[0:00] Take your Bibles, if you would, and turn with me to the book of Judges. I want to look at chapter 13 and verse 8 in just a minute. Judges chapter 13 and verse 8.
[0:10] I am excited about the Lord's Supper. I enjoy every time we take the Lord's Supper. I hope you take it seriously. We believe, just what we heard preached, we believe that God himself died to save us from our sins.
[0:28] And we believe that the God of heaven, having people that had sinned against him, loved them enough that he did what it took to get them saved. I don't think you could ever imagine any love greater than that.
[0:40] And so I'm excited. This morning, the gentleman I was witnessing to made it very clear. He thought that was the cruelest thing in the world. And I told him, I said, well, it was cruel in your eyes because you don't understand he was doing it so you could go to heaven and so you could know your life was saved.
[0:56] But every time I see these young people saying, I guess being one of the oldest people in this church and also having so many people in the ministry that I love and work with, every time I see them say, I'm just so proud of them.
[1:09] I'm proud of their singing. I'm proud of their work. I'm proud of their parents. And tonight I want to talk to you about raising children that serve God. And somebody's supposed to give you a sheet of paper.
[1:21] That's not really the outline. That's just 10 things that we'll talk about somewhere along the way. And I don't know if we'll get half of this message done or what. You may get the second half of it. But one of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of Samson.
[1:34] Of course, it would be on any given day and any given message I would preach, I'd probably think that was my favorite. So, you know, it's kind of hard to pick. It's like choosing which one of your kids is your favorite. You like all of them.
[1:44] But in Judges chapter 13, well, Judges 13 and 14, 15, all that is the story of Samson.
[1:58] And what I like is that Manoah asked the Lord to teach him how to raise kids. And then his kid goes so wrong.
[2:10] But even in his going wrong, God uses that to do great things. But I want you to read with me Judges chapter 13 and verse 8. And if we have time, we're going to go through this passage of Scripture a little bit and talk about raising our children for the Lord using both the negative and the positive side of it.
[2:29] But in Judges 13, 8, the Bible said, And so in chapter 2, 13, chapter verse 2, There's a man of Zorah, the family of the Dunites, whose name was Manoah.
[2:55] And the angel of the Lord appeared to his wife and said, Thou art barren, and you don't have kids, but you shall conceive, and you shall bear a son. And in Judges 14, 1, that son's name was Samson.
[3:09] Samson turns out to be a willful brat of a kid. In Judges 14, verse 1, Samson went down to Timnath and saw a woman, a daughter of the Philistine.
[3:21] Now, he ought not have been there. It's basically like saying he went down and crossed the border into the land of the enemy of God and the enemy of God's people. And then he went down like to the bar in that land.
[3:32] And while he got there, he saw a woman that he liked. She's a woman that comes from a family that doesn't love God. She would have been raised in an environment where she wasn't taught to love God. She would have been raised to love other gods, not the God of the Bible.
[3:46] And in Judges 14, verse 2, he comes back and he says, He said, Man, I've seen a woman. Get her for me to wife. Y'all go buy her and pay for her and bring her home.
[3:57] That's the woman that I want. And his father and his mother look at him in chapter 14, verse 3, and they say, God has so many people in his people here, and you can't look amongst them to find you a woman.
[4:10] And you go down to the uncircumcised Philistines. That's almost like two curse words right in a row. Uncircumcised means you obviously do not do what God told.
[4:21] These people do not do what God told his people to do. God had a mark on his people, on the males of his people were to be circumcised. And these Philistines, they serve wicked idol gods.
[4:33] He said, You go down to the wicked idol gods, the people who don't like our God, and don't do that, and that's where you want to get a wife. And Samson said, You get her. I like her. Get her for me.
[4:45] She pleases me well. And his father and mother didn't know God was going to use all that, and the story would be that. In chapter 14, verse 7, he went down and talked to the woman, and she pleased Samson well.
[4:56] And so here's a story of child raising, maybe gone wrong. I think that you are a very unique bunch of people, just to tell you the truth.
[5:08] You're already unique because you're born again, and when you are born again, that makes you one of the few. If I get an amen right there, I should. Amen? You're on your way to heaven. There's a wide gate and a narrow gate. There's a wide road and a broad road and a wide gate.
