And let's start reading in verse number one.
It says, but speak thou the things
which become sound doctrine,
that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate,
sound in faith, in charity, in patience.
The aged women likewise that they be in behavior
is become with holiness, not false accusers,
not given to much wine, teachers of good things,
that they may teach the young women to be sober,
to love their husbands, to love their children.
The title of my sermon tonight is Love Your Children.
Love Your Children.
We see here that it's one of the commandments of God
for specifically women to love their children.
But is anyone gonna argue with me
that this does not also apply to men?
Is anyone gonna say only women should love their children,
but men shouldn't love their children?
Obviously, this is something that's a command
for all of all people,
regardless of whether you're male or female.
We are supposed to love our children.
Now flip back to Second Timothy chapter number three,
Second Timothy chapter number three,
a few pages to your left in the Bible.
Let's start reading verse one.
It says, "This know also that in the last days,
perilous times shall come,
for men shall be lovers of their own selves,
covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
without natural affection, true spirit breakers,
false accusers, incontinent,
fierce despisers of those that are good."
So the Bible warns us that in the last times,
perilous times will come
and that people will love themselves.
People will love themselves.
Not only that, they'll be without natural affection.
And when I think of a group of people
that love themselves and don't have natural affection,
I think of parents that don't love their kids.
I mean, that is just so bizarre
for a parent not to love their own child.
It's like an unnatural affection.
But there's also lesser degrees of this
where even parents that do love their kids,
they do unloving things towards their children
or they behave in a certain way that's unloving
in the way that they're raising them.
And of course, the Bible gives us wisdom
on all aspects of life.
The Bible teaches us how to raise godly children
and the Bible teaches us how to love our children.
God wouldn't just tell us to love our children
if there wasn't a way that we can see from God's word
how to do that.
Now, of course, there's a lot of ways today
people are not loving their children.
How about aborting your children?
Unfortunately, in America, there's an absolute Holocaust
where 3,000 babies, it's estimated,
are being murdered every single day in our nation.
It's like a 9/11 happening every single day in our nation.
And what does that show?
It shows that our country has a sickness
of not loving your children, but rather loving yourself.
Rather having this unnatural affection
of wanting to murder your own child.
But of course, there's things that are less severe than that
but are still unloving.
Verbal abuse of your children.
Physical abuse of our children is rampant today in 2021.
Neglecting your children.
How about giving your children everything that they want?
All of these things are varying level of degree
of not loving your children.
So us as God's people, the goal with this sermon
is to get every single person
to just love their children more.
And even if you're not a parent, God willing,
you will be someday in the future,
or you'll be a grandparent,
or you'll be able to disciple someone
and be able to teach them the wisdom of the word of God.
But the goal of this sermon is to get us all
to love our children more.
So number one, go to Deuteronomy chapter number six.
Deuteronomy chapter number six.
The first way that we can have more love to our children,
the first way where we could show that we love our children
is by educating our children ourselves.
Educate your children yourself.
Look at Deuteronomy chapter number six, verse one.
It says, now these are the commandments,
the statutes, and the judgments,
which the Lord your God commanded to teach you,
that ye might do them in the land
whether you go to possess it,
that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God
to keep all his statutes and his commandments,
which I command thee, thou and thy son,
and thy son's son, all the days of thy life,
and that thy days may be prolonged.
You see, the Bible is not just for adults.
Preaching is not just for adults.
God gave his law and he said,
hey, I want you to obey this
and I want your sons to obey this,
and I want your son's sons to obey this.
So a lot of people have this idea that,
oh, church is just for adults,
kids need to go in some separate room
where they're eating candy and playing games,
but how are they gonna follow this commandment then?
How are they gonna be following all of God's commandments
if they're not hearing God's word?
God wants children to hear God's word.
Look at verse three, it says, "Hear therefore, O Israel,
"and observe to do it that it might be well with thee,
"and that you may increase mightily,
"as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee
"in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,
"and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart,
"and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
"And these words, which I command thee this day,
"shall be in thine heart."
And then I wanna focus on verse seven.
It says, "And thou shalt teach them."
"Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,
"and shalt 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.
"And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand,
"and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
"And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house,
"and on thy gates."
So God makes it very clear.
He gives the instruction to God's people
that they are to teach their children the word of God.
They are to teach their children the commandments of the Lord.
No one else is going to do it for you.
You know, I hate to break it to you,
but the public school system was not something
that was invented by God.
It was an invention of man.
And if you look at the fruit of the public school system,
it's failed.
Our nation's not getting more godly.
Our nation is getting more wicked every single day.
And it's because parents are not teaching their children
the word of God, like Deuteronomy chapter six told us to do.
Not only does God say here
that we need to teach our children,
it says to teach them diligently.
Now, this is something that's very hard to do.
And I'm sure that's why a lot of people
just drop their kids off at public school.
And here's the thing.
I understand some people have to put their kids
in public school for different family situations.
And so if you're in that case tonight,
I don't even know about it and I don't even care.
I'm just preaching what the Bible says,
what God's will is for our children
is that thou shalt teach them.
That is God's will.
And it says to teach them diligently.
So like I said, it takes a lot of work.
It says when you're in your house,
when you're walking by the way, when you're lying down,
when you're rising up,
it sounds like it's just a 24/7 thing.
And it is, because that's what God wants.
God wants 24/7 anytime you have an opportunity
to be teaching your children, specifically the word of God.
But hey, why not just teach our children everything?
We should be able to teach our children
the carnal truths of this world
and also the spiritual truths of this world.
Now, how is it loving to educate your children yourself?
Why is it more loving to educate your children
than to just take them to the public school?
Well, number one, I think it's the most loving
because it gives your children the greatest opportunity
to be saved and love God.
That is why it's the most loving,
because by homeschooling your children,
by teaching your kids the word of God yourself,
you are giving them the best chance possible to get saved.
And not only that, you're giving them the best chance
possible to love and to serve God.
Let's look at verse five again.
This is a pretty hefty verse right here.
It says, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
"with all thine heart and with all thy soul
"and with all thy might."
That is a tall order right there from God.
How is that gonna get done?
How is our children gonna grow up
and love the Lord their God with all of their soul,
their heart, and their might?
Is it gonna be by what they're taught
in the public school?
Absolutely not.
The way that it's done is by verse six.
In these words, which I command thee,
this day shall be in thine heart,
and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.
How are your children gonna grow up
and love the Lord their God with all their heart,
mind, soul, strength?
It's by you teaching them.
It's not gonna happen by osmosis.
My children are not gonna grow up and love God by osmosis.
I'm gonna have to teach them to love God.
