Let's open our Bibles together to the gospel. According to Matthew chapter 19, we're going to take a one-week diversion from our study in 1 Timothy, and we will be taking up something that we see here in Matthew 19, verses 13 through 15. Let's read this familiar passage Then some children were brought to him, so that he might lay hands on them and pray. And the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to me. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. And after laying his hands on them, he departed from there. And for the last time in Grace Community Church's history, the children are dismissed during the service. Let's go to the Lord together, bring our request to him. Father, we thank you that as many are your promises that in Christ they are yes and amen. And Father, we thank you that we can depend upon your word because you are faithful. We thank you, Father, that your son is wonderful, counselor, mighty God, Prince of Peace. And Father, it's in his name this morning and on his merit that we come to you, Father, not claiming any righteousness of our own derived from our own works, but rather the righteousness which comes from you through faith in Jesus Christ. And Father, this morning we want to pray for those in our congregation who are struggling father with physical illness and Lord we think especially of Carol Lynn today and we think of her failing eyesight and father we would ask that in your mercy you would give the doctor's wisdom and insight and that you would use whatever technology father maybe just a raw demonstration of your power in healing but father we ask that you would restore her eyesight Father, we think of those today who are with child. Father, we thank you for them. Lord, we pray that you would give them all a very safe delivery. Father, we pray for healthy babies and healthy moms. Father, we pray for those today who are struggling. Father, we pray for those today who aren't with us today because they have let sin get the upper hand. Father, we pray that you would open their eyes to the wonderful truth, that you break the power of canceled sin and set the prisoner free. Father, we pray for those who are wavering in their faith, strengthen them today. And Lord, as we come to a time in your Word, we pray that you would give us light. We pray, Father, that you would open our hearts and our minds to the truth as it is in Jesus. And Father, as we deal with the subject that's before us today, I pray, Lord, that you would not only persuade us that it's true, but that you would give us an enthusiasm to embrace this new direction. We commit our time to you, Father, and ask that our time in the Word would be profitable, Father, for our good and the good of our children, and for the glory of your name. Amen. We talk a lot about the Reformation at Grace Community Church, the Protestant Reformation. And you know, if you've been around for any time, that the Reformation can basically be boiled down to a few very key slogans. One of those slogans that the Reformation hung on was sola fide, faith alone. What was another slogan that the Reformation hung on? Sola gratia, grace alone. Solus Scriptura, scripture alone. Solus Christus, Christ alone. Soli Deo Gloria, to God alone be glory. And then there's another Reformation slogan that's for some reason or another has slipped by the wayside. We don't usually remember it when we're reciting the other ones. And that is Semper Reformanda, always reforming. If you're in the Marine Corps, of course, you know what Semper is. Semper Fidelis, always faithful. Well, this slogan was always reforming. And the reason that the reformers had this as one of their slogans was that they said, yes, we are reformed. That is, we have changed the errors of the Roman Catholic Church, but we are not so arrogant to think that we have arrived. We are open and sensitive to the direction of the Holy Spirit through the word of God. And we are open to any reformation which must occur hereafter. Maybe one of the reasons we have forgot that slogan is because it requires us to change traditions once in a while. And of course, traditions are easier just to hang on to than to revamp. But a grace community church I think that we could say, in a very real sense, we are reformed, but always reforming. That is, not only in our theology, not only what we believe, but also in terms of how we do church, we can say reformed. But, we are not so arrogant to think that everything we do is absolutely pleasing to God. So we're open to the leading of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, and we can say semper reformanda, always reforming. And one of the areas of reformation that we need at Grace Community Church pertains to our children. For some time, we've had the conviction that our children should be in the entirety of the worship service. If you were at the parenting class back in January, this was something that we brought up. Children should be in the worship service. Well, at that time, we were still at the middle school and we had time restrictions. And so what we did is we chose having a children's program over having them in the service with us. Whether that was right or wrong, I do not know, but now I do know that God, by His good hand of providence, has brought us to a place where we can get here as early as we want, control the heat and the lights, and we can leave when we want. And