 Beginning at verse 1, Children, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. And you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. So we continue our series by sharing on the topic of raising our children, raising children who will have a desire to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And as I begin this, I begin by saying that raising kids to have faith in Christ is an ongoing task. And it actually seems to be easier when our children are small than it is as they're growing older. It's easier to bring them to church. It's easier to have their nighttime prayers. It's easier to find time for the family to have devotions and all. And as they grow older, many of those opportunities are going to be swallowed up by life's activities. And so it's really important for us, if you have small children, to from the very beginning pour into their lives. Because you see, bringing our children up in faith in Christ is of the utmost importance. And it's a responsibility that we have parents, we as parents have. And it's something that we work very diligently at and it's something that we're very dedicated to. When you begin to look at God's plan for marriage and all, one of the things that we find in Scripture that is stated concerning God's plan for marriage is that included in marriage would be the possibility of having children. And He made it very clear that it's part of His plan to have parents who raise up their children to have faith in Him. Now, how do I know that? Well, in the Old Testament book of Malachi in chapter 2, verse 15, Malachi writes, didn't the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit, you are His. And what does He want? Godly children from your union. So guard yourself. Remain loyal to the wife of your youth. He made you one. What does He want? Godly children. Guard your marriages. So God's intention is that Godly parents will raise up Godly children, children who will love God and will serve the Lord. Our children have a model that they use. And it's God's plan that their parents be their model. Again, in 1 Corinthians 7, 14, Paul said, the Christian wife brings holiness to her marriage. And the Christian husband brings holiness to his marriage. Otherwise, your children would not have a godly influence. But now they are set apart for Him. If there isn't a godly mom, if there isn't a godly father, the children have no godly influence. So naturally, God's intent is for us to be godly parents raising up children who will love the Lord. Now, when you look in the Old Testament, you'll see that the Jewish nation understood that children were really a blessing that came from the Lord. And to have children was an act of grace on part of the Lord for them to have children. And they actually saw that when the woman was barren, they would see that as being something that they would attribute to the Lord closing the womb of that woman. And you'll see that, for example, in 1 Samuel 1, in a story that relates to a man by the name of Alkena and his wife, whose name was Hannah. And he had another wife by the name of Peninah. And in 1 Samuel 1, you see it in verses 4 and 5 how it says, whenever the time came for Alkena to make an offering, he would give portions to Peninah, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah, he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the Lord had closed her womb. So they knew that giving birth was something that they would see as an act of grace from God on their part. To be unable to have a child was very difficult for the wife to endure, especially in a culture that valued children. For Samuel again, in chapter 1 verses 6 and 7, it speaks of Hannah's rival. And it says, her rival provoked her severely to make her miserable because the Lord had closed her womb. So it was year by year when she went up to the house of the Lord that she provoked her. Therefore, she wept and did not eat. And so in the culture of the Hebrew, they realized that it would be the Lord who opened or closed the womb. And for a woman to be barren was a very, very sad and sorrowful thing. You see, as Christians, we are to value our children because we recognize them as being a gift from the Lord. Like it says in Psalm 127.3, Behold, children are a gift of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is a reward. And when he says the fruit of the womb is a reward, you can actually say a reward of his grace. And they understood that and they understood that God was the one who gave as a grace gift children to them. Somebody said everything that we have is a gift from God and is to be received as from him and to be acknowledged as his gift, including children. So these are gifts that you don't re-gift, okay? I mean, God gives you a gift and you don't give that gift to somebody else. This is a gift that God gives to you. And we need to understand that every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above from the Father of lights with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow nor turning. God is the one who gives us these gifts and their grace gifts. And our children are to be recognized as gifts of grace that God gives to us. With that said, raising children to remain faithful to Jesus is impossible without the help of the Lord. It's not something that's easy to do because there's so much