In his sermon 'Child Training 101-2', Steve Hopkins focuses on Proverbs 22:6 to discuss the essentials of biblical child training. He emphasizes the importance of starting with prayer, both privately and with children, to seek God's guidance in raising them. Hopkins critiques secular education systems, arguing that biblical instruction should be the primary curriculum for children, with every other form of knowledge subjected to God's Word. He stresses the critical role of fathers in daily engaging their children with scripture, asserting that this responsibility cannot be outsourced to external institutions. While acknowledging that biblical training does not guarantee a child's salvation, Hopkins highlights the general principle that early spiritual guidance often leads to lifelong faithfulness. He urges parents to consistently inculcate biblical truths, invest time in spiritual activities, and maintain hope and prayer for their children's salvation, regardless of their current path.

Welcome back to Burnet Bible Church. This week, Pastor Hopkins' sermon is from Proverbs chapter 22 verse 6 on the basics of biblical child training. Good morning again. What a blessed day. If you would turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Proverbs, the 22nd chapter.

We'll be looking at one verse and one verse only this afternoon. Verse 6, As I said last week, I want to spend a few minutes each Lord's Day talking about biblical child training, but as I started studying Proverbs chapter 22 and verse 6 this past week, I decided after the message was getting longer and longer that this being so foundational, it would require me to set aside our verse-by-verse exposition of Romans this week and use the entire time to focus on it. So that's what we'll be doing. And in the coming weeks, I plan to just spend about ten minutes Hopefully before the message each week and talk about child training and some of the topics the titles that I've chosen And I think are things that Sandra and I that really were important to us, especially in the early years of child training, were understanding things like rebellion versus incomprehension, you know, when to chastise, when not to chastise, The importance of praise, so important for children. The necessity of following through.

No means no, will be one of the titles. Pick your battles, you know, pick your battles. The importance of consistency and the united front, dangers of a house divided. But today, train up a child in the way he should go, and let's stand for the reading of the Word of the Lord, Proverbs chapter 22 and verse 6. Let's read together.

Read along with me. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Let's pray. Father, we have prayed for revival for so many years at this church. And Lord, we know that revival comes in many different ways, sometimes through just a time in a nation where there is mass conversion and a turning to Christ by the lost.

And sometimes, Lord, is there a revival in the hearts of Your people, which is manifested in the hearts of fathers being turned to their children and children to their fathers, which was said of John the Baptist when he would come, that He would turn the hearts of the fathers to their children. And God, we thank You, Lord, that we have seen revival. We thank You, God, that we have seen children staying in the church, staying in the faith, marrying in the faith, raising their children in the faith. And we give you all the glory for that God and we ask that you would continue that work that you've begun And God we ask that you be glorified in this hour as we seek your face and open your word, we ask you that you would open up our understanding, Lord, as we open your word. Open up the understanding of all those you've given eyes to see and ears to hear, for we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.

Be seated. Last week I talked about, in the pre-message message on child training, I talked about the place every parent needs to begin. On their knees. On their knees. On their knees crying out to God for the souls of their children.

Crying out to God for the souls of their children in private prayer. Crying out to God together as couples for the souls of their children. And then praying for them, praying for our children in their hearing so that they hear us praying for them and for their souls every day. I can't stress enough the importance of prayer. And before I go forward, let me just say to the fathers and mothers that are here this morning, please don't take offense if I cover things, you know, that you've been doing for two decades, those who are older, or hammer things maybe that are things that I've said over and over again, or when you hear me pleading with, you know, with parents to do child training God's way and not the world's way.

I know the parents in this congregation and I know that you're resolved to do things God's way. But we all need encouragement, and we all need reminders to stay the course. Our text this morning is a familiar passage to anyone who has sought the Lord on the subject of child training. Proverbs chapter 22 verse 6 reads, train up a child. Look at this text because there's so much here.

