Importance of Giving Your Child a Biblical Worldview

Well, we have a great coincidence today, and that is I was going to speak on child rearing.

Here are all these children and parents, and so we're very happy about that. Now, someone in the congregation, we still deal with child rearing because it's grandchildren rearing that we're doing now. But nevertheless, it's very appropriate for the youth that are here. I would have liked to have heard this when I was sitting at church, when I came into church at 17 years old. None of my family ever came into church, and so I had to go by myself, and basically the only friend I had was this, the Bible, and the church brethren that were there to help me go through all that period of time. I'm sure many have had the same type of experience.

What a rapid world of changes we are in. Do you notice that? How things are just accelerating, the news is just coming out with more discoveries, more things, and of course, more problems as well.

Beginning in the 20th century, that many of us were born, back in the year 1900, it was a time where they still used the horse and buggy. Basically, cars had not taken off at all.

People lived in rural areas. You didn't have big supermarkets. Basically, you grew your own food, went to the fairs, and that's how people had lived for thousands of years before that. In this span of time, from the 1900s, we have just experienced a generational change, but approximately every 10 years there's been a major discovery that has transformed our world. In the last 70 years in particular, we've gone from the TV age, when people had radios, and all of a sudden the TV came, and now you had pictures, talking pictures. That revolutionized the world. Now you could actually see other parts of the world from your own home. Then we came to the computer age. I remember at first there were rooms full of computers just to get something done, but it was a start. Of course, now that little smartphone you have has more memory and processing speed than all the other computers.

There were astronauts that went to the moon, and with their computers, those do not match at all what a little smartphone does today. From the computer age, we went about 20 years ago to the internet age, where computers got connected. Now we are beginning the artificial intelligence age. It's come upon us. It started last year, back in November, with the chat GPT, the Open Eye company that Microsoft now has become the most valued company in the world because they started with artificial intelligence ahead of it. Now they've exceeded Apple, and it looks like Microsoft is going to be right there in the cutting edge of things. But of course, there's great concern because these machines can become so smart that one day we won't be able to control them. That's the great fear. This is part of this rapid change that we have come across. And our children have access to all of this.

In a way, it's easier to rear them today. Why? Well, they have information, virtual libraries.

They don't have to go to a library now. Like we had books were expensive.

They were difficult to print, and so nobody could buy a textbook. Or look, you'd have to go to the town library. Well, now you have libraries full. Thousands and thousands of books available. Right there, when you're doing a research paper.

You have YouTube instruction videos. The HAN system. Boy, I would have liked to have had that, because I had a tough time in mathematics in my little high school. They're in Murphy, North Carolina, right in the middle of the Appalachian Hills. You didn't have very good teachers, and so you had to just put up with it. It took me years to recover to a certain college level, because you didn't have instructions. Now, even if you have a bad teacher, you can go on YouTube, or there's a con method, and they'll teach you how to go through every formula, every way to add, subtract, divide, calculate, use algebra, trigonometry, all of that nowadays. Kids don't have an excuse, because they can have some of the best instruction in the world, free, in their home.

But in another way, it's more difficult to rear your children, because for every discovery, there is a good use and an evil use, because human nature has the mixture of good and evil in it.

And so, there is so much information out there that there's confusion and distraction.

It's called information overload. You get so much information, you can't process everything. You don't know what's true, what's false. That's one of the dangers now with artificial intelligence. They can be so clever to lie that you think it's the actual person that's talking to you, and the computer is mimicking the person.

There's more competition now for the minds of the youths. Who will you follow?

Teenagers, young adults by the droves are losing interest in religion.

Why? Because they've got so many more exciting things. They can focus on frivolous, but attractive things. You know, cars, wealth, all these beauty tips, and all their friends and peers. That makes them more attracted to just following along, following the course of the world. Just go down the stream with everybody else, even if that stream ends in Niagara Falls.

