Loving Our Children

Join me, if you would, in the book of Genesis, Genesis 1, starting in verse 26.

In Genesis 1 and verse 26, to lead us forward to the thoughts that I want to share with you today.

Then God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, and in the image of God, he created him male and female, and he created them. Interesting, as you look at this book of beginnings, when you go right to the beginning of the story, we recognize that we are made in God's image.

In form, that is, to this state, we might say that we are the spitting image of our Heavenly Father. There's old expression. You've heard it. You've said it, perhaps, about being the spitting image of your father and or your mother. Also, we're often aware of the comment of being a chip off the old block.

So from the very beginning, we recognize that God's creation and those that he, in that sense, gave birth to were in his spitting image, and in a sense, a chip off the old block. Let's go down another verse here.

It says, Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Beyond simply being the spitting image of the Creator, our Father above, we were also destined to have children, and that children would be a blessing that God would grant humanity, that birth, and life, and family would be a part of that which is inherent within the human framework.

With that thought, now let's move to the book of Psalms. And let's pick up the thought in Psalms 127. Notice in verse 3 and moving forward in Psalms 127, verse 3, Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is a reward. And like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. Beyond that thought, it's very interesting what the United Nations Declaration states. Words that are simple, but words that are well thought out about all of the children that are around this globe.

And it is simply this. Mankind owes to the child the best that it has to give. Our own Declaration of Independence states, all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Friends here in Redlands, yesterday in Connecticut, these biblical concepts and lofty principles were tragically violated. I know it's on the news, but allow me to share a few thoughts with you.

A disturbed individual killed his own mother and other adults, and children were being stalked. Shall we say, the little innocent ones that were ages 5 to 11. And I've noticed that on different headlines and in different newspapers, they have been called the Innocents. One brave custodian ran down the hall, warning that rampage was occurring in the building. Evil had come to roost. Teachers, some of you are teachers, teachers who love and give of themselves to our children every day, instinctively as teachers locked doors and hid children in closets and did whatever they could do, from what only one could imagine as they began to hear gunshots and noises and horror coming down the hallways.

Innocents, among the little innocents, would be forever gone. Twenty of them would be slaughtered by a troubled individual, further gone mad into an unretrievable dark spot in his heart and in his mind, where only evil and destruction dwell. Once the rampage was over, and perhaps some of you have seen the pictures thereof, the little ones, the innocents, would be herded in line, just like we were when we were kids, single-file Indian style.

I don't know if that's politically correct, but it's better than saying, I guess, single-style Native American style. I'm not sure, but we'll leave that be right now. But they would be herded single-file in line. The little ones would be herded into line to safe spots. They were, as best sheltered, told to close their eyes or to look forward to help them not take in any more memories than already heard or already seen of the little ones, of the innocents.

I believe that our President, Mr. Obama, summed it up well yesterday. And if you have not seen that four-minute clip on the news, I think it would be very worthwhile. He summed it up yesterday as a fellow citizen and as a father of two daughters. Yesterday, as a nation, we all lost family.

You see, these little ones will never be able to live out the words of what is mentioned in Scripture. Join me, if you would, in the book of Ecclesiastes. In the book of Ecclesiastes, a book of wisdom and, in a sense, Solomon's diary on life, we notice that there are times and seasons and activities that every individual is to experience. To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die.

You will note that those 20 young people that died yesterday will never move beyond verse 2 in what could have been their life. A time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal and a time to break down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.

A time to gain and a time to lose and a time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to sow and a time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate and a time of war and a time of peace. I was just kind of thinking as one that once was a boy, and I realize that this might be in a separate sense from what I'm thinking.

But I look at verse 5 and a time to cast away stones.

I've cast away many a stone, not necessarily from a farm field, but from a lake shore.

Any boy will do this as you go along and you find a... you all know this guy, you find a smooth, flat, round rock, just right, just light, just enough to fit like this. And you are with your buddy out there, you're going to see, because you always have to have a buddy to prove it to, you have to see how many times you can skip that rock on the pond before you. It's really bad when it just goes to thud, and some of you have been there with me.

I keep that memory in store because those that died yesterday were not going to have that opportunity, as well as the things that young ladies and girls do as they grow up.

And neither are their parents and or their fellow family members going to be able to experience the seasons of life with them.

