All right, we're there in Matthew chapter number 19. And of course, in this chapter, we see something highlighted for us about the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see his love and affinity for children. If you notice there in Matthew 19 and verse number 13, the Bible says this, then where they're brought unto him, that's referring to Jesus, little children, that he should put his hands on them and pray and the disciples rebuke them. We've got little children being brought to Jesus and then the disciples are rebuking the parents that are bringing these children to Jesus. And then Jesus rebukes the disciples. Verse 14, but Jesus said, suffer little children. That word suffer, of course, is an older word that means allow. He says, allow little children and forbid them not to come unto me for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them and departed then. So I want you to see here that we see an emphasis on on children and the fact that Jesus loved children. The song says Jesus loves little children, all the children of the world. And it's true. He said, suffer little children. And then the Bible tells us we get this very intimate picture in verse 15, where he laid his hands on them, on these children. And I'm sure he prayed for them and he blessed them. And the Bible says he departed thence. I want to begin here this evening, because tonight I'm preaching a very specific sermon, and maybe, I don't know, maybe it's not even much of a sermon, but I want to speak on the subject of our vision for the VBC's children's ministry and for the youth ministry. And in 2025, we want to put a renewed focus on the children's ministries, the youth ministry, the kids of our church. And we're not really changing a lot. We're bringing some things back. But I wanted to be able to just kind of explain my heart with some of these things. And I know it's been a long weekend, and I don't want to be too long tonight. We'll try to move as quickly as we can. and go over these things, but I want to speak about this subject and explain some things, help you understand some things with regards to the children's ministries and the youth ministry here at Verity Baptist Church. And like I said, this is not going to be maybe much of a sermon, just more of an explanation. I'm sure they'll be preaching in it. But I'd like to just kind of cover four different things in four different areas if you would allow me to. And we'll do that as quickly as we can. You're there in Matthew 19. You can lose your place there in Matthew 19. Go with me if you would to the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter number 31. Towards the beginning of the Old Testament, you've got Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and then Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter number 31. And first of all, let me just quickly talk about the fact that we are a family integrated church. And I don't want to spend a lot of time on this. I've preached on the subject extensively. But I feel like we should cover this and lay this foundation. And let me just say this. We are a family integrated church and that's not going to change. We're not changing anything with regards to that. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 31 and verse 11. It says, when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this book before all Israel in their hearing. Here we have the children of Israel, the entire congregation, coming together in the wilderness and they're coming together to read the law of God and to hear the word of God. And we can use this as an example for a New Testament congregation because of the fact that in the New Testament, the New Testament calls the children of Israel in the wilderness, it calls them the church in the wilderness. And when they were gathered here for this Old Testament church service, where they were gathering to read this law before all Israel in their hearing. I want you to notice in verse number 12, the Bible says this, Deuteronomy 31, 12, it says, gather the people together, men, So I want you to notice that in the Old Testament, when they gathered the congregation together to read the Word of God, to explain the Word of God, to teach the Word of God, God expected that they would gather men and women and children They were all to be gathered together. We see that when all Israel came to appear before the Lord, to read the law and the word of God, they gathered the entire congregation, the men, women, and children. This is one example of why we at Verity Baptist Church have chosen to be a family integrated church. You don't have to turn here, I'll just read this to you from the book of Joel. But in Joel chapter 2 and verse 15, the Bible says this, Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. And an assembly is a church service. Our church is an assembly of believers. When we gather together, we are assembling. Joel 2.16 says this, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders. So there's this emphasis of gathering the congregation together, gathering the people together. And then it says this, it says, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and those that suck the breasts, let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet. So I want you to notice that there God says, look, I want you to gather everyone together. And then he emphasizes just to make sure they don't misunderstand. He says, gather the children and those that suck the breasts. And of course, that's referring to a nursing baby. And he says, I want everyone there, even children that are still nursing. I want them all gathered in the congregation. And again, I've preached extensively on this. I've taught a lot on this. If you're interested in learning more about why we're family integrated, we've got multiple sermons on our website with regards to that. But those are just two. example there examples of why we are a family integrated church or what we see there in the Old Testament as an example of a family integrated church and let me just say a couple of things about being family integrated first of all you know what does it mean to be family integrated and again we talked about this a lot but let me just remind you family integrated means that we offer no separate children's ministries. And I want to be clear about that because I'm about to talk to you about some children's ministries that we are going to be doing and things that we're going to be doing here in this new year. But I want you to understand when we're talking about that, we're not talking about you dropping off your children and then leaving. We're a family integrated church. We do not offer separate children's ministries. Family integrated means that we never separate children from their parents for any reason. And family integrated means that the entire family experiences church together as a family unit. Husband, wife, children, nursing babies, everyone together for the church services. So don't misunderstand. Some of these things we'll talk about. We're still family integrated and we're going to continue to be family integrated. Now let's just real quickly, let me talk about the why. Why are we family integrated? And again, I've taught this extensively, but I'll just give you quick three thoughts. Three quick thoughts. Number one, we're family integrated because that is the pattern we see in Scripture. And I just read to you a couple of examples from the Old Testament. And in the Old Testament, you do not see, you cannot find an example in the Old Testament where a congregation got together and then they sent the children off somewhere else or they put the children off somewhere away from their parents. We're family