A Blue Print for Christianity and Your School

Welcome to this week's message from the Church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

Today's message deals with and what a tremendous uh follow-up of last week.

We said God's blueprint for the home last week.

And if you missed any of these messages, go online.

You can pick up, write with us, uh, and catch up, especially last week, because if you remember, the last thing I dealt with last Sunday was God's blueprint for the home dealt with children, and dealt with our children, and how that we were to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of God and how that they were our rewards.

Psalms 127, verse 4 and 5, where he says, Blessed is the man that has his quiver full, when there to be those errors, and happy are they, they are his reward.

Psalms 127:4

And then, secondly, I said, Not only are the children our rewards, but secondly, they are our responsibility.

Can I get an amen?

And we dealt with it just a little, and the reason I left that for the last last week, because I knew this week we would be dealing with God's blueprint for Christianity and your school.

In fact, the Bible says in Proverbs 22, verse 6, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

And then Ephesians 6, 4 says, and you fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Another good translation for that is fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them.

Or another good word would be the way you direct them or train them, but bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.

So, and then Deuteronomy chapter 6 is powerful and it deals with really the command.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

And I know many of us say, well, it's not my job to train my children, that's why I send them to kindergarten, that's why I send them to school.

The only problem with that, that's not scriptural.

Hey, the education is given by the word of God to the moms and to the dads.

Can I get an amen?

And we see this in Deuteronomy chapter 6, where he says, Now these are the commandments, the statues, and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded to teach you.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

In other words, God teaches us as parents.

And he says, Teach you that ye might do them in the land where you go to possess it.

In other words, I'm gonna teach you God's word.

He's talking to the nation Israel.

I'm gonna teach you my words, and I'm teaching you, I'm instructing you, hey, for the purpose of you being doers of my word.

And in the land that I'm going to deliver you.

He's delivering them out of bondage and he's gonna put them into the promised land.

And then notice what he says in verse 2, that thou mightst fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statues and his commandments, which I commend thee, thou, now watch, and thy son and thy son's sons, all the days of thy life, and that the days may be prolonged.

In other words, he's talking about now, hey, I'm gonna teach my son and my grandsons.

I am responsible for the schooling of my children.

And then he says, Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily.

Wow.

As the Lord God of the fathers hath promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might.

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

Now look at verse 7.

Powerful statement, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.

And you can say, and their children, and their children, your children and your grandchildren.

He's teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall talk with them when thou sittest in the house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

In other words, your speech, your everything going on in the house ought to be exalt in Jesus Christ.

Everything.

Amen?

Everything.

Everything.

Not not, hey, it shouldn't be television shouldn't be all this garbage and this killing and this sex and all that goes on.

It ought to be exalt in Christ.

You say, well, Pastor Danny, that means I wouldn't be watching a lot of television.

Duh.

Hello.

Hello?

Hello.

So and notice what he says.

So our speech, and then look at verse 8.

And that shall bind them for a sign.

Not only should we be teaching our children with speech, but you ought to have, you ought to have signs hung up everywhere.

Cross stitches, what else?

All that stuff you ladies do.

What do you call it?

Cross stitch and crochet and all that.

Yeah, whatever.

Or pictures from Hobby Lobby.

I know you don't, Deedra.

You're a missionary, I understand.

But uh uh all this stuff.

You walk in my house, the first thing you see is a beautiful picture.

It says, Choose you this day whom you're gonna serve.

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

Amen.

Joshua 24, 15.

So we we talk about the Lord.

We show the Lord.

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

In other words, now not only do we teach our kids in our speech and in our signs, but also in our surroundings.

Amen.

We ought to make sure that where our kids are and what they're seeing, hey, is is stuff that exalts God and exalts them.

We are responsible for those areas.

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

Notice what he's saying.

In order to have great and godly cities, we've got to have great and godly homes.

Can I hear an amen?

Which means we've got to have great and godly kids.

Amen.

So that is so important.

And that's the introduction.

Now, the whole of life is a school.

Do you know what?

The moment our children are born into this world, they begin their education.

Amen.

They begin their education.

When years, and you know, the greatest time, look at Proverbs 22, 6 again when he says, train up a child.

The greatest impressionable age is when they're children.

It's when they're children.

And that's what I want us to look at today.

Number one, Christianity and the schooling age.

Train up a child.

And that childhood is the appropriate period for education, is one of the most obvious of all the general truths in the Word of God.

It is a principle which holds good in all centuries, too.

If a man is to be truly trained or a lady truly trained, his training and their training must begin in early childhood.

I want you to see this.

Look at what the great Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 12, verse 1.

