Navigating Emotions Through the Psalms

speaker-0: Mm.

speaker-1: Faith Baptist Church in Taylor presents This Week in the Word. Well, you again for joining us at Faith Baptist Church in Taylor, South Carolina this week in the Word. It's it's really been a joy to jump into this kind of podcast format, an informal setting, that allows us specifically to speak to things that are going on here at our church and on our ministry. And of late, we've been covering a lot of the things that have been happening on Sundays with the entire church related to what I've been preaching through, either in the morning or evening services. But I wanted to transition that focus a little bit to our youth pastor. Pastor Starr, who's already been on this podcast with me before, but particularly rel relevant to our conversation today is a series of messages he has been going through in our youth group with our teenagers. And perhaps you can introduce it even as you introduced it to the teens when you started that series.

speaker-0: So this series actually started ⁓ several years ago. I decided that I was gonna do a personal study through the book of Psalms. And ⁓ I I know and we know that David is very, very honest with the emotional roller coaster yet. We relate to yeah. So I I went on this kind of journey just going through studying the Psalms and and matching them with different emotions that we might go through. And that's what kind of turned into a Sunday school series here at the church. So like

speaker-1: We love this song. So many of us love this relate to A series on

speaker-0: Emotions. Yeah. Right. I entitled it Emotions Unfiltered. Just the raw emotions that we might go through as a person. Sure. As as David does in the Psalms.

speaker-1: Right. And what are some of the ones you've already covered?

speaker-0: So we have we've covered ⁓ when life beats you up, we've covered ⁓ frustration, we've covered depression, we've covered ⁓ stress, ⁓ we covered last week loneliness, feeling forgotten, and the emotions that come with that.

speaker-1: Right. Now before we even get into the emotions, maybe iz as a youth pastor and even as a senior pastor, any pastor, any person who has a platform for teaching, there's a process that you go through on like, well what what am I gonna do next? You know, in a sense, you're you're preaching a topical series, but you're just expositing fo from what sounds like the psalm that addresses that. What led you to ⁓ emotions as a as a need of the hour?

speaker-0: Well, I at the time I was dealing with a lot of teens that were coming to my office, dealing with certain things, going through life, and and these were the emotions that they were struggling with. So obviously we take them right to scripture, right? Sure. And we were going to a lot of the psalms. Okay. And so we've got teens that are struggling with some of these emotions and we've got a God who answers them in Psalms. That's kind of the journey that I went down afterwards. Just personally, I would love to see what emotions are covered in the Psalms. Right.

speaker-1: Now explain you you kinda had a compelling way even introducing the series to the teenagers. Yeah. To to kind of set the the railroad. This is where we're going on this track. Kinda maybe you could walk through that.

speaker-0: So emotions, if we could just ⁓ divvy them up to three different categories, would be this. First of all, is your subjective experience. This is something that ⁓ it's your personal perception of something. And and it could be something ⁓ as as simple as a color. You see a color and that color sparks a memory. Right. It something has linked with that color that goes back to a previous experience.

speaker-1: Right, and there's so many examples of that. A song. Yeah. A memory. Yeah. ⁓ a picture.

speaker-0: A smell, something brings you back to a memory, an experience. ⁓ But sometimes that experience is is difficult. The loss of a loved one. Something reminds you of that ⁓ of that loss in life. Right. That then leads you to a psychological response, how the body reacts to it. And these are things that we can't we we can't help. Right. You know, your palms get sweaty, your heart starts racing, you get nervous. So to connect

speaker-1: It would be ⁓ a a certain situation happens in your life and then you come across a similar situation again and immediately you respond to what happened, what is in front of you.

speaker-0: And it doesn't have to be a remembrance of it. It could be the immediate experience. Sure. Your body goes into that, you know, you heard that fight or flight mode. Right. That's your body's response to it. Right. So that would be your psychological behavior.

speaker-1: Perhaps even an example would be, you know, you get in car accident. Yeah. And then the next time you get in a car.

speaker-0: Your body is reacting to that. Yeah.

speaker-1: And and just the your blood pressure goes up, your your you know heart rate elevates. Yeah. That kind of thing.

