Welcome, children, to Spring Branch Academy, where we are instilling wisdom and inspiring worship in every student to the glory of God. That's our desire. And so that you would reflect how great and how good God is. Well, God is the creator by Fiat ex nihilo. And we are told in the Bible that there are three big events that so change things that it is not wise for us to assume the present has always been the way it has been. And so we can't extrapolate into the past the present circumstances. The fiat, the fall, and the flood warn us against extrapolating. We also saw two reasons why God did not use evolution to create the world. One is The Ten Commandments are plain that God created everything in six days. We also saw from Romans chapter five that it is man and sin that brought death into the world. But evolution would require that death occurred before man appeared. And so we believe that creation by fiat, God just speaking the world into existence from nothing, also pertains to the animals as he created them from the dust of the earth and made their various kinds. So why do people today tend to believe in evolution? From my thoughts about it, it seems like there are three big reasons. One is scientific naturalism, a frame of mind that we only look for natural causes, for natural effects. And we don't think that this could come from a miracle or God speaking. Another is belief in progress. A book on the history of evolution actually confirmed this to me. In the West, as a heritage of Christianity, we believe that the history is moving towards a purpose. And so, Western cultures have tended to believe in progress But according to the book of Ecclesiastes, if you just look at nature, it's cyclical. It's like a pendulum. It's not moving in a progressive way. And so that's a belief that came from somewhere else. And we all tend to suppress the truth in unrighteousness because we're sinners. Naturally, because we're fallen, we don't like to keep the knowledge of God. And so those three reasons seem to be why people today tend to believe in evolution, scientific naturalism, belief in progress, and suppressing the truth. In language, we've learned the parts of speech. Can you tell me what a noun is? A pronoun? A verb? An adverb? Well, an adjective modifies a noun, and answers the questions, how many, whose, which one, what kind? So an adjective, I like to think of a cow. In Spring Branch Academy in high school, we use a brown cow. And we say the brown cow, the cow is brown, or the brown one. Well, that would be, would that be how many cows? Would that answer whose cow? Would it answer which cow? Would it answer what kind of cow? The brown cow. The article adjective is a special adjective. It's the, the definite article, or a, or an, the indefinite article. If it's followed, if A is followed by a word that begins with a vowel, we add the N. But it's really the same word, just has variations in spelling. So, the and A. For example, your mom says, please, son, get me the book. You might ask your mom, which book? Because she has a definite book in mind because she used the. But if she told you, son, get a book, then it didn't matter which one you would grab, you could just grab any book and bring it to her. So the definite article has a definite object in mind, where the indefinite article could be anything that just falls under that category of noun. In scripture, we're in 1 Samuel this week, and there are four verses Not just three. So we have a bonus verse this week. The rejection of Eli as priest came with this statement of truth. God said, those who honor me, I will honor. And those who despise me will be lightly esteemed. 1 Samuel 2.30. Again, those who honor me, I will honor. And those who despise me will be lightly esteemed. 1 Samuel 2.30. And then Samuel was told to respond this way to God. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. 1 Samuel 3.9. Oh, I would love for you to say that to God. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." What if you came to church with that attitude on your heart? I want to hear from God today. What do I need to hear, Lord? Oh, Lord, speak, for your servant is listening. And then Jonathan, who's cut from the same cloth as David, they're best friends, and he has a big faith like David. Jonathan told his armor bearer, come and let us cross over to the garrison. Perhaps the Lord will work for us. For the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few. If God is on your side, you have a majority. Come. and let us cross over to the garrison. Perhaps the Lord will work for us, for the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few." 1 Samuel 14, 6. You'll notice he's not presuming on God, but he's affirming God's ability. He doesn't need many to do the job. And then when David was chosen, Samuel was told by God, man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. First Samuel 