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

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, as becometh 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 going to argue with me that this does not also apply to men? Is anyone going to 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 2 Timothy chapter number three. 2 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, truce 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 whither ye 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 sons' 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 going to follow this commandment then? How are they going to 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 ye 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 want to 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. You know, 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 any time 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 going to get done? How is our children going to grow up and love the Lord their God with all of their soul, their heart, and their might? Is it going to be by what they're taught in the public school? Absolutely not. The way that it's done is by verse six. And 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 going to grow up and love the Lord their God with all their heart, mind, soul, strength? It's by you teaching them. It's not going to happen by osmosis. My children are not going to grow up and love God by osmosis. I'm going to 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 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 going to be done overnight. And it's not going to be something that's going to be done by anyone else other than you, the person that loves them the most. And you know, you're not going to get this from the public school, and sadly, you're not even going to get this from a lot of Christian schools, unfortunately. You would think, okay, well, you know, I can't homeschool for whatever reason, and I don't want to put them in public school, so I'll just put them 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. Look at 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 going to say, we ought to obey God rather than men. But notice what they say in verse 20 says, we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. And 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 going to grow up and they're not going to 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, you know, leftists 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, you know, programming, I said programming into your kids, brainwashing your kids with the word of God. You got to 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 going to grow up and not be able to help but speak the things that they've seen and heard. That's why the world also has 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 going to come out of that heart. If you're going to put a bunch of evil in your heart, evil is going to 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 sewn 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 going to 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 abundance 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. Like I've heard stories of children in our movement, in the new IP 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 right in front of him? Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh is like, whoa, 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 abundance 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 abundance 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 6 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. In 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 they're delighting in the law of the Lord, then they're going to succeed in life. That is what the Bible promises, you know, so we got to teach it to them 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 going to 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. 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 it's, you know, 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 four, verse six, it says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because thou'st 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 six, where it's 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, and 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 every one 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 hideth 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, let'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 compassion 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 want to read for you this article. This article is from 2017. It says, Who is more likely to abuse your child, a sex offender or their teacher? And 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're saying here's some headlines in the United States just from this week. And I'm not going to 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, you know, 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 3 million have experienced inappropriate touching or assault. It says in 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 .4 million private school teachers in the US, less than one-fourth as many of the registered sex offenders in the US. 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, you know, 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 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 is going to 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 zero percent 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 want to have zero percent 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 going to be dangerous times. And there is going to 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, OK, 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 going to risk my kids getting shot up at a school. I'm not going to 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 can 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 four eleven, 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 going to 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 going to be taught humanism, the religion of human achievement, of lifting yourself up and only doing what's important for you. They're going to be taught feminism. Is that something you want your daughters being taught? They're going to be taught anti-God values. They're going to be taught that fornication is fine as long as it's safe, they say, which is not safe. They're going to teach you that math is racist, literally. They're going to 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 8. It says, he that deviseth 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 a 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. 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, it's horrible. Local outlet WINK-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 Clewiston 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 Mrs. Carter and the clerk, according to Brett Pravinsky, 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 is 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 principle is actually cleared of all wrongdoing. It's not illegal in the state of Florida to do what she did. You know, 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 adults thanking 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 would 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 them with a wooden paddle, it's like, you know, get the crime, you know, 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 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 kids. 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. So 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's 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? Well, 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. 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 6. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Verse 7. 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. 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. Because we need to be chastised to be kept in line. Just like children need chastisement. Verse 8. But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you 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 because 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, right? 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 heed 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 9, 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 yielded 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 yielded 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. No chastening 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. This is grievous to me. But I have to do it, because it's going to 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, because now I have to stop eating and get up. But it's going to yield reverence, and it's going to yield righteousness in our children. That is what we should be doing for our kids. Back to Proverbs. Back to Proverbs. It says, you 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 betimes. Now betimes just means early. So the Bible says if you love your son, you're not going to spare your rod, and you're going to chasten them early. Don't buy into this weird idea that you shouldn't start spanking, 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 going to 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 come up with your own age for that. But basically the Bible is 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, you know, 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, because 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, chute, 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 him 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 going to hurt, it's going to inflict the punishment they need, but it's never, ever, ever going to 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 want to 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 the 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 want to 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 because the world doesn't love your children like you love them. The world's not going to 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. You shouldn't only just spank them and not tell them what they did wrong. Also reprove 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 you know, we should be long suffering like that toward our children. And you know, 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 is it's a very short time of pain. It's a very short reproof 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 6 and also keep your finger in 1 Samuel chapter 8. Ephesians 6 and 1 Samuel 8. 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 want to 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 want to spend time with them. Now you don't want to nurture them. And now that's going to 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 6, look at verse 4, it says, And he 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, you know, 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. You know, 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 brings 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, you know, that was existent. And of course, you know, 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've been ideal if they were doing that. But, you know, at least they showed me that they love 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 this is especially common for men to absorb themselves with their work and neglect their families. And I have to be careful of this because 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 First Samuel. Let me get there myself. First Samuel chapter number eight. I believe, you know, Samuel is an example of a godly man whose kids turned out bad. And I believe I know why, but let's look at First Samuel eight 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 Lucre 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 First Samuel chapter seven. Back in the last chapter, First 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 a 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 busybodies, 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, who 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, 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 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. 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. Last 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 kids' 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. I want my kids to grow up, whether they're married, 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 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.