Ecclesiastes 12:1

He says, remember now the creator in the days of your youth.

Oh, remember the creator in the days of your youth.

He himself, Solomon, was saying how important it is for us to teach our children in their young and impressionable years.

In fact, I want you to see two or three things under that.

The Christianity in the schooling age.

Number one, the age of deepest impressions, or when, hey, are between the ages of when they're born and youth by the end of their teenage years.

Those are the most impressional, the deepest impressions for children.

Childhood to youth is the time for, again, the most earliest and most deepest impressions.

Billy Graham said this earliest impressions last the longest.

Earliest impressions last the longest.

And listen to what Jesus said.

And boy, did he say this in Matthew chapter 18, verse 3.

Matthew 18:3

Look at what he said.

And when the Lord Jesus would encourage attitudes of humility and teachability, listen to what he said.

He took a child to his arms and he said, Accept ye, be converted.

In other words, turn from your sins and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

That's pretty powerful, isn't it?

And what was he saying?

He's saying it's at that early, impressionable age that children can come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior.

I believe in that children can be saved.

Some people say, well, I don't know if a child really understands it.

Well, you better go back to the scriptures, listen to what he says, and accept we be converted as that little childlike faith and that childlike innocence and that childlike believing.

You know, it's easy for a child to believe in their early impressionable years.

Why?

Because they trust you.

You know why they believe what you say?

Because they trust you.

And is that not what we should, hey, that's the same kind of childlike faith we all have when we get saved as a Christian.

Hey, because our Father, Romans 8, 16, Abba Father, our daddy, God Himself, hey, as we come to God through Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and we call him Abba Father, and we believe and we're adopted in the family of God.

In that young age, it's so easy to believe our Father.

We don't doubt it, we don't question it.

Same here with our children.

It's so important.

I was thinking about a great illustration.

I think about trees.

You can take a sapling, and you know what?

In its early years, you can shape that sapling any way you want it to go.

Amen.

But guess what?

After it becomes a tree, what?

You can't see, hey, you can't shape it anymore.

You can't shape it anymore.

Amen.

But in that early young stage, you can take it and shape it any way you want to shape it.

And then I was thinking, I was thinking about what we did with our kids in both of our homes when we would lay a cement, our pads, our driveway.

You know what we do?

In our home in Virginia, we had we had Mary and Stephanie and our dog to put their prints in the cement.

Remember that?

When the cement was wet and easy to move around and easily, what?

To make impressions.

And then after those impressions were made and it dried, guess what?

It's there forever.

Unless you just blow it up.

It's there forever.

And that is the picture I thought and God gave me as I was studying this week on us schooling our children in the school years that we taught our children.

How impressionable they are in these young, young ages.

But not only are the deepest impressions given at this young age, but notice the other thing: the age of purest innocence, number two.

Oh.

Listen to what he says in Ecclesiastes 12, 1.

This is awesome.

Remember now thy creator, while the evil days come not.

Now, while the Bible makes it plain that a child is born in iniquity, we're born with a sin nature.

Psalms 51, verse 5, behold, he's formed in iniquity, and in sin did his mother conceive him.

Psalms 51:5

Because of Adam's sin in the garden, we all inherit that sin nature.

You with me?

Say amen.

We all inherit that sin nature.

In fact, you go over to Psalms 58, verse 3, and guess what?

Psalms 58:3

It says, as soon as they are born, they go astray.

Hey, children go astray speaking lies.

Now I know what you're saying.

How in the world can a baby lie?

I'll tell you how they lie.

You ever put a baby down after you fed them and they start crying and you pick them up and they shut up?

Hello?

What are they?

Hey, they want your attention.

They're trying to manipulate you to hold them all the time.

They're trying to get what they want.

They want attention.

Hello?

I mean, it's it's not, hey, hey, what do you have to teach children early to do?

To do right, not wrong.

They're bent to do wrong.

Why?

Because of that sin nature.

That's why it is so important that we challenge that sin nature and we begin to teach them the right ways, God's ways, early in their lives.

Very early.

And that's what Solomon said.

He said, yet it still remains true that early childhood is the period that is most compared with innocence, and it's so important.

In fact, it stands a reason, and I wrote this down to me, man, this will preach.

It stands a reason, therefore, that childhood is the age, now watch, to teach their little mind that has not been poisoned by the ungodliness and the worldliness.

Amen.

Philippians 2, 4.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

It's so important that we fill their minds early.

That's why it's important you control what they watch, what they listen to, what they read, the kind of education that they get.

And then secondly, to gain their ear that has not been deafened to the things of God.

