Little Children and the Kingdom & Family of God

Well, brethren, the ceremony that we just observed is a very touching and meaningful one.

It's especially so to parents and grandparents of the children that were just blessed, but I know it's very meaningful to all of us. I know I've always been inspired by this meeting.

In fact, we did this at the Feast of Tabernacles in Mexico, in ports of the arce because the Mexican brethren, Mr. Seagly, often, you know, he's not able to be over there very much, and they don't have the manpower and everything. So we did have a blessing of little children at the Feast, which is what we customarily used to do in the beginning days until we got larger, and then we stopped doing it at the Feast of Tabernacles, and we've traditionally had it on the second Sabbath after the Feast. And having just returned from the Feast, we are all very mindful of the coming Kingdom of God. We heard message after message regarding various aspects of God's Kingdom, and I know that we all long for the establishment of the Kingdom of God.

We all long for the return of Jesus Christ. We long for a time when this world will be restored, where it will be changed dramatically. And much is going to happen before that takes place, and of course we need to be prepared. One way that we need to be prepared is we need to become more like little children. Christ said that if we... He basically said, you're not going to enter God's Kingdom unless you receive it as a little child.

You have to become like a little child. Jesus Christ was very interested in little children and how they should be encouraged to come to Him. And of course, we should encourage the little children to come to Christ. We should talk about Jesus Christ in our families, in our homes, amongst ourselves, because of course Jesus Christ is the King of Kings. He is coming back to establish the Kingdom of God. And in order to be in the Kingdom of God, you have to come to Christ.

We all have to come to Christ. We have to accept Him as our personal Savior.

We have to believe in Him as the Son of God. We have to know that what He says is true and that He is going to do what He says. So, it is important that we teach our little children to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is important that we tell them the stories of Jesus Christ when they're small and start them very early so that they will understand that Jesus was a perfect person who always did that which was right and He never sinned.

And He lived faithfully and He obeyed His Father and He also gave His life for all of us. It is important that our children understand that at an early age and that we reinforce that and that they come to know Christ early. They need to come to Christ and have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I think perhaps in the Church in the in years past we may have missed some of that.

No, perhaps we sometimes, you know, not across the board by any stretch of the imagination. I think we got the picture, but I think there were times when we perhaps didn't do as good a job speaking about Jesus Christ as we could have. Jesus Christ is our Messiah. He is the Savior.

God the Father is not offended when we speak about Jesus Christ. No, God the Father loves His Son.

He sent His Son. It's part of the plan of salvation. So we need to be free about talking about Jesus Christ. I know sometimes the churches of the world talk more about the person of Christ and not about His message, but we need to do both. We need to talk about the true Jesus Christ, who He is, and what He did for us. Because, again, if you want to be in God's Kingdom, you have to come to Christ like a little child. So, brethren, in this ceremony, let's talk about what it means somewhat today. What did Jesus do on this occasion? Why did He do it? I mentioned a little bit about that in the ceremony, but there's more that can be said. What was taking place here? What is this about? Why do we do this every year? And how does it relate to the holy days that we've just completed observing? Let's go to Mark 10 and read the parallel account in Mark 10. The synoptic gospels each have the account, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, each have the account of this incident when they came to Christ. And when Christ blessed the little children, in Mark 10, verse 13, it says, Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them.

Now, it's likely that it's talking about the parents who brought the little children to Him.

It could have been guardians to some degree, children. It obviously wasn't the disciples, because they were the ones that were saying Jesus, or that they were rebuking those who were bringing the little children. So they brought little children to Him that He might touch them, that He might lay His hands upon them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them, and when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased. He was not just a little displeased. It says here that He was greatly displeased. Now, we need to be careful that we don't ever get between Jesus, Christ, and the little ones. You know, the Bible says a lot about offending a little one. It does not go well for those who offend the little ones. So we need to allow the children to come to Christ.

And part of that is the example that we set. You know, we as church members should set a wonderful example to our children of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ's character should be reflected in us.

Christ was loving. He was sacrificing. You know, He wasn't someone who was critical.

He was not a critical person. That doesn't mean that He didn't notice sin when it happened or notice things that shouldn't go on. But Christ was very forgiving. He was very merciful.

And we would do well to follow His example with children. We want the little children who come in these doors to feel very welcome to be here. We don't want to drive them away. That doesn't mean we let them do whatever they want to do. It doesn't mean we let them, you know, just take over.

You know, that's not what I'm talking about. But at the same time, the little children should feel very welcome here. They should feel that they are loved and they should be loved. And we should care for them and we should go out of our way to know the little children here and to become their friends and to have a special relationship with them. You know, they should be happy to see us.

And if they're not, then we probably haven't really cultivated or developed that kind of friendship.

And for some of us, that's easier than it is with others. But that doesn't mean that we couldn't all make some improvements. So I would encourage you to set a wonderful example of Jesus Christ.