opposition in this world to us succeeding in that task. You know, I've noticed that not all Christians have understood the onslaught that has come against their children. And because they don't see that the wave of evil of society that rejects God and faith in God, not so much faith in God. Theoretically, the society thinks everybody should have a faith in God. I'll go further and say a society that rejects that we as believers believe that the only way to have a relationship with God is through Jesus Christ. In a society that is in opposition to the Christian message of salvation through Christ, through Jesus dying on the cross, being buried, raised the third day, being the only way to the Father. By us actually believing what Jesus said when he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father. But by me, when we take the word seriously where it states to us that there's no other name given among men under heaven, whereby we must be saved, when we actually believe that, that causes some real problems in society. If you run around saying, well, I believe there is a God or some God, or you get one of those little coexist bumper stickers and put it on your car and drive around with it. People are, they'll applaud that. They'll say, yes, everybody has a God. You know, all paths lead to God. Well, ultimately, yes, everybody will stand before God. But not everybody enters into the kingdom of heaven. For Jesus said that to us. He said, unless a man is born again, he will not see nor enter into the kingdom of heaven. So that's the Christian message. And that's what gets us in problems. And that's where people say, you're so narrow-minded. And I have to say, you're right. I am. Narrow is the way. And when they say your mind is brainwashed, I'll say, absolutely, the blood of Christ cleanses me from all sin. When they say your faith is a crutch, I say, no, it's not. It's a gurney. With a crutch I can walk. I need to be wheeled around on a gurney. No, I need God's strength and help every day. And that's how I live with the knowledge that Muhammad isn't going to get me into the presence of God as a saved man, but Jesus Christ does. And that's what Christianity is. And seeing that gets us in trouble. And people say, oh, a little faith is a great thing to have. It helps a lot. Well, it depends on what your faith is in. My faith is in the true and living God. And that's what I have taught my children, because that's what Christians believe. And to raise children to have faith in Christ is difficult in an age that is in opposition to everything that we believe. And not all Christians have understood the onslaught that has come against their children. And because of that, they have failed to teach their children how to navigate through life. Sometimes it's simply because what they think is faith that they have is really not faith at all. Sometimes it's difficult because their own faith may be real, but very immature, very young. And because they're still maturing themselves, they're not able to give any substance to the ones that they're supposed to be leading. I understand that. But the fact is, if we're Christians and we're growing, then we need to encourage our children. If we're parents, we need to continue our children to have faith and to grow also. And there are those who look at life, and they'll say it's kind of like a race. Some will see life as a sprint, moving from place to place quickly. Others see it as a marathon. I've come to look at life as a relay race, that the Lord intends me to take the baton of faith that has been handed to me, and to hand it to a future generation. That somebody in my past had been handed this same baton. And by communicating the gospel to me, I got saved, and that baton was handed to me. And when that baton was handed to me, it's my responsibility to hand that baton to my children. And so races are won and lost by the passing of a baton. You can see that in the Olympics, you see it all the time. When the United States has amongst in the world some of the fastest human beings alive, and we ought to, on paper, win so many races. But because there's a bad pass of the baton, you end up losing the race. Well, I believe very strongly that God has handed to us a baton of faith that we're to hand to our children. And it's a baton of faith in Christ. There are those who believe that we teach our children certain basics in life that help them to succeed. So a parent will encourage the child to take care of their health and will speak to them and say, you need to avoid damaging habits and addictions because it will ruin your health. They will say, you need to work hard or get educated. They'll say, ultimately find a nice man, find a nice woman, settle down, get married, have children. But when it comes to faith in God, though they've been encouraging them to learn and to do so many things, when it comes to faith in God, they'll say, well, I haven't told my children about any specific faith. I think that when they're older, they can decide on their own when they're ready. But they're failing to realize that their children are being evangelized every single day, every moment they're awake and one form or another, there is evangelization going on in their lives. And they don't understand that. And so they don't realize that we need to lay a solid foundation in