Oh, it breaks my heart that people think they can come to church for an hour or two a week and then, hey, and put their children under the teaching of the Word of God for a couple of hours, and then they send them back into the world system, whether it's education, whether it's in the work arena, and then they get 60 plus hours of ungodly teaching and got ungodly worldliness, and think that at two hours can, hey, flush it out of them.

Hello.

Say, oh me.

Help me.

That's why your home is so important.

That's why you're schooling moms and dads, you and I are held responsible.

To teach them the ways of God, not the ways of the world.

Why their mind has not been poisoned, their ear has not been deafened, and their heart has not been hardened.

Do you realize the percentage in our Southern Baptist Convention is staggering to see the kids that came out of great schools, some of them even Christian schools, good schools, good churches, went to secular universities and graduated four years later.

60 plus percent did not believe in God any longer.

Tell me that wrong teaching doesn't affect those precious minds and the hearts.

Their minds get poisoned, the hearts get hardened, their ears get deafened to the truth.

God help us.

And then, not only that, hey, and the control, the will that has not been enslaved yet to the things of the world.

Here's what I wrote.

I think it's in your notes.

I said, it is easier, man, this is a powerful statement.

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

Is that not powerful, church?

Is that not powerful?

Thank God we can restore, and God's power and God's Holy Spirit and God's love can restore the damage.

And we see that every week here at CCW, and we thank God for that.

But hey, the reason we are having such a crime wave and such an ungodly wave in America, we have failed in the last 25 years to school our children in the things of God.

We've taken God out of the school, and ever since then we've gone down, down, down.

God help us.

We're the product of our education.

We're the product of our schooling.

Now watch this.

The eternity of your kids, my kids, is determined very early in the things that they're taught, the examples they see, and the discipline that they receive.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Can we say, oh me?

Listen to what again.

And then look at the second thing.

Not only do we see the age of deepest impressions, but we see the age of the purest innocence.

And it's so, so important.

Oh, I know what I was going to do.

I wanted to show you.

I wana.

Why is it so important to get your children involved in a wana?

And parrots, you get involved in awana.

Are you ready for this?

First of all, what is a wana?

Approved workmen are not ashamed.

It's taken from 2 Timothy 2.15.

Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Awana is based on getting your children in the Word of God, getting them to memorize the Word of God, getting them to have a love for the Word of God, getting them to have, hey, passion for the Word of God, to live the Word of God, and to have fun doing it.

It'll be game time.

It'll be Bible time.

And that you will take the little booklets home with, hey, with your children, and y'all have family devotions together.

I've already had two or three people come up and said, last week's message changed me.

I'm starting to pray with my family regularly now.

I wasn't doing that.

And we saw the importance of prayer time together.

Us being watchmen together.

Well, this can, I'm telling you, and here's the statistics, a 25-year survey about Iwana.

Are you ready?

Awana alumni are 3.6 times more likely to read their Bible several times a week.

Now watch this.

Here's where it really jumps.

Nearly 70% witness to their friends once a month, and 92% still attend church weekly, hey, or more often.

Wow.

Why?

They're trained at those, hey, those deepest, impressionable years from kindergarten all the way through fifth, sixth grade.

And then our youth program takes up right there.

It's so important.

It's so important that we do that.

And then watch this.

Number three, it's the age of highest interest.

These youth years, these young children through youth years.

Remember, look at what he said again in Ecclesiastes 12:1.

Ecclesiastes 12:1

Look, look what Psalm said.

Remember now thy creator.

Now watch what he says.

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

He's saying, You better get them now, train them now, because the time's coming when the world's gonna encompass them, it's gonna engulf them, and they're gonna be so attacked by the world and Satan and the things of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, if they don't have the armor of God and the word of God in them, they don't stand a chance.

That's exactly what he's saying.

Wow.

Wow.

How important.

The challenge of life makes little appeal in old age.

Hello.

I'm sorry.

But it's right now, right now.

The effective age in which to train future men and women is during the age of early impressions, that innocent age and that interest age.

Failure to train a child in the way he should go is a sin which God must severely punish.

Oh my, my, my.

One of the greatest regrets, one of the greatest regrets that we will have as a parent is when we stand before the Lord in judgment.

And have to be what?

Reprimanded and shown how we failed in teaching.

Hello.

Can we all say only together?

I really believe that.

And I'm gonna show you that in a minute.

I really am.

You know, the age of high interest.

You know, I I I found uh the most sober and single aspect of of uh realizing this is to go back twenty years and look at the age that kids now for heaven's sake having babies at age eleven and twelve, killing their parents and them being fourteen, thirteen, four.

The juvenile delinquency in people, teenagers locked up in school now has quadrupled in the last 10 years.

God help us.

Why?

And everybody says, What is it?

