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Let us make new to our Lord, and be new to our God. All the last, we must say, would have shown to the nation, to the world, the Son of God. Let all the world say, we lose our lives to the Lord, but not to us who have won, but not to us who have died. We are dying to do good and right, but not to us who have won, but be new to our God. Wonderful praise of Jesus, greater than all my sin. How shall my tongue be blinded? Where shall his praise be given? Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free. For the wonderful praise of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful the majesty's praise of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. What a mouthful spring, like a thousand feet, broader than the scope of ice or treasures singing, greater more than all my sin and shame. Oh, magnified in the precious name of Jesus, praise his name. Wonderful praise of Jesus, reaching to all the lost, not in a happy heart, but saved to the other gods. Thanks, God, may turn us under, giving me liberty. For the wonderful praise of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful the majesty's praise of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. What a mouthful spring, like a thousand feet, broader than the scope of ice or treasures singing, greater more than all my sin and shame. Oh, magnified in the precious name of Jesus, praise his name. Now, wonderful praise of Jesus, reaching the most divine. By his good, glory, power, making the gods dear child, purchasing peace and heaven for all eternity. Even the wonderful praise of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful the majesty's praise of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. What a mouthful spring, like a thousand feet, broader than the scope of ice or treasures singing, greater more than all my sin and shame. Oh, magnified in the precious name of Jesus, Praise his name. Jesus, what a friend for sin. Jesus, lover of my soul, friends with him he holds a sale. He, my Savior, makes me whole. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend, saving, helping, keeping, loving, he has sent me to the end. Jesus, what a strength in me, let me guide myself with him. Gently try and sometimes bear, believe my strength, my victory wins. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend, saving, helping, keeping, loving, he has sent me to the end. Jesus, what a help in sorrow while the billows worry roll. Even when the heart is ringing, he, my God, who helps my soul. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend, saving, helping, keeping, loving, he has sent me to the end. Jesus, God of our kind, keeper of the deathless, still is I. Storms shall not be mine, nor chains be mine, while the years ride by. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend, saving, helping, keeping, loving, he has sent me to the end. Jesus, I do now receive him more than all in him and mine. He hath granted me forgiveness but in his good deed is mine. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a friend, saving, helping, keeping, loving, he has sent me to the end. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. It's great to see everybody here this morning. If we can go ahead and find our seats, we will get started. And once you find a seat, find a hymnal, and once you find the hymnal, we're gonna start this morning in song number 57. Song number 57, When they ring the golden bells for you and me, Don't you hear the sound of the wind? We're gonna sing it out real loud on the first. There's a land beyond the river That we call the speed forever And we only reach that shore by faith's degree One by one we'll gain the fornals There to dwell with the importals When they ring the golden bells for you and me When the bells are ringing Don't you hear the angels singing Tis the glory, hallelujah, jubilee In that far off sweet forever Just beyond the shining river When they ring the golden bells for you and me We shall know no sin or sorrow In that haven of tomorrow Beyond the silver sea We shall only know the blessings Of our Father's sweet mercy When they ring the golden bells for you and me Don't you hear the bells now ringing Don't you hear the angels singing Tis the glory, hallelujah, jubilee In that far off sweet forever Just beyond the shining river When they ring the golden bells for you and me When our days shall know their number When in death we sweetly suffer When the King commands the Spirit to be free Nevermore with anguish slain And we shall reach that love we need When they ring the golden bells for you and me Don't you hear the bells now ringing Don't you hear the angels singing Tis the glory, hallelujah, jubilee In that far off sweet forever Just beyond the shining river When they ring the golden bells for you and me Great singing everybody, let's open up the service now with a word of prayer Lord we love you and we just thank you so much for this church Thank you for everybody here, we just ask that you fill this service with your spirit Bless everything that happens and help us to honor and glorify you today Lord In Jesus' name we pray, Amen Alright for our next song, let's go to song number 68 Song number 68, Remembering in Heaven Song number 68, everybody sing it out together on the first Should I up in heaven remember the heart And all the pain and the cross All the shame and the loss The reproach of the Savior I'm born in her conflict In heaven I laugh at the cross Jesus' blood made my ransom And I'm bound for heaven Love, love, everything That we can bring in heaven For here on the old streets I think of the treasure Of the things I have bought Of the pain nearly scarred I smile in my hands, in my tears The nation in heaven I smile when they are gone Jesus' blood made my ransom And I'm bound for heaven But what do I think when we can bring it heaven Should I in the glory remember I'm bound for what you walk by my side What is lost in outside In my heaven and into dust In the Savior in heaven I sit down and cry Jesus' blood made my ransom And I'm bound for heaven But what do I think when we can bring it heaven Oh, there's read the message The word he has given Can't provide the world's praise Nor the gestures they bring But oh, for the Savior brings hope Stick to heaven and joy Through eternity's name Jesus' blood made my ransom And I'm bound for heaven But what do I think when we can bring it heaven No, we ran out? Okay, all right. Well, just please share with those, and we'll try to make sure we have enough bulletins for the next Sunday. Also, we have our Bible memory passage on the front. Also, we have on the inside our service and soul winning times and our church stats down below. On the right, we have the list of expecting ladies, and then we did email out all of our giving statements. So, if you did not receive that, or you have a question, please let us know. I think there was a few people that we even had, just a physical one to hand out, just for the few people who didn't have the email, or we couldn't locate that. But if you have a question, also you can ask Evangeless Fur. He helped us prepare those things. If for some reason it looks like there's something that might not be accurate, please also let us know, and we'll make sure to get that corrected for you. It is a very manual process, and so there's always a chance that something maybe is a little off, but usually it's very, very accurate, and so just that's for FYI. Church reminders, please also. No running or rough playing in the church, and that's for the adults too, okay? And no children on the stage, no children in our kitchen area without assistance. Children shouldn't be in our Mother Bay rooms without their parents. Our fellowship room is not a play area. Kids should also not be using our church supplies for anything but church supplies. Also, please make sure to clean up after yourself. Our water bottles are designated for soul winning and for our visitors, and then please make sure you're just watching your kids. And kids, if a parent gives you some kind of instruction or any adult, please make sure to mind that adult. On the back, we have the list of our prayer list, so if you'd be in prayer for them. Also, there's somebody that we need to add to our expecting ladies list if you'd be in prayer for the aldermen, so congratulations to them. And that's so exciting. And it's a tad warm in here. I guess it's that you're getting ready for some hot preaching this morning, but we'll try to turn it down just a hair, and hopefully it'll cool out a little bit. But thank you so much for being here. Last Sunday, I was in Houston at Springcrest Baptist Church, and boy, it was a great time. We had, I think, about 50 or so people visiting from our church specifically, and then we had maybe 20, 25 people that were visiting from out of town and other areas, and then we had their church, and we had well over 100 people in services. We had about 80, 5, 6 people show up for that soul winning on that Saturday, and for the whole weekend, we had over 80 salvations for the weekend, which is a big blessing to them. We had multiple people from their church who it was their first time to go out soul winning, and so we were able to encourage them and motivate them to go out soul winning and to enjoy that. We had a lot of fellowship, and so if you just pray for Springcrest Baptist Church and pray for Pastor Reyes, he's a really good guy, really great wife and great family, and we've known them for a long time, and they're really a great area for soul winning, so if you ever get a chance to visit, a great opportunity to go down there and visit them. That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. One other thing I was going to ask, because I didn't ask beforehand, you were back from the Philippines recently, right, Brother James? Would you want to give us just a quick test update of what's going on? Just come on down. Brother James has been going to the Philippines a lot, and he definitely does a lot of soul winning with our evangelists, evangelists Duncan or Bannock, and so just give us a couple minutes of what's going on over there and give us some update. Okay, and so kind of the same thing is going on, and I'm not sure how much you guys hear or if you get to see the update every month, the video that evangelists or Bannock puts out, but he is just a machine grinding out there, and every day, it's just the same thing with this guy, and he's doing such a great work out there, and he does a ton of soul winning, and he has three disciples that, you know, if evangelists or Bannock had not gone to the Philippines, if you had not sent him, these three