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

We'll sing the big first song at last On the last verse The Lord is bleeding On his earth to victory The maw of promised land He used his knife His glorious name And every man shall honor me The Lord will bring The dawn of peace is nigh The fight is on O Christian soldier And face to face in stern array With armor gleaming And colors streaming The right and loving King today The fight is on But be not weary Be strong and in his final grasp With God before us His banner o'er us We'll sing the big first song at last Sweetly, Lord, have we heard Thee calling, come, follow me Then we see where the good friends calling Lead us to Thee Lord, praise our Jesus And bring the pathway home We will call out the steps of Jesus There, there they go Though they lead o'er the cold, dark mountains seeking his sheep Lord, along the simple mountains, mountains, help me know me The Prince of Jesus That made the pathway flow We will follow the steps of Jesus There Sowing in the glory, sowing Jesus' kindness Sowing in the new time and the duty Waiting for the harvest and the time of ringing We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheep Heart is the shepherd's voice I hear Out in the desert, dark and clear Calling the sheep who've gone astray Far from the shepherd's fold away Bring them in, bring them in Bring them in from the fields of sin Bring them in, bring them in Bring the wandering ones to Jesus Who'll go and help this shepherd, God Help him, the wandering ones to find Who'll bring the lost ones to the fold Where they'll be sheltered from the cold Bring them in, bring them in Bring them in from the fields of sin Bring them in, bring them in Bring the wandering ones to Jesus Out in the desert, hear them cry Out of the mountains, wild and high Heart is the Master's peace to thee Go find thy sheep, wherever they be Bring them in, bring them in There is a call come to bring me For the restless grave Send the light, send the light There are souls to rescue There are souls to save Send the light, send the light Send the light God bless you, gospel life, let it shine Our story's sure Send the light God bless you, gospel life, let it shine Forevermore We have heard the Macedonian call today Send the light, send the light In the golden offering at the cross we lay Send the light, send the light Send the light God bless you, gospel life, let it shine Our story's sure Send the light God bless you, gospel life, let it shine Forevermore Let us pray and praise we everywhere around Send the light, send the light Let the Christ's light spirit everywhere be found Send the light, send the light Send the light God bless you, gospel life, let it shine Our story's sure Send the light God bless you, gospel life, let it shine Forevermore Let us not grow weary in the work of God Send the light, send the light Let it shine Far away the noise, the strife of God my ear is calling Then I know the sins of earth He said on every hand Doubt and fear and pains of earth in vain to me are calling None of me shall move me from you, I'll end I'm living on the mountain underneath the cloudless sky I'm drinking at the mountain that never shall run dry Oh yes, I'm listening on the manna from the mountain close up my poor I am dwelling into the land Far below the storm of doubt upon the world His name, wonderful praise of Jesus, reaching through all the walls I am a happy partner, safe to the other ones Thanks God, you turn us under, giving me liberty Oh the wonderful praise of Jesus, reaches me Wonderful praise of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea I am a happy partner, safe to the other ones Better than the scope of my depression and sin Far than all my sin is safe, oh, magnified oppression Fame of Jesus, praise Him Wonderful praise of Jesus, reaching the most divine High is His glory power, making me God's dear child All eternity And the wonderful praise of Jesus, reaches me Wonderful praise of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea I am a happy partner, safe to the other ones Better than the scope of my depression, greater than all my sin and shame Oh, magnified oppression, fame of Jesus, praise Him Go to page 29 in the red or green hymnals at the cross Alas, and did my Savior bleed, and did my sovereign die Would He devote the sacred head for such a worm as I At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart pulled away It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy all the day Was it for crimes that I have done, be crowned upon the tree Amazing pity, praise unknown and love beyond decree At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart pulled away It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy all the day Well might the Son in darkness sign And shove His glories in When Christ the mighty Maker died for man, the creature sin At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart pulled away It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy all the day But drops of grief can never repay The death of my hope Here, Lord, I give myself away Tis all that I can do At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart pulled away It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy all the day Brother Joe Ritchie, can you open us with a word of prayer? Lord, thank you for this day in this church. We just pray for our pastor and the Holy Church. Help us to sing out the new and just pray. And repeat with us every day. Amen. The next hymn is 237, The Cleansing Wave. If you don't know it, you'll pick it up on two, three, and four. Oh, now I see the crimson wave The fountain deep and wide Jesus, my Lord, mighty to save Points to his wounded side The cleansing stream I see, I see I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanseth me It cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me I see the new creation rise I hear the speaking flood It speaks for good, it nature dies Sinks deep the cleansing flood The cleansing stream I see, I see I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanseth me It cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me I rise to walk in heaven's own light Above the world and sin With art made pure and garments white And Christ enthroned within The cleansing stream I see, I see I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanseth me It cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me Amazing grace, tis heaven below To feel the blood applied And Jesus, only Jesus now My Jesus crucified The cleansing stream I see, I see I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me Oh, praise the Lord, it cleanseth me It cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me Amen. At this time, we'll have the announcements. Alright, good morning. Welcome to Church Foundation Baptist Church. Let's take our bulletins and go through the announcements. If you need a bulletin, just slip up your hand. One of the ushers will bring you a bulletin. Just lift up your hand if you need one. On the front cover, we have our verse of the week. On the front cover, we have our verse of the week. It says, the Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusted in him and I am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices and with my song will I praise him. Psalm chapter 28, verse 7, great scripture there. On the inside page, we have our service times there. Sunday morning, 10 30 a.m. for the preaching service. Sunday evening service is at 3 30 p.m. I'm going to be preaching a sermon tonight that's going to be a rumble-only type sermon about the bill that passed through Congress last week, the anti-Semitism bill. So that will be one you want to buckle your seatbelt for tonight. I'm going to go over a lot of things. And basically, our country was betrayed this week and the ones that all the Christians just say, well, you've got to vote for these guys, vote for these guys. These guys, they literally passed a bill that's anti-free speech after just ranting and raving for the last few years about how there needs to be free speech on colleges, college campuses. Now they have passed the bill. And it's seemingly just for colleges, but that's not all it's for. And usually that's kind of how these Trojan horses get in and become draconian-style laws. So I'll be preaching about that tonight. And this morning I'll be preaching about how to win children or winning children to the Lord. So our praise report you can see or the soul in today is at 1 o'clock. Meet on location. Brother Sean posted both spots in the WhatsApp group. And you'll just need to get with him to see what group you're in. You can just be here at 1 o'clock in the auditorium and he'll tell you what group you're in or you can just go to him after the service and he'll let you know. But both. Just make sure you go to the right grouping, the right soul winning spot for what group you're in. And then all the other soul winning times are there to choose from as well. If you want to get plugged in, there's no reason why you can't get plugged into a soul winning time there. Our praise report, you can see the salvation's, baptism's attendance from last week. And our home school field trip is, I said maybe moved, but I don't know. It sounds like it's not happening. So we're praying that it is not 50% chance of rain by Tuesday. It is nice when it's sunny outside and the animals all come out and things like that. But I think we're just going to stick with that time, right? Is that as prophesied? Okay. So that's what's happening. So maybe moved is not happening. All right, so it's going to be happening Tuesday, 930 for the school, home school field trip this Tuesday. And then May 11th, which is this coming next Saturday at 11 a.m. here at the church building is the ladies' tea. And we do this every year. So you're invited if you're a lady. You're more than welcome to come. It's not just for Mother's Day. It's for all ladies. No ugly stinky boys are allowed to come. Unless they're ugly stinking nursing children. Or you've approved that with my wife. So it is a ladies' event. So anyway, if you have any questions, just see Mrs. Thompson, my wife there in the back. And we've got the May 24th or 25th is the Chicago Soul Winning and Preaching event where Pastor Shelley and I are going to be preaching in Chicago there. Well, we're actually going to be preaching in Indiana. But the Chicago event is going to take place in Cicero. But Friday we're going to be preaching in Gary, Soul Winning in Gary, Indiana, which is one of