so, taking advantage of the good providence of God, we are ready to make a change, ready to make a reformation. And today, I want to give you the biblical rationale for having children in the service. Then I want to give you some principles that will give us the framework, so to speak, of doing that, and then some points of application. The place that we need to start, however, is our own authority for faith and practice. I mean, why are we doing this? If you read our statement of faith, we say, that the Bible and the Bible alone is our standard for faith. That is what we believe. What we believe as Christians is defined strictly by this book. We don't care what Joseph Smith said. We don't care what the latest prophets have said. We base what we believe on this book, Sola Scriptura. We believe with that wholeheartedly. But we also say that the Bible is not only our sole authority for faith, but it's also our sole authority for practice. That is how we behave. Not only as individuals living the Christian life in front of a watching world, but also how we do church in here. With God's Word as our sole authority for faith and practice, that leads us to adopt what the Puritans called the principle of regulation, the regulative principle of worship. That is, we try to model our worship as close to the Scriptures as we can. That makes sense to me if we're going to say that the Bible is our sole authority for faith and practice. Paul says, all Scripture. is God-breathed and is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for reproof and instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped, furnished for every good work. And we take that seriously. And so on the basis of the Bible being our authority for faith and practice inside the church and outside, I want to give us three general principles that would lead us or compel us to have our children in the worship service with us, especially during the ministry of the Word. The first general principle is this, is that God is the creator and founder of our families. If you go back to Genesis chapter 1, you see that God said, let us make man in our own image, after our own likeness. And then he says in verse 27 that God made man in his own image, and male and female, he created them. And then he pronounces a blessing and says, you shall be fruitful and multiply. So he ordains that a man should marry a woman, that the two should become one flesh, and that they should be fruitful and multiply and have a family. So God is the founder, the creator, the designer of the family. Then he says in Genesis 2, it's not good for man to be alone. And so he puts Adam under a divine anesthetic, takes out one of his ribs and creates woman. And Adam wakes up and sees his knockout bride. And he says, this is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. She's going to be called woman because she's taken from man. And then For this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." So we see that from the very beginning, God is the creator and founder of our families. Now, if God is the creator and founder of our families, then what that means is that the family exists for the glory of God. Because everything God has created, He created for one purpose. And what's that? For His own glory. And the family's no different. So if the family was created for the glory of God, then that means that the family exists for the glory of God. And if the family exists for the glory of God, then the family, by nature, must be a worshiping community. Do you view your family as a worshiping community? That's what God made it for. And so that's the first principle. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10.31, whatever you do, whether you eat or whether you drink, do it all for the glory of God. Well, that means the way that we conduct our families, too. They exist for the glory of God. I mentioned in January we did a parenting class. We called that class, The Supremacy of God in Parenting. The reason we did that is because we believe that our first responsibility as parents is to so labor in prayer and instruction and discipline, so labor in the lives of our children that God would be supreme in their lives. Well, let's take it a step further. We exist for the supremacy of God in our families. First principle. The second principle is that God requires that families worship and serve Him. Take your Bibles and turn to Joshua, chapter 24. Joshua's at Shechem giving his farewell speech to the Israelites. And he says in verse 15, If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But, as for me and my house, we will serve or worship the Lord. We see a number of things in this verse that I want to bring out. First of all, you're going to serve somebody. It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you're going to have to serve somebody. Joshua actually said that long before Bob Dylan got a hold of it. He's saying, you have to make a decision today, and that is, who are you going to serve? Are you going to serve the gods of your fathers, the pagan gods? Are you going to serve the gods of the Amorites? Or are you going to serve Yahweh, the true God? But I'll tell you what, my family, is going to serve the Lord. God requires that we as families serve the Lord, and the fact is, is that if we're not serving the Lord conscientiously, if we're not worshiping the Lord conscientiously, then we are worshiping