Set the kind of example that Christ would have set.

Christ was displeased when the children did not come to Him. He said, let the little children come to Me and do not forbid them, for if such is the kingdom of God.

There's something about a little child that's innocent, that is so very dependent upon God, especially as infants. You know, an infant is very, very dependent. Our grandson is very dependent on our daughter and his father. They provide everything for him.

You know, he would have died long ago if my daughter hadn't fed him and taken care of him, his father provide for him. So it's very, very important that we understand that we need to learn to depend on God and trust Him and have faith in Him and believe in Him. A little child believes that his parents were going to take care of him. You know, they cling to his parents.

You saw little Mateo clinging to his parents. He wasn't too sure about Mr. Kegel and me, but he was sure about his parents. His parents have taken care of him, they've nurtured him, they've been there for him. And that's as it ought to be, and we need to become like that.

We need to cling to the Father, cling to the Son. We need to cling to our Heavenly Father and to our Elder Brother, and we need to develop personal relationships with God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Going back to verse 15, surely I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. So we must no longer be stiff-naked, but we must become like a little child.

Now, I know that it doesn't take long for children to learn some bad behavior. I mean, we understand that, we realize that, but it's talking here about those good qualities about little children, the innocence and the dependence that they have. That's what God wants to see in us.

So, he took them up in his arms and he laid his hands on them and he blessed them.

He blessed them. And Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So Jesus Christ was in this ceremony that we held for the children today. We asked the blessing upon the little children in Jesus' name. So we can be assured that Jesus Christ is very aware of these little children, that he loves them, that he will be there for them.

Let's go to Luke 18. Just read one other, the other account. Oh, we already went to Luke 18.

Let's go to Matthew 19 and read that account as well. Matthew 19. Matthew 19, verse 13, Then little children were brought to him, that he might put his hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. And Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for if such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them, and he departed from there. But he made sure that that was taken care of first.

He did not turn the children away. I'd like to read from Adam Clark's commentary regarding the laying on of hands. It was a common custom among the Jews to lay their hands on the heads of those whom they blessed or of whom they prayed. This seems to have been done by way of dedication or consecration to God, the person being considered as the sacred property of God ever after. Often God added a testimony of his approbation by communicating some extraordinary influence of the Holy Spirit. This rite has long been practiced among Christians when persons are appointed to any sacred office. Of course, ministers have hands laid upon them, and they're prayed over that God would increase the Spirit within them and give them the help that they need to fulfill the responsibilities and the office that they've been given. Now, getting back to what Matthew Henry says, but this consecration of children to God seems to have grown out of use.

It is no wonder that the great mass of children are so wicked. Now, this was written some time ago.

It doesn't mean that children have changed that much. I guess we could say it's basically true today. But his comments were, it is no wonder that the great mass of children are so wicked when so few are put under the care of Christ by humble, praying, believing parents. It makes a big difference when the parents believe in God and teach their children. That every parent that fears God brings up his children in that fear, whatever is solemnly consecrated to God, abides under his protection and blessing. So again, it is important that we realize that this is a ceremony that God is in, that he's a part of it, and that he will look after our children. We have to have faith in that and trust God to do that. So, a couple of points. Let's bring out five different points in this regard. Parents, guardians, and perhaps nurses brought small children to Christ, so he might lay his hands on them and pronounce upon them a blessing. The practice of laying on of hands is one the Bible speaks of in a number of occasions. It was used to sanctify or set apart for a holy use and that God would bless and be mindful of. Secondly, the disciples tried to prevent the parents from bringing the children to Jesus. Now, why would they do that? Why would they try to prevent the children from coming to Christ? Well, Scripture doesn't say why.

We can speculate that perhaps it was because they thought Christ's time was too important.

Christ was too important to be bothered by little children. And it seems that sometimes adults take that same approach that they don't have time for children.

They're too busy to spend time with children, but none of us should be too busy to spend time with children. Perhaps they thought if they let one parent bring his child before long, every parent would want to bring his child to Christ. Sometimes we reason that way, but I'm sure Christ would have loved to have had all the children brought to him.

A third point, Christ was greatly displeased with the disciples for trying to stop the parents from bringing their children. Why was he displeased? He obviously wanted to pronounce a blessing on the children. Christ is all-powerful. Christ healed everyone who came to him.

And Christ wanted to be there for the children. He loved them, and he wished them well. So he wanted to pronounce a blessing upon them. And he no doubt enjoyed being around children.

I have no doubt that Christ enjoyed the children. He probably loved being around children. He wasn't married. He didn't have his own children in that sense, physically, but he had lots of children.

He is also referred to as the Great Father or the Everlasting Father, I think it is, in Isaiah 9.

So, in a sense, he is also a father, and he loves children, loves to be around children.

