Thanks so much, Mark. Hasn't the music been a blessing today? It's always a blessing. It's been a blessing to my heart. I believe it's been pleasing unto the Lord as well. So thank you so much for that special. I know in your bulletin it says that Pastor Sean Cook is going to be preaching this evening. I know you're thinking that he either has gained those few inches he talked about this morning, got a little more hair than he talked about this morning, maybe a few pounds that he didn't talk about this morning, I don't know, but actually his body clock is on, it's 12 o'clock midnight right now, so maybe about 12.30 I guess. So I was hoping his mother was going to be here and she could kind of play her little neck and back routine. to keep him awake, you know, but I've talked to Coleman. He has consented to respectfully and carefully play that role if he starts hearing his dad snore this evening. So thank you for that, Coleman. This is the last message in our family series. Pastor Sweat spoke to me a number of weeks ago about this. We knew that Shawn would be getting back into town late and would really have a difficult time preaching tonight probably. So he's asked me to close out this family series and he's asked me to speak on the topic of education, the education of our children. So I'm looking forward to that. But before we do that, I know that because it's a family series, I want to read something to you that really has to do with a birthday present from a daughter to her mother. And really, it's always good to give birthday. Do you enjoy getting birthday presents? It's a wonderful thing. This is a birthday present I know you're going to enjoy, or maybe not. Just think about that for you children or you teenagers. This was a mom's personal trainer. Dear Diary, for my birthday this year, my daughter, the deer, purchased a week of personal training at the local health club. Although I am still in great shape since being a high school football cheerleader 43 years ago, I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and give it a shot, give it a try. I called the club and made my reservations with a personal trainer named Beatrice. Beatrice identified herself as a 26-year-old aerobics instructor and model for athletic clothing. My daughters seemed pleased with my enthusiasm to get started, and the club encouraged me to keep a diary to chart my progress throughout the week. So Monday, started the day at 6 a.m. tough to get out of bed, but found it was well worth it when I arrived at the health club to find Beatrice waiting for me. She is something of a Greek goddess. She has blonde hair, she has dancing eyes, and she has a dazzling white smile. Woohoo, Beatrice gave me a tour and showed me the machines. I enjoyed watching the skillful way in which she conducted her aerobics class after my workout today. Very inspiring. Beatrice was encouraging as I did my sit-ups, although my gut was already aching from holding it in the whole time she was around. This is going to be a fantastic week. Tuesday, I drank a whole pot of coffee this morning, but I finally made it out the door. Beatrice made me lie on my back and push a heavy iron bar into the air. And then she put weights on it. My legs were a little wobbly on the treadmill, but I made the full mile. Beatrice, her rewarding smile made it all worthwhile. I feel absolutely great. It's a whole new life for me. Wednesday, The only way I can brush my teeth is by laying the toothbrush on the counter and moving my mouth back and forth over it. I believe I have a hernia in both pectorals. Driving was okay as long as I didn't try to steer or to stop. I parked on top of a Geo on the club parking lot. Beatrice, she was impatient with me. She insisted that my screams bothered her other club members. Her voice is a little too perky for this early in the morning, in my opinion, and when she scolds, she gets this nasally whine that is very annoying. My chest hurt when I got on the treadmill, so Beatrice put me on the stair monster. Why would anyone invent a machine to simulate an activity rendered absolutely obsolete by elevators? Beatrice told me it would help me get into shape and enjoy life. She said some other things, too. Thursday, Beatrice was waiting for me with her teeth exposed as her thin, cruel lips were pulled back into a full snarl. I couldn't help being a half an hour late. It took me that long to tie my shoes. Beatrice took me to work out with dumbbells. When she was not looking, I ran and hid in the restroom. She sent another skinny hag to find me. Then as punishment, she put me on the rowing machine, which I sank. Friday. I hate Beatrice. I hate Beatrice more than any human being has ever hated any other human being in the history of the world. She's stupid. She's skinny. She's anemic. She's anorexic. Little cheerleader. If there was a part of my body I could move without unbearable pain, I would beat her up with it. Beatrice wanted me to work on my triceps. I don't have any triceps. And if you don't want dents in the floor, don't hand me the barbells or anything that weighs more than a sandwich. The treadmill flung me off and I landed on a health and nutrition teacher. Why couldn't I have been, why couldn't it have been someone softer like a drama coach? Sorry about that drama coaches. Saturday. Beatrice left a message on my answering machine in her grating, shrilly voice, wondering why I did not show up today. Just hearing her voice made me want to smash the machine with my planter. However, I lacked the strength to even use the TV remote and ended up