BCA Sunday

The reason I did that is next year Bethesda Christian

Academy will be celebrating their thirtieth anniversary. Is that hard

to believe thirty years have come and gone. And I

am always thankful. I travel all over the country speaking

in schools and doing board trainings and professional development.

And I'm always blessed when I'm in a.

Church school for the church loves the school, where the

church loves Kingdom education, and I have seen that here

at Bethesda Baptist Church. This church truly does love the

school ministry. And what a joy it is to work

with a pastor who has a heart for Kingdom education.

So thank you, Pastor Barbie.

But I also want to mention something that's really exciting

for our seniors. As you know today I'm going to

be speaking on the subject of the value of Kingdom education.

But before I do that, I want to show you

something new and exciting. This is something that Missus Barbie

and the seniors worked on.

This is the new BCA crest.

Now that we have a senior class, we have to

have a crest, and that crest will be on the

senior diploma and so you can see there that it's

Bethesda Christian Academy established in nineteen ninety five in the

gray area there and then there's a shield, and on

that shield is the helmet of salvation, because our school

versus Ephesian six seventeen to put on the helmet of

salvation and the Word of God, or the sword of

the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And so

you see the helmet of salvation there, you see the Bible,

of course, because we're a Christian school. You see Hans

joined because we are a community of believers. And then

of course you see the world, because we're to go

you in all the world and fulfill the great commission.

And then of course the sword of the Spirit, the

Word of God, which makes its way through the shield.

And so this is our new crest. I just want

to share it with you.

This is the first time that we've put it out publicly,

and right now in the process of developing our first

graduation diploma for the class of twenty twenty five. And

by the way, where are our seniors, Seniors?

Stand up? Senor stand up?

All right? Congratulation, all right, all right, Proud of.

Our seniors, Proud of our seniors.

So today I want to talk about the BCA God's

story and in that I want to share with you

the value of kingdom education. You see, every ministry has

to begin with a vision. The vision of BCA is

for us to be a cornerstone and helping our boys

and girls become men and women of God. Now what

do I mean by cornerstone. You see, there are three

cornerstones in the life of every child. The home first

and foremost, the church and the school. The Bible says

a three legged stool, or the Bible speaks of the

fact that a threefold court is not easily broken. So

when the home and the church and the school are

working together in the kingdom education of children, it's a

powerful thing. You say, you have the home here, and

then the church comes alongside the hole, and then the

school comes alongside the hole, and you are working together

in tandem. That's the beauty of kingdom education and of

growing up boys and girls to become men and women

of God. And how do we do that by developing

their spiritual, academic, physical, and social gifts. Now that follows

the education of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ two

fifty two says, and Jesus grew in wisdom and stature

and favor with God and Man. In other words, he

grew academically, physically, spiritually, and socially, just as we want

to educate the whole child here at BCA, Jesus Christ

is the chief cornerstonf But it's about the partnership between

the home, the church, and the school that make Kingdom

education so great. Now, with every vision, there must be

a mission, because the mission is the wheels to the vision.

It's what makes it work. And for BCA, we want

to partner with our Christian families. We want it to

be a partnership. We want to help you grow your

children up in the nurture and ammunition of the Lord.

We want to.

Help them discover what their talent and abilities are and

give them the academic resources and the knowledge and the

experiences to achieve the most out of what God has

given them in order to use and serve in their lives.

We want to inform the student's minds. Now, that's more

than just academic excellence. That's also biblical integration. It's about

taking those teachable moments in an academic class and sharing

with students the importance of a principle of God's word

it's about affecting the student's heart, because we want our

students to have a heart for God and a love

for God, and a heart for God and a love

for others, because that's what the Christian life is all about.

But then we want to increase their personal talents. You know,

God has given every child a gift. He promises us

as at least one. Some have five, some have ten,

Some are incredibly blessed. But whatever gifts God has given us,

we want to help our students discover those gifts to

use them for His honor and glory. Why because the

overall mission of our school is for our young people

to become ambassadors for Christ. That's our mission, that our

students would become ambassadors for Christ, that they would walk

with the Lord, that they would make a difference in

the world in which they live, that they would have

a passion for the souls of men, that they might

come to the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior.

Now, we cannot pomplish that without having values.

We're going to talk about the value of Kingdom of education,

so I'm not going to speak to that right now,

but evangelism and spiritual formation are important.

King of education.

We're going to discovers about bringing a child to Christ,

building a child up in Christ, and equipping a child

to serve Christ. It's about evangelism coming to Christ and

spiritual formation growing in the Lord. It's also about biblical

world integration, where when we're teaching those various subjects and

we have that teachable moment to share a principle from

God's Word, we can integrate it into what we teach.

