A Child's World

Good morning, everyone. That was beautiful, wasn't it? I find it interesting to watch the kids really get into it, and the little lady in the little yellow dress, she was helping to direct part of the time. You know, I think it's with the kids more than any other way that we really notice the changes that take place in life and how that time moves on. I know it's like one of those little kids. I think back over the years, and, Hi, little Johnny. How are you doing? Fine, Mr. Beam, fine. Time goes along in one day. Johnny, how are you doing? Fine, Mr. Beam, fine. And then eventually with me, it's, Hi, Johnny. How are you doing? Fine. You know, this area was referred to at one time as the Redneck Riviera, simply because only the locals knew of this strip and came down along this way, and everybody else always went down deep into Florida. I don't know if it's referred to anymore as the Redneck Riviera, but all the Rednecks aren't going. And I come from Redneck Country. I grew up in Redneck Country. So I got to tell you about a couple of Rednecks recently. Earl and Leroy.

Earl and Leroy saw an ad in the paper, and they bought a mule. You can still buy mules. You know where to go. Bought a mule for $100. And the farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day. Well, the next morning, the farmer drove up and said, Sorry, fellas, have some bad news. The mule died last night. Earl and Leroy replied, Well, then give us our money back. The farmer said, Can't do it. I went and spent it already. They said, Okay, then just bring us the dead mule. The farmer said, Well, what in the world are y'all going to do with a dead mule? Leroy said, We're going to raffle him off. The farmer said, You can't raffle off a dead mule. Earl said, We sure can. We don't have to tell anybody he's dead. So a couple of weeks later, the farmer ran into Earl and Leroy at the Piggly-Wiggly grocery store and asked, Well, what do you fellas ever do with that dead mule? They said, Well, we raffled him off, just like we said we was going to do. Leroy said, Shucks, we sold 500 tickets for $2 apiece and made a profit of $998. Farmers said, Wow, didn't anyone complain? Earl said, Well, the fella who won got upset. So we gave him his $2 back.

Earl and Leroy now work for the government. They're overseeing the stimulus program. This old world we live in can be a very rugged world. We're going to be a very, very rugged place, as many of us know. And the world we're looking forward to, in contrast to the world that we're in, can certainly seem more like an illusion than a reality. But it's very real, and it's on its way. With every passing day, we get closer.

Today, what I want to do is present that world that is coming in a very specific way, a specific way that in actuality is one way of defining it. And I will give you a title, a title shortly. And when I do, that title will serve as a defining statement. I want to get into the subject this way. My wife, Angela, and I were married in December of 1974. The time came when we wanted to create something that would move around, make noise, and change our world.

And so we had a kid. And there was movement, and there was noise, and there was definitely change in our world. And then the time came that we wanted to duplicate that, so we had another child. And there was more movement, and more noise, and more change in our world. And then the third time came that we created more movement and noise and change in our world. And we said, we've got enough movement and enough noise and enough change in our world.

Now we wait on grandkids. See, when two people love each other, they want to marry. And in due time, it's simply natural to want to have children. But it's also natural to want to bring those children into as good and safe an environment as possible, to create as much as possible an atmosphere around them that's good and that's safe. I mean, they're the fruit of our bodies. They're part of us. We care for them. They're very dear and precious to us. And obviously, we have a great concern for their welfare. But as your desire grows, and as you think about and you plan children when you're young, it's also natural to automatically focus on the world we live in and the conditions that we're going to have to raise those children in.

And in a world that's rapidly running downhill, it can be discouraging. In fact, even to the point that I know some young people today are seriously considering whether or not to even bring children into this world in which we live. It's certainly a daunting task. A tremendous challenge because this is not a child's world. It is not a world good for the children. It is not a world safe for the children. It's not a world geared or built around the children.

Here's how we title the sermon if you want to title. A child's world. A child's world. That's what we're looking forward to. A child's world. For 6,000 years, ever since Adam and Eve made their faithful choice, this earth in general has not been a place good and safe for the children. And so that statement can be applied to the masses of mankind, it applies most to the children because they are the most vulnerable to the conditions around them.

They are the most helpless in the face of the forces that drive this world, and they are the ones most preyed upon by evil. You can also include the elderly in this. These are the two groups. They're very young and they're very old. These are the two groups that are most at the mercy of a society that's running downhill. They're most targeted.

As a society breaks down, it cares less and less about the young and the old. As it degenerates, it both neglects and preys upon them more and more. And I'll tell you something. How a society treats its very young and its very old is a dead giveaway as to the condition of that society. You can measure society that way. This world is not a child's world. It hasn't been.

And it's not going to be until, not until Jesus Christ comes back and sets up His kingdom. The world tomorrow is a child's world. It will be and it will remain so because a world that is good and safe for the children is a world that is good and safe for everyone. Step forward with me in time and imagine.