Keeping God's commandments does not come naturally.
Knowing the Bible, understanding the word of God,
knowing all of the commandments of God
does not just come naturally.
It's something that has to be taught precept upon precept,
line upon line, here a little, there a little.
It takes a long time for someone to love the Lord their God
with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength.
It's not something that's gonna be done overnight,
and it's not gonna be something that's gonna be done
by anyone else other than you,
the person that loves them the most.
And you're not gonna get this from the public school,
and sadly, you're not even gonna get this
from a lot of Christian schools, unfortunately.
You would think, okay, well, I can't home school
for whatever reason, and I don't wanna put 'em
in public school, so I'll just put 'em in a Christian school.
See, the problem with that is I met a lot of kids
that went to Christian school that turned 18
and bounced from the will of God,
that bounced from serving God, that bounced
from reading the Bible, from going to church.
They went into fornication, they went to college,
they did all sorts of wickedness rather than following
the Lord, that's the product of a lot of Christian schools.
And you would think, oh, it's a Christian school,
my kids will turn out great, but here's the problem.
God didn't ordain a Christian school.
God ordained the family, God ordained the local church,
God ordained government, but God never ordained
a public school system.
God never ordained a Christian school system.
He ordained mom and dad, teaching them the commandments
of God, that is what he ordained for them.
And if you and I, if we don't teach our children
these things, who is going to do it?
Go to Acts chapter number four, Acts chapter number four.
In verse number 17, when you get to Acts four, it says,
but that it spread no further among the people,
let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth
to no man in this name, verse 18, and they called them
and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach
in the name of Jesus.
But Peter and John answered and said unto them,
whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you
more than unto God, judge ye, for we cannot but speak
the things which we have seen and heard.
So the Jews here, they're wanting the apostles
to stop preaching the word of God, and of course,
they're gonna say we ought to obey God rather than men,
but notice what they say in verse 20, it says,
we cannot but speak the things which we have seen
and heard, and you see what I believe the Bible teaches
is that what goes in comes out, what goes into the heart
comes out, and especially at a young age,
if you are just dumping tons and tons and tons of Bible
into the heart of a young child,
tons and tons of God's word and of the preaching
of God's word into their heart,
I believe that they're gonna grow up
and they're not gonna be able to help
but speak the things that they have seen and heard.
Why is it that a person that goes to public school
for six to eight hours a day,
why is it that they all have the same opinions
about everything, they all believe the exact same way,
they all think leftist nowadays when they grow up
and get out of school, it's because they can't but speak
the things that they've seen and heard.
They're getting programmed six to eight hours a day
of the world's agenda, of the devil's agenda,
and then people wonder how their kids graduate high school
and why they're leftists, why they're moving to Portland
to join Antifa, why they're burning down cities.
It's because they can't help but speak the things
that they've seen and heard.
But if you reverse that, imagine programming,
I said programming, into your kids,
brainwashing your kids with the word of God.
You gotta wash their brain out from the filth of the flesh
with the clean, holy water of God's word every single day.
And when you do that, God willing,
they're gonna grow up and not be able to help
but speak the things that they've seen and heard.
That's why the world all says the same opinions,
because there's only one side being told to these kids
that are in public school.
They're getting one side.
They're not getting the fundamental Baptist perspective
of things.
They're not getting the word of God's view on things.
They're getting two different wings of one bird.
They're getting the Republican Party ideology sometimes
and the Democratic ideology other times.
But neither of those ideologies match up
with the word of God.
They're not getting anything from the word of God.
I'll read for you Luke 6.45.
You could turn to Proverbs chapter 22.
Luke 6.45 says, "A good man out of the good treasure
of his heart bringeth forth that which is good.
And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart
bringeth forth that which is evil.
For of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaketh."
So Jesus taught that if you put a bunch of good in your heart,
that good is gonna come out of that heart.
If you're gonna put a bunch of evil in your heart,
evil is gonna come out of that heart
because out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh.
So if you ever wonder,
why do worldly kids say worldly things?
Well, because all that's being sown into their heart
is worldliness, that's why.
And you and I would be the same way
if we had the same influences.
Why is it that these young kids in this church
can quote to me the entire chapter of Exodus 20
before the service is because the word of God
is going into their heart,
rather than the programming of this world?
You're not gonna find a public school student
that can come and quote to me Exodus chapter 20,
but you can find it in this church, why?
Because parents are teaching their children
the word of God, that is why.
You're there in Proverbs 22,
but out of the bonnets of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
This is especially true with children when you think about it
because children too far sometimes
will blurt out what's in their hearts, where it's hilarious.
I've heard stories of children in our movement,
the New Ivy Movement, how parents will be at the grocery store
and one of their little kids will be like,
"Mom, why does that guy have long hair?"
Like right in front of him, you know?
Out of the bonnets of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
It's like, whoa, you know?
Just keep that quiet.
Or they'll just call out something filthy that they see
or they'll just tell someone,
"Hey, you shouldn't be drinking alcohol."
And it's like a five-year-old going and telling some man
at a restaurant, "Why are you drinking alcohol?
It's wicked, it's evil."
Out of the bonnets of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
And to a point sometimes where it's hilarious.
But I would rather my kid be a little uncouth at times
as a young child, but believe the word of God,
then him end up drinking.
Then my son growing up, I don't have a son yet,
Lord willing I will.
But then my future son growing up and having long hair.
My daughter's growing up and cutting their hair off.
My daughter's growing up and fornicating
or doing things against God's commandment.
Out of the bonnets of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
If we put into the hearts of our children the word of God,
that's what they'll speak.
That's what will come out of their heart.
Proverbs 22 verse six says, train up a child
in the way he should go.
And when he is old, he will not depart from it.
So when you train up a child on a good foundation,
spiritually with the word of God,
and even with a good foundation, carnally,
when they grow up, you're setting them up for success.
You are setting them up for success.
So educating your children yourself, why is it loving?
It's loving because you're giving them
the greatest opportunity to be saved.
You're giving them the greatest opportunity
not only to be saved, but to love God.
And the success of our children is based solely on that.
It's based solely on them getting saved and loving God.
It doesn't matter how successful they are in the world,
if they don't get saved and if they don't love God,
then it's not a success.
You know, your child grows up to be a decorated military hero
and he's celebrated by the nation
and he receives all the medals and honors,
but he's not saved and he dies and goes to hell
and he didn't love God, it's a failure.
Your son grows up to be the president of the United States,
your daughter goes up to run a business
or just do whatever people want to do,
whatever people consider as success.
If they don't get saved and they don't love God,
it's not a success in my eyes
and it's not a success in God's eyes either.
