The sermon focuses on the importance of parents leading their children in worship and the impact it has on the next generation. It emphasizes the need for scriptural guidance and highlights key passages from the book of Judges. The sermon provides practical advice on keeping children in the worship service, dealing with distractions, fostering fellowship, and teaching children to sing. It emphasizes the joy and unity found in worshiping together as a church family.

I just wanted to share with you a few thoughts just by way of encouragement as we as a church have been reading through that book. Hope that you've been able to keep up with that, the family at church. This week was, I felt, very instructive and very good. But one of the things I really hope to communicate to you is that the things that are presented in this book really have scriptural warrant. And that's really the main thing is that we want to look to is the word of God to instruct us in all that we do.

A couple of passages that have been on my heart and I think are instructive in helping us understand why these things are important. So in the book of Judges, you don't need to turn there necessarily, but in the book of Judges there's a passage that I'm sure you are familiar with, and I find it to be one of the saddest verses really in the Bible when we consider what it is. And in Judges chapter two and verse 10, it says this, when all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord, nor the work which he had done for Israel. Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the bales." So let's ask the Lord to help us as we consider these things. Our Father, I just want to thank you Lord for your word that instructs us and guides us.

Lord I thank you for our time together in your word this morning and also now that pray that this would be a benefit Lord for each of our families that we would be encouraged to lead our families to delight in all of the joys that you have laid out for us, especially Lord, when we meet together to worship you. And we ask this in Christ's name, amen. So consider that. When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord, nor the work which He had done for Israel. And the immediate consequence of that was that the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the bells.

The only thing that I can come up with as to why this took place, this was after Joshua had died, The only thing I can come up with is that there was a great neglect on the part of parents to lead that next generation into true worship. Your elders, we so desire that you will lead your children into the joy of the Lord. That's really one of our great aims. But in doing that it takes parents to be ever diligent to lead their children in that direction and to lead your families especially men you know that we we weigh heavily upon husbands and fathers to take their proper roles as husbands and fathers and to lead their lives and their children into the joy of the Lord. This past week as we read through chapters 11 through 15, we see some of these things laid out and some helpful, very helpful and practical ways in which we can lead our children into the joy of the Lord.

That's your job, Dad. That's your job. And I really want to press in on you in these areas. Now we do know that it is a co-labor with fathers and mothers to do this and to accomplish this great task. In the first chapter we see the title is keeping children in the worship service.

This has always been one of the most challenging things for parents to do. One of the passages that is mentioned here is Colossians 3.20, children obey your parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord. And So there is a responsibility not only on the part of parents but also on the part of children. So children, guess what? When Paul wrote this to the church at Colossae and when he wrote almost the same thing to the church at Ephesus, he was looking out like I'm doing today into the eyes of children as I look and see all these wonderful little eyes looking back at me.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is well pleasing to the Lord. So you have a responsibility to listen, That's your responsibility. Another interesting thing is that the children were in the meeting of the church. The Apostle Paul wrote this and as it was read to that church the children were there just like it is today and this is a delight for us to see that. One of the challenging parts though is, especially if you're newer to this church or even newer to the understanding and the idea of having children in worship service and that we're not just throwing children all over the place in different directions, one of the challenging things, especially when there are young children in your family is, and let me say this, and especially unconverted young children in your family, There is a challenge there of trying to help your children to see the beauties of the Lord and the joy of the Lord, especially in the meeting of the church.

In the meeting of the church for unconverted young children, it may seem like just an eternity of drudgery, having to sit still for so long. Why is this? Well simply put they are dead in their trespasses and sins and their hearts are not delighted in the things of God. I mean it's really very simple when we understand the state of children and we understand the state of all men in their natural state. So ultimately these children need to be born again by the Holy Spirit, and they need spiritual life which only God can give them.

But in understanding that, we need to understand that in that only God can give spiritual life, we still have a responsibility. There is always this dual thing working. It is the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. God not only ordains the ends but he ordains the means to that end. So it's not just going and trying to force your children to enjoy this, I've often told dads, we're not cowboys.