A fourth point to consider regarding this ceremony is that Christ used this opportunity to teach his disciples that they must become like little children if they really desired to be in his kingdom. If they wished to be there, then they needed to take note of some of the attributes of little children. And they needed to ask themselves, well, what did Christ mean? You have to become like a little child. And then a fifth point regarding this ceremony is that the church, the church of God, established this practice because we also value children, and we see the need for God's protection and God's blessing upon our children. Ministers ask God, the Father, and Christ to bless the children today, just as Jesus Christ himself blessed the children when he was on the earth in human form. So, we follow Christ's example, and we acknowledge his presence, and we want our children to also be blessed today. We want Christ to be there for them, and of course, Christ is always there because Christ said he will never leave us nor forsake us, but we have to have faith in him.

Now, we might talk a little bit about what the ceremony doesn't mean. Sometimes people have the mistaken idea that there isn't anything that could possibly go wrong with our children if they've gone through this ceremony. Well, that's not...the Scripture doesn't promise that. It does promise that there would be a blessing upon them, and I have no doubt that any child who's ever been blessed in one of these ceremonies has had many, many blessings poured out upon him, probably protected many, many times from harm, from danger. But there isn't a promise that nothing would ever possibly happen or go wrong with a child. So it's important that we understand that and realize that.

There are many factors to consider in this regard. First of all, the faith of those involved parents, grandparents, children themselves, we need to have faith. Christ said, according to your faith, be it unto you. So we all need to have faith. We need to have faith that God is going to protect our children. We as parents need to have faith in God. We need to trust God. We need to be praying parents, praying for our children, and grandparents, too, and all of us, frankly, praying for our children. We need to have faith and we need to trust God.

So the faith of all those involved is important, and hopefully our children will grow up to be more and more faithful. We know that faith is a gift from God, so we can pray for that gift.

Pray that God would give our children faith. Pray that God would grant us faith and more faith.

Another factor to consider is the decisions of those involved. Parents, grandparents, children, and others. God made us all free moral agents, so we make decisions and we reap what we sow.

And sometimes when we make poor decisions, people suffer. So we have to realize that we are accountable for the decisions that we make, and children are accountable for the decisions that they make. And a third factor is that time and chance happens to us all. It says that in the book of Ecclesiastes that time and chance happens to everyone. Sometimes we're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now, sometimes God will intervene mightily and miraculously, and He will protect us. God has done that countless times. We don't know how many times God has done that, but nowhere does He promise that He will always do that. So sometimes time and chance happens, and so we have to understand that's what God's Word tells us.

Now, that should not negate our faith in God, our trust in God, because God says He will never leave us nor forsake us, even when He allows things to happen. In fact, that's when we need to draw closer to God than ever before, when times are difficult, when things have happened.

Then we need to put our trust in God and know that He has not forsaken us. Even though something may have happened that was harmful, difficult, a great trial, God is always with us in our trials.

And also, there's a fourth factor to consider, and that is God's will and purpose for those involved.

For parents, for grandparents, for children, for others, God has the bigger picture in mind.

He knows what He's trying to do in our lives and in the lives of our children.

So God may allow certain things to happen to perfect our children, to help them grow in ways they would not grow otherwise.

And so we have to have faith in God that all things work together for good, to those who love God and those who are called according to His purpose. You know, we have to have faith.

We need to claim that promise because it is a promise.

And then we just have faith that whatever happens is going to happen, it's going to turn out for good in the long run because God can make it so.

God does turn lemon into lemonades all the time, and God will continue to do that for us.

Sometimes we may think God has forsaken us. We may humanly think that, but that's not true.

Because God is not a liar. God cannot lie by virtue of His character. He cannot lie.

He has promised to never leave us and to never forsake us, and He is always there for us.

And so we need to claim that promise and have faith in that promise.

Also remember that God is all about eternity. He's not about the here and now so much.

Not that He isn't concerned about the here and now because He certainly is, but He's also all about eternity. He's about our eternal lives. These physical lives are temporary, but God's kingdom is eternal, and our Father does know best. So we have to place our faith in Him.

Now let's ask ourselves the question, how does this ceremony relate to the feast that we just observed? Well, again, we must become like little infants if we are to inherit the kingdom of God. And that's what the Feast of Tabernacles pictures.

It pictures inheriting the kingdom of God. It pictures the millennial reign of Jesus Christ when God's kingdom and His government is restored and established upon the earth.

We are God's children. All of us are God's children. You are a child of God if you're 80 years old.

You are still a child. And it's important that we understand that. Those of us who are older, we're still children. We're still the children of our Father in heaven. We are His offspring.

And again, we must learn to be to be dependent upon Him if we're going to be allowed in His kingdom. We really do have to depend on God to be there for us. And we have to have faith that He will never leave us. As I mentioned, an infant is extremely dependent on his parents.

They look to their parents for their help, their guidance, their direction, for everything.

