This morning I want to talk to you about something that you've heard already in the sense that there's really not that much new information I have to share in this sermon. But I want to say this sermon because I want to put it on the radio and on our radio show so that we can get it out to people and to get them to think, the Christians in the community. You know, there's a lot of things in our country right now that we can't do much about. You know what I mean? A lot of the wickedness. But there are certain things that we can do. And one of the things that we can do in order to see the Republic of God built within our culture and to see his kingdom established in the earth, see his ways lived out in our nation, is we can educate our children ourselves. We can homeschool. And that's what I want to talk to you about this morning is homeschooling. And the title of my sermon is Why We Should Not Send Our Children to the State Schools. Title of my sermon is why we should not send our children to the state schools. Let's stand up and we'll have a word of prayer. Father, I give thanks and praise unto you that you have preserved your scriptures down through the years so we can know your ways and know your thoughts. God, I pray that you use this sermon this morning for good, to bring glory to your name. I pray you strengthen my body, that I might deliver it. May your Holy Spirit of truth, O God, be moving in the hearts and minds of every person here. Just use it for good, Father, exceedingly abundantly beyond all we could ever ask or think. Use it to bring glory to your name, we ask, Father. In Jesus' holy name, we pray. Amen. You could be seated. Those of you who know me, and who know my wife, Clara, know that we are committed to educating our children ourselves. Back in August of 1988, we were faced with a decision. Our daughter, Sarah, had gone through kindergarten at a Christian school, and we had changed in our financial situation during the summer between her kindergarten and her first grade, where we could no longer afford to send her to a Christian school. And we were committed in our hearts never to send our children to the state school, to the government school. And so we were left with the decision, you know, what are we going to do? Go into debt trying to send our daughter to a Christian school? Or are we going to homeschool? And we were very nervous about homeschooling because of the fact that we were fearful that somehow our child would end up being a social misfit if she didn't have other kids to be with at school each day. And we've learned since then, of course, that that is an absolute myth, that children end up better when they're homeschooled and they have adults as role models rather than other little kids. So anyways, in August of 1988, We made our decision that we would homeschool. We figured we would homeschool probably till junior high and then send them off to a Christian school once they reach that age. Well, that was 10 years ago. We are now moving into our 11th year of homeschooling and my daughter is in high school now and we're still homeschooling and all our kids are homeschooled. In fact, we're homeschooling Jeremiah now, and we're using the phonics game to teach him his phonics. And we love homeschooling, and we are totally sold on that. It's what people should do as Christians. They should educate their own children, rather than having some other do it. This morning, I want to give you a list of 10 reasons why you should not send your child to the public, or what I call the state school. Before I give you the list, however, let me share a few biblical truths with you regarding the educating or teaching of our children. First off, the Bible is clear that God has ordained parents to educate their children in all areas of life. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 through 9 is my proof text for this assertion, and we will look a little more closely at that passage of scripture in a few moments later on in this sermon. But the first thing you need to know is that the Bible is clear that God has ordained parents to educate their children in all areas of life. Secondly, you need to know that nowhere do the scriptures grant jurisdiction to the state to educate children. Let me repeat that to you. Nowhere do the scriptures grant jurisdiction to the state to educate children. Now, people say to me all the time, show me one verse in the Bible that says that you can't send your child to the government school. Show me one verse, Pastor Matt, that says that we shouldn't send our children to the government school. And my response is, I know of no verse that says you can't send your children to the government school, but I can show you dozens of verses that says that you are supposed to educate your children. And I ask you, show me one verse in the Bible which says that the state should be educating children. You cannot show me a single verse in the Bible that says that the state is granted jurisdiction by God to educate children. You know why? Because there isn't one that exists. Yet I can show you dozens and dozens of verses from the Word of God which make it clear that parents are to teach, train, discipline, and instruct their children. So the burden of proof is on you. I don't need a verse that says sending your child to the government school is a sin. I don't need one at all because I have dozens of verses that say, parents, me, my wife, you and your wife are to educate your children. And you have no verse whatsoever in the Bible. You have no verse whatsoever in the Bible which says that the state has jurisdiction to educate the children. So, the burden is on you. So, the Bible is clear that God has ordained parents to educate their children in all areas of life. Number one, and number two, nowhere do the scriptures grant jurisdiction to the state to educate children. Therefore, we must conclude, listen to me now, therefore we must conclude That since A, the Bible is clear, God has ordained parents to educate their children, and B, the Bible nowhere grants the state jurisdiction to educate children, we educate our children not by privilege