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["Pomp and Circumstance"] O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? ["Take the Name of Jesus with You"] Take the name of Jesus with you, child of sorrow and of all. It will joy and comfort in you, take it then where you go. Precious name, oh how sweet, hope of earth and joy of heaven. Precious name, oh how sweet, hope of earth and joy of heaven. Take the name of Jesus ever, as a shield from every skin. In temptations bound together, breathe that holy name in prayer. Precious name, oh how sweet, hope of earth and joy of heaven. Precious name, oh how sweet, hope of earth and joy of heaven. O the precious name of Jesus, how it fills our souls with joy. When His loving arms receive us and His songs our songs employ. Precious name, oh how sweet, hope of earth and joy of heaven. Precious name, oh how sweet, hope of earth and joy of heaven. At the name of Jesus, bowing, falling, prostrate at His feet. King of kings and heaven will round here when our journey is complete. Precious name, oh how sweet, hope of earth and joy of heaven. Precious name, oh how sweet, hope of earth and joy of heaven. Chapter 3. This is a true saying. If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop, then, must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest, being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given too much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For they that have used the office of a deacon well, purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Man, the part of the chapter that I'd like to focus on is in verse 15 there, where the Bible reads, But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. The title of my sermon tonight is behaving in the house of God, behaving in the house of God. The Bible says that we should know how to behave ourselves in the house of God. And the word behave is often associated with children. You tell children to behave. And a lot of this sermon tonight is going to be directed at children and at parents of children on getting their children to behave properly in the house of God. The Bible also tells us in First Corinthians 14, 40, Let all things be done decently and in order. God is a God of order, not a God of just chaos and wildness and savagery. God wants us to have control over our spirit, control over ourselves, and also to have our family and our children in subjection with all gravity, the Bible said in this very chapter when it talked about the pastor and the deacons, etcetera. So I'm going to give you some do's and don'ts tonight about what your children and even you as adults should be doing during the service. Number one, first of all, you should be singing from the hymnal. When it's time to be singing the hymns, even children should have a hymnal in their hand and be singing. If a child is old enough to read, then they are old enough to have a hymnal in their hand and be singing along with the songs. I don't care if they want to. The parents should enforce that and teach their children how to behave themselves in the house of God. You see, praising the Lord is a commandment. It's not optional. It's something that God commands us to do. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. In fact, it's the most common imperative verb in the entire Bible. The most common command is to praise the Lord. I remember when I was a young child, sometimes I would be slack on this and I wouldn't be singing. And my dad would sternly look at me and tell me, you need to be singing. And then I'd get on board with the program and start singing the song. My parents, thank God, made sure that I was singing in church. The Bible says in Psalm 22 22, in the midst of the congregation, will I sing praise unto thee? And in Hebrews chapter two, that's quoted in the midst of the church, will I sing praise unto thee? Notice it doesn't say I'm going to listen to praise. It says, I'm going to sing praise myself is what it's saying. When Jesus met with the disciples at the time of the last supper, it talks about the fact that they sang in him. And then they went out into the mountain or into the garden of Gethsemane. You see, they didn't just all sit back and listen while Peter sang a special. You know, they sang a hymn. And throughout the Bible, we see that we're to be teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And everyone should be participating. You need to teach your children how to read and then your children need to have a hymnal and be singing along. A lot of times I'll see children would know hymnal. And then they're just kind of like, and then when it gets to the chorus, they'll kind of jump in a little bit because they know the chorus by heart. But then on the verses, it's just kind of, you know, you'd be getting a book and following along. We have the book for a reason so that they can sing the words and learn the songs and maybe they can become a better reader as well. So every child should be singing from the hymnal and participating. And on that same note, another thing that every child should be doing is turning in the Bible to the scripture during the scripture reading time and also during the sermon itself. Like, for example, right now I'm going to tell you to turn to 1 Timothy 4. Turn to 1 Timothy 4, right? Everybody should have a Bible out and be turning. We have a whole shelf back there filled with Bibles. So if you forget your Bible, you don't have a Bible, you can always grab a Bible off the back shelf. But every child who's of reading age and up and every adult should be following along in the Bible and looking up the scriptures and paying attention to what's being preached. This will help children actually focus on the sermon and pay attention not to just completely zone out and just check out. At least they should be looking up the scriptures and seeing what the word of God says. 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 13 says, till I come, give attendance to reading. And this is talking about in the church to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Now the exhortation and the doctrine is the preaching, but then there's also some reading that should take place. That's why we read the entire chapter before the sermon's preached. And that's why there's a lot of scripture read even in the midst of the sermon. Flip over to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3, the Bible reads in verse 15 and that from a child, thou has known the Holy scriptures, which are able to make the wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Even from a child, Timothy knew the scriptures. He was following along in his Bible and reading like he was supposed to. So here are the dues. Number one, you sing from the hymnal. Number two, you turn to the Bible verses. You read along during the congregational reading and during the sermon itself. Number three, sit still. Children should be taught to sit still and pay attention in church for thousands of years. Children of all nationalities in all cultures, all religions, all over the world have had to sit still and attend church or some other religious gathering. It can be done. It's possible. But today sometimes people just don't require that of their children when it's very reasonable for children to learn to sit still and be good. And in today's video game, TV generation, they