Now, Jesus knew this would happen. That's why he asked in Luke chapter 18 verse 8. He asked this, when the Son of Man, speaking about himself, comes. When he returns to the earth, he asks the question, will he really find faith on the earth? He didn't say, well, will he really find smart people? There are plenty of smart people. A superdeveloped civilization? He's not talking about faith. He's talking about religious faith. Are the people that really are going to follow me at this end of the age or not? Because they've got so many distractions, so many people they can follow. And so, it's so important as parents, as grandparents, to make sure to give your children a biblical worldview. Make sure that they carry with them a biblical worldview, not society's worldview of things. A view of the world that they can take inside of them. And only they can do it. Only they can choose. And it's so important for the parents to help them in this way. Yes, it's difficult to rear children now, but so it was in Noah's day. Look at the world in Noah's day. Nobody was following God except for Noah and his family. What made his children different? Well, they had a biblical worldview. They continued to obey God. And because of that, it just wasn't one man. It was eight. Noah, his wife, his three children, and the married wives. Eight were saved. They had the right view of the world. And when you're tested, you're going to see what you're made of. What kind of worldview? The worldview where this is the way you analyze the world. You have certain values that you compare, and you reject the wrong values, and you accept the right values. Parents can't force you. They can teach you. They can guide you, but it is up to you whether you accept it and you put it inside of you. You believe it. You internalize. That's the word. Internalize. A parent that can do this is a successful parent, as we will see. What made Abraham's children follow him? It wasn't just Abraham and his wife, it was also Isaac and Jacob. They're all mentioned in the Bible. Notice in Genesis, Chapter 18, what God says about Abraham. What kind of worldview did he give his children?

Genesis 18, verse 17. Here God came down. This was the word. This was Jesus Christ, sent by God the Father to punish Sodom and Gomorrah. It says in verse 17, And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. So that worldview that Abraham had did not end with Abraham. It was passed on to Isaac and then to Jacob, and then eventually to the children of Israel, and eventually to all of us, because we are spiritual descendants of the children of Israel. We claim Abraham as a father of our faith. It doesn't matter what nation, because now it's not based on race, but on grace, and we are being called to this family of God.

So what's necessary is, how can a parent make sure that the child with the time that they have in the home, because one day they will leave the nest, they'll have to spread their wings, but that they take with them this biblical worldview with those biblical values against the rest of the world and not compromise. David is an example, and Daniel is an example, going to Babylon, but he kept his worldview in the midst of all that paganism. We can do the same.

That can protect them from the wrong influences throughout their lives.

So I'd like to go over three ways to develop the biblical view of the world. Three ways, and this applies to us, to parents, grandparents. If we don't have physical children, we still have a responsibility to have the right worldview and to share it with others. The most important thing that a parent can do to help their children with a biblical worldview is to develop their view of God.

How do they view God? Do they view God as a loving, caring, and perfect parent and father?

Or do they view Him as a harsh father figure that they're afraid to come before His presence?

Notice what it says in 1 John chapter 4 verse 8.

1 John chapter 4 verse 8 describes and defines the chief characteristic of God. What is his chief characteristic? 1 John chapter 4 verse 8 it says, He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. That is His essence.

Is that the way a child thinks? God loves me?

He wants the best for me? That's the way we should think. God is there, and He created me to be loved by Him. That is the main reason God created us, to be loved by God, to have a relationship with Him. Notice what it continues saying in verse 9. He says, In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Yes, He's the one that rescues us. Christ is our elder brother. He's our Savior. Verse 10, In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation or sacrifice for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. And then verse 19, it says, We love Him because He first loved us. So you see, you might not feel that love from Him because you don't come to Him. You don't have that confidence. Maybe there are things that you're afraid of coming before God. And He says, I'm here. It's just like a loving father or mother. When a child makes a mistake or something, he or she goes to the father or mother.

They're going to understand they want to help the child and get over that hurdle that they have. God is the same way. He paid with the price of the Word that was there with Him from eternity. He was willing to sacrifice to have a relationship with us. So that's why we were created. We weren't created because we sort of evolved from apes and things like that. That's a lie. Apes are complete different kinds as human beings. I haven't seen any ape go up to an IBM company, right? Work on computers. You seen any apes or gorillas or orangutans? They all walk around naked. They don't even know they're naked, right? We are human beings. We have dignity. We are made in God's image, not in an ape's image. And so that's the most important takeaway we can have. God created us to be loved by Him. And then once we know His love, that He's forgiving, that He's loving, that He wants us to be in His eternal family along with Jesus Christ.

