Alright, get your Bibles out and go to the book of Proverbs tonight. I'm going to ask you to turn to more than one place tonight as we are in this book of Proverbs. This will be the third time that I have looked at this little phrase called let not. You know, Jesus said that in John 14, didn't he? Let not your heart be troubled. What the Lord has laid on my heart thus far is to go through the book of Proverbs. And I'm just kind of getting these in order. We've looked at, let not them depart from thine eyes, the things that God reveals to us, wisdom, understanding, knowledge. And then Sunday morning, we looked at the strange woman. and let not thine heart decline to her ways. And it's been on my heart to preach that to the young people. Well, tonight for you young people, you probably won't like it, but I'm not preaching to the young people tonight. Our let not is for parents tonight. So let's stand one more time and we'll read a verse in Proverbs chapter 19. I don't know if I told you that or not. Proverbs chapter 19. And the 18th verse, you'll find that phrase again, let not, and this time it's not the young people that are being spoken to, but they're being spoken about. Proverbs 19, verse number 18, chasten thy son while there is hope. And there it is, let not thy soul spare for his crying. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness. I thank you, Lord, for physical help, Lord, that you've given me already. Lord, with my sinuses, I thank you and praise you. I pray you, God, that you would be those that are sick, even those even here and in the parking lot, Lord, that are sick and not well, 100%, Lord, get us back to normal. I pray, God, you bless the preaching and help us tonight from your word. It's in Jesus' name I'm asking, amen. You be seated. Now this might be more like Bible study. I really don't know. I know the Lord has shown me some things as I've been studying on this. And you'll recall, and I don't want to just keep on and on with this, other than the fact that it's just necessary, that this phrase, let not, is used because we will do it. And the phrase is used to keep us from going the direction that we are generally already headed. And so this verse says, let not thy soul spare for his crying. Talking about chasing a child and let not thy soul spare for his crying. Now, the tendency for parents Almost all parents, you know, I heard on the radio this morning or sometime the day I was in the vehicle and heard about a mother that was abusive of a child. But the tendency for most parents, their inclination, the way that most parents are, is to soften the blow. And ease the punishment, if you will, or even postpone the punishment. I was thinking today, and this happened in my household, I've been guilty, don't misunderstand me, I'm not up here just to fuss at everybody else. And I'm not thankful that all of my children are out of the house. Well, maybe I am. It's kind of a mixed bag there. Depends on which day you ask me or what time of day it is. But I can remember passing sentence. Passing sentence and say, okay, you're not gonna do this, you're confined to solitary confinement, I never did say that, but render a punishment, okay? And then all of a sudden, Tricia or the child would say, but I'm supposed to be going here this Saturday. Well, as soon as you get back, then you can't go anywhere. That's what we call in our modern culture as a suspended sentence. And sometimes even a forgotten sentence. But this tendency for parents to soften the blow and ease the punishment or postpone the punishment, I'm going to say tonight that it's especially true for Christian parents. I'm gonna say that this is especially true for Christian parents because, and I know where you're at, we got some young parents here and I hope that my mistakes will be a help to you. This is especially true for Christian parents because Christian parents feel like they always are saying no. No. Dad, can I? No. Mom, can I? Ask your dad. No. Dad, can I ask your mom? Mom? And as Christian parents, we feel like, let's be honest, let's be honest, we feel like we always, always, almost always, they just ask for the wrong things though, don't they? If they would just say, can we go to church an extra night this week? But they never ask for that. If they would just say, can we have an extra devotion? We'll try to work that in this week, son. Would you care if I did extra chores this week? They just always ask the wrong questions. And as Christian parents, often we just feel like that we're just always saying no, no. And it hurts, it hurts. It hurts to always say no. And so the tendency for parents in general, and I'm gonna say tonight, especially because I'm preaching to Christian parents, is to do exactly what this verse says, don't do. Let not thy soul spare for his crying. So the tendency of parents is to be sympathetic. Especially, as I mentioned, we're already sympathetic towards our children because they are constantly told no and they can't do what other children can do. And we're always saying no, so we're already sympathetic towards them. And then when punishment comes, it's just so easy to continue that sympathy. But he said, don't do it. Let not, let not. And so the idea here again is parents, you will do this. This is the way