Well, here's how it works. You lay out your tortilla shell. You put on your beans, your beef, lettuce, cheese, tomato. You're gonna have a burrito. You roll it up, you pick it up to take that first wonderful bite, and you know what happens next, it falls apart. Cheese, lettuce, beans, beef, everything falls out of the burrito. If only there was a way to hold a burrito together. Oh, you gotta love American ingenuity. Three seniors at John Hopkins University have invented edible tape. They call it Tasty Tape. And it's invented to hold your burrito together. And anyone who has ever tried to remove burrito bean stains from your shirt, you're gonna be very grateful that that has been invented. You know, there's things in life that's more important to hold together than a burrito. Like how about the family? There's no tape that can hold a family together. but there is a God who loves us. Today we're gonna talk about how the key to holding the family together is actually letting the family go and giving God control. Today's message is a family message. It's a message for parents, for grandparents, for all who are entrusted with raising the future. But it's also a family message for our church family. We are so blessed, church, to have so many children in this church. And you may not be a parent, but you influence children in this church and children in our community. So this is for every one of us. This is for our next generation workers who work through those bed babies through college students. This is for Kids Week coming up. all of you who will be serving and working with children. It's a body effort. It is all of us. You pray, you give, you support. Some of you will be serving this week, as we love on children. We always say at First Baptist Arnold, we love church kids, but man, give us the mean kids. There are children in this community that have no adult in their life to love them, no influence for Christ in their life. You know, church kids, you say, hey, don't push. And these other kids, you say, is that a real knife? You know, so not that bad. We just lost all of our workers right there. But who is going to love the mean kids if it's not the church of Jesus, huh? We love children and so this message has truths for all of us regardless of the age of your of your children regardless if you heard the word family and family holding together and you instantly got a pit in your gut because you say I look back to my past and There's some things in my family that still hurt today. Regardless of where you're at today, let God speak into your heart. Again, excited about Kids Week. Come back tonight at six o'clock. Tonight is not drop off your kids. This is for everybody, all ages. There's gonna be fun and food and all kinds of great stuff going on. This is for our entire church family and friends. Come back tonight at six o'clock. Part five of our series called Elisha, A Letting Go Life. Our title this morning's message is called Parenting That Prevails. Parenting that prevails, and again, this is for not just only parents, grandparents, all caregivers, all who work with children. All of us impact children. This is God's Word. It's something for all of us. Elisha is an Old Testament hero who worked and served God in the land of Israel ninth century B.C., and it was hard days to be a kid. It was hard days. to be an adult because the nation of Israel in those days were locked into idolatry, their spirituality, morality, character, integrity, all those things just spiraling down the tubes. But for 60 years, there was this guy named Elisha. who lived a letting go life. He completely surrendered his life to God, lived a faithful life to God, and God used him to care for people, to love people, to impact so many people. What excites us is God can and do the same thing through our lives to impact other people for him. So we're looking at some of the miracles that God did through Elisha, and we're talking in this series, imagine what life could be like if we just let go and gave God control. Parenting is not easy. Parenting can be downright scary. We know as Christian parents, we want more than just for our kids to be well-educated, well-rounded, and happy. That's awesome. The primary goal for our children is we want them to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and then live a passionately, passionately about a gospel-centered life not for self, but for the glory of God. That word gospel is an important word to know. Remember, the word gospel simply means good news. When you hear the word gospel, it's the good news of God as found in Jesus, that He went to the cross for all of our sins, He was buried, and He arose in victory. That's the gospel. That's what we want. We want our kids to know Jesus and to make Jesus known by not selling for anything less than a radical, gospel-centered life that loves God and loves others. That's what we want for our children. But the issue is this, big time news. There's no perfect families. There's no perfect parents. There's no perfect kids. Every one of us as parents, all of us as people, we have messed up in the past, and guess what? We will mess up in the future. But the good news is, is there is a God who loves us. God loves you. God is for you. God is for your family. God longs to bless your family and be by his grace. All we know to do is to parent by grace. to be that glue that binds your family