Children are, frankly, weak in certain ways. I mean, you've never seen a little infant lifting a hundred-pound weight above his head. There are no super babies that I'm aware of.

There aren't… no one's ever done that as an infant. Now, Superman in the comic books, Superbaby… but that's not reality. That happened up in Krypton. And, you know, that's just not reality. But it is reality to realize that children are weak. They're dependent. And we, as God's children, are also weak. But we can be made strong in Christ. If we will come to Christ, if we will embrace Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, if we'll have a personal relationship with Him on a daily basis, then we will be made strong in Christ. Christ has promised to live in us. Christ has promised to be there at all times for us, and that we can put on the mind of Jesus Christ. We need to learn to place our faith and our trust in Jesus Christ who died for us.

Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice by laying His life down for us by shedding His perfect blood.

Christ was perfect. He never sinned. He did His part. We should strive to do our part, and we should pray for that unshakable faith that we all need to have. Unshakable faith. And we need to follow where God is leading us and learn to trust Him in good times and also in difficult times.

So, this ceremony has a lot to do with the feast that we just observed.

If we're going to enter God's kingdom, we need to become like children. We need to embrace Jesus Christ. We need to embrace Him as King of Kings, as Lord of Lords, and we need to learn to follow His example and set the kind of example that He set. Now, let's talk a little bit more about how we are to look at children. Children are indeed a very special blessing. Let's go to Psalm 127. Psalm 127, and let's see what God says about children. Psalm 127. Unfortunately, not every person seems to believe this. Not every person, not every adult, seems to have the same mindset that God has here. Psalm 127, verse 3, Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. They are a heritage. That is a good thing.

That is something that we inherit from the Lord. They are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth.

And happy is the man who has this quiver full of them. Now, I read in a commentary, Once Upon a Time, somewhere I don't remember where, or I heard it down through the ages, that a quiver back at that time would hold nine arrows. So, if someone's quiver is full of children, then I guess that means they have nine children.

Happy is the man who has this quiver full of them. Nowadays, my quiver only holds, I think, five arrows. It doesn't hold nine. I'm still falling short, so I don't know if I can get my wife to cooperate with me anymore or not. I think the time has passed. Although Sarah did have children in her old age, so... But probably that's not our calling. It's probably not my wife's calling or my calling in life. It doesn't mean we have to have nine children. But if we have nine children, we should be happy about that. If God blesses us with nine children, then we ought to be happy. Happy is the man with nine children. Now, I don't know if I could handle that much happiness. Maybe that... No. Just kidding. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate. In other words, they should be proud of their children. Their children should be good examples. They should be a heritage of Mom and Dad, a blessing from God, a blessing from their parents.

It is a reward, and that's how we should look at children. So, hopefully God will send more people here with more children. I hope we get more people coming through these doors who have children, and lots of them. That would be exciting. I'd love it. I mean, I love children anyway, and I could put up with the extra noise that would be generated. We could all learn to do that, I'm sure. We could also learn to keep our children from making too much noise by correctly instructing them and disciplining them when necessary, because sometimes we do have to discipline our children so that they will learn to be quiet. It is possible to be quiet. Children should not rule the roost. Parents should bring their children into subjection. There's a balance here, of course, in all that I'm saying. In love, a parent needs to discipline their children and instruct their children and guide their children. And it takes a lot of work. It's not easy to be a parent.

It's a 24-7, 365 days a year job, day in and day out. It's a difficult task to look after children, but it is something that all parents need to do, and it should be of the utmost priority in their life. And it is important that children learn to respect others. And when they're at church, they need to learn to respect the fact that we are here to worship God, that we are here to serve God, that sermons should be listened to, and that people should be able to hear a sermon.

So it is important that we instruct our children. I remember my wife and I, we would take turns going to the back of the hall. If Jamie or Matt started to get fussy, noisy, if they started to be disruptive, we understood that we needed to remove them away from the bulk of the people so that the people could hear, so that the people wouldn't be distracted.

So when a child becomes distracting, then a child needs to be moved in the back. Now, I don't think a child is going to be that distracting in the back. A parent can listen to the sermon, stand in the back, listen to the sermon, and quiet their child, and then come and sit down. Once they've quieted them, and then if they get disruptive again, go back, do the same thing. Quiet them down, bring them back, put them on a blanket, teach them to be quiet. My wife used to do this when she did her Bible study each day. She would lay a blanket down, she would put the child on the blanket, and she would tell him to stay there, tell her to stay on the blanket.

And surprisingly, they learned to do that. No, it's amazing. Children will adapt. They will learn what they're taught. So if we're not doing these things, then we can't expect our children to learn them. So it is important that we take our responsibilities seriously as parents, and that we do instruct our children properly, because it's best for them in the long run anyway.

