and notice that we customarily have another special in there and we didn't tonight, so excuse me for not being prepared. Deuteronomy, let's go to Deuteronomy chapter number six, Deuteronomy chapter six. And we'll look at verses down here. Chapter six here. Look, if you will, please, at verse, go down here to verse number four. Begin in verse number four. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. Now notice here, this is our text for tonight. Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest in by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates. And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land, which ye swear unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildest not, and houses full of all good things, which thou fillest not, and wells digged, which thou diggest not, and vineyards, and olive trees, which thou plantest not. When thou shalt have eaten and be full, then beware, important here, lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt and from the house of bondage. I shall fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shall swear by his name. And it goes on, but let's have a word of prayer. Father, I pray that you please bless us, Lord, as we get into this, that you might use it in our church, our family. And Lord, this practical message, I pray that would be a help in Jesus name. Amen. Well, I mentioned this morning if you were there, if you weren't there this morning, and I would recommend that you get a chance to listen to the message this morning. I have spent the day today, as we will tonight, on the issue of family worship. What should happen in your home? And I'm trying to get across this idea that Christianity is not just something we do on Sundays, but it's something that is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is all based on a relationship with the Lord. And it used to be historically that families would, it was just as common, you might say, to sit down and eat a meal together as it would be to have family worship. It would be at that point, as I closed my sermon this morning, where pastors would teach on how, because I have a record of some of these messages, how to have effective time with your family in God's Word. It was almost taken for granted that it was going to happen. And it was part of our national fabric, you might say. And I thank God for it. It was an understanding of the Bible so that even kids that grew up and they didn't know the Lord, they had a foundation where you could talk to them quickly about the gospel because the foundation of those things was certainly very, very evident. Today, we live in a world that's opposite of that. Our country is void of its understanding of Scripture. We're scripturally ignorant. I mean, if you listen and read, if you will, some of the sermons are in our library. Get some of Charles Spurgeon's sermons and read in there the depth of his language, where he is oftentimes just making a reference to an entire Old Testament or New Testament Bible story or narrative in one little phrase. That is to connect its relationship to the application of scripture where he is right there. And many people read those today and because we're ignorant and don't have a grasp on the stories of God's word, then we miss that application entirely. We wonder what did he mean by that? And he was very good at that, he was characterized by that. And I'm saying that we should want that for our children, amen, right? We want our children to have every opportunity to know the Lord. In fact, I've told my children now that they're of age, they're all adults, that I say, hey, we want you to be thankful for the things that we gave you because we gave our all. We literally gave our all to our family, working hard and serving the Lord together. But I don't want you to repeat our mistakes. Boy, I don't want my family, I want them to do better than we did. Amen, right? I mean, I want our kids to go forward faster, fuller, greater ministry opportunities, et cetera, than what their parents have done. And I thank God for what God's done in our lives. I'm very grateful for that. But I want them to do better. But here's the deal. We all like what the language is. In verse number 12, we would say this to our children. Children, beware. After you have everything, everything is going well. And there's a message there that usually there's backsliding going on when everything is going well. When you sit down and you're full of all these things that were handed to you and a heritage here in America that was a land of plenty and a land full of the gospel because your parents have sacrificed for you, we would tell them, then beware lest thou forget. the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, a picture of being saved out of the world, the Passover redemption having taken place in that story. In verse 13, we want our children to have this, thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his name. We're saying, children, listen. We want you to grow up and know the Lord today and know Him the rest of your life. And we want you to live the principles of God's word without veering off to the right into sin or going off into the left into sin. But if we're gonna have that, it's going to come because we follow the pattern that the Lord has prescribed in the previous verses which we read. Beginning back in verse number six, and these words which I command this day shall be in thine heart. So I would point out here, first of all, this is not my outline, but it is dissecting the passage of