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[0:00] Take your Bibles, if you would, and turn with me to the book of Genesis, chapter 25 and verse 19. Genesis, chapter 25 and verse 19. We are blessed to have with us tonight Chris David.

[0:12] Where are you, Chris David? He's in here there. He is there with his wife there from somewhere like up yonder north, like Delaware or something. And they're here looking at the training center, so you'll be sure and meet them before the service is over.

[0:26] I was just sitting there thinking about how blessed I am. How blessed I am to serve God with you. How blessed I am to be a pastor of a church like you.

[0:38] I thank you for loving God. That's what makes it the best. I think this is a room full of people that have decided to love God. If you have, say amen. And then I thank you for loving the Bible.

[0:51] I think that our church is probably pretty unusual in the amount of Bible that it's gone through here. Between all the Sunday school classes and all that. And you still like it and you still come. So I like that.

[1:02] And I thank you because I think you love each other. And that's biblical and I like that too. So I just want to tell you tonight. God bless you and thank you. Turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 25 verse 19.

[1:13] I want to talk to you about. We're talking parenting. And I want to talk to you about using your influence correctly. Using your influence correctly. As parents, we have, you have a great deal of influence.

[1:30] What your kids are going to turn out like and what they're going to do with their lives has more to do with you than you'd like to think. And so we need to consider what the Word of God says.

[1:43] Read with me if you would in Genesis chapter 25 verse 19 and following. These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begat Isaac. Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah to wife.

[1:56] In 21, Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife. He prayed for his wife because she was barren. And the Lord was entreated of him.

[2:06] God heard and answered prayer. And Rebekah, his wife, conceived. And the children struggled together within her. And she said, if it be so, why am I thus?

[2:17] She went to inquire of the Lord. The Lord said to her, two nations are in thy womb. Two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, from your insides.

[2:28] And one people shall be stronger than the other. And the elder shall serve the younger. I'm just going to be honest with you. I'm trying to talk to you about child rearing. And so I'm going to go through a bunch of parental stories.

[2:40] This is one we'll get to somewhere in this part of the Bible. I want you to realize the influence that the Bible shows that parents have. So we're going to go to Exodus chapter 2 first.

[2:52] And we're going to jump through a whole bunch of stories. This is not a through the chapter kind of message. I just want to take you there to show you a lady named Jochebed, the mother of Aaron and Moses, and how God greatly used her.

[3:06] She, her name's probably not that familiar. Most of us probably don't know her name. But without her, according to Scripture, we wouldn't have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, written by Moses.

[3:19] I'm sure God would have raised up another way to get it written. But he used Moses to write that. Look, if you would, in Exodus chapter 2 and verse 2, she risked her life to save the life of Moses.

[3:31] It's very clear here. This is the woman. This is mama standing at home with the kids kind of thing. And the woman conceived and bare a son. And when she saw him, that he was a goodly child, he's good looking.

[3:45] And I don't know what mother doesn't think that. I think, you know, when my kids were born, I thought they were so gorgeous. And my buddy Steve said, boy, he's a big head and bug-eyed.

[3:56] And I said, well, your kid don't look that good either, you know. So maybe they look better to you. She hid him for three months. And she could not. I just think it's interesting, by the way.

[4:06] It just keeps using she here. We're in the world's dad, you know. But she hid him for three months. And when she could not hide him any longer, she took for him an ark of bulrushes.

[4:18] And she daubed it with slime and with pitch. And put the child in there. And she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. Now, what's interesting of all things, I want you to understand influence.

[4:32] I'm afraid you buy into the idea that you don't need to worry about influencing your children as much when they're very small. But the story of Moses thrills me to death because she didn't have Moses long.

[4:47] But whatever she did, now, there's no doubt God's grace, God's power, God's at work. And if you're going to use that as an excuse not to do your job, I can't help you.

[5:01] I did have a man in my church in Cartersville years ago whose kids were not doing right. And he came to me and he said, as of today, I'm turning my kids over to the Lord.

[5:11] Somebody needs to discipline them. So I'm going to turn them over to God. I said, that's bad. He already turned them over to you. And you're just trying to get out of your responsibility of disciplining your children.

[5:26] So I know that God's at work in all of this. But in the Bible story that God chose to teach us and to tell us about, she obviously took advantage of every day of his preschool life teaching him.