integrated because that is the pattern that we see in Scripture. We're also family integrated because that is the most protective over children. And what we believe here at Verity Baptist Church is that your children have been given to you by God. The Bible says that children are inherited of the Lord. They have been entrusted to you and they are to be in your care. And your care is, or at least should be, the safest care of your children. So we're never going to take your children away from you and say, hey, we're going to put your kids over here in this room with someone you don't know, with some stranger. No, a family integrated church is a church that is protective over children because we keep children with the people that should be the most protective over them, their parents. So why are we family integrated? Because it is patterned after Scripture. Why are we family integrated? Because it is protective over children. But thirdly, I would say this, that we are a family-integrated church because it is a partner to parents. And what a family-integrated church desires to do, or at least I should say what we desire to do as a family-integrated church, is not just to pattern ourselves after scripture, although that is the main priority, and that's a good enough reason just on its own. And it's not just to protect children, although that is a good enough reason on its own. But what we desire to do is to not raise your children for you, And we don't want the church to become this spiritual teacher of your children, where you just drop them off in a Sunday school somewhere, or you drop them off in a children's church somewhere, and then somebody else has to take the responsibility of raising your children spiritually for you. We want to partner with you. We believe that it is your responsibility as parents to care for your children physically, to care for them emotionally, to care for them with their needs, but it's your job to care for them spiritually as well. Mom and Dad, it's your job to teach the Word of God to your children. It's your job to disciple your children. It's your job to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. What we want to do is come alongside you. We don't want to take your job and take your position from you We want to come alongside you and partner with you to help you in this great endeavor of raising your children for God. And that reason, the partnering reason, is what I'm going to talk about for the rest of the evening is really all about. Why we're making some of these changes to our children's ministries and the youth ministry. And again, we're not really making changes except that we're bringing some stuff back. But why this focus? Why this emphasis? Because we desire to come alongside you and partner with you and help you raise these kids for the glory of God. So like I said, I've got several things I want to speak about tonight. The first one was quickly to talk about the why we're family integrated. And that should be something that you're familiar with if you've been to our church for any extent of time. But secondly tonight, I'd like to talk about the VBC Family Fun Nights that we're going to be doing. And this, we're going to have our first one this next Sunday night. So I just felt like this Sunday night would be a good time to talk about these things and explain some of these things. so you can understand what we're doing and what the purpose is behind these things. I'd like you to go with me, if you would, to the book of 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter number 3. If you can find the T-books in the New Testament, they're all clustered together. 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus. I'd like you to find 2 Timothy chapter 3. And when you get to 2 Timothy, do me a favor and put a ribbon or a bookmark or something there because we're going to leave it and we're going to come back to it and I want you to get to it quickly. 2 Timothy chapter number 3. I'd like you to look at verse number 15. 2 Timothy chapter number 3 and verse 15, the Bible says this, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Here we have the Apostle Paul speaking to Timothy. And I want you to notice that Paul gives a testimony of the life of Timothy. And I want you to notice what Paul says about Timothy. He says that from a child thou has known the Holy Scriptures. And that ought to be the goal of every parent and that is our goal here of Verity Baptist Church. For every child that comes to this church is that it might be said of them that from a child Now when it comes to these family fun nights, and we've been announcing it in our bulletin, and I'll talk about it here more in a second. But let me just say this, before we talk about what we're going to be doing, Let me explain what it is that we're trying to accomplish. What are we trying to accomplish with these Family Fun Nights? First of all, we want to provide something fun for kids to get them excited about the Word of God and to help them to be excited about the Word of God and to be excited about church. And I think it's a good idea to do something fun for the kids. And I can already maybe hear someone who would be critical of what we're doing and they might say, well, you're gonna take a Sunday night service and devoted towards the children. And what about the adults? Well, I would say this. We've got three services a week that pretty much focus on adults. 52 weeks in a year. So I think taking one service a month is not going to hurt your spiritual life to focus on the children. But one thing that we've noticed and one change that we're trying to make, there used to be a time in the past when my wife and I were maybe younger and a little less experienced, where we would do something like this. In fact, we did this when we used to have family fun nights. We would do this on a separate night, some separate week night. basically be asking for another night of your time. And the reason we've chosen to do this on a Sunday night now is because we don't want to ask you for a random Friday night. There's enough things going on. There's enough other things that need to get done and that will get done throughout the year. So we don't want to add more stress to an already busy schedule. We thought that once a month on a Sunday night would be a good time to just take some time to focus on the kids. And look, if you've got children, this should be a priority for you. If you've got grandchildren, this should be a priority for you. If you don't have children, but you will have children in the future, this should be a priority for you. Because investing in the children is something that is extremely important. So what do we want to do? We want to provide something fun for the kids, so that they'll get excited about church, be excited, I don't want to say get excited, the kids are already excited, but we want to keep them excited about church and about the Word of God. And specifically, and there's lots of things we're going to do with regards to Family Fun Nights, and I'm going to talk about that here in a minute, but let me just tell you what my goal is, what my vision is. You know, I talked about it this morning, but I tend to be a little bit of a visionary type of leader, and sometimes my vision gets too big and too ahead of me and that can get me in trouble too sometimes but my vision for the children of Verity Baptist Church is this and what we're going to do there's going to be a Bible lesson at each one of these family fun nights and we're going to systematically begin to teach the children and we're going to do it in such a way that hopefully it will be Helpful for the kids, easy to understand for the kids. But