What is it?

Yes, they say it's the lack of the father in the home.

No, I'm going to put it in, I'm going to add to that.

Yes, it may be the lack of a father in the home, but it's the lack of godly fathers in the home and godly teaching in the home.

And ladies, God bless you.

When you're raising your children by yourself, you can still be a Hannah and you can still accomplish and you can give, you can dedicate your children to God and say, I'm not going to let Satan get my kids.

I'm interceding, I'm praying, I'm fasting, I'm doing the right things, and God's gonna have them.

Not Satan.

Amen.

I just made up my mind, I'm interceding for my kids.

All every day.

Every day.

Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

So, we see the Christianity and this schooling age of the impressional years, the purest innocent years, and the highest interest years are right now, right now.

From birth till they become 20 or 21 years of age.

Now, notice the second thing I want us to look at this morning.

Christianity and the schooling art.

Boy, this is good.

Look at verse 22, Proverbs 22, 6 again.

The word train.

Train up a child in the ways of God.

Now, the word train there is hanak.

It's a Hebrew word, hanak.

And it means to dedicate.

It means to direct.

It means to teach.

It means to lead in the right path.

This is kind of where we get the dedication service for children.

And I always use this verse.

A dedication service for babies or children up to, you know, two, three, four years old.

It's not really for the children, and it has nothing to do with the children's salvation.

Hello?

Okay?

You with me?

But it has everything to do with the direct challenge to the mom and dad that they are going to do what Proverbs 22, 6 says, and that they're going to instruct them, they're going to teach them, and basically they're going to be an example to them.

They're going to, hey, instruct them in the things of God, and they're going to discipline them in God's ways.

That's what dedication really is.

And so as we see this truth, you'll notice that the verse does not say teach, it says train.

And there's a reason.

Training includes teaching, but teaching does not necessarily include training.

Do you know that?

Hello, come on.

Come on.

Seminary, all those years I was a dean.

I was the first dean that came and made, I instituted mandatory internship.

We had seminary students graduating after three years of training that had never led anybody to Christ.

They had never led in a seminar in a church.

They had never built a children's ministry or church or worked in it or seen it done or bust minute.

Nothing.

But man, they graduated summicum law.

And they were more interested in graduating summakula.

Well, I got news for you.

Susan, my wife graduated summakula, but I graduated, thank the Lord.

Amen.

But guess what?

Bless God, I knew how to win somebody to Christ.

I knew how to do a bus ministry.

I knew how to go out in the community and say Jesus is awesome.

You can have all the right teaching, but if it's not lived out in front of the kids, what good does it do?

I'll tell you what good it does.

Nothing.

It produces hypocrisy.

Hello?

So it's more than just teaching them right, it's living it right in front of them.

And then discipline, hey, godly, loving, intelligent discipline when they don't do it.

Oh, I just can't spank my child.

Well, just let them die and go to hell.

I knew I was gonna get them, huh?

Did he say what I said?

Would you like to mean to say it again?

I'm not disciplining my kids.

I'm gonna just let them, hey, hey, I don't believe in that.

Well, just let them die and go to hell.

You say, I'm gonna prove that to you right here in a few minutes, scripturally.

Because I know what you're gonna say, ooh, I don't like that preacher.

You hear what he said.

He said, My kids are going to hell.

That's not what I said.

I said, you may let them go to hell.

Amen?

All right, let me give you one verse.

Proverbs 22, 15.

Foolishness is, hey, bound in the heart of the child.

And correction, actually, King James is beat it.

Correction drives it far from them.

Hello.

You with me?

You with me, church?

It's in the book.

So, according to our text, training includes involves example, instruction, and discipline.

Now, watch this.

This is awesome, awesome, awesome.

First of all, this schooling art takes place, look in your notes, in the home.

Now let's go to Ephesians 6, 1 through 4.

And notice what it says.

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

Now, there's a negative and a positive here.

Negatively, parents are not to provoke their children to anger.

They are not to excite those evil passions by living wrong examples in front of them and inclinations of their children by bad examples, nor frustrate them by putting unbearable rules that they can't keep that you don't do yourself.

Very unbelievable.

In fact, how often through temper, thoughtlessness, or injustice, children have been led astray by their parents.

Is that not true?

This is a serious indictment today on us parents.

Now, on the positive side, they're to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and that is to say, they are to develop their children's gifts and character qualities.

Now, watch.

By loving discipline and loving instruction, godly instruction and godly examples.

Now, look at the word nurture.

This is powerful.

It comes from the same root as nourish.

It is paideia.

Paidea.

And it literally is the word we use for nurse, which means and implies the tender care and feeding of a young child or a young person.