the most dangerous places in the world. But we're Soul Winners, so they'll leave us alone, I'm sure. But anyway, Cicero is not super ghetto as far as Chicago goes, so it should be a good Soul Winning there. And I'm sure it's going to be a good Soul Winning wherever we go up there. It's going to be receptive. So Friday night though, me and Pastor Shelley will be preaching. And it might be until midnight, but we'll be preaching. So just kidding. If you have any questions, if you're out on the internet and you're wondering, how do I find out more information, just email sfbcindi at gmail.com. And sfbcindi, someone said I made a mistake on there, but I think it's right. Maybe Rylan fixed it. But for hotel information or where everything's being met up at and all that stuff, just email and you'll get all the information for that. So June 7th through 9th is the ordination of Brother Jim Wiebe, as Pastor Berzins will be there preaching Friday night. And there will be a Soul Winning marathon Saturday. The ordination will be Sunday at 1030 a.m. The Red Hot Preaching Conference is also coming up June 20th through 23rd. It's coming quick, so make sure you have all that poster. I did my best on a small laptop to... You can't really read the names, but that's the preacher lineup. You can recognize our warped faces there as I tried to size that picture up, but I did my best there last night. Anyway, that's all the preachers that are going to be there, not necessarily in the order that they preach. All the other information is listed below. We're family integrated, of course, so make sure that you utilize the Mother Baby Room. Dad Baby Room for your convenience. All the other rules and regulations are below. The tithes and offerings that came in for last month are at the bottom of the page. The birthdays. We didn't get Baby Isaac's picture in the last bulletin, and so we're putting it in this week. If you guys want to grab one for Dema and make sure he gets a copy of this, or a couple copies of this, I'm sure he'd like to have one. Miss Stacy. Just make sure you congratulate Miss Stacy and Brother Dema for the birth of Baby Isaac. That's a good picture of him yawning or wanting more milk, one of the two, and he was born on 4-21-24 at 4-16 a.m., weighing 7 pounds and 13 ounces, fighting out of the blue corner, baby boy, obviously. So that's all I have for announcements. Let's go ahead and sing another song. We'll receive the offering. The third hymn is 260. He is able to deliver the 260 in the green. Tis the grandest theme that the world e'er sung. Our God is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. Oh, by sin all prayers go to him for rest. Our God is able to deliver thee. Tis the grandest theme in the earth o'er main. Tis the grandest theme for a mortal strain. Tis the grandest theme till the world again. Our God is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. Oh, by sin all prayers go to him for rest. Our God is able to deliver thee. Tis the grandest theme let the tidings roll. To the guilty heart, to the sinful soul. Look to God in faith. He will make thee whole. Our God is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. He is able to deliver thee. Oh, by sin all prayers go to him for rest. Our God is able to deliver thee. At this time we'll collect the offering. The ushers will come forward. Brother Alex, can you bless the offering? Dear Father God, we thank you for this day. Father, we thank you for our church here. We thank you for all the work that you've done for us. We ask you to bless this offering. We'll give them to give it. But if it works for you, it works for your kingdom. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18, if you don't have a Bible, there should be a Bible under the seat in front of you. Matthew 18. Matthew 18, the Bible reads, At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one, such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, for it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you that in heaven there are angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven, for the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost. How thank ye, if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, barely I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Even so, it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them but my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, I will pay thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him a hundred pence, and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not, but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespass. Brother Sean, will you pray for us? Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day. I thank you for this opportunity to be in church today, Lord. I pray that you bless all aspects of the services that we have today, Lord. I pray that you would fill Pastor Thompson out with your Holy Spirit, filled with power of wholeness and clarity of mind, Lord, and please just give us your message. I pray these names in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Alright, the title of the sermon this morning is Winning Children to Christ. Winning Children to Christ. And let's just begin at verse number one there. The Bible says, At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily, I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones, which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to the man by whom the offense cometh. Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee, it is better for thee to enter into a life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven, for the Son of Man is come to save that which is lost. How think ye, if a man have a hundred sheep and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine and goeth into the mountains and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he findeth it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth, more of that sheep than of the ninety and nine, which went not astray, even so it is not at the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. Now, of course, a lot of these verses are very famous and we go to some of these for various different topics, but the context of this passage, up to verse 15, is speaking specifically about little children. And I believe that it's very important for us to obviously focus on little children getting saved. And we have children in our midst right now. We don't separate children from parents. We are a family integrated church because we believe that children can get something out of the church service no matter what age they are. Moses was able to be saved later on in life and he was, you know, just had a little short time with his parents, probably to the time he was weaned, is what the Bible says. He was nursed of his mother. So whatever influence his parents had on him, that affected him later on in life and he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. So being in church can have a great effect on children and so we don't just separate the kids and send them to the lesser teacher. We don't have Sunday school. And obviously Sunday school had its time, had its heyday, but the danger of having Sunday school in classes is that predators just gear themselves toward where children are. Now whether that's in churches or the boy scouts or whatever athletic endeavor or anything like that, perverts and predators will try to get themselves access to children and Christians are very trusting. Christians are very forgiving. And so if someone has some kind of a past like that, for some reason, Christians are like, oh yeah, it's in his past, he's gotten over that. Look, once you're a predator of children, they never get past that. The only thing that's gonna get them past that is a bullet in the head. And to get, castrating them is not enough. Sending them to prison is not enough. The Bible is very clear. I just read you the passage that says, Jesus said that it's better for them to tie a millstone about their neck and cast themselves into the sea. So, I mean, that's Jesus' words, not mine. I mean, if you have a red letter edition, is that Jesus saying that or is that me saying that? Okay, so don't get mad at me because of the Bible. So I'm gonna make all my points this morning out of this text here. And I think it's very important that we do have a focus on children and getting them saved also. And that we train the children in our church to be soul winners. And to go out, you know, when we're out, it's kind of weird for a six foot eight guy to walk up into a playground full of children and start talking to them about the gospel. And when I first started doing major soul winning, I would do that, but, you know, you only have to get shooed away by a parent a couple times when it's like they make you feel like kind of a creep or something. I'd rather have children and teenagers go to those kids because that doesn't seem as weird, does it? And so it's nice to have an army of other, of various different ages of people to be able to go out when we're out soul winning and they can just go up to a child and win them to Christ. And you know, nobody's upset about that. So obviously there's times when I have won children of the Lord and I like doing that. Children are easy to get saved. It's a lot easier to get children saved than it is adults. And I'm gonna go through some of those statistics. But my first point this morning is that salvation occurs for everyone on a child's level. And I get that from verse number three. Look down at verse number three. So point number one is salvation occurs for everyone on a child's level. Look at verse three, it says, and said, verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. So what's Jesus saying here? That you have to have a childlike faith to be saved. And why is he saying that? Because children believe everything that they're told. And you know, that's why children believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny when people tell them, or the Tooth Fairy or whatever. Because you know, obviously, and sometimes parents don't really mean to, but they do lie to their children about stuff like that. And children believe them. You know, Santa's on his way or whatever. And obviously, I don't believe that we should lie to our children about stuff like that. Even if it is just make believe or whatever, you're still lying to them. So there's no such thing as Santa. And you know, you're like, how dare you say that in front of all these kids. The parents in here