given of the state, but by right given of God. Let me repeat that for you in case you didn't hear it. We must conclude That since A, the Bible is clear, God has ordained parents to educate their children, and B, the Bible nowhere grants the state jurisdiction to educate children, we educate our children not by privilege given of the state, but by right given of God. That is a great truth we need to come to grips with as Christian parents. We must also conclude that God intended parents to educate children and not the state. Therefore, we should never send our children off to a state school. Now that we have established these biblical truths as to why we should not send our children to government schools, let me give you a list of 10 practical reasons why you should not send your children to the government school. I've laid out the theological presuppositions why we shouldn't very briefly here at the beginning of the sermon. Now I want to spend the remainder of this sermon giving you a list of 10 practical reasons as to why you should not send your child off to the government school. Number one, We should not send our children to the government school because the scriptures expressly require a non-agnostic form of education. Did you get that? We should not send our children to the government school because the scriptures expressly require a non-agnostic form of education. The government schools present an agnostic form of education. God is not in the picture when it comes to their education. Listen, God wants us to teach our children in all areas of life and God is to be in the picture regarding all areas of life. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 4 through 9. I told you we were going to look at that a little more closely. Now's the time to do it. Deuteronomy 6, verses 4-9. You can read along as I set it out here. It says, Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. and shall talk of them when you sit in your house. There it is. Homeschooling. Proof text in the book of Deuteronomy. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. In other words, education goes on all the time. It isn't just when you set your kid off to some building. That isn't just when education's going on. Nor is education just going on when you sit down with them to do quote-unquote homeschooling. Education is to be going on all the time when it comes to being a Christian parent, educating your child. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house, on your gates. Now, two things come through loud and clear in this passage of Scripture. Number one, parents are to teach their children in all areas of life. And number two, God is to be in the picture. Our children are to be given a non-agnostic education. Now, someone might object and say, oh, but Pastor Matt, the context of the scripture passage you just read is dealing with teaching your children the law of God. Therefore, you can only say that scriptures teach that parents are to educate their children in matters of faith and not in all areas of life. Someone could object and say that to me. Let me respond to my objector by saying this. You do err. For the Bible addresses all areas of life. Yea, the law of God addresses all areas of life. The Bible does not dichotomize between the sacred and the secular. God does not speak to one but remains silent concerning the other. In his law, God addresses economics, civil government, the judiciary, taxation, the arts, sexual matters, family government, church government, the environment, just to name a few. What's it talking about there? What do those things entail? Education! The law of God speaks to all areas of life. And when it commands us to teach our children diligently here, in Deuteronomy chapter 6, it's not just talking about matters of faith, it's talking about all areas of life. We are to teach our children. We are to educate them. God does not dichotomize between the sacred and the secular. My point is simply this. The Bible addresses all areas of life. It does not dichotomize between the sacred and the secular. Therefore, when God commands us to teach our children, this command encompasses the whole of life, not just so-called matters of faith. This ordaining of parents to train and teach and educate their children is carried on throughout scripture. For instance, in the book of Proverbs, the genre of a father instructing his son in all areas of life is repeated over and over again in the book of Proverbs, right from the very beginning of the book. In fact, chapter 1, verse 8 says, my son, hear the instruction of your father and forsake not the law of your mother. We are to educate our children. That is a clear teaching of the Bible. You can go to the New Testament in the book of Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 1 through 4. The scripture says, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. And you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. We are to educate our children in all areas of life, and it is to be a non-agnostic form of education. So the first reason we should not send our children to the government school is because the scriptures expressly require a non-agnostic form of education and the government schools present an agnostic form of education. Number two, we should not send our children to the government school because the scriptures teach that we are to love the Lord our God with all our minds. We are to use our minds to bring glory to God. We are to use our minds for His purposes. The government schools stand in complete contradiction to this command on two counts. First, they teach an agnostic, God-hating form of education. You know, 2 Corinthians 10, verses 4-5 states this, The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into the captivity to the obedience of Christ. The government schools do not teach children how to do this. This is like The maxim this is the maxim the of the intellectual goal of Christendom Right there in 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 verses 4 through 5 We are to be casting down every high thing and strongholds and imaginations