our children that they might be able to have a life that is blessed by God. And that foundation is the Lord Jesus Christ. When you read 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 11, Paul said, for no one can lay any other foundation than the one we already have, Jesus Christ. So we've been handed the baton of faith in Christ from faithful witnesses who gave to us that baton. Someone led us to Jesus, and now we're entrusted to lead others, including our children to him. And we have the responsibility of taking this message and sharing it. And as parents, we hand the baton of faith to our children and to our children's children. In Deuteronomy in chapter 4 verse 9, in the Old Testament it reads, Take heed to yourself, diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life, and teach them to your children and your grandchildren. Take this baton of faith and communicate it to your kids. And when your children grow and have their children, hand the baton to them also. Now, of course, as a grandfather, it isn't my responsibility to raise my children's children. That's their job. But I still have a tremendous influence in their lives. And I do encourage my children to walk in faith and to hand that faith to them. You see, I'm grateful for those who have gone before me. And I'm grateful to those who have contributed to the lives of my children and are now contributing to the lives of my grandkids. You see, when our kids were small, we had opportunities to have other influence, other Christian influences in the lives of my children that to this day I'm very grateful for. There used to be something called cassettes. Some of you have heard of them. They're in museums now, but they're called cassettes. And so we had cassettes when my children were small and eventually CDs. And when we would go places with our small children, we would play these cassettes to them. If we were going somewhere, that would take us some time to get to point A to point B. We always had cassettes. And so I can remember using things like Adventures in Odyssey. And there was Salty, the singing songbook. So we played a lot of Salty for the kids. And now you have your veggie tales. They had this VHS. That's another ancient mode of communication videos that we had at home that we played with. It's when a young woman named Crystal Lewis was in high school or so, and she did the high tops. And my kids saw that. There's something I don't know. I don't know how many of you may even have ever heard of Davy and Goliath. Any of you guys, it's on TV, Davy and Goliath. You remember, oh, Davy, you know, a dog, you know. Anyway, my son David, it was on TV when he was a little boy. And my son David used to love Davy and Goliath. I think part of the reason is because it's named David and thus he thought it was about him. But anyway, he actually got the series and he's going to use it with his own children. Davy and Goliath. And see, I appreciate that. I appreciate the help of others who have a heart to see our children know these kinds of things. I thank God for the faithful believers who have guarded the message. I'm thankful for family members who are faithful and encourage us as we encourage our kids. I'm thankful for loving children's ministers in churches like this. I thank God for the Christian teachers that are in the schools that my children have gone to. Do we have any Christian teachers in here right now? I'm just wondering. I just thought of that. Any at all? Are you here? Any Christian teachers? Would you raise your hand if you're here? I know that there's something pointing to me. I don't stand up so I can see you. Stand up, Christian teachers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for what you've done for my kids. Thank you. We ought to thank our Christian teachers. Thank you for your influence because we need you terribly in these last days. So I'm grateful as a father. I'm grateful as a grandfather for the influence of others. But I'm also aware of the fact that God has given to me as a parent and some responsibility as a grandparent to encourage my children to take that baton of faith from my hand and to take it into the future. This is a spiritual task. It's very difficult. We have to be dedicated fully to it. And the fact is, and we know that our efforts are opposed constantly by every form of media that we have. We need to remember that the world system is referred to as a satanically energized system that is in direct conflict with the kingdom of God. The word world can be used in a variety of ways, the inhabited world, things of that nature. But one of the ways that the word world is used in the New Testament is when it's speaking about a satanically energized system that is in opposition to God. And when you read 1 John chapter two, it speaks of this world system. It says in 1 John 2 verses 15 through 17, do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, the boasting of what he has and does, comes not from the Father, but from the world. And so our children are constantly bombarded by messages from this world system that rejects Jesus Christ. There's that peer pressure that comes through this system that encourages our children to conform to the world instead of being transformed by the renewing of their minds. There's that pressure for sex that starts at a very early