Dateline. Jerusalem. Sometime in the future. Today was another gorgeously beautiful day in the city of peace. As world leaders came and went in conducting the affairs of planet Earth, the streets and parks were filled with the play and laughter of little kids and old men and women. Let's read of that in Zechariah 8. Zechariah 8, verses 3 through 5. Zechariah 8, verses 3 through 5. Verse 3, Thus says the Lord, I am returned unto Zion, I have come back, I am here, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.

And Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus says the Lord of hosts, there shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem. And every man with his staff in his hand for very age, because of the age that's involved. Very, you know, what we call the elderly. In the streets, verse 5, of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.

See, a world safe and good for the very young and the very old is a world safe and good for everybody in between. For all age groups, you create a world that's good for the children, it's good for everybody. Playing in the streets. Notice, the streets full of boys and girls playing in the streets. Children need a childhood. Children need a basic, carefree time in their life. They need a period of time when they aren't shouldered with the heaviness or the responsibilities of life, when they are free of the heavy concerns that will come later. And I guess if you basically just kind of rounded it off to a certain period of time to have that, it would be somewhere around birth up to age 11, somewhere, you know, over those first 11, you know, basically those first 11 years of their life. And it has to be done in balance, of course, but it should be there. So many children of this world have never had a childhood. A carefree time of play, free of worry and struggle and pain. So many children have had to shoulder heavy burdens as young children. My mother's mother, my grandmother on my mother's side, had severe health problems. And when my mother, who was the oldest sibling, when my mother was nine years old, she had to shoulder the responsibilities of cooking and cleaning and keeping house and taking care of younger siblings. The one next to her younger was four years younger, was five years old at the time. And Mom had to shoulder that. She didn't have a choice. She once told me that she felt like she had never really had a childhood. She wasn't complaining. She didn't say it in a complaining way. She just stated it as a matter of fact that she felt she had never had a childhood. And in the truest sense of what a childhood is, she didn't. She had to take on adult responsibility at a very early age. And so many have grown up in a time and a place where the whole family had to work from can to can't just in order to survive. My dad grew up that way. He talked about how that before it was even daylight enough, they could see the the cotton plants. So they wouldn't, you know, cut down the cotton plants as they had to chop cotton or, you know, clear the weeds out. They'd be out hunkered down beside the the cotton fields, waiting a few minutes while it was still dark, waiting to be there so that as soon as it was light enough to see how to start working, they could start working. And they would work until it was too dark to see and then go in. That has been so so typical of so many families. And history is filled with children's sweat shops, hard labor on the back of children, young children. And what about the untold numbers of orphans down through the 6,000 years of human beings, the result of disease and famine and war? I know by this point in time, 2011, it was estimated, I don't know what the number is right now, but it was estimated that in Sub-Saharan Africa that there would be, by this point in time, 43 million orphans due to the deaths due to AIDS. It's not been a good and safe place for the children in this world. It has not been good and safe for everyone else either. Notice with me Isaiah 60. Isaiah 60 verse 22. This is a Scripture that can only occur in a safe world for the child.

In Isaiah 60 verse 22, it says, A little one shall become a thousand. Talk about multiplication in the world tomorrow.

A little, its way of expressing the safety and the growth and the development.

A little one shall become a thousand. And a small one, a strong nation. I, the Lord, will hasten it in its time. But in this world, so many have not even grown up. In 1915, in 1915, and there are some of you in here who were born not too long after 1915, it is possible that we have some living members who were born, so alive, who were born in 1915. But in 1915, in the United States of America, out of every thousand children born, before the first birthday, 100 died. Out of every thousand, every tenth child died. By 1943, by 1943, it had dropped to 40 for every thousand children.

A little cemetery back home, a little family cemetery. There's a great aunt that has seven children, little ones, infants, toddlers, seven little graves in a row.

They didn't have a chance to grow up and in any sense have a chance to what this speaks of. And then I've seen, I've been in cemeteries where I have seen as many as 10 little graves in a row from the same parents. One man's father used to tell him that there are as many short graves in the cemetery as there are long ones. And some, with some, that's certainly true. I have been in some cemeteries where I started counting and I quit counting. It looked like half the graves, 50 percent of them, maybe as high as 50 percent, were children. Isaiah 11.

And verse 9. In Isaiah 11 and verse 9, beautiful statement, they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. We live in a time of predators, as simply a fact of life, predators prowling for prey, and so many times the prey is our children. I mean, sometimes we'll have what's called a National Missing Children's Day. And all of us are familiar with Adam Walsh in the show America's Most Wanted, Adam Walsh, who lost his son, lost his son down in Florida years ago. And he made it a cause to fight against such, and he hosted America's Most Wanted. You know, we now live in a time when the most dangerous thing to human beings, to mankind that's walking this earth, is man. The most dangerous thing to man walking this earth is man. I found it so revealing and sad in the conflict several years ago involving Serbia and Croatia and Herzegovina, etc. that children became targets. You know, there were snipers, and it was so dangerous to be out and be about because you never knew when you were going to catch a sniper's bullet. Well, shooting at adults by snipers degenerated to shooting at children.