that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God and The government schools don't teach children how to do that. Rather, they teach them that the strongholds and arguments and high things which exalt themselves against the knowledge of God are normal and are good. Is this not true? So why would you send your child there and have his mind not loving the Lord his God for all it's worth? So, the government schools stand in complete contradiction to the command, love the Lord your God with all your mind. First, because they teach an agnostic, God-hating form of education. And second, because the government schools are a complete educational failure. How can you love the Lord your God with all your mind in a place that can't even educate? Just this week another report came out about American children ranking dead last in certain subjects out of all industrialized nations of the world. It was on the news this week. John Taylor Gatto who is the 1991 New York State School Teacher of the Year, who spent 26 years teaching in government schools, and who wrote the book, Dumbing Us Down, The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, has something to say about the failure of state education in America. Now listen, Gatto is a pagan. Gatto still believes in state education, but he realizes the failure of the state educational system in America. And I want to share with you some observations he makes in page 25 of his book, Dumbing Us Down. He says this, our form of compulsory schooling is an invention of the state of Massachusetts around 1850. It was resisted, sometimes with guns, by an estimated 80% of the Massachusetts population. the last outpost in Barnstable on Cape Cod not surrendering its children until the 1880s when the area was seized by militia and children marched to school under guard. See, there was a fight in this nation against the status and the elitist ever bringing in government education to begin with. There was a fight Gatto goes on here and he says this. He says, here is another curiosity to think about. The homeschooling movement has quietly grown to a size where one and a half million young people are being educated entirely by their own parents. Last month, the Education Press reported the amazing news that children schooled at home seem to be five or even ten years ahead of their formally trained peers in their ability to think. You know why that is? It's because God ordained parents to teach their children, not the state. We should not send our children to the government schools because the scriptures command, love the Lord your God with all your mind. And the government schools stand in complete contradiction to that command, because A, the government schools teach an agnostic, God-hating form of education, And B, the government schools are an educational failure. So we've dealt with reason number one. We've dealt with reason two. Let me give you reason number three, why you should not send your child to the government school. How about this for a reason? We should not send our children to the government school because it is like sending them to prison. I'm serious. It's a prison. Think back, way back, to when you were in government school, or private school for that matter, when you were a child. What was the main thing you always focused on and waited for every day? Recess, you say. For me, it was three o'clock. Forget recess. I was like, when's the day over? And that's all you focused on. Three o'clock. When am I out of this place? When am I gone? When am I no longer a prisoner? Is this not true? You didn't want to be there. It was like a prison to you. Most people aren't learning anything in these schools. In fact, in some of these government schools, you know what the children are trying to do? They're just trying to survive each day that they go there. Reason number four, we should not send our children to the government school because of who they'll look up to and emulate. Who do children look up to and emulate when they're in school? Is it the most studious, well-behaved, person-like person in the class? No. They emulate the class bully. They emulate the class clown. They emulate the class loose girl. They emulate the class cool dude. Is that not true? You know, this whole idea that I got to send my kid to the government school because he needs to be around children and he'll end up socially maladjusted if he doesn't, is just so pure nonsense. Your kid ends up to be a dipstick if you send him to the government school because of who he emulates. And he's going to emulate somebody with a strong personality in the school. And 99.9% of the time, that's a rotten personality. So you shouldn't send your kid to the government school because who they'll look up to and who they'll emulate. Oh, well, I hope they'll emulate one of their teachers. Find a good teacher to emulate. Really? You know, that's sad. You should want your child to emulate you. You should want your child to look up to you. That's who you should want your child to look up to, not another. Number five, we should not send our children to the government school because when you send your children to the government school, the state acts as their mother and father. This is an important point. When you send your children to the government school, the state acts as their mother and the father. When you send your children to the government school, you acquiesce your God-given role And the state takes over. They view your children as their own. I hope you know that. This is seen in a couple of ways. A, this is seen in that the state schools teach children to tell on their parents. They do. The state has surveillance on your home if you're sending your child to their schools. And the surveillance is done through your child. They teach children now in the government schools and have been for the last 15 years to narc on their parents, to be snitches, to be little citizen Gestapo, to make sure there are no family secrets. So they think the children belong to them. This is seen, A, in that the state schools teach children to tell on their parents. And B, this is seen in how many hours the state wants your