The tender care and feeding of a young creature.

It is also includes the thought of discipline.

This is not a popular practice.

Now let me show you.

Proverbs 13, 24.

Watch this.

He that spares his rod.

What?

Alright, church, you're gonna read this.

You're not going out here saying I said this.

You're gonna read this with me.

Alright, here we go.

Proverbs 13, 24.

Read, church.

Yes, sir.

Chastises, chases.

Let me give you the my papa.

Hey, let me give you my papa's definition.

Beats the devil out of you.

Hello.

That's what it means.

That's what he means.

Revivals.

You say, woodshed, yeah.

I got taken to the woodshed.

My papa did all the preaching.

I did all the shouting.

Look at Proverbs 19, 18.

Read, church.

Proverbs 19, 18.

Ready?

Chasen.

And let not thy soul spare for his heart.

In other words, don't let him say, Oh, mama, I'm sorry, I won't ever do it again.

And then he's smiling while he's saying it.

You say, Well, I can't stand it crying.

Well, let me tell you, if the if the discipline's put where it's supposed to be put and put right, they're gonna cry.

Amen.

Hello.

Are you listening?

And my girls used to, hey, you know what they used to do?

They used to run down the room and grab toilet paper and put it in their pan.

Because they knew it was coming.

Hello.

You okay?

Let's go on.

Church.

Proverbs 23, 13.

Read, church.

With hold.

Whoa.

Hello.

Hello.

He shall what?

Hello?

You okay out there?

See, y'all thought I was making that up.

Look at verse 14.

It even gets, what's this?

Verse 14.

Read church.

Hello! Now say, now apologize to you, Pastor, okay?

Hello.

I'm helping us.

You don't hear that, you won't hear this on some of those preaching stations.

I guarantee it.

I guarantee you know what preacher's gonna say up there.

If you don't correct your child, they're going to hell.

He's not gonna say it.

You will not send him$20.

My job is to tell and preach and teach the truth.

The whole truth.

So help me God.

Amen.

And by the way, let me go ahead and help you.

If you do that correcting, if you do that corporal punishment early, you won't have to do it in the later years.

I bet I only spanked Eric once or twice in his teen years, but he got one a day during the young years.

Don't ask me about the girls, please.

I didn't do it.

I sinned.

But mama beat the devil out of me.

They'd come crying and I'd say, Well, I'm sure mama loves you and she had a reason.

But daddy, I'd say, no, I don't want a known butts, no butts.

And I'd hold my tongue, I never interfered.

I never interfered.

And she never interfered with Eric.

I almost killed Eric one night.

He lied to me and the youth group came home and he wasn't with the youth group.

He decided to ride home with a group of another kid.

He never did that again.

Really?

I'm serious, folks.

Look, do you love your kids?

Do you really love them?

Well, live godly in front of them, teach them godly truths, and dissolve them when they need it.

Amen.

And you can't say you're gonna do something and then not do it.

All the kids that didn't go to children's church today, they're saying, Pastor Danny, I would you please hush.

I love you guys.

I love you with all my heart.

I really do.

The admonition of the Lord stands for instruction.

Paul gloried, hey, in the fact that through the instruction of his mother, that is Timothy's mother and grandmother, grandmother Lois and Eunice, listen to what he says, 2 Timothy 1.5.

Here's what he said.

Well, I've got uh 2 Timothy 3.15 up there.

But but 2 Timothy 1.5, it was talking about Lois's and Eunice's, the mother and grandmother's dynamic faith that they had taught and communicated.

They lived it in front of Timothy.

Oh, listen, they they taught Timothy, they disciplined Timothy, and because of that, there it is, when I call to remembrance, that unfeigned, that unwavering, that dynamic faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in their grandmother Lois and the mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that it's in thee also.

Why did he know that?

He saw it.

He saw a dynamic young man.

And then 2 Timothy 3.15, and that from a child, whoa, don't miss this.

And that from a child, thou hast known the 2 Timothy 3.15, Jason, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Woo! And that from a child.

Do you see it, church?

That's why this church is who we are and what we are.

God has commissioned us and called us for this community, for young couples.

The average age is 34 in this community of 100,000 people.

The average age is 34, two and a half kids, and two animals.

We may not do it.

David Wilson said we're not gonna build anything for the animals, but we'll take care of the kids.

Are you listening to me?

We're going after him.

Why do you think God gave us that land?

Why don't wherever that our beautiful picture was.

But hey, hey, there it's outside there.

Why are we building that gematorium?

We're not spending three and four million dollars in a sanctuary where we can just meet once or twice a week.