What do we ultimately want to accomplish all of that?

To raise up a generation that has a desire to

serve and a desire to lead. The vision and mission

of BCA is to produce servant leaders who love God.

That's our vision and our mission. What do we want

a graduate to look like? You know, it's time we

thought about that since we have our first graduating class.

What do we want our graduates to look like?

Well, our expected student outcomes tell us that we want

our students to serve with a heart for God and

others when they leave this place, to have a heart

for God and others. To learn with a mind with

a truth or for truth, a mind for truth, to

learn with a mind for truth.

What do I mean by that? We're going to give

them academic excellence.

But I want to tell you there's a lot of

falsehood out in the world today, and our young people

need to be able to learn with a mind for truth,

to be able to discern truth from error. Then thirdly

that they'll lead with a passion for the world. That's

the God's story of the Pesidic Christian Academy. That's what

God has called us to do here. That's what this

church has set out to accomplish by being a ministry

to the community at large with Kingdom Education. So today

I want to answer three questions. First of all, what

is Kingdom education? Second, why do we do Kingdom education?

And thirdly how do we do Kingdom education?

So what is it?

Kingdom education is a lifelong, Bible based Christ centered process.

Look at that life law.

You know, I'm still speaking truth and to the hearts

and lives of my grown daughters who are forty eight

and forty four. I'm still speaking truth and to the

lives of my son in laws. In fact, my four

teenage grandchildren. I speak truth in their lives. Just did

that this week with my grandson, because that's what we do.

That never stops for a parent twenty four to seven.

From birth to the grave. We want to speak truth

into the hearts and lives of our children. But only

is Kingdom educational lifelong process. It's a Bible based process.

God's word needs to have the pre eminence, as does Christ.

It needs to be Christ centered. Christ needs to have

the pre eminence. So it's a lifelong Bible based, Christ

centered process. That's why you're giving your children a Kingdom education.

That's why you're not sending them to a public school.

Because you want a partnership. And in a partnership you

have to be of like faith and like desire and

like values. And that's the blessing of kingdom education. Because

they're gonna lead kids to Christ. They're gonna build kids

up in Christ. They're going to equip kids to serve Christ.

Why so that they'll bring honor and glory to God.

So there are five main components to Kingdom education. And

since we have our parents today, I want you to

hear the value of what is transpiring here. You see

this word picture here, it shows this's Bible based, it

is Christ centered, its Holy Spirit control. It shows that

it's pupil related and socially oriented. So what does that mean?

Kingdom education is Bible based. Number one, it is Bible based.

The Bible has foundation of all knowledge. In fact, education

needs to be integrated with God's truth. You'll see from

time to time in my weekly updates I speak of

biblical worldview integration. That's where we are speaking truth into

educational principles. It's about the home, the church, and the

school being united in the truth. It's about integrating the

truth in every subject. You know, the Bible says that

all scripture is given by inspiration of God, is profitable

for four things, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and

for instruction and righteousness. That covers everything we do in life.

The Bible should permeate all the decisions that we make

in our daily lives. Let me just give you a

couple of examples of how we do that here at

BCA Social Studies. You know, the world is going to

tell you, secular education is going to tell you that

history happens per chance, it just happens. But that does

not true. We know there was a creation, we know

there was a fall. We know we're in a time

of redemption. We know there's going to be a restoration.

We know there's going to be an ultimate glorification. We

know history from A to Z according to what God

teaches us. It's not per chance. God can make nations

rise and fall, he can make leaders rise in fault.

It's all within the will of God. But then look

at civics.

My undergrad work was in English and history along with

a Bible Nature. And for years I taught history classes.

And when I taught civics, you know what I did.

The very first day of Civics class, I had everybody

over in their Bibles. So Genesis chapter nine, that's right

after the flood, and God makes a covenant with Noah

and he ushers in the dispensation of human government. Prior

to Genesis chapter nine, the world was ruled by a theocracy.

But because of the sinfulness of man, God ordained the

dispensation of human government. You won't hear that in a

public school economics. When you think about economics, you think

about money, don't you. It's about making money. Did you

know Eco means family and no moss means management, and

that economics was about stewardship.

It was about having being a.

Wise steward of what God has given you dominion over

what God has blessed you with. Economics was about stewardship.

It was not about making money. Now that's what the

world will tell you. Geography is about Psalm nineteen one,

the heavens declare the glory of God in front of

the show of this hundiwork.

Sociology is about the sin nature.

Psychology is about belief, values and actions.

God is all over history and our young people learn

about that. But then language ours.