And some of the snipers talked about it bothered their conscience at first. But then they just began to see it as a greater challenge because the targets were smaller.

You know, again, we live in a world that can produce that type of situation. And we live at a time when civilians and children are simply seen as collateral damage by those causing the destruction. This world preys on children, and predators are on the prowl, and it's something that a parent, as a parent, you have to contend with and deal with. When our kids were growing up, we knew where they were, we knew who they were with, and we took it as our full-time job as parents to always be aware and to make sure with whatever was within our power to exercise the safety of our children.

I remember when we were living in Amarillo, Amarillo, Texas, we had gone over to a member's house where we were hosting a graduation party for our high school grads. And it was about 11 or 11 30 at night on a Saturday night, and most everybody had gone home. And there were four of us men and wives and our kids still there. And so our children, our children, and our kids were young at that time, and our children wanted to play in a little park that was just across the street.

I mean, you've got this row of houses, you've got the street and running along in front of the houses, and then you've got this little city park. And right in the center of that little city park, it wasn't a big park, it was just a neighborhood park, but in the center of it was a pile of sand or dirt.

And our kids wanted to go over there and play on it. So we four men sat on the front porch, didn't turn the porch light on, just left it dark, just sat there talking, but we were sitting there and we could see our children there in the center of the little park, not very far away from us, keep an eye on them.

And the park was lit up, but we were sitting in the dark. And as we were talking, and we were keeping an eye on them, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. And of course, turned my head, and there was a car that was just cruising real slowly along, just barely creeping along. And then I noticed a big kid with a dog on a leash come from the corner of the park, and he made a beeline for our kids playing over there on that pile of dirt and sand. And it was just a little bit too far to hear any words, but the cars cruising along.

And of course, I see it, and then I'm watching. And of course, the other men, especially the other father, there were two of us sitting there, that were fathers, and we had our children out there.

He had three, and I had three. And so we watched, and the kid with the dog made a beeline. My son was the only one. Jonathan was 11 at the time, just shy of 11, and he was the only kid that had his arm in a cast. He had broken his arm, and the kid made a beeline up to them, and we could see all of a sudden he just shoved Jonathan. And immediately, the other man, who was six foot and weighed about 240 pounds, was off the porch before I was.

And he was ahead of me, and we were moving. And as we're moving, he's ahead of me, and the car now has gotten the breast of us, and we hear from the car, sock him in the face. And there's a guy piled, there's several guys in the car, and one's piling out. Well, Paul goes on, and I stop right there, and I said, what's going on here?

And then they realize they don't know how many more adults are on the porch. They realize they've been caught. And so Paul goes over, and he deals with it, and the kid starts cussing him, and he tells him to shut his mouth. He said, well, he kicked my dog.

We said, he said, no, we were sitting there. We saw everything. He didn't touch your dog. So anyhow, the guy said, come get in the car, get in the car. So the kid took off with the dog and got in the car, and they drove off. It was a setup. It was guys on the prowl with this kid going through the city, going to the parks. If they could find some kids alone, setting up to hurt them now, I don't know what the final result would have been.

The kid goes in there. He was quite a bit bigger than our children, and maybe these guys were going to pile out and get in on the action. That was years ago. That was years ago, and it's a whole lot worse now than it was then. As parents, you have to stay alert. This world kills childhood, and it trashes youth. If there's an age of innocence, it's getting shorter and shorter all the time. And the most immediate world of the child, as we well know, the family unit, is breaking down more and more. As I've said before in talking, can a society survive when its children don't?

You think about that. Can a society survive when its children don't? I say no. If you're still here in Isaiah 11, notice how the world tomorrow here in this section is presented. It is presented as a child's world. Beginning in verse 6, reading from the King James, verse 6, Isaiah 11, The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.

And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall leave them.

And the cow and the bear shall feed, their young one shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. God's going to change the digestive system of the lion and other predators.

And the nursing child shall play on the whole of the asp, and the winged child shall fit his hand on the cockroaches his den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy melting.

You know, if your child came up missing in the world tomorrow, you wouldn't frantically start running and searching real quick because you wouldn't worry about the danger. There would not be a danger to your child. That's not to say you shouldn't be aware. I'm just saying if your child came up missing, you wouldn't be almost having a heart attack while you're trying to find your kid to make sure they're okay. But it's presented. The world tomorrow is presented in context of a child's world. It's presented as a child's world. And why not? Why not? Because every little baby born holds the highest destiny possible to eventually be born as a son or daughter of God, to rule with him forever throughout all eternity.

I find it interesting. The Bible Study Correspondence Course Lesson 3 has that picture of a baby, sweet little baby, lurking through a window at the stars at the universe. Why wouldn't we build a world that's good from that point on? Our logo, and I'm not talking about the official church logo that we have, but in one sense, our logo or our symbol or a picture that we have used so often is that of a lion and a lamb and a small child. And that's what we find here in Isaiah 11.

