In the sermon 'Family Integrated Church Part 1,' Scott Brown discusses the significance of family integrated worship, using Deuteronomy 31 as a foundational text. He emphasizes the sufficiency of Scripture, advocating that church gatherings should not be segmented by age, as the practice of age-segregated worship is a modern invention and not biblically supported. Brown argues that the biblical pattern is for generational gatherings where all ages are present, learning together. He references various Scripture passages, from both the Old and New Testament, to illustrate that the presence of children in worship is a historical norm. The sermon addresses common objections to family integrated worship, such as the need for age-specific teaching, and asserts that Scripture should guide church practices rather than pragmatic or cultural trends. Through family integrated worship, Brown believes that the gospel can be passed effectively from one generation to the next, fostering maturity and spiritual growth in a communal setting.

Yes, please open your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 31. Deuteronomy chapter 31. Find verse 11. Deuteronomy 31. Find verse 11 Deuteronomy 31 11 this is the inerrant and all-sufficient sweeter than honey word of God when all Israel comes of comes to appear before the Lord your God, in the place which he chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, that their children who have not known it may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess." The grass withers and the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray. Oh Lord, open up our eyes that we would see wonderful, wonderful things from your law. And so come and teach us again, equip us even more, show us the wisdom of Jesus Christ, and save us, O Lord. Amen.

Please be seated. These verses open our minds to consider the pictures of scripture regarding the gatherings of God's people for worship. And it really is one picture among many, many pictures which we'll review some today that give a witness to an age integrated or a family integrated gathering. This verse, these verses in Deuteronomy is just one of the many places And it's important to point this out because we are a family integrated church and as we are working, we've just been working our way through Titus, which is really the doctrine of the church and the practice, headed toward 1st and 2nd Timothy, which really proclaims very, very similar truths. The whole point of the matter is that Scripture is sufficient.

It's sufficient for church, and it's sufficient for family life. Now you children, are you listening to me? You children who grew up in this church, I want you to know in no uncertain terms that the way that we meet as families is not just something that you're, some weird thing that your conservative homeschool parents cooked up as a reaction to the culture. It's not a reaction, it's actually a retrieval of what always was. And it was always that way until the 20th century.

This age-segregated world that has been created for the church is a modern invention. And I have spent many years trying to encourage church leaders to set aside what was a fad in the 20th century. It was a fad that took hold and took hold of almost every church in America and then America exported it to the world. That's really what happened historically. So these verses paint a picture that you see throughout the Bible for the gatherings of God's people.

Notice the words all Israel, all of the people of God, to the place where God chooses. That means that God specifies and governs worship, the places of worship and also what happens in worship. And then gather the people together, men and women and little ones. This is an age-integrated gathering. And there's a great purpose that their children may hear and learn.

Notice the process involved here. Hear and learn to fear the Lord your God. This assumes that children are going to benefit or to get something out of these kinds of gatherings. So this morning we will draw some of the foundational principles of this practice really from 1st and 2nd Timothy. You can view this as a segue to our studies in 1st and 2nd Timothy as we continue to cast a vision for biblical church life through these great letters of the Apostle Paul and what you find is that God's design for the church, he is the designer, is a generational design and that design is the only observable pattern that you find anywhere in the Bible.

You have in your outline many many verses that really bear witness to this. We won't have time to go through all these. I'm just going to pick a few here but think of it this way imagine a church where little children hearing the gospel from the time of their birth being converted under the preaching of the Word of God. Imagine a church where parents are inspiring their children to delight in the Lord's Day, to love the singing. Parents who shepherd their children to love the preaching and the praying and the fellowshipping and the feasting that happens in a local church.

Imagine a church where the older are teaching the younger. Imagine a church where the younger generation is being tempered by wisdom instead of tempted by the foolishness of youth culture. Imagine a church without a generation gap. Imagine a church where all the ages walk together and they learn from one another and they're not so generationally high-minded that they resist the wisdom of the aged and also do not embrace the strength and the energy of youth. Imagine a church where children are cherished and the aged are respected.

Imagine a church, a generational gathering that fosters maturity. In fact, as it has turned out after doing this for over a quarter for about a quarter of a century early maturity. Imagine a church where little children learn to sit still at a very early age and actually listen and actually love being in the church. Imagine a church where everyone is experiencing the same thing together, all the generations together, the shared memories, the shared doctrine, the theology, the going through the same trials together, facing the same troubles together as a church, understanding that in this generational community there are trials and tribulations we see one another through. Imagine children growing up in an environment like that.

Imagine a church that promotes an interactive experience between children and parents as it relates to the worship of God, the most important thing that ever happens in the world. Imagine a church where your children have adult friendships. Well, you don't really have to imagine it because this is the way God has designed it. I know it sounds idyllic doesn't it? Admittedly it sounds idyllic.