This book of wisdom, called Ecclesiastes, shares another thought with us. Join us if you would, in Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 11.

Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 11.

It says there that I returned and I saw that under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill, but time and chance happen to them all.

For a man also does not know his time, like fish taken in a cruel net, like birds caught in a snare.

And so the sons of men are snared in an evil time.

As were 26 or 27 individuals yesterday, a cruel net caught in a snare and in an evil time when it falls suddenly upon them.

Now, yesterday was such a day.

The question is simply this for we that are in Redlands this morning.

Thus, what do we do, the living, learn, and take away from this incident that has come amongst some of our fellow countrymen?

Join me if you would in Luke 13, please. I'm really actually just going to use the Bible today to allow you to consider your actions and to answer the question as to what we will do.

In Luke 13, Jesus comments on other snares and other nets that fell some in his day and in his time.

And as to what the people then ought to do. In Luke 13 and verse 1, there were present at that season some who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

The Galileans were a hearty breed of characters and they were, do I dare say, somewhat fiery. And if somebody was going to instigate something or get in the midst of a battle, it was often the Galileans, those hill people.

And you think of the hill people in our country and perhaps there's something about the hills, I don't know, but it brings out the fight in an individual and to stand up for whatever you might believe in. But Pilate, the Roman curator, had mingled their blood with the sacrifices.

And Jesus answered and said to them, do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered such things?

I tell you no. But unless you repent, you will also likewise perish.

Or, he moves it to another example, or those eighteen on whom the tower in Selium fell and killed them.

Do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwell in Jerusalem?

He says, I tell you no. But unless you repent, you will also likewise perish.

What Jesus is basically telling you and me today in 2012 was simply this, that people that undergo these incidents of time and chance and tragedy and calamity and are perhaps dead amongst us, their time has come and gone.

But it is our time, our time, to take stock, to take store as to how we will live out the number of days yet ahead of us. It is our time to repent, to examine beyond the information or the momentary inspiration, the information that comes over the net about this tragedy or the momentary emotion, oh, I need to do something better that just simply fans out in the days ahead and melts and evaporates under the pressures of life.

But what he is saying here, repentance is transformation as to how we will live our lives before God and for others.

And it is that to you that I would address on this morn.

Consider, friends, here in Redlands, let's consider for a moment the world that you and I live in today. Since Eden, and I say since Eden because sometimes depending which generation you are on the ledger of life, we all kind of say, things aren't like they used to be.

Solomon was saying that 3,000 years ago, that there comes up a generation and you wonder if they're going to, you know, after everything that this generation has done, are they going to blow it or not? All the work that you have accomplished. So there's nothing new underneath the sun. People have been kind of belly-yaking about the next generation. You're not hearing this next generation down.

But the generation before you has been belly-yaking about the next generation for nearly 3,000 years.

Not just those that were in what we call the best generation, the depression of the war generation, and or we that are, to use that famous term, baby boomers, and or, and you go right down the line.

They say, what's this world coming to? Well, what this world is coming to, friends, has not really been too good since humanity rejected the ways of God at Eden.

And whether we want to recognize it or not, it's been a downward slide since Adam and Eve.

But since Eden, I want you to consider something. You might want to jot this down. Go home and contemplate it.

Since Eden, the world has not been God-friendly. It has not been people-friendly. It has not been family-friendly.

And most importantly, it has not been kid-friendly. And it is on the last realm that I'd like to center for a moment.

Today, in today's world, we often use this term of progressive, whether it be a party or whether it be a society in general.

We talk about progressive societies, normally those in what we call the West. But it is in those progressive societies that we find a kid-unfriendly world.

Allow me to elaborate, may I? Consider in the progressive societies in the Western world where children are aborted, where children are aborted, their personal developing existence is violently— No, we think of yesterday as a day of violence. Every day, a developing child, their developing existence is violently violated in what is specifically created and designed to be the safest spot in the world. And that's their mother's womb.

I submit to you that this is not a child-friendly world.

Today, in an increasingly secular and humanistic society, we find meanings to the words in 2 Timothy. Join me over there for a moment.

2 Timothy.

And let's pick up the thought in chapter 3.

Paul's prophecy.

But know this.

In other words, get a reality check that in the last days perilous times will come.

For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control and brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

And having a form of godliness in God we trust, but denying its power.

The Bible is very clear. It says from such people turn away.

