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If you turn to Exodus 20, we will read the commandment. Exodus 20, verse...oh, we're down to verse 12. Yeah. which Yahweh, your God, gives you. We have been going through the commandments, and we have definitely looked at the first four at this point. And a lot of people divide the commandments into two groups. Those two groups being commandments that tell us how we are to be disposed or behave towards God.

That's to remember that he's the only God, not make any idols, not use his name in vain, and observe his Sabbath and Sabbath worship. The second set of commandments, the last six of them, are often told as these tell us how to behave toward our fellow man. So the first four are telling you how to worship God, how to horizontally relate to God. What are the things you have to do in order to be treating God properly, we'll say.

And then the last six are your fellow man. And it's a very easy division people make. Some people will try to tell you the first four were on one tablet and the other four were on another tablet. That's how God gave them to Moses. I don't believe that. I'm with Edmund Clowney who says he thinks all ten were on both tablets and as was the custom in ancient times both sides of a party would get a copy of a contract and in this case God didn't need a copy so Moses had both copies.

So if you see four commandments on one stone tablet in a picture and six commandments on another one I don't know necessarily if we can derive biblically that that's how they'd have been written. now with the fifth commandment we began it last week and for some of you kids I know you've been anticipating this you've been waiting when is the pastor going to tell us our duty according to the fifth commandment well this week is the week I debated how I was going to handle this because embedded in the fifth commandment are commands to parents that's not written explicitly there in Exodus 20 verse 12, but we can derive things that parents ought to do and ought to know, and how they are to, in fact, train their children to obey the fifth commandment. And so we have what I expect to be three sermons. One sermon for children, in particular.

One sermon for wives and mothers, and one sermon for husbands and fathers. and I was trying to figure out what order I wanted to do them in and settled on. We're going to start with the kids and part of that's so Elijah will be here for the father's one. But we're going to start with the kids this week and we're going to go through what are the duties that children have.

And believe it or not, children have duties. Even children who are not Christian are expected actually to follow this commandment. So the whole excuse, well, I'm not a Christian, that doesn't fly. If you're a parent and your kids are not Christian, so we're not Presbyterian, so we see a distinction here with our children, this commandment is still for your children.

And you're still obligated to do the things you're going to be obligated to do. And so next week is wives, and then the week after is going to be dads and fathers. And if it's any consolation to you kids and then you wives, it's going to escalate a little bit each week because I think the responsibility grows at each of those levels. So if you kids are leaving here crying today and come back next week and I'll hammer your mothers and then come back the week after and I'll really get your dads, okay?

Is that a deal? Some of you are like, yeah, we'll be here, yeah, for sure. So, now I will argue this, that foundationally it really is the fathers and mothers that should be doing right things in order to help the children. And so if I was maybe going to teach it again, I might start there. But we'll start with the kids this week. Now, if you look at Leviticus chapter 19, I just want to look at a couple of verses just to sort of prove this point.

Leviticus 19, verse 3. Just a couple things to think about. This is going to be what I'm going to say. It's going to be like a fast sermon where it's just point after point after point. We're not going to belabor points a whole lot, I hope. And a lot of the meat was last week proving the truth of this.

But verse 3 says, Every one of you shall fear his mother and his father. and you shall keep my Sabbath. I am Yahweh, your God. So because he's God, you're going to do it. You are going to fear your father and mother, it says here. And in this case, when we talk about this, we're not talking about an abusive father or mother. We're not talking about those kinds of things like, oh, my dad's a murderer.

We're talking about a reverent fear that you would not want to disappoint your father or mother because they so good to you and because Yahweh is God If you turn to page Leviticus 20 Leviticus 20 is an interesting chapter, because almost the entire chapter is, and he shall be put to death. This is a pretty serious chapter. We just look at verse 9. He says, If there is anyone who curses his father or his mother, he shall surely be put to death he has cursed his father or his mother his blood guiltiness is upon him now it was pretty interesting when we read about commandment 3 that blaspheming God actually came with the penalty of stoning to that one guy remember we did that in Leviticus in commandment 3 and then in commandment 4 we also found people got stoned for breaking that.