We have so often used the lion and the lamb and the small child. We have done that because, in so many of our publications, because it is so appropriate to the world that is coming.

You know, you think about it. A lion that will not eat a tender young child is certainly not going to eat a tough old adult. Makes sense to me. A world that doesn't allow children to be heard or destroyed will certainly not allow anyone else to be either. And if a banner or flag should wave in the breeze of the world tomorrow, chosen by God to represent, symbolize, and typify His kingdom, I can think of no more appropriate banner or flag than one carrying the emblem of the lion, the lamb, and the child. Well, the world tomorrow is not here yet. We certainly know that. That world of the child is pictured does not exist yet. But when it does, it's going to be far greater than you or I could ever imagine. There's not going to be any letdown. There's not going to be any disappointment. It won't be like when my family and I, when we moved from Tallahassee, Florida in 1986, we were transferred to Amarillo, Texas. And we had gone into Texas on Interstate 40, which Interstate 40 goes through Oklahoma.

And when you cross the line at Sharm Rock, Texas, you're in the Pan Amal of Texas, but you don't travel but about another hundred miles and you're at Amarillo. So you don't really travel across a lot of Texas going that route, that particular route. And our youngest, Lauren, when we moved, he was just shy of four years of age. He was almost four. And in Tallahassee, you know, Tallahassee can have some heat and humidity, can't it? He was a diehard cowboy. He put on his jeans, his heavy cotton shirt, plaid shirt, his vest, his boots, his hat, and he'd go out in the yard and he'd just sweat up a storm. Diehard cowboy. And when he found out that we were going to Texas, boy, that's where the cowboys are. That's where the cows and the horses are. Now, you've got to understand something. On the way, by going up to North Mississippi, going through Arkansas and Oklahoma, we saw horses. We saw cows. They don't count. They're not Texas cattle and horses. Are we at Texas yet? No, we're not at Texas yet. When are we going to be there? It'll be a while. Those didn't count.

So, when we crossed the line, we're in Texas, Lauren. We're in Texas and he starts scanning, you know, but 100 miles, we're there. Well, shortly after we moved, we went on what was called refresher then. We went back to Mississippi, dropped the kids with family, and then we flew out to Pasadena at that time for a refresher program. And, of course, we had just gotten to Amarillo, got moved in, and had to turn and go back, and we dropped the kids with the relatives. And so, one of the ants said, well, Lauren, how do you like Texas? He just looked so sad to her and disappointed. He shook his head and he says, we done going to the wrong Texas.

In his mind, I don't want enough cows and cattle for the length of the time. You know, I just... No one will ever be able to say, no child will ever be able to say, well, we done gone to the wrong world tomorrow because it'll be just as wonderful and more as anybody can picture it because its architect is Jesus Christ and God the Father. Remember that Scripture in Psalm 127 in verse 1, unless the Lord shall build the house. Unless the Lord shall build the house. Well, the world tomorrow is a house that he is building and it'll be wonderful.

You might notice Daniel 2.44. Daniel 2.44 is a very encouraging Scripture and certainly, I think, to all of us in more ways than one. But in Daniel 2, in verse 44, it says, And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. But it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. One of the things there that really stands out to me is, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It doesn't say it's not going to be left to people. It's going to be left to the resurrected saints with Christ. I mean, it's going to be shared is what it's saying. But also what it is saying is, it's not a world that's going to be set up and get going. And then Christ says, okay, I'm out of here. He's going to stay on scene. And those of us resurrected to start with Him are going to stay on scene. And so we're going to continually monitor it, work on it, and continue to make it better and better.

You know, as parents, as grandparents, and great-grandparents, as family, as extended family, and as people preparing and planning and hoping someday to be parents. What can we do now in the meantime?

While we wait for that coming child's world, what can we do now as much as possible to carve out, as much as we can, a child's world? What can we do to create a world, a time, a space for them that's good and that's safe?

What can we do now that will make a difference in their lives?

I could list numerous things, but I'm going to deal with the focus upon three main areas, three main areas that we can be about doing now. They are separate from each other, yet they overlap and they blend because they're part of and crucial to a package that is successful in creating a good and safe world for the children. And they will be maximized in the world tomorrow. But they can also be utilized and magnified now to whatever degree possible.

And to whatever degree they are utilized and magnified now, to that degree, you do create a better and safer world for the children. Here's the first one, and it's simple. It's hard to carry out, but it's very simple. Number one, time and involvement. Time and involvement.

So simple to state. Not complex, but so difficult to truly carry out.

Notice with me Deuteronomy 6 and verse 7.

Deuteronomy 6 and verse 7. I want to point out something. This is a very familiar Scripture to all of us.

Deuteronomy 6 and verse 7.

You shall teach them diligently unto your children.

Talking about God's ways.

And shall talk of them when you sit in your house.

That's part of our regular activity. When you walk by the way, that's part of our regular activity.