you are. This is the way you're bent. Don't do it. Let not thy soul spare for his crying. That's our tendency. And the tendency for children, the tendency for children whose hearts, let me remind you, are bound in foolishness. Bible. And are desperately wicked. And so the tendency for children is to exploit the parent's sympathy and to take advantage of the parent's soft heart and evade the punishment, which in the end, nullifies the rules. And when the rules are nullified, that means that there are no rules. and there's no consequence for sin. And so the Lord in his word knew how we were and so he gave us a verse and said, don't do that. Don't do that, let not. You've got to do something, moms and dads. The Lord's saying here, you've gotta do something because you're gonna do this, don't let it happen. Set up a roadblock, do something, stop it. Let not thy soul spare for his crying. And so, Here's the way it works, if the rod is spared when the child cries. And that's what it talks about there. Chasten thy son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying. If the rod is spared when the child cries or shows remorse, here's what happens. Number one, the child controls the level and the amount of punishment. If the rod is spared when the crying starts, Or when, I'm sorry, I'll never do it again, Daddy. I promise, Daddy, I don't know why I did it. Mama, I'm so sorry, Mama. We understand, son, we understand. What's happening is now the parent is no longer controlling the punishment. Now, all of a sudden, the child is in control. The child has brought it down from triple X to X. And that was all I could think of at the time, but y'all know what I'm trying to say. The parent's not in control. Is that the way our justice system should work in our country? No. No. I was reminded this afternoon as I was looking over this again, and I've been looking at several of these let nots for some time now. I was reminded of Cain, who the Lord put, said, a fugitive and a vagabond thou shalt be. And Cain said, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Oh, poor guy. No, you killed your brother? You killed your brother? And you're gonna be a fugitive and a vagabond? And you're complaining about it? And he's dead? But that's the way our hearts are. To try to elicit sympathy towards ourselves for our punishment. And so if the rod is spared when the child cries or shows remorse, then the child, number one, the child controls the level and the amount of punishment, not the parent. And this is the scary part. The child is being trained by the parents to fake. The child is being, I know the Bible says train up a child in the way, but it's in the way she go. This is not the way she go. When the child is spared punishment due to the sympathy of the parent, then the child is being trained by the parents to fake pain, to fake emotion, to fake suffering, and being trained to become a hypocrite. That's what happens. And you may think this sounds harsh, but listen, folks, this is just the truth. Listen, we've had six children. By the grace of God, we got through it. And by the grace of God, they're all in church. And our grandchildren are in church. And I thank the Lord for that. And none of my family's perfect, starting with me all the way down. But I'm telling you that when we allow the children to illicit sympathy from us that tampers the judgment and the punishment and the chastening is the word that the Bible uses here. And we allow that to happen. We are literally training them to become a hypocrite and fake things. And that training will go with them through their marriage. It will go with them through their life. It'll go with them through church. And all through life, the training to illicit sympathy from other people will follow them because they've been trained to do it that way by their own parents. That's scary, isn't it? Chasing thy son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying. Let me tell you about the word spare. Spare means to refrain from hurt or just to be lenient. As a verb, as it's used, they're not like a spare tire. But to spare someone, to spare something is to refrain, to hold back from hurting, to be lenient. And so don't spare means don't hold back. Don't spare means don't be lenient. Don't be lenient because they cry. Punish to the full extent of what is needed. Let me give you an example from the scripture. 1 Samuel chapter 15, the Lord tells Saul to go and destroy Amalek. Remember Saul and Amalek? And of course you Bible readers know that Saul didn't do what he was told, but listen to what the Lord said. Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not. This is what God said, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. Don't spare anything, God said. That's what spare means. Spare means you're holding back. If you spare, chasing thy son while there's hope, and let not thy soul spare, don't hold back, don't hold back. It's what God's saying. Now, if I were a parent with children at home, and I am, but not small children, I would like to know, how do you know when you've gone soft? How do you know when you've gone soft? Well, number one, when you make excuses for the child's behavior. When you make excuses for the child's behavior, you've gone soft. You've let your soul spare. Well, everybody else does it. He's just not being treated fairly. Or he doesn't really understand. Or this is the other thing that parents do when they've gone soft with their children concerning chastening, when they blame others. I don't have to go very far to pull out an illustration that you all can have probably heard about and know about. It starts at the White House. when our president, just roughly 10 days ago, pardoned his son. And in so doing, he blamed his political enemies and said, it's their fault. It's their fault my son didn't pay his taxes. It's their fault he was a drug addict. It's their fault he lied on an application to buy a firearm. It's my political enemies, it's their fault. So I'm gonna pardon him. You know you've gone soft when you start making excuses and blaming other people for your children's behavior. Well, I notice here in this passage, chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying. The sparing of chastening, which he tells us not to do, let not, is a selfish act by parents. Now, I'm not going to say to you tonight that parenting is easy. It's not, it's tough. Parenting's tough, it's tough in this day and time we live in. It hurts to be a parent, it really does. It's often humiliating to be a parent. But he said, let not thy soul spare for his crying. You're a Trinity body, soul, spirit, just as the Lord is a Trinity. We sung about the blessed Trinity, holy, holy, holy, three holies for the three persons of the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost. We are a Trinity body, soul, and spirit. The Bible tells us that they're not the same. The Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. And so with the Word of God, we can see that there's a difference between soul and spirit. And I can't explain it all, but I can tell you this, and I've studied on it, I've actually probably taught on it here at Quebec. And generally speaking, the soul is the inner man that feels, and the spirit is the inner man that knows, okay? And that's kind of a general idea, but I noticed that he said, let not thy spirit. He didn't say, let not thy spirit spare for his crying. He said, let not thy soul spare. And remember that the soul is that part of the inner man that hurts. And he feels. And so that's why that some of you have said, and some of you have had it said to you. Bend over right here. This is gonna hurt me worse than it hurts you. And like that one little boy that said, well, then dad, if the goal is to hurt me, then just let me whip you because that hurts worse. So if it hurts the parent, and as many have said, more than it does the child, then the parent spares chastening because he doesn't want to hurt himself, which makes it a selfish act. Do you understand that? When the parent, when it hurts the parent to chasten the child and the parent says, I just can't do it. They're just being selfish. They don't hurt themselves. Because they've already said many times, it hurts me worse than it does you. And so it's just simple selfishness. Go with me to Proverbs chapter 13. Proverbs chapter 13. We'll look at the sparing of chasting. He said don't do it, let not. What we wanna know is what's in the child's best interest, right? What is in the child's best interest? And so, I'm telling you that when you spare, your soul spares chastening because of the child's crying, then you're really just doing it because you're selfish. You're not doing it for the child's best interest, and I don't prove that from Proverbs chapter 13, verse number 24. He that spareth, there's the word again. He that spareth his rod, hateth his son. But he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. It's exactly what I'm trying to tell you. To spare the rod for the purpose of your own personal hurt is to harm your child. In fact, the Bible says it so strongly that it says you're hating him. Let me give you a definition of chastening. is to discipline by punishment or to correct with pain. To discipline by punishment or correct with pain. So let me give you three rules about chastening, okay? That's the word we started with, Proverbs 19, 18. Chasten thy son. Chasing, discipline him by punishment. Correct him with pain. Chasing thy son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying. Number one rule about chasing, it must hurt. It's gotta hurt. If it doesn't hurt, it doesn't work. If it doesn't hurt, it doesn't work. Why do you think they're carrying on so? To make you think it's working. But if they're doing it again, it ain't working. Hebrews 2.10, listen to this verse. For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons into glory to make the captain of their salvation. Who's the captain of our salvation? The Lord Jesus Christ, right? Now, perfect here is using the sense of completeness, okay? Not an absence of sin or purity, but it means complete. For it became Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons in glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. So chastening has to hurt for the good of the child. And if the tendency of the parents is to spare for his crying, imagine how much worse it is for her crying. You know, the verse says, let not thy soul spare for his crying. If we've got a tendency, you know, what are little boys made of? Snips and