with you. The first one is if you look at Ephesians chapter 5, go to Ephesians chapter 5, look at verse number 11, you can lose your place in Joel, I just wanted to kind of show you that concept of passing the word of God on from generation to generation. Look at Ephesians chapter 5 and look at verse number 11. Satan has two strategies with you today. If you're saved, meaning you've believed, you've trusted on the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation and you're saved today, you've been sealed by the Holy Spirit, Satan still has a strategy with you and the first part of that strategy is number one to make you unfruitful and ruin you through sin. Look at Ephesians chapter 5 and look at verse number 11. The Bible says, and have no fellowship with what? The unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them. He's talking to a church here. He's talking to a bunch of saved people in the church at Ephesus and he's saying, hey, doesn't that imply that a saved person could have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness? What he's talking about is saved people that are, he's talking to Gentiles here and he's saying, look, you need to get away from all this sinful lifestyle, you need to get away from this, not to keep your salvation, not to keep yourself saved but so you can be fruitful. He's like because if you get into those works of darkness, what will happen? You will be unfruitful. Satan is trying to make the Christian today unfruitful. Verse is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret, saying stay away from, he's talking about being destroyed as a Christian through sin. Not destroyed in hell, having your ability to bear fruit in your Christian life destroyed. So that is the first strategy that Satan has with the saved believer today. He can't make you go to hell, he can't take away your salvation but he can ruin the fruitfulness of your life on this earth by getting you wrapped up in sin, by getting you wrapped up in these unfruitful works of darkness. The second one, the second strategy of Satan today is much more serious, he said what could be more serious than that? It's much more serious and it will and it can stop people from being saved and it can stop salvation and that is Satan's second strategy with the saved believer of destroying your children, of destroying the next generation and tell me you don't see this today. That's Satan, this is why and look many people, many people are starting to awaken to this and that actually gives me some hope when I see people starting to awaken to this, even people that have never read the Bible, they don't believe the Bible, they're just awakening to this idea that there's this evil coming after children today. In one form or another, maybe they don't recognize the full spiritual battle at hand but people are waking up to this today, at least they're seeing the conflict and that is why homeschooling is on the rise today, that is why I'm going to read you a lot of statistics this morning but homeschooling from 2019 to 2020 increased by 30% in the United States, that is a massive jump and depending on what studies you look at, it looks like homeschooling is increasing between 10 and 15% in every subsequent year, meaning that many more people are homeschooling every single year. You say, oh yeah but that was COVID and everyone was just concerned about their kids not being able to be in school, no, the number one reason for homeschooling over the past several years is concern for the school environment that their kids are being put into. Whenever you look at the number one concern, it is, that's kind of a paraphrased concern right there but it's always people concerned about the alternative which is the public school system today. So many people are considering homeschooling, many people are making that jump to homeschooling because they see, look everybody whether you're saved or not, don't forget, everyone has God's law written in their heart, everyone has a conscience, look you can scar that conscience, you can damage that conscience but people have a conscience and when they see all this perversion and all this, you know, wickedness being taught to children, they're like that's not right. You don't have to be a Bible believing Christian to figure this out and the thing you need to realize is that perversion and teaching all this gender confusion and LGBT philosophies to children, look, who teaches perversion? Perverts. This is the equivalent of false prophets. It's one thing to be accepting of people and just be like, yeah, as long as they do that over there and just be a tolerant, you know, person today, it's another thing to actively go out and teach it. It is the same philosophy as false doctrine. There's a lot of people out there that believe a lot of false doctrine and they just believe the false doctrine because that's what they've been taught and they're just like this just would have been taught and they don't question it and they just believe it. It's another thing to go out and push false doctrine on people. It's another thing to be, because that's the difference between someone that's just not saved and someone that is a false prophet. So, this gives you an idea of, you know, the type of people that are filling the public schools as teachers, employees, administrators, we're talking about wicked people here that would actually teach these philosophies to children. I mean it's a worldview that they're pushing on the children. So this morning, to all the people that are considering homeschooling and even to people in this church that do homeschool, I want to dispel the four top myths of homeschooling this morning. Because a lot of people will look at these, they'll think about homeschooling themselves and they'll think, you know, I should homeschool or I wish I could homeschool and these four things are the things that will stop them from making that leap to homeschool. And I'm telling you, they're myths this morning and I'm going to dispel them from the Bible. Turn to Isaiah chapter 54. Isaiah chapter 54. And even for people that do homeschool this morning in this church, these are good things to write down when people ask you about these four things. Because these are the things that, I mean, there's nothing new under the sun, there's no new thing, folks, and people are