How do we do that?
How do we ensure this success?
Go to Psalms chapter number one,
Psalm chapter number one, Psalm one.
Look at verse one, it says,
blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel
of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and in his law doth he meditate day and night,
and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season,
his leaf also shall not wither,
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
When you remove the ungodly, the wicked influences
from a person and their delighting in the law of the Lord,
then they're gonna succeed in life.
That is what the Bible promises.
You know, so we gotta teach it to 'em day and night.
When we rise up, when we walk in the way,
when we're sitting down, every single opportunity
that we get to teach our children the word of God
should be taken, because that's what's gonna change
their life in the future.
Proverbs chapter one, I'll read for you.
You can turn to Hosea chapter four, I'll read for you.
Proverbs chapter one, verse seven, it says,
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Or I'm sorry, the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
So in order for our children to be wise, to be knowledgeable,
step one is teaching them to fear the Lord.
Step one is teaching them to fear the Lord.
And I think when we look at how our society
is getting more and more stupid, less wise,
having less knowledge,
I think it's probably connected with the fact
that the public school doesn't teach the fear of the Lord.
At least in the public school, they used to have prayer.
They used to teach the Ten Commandments.
They used to teach the Bible.
That's what you would use to learn
how to read in this country, was the King James Bible.
But notice, as that's being taken away,
as the fear of the Lord is being taken away from our nation,
what are we seeing?
A lot of stupidity, a lot of people with no knowledge,
a lot of people with no wisdom.
Why? Because the Bible's true.
That's why the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Hosea 4 verse 6, it says,
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because thou has rejected knowledge,
I will also reject thee,
that thou shalt be no priest to me,
seeing thou has forgotten the law of thy God."
Like Deuteronomy 6, where it said to teach our children.
And it says this, "I also will forget thy children."
If we as God's people forget God's law,
where he commanded us to teach our children,
God will forget our children,
is what Hosea chapter four verse six says.
And that's not what I want for my kids.
That's not what you want for your kids.
I'd rather just obey God's command
to teach them the word of God.
And I don't know everyone's situation in here,
but whether you're homeschooling or public schooling,
you can teach them the word of God, no matter what.
You can set a time in your family
to make sure that you're teaching your family
the word of God and reading the word of God together.
So also, how is this loving?
Well, it's loving because it's giving them
the greatest opportunity to get saved and to love God.
But it's also loving to teach your children yourself
because it protects them from physical harm.
It protects them from physical harm.
I'll read a few Proverbs 22 verse three.
It says, "A prudent man foreseeeth the evil
and hideeth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished."
So someone who's prudent, he can foresee something
that's evil, something that's harmful,
and he can remove himself from that.
He can hide himself from that.
But people that are stupid, people that are simple,
they pass on, and they're punished.
You know, you see the big sign that says, "Road ends here."
It's like, okay, let's be prudent,
and let's hide ourselves from this road.
Now, it's not be simple and just drive off that cliff
and kill our whole family, okay?
But the thing is, and of course, let me say this,
you can still do everything right,
and your kids can still suffer physical harm,
because time and chance happeneth to them all.
I'll read for you Lamentations 322.
It says, "It is of the Lord's mercies
"that we are not consumed,
"because his compassions fail not."
So obviously, we can do everything right in this room,
and our kids can still get hurt.
We can still get hurt.
But the Bible's telling us that if we're prudent,
if we foresee a danger, if we foresee evil,
we should hide ourselves from that evil.
Now, what's an evil that is in the public school system
that we should be aware of?
Well, how about predators?
People that would prey on your children.
I wanna read for you this article.
This article's from 2017.
It says, "Who is more likely to abuse your child,
"a sex offender or their teacher?"
It says, "Parents should know that there's a greater chance
"of their child getting abused by a teacher or coach
"than a stranger on the sex offender registry.
"One only needs to scan the headlines
"to see teachers getting caught,
"having inappropriate relations with their underage students
"on a regular basis."
Here are some headlines from just this past week.
So at the time this was written in 2017,
they were saying, "Here's some headlines
"in the United States just from this week."
And I'm not gonna read all these headlines,
but it's 12 headlines.
12 headlines of this happening in one week in our nation.
Last year, CBS News put out a story on the subject
titled, "Texas on Record Setting Pace
"for Inappropriate Teacher-Student Relationships,"
stating Texas had 188 investigations in 2016,
marking it the fifth year of growth in a row.
So every single year in the state of Texas,
there's more and more predators preying on children
in the public school system.
Teachers, coaches, whatever staff is in that school,
it's becoming more and more prevalent.
A few years before, Slate.com asked,
"How many kids are sexually abused by their teachers?"
Probably millions.
They estimated that 4.5 million students,
currently in grades K through 12,
have suffered some sort of sexual abuse by an educator,
and more than three million have experienced
inappropriate touching or assault.
It says that over a decade ago,
the New York Times reported,
"Teacher-student relations said not to be unusual."
They quoted a study that found
that up to 5% of teachers engage in some form of abuse
in that way of students,
from inappropriate verbal flirtation to being with students.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics,
there are approximately 3.1 million public school teachers
and 0.4 million private school teachers in the U.S.,
less than 1/4 as many of the registered sex offenders in the U.S.
Statistically, your child has a much higher chance
of being abused by their teacher
than a registered sex offender,
and is 18 more times likely to be sexually abused
by a family member or close acquaintance
than someone on the registry.
So according to this article,
putting your kid in the public school system,
and Texas even has one of the highest states,
you know, they're more likely to get abused
by that teacher or staff member
than just some random guy who lives in the community
who's on that list.
Why?
Because any place where you have unfettered access
to children, it's gonna attract predators to that.
Any situation where people just have unfettered access,
you think about priests, you know,
people in religious positions,
often this happens to law enforcement, school teachers,
stuff like this, where people just have access
to your children, that is a recipe for disaster.
That's an evil that you can foresee,
and if you're prudent, you can hide yourself from that.
Because you're saying, oh yeah,
but it's still a low risk of it happening.
Yeah, but if it happens, was it worth it?
Because if that happens to your child,
that is a scar that sadly never goes away.
That is something that is so damaging to the soul
that sometimes people are never the same
after it happens, ever.
And of course there's grace
and God can help us through any trial,
but just the reality of it is that a lot of people
don't come back from that kind of abuse.
A lot of times they grow up
and they hate the Lord themselves,
they turn into the same type of predator themselves,
and that's not something
that I am willing to risk with my children.
And no one should be willing to risk that with our child.
There is 0% risk of anything
that I would be willing to give my children up to that for.