might not have the attention span, but they better get the attention span. You say, well, how do we incorporate this into our family? Well, it starts in the home. Have some time in the home where you hand out a hymnal or a song sheet and you sing songs together as a family. Then you can reinforce that principle in the home or have a Bible time every day where you sit down and read the Bible to them and they sit down and follow along in their Bible and sit quietly and learn to be still and pay attention. Okay, what else should we do in church besides singing, looking up things in the Bible, sitting still, paying attention, behaving yourself, knowing how to behave in the house of God. If the baby is acting up and fussing and crying, take it to the mother baby room, right? Take it out of the service, take to the mother baby room, get it under control. And here's the thing, we're very relaxed about this around here. We don't have a nursery and we're not coming around the nursery Nazi trying to tell you that you can't have your kid in the service and ripping you out of the service. And obviously we should all be willing to tolerate a little fussing from babies, a little cooing and crying and noise. Obviously babies are at a certain age. They're going to make noise. It's no big deal. We can't just freak out at the smallest little noise and expect to hear a pin drop in here between sentences during the preaching. But I will say this, when your baby is becoming a disturbance to the people around you, at that point, it's probably a good idea to make use of one of the four mother baby rooms that we provide here to take your kid and get it under control. And this should be a baby or a toddler, right? Big kids, you shouldn't even be having that problem because they just need to be disciplined and learn how to sit still. But I'm talking about little babies and toddlers. They might have an issue where you need to take them out of the service. And we have audio pumped into these rooms and everything like that so that you can still hear the sermon and have your child in there and train your child to learn how to sit in church. But we understand that there's a certain phase where that can be difficult, but here's the thing. If your baby is screaming loud to the point where even in the mother baby room, it's just, then you need to take it all the way outside, okay? Take it all the way outside and get it under control because otherwise you're just turning the mother baby room into this echo chamber of screaming. Then the other ladies that are in the mother baby room are subjected to that or sometimes that even, you know, those aren't soundproof rooms. Maybe we need to build one that's soundproof. I don't know. No, I'm just kidding. But sometimes there's going to come a time where you need to take it all the way outside and get it under control and then bring your child back in and so forth. So those are some good do's of how to behave in the house of God. Why? Because we want to do things decently and in order. We don't want things to degenerate into chaos. And we don't want people that are from a church that has a nursery to walk in here and be like, oh, this is why you need a nursery. You know, this is why you can't have the kids in church. Pastor Anderson's trying to reinvent the wheel and he's screwing up. You know, we don't want to be an advertisement for the nursery right here. We want to be an advertisement for having the children in the service with us. Amen. And show people that it can be done at church with 300 people. You can have the kids and the babies and we get them under control. But what it comes down to is the parents. The parents are the ones that are going to make that happen. Now, I'm not suggesting that a baby or a small toddler is going to be, you know, just obedient and in submission. But I'm saying that you as the parent are to know when it's time to take it out to the mother baby room or take it out. But when we start getting to the age of two, three, four, it's time for your kid to start obeying and sitting still and being good in church at that point. You know, I understand a baby or a one year old is going to have a learning curve there and there's no problem with that. And we want to, and by the way, if you don't have kids, be patient with the people that do have kids because you don't know what it's like. You don't know the struggle. Okay. So don't be judgmental about this, especially if you don't even have kids. All right. Because it's harder than it looks. Everything in life is harder than it looks. So the point is that when your children are getting to the point of two years old, three years old, four years old, you need to start expecting more out of your children behavior-wise when it comes to church. So here are some don'ts in church. Okay. These are some things that you should not be doing in church. Eating. Eating in church. You know, if you would turn to 1 Corinthians chapter number three. Yes, I have a scripture on this for first Corinthians. I'm sorry. First Corinthians chapter 11, first Corinthians 11, first Corinthians chapter 11. Now, obviously when we're talking about a baby, an infant, yeah. Okay. Infants do need to eat frequently. They don't eat three meals a day, right? They eat frequently. And so they're going to need to be breastfed during the service and they might need a little something, something else put in their mouth during the service, a little snack for like a baby. Okay. But your two year old, your three year old, your four year old, your five year old, your ten year old, you can go two hours without eating. Like, are you just that hypoglycemic where you just have to just be just constantly taking in food? You know, and if you're giving your three, four, five year old a snack just to shut them up in church, they have a behavior problem. They shouldn't have to be bribed with snacks and candy at that age. And look, I've come here sometimes. I mean, this morning I saw a row of the church that it looked like a movie theater or something. It was just, just snacks all over the floor. Just, it was just trashed with food and everything like that. I mean, that's not, that's not right. We shouldn't be having that around here. The Bible says in first Corinthians chapter 11 verse 21 for an eating, everyone taketh before other his own supper and one's hungry and another is drunken. What have you not houses to eat and to drink in or despise you the church of God and shame them that have not. What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. See the Corinthian church was a disorderly church in first Corinthians 14. He's rebuking them for being disorderly and having confusion and everybody's talking at once and it's not being done decently in an order. And in chapter 11, he's talking about people coming and just they're chowing down in church and they need to realize that they have houses to eat and to drink in and they need to come to church and be a little more respectful of church and not just come here and just make it a snack fest. Like they're just going to a ball game or a movie theater or something. You know, there are no square boxes of candy on that shelf back there for a reason because this is not, you know, a snack bar. All right. So especially children when they eat, they make a big mess. They trash the place and it's disorderly and it's