I'm gonna ask you to turn in your Bibles to the last book of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi. We're going to pick up where we left off a couple months ago, and I know that all of you remember what we said last time. Maybe you could tell me, I'm not sure. But our study is on biblical parenting, And those of us who are parents and grandparents and great-grandparents, we need to perk up our ears and listen. It's important what God thinks and says about raising our children. I want you to turn to Malachi chapter four. I'm going to read the whole chapter. It's only six verses. Follow as I read. Very sobering text. For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly, will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear My name, the Son of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings, and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this, says the Lord of hosts. Remember the law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb, for all Israel with the statutes and the judgments. Behold, I will send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse." Four parts to this very short chapter. The first part, verse one, prophecy of judgment. And not a little judgment, a terrible judgment. And I don't think we can even begin to imagine how horrible that judgment's going to be. Verses two and three, there's a promise of blessing and triumph for God's people. Verse four, there's a precept. Remember the law of Moses. Verses five through six, there's a promise regarding Elijah. Now, as those of us who are parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, our children, I've been thinking about this all week, our children will either end up in the terrible judgment of verse two, of verse one, or the triumph and blessings of verses two and three. And what we do as parents is really, really important. Really, really important. These are the last recorded words of the Old Testament. And for about 500 years, God stops speaking. There's no prophetic word, only silence. For 500 years, until the angel from the Lord comes to a priest, a Jewish priest called Zachariah. And he says to Zachariah that you're going to have a son. You and Elizabeth are going to have a son. And he says that the child will serve God in the spirit and power of Elijah. to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." So, the last thing God said was the text we read in Malachi, and the first thing He says 500 years later is very similar from that same text. This turning of the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, It wasn't so much about fixing family relationships, though we live in an age and a generation where families are all fractured. It's not about fixing those relationships as it is about establishing God's authority over His people, and the most basic expression of God's authority is the family. Malachi chapter one, verse six. Let me just read it. A son, these are the words of God. God is speaking here through his prophet. A son honors his father and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? If I am a master, where is my reverence? Says the Lord of hosts. As we mentioned last time, the goal of biblical parenting, according to Luke chapter one, verse 17, is to make a people ready, prepared for the Lord. God has given us our children, and guess what? They're a stewardship. They're a stewardship of the grace of the gospel. We're to give them the gospel. We're to show them the way to Christ. We're to help prepare them for the Lord. What happens when fathers and children reject or ignore God's authority and God's government? What happens? Well, God is dishonored and the family brings on them a curse. The last word in the Old Testament is curse. And all of that, of course, brings what makes way for the glorious gospel of Christ. This little child, this son that Zachariah and Elizabeth would have, would be John the Baptist, pointing the way to Jesus. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and taking away the sin of the world, he takes away the curse. What can we do to avoid dishonoring God? Verse four. Remember the law of Moses. Remember the law of Moses, my servant. God gave Moses his law. Acts chapter 7 verse 38 says, the law was the living oracles of God. Why did he give Moses the law? To be an inflexible standard of righteousness. An inflexible standard of righteousness. Man knows nothing about inflexible standards of righteousness. We don't even care. God has an inflexible standard of righteousness. And the second reason that he's given us this law is to show us our sin. and our need for grace, and our need for a Savior. Romans 3.20, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Galatians 3.24, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now, let me ask you to turn to our text this morning. in Deuteronomy chapter six. And I hope that the outline will be helpful. Last time I told you that there are three key biblical principles for parenting found in this passage. And the first principle, let me read it first. Deuteronomy chapter six, I'm gonna read the first nine verses, please bear with me. Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commended to teach you that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess. What's he talking about? Chapter five are the statutes and the law and the commandments. What commandments? We call them the Ten Commandments, the moral law of God. And so he tells us what they are, and he says that you may observe them. that you may, verse two, that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, notice that, you and your son and your grandson, so there's responsibilities for grandparents, all the days of your life, that your days may be prolonged. Therefore, hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you, land flowing with milk and honey. Verse four, hear, O Israel, the Lord God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates. The first principle that we spoke about last time, verses 1 through 3, is the principle of authority. The principle of authority. The first and the most important lesson that we can ever teach our children is that there is a God in heaven who's omnipotent and omnipresent And He rules and He governs all His creation, and