Parenting God's Way

Well, ever since the last council meeting, I've been thinking about the future of the Church and what we can do, how we can be more effective. So I gave a sermon on the future of the Church, which focused a lot on youth. Then I gave one on accountability for young and old, and I'm continuing with following up with that. And today's sermon is titled, Parenting God's Way. Now, this will apply to everybody, regardless of whether or not you are a parent, and regardless of what age you are, because I think, and I know that we will have some insights here that we can all benefit from.

At the first part, there will not be a lot of Scriptures. Generally, we have people. If people do take notes, many of them don't take any notes until a Scripture is called out to turn to such-and-such Scripture. But as I have noted many times, that really, in taking notes, you know you have those Scriptures in the Bible, but the ideas, thoughts, things that you can follow up on, and you can explore.

And as we have also noted in recent times, with the Internet, you have basically all of the libraries in the world. I know you don't have all of them, but essentially, some of the great libraries of the world and various anisondry kind of materials that you can go to and increase your foundational knowledge and database in so many different areas. Human beings are physical. They have what is called a psyche, a mind-bent. Some call it psychological.

Of course, you have your mental faculties, intelligence. We are social and mental beings, social and emotional beings, who are created to become spirit beings. So we're made up of physical and then mental. What does the word mental mean? It has to do with the functions of the mind and exactly how thought processes proceed. Scientists of various sorts, physiologists, psychologists, have tried to map that out and have done it to some degree, but to some degree it's still in the abstract.

We know that we are social beings. Most people don't like to live their lives alone, and we surely know that we are emotional beings. But life cannot be compartmentalized into just any one of these various dimensions of life. You can't just be a physical being, you can't just be a social being, to be a whole person and be the kind of person that God wants us to be.

Life is a package, I call it, that's made up of all of these dimensions that we listed there. Physical, psychological, mental, social, emotional. Life is what the Germans call gestalt, it's the whole. Life is greater than the sum of its parts. Have you ever thought about that, that life is greater than the sum of its parts? We can talk about the physical, we can talk about the psychological, we can talk about the mental, the social, the emotional, and that we're to become spiritual beings. But there's something about life and people that seems to be go beyond that, so life is greater than the sum of its parts.

There's something about people in life that is difficult to put into words. Who knows what goes on in a person's mind for him or her to choose the path that he or she chooses. What is it? What does it turn on? Children are sensitive, warm, pliable beings, human beings in need of love, affection, guidance, direction, and discipline. In fact, Jesus admonished each one of us to become converted and humble ourselves and become, as little children, in order to enter into the kingdom of God. Parents are supposed to nurture a child, so he or she can come or go from a state of dependence to a state of independence from immaturity to maturity.

And God the Father and Jesus Christ are doing the same with us, spiritually, from babes in Christ, from immature, spiritually, to being those who are able to ingest strong meat and strong doctrine, spiritually, mature. The desire of God in Christ is to bring us from spiritually begotten children to spirit-born sons and daughters in the family and kingdom of God. For the first few years of our lives, we are almost totally, completely at the mercy of our parents. I put the qualifier in there almost. Pretty much, we are totally dependent upon our parents, especially the first few years of life. And just think about the first hours of life, the first days of life and weeks, how helpless we really are.

And if it were not for what our parents would do for us, there's no way we would make it. And of course, if you want to use the spiritual analogy then, as babes in Christ, we are in desperate need of God in Christ all the time. And of course, all of us are, regardless of their spiritual maturity. This, as some say, a bit humorous, as it seems that as time goes on and our children become teenagers, we become totally at their mercy.

Like the old song, work my fingers to the bone and what do I get? Bony fingers. So everybody's going to have a struggle from going from this stage of infancy into pre-teen and puberty and into teenage. Hardly anyone goes through that without a lot of struggles.

But if we properly fulfill our role during the first few years of life, the teen and adult years will be far less traumatic. Now, when we say things like this, we're speaking in terms of the laws of probability and the laws based on Scripture, but we'll also note some of the exceptions as well. But if you do your job and fulfill the role that the Bible reveals to us, you will have fewer heartaches, bitter disappointments, fewer sleepless nights, less pain and agony, worry and grief. As I said, that's the law of probability based on us doing the right thing, that is, parents.