always going to bring up to you, oh, what about this? Or what about this? Or what about this? And at least you'll have some answers to give to these people that talk about these. I mean, it's the same four things that I hear all the time that I've heard for my entire life basically since we've started homeschooling. Turn to Isaiah chapter 54. So really look at the four top things that people are concerned about when it comes to homeschooling. And I'm going to show you that while some of them may have like a basis in some minority truth that the vast majority of these are the opposite of the truth. The first one is this. I don't want to homeschool because I want my kids to be socialized. I want my kids to be, you know, socialized. You know, whatever that means. I mean, people, I'm pretty sure when I kind of point out like what these definitions are, I'm pretty certain that most people that bring up, what about socialization? When you tell people, oh, we homeschool, well, what about socialization? I'm pretty sure they don't even know what they're talking about because I'm going to kind of define that. I'm going to use like secular definitions for socialization and for antisocial behavior to show you that the opposite is literally true when it comes to homeschooling. So let's reverse engineer this thing, first of all. You're going to Isaiah chapter 54 and we're going to get there in just a little bit. Look, there's a stigma. There's a stigma out there. If you homeschool, well, are they even going to see other kids? I mean, we all laugh about it, right? But I mean, and there's this stigma like that homeschool equals isolation, that they never leave the house and they never see other people and they never see other children and, you know, they need, I mean, think how stupid this is. They need public school in order to see other children in their life. I mean, think of what people have accepted. Think of the status quo that people have accepted. It's literally insane that the only place that my kids can see other children is in the public school system in America. That's sad if you've accepted that, but that's basically what they're saying. So first, let's define, let's reverse engineer this thing and let's, because they're basically saying if you homeschool, we're going to raise antisocial children, okay? So let's look up what the definition of antisocial means. And I looked at many different psychological websites and they all basically come down to these five categories. This is what antisocial behavior is and pretty much, I don't believe in psychology at all and you all know that. I think it's the fakest science out there, but this is what psychology will say is antisocial behavior today. Theft and other sorts of crime, violence and other sorts of, you know, assaults, violence meaning, you know, physically harming innocent people, bullying is part of that, that's also antisocial behavior, drugs and alcohol abuse is also considered by everyone, antisocial behavior. And then of course, the last one and probably maybe the most serious, I don't know if they're all pretty serious, but the most serious in my view is like self-harm, meaning like suicidal tendencies, depression, anxiety, all of these types of things. Now, you're in Isaiah chapter 54 and I'm going to show you that the Bible basically sums up the opposite of all these antisocial things with one word. It sums it up with one word and it tells us how to not have these things happen, especially to our children with one word and we're going to get to that in just a couple minutes. We saw theft, crime, we saw violence, we saw bullying, we saw drugs and alcohol abuse and then we saw like suicidal tendencies, self-harm, depression. These are the five categories that everyone would agree in, you know, these academic circles today that are antisocial behavior, meaning that's behavior that people are accusing you of bringing your kids into if you homeschool. Won't they be socialized? Instead of being socialized, they're going to turn into be antisocial people. What they're saying is those five things that I just listed for you. Let me give you some public school stats this morning. All right? And let me just tell you something. I've read these stats before. I've read these categories of statistics before on the public school for four years since I started preaching. I've been reading you these stats in one form or another and every single one of these stats is getting worse. Every single one. And look, they'll shock you. Every single time I look at them, they shock me. All right? I mean, I'm out of this mix. I'm not in this mess. But all of these things shock me and how bad they're getting, it still shocks me. So let me just read you some. How prevalent, here's an article, an article, how prevalent is sexual abuse in California schools? This is from a law, attorney at law website right here, talking about just the prevalence of sexual abuse in public schools in California. Listen to this. Like the rest of the nation, sexual abuse is a problem in many of California's public schools. Okay. I mean, I would think if there's one that it's a problem, right? If there's like one kid that ever has this happen to them, it's a problem. With 79% of school children experiencing sexual abuse that consists of direct contact. This is California's statistic right here for sexual abuse in public schools, 79%. As a parent, you can basically take that number and just be like, if I put my kid in the California public school, this will happen to them. And just accepting that. Unless you're going to be that parent, you're like, well, there's a 21% chance that it might not happen. 