[5:21] And those people are going to hell, and there's a narrow one that very few people find. And you're on that one to heaven. You're saved, and you know you're saved, and you're going to go to heaven when you die. You're also a little bit rarer than most Christians because you're in a church that's just eaten up with the Bible.
[5:36] We don't talk very much politics, and we don't talk very much other things. We just read the Bible. It's like we come to church, and we say, let's see what the Bible says next. And we come to the next service, and somebody says, what's it going to be about?
[5:47] It'll be about the next part of the Bible. You don't have to worry about that. That's what we do. And you do that. And then not only that, you do everything in the world, getting people to go to the mission field, take the gospel to people. I think one of the greatest ministries any of us could ever have is to raise our children to serve God.
[6:03] I wanted my kids to serve God more than I wanted to eat, and I enjoy eating a lot. I wanted my kids to serve God more than I wanted to preach, and I really like to preach. I wanted my kids to grow up and do something for God.
[6:17] Every time I hear about them preaching or things, I get excited and blessed. And every time I see one of my grandchildren doing something for God, it blesses me because that's what my heart is. And so I wanted to share with you.
[6:28] So you've got ten things in front of you. And real quickly, I just want to go through those with you. This is from a summit years ago. I did this at a summit. I think it's good that you would be because you probably weren't there.
[6:39] It would be good for you to hear it. So let me go through some things. You want to raise kids that serve God. Here's some things to bear in mind. Number one, your children will be passionate about what you're passionate about. Whatever it is you like, they're going to end up liking.
[6:52] I've asked many people over the years, why do you like that sports team? And they say, I don't know. I grew up with my dad watching that team, and they're it. That's it. You get around, somebody goes hunting, and you say, why do you like to go hunting?
[7:06] Why do you want to go kill some little animal, rip its heart out? Well, I want to eat. Well, you can go down to the market and buy the food. You don't have to go kill it. I mean, they make it real easy. It comes all packaged up. But some people far rather get what they shoot.
[7:18] And you find out why they, when you get talking to them, you find out, well, it kind of runs in the family. I had somebody tell me this very week, when I moved to Georgia, I quit hunting. Well, I lived in California. I hunted all the time. My family hunted. We all hunted together.
[7:29] In other words, whatever you're passionate about. I've told you the story about showing up in Lawrence, Kansas, at a church, and a kid comes out, and he's about yay tall, and he's all dressed in camouflage. He had a camouflage cap on, camouflage boots, pants, shirt, the whole nine yards.
[7:43] And I thought to myself, that's a weird way to be dressed in a missions conference. And he walked up to me, and he said, hey, I think you must be Brother Austin Gardner. And I said, I am. He said, and that'd be your wife, Miss Betty Gardner. And I said, that's right.
[7:53] And he started naming my kids. I said, boy, it's an unusual guy. And I got inside the church, and this guy came up to me, and he was all dressed in camouflage, from a hat down all the way down there. And I said, I bet I know who that boy daddy is.
[8:05] Because kids tend to pick up what daddy's passionate about. And I'd ask you, what are you passionate about? I'd like to know if you'd think about, just go back home and think with yourself, and be honest about yourself, and consider whether or not at home you ever talk about world evangelism.
[8:19] Do you ever talk about Jesus? Does the Lord's Supper ever come up? Does reading the Bible ever come up? Does you ever have a time when they know you love God? I'm listening to a book right now called 41, and it's the story of one book, the Bush son, talking about the old man Bush, George H.W. Bush.
[8:36] And he's telling the story. And it's pretty touching because the boy loves his daddy. And he tells the story in such a way, and he's reading the book himself, and talks about what his daddy did. It's a very good book.
[8:48] And he tells about how he saw his mom and dad do this, and how he saw his mom and dad do this. And then I'd like to ask you a question. If they ever write a book about you, or if they ever tell a story, or after we're all long gone, and they're all talking about it, they'll bring up what you do wrong.
[9:00] They talk about the uncle. It's kind of weird that it comes to family suppers. They know about that uncle. They know about that cousin that does that or this. And they know about all that stuff that's going on. And so whenever they talk about you someday, what will they say you were passionate about?