And when you lie down, regular activity. And when you rise up. If you look at the way that's phrased, when you're sitting, you're walking, you're lying down, you're getting up.

Basically, what I want to point out from this is simply that your time and your involvement is to be constant, consistent, and major.

As part of your lifestyle, as part of your life, that the time and the involvement, that you consciously make time for your kids as you go about the business of life and living. I can tell you this, and I'm not telling you a thing you don't know.

You know what it's like in life anymore? You're on a treadmill.

It's elevated.

And you're moving on that treadmill.

And every so often, that treadmill is speeded up a little bit more, and you've got to move a little bit faster.

And not only does the speed change, it never slows down, does it? It always picks up a little bit more, but then it's elevated a little bit more as well all along. And so it becomes harder and harder and harder to really have the time we need. Just like Mr. Martin talking about within his sermon about how easy the time gets away. And if you don't make a real diligent effort to redeem the time and use it wisely, it's gone. It's gone.

You know, making conscious effort.

Otherwise, it gets away and becomes too late.

God's world tomorrow will not only promote this opportunity to have that time and involvement, but it will be built into the system automatically. It will be a world filled with time for the kids.

You know, according to one study, and I know numerous studies have been done, and I know some of them may be accurate and some of them may not be as accurate as we might think they are. But according to one study, the average father spends two minutes per day with his child in conversation. That's according to one study.

Another study shows that there are 22 hours less time from parents with their children each week than about 40 years ago.

You know, this world, this age, is designed.

There is a great designer of this society. He's called the God of this world. And this world, this age, is designed to take the parents away from the kids through busyness and worries and making a living.

I've always found it so poignant.

Reba McEntire's song, The Greatest Man I Never Knew.

You just feel the pothos. You feel the poignancy in her voice as she sings that song about her father.

He was a hardworking man.

He provided for them.

But The Greatest Man I Never Knew.

Because of what it was taking for him just to be able to provide for his family. And how many times after the stresses and strains of the day did the kids simply get our leftovers?

Especially as fathers. And I speak personally, too, as fathers. You know, we come in used up and drained.

And too many times, our kids are last in line.

I say I speak personally, too, because God's ministry has been no stranger to this.

At all. We've not been immune.

Our past, our past, I look back through the years and our past as a ministry so many times, has just simply been one of go, go, go.

Eighty to a hundred hours, many weeks.

Not complaining, just stating a fact. I mean, I understand what it's like to be absent as a father many times.

Overloaded, overworked, overwhelmed, drained, used up. And then kids are last in line. They get our leftovers. And even when you're present with them sometimes, you're exhausted.

When my kids were little, I worked hard with it in the back of my mind, thinking before they're grown and they're gone, there'll be a time later when I'll have the kind of time with them that I really want.

It didn't materialize.

I talked with a fellow pastor a few years ago. At the time, he was in his sixties.

And as I was talking with him, tears came in his eyes.

As he talked about all the lost times and opportunities with his children when they were growing up.

You know, I could try to excuse myself by saying and using the demands of my calling, but that doesn't remove the effects at all. I look back in the history. I look at biblical history. You've got it in your lap there in the Bible. Why did Samuel and David's sons go bad? Were they too busy for their own children? Did they fall in their calling in one sense or fail to take time and be involved with their children?

Were they fathers who, one way or the other, were too absent? I know that's part of it.

We know the account of these men and their sons, like Samuel. Tremendous man of God.

Tremendous man of God. Dedicated to God as a young child.

Busy serving God in Israel. Traveling each circuit.

Or traveling a circuit, I should say, from Dan to Beersheba. Any time in the Bible you see it say, from Dan to Beersheba, it's the same as saying from New York to L.A.

Or Maine or, you know, uh, uh, not Maine or, uh, Portland or, uh, I'll get it right here, Portland, Maine to L.A. Because Dan was at the upper northern side of Israel. Beersheba was all the way in the south. That was from coast to coast.

Yet he paid a price. I mean, he was serving God and serving the nation, but he paid a price for evidently a lack of sufficient time and involvement with his family.

And if you remember the account, it was because of the sons of Samuel that Israel said, we want a king.

We do not want these men ruling over us. We don't want, you know, we don't want them serving in the same position as Samuel. You know, we trusted you, we can trust you, etc., etc., but no. Your sons, that's another story. We want a king. The King. Busy fathers have to find a way to provide time and be involved with their children. They simply have to do it.

I remember a moment of frustration with my son, Jonathan. He's not here, so I can talk about him.

I remember a moment of frustration with him. He was about 14 at the time, and I was frustrated with him only because he was frustrated with me.

And he was frustrated with me, and he had a right to be.

And in my frustration, I said, Son, what do you want from me?

And he simply said, Time, Dad.

Just time.

That's all he asked for.

Time, Dad.

Just time.

One of the most precious gifts a parent can give to a child is simply time.

That's why I said it is so simple. It's not complicated.