scripture. That first of all, we need to teach ourselves. So there is this point like, I believe that every person here, because you have a copy of the Bible and because of the resources that are available, you are totally adequate to teach your children the Bible. By the way, one more point that makes you adequate is the calling of God. You are the parent, and you can always do what you should do. You may feel inadequate, so first of all, teach yourself. Go get something from God's word to give to your children, amen. He said that needs to be in your heart, amen. If it's in our heart, then it's not just in our heads. Maybe we claim the allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. I know we all love him and if we're saved, we have committed ourselves into, but listen, we claim allegiance to the Lord. Right? But if it gets into our hearts, then he'll have our allegiance, not just our claim to allegiance. When the temptation comes, we'll choose him. So put it, teach thyself, but then in verse number seven, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. I think an important point here is that we should teach them while they're young. Teach them while they're young. This is a message not to the churches or to the spiritual leadership in Israel that would be the Old Testament application. This is to the parents. Teach them while they are young. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he's old he'll not depart from it, Proverbs 22.6. Teach them while they're young. Thirdly, we teach them diligently. I love that he used that word, diligently, unto thy children. What does that mean? Diligence is continued effort. It's not sporadic effort. You know, you're looking for a product that is going to happen years down the road, and you're constantly working with them along the way so that it's not, do it for a little while, then give up and find something else to do. It's a constant diligence, constant pressure, constant effort. Just get to it and stick with it. Really, teach them, and you'll enjoy it, by the way. It's an enjoyable part of their life. And then teach them continuously in verse seven and eight. And that's what he means by putting it, put the effort in, bind it for a sign upon thine hand. And so by the time the New Testament came around, and even today, they have made this absurd application. In the New Testament, we find the word phylacteries. And what they were doing, these little boxes, and they would take these scripture references and write them in the scriptures and put them in these little boxes, leather boxes, and put them on their hand or wrist. And then they would have these twine leather straps holding it on. Bind it upon thy forehead. They put them on their foreheads. And the Lord is, in the New Testament, is criticizing them in Matthew 23, saying, you have made broad your phylacteries. You've made these things really important, but they're not in your heart. Right? So there's a case there that's important. He wasn't talking about being silly and wearing boxes on your face. He was talking about putting the Word of God continuously in front of your children. That this should be the fact. You know why we do this? You're talking to your child, because the Bible says this. You're out somewhere else, you know why we do that? Because the Bible says this. Everywhere and in every circumstance of life, using the word of God to apply to the actual practical outworkings of our Christian faith. That you're teaching them a way of life, but you're teaching them a Christian mindset, a worldview, you might call it. that is biblical, that is not just influenced by their education. See, the vacuum of not doing this ourselves has left the school system to give them a worldview. And I'm saying that even at best, we have a member of the school board here, and he's read a lot of the textbooks. And Brother Ray, I appreciate all your effort. He doesn't get a dime for being involved in that. And it costs him a lot to go out and to to run for the school board. It's really a position of sacrifice. And he has read a number of the textbooks and has concluded that some of the things we're really concerned about, wokeism, hasn't gotten into the textbooks of this area. But I'll promise you that evolution has. I'll promise you that it is not based on the Bible anymore. I promise you that there are things in their textbooks that are not pleasing to God. In the vacuum of parents teaching a way of life and a worldview that's biblical, you have left it up to others, and they will gather a worldview from entertainment, from the philosophies of the world, or really just out from the public school system or wherever you're teaching them. It is a difficult thing, but we should continuously put the word of God before our children. And then in verse number eight, it looks like we should teach them not only continuously, but repeatedly at every opportunity. every chance we can. And I remember the stories of things like taking my kids with me out visiting on the bus route. A bus ministry is a great way to raise children. And yes, they get exposed to things that are sinful. You go into these homes and I was going into places where, I've mentioned this before, that I would take my kids and I, especially the boys at that time, Sharon was a little bit too young, and I would go right to the television, and everybody would be watching it, and I would put my back right in front of the television, and then I'd put my son next to me where I could grab the top of his head, you know, because he's like