are okay with me saying that, okay? So don't get all upset about it. But, you know, and if you're telling, if you're like mad about that, then maybe you should go to the church that wants to lie to you, okay? Or the pastor is okay with you lying to your children. So anyway, salvation occurs for everyone on a child's level. So children believe easy is what Jesus is saying. And we have to have a faith like a child in order to be saved. We don't have to have a lot. We just have to have some. Jesus said you have to have the faith of a grain of mustard seed. If you look at a mustard seed, if you just look up a picture of it, they're really small. And they turn to this big, giant herb. And we just have to have true faith. Saving faith. And you're like, well what does that mean? You have to simply just believe in Jesus with all your heart. And just believe in him that he'll save you because he died for you. He took your place on the cross. He died. He rose again the third day. And if you put your faith in him, he'll save you. That's the faith that you have to have. The Bible teaches in every place in the whole book, from Genesis to Revelation, you just have to have faith to be saved. Look at Acts chapter 16, verse 30. Look at Acts 16, verse 30. Of course, a lot of us know these verses. But, you know, this is just one simple verse that I'm turning to here that just very simply says it. Acts 16, 30. Of course, this is the Philippian jailer. And he's about to kill himself because he thinks all the prisoners have escaped the prison. And he's going to get killed for letting them escape so he's just like, well I might as well just do it to myself because they might take some liberties or whatever to torture them a little bit. Who knows? He just doesn't want to go through that. So he's about to kill himself. And Paul tells him, don't kill yourself. You know, we're all still here. And it says, and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? So the Philippian jailer is asking, What do I have to do to go to heaven? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved at my house. So, he didn't say repent of all your sins. He didn't say make Jesus the Lord of your life. He didn't say that, did he? They said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You know, and churches like our church will get criticized for easy believism. And it's like, yeah, because it's easy to be saved. He said it's like a childlike faith is what you have to have. And he's just telling them, unless you're converted and become like one of these little children, you're not going to make it into the kingdom of heaven. And so he's just explaining, hey, you just have to believe it easily. And we wear easy believism like a badge of honor at this church. We're not ashamed to say that. It's hard to be saved. It's hard to live the Christian life. It's hard to go to church three times a week like we do. It's hard to get up on a Sunday morning after you worked five or six days out of the week and maybe it's your only day off or whatever. It's hard to go soul winning. It's hard to just live the Christian life and live a holy, separated life. Those things are hard. But you know what's not hard? Being saved. Being saved is super easy. It's as easy as eating a piece of bread. It's as easy as taking a drink of water. It's as easy as believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that what it said in that verse? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's how easy it is. And the book of John is written to us that we might believe. You know the word repent is not in the book of John one time. And I think that God did that on purpose because he knew down through the ages to try to take the word repent and people would make it say that every time the word repent is in there that people automatically say of your sins after it. And I'm going to get to that later about that whole saying. I'm going to address that. So I'll come back to that. But that's not what the Bible says it takes to be saved. Obviously the Bible does say to repent. And we believe in repentance here. But repentance unto salvation is putting your faith in Christ. And I'll show you that later on here in the sermon. But the nice thing about giving the gospel to children is that they get saved real easy. And you know why they get saved real easy? Because they believe real easy. And so when we go out and give the gospel to people it's their own pride. It's their own hardness. It's their own hard sinned life that makes them resistant to the gospel. It's like a film that kind of goes over them and it's like a coating of hardness that continues over the years after the sins that they commit. They're more resistant to the gospel. And some people as they get older and older the less receptive they get. That's just the way it is. It's just a fact. Barna Pew Research Institute did this they had this this Pew Research Institute, they did this survey of people of what age they got saved. And this is really interesting. 43% of people that are born again according to this research says that they did that before they were 13 years old. 43%. Almost half the people that get saved get saved before they're 13 years old. That's a huge statistic. And then think about this that most kids don't get saved if they're going to get saved it's going to be between the ages of 5 and 13. In some cases maybe 4, but kids aren't getting saved at 3, 2, 1, they can't understand the gospel at that point. Obviously people understand the gospel later. You know some kids don't get it at 5 years old obviously. Sometimes it's later, but that's a huge statistic though. 43% before 13. So I would say between the ages of 5 and 13 years old that's the mark that you want to hit. So parents, that's the mark you want to hit with your kids. But when we're out preaching the gospel, keep those things in mind that those are the most receptive people you're going to run into. And so that's why it's so important for us to have kids that are in our church, teens, children that are old enough to preach the gospel that they're going out and reaching those children that are out in the highways and the hedges with us. 64% of people get saved before 18 years old. Another huge statistic. So most people get saved before 18. 13% between 18 and 21. So a total of 77% by their 21st birthday get saved. So I got saved when I was 25 so I'm out of that. I mean that's a rare thing. It's obviously way more rare for anybody over 21 to get saved. So between 21 and up, and I don't know by other age groups that didn't really give that statistic, but 13% between 21 and up are the ones that get saved after that. And of course I've gotten people saved that are up to like 85 years old. Who's gotten somebody saved that's 90 years old in here? Anybody? One, two, three. But that's rare isn't it? How about 85? Between 85 and 90. Okay. I've gotten one. How about between 80 and 85? 75 and 80. 70 and 75. I mean we're just having small amounts of people raise their hand because it's really rare. Because most people are already made up their mind on what they believe and they're gonna be like I'm not changing. And that's unfortunate. So what are you gonna get out of this statistic that we reach people when they're young? And that's important. So you know people believe real easy and we have to have a childlike faith to be saved and so that just tells you that children are easy to get saved. Number two this morning most children are humble already making them low hanging fruit. Most children are humble already making them low hanging fruit. What does that mean? Well they're low hanging fruit means that they're already ripe and ready to be plucked ready to be saved really super easy. And they're humble. Look at verse number four in our text. It says, whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And this is also true. The older we get the more prideful we get. And children are not necessarily super prideful. They're usually pretty humble. Pretty easy to correct. Pretty easy to reach. And the Bible says in James chapter four verse six he giveth more grace wherefore he saith God resisted the proud but giveth grace unto the humble. So the more humble you are the better chance you have at being saved because if you're super prideful you're never going to get saved. If you're prideful you have to swallow your pride and humble yourself as a little child in order to be saved. And a lot of people just are too prideful to admit either that they're not saved when you get to the door to talk to them or when you're out just you're out evangelizing you're out in your personal evangelism time or just out with the church. They're too humble I mean they're not humble enough to admit. Like how many times have you shared the gospel with people and it's not you know they agree with everything you say but when you first got there they had a completely different answer than the truth. They said you got to be a good person all these other different things. They didn't tell you hey I just believe in Jesus and I believe it's everlasting. They didn't say that. But then you get to the end they're like oh yeah I believe everything you said and then you say well hey you know would you like to trust Christ as your savior and they go oh I already did that. It's like that's not what you said when I first got here though. And they're like oh no no no I was just a little confused when you first got here. It's like but out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh the Bible says. You know it's what we believe in our heart that comes out of the mouth. So when you ask someone hey what do you have to do to be saved or why do you believe you're saved and they say because I'm a good person that's what they mean. They think that they're a good person and that's why they're going to heaven and then when they change and say oh no that's what I really meant. It's like that's pride. That's exactly what that is. It's pride. They will not humble themselves like a little child and just say you know what yeah you're right. I wasn't saved when you first got here and I love it when people do humble themselves because people do. They're like you're right. When you first got here I was wrong and I was going to hell. And now I want to believe on Christ and call upon him. Number three this morning. To receive a child in Christ's name is to receive Christ himself. To receive a child in Christ's name is to receive Christ himself. What do I mean by that? Well look at verse number five. The Bible