Train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. Vladimir Lenin, the communist dictator who overthrew the government of Russia in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, once said in his satanic perversion of this text Give me four years to teach the children and the seeds I've planted will never be uprooted Sounds like he got that idea somewhere or the devil who put that idea in his mind got that somewhere. He got it from this passage, train up a child on the way he goes and when he's old he won't depart from it. The communists said, look, give me four years of the children and the seeds I plant in them are never going to be uprooted.

This of course was a direct assault on God's command to train up children in the way they should go. In the way they should go. The people of God are exhorted to train up their children in the way they should go, not in the way the world thinks that they should go, and not in the way any government entity thinks that they should go, but in the way that they should go. And the way they should go is outlined for us in the 66 books of the Bible. While talking to a group of men, one day a young man that was sitting there at the table talking with us responded to one of my statements, And he seemed puzzled a little bit, and he said, so you think, so you're saying you think that sending a child to a government school is a sin?

You think it's a sin? And I said, yes, I think it's a sin. Yes I do. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 7 commands parents to teach the commands of God's Word diligently to their children. Look over at Deuteronomy chapter 6 again and look at verse 7.

We're commanded, it's a command to parents to teach the commands of God, the Word of God, diligently to their children, to talk of them when you sit in your house, to talk of them when you walk with them throughout the day, whatever your course of day is. When you get up in the morning to be bringing them back to the things of God and set in their minds upon the Word of God, when they rise up, it says, And when you lie down, when you get up in the morning, and when you go to bed at night, and that's impossible. Listen, that is absolutely impossible if children are sitting in the Council of the Ungodly for six or eight hours a day in a government education facility. Absolutely impossible. Absolutely impossible.

And I know we have people that listen in over the internet, watch the message over the internet. I know we have people who – Mark told me this last week – we've got thousands of people from 88 countries that have listened to our messages on Sermon Audio. If you're listening, this is what is true according to God's Word. It is impossible. I don't care what nation you're in, if you're dropping your children off at the government facility and for them to educate your children, to raise them up, it's not the way that God has chosen or commanded His people to bring up their children.

Psalm one says, blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the seat of sinners, nor sit it in the seat of the scornful. Think of those words, the ungodly, the seat of sinners, the place or path of sinners, the seed of the scornful, people that scoff at God's Word. Walking, standing, sitting, it's comprehensive. Walking, standing, and sitting in a government classroom all day where God and the Bible have been outlawed under the instruction of men and women who scoff at the Word of God? That's tantamount to tossing someone's children into the jaws of Satan.

Yes, I think it's a sin. The Bible is our child training manual, and the Bible is our primary curriculum. The Bible contains all that Christian parents need For correction, for reproof, and for instruction in righteousness. It's sufficient. And we need to be filling our children's minds with the Word of God from the earliest years.

And you say, well, are you saying that the Bible is our only curriculum? No. But it is our primary curriculum. And listen to this, every other curriculum, every other means of knowledge must be brought into subjection to the truths that it proclaims. Everything has to be brought subject to the word of God.

If your geology isn't subject to the word of God, you need to throw it out. If your math isn't subject to the Word of God. It needs to be thrown out. Yes, two plus two does still equal four. Your biology.

Our text this morning says, train up a child in the way, in the way he should go. And the way he should go is God's way, not the world's way and not the government's way. Every other way is The broad way that leads to destruction Every other way is the broad way that leads to destruction and the way to begin is with fathers I primarily I'm going to be talking to fathers, but mothers, you're also included in this, mothers are the ones that spend the most time with their children, and we'll talk a little bit about mothers also, but I want to primarily deal with fathers because you're the ones who are commanded to open the scriptures with your children every day. An hour or two a week in church it won't get the job done and it was never intended by God to do so. That's why he commands parents and specifically fathers if they're in the home to teach the Word of God diligently to their children.