together for His glory. So we're looking at parenting that prevails. I would ask you again, for all who work with children, for all of our next generation workers on this as we launch into Kids Week, I would ask you here and for our many friends joining us online, welcome online community. We're glad you're with us. We're one church on-site and online. So glad you're with us. 2 Kings 4. You can open your Bible or your Bible app to 2 Kings 4. And we're looking at one of the miracles that God did through Elisha. It's called the miracle of the loaves. The miracle of the loaves. It's not about burritos. It's about bread. There was a severe famine in the land of Israel in 2 Kings 4. Not only a physical famine of a shortage of food, there's a spiritual famine of a shortage of devotion to God. And Elisha, again, 60 years faithful in Israel, he is with some of his students. He is in a school of the prophets. It's a bunch of young preachers. We know some of those young preachers were married and had kids. It's a school of the prophets and they wanna make a difference in their country for God. And we're going to see through the miracle of the loaves that God performs here. that God is going to show them and us today and show us as parenting and those of us who are raising the future, he's gonna show us that God has all power and that God provides. So we're looking at 2 Kings 4, verses 42 through 44. And I would ask you if you're physically able, if you would stand while we read these three verses. If you can't, you stay in your seat, that is totally fine. But we wanna honor God's word by reading his word together. 2 Kings 4, verses 42 through 44. What we're gonna do today is simple. We're gonna read this, and then we're going to take a journey through these three verses, and we're gonna stop at some of the truth that God has woven into these verses, then we're going to apply it to parenting. We're going to apply it to working and loving children. Verse 42 of 2 Kings 4, then a man, the Bible says, came from Baal, Shalisha, that's the word Shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the first fruits, 20 loaves of barley bread and newly ripened grain in his knapsack, and he said, give it to the people that they may eat. But his, Elisha's servant, said, What? Shall I set this before 100 men? He said, give it to the people that they may eat, for thus sayeth the Lord, they shall eat and have some leftover. Finally, verse 44, so he said it before them, they ate and had some leftover according to the word of the Lord. Thank you, you may be seated. Now some of you right now are saying, this story sounds very, very familiar, like I've heard this before, okay? The Old Testament miracle of the loaves is the precursor to the New Testament miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. This is an exact picture, Old Testament picture, of what happened in the New Testament. Remember the feeding of the 5,000? The Bible tells us that Jesus was surrounded by about 5,000 hungry guys, and you count wives and kids and ladies, and there was perhaps, who knows, 15,000 people. In a great miracle, Jesus fed all 15,000 people. They were satisfied, had leftovers with a little boy's lunch of five loaves of bread. and two fish. The miracle we're looking at here in the Old Testament, the miracle of the loaves is pointing us to the greater miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. See in this, the miracle of the loaves, God, Elisha called on, the miracle happened when Elisha called on God's power. He called on the power of God. The feeding of the 5,000 happened as a miracle because Jesus is God. Jesus didn't call on anybody. He did it because He is God. And the miracle of the loaves that points to the feeding of the 5,000, the lesson it teaches us is that Jesus is the bread of life, that He is the only merciful Messiah, and that He is the Savior. He is the only one who can save starving lost souls and meet the need of the spiritually hungry. So in both these miracles, the Old Testament miracle of the loaves that points to the New Testament feeding of the 5,000, in both these miracles, God is calling people to come to Him in faith. He's calling people to believe in Him and trust Him. Here is our first parenting that prevails truth. To win their hearts, our children must first know that Jesus has won our hearts. To win their hearts, our children must first know that Jesus has won our hearts. I've heard it said a hundred times in 31 years of pastoring, the number one thing that parents can do is introduce their children to Jesus. That's not true. The number one thing that parents can do is themselves come to know Jesus as their Savior. There's no other starting line. We can't introduce someone to someone we don't even know. If we want to win the heart of our children, our children's gotta know that He's already won our hearts. that we have a personal relationship with Jesus, not just believe that there is a God, not just try to do good things and be good people, and that's all wonderful, but to know that I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, not just a head religious belief about Him, but a real heart life-changing relationship with Him that's totally radically changed my life. The Bible tells us in Acts chapter four, verse 12, that there's no other name. that we can get saved by, that there's no other name given among men that