people wouldn't be in church. They wouldn't be preaching the gospel and helping out and getting a lot of people saved, and it's changed their lives so much just because he's over there, and so it's really cool because me being over there and kind of just getting to see this and witness it, it's really cool because I get to see firsthand what's going on, and I wish that I could just teleport all of you over there and you guys could check it out because it's such an encouragement, and, you know, going and preaching the gospel in a foreign country is so amazing, and I wish everybody could do that here, and just evangelists or Bannock, as you guys support him and pray for him, and, you know, thank you for sending him out there. It's just kind of an encouragement to all of us, so what pastors got going on this year, and a lot of people, a lot of the good pastors out there with the cruise ships, and we've got Bahamas again this year, if you have never preached in a foreign country before, figure out how to do it. It will totally change your life, and, you know, Evangelist or Bannock is kind of, he's a great example of that, and he's doing it to like a greater level, a more permanent thing, but even if you can just take a week or whatever, if you can get to the Philippines, go to the Philippines. It's awesome. You won't regret it. If you can get to the Bahamas, do the same thing. You will not regret it. It will change your life. That first salvation you get from somebody in a different country, it's just amazing. It's awesome, and you will want to do more, and you probably will do more, and so, you know, there's a lot of things going on in the Philippines. Pastor Stuckey over there, what a great church it is. What a great man of God, and he is another just example of an evangelist that was sent out to a foreign country, and look what's going on, and, you know, we've got a church service coming up in April. It's in the area, it's a city called Tanay, and it's in Pelilia Rizal, and it's about two hours away from, hour and a half away from where Verity Baptist Church Manila is, and the soul winning in that area is so awesome. Evangelist or Bannock has been soul winning there for months and months and months last year, and he's had hundreds and hundreds of salvations in that area, and so this church service, if you could just pray for it coming up in April, would be huge, and just me going out there with him soul winning, and we talked to people, and they're like, hey, where do you go to church? And we're like, oh, there's a good one in Quizal, which is like 30 minutes away, and they're like, oh, can't make it there, but now he's going to be preaching in Tanay right there locally. It may be an opportunity for people that want to go to a good church, that want to hear the truth, they might have that opportunity, and so be praying for that. There's so many exciting things going on over there that I wish I could just explain it, you know, I could talk for another two hours, but just know that if you're supporting him, you know, through your prayers or any giving that you do through the church, it's going to a great cause, and I can't explain it enough, it's just awesome what's going on over there, and so, you know, he's just another evangelist like Pastor Stuckey that was sent out that, you know, good things are happening because he decided to go, and here's the thing is, we need more men like that. Like, a lot of the men in this church, you could be the next person that goes to a foreign country as an evangelist, and so, anyway, anything else that, okay, so good to see you, so good to see you. I didn't ask him beforehand, so that was just raw, and, you know, also, brother James has volunteered a lot of his own personal time and his own personal dime to just go to the Philippines and just go soul winning over there, and Evangelist Urbanic is a good reporter, brother James too, just getting a lot of people saved and really dedicated to soul winning, and so, if you get an opportunity to hang out with James, you should. He'll rub off you on the good way, and we really appreciate him visiting our church this morning, so if you have any questions about the Philippines, he's a great resource. Let's go ahead and sing our third song for the morning, Psalm 147. Psalm 147. All right, that was Psalm chapter 147. If you look around, there may be a black binder near you, a little bit newer. They carry all the psalms you would need to read from, nice and big, so no excuse. Sing it out on the first. Of Israel we kneel in the broken, in heart and mind, in love and in wounds. He is there with us, number of the stars. He called them all, He called them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and our great power. His understanding is in the name. The Lord is with us. The beating casteth the wicked down to the ground. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving. Sing praise up from the heart, one to our God. Who cover in the heaven with plow, who prepareth rain for the earth, who make it pass, grass to flow on the mountains. He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young greatest his wine. He delighted not in the strength of the poor, seek taketh not pleasure in. The legs of the man, the poor take it, pleasure in them that fear him, and those that hope in his mercy. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. Praise thy God, O Zion. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. For he did have strength in the bars, of the gates we have had blessed. Thy children within thee he made, in peace and thine orders and vilify. With the finest of all he descended, forth his commandment, upon earth his birth, from it very swiftly. He gaveth, stole thy poultry, scattered the poor crops like ashes, scattered the poor crops like ashes. He cast it forth, his dice like gold, stole to his dead and he bore it all. He sent it now, his word and the gift, and he taught to his good friends to own. And the one that spoke, he sure with his word unto Jacob, and sent his judgment unto Israel. He hath God's best stolen, and the nation banned as for his judgment. They have not, but will receive the Lord. Great singing everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter four. That's the book of Genesis chapter number four. . . . Genesis chapter four, we'll read the entire chapter. As is our custom, the Bible reads, and Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel, and Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord, and Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect, and Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not, am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground, and now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength, a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, and it shall come to pass that everyone that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold, and the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived, and bare Enoch, and he builded a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch. And unto Enoch was born Irad, and Irad begat Mehugel, and Mehugel begat Methusel, and Methusel begat Lamech, and Lamech took unto him two wives, the name of the one was Adda, and the name of the other Zillah. And Adda bare Jabal, he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle, and his brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron, and the sister of Tubalcain was Naamah. And Lamech said unto his wives, Adda and Zillah, hear my voice, you wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech, for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt, if Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold. And Adam knew his wife again, and she bare a son, and called his name Seth, for God said she hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. And if Seth to him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos, then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I pray, Lord, that you would bless all aspects of the following message. I pray also that you would help us to pay close attention to it, give us ears to hear, to apply this sermon to our lives, and fill Pastor Shelley with the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit now. Thank you for this day and for our church service. We love you in Jesus' name, Amen. We love you in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen. I want to look back at verse number seven. The Bible says, If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted, and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel's brother, and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel's brother and slew him. And here in this story, we have an example of Cain killing his brother and really just ultimately being a bad kid. And I'm going to preach a sermon this morning on just bad kids. And honestly, it's not just going to be a sermon. It's going to be a series. I'm doing a three-part series on the idea of bad kids because it's a major theme in the Bible, and I think it's important for us to consider what the Bible has to say on this subject matter. Now, I have specific goals with this sermon and with all the sermons that I'm planning on preaching about this topic, but just to give you some kind of an idea, number one, kids need to make sure that they choose to serve God on their own. Kids have to make their own decision to serve God. We all are individually responsible for the decisions that we make, and so no one is guaranteed to be a good kid. We have to choose to make good decisions, and we need to encourage our children to make good decisions. Additionally, I believe that when you identify a bad kid as other kids, we need to stay away from bad influences, and we need to stay away from other kids that are going down a bad path so that we also don't go down a bad path with them. And here, this is pretty extreme where Cain is willing to kill his own brother Abel, and the Bible even tells us why. Now, we're not coming back here, so you can just go with me. Go to 1 John 3, and in fact, I'm going to go to a lot of Bible, because I don't want you to just take my opinion this morning. In fact, I'm not even going to really express my opinion much this morning. I just want you to see what the Bible says on this subject, and that the Bible emphasizes the reality that most people are just bad. Most people are just bad. And if that's true, then we have to understand that even as Christians and God-fearing mothers and fathers, that the reality and the statistics are that there's going to be bad kids, no matter what we do, because we have free will. Free will exists. And the Bible tells us why Cain is bad. We don't have to wonder, like, what happened, what was the issue, did he not get a special birthday party or something, or was Cain just neglected, or is there something wrong with the firstborn? Like, what's the reason? Well, the Bible tells us why Cain did it. Look at 1 John 3, verse 11. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother, and wherefore slew him. Now, this is a really important thing in the Bible. Wherefore, that means why. Why did he kill his brother? The Bible's going to reveal to us the mystery of why he did it. Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. That's it. It doesn't say that it's anybody else's fault. It doesn't say that he has some bad genetics or something, or his upbringing. It just simply says he's evil, and his brother's righteous, he hates the righteous, and so he wants to kill the righteous person. Cain is personally responsible for his actions, and he was a wicked person, he's an evil person, he's a bad kid. And that's just sometimes going to be the reality of the world that we live in. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 24, Deuteronomy 24. We have to take personal responsibility for our actions. And children, just because your parents are good doesn't mean you'll automatically be good. You have to choose to be good. And if your brothers and sisters do not choose to be good, you still need to choose to be good. If your older brother is evil, you should still be good. If your brother lies to your parents, you tell the truth to your parents. If your brother steals, you don't steal, you don't take anything wrong. If your brother doesn't care about reading his Bible, you read your Bible anyways. It doesn't matter if your brother wants to serve God, you serve God. You make the right decisions, you obey mom and dad, you don't lie, you don't beat up on your other brothers and sisters, you do what's right and don't be like Cain. Deuteronomy 24 verse 16, the Bible says, The father shall not be put to death for the children. Neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. Notice that the Bible is giving personal responsibility and it is saying we should take personal responsibility for our actions. Go to Ezekiel chapter 18. Go to Ezekiel chapter number 18. I said I'm going to go to a lot of Bible and I meant it. Okay, so you better get ready to go to a lot, a lot of Bible. Now, of course, to talk about a subject like this, I believe really takes a lot of time and so that's why I am going to be preaching multiple sermons on this particular topic. So this morning's sermon is just really just a showcase and highlight how the Bible describes that there's just bad kids in the Bible. I mean, that's just something if you just read the Bible for, you'll notice, man, there's a lot of bad kids in the Bible. And really, ultimately the Bible is telling us that people need to take personal responsibility for their actions. This is such an important point. Ezekiel 18 verse 20. Here's what the Bible says here. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father. Neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. The Bible is saying it is not the father that's going to have to bear the iniquity of his son. Nor the son bear the iniquity of his father. What does this look like? If your dad is a drunkard, if your dad is a raging alcoholic, you don't have to be one. You can choose to be sober. And you know what? If your dad is sober and you choose to be a raging alcoholic, well, God is going to pour a lot of punishment on you for doing so. And look, I've known tons of people. I've known tons of people where the dad is a raging alcoholic and the child sees the consequences of such actions and says, I don't want to be like that, and they stay away from it and they're sober. And you know what? They don't have to suffer the consequences of that. And I've seen the opposite. I know people in my personal life where the dad never drank alcohol in their entire life, hates alcohol, warns against alcohol, and then the son just becomes a raging alcoholic and, of course, bears all of the consequences of drinking alcohol, like committing rampant fornication when they're young, like doing drugs, like committing crimes, like then once they get married committing all kinds of adultery because they were drinking alcohol. That is not the father who never drank alcohol's fault. I mean, that doesn't even make sense. And it would make sense to hold the parent responsible when they've taught their child don't drink alcohol. They themselves have never drank alcohol. They would never allow this person to drink alcohol in their presence. Yet, the son is a raging alcoholic. And look, I know people like this. And that is what the Bible is saying. You have to take personal responsibility for your actions, and God is going to hold you personally responsible for what you do. Go over to Proverbs 20. Go to Proverbs 20. You say, at what age? At what age is someone personally responsible? And this is a big question. A lot of people even ask this, the age of accountability. They say, at what age would a child be held accountable for their own salvation? And I don't have an age for you. I don't know what that number is. What I do know is I believe that kids at 5, 6, 7 are getting saved. So, you know, to me, I think it's important to try and get your children saved at a young age and to try to preach them the Gospel and then try to encourage them to do the right thing. I also have worked in my past. A long time ago, I worked at the church, like, not really nursery, but the church, like, youth department a lot. And I've worked with all kinds of ages. I've worked with 3- and 4-year-olds. I've worked with 4- and 5-year-olds. I've worked with junior high. I've worked with high school. And let me tell you something. Even at 4 and 5 years old, you can tell there's some bad kids. You can say, this kid is just different than the rest of the other kids, and they're wild, they're crazy. I went to public school, and I've been around children of all ages. And let me say something. There was some bad seeds in the bunch. There was some rotten kids at a very young age. And this is what the Bible says. Look at Proverbs 20, verse 11. Even a child is known by his doings whether his work be pure and whether it be right. Telling us what? That even at a very young age, we can often tell the character of a children and the character of a person and where they're headed. Now, praise God, foolishness is bound on the heart of a child, and the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. So if you have a wild child, if you have a kid that's not necessarily going down a good path, you could potentially correct that. You could influence them to be better. But the Bible is saying you can almost even tell, even at a young age, the character of an individual. And the Bible is saying that we can know a child by his doings, what he's doing, what his work is like, whether it be pure or whether it be right. Go to Proverbs 30 now. Go to Proverbs chapter 30. So here's some points that I want you to understand that we've learned so far. Number one, Cain killed Abel because his own works were evil. Point number two, the Bible says that we have to bear our own personal responsibility for our actions. And we've seen that repeatedly, that God is not going to hold someone guilty for their family's decisions. They're going to hold them guilty for their own decisions. And that even at a very young age, people can be understood for their character. We don't have to necessarily wait for a child to become a grown adult to understand that they have character flaws or issues or what type of path that they're on. We can tell at a very young age, in many cases, what path they're on. And look, there's been children that have done horrible things. Even young adults, they get involved with bad people. You see sadly on the news all kinds of different young men that are 10, 11, 12, even a little bit older, getting involved in gangs, shootings, stabbings, drugs, all kinds of horrible things in the public school system. And they're headed down a bad path. And you know, a lot of that's also their influence. I mean Proverbs chapter 1 says not to hang out with bad influences and get involved with bad characters. A lot of times it's a result of maybe having a rough upbringing or a rough home life. But at the end of the day, everybody has to take personal responsibility. Because there's plenty of people that have a rough situation, bad parts of their life, and they choose to make good decisions still. And we have to take personal responsibility. There's people that have great situations that still make bad decisions. So we have to just understand people are going to choose what they want. It's called free will. And if, you know, there's this idea that I think has poisoned the minds of a lot of people. And this is this idea that if you and your spouse are perfect parents, that you'll raise perfect kids. But if that was true, if that was true, we would have an army of perfect people in this world. Because if you and your spouse just have perfect kids, you have like four or five perfect kids, well their perfect kids are going to marry good people, and they're going to marry good people, and then they're going to generate a bunch of good people, and then they're going to generate a bunch of good people, and then pretty soon you're going to have this army of just awesome people. But let me explain something to you. I don't see that. Maybe you can show me this army of awesome people, this huge group. In fact, the Bible kind of paints the opposite picture, that most people are just bad, just in general. I mean, statistically, most people are going to get saved, and then on top of that, most people don't ever choose to serve God. So if the statistics are like 90-some percent of people aren't even going to get saved, and then on top of that, even smaller percentage are even going to choose to serve God, what are the statistics then that every single person in church is all going to have a child that gets saved and wants to serve God zealously? I mean, the statistics are just pretty much just, if you know anything about math, they're not possible. Which means what? Some people are going to have bad kids, even to no fault of their own, in some cases to the fault of their parenting a little bit. But we have to understand that there is free will, and there are going to be people that have great upbringings and great parents, and they just make bad decisions. Look at Proverbs 30, verse 11. There is a generation that cursed their father and did not bless their mother. Whose fault is this? And this is what's really sad. This