It's best for everyone in the short run and them in the long run. And it always has to be done in love. You know, we don't mistreat our children. You know, Christ never mistreated children. Christ encouraged them to come to Him. He blessed them. And we do that too, but Christ also told the woman that was caught in sin to go in sin no more. No, He didn't tell her it was okay to continue behaving badly. So our children should learn that bad behavior is not acceptable and work on changing bad behavior.

Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 11. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 11.

1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 11.

1 Corinthians chapter 12.

For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him?

Even so, no one knows the things of God, except the spirit of God.

Now babies are born with the spirit in man. That's what makes this different from animals.

When my wife and I were, we were in Porto Vallearcia for the feast, we went to the zoo after the feast. You've never been to a zoo until you've been to the Porto Vallearcia Zoo.

It was really an awesome zoo. It had lots and lots of animals, but the most exciting part is that you got to feed the animals there.

You get to feed them. Of course, you have to pay a price to feed the tiger cubs and the lion cubs. Actually, we didn't feed the lion cubs, but we did get to play with them.

I held a tiger cub on my lap, and it was about four or five months old. It was about 70 or 80 pounds. There was one lion cub and four tiger cubs, and they let my wife and I in the room with the trainer and three monkeys. The three monkeys were above us, and we got to play with the monkeys first. The point I was making is that a little child is not a monkey.

A little child has the spirit in man. A little child doesn't have to behave forever like a monkey.

They can from a short time as children, you know, that's okay. But eventually, you'll quickly see that a child is indeed a child, a human being, not a monkey, and they will start speaking.

Now, I've never heard... none of those monkeys were talking to us. I never heard any sentences or even words coming out of these monkeys. But children, when they get to be of, what, just several months old, or 10 or 12 or 11 months old, whatever it is, I don't know, they learn to start talking some earlier than others. You know, they start talking and jabbering, and eventually they're talking sentences. And then there are times when you wish they didn't talk so much. And then they ask lots of questions. So children are indeed far different from animals.

They have the spirit in man. That's what makes them different from animals.

And so we have to look at children as... these are potential sons of God. They're made in the image of God, made in the likeness of God. You know, that's what Genesis talks about. They were made in the likeness of God, in God's image. So they can learn the things of God. You know, they can learn spiritual things as they grow older. So it is important that we have that mindset from a very early age, and that we treat children with respect and certainly with great love.

So children are physically... children are physically are fleshly-minded, of course.

God says that this fleshly mind is enmity against God. You know, we all have experienced that.

We know that the carnal human mind, this carnal nature, is hostile to God and hostile to God's laws. And we are a rebellious, stiff-necked people. And children, you know, they are like that to some degree as well. Even though they have some very good attributes, they can also learn hostility.

They can learn to be rebellious. And they can become big, big trouble if we don't work with them early on in their lives, and that we don't instruct them and guide them.

So what made this fleshly mind hostile to God, we might ask? Did God make it that way?

Well, the fleshly mind is not evil of itself, but the natural mind of man is not evil of itself. The natural mind of man is lacking. The natural mind of man is simply lacking. It's incomplete. The spirit in man is not enough. The spirit of God is important. And our children need to learn to tap in to the spirit of God. And they can do that before they're baptized. They can be led by the spirit of God before they're baptized. They can begin to understand the things of God before they're baptized. But again, they are lacking the Holy Spirit. So what occurs before a person receives the mind of God, the spirit of God? What happens? Well, Satan is there.

Satan is the God of this world. Now, Satan, frankly, would like to destroy our children because he would like to destroy all of us. We are the children of God, and he would like to destroy every single one of us. And Satan's pervasive influence is ever-present. And it makes an impact on a person's mind beginning shortly after birth. And we can see that. We can sense that Satan is stirring things up in our children. Mr. Armstrong used to say that Satan broadcasts in moods and in attitudes that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. I don't think we have any idea what that really means. You know, I'm amazed by what goes through the air. You know, when we were in Puerto Vallarta, we had translations going on. We had earphones on. The minister was speaking in Spanish. Usually it was in English, but there were a few times when we had sermons in Spanish, and someone was speaking over here, and it was coming into my ear through the airwaves.

And we can turn on the radio and miraculously, voices come out. I don't really understand that.

I don't know how that works. Microwaves, all these kind of waves that are going on out there, it's beyond my puny mind. But I know it works. But I don't think we really understand the prince of the power of the air and how he broadcasts in moods and in attitudes. And he wants us to get in foul attitudes. He wants us to get in bad moods. He wants us to be negative. He wants us to be critical. He wants us to look down on one another. He wants us to become discouraged. He wants us to become depressed. That's Satan, because he's the God of this world. So we have to fight against that. We can't tune in to Satan's wavelength. Instead, we have to tune in to the Spirit of God.

So we constantly have to fight that. And our children have to fight that, and we have to help them fight that. We have to instruct them and guide them and teach them.