not the way that we should behave ourselves in the house of God and you're teaching your children also that they have to be bribed to be good all the time instead of just being good because I said so because I'm your mom because I'm your dad. That's the reason why. Not because you're going to just gorge on snacks during the service. So eating. Here's another thing that your child should not be doing in church. Drawing pictures. Now the way I grew up was that I was expected to sit and listen to the preaching when I was growing up. I was expected to turn in my Bible, sing the songs, pay attention to the preaching and all of my friends in church, they were drawing pictures. Their parents were to, Hey, anything to shut them up, anything to keep them good. So they would have piece of paper pen. They're drawing pictures. I was never allowed to draw in church. When I would go sit with my friends, my parents would tell me, Hey, I don't care if your friends are drawing, you are not going to be drawing. And you know, I wonder if that's why many of them are not living for the Lord. And I'm a pastor of a church right now. I wonder if it's because I was listening to the preaching and they were drawing a picture. That's probably part of the problem. Why a lot of those kids went to the devil and why I stayed with it. Not because I'm anything special, but because at least I had parents that made sure I was participating in the service, singing praises to the Lord and listening to the preaching and reading along in my Bible. If you want your children to learn the word of God, it doesn't start when they're five or six, it starts from the beginning. And I'm telling you, one, two, three, four, these are the formative years. I mean, that child is like a blank piece of paper. They're just like a sponge absorbing everything. And you don't want them to learn that church is a place where we goof off. We play games. We play with toys. We draw pictures. We don't pay attention. No, no, no. From the beginning, you want to start training them to listen up, to pay attention, to learn the word of God, to be respectful of God's house. No eating, no drawing, no playing with toys. Here's another don't. Don't let your kids just turn around and stare at people. Because then not only are they not paying attention, but they become a disturbance to other people when they're like this. I mean, that gets pretty hard to ignore, right? So, you know, make your kids face the front. Not just be turning around, looking. Because then they make eye contact with another kid and it's like, oh, yeah. Start communicating with telepathy and everything like that. So you don't want them to be turning around. You want them to be facing the front. Here's another thing. Excessive trips to the bathroom. Or constant trips to the water cooler. And you're not going to believe this, but those two things go hand in hand. Now, I'm drinking a lot of water because I'm singing at the top of my lungs and preaching. So I have a reason to drink water. And I'm not against anybody drinking water here. Everybody's welcome. We have several water coolers. We want everybody to drink water. But adults know how to gauge their water consumption, right? Children, on the other hand, will sometimes just guzzle a bunch of water. And then they need the bathroom. Now, there's two kinds of children. There's children that are in diapers and children that are not in diapers. And let me tell you something. If you're not in a diaper, you should be able to make it through a service without using the bathroom. It's true. Now, look, are there going to be times where you get busy and things come up? Sure. It happens to all of us. There have been times when I rushed back from soul winning. I didn't get a chance to use the bathroom. And then I'll use the bathroom during the singing or I'll use the bathroom during a vibrating in an emergency. You know, when things come up, I'm not judging anybody on that. But you know what? When you're using the bathroom, every single service and your kids getting up and use. What if everybody did that? What if 300 people got up and used the bathroom during a service? What if 300 people are up walking around, getting water, use the bathroom? See, what happens is then the people who actually need to use it, they get there and it's occupied anyway. I mean, you know, somebody actually who has a legitimate reason, they're out soul winning, they're working hard, they get in at the last minute, they need the bathroom and it's filled up with just the habitual users that are just, just, oh, I just go to the bathroom because it's something to do. Now, look, I remember when I was a kid in school and you know what kids in school would do when I was in school? They'd all have to blow their nose. Doesn't matter what time of year it is. Doesn't matter if they're healthy, sick. And I remember I was a little slow to catch on to this. I just spent years just wondering what is wrong. I'm just like, thank you Lord for my health because what's wrong with everybody? I was like, why is everybody just blowing their nose so much? I don't blow my nose like that unless I'm sick. Then I'm just seeing people just blowing their nose. They get up, they get a tissue, they step out, they blow their nose, they sit down. And I'm just like, what's going on? What am I missing? Well, what are they missing in their diet? You know, what's wrong with these people? But then I started figuring it out. I was a little slow to catch on, but then I figured out like, oh, they're just blowing their nose because it's just an excuse to get out of your seat and step out into the hallway. Step outside, look around, see what's going on. You blow out a few milliliters of snot and you go back inside and sit down. And then you know what I started doing? Eventually, after just years and years of seeing that, you know, I started blowing my nose too. Even though I was as healthy as a horse and didn't have anything coming out. I just blow the layer into that tissue. Because I realized, well, if everybody else is getting up out of their seat and walking around, well, I feel like walking around too. I feel like getting up too. And I started taking more bathroom breaks and water breaks once I realized that the whole thing was a fraud. Oh, let me get in on the fraud. Because that's how kids are, right? Especially in school for seven hours a day. It's just, it's something to do. Oh, I got to go to the bathroom. I got to blow my nose. Got to get some, you know. And then other kids are just getting medicated for a headache all the time. I don't even know if they even had a headache. They probably just enjoyed that trip to the office. They're probably smoking crack today. Who knows? You know, they probably just kept escalating that recreational drug use. So the point is that, you know, kids are just going to look for excuses to get up and move around. So what you want to do is try to get your kids under control. And the older they get, the more trained they are to use the bathroom at home. Get a drink of water at home, you know, and just kind of do that stuff at a minimum at church so that it's not just a circus, right? And again, yeah, there are going to be times when people are dehydrated. People are working hard. It's really hot. They got busy. They left the house. Okay, but every time, every single time, unless you're