In your Children

It is exciting to be able to come to you live this morning and let you know that we're so excited about what God's doing even in this trying situation.

God has a purpose, folks, for everything He does.

And He's got a purpose for this.

And personally, we were talking earlier with our crew here, and yes, it's a time for you to spend time with your family and have quality time.

And that's what I'm going to be talking about today.

How moms and dads, how you and I are to train up our children in the way that they shall go, and they'll never depart from it.

So go ahead and turn with me in your Bibles this morning to Proverbs 22, 6.

But we're going to be using several scriptures this morning as we look at, and by the way, normally I would say for any and all of you that do not have a worship guide, raise your hand and someone would get it to you, but you'll be able to go right online.

It's right there and worship with us and fill in the blanks.

And I know all my teachers are there.

I know Susan's there with my grandchildren.

I want to just say hey to all my grandchildren.

Several of four of them in Sacramento, California, where Susan is right now.

And then Brooklyn and Braden with Mary and John there in Athens, Tennessee.

And then all my children and family that I miss hugging my kids here at church.

I mean they come up and hug Pastor Danny all the time.

But I know you're watching, and we even got children's, I think children's church going today, so online for you.

So we're doing everything we can to make it real to you.

And so please don't get discouraged.

Hang in there with us.

It's going to be over soon, I'm praying.

I really am, and I believe that.

I really do.

But today I want us to look at, and I really believe in my own heart, this could be one of the most important messages you moms and dads and grandpas and grandmas could listen to and to fill in the blanks because it's really Christianity lived out in front of your children.

That's what we're talking about this morning.

There is a sense in which none of us ever leave school.

Now, I really believe life is a big classroom.

And the older I'm getting, and now at the great age, I didn't say old age, I said great age of 66, and I know I don't, I hope I don't look it.

I sure don't feel it.

But but I've learned that school, and I went through a school, oh Lord, I've I've been in school all my life.

Still in, still am in school, but literally all the way through a doctorate program and all that.

But but I've been through school, the school of life.

And now with three children raised, and uh what, six grandchildren, I've got a little bit of, should I say, practical experience that now that I preached this message 30 years ago, and now to watch how God has worked in these 30 years, I think what I've got to give you this morning is more than just another message, but it's truth that I have practically tried to live out for the last 40 plus years of my life and my ministry.

And what I've learned that we all live in a schoolroom.

We really do.

Life is a big classroom, and at the same time, the scriptures right here make it abundantly clear that life, now watch this.

Life right now and afterlife are largely determined, and I really believe this, by the way our children are raised.

It determined the way I was raised.

As I look back, I really believe that.

Life and afterlife are largely determined by the way a child is schooled.

I really believe that with all my heart.

When years, and I love this, when years are tender and the personality is very impressionable.

These are times that we have to take advantage of.

In fact, the word of God says, train up, right here, verse 20, verse 6 in Proverbs 22, train up with y'all in the ways you go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Three important factors right here emerge from this text that we're gonna look at today.

We're gonna look at Christianity and the schooling age, and then we're gonna look at Christianity and the schooling art, and Christianity and the schooling aim.

So, first of all, if you're taking notes, please, right now, put in there, in that first blank, Christianity and the schooling age.

Train up a child.

That first phrase, that childhood is the appropriate period for education.

And it's one of the most obvious of all the general truths.

I really believe that.

It is a principle which holds good in all countries in every period of history.

And in fact, we see if a child is to be truly trained, his training must begin at early childhood.

I believe that.

That's why we try to help reinforce and re, should I say, not just reinforce, but we try to support our parents that have a heart for God and a heart for their children to be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the things of God, and we're going to look at that today.

We have uh we have a mom's day out program here, led by Anita, and a great program.

And when the moms bring their children, they reinforce the Bible truths.

We teach them the word of God.

We have our children's church going on right now.

We have our wanna on Wednesday night, which is one of the greatest tools to teach children the word of God and the application of the word of God.

So we understand what I'm preaching and teaching this morning.

How important it is to train up a child in that early developmental years.

In fact, listen to what Solomon said.

I think I have this verse for you.

Ecclesiastes 12:1.

Ecclesiastes 12:1

Listen what the wisest man in the Bible said.

Here's what he said.

Boy, this is good.

Remember now thy creator in the days of your youth.

Remember now, thy creator in the days of your youth.

According to the wisest man, childhood is three things.

Number one, childhood is very important, and the age of childhood has the deepest impressions on a child.

That's number one.

The age, I'm talking about the age of deepest impressions.

Notice what he said.

Remember now thy creator in the days of your youth.