Parents who are in this kind of situation they face a more visible and taxing environment as they're learning how to train their children, how they're shepherding their children into the worship of God, the preparation that's necessary and the after conversations that are necessary, and the in-situation disciplines that are necessary. It's a more taxing proposition for parents without question. And it means that parents are taking the responsibility to inspire their children. I know it's harder and I understand that Satan is always blowing his fiery darts at parents when they're doing something like this. He's doing it right now probably with some of you.

He hates these kinds of gatherings. He hates the passing of the visions of Jesus Christ into the next generation. Why wouldn't he? You know, 25 years ago, we've started a family integrated church here. We spent, I think it was three months, trying to train these families how to do this because nobody had ever done it before.

So we met, you know, I think it was on Wednesday nights or something like that, you know, for, I think it was two or three months and we told everybody we said look this is this is big this is different you parents are gonna have to act different than you ever have you're not just gonna drop your kids off you're gonna have to shepherd your kids through this and we laid it out and we gave all kinds of techniques in here and there. And then after about three months, about three or four couples came to me and they said, Mr. Brown, you told us it would be hard. It's too hard. We're going back.

So they went back because it was different. And it actually, you must admit it is more challenging to do that. But in the challenge is more growth and more maturity and more sensibility of the gospel of Jesus Christ from one generation to another. So now that we've laid that out here I want to talk about the biblical basis of all of this and I want to draw really from 1st and 2nd Timothy which is where we are headed. I plan to give a few messages like this on some foundational principles for our church life before we jump headlong into the formal expositions of 1 and 2 Timothy.

But this morning, I want to draw from 1 and 2 Timothy to frame the importance of this discussion. And I want to speak about the biblical basis. If you have an outline in front of you, you'll see that that's where we are here. The biblical basis of all of this really sits upon a doctrine. It's the it's it was actually the keystone doctrine of the Protestant Reformation.

It was the doctrine that shaped all the other doctrines. It's the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture, sola scriptura. And the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture asserts that scripture is enough for all of life and all of godliness, and you don't really need anything else by which to live your life. And Paul wanted Timothy to be very clear about this in his letter to Timothy, and he said, I'm going to just bring out three distinctive things. We already recited one of those.

First of all, 2nd Timothy 3.16. It's to say that all scripture is perfect. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work that's second Timothy 316 the church is not man's creative artist palette the church is good as a for according to God's design And if you believe that scripture is sufficient, then you'll do what you can to follow the patterns of scripture, not what seems right to you. This is always man's problem. Every man does what's right in his own eyes.

The second is that not only is Scripture perfect, Scripture teaches us how to act. 1st Timothy 3 15. 1st Timothy 3 15 reads, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. What's so important about these words he says there is a way, there's a particular way that you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God. It's not up for grabs.

We're not creating our brand of Christianity. What we're doing here is not creating a brand. What we're doing here is trying to replicate the design of God. And then thirdly, not only is Scripture perfect and not only is there a way to act, but third, he taught them that there's a fixed pattern of church life, a pattern. We've talked about this word pattern in Paul's letter to Titus but in 2nd Timothy 1 13 Paul says hold fast to the pattern of sound works which you have heard from me in faith and love which are in Jesus Christ.

This idea of a pattern is really that the Apostle Paul uses a word which it's a word picture it it means to to to mark with a blow to strike an impression like the way that a die comes down on silver to make a coin and to make an impression. That's the pattern, And then that pattern, of course, is replicated from coin to coin. And the media must be malleable. It must be shapeable. We are the ones being shaped.

We are not the shapers of the church. God and his son, Jesus Christ, are he and he alone is the head of the church. So this is why Moses told the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 4 to you shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you, you shall not add or subtract." This actually is repeated in the very last words of the Bible in the book of Revelation. From Genesis to Revelation the people of God are not to add or subtract from the Word of God. So this is very important because we don't live in an era of church life governed by the sufficiency of Scripture.

We just don't. We live in the era in the era of the sufficiency of pragmatism. We live in the era of the sufficiency of culture. We live in the era of the sufficiency of man. My generation, I think, contributed to this tremendously.

The baby boomers, you know, all they tended to value personal creativity over biblical substance. We created so many popular movements as a result and after 50 years of all this creative Christianity now you have a church that's indistinguishable from the world that looks like a corporation it looks like it looks like a modern It looks like some kind of manifestation of a modern company. This is the result of creative Christianity. And what we always thought was, we were trained to think this way in seminary, find the best way to engage the culture and find a need and meet it. Well that starts with man.

It's the wrong starting place because there is a way that God wants us to operate. It's his house, not our house. And it should be conducted the way that is consistent with his word. So, we have to decide whether we will emphasize biblical patterns or pragmatic patterns. We'll have to decide whether we will live by the sufficiency of Scripture or the sufficiency of man.