We live in a world that more and more mirrors and echoes the words that are mentioned here in 2 Timothy 3.

I submit to you, friends, this is not a kid-friendly world. We live in a world of wonder and amazement. We live in a world of techno-gadgetry.

We find children increasingly isolated into a world of computer wizardry that increasingly is fragmenting society.

Is there wonder in what the computer world can accomplish and bring? Absolutely.

And this is not an anti-technology or anti-computer message.

It is an instrument, but for every instrument it can either be a tool and or it can be a weapon.

It can be what we might call a boon and or it can be a detriment.

But nonetheless, recognizing the tools that are normally put into humanity's hands, we must always weigh that and ask ourselves, are we a better society today?

Fragment it with 500 channels and with everybody walking around with a little rectangular box in their hands.

I'm always amazed when I travel and go through airports and sit on airplanes.

I see people not talking, but they're just doing this.

It looks almost like a form of religious symbol. It's like this. They're going like this.

It's almost as if they're making the sign of the cross.

See, one day, ten thousand years from now, archaeologists will say, this must have been some form of religious edifice because everybody seems to have carried one around with them.

Now, I say that with a smile, but nonetheless, you do realize the fragmentation of society.

Recognizing that human beings are distracted enough without too many more gizmos to separate people from the relationships that God intended.

Allow me to take you a step further. May I?

Today, in America, where God is minute in our coins and enshrined in our key founding document, in God we trust our Heavenly Father as the forefathers define Him as the beneficent disposer of all events is increasingly marginalized in the public square.

Increasingly, families are spread thin and divided due to a, economy, and the need simply to survive, and the culture that no longer celebrates the intact family.

The family structure of living with your own father and your own mother has been disrupted for years.

I'm not stating that to anybody that is in that case here. I'm making a comment on society as a whole, one that has even impacted generations within the Weber family.

Thus, where do we come in?

Thus, where do you and I come in, and how do we prepare for the future now?

If I can make a comment, you might want to jot this down. As students, it's a very simple word to spell.

It's called N-O-W because we are only responsible, you and I, as grandparents, and parents, and uncles, and aunts, and family.

We are only responsible for now. The past has gone by. The future has not yet come.

What are we going to do today as to the events that have come into our life?

Isaiah 40, famous verse, Isaiah 40, verse 1, says, Comfort you, yes, comfort you, my people.

And it is with that end in mind that I'd like to share a few thoughts with you.

First of all, I'd like to talk to you about that there is a better world that is coming.

And may I say that it is kid-friendly at that.

I'd like to comment on the one that introduces us to that world first. Join me if you would in Mark 10.

In Mark 10, and let's pick up the thought, if we could, in the Gospel of Mark, beginning in verse 13.

Mark 10.

In verse 13, Then they brought little children to him, that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

Don't you know that you have a business meeting?

Don't you know that you're important?

Don't you know that you have to stay on schedule?

Don't you know that you have to answer your cell phone?

Don't you know that you have to look into your computer?

No. That's not what happened.

But when Jesus saw it, he was greatly displeased and said to them, Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them.

For of such is the kingdom of God.

Jesus loved the little innocence.

And not only that, but he makes another statement. Surely I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, one of these innocence, if you do not receive it innocently, will by no means enter it.

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

This is the Jesus. This is the head of your life.

This is the head of our church that introduces and welcomes us to a kid-friendly world in the future.

Join me, if you would, in Isaiah 65.

In Isaiah 65, and let's pick up the thought in verse 17.

Isaiah is oftentimes called the prophet with the new mind, because so often his words are introduced by the word new.

But for a moment, let's look at the world that God is bringing by his grace, and by his design, and in his time. Let's just look at his description of that world in Isaiah 65, verse 17. And counter that, if we may please, thinking of yesterday, and thinking of the other days that have been and or will come when we hear of these tragic events, whether it's visited upon children in a theater, or children in a school, or university college students, or even in that sense when over in Iraq or over in Afghanistan, there has been friendly fire on a village that was supporting our efforts, and unfortunately, the innocence died.

And unfortunately, oftentimes, because people will use them and use families as a human shield. And they don't care. They will take someone else's all for their cause. But this is the world that God introduces to, For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind, but be glad, rejoice forever in what I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy. There was no joy yesterday in the United States of America, and I would suggest that there was little joy around the world. All you have to do is have little ones in your family, whether as a parent or a grandparent, uncle or aunt.

