Well, first of all, it's lovely to be with you tonight. And I want to thank again your minister and the session here for giving us the opportunity to come back and to keep you updated with what the Lord's doing amongst the boys and the girls. It's funny the things that come into your mind. And as we were singing that first hymn, a thought suddenly struck me that many, many years ago as a young teenager, Having been away on a youth fellowship weekend, our youth fellowship leader had arranged that our young people, on their way home on the Lord's Day, would come here and sing in the service. Now, something happened between dinnertime and teatime. And what happened was this, as far as I can recall. I was standing in my Sunday best. We had finished our dinner. I had my hands in both my pockets. And somebody with a little bit of high spirit ability still in them, hadn't quite finished their weekend, made a big grab at me. And my treasures tore from the pocket down to the ankle on one side. And we were going to go to Port Glenone to sing. And so I can recall, dear help him, our youth fellowship leader had a spare pair of trousers. Now, I was only young at the time, 15 or 16. He was fully grown, like myself, in every direction. And he lent me his spare trousers. And I can remember, I think it was standing here with their young people. With a belt on these trousers, regardless of the belt or not, I still had to bundle them up and hold them like this. And I can remember singing as best I could. Thankfully, we don't have problems like that tonight. It's a lovely joy to be with you. And it's just funny how you remember things that I had forgotten that long, long ago. And it's just come back to me fresh. Shouldn't maybe even shared it with you, but it's too late now. But it's lovely to be here. And you know, whenever we do come to do teputation meetings, we do find that there's certain language that we have to use, and sometimes we're not very comfortable with it. And what I mean by that is very simply this. Tonight as we speak and as we give this little report, there'll be an awful lot of I this, I that, and I the other thing. And we have to say it in that way because this is the work that the Lord has put us into. But I would hope tonight very early on, very speedily, that if you see anything tonight of eternal value, anything of the furtherance of the gospel, anything of salvation amongst boys and girls, know this, that it's all off the Lord. I'm really only here tonight to give you a report on what the Lord's doing. And I trust that as we do so, that we'll rejoice, because the Lord has not finished with us. The Lord is gracious. The Lord is good. And the Lord has been blessing. And the Lord has been saving boys and girls in most wonderful, wonderful ways, here and there, far and yonder. The Lord is saving our little ones. And we have much to rejoice in that that is the case even tonight. Now, whenever we come tonight to speak, we want to share just a few thoughts with you from God's Word. Now, we'll not go too in-depth because I leave that to more capable people. And then what we will do, we'll go straight into the little report. And then at the very end, we're going to show this little five-minute PowerPoint presentation. We've kept that to the end, and hopefully then you'll stay to the end as well and not get tired listening to me. And whenever you see all the little pictures coming, that hopefully everything that I've said, sometimes it does feel a little bit disjointed when you're up at the front and you're speaking. Maybe it doesn't come across that way, hopefully not. But after we're all said and done, whenever you see the pictures, hopefully they'll all come together and your hearts will be refreshed and blessed in what the Lord's doing. You know, somebody once said that a picture's worth a thousand words. And I can remember in Bible college, I don't know about your brother, but during the exams, no matter how many pictures I drew, they wanted the thousand words every time and on every occasion. So with that said, it's lovely to be here. We want you to turn just tonight with me for a few moments to the book of Exodus. And we just want to share very, very briefly just a few very simple thoughts. I want tonight very briefly to speak on the fact that the devil, Satan, has a ploy to keep our children out of church. Did you know that? And Satan has a plan to infiltrate and disrupt our children's education. I hope you know that. And Satan also has many places prepared. to take your child to a lost eternity. They're all in the wings, sitting, waiting, prepared to draw your child to those places. Exodus chapter 10, it's a very long narrative. It's a story that hopefully you'll know quite well. We have the children of Israel in bondage, in slavery, in great trouble, in great distress, crying out to the Lord. And the Lord, after many, many years, sends a deliverer by the mouth of Moses. And in Exodus chapter 10, Moses again, along with Aaron, comes to stand before Pharaoh to tell Pharaoh to release the people as it is the command of God to do so. Pharaoh, of course, hardens his neck and hardens his heart, and time and time again, Plague after plague comes that way. So in chapter 10, we find in verse number eight that Moses and Aaron were brought again onto Pharaoh. And he said unto them, this is Pharaoh, go serve the Lord your God. But who are they that shall go? And Moses said, we will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters. With our flocks and with our herds will we go, for we must hold a feast unto the Lord. And he said unto them, let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go. And your little ones, look to it, for evil is before you. Not so, go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord. For that ye did desire, and they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence." Just with our Bibles open, we want just to seek the Lord afresh, ask for His help in the meeting tonight, and for blessing from above. Dear Lord, we just thank Thee that we've been able to open Thy Word. Thank Thee, O Lord, even for the ability to see and to read Thy Word. even to an extent to comprehend what is on the page. But, O Lord, for that deeper understanding of the things of God, here we lack, here we are empty, and we cry unto Thee for fullness and power and the Spirit of God and the ability to listen