We're gonna have a beautiful, it'll be a beautiful gematorium, but it'll be a beautiful sanctuary on Sunday.

How will you just trust me, you'll see it, but we're gonna use it seven days a week to teach kids how to be godly.

Woo! Yes! Teenagers, how to be godly.

We're gonna come alongside of you, parents, and help you, you single moms, you single dad.

We're gonna come and help you.

But you gotta come.

You gotta be a part of it.

I can lead you to the trough, but I can't make you drink.

Same with me.

Billy Graham.

Oh, wait, wait, wait.

16.

Do we have 2 Timothy 3 15, 16, 17?

All right, watch this.

Watch this.

Hey, hey.

When we teach them from a baby, watch what happens.

Watch what happens.

All scripture, verse 16, after 15, he says, and that from a child I've known the Holy Scripture.

Now look what happens when in Timothy.

All scripture is given by the inspiration of God.

God wrote it.

And it's profitable for doctrine.

Watch what's right.

For reproof, what's not right, for correction, how to get right, for instruction in righteousness, how to stay right.

Why?

Here's what you want for your kids.

This is what we want for our kids.

Verse 17, that the man or woman of God may be mature and complete, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

In other words, they're doing what God wants them to do.

You can't be any happier, more fulfilled than being doing what God's called you to do.

That's good preaching, preacher.

Man, that's good.

Here's what Billy Graham said.

Ready for this?

Billy Graham, evangelist speaking in Madison Square Garden.

Listen to what he said.

He offered parrots six suggestions on how to curb juvenile delinquency.

One, take time with your children.

Take time with your children.

That's why, hey, parrots, I want you involved in Iwana.

Hey, if you don't do anything there, but help them with the games, but you're there.

You're going through with it.

You're watching your kids memorize that scripture.

List those Bible stories.

Win those badges.

Do those games.

You're there.

Spend time.

Wednesday night ought to be your time with your family in Iwana.

Can I get an amen?

And by the way, grandma's granddads, you can do it too.

You're not too old.

You may not do the games, but you can shout.

Cheer them on.

Cheer them on.

Number two, set your children a good example.

Number three, give your children ideals for living.

That's God's word.

Have a lot of activities plans.

I meant, woo, have good times.

That's why we're going to have so much going on from upward soccer, upward basketball, upward flag football, upward softball.

I meant, woo! Y'all better get more excited than that.

I'm telling you, we're going to do it.

They ain't going to have time to have no trouble.

It's going, yeah, well, they're going to be, we're going to we're going to teach them and fill their time with the right stuff.

Right stuff.

And then give your children ideals for a living.

Number four, have a lot of activities planned.

And then number five, discipline your children.

And number six, teach them about God.

That's just what I've been preaching.

Now that's, hey, that's the that's your home.

Hey, that's the home's responsibility.

Now let's go to the church.

What about the church, number two?

Listen to what the church says.

Mark 10, 14.

Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of God.

There was only a very few occasions in the New Testament where God, I mean, where God's son, Jesus, really got upset.

Upset.

One was in the clean cleansing of the temple.

Okay?

I mean, he ran them out.

The money changers.

But the other one, and I'm going to give the disciples the benefit of the doubt, all these kids were coming to Jesus.

And you know what they said?

They said, we got to stop these kids.

They're going to be a bother to the master.

Woo! They shouldn't have said that.

They shouldn't have said that.

Because notice what Jesus said.

Suffer the little children to come unto me.

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

This is the children's charter.

These were the circumstances.

I mean, they thought that the children would annoy the Lord, but he expressed his profound displeasure in the disciples, saying, Forbid them not.

These are my kids, and even you, you can't be saved if you don't come as a little child.

Childlike faith.

That's pretty powerful, isn't it?

Pretty powerful.

Unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

I would not want to be a Sunday school teacher.

I wouldn't want to be a teacher.

I'm gonna put it in one more step.

I would not want to be a parent.

I was there.

I remember those things.

My mama being very drunk.

I want to go to church.

I want to start doing that.

When I got old enough, I got on my bicycle.

Rode my bike to church.

One that or I mean we only had we only had two real life in the whole day.

And I only lived about five blocks from the little north side of Avenue Church.

I just got on my bike and rode.

When I got old enough and I could drive, I drove.

I went to church.

Now, not all the time I could tell you my heart was beaten for God.

It was beaten sometime for the cheerleaders.

I'm being honest.

But get blessed.

God got my heart in church.

And he changed my life.

Amen.

So it's important, the church, we will be here for you, moms and dads and dads and moms that don't have a mate.

We are here for you.

And then the third thing, look at the world.

Let's what Jesus said.

This is what I wanted to show you.