14% are victims of non-contact sexual abuse, which is usually in the form of lewd texts and emails, and 8% of school children are on the receiving end of both. In one poll, 50% of teenagers, now we're going to move on from that, that's sexual abuse violence. One poll, over 50% of teenagers said they were worried about the possibility of gun violence in school. So half the kids in school, so they're basically all going to be sexually abused, and then half of them are literally worried about being killed. You say, well, you know, the odds that they're going to be in a mass shooting is, well, 50% of them are worried about it. 50% of them are concerned about it. Violence in schools is a rising issue, and bullying is a key contributor, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Over 20% of students in grade 6 through 12 have been bullied either in school, on their way to or from school, which involves physical violence. Now we get into this idea of self-harm and depression. You see where I'm going with this? So if you're basically going to be abused, physically and sexually in school, and then half of your schoolmates are worried about literally being killed, how do you think the mental state of kids at school is today? I mean, how do you think this statistic is going to go? I'm going to read you some CDC stuff. We know how we all agree with the CDC on everything. The CDC high school students, here's some statistics from 2001, 2021. More than 4 in 10, 42% of students felt persistently sad or hopeless, and nearly one-third experienced poor mental health. So 4 in 10, 40% of students feel consistently sad, depressed. You have 40% of kids in public school in high school that are depressed. I mean, that's messed up. You think that's messed up? Look at this. In 2005, students seriously considered attempting suicide. This is from the CDC. Like, they're admitting this. Whenever they're admitting something like this, you know they're pushing some solution that's not godly, and they're trying to push that solution through this stat. But we can look at this stat and say, okay, we caught you accidentally being honest here, but we know, like, what caused this in the first place. Look at this. 1 in 10, still CDC, has attempted suicide. High school students. Nearly 40% are depressed. 1 in 5 have thought about killing themselves, and 1 in 10 have literally tried to kill themselves. I mean, I have a hard time believing that it's this bad, but this is the CDC saying this, that its own system, the government is saying, our own system is this bad. You know, what they're doing is trying to push some other program, is trying to push some other, you know, drugs or whatever they're trying to push with these stats, but we can just look at this and say the government's admitting that this is how bad their program is. It's literally, like, causing children to want to commit suicide. Look, folks, remember the definition of antisocial behavior? It's like, hello, this is the very definition is what I'm reading you. Look at Isaiah chapter 54, and look at verse number 13. You know, the Bible covers all this antisocial behavior with one word. One word. The opposite of depression. The opposite of alcohol and drug abuse. The opposite of, you know, violence and bullying and abuse. The opposite is this one word, and thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. A child that's taught of the Lord, the Bible is telling us here, look, this is a promise. If you teach your children of the Lord, great shall be their peace. That means they won't be, they're not going to be, a child that's in peace is not worried about being killed. A child that's in peace is not being abused. A child that's in peace is not being confused. A child that's at peace is not depressed. A child that's at peace is not considering suicide. What's the answer? The word of the Lord. And teaching them the word of the Lord. Teaching them this world view right here. The opposite is true. Aren't you worried about their socialization? Yeah, that's why I homeschool. Should be your answer. Because I want children, I want my children to be at peace. Turn to Psalm chapter 68. Turn to Psalm chapter 68. You're going to see a common theme this morning when I bring up all these problems and all these issues. You're going to see a common failure in the family this morning. Look at Psalm chapter 68 and look at verse number 4. Isaiah 54, 13 is such a great verse in the Bible. Just like, just laying out that, hey, I mean, who could say that they don't want their children to be at peace? Who could say that? What person on planet earth that has children, that has, you know, that is not just a wicked reprobate could say, oh, I don't want my children to be at peace. That's what we all want for our children. How do we do it? Teach them of the Lord. Teach them the word of God. Teach them a biblical world view. Look at Psalm chapter 68. Look at verse number 4. The Bible says, sing unto God, sing praises to his name, extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name, Jah, and rejoice before him. Talking about God, and this, it describes God this way. It says, a father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows is God in his holy habitation. Now look, God here is saying that I will step in and be a father to the fatherless. Why? Because it is the job of the father to protect the children. And a fatherless child needs someone to protect them and God's saying, that's where I will fill that role. To be that protector for them. Then you can just reference that straight back to Isaiah 54. How in the world? If somebody would just teach them the word of God, that would be a protection to that child. I mean look, Ephesians talks about the nurture and admonition is what the children need. They need to be taught of the Lord. They need to be protected and nurtured from all these things. But instead, people will say the opposite is true of homeschooling. They will say the opposite is true, that if you homeschool your child, they're not going to be socialized. It's 180 degrees from what's true. Instead, the public school children have a fear of being killed, for crying out loud. They have a fear of dying, they're depressed, they're abused, they're assaulted, it's the opposite of peace. I think out of all the homeschool stigmas, this one is the most false. Homeschool kids, I mean, they're well-rounded. Another thing about homeschool kids that you'll notice, the more you're around homeschool kids, is they get along with children of all ages. What you will see with homeschool kids, look, this is socialization. This is peaceful socialization. What you will see, and I see this here with the kids. We have kids from 12 to, I don't know, zero here at the church. And what you will see is all the kids play together is, yeah, you know, sometimes the older kids, they get a little out of control or maybe they knock one of the younger kids over or whatever. But then you know what you'll see? You'll see like this mob of, I saw it this morning, you