16, seven, man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. So important that our heart is pleasing to God, believing in him, loving him and loving others. Our bonus has been Psalm 23, and you can, continue to quote that in fact that's how you should learn it first is you should learn it wrote the Lord is my shepherd I shall not lack or want but there's another if you know that already we've been singing a hymn too and so it goes like this My shepherd is the Lord, What need shall be ignored? With grassy fields and waters still, My soul shall be restored. Jehovah leads me right, What shadows shall affright? I will not fear, for you are near, With rod and staff at night. You treat me as your guest, What foe shall steal my rest? The table's set, my hair is kept, My cup is fully blessed. God's love and goodness last. The bounds of time surpassed. His temple throne shall be my home when history is passed. My son, listen up. Wisen up. Know the way to rise on up. Do not hang out with those who meet to over drink and over eat, for drunkenness and gluttony will lull you into poverty. Again, do not hang out with those who meet to over drink and over eat, for drunkenness and gluttony will lull you into poverty. It's not wrong to eat or drink, is it, children? But if we drink too much or we eat too much, then we're not being thankful for who God is. Now we're starting to worship the gifts that he gives us. And so moderation with thanksgiving makes drinking and eating an act of worship. And here it tells us that it's stupid to overeat and overdrink and hang out with those who do because you'll become poor. In math, You've learned the three properties, commutative, associative, distributive. Wink at your mom if you know what those mean. And the five operations, how about those? Components of each operation, hmm, that's a good one. Remember how they all add up to like the addition is sum, subtraction is a difference, multiplication is a product, division is a quotient. And then there's that exponentiation one. Today we're learning, oh, and then the order of operations. Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally. And we go the parentheses, the exponents. Then we have the multiplication and division. And then we have the addition and subtraction. Today we're learning the prime numbers. These are numbers, these are natural numbers greater than one that only have one and itself as factors. In other words, to multiply and get this number, you only have one choice, the number times one. That's a prime number. The only even prime number is two, as every other even number after that can be divided by two. So it's not prime. So all the other prime numbers are odd numbers. Three, so the prime numbers are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, and they keep on going apparently to infinity. And they also seem to twin, where you have 11 and a 13, you have a 17 and a 19, a 29 and a 31, a 41 and a 43, where there's only one number between them and mathematicians still have not determined whether twinning lasts forever as well. As far as they can tell, it never stops either, which is an interesting characteristic of these numbers given by the creator. If a number is not prime, it's composite. Turn to your brother or sister and say, if the number is not prime, it's composite. Of course, it would have to be a positive integer greater than one. Now in biology, today we're switching to chemistry, but in biology we've learned about metabolism, photosynthesis, glycolysis, decomposition, mitosis, meiosis, Today we have organic chemistry, which is like a bridge to chemistry from biology because it's the chemistry with carbon. Say carbon. Carbon is what is found in living things. So largely organic chemistry deals with the chemistry of living organisms. For example, a carbohydrate At the holidays, which is now, we have a lot of carbohydrates passed around. Those are made up of carbon and hydrogen and oxygen, often in a one-to-one ratio. Examples would be a monosaccharide, literally a one-sugar thing. Glucose is an example of that. Fructose, found in fruit, is another one. But a disaccharide made from two of those simple sugars, is our normal table sugar, sucrose, and also lactose found in milk. So you have those two kinds of sugars, the mono and the di, the monosaccharide and the disaccharide. Both of those are carbohydrates and they fall under the organic chemistry umbrella. Well, last week in geography and chronology, we learned about covenants. Do you remember the definition of a covenant? A promise, on oath, sealed in blood? It creates a bond. Well, Adam and Noah are the two covenants at the beginning of the Bible of creation and recreation. Abraham is promised land and seed around 2000 BC. And Moses, in the covenant under Moses, the law is added. meaning if they obey, they will stay in the land. With David, we have a throne and seed promised around 1000 