wearing a diaper, you can make it through the service without using the bathroom. That should be the goal for our children, right? And, you know, you can make it, unless you're hypoglycemic, you can make it through a sermon without ingesting food as well. So these are some ways to behave during the service. Okay, what about before and after the service? Okay, before and after the service. Don't run around the church building and play wild, all right? This is not a playground. This is a church building, right? So it should be treated with respect and adults should be treated with respect. Shouldn't be kids just running and slamming into everybody and wild and out of control. And again, this goes back to the parents teaching their children to be good. And keeping them under control. Another thing is, before and after the service, children should not just be roving around the parking lot in bands by themselves with no adult. Why? Because they get into trouble. Because they do foolish things. And in many cases, they could cause our saver to stink in the nostrils of our fellow tenants here. Right? If they're just terrorizing the parking lot before and after church, running wild, being crazy, and everything like that. And look, you put a bunch of children together with no supervision, with no adult, they're going to get into trouble. So keep your children inside the building or be outside supervising. Don't just, all right, you're free now. Go, you're free. And just let them run wild when the service is over. Let's look at some scriptures on disciplining your children. Because you're saying, that's a hard thing, Pastor Anderson. Go to Proverbs, chapter number 29. Let's look at some scriptures on disciplining your children. Because part of the problem is that people don't discipline their children. Now, discipline is not the only answer to child-rearing. Obviously, disciplining is not the end-all be-all that's going to solve every problem. We also need to nurture our children and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and teach them, and spend time with them, and talk to them, and love them, and care for them. And do a lot of other things. But discipline is an element of that. And in many cases, it's a missing element. Some people just, they spoil their kids. They just will not come down on them. They won't punish them. And it causes them to just act however they want, and become very disrespectful and unhappy children. Look at chapter 29, verse 15. The rod and reproof, and what does reproof mean? It's when you tell somebody that they're wrong. It's when you correct them. The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. Why the mother? Because the mother is the primary caregiver. Dad's at work many days. Mother is the one who day in and day out is raising that child. She is primarily responsible to use the rod, and to use reproof, and to bring up her children. Obviously, the father plays a role as well. The mother is the primary caregiver. The father is secondary. And so that's why the mother is the one that ought to be the most ashamed when the children are out of control. Chapter 29, verse 17. Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest. Yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul. Let me say this. Your children, part of being taught to know how to behave themselves in the house of God, besides just singing along, reading the Bible, listening to the preaching, sitting still, being good, not being wild, and things like that, they also need to learn to be respectful, not just of God's house, but of the people of God. Meaning that they should learn to respect adults. Respect adults. Now, obviously I don't teach my children, I don't teach my children, hey, obey whatever an adult tells you. Because obviously, you know, there are times when they should not obey adults if they're telling them to do something strange or wrong, or hey, get in the car with me, or you know, something like that. But I'll say this, if a child is doing something wrong in the church, let's say they're vandalizing something, or they're running around, or being obnoxious, or being mean to another child, or hitting a child, or you know, they're out running wild in the park. If an adult rebukes you, if an adult corrects you, and says, hey young man, hey young lady, you need to stop doing that, you know what, then you need to stop doing that. You need to stop doing that, and look at that adult and say, yes sir, yes ma'am, I'm sorry, I'll stop. And being respectful and obedient when you're rebuked for being bad before church or after church. And I'm going to tell you something, when I say hi to a child in the church, and they scoff at me, or scorn me, and just blow me off and walk away, or if I tell a child, hey, don't do that, and they're just, just do what they want. Here's the thing, it doesn't hurt my ego, and here's why. Because I don't really get my self-esteem from what your four-year-old, or five-year-old, or six-year-old thinks about me. Like it doesn't really make me feel like, oh man, I'm a real loser. You know, this guy really, this guy really burned me. You know, this toddler, but I'm just being honest with you, it breaks my heart, because I think to myself, not because I care what a toddler thinks about me, but it breaks my heart to think that this kid's going to grow up and be a bad kid. And it's not because it's just me. I mean, I'm saying they're like that with all adults. I'm saying if you have a toddler, if you have a young child who's disrespecting adults, they're going to grow up and be a bad kid, unless you teach them some respect for authority, and teach them respect for adults, and just respect for their fellow man, right? You need to train your children and teach your children, because if you just let them have that attitude, where somebody says hi and they scoff at them, laugh at them, scorn them, walk away, or somebody tells them, hey, you need to stop doing that, and they just ignore them and keep doing it, you're raising a bad kid at that point, and you need to get that fixed. And when they're a little kid, it's still young enough to fix it. But it breaks my heart to think about all the work, and effort, and time, and love, and sweat, and tears that goes into raising a child to raise a malefactor. To raise a criminal, to raise a bad kid, to raise someone that's not going to give rest under your soul, not going to give delight under your soul, that's just going to give you grief for the rest of your life. It's just going to give you heartache and pain for the rest of your life. It's no skin off my back. And here's the thing, if they're disrespectful to adults in the church, that's a bad sign, and you need to teach your children, hey, you need to mind your manners, you need to be respectful, you need to obey when they tell you to stop X, Y, or Z. Because of the fact that that's bad. And especially because I'm the pastor of the church, if they're going to be disrespectful to me, you know they're being disrespectful to all adults. Now, look, if I say hi to your kid and they cower in fear, if they run away and hug moms, that's okay. I don't have a problem with that. If they're afraid of me, that's okay. I'm okay with them being afraid of me. I'm talking about where they would scoff at me or scorn me or disrespect me. That isn't right. And it's not just because