[9:13] Will it be business? Will it be cars? Will it be airplanes? Will it be golf? Will it be? What will it be that you're passionate about? Because your kids are going to be more passionate. If you'd like to know what you're passionate about, I'll give you a good hint.
[9:25] Look at your kids. If you'd like to know what you're passionate about, look at your kids. Number two, your heart for the king and his kingdom will not be something you're able to fake. They see through it.
[9:37] I think one of the most heartbreaking things for me, as a granddad and as a guy who's been in church literally all of my life, from before I was born, for nine months I was in church, and you know what's one of the heartbreaking things, is to see all the good people's kids who don't love Jesus.
[9:53] All the people who are members of the church. Sometimes when I talk to those kids, I find out dad wasn't what dad said he was at church. Sometimes there's a question, you know, that we might ask.
[10:04] We might ask your wife, if there was any reason why your husband shouldn't be a pastor, your husband shouldn't be a deacon, and I've had some pretty negative answers on that. Your heart for the king and his kingdom can't be faked.
[10:17] Your kids know the real you. Your kids know if you are the guy who comes to church on Sunday, they know if you're the person who teaches that Sunday school class. They know if you're really the deacon you claim to be.
[10:28] They know you. They know you. You know, your kids get you in a lot of trouble because your kids say things they're not supposed to say. There are things that you can say at home and nobody else ever ought to hear.
[10:39] Say amen. But that doesn't work if you're a daddy, and you know that's true. I got years ago in Adiquipa, you know, I started a Christian school down in Peru, and my kids were going to this Christian school, and it's all in Spanish, and one of my kids gets in massive trouble, says something he shouldn't have said, and does something he shouldn't have done, and the teacher got all over him and told him how wrong it was, and the kid said, it can't be wrong, my daddy does it.
[11:02] And so the teacher comes to me to let me know maybe I ought to quit it because I'm teaching my kid to do wrong. Number three, the real preparation for raising children for the king's service will be that you are so consumed with the king and his work that it oozes out of every pore of your being.
[11:20] And I wish that's true. I grew up in a home, honestly, when I was, especially when I was young, I heard so much. I can remember my granddaddy, Pennington, my mom's, my dad's dad was a drunkard, he owned a bar, and basically killed my grandmother with an illegal abortion in 1935.
[11:42] She got pregnant with her fifth child, and he didn't want it, and so he sent her to some backyard barber shop or something that got rid of the baby, the baby, getting rid of the baby, causing an infection, and my grandmother died when my dad was six years old, and my dad was basically left to raise the family, so I never really knew the gardener side of my family.
[12:00] The gardener side of the family tree wasn't the one that I would know anything about or be like. It would be the Pennington side. That was my mother's. I had to go to my granddaddy's house, and my granddaddy read the Bible every morning to my grandmother, and my grandmother was older than dirt when I first met her.
[12:18] My mother was the 10th child out of, my mother was the 10th child out of 10 children, and they were born two years apart, so my grandparents got married, so my grandmother was at least 40 when they were married, and I'm 15, so I mean, they was like really old people, like 55 or 64, I really remember.
[12:34] Let's see, 20, 40, 40 is when my mom would be 40. No, they're probably 65 or 70. They were really old like me, you know, and I can remember, I just remember knowing, my granddaddy, he was going to be the oldest man on the planet.
[12:46] Did y'all ever have a granddaddy like that? I was a farm boy, and we'd be out on the farm, and granddaddy's walking with his walking cane, and we'd be walking around, and he'd be telling me stories, and talking to me about things, and grandmom would pull me in the house, and every now and then, she always pushed my hair back out of my face, because she thought I had it way too long, and she'd open her Bible up, and she'd say, she'd say, now granddaddy's read the Bible to me that many times, and there was a hash mark every time they'd been through it.
[13:10] There it is right there, and boy, there's hash marks everywhere, and then she'd say to me, you know son, every time granddaddy reads the Bible to me, God puts new stuff in it. Now back then, I used to think that's a weird book.
[13:21] It gets new stuff every time you read it, and I figured out it does get new stuff, but it ain't the book getting anything new, it's you getting something new, amen, but she'd just tell me all about that. People go meet my grandma when she's 90 years old, or whatever, and when you take one of the grandkids, they take their spouse to be in, and you know what she'd say when they got in there?
