 Amen. So Ephesians chapter 6, we're going to focus on the first half of the chapter. So Ephesians chapter 6 and that first half of the chapter, we're seeing some advice, some biblical doctrine on children and parents. And then right after that we see some explanation on servants and masters and their relationships with each other. Now I don't know that I'm going to try to explain something this morning and preach a sermon on something this morning. I don't know that I've actually heard a whole sermon on. But we talk a lot about children obeying their parents and that side of things. But then there's also some advice here for the parents themselves. Look down at Ephesians chapter 6 and verse number 4. And the Bible says this specifically to the fathers. The Bible says in ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. So the Bible here is telling, it gives the children advice on how they're supposed to honor their parents and obey their parents in the first few verses of the chapter. But then we see this command for fathers, towards their children to provoke them not to wrath. So that is what I want to focus on this morning, is this idea of provoking your children to wrath. What does this mean? I want to explore this idea this morning. I want to explore the idea of what does it mean to provoke your children to wrath? What are the consequences of provoking your children to wrath? And just what does that mean? What could that mean for my family? Is what I want to look at this morning. So you say you're sitting here in your parent this morning and you say listen, I'm the parent. And my kids, they need to just do whatever I say and obey me. And that's true. That's absolutely true. That's what the Bible says. But what does it mean to provoke your children to wrath? Basically what it's talking about is having your children turn on you or rebel on you. They're to obey you and everything the Bible says. But this is talking about children and parents and servants and masters is talking about the balance. There's balance in everything. Look back at verse number one. Your children are supposed to obey you. Look what the Bible says in verse number one of Ephesians six. It says children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Now notice how it says in the Lord there. Verse number two, honor thy father and mother which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee that thou mayest live long on the earth. That's a pretty powerful message to kids that says they need to honor their parents and obey their parents in the Lord. We'll get to that in a minute. But it basically says that if kids don't obey, there's implication there that it has to do with how long they will live on this earth if they don't obey their parents. But it does say in the Lord. Now if you look at what that in the Lord means, it's not the purpose of the sermon this morning, but basically what that means is that children just don't have to obey their parents no matter what their parents say. And especially maybe people that get saved later in life, they may look back and realize the way they were raised wasn't necessarily according to the Bible or maybe even parents today may not agree with the direction that children are taking their families or whatever because you have unsaved parents in the mix there. That's why it says in the Lord. It's the same concept as Romans 13 where it says obey them that have the power, obey the higher powers is what it means. It means that look, there's a hierarchy. There's a hierarchy there that we're always to obey God over man. So look, we're to obey our parents in the Lord. So how could I possibly provoke them to wrath is the question. They should just listen to me. They should just do whatever I say, whenever I say it and that should be the end of it. So what does this mean? Now like provoking children, especially older children is the most obvious. Maybe you've seen this happen to people. With older children, when you provoke them to wrath when the children turn on their parents or their family you'll see it the most in the older children. It's the most visible when it actually happens and it happens all the time unfortunately. If you don't know children that have turned on their parents or turned even on their saved parents, even against the faith I don't think you've lived long enough. If you haven't seen that happen. So I want to talk this morning about three ways that this happens and thus three ways to avoid this. So why does it happen? Turn to James chapter 2. The first thing I want to do is I want to give you the three main reasons that children get provoked to wrath or that they turn on their parents. Look at James chapter 2. The number one way you can get your children to turn on you and everything that you have taught them is this. The first point is this. Live as a hypocrite. Live as a hypocrite. Now really turn to James chapter 2. There's two areas where your works count in this life. I could break it out into many different areas but let me give you two main categories where your works count. The first one, turn to James 2 and look at verse 14. The first one is explained in James 2.14. The Bible says what does it profit my brethren? Though a man say he have faith and have not works can faith save him? Now underline doth it profit that is the point of that verse and of all of James chapter 2. That if you don't have works, your faith will be dead and it will profit no one. It will profit no one. So first of all, your works, they don't have anything to do with your salvation but they have everything to do with how much you profit others. What does that mean? Your outward benefit of your life towards other people. What other people? Everybody. Towards your family, towards your children, towards other safe brothers and sisters in Christ and towards the unsaved world. I mean look, our works are, whatever our first works, our first works are to go out and preach the gospel. Our first works are to benefit the unsaved world. Our first works are to get others saved. So being of no profit to your children literally cost them their salvation. I mean your works have nothing to do with your salvation but your works could cost the people closest to you their salvation. If you live as a hypocrite and more importantly it could cause them to turn their