speaker-0: I kind of have the same thing. It's on a on a personal level. I giving blood for me, you know, going in it's kinda like, ⁓ because I had a bad experience once and and that just kind of makes me nervous. So that's your that's your psychological You've got you've got a subjective experience. Something's happened. Okay. You know, and then you go into your psychological response, your body's reacting to it. Right. And then the last one is your behavioral response. And this is

speaker-1: So review them here. So the first one is

speaker-0: These are the emotions that we talk about. This this could be through a facial expression or it could be through a physical expression. This would be the expression of what's going on inside, the emotions coming out. The choice the choice that you're now making and you can s it's it's evident to somebody. Someone comes up to you and says, Hey, something wrong. I'm noticing something's wrong. Right. It has made it to phase three, where your emotions are now being shown through your either your actions or your facial expressions. Okay. Yeah.

speaker-1: But

speaker-0: So all these these expressions could be anything. ⁓ these emotions could be the response, could be sadness, could be happiness, could be fear, could be anger, could be surprise, could be disgust. And the list kind of goes on. You know, these are these are everyday emotions that we have, good or bad. Okay.

speaker-1: And and really what you're trying to deal with then is scripture does talk about sadness, anger, joy even, and that's what you're dealing with particularly.

speaker-0: Exactly. And even this last Sunday, we talked about the feeling of being forgotten or lonely. And what happens when you go to the Psalms, David is very real with his emotions and he'll show you the negative, like the bad response, and then he'll show you the conclusion of the good response. Most of the time. There are a couple of psalms that end kind of abruptly and you're like, there was no resolution. So it seems there are some resolutions that have actually happened in the New Testament, right? When Paul is talking about in Romans eight. We're going to be going through this one this Sunday, ⁓ Romans 8 28, talking about all things work together for good. Right. He goes to the last part of that chapter and talks about nothing can separate us from the love of God. Right. He actually quotes one of the Psalms that David brings out and David's anger towards the Lord. Like, Lord, what is happening? And there's no resolution. Right. But then it happens in the in the New Testament, which is awesome. So we see the negative response. David then goes to God's word. And he is reminded what the true response ought to be. So that has been our study is here's what we feel, here's what's being exhibited. Okay, let's go to scripture and see what we can do to help change it. Cause we can't change an experience. We can't even really change how our body reacts to it, but we can definitely change the exhibit of our emotions on the outward appearance for sure.

speaker-1: Even before we dig further, I I think it's fascinating and important that you're willing to have a conversation. 'Cause th it it would appear, especially with emotions, there there's a there's a sense in which we we don't speak to these things in in churches. We're not honest enough. And and I do believe that's why the Psalms resonate so clearly with us, because at times they put words to our own thoughts. And you're allowing You're not coming at it from, well, here's what I believe about the situation by any stretch. You're saying, I'm aware because I'm a human that I have these emotions, but I'm not interested in you learning my experience. I'm interested in you learning with me what the Bible has to say about

speaker-0: Exactly. Because at the end of the day, ⁓ something might work for me that won't work for somebody else. But the bottom line is this God's word is always applicable to all of these issues, all these emotions that we go through in life. And how did David respond? How did how did David handle his own emotions? That's what we're looking at. And then we can connect them to our emotions today. So when I see that David went through a time period where he felt forgotten, he felt lonely. And in those questions, I even brought it out to teens. With every question that he has, there's an accusation. How long will you forget me? Forever? There's an accusation. Lord, you've forgotten me. Lord, how long will you not hear me? There's an accusation, you're not listening. And so we look at the emotions that we go through as well. We question God, and there's might be some underlying accusations there. So we get to the end of the Psalm and we realize no, God has never forgotten. What does scripture say about it? It says, How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee. If I were to go to the beach and start counting sand, I'll never get to the amount of thoughts that God has towards me. If I go to bed and I wake up, he's still thinking of me. So there's an accusation that God has forgotten me, but the truth is he's not. So we go back to that question. And we answer it, God does not forget us. So what we have to do in our emotions is this: here's here's what we think, here's what we feel, here are the thoughts that are flooding my mind. Now I need to take them to scripture and see what I'm feeling and what is truth. Because I can't, I can't go on a roller coaster of my feelings. I have to go to what God's word says.

speaker-1: It's it's really even related to that whole conversation. Probably you heard the the cabooths and the the train car at the front of the line, the the actual engine. And emotions can become quickly the engine that's driving us. And scripture does not deny emotions or even at times connect them to sin. At times it does. Right. But the the times that it connects it to it, it's through the when when they're allowed the engine to be what drives it. Truth and God's truth particularly needs to be the engine and the the emotions need to follow that.