we're going to begin to systematically teach them through all the major stories of the Bible. Now obviously, if you come to our church, you get a lot of Bible. And we preach verse by verse, chapter by chapter. One of our goals is to preach through every verse of the Bible. We started that on day one that we began our church. And I don't know, right now I think we're like 45% done with the entire Bible. Right now on Wednesday nights we're studying through the book of Psalms, which is the biggest book in the Bible. So we're all for verse-by-verse studies. But what we want to do here is go through the major stories of the Bible. Not necessarily every verse and every chapter, but we want to cover every major story in the Bible. And my goal is this, and I guess my vision is this, that if a child is born here at Verity Baptist Church, within our congregation as we've had many children born throughout the years and Lord willing we'll have many more. As a child is raised in this church and when they get to that age where they're able to begin to understand and comprehend, probably around four years old, five years old, will they be able to come up during the family fun nights and be part of that lesson and interact with that? My goal is this, that a child from four years old to 12 or 13 years old of their life, if they've come to our church and they come to these Sunday night gatherings and they come to these events that they will be taught every single major Bible story and they'll have an understanding of every story. I mean, we're going to start from creation and we're going to go all the way through the Bible. We're not going to cover every chapter and every verse, but we're going to go through the stories and cover them. And look, I want it to be said of the kids of Verity Baptist Church that from a child thou has known the Holy Scriptures. and that they know the Word of God. And by the way, let me say this, going through all the major stories of the Bible will probably be good for some of you adults too. And you say, well, I'm an adult, you know, does this not apply to me? Well, every time the Bible is taught, you ought to pay attention. And if you didn't grow up in church, and if you're not doing much Bible reading on your own, it might be good for you to sit there and learn some of these lessons as well. So you can be familiar with all of these major stories of the Bible. But our goal is to teach the children every major story of the Bible so that when they are ready to enter into those teen years and enter into the youth group, they'll have a foundation, a biblical knowledge of just the major themes of Scripture, understanding Scripture, and know the stories from the Bible. That from a child thou has known the Holy Scriptures is our goal. That's what we want to accomplish. Now, let me help you because, again, it's been years since we did a Family Fun Night, and the vast majority of you have never been here for a Family Fun Night, and we're even changing the Family Fun Night, so it's not even the same as what we used to do. Just over lunch today, my wife and I were having lunch with our family, and we're talking with Moses, and he was reminding me that years and years ago, him and Rebecca, of course, they're adults now with children of their own, But when they were kids, they were part of these family fun nights. And we had them help us with skits and little plays and things that we did. And they would act out Bible stories and things of that. And honestly, some of those things, once he brought it up, I was like, oh, yeah, I remember that. But some of these things I'd forgotten myself. But most of you have never been through a family fun night. And we are changing the family fun nights a little bit. So I just want you to understand what to expect. Next Sunday night when you show up for church, what to expect for the family fun night. So let me just kind of explain to you how the evening is going to go when this begins. When you show up for Sunday night church next week, The service is going to begin as usual. We're going to do like we normally do on Sunday nights, we're going to take favorites. The only difference this Sunday night, a family fun night, is that we're only going to take requests from the children. We're going to let the children be the only ones that take requests. Usually on Sunday nights we take requests from everyone, adults and children, we're a family integrated church. But on this night, we're going to let those little hands go up, alright, because sometimes those little hands get missed. And I like to see these kids be excited about these hymns. So we're going to have our normal singing service like we normally do on Sunday night. We're going to take favorites, but we're going to take requests only from the children. The service is going to pretty much progress as normal until the offering time. So what we normally do, where we sing, we have an opening prayer, a welcome and a prayer, then we've got some songs, and then we have some announcements, and we take the offering. All of that next Sunday night is going to progress pretty much the same like it normally does on a Sunday night, except for the fact that we're only going to take requests from children. And if we don't have enough kids requesting, then we might add some adults, but I don't think we'll have a problem with that, because these kids are always raising their hands for songs. After the offering, though, is when kind of the family fun night event is going to begin. So during the offering, we're going to dismiss the teens. The teens are going to go into the fellowship hall, if they have permission from their parents, and they're going to have a separate lesson for the teenagers there. And we'll talk about that here more in a minute. But after the offering is when the events of the Family Fun Night are going to begin. And it will begin. And again, I'm just kind of telling you this, adults, so you're kind of aware of what's going on. It's going to begin with an appearance of Freddie and Amy. And of course, Freddie and Amy are our puppets, if you're familiar with our puppet shows. They're going to make an appearance, and they're going to kind of kick off the Family Fun Night. and they're going to introduce us to the family fun night and then they're going to ask the children to move up to the first few rows. Now let me just say this next Sunday night the kids can start off in the first few rows if you want them to and if you give them permission to but if not during After the offering, when the puppets come up, when Fred and Amy come up, they're going to ask the kids to come up to the front row. And again, that's up to you and your discretion. If you don't want them to, that's not a problem. But I think probably most of the kids are going to be able to come up to the first few rows. After that, there's going to be some songs. We're going to have some more songs for the kids, but not the hymns from the hymn book. We're going to sing some just kids songs for the children. One of the other things that I want is to make sure that these kids, though they're being raised in a family-integrated church, that they're familiar with some of these kids' songs and that they know some of these songs that are for children. I think it's a good thing for them to know some of these things. So we're going to sing some songs. It's going to be fun for them. Then the puppets will come back. There'll be a puppet show. And the puppet show is going to be a little skit or whatever, but it's going to really set up the lesson. It's going to set up the lesson for the children. After the puppet show, I will come up And I will give the lesson to the children for that