The one guy did at least. And so it's very serious commands. But here you are, if you curse your father or mother, you're to be put to death. Now some of you kids are pretty happy you live in the new covenant even if you're not actually in it yet. Because we don't put kids to death for that. In fact, we forgive you and we try to help you.

If you turn to Deuteronomy 21 though, just to give you an inkling of the seriousness of the command repeated in the New Testament in multiple places. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother. Honor your mother. In Deuteronomy 21, verse 18. If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they discipline him, he will not even listen to them.

Okay, so this is a kid who even after spankings, even after certain disciplines, still will not listen to his parents. then his father and mother shall seize him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown then they shall say to the elders of his city this son of ours is a stubborn and rebellious is stubborn and rebellious he will not listen to our voice he is a glutton and a drunkard then all the men of his city shall stone him and he will die so you shall purge the evil from your midst and all Israel will hear of it and fear now one of the interesting things about verses like this is that we don't actually see an anecdote we don't see a story in the Old Testament of this occurring so you don't have a story where someone actually had to do this we have that with the third and the fourth commandment actually that's what we read in the last two commandments but nevertheless this is a command that is taken very seriously by God and would have been taken seriously by his people and I venture to hope that it needed to be used sparingly and it would have been a very hard thing for parents to do just like it would be a very hard thing for parents to do in the church to bring your kid before the church and let the church know that your son or daughter does not belong here even had they at one point said they do. I want kids to get saved and get baptized and join the church and at the same time one of the things I desperately hope to avoid is the excommunication of a teenager who's rebellious and possibly even a glutton and a drunkard. And so we will be somewhat cautious admitting children into membership, not because they can't get saved, but for a number of reasons.

But in the New Covenant, purging the evil from your midst has to do with separating people from the church that don't belong in the church. We call this the general equity of God's law. When we read the Old Testament and you see God's laws, they're all good, they're all perfect, they're all morally right. But not every one of them is to be applied the same exact way it was applied judiciously in Israel in the New Covenant.

In the New Covenant, we excommunicate people from the church for being unrepentant sinners. That's the equivalent of them being cast out of the people of God in Israel. So if Jason and Jeremy want to pass out the pamphlets, or if you just want Jeremy to do it because you're holding your kid, that's fine. I've got some handouts for you. So I guess this is where I could make a Democrat joke, but I won't.

So I didn't give them to you early because people tend to fidget with handouts, and they can be distracting. and so you've got some notes here and we are going to look at ways that children need to be obeying the fifth commandment you kids that now have a piece of paper you can get a pencil or a pen and you can jot down notes next to it I would love to see that children are saving these pieces of paper and reviewing them on a somewhat regular basis, maybe stuffing it in your Bible. I would love to see that people don't just read the whole thing and they keep listening to me as I talk about them. And you parents as well, these are some thoughts that hopefully will help you to teach your child and help your child So we start on the side that says children obey your parents in the Lord Honor your father and mother Okay, so the promise that's given to children that honor their parents is that they'll live a long time in the land.

Paul reiterates this promise in Ephesians chapter 6. And so one question any reasonable person might have is, then why do sometimes kids die that obey their parents? Well, it's not a universal promise that if you obey your parents, you'll automatically live a long time. The promise given in the fifth commandment has to do with the fact that as a general rule, so there are bad parents out there, but as a general rule, even parents that aren't such good parents, I'm not talking about the real bad abusive ones that hurt children, But even parents that aren't such good parents, they want the best for their children, they love their children, and they give them good things to do.

Even a hypocritical parent is usually giving good advice to their kid. Their problem is they don't follow their own advice. But the advice might be really good. And so you kids in here that have parents that try to tell you the right things to eat, they try to tell you the right things to learn, they try to take you to church, they want you to read the Bible, They want you to participate in family worship.