We don't drive our children and our families. We're shepherds. We'd lead them. We'd lead them beside the still waters. We want to make these pathways pleasant.

So in understanding the ways of God and that He does ordain the ends and the means to that end, We read in the book of Romans, how then shall they call on him whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach unless they are sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. So as you bring your children into the worship service and bring them to church on the Lord's Day, you are bringing them into the hearing of the Word of God and God has ordained that faith comes through hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Now one of the practical challenges though, especially with small children, is this.

What do we do with our little ones when they act up in the meeting of the church? Well, the parent's natural response is, because hey, it can be embarrassing, I've been there. Sometimes I still am there. It can be embarrassing. So our natural inclination is let's get them to the back and out of here as quickly as possible.

And there may be a time for that, but one of the things that we need to understand as parents and that I learned on this journey of mine, bringing up these children of mine, is children are very smart and they can be very manipulative and they can learn very quickly how to get out of the meeting of the church typically by pitching a little fit or causing some sort of disruption. Let me encourage you in this, keep them in the meeting of the church. Now that does not mean never go out. It may mean go out, correct them, instruct them, but don't leave them in the back because they will learn very quickly how to get out of the meeting of the church. Bring them right back into the meeting of the church and if you have to stay out for any length of time make sure that it is less pleasant out there than it is in here.

Keep them in the meeting of the church. Now that's a very practical application of this but why? Because God has ordained the meeting of the church for the preaching of the word, for fellowship, for breaking of bread, for prayers, and the more we have our children into that and the more we delight in it, the more they will delight in it. So as we consider keeping them in the meeting of the church, you know, there are, I've heard mothers, usually mothers share this because a lot of times dads we neglect our responsibility and the mamas are the ones dealing with little ones who maybe are acting up. But I've heard them say things like, because of this disobedience of this little child, I'm not getting anything out of the service.

Maybe I should just stay home until they get past this phase. That will be the worst thing that you can do. It's not the easiest to keep them here, but it is the best. So let me ask you a question. Three weeks ago on Tuesday, what did you have for dinner?

I doubt anyone knows. Unless you're one of those very structured people who has the same thing every Tuesday night. You don't know what you had three weeks ago on Tuesday night. My point is this, though you don't know what it was, it nourished your body. The spiritual truth of that is the same.

Though you may not remember and though you may think you didn't get much out of it, there was still nourishment for your soul and for the souls of your children. Did they get 10%? Did they get 15? Did they get 25% of what was said? That is beneficial to the soul.

And let me encourage you that one of the one of the standards that we set for our family and we weren't perfect in this by any stretch of the imagination, but my thought was this. No matter what, we're going to bring them back into the meeting of the church and we're going to do that over and over and over again. If we have to go out ten times to deal with something, we're gonna go out ten times but we're gonna come back in eleven times. And after a while what happened was is bit by bit and little by little they understood mom and daddy take this very seriously. This is the worship of God.

So my encouragement and the encouragement on that chapter 11 was keep them in the meeting of the church. Because you know what? The last thing we won't said is that there rose up a generation that did not know the Lord. And parents, you are the tour guides to help them to know the Lord. In the next chapter, Distracted Children, we read in Psalm 57, My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast.

I will sing and give praise, Awake my glory, awake loot and harp. I will awake the dawn. I will praise you, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing to you among the nations." This is one of the challenges not only for your children, But let's be honest, it is challenging for all of us to get distracted in the meeting of the church. It could be because of our own thoughts of our mind thinking about things going on during the week.

It could be because our child is maybe acting up. It could be because this child, somebody else's child, is acting up. There's another reason to try to work on bringing us all together so that we can sit through the meeting of the church and especially with children. But parents who are not training their children to sit in the worship service with quiet and respectful behaviors may be part of the distraction. But let me be clear, there are times with all parents that their children will need to be taken out and corrected.

There were with mine, absolutely. But don't let that hinder us from bringing them back in, as I said before, and allowing those children to be a distraction, nor to be distracted. One little practical note I was thinking about as I was reading through this this week was There are times when distractions happen. It happens. There could be somebody's cell phone going off, it could be a car horn blowing outside, it could be somebody driving by with loud music, it could be somebody hit somebody in the head with a communion tray, it could be anything that could distract from the meeting of the church.