I'm me. It's because if they're doing it to me, I guarantee you they're doing it to everybody. Because if they don't fear me, they probably don't fear anybody in the church. They probably don't even fear God, because they probably are not being taught to fear their parents. Because you know how you learn to fear God? You learn by fearing your parents. Go to go to Leviticus. Well, stay in Proverbs, because we're going to be in Proverbs again. This isn't even in my notes. But I'm going to go back to Leviticus chapter 19. This is just off the cuff. I hope it's even in Leviticus 19. I'm pretty sure it is. But I'm pretty sure there's a scripture in Leviticus chapter 19 that tells you that you're supposed to fear your parents. Somebody finds it before I do, tell me where it is. Yeah, here we go. Verse 3. Leviticus 19, 3. You shall fear every man, his mother and his father and keep my statutes. I'm the Lord your God. Well, that's not really fear. You know, when the Bible says fear, it's not really fear. Have you heard this one? I heard it my whole life growing up. But then you try to show people verses that say fear and trembling. And then the picture of fear comes clear that yeah, fear is fear after all. I feared my parents when I was growing up. I love my parents, respect my parents, and I feared my parents. And that's the way it should be. What do I mean by fearing my parents? Well, here's what I mean. If I went to school and I got a note written home or a bad report card or something bad, I feared that coming to my parents. And I tried to intercept the mail if I could. You know, you feared that. The last thing you wanted was for your parents to know that you had detention. The last thing you wanted them to know was that you got in trouble in class, that you were suspended or that you got a C minus or a D or an F or something. You know, and you feared your parents. But what about kids who an adult rebukes them? Somebody goes and tells their parents that something went wrong. They get a note home or whatever, and there's no fear. Something's wrong in that home. Because those of us that are here tonight serving God, you know, who feared your parents when you're growing up if a note was coming home like that? And you didn't want them to see that note. Okay, there's a reason why. And I'm sure there are some godly people who maybe didn't have the proper fear for their parents and maybe they learned that later in life. But I guarantee you the majority of righteous people grew up fearing their parents, respecting their parents and dreading getting in trouble with their parents. And that's the way it should be. And you know what? I'm not offended if small children are afraid of me. Because, you know, when Samuel showed up to preach, they trembled and said, Is it peace, Samuel? You know, we need some men of God to rip some face and instill a little fear in the people. It's fine. It's okay. But when the man of God is just a joke, and when the parents are a joke, and the deacons a joke, and other adults in the church are a joke, and mothers and fathers are a joke, and an adult saying to them, Hey, you're out of control. Do I need to go tell your parents? And they're just like, whatever. I mean, if somebody said that to me, Hey, do I need to tell your parents? I'd be like, No way. I am ready to do what you want me to do. You know, what do you want me to fix? I wouldn't have just said, Well, go ahead and tell my parents. No way. I remember one time I got in trouble at summer camp. And I went to this big liberal church when I was a teenager, because I grew up in independent fundamental Baptist, but we went through a phase where we were at some liberal churches. So I was at this big liberal church, and I went to a summer camp, and I got in big trouble when I was at the camp. It was me and a whole bunch of other kids that got in trouble. And, you know, looking back, it doesn't seem like a big deal, but at the time, you know, you don't want to get busted with your parents. So we got in trouble at summer camp, and, you know, we got it all resolved. There wasn't any punishment or anything, but it was just that we'd gotten into trouble. We didn't receive any punishment. So I go to church that Sunday, and it was a big liberal church. All of a sudden, the main guy who had cracked down on us at the camp, I realized he goes to my church. I'm like, Oh, no. What if my parents come into contact with this guy? He's going to tell them how I was into trouble on this camping trip. And it just, you know, I think God was kind of messing with me, because it just seemed like, I've never seen this guy before. All of a sudden, this guy's everywhere. I mean, my parents sit down. He's sitting one row over. You know, we go into the lobby. He's standing. I mean, it's like, he's talking to people, and this is like my dad's back, and this is like his back, and I'm just like, and it was just like, he goes, Okay, I kid you not. This is a true story. This guy's everywhere. Never seen this guy before. He, you know, he's in the lobby with them. He's in the church. We go to Taco Bell afterward. He pulls into Taco Bell. I'm not kidding. No, I mean, my parents sit down at the table. He sits at the next table over. He's six feet from them. And I'm hiding because I'm thinking like, he doesn't know what my parents look like, but if he sees me, he's going to put it together. So I'm sitting all weird in my chair, kind of like, you know, like not facing forward, just making sure I keep my back to him at all times. He's kind of eating my food. Thankfully, contact was never made, but God had me sweating there for a while. And looking back, it wasn't even a big deal. I mean, it wasn't a big, I didn't get detention. I didn't get suspended. It wasn't a big deal looking back, but at the time, it was just like, man, any time a teacher or a pastor or anybody is telling your parents that you were bad, oh man, there was hell to pay if that happened. I mean, I dreaded the parent teacher night every single semester. It was the worst. It was the most dreadful thing. My parents would go to the parent teacher night and I'm just sitting at home just sweating and just, what are they going to tell them? What are they going to say? My parents get home and I'm just thinking like, oh man, what's it going to be? You know, because I mean, even if they said anything negative, my parents would latch onto that. And I'm like, well, but mom and dad, look at my grades. I got A's and B's. He said you were talking in class. You know, I'm like, whoa, I can explain. I feared my parents growing up. And you know, I wonder if it's a coincidence that right now I fear God right now. Why? Because the training for fearing God is your earthly father trains you for the heavenly father. And my parents weren't mean to me. They weren't just these super strict. They weren't jerks or abusive. They were just good parents. You know, they were strict enough and they were punishing me and they expected me to be good. And their philosophy was, well, if the teacher has 30 students and the teacher has taken the time to tell me that you're a problem, you must have been a big problem. And there's probably a whole bunch of stuff that you didn't get caught for. So if you're getting caught and you're getting a note home, this is a serious problem. And you know, I'd get the big lecture, get the spanking, get