And in our day and age, we have these terms like quality time. What is quality time when you think about it? Well, frankly, and I'll just speak personally, I think a lot of times we use that term to excuse us from feeling too guilty and unconscious because you think about it.

Kids don't say, Well, look, I want time with you, but you better make it quality time.

Any time you spend with your children is quality time.

Just drop the quality part of it and just spend time.

That's what they want.

And sure, there might be—and you could add quality time to it from the standpoint that give them your full attention.

Give them your attention.

You know, there are times when you give time to a child and you're working on something else at the same time trying to multitask, and sometimes it's just better to push everything aside and just give them your focus, your attention. That itself is, quote, quality time.

My children are grown now, and I'm very thankful for them.

I'm very thankful for the people they are. I give credit to my wife.

I give credit to my children.

I give the greatest credit to God, His love and His mercy.

There were things that I did. I did not do nothing, but there was so much more that I could have and should have done and wished I had done, especially in terms of time with them. That's gone.

I mean, I still have time, but they're grown.

You know, they're grown.

My children are very understanding, and they're very loving, and they're very forgiving.

And I thank them.

Time, if you take time, time means involvement.

You cannot have involvement without time and vice versa. That's just the way it is, hand in glove.

It takes time to know your child, to keep up with them.

To stay abreast as they grow and change. It takes time to stay close. When you're close, there's rapport and relationship and realization.

You know immediately when something is wrong.

You know immediately when something is off.

You know immediately when something is bothering them.

And in this day and age, especially with all the pressures and stresses that are around and upon our children, that is an absolute necessity.

It's crucial to help and keep their world safe and good for them. And in closeness, they will come to you.

In lack of, they will go elsewhere.

And elsewhere is the danger.

Parents who take the time to be involved with their children, it's one of the greatest blessings their children will ever have.

You know, I commented there in Daniel 2.44 about not left to others. Key words. Not left. Not left to others.

Involved. Like Jesus Christ. Involved himself personally and stays involved. Christ will create and maintain a world that keeps that opportunity for parents with their children. We call this the Feast of Tabernacles. Rightly so, because that's what it is. But we Americans, I think maybe more than any other people, like to abbreviate things. So if you abbreviated Tabernacles, you could abbreviate it to tabs. The Feast of Tabs. T-A-B-S. Keeping tabs on everyone. If you know the Scriptures, you know in the world tomorrow, we're going to keep tabs. Not from a wrong motive, but from a right motive of helping and seeing that things don't get out of hand. And that peace and prosperity and all those good things are maintained. But keeping tabs. Being involved. Notice Proverbs 29 in verse 15. Proverbs 29 in verse 15. Matthew talks about discipline and correction and reproof giving wisdom. It says here in verse 15, the rod and reproof give wisdom.

You know, guidance, direction.

Channeling those energies. Disciplining. Teaching discipline.

Self-discipline comes out of and is a result of discipline.

Notice what it says, though, is the corollary or the reverse. But a child left to himself brings his mother to shame.

A child left to himself brings his mother to shame. Involvement is so necessary. We kept the Feast of Tabernacles in Jekyll Island in 1999. In 1999, we rented a cottage.

And one day I walked out on the beach behind the cottage and somebody had smoothed the sand in a certain spot and they had written in the sand. And what they had written in the sand was, I love my dad, but I want to bury him.

Now, I have no idea.

It was a little, it was a child's handprints all around it.

Those are my kids. They were grown, basically.

But it was sad. And maybe it was just some kid goofing around, playing or whatever, or was it something coming out and they were expressing something, I love my dad, but I want to bury him.

You know, the absence of parents will show up in the kids.

Ever so often there will be a year designated as the year of the parent. Trying to promote parenting, trying to get parents to take more responsibility, recognizing the gap that's growing wider and wider. And we see in our day and time what I call the nine-month mom.

Whether it's a surrogate mother, surrogate womb, you know, womb for hire, that's part of our reality today in this world.

Or teens who care for nine months and then give up the fruit of their womb for adoption. And I realize there are extenuating circumstances sometimes, but just making the point. Not that the nine-month mom.

We live in a day of absent fathers.

Fathers who are there for the conception and then are gone like the wind.

We did a good news article and we featured it on the front cover of the magazine, back in 2006, the May-June 2006 issue, where have all the fathers gone.

We live in the day of abortion.

That's absolutely zero times, zero involvement.

You know, sex is for love between a husband and a wife.

Sex is for procreation between a husband and a wife.

And as humans among humans, we incur no greater responsibility than we have towards the children whom God has allowed us through His living laws to create. When we hold the fruit of our bodies for the first time in our hands, when that brand new little bundle of life, of living clay, is laid in our hands, the hands that are going to be the main ones to mold it.

I know what flowed through me, the feeling when that occurred. I remember when my daughter was born and holding her. And I remember, too, that the second day after she was born, I had to go to a meeting down in the Mobile, Alabama area, ministers' meeting.