child in your child's mind. Gatto talks about this repeatedly in his book. For instance, on page 29, Gatto says this. Out of the 168 hours in each week, my children sleep 56. That leaves them 112 hours a week out of which to fashion a self. According to recent reports, children watch 55 hours of television a week. That then leaves them 57 hours a week in which to grow up. My children attend school 30 hours a week. use about 8 hours getting ready for and traveling to and from school, and spend an average of 7 hours a week in homework, a total of 45 hours. During that time, they are under constant surveillance. They have no private time or private space, and are disciplined if they try to assert individuality in the use of time or space. That leaves them 12 hours a week out of which to create a unique consciousness. Of course, my kids eat, too, and that takes some time. Not much, because they've lost the tradition of family dining. But if we allot three hours a week to evening meals, we arrive at a net amount of private time for each child of nine hours per week. They want your child's time. They believe the child is theirs. They want your child's mind. On page 73, Gatto says in his book, in recent years, I've given much thought to the problem of turning the compulsory school network into some kind of emotionally rewarding community, because a move seems to be afoot to do the reverse, to enlarge substantially the bite that schooling takes out of a young person's family time, community time, and private time. Trial balloons are floated about constantly in the press and on TV. That means that some important groups are preparing to extend the reach of compulsory schooling in the face of its genuinely ghastly record. Gatto realizes that these people want your children's time. He realizes the bankruptcy and evil of compulsory state education in America. And yet most Christians don't realize it. Most Christians, even when they begin homeschooling, still school with the status mentality. I have to educate them 180 days out of the year. I have to sit down with them and cover these subjects every day, no matter what, no matter how much stress it causes in my home, no matter how much I scream and yell at my kids. Bless God, I'm going to get this done. Right? It's true. It's because even though they're not sending their kids to the statist school anymore, they still think like statists. And they're still educating with that mindset. And it's nonsense. Education is far beyond what the state has taught you education is. Education encompasses every aspect of life. And the state doesn't know best about what your child should learn. You know best. You're a parent. You know what? You can't learn everything. If you doubt this, just go down to the central library and walk in sometime and look around and get the overwhelming feeling that comes with realizing if you spent your entire life in that building, you could not read every book on the shelves of that one library. You have to decide what's important for your child to learn. And that's for you to decide as the parent ordained by God to educate your child, not the state. You need to quit thinking like statists in the education of our children and to just educate them as God intended. This whole thing of how much time they want the children is pathetic. How about homework? You know, my kids have friends who go to the government school. and sometimes they'll come by our house. And here they've been at school all day and then they got to run home after playing with my kids for 20 minutes. You know why? They have homework to do. So let me get this right. You were just there for eight hours and now they want more of your time? They want to keep their minds as much as they can. So they load them down with homework. Gaddo addressed that in his book, too. He said, I assign a type of extended schooling called homework so that the effect of surveillance, if not that surveillance itself, travels into private households where students might otherwise use free time to learn something unauthorized from a father or mother by exploration or by apprenticing to some wise person in the neighborhood. These elitists, these statists, these government school officials want your child's mind. And Gatto says it so sarcastically well here. Where students might otherwise use free time to learn something unauthorized from a father or mother. And yet Christians by the millions, listen to me brothers and sisters, Christians by the millions send their kids off in this country to these dogs every day. You don't think that doesn't break God's heart? It's sick. It's totally sick. These people want our children, and we're naming the name of Christ, and we give them to them. Sad state of affairs. A newspaper article from October of 1997 In the Milwaukee Journal, States, and this was the headline of the newspaper that day, States Homeschooling Leaps 80%. And you know what the subtitle is? Trend Raises Concerns at DPI, the Department of Public Instruction. Why are they concerned? Because they want the children. And you give them to them? Why would you give your children to these wicked animals? These god-haters? Listen to Tim Lash in this article. He's the executive director of the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators. He said the state has no way of assessing how well homeschooled students are performing academically. Well, Tim, it's none of your business how well they're doing. Lash, who heads the organization of about 1,800 public school principals, said the state needs to do more to regulate homeschooling. For example, he said, state officials should make sure parents are providing an adequate education. For all practical purposes, parents can go their own way, Lash said. They contend they provide a certain level of services, but as a state, you'd want to have a handle on that. They want the children. You know, right now we have one of the best homeschooling laws in the nation. All you're supposed to do in this state is fill out a one-page form registering your child with the state as a homeschooler. I tell you, don't even do that. I encourage you, and