we can be saved but the name of Jesus. The Bible tells us the wonderful good news of God. I say it every week. the passion of the God of the universe, what he wants more than anything else is to spend forever with you. He wants that. And he provided the only way. Because the bad news is we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's Romans 3, 23. We are not perfect people. We all have blown it. We all have messed up. We all have disobeyed God. We can't work our way to God. We can't be good enough. We can't do any of those sort of things. But God and his love for us, grace, we can't earn, we don't deserve. Jesus came. took all my failures, all my sins, everything I've ever thought, said, motives, everything wrong upon himself, did that for you also, for all of us, he died on the cross, he arose the third day, and now whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I hope you've done that. In our story in 2 Kings 4, this guy that approaches Elisha is a true, faithful believer of God, and I pray you are. I pray you know Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior. The greatest single thing you can do for your family, ever, is even today, say yes to Jesus as your Savior. Let's go back and look at the story. In verse 42 it says, then came a man from Baal, Shalisha. This unnamed, unknown believer lives in a part of Israel, some people believe is like 15 miles north of Lydia, that has the name of Bel Sholisha. Now, Israel is locked in idolatry and Bel is their number one go-to false god. He is the god of storms, he's the god of fertility, he is the god that's going to make your crops grow. And that word, Shelishah, you see there, it literally means the Lord who multiplies. They think Baal is the God that multiplies their crops. It seems funny to me, I mean, almost comical, that here is this believer who is living in a place of the false god, Bel, who is the, quote, Lord who multiplies, but he's bringing his bread to the one true God who's really gonna multiply it. You may not think that's cool, but I'm a Bible geek. I thought it was really, really awesome, so okay. Going on, it says in verse 42, he brought to the man of God the bread of his first fruits. We see that this unknown, unnamed, Believer, he brings to Elisha, now remember, Elisha represents God to the people, so he's really bringing this to God. In his love for God, and in an act of worship and generosity, he brings an offering to God, and the offering we see is called the bread of the firstfruits. Realized in the Old Testament law, in Deuteronomy chapter 18, verses four and five, it was called the law of the firstfruits. Here's how it worked. God is to be the center of your life. And in an act of devotion to God, you bring him the first and the best of your crops. It's an act of worship. You do that for the Lord. Now you talk about a time to hang on to your food. How about in the middle of a famine? But this guy did not do that because God is the center of his life. He's going to give God the first and the best of his life. He brings this offering to the Lord. He does it because he knows God's gonna take care of him, hanging on to extra food and gonna meet his needs. He's trusting God to take care of him. He's generous because he knows he is supporting God's work. Elisha and the prophets are doing God's work in this dark, dark nation they're living in. And the third thing is, again, he's just simply obeying God's word. He's doing what God has called him to do. This is We're at another truth of parenting that prevails. Here's our next truth. Let your children see you live a God-first life that express by generosity as you always give God your best. I have had many adults tell me, when I was growing up, my mom and dad claimed Jesus, that Jesus was unnoticed in our home. Never saw him. I promise you, if you live a joyful, generous life in front of your children, they will notice your faith. Guarantee it. There's the old sayings of things get better with age and good things happen to those who wait. Those things are true about food called leftovers. Have you ever noticed there's some food that just tastes better the next day? They did an internet poll and asked people, what are the best leftovers out there? And it was stew, lasagna, and everyone knows, there's no doubt about it, Chinese takeout is always better day two. It's not even close. Scientists tell us they've researched this and understand why there are some food, when it sits in your refrigerator, chemical reactions happen that actually makes the food taste better. Now, my go-to leftover food growing up, my mom and dad right here, there's not even a close second, is the unbelievable hamburger helper. There's like 24 different types of hamburger helper. We dominated them all I mean we and took as a kid to open the Refrigerator to pop open that plastic lid to get a good whiff of that cold Hamburger helper to dump it on a plate sprinkle some water on it put in the microwave Hamburger helper day two tastes better than day one and day three tastes better than day two. It's awesome. It's leftovers and It is totally good, parents, to give your kids leftover food, okay? Nothing wrong with that at all. We've all done it. It is so wrong to let your kids see you give God your leftovers and not your first and your best. They see you give God your leftover time, your leftover heart, your leftover resources, your leftover abilities. No, it's firstfruits. Because Jesus is not just the number one file in my file cabinet. Because Jesus is the very center of my being. I'm gonna worship and love and devote to Him by giving Him my first, my best, and my all. No leftovers for God. Here's what he brought as his offering, his first fruits offering. 