catching 11 straight hours of the Weather Channel. On Sunday, I'm having the church van pick me up for service today so I can go and thank God that this week is over. I will also pray that next year my daughter will choose a gift for me that is fun, like a root canal. So maybe yours is not exactly like that, but I thought you would enjoy that. Education. Let me ask you a question as we begin this message this evening. Does the Bible provide instruction to us regarding the education of our children? Yes or no? Yes, it does. Does the Bible instruct us regarding the Christian education of our children? Yes, it does. And there's some clear instruction to us found in the Word of God regarding the Christian education of our children. Sometimes there is a paradox that people put in place of Christian education versus Christian school. And all of us are responsible to Christian educate our children. whether they're in a Christian school or not, regardless of what schooling choices that are made, our children need to have a Christian education. And that is a parent's responsibility to see that that takes place, whether it be in a homeschool setting, a Christian school setting, or a public school setting. Several verses I want to read to you at the beginning here. You can turn your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 6, by the way, Deuteronomy 6. Proverbs 1, 7 says this, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. But fools despise wisdom and instruction. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. That's all knowledge. Proverbs 10, 14, wise men lay up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction. Proverbs 14, 6, A scorner seeketh wisdom, and findeth it not. But knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth. Proverbs 9, 10, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. And then a New Testament passage, Matthew 22, 37, Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Let me read that again. I want to ask you what that verse means. Someone help us with this passage. Jesus said unto him, it's Matthew 22, 37. Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. What does that mean? Loving the Lord with all of our mind as well as a heart and soul. Who will help us with that? Go ahead. Okay. Unconditional love without any pretense. Yes. Okay. Very good. So what else? Those are, those are great. It's really important for us. Yes. Way back there. You've often heard Pastor Sweatt mention about the worship experience that is kind of common in our culture and our day-to-day. And it really is important for us to recognize that God tells us that we shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, thy soul, and thy mind. It's not just simply an emotional experience, although worshiping God surely will be emotional for us. But we really need to fill our minds with this. And we have a responsibility as parents and even grandparents to communicate these things to our children and grandchildren. We'll look at this passage today. Now, Deuteronomy chapter 6, you're there. What I want to do this evening, we're going to read through this passage. And I'm going to tell you before we read it, here's what we're going to find. And then I want you to look as we read through the passage, consider these things. We're going to look at what must precede our teaching of our children. That's found in this passage. Who is ultimately responsible for the teaching of these things to our children? That's found here. What should we teach our children? Why should we teach these things? How do we teach these principles? When do we teach these things? What methods should we and can we use in teaching these things? And then it even goes on to the dangers of second and third generation Christians. So all these things are found in this passage, and let's look into it now, and I hope you'll Pay attention to these details as we ask you, I want you to help me with some of these concepts a little later. Let's read through the entire passage, then we'll break it down. Deuteronomy 6, beginning of verse 1. Now these are the commandments, the statues, and the judgments which the Lord your God commanded. to teach you that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it, that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, and to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged. Here, therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. Thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest 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 thou shalt be as frontless between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the post of thine house, and on thy gates. And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware 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 good things which thou fillest not, and wells digged which thou diggest not, vineyards and olive trees which thou plantest not, when thou shalt have eaten and be full. Then beware, lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. Then shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name, ye shall not go after the other gods of the gods of the people which are around about you. For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee and destroy thee from off the face of the earth. Now all of the aspects I just mentioned to you earlier of the who, the what, the why, and all those things are in that passage we just read. Let's work through this thing. Look at verse one. What must precede our teaching of this? Someone help me. Did you see that in verse one? What must