and the ability to obey and the desire to serve. For we ask it in our Savior's name. Amen. As we said a few minutes ago, we want to touch on three things. The first of those three things are found in the passage before us. The fact that the devil, Satan, has a ploy to keep our children out of God's house. Whether it be the Sunday services or the children's meeting or the youth fellowship or the Sunday school, the devil does not want boys and girls occupying the pews or the chairs of the little back room in any shape, fashion, or form. And we have here before us tonight an example of this very thing. This man, Pharaoh, as well as being the leader of ancient Egypt, as being the government and the powerhouse of that nation, he is also and can also be seen as a type of the old devil. And we want to look at him tonight as a type of Satan. And in verse number eight, whenever Moses and Aaron are brought again onto Pharaoh, he said onto them, go serve the Lord, your God. And suddenly it seems as if a glimmer of hope is held out an olive branch. And it looks for a moment that these two men are going to get what the Lord has demanded by their mouths before Pharaoh. But you and I have got to remember that Pharaoh is a man of political means. And like many, many of those here in political power, there is one mouth and two different things come out of each side. And what seemed to be so grand at the beginning, so good a start, suddenly is pulled out from under them. Because it goes on to say that Pharaoh says, but who are they that shall go? Hold on, who's going to go? You can go and serve, but who is going to go? Verse number nine is a terrific verse for those who seek to say a little word for the Lord in public. For those who maybe want to give a word of testimony, for those who maybe want to say, speak in the youth fellowship or on the open air or in the pulpit Sunday by Sunday. Because in verse number nine, Moses faithfully repeats verbatim God's command. Moses doesn't add to what the Lord has commanded. Moses doesn't flower it up or paint it in a different light. Moses certainly doesn't take away from what the Lord's command is. And for those who would seek to speak for the Lord, you say what the Lord would have you to say from his word. And Moses said, we will go with our young, that's a good start, and with our old, and of course all in between. With our sons and with our daughters, there's the family unit. With our flocks and with our herds will we go. Now of course we wouldn't encourage you to bring your flocks and herds to the services, but there is a reason for that and we'll touch on that in a minute or two. For we must hold the feasts unto the Lord. He says exactly as the Lord told him to say. But then verse number 10 and verse number 11, because of the nature of how it's written in the old English, if you were just to read it very quickly through, you might lose the sense of it. If you've got good commentaries, there's the time to take them out. Because it comes across a little bit difficult But in verse number 10 and verse number 11, you have Pharaoh's answer. And I want just to paraphrase what he said, put it into a very simple language. Pharaoh said to them, I will let you go. But what about your little ones? What about your children? Some evil will befall them. They're going out to the wilderness. Something will happen to them. Now we can't have that, can we? only the men can go. You see this old rascal, picture of the devil, full of ploy and slipperiness and cunning. He didn't want the wee ones going out. He didn't want them to see how to worship God. He didn't want them to see the form of the worship, and that's where the flocks come in. They were going to be coming to the Lord on the sprinkled blood, the shed blood, the sacrificial ground. And the little ones would see that and learn from that and realize that they had to come the blood-sprinkled way. And the devil does not want our children to see that, and he does not want them to see that today in the services and the church, and he does not want you to tell them of the cross. Sunday school teacher, youth worker, minister, does not want you to tell them of their need of salvation. Does not want you to dwell on those things. He does not want them here at all. But not only does Satan have a ploy to keep our children out of church, and very quickly, we're just gonna touch on these next couple of points. We don't need to look them up tonight. But secondly, he has a plan to infiltrate our children's education, and to twist it, and to spoil it, and to taint it, and to redirect our children away from the truth. Wonderful example of that's found in the Bible as well. Needn't look to it tonight, but in Daniel chapter one, you'll read there of Nebuchadnezzar. Again, in many of the studies, you can look at him as a picture of the devil. As he comes in, takes those things that are holy, and brings them in to distribute in a certain manner. But then he goes on and he's now after the young people. He's after the children. He's after the young folk. And he wants to bring certain of the children of Israel, those who are unblemished and well-favored, et cetera, those under the sound of the gospel, those well brought up in the things of God. Why does he want that? Because he wants Babylon to be a superpower. He wants it to be so advanced. He wants that nation to be all-knowing and full of knowledge. And of course, knowledge is power. And he took the very best from Israel, wanted to retrain them, redirect their thoughts, and he wanted, in verse four of Daniel 1, to teach them all the ways of the Chaldeans, and even then, to integrate them with their system of living, and what they ate and drank, and how they behaved socially. Thank God tonight for young Daniel. He purposed in his heart not to defile himself with such things. And we need to be very aware tonight that in this day and age, things have not changed. We need to be very careful of what our children are learning. We need to be following, following, following. Because I can remember my day and age in school many, many years ago, decades and decades ago, and what we were taught then was wrong. But how much more are they being taught today? A vast amount, probably everything. You know, I can remember sitting in a class and being told by a history teacher, this is in P4, I must have been good listening that far back, about