20 loaves of barley bread and newly ripened grain in a knapsack. Now when you see 20 loaves of bread, don't think grocery store, plastic bag, wire tie. Literally think about a flat biscuit, 20 like biscuits. And when you hear ripened grain, think about corn on the cob. So you really have 20 biscuits corn on the cob man. Oh, man, you throw in some sausage gravy. You got Cracker Barrel basically, okay So picture him walking up to Elisha famines going on all these stomachs are growling and he walks up and says hey God's blessed me with a harvest, not keeping it for self because God is number one, a God first life. He opens up his knapsack and said, here is my first offering to the Lord, my first fruit offering. I got 20 biscuits and some corn on the cob. It's not much, but I'm gonna let go and give it all to the Lord. In my life, as I open my parenting knapsack and I look at what's in there, my abilities, my wisdom, my gifts for parenting, I wanna tell you there's not much there. But I'm so glad Jesus has always been there. You see, like this servant, it's not what we have in our hands, it's whose hands we put it into that makes all the difference. Let's stop for another parenting that prevails truth. In faith, give your little to the Lord and watch Him do a lot. Take what you have and what little it may seem compared to everything going on around and give that to the Lord and watch Him do a lot. Watch God take our gifts and our abilities and our wisdom and those things and watch the Lord multiply and bless them to increase our abilities, to increase those things as only He can to where we can raise children for His glory and His honor. It says, and he said, give it to the people that they may eat. Elisha commands and says, listen, give it, Elisha says, don't give it to me, give it to these preachers and give it to their families and give it to these guys who are doing the Lord's work, give it to them. And we see the servant that's supposed to do that automatically has a question, but his servant said, what? Shall I set this before 100 men? Now 100 men doesn't necessarily mean that he went 98, 99, 100. It means it was a large crowd. It could have been like the feeding of the 5,000. It could have been many more than 100 people. It's a large crowd of people. And what's happening, this servant has just been commanded to do what he cannot do. He's got 20 biscuits and some corn on the cob, which is enough for about 20 dudes. That's about a fifth of the need. So he's saying, wait, you're asking, expecting me to do something that I don't have the resources to do. You've given me the responsibility to fulfill something that I am totally inadequate to fulfill. He's saying, I feel totally overwhelmed. Parents, have you ever felt like this servant? Have you ever looked at your grandkids or children in the community that you're loving on, and you want them to know and love God so passionately, you love them so much, and this world is so broken and so difficult, and you think of the responsibilities of parenting, and you say, man, what I am expected to do in the Bible, I can't do. I feel so inadequate to do. I am absolutely overwhelmed in all of this. It's supposed to be that way. It's supposed to not make sense to us. We miss that. We're supposed to be needy people in our parenting and loving on kids, and it's supposed to be that we can't meet that need. Parenting by God is designed for it to be over our heads, intentionally. But remember, as Dr. Rogers said, anything that's over our head is under his feet. It's because we need him. I like tape measures. I think tape measures are, matter of fact, I brought you a photo. I have five tape measures. Here's four of them, because I knew you'd kind of like to see my tape measures. The blue one is the one I keep in my truck. The red one and the green one I keep in my toolbox in the garage. That little silver one is what I keep in my trout vest when I go trout fishing. I need to actually swap the big green one for the silver one because the trout I catch are so big, I need to use that bigger tape measure. And the fifth one I have, it's not on the picture, it's this purple one that I can carry around in my pocket. Man, I wanna tell you what, if you've got a tape measure on your belt, I can measure things, you know, it just makes you feel good. I can't tell you how much of my life as a believer, and hear me, how I am a tape measure parent. So much of my life I've been a tape measure parent. I measure all the difficulties of parenting. Then I measure the responsibilities as a parent, because we love our kids. And then I measure my abilities. If you measure the difficulties of parenting, the responsibility of parenting, and our abilities to do those things, it doesn't measure up. When you go through your life trying to face the difficulties, the responsibility, and your own abilities, and it doesn't measure up like this servant, it doesn't add up. you will be confused, discouraged, and sometimes even to the point it will bring unbelief in your life concerning God. You know, as a