snails and puppy dog tails. That's what little boys are made of. What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice and everything nice. Some woman wrote that. I guarantee it. But if it hurts to spare the rod for him, oh my goodness, what if it's her? So it's gotta hurt. It's gotta hurt. Go into Proverbs chapter 23, Proverbs 23. Let not thy soul spare for his crying, or her crying, we could say. Rule number one, it's gotta hurt. Rule number two, chastened children. Children that are being chastened will make you think they're dying. Proverbs 23 verse 13, here it is. Withhold not. That's the same thing we're reading over in Proverbs 19, 18. Withhold not, don't hold back. Withhold not correction from the child. If thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. You ain't gonna kill him. He gonna act like it. Verse 14, thou shalt beat him with a rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell. Wow. Rule number two about chasing, chasing children will make you think they're dying. I mean, you'd think you shot him with a shotgun. Boys and girls. Everybody okay tonight? They'll think you, you know, Daddy had a saying, Mom, your heart was, I'm gonna tear you up like a sow's bed, Daddy would say. Now, see, we got so far from the farm, we don't know what a sow's bed looks like anymore. Daddy'd say, I'm gonna tear you up like a sow's bed. Now, I don't know, I don't even know exactly what that means. But I knew when I heard it, it wasn't good. It wasn't good. Oh, really? Oh, good. Yay. Chasing children make you think they're dying. Back in Proverbs 19, 18, let's go back there. This Latin stuff's pretty good, ain't it? Back in Proverbs 19 verse number 18, chasing thy son while there is hope. Rule number three about chasing, if you don't chase children appropriately and timely, the time will come when there's no hope for your child. That's what this says. Chasing thy son while there is hope. If you don't chase your son or your daughter while there's hope, you're going to have a hunter by what you're going to have. That's what you're going to have. I sort of feel sorry for Hunter Biden sometimes. And I'm not here to run him down, okay? I'm not here to, he's just my illustration. He's just my illustration. And it's really timely. I mean, how many of you know what I'm talking about about the Hunter Biden pardon? Anybody that doesn't have a clue what I'm talking about? Okay. But Neil, well, you don't have children, it don't matter. Last week, our president, who had said numerous times, I will not pardon him, pardon him. I wasn't surprised. And that's not a political thing. I'm not saying that because of politics. I'm just saying I wasn't surprised, period. And I'm not up here to say that, I'm not up here, it's just an illustration. It's just an illustration. I hope Hunter Biden gets saved. Wouldn't that be great? But based on Proverbs 23, verses 13-14, withhold not correction from thy child. If you know the story of Hunter Biden, correction has been withheld from Hunter Biden all of his life. Withhold not correction from thy child, for after thou beatest him with a rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with a rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell. Based on that scripture, I'm going to predict that Hunter Biden is going to an early grave and a quick trip to hell. I hope he gets saved. If you don't chasten your children while you have the chance, there comes a time when there's really no hope for them. That's what the Bible says. And he gets to the place, the child gets to the place that he's beyond any form of correction, most likely. And that's not what we want for our children. And that's why the Lord said, let not thy soul spare for his crime. Now, and I'm getting close to being done tonight. You know, the Lord didn't say that it was wrong for it to hurt you while you're chasing your child. He didn't say that you shouldn't feel bad for whipping your kid. He didn't say that. He didn't say you ought to enjoy it. No, he didn't say that either. He didn't say you shouldn't let it bother you. The Lord didn't say, well, don't let that bother you. Worry him out. He didn't say that. He said, just don't spare. You understand that? The Lord didn't tell us something that was impossible. Yeah, it's gonna hurt. It's gonna hurt. It's gonna hurt to whip them like they need to be whipped. It's gonna hurt. And it's okay that it hurts. But what he's telling you to do is just don't spare. Just don't hold back. That's what he said. Let not thy soul spare. You've got a job to do. Do it. Finish it. Follow through. It'll hurt. Just don't hold back. Get the job done. Now, the word rod is used here in the Proverbs many times. It's actually not used in Proverbs 19, 18. Did you know the rod has a name in the Bible? I got to thinking about that this afternoon and I got to thinking about Some of the teachers I had through the years, I thank God I grew up in a time where the paddle was used in school. And some of the teachers had names for their paddles. Anybody remember? Anybody old enough to remember the teacher having a paddle and the paddle had a name? Yeah. Now I thought of this one. The rod could be called hot rod. Or Old Smokey? Or The Stinger? Did anybody have Mr. Hennessey? I didn't have him. He was a teacher at Northside. But Mr. Hennessey, I heard about it. Mr. Hennessey, I saw him not too long ago. I was getting something worked on, and he rolled in. And he looked good, and I got to talk to him for a few minutes. He said, I had to quit. I got out of school. He said, I couldn't handle it anymore. But anyways, he had a paddle. You know what he called his paddle? This is so good. It makes me want to go teach and get a paddle. He called his paddle the Board of Education. Man, that's so cool, man. That is so cool. The Board of Education. You know what the rods called in the Bible? Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction. That's the name of the rod in the Bible. It's the rod of correction. It's the rod of correction. And so the rod is named the rod of correction. And so when it's used the way it's supposed to be used and we don't spare it, then it does this chastening becomes correcting. In fact, there are places in the Bible that the word, in the book of Proverbs, it will use the word correct instead of chastened. Because when you chasten the way you're supposed to do it, then instead of it being chastening, it becomes correction. You know, we're kidding ourselves in this country when we call our penal institutions, when we call them institutes of correction, because most of them, the overwhelming majority, do not get corrected. They get educated how to be better criminals, for the most part. So we're doing it wrong somewhere there, and I'm telling you, we're doing it wrong somehow, even in our homes and in Christian homes. I had a conversation not too awful long ago with a missionary that's been on the field for a long time, and he told me, he said, something that we're seeing as we're in churches and we're in mission conferences, that even missionaries whose children used to be the most well-behaved children, even missionary children now, are just not what they used to be. Boy, that's sad, it's sad. But it's what the Bible said in the last days, children will be disobedient to parents. So the rod is called the rod of correction. Let me ask you this. When the rod is administered in your home, whose will is administered in the rod? Is it your will or the child's will? Is the devil's will or God's will? Well, that's something to think about. All right, real quickly. How to eliminate the sparing of punishment. We're going to 2 Samuel chapter 24, okay? This is something, again, I've made plenty of mistakes, but this is something I learned that helped me, okay? Something I learned that helped me not to spare my soul for the crying. Let not thy soul spare for his crying. We have in this country a penal code, I think is what the proper term would be, and when someone is tried before a jury, the jury generally determines innocence or guilt, and they come back with their verdict, and we say we find him guilty or we find him innocent, or it might be a hung trial or whatever. hung jury rather. And then later there will be a sentencing hearing, a sentence for hearing, a hearing for the sentencing of the person that has already been found guilty. Okay. And, and the judge has guidelines. Okay. The judge doesn't just say, well, I'll tell you what, I think I'll do, no, he has guidelines and certain crimes are punishable by either a duration of this long or the minimum sentence or the maximum sentence, okay? You got a minimum sentence and a maximum sentence, generally, for almost all crimes. And the judge, you know, if the judge don't like you, you know, he's not gonna send you to the electric chair for shoplifting. Because we've already got it set up in this country that you can't do that. And in some states you might face death, capital punishment, whether it be by lethal injection, whatever it might be, but it's already prescribed by law that here are the punishments for certain crimes. That's what I'm getting at. And so I learned something that helped me was to have certain crimes in my home that carried the maximum penalty. I'm not going to embarrass any of my children tonight if they remember what line was. But line was five licks. Line was five licks. I remember because Trisha told me a story the other day I had to get her again, I'll tell you that. You know, I know it's been a long time, bend over. And you know that helped, because when they start trying, if you don't have a predetermined punishment, it's easy to start backing off. But if it's already predetermined, and you know, and they know, then you're just stuck, okay? I think, if I remember right, that fighting, Rebecca and Karen fighting. I don't remember Rebecca and Karen ever fighting. Fussing, yes, but fighting, no. It was always fussing over, where's my sweater? You got my sweater, that's mine. It still happens sometimes. Rebecca comes in the house where we're going. But it's not what you think, she's getting her sweater back. All right, I'm trying, spoon full of sugar helps medicine go down. 2 Samuel 24, verse 10. This is the Lord, you know the story. David has numbered the people. And it was the wrong thing to do. And after he's numbered the people, the Bible says in verse 10, 2 Samuel 24, verse 10. And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done. And now I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done very foolishly. For