and serving something else by default, which means that we must willingly choose to serve and worship God as a family. The implications of this are actually very plain. If God demands that you as a family worship and serve Him, then that means that each family that calls themselves Christian should have a regular time of family worship. That is not some fanciful idea by the Puritans who wanted to make sure that everybody was worshiping God all the time. That is the logical conclusion of everything the scripture says about the family. If we are to willingly choose to worship and serve the Lord God, then that means that as families we should have regular times of family worship. What else? The other implication that comes out is that we should have a commitment to the corporate worship on the Lord's Day as a family. So if the family is going to willingly choose to serve the Lord God and to be a worshiping community, the natural implication of that is that we have family worship and that we engage in corporate worship on the Lord's Day. The third general principle is that it is the Father's responsibility that the family worship God, that the family have family worship, and that the family attend worship on the Lord's Day, it is the father's responsibility to implement and to maintain the worship of God as a family. If the father is the head of the house, if he is the head of the wife, if he is the one in whom God has constituted the authority of the household, then it is the father's responsibility to make sure that the family gathers for family worship, and also that they get up on Sunday mornings to come to corporate worship on the Lord's Day. Unfortunately, we live in a day and age where fathers have abdicated their responsibilities as the priests and pastors of their home. And many times the mothers are put in a very uncomfortable situation where they have to take up the leadership in an unwilling way because the father simply won't do it. My goodness, men, put your pants on and lead your family in spiritual things. We have a feminized society, and it is seeping into the church so fast because men forget that God has instituted them as the heads of the house. If you're the head of the home, it is your responsibility, not your wife's, to gather the children for family worship. If you're the head of the house, it is your job to get the family to church on time. But that is only going to happen if we understand that our families exist for the glory of God. It is only going to happen if we understand that our families are miniature worshiping communities within the larger community of faith. On the basis of those three principles, I would urge us to seriously consider the necessity of having our children in worship with us. Let's look at some specific biblical texts. Since you're in the book of Joshua already, turn back to chapter 8. Joshua chapter 8, verses 33 to 35. And all Israel, with their elders and officers and their judges, were standing on both sides of the Ark before the Levitical priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as the native. Half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had given command at first to bless the people of Israel. Then afterward, He read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded, which Joshua did not read before the assembly of Israel, with the women and the little ones and the strangers who were living among them." Now, all of Israel's gathered together and the little ones are there. The word little ones in Hebrew, tath, means ones who have stumbling steps, quick tripping steps, which we would call them toddlers. That's what we would call them. All of Israel's assembled with toddlers and then they have a quick prayer meeting and it's over, right? No, he reads how much of the Bible? He reads the first five books of the Bible. He reads Genesis and then he reads Exodus and then he reads Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. Now try doing that in the afternoon, just see how long it will take you. I guarantee you it'll take you longer than what it takes us to do what we do here. But who was there listening to the reading of the law? The little ones. The little ones were there. They didn't say, Joshua didn't say, now before the reading of the Holy Pentateuch, the little ones will go off to little Pentateuch school and be dismissed. He didn't say that. They were involved in with the adults. Let's turn over to Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter 8. Nehemiah is one of those books that we turn to frequently and read for our nourishment. It's before the Psalms, I guess that's a hint. Nehemiah chapter 8, verses 1 to 4. And all the people gathered as one man at the square, which was in front of the water gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. Then Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it before the square which was in front of the water gate from early morning until midday. In the presence of men and women, those who could understand, and all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood at a wooden podium which they had made for this purpose, and beside him stood a bunch of Jewish guys on his right hand and left. Now, if you fault me for summarizing the names like that, I would invite you to come up and read them for yourself. Here's the point. These people had come back from the exile, and Ezra, who was a scribe