And we can all relate. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people. The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. Some of the pictures I saw yesterday in the newspaper or on the television or the net, just the, what do you dare say, just the anguish.

Both in men and in women, and the way that they grieve. No more shall an infant, one of the little innocent ones, no more shall an infant from there live but a few days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days. For the child shall die one hundred years old, full life, whether it is numerical or whether it is an expression of the fullness of life. The seasons of life that are mentioned in Ecclesiastes 3 will be granted to every child, every child. Everyone that is made in the spitting image of God will have an opportunity to come full term through this life. They shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build in another inhabit, they shall not plant in another eat. For as the days of a tree so shall be the days of my people. You know, my dad lives over there at the top of San Jacinto and he lives under that ancient bed of cottonwood trees. Some of you that have been over there and know it. Those trees are hundreds of years old. Or if you've ever been up on the plateau over there by Murietta and gotten into that patch of oak that's up there. Some of those trees just are ancient. God is saying that people that are made in my image, my likeness, whom I claim, they're going to live length of days just like that tree. And so shall be the days of my people and my elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Parents are actually going to be able to see their children grow up because that is the work of our hands as family members and parents. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble.

Notice, nor bring forth children for trouble. For they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord in their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, verse 24, that before they call I will answer. And while they are speaking I will hear, The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, And dust shall be the serpent's food, and they shall not hurt nor destroy in all of my holy mountain, says the eternal. Today we have to begin with that end in mind. Join me, if you would, in Zechariah 8. Zechariah 8. Again, speaking of the wonderful world tomorrow, and the kid-friendly world that God is going to develop. Zechariah 8, verse 3.

Thus says the eternal, I will return to Zion, speaking of Jerusalem, which is a type of all. Jerusalem is the model, is a type of what God wants to do for all, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth, the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus says the eternal of hosts. This is really neat, friends. Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem. Each one with his staff in his hand because of great age.

Then, verse 5. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the Lord of hosts. It is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days. Will it also be marvelous in my eyes, says the eternal of hosts. I think he's saying that, in a sense, rhetorically. It says that they're going to play in the streets. You won't have to always be looking out your door wondering. All of us have had that experience at one time or another where we're in a Walmart, where we're in some large block store.

And all of a sudden, Johnny or Janie are not by our side. They've been out of sight for 15 seconds, and there's lots and lots and lots of people. You think just here during this worldly holiday season, how the stores are jammed, and how you just turn for a second and you get involved in the conversation. You know that you have to watch your child, but all of a sudden, and we've all been through it before. I've been through it. I say, Susan, you go this way, I'm going to go that way. And all of a sudden, you're out there. You're looking. You want to have your arms around that child because of the world that we live in.

And it is not kid-friendly. We begin with this end in mind. We do not just teach it. We just do not preach it. We internalize it. We embrace it, and we realize that this is our existence to be a part of this world, to be a part of the solution. And it is coming. And it's not just on a stained glass window somewhere, but it's in our hearts, it's our minds, it's our belief that does not divorce us from our realities today, as parents.

Because we must live that wonderful world tomorrow, today, and live by the principles of God of family and child-wearing. But we have that end in mind for everybody. How does that end come about? Join me in Isaiah 11. In Isaiah 11 and verse 9, They shall not hurt nor destroy in all of my holy mountain. That is God's statement. But for every effect there is a cause. And it comes at the end of the verse, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

God's name will not only be in an old monument in a public square, or just simply minted on our coins, and or mentioned in our founding documents, like the Declaration of Independence, but it is going to be widespread. Extant everywhere! The world is going to be flooded, flooded with the truth of God, and the doorway on earth, Jesus Christ, who was so much kid-friendly, and said, I have come that they might have life, John 10 verse 10, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Thus, with all of this stated, this is tomorrow. What about today? We have 26 to 27 people that died tragically and violently, and their life is now over. I have given many a memorial service or funeral service over the years, and you here in Redlands have been a part of many of those with me. At times, I have often said that we for now cannot bring the dead back with us, but we can be with them in the kingdom of God, in that wonderful world tomorrow.

And you and I, while we cannot immediately transfer ourselves to Connecticut and embrace these people other than to pray for them, we can embrace the God who is bringing this wonderful world tomorrow, and we can recognize that today we are in training. We are in training to be first responders. Think of that.