God's Word is not only a lamp for big feet, it's a lamp for little feet also and a light for their path. I often tell newly married men, if you aren't lighting the path for your wife before you have children, what guarantee do you have after you have children that you won't leave them without a light for their path also? Children need continual day-by-day, inculcation of the Word of God and impressing upon their minds the things of God. And I know I sound like a broken record at times. Some of you younger people don't even know what a record is, right?

You don't even know what a record is. It's a record. You guys know what a record is? About a third of the congregation knows what a record is. So here's what a record is.

A record is like this big plastic disc and there's these grooves in it and you set it on this little round what they call a turntable, it's electrified, and it spins and you drop this arm down with a needle on it and actually that needle goes over the whatever it is on the record, and it plays the music or the recording that's there. Well, if it's got a crack in it, it skips. And it says the same thing over and over and over again. Family worship, family worship, family worship, family worship. I know I sound like a broken record, but it really is the most important thing that you will do in your home.

It's the most important thing you will do in your home. My son, Micah, when he was just a little tyke, I pulled out a record, a big vinyl record, I showed it to him one day, he said, wow, Dad, that's the biggest CD I've ever seen. It's kind of funny. Parents only have to do one thing to lose the hearts of their children to the world. Nothing.

You only have to do one thing to lose the hearts of your children to the world. Nothing. Eric pointed out earlier in the 1689 Baptist confessional teaching, man in the state in which he's born, in the unregenerate state, is able to sin and not able to not sin. That's the condition of your little babies when they're born. That's the condition, and that is the state in which they're in.

You don't have to set them in the way that leads to destruction. They're on that path when they're born. The way they should go is found in the Scriptures, and I want to encourage everyone who's just beginning to begin training them in the Scriptures early, early, early, early, from the day that they're born, but of course they can't understand at that time, but from the day that they can understand our words, before they can even speak in the way they should go. Give them the scriptures, the scriptures, the scriptures. They're getting more than you think.

In the scriptures, we read that Timothy's mother and grandmother had to take up his biblical instruction. We're not told if Timothy's father was dead or if he was just derelict in his duties and wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing, but we're told that his mother and his grandmother brought him up in the Scriptures. Mothers, bring your children up in the Scriptures. Bring them up in the Scriptures. Bring them back to the things of God continually, over and over and over again continually.

We read of the Apostle Paul speaking to Timothy, from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures. From a child you've known the holy scriptures, which are what? Which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Amen? From a child you've known the holy scriptures, Which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus Amen from a child you've known the holy scriptures Which are able to make you wise into salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus from a child You've known the scriptures from a child they can know That is they can they can understand and they understand more than we think.

Set a cartoon or some video in front of a little child and later on you'll hear them repeating portions of it line by line or singing songs from it. They drink it in. They're like little tape recorders. They really are. What do we want to be on that tape?

Some of you don't know what tape recorders are. I keep using these archaic terms that nobody knows anymore. How many of you know what a tape recorder is? Oh, everybody knows what a tape recorder is. Okay, we got that one.

Good. They're like little tape recorders. Give them the Scriptures in such a way that's suited to their level of understanding. But understand that they're not going to be able to understand anything if we don't understand. In other words, How can we teach our children something that we haven't been taught ourselves?

Which means we need to be in the Scriptures. We've got to be searching the Scriptures. We've got to be studying the Scriptures. We've got to be in the Word of God. We need to be spending time with the word every day.

Family worship time in our home, and I've talked to others in other homes as well, in the church. The children will each, you know, read the Bible, a passage from the Scriptures. I may say read three verses or read four verses or read two verses dividing it up on how many are there that day. And then as they read, I comment. And that commentary requires personal study time.

I've got to be in the Scriptures before I can comment and say, or even answer questions, Dad, what does that mean? Well, you know, I gotta be in the Scriptures. It helps, you know, to have a Bible with a good, reformed commentary in it also. So you can go down and say, well, you know, I don't know, but it says right here. It's helpful.