[13:40] She said, the first thing I need to know is if you're going to go to heaven when you die. The old lady didn't care if you liked her or didn't like her, she won't know if you saved, and granddaddy would talk about all these churches.
[13:51] I remember sitting in, you know, you weren't allowed to be anywhere else but in the one room, because they had several rooms, but there was only one got any heat in it, and that's it, they turned the heat on in that room, and if you went on the other side of the house, it was below freezing, so you sat in that room, and you had to be quiet, because they had a rule.
[14:06] You can't, you got to be, you got to be seen and not heard. Boy, the kids, they never heard of that one today, amen. Today, it is you better be quiet, because the kids get all the rights, but anyway, so I sat there, and I listened to my granddaddy, he talked about, he talked about preachers, he talked about, I can remember their names, he talked about that guy coming and preaching a meeting, it went on for six weeks, and people getting saved every night, the building being so full, people on the outside of the building looking in the windows, and he talked about all the great things God did, and I used to dream, man, I wish I could go to church like that someday, I wish I could see God do something big like that someday.
[14:36] I'd hear him talk about those preachers, I'd say, man, when I grew up, I'd like to be like one of those preachers. When they poke you, it ought to ooze out of you, you love Jesus. I tell the missionaries, they ought to get so full of the Bible, when somebody accidentally pricks them with a needle, some Bible verse will drip out, because you ought to be full of the Bible, amen, that'll really affect your kids.
[14:56] Number four, get around the others that are consumed with the king's work. You know what tells me a lot about what you think? Who you hang out with. You know what tells your kids what you think?
[15:07] Who you hang out with. The only time you hang out with church kind of people is at church day, and all the other days you're out with that wicked crowd, it's talking wicked, and acting wicked, and thinking wicked, and doing stuff that's not pleasing to God.
[15:19] Who you hang around with. Get around others that are consumed. Number five, your friend and family activities say much to your children. They know you.
[15:30] They know you. They look at you and say, this is what our family does. Money's a big deal in our family. Money. I'm going to listen to this book about President Bush, and how he left his family with money, and her family had money, and Barbara's family had money, and they moved out to Texas.
[15:48] He wanted to prove he could make it on his own, and George, the boy, is talking about the old man George, and he's saying, Dad didn't want money to be the thing that motivated his life.
[15:59] And I think to myself, how many of us would have our kids think, no, but it's pretty much money. Your heart and that of your family will follow where you invest your finances, your time, and your talents.
[16:15] They know where you're investing your finances, your time, and your talents. I'd go to church at old A.B. Pennington's church.
[16:28] That was my granddaddy. A.B. Pennington, Abner Brown Pennington, Sr. And old Abner Brown Pennington basically built the church and saw to it, he ruled the church too, by the way.
[16:40] He was one of them deacons. Amen. Back then, I'd have been glad to be a deacon, not a preacher. Amen. I heard my daddy say some preacher got in debt and didn't pay his bills, and so granddaddy paid out his bills.
[16:55] And then granddaddy went to him and said, I paid your bills once, the next time I'll pay your way out of town. At least he paid them once. Amen. There was some grace there.
[17:08] Granddaddy had some grace. Number seven, read books together when they're small. Let the children sit down and color or play quietly while you read a biography.
[17:20] It'll be a neat thing if you just read some, man, why don't you read to them about Hudson Taylor? Why don't you read to them about William Carey? Why don't you read to them about what God's doing all around the world?
[17:30] Why don't you let your family get their heart? Why don't you read these old Bible stories to them? Why don't you open the Bible and let them hear about King David? But don't make King David the hero. Make David the hero after God does something in his heart.
[17:41] Number eight, be open with your children in confessing your failures so they know you're a real Christian. Something about adult Christians in our lay and time is you don't think you did wrong and you don't ever want your kids to know that you've done wrong, but your kids need to know I struggle like you struggle.
[17:59] This is how God gave me victory. It can't be, I have never thought about being like you. You're wicked. They'll figure out what you're lying about. Number nine, I'm getting towards the end of these 10 so they're going to get rougher.
[18:13] Here they go. You can check right now to see how you're doing. I want you to answer these questions in your own heart. Does a sizable part of your time go to the service of the King?