says and whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. So how we treat children is like treating as you know if we treat children badly or we ignore them or we act like they're not a great part of our church or we ignore them out solely and act like they're not part of the demographic that we're trying to reach. How we respond to children, how we treat them is Jesus is taking it like that's how you're treating me. Isn't that what it's saying? Whoso shall receive one such a child in my name receiveth me. So how should we receive them? You know we should treat them like we would want to treat Jesus. We should reach them and then Jesus is going to be pleased with the fact that we do. So when you take the time to receive a child and treat a child care for a child's soul it's like you're doing it for Jesus. That's how he takes it. Look at Matthew chapter 25. Turn to Matthew chapter 25 verse 37. Matthew chapter 25 verse 37. The Bible says, Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee, and hungered, and fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or imprisoned, and came unto thee? And the king shall answer, and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. When we treat fellow believers like we you know, in these ways where we're caring for them, we're ministering unto them, it's like we've done it unto Jesus. So, you know, children are not lesser. Children are important. Children in our congregation are just as important. They're not to be brushed aside. They're not to be looked at malignantly. They're not to be looked at as lesser people in our church. They are very important, they are very integral, and they're a demographic that we should care about. They're a demographic out in the world that we should care to. Not just the adults kids. Kids, if you are saved, you know how to read, you know how to take the Bible and explain it to people, you can win people to Christ too. Plain and simple. I'll cover that a little bit more as we go along, but we need to understand that the way we treat, it says, look at what it says, it is much as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren. So, maybe you do hold the view that kids aren't as important, but he says if you've done it unto the least of my brethren, you've done it unto me. So, and I don't think that, but I'm just saying if that's how you think, well hey kid, get out of here, you bother me or whatever, but hey, if you do good things unto children and treat children right, you know, is it hard sometimes being in a family integrated church? Sometimes it is. Sometimes it's not optimal. Sometimes, yeah, they cry and have to get taken out of the room or whatever, but you know what? I'd rather have that than, you know, no kids in church, and then as soon as they get old enough to come out to big boy church or whatever, you know, these Baptist churches or any church that has like these big youth programs, you know what happens when they turn 12 years old and have to go to big boy church or big girl church, they leave and they don't come back. When they turn 18, they leave Christianity or they go to the fun center that you already prepared them for. What do I mean by that? Well, when you're getting cookies and Kool-Aid and singing wild and bombastic songs, and then you come into the service and it's hymns, psalms, spiritual songs, then they're like, oh, this is boring. Where's my iPad? Mommy, give me my screen. That shouldn't be the way, hey, put that screen away during church time. You know, when it's time for church time, it's time for learning time. And our kids in here, they do pay attention. Maybe you think that they're not, but they do take it in. You know, there's kids, when I go visit churches sometimes, they're drawing pictures of me, and it doesn't look exactly like me, but some of them look pretty good, actually. I'm like, well, I need to slim down, because if that's how they view me, then I like that one. But they are paying attention. And they're drawing pictures. They're writing verses down. They're paying attention more than you think they are. And they're a great demographic. We need to make sure that we're including children and making them feel important also. And kids, you know, don't let any man despise your youth. The Bible says that. Obviously, Paul writes that to Timothy about a young preacher, how people will despise a man that's a young preacher and say, oh, what do you know, you little whippersnapper? I've been reading the Bible since you were a little kid in diapers or whatever, since you were just a dream in your father's eye or whatever. People will say that kind of stuff. Well, you know what? There's no fool like an old fool, either. So, age means nothing. It's what you know from the Word of God that's important. And that's why, you know, the Bible calls, you know, Timothy's an elder, but yet he's young. Why is he an elder? Because he's an elder in the faith and knowledge of the Bible. He's not a novice in faith in the practice of knowing the Bible and being a spiritual elder. So, age doesn't always matter. And children can know the Bible sometimes better than their parents can. You know, and what's sad is, you know, I used to be in an independent Baptist church. I was a Sunday school superintendent at one point. I did the bus ministry. I led children to Christ from the bus ministry. I preached in junior church for years. And I watched kids go to the devil all the time because it was, like I said, fun songs, fun games. You know, they get a little bit of preaching. You know, they get 15, 20 minutes of preaching, and that's exactly how the modern fun centers are run. You know, it's a rock concert with purple lights and smoke, fun things, fun events. This church is fun. And then you get a 15-minute TED Talk and everybody feels good and they go home. Instead of it being like church, where it's not like the world. That's what the world does. In here, it's the house of God. In here, it's different. It's separate from the world. It's holy. And there should be a difference. Just like, you know, God had all these things in the Old Testament that he gave us those pictures. Hey, I want to show you a picture between clean and unclean. And he wanted there to be a difference between the way men and women dress, between how men and women's hair are kept, between, you know, the unclean and clean beast, between night and day, between, you know, male and female, just all these different things. Why? Because he wants there to be a difference in things. You know what? He wants churches to be different than the world. He wants Bible preaching to be different than TED Talks and inspirational, you know, guys like Tony Robbins or something like that. You know, and some of that stuff is helpful. But, you know, positive doesn't work on people. The no spanking thing and only doing positive things with your children when they do something wrong, it doesn't work. There has to be correction. There has to be discipline. There has to be somebody telling you that you're wrong. Because if everybody's just always giving you a trophy and, you know, I know you were late for work every day this week, but you're such a good boy. I'm going to give you a reward because, you know what, you had a hard life growing up. No. You know, be on time for work. Or you're going to get fired. You know, we need negative reinforcement sometimes. Not just positive. Obviously the positive needs to come too. The tearing down to build back up. This is, you know, just how things are done. Anyway, number four this morning. A little child can believe in Christ. A little child can believe in Christ. Look at verse number six. Just the first portion there. It says but whoso shall offend one of these these little ones which believe in me. So, do little ones believe in Jesus? That's what it says, right? And people are like, well little kids can't believe in Jesus. What's Jesus say though? These little ones which believe in me. Does he say with age? No. But kids learn things at different levels. And some kids, you know, learn quicker than others. But the fact that I want to point you to though is that a little child can believe in Jesus. A little child can be saved. So, Jesus teaches that children can believe in him. And so we must add them to the list of those we bring the Gospel to. We must bring them to that list. So, and I'll say this also. They don't need a dumbed down version. They're not stupid. Kids are very smart. And in fact, they seem to get spiritual things a lot easier sometimes than adults do. Cause you'll just explain eternal security over and over and over to adults and it's just like vroom It's like eternal life. What does eternal life mean? And they'll say, oh life will last forever. But can you lose it? Oh yeah, you can just give it away. What? It's a gift. It's a gift. And you're like, well yeah, but you can give gifts away. I'm re-gifting it. The only way you can re-gift salvation is when you give it to somebody else. But you still have it. It's from faith to faith. We give it to other people by preaching the Gospel to them. But this whole concept of putting it on the shelf, the shelf that doesn't exist that's not in scripture, the Pentecostal putting it on the shelf thing, that doesn't exist. So, losing eternal life does not make logical sense. It just doesn't make common sense. It doesn't make any sense. To say you can lose eternal life. What's another word for eternal life? Everlasting life. Means that what? Last forever. Oh, but you can lose it. What? Kids understand it though. Kids understand it real easy. They don't need a dumbed down version. They can understand the Gospel just fine. Now, I will say this. You do need to make sure that they understand the points. Because everybody does this. Everybody thinks that for some reason everybody just has it ingrained that they have to do good to be saved. Even little kids. So you do have to make sure that they understand that it's not doing good things that gets them to heaven. For some reason, even a kid that's not really, I mean, what's the first thing people start teaching them? Oh, if you're good Santa Claus will bring you good stuff. Right? That's why it's such a stupid thing to teach your kids. Oh, if you're good and you go to sleep early, you know, the tooth fairy will bring you money under your, you know, he'll leave money under your pillow or whatever. Just go to sleep. You know, so we can drink wine tonight or whatever. We can bust out the franza. You know, don't lie to your kids because that could make them not believe later on. Well, they lied to me about Santa Claus. What else are we being lied to about? It's really detrimental to lie. Well, I guess it's just an innocent little lie. There's nothing innocent about lying. It's one of the Ten Commandments. I should not bear false witness. They're like, well, yeah, but that's telling a lie about somebody. Yeah, but it's a lie, isn't it? So, lying is a sin. So, don't give a dumbed down version to them. You can just explain it to them. You might have to take it a little bit slow in some parts. You just have to make sure that they understand. And I always say this, make sure that they tell you what they believe. When you're wrapping everything up and you're going through the final questions, this is so important that you say, what do you believe it takes to go to heaven? Because they're going to answer the questions on a test at school. Everybody's done this at school. You know what the teacher wants for the answer. And even if you don't agree with them, you're going to put the right answer just so you pass the test, right? Even if you think they're wrong. This is what happens out solely. This is why you get false conversions. Because you're not asking them what they believe. Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. In most cases, I mean, when I've done this, and I do it every time now, but when you do this, they're going to say all the right answers, and then you can literally just right after that say, so what do you believe it takes to go to heaven? They'll go, I'll just be a good person, get baptized. Like, what? What? What are you talking about? And then it's just like, they just didn't get it. They didn't believe. Why? Because they just don't. I don't know why. But kids can get it. I don't dumb it down. I've seen where preachers get up and say, you know, you have to explain it to them in your own words and all this other stuff. No, you don't. You just have to explain the verses. You just have to explain the concepts. It's not hard to get the concept to sin. It's not hard to get the concept to hell. It's not hard to get the concept to believe. They believe real easy. Jesus said that. It's not hard to give the concept of a gift. It's not hard to give the concept of belief and eternal security and you know, asking somebody for something. Calling upon the name of the Lord. Number five this morning, to oppose or stop children from getting saved is a wicked abominable sin. To stop or oppose children from getting saved is a wicked and abominable sin. Look at Matthew chapter 18 verse 6 again. We'll read the whole verse. It says, But whoso, so it's like anybody, right, shall offend one of these little ones which, believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Again, here's Jesus saying, you offend one of these little children that believe in me because, let's just face it, children are easy targets for predators. Children are easy targets for people to manipulate. And that's why you know, you have all the abuse that's going on in this world and it's probably running rampant in the United States right now. In fact, I know it is. Where perverts are allowed to adopt children. And they're like, oh, it's okay. They're normal. They're just like us. They didn't used to be able to adopt, these perverts didn't used to be able to adopt children. And now they are, and now, you know, who knows what they're allowing them to do. Because they have the backing of the government. And they're shutting Christians down from being able to adopt children. And you know, a real Christian adopting a child is the best case scenario for somebody. But they're stopping them because, oh, we won't acknowledge trans people. Or we won't acknowledge the sodomites. Or we think it's wicked. And then they're going to say, we can't adopt them because we would teach them that. Well how about turning them into some kind of a freak or eunuch or whatever it is that they're turning them into. They're literally taking those kids, brainwashing them into believing all this LGBT garbage and then turning them chopping off their body parts and telling them that there's something else. But that's okay. You know, they can't buy a gun until they're 21 years old. They can't buy a pack of cigarettes in the state of Washington until they're 21 years old. They can't go to a rated R movie until they're 17 years old. There's lots of things that they can't do. They can't go to a bar and have a drink until they're 21 years old. But you know what they can do? They can chop off their body parts and take puberty blockers and change what they are supposedly. They can go behind their parents' back and get birth control. They can go to the doctor and tell them that they want to have hormone replacement therapy against their parents' will and that's okay. What kind of sick and twisted world are we living in? It's the fox guarding the hen house. This is what's happening and Jesus said, hey, you offend one of these little ones that believe in me. Here's what it would be better than. It'd be better for you to have a millstone hanged about your neck and drowned in the depths of the sea. And just let me just explain this you know, just give you a mental picture. I like to give this mental picture for people. You know, when you dive too fast in the water it makes your head hurt, doesn't it? And if you're a diver you have to go at a certain rate to go down into the water. You know what happens if you go too fast down in the water? You end up you get the bends and you get put into a hyperbaric chamber for a certain amount of days because you can dive from getting the bends. It's called the bends or whatever. Well, if you go and a rock's pulling you down as fast as you can and you're alive when you're being pulled down your head's going to explode. That's what's going to happen. Well, Jesus was just only nice. Jesus didn't judge anybody. Well, it sounds like He's judging right here, doesn't it? Maybe you haven't read the book of Revelation, but Jesus does judge. He's going to judge the whole world in righteousness. When He comes back with all of His saints with Him, we're going to watch as He kills the whole army of the beast. As they just basically explode and turn into a big river of blood. You're like, that's pretty graphic, Pastor Thompson. It's the Bible. Is there anything in the Bible that we're not supposed to read about or know about in here? No. Is it gruesome? Yeah. But, the point is, is that we run into people all the time out there, and we're just about to get them saved, and some do-gooder comes up and tries to interrupt us while we're preaching the gospel. You think that that's on accident? And some of them are their own parents. Parents. A lot of them are these homo parents. And, you know, we're about to get their kids saved, and they're like, and they just come and freak out, and jump. Who's been interrupted from getting someone saved by a parent or a psycho out soloing? Look at all the hands in here. You know what Jesus said? It's better for them that a millstone were hanging about their neck. And hopefully those, you know, we just pray that those kids end up, you know, praying when we leave, or whatever. You know, sometimes we just say, well hey, just make sure that you ask Jesus to save you, or whatever. We just try to wrap it up with them real quick. Now, turn to Genesis chapter 18. Genesis chapter 18. What do we call people that molest children? What do they have to register as? What do they call? A sex offender. That's what they're called, right? But whosoever offend, shall offend one of these little children. Obviously, there's different forms of offense. You can offend them by teaching them things that, you know, oh, the Bible's not true, or Christianity's false. I mean, but this is, you know, in context, this is talking about children that actually do believe in him. But there's also kids that could have had a chance to believe in him, but they ruin that too. And some of these children go the other way because of what these perverts do to them. Like, you know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah? When the whole city comes out, young and old, children and adults, why are the children doing that? Because these bunch of groomers and freaks have already turned them into sodomites. And you're like, well, how does that happen? Because they've offended them to the point where they've turned against God and become the most horrible thing. They've turned from the offended to the offenders. That's how they recruit. They can't reproduce, so they recruit to their cause. This is what you see going on today. That's why you're like, well, trans kids didn't used to exist. Well, yeah. Until they started letting them adopt and do drag queen story hours at the libraries and all the schools. I mean, for what purpose would a drag queen need to go and do sexual dances in front of children? Just explain that to me. How that's not perverted. Anybody that went to, you know, I went to public school, that would have been, I mean, I lived in a small town, too, in elementary school. They would have been strung up and hung by the nearest tree doing that in the town I lived in. In the 1980s. It's true. You know, I saw a guy wearing a sweatshirt the other day, well, it wasn't the other day, it was about a month ago, but it said, try that in our town. And it's just like, he's probably from a country town, right? But, I mean, they probably can try it in a country town now. It used to be the communication didn't, it used to be as easy as it is now. They'd be arrested fast for taking the law into their own hands, obviously, but I'm just saying, you know. So, look at Genesis chapter 18. Why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Well, look what it says. And the Lord said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great. When Abel was killed, what did God say about Tekane? He's like, where's your brother? And he said, am I my brother's keeper? He said, his blood cries out to me from the ground. Like, his blood cries out to me. So, God said because of the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great. You know, there's people being offended here, there's children being offended, there's adults being offended, and it says because their sin is very grievous. And you know what their sin, you know, their sin might have been bad hospitality, it might have been, you know, idleness and fullness of bread. Those are the characteristics that led up to what they did, but God didn't