Matthew 18, verse 6 and 7.

Matthew 18:6

Listen to what Jesus said.

Whoso shall offend one of these little ones, which believe in me, it was better for him that a millstone were hanged around his neck and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.

Woe unto the world because of these offenses, to the secular mind, to the place of the training of the child in the public school.

God help us for these people that are making judgments to say that our kids can't pray, our kids can't read the Bible.

Our kids can't do this.

God help them.

God help them.

One day they will stand before a God and give an account.

Amen.

That's why.

Hey, and I thank God for our Christian public school teachers.

I really do.

And I'm telling you, I'd stand, I'd still be that example.

I'd still say Jesus said.

And you say, well, they may fire me.

If they fire you, God will give you a better job.

I believe that.

We need to take back our whole school system.

And if we can't take it back, it's going to the pits.

Then we need to change it.

Start one.

Do something.

Homeschool.

Christian school.

Do something.

To teach them right.

God help us.

God help us.

A little illustration about how important it is to teach your children.

Are you ready for this?

A sad letter of an anguished Baptist Sunday school teacher was published in the Dallas newspaper.

I've been watching.

Have any of you, I am intrigued with John F.

Kennedy assassination.

Am I the only one?

I have read the books, I've read, and they got some new real evidence now out with Russia coming on the scene, telling what they know and all about that there had to be more than one shooter.

I've always said that.

But I want you to listen to this article that I found in the research of the 7,700 Illustrations Encyclopedia for Illustrations.

Listen to what it said.

A sad letter of an Anguished Baptist Sunday school teacher was published in a Dallas newspaper right after President John F.

Kennedy's assassination.

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

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 over what might have happened to a dropout from his class.

The 12-year-old dark-skinned boy came two or three times, then stopped.

The teacher neglected to visit.

That's why Sunday school teachers or children workers or who, whoever, when your friend that you know is not in school or your kid's not there, you go and you contact them, you say, What's wrong?

What can we do to help?

He said, This black-skinned boy came two or three times, then stopped.

The teacher neglected to visit the boy and try to bring him back.

The boy's name was Sir Han, who later killed Senator Robert F.

Kennedy.

We can make a difference.

We can make a difference.

We can.

Then let's close.

Last thing.

Christianity and the schooling, age, Christianity and the arts, the schooling art, and now Christianity and the schooling aim.

What is our aim?

Three things.

When he says, look at Proverbs 22, 6, train up a child in, now watch.

The way he should go.

The way he should go.

There is only one right way in life, and that's the way of salvation.

Can I get an amen?

Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, the life.

No man cometh unto the Father except by me.

John 14, 6.

Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none under, hey, name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus.

Acts 4.12.

So true.

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

Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 18, 14.

It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

That's Jesus' will for his kids.

Not one.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promises.

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

Amen.

2 Peter 3, 9.

I mean, he's, and by the way, if he doesn't want them to perish, that means they can come to salvation.

Can I get an amen?

He doesn't want them to perish.

Look at what he said again.

You remember we just used it in verse 6.

He said, and so the, he said, these little ones which believe in me.

Paul says, from a child that's known the Holy Scriptures.

God has special angels delegated with the responsibility of guarding children until they are, hey, trained in the way of salvation.

I believe that.

People ask me all the time, what happens if a kid dies, you know, and they haven't come to the acknowledgement or the age of accountability to be saved?

They go to heaven.

How do you know that?

And here's the verse I use.

Are they not all ministering spirits that is angels sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

Listen, those that mentally sometimes may not comprehend it, what happens to them?

They go to heaven.

God is a gracious God, a loving God.

And then, secondly, it's the way of satisfaction.

Notice what it says.

Train up again.

Train up a child in the way he should go.

That can be also translated in his way.

Now watch what I'm saying.

You don't try to live your life that you didn't have through your children.

You don't try to train the children the way you want them to go.

You allow the Holy Spirit and you be the, hey, hey, you be the facilitator.

You allow the Holy Spirit to train them in the way that God wants them to go.

Can I get an amen?

I never tried to push my kids to play sports.

My son played football one time, and I, you gotta realize I lived in all American baseball, football, basketball in my high school years and played college football.

But hey, hey, I loved it.

I lived it.

I eat it.

Taught me discipline, praise God for that.

But not what my son played one time, never wanted to play again, but then God put him in music.

He became unbelievable, got a praise and worship voice scholarship to Liberty University, and been one of the been so gifted in praise and worship for years.

He was a worship leader at Liberty University.

And then, but guess what?

Then my two little girls came along, and guess what?

They became unbelievable athletes.

They said, we get our smarts from mama, we get our athletic ability from daddy.