see this mob of the older kids like right to the younger kid that's like down on the ground like, are you okay, buddy? Hey, you know, and they're all trying to pick him up and he's like, you know, or whatever. But they're able to socialize with children of all ages and the older children take this natural role of protector and the younger children take this natural role of following these role models. It's a great thing to see. Where is it? No, you're only able to get along with the people in your own grade. I still remember this. Like oh, he's a sophomore. I still remember like I couldn't understand like why like when I went into high school as a freshman, like all the seniors immediately hated me. I'm like, why is that? I mean, I wrestled. I wrestled and like I got on the varsity team when I was in eighth grade and like all the older guys were just like constantly pounding on me. I just said, why? And they're like, because we're seniors and you're in eighth grader. Okay, I mean, I don't know, I don't really understand it, but that's just kind of how it is. Whereas you're only like you're just like trained to only get along with people of your own age. But is that how the world is? When you go to work, do you only work with people who are 37 years old or whatever your age is? Do you only work with people? You have to be able to socialize and relate to people that are your own age, that are not just your own age, but a variety of ranges. It's called being social. And the homeschool kid, you see that right away in their life. You know what? A question that I always ask kids when I especially when I first moved to California and I would get a chance to go and preach at other churches, I would always ask, because we always, you know, we are friends with churches where most kids are homeschooled. I mean, you don't have to be homeschooled to come to a church like ours, but just most kids are homeschooled in churches like ours. And I would always, whether out soloing with their parents or whatever, I would always ask the kids that were there, you know, with their parents, you know, out soloing or just fellowshipping or whatever, do you like being homeschooled? You know what? I've never heard a kid that didn't like to be homeschooled. The idea of going to public school was like appalling to them. It was just like, and you know what, you know what that shows me? Those kids have great peace. Those kids have great peace in their upbringing. They love it. They couldn't imagine ever going to public school. You tell them some of the things that are going on in public school, they literally don't believe you. They're just like, that doesn't even sound real. But they're at great peace being homeschooled. Because why? Because the Bible's true. That's why. They're being taught of the Lord. And they're literally being raised to be social. They're being raised in a peaceful environment, and they have peace in every part of their life. What's the second one? So socialization is completely false. What's the second one? The second one is this. Education. Education. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Is homeschooling a good education? Now this one's basically dead to everybody, too. I don't really get too many people that ask this one anymore, because most people know that homeschool kids are just getting a better education than public school children. So the question is, is it a good education? Will I be able to give my kids a good education? I think this one is not, maybe it's not dead, but it's basically dying in the public eye, because for decades now, homeschool kids have outperformed public school kids in every single metric anywhere. There's not a single metric that public school children outperform. You know, and somebody will pull off some homeschool parent that they knew that doesn't teach their kids, and you know, there's always that one-off, right? But overall, let me give you some more academic performance statistics here. The home-educated kids typically score 25 percentile points higher above public school students on standardized academic achievement tests. You know, a 2015 study found that this is across all demographics. And by the way, a lot of people are like, oh, I'm not a teacher, I don't have a college degree in teaching. This statistic has nothing to do with the performance of homeschooled children is not bumped even one bit by a parent that has a degree in education or even a four-year degree. It has nothing to do with it. There's no statistical connection to those two things. So people are like, oh, I don't have a college degree, or you know, I don't have a degree in teaching, or whatever. But it shows you the value of most degrees out there, right? 78% of peer-reviewed studies on academic achievement show homeschooled kids perform statistically significantly better than those of public schools. And like I said, the education of the parents does not factor in. And then, of course, home-educated students typically score above average on SAT and ACT tests. Look, homeschool education is all about this, and I've said this before, too. It's total freedom. But that means total responsibility. So to the homeschooled parent, you have total freedom in teaching your children. You can choose the curriculums, you can choose how hard you push every single day, you can choose how fast you want them to graduate from, you know, different grades and all these different things. You can choose to go through the summer or not through the summer. You can choose what days to take off. It's total freedom, but it's also total responsibility. And we are, of course, for world-class education in this church. We always have been, and we share that philosophy with all of our friends that we know all across the country. It's just because homeschooling can be a world-class education. Are you in Deuteronomy chapter 6? You say, how is that? Because the Bible teaches diligence in education. The Bible teaches that we should work hard in educating our children, that we should just do it all the time. We should be hard working about it, and it will work. Look at Deuteronomy 6 and verse 7. Verse number 6, sorry. The Bible says, and these words, I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart, talking about the word of God, and thou shall teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Look, on