However we know, that doing everything right does not guarantee success in parenting. Does that mean that we give up? That one child goes one way and another child goes the other way? The parents of Adam and Eve were perfect. Adam and Eve were placed in a perfect environment with perfect teaching, yet they chose the way of sin and death by disobeying their maker. They chose the wrong tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They chose to decide which way they were going to go apart from God. Instead of looking to God for the knowledge of good and evil, they looked to themselves.

They took on to themselves the prerogative of deciding good and evil. As I noted earlier, there's something about life that defies an easy explanation. Why would they go in the direction of sin and death with perfect teaching and a perfect environment? Of course, behavioral psychologists have said, you give a child a perfect environment and you'll have perfect children. The B.F. Skinner theory of behaviorism.

And of course, environment is very important. Adam and Eve's first two sons, keen and able, illustrates the point. Children can have the same parents, the same basic instruction, and yet choose vastly different paths. Now, we don't know for sure what the instruction was to keen and able, how much difference there was, and who knows how differently keen and able process the instruction they received from their parents. We all process things differently. So, let's note Genesis 4. Let's turn there, please. Genesis 4, Adam and Eve have been dismissed from the garden. They're sent out to till the earth from which they came, and they'll earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. You look at chapter 4 and verse 1, and Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived, and bear keen, and said, that is, she said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. Now, what does that exactly mean? I don't think we know for sure what it exactly means, but it seems to indicate that Eve thought that the birth of Cain was, to some degree, a fulfillment of the promise of a Redeemer in Genesis 3.15. So, you can turn there, and you note Genesis 3.15, that even though God cast Adam and Eve out of the garden, he promised that the day would come in which he, God, would send a Redeemer, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, and it shall bruise your head.

Jesus Christ is going to put Satan the devil away, and then you shall bruise his heel. Satan the devil inspired the crucifixion of Jesus Christ from the time he was born to the time he was killed.

Satan the devil tried to destroy the plan of salvation and kill Jesus Christ. He thought by killing him, that would, I guess, thwart prophecy and disrupt the plan of salvation, even when after Jesus Christ was born. You know, the wise men, we call them the wise men, came to visit, and Herod inquired of them, and they said, who is this king? And he, as a result of that, said that all the children from two years of age and under should be put to death. Now, can you imagine, sometimes those kind of things just fly over our heads, can you imagine you have a child that's under two years of age?

Herod's men come, and they knock on your door, and they take your baby, and they put it to death.

Some of the awful, horrendous things that have been done under the inspiration of Satan the devil to thwart God's plan of salvation. And to this day, Satan is continuing to try to do the same thing.

Now, back to this, Genesis 4.1. Cain seems to have had a Messiah complex in that he thought he was perfect and that by the right of birth, he was superior to his brother Abel. We don't know for sure that that was exactly what he thought, but we have some evidence. When Cain brought an offering to God, he brought a thank offering. When Abel brought an offering to God, he brought a sin offering.

So, a thank offering indicates that he didn't realize or confess that he was a sinner and in need of a Redeemer. On the other hand, Abel brought a sin offering. Abel realized that he was a sinner and in need of redemption, whereas Cain perhaps thought he was the Redeemer.

So, you see how differently here are two brothers growing up in the same household as it were that go in vastly different ways. We could cite the example of Jacob and Esau, the example of the prodigal son and the one who stayed home. It would seem that the one, the prodigal son who wasted his inheritance was the most evil, but when the prodigal son came home, the one that stayed home was so jealous that he could hardly stand it. And so, his heart was revealed that his heart was not right before God. So, you can have the form. You can appear to be and yet not be right with God and your fellow humans. God emphatically instructs us to train up a child in the way it should go. That's Proverbs 22.6. Train up a child in the way he should go when he is old, he will not depart from it.

But what does that mean? Train up a child in the way he should go when he's old, he will not depart from it. Mainly, we have been emphasizing the right way as the content. And, of course, the content of what you teach is very important. But a child generally cannot read until they are five or six years old. Some are reading at three or four. I had a great-grandson that nobody taught him to read at the age of three. He was reading. But how he did it, I don't know. But most children can read by the time they are five or six, and they can begin to learn some content.

The right way has two great dimensions. One is content, and the second is method.

The method by which the parents are parenting. The method. Especially those in the early years, one, two, three, four years old. The method. Of course, the method continues to be very important all the way through. Children, and for that matter, all of us learned method way before we do content. And we also remember method far more readily than we do content.

We experience method both physically and emotionally. We experience method both physically and emotionally before we learn content.