speaker-0: Exactly. I mean, we see even our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane that is obviously going through some the emotions prior to the cross, right? The right the path to the cross. And you see how Christ even deals with the human emotions. It's not it's not a sin to to have an emotion. Sure. But it can be. It can lead us to then sinful habits or sinful decisions or sinful accusations or sinful even questioning of the Lord. That that's what we're handling.

speaker-1: So you're saying here's the feelings, here's the emotions, let's address that, here's the truth from God's word that grounds you when your feelings are pulling you this way.

speaker-0: And that's what David does. Yes. And Psalm 13 is what we looked at this last this last Sunday. And the beginning, I told the teens, look at the first several verses. I mean, David's really struggling. He's lonely, he's forgotten, no one's listening to him. He's counseling his own self. This is what he says. And then the last two verses, but I have trusted in the God of my salvation. I have trusted. This is my ground. There, there's a point oftentimes in the Psalms where there's a shift in thinking. Yeah.

speaker-1: This is my grandma.

speaker-0: And that's where David takes his feelings and he takes the truth and he makes sure that his feelings are filtered through the truth of God's word.

speaker-1: Well, so many times we fall and falter when we allow our emotions to lead our So you're saying no, thinking from God's word should lead our emotions, not vice versa. To that end I'm sure you've heard this poem the from the author I know and I pulled it up. Yeah. Three men were walking on a wall, feeling faith and fact. When feeling got an awful fall, and faith was taken back. So close was faith to feeling, he stumbled and fell too.

speaker-0: thinking. Right.

speaker-1: But fact remained and pulled faith back and faith brought feeling too. And that's that's what we're talking about.

speaker-0: Exactly. And for the teens especially, this isn't just a teen topic. No. I've talked with many adults that this is a a a a topic at hand. But for a teen, when you're going when you're you're going into adulthood and you're really ⁓ your your faith is you want to solidify your faith on a sure foundation. But there are things that happen that just kind of rock your world. They rock the boat, so to say, and and things are just they just seem like they're getting out of hand. That's when the feeling and the faith are under attack. Right? You gotta go to facts.

speaker-1: Two facts. And the only facts are God's word. And the only hope you're going to find is there as well. And I I do think this touches on so often, ⁓ even in our own sigh of flesh, you you you find yourself with what lovingly could be referred to as stinking thinking. I didn't originate that. ⁓ and and you wanna go talk to someone about yeah, I'm gonna get counsel. Yeah. Well what you do is you go to someone Unfortunately, often that is going to have the same stinking thinking as you and you're going to confer together and now you have the same stinking thinking, but I received quote unquote godly counsel. Right. Well was the word of God to bear on this situation? That that that's what facts are. Facts are not based on what I perceive to be true. Facts are based upon what God reveals to be true.

speaker-0: Exactly. And I brought this out to the teens. Question number three Have you ever felt like you were the only one that listened? This is in verse two. David gets pretty real. He's at the point where he believes that the only person that would listen to himself is himself. So here's the accusation. God, you've forgotten me, you've abandoned me, you won't even help counsel me through this. So the reminder is this when I am struggling, the last person that should counsel me is me. It can't be. Proverbs chapter twelve and verse fifteen. The way of the fool is right in his own eyes, but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool, but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. In the middle of that psalm, David is saying, I counseled myself with a heavy and sorrowful heart. You think David was giving himself the right counsel in that moment? Right. It was when he got to the end of the chapter that he says, But I trusted in God. That godly counsel. Whoever you're talking to as far as counseling is concerned, if they're not taking you back to God's word, I I'd venture to say it's probably not the best counselor.

speaker-1: Yeah, I think it's a good check your heart qu moment then. So I've had a conversation with someone about an emotion that I'm struggling with. And we've been talking now for forty-five, fifty minutes to an hour. Has the word of God come to bear on this issue? If it hasn't, I would venture to guess, you've not really received godly counsel. Yeah. Even if the word God came into bear about

speaker-0: Right. It's easy for us to throw God's name into a conversation. Right. But are we actually taking people to God's word or are we giving them our opinions?

speaker-1: And I know we're being repetitive or I'm being repetitive here, but it's fair to say again, that's why the psalms are such a wealth to those who would treasure them. Right. For they do speak to real emotion. You could go through all the list of emotions we may struggle with, and you will likely find a psalm or two that speaks to that. Yeah.

speaker-0: We won't we won't go through all the Psalms. Very long series. So we're gonna get to Psalm nineteen.

speaker-1: It could be a very long series, actually. Started Psalm 119 and we'll be back for while.