the contrary, saying you should have work ethic in your teaching of your children. You should be diligent in it, which means you just are consistent every single day. It's not like you work hard one day, and then Tuesday through Thursday you don't work hard. That's not diligence. Diligence is consistency over time, and that is what we are supposed to have when it comes to educating our children. On the other hand, look at this, from the City Journal. From the City Journal, listen to this sentence I'm going to read you right now. School illiteracy is also getting worse every single time I look at it. The illiteracy I'm talking about here, there's two kinds of illiteracy. There's illiteracy, well, oh, they're not really, a fourth grader's not at a fourth grade reading level, or a fifth grader, he's only at a second grade reading level. And then there's the illiteracy of, like, you literally can't read. Listen to this statement right here. According to a recent report, California now leads the country in illiteracy. In fact, 23.1% of Californians over age 15 cannot read this sentence. 15! You're basically an adult by that point. You're basically almost out of high school at 15 if you're homeschooled. I think our kids are planning on graduating high school at least when they're 17 or 18, so you are almost all the way through your educational curriculum at this point, and you can't read this sentence. It's not talking about you only read to a sixth grade level, it says you can't read this sentence. That's crazy, especially if you're a homeschooling parent or you're a homeschooled kid. Because homeschooling, you're like, how did they, here's the thing when I see that, as a parent who homeschools children and has successfully homeschooled one child so far and is homeschooling two more, you know, my wife, I'm going to give her the credit here, okay? As a parent who is a homeschooling parent for many, many years, homeschooling or reading is the engine that fuels all other education. So you're like, okay, if they can't read this sentence, what else don't they know? Because literally as a homeschooling parent, the first thing that you want to teach your children is you teach them to read. And then they start to become self-starters in their own education. And they start to just continue reading and reading and reading. It's the engine of their education. So if they didn't have that engine for 15 years, what have they learned? The answer is very little. Maybe they've had somebody talking at them for a decade, but if they can't read, they can't learn. Reading is the core of homeschooling. And kids that love to read, and you want, here's another little tip, you want your kids to love to read, get all the screens away. Because if they've got screens in front of them and nothing but TVs and tablets and phones, they'll never read a book. But the child that is homeschooled that is not just flooded with screens and garbage media will sit there and read book after book after book. Pretty soon your kids are eight, nine years old and they're telling you stuff. Why? Because they're getting educated. And what are they doing? They're becoming self-starters. And this is the most powerful thing about homeschooling. Just from an educational standpoint is they become self-starters in their own education. You know what that means? Their education will not stop when they're 17. Their education will not stop when they're 18 or 19 or 20. They will become self-starters in their own education for the rest of their lives. They will take that attitude of reading and learning into their jobs, into their life, into studying things that are going on in this world, into reading the Bible and studying the Bible. Reading the Bible and studying the Bible, we just talked about this yesterday, are two different things. You have to read the Bible several times before you can actually say, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to study the Bible. Why? Why do you have to know the Bible cover to cover several times before you can study it? Because when you read the Bible cover to cover several times, then when you read something in the Bible you're like, oh yeah, that connects to this and this connects to this and it's just like this endless path of connections in the Bible. Because you've read it, you've studied it. But what? Reading is everything. Without reading, how could you have any education? So look, that's really the hidden statistic in that statement. Twenty-three percent of 15-year-olds can't read that sentence. Twenty-three percent of 15-year-olds have little to no education. Look, I've met some of these types of people. They can't read, they can't pronounce things, they speak, everything that they say seems wrong, even just like their basic grammar and you're just like, what has happened to you? And you're like, oh, you're a product of the public school system. Twenty-three percent, that's like one in four. It's not a small number. So education is completely false. And look, we've all met, and I'm against these parents that are like, oh, I'm going to homeschool and just not do anything. And I'm just going to be a lazy parent, I'm going to be a lazy mom and just not really teach my kids anything. Look, I'm against that. I think they're probably better off there than still being in the public school. But I'm against not giving your children an awesome education because it's right there in front of you. So the education, the idea that you can give your kids a world-class education is most possible as a homeschool child. Because you become a self-starter in your own education and you will become that way for the rest of your life. It basically tunes you in to how you should be for the rest of your life. Homeschool kids are sought in the workforce. I'm telling you, homeschool kids are sought at, sought after out there. And because people know that they have this kind of attitude, that they're going to figure stuff out, that they're going to try their hardest, they're going to learn things, they're going to keep reaching and reaching and reaching because that's how they were brought up. It's the best education. Items number three and number four kind of fit together. But they're a little bit different. They're a little bit different than the socialization and the education fears, which are