age, not only through sexual involvement, but also through the confusion of what it means to be a sexual being. The gender identification, a problem that we have today where people are actually saying that you can make choices concerning that and things of that nature, as well as the immoralities that are today being paraded as being normal. Online porn is so easy to get not just by adults who are fishing for it, looking for it, but sometimes our children who are equipped with iPhones. Sometimes our kids can be looking for something on the net. And if they use a word, it can go into a porn site. I was looking for a certain particular kind of music, so I thought, well, I'll call it this. I won't even give you the name, because some of you might be tempted to go and see it yourself. So I won't tell you. But I'll tell you this. When I typed in what I thought would describe this kind of music, a porn site pops up. It's there even when you're not required when you're not requesting it. So your children and your children's children who are equipped with phones can be looking for something, maybe mistype, or somebody said, you ought to see this. And at the age of five, six, seven, have already had their little minds dirtyed up by the putrid filth of perverts who ruin people's lives. That's a fact. And that may sound harsh, but I have harsher words than that for that kind of thing. It destroys families. It destroys children. It destroys marriages. It is a destroyer. And we ought to oppose it rather than glorify it as freedom. Bottom line, bottom line. It destroys our babies. And the alcohol and the drugs that are so available, the violence that the children are seeing, that this gross materialism where people are said your life consists in the abundance of the things that you possess. You know when it comes to entertainment, I was reading that kids aged two to 11 spend nearly 26 hours a week watching TV that teens and tweens aged 12 to 17 watch slightly less, totaling about 21 hours a week on average, that that breaks down to roughly 3.7 and 3 hours per day respectively, that studies estimate that the typical American child will view 16,000 murders, 200,000 acts of violence on TV by the time they graduate high school, that kids cartoon shows display up to 20 violent acts every hour. Pediatric experts recommend that younger kids watch no more than one to two hours of TV per day. Research shows that for every hour beyond that limit, there's a 7% decrease in classroom engagement and a 6% drop in math achievement. So our children are being surrounded and saturated by messages that destroy them. We need to remember that their entire early years are guided by us, whether we realize it or not. And God's Word makes it clear that parents have the responsibility of nurturing faith, the faith of the Lord in our kids. And so as we look at chapter 6, that was your introduction. And we look at verses 1 through 3 in Ephesians 6, it says, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. And so we have this particular command. It notice how it says, Children, obey your parents. So children are commanded to obey their fathers and their mothers in the Lord. Now, obviously, if a mom or a father or both are directing us to do evil, well, we obey God rather than man. But if the parents are believers, it is of utmost importance for us to rely on their wisdom as well as their experience. The fact is, those old people may know something that we don't know. When you're younger, you begin to think that you know everything. And especially in the age that we live in today, because there's so much more access to information, there are those who are Google experts who can actually Google whatever they want now and they can get information on a variety of things and it makes them think that they're educated, when in fact, they're simply informed. And very often, the information that they have is suspect, yet they don't have the ability yet to be able to weigh what's being said with other things, other evidences, and thus what they do is they read something, think it must be true, it's after all, it's on the web, it must be right. And then they go out and they argue the case. I see that all the time. I see it on Facebook. I see it on various social media where people have opinions that they haven't thought through, they haven't researched, they haven't had degrees that help them to understand. They simply repeat what other people say. And so when somebody with some experience will speak to them, they'll say, oh no, I was reading this and they want to fight with somebody else's facts and the facts have never even been verified. And that's kind of what we see today. So they think, you know what, old people, get out of the way. You're blocking traffic. We got things we want to do. And you're keeping us from achieving those things that we feel that we are best suited to be able to do. You know, young person, it's always wise to realize that those who have gone before you just may know something you don't know yet. It's wise to keep that into consideration. It's interesting when you read your Bible, I don't see anywhere. I haven't seen it yet. I've pretty much taught the whole Bible. I haven't seen anywhere yet. Maybe it's there and somebody will show me. Probably a young person will show me this. I haven't seen where