And there was what they called a Father's Hour at the hospital, Baptist Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama, a Father's Hour. And at a certain time, later on in that day, I could take my daughter and hold her, nobody around, nothing else, just hold her for an hour.

And so, as soon as that meeting was finished, I was gone.

I told the guys, I'm getting back to Montgomery.

And to have that Father's Hour, that was very precious to me. And I can remember to this day holding Lynn when she was just a baby, just for one solid hour.

That day, I was what I call the one-hour dad.

Total undistracted attention to my daughter. That hour was totally and exclusively her time. How wonderful it would have been to have consistently maintained that over the years with her and my two sons.

How wonderful would it be to limit a world that allows that, promotes that, and that fights anything that gets in the way of that? That's what we have to look forward to.

For you men who are not fathers, who plan to be fathers someday, let me present a challenge that I call the one-hour dad. It has to do with the bare minimum of time you spend each day involved with your children. And I'm going to introduce it this way.

Two little girls were sitting on the beach, building a sandcastle. One little girl looked at the other and says, I'm never having kids.

I hear they take nine months to download.

And, you know, if you think about it, generally, a full term is nine months, right?

Or actually 40 weeks. That's interesting. God designed that. Forty weeks. If it takes nine months to download, let's look at a certain specific upload or growing up that I want to focus on.

And I'm not talking about the woman who woke up in bed when her baby started crying at 2 a.m. in the morning and said to her husband, who was trying to sleep, the way I see it, you've got nine months of getting up in the middle of the night before we're even.

But there's another way that is even, and it's quite a challenge.

You can do the math. I've done the math. But break the time that's in the womb into hours. It's 40 weeks. 40 weeks times 7 days is 280 days.

280 days times 24 hours is 6720 hours. If a father took one hour, just one hour, just one hour, about an hour each day with his child, starting with them when they were a newborn and he never missed a day, that child would be almost 18 and a half years old before all that time is accounted for.

The one hour dad.

If that download takes 40 weeks in the womb to form, and 40 is interesting again, it's always been a number of proving and testing and forging and forming. Is it too much to expect that same amount of time stretched over 18 and a half years?

And I say fathers. I'm not picking on fathers. I just say fathers because generally mothers are going to have more time naturally with their children anyhow. But what's that hour worth, especially to your children? Again, that itself is quality time. I saw a church ad one time in the paper with a little boy looking up at his father, and he was holding his hand out with some change in it, and he says, Daddy, is this enough? Is this enough to buy an hour of your time?

Second great issue. Second great issue, and again, it's simple. It's not complex.

It's not always there like it needs to be and should be, but we do need to focus on it. And number two is the support system. The support system. The support system. It takes mom and dad both. I know there have been some states that have considered, and some may have a law as such, but I know Colorado considered it one time, to have a law that would force divorcing parents to counsel for a year at their own expense to realize the impact on their children. I see the hungry eyes. I feel the aching voids. And now with the breakup of the family unit. I'm just speaking of reality. That's all. I'm not trying to put a guilt trip on anybody. I'm just speaking of the realities and to the degree that we can avoid the negatives and take on the positives. To that degree, we create more of a safe environment for our children. You know, the breakup of the family unit generates fears and anxieties. It lessens mental and emotional health and greater risk of deprivation or poverty. Those are simple facts. I know in one four-year period, just in one four-year period, the number of two to four-year-old children taking Ritalin and Prozac increased by 50 percent. That's a reflection of things going wrong in our society. And that the single-parent families and households, we know they're increasing. We have probably somewhere around, well, I know a few years ago, it was 20 million in single-parent homes. And again, it's not my intention to put a guilt trip on anybody. That's not my point. I'm simply addressing the needs and the issues and for what we can do as far as what we can do to try to counter and to help. We live in a world now where we don't always have a choice. Some things are taken out of our hands. I know that. But our most dynamic president was Teddy Roosevelt. We have never had a president of this country who was as dynamic. He could be dictating a letter to a secretary while he was reading a book, while the barber was cutting his hair, and while he was doing it, I forget what else he could be doing. He was just tremendously dynamic. You know what he said? You've probably heard this before. He said, and it's some of the best advice that any one of us could ever take, do the best you can with what you have where you are. Do the best you can with what you have where you are, and it's never too late to do what we can, even as we strive to do more. A child's world needs mom and dad both, and sometimes one may have to get by alone.

One may not have a choice. The choice may be taken out of their hands. Look, I'm very aware that the only way you get married is if both of you agree to get married, right? But both have to want a divorce or both have to agree to divorce. There are times when one mate will say to the other, I'm getting a divorce, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. And lo and behold, the one who doesn't want a divorce finds out there is nothing that they can do to stop it. They try everything and can't stop it. So I'm just saying, you know, there are some things that are taken out of our hands, but the sad thing is something will still be missing, and there's a certain price that's unavoidable. Fight for the kids. As fathers and mothers, fight for the children. Fight for them by your commitment to them and to each other. Be there for them. You know how we all started out? Hanging by life support in the womb. We all started out on life support in the womb, connected with what's called an umbilical cord with the body of the mother. We needed connection. That's how we started out. We still do. Our children need connection. They still need support.