there are thousands of us who don't, Never fill out that piece of paper. Never, never, never register your child with those docs. They have no jurisdiction when it comes to education. They have no right or business to be a part of the education of our children's lives, in our children's lives. And so we should not do anything that they say we need to do when it comes to educating our children, because they have no jurisdiction. from God's perspective. Okay. So, we should not send our children to the government school because when you send your children to the government school, the state acts as their mother and father. When you send your children to the government school, you acquiesce your God-given role and the state takes over. I always laugh at Christians who whine and moan about how their children are being treated in the government school. It's like, hey, You know what? You gave up your parental authority when you tossed your kids off on them. So don't cry in your sleep to me. Number six, we should not send our children to the government school because we make them fodder for the statist humanist utopia being constructed by the elitists of our age. This is not great stuff. This is a great thought. We should not send our children to the government school because we make them fodder for the status humanist utopia being constructed by the elitists of our age. I mean, is there not any sense of resistance left in the American people and American Christians? These animals make it clear that they want our children and like little lemming saps we're going to walk up and give them to them? I mean, even if I didn't have scripture on my side, backing me up that I have a God-given right and duty to educate my children, just by virtue of the fact that they want them would make me not want them to have them. You know what I'm saying? You got no resistance, no love of justice, no suspicion of government to the left here or what? Government schools have little to do with true education, but they have a lot to do with social engineering. This has been going on for years. You look at the older men in the church. What? They're jack-of-trades. The older men in the church can do just about anything. Need something done? Call up one of the older men in the church. You know, you as a product of the government school system ain't gonna produce anything. It's not true. Why? Because social engineering has been going on. People are specifically designed for a specific task to make the division labor as highly productive and profitable as can be. This is how it is. Gatto addresses this whole idea of social engineering, of children being fodder for the statist humanist utopia being constructed by the elitists of our age. On page 26, of his book, he says, schools were designed by Horace Mann and by Sears and Harper of the University of Chicago and by Thorndike of Columbia Teachers College and by some other men to be instruments of the scientific management of a mass population. This is great stuff. The guy has great insight. He's a pagan and he has better insight than most Christians do when it comes to education. He goes on and he says this, schools are intended to produce through the application of formulas, formulaic human beings whose behavior can be predicted and controlled. This is great. On page nine of his book, he says this, no middle class parents I have ever met actually believe that their kid's school is one of the bad ones. Not one single parent in 26 years of teaching. That's amazing. And probably the best testimony to what happens to families when mother and father have been well-schooled themselves, learning the seven lessons. Good people wait for an expert to tell them what to do. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that our entire economy depends upon this lesson being learned. Think of what might fall apart if children weren't trained to be dependent. The social services could hardly survive. They would vanish, I think, into the recent historical limbo out of which they arose. Counselors and therapists would look on in horror as the supply of psychic invalids vanished. Commercial entertainment of all sorts, including television, would wither as people learned again how to make their own fun. Restaurants The prepared food industry and a whole host of other assorted food services would be drastically downsized if people returned to making their own meals rather than depending on strangers to plant, pick, chop, and cook for them. Much of modern law, medicine, and engineering would go too. The clothing business and school teaching as well, unless a guaranteed supply of helpless people continue to pour out of our schools each year. That's a man who won school teacher of the year for the state of New York, and he taught in that godless system for 26 years. That's what he thinks of it. He understands what it's about. The government school system has very little to do with anything when it comes to true education, but it has a lot to do with social engineering. We should not send our children to the government school because we make them fodder for the statist humanist utopia being constructed by the elitists of our age. Number seven, we should not send our children to the government school because state schooling benefits the rich, the elitists, and the teachers, but not the children. On page 65 of his book, Gatto says this. Nearly a century ago, a French sociologist wrote that every institution's unstated first goal is to survive and grow, not to undertake the mission it has nominally staked out for itself. Thus, the first goal of a government postal service is not to deliver the mail. It is to provide protection for its employees and perhaps a modest status ladder for the more ambitious ones. The first goal of a permanent military organization is not to defend national security, but to secure in perpetuity a fraction of the national wealth to distribute to its personnel. It was this Philistine potential, teaching the young for pay, would inevitably expand into an institution for the protection of teachers. not students, that made Socrates condemn the Sapphists so strongly