You spank a child. It involves the physical and the emotional. You correct a child at a young age. You have both the physical and the emotional involved. Now, the physical may be in the form of positive reinforcement, or it may be in the form of verbal or physical abuse, but there is the method. How are you going to deal with your children?

So, we first learned the method. The method through which we were taught before we learned content. I remember when I was a boy three or four years old, we had the old ice box.

We called them refrigerators, mainly ice boxes, and the ice man would come by, I don't know, every other day or two or three times a week, and in the top part, insulated, you put the big block of ice. Then, under that, generally, would be milk and butter and those things that were perishable. So, when I was about three and a half or four, I remembered I had put something on top of the refrigerator that I wanted to look at, and I had to get in a chair to get up there to get it. So, even in the chair, I couldn't quite reach it, so I had the brilliant idea, if I open the refrigerator door, then move back and get leverage and pull on that door. I can get there. But when I pulled on the door, I turned the whole thing over and two or three big pans of milk spilled out. Now, what would you do if you were a parent? Well, my mother dealt with me very patiently. There was no great yelling, screaming, or spanking with it. I was scared to death, of course, just from the fall and the whole calamity of it. You can just imagine what that was like. There are many such, that's just a, you might call a tried example of so many things that a child would go through. And then there's the the method of what you're going to do, how you deal with that. How are you going to deal with it physically? How are you going to deal with it emotionally? What lessons can you teach? The old saying, do what I say and not what I do, won't get it. Now, we can draw from our own experience and appeal to children, oh please don't make the same mistakes that I made. I remember that I did such and such, and it resulted in bad outcomes. Of course, you can appeal to that, and I believe that you should, but at the same time that doesn't mean that they're going to listen. It seems that every person almost that has ever lived has to learn the hard way.

However, immature people tend to give way to their emotions as opposed to their intellect. Deep down, they know better, but oftentimes emotions overcome them. If a child has been emotionally wounded by a parent's method of dealing with them, they are more apt to ignore the content. Once again, if a child has been emotionally wounded by the way the parent has dealt with them, they are less likely to learn the content. Because I don't care what you say, look what you've done. Look what you've done to me. Look how you have made me feel.

And generations of experience tell us that children are far, far more interested in what you do as opposed to what you say. It's just a universal truism.

There's a poem that is written by Dorothy Law Nolte. I'll read a few lines here. You can find this on the internet. I didn't see any copyright, but I'm not going to read the whole thing, but you get an idea illustrating what I just talked about. If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn. If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight. If a child lives with fear, he learns to be apprehensive. If a child lives with pity, he learns to feel sorry for himself. If a child lives with a riddle of fuel, he learns to be shy. And it goes on listening about 10 other themes. Once again, it's Dorothy Law Nolte, children learn what they live.

Actions speak louder than words is so very true with children. One of the major problems in American society today is child abuse. The newspapers are constantly filled with incredible, stories about inhumane treatment of children by parents. But on the other end, oftentimes you see children killing parents and parents killing children. Parents killing children.

The incredible fact about this is that child abusers grow up in homes where they themselves were abused.

The methodology is repeated over and over generation after generation. You would think that the pain, the agony, the misery they suffered would cause them to determine that they would never replicate that methodology with their children. They would not perpetuate it.

But almost invariably, parents parent in the same way they were parented. The method.

The abuse become the abusers. Alcoholism is another case in point. The majority of alcoholics come from homes where one of the parents is an alcoholic. You would think that the offspring of such parents would determine in their hearts and minds that they would not repeat the mistakes of their parents. But they do. This thing of method has become so ingrained.

Of course, in educational institutions, to a large degree, and in the church, we can mainly teach content. We can't do a lot with method except to emphasize it to the parent, to the teacher. But it's that daily living within the home structure that is so important.

Recent studies confirm the fact that if one or both parents smoke, drink, or take drugs, the children are far more apt to do the same. And the mother has a greater influence there than the father. If the aberrant behavior is present by one or more parent, the probability is great that it will be with the children.

Now I want to emphasize more about method. What should the method be? Should the method be permissive?

Or should the method be stripped? Or should the method be somewhere in between?

I'm going to offer this. None of these. The principal method should be that of love. Your actions should be based on love.

All of God's actions are based on truth and love. God is love. It says that twice, 1 John 4.8, 1 John 4.16. That is His state of being. So by that, the method of love, I mean everything that love includes. Everything that love includes, which we're going to explore some of that.