and a priest, is told, bring the book. And they do this from early in the morning, perhaps 6 a.m., to midday. And the people that are there listening attentively to the, not only the reading of the law, if you read on, you will find that then they break into small groups and people explain it to them. They do this for a number of hours, but who does it? Men and women, and then the scripture says, all who have understanding. The problem with this word is that it doesn't give us any sort of age limit, although in scripture from other places, we know that they were taught the scriptures from the time they were sucklings. Now in Hebrew culture, the children didn't nurse until they were about three to four years old. And so we have probably three to four year olds being included in this time of expounding the law. Let's turn over to the New Testament, Matthew chapter 18. Matthew chapter 18, verses three through six, familiar passage to you. Jesus said, truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea." Now, this passage doesn't say actually anything about children being in service, but this passage does say two things that are relevant to our discussion. First of all, It says that children are a model for conversion. Do you see that? Unless you become like a little child, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. And it seems awfully strange to me that we would stand here and sit here on a Sunday morning and talk about the great themes of redemption and the great themes of conversion and then yet exclude those whom Jesus holds up as a model of those very truths. And then Jesus says that if we cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, the word stumble here, there's nothing that is going to lead me to believe that stumbling is not a very general term here, to stumble in any way. Some of you heard Don Kistler's sermon last night on KNIS, on the Puritans, the church at its best, outstanding message. And he, in there, says some very sharp words about dismissing the children right before the sermon. And I cannot help but to believe, in the context of what he said, that it is a form of stumbling to remove the children before the ministry of the Word. Matthew chapter 19. The text that we read earlier. Verse 13. Then some children were brought to him so that he might lay his hands on them and pray. Some parents were eager for Jesus to give their children a blessing, and so the children were being brought to the Lord Jesus, and the disciples rebuked them, told the children to go away, you're bothering the Master. But Jesus said, let the children alone. Do not hinder them from coming to me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. And after laying hands on them, he departed from there. Both terms for children here is the term paideion, which means below the age of puberty. And here Jesus warmly receives children. He didn't say, look, we're about to have serious teaching time, get the kids out of here, they don't understand. He said, let them come to me. Two other texts, if you're taking notes, we won't turn there, because both texts say the same thing. The first is Ephesians chapter 6 verse 1, and the other is Colossians 3.20. And in both verses, Paul addresses children directly. You remember the flow of the context. Wives being subject to your husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church. And then he moves down and then he says, and children, be obedient to your parents. Obey your parents. Now, the interesting thing about this, and this is what first caught my attention on this whole subject, is this. When Paul sent an epistle to a New Testament church, they took that epistle and they read it where? In the assembly. If we would have been a first century Asia Minor church, there wouldn't be so much blonde hair in here. And secondly, I would come up, maybe I was one of the elders, and I would come up and I'd say, guess what we got in the mail? We got a letter from Paul. So guess what we're going to do this Sunday? we're going to read the letter in its entirety in the service. Church historians know that this is how the epistles were communicated to the churches. What is interesting is that Paul directly addresses, to the church at Ephesus and the church at Colossae, directly addresses children, tekna, that is children with no reference to age at all, any offspring. And so Paul obviously understood that children would be in the service and they could listen to his direct address to them. Bruce Ray, in an excellent book called Withhold Not Correction, says, referring to some of the passages that we touched on, these passages do not give us any specific age when children should be brought into the worship service. But they do tell us that toddlers were a part of the congregation when the people gathered to praise the Lord and to hear His word. They also tell us that children did not come in order to sleep under the pews. They came to worship the Lord, even as others. Certainly they couldn't understand everything that was going on, but as they were trained to be still, listen, and join in wherever able, they experienced the reality of corporate worship. As they grew in size and years, so did their participation. They were not left out because they were children. Based on what we see generally from Scripture, and based on what we see from these specific texts, I'd like to make a number of principles. The