long ago in ancient Greece. I repeat that to you. It was this Philistine potential, teaching the young for pay, would inevitably expand into an institution for the protection of teachers, not students, that made Socrates condemn the Sapphists so strongly long ago in ancient Greece. If this view of things troubles you, think of the New York City public school system where I work, one of the largest business organizations on planet Earth. While the education administered by this abstract parent is ill-regarded by everybody, the institution's right to compel its clientele to accept such dubious service is still guaranteed by the police. And forces are gathering to expand its reach still further. in the face of every evidence that it has been a disaster throughout its history. God has got some great insight. He goes on on page 69 of his book, and he says, unlike true communities, pseudo communities and other comprehensive networks like schools expand indefinitely, just as long as they can get away with it. More may not be better, but more is always more profitable for the people who make a living out of networking. Is this not true? Listen, when I went to this meeting for socialized medicine held by Congressman Moody a few years back, when I went to that meeting, there were 700 people there. You know who most of them were from? Government organizations dealing with health care. They wanted to secure their perpetuation in life. They wanted more money from the trough for themselves. What he's saying here is exactly right. They don't exist for the benefit of the people. And when it comes to schools, the schools don't exist for the benefit of the children. They exist for the benefit of the teachers, for the elitists, and for the rich. That's who they exist for. He goes on there and he says, that is what is happening today behind the cry to expand schooling even further. A great many people are going to make a great deal of money if growth can be continued. Gatto hits it right on the head. He knows what's going on here. Number eight, number seven is we should not send our children to the government school because state schooling benefits the rich, the elitist and the teachers, but not the children. Number eight, we should not send our children to the government school because of sickness. Look at all the sickness and disease that gets passed around from our warehousing children. Does everyone notice that? Kids end up sick all the time because they go to school with a bunch of other kids carrying disease and influenza and all kinds of filth with them and measles, mononucleosis, mumps, rubella, just name a few. So they pass it around to each other there in that little confine called a school and your kid ends up sicker than a dog. And then we could of course go into vaccinations, which is another topic, another sermon. So we should not send our children to the government school because of sickness. Unless you enjoy your kid being sick, don't send your kid to the government school. If you quit sending them to the government school, you will see a reduction in the amount of time they are sick. There is no doubt about it. Number nine, we should not send our children to the government school because we should care for our children's holiness. Did you catch that? We should not send our children to the government school because we should care for our children's holiness. Now, I know we shouldn't want to protect our children. I mean, what is the world coming to if parents begin to try and protect their children, right? And I know holiness shouldn't really have anything to do with education. Education should just be neutral, right? And I know holiness isn't popular within 20th century Christianity to talk about. But I'm telling you, we should not send our children to the government school because we should care about our children's holiness. I'm not going to read to you the kind of filth that is taught. I'm talking about sexual filth. that is taught at government schools. Every parent has a duty to see what is being taught there if they want to send their child there. I don't know how anyone who names the name of Christ could in good conscience send their child to hear of such debauchery as is taught in those government schools. Unfortunately, most Christians today care more about their own personal peace and affluence than they do about their own child's holiness. When I administrated a Christian school back at another church I pastored at, there was a young girl about 13 years old who went to the government school and she came up and was talking to me how she wanted to go to the Christian school. And her mother came up while she was talking. I mean, this girl was in tears. That's how much she hated the government school. Her mother came up while we were talking and said, you can't go to the school. I told you before, we can't afford it. And then she started telling her mother about the human growth and development class, where all this filthy sexuality stuff is taught. And her mother said, well, you just have to go. That's just how it is. There's nothing we can do about it. We can't afford to send you to the Christian school. And I just was really taken aback by the whole conversation. And about three weeks later, I went to visit that family. And as I walked up, they had a huge boat in their driveway. I mean a huge boat with a cabin down below under the deck and everything on a huge trailer. And I found out that they took that huge boat up to their cottage up north so that they could vacation there during the summer. Do you see what I'm saying? Many Christians today care more about their own personal peace and affluence than they do about their own child's holiness. This mother's saying that you have to go to the government school because we can't afford the Christian school. Yeah, but you can afford a boat and you can afford a cottage, right? It's just sick. And that's where most Christians are today. They are sick and they're in rebellion to God. Most Christian parents in America today are in rebellion to God. And let me finish up with number 10 here. We should not send our children to