Nothing, nothing would be worth that horrible thing.
And that's one of the reasons why even in church,
why our church is a family integrated church,
because we wanna have 0% possibility
of anyone having unfettered access to children.
You know, a nursery where employees are in there
by themselves with children.
You know, a kid's Sunday school, nothing like that.
We don't have that at this church.
Why?
Because we don't even want to make provision
for some predator to creep into this church
and to hurt people's children.
And you know, if you come to a family integrated church
and you think you're protecting your kids,
but then Monday through Friday you drop them off
at public school, you're fooling yourself.
Because that is a big danger
that you are allowing your children to go through.
What's another physical thing you're protecting them from?
You know, how about school shootings?
And I realize that school shootings
aren't just an absolute epidemic.
And I realize that they're just not happening
every day in our country.
But I'll remind you, the Bible does say
in 2 Timothy 3.1, this know also that in the last days,
perilous times shall come.
So in the last days, there is gonna be dangerous times
and there is gonna be an explosion
of people that have no conscience
to where it's like nothing to them
to go up and shoot a school up.
These atheists, these haters of God,
these people that are just nihilistic and give up on life,
you really want your child to be the one
that has to go through something like that?
Or even surviving through something like that is horrific.
You know, one time I was out soul winning
and I knocked the door of someone who at least claimed
to be a survivor of the Columbine shooting.
And this person was about the right age
to where I could say, okay, this is plausible
that this person is telling me the truth.
But did this person want to have anything to do with God?
Nope.
Did this person want to hear the gospel?
Nope.
And she said that she was just so horrified
that God would ever allow something like that
to happen in her school.
And you know, it is a sad thing,
but I'm not gonna risk my kids getting shot up at a school.
I'm not gonna risk it.
You know, and like I said,
we can never fully avoid our children getting hurt
or ourselves getting hurt.
But if there's a danger that we can foresee
and we could remove ourselves from that,
that's called being prudent.
And when you educate your children at home,
you're protecting them physically.
Not only that, it protects them from wicked
and ungodly influences, not only physically,
but just influences on their lives.
Go to Proverbs chapter number four,
Proverbs chapter number four,
and we'll be staying in Proverbs a lot
through this sermon tonight.
Proverbs 4:11, it says,
"I have taught thee the way of wisdom.
"I have led thee in right paths."
So Solomon is talking to his children
and he's imploring them.
He's saying, "Look, I've led you in the right way.
"I want you to follow the wisdom that I have taught you."
Verse 12, "When thou goest thy steps shall not be straightened.
"When thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.
"Take fast hold of instruction.
"Let her not go, keep her for she is thy life."
And then he contrasts what he's been saying with this.
"Enter not into the path of the wicked
"and go not in the way of evil men."
So he's drawn two paths for his children right now.
He's saying, "Hey, here's the way I've been teaching you,
"wisdom, instruction, hold fast on what I've been telling you.
"But here's this other path, the path of the wicked."
And it says, "Enter not into that path."
Verse 15, "Avoid it, pass not by it,
"turn from it and pass away."
So the Bible's saying, "Look, when you see a path
"that's full of wicked people,
"the path that all of the wicked are going down,
"you should avoid that path.
"You should not pass by that path."
And so what do we see today?
Well, we see a path of homeschooling kids
where you can teach them the word of God,
where you can give them a good chance of being saved
and loving the Lord, where you can protect them
from being a victim of some predator,
where you can protect them from being a victim
of some school shooting.
And here's this other path called public school.
And it's the path that all of the wicked
are running down today.
It's the path where kids are gonna go get taught
that this whole universe was created by a big bang
that came from nothing.
That's the path, that's the alternative
to you teaching them the word of God.
The path that's the alternative to you teaching them
the word of God is them believing
that we evolved from monkeys who evolved from rocks.
And that is what most people sadly believe today
in our country as a result of the public school
that we literally evolved from monkeys and rocks.
They're gonna be taught humanism,
the religion of human achievement,
of lifting yourself up and only doing
what's important for you.
They're gonna be taught feminism.
Is that something you want your daughters being taught?
They're gonna be taught anti-God values.
They're gonna be taught that fornication is fine
as long as it's safe, they say, which is not safe.
They're gonna teach you that math is racist, literally.
They're gonna teach you the critical race theory
that all white people are inherently racist
and basically they're just creating a generation
of racist people by just getting them to fight
against each other and to obsess over color.
That is the two paths that are drawn before you today.
And you know, if Solomon was here,
I think he'd be imploring us to go with the path of wisdom
rather than following down this path
of where all the wicked are going.
Avoid it, pass not by it.
It's not worth it for our kids.
Says in verse 16, for they sleep not
except they have done mischief.
Remember that word mischief.
And their sleep is taken away
unless they cause some to fall
for they eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.
You see, the Bible gives us
the uncensored truth about reality.
The Bible teaches us that there's actually people
who cannot even sleep until they have conspired
on how to harm people,
on how to perform mischief to people's lives.
And you say, oh mischief,
that's just a word for someone who's just, you know,
a little mischievous.
They just like to get into a little trouble.
Well, the Bible actually defines what this word means.
I'll read for you in Proverbs 24, eight.
It says, "He that diviseth to do evil shall be called a mischievous person."
See, mischief in the Bible is not how it's used in our modern vernacular.
Oh, little Johnny's, little mischievous, he took a cookie today.
No, mischief is someone that devises, that plans, that plots, that conspires to do evil.
And the Bible says that there's people in this wicked path where they can't even sleep
except they've done mischief.
Is that where you want to be sending your kids?
To a bunch of people where the devil has inserted people that want to plan mischief for your
children and teach them all of this filth.
It's not worth it.
If we love our kids, we'll teach them ourselves if it's at any way possible.
Teach them yourself.
Number two, how can we love our children more?
By disciplining our children.
You could love your children more by disciplining your children.
I want to read for you another article.
This is from May of 2021 this year.
Some of you may have heard about this.
It says, "A Florida elementary school principal is under investigation for whacking a six-year-old
girl with a paddle in a shocking incident that was captured on video by the student's
mother, according to a local report."
It is actually shocking how a principal spanked a kid.
That is pretty shocking.
That doesn't really happen in our nation anymore, but it's not shocking in the way that this
news article is saying that it's shocking.
It says, "Melissa Carter, head of Central Elementary School in Clewiston, was filmed
bending the child over and hitting her several times with a wooden paddle."
Oh, that's horrible.
Local outlet W.I.N.K. TV reported, "The hatred with which she hit my daughter, I mean it
was a hatred.