isn't a person. There is a generation. Sometimes you have just a large group of people that are just all a rotten group, just a rotten generation. You see this with the children of Israel when they get out of the wilderness, and the whole generation was a bad generation, and God had to literally wipe them all out except Joshua and Caleb. I mean, that's pretty bad when God says, like, all of you are so bad, and I can only keep two people. But you know what? That happens. There are going to be times in history and places and areas where almost the whole lot is just bad, and only a few, only a remnant, only a small group. I mean, only a lot was taken out of Sodom. I mean, you just see this consistent theme. Only Noah was found righteous in his generation. You just see a consistent theme of just, man, there's just not a lot of people that want to serve God. Go to Judges chapter 2. I'll show you this. Judges chapter number 2. And I've known this for a long time, and I've always believed this, and what I've had to do is I've constantly tried to motivate my children. When one of my children does something wrong, usually the others follow suit. Let's just be honest, right? When one's going to break the rules, they all kind of break the rules. And I'm always kind of trying to tell them, like, hey, look, if your brother doesn't want to do right, you can still do right. If they're going to go and sneak food in the pantry, you don't have to sneak food. If they're going to go get on a tablet when they're not supposed to, you don't have to get on a tablet. If they're going to go outside when they're not supposed to go outside, you're not going to go outside. And I'm always trying to tell them, hey, if they don't want to serve God, are you still going to serve God? And I'm trying to encourage them to say, look, even if they don't want to go to church, even if they don't want to make good decisions, even if they don't want to obey Mom and Dad, you should choose to obey Mom and Dad and not necessarily go down the same path as your brothers and sisters, because the reality is Christ did not come to send peace on earth, nay, rather division. And that division, he explains, is a family. And he says a man's foes shall be they of his own household. That for most of us, we will have a separating, a cutting of ties within family by serving God. And that's just unfortunately the reality. Judges chapter number two, look at verse 16. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges which delivered them out of the hands of those that spoiled them, and yet they would not hearken under their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods and bowed themselves under them. They turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in. Notice that phrase. He's like saying, man, their fathers have been teaching the right way, right way, right way for a long time, just a long time, long time. As soon as their fathers are gone, they just immediately turn away. He says they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord, but they did not so. So the fathers keeping the commandments. We don't even have to ask the question, were these good fathers? The Bible says they kept the commandments of the Lord. We know for a fact that they kept the commandments of the Lord. Yeah, but maybe they're bad parents. Okay, but then they wouldn't have kept the commandments of the Lord. It's saying they kept the commandments of the Lord, but as soon as they were gone, what happened? They turned quickly out of the way. Why? Because it's a bad generation. Let's keep reading. Skip down to verse 20. And the angry Lord was hot against Israel, and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed My covenant, which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened in My voice, I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died, that through them I may prove Israel whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. He's saying, hey, I'm testing you to see if you will do what's right. Hey, your dad did what's right, but will you do what's right? Hey, your dad is a Baptist, but will you be a Baptist? Hey, your dad didn't drink alcohol, but will you drink alcohol? God's trying to test you and say, hey, your dad, hey, he loved his wife. Will you love your wife? Your dad did what was right and went soul winning and preached the gospel and followed God's commandments, but will you do that? And God is going to test every single one of us. How could God even judge us if our decisions are not our own responsibility? I mean, if we're all just a product of our environment, then that would be weird. That's like Calvinism, folks. I am not a Calvinist. I do not believe that I'm already predestined to make all the decisions that I'm going to based on simply factors of my creation, factors of who my parents were, or factors of whatever. I remember going to school, public school, and our teacher got up and she said, your religion is based on one thing, and the one thing is who your parents are. She says, if you're from the Middle East, you're going to be Islamic. She says, if you're from India, you're going to be Hindu. If you're from Mexico, you're Catholic. She said, if you're from America, you're Christian. And it's not because it's the right religion, it's just because that's where you're from. And I remember being offended because I'm like, no, I'm Christian because it's the truth. No, I'm Christian because I believe in Jesus Christ. And I thought, like, maybe I'm not. I mean, at least I played devil's advocate with myself. Would I choose the right religion? But here's the thing. It's not my fault that I was raised with the right religion, number one. But let me say this. I wasn't raised in a good church, though. And I wasn't raised reading exclusively the King James Bible. And you know what? I came to those conclusions because they were the truth. And I believe that, God willing, if I sought the Lord being raised in a Hindu family, a Muslim family, or a Catholic family, I would have eventually found the truth anyways. Because you know what? He that seeketh findeth. And you know what? The reason why people are going to be judged according to the Bible is because of their own free will decisions. And whosoever will let him come under the water of life, let him drink freely. It's whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The Bible says in Romans chapter 1 that they're going to be without excuse in the day of judgment. It does not say based on just the environment and where you are, that's your path. No, we can change our life based on our choices. You can go from good to bad and go from bad to good. It's up to you. And you know what? Praise God we have that opportunity. And praise God we live in a country that gives us about as much freedom as you could hope for in changing your destiny, changing your outcome. You could be raised poor and you could end up working really hard and make a lot of money. You know, there's some countries where you don't have that opportunity. You have the opportunity to kind of marry pretty much whoever you want, which is a great blessing. There's some parts of the world where you live in a caste system where it's kind of expected that your parents are going to have an arranged marriage for you and you're going to only marry certain people and a certain part of your country. You know what? Praise God that I get to pick who I want to marry. And so there's benefit to free will. But there's also consequence to free will because just like I could make good decisions, I can make bad decisions. I could marry someone that doesn't love the Lord. I could have married someone that wasn't going to love me. I could have married someone that wasn't going to have my children. I could have married someone. I could have just not married someone. I could have just been a whoremonger. I could have just decided to drink alcohol every day. I could just play video games every day. I could have just decided, you know what? I think that God told me that I'm going to be a professional video game player. And you laugh. I've had someone tell me that. I've had someone say God has destined for me to be a professional video game player. What? No. No, why don't you be like your dad? And look, I've seen it my whole life because I was the youngest of the youngest in my family. I've just seen so many people. I've seen my siblings raise. I've seen them raise their children. In fact, I was closer in age to my nieces and nephews than my own siblings in some cases. So I've seen tons and tons of people raise. I've seen on my wife's side tons of people raise. I've seen cousins, tons of people raise. And, you know, I've seen lots of kids be way worse than their parents. And I used to always think, like, man, these parents just must not be good parents. But at the end of the day, I'm thinking like, how is it really fair, though, if a child is objectively worse than their parents, that is the parents' fault? Right? I mean, I can see if you're like your parent, then maybe you could say like, well, you should have been a little bit better so that your child could be like you. But if your child is going to go in a completely different path and be way different than you and way more sinful, you know what? That is the child's problem. That is the child that's going to bear the responsibility and the iniquity that he has done. And God's constantly testing us to see what decisions will you make. Go over to 2 Chronicles chapter 21. And let me say this. I hope that my children are better than me. I want that. I want to encourage them to do that. But I cannot force any of them to be better than me. That's for them to decide. It's for my children. You know, my children, I hope, are going to have more opportunity. They're going to have an opportunity to read the Bible more than me, but I can't force them. They're going to have an opportunity to memorize more scripture than me by the time, you know, they become an adult. But I can't force them. They're going to have more of an opportunity to serve God for a longer portion of their life. But I can't force them. They're going to have an opportunity to do a lot of things that are better than me. But you know what? That's for them to decide if they're going to do it. And you know what? I hope they will. I'll encourage them to do so. But they have to make that decision. The Bible says in Proverbs 17, I'm just reading for you, He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow, and the father of a fool hath no joy. Can you really control who you beget? He that begetteth a fool. But it happens. I mean, who did that, Adam and Eve? Didn't they beget a fool? They beget Cain, the first man they got from the Lord, but his own works were evil. He went after Satan, and he ended up killing his brother. That's not something Adam and Eve would have ever taught their parents. In fact, we don't even teach our kids any of the bad stuff, really. I mean, if you really think about it, you're not sitting down and explaining to them when they're three and four, this is how you lie. This is how you're manipulative. This is how you take things when you shouldn't. Doesn't it kind of seem that they're born with a sin nature? Have you ever realized? And, you know, maybe some people that haven't had kids or haven't raised very many kids or haven't raised teenagers, they just don't understand this because they just think, like, kids being bad is just parents being bad or something. But they're born bad. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. You have to teach them to be good. You have to try and instruct them to do right because by just leaving them alone, I mean, the Bible says a child left to himself bringing his mother to shame because it's just like, man, if you don't even try, it's almost there's no chance. But even when trying, there's no guarantee, folks. Now, I know that the Bible says train up a child in the way you should go when he's old and not depart from it, but that's not necessarily saying everything that you think it's saying. You know, hey, if I train my kids in a certain way, they're going to definitely follow a lot of those characteristics, but that doesn't take away from their personal responsibility. It doesn't take away from their free will. You know, obviously, if I've trained up a child in the way to eat brisket, he's not going back to the other way brisket, folks. If I train up a child in the way to know, to understand the King James Bible is the word of God, he's not going to go to the NIV. He's not going to do that. If I train up a child in the way he's going to go about all kinds of manner of life, how to live, how to be hardworking, all these, that's probably not going to leave him. But he can still choose to just be a backslidden person. That's always on the table. And they can always be backslidden. They can always make bad decisions. The prodigal son and the other son, you know, it's not a result of the parenting decisions. It's the result of the children's decisions. And that's a whole other sermon that I'll preach at some point. But I want to just show you again this consistent theme in the Bible. Look at 2 Chronicles 21 verse 9. He made high places in the mountains of Judah and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication and compelled Judah thereto. And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet saying, Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a-whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father's house, which were better than thyself. Behold, with a great plague will the Lord smite thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy goods. And thou should have great sickness by disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day. There's a lot to unpack in this. Jehoram, in verse 12, did not walk in the ways of his father Jehoshaphat, nor in the ways of his father Asa. So these guys are setting a good example, teaching their son to walk in his ways, and he rebels and he goes against it. And then God judges him, harshly. Did you see the punishment that he's going to give him? He's going to smite his people, his children, his wives, his goods, and he's going to have a great sickness to where his bowels fall out. Look, if you've been given great opportunity and great responsibility to serve God, and you choose not to, boy, there could be a big, big punishment for that. But you know what? Some people will make this decision to walk away from the things that their fathers taught them, and they're just a bad kid. And really, you see in the Bible, from the kings, especially on the Judah side, because you actually have some difference, it's like, some good kings, good father, bad son, good father, bad son, good, good, bad, bad, good, bad. Israel is just pretty much just bad, okay? It's just like bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, worse, they're gone. You have to understand that even from some of the good guys, they did not do well. And this would be what people might suggest. Go to Job chapter 1. This is what somebody might suggest. I just think they're a bad father. Well, then you're going to pretty much have to say that literally every guy in the Bible is a bad father. And I'm not saying you couldn't find a few. There is a few examples, and I say few and mean few. But wouldn't it be weird to think that the man after God's own heart, all the guys that are constantly referred to as keeping God's commandments and holy, following the Lord with all their heart, they just happen to just have this huge, big beam in their eye of parenting or something? Like, they're just these terrible parents. Why is it that, and then who are the good parents? Because we don't see any, like, good people in the world. It's not like, hey, this prophet, he's great, bad kids, and then there's all these really great kids over here. It's just like everybody's bad virtually, okay? And then even the good guys struggle to raise good kids in the Bible consistently. Why? Because it's very, very difficult to influence people to do the right thing. Try to lead anybody. Try to run a company. Try to hire employees. Try to organize soul winning. Try to run a church. Try to do anything that actually, you know, just try to take a bunch of kids somewhere. Boy, it's hard. It's difficult. People are fickle. I mean, have you read about Moses? Moses knows this point, all right? He said, man, these people are, you know, rough. And I mean, these people saw the miracles of God, and they're still rough. I mean, they saw the miracle of God, and they're still making a golden calf right away. They're still allowing false prophets and false teachers and disgruntled people to constantly lead them astray and get them to attack Moses and try to go back to Egypt in their hearts because they were just a bad generation. There's also good generations with Joshua. That old generation kind of seems to be good. They follow him. They say we're going to keep all the commandments, but then immediately the next generation is like bad again. You read Judges, it's like good, bad, good, bad. And you have to say, like, well, but I just think if you're a great guy, your kids are going to be great. Well, there is a great guy in the Bible. His name is Job. Let's read about Job. And I'm going to read, actually, I told you to go there. I'm going to go there myself because I want to read another verse. I don't have my notes. But let's read the first few verses here about Job and see what kind of person he is. There was a man in the land of us whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil. I mean, this guy is great. In fact, according to the Bible, he's just basically the best guy alive. He has 10 kids. Skip down to verse 5. And it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all, talking about his children. For Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Now, this is crazy if you actually think about what he just said, because think about it. Job's perfect, basically. So he would have been a great father. He would have been a great husband. He would have been a great Christian. He would have been a great example. And he's raised children. He has at least 10. He has 10 children. I mean, just by sheer math, at least one of them has to be, like, 20. And it's probably likely that they're all a lot older. I mean, I'm just saying, like, basically just at the bare minimum, at least one of them is 20, probably 18. It's more likely that there's some range of, like, 30s to early 20s. It seems like they're all kind of an adult age. I don't know. I could be wrong. I don't know exactly. But this is one thing I do know is if you're thinking your children are going to curse God in their hearts, we're not talking about a minor sin here. He's not saying, like, I'm worried that my kids might kind of screw up a little bit or not be perfect or make a little mistake. He's worried about them hating God in their heart and cursing God in their heart. That's an extreme rebellion. That's an extreme sin. Why would Job be worried about that if he had the ability for that to not happen? He doesn't have the ability for that to happen. He's praying. He's saying, I hope that it doesn't happen. Would you think that maybe Job might actually be worried about his kids? I mean, if you had this concern, you must have thought, like, there might be something even up with them or that's even possible. Why would he pray for this if it's not even possible? You really expect me to believe that Job is just sitting here praying for something that's never going to happen? Like, you're just praying, I hope my kids are not a reprobate, but you know they're saved. Like, he wouldn't pray that. He's praying that is earnestly that God would be merciful to them, and he's even praying if they did that, that God would still be merciful to them. He's saying, even if they do screw up, even if they do kind of go to the devil, even if they do start making bad decisions, even if they do start going down a bad path, I'm just going to pray that God will be merciful to them anyways. This just goes to show that even the greatest man in the Bible could still be fearful of his children and adult children going down a really dark path. And there's one reason why it's called free will. Free will. It really exists. Go to Isaiah for a second. Go to Isaiah chapter 1. Apart from the Psalm book that we have in our Bible, Psalms, this is the longest book in the Bible, and it's going to detail a lot of information. You think that one of the biggest books in the Bible is important? What is Isaiah about? The rebellion of the children of Israel and how God's going to judge them harshly for it. I mean, that's just the theme of Isaiah. But then obviously he brings redemption in the end parts of Isaiah, and he brings about how he's going to give them a new covenant, and there's going to be to have a new earth, and there's a lot of great things in the book of Isaiah. But how does it start? How does the entire book of Isaiah start? The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. So just the opening line of the book. Hey, God said, I've nourished and brought up children, I've loved them, I've done good under them, but they rebelled against me. Why? Because of one word again, free will. Free will. Go to 2 Kings chapter 21, go to 2 Kings chapter 21. At what age can kids be good or bad? Well, let's play that game of the Bible for a minute. Let's see, because you know what, the Bible actually brings up people's ages, and it brings up what kind of character and what kind of person they are. Job's children, he was worried about them, we don't know all their ages. We speculate at minimum, at least one's 20 years old. But let's keep going through the Bible and see when God brings up ages of people and what they were like. 2 Kings chapter 21, look at verse 19. Ammon was 20 and 2 years old when he began to reign. Here's someone that's 22 years old. And he reigned two years in Jerusalem, his mother's name was Meshulameth, the daughter of Haraz of Jatba. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh did. So Manasseh's bad, his son's bad, he's 22 years old, and he's bad. Now, it says in verse 22, And he forsook the Lord God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the Lord. Now Manasseh's bad, but that doesn't mean that all of his fathers, all of the examples he had, because when it says fathers here, it's talking about just his lineage, and if you look back at some of your grandfathers, he didn't walk in their ways. Look at 2 Kings chapter 24 now. 2 Kings chapter 24, so we see someone rebelling against the Lord at 22 years old. How about younger? 2 Kings chapter 24, look at verse 18. Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Hamutol, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. So Zedekiah is 21 years old, and he does what is evil in the sight of the Lord. Go to chapter 16, go backwards to chapter 16, and I want to look at verse number 2. So we see a 22 year old doing that which is evil, we see a 21 year old doing that which is evil in the sight of the Lord, and again, in some cases it's like their father, in some cases it's not like their father, it's going to be back and forth, but God's not really mad at these people for what their fathers did, he's mad for what they're doing, and he's holding them responsible for their actions. Look at 2 Kings 16 verse 2. 20 years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord his God, like David his father. Now David is not his direct descendant, David is just a part of the lineage here, but Ahaz is 20 years old. Now I want to show you his direct lineage, because this is important. We're going to, let me see if you should keep your finger there or not, because I want to go to, yeah, keep your finger here, right here, and go to 2 Chronicles chapter 26, go to 2 Chronicles chapter 26. What I want to show you and demonstrate for you is Ahaz's direct lineage. 2 Chronicles chapter 26, look at verse number 1. Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah. He built Eloth and restored it to Judah. After that the king slept with his fathers. Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign, and he reigned 50 and 2 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Jecaliah of Jerusalem, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah did. Now this is important. Number 1, here's a young guy, 16 years old, and he did what was right. So it's not even saying like if you just put young people in charge they'll do bad, because you actually have plenty of examples of young people doing great. He's 16, does what's right. Now go to chapter 27 verse 1. Jotham was 20 and 5 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok, and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all his father Uzziah did. So Uzziah, 16, does right. His son Jotham, 25, does right. Now Jotham dies, chapter 28 verse 1. Ahaz was 20 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem, but he did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord, like David his father. For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Balaam. So you see Uzziah, good. Jotham, good. Ahaz, bad. Why? It's called free will, and there's no consistent pattern in the Bible of good. It's just like, it could just be, it's just a roll of the dice, and the die is 95% bad and 5% good, basically. It's like, let's just roll the dice, and it's like, yep, another bad, another bad, another bad. Oh, we got a good one. Oh, we got a good one. Roll the dice. And again, I'm not saying that whether your kids turn out is solely a roll of the dice, but I am saying from a percentage-wise it is. I am saying statistically in the Bible, it's not most people that are turning out good. Why? Again, free will. Free will. Now we have a great responsibility as parents to influence our children, and we're going to have an impact on them, but let me tell you something. Whether your kids do right or wrong is their choice. Go over to 2 Kings 24. Go back because we're going back. So we've seen bad people at age 22, 21, 20. Let's keep going. 2 Kings 24, look at verse number 8. Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months, and his mother's name was Ahushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father had done. So here's Jehoiachin doing evil, and again, I try to play devil's advocate with myself against what I'm saying, like if someone's going to make an argument. They could say like, yeah, this guy was 22 and he did evil. We're talking about when he got older or later in life or something, but this one is real clear. This guy's 18 and only reigned three months. So he was 18 the whole time. In another passage of the Bible, he says he was eight when he began to reign, but that just must mean he was announced like co-regent. He basically comes into power at 18 years old, reigns for three months, and he's evil. He's evil and God's going to hold him personally responsible for the evil that he's done. Now the good thing about Jehoiachin is he gets taken back into captivity and then later he gets into being restored. So sometimes people are bad when they're young and then they turn out good later, but he was bad. He was evil. He was doing wrong. Go to Genesis chapter 17. Go to Genesis chapter number 17. I'll show you another example of some people. So we've seen 22, 21, 20, 18. Let's keep going. Now Genesis chapter 17, we have to look at a couple of verses here to kind of get some idea, but look at verse 25. The Bible says in Ishmael, his son was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his fortskin. So Ishmael's 13. One year later, we know from the Bible, Isaac is born. Then he's weaned, and so if you were to put up a timeline, you have 13 plus 1, that's 14, plus weaning. I'm just going to throw out about two years. That means that Ishmael would have been about 16, 17 years old. Look at Genesis 21 now, and look at verse number 9. And Sarah saw the son of Agar the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. So here's Ishmael mocking and making fun of his younger brother. Again, I don't know the exact age. I just assume that he could be somewhere around 16, 17 years old, and he wasn't good. Now go to Genesis 37, go to Genesis 37. Here's another example of people at a young age. Now, some people are good, some people are bad at these ages. We have to understand that everyone gets to make their own decisions, and God's looking at their heart. I don't have this in my notes, but you can think about even David and his brethren. All of his brethren are presented before Samuel the prophet, and God says, I refuse these, not because of their physical characteristics, but because of what was in their heart, and he had to pick David because of what was in his heart as a young man, as a young shepherd boy. Joseph is the same way in the sense of his brethren, that he has all his brethren, but they're all evil. Look at what it says in verse 2. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Now, again, I don't know the ages of his older brethren, but he's 17. Stands to reason they're probably somewhat close. Obviously, he's the child of his old age, but at the end of the day, the other sons could have been not that far off, and they're all evil. So Joseph's 17 good. We see Uzziah 16 good. We see other people, Joachim 18 bad. Go over to 2 Kings chapter 21. 2 Kings chapter number 21. See, at what age do they start showing their character? Well, the Bible already told us in Proverbs that even a child is known by his doings. Whether his work be pure, whether it be right. Look at what it says in 2 Kings chapter 21 in verse number 1. Manasseh was 12 years old when it began to rain, and he rained 50 and 5 years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Hephzibah, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. At 12 years old, someone can be evil. I didn't say that. God said that. God is saying this guy is evil at 12 years old. Look at verse 3. ...which Hezekiah's father had destroyed, and he reared up altars for Baal and made it grow, as did Ahab king of Israel and worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served them. Is it Hezekiah's fault that he destroyed the altars of Baal and then a grandson or his son later down the line rebuilds that false religion? No, it's Manasseh's evil. Go over to 2 Kings chapter number 2. How young can you get? How young can you get? Well, that's going to be scary for some people, but I'm just going to tell you what the Bible says, okay? It doesn't matter what my opinion is. It just matters what the truth is. What is the truth? People can be good. People can be bad based on their own free will, and the Bible warns about bad kids consistently. Manasseh, bad kid. You see, Ahaz, bad kid. You see all kinds of different people just being bad. Here's some other bad kids. 2 Kings chapter 2 verse 23. And he went up from thence, talking about Elisha, unto Bethel. And as he was going up, by the way, there came forth little children out of the city and mocked him and said unto them, Go up thou bald head, go up thou bald head. And he turned back and looked on them and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she-bearers out of the wood and tear forty and two children of them. And he went from thence to Mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria. Now, I don't know what the ages are, but the Bible says it was little children. It doesn't even say children. These are just some bad kids. You know, unfortunately, I've seen repeated news stories. Kids, seven, eight, nine, going in robbing stores, holding up guns to people, to individuals, getting involved in all kinds of criminal activity at such a young, young age. I've seen videos of kids that look like they're four and five doing extremely inappropriate things because of their terrible parents getting them and going down a bad path. And look, obviously, for many of these children at that age, they probably have some serious home issues. I mean, I'm not going to say that they don't. They probably