all His creatures, and all their actions. And He's invisible, we can't see Him. So most people, if you can't see, you can't believe. And they don't believe. But we need to teach our children about this God. This God, who governs everything, is both great, listen to me, great and good. He is incredibly great. He is awesome. Greater than we can even imagine. So great that we're to fear Him. And that doesn't mean cower and run away from Him. But it means to be in awe of Him, because He's so awesome. I often think about David's fight with Goliath. He's a teenager. He's a young kid, 16, 17, I don't know, just a young kid. And this warrior of the Philistines, nine feet, six inches tall, pretty high, scary. I'll tell you, if Goliath walked in this room, all of us would tremble. We would. We would. I would tremble. David didn't tremble. What amazes me? David took his slingshot and his stones, and he ran at him! Are you kidding me? Why would he do that? Because he feared God. God is so good and kind. He's a Father. Those of us who believe, God is a Father, and He loves us, but we're still in awe of Him. He is good, and He is great, and in His goodness, God tells us what He wants us to do. Did you hear what I said? In His goodness, God tells us what He wants us to do. And everyone, everyone including Daddy and Mommy and all the children must fear and obey Him. But they don't. And that's the problem. That's the big problem. That's the problem. Why do we have such a mess in our society? Because people don't fear and obey God. Why don't they fear and obey God? Because they don't know Him. They don't believe. The problem for our children, just like mom and dad, we were all born morally wild, and stubborn, and self-centered, and rebellious. In fact, the Apostle Paul, in describing the natural man, in Ephesians 2, verse 2, says, they're children of disobedience. I don't want you to look at the little ones, but think about them. They're children of disobedience. That's in their hearts. In our moral depravity, our wills are bent away from God and twisted toward ourselves. As parents to our children, we're not only to be image bearers of God's character. And what's his character? He's loving. He's holy. He's compassionate. He's just. He has mercy. He is very patient. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. God is so good, and he's great, but we're also representatives of God's authority to our children. I don't think we realize that. When we tell our children to do something, sweetheart, will you go throw the garbage? And the little sweetheart is not a sweetheart. Little sweetheart says no, and so we throw it. Guess what you've done? You've rejected God's authority because you've not held that child accountable. Because if that little one, when he's five years old and he doesn't throw the garbage later on, guess what he's gonna do? He's gonna steal the keys to your car and take it when he wants to. I've seen it. Ted Tripp and his shepherding the child's heart, I would recommend it to anyone, all parents. God calls His creatures to live under authority. He is our authority and has vested authority in people within the institutions He has established, home, church, state, and business. You must not be embarrassed to be authorities for your children. You exercised authority as God's agent. You must not direct your children for your own agenda or convenience. You must direct your children on God's behalf for their good. As a parent, you must require obedience of your children because they're called by God to obey and honor you. You must exercise authority, not as a cruel taskmaster, but as one who truly loves them. Now, that's all review. But I believe it's about 90% of all parity. Children need to learn to come under authority. Mom and dad's authority because they're representatives of God. If we don't take that authority, if we don't act responsibly, then how can we wonder that our children wander away when they become teenagers and they're so rebellious and stubborn and obstinate? We only have ourselves to blame. Second principle is the principle of divine priority. Look at verse 4. Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And though there are many false, make-believe, manufactured gods with a small g, There's only one true God. He's the Living God. He's our Maker. He's our Ruler. He's our Provider. He's our Lawgiver. He's our Savior. And He demands and He deserves our first and best thoughts, affections, and desires. Not because He needs them. Because we need Him. Teaching our children that God must have first place in their hearts and lives is not merely a good idea. It's God's commandment. And God's commandments, and this is the problem, because we live in a generation, in a peculiar generation, at a peculiar time, when authority is something, it's a bad word. God's commandments are always, always, always for our good. Look at chapter five, verse 29. And this is after giving the 10 commandments, re-giving of the 10 commandments after the 38 some odd years in the wilderness, wandering around. just before going into the promised land. Verse 29, here's God's heart, comes out, really comes out. Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear me and always keep all my commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever. God says, oh, that they would always keep my commandments. that it may be well with them. And we live in a generation, I think, many evangelical Christians say, well, law has no part with us. We don't have anything to do with the law. Dear ones, the law is good. If you handle it biblically, it's for our good. It's for our well-being. We had laws in our home when our kids were growing up laws, we commanded our children to do things. We had a canal in the back of our yard, backyard, in Miami. It was about 30 feet deep and about 50 feet wide. And when we first moved in, the deacons were concerned. We had a little two-year-old. They said, you have to put a fence back there. And I didn't want a fence. made a commandment. And the commandment was, you have to learn to swim, or you have to wear, every time you go out in the yard, you have to wear a vest, a life vest. So our little two-year-old, she was always wearing a vest. Inside the house, outside the house, front yard, back yard, she always had a vest on. And why did I want her to wear a vest? I didn't want her to drown. I was thinking about her. It wasn't about me. It was about her. It was my love for her. Dear ones, we need to look at God's commandments that way. He's doing them. He gives us these commandments for our good. Look at verse 33. You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days, and so forth." Chapter 6, verse 3 again. Therefore, hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you. It's about a well-being. It's about a good. An expert in the law of Moses once asked our Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 22, 36, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus quoted chapter six in verse five of Deuteronomy. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. This is the first and great commandment, the second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Well, why would God command us to love Him? Because we don't. All right. Why would He command us to love Him? Because God's commandments are good for us, and we can always take the commandment, turn it around, and it becomes a promise. that if we pray according to His will, we have whatever we ask for. So the commitments are good. This is His will. I know His will is to love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, to make Him a divine priority in my life, and in my children's lives. The whole idea of this principle of divine priority is fleshed out in what's called the Larger Catechism, written in 1647 by the Westminster Assembly, question 104. And you'll see why it's called the Larger Catechism. What are the duties required in the First Commandment? First Commandment, Deuteronomy chapter five and verse seven, you shall have no other gods before me. When I prayed earlier, I confessed the sin of idolatry. Some of us are idolaters, or most of us are idolaters, and we don't even know it. We don't even realize it. We're always putting things ahead of God. And when you don't observe divine priority, you are an idolater. When you don't do what you're supposed to do as parents, and you say, well, I'm gonna take care of my children, they need these things, they need these toys, you may very well be an idolater. But here's what the larger catechism says. Again, what are the duties required in the first commandment that you shall have no other gods before me? Listen to what our forefathers in the faith said. The answer, the duties required in the first commandment are the knowing and the acknowledging of God to be the only true God and our God. And I would have said, my God. It's important. He's my God. I want him to be your God, but he is my God. to worship and glorify Him accordingly by thinking, meditating, remembering, highly esteeming, honoring, adoring, choosing, loving, desiring, fearing of Him, believing Him, trusting, obeying, hoping, delighting, rejoicing in Him, being zealous for Him, calling upon Him, giving all praise and thanks and yielding all obedience and submission to Him with a whole man being careful in all things to please Him, sorrowful when in anything He is offended, walking humbly before Him. In other words, it's all fleshed out. This is what it means to make God our priority. As parents, we need to train our children that God deserves and ought to be given first place in their hearts and lives. And it's not an easy task. It's hard. In fact, Jesus said, Matthew chapter 10, 37, he who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son and daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it. He who loses his life for my sake will find it. So how do we go about giving our children to put God first? How do we do that? Well, this brings us to the third principle of biblical parenting, and that is the principle of biblical saturation. The principle of biblical saturation. Look at verse six. And these words, which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes, and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. I know you can take all of this literally and put signs all over your house. I love the Lord, I love the Lord, I love the Lord. And the Jews did something very similar to that. But that's not what it means. It means we need to saturate our lives with the Lord and his word. And you know what saturate means is to soak something, to drench it, to fill it thoroughly and completely. You take a dry sponge, and you put it in a basin of water, and what happens? Especially those little thin ones, and then also they grow bigger, and then they only grow so big, and they can only take so much water, and they reach the point of saturation. Our challenge as parents is to so thoroughly, thoroughly saturate our home environment, our family routine, with the truth and the practical realities of God's Word, that our homes are filled with the spiritual realities of God. And there are four factors involved in this principle of biblical saturation. The first factor is the factor of example, verse 6. These words which I command you shall be in your heart. They shall be in your heart. God is addressing parents. You want to saturate your family and your home? with the wonders of God, and the love of God, and the word of God, and the truth of God. You wanna do that? You start with your own heart. If we as parents hope to saturate our home environment with the truth of God's word, we need that in our own hearts of ours. Have to. Godly parenting is not about putting on your best spiritual face. It's about living a life that is pleasing to God, being a true follower of Jesus. You say, but I'm so imperfect. I make so many mistakes. Then tell your children about it. Confess your sins to your children when you sin against them, sweetheart. Daddy got angry, and I shouted at you, and I shouldn't have shouted at you that way, and I was angry with a sinful anger, because I was impatient about something at work, and something was bothering me, and I have no excuse, but please, will you forgive me? Forgive Daddy for his anger and his sinful heart and sinful ways that he expressed his anger to you. I don't know how many times I've done that, Our children need to see, they need to see as well as hear the truth from us. Proverbs 23, 26, this text is often just