the movement of the television scene, the screen, which is like huge, and the movement is catching their eyes, you know, and so I got my hand on his head, keeping his head facing the people, and the people have to look at me because I've just blocked their entertainment. But you go into these places and coming out is an object lesson that repeats over and over and over again. Hey, Elijah, why did that family have that problem? What are you seeing here? What is this? What caused all that? Well, they don't love Jesus. I mean, it starts real simple, but then as they get older, you can explain what causes those things or elements in there. You say, Pastor, you're talking. Hey, I'm telling them what they just saw. I'm not trying and I teach them not to talk about the people in a bad way. But if you're going to avoid that kind of lifestyle, hey, you're going to find that you're going to have to fight this in your home. This is what needs to be your own heart. The Christians, basically, I'm saying that it's a great way to raise children. It is a great way to raise children. So the Lord has obviously given us a command and it goes all the way back to the law and has never been repealed. The responsibility of parents has never changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament. And God has given and commissioned parents the responsibility to educate your children about spiritual things, about everything. We need parents who really want the outcome of their children to be Christians who stand for the Lord for the rest of their lives. If you really want to know how to ruin folks, I'll tell you there's three main areas that cause children to go the wrong direction. Number one is rebellion in the home, usually with the wife. You say, pastor, what does that mean? Well, if we want to go on a lesson on, look at Ephesians chapter five, wives submit yourselves unto your husbands. Husbands then don't love their wives like they should, but the problems in the home cause children to go wayward. Second thing is when there's a lack of consistency in the discipline. If something is okay today and not okay tomorrow, and the children don't really know why, You're teaching them to rebel. What you need is, as much as possible, is everything that is in you to have a consistent nature about the discipline. What was wrong yesterday is wrong today, and it'll be wrong tomorrow. And by God's grace, as a parent, as a dad, I'm not gonna be lazy in applying and being consistent. That's a lot of work. I made a promise when my kids were really young. I said, Lord, I'm not the brightest person in the whole classroom. But I promise you this, that as God is my witness, I promise God that every time I saw a problem in my children, I would do something about it. I'm not gonna overlook it, I'm not gonna let it go, I'm not gonna just excuse it and say, I'll catch it next time. I said every single time. But I said, Lord, help me to see the things I'm missing. Because we're all gonna be blind in one way or another to the problems of our home. Lord, help me to see with clarity where that I'm not catching something or I'm not seeing what is the next step for my children. And I took it very seriously. I'm very grateful that we did, but lack of consistency and discipline is, I think, a very second, very common ailment that causes children to go wayward. Thirdly, I think, is a living for appearances. Something's wrong here. Something went, testing, testing, testing. Well, just to solve it, you can just turn this back on and I'll go with that. Living for appearances is an evil thing. We have just spent the last month or so on our Sunday school lessons dealing with Matthew chapter 6 in verses 1 through 18, dealing with the pretentious nature of Christianity. regarding the almsgiving and the fasting and prayer? How much more, if the Lord is very serious about it like that, how much more does he hate the inconsistency or living for appearances that happens in homes where we are interested more in looking good to the crowded church and worried more about the gossip chain of weak Christians, only weak Christians gossip? Right? If somebody's a gossip, they're a weak Christian at best. Say amen there, okay? If you listen, you're weak. Say, what should happen if I have somebody come and gossip? Take them to the person. Include the person with whom, or about whom they are speaking. Go and say, if somebody comes, did you know what Brother Mike did? Wait, wait, just a minute, just a minute. Hey Mike, come over here and why don't the three of us get together? I know we can find it. We're all Christians, let's figure this out. But you know, gossip is for weak people, and Christians are so worried about, what are they saying about me down at that church house? What we ought to be saying. We ought to be saying, hey, if they have struggles, let's pray. Pray together, talk to the Lord about the problem, not to each other. Right? Hey, if they have problems, then we're gonna pray for them and encourage them and be there for them, because there'll be a time when I need you to be there for me. Okay? But those three things are elements that really cause distress in the home. You can fool a church. You can look good to a church. You can look good to the appearances of the gossip crowd. You could look good to the world out there. But in your home, they know what you're really like. And if you don't live what you believe, you're going to send your kids down the wrong direction for sure. One of the keys to accomplishing what the Bible is speaking here is