What do you do when that happens, parents? What should you do? Well, let me tell you what not to do. Don't turn and look at what that is that's happening. Because then you're teaching your children to be distracted as well.

One of the things that I found that helps is to keep my attention focused on what the preacher is saying, or focused on the song, or try to stay focused during the prayer time, or whatever it may be. And to help them, you have to guide them not to be distracted. Another practical aspect of that is giving them something that will focus their attention on the preaching of the word. For little children again it may be that you're writing down words that you believe that will be in the message, keywords that they need to be listening for, that will turn their attention towards that. One of the things that we do encourage is don't make sure to play time for your little ones.

Because the things that you allow are the things that you train. So if you allow playtime, you're actually training for playtime. Again, this is not easy. It is challenging to do this, But that hard work will pay off because you will be training your children to receive the preaching of the Word and to hear what is said though it may be in little bits and pieces. So How do I think about this with my children?

And again, I just want to say, you may be seeing my children. I don't even know where my children are right now. My wife and my three daughters are gone, so y'all help me during this time. But one of the things I think about with my children is, would I like to see an adult doing this thing, whatever it may be, in the meeting of the church, and if I wouldn't want to see an adult do it, I want my children to be adults. I want them to grow up to maturity, so therefore I shouldn't allow my children to act in those same ways that I would not want to see an adult act.

So train your children to be mature in the faith and to help them be that tour guide for them so that they will not be distracted. The third thing that we saw in I believe this was chapter 13 was the fellowship of gladness and sincerity of heart. I really love this one. This is one that resonated with me a lot in Acts 2 42 and then verses 46 and 47, very familiar passage, it says, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. And then verse 47, so continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." One of the most unique attributes of the church is that it is the gathering of people who share one common theme.

It is one common denominator, not only a common location, but we share the commonality, which is not common, of the Holy Spirit of God that we talked about this morning. That the Lord Jesus Christ gave to his church the unity through the power of the Holy Spirit. This meeting here is unique and different than every other meeting there ever has been or ever will be. There is nothing that unifies people together like the Spirit of God unifies people together. I don't know if you've ever experienced this but I've been on a journey or trip somewhere and meet a believer that I've you know never met before I meet this person find out they're a believer and instantly I have a connection with that person that is so unique and so different than any other stranger, even like physical family members, extended family members that I have.

Why is that? It is because of the Holy Spirit of God. There is a fellowship of the Holy Spirit that brings about gladness and sincerity in heart. No other group has this kind of fellowship like we have. The gathering of the church on the Lord's Day is the highlight of my week.

I look forward to this day more than any other day because I'm here with each of you. I love every one of you and I'm thankful for every one of you. You see it's not the only day that my family worships, but it's the only day that we worship with the corporate body of Christ, because my family needs this body. We need your gifts, We need your encouragement, we need your exhortation, we may need your rebuke and correction. We need you and you need each other and that's the beauty of the church.

So there is a joyfulness in that. We also see in Acts 1 14 that we read this morning, These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication and the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers. It produced this unity and that's what we have here that's so different than any other. Fourthly, joyful singing was the encouragement of that fourth chapter. Colossians 3 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

This is the one that I think that we all need to work on every week. You know why? Because when we come in, sometimes emotionally and just the feelings of our hearts, the stress of the week, sometimes we come in low. But I want you to realize that something takes place when we sing together. I've come into this building before on a low note and usually by the middle of the first song my spirit begins to be prepared.

It's kind of like the song, tune my heart to sing thy praise. God begins through the joyful singing of the church, the body of Christ, God begins to tune my heart to sing His praise. I don't know if you've experienced that. I'm sure that you have because that's what God does. He's given us the gift of music and it is joyful singing and parents, guess what?