moot, convicted me. Solomon says, my son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways. If what our children see does not match with what we say, guess what? They're gonna reject everything. Maybe even dad and mom. J.C. Ryle in his Duties of Parents writes, instruction and advice and commands will profit little unless they are backed up by the pattern of your own life. To give children good instruction and a bad example is beckoning them with the head to show them the way to heaven while we take them by the hand and lead them to hell. What they see has a much stronger effect on their minds than what they are told. They care. Take care, then, what you do before your child. So, the first factor is the factor of example. The second factor is the factor of time. We're so programmed into thinking that we need to give our children quality time, and yet God's Word tells us we need to give our children quantity time. Quantity time. Look at verse 7. Look at it. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. Quantity time. One of the most important things that we can give to our children is our time. And when we give them our time, we're showing them that we really do love them, because we want to be with them. But we live in the rat's race world, that we've got to make the buck, and making the buck means I've got to stay at work, and there's tension, and there's struggle, and I neglect my family in the process. So I make the buck, and I lose my children. God will provide for you. He's always providing for us. He always provides for His people. When we trust Him, He'll provide for us. One way or another, He will provide for us. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. And in the context, all things are clothing and food and housing and so forth. Okay, quantity time. How much time? How much? How much time? Effective parenting means that both fathers and mothers give their children sufficient time to nurture and cultivate love, truth, trust, affection, and faith in them. How can we do this? How do we do this if we're so busy? Dear ones, if we're too busy to do what God says, we're way too busy. And we've got the wrong priorities. And I hope none of you are saying, ah, Pastor Wheeler, you have it easy. You don't have any children anymore. Yeah, I've got one left. We have six. We raised the six kids. You say, but you don't know how it is to be out in the real world. Yes, I do. I spent 20 years in the military. And in the military, they tell you to do something that's a different story than being in a company. They tell you to go here, you go. So I know. I don't know what your situation is like, but I know how difficult it can be. We just have to make the right choices. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All these things will be added to you. Ecclesiastes 3.1, to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. We have to make time, scheduled time for our children, and then we have to make the most of the time that we have with them. Ephesians chapter five, see them that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. John Calvin, I was interested in what he would say about redeeming the time. He says this, And what shall be the price of its redemption? To withdraw from the endless variety of allurements which would easily lead us astray, to rid ourselves from the cares and the pleasures of the world, and in a word, to abandon every hindrance. So take a note, we're gonna stop right there. I see most of you are falling asleep. No, no. No, but I think it's wise to stop right there. And let me close with, what can we do? And we'll continue Lord willing next week on biblical parenting number three. What can we do to promote this kind of happiness and blessing in our children? What can we do? We must really love them. We must really love them. If we really love them, the world says, then buy them lots of toys. Give them things. Let them eat what they want. Fruit loops in the morning, every morning. Until they become 16 and way, way, way overweight, then what do you do? If you really love your children, if we really love our children, We'll give them ourselves and we'll give them the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we really love our children, we are going to make their souls a priority in our lives as parents. It's about their souls. Fast forward your time. I'm so glad that our young people come out. Young people, families, some of you could be my grandchildren. I'm so glad that you come in the morning. Dear ones, I want you to consider, strongly consider when we start doing Sunday school. Come in in the morning for Sunday school. Why? Because you're being an example, at the very least, to your children. It'll be helpful. And if it's not helpful, complain to me, tell me. Come to the evening service. Tonight's gonna be a blessing. Come to the Wednesday prayer meeting so that we can pray together. Be an example to your children of biblical godliness. The very best things that we can give to our children are not things at all. We need to give ourselves and our Savior to them. As parents, we should ask ourselves a question. Have I been faithful with the stewardship God has given me of my children? Stewardship. They're not your children. They're just given to you for a little time. Your money is not your money. It's God's money. He gave it to you. The things that you have, they're not yours. God gave them to you. He gave you your health and your body. We're stewards of everything God has given us. Have I been faithful with the stewardship God has given me of my children? Am I teaching my children the biblical principle of subjection? Do I exemplify this principle in my own life? Do I make it easy for my children to obey me? Or am I too strict or too demanding? And you can be that way. Any parent ever been too strict or demanding? Yes. Am I careful and patient to explain what I would like for them to do? Do I make it easy for my children to honor me? Do I exemplify God's gracious character to them? Am I loving, sensitive, sincere, righteous, merciful, kind, patient, faithful, and grateful? And do they see it? I love to see pictures of my grandchildren. If you're on Facebook, then make sure you have Gabriel Cristinas, your friends, so you can see