first is this, is that children should be in service, worshiping God, sitting under the ministry of the Word, with their parents, as a family. Jesus says in John 4.23 that the Father is seeking worshipers. The Father is seeking worshipers. And I don't think that any of us would be so arrogant as to think that he is only referring to adults. He is seeking those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. And I ask you today, as parents, in the name of God, do we have a passion to see our children become worshipers of God? Do we have a desire, a heartfelt desire, for our children to come and to understand the glory of God, and to understand the worship of God, and to come and with their little hearts sing praises to God, and with their little minds soak in as much of the Word as possible, in order that they might become worshipers of God? As parents, I would suggest to you today that if you are a Christian, and if you have concern for the salvation of your children, that if you're only concerned about their salvation, you haven't gone far enough. You should be concerned that they are saved and converted in order that they might become worshipers of God. We have to have a passion to see God glorified in the lives of our children. We want to see God be supreme in their little hearts. Bruce Ray goes on to say, children should not be separated from the congregation. Preachers should learn to sprinkle their sermons with instruction and application just for them. I am frankly afraid of such church programs that fracture the congregation along the lines of age. If we have a generation gap, it's because we've created it in primary church, junior church, senior citizen service. What a beautiful sight it is to see old folks, young folks, and little folks lifting up their voices together to praise the Lord. The second principle, which is an absolute necessity after the first one, is that children need to be trained. Because if you have a toddler, you know that they do not by nature sit still. If you have a youngster, You know that there is the propensity to want to lay on the chair, not sit. The propensity to want to crawl under the chair and not stand. There's a propensity to do everything except what everybody else is doing, and so children need to be trained. And what do they need to learn? They need to learn, first of all, what worshiping God is. The children need to understand what we're doing here on Sunday mornings. They need to learn what it is to worship God. Secondly, they need to learn to listen. Children have a tremendous propensity towards always talking. When you train them to sit in the service, you need to train them to listen. They need to be trained to participate with the singing, the saying of the amens, the bowing their heads in prayer. and they need to be trained to respect God and others. Now, right here is where some of our parents are getting knots in their stomach because they think, I know my child, and there's no way that he or she can sit in here and do what you're saying. A child who is being taught to obey at home can and will learn to sit in a service obediently. A child who is learning to obey at home will learn to obey in the service. I don't mean to ruffle anybody's feathers, but the discipline problems that we may have in here are not because they're in here. The discipline problems we may experience may well take place just because there is no consistent and firm discipline at home. And I do not say that as a word of condemnation. I say it as a word of encouragement to parents. Get your act together biblically as parents. You know, the Bible presents to us a biblical philosophy of parenting. The Bible gives us wisdom on how to raise our children. The Bible tells us how to instruct our children. The Bible tells us how, when they're insubordinate, they need to be physically disciplined. At least eight texts from Proverbs talk about how to physically discipline our children. And a child who is being taught to be in subjection to his parents at home will come to church and it will carry over. It may take a few times, but the child who's being disciplined and learning to be obedient at home will be disciplined and learn to be obedient in the church. Now let's talk real briefly about where we are to train our children. The first place we need to train our children is in family worship. One of the reasons some children don't know how to behave during prayer time or the Bible teaching time or the singing time is because there's no family worship at home and they don't have a clue as to what's going on. So the first place where the child is trained to behave in worship is in family worship at home. A number of families in our church have told me of the things that they do. One family, for instance, has little rugs, and each of the kids has their own rug, and they are to stay on that rug during family worship. They're not to get around and pop on their brothers and sisters, and to run around helter-skelter and tell the things over. They are told to sit down from the oldest to the youngest. Well, where do they learn that? They only learn it in a context of family worship. The other place they learn, is that room right back there. I know it's not polite to point, but the room with the windows on the front of it. That is what we are going to call, what it is called, a training chapel. That's a training chapel. It's not