tape measure believer, as a tape measure parent, how I was messing up, I was so quick to measure the difficulties, responsibilities, abilities, but I always forgot to measure in the measureless God. I forgot to measure God into the equation. We spend so much time looking at ourselves, looking at our kids, looking at our challenges, we need to spend more time looking at God and just trusting Him. See, what's going on in this story, don't miss it, there's not a shortage of food, there's a shortage of faith. Do I just see the loaves? Do I just see the 20 loaves, the corn on the cob, the hungry guys? Do I just see the loaves or do I have the ability to see beyond this and to see what God can do with the loaves? Do I just see my children? Do I just see my failures? Do I just see my challenges? Or do I see beyond that by faith and see what God can do in the lives of our children and grandchildren? I don't know how old your children are. I don't know what's going on in their life. Children in the community, we see it breaks our hearts, but hear me, their story's not over yet. We can look beyond just measuring. It always doesn't measure up to us. We've gotta look beyond that and get rid of the tape measure and just realize it's our God. Here's our next parenting that prevails truth. Display before your children the reality that we are not created for self-sufficiency, but for dependency on God. Man, let your children see in your life that we are not self-sufficient. Next breath depends on God. Next heartbeat depends on God. Everything in this life depends on the Lord. He said again, Elisha says, give it to the people that they may eat, for thus saith the Lord, they shall eat and have some leftover. Elisha repeats exactly what he previously said because God never changes and God's word never changes. And he says, thus saith the Lord, by the authority of the God of the universe himself, God will multiply, God will satisfy, God will give you an abundance of leftovers and it's not gonna be hamburger helper. What a great promise, parents. So he said it before them, the servant said it before them, they ate and had some leftover. The situation has not changed. There's still a famine, still 20 biscuits, still all these people. The situation has not changed, but the servant's heart has changed in the situation. Many times what we want God to do is to change our situation instead of God changing our heart in the situation or knowing that God's gonna meet us in the situation. Situation hadn't changed, but his heart has changed. He is now actively going to trust and obey his God. He's gonna do it. And God does a great miracle. The Bible doesn't tell us how, but this servant begins to pass out the biscuits and God multiplies it. God satisfies the need. There's abundance there. It's the only God can do. Look at it carefully what it says here. It says that he said it before them. You know, God's God, God could have called an angel doordash and took it to each one of the people. God could have had the food float to the air to each one of them. But you know what God has chosen to use to pass out Jesus, the bread of life, you and me? And as a Christian family and as a church family, there's a great truth here that we are the hands and feet of Jesus in this world. He's God, he can do anything, but he has made the choice to work through his body, his bride, the church, like our team going to Liberia. God has made that choice to work in your life and to work in my life. And here's another parenting that prevails truth. Settle for nothing less than actively and intentionally doing missions and ministry as a family. Do it as a family together, serve together. Donna and I, again, so far from perfect, but we have tried our best to always do missions and ministry with our family. We never wanted to do it because we're a pastor's family. Oh, that's those preacher's kids and the pastor's family. Look at the pastor's family. You know why we did it? Because people who love Jesus are just supposed to serve. It's not because we're a pastor's family. If you love Jesus, you want to serve. So we always tried to include our kids in ministering to someone that's sick or doing, if it was something a neighbor's needs, we would include our kids in that ministry and through the local church, doing things together as a family. Our goal was to have our children on an international mission field by the time they were 16. Before he was 16, Dustin and I went to Romania. We were working the Carpathian Mountains. with Romanian believers, they're planting churches. Before Lauren was 16, Donna and I were on the mission field in India with her. Our kids used to sleep when they were babies and toddlers on an air mattress in inner city churches doing inner city ministry work for 10 days to two weeks. Again, we've got a long way to go. We had Pastor Nazir Masih from India, he would stay in our home and I remember my kids being real little, one on each side of Pastor Nazir and him just talking to them. Oh man, we gotta train kids for a life of mission, a life of ministry, of serving. Do it together as a family. Well, the story ends, everything that's happened is according to the word of the Lord. It was all God's word, all God's plan, everything was based upon the word of the Lord. And this last part, this is our last, we're heading towards our last Parenting that prevails truth. This is so, kind