Oliver Cromwell. And this teacher got up and she eloquently and waxed eloquent about this awful man, Oliver Cromwell. What a man he was. Wouldn't let people enjoy themselves. Wouldn't let people be happy. Wouldn't let people dance and sing. And as a wee child, I was impressionable and drank all that in. It wasn't until years later that I realized that man was a stalwart for God's Word. You see the alternative truth, the twist, the lie. And we need to be so careful. What are our children learning? Who is teaching them? And not just in school, on the television. In the computer, on the iPhone, who is their school teacher? Who is their educator? What are they learning? Because, you know, I can remember what I learned in the classroom very often was the very opposite that I heard the Sunday morning in the service, and both couldn't be true. And so we need to be wise, need to be careful. But not only does Satan have a ploy to keep our children out of church and a plan to infiltrate and to spoil and to ruin and to redirect their education, but he also has many places all geared, all ready to further pull your son or daughter or grandchildren down into the depths of sin. And tonight, we are already on the back foot because they're born in sin. and they're shaping an iniquity. And we need to be praying for them, if we know about it, even before they're born, even before they're born. And you know, you needn't turn to it, but in Exodus chapter two, there's a wonderful lesson here about how God can even preserve and overrule and undertake. You know, whenever our children were born, I have a son and a daughter, And whenever they were born, I suppose their mother, maybe more so than me, was very particular about keeping all the wee items when they were ever so small. And we have a wee pair of shoes there about this size here that were my daughter's first wee shoes, just like that, in the box and all. Now, we don't have my son's first pair of shoes, because he was very rough in shoes. But we do have a second pair. I think they were Sunday shoes. He would be told off if he got them scraped up. But you know, as soon as we encouraged them to start to take those steps, and they began to walk, and then you got the wee shoes on them. And then they began to let go of the furniture. Every step, every day, every week, every year, They were walking further and further away from us. They were walking out into independence, and we had to prepare them for that. Didn't you have to prepare your children for that, and your grandchildren, and whoever else you would have an influence over? Because as they walk away out into this world, the devils made that preparation. Has those places all set out? In the next of this chapter 2, you'll read there that wonderful account of Moses' birth, of the great danger that infant was in, of Jochebed, his mother. What a godly woman. What pressure she was under. Can you just imagine? She's listening out constantly for the news because she knew that the authorities were putting the little ones to death. She knew all about it. She knew from what she heard from others that the soldiers were now in the district, in her part of the city. They were coming closer and closer, street by street, house by house. And no doubt that woman would have been seeking the Lord in prayer. She didn't come up with the idea of a wee basket and the bulrushes and hiding away. That wasn't her idea. She had sought the Lord. I would believe, and we're using a little bit of, suppose, sanctified imagination, that that godly woman could have maybe thought back to Noah and how the Lord saved Noah. Why not do it again in a smaller scale? Sure if the Lord could look after that great big vessel, could he not look after this one infant? And by faith, she set about the business, and she hid the wee one away, and had enough wisdom to get the older daughter to stay nearby in the bushes to watch out. And of course, you know the story, how Pharaoh's daughter and the servants all come down to Beth. And I believe God in his wonderful providence. Take time to consider the providence of God. in your life and also in the lives of others. And just at the right moment, the cry went up from the wee one not far away. And in God's providence coming over and lifting the wee one up out of the basket, no doubt at the right moment, a big tear ran down the wee fat cheek and of course her heart melted and she wanted this wee Hebrew child, come what may. But being of royal lineage, she wanted a nurse. And immediately, the daughter, she steps out. I'll get you a nurse. And do you know something? Jochabed got paid for looking after her own child. I think that was the first child benefit ever paid out. It's old but ever new, isn't it? And she took that wee boy away, and she had him on her knee, and she didn't waste time, and she got him taught the things of God. Because there's a day coming when he'd be going up to the palace. There's a day coming when he'd be in that place, and she knew all about that palace. It's full of sin, and wickedness, and lavish living, and overindulgence. And in verse 10, he did, he went up to the palace. But she had him well-grounded in the things of God. Others looking on would have said, Jochebed, you're wasting your time. See, whenever he gets up a bit, he'll be away to that palace. He'll have no more thought about God and no more thought about salvation, no more thought about the things of God, no thought of it. He'll be away, you're gonna lose him. But whenever you come into the New Testament, it was not a waste of time. That mother's efforts and prayers all paid off. The Lord was faithful to her. Hebrews 11 we're told says there in verse 24, 25, that by faith or having come to faith, Moses, and the language is so strong, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. What's the lesson here tonight? Very simply this, We need to get our children to God early, often and always. Proverbs 22 verse 6 is a promise as God's stamp of approval upon it. And he's a gentle man, and he's not going to refute it or step back from it. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. And so we need to get our children to God early and to be wise. about them and their attendance in God's house, and to be wise about their education, and to be wise about their future as they take step by step steps away from you and from me. Trust that God will bless you.