Childhood to youth is the time of the deepest impressions are formed.

And it has been well said, the earliest impressions, now listen, are the longest impressions.

Let me repeat that.

The earliest impressions are the longest impressions.

And when the Lord Jesus would encourage attitudes of humility and teachability, you know what he used?

He used children.

Listen to what he said in Matthew 18, 3.

This is powerful, parents.

Listen.

He took a child in his arms and he said, Except you be converted, that means turn from your sins and accept Christ as your Savior, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Did you hear that?

Powerful.

He took a child into his arms and he said, Except you be converted and become as a little, hey, as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of God.

Children were, I'm talking about, vitally important to Jesus and God.

They really were.

I remember when we built our first home in Lynchburg when we were, um, when I had resigned the church at Open Door and gone to Liberty University to be a professor of evangelism and and uh leadership.

And then later, two years later, became the dean of the seminary.

We built a house out in this beautiful valley overlooking the uh mountains and 50-acre apple orchard there.

We had an acre.

One of the guys I was in school with, he was a builder and owned all that property, so he cut me out an acre and even uh Lamont Brown, I'll never forget it.

Who knows?

He may be watching.

I love you, Lamont, and built our house.

And as we were laying that foundation, when they poured the cement, just like they poured the cement here recently at two o'clock in the morning for our new building, we went out there and we had our little girls then, Mary and Stephanie, uh and we had a dog named Simba, a Dalmatian, and we had them to write their little name, a Dalmatian.

At uh seem it while it was what, fresh and and moldable before it dried.

And to this day, uh when we go back to Lynchburg sometimes, we'll go back out to the house that has so many fond memories for us that has look at those, and I'll look at those little names and that footprint and and think back how old they were then in their in their early uh, you know, 10, 11, 9, and and and the C now, and how God and how God has molded them.

It's unbelievable, but that's what he's talking about here.

We've got to reach our children in those early ages, the most impressionable times of their lives are right in those, I call it kind of like pre-kindergarten through elementary school.

It's just invaluable.

It really is.

And secondly, it brings me to the second thing about uh this unbelievable schooling age.

It's the age of deeply, it's the age of godly, it's the age of innocence, of purest innocence.

Look at verse Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 1, and when he says, Remember now thy creator, while the evil days come not.

Ecclesiastes 12:1

Now, I understand that we're formed in iniquity.

The Bible says in Psalm 51.5, makes it plain that a child is shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin, and as soon as they be born, they go astray speaking lies.

That's Psalms 51.5, Psalms 58.3.

Yet it still remains true that early childhood is the period of the most complete innocence of a child.

Indeed, few things are more appealing than the innocence of a little child.

And I got to thinking about that.

Oh, folks, it stands a reason, therefore, that childhood is the age to teach the mind that has not been poisoned yet.

To teach that mind that has not been poisoned yet.

I love what he says.

Uh he says, set your mind on things above and not on things of this earth, Colossians 3.2.

And he tells us in Romans 8, 6 that the carnal mind is death, but the spiritual mind is life and happiness.

So it's so important at an early age to have our children memorizing scripture, thinking about the Bible stories and how much God loves them and that how much God has a perfect plan for their life and wants to use them in a great and mighty way.

That's why it's so important.

It's so important.

Also, hey, it's not that the mind's not been poisoned, but also to gain the ear that has not been deafened.

He says in Matthew 13, 9, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

And it's also important to win the heart of those children that has not been hardened.

Boy, is that not so true.

He says, My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways.

And let me say right here, this is where the other passage of scripture that I love so much about the home comes into being.

In Deuteronomy chapter 6, he says, in Deuteronomy chapter 6, in fact, let's just turn there real quick.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

Deuteronomy chapter 6, listen to what he says in verse 5.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God.

He's talking to parrots.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.

And then verse 6, he says, and these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart.

In other words, parrots, you've got to love God with all your heart.

It's hard to teach something you don't know.

Can I get an omen or amen out there?

Amen.

So you've got, you've got to, it's got to be living in you.

And then he says, I love this next.

And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart.

He says, when they're in your heart, when they're in your life, then this is what you're going to do next.

And this is vitally important.

He says in verse 7, Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.

When thou, hey, hey, when thou risest up, when thou walkest by the way, when thou sit down, when thou go to sleep, when they get back up, teach them diligently.

And verse 8, and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be as frontlets between their eyes.

Those were the little flackly box with scriptures that the Jews would put literally in a little box and strap it around their heads and have it right here between their eyes.

But what he's literally saying is that you ought to be talking about the Word of God consistently and constantly to your children.