A child begins to have a worldview that I want that relationship. I want to be with God forever and Jesus Christ because they're loving, they're caring, and they're perfect. They have perfect love, perfect goodness, perfect fairness. Everything that you can conceive of being perfect God is. And we're all imperfect beings. In 1 Peter chapter 5, let's go back a little bit here to 1 Peter chapter 5. Once we understand that God created us to be loved by Him. Secondly, we have to learn to love Him and those that are His and become more like Him. So yes, God loves us, but not to just get from Him and get and get and get. No, we also have to learn to give. Give Him honor, obey Him, love Him, and love especially those that are following the same way. Notice in 1 Peter chapter 5 in verse 7, it says, "...casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." So it uses the term care in two ways.

One is, well, we have cares, we have concerns, we have worries. He says, casting all of this on Him. Why? Because He cares for us. He loves us. He's going to listen to us. He's going to help us, but we have to have the faith to do so. The faith is the confidence that what He promises He's going to deliver and that we don't have anything to fear. Notice what it tells us in Hebrews, how we should go before Him. Chapter 5.

No, chapter 4 verse 16. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 16, it says, "...let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need, not come afraid, but boldly, just like you would with a son or a daughter that comes to you for help." They don't have to worry. They trust the parents.

There's a famous story about in the Roman Empire of this Roman emperor that defeated the Gauls, which were over there in northern France. Afterwards, they were bringing all the captives to Rome. They had this big parade with all the military guards and the prisoners and the treasures. Finally, the emperor in his white chariot. Everybody's there and they're all impressed. All of a sudden, this little kid from the balcony goes down, runs through the crowd, and he tries to reach that chariot. All of a sudden, this guard stops him and says, Sonny, this is the emperor. You can't go to him. He said, well, he might be your emperor, but he's my father. Oh, just go ahead. He jumped right into the chariot with his father. That's the same type of relationship. He's my father. We have a special relationship with him.

In Deuteronomy 6, God tells us that we have to help the children have the right attitude toward God, that he's always going to be there listening, wanting to help out. In Deuteronomy 6, verse 6 through 12, God says, And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. In other words, not just on the outside. They're inside. This is something you believe that you have internalized inside. He says, You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down at night, and you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Of course, this doesn't mean physically doing that. It's talking about having this living with you. Whatever you do with your hand, whatever you're thinking, you've got God's ways and God's laws in mind. You shall write them on the doors posts of your house and on your gates. And so you have different scriptures. We all have different scriptures that just remind us of important points to consider. And I'd like to read from this little book by Jewish author Schmule Bautich, because he says, Ten Conversations You Need to Have with Your Children. It's quite good. In page 22, he says, how to teach your child when things happen? It's not just, don't do that. Go to your room. No, it's what can you teach the lessons that you can teach your child? He says, let me give you an example. Take your kid to a restaurant, and he begins ladling soup onto his head, grabs a spoon and starts pouring the soup on his head.

Thankfully, I didn't have that happen with my four daughters, but I had other things that happened in restaurants that were kind of embarrassing for us. People turn to watch, and you're mortified by this animal you've raised. So you yell at him, stop that right now. The child stops, but the only reason he does so is because you're you've frightened him into it. He hasn't internalized that message. He has only stopped because the policeman is at the table, and when you leave the table, he will probably do it again. He hasn't learned any manners. He has only learned to respond to your anger. That's external will, and it teaches him nothing. On page 24, he says, rules are fine, but they don't address the character issue. And in the long term, they add up to very little. You can have all the rules, but if they're not internalizing, if they're not learning how to put them in their hearts, that's just going to go away in the future. The parent who wants the best for his child will always think about internal will, the child's internal will. He is not looking for quick fixes. The parent will not yell when the child puts soup in his hair. Instead, he will get him to stop, and then he will communicate. You know, I'm your father, and I love you, so let me ask you a simple question. See, there's a teaching moment. In life, what do you think is the main thing that distinguishes human beings from animals? He might venture a guess. Intelligence? No, you reply. Animals think. They may not think in the same way we think, but they employ intelligence, which has been demonstrated in many different ways. What distinguishes us from animals is that we have dignity. We put on clothing, for example, because we want to protect our human dignity. Animals don't care. They go around naked. We eat with a knife and a fork. Animals just stick their head in the trough.