night. And like I said, it'll probably be good for some of you adults to just have pen and paper ready and take some notes and be ready to learn some things like these kids. Once the lesson is done, the puppets will come back. They're going to wrap up the lesson and kind of the application and make sure the kids understand what it is that we learned and why it is important. We'll end the service with a final song. And then after the service, once it's all said and done, Brother Matt Lee Wilson has volunteered to help us. After the service, he's going to be standing here at the front, and he's going to be making balloon animals for the children. And any kids that want to get balloon animals, they can do that at the end of the service. So again, I'm explaining all this to you. I don't think the children are going to remember. Some of them are asleep, and that's OK. What what I'm talking about tonight But I'm going through this for the parents because I want you to kind of be aware of what's happening and what's going on So you can be familiar with how this family fun night is going to progress and Lord willing we'd like to try to schedule this Roughly around once a month now you're there in 1st Timothy or 2nd Timothy. I'd like you to keep your place there, but go with me if you would to the book of Ecclesiastes. Keep your place in 2nd Timothy and go to the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. If you open your Bible just right in the center, you're more than likely to fall in the book of Psalms. Right after Psalms you have Proverbs and then Ecclesiastes. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. I told you that tonight's sermon was a little different. It's not really maybe even much of a sermon. Maybe just a little bit of a meeting and explaining some things that we have coming up. I wanted to explain tonight the fact that we're family integrated and that's not going to change, all right? So don't drop off your kids and go have a date night somewhere. I think that you ought to have date nights, but, you know, get your own child watch for that. Sunday night's not going to be that, all right? So don't drop off your kids and drive off. We will call you back. We are a family integrated church. However, we're going to have this Family Fun Night, so we want you to be aware of what's going on, and we want you to enjoy it. Be excited with the kids and enjoy it. During the Family Fun Night... During the lesson aspect, we're going to dismiss the teens. Of course, all of this is with parents' permission. With the parents' permission, they'll go in the fellowship hall. They're going to have a separate lesson. This Friday night, we have a youth activity, laser tag activity. We're going to try to do these teen activities on a monthly basis after the laser tag. They're going to play three games. After laser tag, we're going to have some pizza, and there's going to be a lesson for kids, for young people. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 1, It says, remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth. I want you to see that. Ecclesiastes chapter 12 and verse 1. Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Here is a verse that is telling us about young people that it's good for young people to remember their Creator in the days of their youth. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. We talked about the fact that we're family integrated. We talked about the family fun night. But let me quickly talk about the teens. Again, this isn't changing much other than we're kind of just bringing some of these things back. The youth activities, there's going to be the teen service during the family fun nights. But what I want to explain to you, I spent the last few months of last, not really the last few months, sometime last year, developing some thoughts in regards to what it is that I wanted us to accomplish when it comes to the teenagers. And what I landed on was this. When it comes to the children of Verity Baptist Church, you know, 4 years old to about 12 years old, my goal is that a child who grows up in this church from 4 years old to 12 years old, I just talked about at the wedding that I just performed a wedding for a child that began coming to our church when they were 4 years old, came to our church when they were 4 years old. So my goal for that transitional period, from 4 to 12, is that we lay this foundation where these kids just know the Bible. They know the Bible lessons, they know the Bible stories, they just have a good education and foundation about the Bible stories. When they then transition into that teenage years, my goal is this, and what I've came down to is, and I didn't come up with this all on my own, you know, I had some help with talking with people, talking with my wife, also reading some books and things of that nature. But I kind of came down to these seven lessons that I want the young people, my goal from 4 to 12 years old is that they just get a good foundation, they know all the Bible stories. Not just the famous Bible stories. I know everybody knows the famous Bible stories. Everybody knows about Noah's flood. Everybody knows about David and Goliath. I want them to know all the stories. I want to cover them. systematically and make sure they know them and try to teach them in a way that they can remember. When they get into their teen years, I want to worry less about them knowing the Bible stories. Hopefully they have that foundation from their childhood years and hopefully they're reading the Bible, they're coming to church, they're learning the Word of God. When it comes to the teens, my goal is that from 13 to 19 years old, as these young kids come to the teen activities once a month, as they go to their teen class during the family fun night. Whatever opportunity we have to teach these kids, what I want us to do, and what I mean by us is myself and those of us that teach the Word of God in these different sort of aspects, is just to nail down seven lessons. seven thoughts and The idea is this that every time I get a chance to speak to these kids I'm going to be talking about one of these seven things and you say well What are you gonna do after you've covered all seven? I'm gonna start again. I'm not saying I'm gonna preach the same sermon I'm not saying that Brother Oliver, if he preaches, or whoever, Brother Shaw, if he preaches, they're going to teach. We're going to teach from different passages, different ways, different aspects. But we're pretty much just going to cover these seven things. And we're going to drill down on these seven things. And I'm going to do my best to kind of brainwash these kids from 13 to 19 years old with these seven things. Because I want them, when they go from 4 to 12 years old, to just have a firm foundation about the Word of God and the Bible stories of the Word of God, and from 13 to 19 years old, to just drill this into their brain, these seven things that will prepare them for adulthood. Now you're probably asking yourself, what are the seven things? Let me read them for you. Here are the seven core principles that we want to drill in to every young person of Area Baptist Church. These seven lessons bring them up, talk with them about it, teach it to them, and hopefully they get embedded in their hearts and it becomes part of their life. Here are the seven things we will be, if you have a teenager, you bring him to our youth activities, I'm telling you, one of these seven things is what they're gonna learn. Number one, that they must make their faith personal. That their faith cannot be and should not just be something that their parents have. but that it should be real in their lives. So what we want to