necessarily a breastfeeding room. It's not the talking room. It's not the conference room. It's not the playground. It's the training chapel. It is an extension of the sanctuary. There's a speaker wired in there so you can hear everything that goes on in here. The training chapel is designed for those little ones who may have one too many ants in their pants before they come to service and they can sit back there. Not to fool around. Not for them to color underneath the chair. But the training chapel is for them to sit down with their parent. and behave just like they would in here. The training chapel gives the parent the freedom of not being so paranoid about distraction. The training chapel gives the parent the freedom to be able to remove the child if necessary for a time of serious talk in the restroom or some other private place. But that's what that's for, it's a training chapel. And then the next place to train our children is in the back rows of the sanctuary. The back rows should be reserved for parents with small children for the very purpose of them not wanting to be a distraction. But you should build your child up with excitement if you sit back there for a number of weeks. Let them know that if you behave yourself, we can move in and sit with the big people and build that up as something that they anticipate and look forward to. How are they to be trained? First of all, they're to be trained by example. A child will not learn to love the Lord's day, nor will a child learn to love to worship God unless he has a mommy and daddy that love to worship God and love the Lord's day. John Piper, in the excellent article that is available for you on the back bookcase, says, Parents have the responsibility to teach their children by their own example the meaning and value of worship. Therefore, parents should want their children with them in worship so the children can catch the spirit and form of their parents' worship. Children should see how mom and dad bow their heads in earnest prayer during the prelude and other non-directed times. They should see how mom and dad sing praise to God with joy in their faces and how they listen hungrily to his word. They should catch the spirit of their parents meeting the living God. Something seems wrong when parents want to take their children in the formative years and put them with other children and other adults to form their attitude and behavior in worship. Parents should be jealous to model for their children the tremendous value they put on reverence in the presence of Almighty God. The first way we train our children is by example. Listen, Dad, if you doze off during the sermon, don't get upset with your kid if they doze off. If you sit there and talk back and forth, don't be upset when your kid talks back and forth. We have to serve as an example to our children of what we actually value when we come in here. The next way to train our children is again through family worship. I cannot reiterate this enough. If you as a family right now don't do family worship and you want some ideas, come and talk to me. We have more stuff on what to do for family worship than you can imagine. But it is, if we value God and we value our families and we value our children, then family worship is something that we hold precious to. Now, the place to train is in family worship. Another way to train our children is in preparation. And I got some of these ideas from Piper's article, which was very good. But listen to some of these ideas of preparation. Either Saturday night during family worship or Sunday morning during family worship before you come to church, we do expository preaching. You know the text roughly that we'll be in for the next Sunday. Read the text together with the kids so that when they come into the service they hear something familiar and they latch on to it. Pray with the kids concerning the Lord's day. I was very touched a few months ago when one of the moms said, At family worship last night, my young son, six or seven years old, was praying so earnestly for Pastor Brian. It was a blessing. It warmed my heart. But if you can teach your children, let's pray for the service tomorrow, what happens is that they become instilled with a sense of anticipation that God indeed might just do something here. And if our parents would be a little more expectant on what might happen here, like we might meet with Almighty God. Who knows? He might show up. If we'd come with a little more expectant attitude and pray a little more earnestly, God, we pray that you would bless the ministry of the Word. God, bless the time of worship. Make it a blessing to my family. Make it a blessing to the church. If you pray like that during family worship, the children can't but help but to get excited about the Lord's Day and gathering with God's people to sing praises and to hear the Word. Build that anticipation. You know, one of the worst things that we can do is when our kid, and my son has said this to me before, and then when I said, well, what did you say? He backpedaled a little bit. He told me what he said, but every once in a while, a child will express, Daddy, I think church is boring. Zachary's words were, do we have to stand up so long? I get tired. I said, what? Usually, when children say something to that effect, the first thing that we do is we comply with what they just said. And we say something like, well, I