But we need to be in the Scriptures and not rely upon the commentary of others. We need to be bringing Biblical truth to the little minds under our charge, and if possible throughout the day, when they rise up, when they lie down, and when we walk with them in the way, when we sit with them in our homes. We need to be talking with them about the things of God, not just when they're young, but when they're older also. Sometimes the older children in this, you know, we have to learn these things in our house, relearn, relearn, relearn, are always relearning things, you know. They get older, they say, well, it's not necessary anymore.

No, it's still necessary. It's still necessary for them to be in family worship time and to be hearing the Word of God and to be talking with their parents about the things of God. And of course, we need to be patient with them, especially with the younger ones. Last night I asked our sons and daughters, I just threw this in here at the last minute, and a couple of our granddaughters that were there to share the gospel with me in their own words, because I wanted to know how much of this is getting across, because if they don't learn anything else, they need to learn the gospel. They need to be able to tell you, what is the gospel?

And I was amazed at their answers. I was amazed at the comprehension and understanding of the gospel, really what it means going even to very young. They understood the gospel better than I did when I was 20 years of age. Sandra and I, we were talking about it again last night, this morning. We made a lot of mistakes.

We're still making mistakes. One of my goals is to be more patient, to be more gentle and more patient with my children. I guess that's been a goal and something I've had to look at for a long time. I lay awake at night many times regretting, you know, the way that I said something, the way that I came across, the way that I dealt with something, maybe with one of the children. And my children know this, many times I've gotten up in the night, maybe not in the middle of the night, but maybe after just going to bed and things are in my mind.

Several times over the past 30 years, child training and woke one of them up to say, hey, please forgive me for this. It's okay to make mistakes, we're going to, but we need to be able to admit them and correct them. How many are still a work in progress? How many? Some?

We have a few that are still working progress, yeah. God helped me to be a better father. I remember, in just talking about fathers, I remember the day after my dad left our family that I realized that I didn't have a father. And I was like 11 or 12 years old at the time. And I can remember the very place that it really just struck me.

The very place that I was walking from my grandfather's well lot, where he ran and operated a well, to my aunt's house. And the place right there in between, I can see the place just like it was yesterday right now in my mind. And it just kind of froze in place and it just really hit me hard. And I remember that I just stopped. I don't have a father.

And I remember I looked up, I just looked up to the skies and I said, God, you will be my father. I recount this because the children in this congregation, they all have fathers and they have fathers who want to model our Father in heaven, but we need a lot of grace to do that. You've been given such a wonderful precious task And we need equipping and we need it from our Father in heaven to be more like Him. Our children desperately need us to be like our Father in heaven. They need the love of a Father whose love is like the love of our Father in heaven.

They need our attention. They need our instruction. They need our discipline. They need us to open the scriptures with them every day. And they need us to pray with them and for them every day in their hearing.

I've said this already a couple of times, but the children are listening more than we think. They're listening, they're hearing more than we think. And of course God is listening. He's hearing our prayers and the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man or woman avails much. But it's I think impossible to calculate the impact of a father's words on a child and the way that we speak to them when we deliver those words.

It's impossible to really calculate it, but there is, there's power in that, either for good or for evil, either for their good or for the, to their detriment. There's power in that. Something's happening. Just remember the things that impacted you that your father said when you were younger. Things that your father did in his life that impacted you.

Our words and our lives impact them so much, either for good or not for good. And my father, after my father was gone, my grandfather had a huge, huge effect on me. Even the smallest things had sometimes the biggest effect. His prayers at lunchtime. I remember the way he prayed.

It was just so intense when he prayed. He leaned over that sandwich that grandmother made and the glass of iced tea and he just prayed really from the heart earnestly. His forehead all tensed up. I remember his devotion to God and to his church, just things he would say. And even the bumper sticker on his car, his little Ford Pinto, it's about this big.

And it said, wise men still seek him. Just made a great impression upon me. Fathers and grandfathers have a great effect upon their children. Everything we say and everything that we do. It grieves me when I think of all the fatherless children in America.