backs or secondly, because there's nothing more important by the way than getting your children saved than the fact that your children are going to go to heaven. The most important thing when I think about my children is that they will go to heaven one day. So look, the second thing that your works could matter, could cause towards your children is your works living as a hypocrite could cause your children to turn their backs on the Christian life. I mean haven't you heard, at least heard of all these stories of kids or young adults leaving fundamentalism? You know, we're fundamentalists here, did you know that? What does that mean? Does that mean we're crazy and we're in a cult? No, but it means that we believe and we teach and we practice the fundamentals of the Bible. So the main cause of this is that they and you can read stories about it and these kids that turned on fundamentalism or turned on the church or turned on whatever their parents meaning they turned on their parents for sure it's because they witnessed hypocrisy. They witnessed hypocrisy from their parents they witnessed hypocrisy in the church they witnessed hypocrisy. There was preaching, there was teaching and then there was living in a completely different way is what was happening. So you say, I was thinking about this so we're living as hypocrites let's say we're all living as hypocrites we come here and we dress up and we're church people and we're Baptist look at my tie and my suit I'm a Baptist and we preach the Bible and then we go and we practice none of it and we practice none of it so you say, why are the kids the ones that suffer from this? And I'm going to explain it to you I'm going to give you an analogy imagine a guy who goes to work every day he sells Chevrolets this guy goes to work every day and all he does and he's the best salesman in the whole company he goes and he can sell a Chevrolet like nobody else can sell a Chevrolet he's got the look of an upright upstanding salesman he looks like someone who's trustworthy he goes and he meets a customer and he tells you he tells this customer from the core of his very being that this is the best vehicle made it was designed by the best designers it was, you know, don't chuckle but it was designed by the best designers it was built by the best factories and the best people in the world this is the best machine that can be purchased as far as an automobile goes he leaves it from the core of his very being I mean somebody meets this guy and they're like, wow this guy has sold me on this and he's the best salesman in the whole company and then after work he gets in his Ford and he drives home he gets in a Ford and he drives home now, who would see the whole picture? he's the best salesman in the company he's selling Chevys he's never sold a Chevy before but guess what? his family sees the whole picture his family sees everything that customer that comes to him they just see that this guy like, this is amazing this is the best vehicle ever because the guy believes it he looks the part, he's doing it but his family sees him get out of the Ford and sees him get in the Ford every single day and they think, you know, look the person he's selling to it works that's what I'm getting at he sounds good he's passionate but his family sees the whole thing his family sees the whole thing they know who he really is they know what he really believes are you following me? they see him need a new car they see him need a new car because his old car is you know, worn out and they see him go to the Ford dealership and get a new car and then he goes and he sells Chevy's every day they know what that sales job that he's just acting now this is a harmless example just now take the job and replace that with spiritual life and that's what being a hypocrite will do to your kids they will think that this spiritual life is just acting is a joke is not real I mean what a terrible because they see everything look these kids these kids are living with us I mean they see us get up in the morning they see us go to bed they see how you treat your wife they see how the wife treats the husband they see everything and they also hear what's being preached at church three times a week and if those two things those two sides don't match up you're going to have problems they're going to start to realize that you know what this spiritual life it's an act we go to church and we act this way and then we go home and we act like that if they see a Ford and a Chevy from your real life and your church life you're going to have serious problems and you know what these kids that turned into young adults that left the church and some of them went out and they wrote books and they did all these things and they're very vocal about this they'll tell you that's why they did it because it was nothing but hypocrisy is what they witnessed so don't be a hypocrite that's the first one that will provoke your children to wrath against you and the spiritual life in general the second one impossible standards impossible standards with your kids don't we teach a lot of a lot of law here what are we looking at every single Sunday we're looking at the law here's another way to provoke your children to wrath hold your children to impossible standards and this is when that's what I want to talk about this idea of this this is when fundamentalism slides into this word legalism I don't know if you've ever heard the word legalism I'll explain it to you but look I've been told this many times before I've been told this once we you know once we started going to a Baptist church and we started going to church three times a week and we started soul winning and we started just I mean we were basically living and breathing church and we were told this by many different people why you guys are legalistic you know as soon as you start changing your life all of a sudden your home starts looking different all of a sudden you start acting different you start speaking different everything changes isn't that what's supposed to happen by the way isn't that what's supposed to happen to us when we learn the Bible aren't we supposed to change our lives to become that that's the whole point of the Sunday night personality sermons I mean it's neat to talk about these different types of personalities but look no matter what your