[5:40] Look, if you would, in Hebrews 11 and verse 23. And if you don't look everything up, you at least ought to write it down and check me out later. But I know they'll put it up on the screen for you. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents.

[5:53] Because they saw that he was a proper child. A good looking child. Somebody special. They believed their kid could do something. And they were not afraid of the king's commandment. You can underline that.

[6:04] They made up their mind, we'd rather obey God than man. And we're going to raise our kid the way God wants us to raise our kid, regardless of what the king says.

[6:14] Verse 24. By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. That just thrills me to death.

[6:26] We know the story. Moses gets weaned and Moses gets raised by pagans. Now, they do bring mom in to help there like a maid in the house.

[6:37] But when Moses comes of age, when Moses gets to 40 years of age, he said, You know what? Mama taught me something. And I might have had an education for the last 30 plus years in pagan universities.

[6:53] I might have heard all about everything that the devil gods of Egypt would teach their people. But I choose God. I choose God.

[7:04] I can't read that without thinking about this. When you're holding a little bitty baby in your hand. And I do not know how long this lady gets to take care of her son. I do not know how long they get to, you know, they feed the kid until he's weaned.

[7:19] I don't know how long they have with him. But something happened in that house. So when that guy got old enough, he said, You know, I heard something different than what I've been hearing.

[7:31] I don't know when he got saved. I don't know what the story is. It just thrills me that this guy, when he comes to years, said, I do not want to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

[7:45] He would choose to suffer. Hebrews 11.25. He said he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

[7:58] He'd been living in the palace. Mama's been living in a slave hut. He's been studying in the greatest universities. And daddy's been making bricks. With no straw even.

[8:10] Probably. I'm not sure that's started yet. But, I mean, they're going to get mistreated horribly. But Moses knows I'd rather be a slave and serve the God mama told me about than I would to be a king living in a palace.

[8:27] Now, I'll give you a couple of verses on this. I'm going to go through quite a few stories. But do y'all do anything about Bible studies in your home? I mean, how long did she have the kid?

[8:38] How much time did she have with the kid? Now, I don't think they had Sunday school. I don't think they had a place to take those kids so that they...

[8:49] Is the microphone on, guys? I don't hear a thing, so I don't know if it's working or not. So they take the... They don't have a Sunday school. They don't have anybody else to help them.

[9:01] And the kid was three months old when he put him in the water. And then the mama... Then the Egyptian lady finds him. And then she gets to raise him. I don't know how long she was with him. Was she with him to two, four, six, eight?

[9:13] I'm sure it was more than two or three. But anyway, she spent enough time teaching a kid that when he got old enough, he said, I'll make a decision. And I think sometimes you just turn them over to an iPad.

[9:26] And I think sometimes you just turn them over to a television. And I think sometimes you just act like...

[9:39] I had a guy come see me in Cartersville. You know, when you're a preacher, you're always making people mad, even when you don't try to. And I think I used to try to. I really don't try to, but I made some people mad this week.

[9:49] But anyway, he came to me and he said, I do not like your church and I don't like your school. And his kid was in our Christian school. And I said, why not?

[10:00] He said, because you act like kids are dogs. And I said, I do. He said, yeah, you say train. And that training is what you do to an animal. I said, well, you know, Bible says it in Proverbs, so we think it's okay.

[10:12] If God said train up a child, it probably is okay. And he just went off on how I needed to let those kids make their own decisions. And I just wonder if some of you are doing that.

[10:26] They miss church, you're teaching. They miss Bible reading, you're teaching. He said, no, I'm not teaching. I'm just not teaching.

[10:37] Well, when you don't teach, you're teaching. When you say, well, no Bible tonight, you're teaching. When you say, we'll skip church tonight, you're teaching. When you choose what Egypt offers over what God offers, you're teaching.

[10:57] When you choose not to choose, you're choosing. And when you choose not to choose, your kid's learning. In 2 Corinthians, I don't want to make anybody mad.

[11:10] I really don't. I preached this message in Peru. Come on, give me a break. I translated it back. So the Peruvians didn't get mad. They just thought, man, that must be true. Preachers reading it out of the Bible, we'll just believe it.