You ought to be giving them biblical principles in every situation of life that they face.

My daughter's watching now, my grandchildren, they'll tell you right now, every time there was a situation in our home and there was correction to be done, we did it, but I always gave a biblical principle.

I showed them what scripture says.

It's so important that we do that, now watch.

And then he says, verse 9, and thou shalt write them upon the post of the house.

You ought to have posters all over your house.

Choose you this day whom you're gonna serve.

For me and my house, we're gonna serve the Lord, serve the Lord.

Eric grew up with a guy running a marathon race, and underneath it it says, But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they should walk and not faint, not give up.

Everywhere you went in our home, and even today you see you see scripture everywhere.

And look at what he says will take place then.

Verse 10.

And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he's swearing to the fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to give thee great and godly cities, great and godly homes which thou build's not.

You can't build a home and it be great and godly, except the Lord build a house.

They labor in vain that build it.

Amen.

Psalms 127, verse 1.

Psalms 127:1

Wow, that's the years, these young years are the purest innocence, purest innocence, but also the will.

The will is developed during these times.

The will, it really is.

That's why he says, and I love this, as servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart.

During these purest innocent years, that will can be developed to serve God.

It really can.

I found this writing and I can't, I tried to find it, the statement.

I don't know where I found it when I put this message together years ago.

But listen to this statement.

It is easier and better to build wholesome use than to repair damaged adults.

Wow.

Let me repeat that.

It is easier and better to build wholesome use than to repair damaged adults.

Let us never forget this when consenting to the schooling of our children.

And then the third thing, not only is it the uh age of uh purest innocence and deepest impressions, but three, the age of highest interest.

Ecclesiastes 12, 1 again.

Remember now the creator.

Now watch what he says at the second part of that verse.

While the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.

If anyone's interest is to be awakened, youth provides that optimum conditions.

It really does.

The challenge of life makes little appeal the older you get.

It's now, when they're young and in their youth, I'm talking about in T, I mean when they're so excited and they really don't know what they want to do, but you and I can help them.

Hey, what they need to do is to set their eyes on God, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things should be added unto them.

If we create that impression and example that, hey, the greatest thing they can do is serve God, and God's got from the from the moment my kids were young and walking, I kept telling them, Eric and Mary and Stephanie, I kept saying, God's got something beautiful for you.

God's got something special for you.

And we know that in because of Jeremiah as well.

Jeremiah says that he's got a plan for us, and it's not evil, it's good, and he wants us to prosper.

He's got a great plan for our life.

So we see that.

The effective age in which to train future men and women is during the age of early impressions, innocence, and interests.

Amazing how many parents and teachers tend to forget this or overlook it.

And I really believe that.

Indeed, it has been said that no animal delects, hey, neglects its young more than man.

Wow.

Wow.

Is that not true?

How do we know that?

Look at juvenile delinquency.

I was reading an article the other day of a judge that's just retired.

And you know what he said?

He said, one of the reasons that I've, I, it's time, my age, but he says, I no longer can stand to sit in my chair when I used to see these 40-year-old men come in and robbing and committing murder and rape and all this heinous crimes, but now I'm seeing teenagers killing their parents, killing each other, for no cause or for initiation into a game.

He said, God help us.

And everybody says, How do we solve these problems?

And and the pregnancy of young girls and sex starting now at age 12, 12-year-olds getting pregnant.

How does all the the cry out is always, what's wrong?

How do we how do we change it?

I'll tell you how we change it right here.

When they're young and they're early impressionable, when they're they're they're eager to hear the truth.

That's win.

And now with the homes being totally destructive, and very few homes with a mom and dad, or a lot of homes with two or three moms and dads.

So much confusion.

What's the answer, Pastor?

Well, one, it's never too late.

One, it's never too late.

So don't get, oh, I didn't do that.

You don't have to, hey, hey, don't don't regret, ask for forgiveness, and say, let me be, hey, let me be the influence as much as I can now.

Hey, to kids right now, I'm excited about helping my daughters and my daughters and their children.

I want to help influence them.

So that's it.

It's never too late.

It's never too late.

And we see this.

Failure to train a child in the way it should go.

You know what it is?

Now here's the hard one.

Now, this is a slap to all of us.

Failure to train up children in the way they shall go is a sin.

Let me tell you how I know.

Listen to what Jesus said.

This is a tough scripture, but it's so true.

In Matthew 18, verses 5 and 6, listen to what Jesus said.

Matthew 18:5

Now, this is Jesus preaching, not me, not Paul, not one of the disciples, but Jesus himself.

He said, Whoever receives one of these little children in my name receives me.