They want you not to punch your brother or sister. They want you to speak kindly to people. They want you to be respectful of adults. They're trying to train you in such a way, practically speaking, that you won't just die. The ability to follow instructions should keep you from running red lights and hurting people and yourself one day. The ability to follow instructions is going to allow you to learn things, make money, and support a family or take care of a home. so your parents are training you for these things and so God promises some blessing to you if you will obey your parents some commentators believe that children who are diligently seeking to keep this commandment and obey their parents even at a young age that that is maybe even a sign of God drawing them to him and they will eventually inherit eternal life and live long in the land that God will give us.

So let's look. The first bullet point I have here says, obey your parents. Well, that has a number of meanings behind it. So it's easy to say, what does that mean then? And we can say, well, it just means everything. Well, let's look at it.

Here's some ideas. Do as they tell you to do. That's pretty simple, isn't it? You can ask Mr. Bowman or Mr. Roberts or you can ask Mr.

James, we have a lot of instructions that we get from the world, don't we? At your company, at work, and even in your own company, customers telling you what to do. There's a lot of stuff to think about, and some of it's kind of hard. And the moms in here have the same difficulty. They've got a lot of stuff to think about. And it's complex at times and we don't always know the answer.

And for the most part, for you children, life is very simple. I'm not saying it's easy. Learn the difference between easy and simple. But it's very simple. If your mom or dad tells you to do it, you do it. If your mom or dad tells you not to do it, you don't do it or you stop doing it.

I know it's not always easy. And that's because you're sinful. And some little part of you actually enjoys disobeying your parents because it's a way for you to disobey God. Obey your parents. Do as they tell you to do. Do it cheerfully.

The next point. Do it cheerfully without grumbling or arguing. Philippians 2.14 says, Do all things without grumbling or disputing. Without arguing. So if your parent tells you to do something, we'll say, pick up the toys. And you walk around grumbling the whole time while you pick up your toys.

I will promise you, I don't know all your parents' hearts, I will promise you that they do not consider that obedience. All those toys can be picked up faster than every other day. If you do it with a bad attitude, grumbling, they will not observe that as obedience, and neither will the Lord Jesus Christ, who's watching your every move. Again, simple, not easy.

If you find yourself struggling to have cheerful obedience to your parents, pray that God would give it to you recognize that fault in you and ask God to help you with it some of you adults hopefully are starting to see wow some of this stuff applies to me and my roles as well but we'll get there later do it immediately delayed obedience has another word it's called disobedience I'm going to say that again delayed obedience which means you were told to do something and you don't do it right away when you're supposed to do it that's the same as disobedience so even though you eventually did the thing that your mom or your dad told you to do the fact that you put it off when you knew they wanted it sooner is a problem now you may ask your parents hey can I do that in five minutes or can I do it tomorrow or whatever. If you have to ask them respectfully, is this something you want me to do now or are you just telling me, for example, make sure my room is clean before dinner. You can respectfully clarify what your parents really want.

And parents, you can do a better job at telling them whether you want it right away or not sometimes. We'll get to some of the parental stuff, but it's hard to tell a kid in the middle of something, okay, you just stop right now and take the trash out. You know, I think there needs to be a little understanding that it's hard to stop in the middle of something, and we should try to help our children.

The fourth point here this is why I gave you the list because if I just went through this you hear three of them you remember one of them and you know you got this list Learn to obey God. Okay, this one's a big one, it's a hard one, and this is one that some of you older kids really have to start working on. Learn to obey God. and if you need to disobey your parents to obey God hopefully that's extremely infrequent in Christian households but if you need to disobey your parents in order to obey God you still need to accept whatever punishment you end up with joyfully.

Jesus Christ disobeyed the authorities at the time in the sense that they didn't want him speaking, you know. And Jesus Christ submitted to the authorities. Remember in 1 Peter 2. He took the punishment that he did not deserve because he was obedient to God and made people mad. And Christian martyrs for the last 2,000 years have obeyed God rather than men, not with a rebellious spirit towards the authorities they were disobeying, but with an obedient spirit towards God.

And then most of them suffered greatly, many of them dying as a result. And they submitted to that discipline that they didn't deserve. So some of you kids, once in a while you get in trouble and it wasn't your fault. I would dare say that sometimes your dad misunderstood what happened and he punished you when it was really your brother or sister. That happened to me a lot as a kid actually.