[11:21] Preach it in America, and everybody's like, I don't like that. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 17. You know, Moses knew the difference between eternal and temporal. Moses knew the difference between now and forever.

[11:35] In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 17. Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

[11:47] While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, temporary. But the things which are not seen are eternal. In other words, Moses said, I'd rather suffer light affliction because eternity's coming.

[12:04] I'd rather be with the people that don't know God as to be with the people that do know God. I'm going to give you a couple more things to make you mad, and then we'll move to another story that I'll make you madder. Ready? See, when I was a kid, I got my fanny tanned.

[12:20] You can't do that anymore. It's against the law and everything else. But we had churches that had no air condition. And all the windows were open. I could take you to that church. Some of our guys have been there. They support our missionaries. And my daddy would take us outside, walk me around behind the building.

[12:34] All the windows are open. He would beat the living shucks out of my rear. Shucks, that's what comes on corn. That's just a nice way. He'd beat the tire out of my rear end.

[12:44] I'd scream. I'd go back into church. Every kid in the church is looking at me. My daddy could snap his finger. You get to cutting up in church, and my daddy would go. And every kid in the church ducked.

[12:55] If he was sitting behind one of us, he'd take his finger like, bap, you're on the back of the head. He did it to me and every other kid. All the kids didn't like him. I didn't like him. They didn't like him. But daddy was like, you're in church, boy.

[13:07] You're here to learn something from Jesus. And that's what this woman did. Do you fall into the trap of thinking that your preschool child can't learn life-changing lessons? Do you fall into the trap of thinking your preschool child can't learn life-changing lessons?

[13:26] I'm begging you to consider having family devotions for a brief time, five minutes, ten minutes, several times a week with your small kids.

[13:41] You say they can't understand. They're smarter than you are. And they do understand. And if you would quit talking goo-goo-ga-ga talk and start reading the word of God to them, they'd get smarter anyway.

[13:53] Say amen. They don't, if they're so dumb, how come you let them listen to commercials and cartoons? 2 Chronicles 22.2.

[14:04] Let's get another verse and get madder. 17 more minutes of torture. Here we come. 2 Chronicles 22.2. 2 Chronicles 22.2. 2 Chronicles 22.2. 2 Chronicles 22.2. 2 Chronicles 22.2.

[14:25] The Bible says 40 and 2 years old was as a high when he began to reign. Now, I just think it's always interesting. I mean, you're reading the Bible and you kind of skim across this.

[14:36] The kid's two. I'm not sure he knows what he's doing. And he began to reign and he reigned one year. And his mother's name was Ataliah, the daughter of Omri.

[14:51] And he also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly. So this kid, I don't know how old he is, but he starts getting any real training.

[15:05] But his mama, his mama's family of Omri, this is the family of Ahab. This is a family of like the most God-hating, wicked, demon-loving people in the world.

[15:16] And look what it says here. She counseled him to do wicked. I'd like to ask you, what are you counseling your kid to do? Obey.

[15:28] Learn their times tables. Brush their teeth. People in Prue told me. They said, I just want my kid to have a better life than me. I said, well, they better get saved then. A lot earlier than you did.

[15:39] They said, I don't want to teach them about religion. I want them to make that decision when they grow up. I said, well, that worked real good for you, didn't it? His counselor to do wickedly.

[15:51] And then the Bible says, Wherefore, he did evil in the sight of the Lord like the house of Ahab. For they were his counselors after the death of his father to his destruction.

[16:03] So just a couple of things you might write down and think about. We teach by our practices as much as we do by our precepts. You should write that down somewhere.

[16:16] I ain't tweetable. Well, it's just something I read somewhere. But we preach by our practices as much as by our precepts. Here's the old Tennessee Hillbilly West saying it. They don't do what you say.

[16:28] They do what you do. They don't do what you say. They do what you do. I was tortured by my children when they were small.

[16:42] I always had my Bible. And I'd take my ink pen. I'd underline things. I'd make little marks in my Bible. And all my Bible's full of marks. So I can remember coming home one day.

[16:53] One of my kids walked up to me with a Bible. And he goes, Look, Daddy. He's taking a magic marker. It just marked every page. You couldn't read a thing on a page. He said, I mark my Bible like you do.

[17:07] They do what you do. They don't see you read your Bible. They don't read their Bible. They hear you gripe about other Christians. They learn to gripe about other Christians. They hear you be a gossip.