completely unfounded and the opposite of the truth. But the third one I want to bring up is this. It's visualization. When somebody thinks about homeschooling, they may think I need to homeschool or I should homeschool. It would be better for my child if he wasn't in this wicked system. I don't agree with these things that are happening. But they just dismiss the fact that they could do it. They can't ever see themselves being a homeschooling parent. They can't envision it. Turn to First Thessalonians chapter five. First Thessalonians chapter five. They can't, I mean, they can't see themselves taking that leap and being that person. They have that idea of this homeschooling family is they may respect it. They may even, you know, want it to a degree, but it is so far from reality in their own mind that they can't envision themselves doing it. So visualization is the third myth that I want to dispel. Look at First Thessalonians chapter five. And this is where we really get into this idea that the Bible teaches about how important it is for Christians to be together. How important it is for Christians to come to church. How important it is for Christians to fellowship together. How important it is for Christians, for your friends to be Christians. How important it is for your friends, I mean, to just put off the things of the world and instead, you know, this be your people, this church is what the Bible is talking about. Look at First Thessalonians chapter five. You say why? Look at verse 11 where it says, Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another even as also ye do. Edify means to instruct, to improve, or to strengthen is what edify means. Meaning when you come together, you know, you improve each other. That's the idea of a church is to edify one another. In First Corinthians 14 verse 26 the Bible says, you go ahead and turn to Romans chapter 14. First Corinthians 14 verse 26 the Bible says, How is it then, brethren, talking about the people in the church. Every one of you come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation, let all things be done unto edifying. So here he's saying they shouldn't have all these different things, only things that edify one another should be said in the church. The more you're around other Christians, the more you will be instructed, the more you will be built up. That's what the Bible is clearly teaching here. Look at Romans 14 and verse number 19. The opposite is true, though, if you are a, you know, Bible believing Christian that decides that you're going to fellowship with worldly people. What will that do? That will just, that will tear down your, that will tear down your belief system. It will weaken your faith. I mean, it's not a hard concept. Look at Romans 14 verse number 19. So you say, like, how could I possibly even think about homeschooling? The Bible says in Romans 14, 19, Let us therefore follow after the things which make for what? Peace and things wherewith one may edify another. I think that's a great verse that's attached to Isaiah chapter 54. It's saying let's follow after and let's edify each other the things that make for peace. What is that? Everything that's in the Bible. It's saying follow after these things and we will edify one another as we follow after these things together and we will have what? We will have this peace. Proverbs 27, 17, Iron sharpened with iron. So a man sharpened with the countenance of his friend. Meaning we're here to make each other stronger. We're here to make each other better. So the point is, this is your answer if you're a person that's thinking about homeschooling and you're just like, how could I ever do that? The answer is be around other like-minded believers. That's the answer. And it's a very simple answer because like all these things, curriculums, schedules, struggles that you will have from day to day, I'm not going to say homeschooling is easy. Let's say you can be a good homeschooler without having work ethic. What I am saying is you don't have to worry about how am I going to do it? Because other people have done it and they will edify you. That's the importance of being in a church that has many people that homeschool. It doesn't become easy because look, it's not going to be easy, but at least it won't be a mystery. It won't be a mystery on how to actually do it because there's edification. Some people just can't imagine how they would do it. Where do I start? What books do I buy? How much is this stuff? I mean, I read all these things on the internet and it says it's going to cost me $10,000 a year. It's not going to cost $10,000 a year. Other people have done this. Many people, they trade books back and forth. Oh, my children don't need these books. Now you can have the books. This is how it works. It's edification. What curriculums do you do? There's a million different curriculum options out there. How could I even choose what this is? Well, I don't know. Get around other like-minded believers who have already done this footwork, who've already put these curriculums together that reflect a Bible-believing worldview and you already have the answer. You can stand on the shoulders of the people that came before you. It's edification. That's what edification is all about. Then look, something hard that you couldn't even imagine doing suddenly becomes possible. It suddenly becomes possible. It's not going to be easy, but it's doable. If you have work ethic, I'll just make this blanket statement right here. If you are a parent and you're listening to this sermon and you're considering homeschooling, if you have work ethic, you can do it successfully. That's the answer. Just get around like-minded believers and let them edify you. They would love to do it. That's the idea. That's the whole idea of this church, that we edify one another. Guys are sitting around here until o'clock at night and we're just sitting here. We've all been out in the world all week long or for two or three days in a row all week long and we're just like, I can't believe this insanity is going on in this world. We sit around and we edify each other. Like, hey, everybody thinks it's insane too. You know what? It makes you feel better. During all the COVID insanity and all that stuff, we all just edified each other and it was easy to get through all that. Why? It's like we all see the