Really, I'd never hit my daughter like she hit her," the girl's mother told the TV station
in Spanish.
"I had never hit her."
The mom, who wasn't named in the report, said that she was called by the school on April
13th because her daughter had apparently caused $50 worth of damage to a computer.
She went to the school to pay the fee, but when she was sent to the principal's office
where she found her child was with Mrs. Carter at a school desk, according to the report,
then the principal started to scream, the tearful mom said.
She looked around and got nervous after noticing a lack of surveillance cameras.
"What are we doing in this place?
My daughter and I alone," the mother said, she wondered.
So she hid her phone in her purse and decided to record the brutal punishment, fearing that
authorities would not believe her otherwise.
"Nobody would have believed me," the mom told the outlet.
"I sacrificed my daughter so all parents can realize what's happening in this school."
She took her daughter to a doctor later that day to document the red marks caused by the
paddle.
"I'm going to get justice for my daughter because if I could not do it in front of her,
I'm going to do it with justice."
The Clauston Police Department and Department of Children and Families confirmed to the outlet
that they are investigating the incident.
The state attorney's office is now deciding whether to bring criminal charges against
Ms. Carter and the clerk, according to Brett Provinski, the lawyer for the family.
The lawyer said, "That's aggravated battery," a lawyer who works with undocumented immigrants.
"They're using a weapon that can cause severe physical harm."
So the wooden paddle was the weapon.
The child is terrified.
She feels vulnerable.
There's nothing she could do in the hands of these adults who treat her so brutally,
so savagely, and so sadistically.
It says the Hendry County School District does not allow corporal punishment, the report
added.
So later on, basically what ended up happening, the police investigated this, that CPS of Florida
investigated it, and this principal is actually cleared of all wrongdoing.
It's not illegal in the state of Florida to do what she did.
It's not barbaric.
It's not sadistic.
It wasn't a murder weapon that she was using on this child.
Now, at the same time, I can kind of understand why this mom is a little upset because I wouldn't
want some other adult spanking my kids unless it's like my parents, you know, or my wife's
parents, something like that.
But here's the thing.
None of this would have happened if she was homeschooling her kids.
Her kid wouldn't have been spanked by the principal, number one, if she would have been
homeschooling her children.
And number two, this article shows what a warped mentality of discipline that our nation
has, to where if a principal bends over a child and spanks him with a wooden paddle,
it's like, you know, get the crime report shows on.
It's a brutal murder weapon.
It's sadistic.
It's savage.
It's like, no, that's not sadistic and savage.
I think abortion is sadistic and savage, not spanking your child.
That's what the Bible says to do.
It's like, oh, you know, it was only $50 of damage.
Does a child deserve to get spanked over $50 of damage to a computer?
Well, not necessarily.
Maybe if it was an accident, maybe not.
But we don't know the details of this story.
We don't know if the principal was saying, hey, stop standing on the computers, hey,
stop dancing on the computers, hey, stop spilling water over the computers.
We don't know what the situation of this story is.
Maybe it did warrant a spanking.
And obviously, if this mother loved her child, she would have disciplined, she would have
administered the spanking herself, not the principal.
So it's kind of a weird story, but it kind of illustrates the state of our nation and
how people perceive spanking your kids.
Now let's go to Proverbs chapter number 13, Proverbs chapter number 13.
Let's see what the Bible says on this subject.
Proverbs 13 verse 24, it says, "He that spareth his rod."
So the person that's not using the rod, the person that's not spanking their kids, "He
that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes."
Now I think a lot of people balk at this verse, maybe parents who don't practice spanking,
or you know, probably definitely the world would balk at this verse and say, "How do
I hate my child by not spanking them?"
And I don't think that what this verse is saying is that you're feeling the emotion
of hatred.
I don't think it's saying that by you not spanking your child, you're feeling an emotion
of hatred toward your kid.
You're just like, "I hate my kid.
I hate my son."
I think what this is saying is that your inaction is hateful.
The fact that you're not administering the punishment that the child deserves and needs
to be corrected, that is what's hateful.
It's not that you're feeling an emotion of hatred, because people will be like, "Well,
that's not true, because I don't spank my kids and I love my kids."
And what they're saying is like, "I have feelings of love toward my kid," okay?
But their action, or rather their inaction is hateful according to the Bible.
Now, why is it hateful?
Because here's the thing, if children do not fear their parents, if children do not fear
authority, if they do not fear other adults, what do you think the chances are that they're
going to fear God?
I mean, if they can't even fear mom and dad, if they can't even fear other adults telling
them, "Hey, stop drawing crayons all over the church.
Knock it off.
Stop hitting people.
Stop throwing toys at other kids' heads."
If they can't even fear that, what makes you think they're going to fear God if you're
not administering that punishment?
Go to Ephesians chapter number six.
Ephesians chapter number six.
Ephesians chapter six, look at verse one.
It says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it
may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth."
You see, for children, parents are like a representation of God in their life.
They present all the discipline, they present all the love, they present all of their physical
needs, they present all sorts of things that God presents for us, right?
And so, God set that up for a reason, because God wants to teach children to fear authority,
to fear their mother and father, to obey their mother and father.
Why?
So that you can grow up and do the same with the Lord.
Because people that don't fear authority as a child will grow up and despise authority
when they're older, and that includes God Himself.
I'll read for you, actually go ahead and turn there, Hebrews chapter 12, Hebrews chapter
12.
And also that verse says that you'll live a long life if you obey your parents.
So by forcing our children to obey their parents by disciplining them, we're literally prolonging
their lives.
Literally is what the Bible teaches.
Hebrews 12, look at verse 5, it says, "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh
unto you as unto children.
My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked
of Him."
He's saying, "My son, don't despise the fact that God's chastening you.
Don't get weary of it."
Now, in order to faint or get weary of something, doesn't that something have to exist?
It's like, hey, don't get weary of being told that you're wrong.
Don't get weary of being corrected.
It tells us that God is doing that to us, right?
And so God, as the good Father that He is, He is giving us instruction and reproof and
correction.
Look at verse number 6.
It says, "For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."
So just like in Proverbs, we just read, "He that spareth the rod hateth his son."
But God, who loves His children, who is a perfect Father, what does He do?
"For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."
So just like God, because He loves us, He spanks us in a sense on this earth.
He gives us chastisement and punishment.
We should do the same to our children if we love them.
Hey, how do we love our children more?
By spanking them, by disciplining them.
That is an act of love.
Now how does God do that for us?
A lot of times, God does it to us just by conviction.
Just by conviction of the Holy Spirit smiting our hearts
for something that we've done wrong.
Sometimes it's a lot more severe.