[17:18] They learn to be a gossip. They see you be a giver. They learn to be a giver. They learn more about what you do than what you say. This kid's going to turn out to be wicked.

[17:29] He does turn out to be wicked. They learn from our words, but they learn more from our actions. Other mobs didn't teach them wickedness, but surely very wicked conduct.

[17:44] Look at this Bible story. Genesis 27, 6, if you would. Genesis chapter 27 and verse 6. We're back to that story we started with. In Genesis chapter 27 and verse 6.

[17:55] Rebecca spake unto Jacob, her son. That's one of the two in the womb. She said, now, buddy, I heard your daddy talking to your brother Esau. He told him to go get him some venison and to make him some meat.

[18:09] He wanted some barbecue like he likes to eat it. Then daddy's going to bless him before the Lord, before his death. Verse 7. Verse 8.

[18:20] My son, now obey my voice and do what I tell you to do. Do what I command you to do. Run out to the flock and get me a small baby goat and bring it to me.

[18:32] And I will make him savory meat. I will make them savory meat for thy father just like he likes it. I know how to make his food just like he likes it. And you shall bring it to your father and he may eat it.

[18:45] And he'll bless you before his death. Now, Jacob's a smart boy. He's a young man by now. He says to Rebecca's mother, now, mama, that's not going to work. Verse 11.

[18:57] He said, my brother Esau is a hairy man. And I am a smooth man. And my daddy is probably going to figure out, after he feels my skin, he's going to figure out I'm a deceiver.

[19:10] That's verse 12. And he's going to say, this is cute. I just love, you got to love the Bible. I shall seem as a deceiver. No, you won't seem like it, buddy.

[19:23] You will be one. But he said, mama, you know, if I do what you're saying to me, do, he's probably going to think I'm a deceiver. Me and you know I'm not a deceiver. It's you, mama. It's you, mama.

[19:36] And I'm a smooth man. I shall seem to him as a deceiver. And if I do that, mama, I won't get a blessing. I'll get a curse. That's verse 12. And his mother said unto him, oh, don't worry, buddy.

[19:47] You go lie. And if there's a curse, it'll be on me and not on you. Let me teach you how to do wrong. I think we read that story and all of us are like, what a revolting woman.

[20:01] What a disgusting woman. What a horrible woman. What in the world is she doing? But I wonder how much we teach our kids to lie and deceive.

[20:17] We pretend that we love Jesus. They figure it out real quick, guys. We talk the talk, but we don't walk it. And our kids are like, daddy says, but daddy doesn't practice.

[20:33] Mama says, but mama doesn't practice. We say, but that's not who we are. There's a great deal of influence that parents have over their kids.

[20:53] Spanish saying used to be something like, it's in English too. Chip off the old block. Chip off the old block. A chip off the old block.

[21:09] I don't know how in the world a woman could be like that. I don't know how you could be like that and teach your son to do wickedly. But this is a godly woman here.

[21:20] She was of that other woman's from the house of Ahab. But this other woman, quote unquote, is a good godly woman. And she's having bad influence on her kids.

[21:31] I want to have good influence on my kids. What are you doing and how are you influencing your children? Train up a child in the way he should go.

[21:45] And when he's old, he'll not depart from it. And you cannot wait till they're six. You can't wait till they're 16. You can't let them make decisions. They will make a decision.

[21:57] But you're kind of guiding them towards a decision. You're kind of teaching them what they ought to think. What they ought to do. In Mark chapter 6 and verse 16, we find another mama teaching her daughter wrong.

[22:14] She will have her daughter kill the man of God. Herodias chapter 6 and verse 19 had a quarrel against John the Baptist. She didn't like John the Baptist. But Herod was afraid of John the Baptist in chapter 6 and verse 20.

[22:28] Because Herod knew if there's a just and a holy man, it's old John. And so on the right day, on the birthday, and they're having a party. And the daughter of Herodias in verse 22 comes in and dances and pleases Herod.

[22:44] And Herod said, Lady, I like the way you dance. You're pretty. You're making me feel happy today. You can have anything you want to half of the kingdom. You just ask for it and I'll give it to you. She said, Well, let me go ask my mama.