personality is you're supposed to conform to what the Bible says so look people will say they will look at that and they will see those outward changes and they'll be like you guys are too legalistic but what does it mean to be legalistic here's the definition here's the definition dependence on moral law than on personal religious faith that's the definition of legalism but here's the thing we're doing all these things and we're changing all these things in our life we're coming to church three times a week we're sold out in this thing we're sold out in this thing but here's the thing I don't have to do any of this I don't to get to heaven I don't have to do any of this yes well I profit other people if I do none of it no I won't we already talked about that in point number one but look just like you don't neither do you you don't have to be here to go to heaven you will not profit others and there's danger to your family in that way but look this can you can easily fall into legalism churches have fallen into legalism look legalism this idea what is the definition dependence on moral law rather than on personal religious faith dependence for what you know what that turns into dependence for salvation dependence for salvation on moral law rather than faith is what that is saying now look I used to misunderstand this now just stay with me for a minute I used to misunderstand this because I would hear the Baptist say things like this oh yeah they would we would hear about some guy or the subject of debate would be somebody who fell into serious sin and I as a Lutheran would hear the Baptist say yeah he was never really saved and I as the Lutheran may have believed okay well he lost his salvation the way I looked at it was it was just semantics and I used to debate this with a very good Baptist friend of mine before I was even saved and I would say you say he was never saved I say he lost his salvation what's the difference he's in hell but it's not just semantics what's happening is the person the Baptist the Baptist that looks at somebody who fell into serious sin and says he was never really saved well you know in many cases he's having a legalistic mindset about things and he's starting to attach things to salvation is the problem it's not semantics but you know it's not semantics so look lordship salvation is the beginning of this you know lordship salvation is the beginning of attaching works to salvation lordship salvation is basically this doctrine that says if you're saved you'll have the works that's lordship salvation look that's beginning to attach works to salvation now look if you're saved you should have the works but should is an important word there because to be saved has nothing to do with works and look lordship salvation this legalism it comes into lordship salvation and it turns into I mean it's close cousin which is repent of your sins theology is a close cousin to lordship salvation you know if you're saved and it starts out real subtle if you're saved you'll be sorry for your sins if you're saved you'll be sorry I mean you see how we kind of move into the gray and then all of a sudden we get into works salvation because look I mean don't you have to understand that you're a sinner to be saved yeah you definitely have to understand that you can't think that you're perfect otherwise what are you being saved from there's nothing to be saved from if you never made a mistake if there's no sin what are you being punished for nothing I'm perfect so you have to understand that you're a sinner you have to understand that you're a sinner now oh yeah you have to be sorry for your sin and that turns into you have to turn from your sin should you turn from your sin yes that's why we preach so much about sin in this church so we can all learn what the bible says and turn from our sin but it has nothing to do with salvation it has nothing to do with salvation so look this you know what this turns into this turns into a bunch of churches maybe they even have baptists in the name where you have a bunch of people in the church now we've subtly attached works to salvation and maybe you have a bunch of saved people in that church that all sudden have kind of oh I'll have the works if I'm saved you know they're saved look nothing about them getting mixed up in the head is going to stop them from being saved but they're all mixed up like oh I didn't do this right or I didn't do this right and this is how you get a bunch of people that are doubting their salvation all the time this is how this happens because you've got a church that's subtly attaching works to salvation all the time and you get a church full of people number one that saved people that that started in on and they're all like oh am I really saved look I had to break it to you but if you're saved today you're saved whether you think you're saved or not can you imagine being in a situation where you're saved and you're like every other day or every other month you're like oh maybe I'm not saved look you're still saved you know moron you can't take away your own salvation I mean thank goodness thank goodness but look this is how you get a bunch of people that think that they're not saved and then you know what you end up with a bunch of people that come in and that's the only gospel they've ever heard they're just not saved so look this is why and pastors that do this you know then pastors they do it they use it because then it's effective tool it's an effective tool to you know control people nobody will come to church I mean it just becomes Catholic I don't know what else to tell you well look fundamentalism itself engaged in this and people it turned people to wrath people got turned away from it so what are we talking about we're talking about impossible standards turn to Romans chapter 11 the reason look the reason that you can let me just give you the biblical reason why you can't go down any of these roads you can't go down you can't go into the gray here the gospel is the gospel it's all the gospel there's no gray look at Romans 11 6 the bible says and if by grace then it is no more of works look it says no more it doesn't say a little bit it doesn't say a tiny bit it says if it's by grace and we know it's by grace for by grace are you saved I mean it's very clear folks