precede our teaching? Found in verse 1. Jeff said, we need to know these things, we need to teach them. It says, now these are the commandments and statutes and the judgments the Lord your God commanded to teach you that ye might do them. in the land. So we need to apply these things to our lives as parents and grandparents first. So we must have that as part of our own training and development. You're a part of a good church that teaches, but even beyond the walls of this church we need to be studying God's Word ourselves so that we are prepared to answer the questions that will no doubt come up. So the thing that must precede our teaching of our children and grandchildren is that we must have a good understanding of God's Word ourselves. Verse 2 contains who is responsible, that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou and thy son and thy son's son all the days of thy life, and that thy days may be prolonged. You see, verse 2 talks about the generational aspect of the parenting. I know some of you are grandparents and you have a responsibility to, in this generational aspect of the teaching process, you have a responsibility to your grandchildren. Now most of that training of your grandchildren will take place through the teaching you gave to your children as they train your grandchildren. But we also have Pastor Sweatt and Ellen have modeled a good way for us to follow the training of our grandchildren as well for us. So we have responsibility there in the generational aspect of this. Now the one thing that stuck out to me though in verse 2, if you look at the second line there, that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God and keep all his statutes and commandments. Keep them. Bible says in James 1, 22, but be doers of the word and not hearers only. In the rest of this passage, we'll see that there is instruction on teaching and training of our children. We'll talk about that in a few minutes. But before we even get there, we need to apply these things to our own lives first. I know I hearken back to my Christian education days, my Christian school days when I was leading Christian schools. And one of the things I noticed, particularly in teenagers, that was very frustrating to teenagers is to have a mom and dad that expected one thing from them and then did not live that life themselves. There was hypocrisy taking place in that home. Frankly, in the families that I dealt with, it was easier for us in some ways to minister to a teenager that comes from an unsaved home than it was to minister to someone that comes from a home where there's a lot of hypocrisy taking place there, where they come just Sunday morning and they have their Sunday meeting clothes on and they have their smiles on their faces and they had just done some very bad things before they got there. So it really is important for us to apply these words, God's Word to our lives first, to keep all these statutes and commandments. So what must precede? We must apply God's Word to our lives. Second point, who's responsible? We as parents. Now whether we're choosing a Christian school, whether we're choosing homeschooling, or whether we're choosing to put our children in a public school, the responsibility does not change. I know sometimes whenever people put their children in a Christian school, you think, well, okay, they'll take care of that. They can check that one off my list, but you can't do that. You can check off allowing them to help you, but you cannot check off the responsibility. We hold the responsibility, regardless of what takes place, regardless of what happens. We have the responsibility of the training and teaching process there. Now, I know that some of you that have your children in public school, you may have some degree of trepidation about that at times. You want to make sure you're teaching. At least, I hope you're doing that. We'll talk about some of the strengths and weaknesses of each educational choice a little bit later. But it really is important for us to recognize that it is our responsibility as parents and grandparents to teach the children. Now in verse 2, verse 4, and verse 5, we see what we should teach. And I'm going to want your help in this section. Verse 2, verse 4, and verse 5, let's read verse 2. that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou and thy son, thy son's son, all the days of thy life, that thy days be prolonged. Verse 4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might. So we should fear the Lord thy God, we should keep His statutes and His commandments. The Lord our God is one Lord, and that should be central to our thinking and training. And we should love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, thy soul, and might. Now, that passage, those few verses, can be applied to our current culture. Keeping His statutes and commandments. Are there things we find in here that might relate, that are statutes and commandments here that might relate to our current culture? That we maybe weren't even thought of back in this day? At least by anybody but God. Yeah, there are things. Tell me, what are some things that we're facing today? What are some things that we as parents and grandparents need to make sure we are effectively teaching our children using God's Word regardless of the educational choices you're making, regardless if it's public school or Christian school or homeschool? Give me some thoughts on what is going on right now in our culture that maybe the media is taking the side of it that is not this side. Or maybe if your children