know, honey, or, well, I know, maybe you can bring a coloring book, or maybe you can bring a jigsaw puzzle, or maybe you can bring your mini bike, or whatever. We almost feed this opposition they have in their heart. And instead of doing that, parent, next time your child says, you know, church is seeing whatever, instead of complying with their complaint, say, you know what, honey? You couldn't be further from the truth. Church is not boring and let me tell you why. And then if your heart is filled with joy, you can tell them why. If you're here out of duty, you might have some difficulty. But instruct them on the fact that church is not boring. We're here to worship God. When the word is open, kids, that's God speaking to us. We should listen. One other brief suggestion has to do with note-taking. Our smaller children that don't know how to write yet can still bring a notepad, not for the purpose of doodling and coloring funny pictures of the pastor, But they can bring a notebook and we can try to do things that will help the children engage in the sermon. Whether it's drawing a picture of an illustration that I just gave, or whether it's kids, every time you hear me say the word hope, put a little mark down. The older kids can learn to take notes too, but it helps to engage their minds in what is being said. The third principle is that children benefit. Children benefit from being in worship. Listen to John Piper once again. He says, worship is the most valuable thing a human can do. Do you believe that, by the way? Worship is the most valuable thing a human can do. The cumulative effect of 650 worship services spent with mom and dad between the ages of 4 and 17 is incalculable. There is no way to determine the magnitude of the benefit. that a child will have sitting through worship service over the years. Now, right away, some of you are thinking, well, they can't grasp the message. My child's only three. My child's only four. My child's only five. They can't understand. My kid would not have understood Semper Reformanda. I know because half of you didn't understand it either. But here's the point. Our children understand much more than we give them credit for. And some of you have come up and told me the things that your children have picked up. And I know that they understand much more than we give them credit for. You see, when we say, well, the kids can't understand the ministry of the Word, they can't understand the sermon, what we're saying is, we're selling the Word of God short as being alive and active and sharpening a two-edged sword. We're selling the Holy Spirit short, who can open up the mind and give understanding. And we're selling our children short, who probably have more capacity spiritually than we might. And so we resist the complaint that they can't understand because they understand a lot more than we give them credit for. They won't be able to understand everything. Sometimes when I'm talking so fast, I don't understand everything I'm saying. And so how can we expect the children to, but they will pick up the truth. Now we will still have Sunday school. We will still have that, that format where they can learn at their own level. But friends, there has to be a balance between learning at their level and learning the worship of God. The second benefit is that the ministry of the word can be used for family discussion. After church, I quiz my kids on the Sunday school lesson. Zachary is clever. What did you talk about today, God? He has to be pumped a little bit before I get a little more information out, but it always serves as great discussion time. What did you learn? Well, you can turn around and take the sermon, especially if you're a parent who takes notes, and turn around and discuss the ministry of the Word with your kids. It serves as not only great family time, but also as a means of grace. And then another benefit is the unique togetherness as a family. there is something wonderfully beautiful about a whole family sitting together during church. Once again, Noel Piper this time says, what a wonderful thing for a young mind to closely associate the closeness and warmth of a parent's lap with special God times. A child gets almost the same feeling from being next to his parent or from an arm around the shoulder or a hand on the knee the setting of the tight family circle focusing toward God will be a nonverbal picture growing richer and richer in the child's mind and heart as he matures in appreciation for his family and in awe at the greatness of God." You know, this doesn't happen so much anymore, but we used to have a pretty large handful of people who used to tell me, sorry, we weren't at church today, we needed to have some family time. I will restrain myself from commenting on such idiocy, but I will make a comment. Neither will I comment about the obvious infringement upon God's moral directives If our priorities are right, and if we value the things which are truly valuable, then there will be no more precious family time than you can experience in the midst of God's presence on a Lord's day. Do you believe that? Some of you are sold that the beach is better. I think the beach is great, but I know being in God's presence with my wife and my children is better. If your priorities are upside down, you'll never see the truthfulness of that statement. Now, let's wrap this up. Oh, one more benefit, I'm