But the Christian child or the non-Christian child who is trying to obey God's law as you're seeking the Lord and praying that he would save you, you submit to that discipline that you receive willingly just like the Lord Jesus Christ would have and then even outside of getting disciplined unnecessarily accept their discipline accept your parents discipline guys no discipline is pleasant while it's being given out that's for the kid it's also true for the adult you know what we adults want to do we want to have fun like literally we want to buy you presents we want to give you good food and we just want to enjoy time together and your disobedience and your bad behavior is what causes us to have to stop what we're doing and stop what you're doing and take you aside and we don't mind it we'll do it because the Lord has told us and then we have to give you corporal punishment we may have to spank you we may make you do things that are undesirable for you. Maybe you sit in your room or sit in a corner or a toy is taken away. There's a lot of different ways we try to train you, frankly, because you're so difficult.

And so were we. Just so you know. We were all very difficult. If I lived in ancient Israel, I'd have been dead at 17, 18. Because I'd have been stoned for that description I gave earlier. So I'm not just telling you it's just you.

But your parents don't want to spank you. They only do it because God said that's the way to save your soul from Sheol. Because God said foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. And it's the discipline that's going to get it out of them. And so accept your parents' discipline. And understand that it's not something they do out of joy or because they're some kind of abuser or something.

It's because they love you. that they want you to hate what's happening with the discipline more than whatever you were doing that you enjoy that was wrong. They don't want you to grow up to be a person that can't follow rules. Because what will happen to you if you won't obey your parents is you will grow up, and I use that term in the physical sense only, but you will get older and one day your parents will stop spanking you with a strap or whatever and one day your parents will actually step back and they'll stop giving you any consequences for your behavior they'll let you experience your own consequences and they will turn you over to the civil magistrate who will be far less merciful and what that means is they'll turn you over to the government who when you violate their laws, they'll just put you in prison they'll fine you or maybe even worse, you get the death penalty if you do something bad enough.

So the second point, so that was obeying your parents. There's a few different ways to look at this. So it's all under the same thing. But the second way I have you looking at it is to honor your parents. That's the command in the Old Testament. Honor your father and mother.

So how do you honor your father and mother? So this is what you children should be seeking to do on a regular basis. You guys come to church every week, and I'm telling you, you probably leave and you think, man, the guy uses these big words, and I don't understand what he says, and I just want to play, and then the parents all want to sit and talk. This is all almost for you guys.

I love you kids. and when I preach I don't smile because I think it's an utterly serious thing to do and most of the time I preach I'm preaching difficult things that are even hard to think about but I want you to know I love you and I'm telling you these things because I want each and every one of you to grow up and to lead a productive godly life where you have great joy, where you serve the Lord in whatever capacity he's called you to I'm hoping to one day just call a couple of you pastor and just sit back and do my own thing you know that'd be nice I'm going to sit back somebody else can come up and do all this I'm not saying I don't like doing this but you get my point here this is what we want we want you to make money and be able to take care of a family we want you to be able to preach God's word or teach it or lead others so when I stop smiling because I get back into preacher mode it's not because I'm angry or I don't love you I want you to understand that this is all out of love speak well of your parents that's how you honor them it goes back to do all things without grumbling and complaining you really dishonor your parents when you complain about them, when you talk about them in a way that's not honoring your parents, despite their defects they do a lot for you and they deserve respect not just because God said it, they deserve it because of what they've done for you Your mother deserves respect until she dies just for what she did for you. Dads don't do quite as much at first. Your mom walks around still suffering the scars of having carried you.

And she did it out of love. And what, one in four pregnancies in our country ends in murder now? Is that right? One in four or something. the mommy decides I'm just going to have somebody turn my kid limb from limb or burn him to death in my womb because I don't want him. And your mommy decided to carry you for nine months. She's got stretch marks that she deals with.

She can tell you what those are later. Everything hurt for a while. Lindsay's been pregnant the last 15 years or whatever, non-stop it seems like, right? These people are owed honor and respect. Think good thoughts of them. That's another way you can honor them.