do. But at the end of the day, tons of people have bad home situations and don't make those bad decisions. It would blow your mind. It would blow your mind the amount of children that have been abused by their parents in a household. It's just sad. It's just a sad, sad, sad reality. And when I use the word abuse, I'm typically talking about of a bedroom nature. That's what I'm talking about. Obviously, there can also be physical abuse of kids where they have cigarettes put out on them and they have bones broken and they have all kinds of horrible things happening to them. But you would be shocked how many people have had something like that happen to them. And the reality is some people choose that situation to end up being really bad because of it. But other people decide, you know what, that was rough, I don't like it, but I'm still going to make good decisions in my life and I'm not going to do that to my children, I'm not going to do that to people in my life that I love, and I'm just going to make better decisions. And you know why? Free will. It is not like, oh, kids that have bad situations turn out bad, and kids that have good situations turn out good. Everybody has free will. And there are people in bad situations that turn out good, there's people in good situations that turn out bad, and it's free will. And we have to just accept the serenity of free will. Go over to Matthew chapter 15, let's go to the New Testament for a moment. Why preach a sermon like this? This seems discouraging because you're telling me that I can't force my kids to do whatever I want. Well, but here's the thing. If that's true, we need to know it. And then number two, because it's true, then we need to motivate our children, we need to talk to our children constantly about how they have to take personal responsibility for their actions. And we can't allow them to blame other people. And we live in a society that is blaming everyone else for their bad decisions. We live in a society where they say systemic racism is why I killed this cop standing in front of me. Systemic racism is why I steal and do drugs and commit murder and all kinds of abominations in our society. There is a generation today that says, oh, it's because of my father or because of my mother or because of my upbringing or because of my school, and they won't take personal responsibility for their actions. And let me tell you something, it's garbage. Every single person needs to take personal responsibility for their actions. And we need to stop enabling people to make all these excuses for the bad situations that they had. Because let me tell you something, people just don't even understand the world. Go with me to some parts of the world where they're literally raised in communism, where they're raised in the most strict upbringing imaginable. You don't even understand what other people are going through and what other life circumstances are out there, and many people just suck it up, buttercup, and they put on a brave face and they just make good decisions. I mean, what about Daniel and his friends? Do you think they had a good upbringing? Oh, they're serving under the master of the eunuchs in a foreign land that they've been sold into. What do you think about Joseph being hated by his brethren and sold into slavery into Egypt? Talk about a pretty rough upbringing. Yet they make good decisions in spite of their bad situation. And you know what? We need to make good decisions in spite of our upbringing. We also need to make sure that we're getting our children saved at a young age. Because you know what? People are more likely to get saved the younger they are. And we need to do so. Because young children can go down bad paths, they can have bad influences, and according to the Bible, they can be demon-possessed. And if you're saved, you can't. So we should work on getting our children saved. I believe there's many kids in the public school that are demon-possessed. And you know what demon-possessed people do? They hurt themselves. They hurt themselves and they hurt others around them. Look at Matthew 15, verse 22. He told a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. This is a young child in demon possession. Look at chapter 17 and go to verse 15. Chapter 17 and look at verse 15. Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic. He thinks the earth is flat. Oh, sorry. I added that. No, it says, and sore vexed, for oftentimes he falleth into the fire and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him, and the child was cured from the very hour. You know, the Bible's bringing up children that are in a bad situation. Bad things happen. You know, we should care a lot about our children. We should try to get them saved. We should have positive influences. And look, the next sermon that I'm going to go on this topic is going to talk a lot about that. But I didn't want to try and cram it into this one, and you're here for three more hours. So please stick with me. It's kind of the bad news first. We're giving you the bad news first. Everyone has free will. I mean, the bad news is most people aren't going to go to heaven. Bad news, most people won't even serve God. Here's some good news. Because you're saved and you have the gospel and your children are young, you'll probably get a lot of them saved, if not most of them. I think we'll get most of our kids saved. But I just want to say that if any of us had a kid that decides not to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, please don't beat yourself up for it. If you gave them the gospel and you took them to the right church and you preached them the gospel and they choose not to believe in Jesus Christ, please let this sermon be something of a little bit of comfort. The word of God is a little bit of comfort. Even Adam and Eve had Cain. And you like to sit here and think like, why say these kind of things? But you don't understand the pain that a parent would have to go through if they raised their child for 18 years the right way and they ended up choosing not to believe in Jesus Christ. But statistically speaking, it's probably going to happen to some people. It may have even already happened to some people. You know, I know people that, especially they got saved later in life, they come to me and they're like, hey, this kid's just a reprobate. That's hard. I can't even imagine I know people that have reprobate children that are close to me. And I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, it's obviously your fault by you preaching the gospel and trying to get them saved. You know, that's just the reality. I mean, Noah, Ham. Do you really expect me to believe, because if you study the ages of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, they're all about two years apart. In fact, I thought there were triplets at one point in my mind. I was trying to prove if they were triplets or not. And I pretty much, the Bible's clear they're not. But they're very, very close in age. You really expect me to believe that Noah and his wife are radically different parents of Shem, Ham, and Japheth to the point that some are great and one's a reprobate? No. It's just sometimes someone begets a fool. And I'm really sorry. I'm really sorry for the people that have that, because it's an evil that none of us want. But you know what? Then you get to feel like what God feels like when he literally creates billions of people and 97% of them reject him and are reprobate and go to hell. How he nourished them and only did good unto them and he gave his only begotten son for them and he gave them life and they still rejected him. And you know, some of us are gonna have to go through pain and suffering of raising children and them not turning out very good. Some of them even in really rare cases not getting saved. I'm not a Calvinist. You can call me a Calvinist, but I do not believe that you can just guarantee every child gets saved. But you know what? I'm gonna be like Job and I'm gonna pray. And I'm gonna give the gospel to my children. And I'm gonna do everything that I possibly can. But I just want you to know at the end of the day, sometimes you might have a bad kid. Go over to Proverbs 13, I just have a few more verses. And you know what, you kids, you need to choose to believe in Jesus Christ for yourself. Kids, you need to choose to read the Bible for yourself. Kids, you need to decide to love Jesus for yourself. You need to do what's right. And when there's other kids, even in this church, that are not gonna do right, there's other people that are gonna get disgruntled and walk away and do something bad. You don't follow their example. And you know, I constantly hear this accusation, so forgive me, because I don't want to just overgeneralize, but I just want to address this point. Because this is what I've heard from many people, from many pastors, even years ago, is that the, quote, old IFB raises way better kids than the new IFB. And I would love for them to just go ahead and prove that to me. Because number one, I've visited many old IFB churches, and let me explain to you something that's always missing. Kids. Isn't that weird? They're raising all these amazing kids, and I show up, and there are none of them there. And specifically, 20 to 30 years olds, it is a food desert, folks, okay? It is almost virtually nonexistent in so many churches. And by percentages, it's just crazy. I mean, you'll visit so many old IFB churches, and you'll just have 60-year-olds, 70-year-olds, 50-year-olds, 80-year-olds, you know, for days. I mean, you'll have 100. You'll have 200. And then you'll have about 20 people that are middle age, and you'll have about 30 young kids. And all the teenagers are gone. All the college-aged kids are gone. And I'm not saying this is every church. I'm not saying this is every person. I'm just saying you and I both know that that is what's the reality. And, you know, we could sit here and say this, though. We could say this. Oh, I guess all the old IFB people are just bad parents. But I don't think that's necessarily true. I don't think they're necessarily all bad parents. You know what I think? I think if 95% of people are not going to get saved, and then a vast majority of people aren't going to ever choose to serve God, if you're on the right path, very few people are going to follow you. You have to realize most of us are in this church because we wanted to be in this church. Your child is going to have to make that decision for themself. Now, I hope that we keep having young people, and we probably will, because we keep trying to reach new people. That's why we have young people in our church, not because the past generation handed