it says, old man, learn from that young man. It's usually the opposite. It's wisdom to learn from those who've gone before you. I'll give you a couple of examples. In the book of Job chapter 12, verse 12, it says, wisdom is with age admin, with length of days understanding. Job 32 verse 7, age should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom. And so it's kind of like that old saying, we all know Mark Twain and how Mark Twain said, when I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant, I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years. And then there's a fact to that. When you're 14, you know everything. When you get a little bit older, you've gone through other things. You begin to see that they may have learned some things that you have yet to learn. And so when age speaks, youth should listen, especially if the one who was aged has gained his experience as he's followed or she has followed the Lord. You see, to honor your parents gives you an opportunity to live life to the fullest. It says honor your father and mother in verse 2. To honor is more than to simply obey. It's to esteem them highly. It's to hold them in great value. You see, a godly parent's advice can save a child great heartache and unnecessary pain. We've gained experience over our lifetime. We can help our children to avoid the mistakes that we made when my children were young and growing up. It was my great desire that they not learn the lessons I learned because I learned some lessons I shouldn't have learned. I didn't want them to have my testimony. I wanted them to have a better one than me. I didn't want them to experience the things I'd experience. I didn't want them to go the places I'd gone to do the things that I had done. I wanted to raise them to have a purity, a righteous as a holiness, a commitment to God. And that should be the goal of every parent. And there are experiences that I've gained in a lifetime that could help if they'd listened. Unfortunately, they didn't always listen. They did learn their own lessons, their own ways. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 7, 1-3, my son, keep my words, treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live and my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart. You know, one of the things that we all learn as we grow up is that very often, as a young person, I discovered this at least, you know, very often I may look at my friends that I have as being closer to me than my own family. And as I was growing up, I began to think that my friend's advice was more valuable than the advice of my own parents. So I was more prone to listen to what my friend said than what my parents said. But the fact is, and I learned this the hard way, is that your friends don't always have your greatest good in their heart. Very often, they're just too immature to care that much about you. Fact is, they care more about themselves than they care about you because that's just human nature to do so. And so you may approach them and you may have some life questions you don't want to talk to dad or mom about. You know, I'm considering, you may say, I'm considering, you know, starting to drink, you know, it looks like it's fun, it looks recreational. Every time I look at those commercials, they're always good looking people drinking at that bar. Not one of them has a beer belly. They all look healthy, you know, and or that mixed drink looks so good or, you know, there's some very funny commercials with, you know, these guys who are, I forget what they used to call that guy, wisest man or whatever in the world. What was he called? You guys remember? The most interesting man in the world. He drank that stuff. Yeah, the most interesting. And he's humorous, right? What's he selling to us? Health? Wisdom? What's he selling to us? You know, I laugh because he's funny, but the message he's giving to me will destroy my life. If I get hooked into that again, if I go back to that, I'll lose everything that God saved me from. But that's a popular message. You can see that over and over and over again, right? And so the bottom line is, you speak to your friend and you say to your friend, you know what I'm thinking about? That looks so good. I'd like to taste it. Yeah, go ahead. But later on, your life is in the gutter. Where's your friend? Young lady, you have a girlfriend that you're talking and you're saying, you know, my boyfriend wants to, you know, to get more intimate. He wants to have relations with me. I'm thinking about it. I don't know if I should or shouldn't. You know, I go to church and I've been taught that's wrong, but at the same time, it feels all right. And I really love him. And after all, you know, I'm a woman. I'm 15. And your friend says to you, yeah, go ahead. What's the big deal? I've done it and hasn't changed me a bit, right? Hasn't changed me at all. Go ahead. You end up with the disease. You end up with a guy who slept with you once and goes off because he doesn't want you anymore, because all he wanted was that one night. And I'll tell you guys are, guys can do that. Not all guys are honorable. An honorable guy wouldn't be pressuring you into sex anyway. An honorable guy would want the best for you, not to destroy you. And a lot of guys once they, they enjoy themselves with you. This is a fact. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. And you're there next to the phone the next day. Are you going to call? No, I got things to do. Other things to do. I'll call you when, but I'm lonely. That's kind of how it works, isn't it? And the girls do that to the guys now too. You know, being like the guys. No, you're ruining yourself. You're ruining relationships. You're ruining everything. It wasn't how you were raised, but you asked your friend, your friend says it's okay and you end up paying the price. They didn't care. When you're young, your friends are more important to you than your own parents. But your parents, I'll tell you, by and large, they love you more than anybody could love you. And they care for you and they'll be there for you when other people are not. Show them respect and love them and listen to them when they speak, especially the godly ones. Who are giving you advice from God's Word. He says in verse four, fathers do not provoke your children to wrath. Bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Fathers, he speaks of fathers, speaks of us who are men who are fathers. He's saying do not provoke your children to wrath. Father, direct your child. Don't break his spirit. Direct it. Help to shape it. But Father, you have that responsibility. You see, Isaiah 3819 says, the Father shall make known your truth to the children. That's my job. It is not my wife's job. My wife comes alongside of me. She helps me. Thank God for a godly woman. Thank you, Jesus, for a godly wife who when I'm not there will do the devotion. When I'm not there will pray with the kids. When I'm not there will enforce the rules of the house. Thank you, God. But it's not her job. That's my job as a father to raise the kids, to encourage the kids, not to provoke them to wrath, not to discourage them. Because God said that it's the Father that makes known the truth of God to children. And by the way, in chapter six, verse four, when he said you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up, that was revolutionary. You see, during that day, during that day, the Father's word was law. So the idea that he should be tender and caring, that wasn't even part of being a father. There are guys who think that it's their job to create little people and then rule over them like a king. But no, what we're to do is encourage our kids, love our children to train in admission and admonish them. When he speaks about training and the admonition of the Lord, the word training speaks of the entire training and education of children, which relates to the cultivation of mind and morals, employees for this purpose, commands, admonitions, reproofs, punishments, which result in cultivating the soul. It is instruction that aims at increasing virtue, which naturally includes chastening. The word admonition speaks of whatever is necessary to regulate and purify passion. It includes training in the ways of the Lord. Fathers, nourish and discipline your children in an understanding of Jesus Christ and his ways, is what Paul is saying here. Again, faith in Jesus isn't natural for people. Rejecting him is. That's why we as parents are commanded to raise our kids in the Lord. So to succeed, we adopt the values of the kingdom and not the values of the world. And there's no guarantee that we're going to be successful. What can I do? How can I? How can I move towards being successful and raising children who love the Lord? Well, make a decision that you're going to serve the Lord and raise your children to do so also. In Deuteronomy in chapter six verses four through nine, this is what we read. Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today, shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand. They shall be frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. What am I to do? Let me give you a few things as I'm about to wrap up here, some basic things about raising kids for Christ. One, notice how he says in Deuteronomy six verse four, Here, oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. In a world that was filled with paganism, we're different tribes at multiple gods. When you look into history and you look into the Bible, you'll see that the peoples that were surrounding the nation of Israel all were peoples who had various gods. They had a variety of gods. They didn't worship one God. They had many gods. But out of the midst of all of these people who were idolaters and had many gods, the God of nature, God of you name it, they had so many different gods. God said, I'm pulling you out from amongst these people and I'm going to have a unique relationship with you and I am revealing myself to you as the one God. And so the first thing you need to understand as a parent, if you want to succeed, is you need to make sure that you have a real faith and not just religious faith, not just periodic faith, not the kind of faith that is expressed when someone is getting married or somebody has died and you're going to a funeral or it's Christmas or it's Easter or it's a special occasion, but your faith is so real that your children know that it's the most absolute certain thing about you, that if somebody were to say to your kids, what is the most important thing about mom or dad without hesitation they would say their faith in Christ, that should be your goal. You don't want them