sorry. And that is, the preaching of the word is a means of grace. That is, God is pleased often to use the preaching of the word to open up blind eyes into quickened dead hearts. And if we really, genuinely believe the faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, then why do we want to take our children out during this most important time? Children have come to know Christ in the preaching of the Word just as often, if not more, than adults. Now let's wrap this up. As parents, I would exhort all of us to take seriously the God-given purpose of our family. Let us be regular in family worship, and let us be regular in attendance on the Lord's Day as a family. If you lay hold of the purpose for which your family exists, you can do nothing else. Second, As parents, let us have a genuine desire and passion to see our children become worshippers of God and vessels for His glory. As parents, let us be diligent and patient. Instruction and discipline will need to be implemented as we embark on this new direction. There's no doubt about it. In fact, if instruction and discipline are not incorporated, we will have serious problems. And so we need to be diligent and patient. We should not expect perfection from our children, but neither should we tolerate insubordination. Did you hear the balance? Don't expect perfection, but do not tolerate insubordination. Another point of application for those of you who have kids who are out of the house or grown or who don't have kids, you can help parents tremendously in the service without even carrying a long stick. You can help parents. Here's how you can help parents. Little Susie Q is as cute as a button, and you're sitting right behind her. And Susie knows she's cute. Susie's a fictitious name, of course. She knows she's cute, and she turns around, and she does one of these at you. And your tendency is to go back, or to wave, or, oh, you're so cute. Here, here. You're not helping the parent when you help the child become more distracted. as warmly and nicely as you can. Motion for them to be quiet and turn back around. We have to help each other. And there is absolutely no reason on God's green earth why a parent should ever be offended if somebody else takes the initiative to correct ill behavior. J.C. Ryle wrote a hundred years ago, as a minister, one of the most dangerous things I ever do is talk to people about their children. and he was the pastor. As a family, we should help one another, and if we see somebody misbehaving and the parent doesn't see it, then we should take the initiative to warmly, yet firmly, tell the child to behave, to turn back around, be quiet, or whatever the case may be. Now, if you're the parent of a four- to five-year-old, and you feel very uncertain about your child being in the service, I'd ask you to come and talk to me. We don't want to exclude anybody. We don't want to make anybody feel uncomfortable. And if you feel that there would be way too much paranoia for you to sit in service with your child, come and talk to me, and we may consider doing an alternative with children who will have some difficulty, but not permanently. but we don't know what the need is right now. So if you feel you might have the need, maybe you're willing to try it, but you wanna let me know that you might have the need, come and talk to me, because we want to help everybody fit in as best as possible. As parents, let's be committed not to hindering our children, but rather encouraging them to come to Jesus. And as one of your elders, one in whom God has invested you under my charge, I would encourage and exhort you as parents, number one, get your children to Sunday school. For the love of their souls and for the glory of God, get them to Sunday school. If that extra hour of sleep seems better, I want you to weigh the benefits of one more hour of sleep and having your children in Sunday school. get them to Sunday school. And second, train them to be in worship. Perhaps you as a parent today need a reformation in this area, like we as a church did. You see, we're all in process. And there's no criticism or condemnation because we're all in process. But maybe you need a reformation today, and I want you to know that we are here to help for the good of our children, and for the glory of God. If you have questions, please come and ask me or one of the elders. And next week, we will begin Sunday school at nine o'clock. Everybody will gather in the sanctuary. We'll have a time of family singing, which for the first week will be led by me. The second week, you'll be blessed with the superior voice of Andrew Winans. But we're going to have a good time. We want to train our children in the things of the Lord. And so let's encourage one another, help one another, and let's instill in our children a genuine joy and excitement for the Lord Jesus Christ and for His day. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your goodness to us today. And we thank you, Father, for this direction in which we're moving. And we pray that you would give us patience and diligence both as we seek to train our children Father, I pray that we would not be impatient, but rather patient, remembering that you have been patient with us so many times. Lord, we pray that this direction will glorify you, that it will honor you, and that it will be good for our children. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.