So Satan broadcasts in these attitudes of negativism and rebellion, and the carnal mind is often tuned in to Satan's broadcast. Now, some seem to be tuned in more strongly than others, and they seem to be even more strong-willed in the ways of Satan than others. And I don't know that we can explain that or understand why that is, but it just seems to be a reality.

So parents have to work even harder when that takes place.

Resetment against parents often sets in as children grow, and we see that oftentimes in the teen years. But you know, the key is to drive that out early while they're young, you know, to be diligent and faithful while they're young, and they won't have such a problem as they get older. Oftentimes, they won't have such a big problem.

Rebellion and hostility often mount as a child approaches puberty, but God has given us a way to help counteract Satan's influence.

In 1 Corinthians 7, it does say that our children are holy. Let's go there for a moment.

Our children are holy. They're sanctified, set apart. Even if there is just one believing parent, 1 Corinthians 7 verse 14, for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. So it underscores how important our example is as a worshipper of God.

As a believer, our children are sanctified and set apart because we believe and we have faith.

Sometimes it's the grandparents that have to take over. Sometimes the parents don't do their job, and the grandparents have to do as much as they're allowed to do to help the children and to teach them God's ways and to instruct them in the proper way.

God works in families. There's no doubt of that. God does work in families, and I know that God does sanctify and set apart our children. I'll just speak personally about my own children for a few minutes. Most of you know our children don't attend God's church today. But when our kids were home, they came to God's church, and they liked it.