Verse 6.

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me Sin.

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and him thrown into the deepest part of the sea.

That was some of the worst punishment the Greeks could do.

So that's how powerful these principles are in Jesus' eyes.

I love what he says.

He says in Psalms 127, 4, as arrows are in the hands of a mighty man, so are children of youth.

Happy is the man that has his quiver full of.

Wow.

In other words, godly young boys and girls growing up in the love and the direction of, hey, biblical principles and biblical morality.

Oh, oh, wow.

Which leads me to my second point.

Christianity age, but the second thing is Christianity and the schooling arts.

Notice what he says again in Proverbs 22, 6.

Train up a child in the ways you go.

You will notice that the verse does not say teach a child in the ways you go.

Now, being a professor all these years, teach or two, especially training pastors.

Training includes teaching.

Okay?

I understand that.

But teaching does not necessarily include training.

And it's taken educators years to understand that, especially theological teachers.

I mean, when I went to Liberty and took over the seminary, we had no internships.

All they were doing was getting classroom training.

One of the first things I did was change the whole program.

My doctorate.

My doctorate, my PhD was in, my doctoral ministry was concentrated in leadership of pastors, and I did a survey of 500 pastors that were in the ministry at least five years or more and had graduated from seminary.

And I compared the training they had with the practicality of their shepherding after five years of ministry, and what were what they would have loved to have seen more of.

And let me tell you, everyone, and I already knew my hypothesis, I already knew what it was going to be.

Then I uh interviewed over 200 professors that taught in seminaries.

That was my dissertation.

And guess what?

I already knew, I already had the answer to my hypothesis before I kind of had Susan and I had kind of figured out what it was going to be.

All the professors thought the master divinity degree should never be changed.

It was the Holy Grail.

Whereas me going through it, and after what, 14 years of pastoring, thought, my goodness, there's a lot of stuff they didn't teach me.

They didn't teach me conflict management.

They didn't teach me any kind of leadership.

They didn't teach me any kind of practicality of ministry.

They educated me extremely.

I could defend my theological beliefs excellently.

I don't even know if that's a word, but excellent.

But what I'm telling you is this.

I had no, they never, hey, I never, if I had not gotten a one-on-one with Dr.

J.O.

Grooms of Thomas Rowe Baptist Church, I would I fell in love with him because he taught me how to memorize scripture in this big tent.

I'll never forget it as long as I live.

I heard him quoting scripture and I came in, I walked in the tent, and I said, I gotta be in this class.

He said, It's full.

I said, No, sir.

God told me I need to be under your uh uh leadership right now because when I went to liberty, I had one verse and had trouble with it memorized John 3.16.

So I needed, I had a burning heart's desire for the word of God.

And he said, All right, I'll tell you what I'll do, young man.

I'll let you come into my class.

I'll never forget it.

He had his glasses like he said, I'll let you come into my class, but one condition.

I said, Yes, sir, whatever it is.

You've got to go with me every Tuesday and Thursday.

I said, Okay, where are we going?

We're going to win souls.

So for the next two years, every Tuesday and Thursday at 4 o'clock to about seven at night, I went soul winning with Dr.

J.

O.

Grooms.

And I learned how to win people to Christ.

I learned how to minister to people.

So years later, now turn the page.

I'm back at Liberty University.

What I did, I said, we are going to introduce, and this was my hypothesis in my dissertation, we're going to change some things in theological training.

We're going to have more practical application.

We're going to make internships required.

So, with that said, it's one thing to teach your children, but it's another thing for your children to see it lived out in you.

To live it out.

And that's what it brings, that's what I want us to look at.

Training includes teaching, but teaching, again, does not always include training.

As it is in the Bible, the word train, hey, is a simple, threefold, I think, example of what training is.

Threefold for we as parents.

Here it is.

Number one.

You know what it is?

We've got to be an example.

Number two, we got to instruct our children in the ways of the Lord.

And number three, we've got to discipline our children.

Listen to what 1 Corinthians 11:1 says.

1 Corinthians 11:1

Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ.

We ought to tell our children to follow us as we follow Christ.

2 Corinthians 3.2, what did Paul say?

You are our example, written in our hearts, known and read by all men.

You've heard me say it, you'll hear me say it as long as I live.

You're writing a gospel, a chapter each day, by the deeds that you do and the words that you say.

Men read what you write, distorted or true.

What is the gospel according to you?

You got to be that example.

And then, secondly, not only example, you got to teach it.

And we saw that in verse 7.

Teach it in Deuteronomy 6, verse 7.

Deuteronomy 6:7

Teach it diligently.