it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace saying look if you think it's a little bit of works there's no grace there if you think it's a little bit of works if you think oh I can't if I'm saved I will never fall I will never fall into you know this kind of sin or whatever I'm not talking about you know reprobate stuff okay but look the bottom line is and that would never happen okay by the way but the point is if it's a little bit of works there's no grace it's not like if it's a little bit of works you get less grace it's one or the other is what the bible is saying here but if it be of works then it says that the other way just to make sure we understand but if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work so look we need to teach our children the true gospel because our children look it's not a little bit of works we need to teach our children the true gospel so they know that they're saved no matter what it's eternal it's forever it's everlasting the bible says so they get saved that's the first thing but then a separate goal for us is to teach them the law is to teach them the bible and why do we teach them the law there's three reasons for the law John 14 15 if you love me keep my commandments you follow the law because you love God that's how we show that we love God we follow the law for our own protection God gave us the law because he loves us and then James 2 to prophet others so we follow the law children we follow the law children because we love the Lord because we want that protection for ourselves and then we want to prophet other people it's very simple but we are not to beat them over the head with it and threaten their salvation with it hold them to impossible standards turn to prophets chapter 22 you say what are you talking about I just let my kids go off and sin and it's no big deal absolutely not that's not what I'm talking about but here's something that you need to understand the second reason we're talking about is holding your children to impossible standards threatening salvation of anyone or questioning salvation of anyone especially your children after they've been saved it's just false doctrine it's adding works it's adding things to salvation then we should never do it but look as they get older here's something that you need to realize here's something you need to realize Proverbs 22 15 the bible says this foolishness is bound in the heart of a child but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him now look we talk a lot about the second part of this verse that the rod of correction look if you're not spanking your children and you're not disciplining your children in a proper way you are going to suffer the consequences of everything I'm talking about today first of all but look the bible says in the first part of this verse that foolishness is bound in the heart of a child it doesn't say that when they get to be 18 or 19 or 20 or 25 that they get foolish it doesn't say that they get foolish when they're 12 it's there already the foolishness is it's bound in their heart it is our job it is our job to drive it from them to drive that foolishness from them we have this child and he's 1, 2, 3 and he's got foolishness bound in his heart and we need to properly discipline these children and teach these children the bible and bring them to church and all these things to drive that foolishness out of them you say okay well I'm going to drive the foolishness out of my children and I'm never going to have any problems okay raise your hand if you're a perfect parent raise your hand if you're going to do a perfect job of driving the foolishness out of your children nobody nobody I'm a sinner I'm imperfect and so are you look the better you do at this the better it's going to be for you but you will never get it exactly right which means there's going to be foolishness still there in your children they will be imperfect they are going to make mistakes and especially look they cannot be destroyed for these mistakes they're going to make because they have foolishness bound in their heart or you risk provoking them to wrath you risk it it doesn't mean it's okay to sin it doesn't mean it's okay to disobey your parents but you must understand that this foolishness is something you're still going to be dealing with even as they get older what did we just talk about being saved is not going to drive the foolishness out of your children it actually has nothing to do with the foolishness in their heart that's your job so if you have a child who's 19, 20 in their teens whatever and they're getting older and they're a young adult and they're a complete fool blame yourself blame on yourself the danger is that these kids are held to such high standards and then they're just crushed for their mistakes and then they turn on their Christian life I've seen this happen too it happens all the time actually the world don't ever forget that the world is pulling them the world is always going to be pulling them and as they get older it's going to pull them harder this world that they're living in why not live in the world you know these things that I'm getting destroyed for these things that I'm getting crushed for you know they're normal in the world I mean this is the kind of thought process that you could turn your kids to if you're just crushing them for their mistakes so what's the answer what's the answer sin's not okay it's not okay that my you know kids go and do you know get into sin that's not okay that's never going to be okay what's the answer it's simple it's one word the answer is this mercy mercy the better you are at driving out foolishness parents when they're young the better this will go but young people I'm telling you young people are going to need some mercy because they're foolish they're going to make mistakes all you teenagers you're foolish I'm not trying to hurt your feelings but you're fools but I mean you are foolish in many ways the bible uses the word foolish as not having wisdom look you don't have experience is what I'm saying you don't have experience you are foolish in many ways and teenagers young people as you start to figure things out don't think you know everything because you're still foolish so humble yourself in that way look teenagers learn from the mistakes of others please do yourself a favor once you're