They enjoyed coming. They were never rebellious or very seldom did we ever have to our kids were you know they they were taught an early age and they were they had a good relationship with us and still do our son mattes with us to this day he's come back again he was he fished this summer with our son-in-law salmon fishing he came back with a beard about this big and hair long and you know i don't like all that but you know he's a grown man he makes his decisions but one day i have faith that he will come back you know we we sang a song at the uh at the feast that was very very encouraging it was about the prodigal son and about the son coming back and we'll prepare the fatted calf and i look forward to preparing the fatted calf because i have faith my son is coming back and my daughter they're coming back you know i know that's going to happen so all i can say is i'm looking i'm looking forward to that time and i'll kill the fatted calf you can be sure you know we must never lose faith in god because god's always there you know god will never leave us and he'll never forsake us and sometimes our children can cause us some of the most the biggest pain the greatest pain that we go through his parents you know that's just a fact you know it happens but we have to put our faith in god and we have to trust in him and we have to know that all things will work together for good if we love god and i love god so i have faith that in god's time he will bring them back and i pray for them and my wife i know praise for them and she's been very very diligent in shedding tears and in praying for our kids so i know that god respects that and we've been blessed now both of us came to god at an early age our children grow up in the church and i i'm not bragging but they were pretty good examples as children i mean they were not perfect children by any means but when they grew older uh you know frankly the world and some of the turmoil in the church and other things it has sidetracked them but you know i have faith that god is going to bring them back and i think you should have faith for your children you know god does not forsake us let's go to deuteronomy chapter six um it does tell us to teach our children and that is a responsibility that we all have to teach our children the ways of god deuteronomy chapter six you know babies are subject to satan's influence early in life there's vanity there's jealousy there's lust there's greed there's selfishness there's rebellion and it creeps in pretty early and it begins to manifest itself and as their minds develop satan is there to guide and to influence them you can rest assured that satan is alive and he's doing his best to mess things up and god is not the author of confusion but satan is and this is a confusing world and sometimes children become confused and as they become they get to be adults they become confused and they make poor decisions they make wrong decisions that will harm them they will reap what they sow but again god is in charge thankfully god has given children parents and other friends and relatives to help counteract satan's influence now i think my wife and i are examples of of even though you do your very best we we tried to do our very best as parents and overall i think we did a decent job as parents you know and as god-fearing people and you know that our children didn't see hypocrisy and they don't hold that against us and there's no none of that resentment or anything going on like there but still it doesn't mean that everything is going to go the way we want it to you know that's just not that's not what god has promised us and we might as well understand that and realize that and never blame god when things go wrong because god is not the one that's behind those bad things every good gift comes from god you know and god richly blesses people and he loves us all and he cares for us and he's perfect now in deuteronomy chapter six and i remember when my daughter was born in fact he was i think it was her the first day she was only hours old i began teaching her the ten commandments in the hospital i know she didn't quite grasp it then but nevertheless i understood the scripture deuteronomy chapter six verse six and these words which i command you today shall be in your heart and you shall teach them diligently to your children and you should talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates in other words teach them diligently at all times you know i mean that's got to be a high high priority for you to teach them diligently and not allow other things to be priorities you know this has to be a priority obviously god is first in our lives but our children come up they're very high on the priority list and when we obey god and when we when we put god first then our children are very very high on the list because god tells us to take care of our children god tells us to diligently teach them in hebrews chapter 12 it does show that god does discipline his children and that we as parents also need to realize that we must discipline our children and if we don't discipline them then we are falling short of what god expects us to do now there are many different ways to discipline you can discuss those ways as parents and decide how you're going to discipline your children but you need to pick something that's going to be effective something that works hebrews chapter 12 verse 5 my son do not despise the chastening of the eternal nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him you know god is going to rebuke us because god loves us and he's going to rebuke us because we are not like jesus christ who is perfect christ was never rebuked by his father because there was no reason for that but there is reason why we would be we would need to be rebuked for whom the lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives you know even even then god allowed his son to be crucified didn't he because he had a greater purpose and jesus christ allowed himself to lay his life down because there was a greater purpose for that christ never deserved to die christ never sinned and the wages of sin is death christ was righteous but he died for us now verse seven if you endure chastening god deals with you as with sons for what son is there whom a father does not chasten but if you are without chastening of which all have become partakers then you are illegitimate and you are not sons furthermore we have had human fathers who corrected us and we paid them respect and children will pay respect to children to parents who discipline them parents will learn or children will learn to respect their parents and actually they will i think they will love them more if they will discipline them consistently and faithfully so we should be sure to correct our children properly again verse nine furthermore we have had human fathers who corrected us and we paid them respect shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the father of spirits and live all of us must learn to subject ourselves to someone who are we going to obey the bible says you're going to be you're going to learn to obey somebody but you can't obey two masters you have to choose who you're going to obey are you going to obey the god of this world or are you going to be the god of the universe you know satan is just the god of the earth for a short time god is the god of all things everything so who are you going to obey who are you going to yield yourself to obey as it says in romans chapter six verse 10 for they indeed are a few day for they indeed for a few days chastened us to seem best to them speaking of human parents but he for our prophet you know god always does it for our prophet and hopefully that's why parents are doing discipline for the profit of their children that we may be partakers of his holiness god wants us to learn to be holy even as he is holy now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present but painful nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it so we should we need to be trained by the discipline ourselves when god corrects us we need to change we need to repent we need to begin doing that which is right and good and stop doing that which is wrong and the reason why we had to be disciplined in the first place and that's the same thing we need to teach to our children we need to teach our children to make good decisions right choices choose life that you may live we need to teach our children to teach to make good decisions and they will be blessed for those good decisions on the other hand when they make wrong decisions or poor decisions they will pay a consequence for that it's important that we learn it's important that we teach our children to understand what consequential reasoning is what is consequential reasoning it's simple what are the what are the consequences of what you're about to do you know if if you make a good choice then you'll have some good consequences you'll have blessings if you make a poor choice there will be consequences for that as well so yes you are you're a free moral agent you can choose whatever you want to choose but if you choose to disobey me you won't like the consequences and if you choose to obey me then eventually you're going to like the consequences because eventually you're going to see that it was done for your good so we need to teach our children good consequential reasoning i remember at ambassador college one of the instructors said that a lot of college students haven't learned good consequential reasoning in fact there were a few not many but a few that got kicked out of college because they made bad decisions