are in public school, maybe the public school is not taking God's side of this. Give me some issues. What are some items out there that are in the culture? Okay, drugs are one thing that's out there right now. The Bible talks about our bodies and how we should treat our bodies. What else? Pastor touched on some of it last week I believe. Yes? Okay, to honor the name of God so we should not take God's name in vain. Yes? Okay. So general decision-making following the word of God, the number of items that we've not hit yet. What are some other items? Yes. Pardon me? The value of life. Okay. Uh, is the abortion issue something you might hear, hear taught in some, some venue, maybe in biology class, whether it's especially in a public school setting. So the value of life, the sanctity of life. Someone else had their hand raised. Yes. Okay. Yeah, it's been taught today, and boy, it's been influenced by all the media, that those of us that believe this are the weird ones. We're the homophobes. If we teach this, excuse me for using that terminology, but that's what we see out there. You hear that a lot on the news today. And it's important for us, this is where we land. And this is what we must teach and train our children so that they don't absorb from the culture the idea that, well, it may be okay. That tolerance, is tolerance a pretty nice sounding word? Should we be tolerant? Should I be tolerant of Jeff? Should Jeff be, maybe a better question, should Jeff be tolerant of me? There's nothing wrong with being tolerant, is there? Isn't that a biblical principle to be tolerant? Okay, so what we do here, it's important for us to recognize that we, yes, we're tolerant of one another. We love our unsaved friends, but we need to reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we cannot endorse the sinful actions that would take place here. What are some other items? Yes. The Ten Commandments being eliminated from the public sector is really kind of interesting. If you ever go into Washington, D.C., or most state capitals, you look up at the building and you can see Moses holding, it's the Supreme Court, you can see him holding the Ten Commandments. Did you know that? I mean, there's a lot of biblical aspects that show evidence of a Christian culture way back then that are being ignored today. What are some other things? Yes, sir. Okay, very good. Someone else? Yeah, yeah. Someone else have a hand right back over here. Yes, sir. Okay. A lot of what the basis of what is the problem we're facing right now is that issue right there. Does our God, the Creator, have a right to tell us what to do? Does he have a right to describe the marriage as he has described the marriage here and what our role should be? Does the creator God have a right to do that? Of course he does. But if we don't have a creator, if we were evolved, then we don't have that creator. We don't have that person that has a right to do that. You see, that's really at the basis of a lot of what is going on within our culture there. Yes, sir. Okay, the cause and effect, the consequences of our actions certainly. Does the Bible talk about the handling of our finances? Yeah, about 1,200 times in Scripture. There are many, many, many verses that talk about the handling of our finances. Now, our federal government could learn some lessons from that, frankly. You know, we have money that comes in here, we have money that goes out there, and the money, they should come close to matching. If anything, the mark coming in is a little higher than the amount going out. That's a good concept for us to think about, and that's true in our own personal finances as well. So all of these sorts of things, whether it be the governmental aspect of finances or our personal decisions that we make, are important for us to consider. The safety net. I may get in a little bit of trouble here, but is there anything wrong with a government having a program in place for those that cannot work, that cannot take care of themselves? Is there anything wrong with a government helping those people? That's not a trick question, by the way. There's nothing wrong with that. No, if they cannot help themselves, there's nothing wrong with a government there to help them. Is there anything biblically wrong with someone that will not choose to work, that chooses not to work, that will not work, is there anything wrong with the government paying their way? According to the Bible, yes, there's something wrong with that, believe it or not. The Bible says if we don't work, we shouldn't eat. Now I realize in certain economies there's nothing wrong with having short-term things to help people if there aren't the jobs out there. But I guess my point here is this. It really is important as far as what we should teach our children. There are so many things that if you watch the news, and I would, there's nothing wrong with watching the news with your teenager. Teenager may not wanna do that, and those teens are in here, they say, oh, dad, please. Don't listen to him. But to watch and then put it on pause, and then talk about the biblical, how did that sound as it relates to this? What they just said, does that make sense to you? What do you think about that? Well, it sounds pretty good to me. Well, let's see what the Bible says about that. And so do some deprogramming of what is going on in our culture. Just about every item you see on the news today, you can go to this and land on one side or the other of the issue. whether it's right or whether it's wrong. So it really is important for us as far as