Love is the greatest motivating force in the universe. As I said, God's actions stem from truth and love. And if we want to move children from a dependent state to an independent state, the method should be love tempered with faith and wisdom. Love tempered with faith and wisdom. The most powerful dimension of love is deeply seated emotion. By the very fact that a mother carries a fetus for nine months in her own body before it's born, in and of itself, by nature, creates an affection if natural affection has not been destroyed.

And of course, you can read the stories of the people, the tragic stories of the people who have regretted having an abortion. In fact, the person that started the Roe versus Wade situation of legalizing abortion in the United States, the changed her mind on the situation is written quite extensively on it.

So once again, the most powerful dimension of love is deeply seated in emotion. But true love, the kind of love that is defined and described in the Bible, has many, many dimensions and components. It is not just some feeling that we have inside you, though there is this powerful feeling of emotion inside. But true love is far more than just that.

It has to do with what you do to meet the dependent needs of those who are emotionally dependent upon you, and especially your children.

Abiding spiritual love is an outcome of faith and hope. As I said, we're going to explore to some degree this dimension and method of parenting through love. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 13. 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 13.

1 Corinthians 13 describes love in its various dimensions. Verse 3 verses we emphasize I believe last time I spoke of becoming as God is. Verse 13, now abides faith, hope, charity, agape, love. These three, but the greatest of these, is agape of love. That is the outcome that is desired. Now look at 1 Timothy 1 and verse 6.

1 Timothy 1 and verse 6, and we'll see here that that's what the Scripture says, that the desired outcome is love. The desired outcome of faith and hope, the desired outcome of the law, of the rules, is love. 1 Timothy 1, I think I said verse 6, but I want 5. 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 5. Now the end, the telos in Greek, t-e-l-o-s, meaning the result or outcome of the commandment, is charity. In other words, if you live by the commandments, the outcome will be love. For this is the love of God, that we should keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. For this is the love of God, that we should keep his commandments. Verse 5, we'll probably read it again. Now the end of the commandment, the outcome, the result of the commandment is love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unthemed. No pretense, not trying to get anything. In 1 John chapter 3 and verse 19, actually I think it's 18, I think the notes are wrong, 1 John 3, 18, we see the intellectual, emotional side of love inextricably linked to the action side of love. Once again, the intellectual, emotional side, this feeling that you have in your mind, you say, I love him, I love her, and you feel it emotionally. But if that's all there is, can you say you really love them?

Let's say here's a parent, our parents, that take care of their children as best they can until they are married and out of the home. And then 30, 40 years later, the parents are in desperate need, as most all of us will come to, and where are the children? Where are the children? All they will say, I love my parents dearly.

But once again, the actions speak louder than words. So in 1 John 3 and verse 18, we see this addressed in the Scripture of what God inspired the apostle John to write. 1 John 3 verse 18, My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue. See, that's just all there is to it, but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. So in deed and in truth, the apostle James writes in James 2 17, that faith without works is dead, so in like manner love without action is dead. And once again, you have thoughts that come to you during the time of just look at that. Love without action is dead. Now you look at Hebrews 12 6, you immediately think of this. I think I have it in the notes later on. In Hebrews 12 6, this illustrates this point that I'm trying to make. For whom the Lord knows he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives.

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons. For what son is he whom the father chastens not? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers in need of it, then are you illegitimate and not sons? So you have to love so deeply that you're willing to what some call administer tough love. So James writes, faith without works is dead. And I say, love without action, God says, love without action is dead. For many, love is an unspoken, feeling emotion bound up inside of a person fighting for a means to be expressed in a meaningful way.

And some people just seem to be able not not be able to let it go. And the way that our men were taught through the years in America was you had to be tough outward. You don't really express your emotions. That's for women. And so for men to come to the point that God wants us to be is pretty difficult at times. Once again, I want to read this statement.

For many, love is an unspoken feeling or emotion bound up inside of a person fighting for a means to be expressed in a meaningful way.

Some psychologists have done research trying to determine what are the 10 ways whereby a person perceives love from another person. The 10 top ways. The number one is to simply say, I love you. Another way is through a human contact touch, a pat on the shoulder, a hug, a handshake, or something like that.

Love is not a product that is bought and sold at the marketplace. In America, parents have tried to buy the love, the loyalty, the affection of their children through physical means. Not everybody, of course. Hopefully none of you.