Sometimes it's situations in our life
that we can point to and say,
here's this sin I committed,
and here's this really horrible thing that happened.
Sometimes that is the chastisement of God.
Sometimes it's a trial and it's a tribulation.
And you know, you have to judge yourself,
examine yourself to figure out which of those two it is.
But the point is though that God does discipline us.
And why does he do it?
Because he loves us.
A loving father disciplines their children.
Look at verse six.
For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Verse seven.
If ye endure chastening,
God dealeth with you as with sons.
For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
He's saying, look, if God's chastening you,
if you're enduring this chastening,
God's dealing with you like a son.
It's like a father and a son here.
Because he's saying, what son is it
whom the father chasteneth not?
He's like, if you're not even chastised by your dad,
if you're not even spanked by your dad,
he's treating you like you're not even his son.
And so if you don't spank your child,
you're treating them like you don't even love them.
If you don't give them the discipline that they need,
you're basically saying to your child,
I don't love you enough to give you what you need
to make you better.
Because every time God corrects us,
it's what we need and it makes us better people.
If we didn't have chastisement,
none of us would be serving the Lord.
'Cause we need to be chastised to be kept in line.
Just like children need chastisement.
Verse eight, "But if ye be without chastisement,
"whereof all are partakers,
"then are ye bastards and not sons."
He's saying, "Look, if God isn't spanking you,
"then you're not his son."
Now, sadly in our world,
someone could be someone's son and not get spanked.
Why is that?
Well, it's not because they're not their son,
it's just 'cause their dad doesn't love them.
That's why.
If I looked at a kid who's not being spanked at all
by their father, I'd be like,
"You're treating him like a bastard.
"You're treating him like he's not even your son."
Because we don't go around spanking each other's kids.
We only do that to our own children.
And if you do that, there's something wrong with you,
and you should probably talk to Pastor Shelley about that.
It says, verse look at number 10.
It says, "For they verily for a few days
"chastened us after their own pleasure,
"but he for our profit,
"that we might be partakers of his holiness."
So we see that chastisement being corrected,
it yields two things.
In verse number nine, it says that
when our fathers corrected us, we gave them reverence.
So that correction, that discipline,
what did it yield for us?
Respect for our father, reverence for our father.
But not only that, in verse 10,
it says that God disciplines us for our profit,
that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.
Nevertheless, afterward,
it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness
unto them which are exercised thereby.
So what are the two things that discipline begets in a child?
Well, number one, it gives them reverence,
it gives them respect,
and also it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
It makes them righteous.
It corrects them on what they've done wrong
and teaches them how to do it right.
Correction gives us respect and righteousness.
And the Bible says there that it's grievous.
You know, no chasing for the present is joyous but grievous.
And I would say that that's for both parties involved.
It's not fun to spank a child and it's not fun being spanked.
I was spanked as a child and I thank God for it,
but neither of it's fun.
It's like, I don't enjoy it when I'm eating my dinner
and one of my babies just takes the bowl
and just goes, just shakes all the food.
I'm just like, I would rather just eat my dinner
than get up and spank you.
You know, this is grievous to me, but I have to do it
because it's gonna yield the peaceable fruit
of you not throwing food all over my floor
for the rest of your life.
And of course my kids are very young
and so the training process will take a long time,
but if they just look at me and it's just like,
it's like, you're getting spanked, period.
This is not a negotiation.
It's like, it's grievous to me
'cause now I have to stop eating and get up,
but it's gonna yield reverence
and it's gonna yield righteousness in our children.
That is what we should be doing for our kids.
Back to Proverbs, back to Proverbs.
It says, go to Proverbs 23.
I'll read for you again, Proverbs 13, 24.
It says, "He that spareth his rod, hateth his son,
but he that loveth him, chasteneth him, be times."
Now, be times just means early.
The Bible says if you love your son,
you're not gonna spare your rod
and you're gonna chasten them early.
Don't buy into this weird idea
that you should start spanking your kids
at like five years old, at like two years old.
That is too late to start spanking your kids.
You need to start spanking your kids early,
like the Bible says.
Now, it's up for your family
to decide exactly what age that is.
I have my opinion about it.
I'm not gonna preach my opinion,
but what the Bible does say is chasten him betimes,
meaning early.
And five years old is not early,
and two years old is definitely not early either.
So you could just come up with your own age for that.
But basically the Bible's saying,
"Hey, spank them young, correct them young."
Kids are a lot smarter than you think,
and they can learn a lot more
than you think they can at their age.
You're there in Proverbs 23, 13.
It says, "withhold not correction from the child,
"for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die."
Okay, I was wondering why I was going to this verse.
A lot of people say, "Well, the rod isn't physical.
"It's not a literal rod, it's just figurative.
"It's just talking about correction in general."
So a lot of Christians that don't like
the doctrine of spanking, they'll say,
"All those verses about the rod,
"if you spare the rod, you hate your son."
That's just saying discipline in general.
But let's just read this verse again.
It says, "withhold not correction from the child,
"for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die."
You're not beating him with correction.
You're beating him with the rod.
"Thou shalt beat him with the rod
"and shall deliver his soul from hell."
Now I think why a lot of people try to like
put this interpretation into the Bible
is because when I hear rod, here's what I think of.
I think of like a stick of rebar when I hear rod.
'Cause I worked in rebar fabrication for a couple years,
so I'm thinking like rods of rebar.
But that is not the only thing that a rod means, okay?
According to the dictionary,
a rod is a stick, wand, staff, of the like,
of wood, metal, or other material.
A straight, slender shoot or stem of any woody plant,
whether still growing or cut from the plant.
So you know what a rod could be?
A spoon, that could be a rod.
According to the dictionary definition,
a rod could be a spatula.
A rod can be, you know, something like this,
but a rod doesn't have to be, you know,
a bar of metal that you fabricate in a rebar shop, okay?
I think a lot of people, you know, balk at the Bible
when they say, "Oh, beat 'em with the rod."
It's like, it's a spoon, man.
It's okay, it's a spoon.
We're not talking about literally beating kids
with metal rods.
If you do that, also please talk to Pastor Shelley.
That's, and the police as well also.
And obviously, it's never okay to injure a child.
People accuse us, "Oh, if you spank your kids,
"you're abusing your child."
It is never okay to injure your child.
It's never okay to abuse your child.
That's why God gave you a nice padded area
for children to receive spankings for
because it's gonna hurt,
it's gonna inflict the punishment they need,
but it's never, ever, ever gonna injure them.
If a child's ever injured from a spanking,
then that's wrong.
We should never do that.
Go to Proverbs, let's see here.