what we teach our children for them to be taught that. Now, depending on what educational choices you're making, in the public school, they are not gonna be taught these things. They just are not. So it is important for you to make sure you do that. And frankly, in a lot of Christian schools, they aren't gonna be taught these things. I was astounded as I visited a number of Christian schools back a number of years ago, and they use secular textbooks. uh... they really were coming from a secular philosophy and it really was was discouraging to me to see all that taking place in a number of Christian schools uh... you that have children in Christian schools here you can make your own choice about what is taking place here in the school that you have your children in here but you cannot absolve yourself of the responsibility to teach your children these things that comes to you from God and so you need to know what's going on if a school administrator rebels against you asking what's going on, then he shouldn't be followed. You shouldn't have your children in that school. A good school administrator will be happy to have a parent that wants to be involved and wants to know what's going on in their children's life here. So what should we teach our children? Teach them God's Word, and God's Word as it relates to current culture. So make that application for them as well. There's so many other applications we can make, but we don't have the time to do that today, but it really is important for us to do this. Number four, why should we teach these things? Look at verse two. That thou mightest fear the Lord thy God to keep all his statutes and commandments. The last of the verse, that thy days may be prolonged. Verse three, it may be well with thee that you may increase mightily. Now, how many of you would like your family to go well? Would you like things to go well with you and your family? Yes? I don't know, there's some question marks here. Do we want things to go well in our families? Of course we do, yes we do. Then we need to teach these things and to keep these things. That's the part of the promise of what God's saying here. If we want to go well, if we want thy days to be prolonged, it may be well with thee that you may increase mightily as the Lord God hath promised thee in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Then we can certainly apply that to our culture today as well. How do we teach these principles? Look at verse 4 through 6. So before you teach, we need to have that kind of passion about it ourselves. Now, what does that say? Now, we have a good crowd here on a Sunday night. It's a good crowd tonight. What does that say about us, though, if we come to church on a Sunday morning, but we don't show up on Sunday night? What are we saying to our children? It's not important to come on Sunday nights, right? Is church that important or not? Will there be things said here or here that might be helpful for us on Sunday night or Wednesday night? I'd encourage you to be faithful in all the services, if for no other reason, than for us to have that same passion that's described here about these principles and the Word of God as stated here. When should we teach? Let's go to verse seven. Look at verse seven. And thou shalt teach them, what's the word? Diligently. Diligently. Now, let me ask you this question. It's kind of rhetorical, so you don't have to answer it. But your children, let's say, aside from the homeschoolers in here, you send your children to school. They come home from school. What's the first question you ask? Do you have any homework? Or did you get in trouble? No. Did you get in trouble today? No. Your homework or something. But do you spend much time discussing with them the things that they learn throughout the day? Or do you look at the textbook? I know whenever I was in graduate school, I had one of my projects. I had to write a paper on the revisionist history. going on. If you don't know much about that topic, I'd encourage you to investigate that, to do a study on that. Because in the textbooks in all or most public schools and in most, I'm sorry to say, in many Christian schools, there's a revisionist history going on, especially in our U.S. or world history texts. Let me give you an example. I was studying the text, a number of texts, as I was doing this paper, and in a number of the textbooks by well-known publishers, there was two or three-page spread on Marilyn Monroe and a paragraph about George Washington. And the one thing said about George Washington, about his character, was he had a bad temper. Now, what is that saying to the kids that are taking that class? What's important, Marilyn Monroe or George Washington or Abraham Lincoln? It really is important for you to know what's going on in the textbooks there. Now, regarding all of these sorts of things, the Citizen Impact event coming up here in a couple weeks, you that have teenagers, I'd encourage you to come. It's free, for goodness sake. It'd be a wonderful event. I went to one of Paul's events that he had for the pastors down at the Capitol, and it was excellent. Pastor Traup and I went over to it, and it was excellent. Some great speakers, the congressmen that are Christians, that are believers, that would encourage you and will help you and your children, your teens to know what they should be doing and how they should be doing and what they should be thinking about our government and how they might be able to influence that. So I hope you'll come to this. And also, for you that, that need some help in