teach these young kids, number one, make your faith personal. Number two, develop a daily devotional life. We want them in these teenage years to develop the habit of reading the Bible, of praying, developing a devotional life. So number one, make your faith personal. Number two, develop a daily devotional life. Number three, to maintain personal purity. We want these kids to learn and be taught and be challenged to maintain personal purity, so that on the day of their wedding, they'll walk down an aisle, and they'll be pure, and they'll be pure before God, and they won't bring a bunch of baggage into their future marriages. And I thank God for the young people in our church that have gotten married and have been pure and all those things, and we wanna make sure that we keep that going and we do that on purpose. So we're gonna teach them to have a personal faith, to have a daily walk with the Lord, to maintain their personal purity. And that's going to cover, you know, things about purity with regards to the opposite sex. That's going to cover standards of making sure they don't go down things that will become oppressing, addictive type sins like drinking alcohol or doing drugs or things like that. Number four, We're going to teach them about having sharpening friendships. And we're going to talk about friendship with teenagers. I mean, with all of us, friendships are important, but I think especially with teens. And we're going to focus in on this. This idea that you need to have friends that are making you better, not worse. And that you need to be a friend that is making other people better, not worse. So we're going to focus on these things. to have a personal faith, to have a daily devotional life, to maintain personal purity, to have sharpening friendships and to be a sharpening friend. Number five, we're going to teach them and we're going to drill down on this idea of submitting to God and submitting to God-given authority. That their job during this transitional phase is that they've been submitting to their parents, Lord willing, And they need to learn that the difference between a child and an adult, a Christian adult that walks with God, is not that they now have no authority, but they have to realize that they need to transition their authority from going from their parents to God Himself. that they should submit to God and that they should submit to their God-given authority. Because even as adults, they're going to have God-given authority. If they're a man that goes off to work, they're going to have a boss who's their God-given authority. If they're a young lady that gets married, she's going to have a husband who's her God-given authority. So we're going to drill down on this idea of submitting to God-given authority. Number six, we're going to teach them to serve God and to serve others. Because we don't want to raise a bunch of lazy, selfish young people. We want them to be hardworking, thoughtful individuals. We're going to talk about serving God and serving others. And number seven, we're going to talk about taking the high road. Not just doing the least, not just taking the path of least resistance, not just asking this question, well, what's wrong with it? But asking the question, what's the wise thing to do? What's the best thing to do? And here's the commitment I'm making to you, that if you bring your children to one of our teen activities, if you allow your children to one of our youth lessons and things of that nature, You may not know what passage of scripture we're going from. You may not know what story we're dealing with, or what portion of scripture, or how we're getting there. But I promise you that we're going to be teaching your children, your young people, your teenagers, one of these seven things. That they must have a faith that is personal. That they must develop a daily devotional life. that they must maintain personal purity and standards, that they must have and be a sharpening friend, that they must submit to God and to God-given authority, that they must serve God and serve others, and that they must take the high road. And you say, well, how many times are you going to teach that? As many times as I can. As many times as we can. From 13 to 19 years old. Why? Because I want them, when they're 20 years old, to have this idea in their head that they are to submit to God. That they are to serve God and serve others. That they are to take the high road in every situation. That they are to maintain personal purity. And that they are to have a walk with God. We're going to try to brainwash these kids to be some good Christians. So my vision, I'm just explaining to you kind of my vision. Four to twelve years old, teaching the Word of God. 13 to 19 years old, teach them the stories, give them the foundation, there'll be an application there for them. 13 to 19 years old, heavy on application. Application driven, helping them become and develop the character and the people that they need to be. And by the way, let me just say this, for some of you parents it might be good to hear some of these lessons too. And these things are going to be good for you to learn. So don't just drop off your teenagers and tune out. Maybe you ought to pay attention, because some of these things might be good for you as well. So we talked about being family integrated. We talked about the family fun nights. We talked about the teens. Let me talk about one last section, and then we'll finish up. Like I said, I didn't want tonight to be long. It's been a long weekend. There's been lots going on. But let me talk about this. Because we are family integrated, we have mother-baby and daddy-baby rooms. I'd like to just speak about the mother-baby rooms and daddy rooms for a second. If you kept your place in 2 Timothy, I'd like you to find the book of 1 Thessalonians. If you go backwards from 2 Timothy, you'll have 1 Timothy, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians. If you kept your place in 2 Timothy and you go backwards, you'll have 1 Timothy, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter number 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter number 5. Do me a favor, keep your finger right there, and if you kept your place in Ecclesiastes, if you go backwards from Ecclesiastes, you have the book of Proverbs. Find Proverbs chapter 13. I want you to find 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, and I want you to find Proverbs chapter number 13. I don't know if we have anybody in the mother-baby rooms or daddy-baby room tonight. I'm sure we do. We've got people in those rooms at all times, but If there's ever a time to pay attention to the sermon, tonight would be, now would be the time. So I don't know if anybody can hear me in there, but if you can put the Monopoly game away and just look up for a minute, I'd appreciate your help with that. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse number 20, the Bible says this, despise not prophesying. Despise not prophesying. I mentioned this verse this morning. The word prophesying here is referring to the preaching of the Word of God. In the Bible, we often think of the word prophecy as somebody telling the future. But in the Bible, prophecy is used in two different ways and they're very closely related. Sometimes it's telling. the future, but a lot of times it's just preaching the Word of God and foretelling the truth. There's foretelling and there's foretelling. And here when the Bible says prophesying, it's referring to what you and I would call preaching. What I did this morning in our morning service, I preached the Word of God. What I'm doing even tonight, preaching the Word of God. And here the Bible says despise not prophesying. It says don't despise it. To despise something means to look down on it. To look at it with no value. to think it's not important. You don't despise something you think it's of value. And God says, hey, make sure you don't despise prophesying. In fact, He commands and says, despise not prophesying. I want you to notice how this is similar to what Proverbs 13 and verse 13 says. Proverbs 13 and verse 13, if you have your place there, the Bible says this. Whoso, notice this word, despiseth. Now we just read in 1 Thessalonians 5, despise not prophesying. What is prophesying referring to? It is referring to the preaching of the Word of God. Here in Proverbs 13, 13, we read these words. Notice these words, shall be destroyed. So Proverbs tells us, if you despise the Word, you're going to be destroyed. Paul tells us, despise not prophesying, which is the preaching of the Word of God. Preach the Word. Be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering. Here we're told, Proverbs 13, 13, Notice these words, the commandment. What is the commandment? It's the Word. And it can be the preaching of the Word. He that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded. So Proverbs 13, 13 says, don't despise the Word or you'll be destroyed. And make sure that you fear the commandments so you can be rewarded. And that's why Paul says, despise not prophesying. Because when the Word of God is being preached, you ought not despise it. You should not not value. You should value it. There's always value. You say, well, what if you show up on a Sunday night, and you've got puppets up, and you're teaching a Bible lesson? Let me tell you something. If the Word of God is being taught, there's value to it. So you have to despise not prophesying. You say, well, what does this have to do with the mother-baby room and the daddy-baby room? Well, we of course are a family-integrated church, like we talked about. And because we're a family-integrated church, we never separate children from their parents for any reason. Which means that we don't have separate children's ministries, we don't have nurseries, we don't put children away anywhere. But, however, we do because we do have little children that sometimes need to be cared for. We do have mother-baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience. Does this sound familiar? We've got rooms all throughout this building that have comfortable seating. They've got monitors set up. You say, why are the monitors there? Because we like to waste money and spend money on things that don't need to be used? No, the monitors are there so that you can watch the service and listen to it. Why are these windows there? The windows are there so you can watch the service. Why are there speakers in these rooms? So you can hear the service. The point of the mother-baby rooms is so that you can have somewhere. What is the purpose of the mother-baby and the daddy-baby rooms? The purpose is to give you a place to take your children when you need some privacy, when your children are being distracting, and when you need to take them somewhere out of the auditorium when they're distracting in the auditorium. You can take them somewhere and care for them and still be able to listen to the preaching of the Word of God. Why do we do that? Because you ought to despise not prophesying. We're trying to give you a place where you can take your children when they're too little to be taught to sit still and to pay attention. Obviously, a little infant, a little newborn baby, a six-month-old, an eight-month-old, a one-year-old, a two-year-old, a three-year-old even might be too little to understand some of these things. So when you need some privacy, when you need to take them out so they don't distract the service, we've got a place where you can take them and still Watch and listen to the preaching of the word of God. The mother-baby rooms are also a place where you can begin to train your older children. When they're three years old and four years old, you can begin to train them to sit quietly, listen to me. A four-year-old, a five-year-old, a six-year-old should be able to sit in a church service quietly and pay attention during the service. Now that's not going to happen on its own. You've got to train your children to do that. And we are giving you a place where you can take your kids and train them in that place. So what are the mother-baby rooms for? They're to take children that are too little to train. so that you can feed them, you can change their diaper, you can do whatever it is you need to do, and still, to the best of your ability, watch the sermons, listen to the sermons, be fed from the Word of God, and also to begin to train your children as they get a little older, because the goal is not for you to be in the mother-baby room and the daddy-baby room for the rest of your life. It's to train those kids out of the mother-baby rooms and out of the daddy-baby rooms so that they can sit with you and you can sit with them as a family in the church service. That's the whole point. We're a family-integrated church. The purpose of the Mother-Baby Rooms and the Daddy-Baby Rooms are to give you a place where you can hear the preaching of the Word of God and care for your children and begin to train them to bring them into the auditorium. That's the purpose. Now let's talk about the problem. What's the problem with the Mother-Baby Rooms and the Daddy-Baby Rooms? The problem with the Mother-Baby Rooms and the Daddy-Baby Rooms is that they are rooms that are set aside where we can't see you. We don't see what you're doing. And therefore, sometimes, and please don't misunderstand what I'm about to say to you, I don't think everyone that goes in the mother-baby rooms, and I don't think that everyone that goes in the daddy-baby rooms is doing this, but these rooms oftentimes become a place where no one's listening to the Word of God preached. where people are sitting there talking, they're fellowshipping, they're messing around, they're on their phones, they're gossiping, they're doing whatever, they're doing everything except paying attention to the preaching of the Word of God. And I would just say to you, you know what the Bible says, the Bible says the spy is not prophesying. Now, let me just say a couple things. Because I'll be honest with you, and again, you may not like this, but I'm just to the point where I just, I don't have the mental capacity. Maybe I'm just too old. I'm getting old. I get that. Look at all these gray hairs. I just don't have the mental capacity anymore or the patience to play these games. So I'm just going to be honest with you. I feel like the mother-baby room, we have a problem here with the mother-baby room, specifically the daddy-baby room. And look. If you come to our church for any length of time, I think you'll figure this out about me. I value personal responsibility. I value people taking responsibility for themselves and saying, look, here's where, so let me start. Oftentimes when I do counseling, and counseling doesn't work 99% of the time, by the way, Oftentimes, when I do counseling, I always begin with this. What are you willing to take some responsibility for? It's always amazing to me how people are so against taking any sort of personal responsibility. But let me tell you something. It's good to take personal responsibility. So I think we should all take personal responsibility. And I'll start. Let me take some personal responsibility for the problems in the mother-baby room, and specifically the daddy-baby room. Because I've given this a lot of thought. I've talked with my wife a lot about it. And we've talked about the fact that, man, it wasn't that