You got to teach it.

Have your kids in church.

Have them in a great children's program, a Bible program, the wanna program.

Learn the scriptures with them.

I encourage our parents here when you when they're going through the little wana books.

I know my kids, Mary and Stephanie and Eric too, are watching.

And we used to use the wana books as our Bible time.

We called it our family time.

Every day.

We'd go over those verses.

We'd memorize them together.

We did that.

That was our family time.

And it was so meaningful.

So, instruction and then, hey, discipline.

Now I know that's a bad word today.

Discipline.

Can I say something?

That's what's wrong.

When we kicked God out of our school system, and we kicked discipline out of our school system, now you see the results of that.

When we took, you know, up until the, when I was in school, I think up until the 11th grade, we had Bible reading in our school every morning.

Every morning.

We had prayer time.

We said a pledge of allegiance to the American flag and to the Christian flag in public school.

Long time ago.

But that's it.

Listen to what he says about discipline.

Proverbs 22, 15.

Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

That's what the word says.

My granddaddy took that literally.

He had no problem putting the rod where it ought to go.

None whatsoever.

So we see right here three aspects of this art.

Examples, instruction, and discipline.

Now, it needs to be applied in three areas.

Number one, in your notes, the home.

Go to Ephesians chapter 6, verses 1 through 4.

Ephesians 6:1–4

Look at what it says.

Parents, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Oh, this is awesome.

There's a positive and a negative example in this passage of scripture.

Negatively, here's what it says.

Parents are not to provoke their children to anger.

They are not, what he means there, they are not to excite them in evil ways or evil passions.

They're not to do that.

They are not to excite those passions and those inclinations of their children by bad examples or frustrate them by inconsistent requirements.

How often, I thought to myself, through temper and thoughtlessness or injustice, children have been led astray by their parents.

This is a serious indictment of today's parents on all of us.

But on the positive side, they are to bring up the children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

That is to say, they are to develop their children's gifts and character qualities by loving discipline and loving instruction and by a great example.

Look at the word nurture.

Here's what it means: it's the Greek word padaya.

Padaya.

And it literally the root is, uh comes from the word nourish and nurse.

And implies tender care and feeding of a young creature.

A young creature.

It also includes the thought of discipline.

In fact, listen to what the word of God says about discipline.

You gotta get this.

It's so important.

He says in Proverbs 13, 24, he that spares his rod hates his son.

Wow, that's powerful.

He that spares the rod hates his children.

Now, what that means is, when we do not discipline our children.

And I know what when I read that when I was younger and trying to train my children up, taking Proverbs 2, 22, 6, and really try, I I really didn't understand this verse.

But now, 30 plus years later, I kind of do.

He that spares his rod hates his son.

And I said, no, wait a minute, there is no way I'm hating my children when I'm not disciplined.

I love my children.

But then I realized if I truly love my children, then I need to be training my children.

And what training encompasses is the example, the instruction and training, the practical part and the discipline.

And part of the practical training is making sure our children walk in the right ways.

And there has to be results for walking in the wrong ways.

Can I get an O me?

And I think that's what we see in America today.

Our whole justice system, people are getting away with murder.

People are getting, and I don't mean that as a cliche, but they literally, there's no consequences anymore to doing wrong.

And that means that when we don't have consequences with our children, that they can do what they want, when they want, how they want, that they're gonna be not a blessing to us, but they're gonna be a heartbreak to us.

Now let me continue with another few scriptures.

This is very important.

Proverbs 19, 18.

Chasten thy son while there is hope.

Wow.

What does that mean?

While they're young.

While they have that highest impressionable years, that highest interest, that highest innocence.

That's when you.

Do you know what I think I had to, I whipped Eric there for a few years pretty regularly.

I even, I hate to say this, had to spank Benji a time or two with his dad's permission.

He said back there.

But but but here's what I really want you to understand.

I didn't have to do it much after that, in those very young, those pre-kindergarten through elementary school.

And and my daughters, after pre-kindergarten, which I never spanked the girls much, but Nana.

Susan did.

But boy, she didn't cut the girls any slack.

But but what I'm saying is, this I can tell you this is so true.

After those first years, those impressionable years, I very seldom had to use corporal punishment anymore with my children.

Let me tell you, the greatest thing I had, and for you parents, when they get teenagers, start driving.

The greatest discipline you can do.

You don't have to beat the devil out of them.

Just take the car keys or cell phone or the media.

That's right.

Well, we didn't have media then.

Eric didn't have the media that the kids got now.

Yeah, you take the car keys now, they just run in the bedroom and get online and start talking to all the friends.