truth together. We sit there and we just talk about the truth and we talk about how that's wrong and that's wrong and they're trying to sneak that by us or whatever and they're trying to force people into that and that's false and can you believe all those people are falling for all this stuff? And we're not. Why? We're edifying one another. But you know what's really hard? What's really hard is when you're in this world and you're in a room full of 100 people and everybody's saying the wall is red and you're like, no, it's clearly white, but everybody's saying it's red. That would drive you insane if you were by yourself with 99 people saying it's red and you're the only one saying it's white. You know what? Pretty soon you might start being like, well, I don't know. Maybe I'm insane. Maybe it's red. But instead, we got other people and we're like, it's clearly white. Let them all go crazy. Let them all go nuts out there. Be around like-minded believers and it's easy. That's the answer. That's the answer for everything in this Christian life is just be around like-minded believers. Here's the last one. Could I afford it? Monetization. And this is part of visualization, but monetization is a real concern for people. Can I afford it? I mean, again, when you see others, you know, the answer is kind of the same for all four of these. When you see others able to do it, you can realize that it is possible for you. But a lot of people are like, can I live on one income? Is it possible? Turn to 1 Timothy, chapter 5. And to those people, I would say this, especially if you're a Bible-believing Christian and you're asking yourself the question, can I live on one income? The answer is this. Whose responsibility is it to provide for the family? Look at 1 Timothy, chapter 5 and verse number 8. The Bible says, if any provide not for his own, especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. The Bible here is clearly pointing out that it is the man who is the head of the household that is responsible for providing for his family. So I mean, my answer to the person that's like, I don't know, can we live on one income, be like, I don't know, it's your responsibility to provide the income for your family. I mean, you as the man, and look, young men should even think about this before they even get married. Let me rephrase that. Young men should think about this before they even think about getting married. Before they start talking to a girl. Before they start talking to a girl, you know, if they don't at least have a viable plan to support a family, they shouldn't even be talking to anybody. Look, the young men need to begin with the end in mind. They should not be looking for a wife before they can support a family. And you know, you're like, well, I really want a wife. I really want to be married. Well, begin with the end in mind. Begin with the end in mind. What does that mean? It means you need to be able to make X dollars. There's a number. You need to sit down, you need to do that math. How much money does it take to support a family in Fresno, California? I mean, you want somebody to help you with that? Somebody will help you with that. They'll edify you. Ask questions. What does it take to, you know, raise a family and have a wife and children and homeschool and do that on my own? There's a number per hour. There's a salary that that's going to take for you to be able to do that successfully. Working at McDonald's isn't going to cut it. That's not a plan. So, you know, if you're a man, you're a young man, you want to get married, I'm going to ask you, what's your plan? What's your plan to be able to do that? Because, I mean, the Bible says you're worse than an infidel if you don't do it. You can go out and just, you know, snag some gal and go and get married. It's possible. People do it. But then you end up being worse than an infidel if you can't support them. Young ladies, turn to Titus chapter 2 and verse number 5. So that's, I mean, look, it's the man's responsibility. You're starting to see that a lot of kids that should be homeschooled and parents that are like, should we homeschool? It feels like we should homeschool. It's a failure of the man. It's a failure of the father. It's a failure of the father to not only protect his children, but it's a failure of the father to provide for his family if this concern is one of the concerns that's stopping them from doing it. Look at Titus chapter 2 and verse number 5. Young ladies, what's their goal? Greet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands that the word of God be not blasphemed, meaning if they're not these things, they're not obedient, if they're not keepers at home, if they're not discreet and chaste, it's like blaspheming God. Again, very serious statements here. Worse than an infidel. Blaspheming God. But look, this all speaks to the destruction of masculinity is what this concern speaks about. Men today love money so much that they are happy to give their responsibility away and they're literally trading in their manhood. To what? To keep their kids in a system that they know is trying to destroy their children. And look, that's being very successful at destroying children. For what? For money. They trade their manhood in for money. They trade their God-given responsibility in for money. And they send their wife to work, look, this should all start at the beginning. I thank God that even before I was saved, I didn't mess this one up. That we always, look, you gotta get married and you gotta plan to live on one income. And you gotta think that way, you gotta purchase things with that mindset. You gotta buy the house that you can live on on one income. Buy the junky car that you can get stuck in the mud and you don't even care about it on one income. You have to make these decisions with the end in mind. Because the dual income lifestyle, it's hard to walk back for people. It's hard to be in that lifestyle and then you gotta undo all this. It's easier to start with the end in mind here. Look, I mean, it's possible, it's possible to walk that back, but it's hard. Look, here's another thing, dual income is not all it's cracked up to be anyway. I mean, people need to figure out some math. Because it really, I mean, when you look at the math of it, unless your wife makes a decent amount of money, you're not