of everything else is wrapped up in it. Every person has a worldview. Okay, you have a worldview. Every person does. Your worldview is the lens. If you wear glasses or contacts, you look through a lens. Your world is the lens, your worldview is the lens by how you see all aspects of life. Your worldview determines your decisions, your worldview is how you evaluate choices of what you do, your worldview basically determines what you say, what you do, and what you think. Everyone has a worldview. For those who are followers of Jesus Christ, our worldview is wrapped up in the last part of verse 44. Our worldview is to be according to the word of the Lord. For believers in Jesus, the lens that we look at the world through is the lens of the Bible. What is to determine our actions, our decisions, how we evaluate the choices we make, The all-consuming of what we say, what we do, what we think is all through the filter, all to be through the lens of what does the Bible say? What are the principles of the Bible? What are the truths of the Bible? We're to have a biblical worldview. Parents have a biblical worldview as followers of Christ. Just a couple months ago in March, the American worldview inventory was taken, research about American parents, and discovered that, which is because the majority of American parents don't even know Christ, but the vast majority of American parents do not have a biblical worldview or a robust faith to pass on to the next generation. This is what they discovered. This is only two months old. In the worldview of most American parents, they embrace a muddled patchwork of alternate life philosophies, cultural trends, and religious personal views they've kind of made up themselves. They have a hamburger helper smorgasbord of beliefs that form their worldview, and that's what they're displaying and sharing with their children. Some are even in the church. In other words, oh, I'll take a little bit of the Bible, a little bit of God, some of the trends in culture, some of the philosophies of life, some of my own emotions, and I'm gonna throw all that into the cooker, and that is the lens that I see the world through, and it's not a biblical worldview. Let me ask you, do you have a biblical worldview, and how do you know? Here are seven truths about having a biblical worldview. Can you say yes, do you believe these seven things? Number one, that God is the creator of the world and rules the universe. That's from Genesis 1.1. The second thing, do you believe that the Bible is God's word for mankind and is completely accurate, including matters of life and its origin? That's from 2 Timothy 3.16. Number three, that because of God and his word, absolute moral truth exists. Psalm 102, 25 through 27. Number four, that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God and He lived a sinless life, died for our sins, was buried, and arose again from the grave three days later. That's 1 John 4, 9 and 10. Number five, that Satan is a real being, not symbolic, and seeks to defeat God's plan for man, 1 Peter 5, 8. Salvation is obtained solely by an individual faith in Christ's work on the cross and cannot be earned, Ephesians 2, eight and nine. Christians have the responsibility to share our faith in Christ with other people. Do I believe that God created everything out of nothing and he rules everything? Do I believe that this book is God's voice on paper, the inerrant word of God that is the foundations of my faith and my practice? Because of that, do I believe there is absolute moral truth that does exist Do I believe that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God who died on the cross and rose from the grave, the only way of salvation? Do I believe that Satan is not some cartoon dude, but he is really true, there really is evil, and he wants to defeat God's people? Do I believe the only way I can be right with God is not by my works, but that Jesus died on the cross and arose from the grave is the only way? And do I believe that the mission of my life is to point other people to Jesus? If you can answer yes to all seven of those things, that is a biblical worldview. The majority of people gathering in churches today in the United States of America cannot say yes to all seven of those things. So in turn, when it comes to controversial topics in our culture, things, look at the news, gender, you name whatever it is, pick anything you wanna pick, and some of the views that young children and teens have who've been raised in the church, and that some of the adults have, it's because we've got our hamburger helper, smorgasbord, I'll take a little Jesus, a little Bible, a little of CNN News, a little of my own thoughts, a little of what the most popular trends are, I'm gonna cook all that together, and that is the lens I see the world through. Parenting that prevails. Live the gospel of Jesus in front of your children and tell them the gospel over and over and over and over. Train them to view the world through the lens of God's word. The psalmist said in Psalm 145, verse four, one generation commends your work to another, they tell of your mighty act. Hear me parents, good intentions are not enough. Good intentions are not enough. Parenting with a biblical worldview, we must first possess it. I've got to be an ever-growing disciple in Jesus. None of us have arrived, none of us are perfect, all of us are a work in