some of these areas. I say about the revisionist history, Paul, I know Paul sells several books here. I don't know when we don't have him at that event, I would guess. So if you want to buy one of his books on the history of our government, he's got some great books about that. Mike Bowman can get you some books, I guess a Rebecca book. I'm not sure how that would work for you, Mike, homeschool connection there. But see Mike, I know he can get you hooked up with some good texts that you can find. Many of you know Tim Morgan. who lives in Greenville now, he's involved in heading up the BJ Press material. So, there's lots of great materials out there today that really can help you in the instruction of your children in these things, in biblical ways, and I would encourage you to take advantage of those opportunities. Verse 7, when should we teach? Teach some diligently unto thy children, and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, when thou risest up. So, when should we teach? all the time. You see a billboard? Let's teach. You watch the news? Let's teach. You have a conversation? Let's teach. By the way, if your child gets into an argument with someone else at school, what's the best solution for that? Have them work back through it. Don't teach them and have them work back through that. Don't you get involved yourself, have them work back through that. So you're teaching them how to handle life and how to handle situations in life. Are they gonna have to face that one day? work them back through that at that moment. What methods should we use? Look at verse 8 and verse 9. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and thou shalt be as frontless between thine eyes. Of course we are talking about phylacteries here. We don't have the phylactery if we don't use that today of course. And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sweareth unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee a great and goodly city which thou buildest not. The Verse 8 and verse 9, and it's binding for a sign upon thy hand. What is an application of that, the phylacteries used then? What's an application of that to our lives today? Okay, memorizing Scripture, that's what they had in the phylacteries was Scripture. What else? What else can we do? What's an application to our culture today, to your home today, that we find in that passage? There are some other things. Give you a hint. Yes, sir. Yeah, have scripture around the house. Have Walp, instead of having these beautiful, is it Kincaid, or some of these beautiful pictures, have some scripture there and talk about that scripture. Talk to your children about that scripture, your grandchildren about that scripture. So yeah, have those things around the house so that when someone walks in your home, they quickly know this must be a Christian home. ever walked into a, whenever you were buying your home, you're doing the terrible task of looking for houses. Have you ever done that? All of us have done that one time or the other probably. But you walked through a number of homes. Have you ever walked into a home and you know this is a Christian family here? You can see that on the walls. You can see the Bibles on the nightstand. You see a little devotional guide here or there. And you say, this is a Christian family. And that encourages you that this is a Christian family here in this home. You may or may not buy the home, but it's encouraging to you. And someone ought to walk into your, if someone walked into your home today, would they know that this is a Christian home? just by the home, the house itself? Is there anything wrong with putting up, I'm not against decorations, I'm for decorations. Christi is much more for decorations than I am for decorations, but she loves that kind of thing. But you can incorporate scripture in the decoration, I would encourage you to do that. And then what are the dangers, we have to quickly finish here, what are the dangers of the second and third generation Christianity? Look at verse We read verse 10 a minute ago, verse 11, What's it talking about there? How might that be applied to our lives today? Yes, sir. Yeah. You hear what he said? Could you hear that back there? We have so much that we have forgotten. And with that, you're saying that we have not shared that with our children as well, that we are blessed, that God has, Sean mentioned this morning in the message that we have so much. We have so, so much, more than we could possibly need. Should we be thankful for it? Yes. Should we use it for God's glory? Absolutely. Absolutely. One of the reasons I'm very thankful about the missions program we have here, it really is important for us to reach out to others. And I believe one of the reasons that God has blessed this ministry because of that focus and because of that ministry. So to whatever degree you're not participating in that, I'd encourage you to participate in that. Have your children be a part of that and have an others fund where you're giving to others. You're giving out to others, giving to missionaries, giving to others in need maybe. But it really is important for us to be thankful for what God has done and to teach and train our children to have that same attitude of gratitude as they give to others. Now, let's talk briefly about the options for our children. We have public school, we have homeschool, we have Christian school. What I've decided to do here tonight was to just basically list some of the dangers of each. And believe it or not, there are dangers of each. I know some of you are