My students don't like it when I say this, but

I think that's the second most important subject that we

teach at BCA. Bible number one, Language ars number two.

Why because it's important that we read well, we write well,

and we speak well. Why is that important Because if

we're going to share the Great Commission, we want to

do it well foreign language. It just gives us another

opportunity to share the Great Commission. Speech and communication just

improves our ability to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

You see.

Language arts are about a Biblical view of man and

man needs Jesus and we can make that come alive

from the principles of God's work. But then kingdom education

is Christ centered. You see, we see Jesus as the

authority and the Lord of truth. He said, I am

the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh

under the Father, but by me. He is the Truth.

In fact, he is the Lord of wisdom and knowledge.

All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge come from the Lord.

He also.

The one who desires for us to make this school

a spiritual haven. My heart is according to Colossians three seven,

that these young people will be rooted and build up

in Christ, and they'll be established in their faith as

the disciples taught. That's our heart's desire here at BCA.

But then thirdly came to education's Holy Spirit controlled. You see,

parents and teachers need the guidance of the Holy Spirit

of God. Paul said, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by

the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a

living sacrifice holy except on.

The God, which is your regional service.

Then he goes on to say, and be not conform

this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of

your mind, that you might prove what is that good

and acceptable and perfect will of God. That renewing of

the mind is through the ministry of the Holy Spirit,

as we spend time in the world, and the spirit

illuminates us as to how we are to live so

that we're conformed to the image of the Son of God.

And the result is that we live lives of godly character.

But then Kingdom edication, as people related, it focuses on

what God intends every child to be. Every single student

in this auditorium is fearfully and wonderfully made Psalm one

thirty nine to fourteen. God doesn't make any junk. They

have special gifts that God has given them. We want

to help them discover them. They're fearfully and wonderfully made.

Not only that, according to Ephesians two ten, they are

a workmanship created in Christ Jesus, and that's in the

progressive tens. So God is in the content you will

process of making us more and more like Jesus. But

then number five, Kingdom education is socially oriented. You see,

it teaches us how to interact with the world. We

want our young people to go out into the world

and make an impact, to be that light on a

hilltop that others might see Christ in them, to understand

that all of.

Life is God's.

You know, the problem we have today in this world

in which we live is dualism. Too. Many believers are

living one way on Sunday morning praising Jesus, but then

the rest of the week they're making life's decision according

to the principles of this world rather than the principles

of the Word of God. We want to raise up

a generation that truly believe that all of life is

God's We want to integrate faith and biblical values into

a biblical world of view lifestyle, so that whatever they

do in word of deed, they do everything in the

name of Jesus. There's nothing that they do they couldn't

take Jesus with them because they're doing it in the

name of Jesus. So that brings us to question number two,

why do kingdom education? I want y'all to know, if

you are watching, then use it all. We're in the

midst of a great civil war across America, and.

It's a war of values.

And if we don't wake up in America, the victor

is going to take our children.

They're already talking about that.

Our children are a village of the community of the nation.

Twenty four to seven.

The primary responsibility of children belongs to the parents and

so we need to understand this war that we're in

that is taking place. It's a cultural war. I've watched

it over the last five decades. We've gone from a

jo Deah Christian nation to a post jo Deah Christian

nation to an anti jo Deah Christian nation.

This is a war of ideas.

It's about two different world views, secular humanism and biblical theism. Unfortunately,

secular humanism has permeated our public schools.

It has taken it over. Why because the target is

our children.

The major fund is going to be on educational turf,

and we're seeing that it's started in our colleges and universities,

and it moved down to the high schools, the middle schools,

the elementary and now it's all over the land. And

the desire is to control our children. The major front

is on educational turf, and whoever wins this war is

going to control the culture, and whoever loses it is

going to fade from memory. I'm reminded of a scripture

in the Book of Judges Judges two ten where it says,

and the next generation knew not the God of Josh.

We're only one generation away from not knowing the God

of Joshua. That's why what we're doing here at BCA

is so incredibly important, because.

We're raising up the next generation of.

Leaders, servant leaders who trust God and allow God to

direct their lives. Folks, it's a battle for the mind.

Get this picture. We are a tryun being. God was

Father's Son and Holy Spirit. We are spirit, soul and body.

We're made in the image of God. Our spirit bears

witness with his spirit that we're children of God. But

I also want to say that our soul is made

up of the mind and the motion in the will,

and the windows to the soul are the eye gate

and the ear gate. You need to protect what's going

through the eye gate and the ear gate of your children.

You need to protect what's going through the eye gate

and ear gate of yourself as an adult, because what

you allow and to the windows of your soul, it's

what you're going to think about, and what you think

about is what you're going to desire, and what you

desire is what you're going to will to do. It

is important that you protect your eyes and your ears.