to say, my dad, my dad loves classic cars. There's nothing wrong with that by the way. My dad loves classic cars. My dad loves hunting. My dad, you know, yeah, but what's the most important thing? Well, I don't know between hunting and classic cars and he used to like the Dodgers. What is it? What is it that makes you, the person you are? Because that's what they're going to own. That's how they'll know. What is it? If I were seated with your child and I said, can you tell me what I need to know about your daddy or your mama? And my dad loves Jesus. Praise God. Praise God. Make that your goal. In order to have saved children, it's great when you're saved yourself. Somebody once said, children need to be trained, not just in the facts of life, but also in the ways of life. And that comes through a godly mom or dad. Secondly, in verse five, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and your might. Live in such a way that your children know that you love the Lord. Love God with all of your heart. When he speaks of the heart, it's not just the emotions. What he's speaking about is your inner being. The heart in Hebrew thought is the origin of thoughts, words, and deeds. It speaks of life's priorities. You love God with all your soul. The soul is the seat of all emotional activity. It speaks of your spiritual hungers. And the love God with all your might speaks of your physical labor. You're centered on pleasing the Lord. You're a servant of God. And all of that combined produces a zeal. And in that zeal there's an environment. And in the environment God has taken seriously and faith is regarded as substantial. So what I do is I'm not to simply communicate to my children what would be called a conceptual faith. I'm supposed to communicate to my children a committed faith so that they might understand that that faith has feet and it has hands and it does certain things for the Lord. It's a personal faith. Somebody says well I don't have to be in church in order to serve the Lord. I can do it at home. I can do it in a forest or I can do it on the beach. Well of course you can serve the Lord wherever you are you're supposed to. But you should remember that Christian faith is centered on and lived out amongst real living people, others of like mind. And if you only come to a church service once in a while then God becomes in the minds of your children a dispenser of services. And church begins to be entertainment and faith is never going to be alive. He says in verses six through eight that these words that he commands he says are to be in your heart. He says you shall teach them diligently to your children. Shall talk of them when you sit in your house when you walk by the way when you lie down when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand. They shall be frontlets between your eyes. Write them on the doorpost of your house on your gates. So lay a solid foundation in their life through God's Word. God's Word is to be the foundation and it produces the atmosphere in the home. So read your Bible. Read your Bible at home. Read to the children. Pray with your kids when you're able to. Encourage them in their faith. If your children are young enough for you to take to school then before they climb off that car take them by the hand if you can and pray. Father in Jesus' name. I ask you be with my baby today and I give you praise for this. Amen. I did that with my kids every day of their life. Every day from the time they were born until they moved out of the home. When they went to school every day. At night when they went to bed even as infants when they were small infants I would walk into the room and there'd be the little bassinet and they'd be laying there and I would walk up to my children and I would put my hand on their little head and I'd say Father in Jesus' name be with my babies. Father in Jesus' name. May they love you and serve you all the days of their life. All the days of their life. That's what they had. Five out of seven days they had devotions at home where I would open the Bible and I would share a few verses and pray with them every night. Every night I would kiss them and every night I would pray for them. Every morning when we went from small to older I would pray God bless you God be with you and they still went through their tough times. They still made bad decisions. They still got influenced by the world. They still caused me and Marie to cry with broken hearts more often than I can say. But it was a battle worth fighting and it was a battle that we won in Jesus Christ. It was worth the fight. It was worth the fight. Spend time with them. Spend time visiting with them. Laugh with them. Sometimes you may even cry with them. I can remember and I've cried a lot with my kids. I can remember one time my little boy coming in my Joseph and he was maybe seven years old or eight and I was in my room and he walked in and he said, Dad would you pray for me? And I said, sure son of course. What can I pray for? He said pray that they'll you're not praying for me. Remember I told you. Pray that I'll be chosen for a team because every day when the kids are choosing up teams I'm never chosen. And you know, I held him. I put his little head on my shoulder and I rocked him. I still remember that. It was just yesterday. But anyway, he still can't play but I