saying they're not of mine, not my choice. I've got the good choice. I'm doing the right thing. So therefore, there's no dangers in my choice. May I say to you, there's dangers in every one of the choices. of how you might educate your children. Here are some of the dangers. Let's start with public education. The danger, believe it or not, is I don't think the primary danger is the friends, social interaction, and that kind of stuff. I know that sometimes we run away from that kind of thing. Can that be a danger? Yes. It can be a danger for some of your children more than others of your children, frankly, so you should make an individual choice each year. based upon your own children's life. I believe the more insidious danger is the philosophy. The biological sciences, we've mentioned them earlier. Some of the issues coming down the pike right now, with the cloning. You know, some of the DNA issues. There's a lot of stuff coming down here. The social sciences. The U.S. history at its appropriate place in the world. I've already mentioned some good resources for you for that. Governmental policy, capitalism, free enterprise. Has capitalism been good for the United States through the years? It has been. Are there downsides to that? Are there some checks because of the greed aspect of that? Yeah, there is. But we should recognize and be careful about what is being taught there. The philosophy is there. Now, regarding the friends and the social interaction there, that certainly is a danger, appropriate leadership, teachers and administration. The Bible says in Psalms, So we need to be careful about our children and who they are friends with. I've often said this, I don't think it is as important for us to have our children taken out of, away from those that are unsay. They need to be influencing those around them. they need to be influencers of those around them. And as they come in contact with someone that's unsaved, to be an evangelist, to reach them with the gospel of Christ. If they cannot do that, then we may have to pull the reins in a little bit on them, if they're being influenced by those things. So it's important for us to apply that passage as well. Homeschooling, the dangers, appropriate socialization, There's been a lot of changes in the homeschool community in the last number of years. I remember back whenever I was, I left the school office around 2002. in that range, 2002 or so. And a lot has changed in the last 11 years, 10 or 11, 12 years there. I know whenever I was in the office, I had a staff of mine that anyone that transferred out of our school, I knew where they went and what school they went to. I knew that. Those that came into the school, I knew what school they came from. So is that valuable for me to know? You think? Yeah, sure it is. It's valuable for us to know where they're going. I might check out, if it's a Christian school, what are they doing down there? Let's go check that out, see what they're doing down there. But in the homeschool side of things, we had a 15 to one ratio of 15 children coming into the school from homeschooling and for every one that goes out to homeschooling, that was the ratio. Now that was when it was really a difficult thing to homeschool. It's not, I'm not taking anything away from you that are homeschooling. I know it's a difficult task, but it is not nearly as difficult as it used to be. You've got a lot of resources there that we didn't used to have. And a lot of things I've touched on tonight are available to assist you in the homeschooling area. Sometimes inferior intellectual development is one of the dangers of homeschooling. Now, just the opposite is also true. For those that are doing a good job in homeschooling, it can be superior. I'll give you an example. I was in the office, and we admitted a second or third grader into the school. And when they took the entrance exam, they were a year or two below grade level. And that particular class was two or three grades above grade level. Can you see the problem here? And they were coming in, they'd homeschooled all their life, all the child's life. So we really put the child back a grade, So in hopes to try to move them back up, as soon as we can get them up to speed a little bit. That was the strategy at that time. Well, the child did not do well. Had a difficult time, and you can understand by what I just told you why they had a difficult time. In about six weeks, the mom met with me and said, you know, this is not going very well. And the child was struggling, but the child was making some progress. And I felt like at the end of the year, we might be able to move her back up, or at least another two years, move her back up. The mom wanted to take her home, homeschool her, so she can get her caught up. You understand what I just said? The child is already five grades below where we're teaching here, and they want to take her home to get her caught up. Now, did that child ever get caught up? No. So if you cannot help your child at home, then don't do it. It's too important to a child's development than that. But if you can, and there are so many resources that you can be effective at this, then by all means do that. Lack of real life cause and effect applied to the schooling. What do I mean by that? In the homeschooling community, a lack of real life cause and effect. What do I mean? In the teaching the classroom, the cause and effect relationship, if I don't study for this exam, if I'm in a school, what's going to happen when I take the exam? I'm likely not going to do very well. If you have