You and I in the wonderful world tomorrow, as a kingdom of priests, are going to be first responders under Jesus Christ to train and give people hope. Yesterday, for many, even those of a religious fabric, hope was, for the moment at least, socked out of them. They took it in the gut. You and I are going to be able to give hope to the hopeless.

We are to live that wonderful world tomorrow today. What I want to share with you is simply this. The tension between the future that I shared with you, God's preferred future for the world, and our lives today, and what we are learning, and what we are practicing, and what we are experiencing, must be like a taught wire, spiritually seamless in nature. We are to live that kingdom of God today in our lives.

Thirty to thirty-five years ago, Mr. Armstrong mentioned that it is now the time that we are to be in training. We're in school. We're in class. We are in a learning process, learning about God, learning about ourselves, and learning how we can help our fellow man in the future. We know that. You know that. That's why you're here today. That's why you observe the Seventh-day Sabbath. That's why you're here to hear the words of God out of the Scriptures. We all know that, but life comes in between all of this and all of us, and especially the innocents, our kids.

We say we need to spend more time with them. We need to spend more time with our family. Men and wives say, well, we need to spend more time together, but everything drags us from one another. Everything gets in the middle.

We say we need to spend more time with Johnny or Janie. But again, the demands of life, that jungle that is out there that we go into every day, has demands on us. But let's come back a moment and consider something. James 4 and verse 13. James 4. I read this last week in Cincinnati, and I call it the Scarlett O'Hara verse for those of you that have ever watched Gone with the Wind. Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow. Remember Scarlett and Gone with the Wind? Oh, oh, oh, oh, what'll I do? And oh, I don't know what to do.

I want him. I want Rhett back. Oh, I don't know. I'm frightened here. But, but, well, I can't right now, and he sits on the steps. Well, well, after all, there's always tomorrow. And, you know, the music comes on, the great theme, and the clouds are parting, and it sounds like there's going to be a sequel. Sometimes, though, life does not offer us a sequel. And it is not about tomorrow, but it is for today, and why this verse, come now, you who say, today or tomorrow. We're going to do this, or we're going to go into this city, spend a year there buying, selling, make a profit.

Whereas you do not know what you will be doing tomorrow, for what is your life? It's even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. As Susan and I were coming up the 215 up towards Moreno Valley, where that big M is, and the big rocky mountain, and they were just, I pointed out to her, because I just thought of this verse, that's why I was pointing, said, look at those thin little wisp, wisp. Oh, I had to say wisp, because they were really wispy. With clouds. It was like there was nothing to them, but there was something to them.

It says, notice, it's like a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, and like to what Jesus said to that crowd that got around and worrying about the Galileans and those that the Tower of Selium fell on, instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live, and do this or that. And may I suggest today, but now you boast in your arrogance as if we all know what's going to happen tomorrow.

All such boasting is evil. Therefore to him who knows to do good and does it not, to him it is a sin. Two weekends ago, we were up in Bakersfield. We'd spent a long day when we go to Bakersfield, normally like about a 12 to 13 hour day. I'm not saying that to complain. We love... that's another one of our homes. We only go up there about every three months.

But after a long day, about 7.20, we're cruising down the Rosedale Highway, otherwise known as the 58. You know where it is. We're coming up against the 99. As we say, talking with the wife, enjoying Susie. It's been a great day up in Bakersfield. A lot of good things were accomplished. We're in the dark. It's kind of raining.

Of course, everybody is out with their, what I call, their holiday stare. Oh, it's so wonderful! You know, they're just... they don't know where they're going, but they know it's the holidays, and their minds are busy. I'm talking to Susan. We're maybe going 15 or 20 miles, because it's kind of raining up there, stopping to go to traffic.

All of a sudden, boom, boom, boom! And behind us, two vehicles back, is like this large super truck. That baby was big. That bumps into a large SUV. Big two. That finally bumps into our little cute baby. Teal-colored Toyota Corolla.

Four-cylinder. Boom. Didn't plan it. Didn't say, well, it's 7.23 this evening. We're going to have an accident. Get ready. Seat belts on, airbags deployed, and have your cell phone ready to call 411. Boom, boom, boom! What is amazing in that, the big, big truck, two vehicles back, totaled, towed away.