bad in the old building. It seems like when we got into this new building, it's gotten worse. And here's what I think is a problem. I think that one of the problems is this, that we have limited space here. And that might sound odd to you because this is a much bigger building with a lot more room. But the problem is that this is a building that has a lot of room, but we're not able to use all of it yet. And in the old building, we had multiple mother-baby rooms like we do here. And we had only one daddy-baby room. But you know what we had in the old building is we had all these extra foyers. We had the primary foyer and the secondary foyer. And you know that secondary foyer kind of worked like a little bit of an open room for children. So not everybody was just crowded into one daddy-baby room. Not all the men were just in one daddy-baby room. You had men in the daddy-baby room, but you also had men who were out in the foyer. You had moms in the mother-baby rooms, of course, when they were nursing or doing something like that. But sometimes you even had husbands and wives just sitting in those open foyers, and they were kind of just this open area where families would go. And honestly, we don't have that here. Now, we will have that one day. You know, we've got this huge, I don't know, 1,800-square-foot fellowship hall back here, and it's not ready, and it's not done, and I understand that. But one day it is going to get done. One day it's going to be completely textured. It's going to be completely painted. There's going to be lights up. And you know what we're going to do? We're going to put some big screens in those fellowship halls. And that's going to kind of take place of what we used to have on the other building. So that way, not every man that has a baby or trying to care for a baby to give their wife a break is all in one room. Not every woman has to go into these. We'll have the mother baby rooms, we'll have the daddy room, but we'll also have this kind of big open space where people could spread out. We'll put some nice chairs and nice seating there and people will be able to spread out and kind of just be able to watch the service. I understand, and look, I'm taking personal responsibility. I'm telling you, I understand that it's gotten a little difficult here. We don't have here what we used to have there. Now, we can have that here, and we will have that here. Eventually, we're just not there yet, and all, you know, you say, whose fault is it? Everything rises and falls on leadership. I'll take the blame for it. It's my fault. I'm willing to take personal responsibility for that. But let me say this. If I'm willing to take personal responsibility for that, will some of you dads take personal responsibility for understanding that I understand it's crowded in there? I understand that paying attention and watching the service and not messing around can be more difficult than it was before, but if I'm willing to take personal responsibility to say, look, look, we moved in here and we made it a little harder for you and we're gonna do everything in our power to make it easier for you, we're moving at the pace that we can and we're just doing what we can and I'm sorry about that, but will you take responsibility to say this, that it is a failure in your character? I get it's difficult. But you know what, someone who had character, someone with character would just do that which is difficult. And look, I'm not trying to hurt your feelings. Some of you wish I wasn't preaching, or I was preaching, or bring out the Bible lesson for the kids. But let me explain something to you. I can tell you this, and I don't mean this in a proud way. I don't mean this in an arrogant way. I hope you understand my heart. But I can tell you this. Well, let me begin by saying this. I know this, if my wife was in one of those mother-baby rooms, no matter how crowded it is, no matter how difficult it is, she wouldn't be talking. She'd have her Bible open, and she'd be caring for her children, and she'd be doing the best to listen to the preaching of the Word of God. You say, how do you know that? Because she did it for years! And I'm not trying to sound proud and arrogant, but I am going to go ahead and tell you this. If I was in one of those daddy baby rooms, I wouldn't be messing around on my phone. I wouldn't be talking. I wouldn't be gossiping. I'd be caring for a kid, and I'd be listening to the sermon as best as possible. You say, but it's difficult and it's crowded. I get that. But even if it's difficult, if you have the character to do it, you just do it. Because you know what character does? It does that which is hard. Now, I will take responsibility and say, yes, I realize we've made it a little harder for you. Give us some time. Eventually, we're going to open up that room. And we've got other rooms and other places that we can begin to use and utilize. And I'm sorry about that. We've made it more difficult. But just because it's difficult doesn't mean you can't do it. And by the way, let me just be honest with you. You know that having children is difficult. You know that being faithful to three services a week, it's going to be difficult even if we have a fellowship hall with TVs in it. Being faithful to soul winning with kids is going to be difficult. Look, just getting up early and reading your Bible, you say, well, I got to work and I've got kids. Hey, I get it. It's a little harder maybe for you to read the Bible every day. If you've got to go to work and you've got to raise children, and if you were just single and you didn't have a wife and you didn't have this, it might be a little more difficult. But someone with character would just do it. Someone with character would just say, I don't care if it's hard. I'm not here to fellowship. I can fellowship with you after the service. I can talk with you after the service. Why do we need a bunch of men acting like a bunch of women in these rooms talking and yapping it up the whole service? I know it's hard, but if you had character, you'd just do it. Say, Pastor, I think you need to be a little nicer. Nice doesn't work. Do you understand what I'm saying to you? You try to say it all subtle and nice and like, hey, yeah, yeah. And then people are just like, pfft. Then you just say it clearly, and people are like, you're so mean. Get some character. You say, it's hard. I know it's hard. But you know what? Character would just work through it. You say, well, why are you saying this? Why do you care about these things? Here's why I care about it. Because men and women of low character use those mother-baby rooms and daddy-baby rooms to go weeks and months without listening to the preaching of the Word of God. And then they get backslidden. And then they get into all sorts of stupid garbage and stupid sins and stupid crap. And then all of a sudden, something that God meant to be good in your life, something that God meant to bless you in your life, something that God meant, he gave you children so that you would become better, so that you would raise them for the glory of God. Those children have now become the reason why you don't show up to church, you don't go soul winning, you don't read the Bible, you're backslidden, but it's not those kids' fault, it's your fault, because you don't have character. You say, but it's hard. Quit complaining. Make a decision! Decide! You know what? Yes, I've got a bunch of little kids, but I'm not going to get backslidden. I'm not going to despise the prophesying of the Word of God. Yes, maybe we're stuck in this little room, and we don't have the fellowship hall open. Maybe one day we will. But until then, I'm going to do what I can to listen