Excuse me. Human beings behave in a dignified human manner, and that's what separates us from animals. I want you to respect yourself. What you're doing, are you respecting yourself?

You're making a spectacle of yourself. A gentleman eats with a fork and a knife, and he's careful. And if he spills food, he wipes it up. He doesn't just let it all drip on your head, and he doesn't burp at the table. And he always, always eats in a refined manner.

And so you start telling your children, what is your inside telling you? Is this a way to behave?

Is this what you think is right? So then he starts knowing that, hey, I have a conscience. I have an internal compass that tells me, am I doing right or wrong? And you see, that compass is something a person has to develop and make sure that, okay, now I don't want to be this slob. I don't want to be the person that's doing stupid things in front of others and making spectacles just to just to impress or get attention of others. And so it takes time to get kids to learn lessons. They have a conscience. They have to learn to use it to do the right things for the right reasons because they have dignity. They are made in God's image.

So that's what internalizing true values is all about. Now, after you develop their view of God, you have to develop their view of the Bible. Kids can be in the church all they want, but do they really treasure the Bible as their guide?

It will be their best friend in life. Aside from friends you have in the church, it's what you carry with you. When you read the Bible, God is talking to you. When you pray to God, you're talking with God. And it should be something that we should do all the time. Open the Bible, examine, go to places where it gives you answers to your questions. Notice what it tells us in Deuteronomy 17.

Deuteronomy 17.

In verse 18.

Here's the instructions God gives to the future kings of his nation. And by the way, the youths here are all being called by God to be princes and princesses in God's kingdom.

You have been called to be part of that first resurrection when Jesus Christ comes, so you can be with your family and your parents when God gives the responsibilities out. Your parents will be there and you will be there working with them.

Brings back to mind, when I came into church, there was a young man that was sent to that Chattanooga church, and he was still going through Ambassador College here learning the Bible College that we had.

And he was part of the transportation crew. We all worked in different places. I worked in landscaping for three years at college to pay my way through college, and everybody had to work. It doesn't matter whether you had the money or not, because it wasn't just head knowledge that they wanted. They wanted heart knowledge. They wanted to see whether you were diligent and responsible in your duties. And so this fellow was there. He was already kind of a junior in college. He had one year left, and they had a princess from Thailand come because the college had these relationships with kings. And so this king and queen sent this princess over to Ambassador College to the U.S. And so they called him and they said, well, this princess is coming. You're part of the transportation crew. So they want you to take the princess to Disneyland because that's one thing she wanted to do.

And so he said, great! Come tomorrow morning. We'll have a car equipped for you and everything. So what a nice cushy job. You get to go free. And so he gets there in the morning, but guess what? Yes, the princess was probably 12, 13 years old, but she wasn't alone. She had a chaperone, and the chaperone was like six feet two, weighed like 300 pounds, and had a sword on his side. And so he was a bodyguard. And so he took her to Disneyland and wherever they were, when they were going to have a ride, the chaperone was there and he couldn't get close to that princess.

And the whole time, and then he drove back, and he finally asked her, he said, isn't this kind of tough on you? That you have to have this chaperone wherever you go? Don't you miss just being a kid with your freedom? And the answer was quite mature for a 12-year-old. She says, no, because one day I'm going to become a queen, and I need a guard to protect my virtue, my reputation, and the reputation of my family.

And so she knew, she was sacrificing something because she had a higher calling. And the kids here are protecting themselves because they have a higher calling. You can get to be a king and a queen in God's kingdom when Christ comes back one day. If you accept the instructions, this is part of the training for that future kingdom.

You're learning the principles of the kingdom of God. And so the Bible is so important. Notice in Deuteronomy 17 and verse 18 to this king, it says, also it shall be when he sits on the throne, this prince finally sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book from the one before the priest, the Levite. So he had to take the master copy in the temple, and he had to write.