little Shiloh underneath the truck. Was it a truck? Vehicle? Truck? Helping her dad work under the truck. That's spending time with your children, and she loves it. Am I courteous, respectful, here's a big one, and encouraging with them? Some of us can be so negative. We're always negative. We say, we just look for faults. Dear ones, don't look for faults. Look to commend them. Be biblical, be biblical. Paul was gonna deal with the problems and the faults of the church of Corinth, but he begins by praising them. Look at chapter one. And then the second thing we can do, and we must do, show and tell them the gospel. Some of us that are older, when we went to school, we used to have show and tell. And somebody would bring their little pet rabbit and a yo-yo and show them how you can do the yo-yo and other things. Show and tell. Well, we need to show and tell our children the gospel. The three R's of the gospel, there's lots of three R's. Spurgeon has it a little differently than I do. But the three R's of the gospel, here's Spurgeon's, ruined. They're ruined. Our children are ruined. They need to learn that. There's no sense of telling them the good news unless they know the bad news. They're ruined. Imagine. I'm gonna pick on Elijah. Elijah, imagine you were out in the backyard over here, walking around, kicking the ball, saying, good thing that Josiah's not here, I'd beat him in this soccer game. And kicking the ball, and all of a sudden, you go down in a sinkhole. I don't know if they have sinkholes in Virginia. They have them in Florida. But you go down in a sinkhole, not a little one, a big one. You go all the way down about 50 feet. And you land on your feet, and it's full of mud, and it's full of water, and you're up to your knees in mud. What are you gonna do, Elijah? Guess what? Some more mud falls down on you, and you're completely in mud, but you still have your head above the mud. What do you do, Elijah? Dad, help me! Right? If dad's not home, you call for mom. What a mess. You're ruined. Here's the truth. Our children, including Elijah, have a dirty, filthy, messy heart. That's the truth. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Only God can fix the dirty, filthy, messy heart. You can't fix it. I can't fix it. Religion can't fix it. Only God can fix it. But here's the problem. We don't know God. We don't know God because we're dead to God. And we don't care about God. And we don't care about having a messy, filthy, dirty heart until You're alive and you're real. If Elijah fell in that pit and he was smothered and then he cries and then Noah said, and the mud covers him, he's finished. He doesn't cry anymore. That's the reason why people don't cry to God, because they don't realize that they're dead in their trespasses and sins. And the scripture says, and this is one of the texts that we've often told our children, numbers, I think it's numbers, it's in the text, 32, 23, or 23, 32. You have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. My sin and your sin. And we tell our children that. You're ruined, you're ruined. The second R is redeemed. God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus, to save sinful people from the muck and the filth of their sins. Romans 3.23, All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1.7, in Him we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. You've heard me say this a number of times. Dear ones, you have to know this and understand this. God does not just forgive sin. He can't. He can't. God does not just forgive sin. He's got to punish it. He has to. He's holy. I had a debate with a Muslim that way. He said, well, God just forgives. How? He's holy. God does not just forgive sin. He has to punish it. Salvation is always through judgment. It is. He punished all of my sins on my Savior on the cross. That's hard to understand, I think, for a lot of people, especially little kids. But he did. He punished all of my sins when he punished Jesus on the cross. And when Jesus hung on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He punished my sins in Jesus on the cross. And therefore, everyone who believes on Jesus is justified, forgiven, forgiven. How can he forgive sins? He punished Jesus for my sins, and by faith we're forgiven. And then the third, the third R is relationship or reconciliation. This is where I deviated a little bit from Spurgeon, but relationship, reconciliation. By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, when we believe, we are made acceptable to God. How acceptable? Perfectly acceptable. That inflexible law of perfect righteousness that the law shows me, Jesus kept it, and it's been put to my account by faith. By faith in Jesus Christ, we are made acceptable to God, even with all our sins and our moral filth. Romans 5.10, For if when we were enemies to God, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 1 John 1.3-4, we heard this a couple of weeks ago. that which we've seen and heard and declare to you, that you may have fellowship with us," says the Apostle John. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you, that your joy may be full. That's how you get joy. Have fellowship with God, the Father, the Son, the Spirit. Psalm 78, I wanted to close with this. I want you to think about all these things. It's no new thing under the sun. Israel had to deal with unregenerate, unbelieving generations. Psalm 78, we will not hide them from our children. telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He has done. For He has established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children, that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments, and may not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God. May God bless this word. And may God bless his people. And for those of you that have never seen the three R's in your own life, especially your ruin, God save your soul. Let's pray. Lord, help us, we pray. Bless your people, bless your dear ones, bless your sheep. Bless the children in our church, how we love them and we want to do good to them. Please bless all the parents. Help them, Lord. Help them. Help them to delight in you. Help them to love you with all their beings. Bless your word by your spirit, we ask in Jesus name. Amen.