family worship or family devotions, whatever you want to call it. I cannot stress too much the great importance, as I did this morning, giving you reasons why they should be educated in God's word by their parents. You can't claim to be raising your children for God if they are not having God in your family, not just You're actually pushing them away, saying, hey, I know the pastor talks about this, but this isn't going to be part of our way. The command is repeated for us over and over again that it's our responsibility to teach this to our children. Now, family devotions or worship is not a guarantee that they'll turn out right. I mentioned those other three things that cause us to have children that are wayward. And if you have a pretentious home, in other words, there are people I know that, well, I keep my family devotions and we have our Bible time, but they're not living it here. You're just living for what it looks like. Your kids aren't gonna make it. It's not a guarantee, but I'll go as far to say that I haven't seen a family whose children have really stood for the Lord Jesus Christ in their adult lives who did not have time of family worship. It's very, very important. I want to give you some things. It's a battle. I know it's a battle because it's fighting your schedule. We found the hardest time for our consistency was when these kids all got to be adults, and before they got married and they're running off to work in like, oh, 15 different hours, only three kids, and they go to 15, I don't know, it just seemed like it was hardest at the end of this time. Let me give you some things. As we look at this, notice first of all the people for the devotions. I believe it should be the whole family. Even if you have to work odd hours, There should be a consistent time when you meet together as a whole family. I don't believe it should be just, well, I'm busy today, mom. On occasion, if you're out of town, dads, your wife should continue to do the Bible devotions. But it should be the intention that every person in the home is meeting together. When I mentioned this morning that when Elijah came along, he was our first born in 1998, Debbie and I had been married for two years and something. We got married in August of 96. He was born in November of 98. And we had been reading our Bible and praying together every weekday morning. And so then he's born and we get him home from the hospital and you know, he's right there with us. having our morning Bible and prayer. I mean, I don't think our kids have ever known a time, remember a time when they did not have that kind of responsibility. It's just part of our lives. So that's the people. Number two is the provision, the provision for your devotions. And that would be God's word. When the children are younger, we got a Bible storybook. I remember it just like a smaller book. It looked like a children's reading book, but it had like a picture on one side and a brief description of the story on the other. And we would read it to the kids, maybe expound a little bit about it, because it was just like one short page giving us a description. But I'll caution you that there's a lot of wrong children's ministry books. If you want to know which one's good, ask questions, find out what's good, bring it to me and I'll look at it. And I would say that you need to watch for the publishing companies like Watchtower, Herald, they're all part of that. They put out all of, and they make them to look so biblical, but they're producing, it's part of their cultish teaching. And so the LDS Church has theirs, and they'll present God as an evolving God, not God that is an immutable God, and on and on. So get a good Bible story book for when they're very little. Okay, and teach it to them. I mentioned also that we had the kids act out some of the stories. And that was always fun for them as soon as they were able to walk and to teach them about things. And we were having them act out some of the stories like Lazarus coming out of the grave. And somebody would say, Lazarus, come forth. And one of the kids would be acting like they're all wrapped up. And you can make it a real exciting time for the children. It doesn't have to be, it should never be where it's above their heads. Do you understand that? If you read the Bible to a two-year-old, it's probably gonna be right over their head. And I think there's a place to do that. Believe me, they should grow up hearing the word of God. But then after you've read it, you can then explain it on a level that they could comprehend at least something to take with them on that day, on the journey of life. When they get older, you want to read the Bible and explain a little bit. And once my kids were teenagers, we went through Psalms and Proverbs continuously. Proverbs is enormous as an education about life, principles to follow for life. If you read one a day, every day of the week, in the course of a month, because there's 31 of them, you can have one that corresponds to the date of every day of the month. You can read it, simply read it. What we would do is, once the kids understood how to read, we would gather together and if we're reading a chapter, each person would read a verse in succession around the table, around the living room. And verse one, verse two, verse three, verse four, verse five. And then we would simply take time after that. I'd stress some things. I would talk about what this or that would apply to their lives. And then I would, I would pray, we'd take prayer requests. And I'll talk about that in