[18:24] We talk about tithing, but you ought to talk also about tithing on your time. And most of us don't have time to read our Bible, but yet in a lowly 12 to 15 minutes you can read your Bible through every year.
[18:39] You have absolutely no excuse to not read this Bible through time and time again. You have no excuse not to read this Bible through over and over again. You might say to me, well, I don't understand it. Somebody the other day, I tell them all the time, if you don't understand, don't worry about it, just keep reading.
[18:53] You don't have to understand it. You just read the thing. And one of the guys told me the other day, he said, you know, the second time through, I'm seeming to understand a little more. I'm like, well, by the time you get through the third time, you'll get a more and fifth time and then tenth time, you ought to read the Bible.
[19:05] You ought to teach your family how to read the Bible. You ought to decide. And I'm ashamed to say this, but almost every kid that comes to training center has never read their Bible through. That's part of the time you can invest in the things that God praying is a part of the time you can invest in the things that God being faithful to church is something you can do.
[19:22] Listen, the gospel would be something you could do. Does a sizable part of your money go to the king? I mean, if you're a king, if you're part of God's economy and you love God, we give so much money it scares everybody to death.
[19:38] I mean, the average charitable amount of giving is like 2.5% or something. And we start at 10. We start at 10 like that's just baby stuff. We're working our way up.
[19:49] We're not trying to figure out how to give less. The more money you make, the more money you give, you don't start looking for less. A sizable part of your time, a sizable part of your money.
[20:02] How about a sizable part of your talents and abilities? If we wanted to, if you, with all you know, just put some of that effort into world evangelism from your house, we could reach the world.
[20:17] You're leaving too much of it to the few that want to go do it. But you got money out the wazoo, you got time out the wazoo, and you got abilities. You could take the computer and you could do things that might help people.
[20:28] You ought to really decide, I'm in this, it ain't just the missionaries. I don't go to a church where others do the work of God. I'm part of doing the work of God. Unless you have to go to the mission field, but you ought to be given a sizable part of your talents and your abilities to the king.
[20:41] What attitudes do your children hear coming from your mouth when you think and talk about world evangelism in the church and preaching and Bible reading?
[20:52] It's not, everybody knows Daddy doesn't really like to go to church. Not here, not here. But everybody knows, you know that. Though Mama goes to church and Daddy doesn't go to church and Daddy's job is more important than church and Daddy always has an excuse to it and Mama's kind of the religious one in our family.
[21:08] What a sad state of affairs. You want your kids to serve God. What is the attitude that they hear? What are the attitudes that they hear? I used to love this one. When I was a youth director, I used to love this one.
[21:20] We'd be doing everything and the kids would be having an activity. We're playing volleyball and baseball and we're doing all this junk and somebody would say, fun time's over. He's going to preach now. What kind of attitude is that teaching a kid?
[21:32] The fun things and what you do are of no value that you won't even be able to do when you're 80 years old but the thing that will keep you alive for the rest of it is not fun? What do you talk about?
[21:46] I often grew up here and son, we don't have a boat like the rich family does but if we took all we've given to God we could have plenty of boats. I used to tell my daddy, once I learned about it from the Bible, I said, Daddy, you ought not talk like that.
[22:01] Now don't get mad. Here comes number, a letter E. It's in your notes, I think. Do you miss church for little or no reason that would not hinder you if it were work or vacation?
[22:13] It's amazing. You get the sniffles, you got to miss church, you get the, you're dying and you got to get to work. Little excuse to miss the things of God. Little excuse.
[22:25] When I was a kid, they used to talk about a disease that some people get. It's called devilitis. Devilitis is a funny disease. It comes on on Sunday morning usually. It comes on somewhere around 8 o'clock.
[22:36] It starts to get worse and worse and worse until about 10 o'clock. By 10 o'clock, you are so miserable. You just are not going to be able to go to church and you lay in the house. But about 1230, it starts easing off real good and by 1 o'clock, you're feeling real good.
[22:47] But about 4 o'clock, it starts hitting hard again. And about 6 o'clock after church is over, things start easing up. That disease is called devilitis. You don't have to call a nurse or a doctor. Just call me and I'll help you describe it.