Yes, even in the churches of America. There's been so much abandonment. But think about this. This is even sadder in some ways. Some fathers abandon their children even when they're living in their homes with them, even in Christian homes.

They just aren't involved. They just aren't involved. They're so concerned about making money and advancing the household financially or maybe with some pet project or something they're interested in recreationally or what have you that they just forget the weightier matters. I thank God again for the fathers in this church. I applaud you.

You're a rare species in the world in which we live. And I really, I pray for you all the time. I pray for you all the time. I pray for you every day. And as this man who was in the church about 25 years ago used to say, I pray for myself.

I used to say that all the time. And I pray for myself also. I pray for the fathers in this congregation. We need prayer, we need grace. But the passage before says, train up a child in the way he should go when he's old, he will not depart from it.

The passage is commonly misunderstood. Many think this admonition is intended to be taken absolutely and universally. Has anyone ever heard it taken that way? As if it were to be understood as a universal guarantee that if parents do A, B will absolutely follow. That's not what it's saying.

They interpret this verse as saying that children trained up on the way they should go means Biblical child training guarantees the salvation of your child. Wrong. It does not. Even if parents train up their children on the way they should go, they cannot be guaranteed that they will definitely be saved. The passage is not teaching parental regeneration through child training.

That's what that would be. You can regenerate your child through your training. You can guarantee that they're going to be regenerated. It isn't teaching that. It isn't teaching that parents are guaranteed the salvation of their children if they only train them in the way they should go.

We understand the scriptures that regeneration, that it's a new birth, is a work of the Holy Spirit. And that all our efforts to guide our children onto the right paths will prove futile apart from a work of God on their hearts, raising them from spiritual death to spiritual life. That's what we're crying out for them in prayer, and that's what we're trying to prepare them for as well. Salvation is of the Lord. Our children need to be changed by God and given new hearts and resurrected from spiritual death to spiritual life, which is another reason why our efforts in child training have to be accompanied by much prayer.

Christians' parents who see their children bolt in their teens or 20s, it's a plague in the churches of America. When they see them bolt in their teens and their 20s, they run with arms wide open to embrace the world of sins. Many times they'll say, well, Johnny's just backsliding. But more than often, the fact is that they never knew God. They were never changed from within.

They were never saved. They were never changed by a powerful work of the Spirit of God in regeneration from within. It never took place. That's why they're doing the things that they're doing. That's why they're going the way they're going.

And we need to be praying for their salvation. Not just for a reformation of their ways, or that they'll go to church or whatever, but that God will save their souls so they'll want to do what God wants them to do. The good news is it's never too late for that to happen as long as it's called today. Parents should never stop praying for their lost children No matter how hopeless the situation may appear. No matter how defiant the will of a rebel heart There's always hope until the day their last breath is drawn and the casket is lowered into a grave.

Pray for them, pray for them, pray for them. You know, we have 16 children, eight are married out of the home, have established their own homes, eight are in the home. I don't know what's gonna happen with those eight that are still here. The ones that are out are serving the Lord, raising families, and they're all about bringing up another generation to love God, to fear God, to serve God, I thank God for it. I don't know what's going to happen with the others.

I pray for them. I pray for them every day. My wife and I pray for them together. I thank God for the prayers of my mother and my grandparents. I can still remember my grandmother telling me when I was a teenager, I'm praying for you Steve.

I remember the look on her face. I don't know why she was. I guess she knew more about my life than I thought she did as a rock and roller. I'm praying for you Steve. But when she said those words, it hurt me, because I knew that I wasn't living like I should be, and I needed to be hurt.

But, you know, when pain is the pain of conviction, that's a good pain, if it's accompanied by repentance. But back to our text, though this command to parents is not intended as a universal guarantee, it is true, however, that those children who are set on a right trajectory in their early years tend to come to saving faith more than those who are not. We just know that from experience in the history of the world. But the teaching here, as I said, is not that parents can assure the future salvation of their children by proper training or that if they're brought up in the right way they'll never depart from the things they've been taught. That's not what it's saying.