It's very easy if you're mad at your parents for something, and maybe they did something wrong. Maybe there's some tension in the home where we're butting heads. Maybe certain people just don't get along as well as others. I've got how many kids? I have five. I've had some that are real easy to get along with because of our personality, and somewhere it's like, how did you come from the same thing?

You know what I mean? That's normal. But when you're the child, you think good thoughts about your parents. It will help you to love your dad and mom more if you meditate upon their goodness, the good things they do and have done. It's very easy to sit around and think about negative things. It's very easy to do that.

What's hard is to sit and think about positive things. To think good thoughts of your parents. Even parents that can be difficult. Another way to honor your parents is to forgive them. Do not hold their sin against them. Your parents will sin against you.

One of the reasons why the scripture doesn't say, children obey your parents, period, is because parents are fallible and God isn't. So you owe God absolute obedience. There is not a single time in your life when disobeying God is acceptable. But your parents are sinners like you are, and they will make mistakes. And in fact, they will sin against you.

I'm going to guess daily. at least you are to forgive your parents that's one of the ways you honor them if you hold resentment and bitterness against your mom and dad because of the real things they've done wrong toward you you're only hurting yourself but if you think about the good things they do forgive them for their wrongs and then as you grow learn how to speak to them about those things study the scripture enough that if you go to your mom or dad and can actually cite scripture in their presence to help them to see maybe that they have a sin that you would like them to be sorry for that is how you build a relationship with anyone especially your parents nobody's more important to build a relationship with than your own parents pray for them you kids should be praying every day and it's more than just God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food okay and reciting the Lord's prayer is great but you kids should be talking to God and you should be asking God for things and you should be praying for your parents pray that God would help them with the things that you think they have difficulty with thank God for giving you the parents you have and the goodness that does come from them. Another way to honor your parents, and this one is maybe more for older children, and this could apply also even to you adults who still have living parents. Take their advice and counsel.

In fact, seek it. your parents have been in most of the same circumstances as you before you were and sometimes even if they fouled it up and you can see that they fouled it up they know that too and if you ask them advice they'll actually give you the opposite advice of what they did and it'll bring them a lot of pleasure that you asked them it's mildly insulting as a parent to have children making decisions where you know that they don't quite know yet what the right answer should be, and they didn't even ask you. So you kids, ask your parents for help with things. Ask their advice about a career Your dad and mom know your strengths and weaknesses Trust me they do And in some cases, they'll know what type of thing maybe you should think about doing as an adult.

In marriage, nobody wants you to marry a good person more than your parents. In fact, you're more interested in other things as you're seeking your spouse. Most people are, at least. Your parents, they're concerned about what kind of parent that person's going to be to their grandkids. You're worried about if you think they're cute. I know some of you, there's going to be more than that.

I get it. I'm not saying it's the only thing people think about. But your parents, they will see in other people the things that you won't see because you're so blinded by love. And so I'm not saying that you have to marry the person your parents pick out. I'm not even saying they have to pick the person out. But you should take your parents' counsel about yourself before you even start to seek marriage. and you should be very, very interested in what they think of your potential spouse.

And very respectful to them if you have to go contrary to what they think. And man, I'll tell you what, if they were right and you were wrong, you tell them someday, there's nothing better than having someone come to you and say, hey, just by the way, you were right about that thing. I'm still glad I did it. I'm still glad I went the wrong way. Whatever.

Just tell them, yeah, you were right. I should have listened. Take their advice, but seek it out. I'm not saying you do everything that your parent thinks is good advice, but if you have Christian parents in particular, the hope would be that this advice is going to be utterly biblical, and it's going to be really good advice, hopefully, in some cases, straight from the Word of God.

Parents, be cautious. you can tell your kids some things but there's some areas where they need to seek wisdom as well so you might not always tell them the right answer I had a guy, you guys all know him, Gavin he asked me a question about whether he should go on active duty and one of my answers to him was well, it's really up to you but I'll tell you, here's how I would think about that kind of thing you know. Finally, be grateful from your heart for your parents. Be grateful for the grace that God has shown you through them.