But I know all of us have. I know I have had the thoughts, well, I have done this for you and this for you. And to some degree, you feel like, well, are you going to return anything? And hopefully they do. So once again, you can't buy anybody's love, per se, but children want us unconditionally far more than material things. And the world has the wrong idea about love. And one of the great oxymorons of our time, and it's repeated so often in songs, is to equate illicit sex with making love. Now, one needs to be considered. We've been brainwashed by psychologists to be anti-authority and anti-discipline. Lack of discipline destroys love.

If you be without chastisement, then are you illegitimate? That's what the Bible says. Let's note further what the Bible says. Look at Proverbs 29.15.

Now, what did I say up front? Lack of discipline destroys love. And sometimes the behavior, the rebellious behavior of children is an attempt to get parents' attention so that they can feel some kind of caring from their parents for them. In Proverbs 29.15, the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left himself brings his mother to shame. And there are many scriptures in Proverbs, somewhat along those lines, about the need for discipline. And if you don't administer the kind of loving discipline that God does with us, then you're considered illegitimate, not really loved.

And the world doesn't understand the basis for love. The foundation of love and life is, you fill in the word to blame.

The foundation of love and life is, let's go to 1 John now. I've already quoted it. Let's turn there. 1 John 5 and verse 3. In 1 John 5 verse 3, For this is the love of God, this is love defined. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous.

So love and obedience are inextricably linked together. And so what do you obey? God's immutable spiritual law.

God gave us the tenets of life through his law, and we must teach our children the tenets of life as well.

We need to know when we do wrong. Without law, it is impossible to know right and wrong. So from the very beginning, when God created Adam and Eve and placed him in the garden, the great commandment he said is to look to me for the knowledge of good and evil. Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Don't decide for yourself. God's immutable spiritual law is the foundation of guiding our lives young and old.

Pat Riley led the Los Angeles Lakers to several NBA playoffs and world championships, as they call it.

Now president of the Miami Heat, he wrote a book on his coaching philosophy. In this book, he writes about goal-setting and discipline. He calls it Riles Rules.

He spells his name R-I-L-E-Y, Riley, Pat Riley, Riles Rules. Quote, we can safely conclude that any level of leadership established for any purpose that does not clearly articulate the mission, the goals, the objectives, the core covenant, the expected behavioral outcomes, the administrative and operational strategies necessary for desired results, coupled with disciplinary action if the core covenant is violated, is doomed for failure.

So let's briefly focus on the purpose of God's immutable spiritual law. Look at Romans 7 and verse 10. Romans 7 verse 10.

There's more to the law, of course, than just what's right and what's wrong. It is a powerful teaching tool, and it was given to sustain life. In other words, if you obey it, then you can grow in God's love and all his dimensions, because God is love, and this is the love of God that we should keep his commandments. God perfectly obeys his spiritual law. So Romans 7 and 10.

And the commandment, which was ordained to life, was ordained to life to sustain it. But see, on the other hand, the wages of sin is death. So on the one hand, if obeyed, this is the love of God that we should keep his commandments. But if we disobey, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so our sins can be forgiven and removed from us as far as the east is from the west through our Redeemer. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. Why? Because he disobeyed it. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it slew me. Sin, wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good.

Was then that which is good made death unto me? Was it the commandment itself that caused me to have the death penalty on my head? No. God forbid, but sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me, by that which is good. That which is good is the law of God, ordained for life. But if you break it, the wages of sin is death. That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal sold under sin. Now, of course, we would have to give a whole different—it wouldn't be necessarily different—but sermon to go through the whole matter of repentance, faith toward God, baptism, and the whole thing. You go through baptismal counseling at this time. When we break the law, we can be forgiven through faith in the sacrifice of Christ. But Christ is not the minister of sin. Look at Galatians 2.15. Forward to Galatians 2.

Galatians 2.

Verse 15 Verse 15, but we who are Jews by nature and are not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith in Jesus Christ, even who have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. In other words, even perfect obedience does not pay for sins of the past. That requires the sacrifice of Christ.

So, Christ is not the minister of sin. In the Church of God, we have been taught the importance of God and family, the importance of the family unit with each member fulfilling their proper role, father, mother, children.