Solomon is the one who wrote the passage, and Solomon departed when he was old. He went astray, at least for a time. I'm one of those that believes he came back, but he did depart when he was old. First Kings chapter 11, we read, his wives turned his heart away, and the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel. What we have in Proverbs 22, six is a general principle being taught, not a universal guarantee.

And the principle is that ordinarily, those children who are trained up in the way they should go typically do not depart when they're old. John Gill says, quote, not easily do they depart. Not ordinarily do they depart. Matthew Henry comments here, ordinarily the vessel retains the savor with which it is first seasoned. That's interesting.

Ordinarily the vessel retains the savor with which it's first seasoned. Many indeed have departed from the good way in which they are trained up, says Matthew Henry. Solomon himself did so, but early training may be a means of their recovering themselves as it is supposed that Solomon did. At least, says Henry, parents will have the comfort of having done their duty and used the means." Close quote. Again, I'm one of those who believe Solomon repented at the end of his life.

He's the author of Ecclesiastes and the last words in that book that he writes after despairing of the vanities pursued by men in this life were, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man God may yet save a rebel son or a daughter. We've got to keep praying and not faint not faint His mercies are new every morning But back to the opening passage again, the words translated here, train up. If you'll do a Hebrew word search on this, you'll find that one of the ways that train up can be translated is to narrow. Did you know that? To narrow him in the way he should go.

I thought that was very interesting. Narrow him in the way he should go. Narrow him. In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus said, narrow is the way, right? Which leaded to life.

That's the path we want to move on. Narrow is the path, the way that leads to life. Our goal is to direct our children to the narrow path that leads to life. Though through training and teaching and the inculcation of truth from the earliest years. Again, that word inculcates, it's a big word, but it simply means to impress upon one by frequent admonitions.

These are Noah Webster's words from 1828 dictionary. To teach and enforce by frequent repetitions. You gotta do it over and over again. You gotta say the same things over and over again. You gotta teach them the same things over and over again.

And you've gotta impress these things upon them from the scriptures by frequent admonitions. It also means to urge on the mind. And this begins even before, as I said earlier, a child can talk. Little children, think about it, your little children are fed a little food at first. Oh, I just love having the grandkids over and the little ones just start eating and they put the little pieces of food in their mouth.

It just so stops them from screaming their heads off. But the little children, that's not in part of the analogy here, but little children are fed a little food at first and more as they're able. And that's the way we're supposed to feed them. That's the way that we give them the scriptures. We have to feed them little, but often.

In the same way we should be feeding our little ones bits and pieces of spiritual truth throughout the day and increasing their intake as they can handle it. Does everybody get that? Increasing their intake as they're able to handle it. It's sad, but some preachers think that this passage is merely an exhortation for parents to educate their children and guide them according to their abilities and employment interests. There's actually that teaching out there, yes.

It's so that they'll be successful in life, but financial success will mean nothing if you lose their hearts to the world. Jesus said, what would it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Well, what will it profit us as fathers if we invest the bulk of our time in providing material things and comforts of this life for our children and they have everything this world can offer but in the end they lose their own souls. What in the world have we profited? Someone once said, you know, you can't take it with you when you go.

Yeah, you can. You can't take this stuff with you when you go, but you can take some little souls with you when you go. If God saves their soul, they'll be going the same place you're going. We need to be narrowing their way, not broadening it. Broad is the way that leads to destruction.

We need to be directing our children to the narrow gate, to Christ. That's the objective, that's the main objective, even from the time they're just in our arms. Oh, and I love to just see all the young men coming up and praying, and they're holding the baby in their arm, and they're standing up and reading scripture, they got a baby in their arm. Don't you know that that's the way it was in the first church? You think back in the catacombs, they were saying, well, You guys go off to the, when they were hiding from the Roman soldiers, you think you guys go off to the whatever room or whatever, you know?