By the way, the sufficiency of Scripture is the sufficiency of Christ. Jesus Christ wrote every word of Scripture. So let's talk about the biblical pattern of how you ought to conduct yourselves in the house of God. I want to deal with this these biblical patterns and then I want to try to deal with some of the objections. I've answered dozens of objections over the years.

I'm just going to isolate the five objections. There are more. I'm going to continue this next week and talk about some very practical matters about having children in church and all kinds of things like that. So I hope you can come back. But I want to talk about the biblical pattern, because what we're advocating here is not something new at all.

I like the way that Jeremy Walker summed it up this way he said the constant presumption of Scripture is that children were present in the worship of God's people. It's as simple as that. But I want to walk us through some of those places and I'll try not to labor over them. I've listed many of them in your notes if you want more to chew on, there it is, but I'll just give you representative things. I think, first of all, we should recognize that Adam and Eve and their family, they were engaged in what you could call family integrated worship.

Their sons were bringing, everyone was bringing sacrifices together. The whole family brought sacrifices together, and of course, Cain and Abel brought differing sacrifices. In the time of Moses, we already read this in Deuteronomy 31. God commanded families to come together to hear the law of God and he mentions very very explicitly men women and little ones come that they may learn. In other words, the little ones can learn.

Do you think your little ones can learn? I hope you do because the Bible says they can. And Exodus 12, you know, that we learned in the Passover, it was a, okay I'll say it this way, it was a seven day family integrated worship celebration, that's what it was. And the whole family was there, Moses says, pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families and it shall be when your children say to you what do you mean by this service they're asking questions They want to know what's going on. What's all this blood about?

And there you have it. You know, a very similar thing happens when we take the Lord's Supper. Your children see the communion elements go by and they say, what's that for? Well, you are right there to explain it to them to explain the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Joshua chapter 8 35 Joshua is reading the whole words of the law to whole families on Mount Ebal.

He says there was not a word of all that Moses had commanded, which Joshua did not read before, all the assembly of Israel, okay, all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones. Yes, the little ones. The little ones were there to hear the whole law read. Oh, but they can't understand that. Why would God do such a dumb thing?

Wouldn't it have been wiser for God to get rid of those kids and have them do something that they could understand. In Nehemiah chapter 12, you find this same language. This is a time of reformation and rejoicing, and the women and the children also rejoiced so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off. Oh yes, even children singing loud and it could be heard afar off. Parents should teach their children to sing and to sing beautifully.

In 2nd Chronicles 20 verse 13, the children, This is a remarkable situation because there was tremendous danger. An invasion was was imminent and children were gathered together along with everybody else to pray. They understood the danger and they weren't they weren't put away oh you don't this would scare you children no now all Judah with their little ones their wives and their children stood before the Lord Joel chapter 2 15 and 16 it describes a time of repentance Where families came nursing including nursing babies nursing babies? Blow the trumpet in Zion consecrate a fast call a sacred assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, oops, and the nursing babies. Let the bridegroom go out from his chamber, the bride from her dressing room, even even those who are just getting married but this this mention of nursing babies you know there are people have been sending me pictures paintings of ancient worship services and guess who's there in the paintings babies like that one over there like that one right there okay the children of all ages in these paintings because that's the way it always was until the mid 20th century.

Let's go to the New Testament. Of course Matthew 21 we learned that children were in the temple children crying out in the temple saying hosanna to the son of David. Well the Pharisees were indignant and they said to him, do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, yes, yes. Have you never read out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise.

What is this with kids in the big in in big church? Well they're there. Matthew 19 the disciples rebuked the children who drew near to Jesus and Jesus rebuked the disciples said let the little children come to me in Matthew 14 when Jesus fed the 5, 000 it was mixed with children In Acts chapter 21 verse 5 you find children joining with their parents on on the beach to pray for the Apostle Paul. We departed and went our way and they all accompanied us with wives and children till we were out of the city and we knelt down on the shore and prayed. What value is there for children to get down on their knees and pray with their parents for something so important as the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians chapter 6, this is the setting, is the local church. The Apostle Paul is writing a letter to the Ephesian Church. He does the same thing to the Colossian Church. And Paul, first of all, he addresses wives. It's as if he points to wives, and he says, wives, submit to your own husbands.

Then he points to the husbands, and he says, husbands, love your wives, like Christ loved the church. And then in the next chapter, he points to children. He says, children obey your parents in the Lord. And then he turns to servants and he says, servants obey your masters. He's speaking to the various people and the Apostle uses a Greek construction, linguistic construction, called the vocative of direct address.