The SUV, big, behind us, totaled, taken away. The little Toyota, this could be a good ad for Toyotas. The little Toyota, but you see, we've got God's insurance program. It's a great warranty. Did we have damage? Yes, and it's going to have to yet be fixed because I was gone for eight days. But you know what? Sometimes God allows a few wounds on our bodies or on our cars just to remind us how good He has been to us. And then, after that bump, we got to drive another three and a half hours home. But you know what? We got to drive home. But, but, that was God's will and perfection for us that day. I don't know about tomorrow. He may have other plans for Susan and I tomorrow. I do not know. He was graceful then. That's all I need to know. But I do not know what His plans for me are the next day. So, what I'm saying is simply this. We must have, and to use a term that Dr. Martin Luther King used to use in one of his great speeches, is simply this. Let's jot this down. We must have the urgency of now. The urgency of now to act on these relationships that are set before us. Join me, if you would, in Proverbs 22 and verse 6. In Proverbs 22 and verse 6.

This is a verse that perhaps many of us know, but it says, Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

He will not. To train up a child. Training is not only a must, but it takes time. It takes sacrifice. It takes energy. And it's not just simply about rules and procedures and getting out a book, but it's about love. It's about being there. It's not just simply about quantity of time, but quality of time.

In relating with, do I dare say, the innocence, the little ones. Now, you know and I know that they can get a little bit more challenging as they get older. And the innocence starts getting as old and as big as you are. Not as old, but as big.

We still need to be there. Quantity of time. Quality of time. Because we don't know what tomorrow is going to be.

Because Scripture compares life to a vapor. Let's consider this as we begin to conclude. Life is sacred. And that's why I started with those Scriptures right out of the Bible today. Life is sacred because God made it. It's inherent in Him alone. It is He that is to give and to take away. Not to have others violate it. And or ourselves violate the life that God has given us. Spiritual life. Think about this for a moment. Spiritual life. Not only physical life has been granted to each of us now. To train now in sacred service to become that kingdom of priest forever. To assist Jesus Christ in His future plans for others. Beyond that, as persons and as a collective people, I want you to think about this for a moment. Beyond that, as persons and as a collective people, as a church, we reach out and we preach a gospel that describes a God of salvation. Beyond the grave. Beyond the grave. Though sometimes in our Christian community we can become, shall we say, so familiarized with it that the shock value wears off. Life! Beyond the grave. To add hope to hopelessness. To add togetherness to separation. We speak to a Father above who also lost a perfect innocent. His Son. Who never, ever did anything. The good boy. The good son. The beloved son. You think about this in relationship to what these parents are going through, which our minds and our hearts can't even begin to touch. And to recognize that our Heavenly Father in that same stead, lost as it were, His Son, had His Son violated, crucified, spat upon by darkness, of which all of us have a part. With all of that in mind, we speak, we live, we breathe, we exist, as if that better world has come today. Join me if you would in Revelation 21. In Revelation 21, again, God describes this world, and we must begin with this end in mind every day of our life. Revelation 20, verse 3, And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them, and be their God. He's going to be there as the great protector. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Very personal, very intimate, as if God Himself is in the tear wiping away business. And may I say, I do believe that He is. There shall be no more death, no sorrow, no crying. There's going to be no more pain, physical and or emotional. My family, early on, knows what it's like to lose a son. And some of you do, have lost children. It's gut-wrenching. It's gut-wrenching on the father. It's gut-wrenching on the mother. It's also gut-wrenching on the little brothers. You're never quite the same. There is always a hole that is missing. There shall be no more pain, physical or emotional, for the former things that passed away. And then He sat on that throne and said, Behold, I will make all things new. And He said to me, Right, for these words are true and faithful. Thus, as you and I learned from yesterday, and from this understanding of the urgency of now, today, what do we do? We don't put off tomorrow what we can do today. We love our children. Innocence, younger, and even if they're middle age or older. Love our children and our grandchildren, our nieces and our nephews. Love them a little deeper. Hug a little tighter. And share your love even more. We only have today, and we only have one another. Let us be about our Father's business. As Mr. Richardson comes up, let's take about a 10-minute break, get some beverage, use the little room if need be, and then come back. I'd like to just share about 15 minutes about some of the things that have been happening in Cincinnati, and then I'll go and you can continue the fellowship. Thank you very much.