So he had to learn reading and writing. This would be in Hebrew, and he had to write out the entire five books of the law of Moses for himself. It wasn't just going to read it because when you write it out, it stays in your memory a lot more than if you just listened to it. And so he was going to read that on his own. And notice this is internalizing that book. And it shall be with him. So he's to carry it around and read it all the days of his life.

Don't be ashamed to carry a Bible around. That he may learn to fear the Lord, which means to deeply respect God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statues, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren. So this is a way to protect him from getting vain, because the Bible tells us, warns a person that gets vain and cocky, and starts thinking so much, especially a king who's going to have everybody serve him. And so God's Word humbles a person, you know, brings them back to the earth to be little in your own eyes.

He says that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, that God would bless him and his children in the midst of Israel. So develop a view of the Bible that hears God's instructions. This is the way God talks to you as well as to me. And if you don't use the Bible, you're never going to learn what God's will is in your life.

But it can't be just because of your parents. You have to learn that Bible from A to Z. Make a project to go through. They've got all kinds of things now. YouTube again, or whatever. How to go through the Bible in one year. And they can really... So then somebody comes and says, well, you know, the Bible said this or that.

And you say, I've gone through that scripture. I know what it means. Don't you come up with the wrong interpretation? Boy, that person's got to back off real fast. But if he sees you don't know anything, then you can be hoodwinked. You can be deceived. Notice in 2 Timothy chapter 2.

2 Timothy chapter 2. The knowledge of the Bible, to me, has been the most important thing that I've been able to learn in my life. Because it's inside here. And when I go through principles, when I face things, scriptures come into my mind. And I say, okay, this is what God is telling me to do here. This is what he can help me with. You have to walk with God every day in this way. And with through the Bible, you can do so. He's not going to physically be there. He says, I gave you this book. It has all my words in it. It solves all the problems a person has if they just apply it. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 15 says, Be diligent to present yourself. Approve to God a worker who does not need to be ashamed. Rightly dividing the word of truth. You know how to apply it. You know how to put it into practice. And then, last scripture, Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12. What is the Bible compared to?

Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12. It says, For the word of God is living and powerful. It's not a dead book. It's not something antiquated or obsolete. It's living because God's Spirit opens the truth to us in the Bible and powerful. It's like a sword that you can protect yourself and others. And sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit. Get down to the depth of something and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. I'd like to read it to you from the New Living Translation. The same verse. It says, For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. It tells us how it is. Now, not how we would like to see each other, but how we are before God. It's a spiritual mirror. And the third way to internalizing the worldview that the child needs is develop their view of their purpose in life. Develop their view of their purpose in life. Why are we born? What is the purpose of all of this? What are the goals in our life? The most important goals that we have. In Matthew 6, verse 33, we have the first goal.

Will Christ find people with faith when He returns? If people put this into practice, they will have true faith. Matthew 6, verse 33. Jesus gave this as the priority.

He said, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And all these things, all these physical things, He'll take care of the rest if you put Him first in your life. And all these things shall be added to you.

Your first goal is to be part of that first resurrection when Christ comes. Because you have a choice. You can leave the church, go out into the world, maybe be famous or be rich or whatever. But when Christ comes back, you're not going to be resurrected at that time.

You'll have to be resurrected in the second resurrection, along with the Africans and Indians who never had a chance to have been part of that first resurrection. So all of you, God is offering an invitation to be there when Christ comes back and to begin eternal life with Him as your mentor, as your guide with all Abraham and Moses and Sarah and the apostles and all the wonderful Esther and others. How'd you like to be part of that team? That's the A-team that God has.

And He's calling each one of us to be part of that A-team. That's all we're doing here. This is a very minimum and this is a very humble thing that we're doing here, human beings. But the potential is astronomical. It's like what Neil Armstrong said when he landed on the moon. He said, well, this is a small step for man, but it is a giant leap for mankind. Well, for us too, baptism is a small step for a human being. But it's a giant leap into eternal life and God's kingdom. That's what gets it going. That gets the ball rolling where you receive the fourth element in your being. You are born with three right now. You have your body, you have your soul, which is life, you have the spirit in man, which gives us intelligence and all the human qualities, but we lack the fourth, which is God's Holy Spirit. That is not given to you at birth. That is given when you choose to have that fourth element in your life. And again, that prepares you for that first resurrection in God's kingdom.