yelled at, lose privileges. You know, it was serious. We need to get back to an old-fashioned fear of mom and dad. We need discipline. Say, well, I don't like it. You know, it doesn't sound nice or sweet to me, but it's going to give delight unto your soul if you correct your son. Look at chapter 22. While you're turning to chapter 22, I'll read for you Proverbs 13, where it says, He that spareth his rod, hateth his son, but he that loveth him, chasteneth him betimes. Don't give me this thing of, well, I just love him too much. I just love him too much. You know what I've noticed sometimes? That when people have a whole bunch of girls and then they finally have a boy, sometimes they might spoil that boy. Or if they have vice versa, whole bunch of boys, and then they finally have a girl, they'll spoil the girl. Or let's say, you know, for whatever reason, that child is very precious to them. Sort of like Joseph was very precious unto his father. They could tend to sometimes spoil that child, but you know what? Don't do it. You've got to come down on them when they're bad. You got to make sure affection, train them, be good to them, spend time with them. But you need to put the fear of God into them and discipline them. And I don't care if that's popular in 2017. That is Bible and it's timeless. And the Bible says he that spareth his rod, child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. And if you don't drive it far from him, he's going to be a fool for the rest of his life. Every child starts out foolish. I did dumb things. You did dumb things. The rod of correction drives that far from us. But if you don't have the rod, you spend your life as a fool and the stakes get higher. When you mess up as a little kid, the stakes are lower. When you mess up as an adult, people die. People get injured. People ruin their lives. Children are born out of wedlock. All kinds of bad things happen. When you're older, you got to learn these lessons when you're young. You got to teach these lessons to your children when they're young. Chapter 23 verse 13 says, Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shall beat. Underline those three words. Thou shall beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell. That's serious. Now again, we're not talking about abusing your child. We're not talking about punching them or pummeling them or hitting them with a blunt object. We're talking about spanking your child. Spanking your child. Just basically disciplining them. Good old-fashioned discipline. And God provided a nice padded area on their bodies to receive that discipline. They're not going to die. It's not going to kill them. You get a paddle or the paint stick from Lowe's or Home Depot. Don't tell them that that's why I grab so many when I'm there. But the free, you know, paint stir stick. Okay, hey, you need to discipline your children. You say, well, you can't talk about that. Yes, I can. It's legal in the state of Arizona to spank your kids. Thank God. And you know what? If they make it illegal, I'll do it anyway. Because we ought to obey God rather than men. And the government has no right to make a law respecting the practice of religion. And it is part of our religion to discipline our kids because the command of God. And again, I'm not talking about harming them or injuring them. I'm talking about good old-fashioned discipline that everybody in the previous generation grew up with. And this new generation that's rising up without discipline, this Dr. Spock generation, this Dr. Phil generation, this Sesame Street generation, Barney and Friends generation that's just taught that there's no spanking and it's a timeout and all this junk is going to grow up and they're going to turn our country into a cesspool. They're going to turn it into a Sodom and Gomorrah. They're going to turn it into a wicked place filled with every kind of crime and every kind of debauchery and every kind of sickness and mental insanity. We as Christians need to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. You cannot do that without disciplining them. You can't just do everything else and skip that part. That's a command of God and it's an intrinsic part of the formula of raising your children right. Look at Proverbs 29 verse 19. And while you're turning there, I'll give you Job 19 16 where Job is talking about how bad he's doing. He's talking about how bad he's doing physically. He's lost everything. He's lost his money. He's lost his wealth. But he also talks a lot about how he's lost everyone's respect. Even just derelicts. Even just homeless derelicts look down on him and disrespect him. And he talks about how he called his servant and his servant gave him no answer. Like even servants won't even answer. He says something to them, they just don't even give him an answer. Look at Proverbs 29 19. A servant will not be corrected by words for though he understand, he will not answer. This is one of the ultimate signs of disrespect, right? When somebody says something to you and you ignore them, you don't answer them. Somebody says hi to you, you don't answer them. Someone tells a child, hey, you need to settle down. You need to stop beating him up. You need to stop running. You need to go out of this area. This is a staff only area. You know, you shouldn't be playing here. Hey, you don't need to be playing in the middle of the street. You need to come in here. You need to go to your parents, go to your mom. And they just ignore. That's disrespectful. They need to give some kind of an answer, some kind of acknowledgement. Yes, I will do that. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. No, sir. No, ma'am. Thank you. I'm sorry. Whatever. There needs to be a verbal, humble, meek acknowledgement. And people should also teach their kids not to call adults by their first name. Just, hey, you know, hey, Garrett, from a little kid. Now, it's one thing for adults to call each other, their friends that are on a first name basis. But little children shouldn't be walking up to me and calling me Steve and him, Garrett. And this is Josh. And, you know, it just doesn't make any sense. You know, when I was a child, I was forbidden to address people in that way. I was told Mr. So-and-so. But I feel like in church, Mr. Is a little bit inappropriate. I think it's more appropriate to say brother. Right. Brother. Brother Hall, you know, Brother Shelly, Brother Berg. You know, that's a little more appropriate. That's more respectful than Mr. I think children should be taught to address. And even if they're going to use a first name, at least put a brother in front of it. You know, just to at least acknowledge a little bit of courtesy and respect. You say, well, why does that matter? Who cares? It's just a name. But what happens is there's an attitude that goes with it. There's an attitude that goes with it. And there's no coincidence that all throughout the world in pretty much every culture, pretty much everywhere you go, people use titles and they use last names and they use other distinguishing marks just to use a respectful address with people that you don't know that well or people that are an authority figure or people that are older than you and so forth. It's just being respectful. You know, when I talk to people that are older than me, I don't just jump in with their first name and I'm the pastor