when David was up in the morning, the word of the Lord came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, that's prophet, saying, Go and say unto David, Thus saith the Lord, I offer thee three things. Choose thou, or choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. And so this time the Lord has even given David three options. Okay, you got three options. Five legs, no dessert for a year, or something else, okay. Here he gives David three options. And then the Bible goes on to say that David in verse 14 said again, I am a great strait, let us fall now into the hand of the Lord for His mercies are great and let me not fall into the hand of man. And so David says, I'm just going to let the Lord decide what the punishment is going to be. And so the Lord chose the three days of pestilence. Verse 15, so the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed. What's the time appointed? Back in verse number 13, three days pestilence. So that the time appointed is for the three days. And there died the people from Dan, even to worship by 70,000 men. And then at the end of that time, the Lord, the angel still going at it. And the Lord said, it's enough, it's enough. That's in verse number 16. The Lord said to the angel, it is enough. Stay now thine hand. And so the punishment was predetermined, okay? And that's something you could do if you, you know, if you find yourself in a place where you are constantly softening the blows, then you could just write out some predetermined things. Okay, this is the way we're gonna do it. Or you might give options. I'm just throwing this out there. I'm just trying to stay in the Bible and try to help parents tonight. And here's another one that's biblical, and sometimes it happens in our own judicial system. Remember when Paul had appealed unto Caesar. And the reason Paul appealed to Caesar is because the Jews were wanting to kill him. And he was afraid if he didn't get out of there, that he was only going to end up getting killed. And so he appealed to Caesar. And then after, I mean, this is a lengthy time. He's before Felix. And this is all prophetic too. He's able to speak to these kings and bring the gospel to them. He's before Felix. He's before Festus. He's before Agrippa and their wives. But Felix has a gripper. He wants to know what a gripper. What do you think about this gripper? They have a conversation. What are they going to do with Paul? And they said, well, we could have let him loose, but we've got to send him to Caesar because he's appealed to Caesar. Pilate, when he's trying Jesus, he sends him to Herod, remember, Luke 23, he sends him to Herod. What I'm trying to tell you is sometimes a parent because of a conflict, or rather a judge because of a conflict of interest will recuse himself from a case. He'll remove himself from a case because he has a conflict of interest. And so if you know that you have a tendency to be too soft, Ask somebody else what they think. I'm just trying to help, okay? The purpose of this is not to say we got a bunch of rotten kids, we don't. I'm not trying to say we got a bunch of rotten parents, we don't. I'm just preaching the Bible tonight, okay? Just preaching the Bible. I never thought about it until the Lord laid this let not on my heart and I'm going through it one at a time in Proverbs. And he said, let not thy soul spare for his crime. Chasten thy son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crime. I'm giving you advice tonight. Set up the rules. If you do this, this is the punishment, and we're not backing down. If you do this, this is not as bad as that, but that's the punishment, and we won't be backing down. If you do this, here's the punishment, and that's just the way it's gonna be. And if you can't do that, then say, okay, we'll ask Brother David what he thinks the punishment ought to be. Or we'll ask Brother Neil. He don't even have kids. We'll see what he thinks. I'm trying to think. I better not think too much. But y'all get the picture. Chasten thy son while there is hope. Boy, that's such, man, that verse is loaded, folks. That verse is loaded. Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying. Let's bow our heads for prayer. Lord, I thank you for such a great book. Lord, we couldn't have done it. Lord, we couldn't have found a book like this. Man could not have written a book like this. Lord, that gives us such wonderful instruction. And Lord, I just thank You for it. I pray God that the preaching of it tonight has been helpful. Lord, I thank you for the parents here. And Lord, they're in church on a cold Wednesday night and they got their families here. And some, Lord, probably got their families listening online because they're sick and they can't come to church. God, what a blessing it is to be a part of a church that wants to do things your way. And so Lord, I pray you'd give us instruction, help us to measure up to it. I pray you'd use the preaching, God, to help the families, the young families, Lord, in a world, Lord, where the discipline of children has gone by the wayside. Lord, I pray you'd help our church, God, to do it your way. I pray you'd give wisdom to the parents, and I pray you'd bless the preaching tonight. It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen, amen.