But I can remember taking Eric's, he's gonna kill me for saying that, taking his car keys and then have to ride the bus to school.

There's nothing more humiliating than riding the bus to school when you got a car.

But there's gotta be some consequences for wrong.

And listen to what else he says.

Now, these are powerful verses.

There's a bunch, but I chose the best ones.

Here's what it says.

Are you ready?

Proverbs 23, verses 13 and 14.

Proverbs 23:13

Listen to this.

Withhold not correction from thy child.

For if thou correct him with the rod, he shall not die.

Verse 14, thou shalt correct him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell.

Whoa.

Folks, that's powerful.

Parents, did you hear that?

Deliver his soul or her soul from hell.

Proverbs 13, 23, verses 13 and 14.

So we see the nurture.

And then notice the next verse here, or the next word.

The admonition of the Lord stands for instruction.

Paul gloried in the fact that through the instruction of his mother, Eunice, and grandmother Lois, that, hey, Timothy was brought up to know the scriptures.

In fact, you gotta see this.

In 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 5.

1 Timothy 1:5

Listen to what it says.

Powerful.

Paul says, I call to remembrance, Timothy.

I call to remembrance the unfeigned, the unwavering faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and in thy mother Eunice.

And I am persuaded that's in you.

There's that living example.

There's the three things I'm telling you about.

They lived it.

Then they taught it.

Okay?

Then they taught it.

And then they disciplined.

And listen to what he says when you go over to 1 Timothy 3, 15.

And he says, and that from a child, Timothy, and that from a child, oh, this is beautiful, thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

And then he goes on and he says, All scripture, Timothy, is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine.

That, hey, that, in other words, it teaches us.

And then he says it's for correction, it rebukes us.

And then he says, hey, for instruction in righteousness.

In other words, it teaches us, it rebukes us, it corrects us, it disciples us, excuse me, it disciples us.

And then verse 17, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto good works.

In other words, your children will be totally equipped to be successful and to fulfill the will that God has for their life.

God's got a perfect plan for your children.

Wow.

And I'm now able to see that being lived out in my children.

It works, folks.

It's not just something I preached 30 years ago.

Yes, I've preached it vehemently.

But I've seen it now lived out.

To God be the glory.

It really works.

Let me give you six things.

I wish I could have put this on your outline, but I'm doing so much research and reading and looking.

Six suggestions.

I found this in a folder.

And I wrote it when I was a student at Liberty.

Six suggestions on how to curve juvenile delinquency.

Now listen, by Billy Graham.

You ready?

Maybe write it down somewhere.

Number one, take time with your children.

Every week.

There ought to be time that you spend with your children.

There ought to be a Daddy's Day.

Every Friday was Daddy's Day.

Nothing interrupted that except a death in the church family.

That's the only time.

That was my time with my kids.

In fact, I'll never forget the governor invited me to be at a function with him on Friday.

He called me personally at the house.

And I said, Governor, I can't.

He said, uh, okay.

I said, here's why.

This is my daddy's day with my girls and my son.

And at that time he was a free will Baptist preacher.

He said, excellent.

So he said, I understand.

Well, an hour later he calls me back.

He said, Why don't you bring your children and come be my guests in the box at the Alabama football game tomorrow and have lunch with me there?

Yes, I'd love to do that, Governor.

But I didn't allow even the governor to interrupt my daddy's day.

That's what it meant to me.

That's what it meant to me.

And it was special days, they know it.

Number two, set a good example.

You are our letter written in our heart.

Number three, give children ideals for living.

Give them goals for living.

In other words, hey, hey, give them goals.

You want to make something.

You want to be something.

You can be the best.

You can be the best.

You can be the best.

I was never told I could be the best.

I was always told you're not gonna make it.

So give them goals.

Number three.

I meant number four.

Have a lot of activities planned.

This is why I love sports.

I'm not one of those preachers that's against sports.

Now, what I am against is you allowing the sports to become a God for your children.

They need to.

I want them.

We played all kinds of sports.

My daughters were all American basketball players, but they kept God first.

We didn't let sports interrupt putting God first.

And a lot of parents do that.

And I gotta, please, I beg you don't to do that.

Don't do that.

Don't do.

Hey, Michael Jordan never even played basketball until he was in 11th grade.

Come on, guys.

Keep God first.

Hey, you only have a short period of time.

I see them out there at these impressionable ages, little third and fourth graders having baseball practice and soccer practice five and six days.

They don't get to six, but they'll go to practice.

That's wrong.

You're sitting, hey, that training and that example is being led in the wrong direction.

The wrong direction.

I'm all for it.