Now, besides that first goal of the first resurrection and then seeking God's righteousness, which is His way of life, developing that spiritual character, the second are physical goals. These are the secondary goals we have. We should strive for the best career that we can have in our lives, best education, because it is your brains that is worth the most in this life. Develop it. Get a specialty. Do something that is going to be rewarded by the marketplace.

Do your best to get the best education possible, because it will multiply dozens and dozens of times over your income. Many times you're doing something that you love and your passion. So strive for the best career for you. Then marriage, that's a wonderful goal.

Find your soulmate and family. You're going to be teaching your children and your grandchildren one day. In 1 Timothy chapter 5, we have this principle about family life. 1 Timothy 5, verse 8.

It says, But if anyone does not provide for his own, it's talking here about his own family, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Of course, in those days, the household extended not only to the nuclear family, the home life. You had other people, grandparents and uncles. It was a big family. But it says here that we should earn enough that we can share our wealth with others, and in particular, our family.

It says, if he can't provide, and this is not only monetary, it's talking about emotional support as well. He has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever, because there are unbelievers that have a better family life than people that have it in the church. And so they're worse off than a person that has a good family life, even if he's an unbeliever. So there is this responsibility, and also this same principle is found in 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 14. 2 Corinthians 12 verse 14. This is another scripture that mentions about the same principle. It says verse 14. Now for the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be burdensome to you, for I do not seek yours. Talking about I'm not going to be a burden economically, financially. I'm not going to come here, and that you all have to support me. He says, but I do not seek yours, but you. It says for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. No parents are charging the children to live with them. No, it's the parents of ones that are providing for that in the time being. So we have principles and proverbs, I mean Psalms 128 that talks about the righteous father and how their children are all there prospering because he's taking care of them and talking about the sense of father and mother. But then for the mother, you have Proverbs 31. The diligent wife and all she can do, all the activities, because she also was educated. And if you look in Proverbs 31, that woman, she has people that she orders. She knows how to weave. She knows how to cook. She knows clothing. She says she is like a trader that goes out and finds the best prices for things. So she helps along.

So we need to create a worldview in the home that kids can internalize because we only have that window of opportunity. Once they're gone, it's going to be more difficult.

And there are all kinds of situations in life which can complicate things, but that's something my wife, Cottie, and I tried to do. And our daughters went and they took their faith with them.

And they remain with their faith. Whatever it takes. See, we don't have to be out here giving them rules now. No, they have the rules inside. They learn from the home and they learn from experience how to live. So they need to take this hope and faith with them of forming their own family and first seeking that first resurrection in the kingdom of God and practice righteousness.

To do the right thing because that is the right thing to do. Before God and man have that inner motivation to do so. So now as we end, let's go to 2 Peter chapter 1.

2 Peter chapter 1.

Starting in verse 3, here's the great promise that Peter brings up.

He says, start in verse 2, it says, Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord as his living divine power has given to us, that's talking about the Holy Spirit, all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue by which we have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, being part of God's family, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. So we've got to fight because there's more corruption and more lust than ever before. Don't let lust take over because it's like a drug that you can never satisfy in the long run and it'll just eat you up and eat those people around you and destroy the innocence and the goodness that you have inside of you. He says, but also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith, so there is going to be that faith as the basis, virtue, which means right living, and to virtue knowledge. So we're going to grow in God's way and to knowledge self-control, which is to discipline and have self-discipline and to self-control perseverance. Don't give up! To perseverance godliness, a way of thinking. To godliness, brotherly kindness. Show it here in church and to brotherly kindness, love.

For if these things are yours, if they have been internalized and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. We can't backslide. We can't go back. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call an election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. Never stumble to the point of falling away is what he's talking about here. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So remember, give your children a biblical worldview that they can internalize and take with them the rest of their lives.