speaker-0: Next year. You know, th but there are we're pulling out kind of the main emotions that a teen might go through in life. Sure. And ⁓ it I I it's been helpful to me.

speaker-1: I would venture to guess that the main emotions a team might need to talk through have not really don't really change that much as you grow older.

speaker-0: I they're teens are just young adults. Yeah. Adults are just older and less fun teens.

speaker-1: Can we clip that and just play that one for him? No, it it's true though. It's it's it's actually an honest conversation that I think needs to be had on two fronts. One, it is okay to say that we struggle. Yeah. And two, we need to come back to being word based. Right. When we admit that we struggle, we need to come back and say, Yeah, but the word of God has something to say. Why why do we listen? Why do we listen to foolish Counselors. Why do we listen to proud men? Why do we listen to the devil when he whispers lies into our ears? Why do we skim over God's word and not let his word sink deep into our heart?

speaker-0: It really is a the temptation today is to go to the person that you know is going to tell you what you want to hear. Yep. But the the loving counselor is going to be the one that tells you what you need to hear. Of a friend. Yeah, it's true. And even from the beginning of time, I mean when when Satan came to Eve, he attacked the mind. Hath God really said.

speaker-1: Faithful are the what?

speaker-0: I I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna supplant some questions in your mind that cause you to question God. Nothing has changed since that day in history. Constantly we are questioning God. And it's because our mind is going to to to places that are not God's word and we're telling ourselves, Well, God is not loving. Well, I open up God's word and I I never find a verse that says that God's not loving. So where did where did I come to that conclusion? It's It's not just the teens, it's all the way through the adult years. We struggle, all of us, with the questions that come into our mind and the emotions that we will lead us to then sinful actions.

speaker-1: The word of God is perfect and upright and all of these things, and yet we constantly trump come back to it. It is God's standard bearer. Paul wrote this: finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of a good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise. And that's when when my emotions are struggling, that's not where my mind's.

speaker-0: Think on these things.

speaker-1: My mind goes. My mind often goes to what I can't control, what's going to happen in the future, what do people think of me. And there's there's an anxiousness, there's an anger, there's a disappointment, there's a depression. That's all come out of thinking that isn't grounded on the Philippians 4, verse 8.

Philippians 4:8

speaker-0: A lot of those emotions are there. It's just something that happens in our life that really tests our where our heart is. And when we're when we're put into a situation, a trial or a testing that ⁓ just really turns life upside down, we begin to see what is in the heart, our true thoughts about who our God is. Because our God is loving when things are going good. But then when things are not going good, who is he now? Well, according to scripture, it doesn't change. So what has changed? My surrounding circumstances have changed. The emotions have changed. I need to go to what has not changed. That's God and his word. That's the only thing in life that has not changed.

speaker-1: Is there not anything we're not?

speaker-0: No. No. Even Martin Luther, what'd he say? Feelings come, feelings go, feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God, not else is worth believing. Man. I can't even believe my own feelings. And Jeremiah tells you that. Yeah. Can I can I trust my own heart? No. No. I gotta go to the thing I can't.

speaker-1: I thought Disney told me to follow my heart. Yeah.

speaker-0: I've done that. Didn't lead me down the road.

speaker-1: road. But follow my heart. My heart, you know, the heart well trust your gut though. But shouldn't shouldn't I like if I know something to be true, can I just talk about it?

speaker-0: Well, it's not gonna be the unchanging word of God. You have to go to what does not change.

speaker-1: I I'm so thankful we have the word of God. And and I think there's an el element in which we can say I you need to remember what you are actually responsible for. Right. So what am I responsible for when my emotions are playing, you know, hopscotch with my heart? Yeah. What am I actually responsible for? And the the only thing you need to be understanding is you are genuinely responsible for your right or wrong relationship with God. Right. And I noticed I said your sin on that, by the way. One of the emotions that is often comes into it is even a sense of false guilt. And and taking on responsibilities that are not mine. I I I can often see that playing into this kind of caboose that becomes the engine that's driving. And and there that Paul says Ezekiel eighteen, or not Paul, Ezekiel says in Ezekiel eighteen twenty The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither the father bear the iniquity of son. God has not called you to bear anyone's sin but your own. So when you're struggling with these emotions, what do you need to do?