making any extra money. You say, why? Well, I don't know. I was just talking to my wife about this and the kids, we were driving in the car a couple of days ago, restaurant cost, because I always have an idea, like when I would take the family out to a restaurant, like we sit down at a restaurant, I would always have an idea of what that was gonna cost me. That number has doubled in the last five years, doubled. Inflation's only 6%. These people don't have a calculator. It's doubled. Going out to restaurants, what is your wife doing as she's keeping the home? She's got dinner on the table when I come home. Is that a big deal? That's a huge deal. That's a huge deal. Not only for our health, but for the finances. She could be saving hundreds, yay, thousands a month according to what people do today. People go out to eat all the time. It's like a much more common thing than when I was growing up. How about this, childcare costs. Childcare costs, and you know what? Extra taxes. Dual income, you're paying way more taxes than you are on just one income. When it comes down to it, people need to learn math because unless your wife is making like over $40,000 a year, you're not making out on that. Because all these extra things, all these added costs, she's gotta have gas money as she commutes back and forth and all these different things, look, you just gotta live on less. That's the answer here. You gotta live on less. You gotta work a little harder as a man, and you gotta think about it when you buy cars and houses. Just ask yourself, though, what's more important, cars and houses or my children? The next generation. This is an easy one. It's possible. People do it. Get in a church of like-minded believers, and they will edify you. There's all kinds of tips and tricks. You'd be surprised how far you can stretch a buck if you're not just wasting money. That's what a lot of people do is waste. I've met some dual-income people in my life that I've never, I mean, they waste so much money just on silly, frivolous things that they don't even know they own. It's just a complete waste of money. But I mean, down to the last part of it, it's the man's responsibility to biblically support his family. It's very clear in the Bible. You're starting to see that dumping your kids into the public school system is really a failure of the man, is really a failure of the father. A lot of people think, oh, the Bible is hard on women, and the Bible is this, and no, no, no. I think the Bible is way harder on men, because the Bible is putting a lot of responsibility on the leader of the home here. And the Bible is saying, like, look, if you, if you, your children are destroyed by Satan, it's the father's fault. That's why God steps in to the fatherless. He's like, they need a father to protect them. It must be, and they don't have one, it's got to be me. Turn to Ecclesiastes, chapter 4. All of these things, we'll land the plane here in Ecclesiastes, chapter 4, but all of these myths are just that, they're myths, and many of them are created from, you know, minority results, you know, things that, like, you know, we've all, I'm sure we've all met the awkward homeschool kid, you know, that didn't know other kids or whatever. But look, even that kid's still a nice kid. Isn't that awkward homeschool kid that maybe didn't get exposed to his homeschool groups and maybe wasn't in a church or whatever, he's still a nice kid. He's still socialized. He's still not violent, you know, addicted to drugs and alcohol. That's another thing. I forgot to bring up that stat. That's another stat that just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. High school kids, 40% of them drink alcohol on a regular basis before they graduate from high school. 40%! That's like almost half! Socialization. Education. It's a better education. Visualization. You can do it. Monetization. You can do it because others have done it before you. Look down at Ecclesiastes, chapter 4. Really all four of these problems are solved by just the edification of like-minded believers. Look at Ecclesiastes, chapter 4, and verse number 9. The Bible says two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, they have heat, but how can one be warm alone? If one prevail against him, two shall withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Just pointing out this philosophy of how strong we are together in this life. This group of like-minded believers is much stronger than we would all be individually. Because why? Because there's edification there. Not only is a world-class homeschool education possible, but there are people that will guide you every step of the way. They'll pick you up when you fall down. They'll help you along. They'll answer questions. They'll give you this great opportunity, this great freedom that is in homeschooling, and they'll show you how it's possible. You're going to raise out-of-the-box thinking kids, folks. This is exciting. These self-starting, thinking out-of-the-box children in a society that is filled with institutionalized people, they're going to stand out. And look, I'm already seeing that they are standing out. They are standing out, and just this idea that they're self-starting, that they're moral, that they're biblically grounded, that they have what? That they have this peace with them. It's that they're not these depressed drug addicts contemplating suicide that have been abused in their life, that they're not that type of person. It's going to propel them into great things in their life. It's a recipe for success like no other. It's so exciting. I mean, there's great peace available for our children, for our family. As a father, as a father who is considering this or talking about this with his wife and considering homeschooling, you should be pushing as hard as you can in every single direction to get the peace of God into your home, into your marriage, into your children, and ultimately your children's children, because that's what the battle is all about. It's not about politics. It's not about Trump versus Biden or whatever people talk about. It's about the peace of God in our homes. It's possible. All of these concerns are the opposite of the truth, and they're all solved by the edification of a local group of believers. Let's bow our heads and have a look. Let's bow our heads and have a look.