just a moment. But you know, you don't have to be a Bible scholar to teach your kids the Bible. For instance, let's just examine this for a minute. Go on over to one of the chapters. Go to Proverbs, if you will. Go to Proverbs. And let's go to, I don't know, let's go to Proverbs. Let's just pick one. Go to the first chapter of Proverbs. Okay. And here we have the introduction to the book. He says, The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. And then you see that next word, it's part of an infinitive, to. And you're going to see it twice in verse two. And you're going to see it in verse 3, verse 4. And then in verse 6. So what does that mean? They're going to answer the question of why. Why do we have the Proverbs? What are the purpose of Proverbs? To know wisdom and instruction, in verse 2. To perceive the words of understanding. The Bible is not difficult to comprehend. To receive instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity. You're not gonna learn that at the school. Where should somebody come to get all that squared away in their hearts? To the Bible. The Proverbs are there for this purpose. To give subtly, now subtly is sometimes in our language we think of a negative word, but that is just basically having wisdom, a synonym for wisdom, to the simple. So a person who's simple is maybe naive. Are children naive? Hopefully they're very naive. We want naivety in the home, but then somewhere they have to be able to put together this idea that the Bible will teach them how to be prepared for life because naivety is good as a child, but it's not good as an adult. We want them to be simple concerning evil, wise unto that which is good. We want to guide the knowledge that they're gonna give. So here you are, you've read just maybe a few verses. You tell, hey, so and so, you read this one. Elijah's got verse one, Ezekiel verse two, Sharon verse three, mom verse four, and dad verse five. And you might go around and you might even stop and say, hey, let's look and apply this. Or you might read the whole chapter and just apply the first few verses. The Bible is not complicated to understand in most of its language. You can go on here in verse six to understand the proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings. So here is an admonition along with it in verse number five. So if I were given a devotion, these are the thoughts. I didn't prepare this, I just said let's turn to one and let's talk about the Bible. We're not talking about being complicated or being really intelligent or educated. Verse five, a wise man will hear, do you want to be wise? When you're reading through Proverbs, you can ask your kids, do you want to be foolish or do you want to be wise? Here's what a wise person does and here's what a fool does. And it's through the whole book of Proverbs. It's an amazing tool to teach your children once they're past the storybook age. If you did nothing but that all the rest of their lives until they were able to go out into their own life, coupled with the fact that they're reading the Bible for themselves throughout the Bible on their own, and then they're going to church and they're being educated at church. Friend, listen, you're accomplishing what Deuteronomy tells you to do. So you look at wise men will hear and will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsel. And then you can go on. I have preached through the book of Proverbs when we had the chapel for our school. And I think we've had the chapel at least going for five years or something, and I'm only on chapter 17 still. Because there's so much just right there, you'll never run out. and so many things about life. So that's an example. So when you get to an age, you can go back to Deuteronomy if you held your place there or just stayed there, I want to talk to you about. There comes a point in every family when you're going to be dealing individually with the children on problems. Now here's what you don't want to do. You don't want to have a class with your kids. Could you imagine if I did this here, okay? We could say, let's pick on Adam tonight, okay? Adam's got this one problem in his life, right? Could you imagine if I dealt with, yeah, everybody's saying amen. Adam, that's a good thing, because the rest of us have 25 problems. He thinks you only have one. That's good. But, you know, you don't want to center on, hey, and embarrass one of your children in your Bible time. Well, you know, the other day, Riker, you lied. Okay? No, I don't think you did. I'm just making an example. So we're going to hammer him in the devotions. Now, wait a minute, wait a minute. I don't think you should center on those things as far as an embarrassment for the children. But I will tell you that that's a perfect place for you to address to all of the family. You don't have to go into the example of one kid's problems, but you can say, let's see what the Bible says about telling the truth. And you could have a whole series of those. And if you are looking for, say, Pastor, I'm dealing with an issue and I need to know what the Bible says about one topic. And you say, can you show me how to find the answers? Well, I want to teach you, first of all, how to use the Strong's Concordance. and find it for yourself. What a great tool that is. Now things are so available digitally that Strongs is available right on your phone and you can find it and use it and look up words and match them together. I can show you how to do that but it's not very complicated. You can just look up verses and spend the 10 