So even some of the worst parents that have ever lived have really blessed their children in a lot of ways. So unless your parents are literally murdering you, in which case you're not around to talk about it, unless you're in a situation of extreme abuse and drug use and all these things that happen, even parents that screw up a lot are parents who God is giving you a lot of blessings through. Now there could be better ones, sure.

And if you really want a better father, trust the Father in Heaven, okay? That's the better father. But listen, be grateful. Your ingratitude for the parents that God sovereignly chose for you is part of what determines your bad attitude towards them, which is part of what causes you to end up disobeying them in the first place. Part of the reason your parents aren't always as nice and kind and gentle and all that stuff that you wish they'd be sometimes is because they're so afraid to ask you to do anything because you don't obey them half the time, so they think they have to come in ready to go with the battle.

Your parents shouldn't be afraid to ask you to come here or to tell you to pick up your stuff. they should be utterly confident that when they open their mouth you're listening, you hear your name, you're looking and you're doing the thing, that's what your parents are supposed to experience so when they're afraid to tell you to do something at church at the fellowship meal because they don't want to be embarrassed in front of everyone that's your fault, not theirs all the time, okay so when they come in a little harsh about it at the beginning when they seem a little strict, the strictness is because you don't seem to function without the strictness, you understand there's neighborhoods around here that have stop signs and there's neighborhoods that don't have stop signs some of you guys need the stop signs be the kind of kid who doesn't need that kind of direction and you'll have more freedom trust me all the parents here want to give you as much freedom as we can give you that's safe trust me be grateful even for the hardships that your parents have caused this might be even for some of us adults some of us have had some rotten parents still do some of us be grateful that God sovereignly puts you through that, he's taught you and if you're a Christian he's sanctifying you he's helping you to grow in grace as the result something to remember there's orphans and there's people out there whose parents are gone there's people who had bad parents now the parents are gone and they wish for just one more day even with the bad parent remember that when you're suffering with difficult family and difficult parents don't be tempted or if you're tempted not to be grateful for your parents because of maybe stuff they've really done remember that one day they might not be there for you to even be mad at anymore. Try to enjoy them. So do these things because God has commanded you to do them though kids.

Pray that he gives you a new heart that desires to keep his commands and his Holy Spirit to empower you to keep them. Alright, so I'm not saying obey mom and dad because they so great I not saying obey mom and dad because they do everything right or they always follow the Bible or everything they tell you makes sense I telling you honor your father and your mother obey your parents and the Lord because God has commanded it And He's going to hold you accountable for your sin in that area, not them. Now turn your page over.

This is a particularly personal one for me now. I do want to point out, Proverbs 23 has a nice section on how a child should act so the parent can be honored by them and really enjoy their child. Proverbs 23, you can read that later. How to be obedient and helpful in church and on the Sabbath. So here we are, we're a family integrated church. So that means all the people are in the room together, worshiping God together. and if there's anything that I love more than the sound of babies crying and making a little noise in church I don't know what it is because I love that sound because it's a reminder that we're family integrated but if there's something that bothers me more than anything it's children speaking out of turn in church and walking around and all the different things that happen when people are young and we want to train them up so here's some advice so that you can honor not only your parents honor the Lord and maybe honor your pastor.

And the rest of the church too. So be ready. Have your clothes ready on Saturday. Some of you are running around looking for socks at 2 in the afternoon on Sunday. I'll just tell you kids, no parent has called me and said, hey my kid does this. So if that's you, this is purely God speaking to you and to your heart.

Through the preacher. Have your clothes ready on Saturday. It's not that difficult to pick out what you're going to wear on Sunday and just have it ready. Make sure that it's cleaned. If mommy or if your dad does laundry and needs to clean it, let them know. Figure it out on Saturday.