was holding him. He's a good bad boy. And some of you know what I'm trying to say. Those are moments that you never obviously never forget. That your heart is saddened by this person that you love with all of your heart. And you wonder why don't others see in this one that the things I see. And so I learned at an early age in their life to pray for them, to talk to them, to encourage them. Just to love them, take them on walks and I would share with them. They had their bedtime prayers. They had those hugs in the morning and those kisses at night. And yes, my sons both still kiss me, their father because it's masculine to love your dad. And it's masculine for a man to love his son. And I'm not ashamed of that at all in a world that doesn't know what love is. My boys do. And I taught them that. To take them to church, to give them their devotion, to spend time with them in prayer, to have those conversations. All of that brings life to the Scripture. All of that reveals God's purposes for them are good. He says, you shall write in verse nine, you write these on the doorposts of your house. God's word is to provide the fabric of our home, the life of our home. And that is going to provide the way that we live in the world. You see, we enter in to a sanctuary, our home. We exit into a mission field, the world. So pray for your kids. Don't expect perfection from them. Be patient with them. Learn to tell them that you'll love them and show them affection. Be firm, but understanding. Live in trust and hope for their future. Don't expect vacations from stress. Remember that the influence of parenting doesn't stop when they leave the home. Do not remind them of past failures. Encourage them to personal responsibility. Speak the truth to them and keep your word. And when you share your story, your testimony, keep the details limited because you don't need to tell them every single thing that you did for them to see the grace of God in that father or that mother. Many years ago, and I'll close with this, many years ago, a song was popular that many of you have heard of. It was called Cats in the Cradle. It's an old song. I was one of those who appreciated the lyrics and it was sung by a man by the name of Harry Chapin. And it's a story that actually grew out of a real life experience that his wife had had with her first husband and conflict that her first husband had had with his own father. And she was a writer and she had written a poem and Harry Chapin came and discovered the poem and he had his own son and he saw the truth of this poem and knew the background of it. And he took it and changed it, put some music to it. He went on the radio and many people gravitated to this song because though it wasn't written from a Christian perspective, it had truth in it, that I, as a young father, benefited from. We all know the song. My child arrived just the other day, came in the world in the usual way, but there were planes to catch and bills to pay. He learned to walk when I was away and he was talking before I knew it. And as he grew, he said, I'm going to be like you, dad. You know I'm going to be like you. And the cats in the cradle and the silver spoon, little boy blue and the man in the moon. When you come in home, dad, I don't know when, but we'll get together then. Yeah, you know we'll have a good time then. When my son turned 10 just the other day, he said, thanks for the ball, dad. Come on, let's play. Can you teach me to throw? I said, not today. I've got a lot to do. He said, that's okay. You walked away. But his smile never dimmed. It said, I'm going to be like him. You know I'm going to be like him. And the cats in the cradle and the silver spoon, little boy blue and the man in the moon. When you come in home, dad, I don't know when, but we'll get together then. We'll have a good time then. When my son came from college just the other day, so much like a man I just had to say, said, I'm proud of you. Can you sit for a while? He shook his head and he said with a smile, what I'd really like, dad, is to borrow the car keys. See you later. Can I have them please? The cats in the cradle and silver spoon, little boy blue and the man in the moon. When you come in home, son, I don't know when, but we'll get together then, dad. You know, we'll have a good time then. Well, I long since retired, my son moved away and called him up just the other day. I said, I'd like to see his son if you don't mind. He said, I'd love to, dad, if I could find the time, but the new jobs are hassled. The kids got the flu, but it's been sure nice talking to you, dad. Sure nice talking to you. And as I hung up the phone, it occurred to me he'd grown up just like me. My boy was just like me. Cats in the cradle, silver spoon, little boy blue, man in the moon. When you come in home, son, I don't know when. We'll get together then, dad. You know, we'll have a good time then. I learned something from that. My son Joseph once said to me, daddy, I want to be just like you. I said, you're aiming too low. Be better. It isn't my desire for you to be like me. It's my desire for you to be better than me. I want to be a dad that my children are not ashamed of. I want to be a dad who listens, who's willing to weep, who's open to care, who'll be there to love, train, encourage when necessary, counsel, but always be a rock.