I might have gone the wrong way here.
Go to Proverbs chapter number 22.
Proverbs chapter number 22.
It says in verse 15,
"Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child,
"but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him."
Why is it loving to spank your kids?
Because your child and my children,
all that's bound in their heart is foolishness.
And if you love them,
you'll want them to grow up and continue to be fools.
You wanna drive that foolishness out of them.
And how is it done?
By the rod of correction.
By spankings is how you drive that foolishness out.
Proverbs 17, 10, it says,
"A reproof entereth more into a wise man
"than a hundred stripes into a fool."
So imagine this, we know that in the heart of a child,
there's nothing but foolishness.
We have to drive that foolishness out
with a rod of correction.
But hopefully the goal with that is so that
our children can rise up and be adults
that can be chastened by a reproof, by a word.
A word can hopefully correct them
because the Bible says that a reproof
entereth more into a wise man,
someone who's had the foolishness driven out of their heart,
more than a hundred stripes into a fool.
So I'd rather get as much foolishness
out of my children while they're young
so that they don't have to get the stripes
when they get older.
Because this world will discipline your children
if you don't.
This world will discipline my children if I don't.
You know, a lot of times it's through the police.
The police give them that reproof, you know,
put your hands up, get on the ground, you know,
obey my order.
And since you didn't discipline them,
since they fear no authority,
since that foolishness is still in their heart,
they can't accept that reproof verbally,
they have to get taught with the stripes.
The police has to teach them some respect
or their boss has to teach them some respect
by firing them and they get fired job after job
after job after job because all that foolishness
is still in their heart and they can't be reproofed.
And so if you love your child,
you wanna get that foolishness out of their heart
when they're young so that this world
doesn't have to teach them the hard way.
Because people say, oh, it's so brutal,
it's so unloving to spank your kids.
No, what's brutal is letting them have the world
spank them when they're older.
Having the world teach them the hard way
'cause the world doesn't love your children
like you love them.
The world's not gonna love my children like I love them.
And so we are the best people suited to teach our children
and to discipline our children.
Proverbs 29, 15, the Bible says,
"The rod and reproof gives wisdom,
"but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame."
So of course we have to balance all this,
talk about disciplining and spanking our kids.
We have to balance it with the rod
and reproof gives wisdom.
We shouldn't just be only disciplining our kids
by spanking them, we should also be reproving them
and explaining to them what they did wrong.
That's what my parents did for me
and that's what we should do for our children.
We shouldn't only just spank them and not tell them
what they did wrong, also reproof them.
Teach them verbally and with the rod.
Now, think about it, God does that to us too.
God doesn't just punish us and us be completely clueless why.
He gives us lots of reproof.
There's lots of learning.
He has a lot of explanation for us
of why we get the beatings that we do sometimes
and we should be long suffering like that
toward our children and this is why spanking
is such a better method of punishment
than like screaming at your kids.
You know, a lot of parents, their method of punishment
is just screaming at their kids, screaming at their kids,
screaming at their kids, but if you spank your child
and reprove your child, it's done.
They could just immediately have
a restored relationship with you.
Whenever I spank my kids, it is literally seconds
before they're coming up to me, hugging me, kissing me,
telling me that they love me and that's what happens
when you discipline biblically.
It's a very short time of pain, it's a very short reprove
and then it's back to normal.
Just like how God is with us, very long suffering with us.
So lastly, tonight, how are some ways
that we can love our children more?
Go back to Ephesians chapter six
and also keep your finger in first Samuel chapter eight,
Ephesians six and first Samuel eight.
So number one, educate your children yourself.
Number two, discipline your children.
Number three, nurture and spend time with your children.
Nurture and spend time with your children.
This is also a very important aspect
of how we can have more love for our kids,
how we can show more love to our children.
I think people often miss this point
because they missed point number two.
Because they didn't discipline their kids,
now they don't wanna spend time or nurture their kids
because their kids are so terrible to be around.
It's not that their kids are terrible,
it's that you were terrible for not disciplining them.
And so now you don't wanna spend time with them,
now you don't wanna nurture them,
and now that's gonna cause even more problems to the child.
I believe that with a perfect balance of discipline
and nurture, that children will have everything
that they need.
They will have love from mom and dad.
Ephesians chapter six, look at verse four,
it says, "Any fathers, provoke not your children to wrath,
but bring them up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord."
Now, the definition of nurture is to feed and protect.
So of course, that's one aspect of being a father
or being a mother, right?
Feeding, taking care of your children's physical needs,
protecting them, that's for the father.
And it says, "To nurture one's offspring,
to support and encourage as during the period of training
or development or to foster something in someone."
So to nurture someone is not just to feed and protect them,
but it's also to support them.
It's also to encourage them.
See, us as parents, we shouldn't just be
only disciplinarians.
We shouldn't be like a drill instructor
where it's just barking commands and handing out discipline,
but also it has to be balanced with genuine nurture
and care for your kids.
Spending time with them, encouraging them,
giving them positivity, not only negativity,
telling them that they do a good job about certain things,
telling them that you make them proud,
telling them that you love them,
telling them that you want to spend time with them,
telling them that you are glad you're their mom or dad.
That's nurturing your children, not just neglecting them,
not just not spending time with them.
God gave them to you as a gift.
You shouldn't just neglect that gift.
You shouldn't just leave the gift to be by himself.
The Bible says the child left to himself
bringeth his mother to shame.
Don't leave them to themselves.
You know, I thank God that my parents
had a really good balance of this.
That my parents always made time for me.
They always spent time with me.
They went out of their way to make sure
that I played in every possible baseball tournament
that was existent.
And of course, my parents weren't perfect.
I didn't grow up going to church.
I didn't grow up in any type of church.
And so obviously that would have been ideal
if they were doing that.
But at least they showed me that they loved me.
They made sacrifices for me.
And I am very thankful for that.
My thing was baseball.
And guess what?
They did everything they could
to make sure I could play baseball.
And that is love.
To be there for your children, to encourage them.
And that's how we should be with our kids.
And hopefully you're not doing everything you can
to make sure you're playing in all the sports leagues.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with sports leagues.
Hopefully you're making sure that the priority is church,
priority is soul winning, the priority is prayer,
the priority is reading the Bible,
but encourage them in that.
Spend time with them serving the Lord together,
not just only by yourself.
And sometimes it's especially common for men
to absorb themselves with their work
and neglect their families.
And I have to be careful of this
'cause I kind of have that personality.
Like my first year of marriage,
I was working like 12 to 16 hours a day,
six days a week for like a year
when I was doing that rebar fabrication job.
And I don't recommend that for your first year of marriage.