[22:58] Pray like never before because it's far above and beyond anything that you could ever do to raise your children right.
[23:09] It's an act of God that turns them out right. Because in the story, Manoa is going to do a lot of hard work and his kids still not going to do the right thing. So I'll tell you how we raise godly kids.
[23:20] We do the best we can and we're still going to mess up but we just pray and ask God. And it's God that raises our kids. But I am old enough to speak with some authority to some of you.
[23:33] I have sat with many dads and moms who are very embarrassed about their children. Embarrassed that their children not only don't go to church, they don't believe in God.
[23:46] Embarrassed that their children aren't saved. Embarrassed that their children are living lifestyles that are totally opposite of what the word of God says. But what we typically do is like what happened with old Samson, we need to learn to tell our kids no son.
[24:03] We need to learn to tell our kids the truth. Can I just real quickly give you some things here in the next two or three minutes? Go with me to Judges chapter 13 and verse 4. You need to prepare yourself if you're going to raise kids right.
[24:15] You need to prepare yourself. In Judges 13, 4, when she finds out she's pregnant, while she's pregnant, the angel says, I don't want you drinking wine or strong drink and don't eat any unclean thing because you're going to raise a man of God.
[24:30] And so here's a woman who for seven months, eight months, nine months, however long it was that she knew before the baby came along had to say, I have to limit my life because I'm raising a child that's going to serve God.
[24:43] Every parent ought to realize that the second God gives you children, you've got an awesome, immense amount of responsibility. And it might mean you'd have to limit yourself. We should go get godly instruction on how to be a parent.
[24:57] We should discipline ourselves for the good of our children. Look at Judges chapter 13 and verse 14. Now he's not going to be able to do a lot of things and guess what the angel tells the mama in Judges 13 and 14.
[25:10] She may not eat of anything that comes of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink nor eat any unclean thing. I command her, let her observe. Now the story here is really not about her.
[25:21] The story is about Samson but the angel says, I want mama to obey these rules. She's raising a boy so she had to limit herself, she had to discipline herself so she could give the right example.
[25:33] You know, God wants you to live out what he's going to have the kids do. Actually, they go more where you send them. They follow your example.
[25:44] Be a good example. Be faithful to church. Be obedient and do what's right. Do what you want them to do. My favorite verse of the whole time is Judges 13, 8 and this passage of Scripture is Manoah said, God, you told us we're going to have a kid.
[25:58] That's wonderful. Teach us how to raise him. How often do you pray that? Do you really think you know what you're doing? Do you? And the sad thing about getting a little bit older is you realize you never did know what you thought you knew.
[26:14] The sad thing is you don't know. What happens is we tend to think I know how to raise kids. It's not that hard. Put food in them and clean up after them.
[26:24] Put food in them and clean up after them and they'll just grow up. These aren't dogs. These aren't animals. They're to be trained and we need God. And Manoah said, I need God.
[26:36] I need God to give me instruction. I need to know what the Bible say about it. We need to be praying. We need to be begging God. In Judges 13, 24, the woman bare a son and called his name Samson and the Lord grew and the Lord blessed him.
[26:51] Number two, teach your child biblical principles. Let me give you some biblical principles I see illustrated or disillustrated in this passage. Choose the right friends. Choose the right friends. By the way, in the day and time you live in, you may homeschool them and keep them in a bubble but if they get on any kind of social media, they'll make friends anyway.
[27:13] In Judges 14, 1, Samson goes down to the Philistines. Teach them to have the right kind of friends. Watch over their friendships. That's why you need a church. That's why you got a church.
[27:25] You got a church because we get to here and we can develop the right kinds of friendships. Teach them the meaning of the word no. That's a biblical principle.
[27:36] The most negative word in the world, no. Every kid hates the word no. Judges 14, verse 3, they said, Isn't there a woman? And he said, You just be quiet, Mama.
[27:47] You just be quiet, Daddy. Get her for me. I like her. She pleases me well. Don't allow your child to convince you to do what they want you to do. Every kid learns the art of manipulation by the time they're six months old.
[28:00] They learn how to manipulate us and we're too dumb to catch it. In Judges chapter 14, he came up and told his father and his mother and said, I've seen that woman. Now go get her for me.