and they paid the consequences for those decisions so we all have to learn to think of the consequences before we do something do you really want to do that knowing what's going to happen and it says be sure your sins will find you out and that is a truism they will find you out one way or the other if you don't repent of them quickly then you're going to pay some some consequences for that you may still pay consequences for your sins regardless in ephesians chapter 6 it talks about children obeying their parents so the children that we do have here today listen up ephesians chapter 6 children are to obey their parents let's see that ephesians chapter 6 ephesians chapter 6 verse 1 children obey your parents in the lord for this is right honor your father and your mother which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth and you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath so evidently fathers have a tendency sometimes to provoke children to wrath father don't always treat their children in the way that they should you know they stir up anger within their children they treat them too harshly so fathers we need to to learn to act in love and not to act out of a temper that causes us to discipline but we should act out of love and love is patient love is kind remember first christians 13 you know that's the kind of love that we have to have when we discipline someone so do not provoke your children to wrath but bring them up in the training and in the admonition or the warning of the lord so we should continually teach our children i'm still trying to teach my son even now and sometimes he doesn't appreciate it too much but he still hears it from time to time i told him i'd like to that i'd like to go camping with him for a day or two before he he's going to korea now he's going to south korea in in about three weeks going to south korea to teach english as a second language and to hang out with a friend of his that he met here in the states but anyway uh i told him that we should go down for a couple days and camp out together and spend some time together he's all for that but he said you're gonna preach at me aren't you i said well no i'm gonna try my best not to preach but you know i'm not going to make any promises but i'm not going to say some things so anyway that's what my son has to deal with you know one thing that you may have heard is it is said that one of the first things that a person notices about any backward primitive country is that the children obey their parents and i think for the most part that's probably true in a lot of countries where it's primitive and backward and kids don't have a lot of things they don't have tv to watch they don't have ataris and well ataris are what 30 years old now they don't have mac books and ipads and iphones and everything else video games and everything under the sun back in those primitive countries parents do have obedient children for the most part there are certain principles we you know we need to be careful that we don't let the world crowd out the importance of teaching our children god's way and showing them god's way and showing them priorities and showing them that they need to obey i mean actually kids shouldn't have all these blessings if they're not willing to obey anyway i mean i wouldn't shower every gift upon them if they're not going to be obedient and i would withhold those gifts when they you know to help them learn certain lessons so anyway clearly parents do have a responsibility they should not neglect it just as children have a responsibility as we saw in Ephesians 4 they should not neglect it either there are many things that parents have to teach their children very early such as not playing in the street some basic things that you know you can't allow your child to play in the street unless they get run over by a truck or a car as a child grows older he takes upon himself more responsibility and parents have less responsibility we don't expect i don't expect my 28 year old son to be playing out in the street you know he's learned not to do that but when he was very small we had to teach him not to do that there's a time when you have to turn you know you have to just put them in god's hands and know that god will take care of them and that they're responsible for their own choices and and decisions now when they're little we all realize that children are little dynamos for the most part they have seemingly boundless energy they're like monster trucks or race cars at full throttle some are like runaway freight trains others runaway trucks racing through every intersection breaking every law parents have to try diligently to harness that energy ultimately it will become the child's responsibility to harness himself you know that's it gets down to that they have to learn to harness themselves so today i'm just trying to encourage all of us as parents to be diligent in teaching be diligent in teaching our children god's way and as a congregation take the children in learn to love them learn to care for them maybe get them little tiny gifts once in a while you know but you know be friends with them again love your children and teach them to look to you for what they need spend quality and quantity time with your children prepare them for life do fun things with them things that they enjoy doing encourage them to get involved with life encourage them to work hard to play hard don't just talk about how much noise they make or how rowdy they are but guide them and direct them and again set a proper example yourself one of godly balance the most confusing thing a parent can do is cause disrespect to cause disrespect and disobedience is to be hypocritical okay don't be hypocritical practice what you preach set a good example and when you blow it admit it to your children they see it anyway so you may as well admit it because they'll think more highly of you and they'll respect you more so we mustn't teach our children one thing and live another if you as a parent have done something wrong again you have to repent of it and you have to admit it don't make excuses for yourself then children learn to make excuses for themselves you know don't make excuses for yourself for bad behavior if you behave badly admit it again teaching involves discipline so discipline your children and teach them that discipline disobedience reaps a certain bad fruit when they disobey they reap bad fruit it reaps pain it reaps destruction and eventually it will will end up in death be consistent again in all that you do be consistent in your discipline but learn to have a sense of humor with your children and always remember that you can only do so much you can't live your life your child's life for them again they're responsible to god and eventually they will make their own decisions god is seeking godly offspring that's what malachi chapter 2 says we might go there for a moment as we draw near to the end of this sermon malachi chapter 2 verse 15 oh i'm in it i'm at the end of the new testament i need to go to the end of the old testament malachi chapter 2 verse 15 malachi 2 verse 15 but did he not make them one having a remnant of the spirit and why one because he seeks godly offspring talking about parents becoming one of husband and wife or to cling to each other they are to become one and they are just they are to have godly offspring they're to teach their children the way to go and do be diligent because god is seeking godly offspring and then one last final scripture in malachi 4 verse 4 remember the law of moses my servant which i commanded him in horrib for all israel with the statutes and the judgments behold i will send you elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the lord okay the great and dreadful day of the lord is not yet here uh at least not in his fullness you know we still have a lot yet to to to see to be done and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers lest i come and strike the earth with a curse so this is a promise behold i will send you elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the lord and he'll turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers otherwise god's going to strike the earth with a curse well we have i don't you know i don't know exactly how that's going to be fulfilled or if it has been fulfilled i'll admit that i don't i don't know for sure you know some people claim to know some people tell you dogmatically that they know but i don't know that any of us really know for sure at this point god will make it clear to us but certainly our hearts need to be turned to our children in this church your hearts need to be turned to your children and our children need to turn their hearts to their parents to their fathers then we'll become a church without spot or wrinkle when everyone learns to do that when we turn our hearts to one another when we learn to love our mates when we learn to love each other and love our children and love our parents then we'll become a solid church that god can bring lots more children into because it'll be a healthy place for them so brethren indeed children are a great blessing from god and god does greatly bless our children they are a great heritage from god god is a family god wants us to be in his family for all eternity he wants us to be a part of his kingdom and he says you must become like a little child you must receive the kingdom as a little child so let's all do our part to to develop what god desires in us what he wants he wants godly offspring that's what we read in malachi god desires godly offspring so let's truly be the children of god