I don't recommend that to anyone.
And I don't recommend that as a permanent lifestyle
for raising your children either.
I said to go to 1 Samuel, let me get there myself,
1 Samuel chapter number eight.
I believe Samuel is an example of a godly man
whose kids turned out bad.
And I believe I know why,
but let's look at 1 Samuel 8 verse one.
It says, "And it came to pass when Samuel was old
that he made his sons judges over Israel.
Now the name of his firstborn was Joel,
and the name of his second, Abiah,
they were judges in Beersheba.
And his sons walked not in his ways,
but turned aside after Luka and took bribes
and perverted judgment."
So Samuel was a great man of God.
Samuel did follow the Lord.
He was a man of God to be feared.
He's a great prophet and a great judge,
but notice his sons didn't walk in his ways.
His sons were people that perverted judgment.
His sons were those that would do wickedly.
And you think, why?
It actually is a pretty common thing in the Bible
for really good men to have bad sons.
And look at 1 Samuel chapter seven,
back in the last chapter, 1 Samuel chapter seven,
and look at verse 15, it says,
"And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.
And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel,
and Gilgal, and Mizpah,
and judged Israel in all those places."
And so the Bible doesn't necessarily say
whether or not he had his family with him or not,
but Samuel was a guy that worked really, really, really hard.
He worked a lot of hours.
He's doing a circuit from year to year in Israel,
going to all these places, judging them.
As a judge of a nation,
you have to think that's a lot of responsibility.
It's probably a huge, huge workload.
And this is just my speculation,
but I wonder if Samuel was able to spend the type of time
that he needed to with his children.
Was he able to nurture them?
Was he able to encourage them?
Was he able to show them love?
Was he able to teach them?
Was he able to give them all of God's commandments?
Was he able to discipline them like he should?
My speculation is probably not because of this circuit.
And a lot of times, unfortunately,
you see people even in the ministry
who are great men of God whose children turn out bad.
And sometimes it's probably just because of that workload.
So us as men, we have to be very careful
no matter what your job is,
no matter what sector of work you're in.
It's not worth trading your children for a paycheck.
No matter how great your career is,
no matter how great your position in ministry is.
You know, even a pastor,
if a pastor is doing the work of God
at the expense of his family serving God,
then that's not a good equation.
You could just serve God together in a different position
where you're able to have your family thrive.
It's not worth giving up your family for any reason.
It's not worth it at all.
I'll read for you 1 Timothy 5.
This is also temptation for ladies
to not be able to nurture
and spend the time with kids that they need.
It says in 1 Timothy 5 verse 13,
and with all they learn to be idle,
wandering about from house to house,
and not only idle, but tattlers also in busy bodies,
speaking things which they ought not.
I will therefore that the younger women marry,
bear children, guide the house,
give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully,
for some are already turned aside after Satan.
So it's God's will for ladies to be married, to bear children, to guide the house, because
that's a lot of work to keep them occupied, so that they don't end up being like these
busy bodies, like these tattler women that are going about house to house.
They're not working in what God has wanted them to do.
So God wants ladies to focus their time on their marriage, on their children, and on
their house.
But even some married ladies who have a house to take care of, who have a family to take
care of, we have children to take care of, often do not nurture the children the way
that they should because they're spending their time on Facebook all day long, or they're
spending their time watching TV all day long, or they're spending their time on Instagram
all day long.
And I would just warn you that it's not only something men can fall into, mothers also
need to be present and to nurture and love their children.
Both mother and father should teach their children, both mother and father should discipline
their children, both mother and father should also nurture their children.
Both parents have to make sure that they're keeping a good balance in their work lives
and in the responsibilities that God has given them and also giving their children the time
that they need to thrive.
And so in conclusion here, you know, every single person in here, I'm sure if I asked
you, do you want to love your child more?
Every single person would say yes, but how do we do that?
Number one, by educating our children ourselves and if you're in a situation where your kids
have to be public schooled, you can at least educate them in the word of God.
You can at least spend every single night teaching them something from the Bible, reading the
Bible as a family, praying as a family.
You can do that whether your kids are public schooled or not, but of course the ideal situation,
what God's will is, is for you to teach your children all things spiritually and carnally.
Number two, how can we love our children more?
By disciplining our children.
And I think every single person, probably including myself, needs to discipline our
kids more, not less.
Because our society is going way off on the other direction on this issue to almost no
discipline at all.
And even some Christians, you know, are infected by that mentality.
I've seen some people give spankings to their kids and it's literally like this, like literally
like that.
And they think that they're giving their kid a spanking and their kid is just laughing
at them or their kid is screaming not because it hurts, but because they're throwing a fit.
You know, that is not disciplining your children.
You need to actually be giving them the rod of correction.
Number three, how we love our children more?
By nurturing and spending time with our children.
That verse we'll go to is in Proverbs chapter number 23.
Proverbs chapter number 23.
Why talk about all these things?
Why do all these things?
Why strive to love our children more?
Here's why.
Proverbs chapter number 23 verse 24, it says, "The father of the righteous shall greatly
rejoice, and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.
Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bear thee shall rejoice.
My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways."
I know that every single person in here wants to be the glad father and the glad mother
that has a wise and righteous child.
No one wants to be sorrowful about the way that their kid turns out.
And also, I love verse 26 where it says, "My son, give me thine heart."
I would also be willing to bet that every single person in here wants to have their
kid's hearts so that when they grow up and they're adults, you can still have some sort
of influence over them because they love you and they respect you.
And how do you do that?
You do that by following what the Bible has taught us with these three points.
You know, I want my kids to grow up and whether they're married and whether they're working,
whether they're in my house or out of my house, to love me, to respect me, to be where if
I did have to come in and offer something, some advice into their lives that they would
respect it, that they would want to hear it.
Not just completely blow me off because, you know, dad didn't love me, dad didn't spend
any time with me, why would I listen to what he has to say, you know, dad didn't love
me enough to correct me, dad didn't love me enough to teach me the Bible.
No, I want my sons and my daughters and all of our sons and our daughters for their parents
to have their heart.
That's something that's very important and we do it by harkening unto the word of God.
And with that, let's have a word of prayer.
Lord, thank you so much for this day and thank you for every single child in this church
and that will be born into this church, Lord.
We know that it is a precious gift and blessing from you.
I pray that we would all safeguard that blessing you've given us, help us to be good stewards
of these precious children, help us to love them and to be great parents for them, Lord.
And I just pray that you'd give us all the grace and mercy that each and every parent
in here needs in order to do it right.
We couldn't do it without your honor, without your word, without your instruction.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.