No, take the kids and get them out of here. No, they were with them. They were with them. When they stood to pray, they prayed with their children in their arms. When they stood to read the Scriptures, they stood with their babies in their arms to read the Scriptures.

I love to see it return to the way things should be and once were. Again, Matthew Henry says, we don't train up children in the way they think they should go. If we did, their hearts would naturally drift further and further from God, but in the way that we know they should go. I said it a moment ago, we need to be narrowing their way, not broadening it. Broad is the way that leads to destruction.

We want to direct our children to the narrow gate to Christ, and that means an investment of our time. A lot of time. A lot of time. You have to put off some other things. Employment and money making isn't the number one goal of dads.

We wanna raise up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We want to train them up in the way that they should go. And that takes time and it takes sacrifice. It takes sacrifice. It takes sacrifice.

It takes sacrifice. Will you sacrifice yourself for the sake of your children? The previous passage coming to a close here, verse five, just look at that for a moment, 22 verse five. I believe it's related. A lot of people say, well, no, it's just that verse 6 is all on its own.

I think it's related to verse 5 because if both of those verses use the same phrase, in the way, in the way, in the way, thorns and snares are in the way. Same words used in verse six, thorns and snares are in the way of the froward in the King James Version. It might say the perverse or the crooked or the wicked in your version. That it's in the way, there's thorns and snares in the way of those that are set on crooked paths. Spiritual dangers and trappings are on that path.

He that keeps his soul shall be far from them. It is the job of us as parents to train up our children in the way they should go and the way they should go again is found in scriptures. God's Word is a lamp for little feet too. It is a light to their path, and our children need hours and hours and hours in the Word of God. They need thousands of hours in the Word of God before they go out into the world to establish their own households and that can only be done through fathers sitting down with their children every day and opening the scriptures with them.

If a father works 10 hours a day away from home, he should be saying to himself, I can't wait to get home and get to the things that matter most. I can't wait to get home. Not to rest, not to watch something, not to whatever, but to do the things that matter most. And before the work day begins, he should be getting in the word himself and praying, Lord, teach me. Teach me so I can teach them, God.

Teach me so I can teach them, God. Teach me so I can teach them. And then when he gets home, he can not only open the scriptures with them, he can open the meaning to them. As I close, we can't leave our children to themselves in the corruption of their nature. They've got to be raised in the way that they should go, and the way that they should go is in the Scriptures, and that means we've got to spend the time, make the sacrifices, and actually Set aside daily time for family worship that is non-negotiable Nothing interferes with this it is non-negotiable in our household Nothing is going to take the place of this.

No idol is going to be set up in this household We're going to have family worship every day. We're gonna pray together. We're gonna open the scriptures together. Dad's gonna lead it when he's there and mom's gonna lead it when he's not able to be there and we're gonna sing the praises of God together. We're gonna worship God in our home.

We're gonna pray to God. And I'll just end with this. We need to be giving them the gospel over and over again. Don't think that they've got an understanding of it. Ask them, what is the gospel?

What is the gospel? Give them the gospel over and over again at their level of understanding, of individual understanding. And feed them the word of God. Inculcate the word of God. Impress the word of God and the truths of scripture upon their hearts and their minds.

When you sit in your home, when you walk with them in the way, when you rise up and when you lie down, always be bringing everything back to God and to His Word and to prayer. And pray that as you train them and instruct them and direct them to Christ in the gospel when they're young, that by God's grace, by God's grace, cry out to God, By God's grace, by your grace, God, when they're old, Lord, please let them not depart from it. Save their souls, oh God, save their souls. Let's pray. Lord God, we pray right now.

We pray now, God, as a congregation, please save our children. Please save our children, O God, at an early age. And if not, God, save them in their older age. But please, God, save the souls of our dear children. For we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.