And Susan says, I was not clumsy, I was a cheerleader one year.

But Susan rather have her nose in a book, and I'd rather be on the football field.

Hello, I can't help it.

Remember, I like the cheerleaders.

So that's just the way, you know.

But let them, let God train them.

Let God train them.

Nurture them, bring them up through example, godly teaching and godly discipline.

It's the way of satisfaction.

Listen to what it says in Ephesians 2.10.

This is, we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.

The greatest, listen, the greatest thing you can give your children is a godly education so that they can find God's will for their life and fulfill it, and they'll be the most happiest children in the world.

In fact, listen to me.

Woo! Listen, listen, listen.

There's a storybook ending in the storybook way.

And the storybook way is the B-I-B-M-LE.

That's the book for me.

But it's got to be done his way.

To hear my daughter call me and talk about, now you gotta realize my little Stephanie, she's so much like me, it's scary.

Susan to tell you.

She used to get so mad at me and go to her mom and say, Oh, I can't stand daddy, he just won't listen.

Probably some of that may have been true.

But you know, you know what she said?

What Susan will always say, Stephanie, the reason you haven't sparks with your dad so much, you're just like him.

Y'all both are bulldogs, you latch on, you don't let go, and you keep on and you on and you on and you on.

And two bulldogs, one's got to give.

And I happen to be the daddy.

But now that same fervor's with Jesus.

And she's preaching to her sister and brother.

You gotta be radically sold out.

She got it, she got it, she got it.

But she was taught it at a very young age.

She saw it, she heard it, she was disciplined in a loving way.

And it caught.

Praise God.

Praise God.

And then the last, a way of service.

Moffitt translates the scripture as follows Train a child for his appropriate trade, and he will never leave it, even when he is old.

Wow.

Wow.

The aim of every parent and teacher should be to train a child to become of real service to God and man.

Isn't that awesome?

Listen to this.

Listen to this.

One of the most beautiful examples of the fulfillment of this aim is the story of Hannah.

Do you remember how she prayed for her gift of a son?

God answered her prayer and the child arrived.

True to her parental plan, Hannah said, For this child I prayed.

And for Samuel 1, 27 and 28, here's what she said.

For this child, I have prayed, and the child arrived.

True to her parental plan, Hannah said, 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 the next picture we have of little Samuel is in the temple when the record tells us that the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord.

1 Samuel 3:1.

1 Samuel 3:1

Wow.

There's another example, a bad example, of a priest.

And he was a good priest.

But his problem was he didn't teach.

He didn't teach them in the way that they shall go.

He didn't discipline in the way that they shall go.

And because of that, it was unbelievable the consequences.

Both of Eli's sons lost their priest position and they both went to immature deaths.

He was a good priest, but he didn't teach.

He didn't give the example.

Hey, and he didn't, hey, he didn't discipline.

I want to close with this.

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 500 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.

That's why when older people get saved, it really is a miracle.

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

Dr.

Wilbur Chapman once tested a meeting in which 4,500 were present in this evangelistic meeting.

Watch this.

The result was 400 of those presents were saved under 10.

400.

600 were saved between 10 and 14.

600 were saved between 14 and 16.

1,000 were saved between 16 and 20.

24 only were saved after 36.

And there was 1,875 that didn't get saved.

It makes a difference.

Schooling makes a difference.

Here's the invitation this morning.

How are we schooling our children?

How are we schooling our children?

Grandparents?

How are we schooling?

You know, a lot of times we say there's not a lot we can do.

There's more than we can do than we think sometimes.

But what kind of influence are we being?

Now, if you're feeling like I'm feeling, my toes have been smile.

Because of those truths.

Bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of three things.

Very simple.

Godly example.

Godly instruction.

Have that godly example.

And godly discipline.

Amen.

You were listening to me, church?

Can we do that?

Please.

Hey.

We must do that.

For our country.

Let's start with us for our community.

Do we really want to impact our community?

Do we want to make a difference in our community?

Absolutely.

That's why we're here.

We want them to be Christ-like.

We want to bring them up in nurture.

That's why you've chosen this church.

One of our clear, hey, our our key foundational pillars, clear biblical truth.

You've heard the truth, nothing but the truth this morning.

And the exciting thing about the truth, you should know the truth and it should set you free.

You can save your children.

You can make a difference in your children.

Because let me take you back to that same verse we started with.

Train up a child in the ways you go.

In their path.

And they will not depart from it.

Yes, like mine.

They may sway.

The prodigal son swayed.

But he came home to the Father.

Amen.

He came home to the Father.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

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Send us an email at office at the church at CW.com.

We hope you have a wonderful day and again, God bless you.