to the preaching of the Word of God. I'm going to despise, not prophesy. You say, well, I don't care what you think. I don't work for you. I work for God. I don't like it, I'm not coming back. Join the club. You know you're a great church builder when you can start a church from scratch and build it to a successful church, and you even start building other people's churches. I mean, when you start building other people's churches, you know you've made it. You know you made it when you take people who knew nothing about the King James Bible, nothing about salvation, nothing about soul winning, you train them up and then our worst church people become the best church members at lame churches? Hey, we've learned the secret. We can disciple and we can replace if we need to. I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to teach you what you need to learn, and I'm here to tell you something, that you better not despise the preaching of the Word of God. And that's not just because I'm preaching. I don't care who's preaching. When the Word of God is open, you ought to pay attention. Why? Because whoso despises the Word shall be destroyed. But he that feareth the commandments shall be rewarded. So look, I get it. We don't have a lot of space in that daddy-baby room. I'm sorry. I will take personal responsibility and tell you I'm sorry about that. And as soon as we can get these rooms opened, as soon as we can get them painted or textured, remodeled, whatever, I don't, look, I don't have the money to do it. Can I just be honest with you? We don't have the money to do it. We'll do it when God allows us to. But until then, can you just up your character a little bit? Until then, can you just up your steadfastness a little bit? Until then, can you just up your discipline a little bit? and say, yeah, it's a little hard in that room, and it's a little crowded in that room, and no one else is paying attention, and they're all just watching YouTube videos, and no one else, okay, but how about you just say, I don't care what anybody else is doing. I'm not going to despise prophesying. The purpose of the mother-baby rooms is not for you to fellowship. We got enough fellowship. I think we can make the argument we got a little too much fellowship. The purpose of the mother-baby rooms It's for you to have a place, the daddy baby rooms, it's for you to have a place for your children when they're being distracting. And to begin to train them to bring them in the service. And you say, it's hard, I'm sorry. Up your character. Get some discipline. Shut your mouth and listen to the preaching of the word of God. You say, well, I'm not into that. Then go ahead and destroy your life, go for it. You're not gonna hurt me, I'm still gonna do what I've done, my wife is still gonna do what we've been doing. But you're gonna hurt your family, you're gonna hurt your kids, and this thing that God, these kids that God gave you that he meant to be a blessing, end up being a curse. Matthew chapter 18. Will you go there? We'll be done. Matthew 18, we'll look at this passage and we'll be done. Matthew chapter 18 and verse one. Matthew chapter 18 and verse 1, the Bible says, At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. You say, Pastor, why preach these things and why have these family fun nights? Why develop these seven core principles that we're going to try to drill into the minds of our young people? Why do all these things? Here's why. Because I think it's a worthy investment. To invest into the children and youth of this church. And let me, can we just be honest? While we're being honest, can we be honest? Adults, unfortunately, oftentimes, not all the time, but oftentimes, are a lost cause. I've learned this the hard way over 14 years of ministry. You know what I've learned over 14 years of ministry? It doesn't matter how many hours I spend in counseling with you, if you don't want to just do, if you just do what the Bible says, you wouldn't need any counseling. And adults are just a lost cause a lot of time. And I'm not telling you, with God, all things are possible. God can do a work in you, but I can't. God can, the Holy Spirit can, but not unless you're willing. Not unless you're willing to humble yourself as, you know what Jesus said? He said, you need to become as little children. We need to become humble like children, because adults, unfortunately, because of pride, Oftentimes, they're just a lost cause. Maybe I'm jaded. I don't know. I'm just telling you, I'd rather invest in the children. They're a worthy investment. Some of you, you're just not going to get it. I can get up here and I can preach and preach and preach. Wife, if you would quit criticizing and embarrassing your husband and picking at him. Maybe he'd want to spend time with you if you just kept quit demoralizing him. I can say it till my face is blue. And some of you women are just never gonna stop. It's just gonna... And you men, I can preach and say, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Do it selflessly, do it sacrificially, make them proud, and you're just never gonna stop. And I'm not mad at you, I'm just realizing that it's gonna take like God doing something. I just, I can't. So I'd rather invest in these kids. I'd rather invest in these teens. That doesn't mean I'm not gonna invest in you. I'm just telling you, you're messed up. Let's get them before they get messed up. Accept ye, be converted and become as little children. You shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. And here's all I'm saying. Adults, here's what I've learned. You're going to read your Bible. If you're going to read your Bible, you're going to read your Bible either way. If you're going to apply the preaching of the word of God, you're going to apply it whatever. I can't force you to be a soul winner. I can't force you to love God. I can't force you to love God. If I could, you would. I can't. I just can't. But maybe we can teach these kids to love God. Maybe we can teach these young people to love the Lord. Maybe I'll never be able to encourage you, no matter how much I preach, no matter how passionate I am about it, I'm just never gonna get you to read your Bible every day, but maybe we can get some of these 12 and 13 and 14 and 15 year olds to develop a daily habit of Bible reading that'll carry them to success in their adulthood. I think it's a worthy investment. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And while we're raising these kids for the glory of God, if you happen to hear a lesson, and you happen to get a thought, and you happen to get convicted by the Holy Spirit of God, and you happen to decide that you actually now care about God and care about the things of God, and your life gets better as a result, then praise God for it too. But it's never going to happen unless you and I humble ourselves as little children. Because Jesus said, you want to know who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you. And Lord, we thank you for your word. And Lord, I pray that you would do a work on all of us that no human being can force or should force or should manipulate. If I could get, if I could figure out the formula to get people to love God, I'd do it. If there was a button I could press to make people love souls, I'd press it. But there isn't. So Lord, I pray you'd help us to just teach these kids. Maybe some of these adults are just never going to care about the lost and dying world. But maybe these kids will. Help us to love them and invest in them and teach them. In the matchless name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Well, I want to thank you for being here tonight, and I want to just give you a couple of reminders.