the government school because it separates us from our children. We should not send our children to the government school because it separates us from our children. This is of such grave importance. This separation which government schools create flies in the face of God's created order and defies his dictated law. This is unnatural for parents to be separated from their children like they are through government schooling or for private schooling, Christian schooling, as far as that goes. It is unnatural. Gatto addresses this in his book. On page 74 of his book, he says, yet it appears to me as a school teacher that schools are already a major cause of weak families and weak communities. He realizes the separation is a bad thing. He goes on and he says, they separate parents and children from vital interaction with each other and from true curiosity about each other's lives. Schools stifle family originality by appropriating the critical time needed for any sound idea of family to develop. Then they blame the family for its failure to be a family. God always hit it on the head. This is evil, the separation that takes place between children and their parents. It's sick. God or a pagan understands it. Whereas most Christians shuffle their kids off to the government school or the Christian school, day after day, week after week, causing an unnatural, ungodly separation between. child and parent. This is the chief cause as to why there are so many young people with problems and rebellion and so many messed up families. Christians wonder all the time, why do we have so many Christian families with messed up young people or young people disinterested in God? I had a guy come up to me. He goes to the nice fancy church around here, nice fancy evangelical church. And he started going there, and since he's gone there, he doesn't get involved out in ministering for the Lord out in the community anymore. You know why? He doesn't get involved as much. You know why? Because he was telling me, he said, there's so many messed up families in our church, and we spend so much time praying for them and trying to help these young people who are messed up, that I just don't have time to be coming out and ministering for the Lord on the streets anymore and in the community. And I said to him, I said, well, yeah, I said, I got to ask you something. I said, where do these Christian parents send their children to school? You know what he said to me? He said, they sent him to the government school. They sent him to the government school, to the public school. I said, then you know what? You're going to be wasting the rest of your life dealing with messed up people. Because you've got parents who are in rebellion to God. They're sending their kids to the government school. And then they wonder why their kids are screwed up. They wonder why their kids are messed up. Christianity spends so much time spinning its wheels with messed up families and messed up young people because it's in rebellion to God to begin with. by sending their children to the government schools. How's the church ever going to start moving along in the culture, being the salt it's supposed to be, administering the way God intended it to, and it keeps sending its young people off to be educated by the pagans. This is pathetic. The reason there are so many messed up young people is because of the separation It's unnatural. And this is why I'm so opposed to Christian schools also. Because I see the same attitude in young people who go to the Christian school that I see in young people who go to the government school. It's the same attitude. The attitude of, you can just see it, of a separation between them and their parents. You know why the attitude is there? You know why the rebellion is there? It's because of the separation. I was reading a letter that my daughter received from one of her cousins. This cousin of hers goes to a Christian school. I was reading the letter and I just was chilled by it. Because at age 13, the separation has already taken place between her and her parents. In the letter, she's talking about how she doesn't want her parents to come to some school function because she'd be embarrassed by having them there. The separation has already taken place. It's unnatural. Now, there is a place for Christian schools, for special situations, for people who are called orphans or for single moms or for young people whose fathers are in prison for their faith, then you have a legitimate reason for a Christian school to exist. But when you have a mother and a father in the home, there is no reason for them to be going to a Christian school. They should be educated by their parents. Otherwise, you're going to have the separation. And when the separation is there, the kid's going to be as attitudish as the kid who goes to the government school. I've seen it a thousand times. Christians wonder, why are we all messed up? Why are young people so messed up? You need to pray to God for deliverance. They're messed up because of you. Because you send your kid off to school and abdicate your God-given duty to educate them yourself. That's why they're messed up. That's why they're disinterested in God. Get real. Forget your little prayer delivering services. Get your life right with God. It's clear. It's in his word, is it not? It's plain as the wart on your nose. It's true. It's right there. Parents are ordained by God to educate their children, and the state is never granted jurisdiction to do so. Duh, see spot run. It's that simple. I get upset about this because I believe it's that important. It bugs me. I hate Christians are the stupidest people. Stupid people. You know what I'm saying? Here God sends his son to die on the cross for us. Redeem us out of our delusion, derision and cruddy life. Gives us his Holy Spirit right inside our bodies. Gives us his word. Which many men and women died to preserve for us down through the years Gives us his word preserves it for us and Christians just go And spit on his word and send their kids off to school rather than educating their children themselves That doesn't make you disgusted. I