BC. And again, the condition is if they will stay, meaning his sons, if they obey, they will stay, this time on the throne. Both the covenant with Abraham and the covenant with David are absolute promises. They will happen. But when they happen depends on the sons of Abraham obeying and the sons of David obeying or the seed of Abraham and the seed of David. And we find that in Christ, he's the seed of Abraham. He's the seed of David who obeys and he inaugurates through his own blood a new covenant. in which everyone knows God, and everyone has the law of God now written on their heart, a transformed nature, because sin and guilt is put away forever. Well, the new thing we're learning this week is the Jordan River. It's an interesting river. If you can look at a map of Israel, you will find it on the right side. It will go very vertical. It starts in the upper part in the north and goes almost straight south to the Dead Sea. It starts in Mount Hermon or Hermon and then goes to the Sea of Galilee, the only freshwater lake in the entire land of Israel, and then finally to the Dead Sea. and it drops a lot. From Mount Hermon, it's at 9,000 feet above sea level, but 30 miles later at the Sea of Galilee, it's now 700 feet below sea level. 90 miles from there, it's at 1,400 feet below sea level, the lowest place of dry ground on the planet. Interestingly, Jericho is just up the ridge, as it were, from the Dead Sea, and it's at 900 feet below sea level, but 15 miles to the west, you're at Jerusalem, which is 2,500 feet above sea level, which is a 15-mile walk that makes you climb 3,400 feet up. And Jesus did that for you and me on his way to Jerusalem to die for us on Calvary. Joshua, Caleb, a new generation, Jericho, Rahab, and Ai and Achan. Canaan defeated, then Canaan divided, no king in Israel to keep them united. Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, and Barak, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson so low. The judges go bad, the people more so. So what happened to Israel in the days of the judges? Well, they disobeyed. And as one scholar said, Dan Block, they became canonized. I like that word because it accurately describes what happened to them. They didn't obey God in exterminating this people after centuries of disobedience. And God had said it's time that they be judged and they didn't do it. And as a result, they started worshiping their gods, practicing their sinful ways And so they're about ready to be destroyed. So here's our poem for this week, kids. I need you to be the echo. I want you to say round and round and down and down, spiraling downward, spiraling down. So, I'm gonna say the word, the kind of call-out line, and then you respond. So, Israel did evil and turned from the Lord. Now it's your part. Round and round and down and down, spiraling downward, spiraling down. My part. In anger, God let them be killed by the sword. Round and round and down and down, spiraling downward, spiraling down. Then Israel felt awful and cried to the Lord, round and round, down and down, spiraling downward, spiraling down. In pity, God let them be saved by a judge, round and round, and down and down, spiraling downward, spiraling down. But did that stop Israel from sinning? Oh no, they became worse, and so did their judges. Again, Israel did evil and turned from the Lord, round and round and down and down, spiraling downward, spiraling down. In anger, God let them be killed by the sword, round and round and down and down, spiraling downward, spiraling down. Then Israel felt awful and cried to the Lord, round and round and down and down, spiraling downward, spiraling down. In pity, God let them be saved by a judge. Round and round and down and down, spiraling downward, spiraling down. But did that stop Israel from sinning? Oh no! They became worse and so did their judges. And you can keep singing this song again and again and again, reciting this poem. Because according to Judges 2, it's a pattern. But every time they repeat the cycle of doing evil, and God punishing, and they cry out, and God takes pity, and a judge saves them, and then they go back to evil again. Every time they do the cycle, they acted, the text says, more corruptly. They got worse. So it's not a circle. It actually, it looks like a circle from up above, but it's really spiraling down. And so that's why we sing it that way. because they're getting worse each time. Thankfully, they got a good king, David, that lifted them. But then the kings went bad, because not even a human king can do the job. The best of men are men at best. We needed a perfect king, and we needed the covenant he brings. Praise God he's come, children, so that we can obey and not spiral down and down and down. He lifts us up and up and up. God be praised for his son, Jesus. Merry Christmas, children. I hope you have a good holiday season worshiping the King Jesus. God bless you. Amen.