[22:57] And mama said, Tell him you want the head of John the Baptist. On a silver platter. They're just put on a platter and bring it to you. I know. We're all thinking, But that's not us.

[23:09] But I'm old enough to know that most of our kids won't serve Jesus. And the biggest reason is going to be us more than it is a lot of other things. You can't blame this on fatalism, predeterminism. You can't blame this on the environment or vaccines.

[23:24] You're going to have to get a mirror. The question will be, How much Bible has there been? How many spiritual talks have there been?

[23:36] How much praying has there been? Your role as a parent is not to keep your children out of trouble. Get them a good education.

[23:48] Your role is to prepare them to serve God. In Psalm chapter 127, children are a heritage of the Lord. And they're like arrows in the hands of a mighty man.

[24:04] And to be blunt and honest with you, nobody in the days of David, they didn't go to Walmart and buy aluminum arrows. They didn't go down to the sportsman's store and buy them.

[24:17] It took a lot of care and a lot of work and a lot of preparation to prepare those arrows. I'm sure David didn't make his own once he became the king. I'm not saying he did. But I'm telling you that the idea we're given in Psalm 127 is, Hey, God gave you kids.

[24:31] And those kids are like arrows. And they're like arrows in the hands of a mighty man. And so the very idea of Psalm 127 was that when God gave you those kids, they were going to be used for God's purposes.

[24:44] Y'all don't believe it's in the Bible, so open your Bible to Psalm 127. Open your Bible. Look it up. Mark it in your own Bible. Psalm 127, if you will. Verse 3, Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord.

[24:58] They came to you from God. And the fruit of the womb is God's reward to you. And your children are like arrows in the hands of a mighty man. So are children of the youth.

[25:12] Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed. They shall speak with the enemies in the gate. And so you got a lot of influence, Mama.

[25:24] You got a lot of influence, Daddy. And you need to take those kids. You need to realize he put these kids in my hands. And basically, they're raw putty right now. Basically, I'm going to form them. I'm going to take that branch off a tree.

[25:36] And I'm going to form it into an arrow. I'm going to make sure it's going to fly straight. I'm going to make sure it's formed right, corrected right. I'm going to work at preparing this arrow to fly long distance and do a good job when I shoot it.

[25:48] God gave me kids. I'm responsible. Our kids aren't cheap. We can't go to Walmart and get them. But somehow, if we look at the way we raise our kids and we go right next door to our lost neighbor, there's almost no difference in the way we raise our kids.

[26:07] And if there is, it's that one hour on Sunday morning. We're not working at raising kids to serve Jesus.

[26:19] The kids are a heritage of the Lord. They're like arrows in the hands of a mighty man. They will stand in the gates. What's it say?

[26:29] They will speak with the enemies in the gate. You know what? God gave you some kids. You need to take very seriously every day and every minute with them.

[26:41] And honestly, if they have the up-to-date clothes or not, that's not the key. And if they get the best education in the world, that's not the key. But if they know Jesus, if they know how to serve Jesus, if they know how to stand for Jesus, you'll have accomplished something.

[26:58] You have great influence. You have great influence. But you let the days go by. No Bible study today. We'll skip church this week.

[27:10] I'm not trying to be a legalist here. But you take a vacation. It's like, we don't need God. Your kids are going, I like vacation better. No church. Mama taught me that.

[27:23] I'd like to grow up and be on vacation all the time. It's your actions more than it is your words. When I was a kid, they still smoked everywhere.

[27:37] And it wasn't against the law back then. The pastor, the mediocrist, smoked. Everybody smoked. And then they started having commercials. And people against the tobacco were saying to their parents, you've got to stop your kids from smoking.

[27:53] They're getting addicted too young. And then they said, but you're going to have to show them, not tell them. And so a dad would walk in the, and some of you older people have seen these.

[28:05] So dad and son are walking through, talking. And dad says, son, you shouldn't smoke when you get old. You're not going to want to smoke when you get old. Okay. And he sits down at the tree, leans his back against the tree, lays his cigarettes down.

[28:16] And his kid's leaning against the tree from the other side. He just reaches over and picks up the cigarettes and says, you're right, dad. I won't. Because you don't do what you're told.

[28:26] You do what they practice. You have great influence. They see you in the book. They see you praying. They see you giving.

[28:38]  They see you faithful to church. They see you faithful to church.