minutes or 20 minutes. I don't think you have to spend a lot of time in family devotions but it is a perfect place to deal with what your family is facing. a perfect opportunity so i get up on a sunday and i preach like this here's a very general idea and i'm trying to make application that applies to all of us people like uh... that are single they don't have a family to raise just yet and uh... couples like the mclaughlin's who kids and like debbie now whose kids are grown in what do you do then so i'm in a general application where is in your family devotions you can get to a razor level of understanding where you're teaching them specifically about their problem. That's one of the reasons why I would like teens to have teen activities. Because we're teaching Sunday school and teen activities preaching specifically to the needs of teenagers. And you can become more narrow in your application. What an opportunity to teach your children this way. And you don't have to be a Bible scholar to do it. I'd be glad to show you how. show you in just a short amount of time. And really, any of the Christians that have been saved for a while can show you how to find the verses in the scriptures, to look them up in a concordance, and to present it. And you don't need to complicate it. You don't need a 45-minute sermon. Now, you all would be happy if I preached just a 45-minute sermon, wouldn't you? You don't need this. You need to give to the point and teaching, and we said you're teaching them repeatedly. So they're hearing in their Sunday school class, it's wrong to lie. They're hearing in their junior church class on occasion, God says he hates lies. Here's how you tell the truth. And then they're hearing from mom and dad right in their home. Now you're gonna ruin them if you're out lying. If you make yourself a liar, you have, so you're teaching yourself first and then teaching the children. Do you know that one of the greatest ways to absorb more of the Bible truths is to prepare to teach somebody else? You know, I've learned so much by presenting the material to our family, our church family, where the Bible says, feed the flock of God. In order for me to feed you, I have to get it first. I have the great advantage of having prepared the sermons and a lot of times I'm in my office praying and working on a sermon and I have to stop and go pray and get on my knees because I have to get right with God. So I have my altar time before I even come to the pulpit many times. That's why I encourage some of you men to get a hold of your Bible and I can help you learn what it is to put a sermon together and go on to one of these nursing home services and present Bible truth in a way that could help the people and it benefits you in a greater way than you comprehend. Teaching your children will do the same thing. Dealing with these things. So on a general level, I would say when they're very little, we want to have a Bible storybook level Bible devotions. Then when they get old enough to read on their own, the book of Proverbs is a mine of gold for that age. Just commenting on it, applying it. And then after you've applied it time and time and time again, you can ask them, what do you see in this passage? Before, you know, you get to a new passage and instead of you just telling them what's there, what do you see? Get them digging mentally involved in digging for truths out of God's word. It's important. So we said, first of all, the people, secondly, the Bible provision, thirdly, the prayer in the devotions, the devotions. Now, I think it should be your whole time of family devotions, your worship should be as long as God wants it to be, but it can be anywhere from 10 minutes to 20 minutes at the most. We're not talking about, it's the allegiance to God and his word that is primary. You're focusing your children and your family that God is first. But when we come to the prayer, it just needs to be earnest, needs to be serious. So you've taught your children from a young age how to sit together in church because you're practicing this every day in your Bible devotions. And then after they're older, especially after they get saved, you're asking them to take turns in the prayer. I always like to have my wife occasionally pray. You know what you're doing, fathers, when you do that? You're teaching your boys that you are totally behind the leadership of your wife. I say boys, girl too, right? I had a girl. But I'm saying that the young people want a challenge. Dads, have you ever come home and your wife looks like, I've been fighting these kids all day. And then what happens, wives, the guys come in the home and we say, you, you, okay, fix it, and they just straighten right up. You say, what happened there? It's the authority issue. God made a man and a woman that way, okay? But what you're doing by allowing your wife to pray sometimes in your family Bible devotions is you're backing her authority. I am behind, we are one in our parenting. We are not two. You do not come to me. We always had a rule, by the way, on the side note. If the kids came to me and asked for something and I said no, if they went to my wife and asked, just asking, and we found out, and we did communicate a lot, just asking was a spanking. If I said no, it's not up for debate. If mom said no, and then you come to me, and I'm like, in our family, I'm sometimes the softy. You know, like, Dad, can we get ice cream? You know, I didn't know you already asked Mom and she said no, she's saving that ice cream, but Dad's the big softy, so they'll