But then why is that important. It's important for you,

a parent who are to raise your hands. If you're

a parent here, you have a parent of a BCA student. Okay,

even if you don't have a parent a BCA student,

if you have a student a child, you need to

realize that the primary education of your children is your responsibility.

Twenty four seven.

One day you're going to stand before God, myself and

my wife included. We're going to stand before God and

give an account for how we spoke truth into our

children's lives and how we protected the eyegates in the

eargates of the windows of their soul. We will give

an account because Deuteronomy eleven nineteen tells us teach them

to your children, talking about them when you sit in

your house, when you walk along the road, when you

lie down, and when you get up.

You know what that means.

It is my responsibility as a parent to make sure

that the word of God is before the eyes of

my children from when they rise up till they walk

through the day till they lie down at night. It's

my responsibility as a parent. Now what do we do

then when we send our kids to school. Well, that's

why they need to be in a Christian school, because

you see Luke six ' forty tells us this is Scripture.

Look at six point forty. Here the student is not

above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will

be like their teacher. Did you know, did you know

every teacher who teaches teaches what the world view question

is is that is it a biblical worldview? Because remember

where you need to protect the eye gate and the

ear gate. They're gonna teach their worldview. Everything they cheach

is gonna be in from the lens of their world view,

and your students are going to become like who is

teaching them.

Now, let me put it into perspective.

From kindergarten to twelfth grade, your students are under somebody's

teaching for sixteen thousand hours kindergarten twelfth grade, sixteen thousand hours.

That's a lot.

There's no other ministry of the church that has that opportunity.

That's why I love it when churches start Christian schools

because that's some bid history that gives them an opportunity

to make an incredible impact. But sixteen thousand hours, now,

let me put it into perspective for you. According to

Barna's statitician Pastors Pastor Barbie has the eye contact of

his young one hour a week. That's usually Sunday morning service.

Youth pactors on average have the eye eye contact with

their students two hours a week, usually youth group acts

and Sunday on Sundays.

This is going to really shock your parents.

Parents have eye to eye contact with their students on

average one hour a day. On average, one hour a day.

I'm not talking about when they're on their devices. I'm

not talking about when they're watching TV. I'm not talking

about when they're in the room. I'm talking about eye

to eye contact. The average is one hour a day.

So between the church and the school, church and the

family ten hours a week. But folks, they're in a

school building somewhere for forty hours a week.

Who is teaching your children?

That's why this scripture says the student is not above

the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be

like teacher. The teachers have them forty hours a week.

The church and the home owned average have them ten

hours a week. Who is teaching your children? That's the importance,

that's the value of Kingdom education. Let me tell you

why these two worldviews that I'm talking about, the secular

humanistic worldview, it believes Man is the master of the universe.

You see, there is no God.

Secular humanists do not believe there is a God, so

they determine their own truth. The universe is of natural origin.

It just evolved, you know, it just happened. Man is

the highest form of evolution. You're just the highest animal

on the scale. That's why you can take people's lives.

That's why you can stab people on the subways. That's

why life doesn't mean anything because you determine your own truth.

Truth is relative and subjective, so your values are situational values.

So then you've got the biblical worldview. An eternal God exists.

We know that.

We believe that God has revealed himself to man in

the Bible. The universe is divinely creating aim by God.

We're created in the image of God. They win in

sin marked condition. Truth is absolute and objective because we

have God's word. Values are rooted in the nature of God.

So what is the difference between secular and kingdom education.

Secular education is going to teach kids tolerance. You need

to tolerate all beliefs, even if they're contrary to the

Word of God. You need to accept all people whatever

pronoun they decide to be. They teach tolerance. Man is

the sinner because he determines his own truth. So what's

truth for me is true for me, and what's true

for passion true for him. And you know what, we're

both right. And that's why the world's in a mess,

because everybody's doing what's right in their own eyes. Now,

they do provide a secular education does provide a temporal success.

They teach you how to make a living. But the

difference is Kingdom education focuses on salvation and discipleship and

service in the midst of providing academic excellence. Because we

want to teach kids how to make a life. So

secondary education teaches you how to make a living, but

Christian education, Kingdom education, teaches you how to make a life.

I love this word picture here of the church, the

home and the school working together, the pillows of evangelism

and discipleship, and there's Bobby and Sally. That is Kingdom education.

But then, finally, how do we do Kingdom education? Every parent,

every teacher must teach to influence three things in a

student's life. We need to make sure that our kids

understand reality and truth. That there is an eternal God,

that he sent his son to die for us, that

he is coming again, that there is a heaven and

a hell. There are consequence says for our sinfulness, but

there's love and grace in our forgiveness. You see, what

a student believes to be real and true, it's what

they believe in, and what they believe is what they value,

and what they value is what they do.