You need to lead your children into that And you lead them into that by not only doing it on the Lord's Day but preparing them. That's why we send the music out or the songs out that we're going to sing. We send those out during the week so that you can look over them and sing them with your family during the week so that it will encourage you. One, it'll help little children to understand and to know what we're singing, but also it will prepare them for what they're gonna be singing. And then, you know, I found that one of the greatest ways for my children to find joy in something is for me to find joy in it.

You may be a person who maybe struggles with joy, maybe you struggle with being on the on the up side emotionally. That's okay, God created all kinds of people, but God really didn't give an allowance for us not to be joyful in Him. Joyful doesn't mean that your personality is always on the high, but it does mean that you find great rejoicing. Listen to what Psalm 5-11 says, but let all those rejoice who put their trust in you. He didn't say let everyone who has a joyful disposition.

He said let all those rejoice who put their trust in you. He didn't say let everyone who has a joyful disposition. He said let all those rejoice who put their trust in you. If you've come here today and your trust is in the Lord Jesus Christ, then there should be rejoicing in your heart. And then he continues, he says, let them ever shout for joy because you defend them.

Let those also who love your name be joyful in you. You know as Christians, especially Reformed Baptist Christians, we may have the tendency sometimes to be, as one man said, the frozen chosen. We don't want to be that way. We should be the most joyful people in all the earth. Why?

Because we have been redeemed. We've been redeemed and we know it had nothing to do with our own merit. We know it was all of Him. How much joy should that give us in our hearts? We should shout for joy because God has defended us.

He defends us. Let those who love your name be joyful in you. And I hope that parents, you are leading your children towards this joy. And then lastly, teaching our children to sing. Psalm 89, 15 says, blessed are the people who know the joyful sound.

They walk, oh Lord, in the light of your countenance. The big idea here in this chapter is that we need to remember that Singing is not just something that we do, but rather is something that the Lord commands us to do. He created us to sing. He created us to find joy in singing. But remember, our singing is not just that we are coming up with some sort of musical notes.

It's not just that we're throwing words together. God made man and God made man to sing. And it's not only pleasant, but it is good for us. It's good for you to sing. Don't be satisfied with non-singing in your family.

We work on that with our little guys so often. They don't know the words real well, so we have to work through that to help them to understand the words. And then my advice, sometimes what I do is if we have our hymnbook out and I'm reading through that hymn book or we sing the song I'll go back and just read the words and I'll explain what that hymn writer is talking about because remember what we are doing we're actually admonishing one another. We may be singing to God, we may be singing to others, we may be singing to lost people, we may be singing to our own soul. That's what David did in the Psalms.

Oftentimes he spoke to his own soul. So teach your children to sing and teach them sing with joy-filled hearts and homes. It's our responsibility as parents to do this. And so as you're singing at home, encourage your children to learn the words, encourage your children to sing out with gusto. And don't forget what Martin Luther once said.

When he heard of some tragedy that had taken place, he said, let us sing a hymn and spite the devil. Isn't that good? You know, We don't want to make the devil smile for sure. So guess what? Martin Luther believed, sing a hymn and you can spite him.

Hey, when difficulties arise, when challenges arise in your home, you'll find that music, the singing of hymns, that speak of the truth of God's word will help your family more than anything. Sing the hymns and I'll close with this Psalm 13. Lest my enemies say I have prevailed against Him, lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved, but I have trusted in your mercy. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me." Brothers and sisters, he has dealt bountifully with us.

Sing to the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we again thank you for instructing us from your word. We are thankful, Lord, that you have created us to be singing beings. Lord, I pray that you would teach us and help us to do that with great joy.

Help us as parents, Lord, to teach our children and not only just to teach and instruct them but to demonstrate and lead them into the joy of the Lord and we ask this in Christ's name. Amen. And you are dismissed if you will. Oh, two things announcement wise. Number one, there is no men's meeting on Tuesday.

We did cancel that. That has not come out. Scott will not be back on Tuesday and I won't be able to to lead that on Tuesday. So no men's meeting. And then secondly, remember that We don't have a family to help with cleanup, so guess what, we're all one family, and we can all help with the cleanup.

So let's work on that together. But enjoy some time of fellowship together as well. You're dismissed.