of the church. And yet even when I'm talking to people that are older, I don't feel comfortable. I come at them with their last name, Mrs. So-and-so, Brother So-and-so, you know, other pastors all the time. I talk to other pastors and I call them Pastor So-and-so, Brother So-and-so. And a lot of times they'll say to me, hey, just call me whatever their first name. I still don't even do it because it just seems weird to me. A pastor that's older than me, you know, been in the ministry longer than me or whatever, just coming in, hey, Bob, you know, or whatever. I don't feel right about that. I want to treat them with a little more respect and I'd rather err on the side of being a little too respectful. The only pastors that I call by their first name is pastors who are younger than me or I knew them before they were a pastor. I grew up with them or I've known them for many years. So I have that habit of just, you know, knowing them as whatever. But look, a child, come on, a child should be taught to use respectful terminology when dealing with adults because it affects their attitude. And a lot of these little things, they might just seem a little nitpicky. And again, I'm not telling you what to do tonight because you know what, if you want to disregard what I'm saying and you want to raise ruffians and savages, go ahead. Because it's no skin off my back. They're not going to bring as much grief to my soul as they're going to bring to your soul. You're the one who's going to suffer if you raise kids that are disrespectful, disobedient and savage. That's it's you're the one who's going to pay for it, not me. You know, I'm going to shake my head and feel bad about it, but not as bad as you're going to feel. I'm going to be sad and heartbroken, but not nearly as heartbroken as you're going to be. Because as long as my kids turn out right, that's the most important thing to me. I hate to say it. That's the most important thing. And look, don't sit there and think, well, you're a hypocrite because I heard your kid do it. You're right. My kids have done it. My kids have made mistakes and they have called people by first names and they've run around and gotten in trouble and done stupid things like we all have. But the difference is that when I find out about it, they get disciplined. That's the difference. And they're learning and growing and getting it fixed. That's the difference. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. No child is ever going to go through their childhood without doing dumb things, without getting into trouble. It's going to happen. But the difference is some parents correct it. Some parents instill fear in their child of getting caught and getting disciplined. And other parents let it go. That's the difference. I'm not saying my children are perfect. I'm not expecting your children to be perfect. I'm saying that we need to train our children and strive toward a goal of better behavior, better obedience and more respect. And these little things such as the way that we dress or the way that we talk, these things do affect our attitude. I guarantee you that if you went to a job site or a workplace where a dress code is enforced versus a job site or a workplace where people can dress however they want, people act different. You know, when you're wearing a suit and tie, you sit differently, you stand differently and you act differently than if you're in sweatpants and a t-shirt. Sweatpants and a t-shirt, you just kind of plop down and your attitude's different. You act different than when you dress up. I mean, look, even the world will tell you that if you want to be productive on your day off, you get up in the morning and you take a shower and you get dressed and put clothes on and put your shoes on and you'll get more done than if you spend your whole day off in your pajamas the whole time. Think about that. So these little things, you know, there's a reason why I'm preaching in a suit and tie. It's not because the Bible says, thou shalt wear a suit and tie, but it's because of the fact that I take church seriously. And you know what this sends a message right here? Serious. Serious. You know what this says right here? This says, I'm not trendy. I'm not trying to dress like an overgrown teenager. I'm not trying to be cool. I'm not trying to fit in and be cool and for people to like me, I'm not casual. Meaning I don't think church is just somewhere that I just show up and just, okay, we're at church. I'm showing, because I'm the pastor of the church, I'm taking my job seriously. I'm here. I mean, business. Jesus said, I must be about my father's business. I'm taking it seriously. I'm ready to preach a sermon that's not just something that I downloaded off the internet. It's something from the heart. It's something that I feel like matters. I take all three services seriously. Seriously. Look, back when I used to work a full time job. Yay, an overtime job. I mean, I used to work 80 hours a week while pastoring this church for years. But you know what? I never miss church for work. And I would sometimes have to move mountains practically to get back in time for church. I would have to sometimes pay double for a flight or I'd, you know, one time I was in Texas and the plane had a mechanical failure and they said, I'm gonna have to put you on a flight the next morning. That would have caused me to miss Sunday morning church. And yeah, I could have called somebody to fill in for me or found a way to fill it in. But you know, it was important to me to consistently be here and to not miss unless there was a compelling reason to miss church because I wanted to be a good example. And I wanted to show people that I'm serious about it. And I feel like every service is critical. Every service is important. You know, almost every single Sunday morning, there are people visiting from distant states and some of them flew all the way here just to come to our church. I don't want to just download some sermon series on grace or something and just, you know, just phone one in. I want to do my best. I want to preach from the heart. I want to take it seriously. I'm going to dress. I'm going to be here. I'm going to be prepared. I want to be ready and take it seriously. So anyway, my flight was canceled. I had a snap decision to make. I said, you know what? If I rent a one way car rental, it is humanly possible. This is on Saturday afternoon, late afternoon. It's humanly possible for me to drive home and make it home on time. And I could go try to mess around with trying to find another flight, but I might run out of time. I would have to leave in the next 60 minutes in order to make it. And I'd already been up the last few nights. I'd missed a lot of sleep because I was doing fire alarm testing in these grocery stores that had to be done at night. So I was on the plane like, Oh, I can finally relax. And they're like, Oh, mechanical failure, not going anywhere. I rented a one way car rental, and that was the worst night of my entire life. And I'm not just saying that it was the worst night of my life. It was torture. It was horrible. I was already sleep deprived. I was already tired. I was literally, I've never had to do this. I would pull over the car, climb on top of the car and jump off of it. Just to wait, just to stay awake. I would literally climb on top of the car, jump off. I'm