destroy a whole city, men, women, and children because they weren't hospitable, okay? That's not why. He killed them and destroyed them with fire because they were a bunch of freaks. They were trying to rape two angels that looked like men. That's why. And that's the spin that they're putting on it now. Oh, that wasn't, I mean, that's just every answer that's what you're gonna get. But that's not what the Bible teaches. It says that they were going after strange flesh. Strange is a synonym for queer. Isn't it? So look, our world is sick today. We gotta reach children before these groomers do. And so it's important for us every time to just get out there and hey, if there's kids out there playing in a playground, you know, we need some kids and some teens in here to go out there and get them saved. And ladies, it's probably not as, you know, I just get nervous just walking up to a big group of kids. Well, especially one kid at a time. It's like, what are you doing talking to my kid? You know, people will freak out about that. It's like, well, what are you doing letting your kid just roam around by himself outside? I mean, you're lucky it's just a church person that just cares about them and wants to get them saved, not some predator that you just allow your kid to just go out and be out of your sight all the time. I mean, we live in a crazy world to be just letting your kid just be out of your sight. It's strange. So, you know, when we were at the Massa Conference many years ago, I told this story about the Hart family. And basically these two lesbians that lived in Woodland, Washington, and one of them actually worked at the Coles here in town, and they had these five children that they adopted. They were taking pictures of them on Facebook, and they were the perfect family. They were showing up at all these festivals and, you know, giving away free hugs. One of the kids took this picture, a famous picture of him hugging a Portland police officer during the Occupy protest. And basically, they'd already been accused of abusing children, you know, beating their children too hard when they were in Minnesota. So they left Minnesota, came to Washington State. And then I was my family friends that lived across the street from them, the DeKalb family, they one night at two o'clock in the morning, one of the kids jumped out of the window of a second story house that they lived in, ran over there, said, help me, help me, they're starving us, you know, we can't, you know, we don't have anything to eat, and then they came and got her, and then like, not too long after, I mean, they called CPS, you can hear the CPS call, or the police call, but there's a recorded line where they record the call. CPS came, put a notice on their door, but they took all five kids in this supposed perfect family that they were beating and starving these kids that they adopted drugged them all, didn't put seat belts on them, took the family dog, drove them off a cliff in California and killed all of them. These two lesbians. And it's like, why not just kill yourself and leave the kids alone? You know why? Because they're offenders of children. This is what they are. But see, they want to portray like they're just normal, but they're not normal, folks. I don't care what Hollywood and what the news pumps into your brain every single week, they're not normal, this is what they really are. Offenders of children. These horrible, wicked people, they look nice and shiny on the outside, they love these kids, you know, they're all for Black Lives Matter, and let's make the world a better place, and all their murals and their Bob Marley songs, and them playing. These kids are emaciated in some of these pictures because they're literally starving them to death. And beating them with belts, beating them with all kinds of devices, who knows what. I mean, if you're so hungry, that you jump out of a second story window at two o'clock in the morning to try to escape, it must be pretty bad. And then instead of getting caught, they just murder all the children, they didn't even find two of the bodies. Five kids killed for what reason? Because some people just want to hurt children, that's why. And they would rather kill them than let them just survive and live their lives and they didn't want to go to prison for what they did. And they probably would have just got a slap on the wrist in reality. But who knows just how bad the horror story really was. I guess we'll never know. But you know who does know? God knows. And God's going to appropriately punish those people. And I hope that most of those kids are pretty young and innocent, I hope that they're all in heaven today. I hope that and obviously I believe that kids go to heaven that are innocent, but they were varying in age. But they offended those children and what people like that should do, they should just kill themselves and not kill the children. They even killed the dog. Like what did the dog do? But I'd rather have them kill a hundred dogs than five children. These perverts are turning children into eunuchs, they're turning them into queers and trannies, there's furries being introduced to our schools, and you know I preach about that a couple years ago and they're like yeah he's just lying and saying that they have these litter boxes at school. Look, they are starting to do that stuff. They're allowing these kids to dress up like animals and pretend to be and let around on leashes and stuff. Everybody else has to abide by the dress code except for them. Take your kids out of public school if you haven't been in public school. Just FYI there. But here's God's warning. Look at verse 10, it says, I know this took a dark turn but we're gonna get back on track here in a minute. Verse 10 says take heed that you despise not one of these little ones. For I say unto you that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. So this is like a warning, isn't it? Their angels, so do they have angels? Yeah. So do people have guardian angels or guardian angels a real thing? Yeah. That's what it sounds like to me. These little ones have angels that behold the face of their Father. And you know what God when the angels are saying look what they're doing to these little children that believe in you. Do you think that's gonna make God angry? It absolutely is gonna make God angry. So let that be a warning to these freaks that would hurt God's children, little children that are saved or little children that could be saved. You know they have retribution coming from God himself. And look, God is love. God is a loving God. God wants the whole world to be saved, but you know what? He also is a God of judgment and people forget that. There's a time to love and there's a time to hate and you know what? God does not love people that are perverts that hurt children. He's gonna destroy them forever and ever. And look, you know you gotta take the good with the bad, you gotta take the whole truth of the Bible. You can't just pick out the sweetness and light that you want. God is also, I mean the book of Revelation is probably the harshest book in the whole Bible and it's the last book. God loves and he also does hate sometimes. So let's look at number six and get back on the positive parts of this sermon. So verse number six, I mean point number six, do not under value little children. Do not under value little children. Look at verse 10. Again it says take heed that you despise not one of these little ones. So the little ones that people are so quick to brush aside, they do have a lot of pull with God, don't they? They have a lot of pull with God, cause look what it says, it says for the son of man is come to save that which is lost. I mean I quote this verse a lot but what's it in context to? It's in context to little children, isn't it? But obviously he's come to save everybody that's lost, but he specifically is saying it about little children. So we should not despise the little ones. Don't under value them because they're of great value to God, he came to save that which is lost. Look at Luke chapter 15 verse 7. Luke chapter 15 verse 7. This is kind of a parallel passage here. I remember when I got saved the guy that got me saved quoted the last scripture I'm gonna read to you here, but look at Luke 15 7 it says, I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. Either what woman having ten pieces of silver if she lose one piece doth not light a candle and sweep the house and seek diligently till she find it. So he's just basically giving us this story like if you lose one piece if you lose money you look for it, right? This is what God's liking it to. If there's one child that can be saved it's important. And we should diligently search out these children that need to be saved. And it says in verse 9, and when she found it she calleth her friends and her neighbors together saying rejoice with me for I have found the peace which I had lost. It's nice when you thought you lost money or some item of great importance to you and then you're like oh man I'm so glad. You know it's usually my wife that I say these things to it's like oh I found that thing I was looking for because usually when I say I lost something my wife starts tearing everything apart trying to look for it too. And you know there's great joy when I remember where I put something. But we can't find. So I'm sure everybody has those experiences. But look at verse 10 it says likewise I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. And that verse was quoted to me when I got saved and I'll never forget that because I just thought wow there's people and the angels are actually like kind of throwing a party or they're rejoicing there's great joy in heaven over just one person that gets saved. Just one person. And so if every soul is precious to us and what's the context? It's children. You know so one child that gets saved it's like obviously we go so much that it's hard to share all the great stories we have. But you know I know Miss Bobby just recently you know she's always like going up to kids and getting them saved. And I think that's great. I know a lot of other people do here too. But you know those children that get saved are special like she had I think one that the mom came and interrupted or something like that. And then she came back the next week and because she was right about to pray with her and then she was just kind of distraught over the fact that she didn't end up knowing whether she was going to get saved or not. And then the next week