That's why I love our little soccer program here.

Dave's done such a fantastic job.

We doubled it in one year.

We come to church, we fellowship together, we eat together, then we go watch him play soccer.

God's first.

And when we get our baseball field and our soapball, it's gonna be our gym, it's gonna be the Lord first.

Parents, you better listen to me.

I've had parents come to me after their teen years and later years and say, what did I do wrong?

I'm gonna be honest with you.

I used not to say this, but I've got to say it now.

It's because you didn't set the example that God was first in your life, so how in the world can your children know that God's first?

Or why would they want to put God first in their life?

They heard you say it, but they didn't see you do it.

I know that's tough.

I know that's tough.

But that's The truth.

I'm begging you.

I'm begging you.

Keep God first.

Show him.

Show him.

And then number five, discipline your children.

And then number six, teach them about Jesus.

Now that was Billy Graham 30 years ago.

30 years ago.

Six suggestions on how to curve juvenile delinquency.

Well, the home and then the church.

Listen to what Mark 10, 14 says.

Suffer the little children come to come unto me.

Forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of God.

There's only a few occasions in the Word of God where you see Jesus really get upset.

One's the money changers in the temple.

Guess where the other one was?

Right here.

The context is Jesus is there relaxing, and all of a sudden all these children are coming to him.

And the disciples in their hearts decide, well, this is going to be, this isn't going to be a good situation for Jesus.

I mean, he's trying to rest, he's trying to relax.

So we need to keep these children away from him.

Well, let me just tell you what he said.

I mean, I call this the children's charter.

Children were being brought to the Savior, and then all of a sudden, hey, the disciples try to keep them away and listen to what Jesus said.

Jesus expressed his profound displeasure.

And here's what he said.

Suffer the little children, and boy, when you look at that in the Greek, it's powerful.

It's like an intense saying, is what it means.

He says, suffer the little children to come unto me.

Forbid them.

That word forbids a powerful word.

In other words, don't you dare.

Forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of God.

And ever since then, our church, every church, every pastor, we've been bringing children to Jesus.

Can I get an amen?

That's our heart.

That's our goal.

That's our purpose.

God forbid, teachers.

God forbid, teachers that, hey, hinder children.

I think of all these liberal professors and the garbage going on even in our public school system.

And I'm thinking, oh my goodness, these professors, these teachers one day are going to just stand before an Almighty God and give an account of how they hindered the truth.

Moms and dads are going to do the same, stand before God.

Hey, when you've hindered the truth before your children, Sunday school teachers, pastors that preach one thing and live another.

God help us.

God help us.

We see this task.

We see it.

In fact, let me give you an illustration.

Oh, I had forgotten about this illustration, but it was in my notes.

A sad letter by a Baptist Sunday school teacher was published in the Dallas newspaper after President John F.

Kennedy was assassinated.

The teacher told of having a boy in his Sunday school class whom he never reached for Christ.

He never visited, visited him, he never reached out to him.

His name was Lee Harvey Oswald, who later assassinated President John F.

Kennedy.

Five years later, a Nazarene Sunday school teacher in Pasadena, California lamented, brokenhearted, over what might have happened to a dropout from his class.

Twelve-year-old dark-skinned boy came two or three times.

He never visited him, never reached out to him, just never made any effort whatsoever.

And the teacher neglected again to reach out to him.

The boy's name was Sirhan.

Sirhan, who later killed Senator Robert F.

Kennedy.

Wow.

Wow.

The impact that we can have is unbelievable.

And then the third thing, the world.

Listen to what he said, Matthew 18, 6 and 7.

Whoso shall offend one of these little ones, hey, it's better that he have a millstone hung around his neck.

I mean, if it were better for him that a millstone were hung around his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea, woe unto the world because of these offenses is he talking about.

We are so enged with humanistic teachings today.

Jesus said, Whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that the millstone hung around his neck.

Lord help us.

Oh man.

Lord help us.

And then the last thing this morning Christianity and the schooling aim.

What's the aim of the schooling?

What's the purpose?

He says in Proverbs 22, 6, train up a child in the way he should go.

There can be little doubt as what is meant here.

The word, the way he should go.

And I love that.

Because there's only one right way in life, and that is the way which God has made known to men and women through Jesus Christ, his son, the way that leads to life.

He says, there's John 14, 6.

Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth, the life.

No man cometh in the Father except by me.

So let's, as I finish this morning, I want you to look at three things.

It's first of all the way of salvation.

Train up a child on the way it should go.

Let us make no mistake about the need of salvation for every child.

Jesus said, Watch.

Now think a bit.