Are we becoming more like the world when it comes to doing what we know to do? A researcher, a researcher in psychology, well known in certain circles named Whiting, W-H-I-T-I-N-G, he found, and you just listen to this, and you'll know that it's a truism, found that a parent's behavior toward children is based not so much on beliefs and principles. In other words, you believe in the nobler principles, what the Bible says and how you do it and all of that. But when it comes down to it, how are you going to respond and why is it going to determine how you respond? He says it's not so much based on beliefs and principles as on a vast array of apparently irrelevant considerations. I wouldn't use the word irrelevant.

But here's, for example, work pressure. So you're frustrated by what's going on at work and relationship with your peers or with the boss. The household work. I just swept that floor. I just back him that floor and hear the children and the dogs and whomever else messed up the floor. The number of voices crying out, I need help in whatever way, mommy, mommy.

For my little brother, growing up, he was holding on to my mother's cocktail, said, Nanny, Coco, Nanny, Coco, Nanny, Nanny, Coco, until Nanny made Coco. Availability of babysitters, daycare centers, design of the house, no place to ever be alone, neighborhoods, energy level of parents. Then it just goes on and on, the daily situations that you face. I would hasten to say that these findings are also applicable to our behavior toward our spouses, our neighbors, our coworkers, and so on. We let the heat of the moment and our frustrations with life in general govern our response. I've done it many times and regretted it. But frustrated about this, upset about that, and you project your feelings about something else onto the immediate situation at hand. Thus, much of the behavior that we exhibit is reactionary. We react, and usually, unless you have grown, and hopefully we've all grown, it is reactionary based on emotion. And we react to the situation at hand. We're frustrated, tired, hurting, and we react instead of responding in a meaningful way. That's one of the things I know that I have tried to work on and work on in my life, and it's a difficulty that we all have to deal with. Whiting went on to say that parents who don't control their response to circumstances are in for some tough times.

And many of us use the slightest excuse or distraction to avoid doing our job. We seem to have lost willpower. Especially in times of crisis, people tend to revert to their lowest form of behavior.

That's just a truism. Unless they are converted and understand what they need to do.

Especially in times of crisis, people tend to swing to one of two extremes.

Over-permissive or over-strict. In times of crisis. Instead of the middle of the road.

As adult authority and the influence of parents and family have waned, a dictatorship of the peer group has taken over.

And ironically, social media has added to the dictatorship of the peer group.

Bullying is now one of the major problems with youth. This is a very important thing. It's more on the scene.

When we were in school, back in junior high, in the eighth grade, I remember this guy was a distant cousin of mine.

I was 13 or 14. He was 16 or 17. He's in the eighth grade.

And so he was continually doing something wrong. So he's called up to the front of the class.

He's going to get so many swats with the paddle. And as the teacher draws back like this, he grabs his arm and takes the paddle away from him. He's bigger and stronger than the teacher.

Of course, the teacher was able to hold on until he had us in the biology class to dissect a cat, a live cat.

Shall I say, do not dissect live cats unless you have a lot of deodorant. But anyhow, our youngsters are enslaved by their peer groups, and this slavery is very real.

It's virtually impossible for a youngster to liberate himself, herself, from the bondage.

Oftentimes, parents are not even aware, not even aware of what is going on.

The mental anguish that the child is going through. Oftentimes, not even aware until it's too late.

Your child needs your love, attention, teaching, support, discipline, and punishment to help him or her survive in a society where the law of the jungle prevails.

Many of the things that youth do are attempts to be accepted by their peer group without having to actually participate in their lawlessness.

Some of it may be in the form of clothes or makeup or manner of expression, language, music.

But this, too, is playing with fire. Researchers have established long ago that you become what you practice.

So what I'm talking about here today is very real. We need to understand it so we can begin to develop strategies to deal with it.

Once again, God's immutable spiritual law is the guidebook for life, the lessons of the two trees.

So I hope that we will consider these things very deeply and understand them, that let's not dismiss the message because of the messenger or anybody else.

See, Samuel's peers wanted to dismiss his message because of the behavior of his sons.

So they said, give us a king to rule over us. Your sons, they've gone awry. Give us a king.

And God says, they've not rejected you, Samuel, but they have rejected me that I should not rule over them.

So, brethren, when it comes down to it, are we going to be ruled by the Word of God and the principles that he's given us in all dimensions of our lives?

Or are we going to give way to what the world is doing, and evildoers and seducers are going to wax worse and worse? So, brethren, I hope we will take these principles and hopefully some insights to guide our lives, to guide our own lives, and to guide the lives of our children, and try our dead-level best to do it God's way.