Be prepared to make Sunday a nice day. Do not delay on the Sabbath and have the things you need for church. If you bring a bag with your activities and your paper and your pen and your pencil, snacks, whatever it happens to be, you take some responsibility to get the stuff ready. Your parents are trying to rest on the Sabbath too. Help them out. try to spend more time in prayer on the Sabbath and be extra agreeable to your parents alright if you had the power to be extra agreeable I'd just tell you to do it every day I get it, we're all going to have trouble but wow, if you could pick one day that you could make your parents have a little bit better day help them on Sunday help them on Sunday and now before the service use the restroom, get your things ready and have a hymn book some of you are little, you gotta go pee a little more than others, I get it it happens but as we get older we are able to sit for an hour or two hours without having to get up and if you find that it's difficult don't drink so much before church there are ways to prevent yourself from having to go to the bathroom for two hours and every one of you would do it if I was sending you to an Avengers movie or something like that you'd figure out how to sit there the whole time and you wouldn't get up or you'd hold it because you didn't want to miss Hulk and Spider-Man or whatever was happening.

And so find a way to be able to sit through church and to be respectful. Have a hymn book. There's only one time in church that I can think of that kids get to talk and participate. It's when you're singing. Now how to behave in Sabbath worship. Sit quietly.

Don't fidget and make noise. If you have to fidget, find a quiet fidget thing. Don't make noises. Don't attract attention. Don't unzip your bag and zip your bag. Be somewhat quiet.

Let the babies make noise. I love that. But you're an example to others. And face the person in front. When Bert's up here, face them. When Jason's up here, face them.

Jeremy, Elijah, face the person. Let them see your eyes on them. I bet Bert would like to look out and see everybody singing. I bet that would make Bert happy. Do it for Bert. Do it for the Lord, too.

I like seeing people looking at me. Unless I notice that you have an open Bible and you're looking at it. Or my sheet. Looking at my sheet is acceptable, too. Thank you, Jace. Take notes.

Share your notes with me after, if it's another preacher. Write questions that you have. This is your once a week chance to hear from the God-ordained means of preaching, the message God has for this church. Take some notes. You'll encourage me if you ask me a question after. Well, why did you say this?

Maybe I said something wrong. Maybe I can correct something that I didn't say right. If anything, don't get up. Try not to have to go to the bathroom. Try to figure that out. I said sing loudly, respectfully and properly still.

But I want you to sing with loudness and joy. We want to hear you singing. We want to be excited about it. And if you have a sibling that bothers you, which I know that's never happened at this church, find a way to ignore them and forgive them. Be a good example if you're older than others. Here's one.

Encourage young moms, or even if there's an old mom, with small children and offer to help them if your parents allow you. Some of you could be the person that helps hold a baby so somebody else could sit and listen without being a little distracted. You know why a lot of people don't go to a church like ours? A lot of people don go to a church like ours because they sit in church and they so busy taking care of their kid and breastfeeding and all the things that have to happen with the baby that they want a place they can go where they can drop their kid off in another room so they can come and actually enjoy listening to the sermon and singing the songs and things like that And that's respectable.

But if people in the room said, I'm going to help you out, maybe even another kid could be helpful in some way, that would relieve that for some people. That could be fun for you too. if you're saved be baptized join the church membership take communion with the saints if you're a saved child you're expected to worship and participate like adults this means that you would take worship seriously and you would help out with what we're doing at church even if other kids are being childish there's nothing wrong with being a kid and playing a little and some of those things but if you say that you're a Christian kid you should be able to stop to worship the Lord with your church and then all the children, be respectful of all the adults smile at them, ok we're all old and like we can't even smile some of us anymore some of us have hit an age where our face sags, and you'll get there too, don't make fun of us where our face sags and so when we're just being normal, like when we're just resting we actually look like we're frowning. We're actually really happy, but because our face is saggy, we look like we're frowning.

Well, you guys have these amazing, beautiful faces that don't sag yet. Would you just lift your lips a little and give the rest of us some joy? We love seeing you kids smiling. We love seeing you happy. As long as you're not breaking something. Even then, we still love seeing you happy. smile at the adults.

And here's a big one. Cheerfully help when asked to do things. You don't have to obey every command everyone ever gives you. But out of just respect, if someone says, hey, would you move this chair? Do this thing for me. Throw this away.

Go get me one of these. It's not the same as do everything you're told by your parents. But if there's no reason why you shouldn't just help the person out, You should do it and you should do it cheerfully again. You should be actually excited for the privilege if somebody trusts you to do something around the church. And so be cheerful. The other adults want to see you cheerful.