This is powerful.

Jesus said this, it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

He says that in Matthew 18, 14.

Not one.

If it's his will for not one child to perish, don't you think it's his will for all the children to be led in the ways of God?

Absolutely.

Wow.

That's awesome.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promises.

Some men count slackness, but is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish.

2 Peter 3:9.

2 Peter 3:9

Wow.

I love that.

And then Paul says concerning Timothy, remember, from a child, Timothy, thou hast known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

And from a child.

God has special angels delegated, I really believe this delegated with the responsibility of garden children until they are trained in the way of salvation.

I believe that.

I believe a child is perfectly under the grace of God till he comes to that accountable age that he can be saved.

And that differs with different children.

And that differs, and the reason it differs is because of the training and teaching and the examples that they're getting at home.

I'm convinced parents that live for Christ, Christ is number one in their life, their children are going to come to Christ a lot quicker.

And those parents that don't make that a priority in their homes.

I'm convinced of that.

I see it all the time.

In fact, here's another good illustration.

Are you ready for this?

Listen to this.

This is heartbreaking.

It has been calculated that after 25 years of age, only one in 1,000 is saved.

After 35 years of age, only one in 50,000 is saved.

After 45 years of age, only one in 200,000 is saved.

After 55 years of age, only one in 300,000 is saved.

After 75 years of age, only one in 700,000 is saved.

Dr.

Wilbur Chapman once tested a meeting.

Dr.

Wilbur Chapman was a famous evangelist in the early 50s.

Listen to what he said.

This is awesome.

There was 4,500 were present that night.

Here's what he did.

The result was this.

He asked them, 400 of these present were saved under 10.

400.

He said, you know, if you were saved 10 or under, 400 raised their hand.

If you were saved between 10 and 14, 600, raise their hand.

If you were saved between 14 and 16, 600 raised their hand.

If you were saved between 16 and 20, 1,000 raised their hand.

24 only were saved after 36.

Some truth in the scriptures we've been looking at this morning.

Some tremendous truth.

So it's the way of salvation.

Number two, it's the way of satisfaction.

Train up a child in the way she goes.

There can be also, that way can also be translated.

Train up a child in God's way.

The only way children are ever going to be satisfied and really happy if they're walking in the ways of the Lord.

Can I get an amen?

Amen.

Oh, you want the best for your children.

Train them up in the things of God.

And then the last thing, the way of service.

Moffat translates this scripture as follows.

Listen to how Moffitt's translation translates Prophet 22.6.

Beautiful.

Train a child for his appropriate trade, and he will never leave it, even when he's old.

Wow.

The aim of every parent and teacher should be to train a child to become of real service to God and God's plan for their life.

Hannah.

Hannah prayed.

Remember Hannah?

But also don't forget the priest that was a good priest, but a terrible father.

I remember that too.

But one of the most beautiful examples of the fulfillment of this message is the story of Hannah.

Do you remember how she prayed?

For she prayed, hey, for the gift of a son.

God answered her prayer, and the child arrived.

True to her parental plan, Hannah said this, For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I ask of him.

Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord.

And then the next picture we have is little Samuel is in the temple when the record tells us that the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord.

I'll never forget my first child, Eric, when he was born.

I went into the, that was before you could go in with your wife.

In fact, I had the privilege of being right there with Stephanie being born, in fact, being a paramedic back then, I told the doctor, it'd allow me to help even deliver my own little child.

That was something I'll never forget as long as I live.

But that first child I was, I found the chapel, and I was teetering with the Lord, up and down, up and down.

I was saved, but I was.

You understand that.

But I'll never forget.

I knelt down and I said, if you'll give me a son, I'll dedicate him to you.

And to this day, my son's now in in and I thank God for how God's using him.

He's in uh California, San Diego, and for the last seven years, he's been helping young teenagers get off the street, homeless teenagers, and make something out of their lives.

Called street angels.

You can go online and see it.

So I praise God how I watched God use my son all those years and then my daughters.

I prayed for them to just be used greatly.

And to watch them sing with their mother all those years together as a family ministry, and now to watch each of them how they're involved in their churches and their lives and training their children, their children, in the ways of the Lord.

Folks, it works.

Now, for some of you, don't you let this Satan say that you got beat up this morning.

Don't you do that, because that's his tendency.

I know.

I used to hear these messages, and I've and I felt like I was being beaten up on.

That's not the case.

The case is it's never too late.

I don't care who you are, where you are.

You can change your life, you can change your training, you can be that example.

Hey, you can you can you can teach and you can show them the right way and correction too.

You can do that.

You can do that.