the same little girl came up to her ran up to her and said do you remember me? She's like of course I remember you. And then she said I want to get saved. And she ended up calling upon the name of the Lord and getting saved. And I think it was by a school that we were up by Kelso. And so these types of things happen all the time. I'm sure there's lots of great stories about these types of things. I mean some of the greatest soul winning days I've ever had are when I won multiple children to Christ at the same time. And you know I look back on those times and I think man that was a great day. Like at the time I just didn't realize how special those types of moments in soul winning are. Because I haven't had days like that in a long time where I have multiple children getting saved at the same time. But I've had multiple times where multiple children get saved. But it's been a long time. But you know sometimes you can just ask like if they're all playing in the yard. The last time I got like a big group of kids saved I just asked the grandpa. He's like I'm grandpa. There's like eight or nine kids but six of them paid attention. I kept you know I just kept I just made sure all of them were paying attention. All of them were answering their questions right. You know and all of them trusted Christ. It was like a big day. It was the most people I ever got saved in one day was ten. I was doing it all day. That's a video game number but when you're going all day and you happen to get six at the very end of the day it's not that big of a stretch or whatever. But you know those are the times that I really were like man I love that day because of those kids I got saved. And they're just so easy to get kids saved. It's just a joy. But God you know the Bible says that there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents us. So you know we shouldn't despise them. We shouldn't undervalue them. Because in heaven there's great value just over one person that gets saved. Number seven we need to actively seek to win little children to Christ. Obviously a lot of these are overlapping but look at verse 12 in our text. Go back to Matthew 18 verse number 12 the Bible says How think ye if a man have an hundred sheep and one of them be gone astray doth he not leave the ninety and nine and goeth into the mountains and seeketh that which is gone astray and if so be that he findeth it verily I say unto you he rejoiceth more of that sheep than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. Now flip over to chapter 19 verse 13 it says then were brought unto him little children that he should put his hands upon them and pray and the disciples rebuke them. So see and this is the attitude that we don't want to have. Where little kids are coming up or little kids are in our church and we're just like hey get out of here kid. Like you got no business here. That should never be our attitude and what does it say? And the disciples rebuke them but what does Jesus do? But Jesus said suffer or allow little children. Allow them suffer them and forbid them not to come unto me. We shouldn't ever stop little children from getting saved. We shouldn't stop little children from seeking out the things of God and we need to actively like he says in we're seeking those that are gone astray. We're rejoicing we're going after that one little sheep we should suffer the little children we allow them to come unto Jesus for such is the kingdom of heaven. There's going to be a lot of kids that are saved there's a lot of children in heaven right now. There's a lot of children that are saved. I mean just think about the children that were never born. They're all in heaven. Every single last one of them. Every baby that dies early. Every child that dies early. They're in heaven right now. You know despite what the Catholics think that they had to be baptized or something. No that's not true. Despite what Ruckman taught that until they breathe their first breath I mean you can get an abortion because you know if they don't take their first breath or whatever it's like that's ridiculous. They're in heaven. So and then it says Jesus laid his hands on them and departed then. So you know there's I think in a parallel passage like Jesus rebukes his disciples for actually doing that. He rebukes them for rebuking the children. He suffered them. He said allow them to come unto me. So we you know if we're supposed to actively seek them and allow them to come unto Christ we should be actively seeking to win them to Christ. Number eight. God's will is not that any little children should perish. God's will is not that any little children should perish. Look at verse 14 back in our text. Verse 14 back in our text. The Bible says in verse 14 even so it is not the will of your father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. So checkmate Calvinist it's not the will of your father which is in heaven that any of these little ones should perish. Not any of them. And in fact it's not God's will that any person on the planet should perish. But like specifically in this passage here he's saying God doesn't want any little ones to perish. He wants all of them to be saved. So you know if He doesn't want, if His will is that they shouldn't perish then again that's why we need to be seeking them. That's why they need to be part of the demographic that we target to get saved. And the fact that they're just easy and they're to get saved and they're not prideful they're very humble. But look at second Peter chapter three verse nine. Second Peter chapter three verse nine. I told you I'd get back to the repentance thing I'm going to in just a minute here. The Bible says second Peter three nine. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise about coming back right? As some men count slackness but is long suffering to us word. Not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. And people will be like you see the Bible says you know about repentance. Did it say repentance of sins? Is that what it said? Did it say that you know it's not the will of your father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish but that they should all repent of their sins? You know because little kids have so many big sins that they've committed. Stealing the cookies out of the cookie jar. Telling their parents no. Hiding their stuff under their bed instead of in the room. They just are really wicked sinners at this age. No they're not. They can still get saved right? Better to get saved early than later on in life after you've made a lot of mistakes. So and let me just say this. Nobody believes in sin. They're like what do you mean pastor? Well when we ask people what do you believe it takes to go to heaven? Does anybody say well I believe in sin. I believe you gotta sin. Nobody says that. Right? Nobody says I believe in sin. They say I gotta be a good person. They say I gotta keep the commandments. They say the golden rule or repent of your sins or make Jesus the Lord of your life or whatever it is you know I'm a school teacher. I was a school teacher for 30 years. I served in the military. And it's like I'm going to heaven because you know I rescue dogs. I'm a rescue puppy person. I've heard that one. But nobody answers that you believe you have to sin to go to heaven. Do they? And you're like well what do you mean pastor? Well because to say you have to repent of your sins to go to heaven would mean that you have that you believe in sin as your world view and that's taking you to heaven already. Because repent means a change of mind. Right? So what does make sense? Well if you believe in Buddhism you change your mind and you believe in Christianity. You believe you're a Muslim and you change your mind and you put your faith in Jesus. That makes sense. You know you're an atheist. You don't believe in God at all and you believe in Jesus now. That makes sense. But I believe in sin. Now I'm going to turn from sin and believe in Jesus. That doesn't make sense. See which one's not in the right category. Nobody believes in sin. So to say well you have to turn from sin to Jesus. That doesn't make sense. That's not a belief system. Repentance is putting your faith you know true Bible repentance and salvation is what turn to Acts 19. Because people say well Jesus preached repentance. I agree with you. John preached repentance you know in the wilderness. Saying you should repent. I agree with you still. But what is the repentance that they preached? Because repentance is one of those words that you just have to get the context of what it's saying. You can't just say well what are they repenting of? Because God didn't want to send the children of Israel through the land of the Philistines lest they see war and repent and go back to Egypt. It wasn't that they lest they see war and they repent of their sins and go back to Egypt. That's not what it means. It means that they don't want none of the Philistines because they had giants and all these other things. He didn't want them to get afraid and turn back. So look at Acts 19 verse 3. It says actually look at verse 2 it says, he said unto them have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And they said unto him we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them unto what then were you baptized? And they said unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily or truly baptized with the baptism of repentance saying unto the people that they should believe on him believe on him which should come after him that is on Christ Jesus. So what's the baptism that John preached? Did it say that they should repent of all their sins? Is that what it says? No, that they should believe on him that should come after him that is on Christ Jesus. That's the repentance that John preached. That's what the Bible says folks. And you can just put of your sins at the end of it if you want to. But that's not what the Bible teaches. Just quit automatically putting of sins at the end of repentance because you know what? God repents more than anybody else in the Bible. And guess what? He doesn't have any sins. And you're turned from sins to the Savior nobody believes in sins. Everybody knows that they have them but nobody has that as their world view. Turned from sins to the Savior. No, more like turned from whatever stupid thing you believe in and believe in Christ. That's repentance. So this idiotic belief that you must repent of your sins to go to heaven, it doesn't make sense. Because those things don't, you know, wolf, coyote, hound