saved and here's the thing once you're saved once you're saved you don't you have to worry about you know when your kids get saved when they're seven eight nine ten years old whenever that is when they get saved they have two things to worry about now because they have their parents chastising them if you're a good parent you're still going to be chastising them and you know now you have God chastising you too once you're saved you know this is why this is why and this is my choice I don't know other people probably do it different but I don't spank my teenagers okay first of all I think it's weird and second of all the main biblical reason to it is that you know they have to deal with God's chastisement now turn to Hebrews chapter 12 look as your children get older older God and they're saved they have to be saved but as they get older God's chastisement steps in look at Hebrews chapter 12 look at verse number six the Bible says for whom the Lord loveth he chaseneth and scorches every son whom he receiveth look I talk to my kids about this I talk to my kids about this you know as far as you know God's going to chastise you just remember what the Bible teaches this is an important reason that we teach the Bible to our kids but look as our children get older they still need direction they still need discipline but now they're going to have to deal with consequences from their heavenly father as they're saved so show some mercy show some guidance show some mercy and the third reason is this so we see that being a hypocrite will drive your children turn your children to wrath not holding your kids to impossible standards especially if you would work that into having them doubt their salvation or that's just wicked don't even go there churches have gone there fundamentalism has gone there but the third reason is this are you allowing your children to enjoy their Christian life as you discipline them and as you hold them to these high standards you see that they're messing up along the way and that's going to happen but as you correct along the way and you drive this foolishness out are you allowing them to enjoy their Christian life one way that parents do this they have their kids grow up and then they start having their kids do their job they start having their kids be parents for them I can see how this could happen I saw when our children got older it was nice to be able to leave the house and be able to go out to dinner and do things with my wife but look we have to understand that with older children especially older children still living at home this danger is real now look they're more observant than they've ever been these young adults they can clearly see that hypocrisy they can see that the standards that you have taught are just a joke to you if that's what's going on and on top of all that they see how other kids their age are living too look when these kids are in church and they're six and seven years old they have no idea what's happening out in the world as kids get older, young adults and they start to see how the world is that I mean they're aware of it they're aware of it and look without the joy of being married and without the joy of having that relationship of a husband and a wife they should not be given the burden of taking care of a family it will drive them away from the Christian life it will provoke them to wrath I'm not talking about helping around the house chores and things I'm not talking about putting your responsibilities on your children and not letting them be kids look these kids, these young kids these young adults they should have there should be joy in this Christian life and we should protect that look they should have fun coming to church they should have fun coming to church in activities they should get through worship they should get to a point as a teenager where they get joy in sitting in church and listening to the Bible and singing hymns they should get joy through service for the Lord they should get joy from soul winning they should get joy from serving their brothers and sisters in Christ and they should get joy through fellowship with their friends it's not your children's responsibility to be parents so look parents contend to get lazy especially as kids get older make sure that we're not putting that burden on our children or we could drive them away we could provoke them to wrath I'm going to give you an example of this I had someone in my life, someone that I knew they grew up on a farm they grew up on a farm and from a young age on this farm these kids they were expected to work like adults and this is actually a common story from where I come from their life growing up their life growing up was nothing but work and loneliness is what that farm meant to them and to this day they became an adult that never even want to go back and visit that place they turned from it they turned them to wrath it provoked them to wrath because it was such a miserable experience for them they're supposed to be joy here they're supposed to be joy experience here now replace the farm I got some analogies for you this morning but replace the farm with the spiritual life now you can do the same thing you can do the same thing you can turn them away from it so the reason I was thinking about this sermon this morning is I've just I've seen so many stories I've read so many stories I've witnessed so many times of you know kids turning away from even Baptist churches from fundamentalist Baptist churches or just rebelling against this idea of fundamentalism itself to the point where fundamentalism you know that word is kind of got a bad name to a lot of people but here's the thing fundamentalism all it means is that we are adhering to the Bible we are adhering to the fundamental look it's not even just the fundamentals of the Bible we adhere to the whole thing we adhere to the whole Bible in a time where people are abandoning the Bible we are going to stick to the Bible so if this suddenly goes wrong I'm telling you if this goes wrong in your family if it goes wrong where your children rebel against this look it's your fault not the Bible it's something that you did wrong and that's why I'm trying to point out these three things this morning because the problem God's word is perfect God's word is perfect if something goes wrong it means that