We need to give our young people a sure foundation.

But then secondly, a Kingdom parent teacher must understand how

he or she will influence a child's heart and mind.

This is a generation, the Millennials, Generation Z and Alpha generation.

These are generations that hear with their eyes. You have

to show them that you're real, mom and dad. You've

got to show your children that Jesus is real in

your life. They need to see Jesus in you. We

have to model it out for them. They need to

see Jesus in their teachers. They need to model out

for them. We are the living curriculum for our children.

Our teachers are the living curriculum for our students. You see,

for a Christian school teacher, it is not a job,

it is not a vocation.

It is a ministry you.

See as a minister of God, as a teacher, a

Christian school teacher, we have to give an account to

God for how we have taught our children. They need

to see Jesus in us. What have I said today?

Twenty four to seven. Mom, Dad, it's your responsibility, birth

to maturity, birth to the grade. It's your responsibility to

educate your children. Primary goal should be salvation and discipleship.

If you have a child that gets a PhD and

they don't know Jesus, you have failed. It's based on

God's word as absolute truth. It should hold Christ pre

eminent in the entire educational process.

You see, we.

Cannot hinder the spiritual and moral development of our students

twenty four to seven. That means when you give your

children over to someone else to teach your children during

the school day, you need to make sure that they're

going to teach the same values. They're going to follow

the same godly principles. That's why you need to have

your children in Kingdom education. It results in the formation

of a biblical world view. It allows students to really

discern what is true wisdom, and then it has they

have a view of the future with the eternal perspective.

Did you know there are a lot of young people today,

evangelical young people that do not believe in a literal

heaven in hell. They do not believe that the Bible

is the infallible an errant word of God. I'm talking

about evangelical kids because we have not taught them to

have a view of the future with an eternal perspective.

There is a.

Heaven in hell and Jesus is coming again, then, of

course we want them to fill the God's will for

their lives, to grow in their knowledge of God. We

want them to pursue biblical excellence. We want to equip

students for life and eternity. That is the value of

a Kingdom education. It is a lifelong Bible based Christ's

centered process of leading a child to Christ, building a

child up in Christ, and equipping a child to serve Christ.

This is my challenge as I close. My challenge is this,

help me.

And let me help you raise up the next generation

of Daniels.

Boys, young men who will purpose in their hearts that

they will not sin against God, that they will not

bow to the things of this world, even if it

means going into the lions Den, help me, help you

raise up the next generation of Esther's, Esther's who are

willing to walk into the King's court without invitation, knowing

that it means sure death, but standing and pleading the

cause of the Lord. We need Daniels and we need Esthers,

and we want you to join us here at BCA

and raising up that next generation of Daniels and Esther's.

That is the value of kingdom education. Let's go to

the Lord in prayer, every head bowed and every eye closed.

Just want to share with you that the Lord Jesus

Christ loves you each and every person that is here.

Perhaps you're here today and you do not know the

Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior. You have not

invited him into your hearts. I pray that you would

choose to today. If you have students here, they need

to know that you know Jesus so that you can

speak truth into their lives. If you do not know them,

I pray you might pray a simple prayer. Dear Father.

I know I'm a sinner. I want to turn from

my sense. I want to invite you into my heart.

I want to know you. If you pray that prayer.

If you prayed it. The Bible says that you're a

child of God. For whosoever shall call upon the name

of the Lord shall be saved.

Perhaps you need to.

Perhaps you need encouragement, speak truth into the hearts and

lives of your students. Perhaps their students here today who

don't know the Lord and need to pray that prayer,

or who need to surrender.

They're all.

To become that Daniel and that Estra. Thank you, Father

for the privilege of sharing this message today. Thank you

for these dear parents coming out and supporting BCA. I

thank you for all the children who sang, the children

who played, the children who have just blessed our hearts

with everything that has transpired today. I thank you for

our staff, for the incredible work they do, how they

join hands to do the work of the ministry, how

they support me as head and Father. I do pray

your hand a blessing upon this church ministry. I thank

you for their vision of Kingdom education. Thank you for

the sacrifices they've made through the years to keep this

school alive, to do the work the ministry.

I pray your.

Blessing upon Pastor as he leads Thank you for this time. Now, Father,

as I turn this service over to pastor, thank you

for the privilege of sharing the value of Kingdom education

and the joy it is every day to speak truth

in the hearts and lives with these young people. So

I pray these things now in Jesus precious name, Amen

and all to