They're actually worried about you when you're not. Kids should be relatively cheerful. I know there's things that happen as some of them get older where it's harder. But we should be able to be cheerful. Ask people questions and converse with them. Some of you kids, now we've been here, what, a year and a half now, right?

We've had a church. And most of the people here have been at least with the church for the last year attending. It would be a shame if we're here for nine years, ten years, and some of you start to be old enough that you're actually going off and doing other things, and you don't even know some of the other people very well because you just played football the whole time or played with dolls and knitted and different things people do here.

Spend some time talking to other adults, or the adults too. Talk to me. Talk to my wife. Talk to Mr. Bowman, Mrs. Bowman, Mr. and Mrs.

James. Talk to the Roberts, Elijah, Lauren. Talk to other people. We're all here for you. We're all rooting for you. We all want the best for you, and we all would like to get to know each other's children.

Here's one you could do. Ask people if you can share something that you learned in school or from family worship. I would love to hear what you're learning about in school. I would love to hear what you're doing in family worship. Maybe convicting to your dad if you're not doing it every day, that he knows you're talking about it at church. I'd love to hear from the kids.

Oh, and finally, welcome guests. and the children of guests to your playtime. If families come in here that we don't know very well, this is part of you looking cheerful, okay? And you kids are smiling, and you're welcoming to people that come in. Some of those people, maybe they don't have another church that's kind to them. Maybe they're coming from a church where they were hurt very badly, and they're very afraid to even check a place out. welcoming children into your playgroup.

And I'll just add, even if they look funny, or maybe they walk funny, or maybe there's something about them that's a little different. But be welcoming and let new people in. And if they're difficult, love them. There's thousands of Hallmark movies about loving people who are difficult. Your parents pick out the ones that are acceptable. But you can love people, even if they're not exactly the way you'd like them to be.

And even if your group already has some things to do on Sunday that you enjoy, and a new kid walks in, we want to welcome those people. And so that's part of how you can be helpful to the church and to your parents. So I will actually read the portion from Proverbs 23 real quick for you in closing, just to give you an idea of how important children are to their parents. so we have in verse 13 do not withhold discipline from the child although you strike him with the rod he will not die you shall strike him with the rod deliver his soul from Sheol he says my son if your heart is wise my own heart also will be glad if you are wise in your heart this is a father writing to his son my heart will be glad and my inmost being will exult when your lips speak upright.

What a joy it is when parents hear and see their children doing what's right and saying what's right. And he says, verse 22, Listen to your father who begot you. That's the advice. Honor your father. Do not despise your mother when she's old. Buy truth and do not sell it.

Get wisdom and discipline and understanding. All the same things Jeremy told us to get in chapter 2 of Proverbs today, right? And he says, the father of the righteous will greatly rejoice. He who begets a wise son will be glad in him. Let your father and your mother be glad, listen, and let her rejoice who gave birth to you. All that pain and discomfort is worth it when a mom sees her kid following the Lord and doing what's right. in telling you kids all these duties to obey the fifth commandment, I want to remind you of one thing.

Although you can never keep it perfectly, you are expected to grow in these areas. But I want to remind you that there was a boy who kept the fifth commandment And that was Jesus We talked about it last week and I want to remind you again that Jesus kept the fifth commandment for those who couldn't. And if you don't today have salvation in Christ Jesus, today is the day to cry out to Him and say, forgive me for dishonoring my parents, Lord. and I just want you to be able to remember that as hard as it will be to try to keep the fifth commandment some of you hopefully will try to do these things when it gets hard remember that Jesus is the one who can give you the grace Lord thank you for providing your word to us we thank you for examples in scripture I think of Isaac going on the mount with Abraham even to the point of being sacrificed and submitting to his father's will.

We think of Jesus saying he came to do his father's will and we pray Lord that you would give the children in this room the will to obey their parents and that you would give them the grace by the power of your Holy Spirit in dwelling them and regenerating them to want to obey your law. We thank you Lord for your word. we pray that you would bless the hearers of it in this room today Amen