don't know what does he should be more loving pastor man by the way is this mercy seat or judgment seat I Somebody write me that this week in a letter. I think, really, your church has become judgment-seeked. Really? Let's just have a healthy hatred of evil, okay? Get a little healthy hatred for evil! And maybe you won't be as limp wristed as you are right now. You know, you can give ten reasons like this. I mean, just the theological presuppositions I gave at the beginning, shouldn't that convince the most normal Christian person alone not to send their kid to the government school? Yes, it should. But, even add ten great reasons like this, that I've expounded this morning, as to why you shouldn't do it. And they'll still do it! Reason means nothing. Anti-intellectualism reigns supreme in American Christianity. I'm not going to give you a reason why I send my child to the government school. I'm just going to do it. And I don't care what you say, and I'm not going to respond to your list of arguments. I'm just going to do it. Yeah, you know why they won't respond? Because they can't. because they know they're little rebels to God. You really have to question, do they have any love for the Lord? Have any love for their own children? Listen to this. In Matthew 28, verse 19, Jesus said, we are to disciple the nations. We are to teach them. Unfortunately, most Christians today are not only not discipling the nations, They're sending their children to be discipled by the nations. So, American Christians have erred in triple fashion. A. We're not discipling our own children. B. We're not discipling the nations. And C. We're sending our children to be discipled by the nations. Isn't that a great thought? Isn't that a wonderful insight? And yet you could share this with people, thousands and millions of Christians, share that with people and they'll be like, huh? Huh? It means nothing to them. Nothing. That is a brilliant insight. It's brilliant. And yet you share it with Christians and you know what? They don't care. They don't care. What's wrong with American Christianity? It must be an absolute delusion. Listen, most Christians don't even teach their children in regards to matters of faith, let alone all areas of life. They shook their kids off on the church to teach their children about matters of faith, Just like they shirk their children off on the state to teach their kids about all areas of life. It's true. We are the great generation of shirkers. That's why we don't have little fuzzy kitty programs here. And nice little wolf groups for the kids to go and just have fun. Sonic, wait a minute. We don't have it. You know why? Because I'm not going to aid and abet the rotten lot of Christian parents that are involved in American Christianity by giving them their fuzzy little programs for their kids. You know what? They're going to have to educate their children themselves. Not in just matters of faith, but in all areas of life. They must. It is the father's responsibility to be a priest to his home and to make sure those kids are being taught. I close with this story. I have a friend who I was visiting with last fall and we were having a shake together. And while we were talking, my friend says to me, he says, you know, I really admire you and your kids. I really admire them. Because your kids seem to be so interested in what you're doing. Everything that I'm involved in, he said, my kids have no interest in whatsoever. And so, I'm just in admiration of how your children are so into what you're into. Because I know the pain of having kids totally disinterested in what I'm into. His kids are about 13, 14 years old. And I'm sitting there, talking to him. You know where he sends his kids to school? Government school. It's the separation. It's the separation. He sends his kids off to other people day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, and then he wonders why they don't give a blank about his life. Get real. They don't care about his life because the separation is already done. Oh, well, you know, they all go through that rebellious stage. About 15, 16. I just pray that they come around. Come around when they hit about 18. That's all I'm hoping for, man. Really? Pitiful, pitiful goals. You know why Christians are subjected to that type of thinking? Because they're just as stupid as the pagans. They have allowed the separation to take place. by dumping and shirking their responsibility and not teaching their children themselves. That's why they find themselves in the mess they're in. Martin Luther, and I close with this, said this. Martin's one of my heroes. I am much afraid that schools will prove to be great gates of hell. unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures. Yeah, I feel I see a lot of the government schools are really explaining the Holy Scriptures. Unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth, I advise no one to place his child where the scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt. Let's stand up and we'll close in a word of prayer. Hallelujah, Father. Praise your holy name, O God. We rejoice to give thanks to you, O Lord. Blessed is your holy name. Father, I thank you for the testimony that this church is, even to other pastors that I know, O God, who are shocked when they hear that. All the people at this church homeschooled, dear Lord. Father, I pray that it becomes the norm in churches across the country. Father, I pray that people would see the filth of the government schools, that they would see the bankruptness of the Christian schools. Father, that they would see, that parents would see their holy duty before you to educate their children, that you have ordained them, O God, to educate their children and no other. Holy Father, I pray that you take this simple message and use it for good. And I ask this in Jesus' holy name. May this earth be changed because of people living according to your word, O God, including this area of their life. May this whole earth be changed to bring glory to your name and to see your kingdom expanded. And I ask this in Jesus' name, Father. Amen. Hallelujah. Could we be seated?