we did not do it right it has nothing to do with God's word so does this mean we should go easy on our kids does this mean we should allow sin no absolutely not and parents parents that do not discipline their kids especially when they're young will be at greater risk for all of these things you will be at greater risk to provoking your children to wrath in all of these areas all three because they will have little respect for you if you're a hypocrite because foolishness will be bound in their heart it will remain in their heart and the second point is they will not adhere to any standards if that foolishness is still in their heart and third of all rebellion the rebellion that comes from all of that will make them envy or be jealous of the world itself as they see others their age having fun they see others doing things that they were never allowed to do they were never allowed to do I've seen this so many times too I mean I remember I remember a family growing up they were Pentecostal and we know what's the mistake that Pentecostals made they attached works I mean the definition of legalism Pentecostalism they attached all these works to salvation it was nothing but threats of salvation and we saw these kids growing up and from the time that they were seven, eight years old in school they dressed like Pentecostals and they looked different and they acted different every single one of them went off the deep end and pretty soon you were like I didn't understand it I was just like what in the world I mean drugs, the worst things all these kids they were provoked to wrath from all of it because they saw that their parents were hypocrites and that the whole thing had impossible standards tied to their salvation and it's just a mess the whole thing was a mess turn to Colossians chapter three so how do we stop it how do we do it watch for those three things hypocrisy will drive them to wrath impossible standards and having no mercy on them will drive them to wrath will provoke them to wrath and finally you have to let your children experience persecution life has a lot of joy to offer I understand persecution will be there tribulation will be there but look there's joy there when you give the gospel to somebody and you don't experience joy out of that something's wrong with you something's wrong I was so joyful after Wednesday I mean I they made my whole week maybe the month look at Colossians chapter three let me ask for you let me give you before we close let me give you a a warning sign let me give you a marker that you can watch for look at Colossians chapter three in verse 21 fathers provoke not your children to anger lest they be discouraged underline the last four words here's the thing before any child turns his back on the Christian life he or she will reach a point of discouragement first because they will be discouraged so you need to be checking on your kids you need to be talking to your kids you need to be asking your kids especially as they get older because like it's obvious you can see how you know the kids are when they're three four years old but you need to be talking to your kids how are you doing how are you doing how was your day today every Sunday night my kids hear this from me how was your day did you have fun scale one to ten what was it and I better not hear any nines and I'm not threatening them with I'm saying if I hear a nine that's a red flag to me something's wrong you know I'm always asking my kids how are you doing did you have fun you know these conversations need to be regular ones with your kids discouragement it means something's wrong and you need to get involved and you better start the investigation at that point you know something's wrong they're discouraged they give you a nine they give you an eight what's wrong what's going on it may be as simple as some kid bothering them or something but you need to get involved and understand what is going on for every saved kid that has walked away from the Christian life look saved or unsaved but look my guess is plenty plenty of saved kids do it plenty of saved kids walk away from the Christian life if they're not saved look if they're not saved and they're 18 plus years old you've got bigger problems you're probably in the wrong church but look for every kid that has walked away from the Christian life especially those vocal ones that we've all heard about maybe they're sons or daughters famous people or whatever they started a website I guarantee you for every single one of those kids famous or not they've dealt with one of these three things and one of these three things is what provoked them to turn on their Christian life now you say you're sitting here and you're like this will never happen to us this will never happen to us we're in a good church and we're doing the right things this will never happen to us let me just give you some statistics here and the closest I could find was the southern Baptist convention numbers okay and I understand the problems with the southern Baptist convention but in 1989 76% of southern Baptist kids think about that in 1989 that's not that long ago I was in high school well middle school in 1989 76% of kids that were that were children as southern Baptist became southern Baptist adults that's three quarters three quarters of the church that grew up southern Baptist they remained southern Baptist as you know they were adults in 2018 that number was almost just a little over 50% so half I mean I understand this you know it's just a measuring stick here but the point is that I mean you don't have to look too far to find out that a majority of kids in a lot of you know churches are not continuing in their Christian faith as adults and it's one of these three things so you say it'll never happen to us but I'm telling you that the danger is very real the danger is very real don't ever take these things for granted remember these three things because look I mean the consequences are too great it's like I told you Wednesday night we're playing this year I mean the stakes cannot be greater so remember these three things don't be a hypocrite don't hold your kids to impossible standards and you know make sure your kids are getting some joy out of this Christian life because if they're not something's wrong okay let's buy our heads and have a word of prayer