speaker-0: You need to go spend time with the Lord. Yeah. Honestly. And that's what David does. And I love even his responses. The one thing he struggled with is that God is not loving. I mean, that's that's an underlying accusation. But then he says, I've trusted in the mercy of God. Well, this this word mercy that's used is actually the word Hesed. It is a strong, the strongest word for love in the Hebrew language, which actually means in this context. God's love specifically and his redemption from his enemies and his troubles. That's what David's currently going through. Could David change the situation? No. But he puts his trust into the God that can.

speaker-1: Are you telling me the Word of God works? It does. It does. You know, some ⁓ the story is told, you I'm sure you heard when when drug companies develop a new product, they'll run two test groups. That one will be the one they give one group of the tablets that's actually the drug, and the other an identical-looking product that's just a dummy drug. And they do that. to for one simple reason the mind is powerful. It is. Yeah. And some people feel that they have taken a tablet that will better them when in reality they've just taken the the dummy drug. Nothing's actually happening. Yeah. And to that end, we have not, with scripture, ingested a dummy drug that makes us feel better and thereby is going to work. No, the word of God is profitable, does work. will cut to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of joints and morrow. It really does work. I don't need to recommend to you the latest book that's off the shelf, even if there are and there are good ones. I'm not I'm not denying that. I I I want to be careful there actually as I go down that path. Because some would say, well I don't I don't need to read other books and resources. All I need is the Word of God. Well the Word of God actually does tell us that God gives to the church teachers and And and that is a gift to God's church and teachers do write books. So there is a sense in which that could be very beneficial. I don't want to denigrate that at all. But if there is a book that's beneficial, its value is only in how it ties you back to the Word of God and explains what the Word of God has to do.

speaker-0: They're helpful tools is what I call it. Very helpful tools. But do not neglect a steady diet of God's word. You have to have

speaker-1: But there is and there is still a sense. I again I I wanted to be careful because when it comes to emotions, we we are starting to begin to delve into the arena of counsel and counseling. And ⁓ there is a value there. ⁓ there are times in my own life where where I need the milk of God's word. And there are times that I need to grow in my maturity to eat the strong meat of God's word. Right. And not to be crass with this analogy, but to be honest with that analogy. Milk. Is pre digested food. That's what milk is. And so there may be times in my own immaturity, dealing with an emotionally charged emotional problem, a trial, a tragedy that just hits me in my face, knocks me on my back. I need someone in my life to help me digest milk. Yeah. Because I'm I'm weak in my emotion. And that is a that is good. That I think in that sense, that's where counseling can be beneficial. But if you stay a milk drinker in your emotion, if if that emotion's now years down the road is still the driving force of your thinking, that is not God's intention for you. God does want you to mature to the point now where you are eating meat and you could comfort others with the same comfort wherewith you were comforted. You have learned now to digest, and now you're gonna help someone else digest.

speaker-0: Yeah. That's the beauty of of of just growing in the Lord is that what the Lord has brought you through, right? Right. In in the case of David, David has gone through some pretty difficult emotions, but handled them through the grace of the Lord and through God's word in a beautiful way. Right. And he helps us today to do the same thing. Right. So now as we see victory in our own life of of things is maybe we're going through a a a bout of depression or Or are angry or frustrated and we go to God's word and God begins to just reshape our thinking. Yep. And we see the truth and begins to that there is a peace that passes all understanding. And the joy of the Lord is my strength. That we begin to see these things. Now we can then go to those who are walking the same path that we were just walking and help put their faces to the Word of God so that they can see victory as well. Right.

speaker-1: And I I mean, I wanna go back again to David here, because there are emotions that David has that are the result of his own sinful choices. Like there there can be emotions that we have, and David had them. David speaks of being genuinely sorrowful over his sin. I don't know if it's fair to analogize this as an emotion, but in Psalm five fifty-one he talks about where he was an unrepentant sin, he he couldn't sleep at night. Yeah, day and night your hand was heavy upon me, my moist my my mouth dried up, basically. there was a sense in which God used that in David's life where the conviction of the spirit caused him to be uncomfortable in a good godly way. And so I I there may be a check your heart moment there for some of our listeners and ourselves, of course, where you say, All right, I'm struggling with this emotion. Is that wrong? Well well perhaps it's actually good. You You should feel guilty that that you did sin. There is that real sense. Now, the flip side is there's a false guilt you could have. You could feel that same way in the sense that God already covered your sin. Right. But again, the word of God speaks to both of those matters.

speaker-0: With everything that we're going through, there needs to be a heart check. Where where are we at? Do I is my i is there is there a two way communication with my God? Yeah. Or is there something that I need to take care of that's between me and him? And if it's been taken care of, then okay, God, I I need to learn how to filter my emotions through God's word. Right. Teach me.