come and I'll say, yeah, scoop me out some too. Ooh, you'd be in some big trouble in our home if I find out later, because we will find out. Be sure your son will find you out, right? We are one, united in our parenting. Not two people, we're one. And so in leading in prayer for the family, encourages that you're behind the decisions. And ladies, listen to me, your husbands are setting, it is their responsibility to set the tone. To say, thus saith our home. This is the way our home is gonna be. You say, well, I don't like the way. It doesn't matter if you like it or not. You have a voice. Speak to him by yourself. I'm tempted to get on to parenting too much, but I'll give you another hint. Your children should never see you disagree. But you will disagree. And you go get a loan and fix the disagreement and then come out and then they never knew you disagreed. Say amen there. A united front rearing children. But the husband is setting the tone. What he says is a disciplinary action, is a disciplinary, you don't have a right to do your own thing. Your home has to follow the same rules for both authorities, or you're gonna ruin your children. Has to be, has to be. You're asking me, Pastor, how you have good kids. I do. The mercy of God, but some biblical teaching that we applied. The mercy of God, yes, God was merciful to me. But it was the biblical teaching that was applied. So the prayer, I think it's important to pray for the missionaries, pray for the things that we speak of in church that are sick. These need to be prevalent in your family worship, your prayer bulletins. They need to be handy, they need to be there. And then you mention, if I mention or Elijah mentions, pray for Zachary St. Vincent or Cale Tonks or Mrs. Grant, whatever the needs are, they should be mentioned in your Bible devotions. And then you should rotate through your prayers for the missionaries. That's why they have those cards. And we could get some more of them, but when they came and visited the first time, they had a stack of prayer cards, you're supposed to take them, and you could keep them by your place in the living room where you have your Bible devotions. And you could pray. We only have seven or eight ministries that we're involved with. And you could pray every day in a rotation through those ministries. Teach your kids to pray for the missionaries. Pray for the family needs and for the church needs, and then discuss your answers to prayer. All of this can be done. And you know, once you get used to it, you can get it in a short amount of time. I've taken a lot of time to explain it to you. What this should take is just a few minutes of your morning, putting God first. And then, you know, another thing you ought to do, you ought to go over what was preached today, tomorrow morning. What did you get out of your Sunday school? What did you learn in your junior church class? What did you find in the preaching on Sunday night or on Sunday morning, depending on where they are? You can spend Monday or whatever rotation, Friday about what goes on in the master club's class for the children or what was preached in the pulpit, and you can apply those truths, asking them and asking them what they're learning in their Sunday school program. And you discuss these things and then have a word of prayer. The prayer. And then last point is punctuality of the devotions. I'm going to speak on time what you should do. But I think as early in the day as possible. The optimum way is to to have it in the morning before you run to work and before the kids go to school. Now I know that some of you work in a way that that would be absolutely out of the question. Okay, I think Brother Mike, what time do you go to work? It's six o'clock in the morning or something. So I would say, as I mentioned this morning, that you're gonna have to make yourself available in the evenings before they go to bed. But the key is, to all of our devotions, is that we're not praying that God would give us good dreams. We're praying that God would give us power to go through the day. And of course, you could do that the night before for the next day. but it needs to be a very consistent time. How long should it be? I mentioned about 10 minutes. I've talked about a lot of things and I've preached now for more than 35 minutes on this, but my point is that the whole of the Bible devotions does not need to be a long amount of time. As I mentioned before, that it is the message overall in their lives that you're teaching is God first. Before everything of our day, we're giving God his time. And again, if you have to do it in the evening, you apply it that way, but it's still God in our family. God is real. I think some people do it seven days a week. They have their family. Now personally, I have my own devotions and I think every Christian should get up in the morning and read your Bible and pray. You say, Pastor, I'm going to church. I don't need to read my Bible. Well, I think you should read your Bible on Sunday morning. You have more time, most of the time. Sunday morning, pray. Pray for God to work on your heart, come into church. Your personal devotions need to be seven days a week all of your life. However, As a family, if you put it in your schedule, like I mentioned that our schedule was every weekday, and then Saturday and Sunday we went off into the ministry, it's up to a home to decide when you are able to do this, but whatever it is, you be consistent with it. Whatever it is, you just stick to it. If you say, hey, my schedule's so crazy