[28:11] And they said, Basically, no, son. And he said, You get her for me. Don't reason with them. One of the funniest things I see young parents do is reasoning with their kids. You need to say no.
[28:23] Drop it. You don't have to tell them 22 reasons you said no. Just say no. Well, why? Because I said no. I know you're like, No, you can't say that. You've got to give them 22 reasons. That's what the Manoah did.
[28:35] In Judges chapter 14 and verse 3, he said, Is there not a woman among the daughters of your own brethren? And Samson knew the answer. Nope. The one I like is down there. Just let me have her. They wanted a reason.
[28:47] Don't get involved in their sin. What ends up happening is your children are doing what you know is wrong and you're going along with it. And the next thing you know, they're going to say, Mom and Daddy never did really disagree with it.
[29:00] She brings home a lost boy. He brings home a lost girl. You know they ought not marry them. You ought not have even a friendship with them. And the next thing you know, you're going to have an idol-worshiping kid married a wrong kind of family from the Philistines village.
[29:14] In Judges chapter 14 and verse 5, Samson went down and his father and his mother went with him to go get the woman from Timnath. And by the way, you know why he liked her, don't you? Because of the way she looked, her measurements, her womanly form, her sensual manners about her.
[29:31] In Judges chapter 14 and verse 3, she pleased him. I should stop about halfway through. I would just say to you, man, raising our kids is the most important thing we do.
[29:47] I was sitting in a circle with all the missionaries and we're talking about discipleship, we're talking about church building and Betty, the Holy Spirit, sits beside me and my pad is right there with my notes on it, the yellow pad that I'm writing on and so I write in red and I look down and there's a blue print and I know I didn't write it in blue so I look down and I'm like, hold on fellas, the Holy Spirit's speaking right now.
[30:11] And I read that and then a little bit later on I'm saying something about disciples and finding disciples and then Betty, elbows me in the side and I can't hear. Tell her all the time, if you want to talk to me, speak up.
[30:22] Amen? Jim Roberts III said when old man Roberts and old man Gardner go on vacation, you know what they do most times? They go, huh? Jim says something to me and I go, huh?
[30:33] And I say something to Jim, he said, huh? And that's about the truth. He told me that, thought I'd get offended. I said, huh? She said, the best disciples they got and the most important disciples they got right under their nose.
[30:45] Every one of these missionaries need to know their first disciples are their wife and their second ones are kids. You're doing God's work. So since it's time to quit, you realize your children are arrows in the hands of a mighty man.
[31:05] God gave you your kids to use for his kingdom and you ought to be thinking the whole time you got them, when I get through here, I'm going to put them to my arrow and my bow and I'm going to send them forth to go do the work of God somewhere around the world.
[31:21] But most of us raise our kids haphazardly. We take more mechanical care of our car than we do spiritual care of our children.
[31:33] We know more about the air pressure than the Holy Spirit work. Basically, we just let them grow up.
[31:44] it's not train up a child, it's just feed him until he grows up. Get him an education. Let him do what he wants to do and I hope he turns out for God. That won't work.
[31:58] Most important ministry you have on this planet is raising your children. Most important ministry. Are you raising for Jesus? I think that I stand here this morning as a product of my mother and dad trying to raise me for the Lord in great ignorance.
[32:19] Nobody really helping him a lot in grandmom and granddaddy. Anytime I think of spiritual stuff in my family, I think of grandmom and granddaddy. Granddaddy will always want to talk to me about the church.
[32:32] I know more about the church than the doctrine of the church. Lord help me. He only had one subject. Mom would sometimes say to me, go into the other room and entertain your granddaddy so he'll stay out of the kitchen while I'm cooking.
[32:45] I say, well, mama, what am I going to talk to you about? She said, just ask him about the church. And I go down and I say, granddaddy, what do you think about the church? She said, well, now that you mentioned that all started back in the days and four hours later is done.
[33:00] What you want to keep granddaddy occupied, you know, you're the granddaddy. Now they're going to say, ask him about the Braves. Ask him about a sports team. Ask him about making money.
[33:12] I hope not. I'd far rather listen to my granddaddy ramble on about the church. What you doing to raise your kids? This assistant is a big, gooduy?