speaker-1: We live in an increasingly You just disoriented, shaky society that hasn't quite gotten this down on the emotional level. No. And we we drive towards emotions. I maybe we could transition the thinking here to even the worship of God. So how many times in the worship of God are emotions the driving force of why and how we worship? I I I I I hate to admit that that is often the case. But that is not the it's not to say we should have an emotionless worship.

speaker-0: No, I think emotions do come out through that, but it's not like you said, it's not the train that's driving it.

speaker-1: truth of God's word will exhibit emotion. And I think if it doesn't, then there is a problem there. Yeah. But it is not the driving force even there. Yeah. Well, what else you you've covered those. Where where would you still where are you thinking? Where are you going?

speaker-0: Well, next one we're dealing there's a psalm that David deals with kind of his anger and frustration toward the Lord. Okay. And ⁓ so how how do we, you know, even as a parent, I remind my children, it's okay for you to come and ask questions, right, but to do so in the right spirit. And so how how do we go to our heavenly father when life just does not make sense and we feel like God is out to get us? Right. How how do we approach our creator? Right. It it's all about how we approach with those questions. I don't think that the Lord ⁓ disregards any question, but I think we need to have the right approach. He's a king, he's our God, he's our creator. And so we need to be respectful in that in that way. So we're gonna be looking at that this Sunday. ⁓ one thing I did think about though is as I'm doing going through this with teens, ⁓ this is constantly on my mind is that teens oftentimes are just a ⁓ a small snapshot of what the parents are. You know? So there are teens that struggle with emotions. There's probably some parents there that are struggling with the same thing. And so parents, we can we can be a help to even our our our teens and our children by us being in God's word daily and seeing how David, you know, dealt with his emotions or or any other topic through God's word and then sitting down with our children and helping them through the exact same thing.

speaker-1: Doing the same the microcosm. What a convicting thought that is for any parent. Yeah. That what I am sowing in my home emotionally is really what my kids are reaping. Yeah. Well, I'm I hope, as you're listening, that you're observing something even in our youth department. There's an intentionality there. And ⁓ if you don't have a a church home where we that where there's an investment in the entire family unit, children, teen, parent, I want you to know that that's what Faith Baptist is at least seeking to do. I realize ⁓ as we come to a close here that we have kind of changed our philosophical direction as a ministry. And Pastor Starr, we're so thankful, is here as a part of that philosophical change. And the chin tremendous philosophical change that you've just alluded to is that we believe from scripture parents are responsible for discipling their kids. And you just really alluded to that. And and you'll hear that a lot. And ⁓ if you don't have a church that's helping you, mom and dad, to do your job to disciple parents, that's what we're seeking to do. And what we've just sought to do here today is give you kind of a snapshot, if you will, of what it is that the teenagers are learning in youth group. This is this is Sunday school. So there's more we could have talked about related to Wednesday night even.

speaker-0: This is Sunday school. So Yeah, Wednesday night's a blast, ⁓ but it's all centered on God's word and I love how ⁓ we kind of break it up and have different themes.

speaker-1: Right, and and and outside of that there's activities that you're planning. ⁓ so there's many other venues, but if we have something, it's gonna come circle back and at times I feel like it's good for us when you ⁓ that's a familiar drumbeat. You just brought parents into the conversation again. Yes.

speaker-0: And we realize that teens, right, they're they're not gonna go off to college and remember the game they played on a certain night and and you two. But hopefully the truths of scripture are gonna stay with ⁓ So that's why we keep that the main thing. And so parents, we wanna be a help, a lifeline to you guys as well. I know there may be some parents that are listening to this and you might think, Well, we're just ⁓ o over our heads in this and we don't know what to do, so we're hoping that the church can step in. No, we wanna help you. Yeah. We wanna help you be able to help train and bring your your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

speaker-1: Right. And and this is such an important topic. And I look forward to in the coming weeks as you finish out that one to kind of introducing even whatever it is that you have next in Sunday school ⁓ time and ⁓ and hopefully that'll be help you. Thank you again for watching and and even perhaps sharing ⁓ what we've gone through. I hope these week in the word podcasts that are more informal help you understand a little bit more of the heart of our pastoral team and specifically what we are trying to accomplish here through through and for God's glory. At Faith Baptist Church in Taylor, South Carolina. Thank you for joining us today. For more information about Faith Baptist Church, visit us at www.fbctaylors.org.

speaker-0: Or improved.