that I have to do it three days a week, fine, do it three days a week as a family. But don't ever miss, by the grace of God, if that's all that it can do. But the optimum thing is that every morning on a weekday morning, you're getting up and you have a routine. And after they've done this and this and this, then you're gonna have your Bible devotions as a family. Those that seek me early, the Bible says, shall find me. Psalm 88, 13 says, but unto thee have I cried, O Lord, and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee or go before thee. You know, this is, raising children is a real spiritual battle. It's a very serious battle. But the Lord has given you everything you need right here. I mean, the Bible, just in the book of Proverbs is gonna talk about almost every aspect of life I hesitate to say everything because he gave you a New Testament, too, and the rest of the Old Testament, but just the book of Proverbs is gonna deal with how to use money, how to handle your anger, how to overcome covetousness, how to deal with your pride. He's gonna talk about being wise or foolish. He's gonna talk about the words that you say, the thoughts that you think, the ways you go, the places you visit. I mean, it's almost like Proverbs is there as a tool just to teach your children how to think in this evil world. If all you did was read a proverb every time you met together, talking about a chapter, or half a chapter, and explain it as best you can, God will bless you. Start right there. That's a great place to start. Be consistent. The devil will fight you any way that he can. I was talking to somebody recently, just this week, a family called me and asked me, we're talking, and he's seeking the will of God, and I said, what you're facing is normal. And he was encouraged by this, that normally when the Lord tells me to do something in a serious change in our life, a move or a ministry, the things that God has done to move us, the first thing I face is not a bunch of ease and open doors, But the first thing that happens after I've declared, this is what we're gonna do, and we start that direction, what I normally do is have the door slammed in my face. The first thing I run to is problems, is hindrances, is difficulty. And even sometimes that in great efforts for God, like church planting, that sometimes I've said, Lord, was I wrong? And Lord, I don't know if this is gonna work. And let me tell you something, friend, listen, if you make a decision to have a family Bible worship, In your home, the devil will fight you. Your boss will call, I need you here half an hour early. And on the day, you're trying to be consistent. Or you're gonna have a problem that'll happen with the children and it'll, listen, it doesn't matter if you fail tomorrow, start again the next morning. If you fail again the next morning, start the next morning. And you say, but pastor, you said be consistent. Yeah, but be consistent. You'll get there, but the devil's gonna fight you. Even just getting started, he'll fight you. He'll fight you with your own inadequacies. You'll feel like, what do I have? I don't even know the Bible. What am I gonna teach my kid? I'm trying to give you that information right here. He'll fight you though. He'll fight you with other issues in the home or people that are reluctant because you're starting some new habit that is gonna take their time. But use the Bible to mold your children or the devil will use that impressionable time of life to teach and promote a general state of rebellion which is so widespread today that it's almost ubiquitous, it's almost everywhere. The choice is yours. So let me finish by reading this text. If you go back to verse number six, we'll read it again and give an invitation. And if you have questions after this, you're welcome. I'll be around for a little bit, and you can ask specific questions after the service tonight. But verse number six, in these words which I command thee, this day shall be in thine heart. Teach yourself first, and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children. So teach your children, teach them diligently, teach them while they're young. And shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way, that's applying the Bible to your life. And when thou liest down and when thou risest up, and thou shalt bind them for a sign, I mean repeatedly put the word of God in front of your children. Upon thine hand and they shall be frontlets between thine eyes. Thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy gates. So it's good to have the Word of God up on your walls, or as some of you do now, on yard signs in your front yard. Amen. And thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house, and verse number 10, and it shall be, when the Lord thy God has given you all of these things, go down to verse number 12. When you have eaten and you're full, then beware lest thou forget the Lord. Look, you want the product of good kids. You're going for a good family, a good husband and wife relation, any aspect. If you want the product, you've got to come to it God's way. How's your family devotions? How's your worship? Let's close in prayer and have a time of invitation. Father, I pray that you'd help us to yield to you, make the corrections in our families and in our lives that we need to, so that you might have right what would be represented here is a group of families who are earnest, certainly not perfect, but earnest about serving you and worshiping you at our homes. Please bless this invitation in Jesus' name, amen.