progress, all of us are growing, but I've got to keep growing as a disciple of Jesus. I've got to possess it. Number two, I've got to practice it. My children need to see me more than just saying I believe those things. They've gotta see how I live that out in my life. We are no better than anyone else. We are sinners saved by grace. The worst sinner on this planet is me, no better than anyone else, but Jesus Christ has changed my life. Some people believe in God and I believe in God, but I believe in the God of the Bible, and if you don't believe in the God of the Bible, we don't believe in the same God. We are to possess it, to practice it, and then we intentionally pass it on to our children. This is so important. If you know enough of the gospel to believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then you know enough to begin to influence your children to believe in Jesus too right now. If you know enough about Jesus that you can say, I am saved, if you can say, are you saved in Jesus, and you say yes, then you don't need to take 30 classes. Right now today, if you know enough about Jesus that you're saved, then you can start influencing your children to believe in him also. We must take every opportunity we have to teach our children about Jesus. We need a strong community, the church, of Bible-believing, Bible-living people. Again, not perfect people, but who believe the truth and live the truth for our children's sake. And again, there are some children, that's all they have. There are children in our community, they don't have any adults in their life that know anything about Christ or even love them or care for them. We're it. We're it. And I would say most of all. In this biblical worldview, man, may our joy in Jesus be visible in front of our kids. I can't tell you how powerful that is. If all our children or grandchildren ever see is griping about the church and you believe they didn't have the choir and orchestra this morning at Kids Week, they had that band up there in them pink shirts. Oh, that Kenny. Why won't he preach about end times more? I'll tell you what. Grime, grime, grime, grime, grime, grime. Then you wonder why your grandkids and children want nothing to do with this? May they see the joy of Jesus in us. that all the crud going, talking about the president, all the stuff in politics and everything, it's all real stuff, serious stuff. But if all they ever do is see you gripe and moan. I have had young people tell me, I don't like hanging out with my grandparents, because all they do is gripe. And some of them are in this church. Man. Let them see the joy of Jesus in your life, unless you ain't got any, and if you ain't got any, you need revival. We are not perfect parents. I know some of you, man, you're beating yourself up right now. Don't. We can't go back in time. We are not perfect parents. We parent by grace. Here's the goal. The goal. As kids weak, the goal of parenting, grandparenting, we want to do our best in Jesus to put our children in a position to know and love God. to put them in a position to know and love God. Hear me, you can do everything we've talked about today to the best of your abilities, and some of your kids and grandkids will still walk away. It's their choice. Some of you have been walking around with a guilt in your life because your children or grandkids that you love that were raised in church has nothing to do with Jesus or the church anymore. Your greatest burden, your greatest prayer request, Stop wearing that guilt and that burden and that weight. The burden of wanting to, absolutely. They are responsible and they make choices. I shared before, I believe Samson's parents were great parents, but Samson made choices in his life, just like your children and grandchildren make choices in their life. They are ultimately responsible. Stop letting the enemy weigh you down with so much guilt, amen? Their story's not over yet. You keep loving them, you keep praying for them. So they made tape that holds a burrito together. Someone just joined our message saying, what in the world? Well, you should have been here at the beginning. You know, the whole make things stick together adhesive business is glues and Gorilla glue and super glue and flex tape and all these sort of things, sealers. In 2022, it's gonna be a $67 billion business. We love sticking things together, holding things together. Without bailing wire and duct tape, most of my automobiles growing up wouldn't have been together. So, you know. You know the most powerful glue there is? It's not man. Let me show you the most, because the most powerful glue there is, that's not a red chili pepper. That is this water bacteria called a calabacter crescentus. That little bugger right there would fit on the side of a, on the top of a pin. but it secretes this glue that is so sticky, so powerful that a tiny bit of that glue is enough strength to lift up two automobiles into the air. And I look at that little thing and I think the God that can make that kind of a powerful glue out of that little bitty bacteria is the God who loves us and his son died on the cross for us. and he's for our families. His grace can provide the glue, the glue to hold our families together. We gotta let go and trust him. May God help us be parents that prevail, and you be praying, because God's gonna do great things in Kids Week coming up. Let's pray.