doing push ups. I'm chewing on ice cubes, ripping the hair out of my legs. I mean, I was just, I'm drinking, I don't even like coffee. I never drink coffee. I mean, I drink coffee probably once every three years. I was just down in these iced, you know, there were more chocolate milk than anything, but I'm going to the gas station and loading up on the most chocolatey, sugary, Starbucks, whatever. Down in it, and I got here in time, and I made it to church. Why? Because I'm trying to send a message to the church. I'm trying to keep in my own mind, send a message to myself. Church is important. Church is important. It's a big deal. Every service matters. Every person matters that's there. Every sermon matters. And so these little things, and look, by the way, when people start calling me, hey, Steve, what's up? Even when adults in the church are, hey, Steve, what's up, Steve? You know, these people will eventually, I've learned, become disrespectful to me, even though it wouldn't seem like a big deal, just what's in a name, but the same type of person who comes at me calling me Steve, instead of calling me Brother Anderson or Pastor Anderson is usually the person that ends up getting an attitude, being disrespectful. Why? Because it's just a mentality, and you don't want your children to grow up with a mentality that adults are on the same level that they are, because they're not. And so we need to teach our children it's Mrs. So-and-so, it's Brother Anderson, it's Mrs. Anderson, it's Brother Baker, Mrs. Baker, or at least if they are on a first name basis with an adult, at least put brother in front of it, you know, if it's a man. Put something in front of it. Put some kind of a respect there. And when an adult talks to you, you answer them. If I say hi to you, you either better run in fear or say hi back. Those are the only two acceptable reactions. You know, don't just scoff at me or smirk at me or smirk at other adults and, you know, get some respect. Get some respect. Supervise your children. Teach your children. Train your children. I'm out of time. I got a lot of points across tonight, and I hope that this sinks in for you and that you'll be motivated to maybe take things up a notch on making sure that your children are respectful and good and obedient. I'll just leave you with this verse, children. Children, listen up. Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure and whether it be right. Even a child is known by his doings. People are looking at you kids and they're deciding whether you're a good kid or a bad kid. They're deciding whether they want their child to date you or not five, ten years from now. You know what I mean? They're deciding whether their daughter is going to be kept far away from you or whether she's going to be allowed to be around you. They're forming judgments about you, whether you like it or not. And you kids better put forth a good image. And not only that, put a good forth an image to your unsaved friends or just people that you deal with in your families. You want to be a good testimony. Even a child is known by his doings. Be a good testimony. Be respectful and start building good habits now so you can grow up to be a godly, respectable adult. It's not going to happen by accident, kids. We're living in a wicked and adulterous generation. You have everything working against you, children and teenagers and parents. You have everything working against you in this world. If you want your children to turn out right, you had better work on it. And listen, kids, I worked on it when I was your age. I did not turn 18 and all of a sudden say, oh, I'm going to start living for God now. I can remember watershed moments in my life. I can remember key sermons and key decisions that I made when I was 7, 8, 9, 10 years old. I'm serious. Where I made decisions about Bible reading. I made decisions about wanting to win people to Christ. I love the Lord. And I wanted to read my Bible and follow along in church and sing hymns. That starts now, kids. It starts now. You say, well, is he talking to me? Look, if you're old enough to understand the words that are coming out of my mouth, I'm talking to you. You need to start now unless you want to grow up and be a shipwreck and grow up and ruin your life. And look, you would not be the first Christian kid to grow up and be a drunk and a fornicator or a drug addict or a criminal or some other kind of loser. You wouldn't be the first. You certainly won't be the last. You need to decide that you want to serve the Lord, kids. And you need to listen to me when I'm up here preaching and pay attention to what I'm telling you. Learn from it. Follow it. Well, I just tell you, shut up and listen and do what the Bible told you to do. Do what your parents told you to do. And treat this place and this institution and this assembly and these brothers and sisters, treat them with respect, because it's a privilege to be in this church. It's a privilege. Kids right now are being raised in India, worshipping the devil. Is that where you wish you were born? People right now are worshipping Buddha or they're worshipping all kinds of other devils and demons all over the world. Little Muslim kids are being taught a bunch of garbage. And by the way, you should just be thankful at least your church is in English. Little Muslim kids are listening to a bunch of nonsense in a foreign language, Arabic, that they don't even speak because most Muslims don't even speak Arabic. Little Indian boys and girls are going to a Hindu temple and the whole service is in Sanskrit and they don't understand any of it. There are children going to mass and it's in Latin. There are children going to an Orthodox church and it's all in Greek. They don't even know what's going on. Can you sit still and listen to the English word of God in your language? So that you can actually grow up and live a joyful, blessed life and go to heaven and be rewarded with Christ and be somebody that matters. And be somebody that matters. Or you can be another derelict, another fool, another loser. The choice is up to you and you make it now, not later. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you so much for this institution of the local church. And I pray that you would help us all to be thankful for it, to love it, to respect it and to love and respect every single person who's here. And Lord, thank you for the amount of children that we have in our church, Lord. They're definitely not a burden or a nuisance. They're why we're here, Lord. And I pray that you would just help every child from Faithful Word Baptist Church to take heed onto the words that are preached tonight, to grow up and to love you with all their heart, mind and soul and strength. And help them to understand that that starts by singing along now, reading along now and listening to the preaching now. And in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. The Bible is really clear on salvation. It's not based on how good you are. A lot of people think they're pretty good, you know, and yeah, they're going to get to heaven because they're pretty good. But the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Bible says as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. I'm not righteous. You're not righteous. And if it were our goodness that would get us into heaven, none of us would be going.