They need life support. They need support from us for their living and their growing.

And you know, I said support system. This is where the grandparents also come in, and great grands and aunts and uncles. They're part of the support system. If you glance at Psalm 92, verse 14, Psalm 92 and verse 14, Psalm 92 and verse 14, this is encouraging to me. I mean, I'm not elderly yet, but I'm no longer young. And I'm closer to elderly than I am my earliest youth, that's for sure. But notice in Psalm 92 and verse 14, it says, they shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall still bring forth fruit. This is part of how they do that. Sharing the fruit of time and experience and maturity. The fruit of support and love and concern. That's part of how it is. It is a natural and a special connection between grandparents and grandchildren. There is a natural connection there.

Remember the phrase? I'll tell you where it is. I'm not going to turn back to it, but Proverbs 17, verse 6. Proverbs 17, verse 6 says, children's children are the crown of old men. I used to watch my dad, who had a stroke when he was 58, and for the next 13 and a half years of life, he couldn't work anymore. He lived to be 71 and a half. But I used to watch him sit on the porch and just look at the pleasure on his face as he watched his grandkids playing.

Children's children are the crown of old men. I want you to go back, but not turn back, necessarily. Remember where we read in Zechariah 8, verses 4 and 5?

The old people in the streets and the kids playing. Who do you think those are? Those are the great grandparents and the grandparents and the great grandkids and the great great grandkids. Those are grandparents and grandchildren. They're out there together. They fill a special need.

Grandparents and aunts and uncles and others, the extended family, so important.

God has an objective in mind, and that's to raise a godly seed. And I'll just reference you to Malachi 2, 15. I won't turn, they're just referencing. Malachi 2, verse 15.

See, God will help you and me to help make our child's world better, even as we wait for a true child's world. And that brings me to the third and final issue that is absolutely crucial. Number three, humility. Easy enough, I think, in the overall to understand. Hard to put into operation. In Matthew 18, you know, the second Sabbath after the feast is the traditional time when we have the blessing of little children. And we will usually read a scripture like this one, Matthew 18, and verse 3.

And said, truly I say to you, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of God. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. You know, the beauty of a baby, of a little child before its attitude, nature is corrupted, so open to love and trust. And the keynote word of its makeup is humility. Little children. And a lot of times, sometimes they have to be quite little for that humility to show that natural humility that's there, because this society starts taking it out of them, even as a little child starts hardening them in that. But it's interesting that God instilled that in our natural makeup as a little child. It's interesting that God instilled that in our natural makeup as a baby and a little child, and that's one of the first and prime things that Satan and society want to blunt and want to take out of us as early as they can, just grind it out and get it out. How do you get a child's world? You know how you get a child's world? By having childlike people. By having childlike people. And God is making us childlike in those particular attributes, for instance, and greatly so, humility. You get a world good and safe for children by having people who, in humility, work together to produce and maintain such. The humility to be formed. The humility to work together. And where humility is needed most for the children's sake is for mom and dad to work and to walk with each other as little children.

Where mom and dad need to have humility with each other. Humility in their dealings with each other.

In our marriage ceremony, if you'll turn with me to Ephesians 5, in our marriage ceremony, we draw heavily from Ephesians 5. And there are some very specific marriage instructions in this chapter.

But something that is not necessarily always realized as the prime marriage instruction. Verse 21 is the most important marriage instruction. Verse 21, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. That is the most prime marriage instruction.

It does not in any way contradict the instructions that follows, but it talks about husband and wife being willing to submit to what the needs of each other are and to the needs of the family. Where each one will put themselves second for the welfare of their mate and the welfare of the family.

See, providing a godly, united front for the sake and benefit of your children.

Working in humility and love with each other.

Submitting to each other's needs. And again, the greatest beneficiaries are the children.

That kind of humility serves and benefits the children and helps bring about the fulfillment of what Malachi 4 and verse 6 that we've gone to many times over the years.

Just touch upon it, the hearts of the fathers. As far as at the human level, the physical level, the family level, the hearts of the fathers, or that is the parents to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers or parents. So, time and involvement.

The support system and humility. Three crucial areas and issues. This gives you, these maintain, these will create in the world to come, especially a child's world. But to a certain degree, they will help us as much as we can to create such now. Now, be maximized to the fullest in the world to come. A world good for the children is a world that is good for everybody. A world safe for the children is a world safe for everybody. A world that preserves and protects and develops the children is a world that preserves and protects and develops everybody.

Dateline. Jerusalem. Sometime in the future. Today was another gorgeously beautiful day in the city of peace. As world leaders came and went in conducting the affairs of planet earth, the streets and parks were filled with the play and laughter of little kids and old men and women.