a homeschool situation that is not very disciplined, what's going to happen? What's that? Let's take the test again, let's take the test again, let's take the test again, and again, and again, and again, and help the child along to do the test, right? And so the grade may look good, but did the child learn what needed to be learned? And I know that probably the vast majority of you do not do that sort of thing. I've seen that happen. from homeschool families. There is a danger there. So if you're homeschooling, make sure it's a legitimate program. Make sure you're holding your children accountable for what they should be learning there. And there is a real life cause and effect relationship to life and to their studies. Sometimes a lack of development of self-discipline, getting up at a prescribed time, following a prescribed schedule throughout the day. Scheduling can be a wonderful good thing, frankly, to homeschool, but also if you don't have the child on a schedule, it also can be a bad thing. Will more than likely your child have to go to work at a prescribed time at some point? Maybe, just maybe, they might. So it might be good for you to get, when they go to college, you think that when they go to XYZ Christian University, that they're gonna have to be there on time to school, to class? You think that doctor, whoever the president is, is gonna be okay with them not showing up? Oh, you homeschooled? Oh, no problem. Come on in when you wanna come in. Is that what they're gonna do? No. So you understand we can, I'm not saying it's impossible here. We can do this, but it's important for us to make sure there are some dangers to this. Now in the Christian school, there are some dangers as well. A false sense of biblical Christianity. That's, that's, I hate to say that, but that's the case where we really are. And Chris, first of all, you may be in a Christian school that may be very open in enrollment, and where there are very few Christians in the Christian school, therefore it's a prep school more than a Christian school. And so your children are learning not what true biblical Christianity is all about. And they may get to sense it all as well. If their children are in a public school, they know that's not right. But they go to kind of a watered down situation and they think, well, we're okay here. I like this kind of Christianity. It's a lot easier on me than what the Bible says, than following the word of God. The peer pressure. Might we see a peer pressure in a Christian school? Yeah, very much so. Very much so. And it really is important for us to teach the children to be influencers, not to be influenced. The philosophy taught, I hate to say that one as well, but the philosophy taught many times in Christian schools is not what it should be. It's not always biblical, often watered down, because if they have a number of churches that are represented in that school, they may say that, well, I can't teach that because I've got someone in class here that might disagree with that. or this parent, pretty influential parent, I can't teach that because they may take the children out of school. I know whenever I was in the school business, when people came into my office in an interview, what I said to them very clearly is, here's who we are, here's what we believe, and here's what we're going to teach. And this stands above all in all. This is it. If it says it here, then we believe it and we're going to follow it. And it makes no difference what stripe we may be, here's what we follow. That's, in my view, the best way to go about these sorts of things. And by the way, did I bring in the local youth pastors like Sean Cook to come in and preach in chapel? Are you kidding me? Yes, of course, to make sure that we had good, solid preaching that's going on there. So it's important that philosophy taught is often not right. And sometimes this Christian school is just a prep school with Christian in their name only. So in closing, it's important for us to know that Deuteronomy 6 outlines a passage for us that we can follow as our guide. Applying that to our lives, to our current culture, we can apply that to our lives and we can educate our children effectively. But we have to recognize and remember, if you get nothing else here today, let's remember that we are responsible. We're responsible. So take advantage of every minute of every day. Don't regret it coming at the end of the day. Take advantage of every moment of every day and teach and train these principles and you won't regret that. May God bless you as we do that. Let's have a closing word prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we love you, Lord. We're thankful for this church. We're thankful for Pastor Sweatt and his leadership here through these years. We're thankful for this Lord's Day and how much we've enjoyed our time together worshiping you. We believe that we have pleased you with the music today, with all that has been said and done. Lord, help us to leave here today with a renewed dedication to train our children in the way they should go using God's word in application to current culture every day, all day, as we have opportunities that come up, to teach them your word, your truth, so that our children will know that it is your word that is the most important book in the world, is your word that we must apply to our lives and every aspect of our lives. Dismiss us with your blessings here, Lord. Give us a wonderful week this week and bring the sweats back to us, Lord, as well, very safely in his name we pray. Amen. You dismiss.