them down to us, because we keep reaching new people. And even Jesus himself couldn't hang out with his brothers. He had to hang out with new brothers. Why? Because even his own brothers didn't believe in him. Is that Jesus' fault? Is that Mary's fault? Mary is following Jesus. Jesus is perfect. Mary is following Jesus, and his brethren don't. Whose fault is that? His brothers. I mean, do you really think, I mean, I think he's the older brother. You would think, shouldn't you follow your older brother's example, who's Jesus? I mean, man, that should just go to show people have free will. We're not just locked in and going to do it. And, you know, most of us, if we were to ask, most of us have personal trauma from family issues. We have brothers that don't want to go to church with us and don't like us. We have sisters that don't want to go to church with us and don't like us. We have parents that have issues with us, and we have issues with them. We have children. We have nieces. We have nephews. We have cousins. We have uncles. We have family members and friends. We have personal friends, best friends. There's all kinds of people that we just had to have issue with because we wanted to serve God and they didn't. And I'm trying to preach a sermon like this now where we have a lot of young kids because, inevitably, some of those things are going to happen. And, you know, I'm sorry, but I just don't see this army of just amazing kids being raised by the old IFB. If they have it, praise God. I don't want them to not have it. But I think it's so funny that people want to sit here and say, like, oh, man, I just see all these amazing kids. Like who? And you know how I know that that's not true? You know how I just know for a fact that's not true? Where are all the churches? Where are all the churches with the 20- and 30-year-old pastors that were raised from the old IFB that are just super mega awesome? Oh, are we talking about Paul Chappell's son that took Baptists off the name? Are we talking about Paul Chappell's son that wears pants so thin it looks like leggings now and not even pants? Is that the old IFB children? Oh, but he'll show up in a picture and smile with his effeminate hairstyle. How dare you say that? He was raised a fundamental Baptist. And look, I'm not going to say it's Paul Chappell's fault because Paul Chappell has Baptists on the sign. Paul Chappell has a King James Bible in his hand. Paul Chappell dresses nice. But why is his kids not doing it? Where are all these amazing people? Because you know what? If your doctrine is right, it's going to be evidenced by the fruit. Wisdom is justified of our children. Maybe you're just wrong. Maybe you just don't understand what you're saying. Maybe it's just free will is what we actually have to learn. And we have to realize that you know what? We're going to do our best and we're going to work hard to raise a great generation and I believe that we can. I believe that our generation can be better than us. But if they're better than us, let me explain to you why they're better than us because they chose to be better than us. And you know, we should motivate our children. Hey, you need to choose to do right. You need to read the Bible. You don't just go to a church and get spoon fed. You read it for yourself. You decide to serve God. We need great spirit-filled preaching to motivate the next generation to make good choices for their life. We need to encourage them to do the right thing and not just expect that if we're these amazing parents, they're going to magically do right. No, we have to encourage them to make decisions for themselves and to learn for themselves and to do right and to start taking personal responsibility now. If you're a kid in this room and you can hear and understand what I'm saying, you do right no matter what anybody else does. You be like Daniel and say, I'm not going to defile myself at the king's meet. And if there's other bad kids, if there's kids in this church that are trying to drag you away, Proverbs 13 verse 20, He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Stay away from fools. Hey, that goes for you adults too. Stay away from fools. Stay away from people that are disgruntled against church and don't like church and don't go soul winning and don't really care about the things of God and then they want to tell you you're on the wrong path. Well, what path are you on? I don't want to be a hater. I don't want to just live my whole life watching sermons of people I hate. Go to Jeremiah chapter 17. I'll read for you one more verse, Romans 14. For as it is written, as I live, say to the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give a count of himself to God. Every one of us shall give an account of himself to God, of himself. When you stand before God, he's not going to ask you about your parents. He's not going to ask you about your church. He's not going to ask you about your pastor. He's going to ask you about you. What did you do? Well, I quit church and I just watched a bunch of hater videos. Well, you know what? You're a loser. You're a loser. You're a fool when you had a great opportunity to serve God. Hey, how much soul winning did you do? How much money did you give the church? How many times did you read the Bible? How many people did you turn to righteousness? What did you do in your body with your life with the opportunities that you were given? Less systemic racism. He's just going to slap you, okay? Stupid. It's like there isn't any, there is no racism. There's no such thing as races. Yeah, you know what? There's plenty of white people that hate me. Everybody's like so mad about racism and I'm thinking like the worst people in our country are white. I agree, but they're against me too. They hate me more than they hate you. You really expect me to believe in 2025 America that the liberal Democrats are more threatened by a young black man or me? Because I'll explain to you that I'm banned from way more than that guy. In fact, they'll give that guy a corporate job. It's called diversity hires. Look, you want to sit here and talk about racism and all these things that are against you. Look, that's life. Things are against you. You have to swim upstream if you want to serve the Christian life. But praise God, Jesus is leading the way and we're going to follow him. Please, please, please realize you have to make the right decision for yourself. Jeremiah 17, look at verse 7. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and his hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh. But her leaf shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought and neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the rains, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. God is going to judge you according to what you did and what your ways were. Please, please take personal responsibility. Children, God will judge you for how you behave. In fact, your life depends on it. Honor thy father, thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Your literal lifespan is based on how you obey your parents. Not only that, your rewards in heaven and your destination in heaven is based on trusting in him but your rewards are also based on serving him and what you do with your life. Please, please make the right decision. And you know those of us that maybe, you know when we see somebody struggling with a child if we see kids not making good decisions why don't you try to empathize with that person instead of judging them? I think that all of us by default just simply think what a bad parent. Instead of thinking, man I, you know I'm sorry that you're going through that, how can I help? How can I pray for you? How can I encourage that person? Instead of us all thinking that we're all these perfect people that got it all figured out why don't we just empathize with someone that's got something rough going on? And pray for them and encourage them and encourage them and encourage children to make good decisions. Because you know what, there's a lot of bad kids out there. And we don't need anymore. Let us do our best to encourage kids to make good decisions so that we can have the least amount of bad kids out there. Alright, let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us life and giving us an opportunity to serve you. Thank you for free will. That we get to make our own decisions and we get to choose our own ways and that you're going to reward us according to the decisions that we make. I pray that we would take that gift of free will and we would realize how important it is and that we would try to make good decisions. Not only would we make good decisions, we would encourage those around us to also make good decisions. But we had warned them that they need to be careful with their free will. They need to be careful with the decisions they're going to make. And when people are making bad decisions, when people are going astray I pray that you would help us to have the courage and the bravery to continue to do the right thing. Not follow their bad example. To separate ourselves if needed. And I pray that you would help us as parents, help us as children, help us as Christians to raise a good generation, to be good children, to make good decisions. I pray that you would give us wisdom. I pray that you would give us empathy for those that struggle. And I pray that you would help us to get as many children as we can save. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, for our last song, let's go to song number 42. Song number 42, My Latest Son is Sinking Fast. Song number 42. Let's all sing it out together on the first. My latest son is sinking fast, my race is nearly run. My strongest trials now are past, my triumph is begun. Oh, crown of angel man, crown of man, around we stand. Oh, bury away all your sowing roots to my eternal home. Oh, bury away all your sowing roots to my eternal home. I know I'm near the holy ranks of friends and kindred near. Oh, crown of angel man, crown of man, around we stand. Oh, bury away all your sowing roots to my eternal home. Oh, bury away all your sowing roots to my eternal home. I've almost reached my earthly home, my spirit loudly sings. My only one, behold they come, I hear the noise of wings. Oh, crown of angel man, crown of man, around we stand. Oh, bury away all your sowing roots to my eternal home. Oh, bury away all your sowing roots to my eternal home. Oh, bear my longing heart to it, who bled and died for me. Oh, crown of angel man, crown of man, around we stand. Oh, bury away all your sowing roots to my eternal home. Oh, bury away all your sowing roots to my eternal home. Great singing everybody, we're all dismissed.