dog, banana, which one doesn't go with the other ones? Banana, right? Buddha, you know, Buddha, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, sin. Which one doesn't go with the other ones? I mean they're all sinners of course, wicked ones, but which one doesn't go with the other ones? Sin doesn't go with the other ones. And so you know, you have to turn from whatever belief system you have and believe in the true belief system which is Christianity, the Lord Jesus Christ. So hopefully that makes sense. And so the easiest time to win people to Christ is when they are little children, right? Number nine, we need children and teens in our church to help us reach them. Go ahead and turn to Acts chapter 2, I'm almost done. Acts chapter 2, I'm going to read Joel chapter 2 verse 28, there's a prophecy about in the last days after Jesus, you know, when the Holy Spirit's poured out, but Joel chapter 2 verse 28 says it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those day will I pour out my spirit. And the coming true of this prophecy is found in Acts chapter 2. Peter preaches this sermon and then he explains that this is not these people being drunk but this is something that was prophesied in the Bible where all these people from different places, different tongues, different nations are preaching in their language and the other people are receiving it in the language that they know. Acts chapter 2 verse 16 says, but this is that which is spoken by the prophet Joel and it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. And all my servants and all my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy. So what do you have here? You have a demographic of different ages, people of different ages. So handmaidens are generally younger women that are not married yet and so it's talking about young men old men, all these different people but it's talking about prophesying. So what's taking place in Acts chapter 2? You're having people going around and they're prophesying they're preaching the gospel so preaching doesn't always mean that you're standing behind a pulpit and it doesn't always mean that you're preaching about the future or predicting the future prophecy or prophesying just means preaching that's what it means and it just depends on what kind of preaching it is but this type of preaching that's happening in Acts chapter 2 is talking about preaching the gospel Isn't that the context of the story here? And it says I will show wonders in the heaven and signs of the earth beneath blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon to blood before the great notable day of the Lord come and shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved So children, teens you are important to the mission of reaching the children and teens that we run out into the soul winning because the Bible says that the Spirit of God is poured out unto you also and according to these verses these people here are getting people saved so why can't you do the same thing? You can do the same thing You absolutely should be doing the same it shouldn't be just the adults in the church doing the soul winning Now I will say this, it's important that you're doing a good job while you're doing it. Don't just go out there willy-nilly just because you're zealous and not do it the correct way you should before you're ready to launch out. You know obviously you can you can get better at things and not be 100% perfect. I'm not saying you have to be 100% perfect I'm just saying you should be able to articulate all the points and be able to explain the verses to people before you're ready to be on your own preaching the gospel. So Acts chapter 21, turn to Acts chapter 21 it says and the next day we that were of Paul's company departed and came unto Caesarea and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist so what does Philip do? He evangelizes people which was one of the seven and abode with him and the same man had four daughters virgins which did prophesy. So what does this tell you that Philip had you know daughters were probably between the ages of 10 and 18 you know four daughters maybe 12 to 18 I don't know that were what did what prophesy now women are not supposed to get up and preach in the church behind the pulpit so what kind of prophesying are they doing well he's an evangelist so what kind of prophesying do you think they're doing? They're preaching so these young daughters of his are out doing the same thing they're out doing what dad has taught them to do and they're probably doing it because they love the Lord too and they want to preach. So there you have some examples of young women doing it so it's not just for men to do it's also for women. Young ladies young girls so you know there's no reason why you can't get out and do the same thing last point we need to do more evangelistic things to reach children so I'm not sure what the answer is obviously I'm not having a VBS here or something like that but you know maybe I just maybe we just need to be more focused when we're out there and mindful maybe it's just a good reminder to not pass by children necessarily and you know for us to have a focus on teaching the children in this church that are old enough to preach the gospel or the teens to light a fire under them to make sure that they want to get out and preach the gospel too and you know it shouldn't just you know I took my kids sowing my kids all go sowing you know they all know how to win someone to Christ you know if you have to drag your kids along drag them along but teach them how to go sowing and Mark 5 35 it says cause Jesus you know he obviously allowed the little children to come but he also you know he would minister to other people he raised a girl from the dead and people laughed at that right and you know he's like hey she's not dead she's sleeping and they all laughed him to scorn but before that they were wailing and crying and upset look at Mark 5 35 or just listen while I read it and we'll be done here it says while he at spake there came from the ruler of the synagogues house certain which said thy daughter is dead why troubles thou the master any further as soon as Jesus had heard the word that was spoken he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue be not afraid only believe and he suffered no man to follow him save Peter and James and John the brother of James and he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saith the tumult and then that wept and wailed greatly you know there's a lot of people that are weeping and wailing over children that they lose and they don't know whether that child went to heaven or not and that's why it's so important for us to reach them cause there are children that die and go to hell you know once they know once they're accountable for their sins they will go to hell if they know you know if they know enough they will die and go to hell look what it says in verse 39 and when he was come in he saith unto them why maketh this a do and weep the damsel's not dead but sleepeth and they laughed him to scorn but when he had put them all out he taketh the father and the mother out of the damsel and them that were with him and entereth in where the damsel was lying and he took the damsel by the hand and said unto her talitha kumai which is being interpreted damsel I say unto thee arise and straightway the damsel arose and walked for she was of the age of twelve years and they were astonished with great astonishment you see Jesus did care about the little children he cared about the twelve year olds he cared about teens he cared about everyone and you know there's a lot of people that wish that someone talked to their twelve year old you know we can't raise children from the dead like Jesus did and there's twelve year olds all over this world right now that you know they're without Christ and you know we can the only way we're going to bring them back from the dead is by preaching the gospel to them so that they'll be saved and they're a demographic that we should care about they're a demographic in this church we should care about and we should focus on getting children the gospel cause God loves the little children God loves the teenagers he wants us to include them in our soloing program and so let's have a mind as a church to make this happen save children and teens in this church pitch in and do your part we need you as a part of the workforce and parents let's make sure your kids really are ready to preach the gospel that they understand how to read through the presentation let's train them up and let's make sure that we have this focus on winning children to Christ let's pray Lord we thank you so much for the little children Lord and we can see just through these scriptures this morning that you do care about the little children you care about the teenagers you care about those in between and Lord we pray that you just help us to have a focus on children Lord that we'd love them and Lord that you'd help us to be wise as we deal with them but Lord help us to reach these children before the world is able to reach them and that we would get them saved and that we would make it a priority in Jesus name we pray, Amen tell me the old old story of unseen things above of Jesus and his glory of Jesus and his love tell me the story simply as to a little child for I am weak and weary and helpless and defiled tell me the old old story tell me the old old story tell me the old old story of Jesus and his love tell me the story slowly that I may take it in that wonderful redemption of Jesus for sin tell me the story of him for I forget so soon the early dew of morning has passed all he had new tell me the old old story tell me the old old story tell me the old old story of Jesus and his love tell me the story softly with earnest tones and grave remember I'm the sinner whom Jesus came to save tell me the story always you would really be in any time of drop or bow a comforter to me tell me the old old story tell me the old old story tell me the old old story of Jesus and his love tell me the same old story when you have cause to fear that this world's empty glory is costing me to near yes, and when that world's glory is dawning on my soul tell me the old old story Christ Jesus speaks the whole tell me the old old story tell me the old old story tell me the old old story of Jesus and his love Amen. Brother Eli, would you close us in a word of prayer? Thank you so much for the sermon that we've heard, Lord. I pray that we would prepare our children.