In other words, he's addressing directly the children. The children were in the meetings of the Ephesian Church, as they were in the gatherings of God's Church. Remember that great story of Eutychus in Acts chapter 9? He's, Paul is preaching to, you know, past midnight and there's this young person, interesting word, the word is young man, it actually can be translated infant, we're not sure what the age range is. It could be an infant, could be a young man under age 14 or 13 or eight, whatever.

This young certain young man named Eudicus was sinking into a deep sleep and he fell out of the window. Well, you know the story. Well, he was there, okay. We need to understand that the meetings of the early church included babies, infants, nursing mothers, and Kids cutting their teeth and eight-year-old squirmy boys. That's what the early church was all about.

And that got changed. Children were not in their age-graded children's church. They were in the midst of the meeting. Charles Spurgeon said this in a sermon in 1873, feed the kids with the same gospel as the grown-up sheep. He says let your language be appropriate to them, Let it be the same truth of God." He said it's a mistake to divide the children from the congregation.

Right about the time of Spurgeon was when the change began to shift a little bit and it was the result of lots of forces that I won't go into right now. Feed the kids with the same gospel as the grown up sheep. Spurgeon was right. And we shouldn't be afraid of that and we shouldn't act like it can't happen because it can and it always did and it always should. So you can search the scripture And you do not find a single example or principle for the segregation of children from the gatherings of God's people.

Well, let's talk about some of the objections to this. Again, with time, I don't really have enough time to cover all of them, but I dare say I'm confident I've answered every objection that's ever been waged. I've been on dozens and dozens of interviews and have written a lot about it and have received a lot of letters about it. And I think I have a grasp on what the objections are. But here's the reality.

We should be open to criticism. We should. We shouldn't be so hard-hearted that we can't take a question that might contradict something that we're doing. Years ago I preached a sermon called common infections in family integrated churches. Our churches are not perfect and we shouldn't act like they are but I but I want to at least cover some of these objections these are some of the common ones.

Number one there is no command for family integrated worship in the Bible. So some have argued that since there is no direct command, like there's no command that said that says whenever you gather you must bring children. It is true. There is no explicit command. And many have suggested that because there's no command, then it's legalism to insist that this should be done.

But if we accept the premise that we're only obligated to obey God when there's an express command, then we're forced to deal with a number of issues. Like for example, there's no express command against polygamy. But we believe polygamy is wrong because of the patterns and the principles that are in the Bible. A man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become one flesh. It's an inference and there's there are many places gambling and smoking marijuana are not explicitly condemned in the Bible and yet there are principles in Scripture that would lead us to think that those are sinful.

The idea, the criticism is that it's only inferred, not commanded, and therefore it's legalism to require it if it's only in inference of Scripture. And well there are many things like that. For example, we believe that only men can be elders, but there is no command that says only men can be elders. It's inferred. It's inferred because whenever elders are spoken of they are men who are spoken of.

That's why we believe it. There's no explicit command. The doctrine of the Trinity is the same thing. There's no command that says you must believe that God is a Trinity. It's inferred.

There are so many places in Scripture that make it very clear that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and they actually speak to one another and it's inferred. Sunday worship on the first day of the week is inferred. It's inferred in Acts 20 verse 7, 1st Corinthians 16, 1 and 2, and Revelation 10. It's an inference of scripture. There's not a command that says that, but why is it that since the resurrection, almost everybody in the church met on Sunday?

It's because it is inferred. Now, if you wanna change that, that's fine, but you're going to overthrow two thousand years of the historic practice of the church. If you want to do that, that's okay, but that's not what we're doing. The inference actually matters. Think of church membership.

Church membership is inferred. There are various passages of Scripture that make it plain that there should be a formal covenantal association with people, but there's no command that says you must take a formal membership vow. It's inferred. So there are many things that are inferred that are not legalistic, including male elders, including these other things. What you do have though is every single inference is for a generational gathering on the one hand.

That's one argument. Put that argument in one bucket and then put this argument in another bucket. Not only is there only one way that is inferred, there is never an inference to the contrary in the Bible. Now you can you can read the Bible till your eyes bleed. I have and you aren't going to find it.

This is the pattern of Scripture and it isn't legalism to take such a comprehensive inference and make it into an option. That's what I believe. So the second, well the first is you know there's no command it's only inferred. The second is that children need teaching on their level. Now this here, many of the arguments against family integrated churches, they don't come from scripture, they're pragmatic arguments.

And this is one of those pragmatic arguments. And you can hear people try to refute what we're doing here and they won't quote scripture. There is one scripture that they do quote and I'll get to that in a minute. Children need to be taught on their level. The idea, and you can understand this, all of us understand this, the preaching is over the heads of some people.

Sometimes I think it's over the heads of everybody. It's not. But it's over somebody's head. I don't care what kind of gathering you're preaching to. You're going to be preaching over the head of somebody.

So does the Bible tell us that in the gatherings of God's people that children need to be taught on their own level? If you're going to depart from such a clear pattern of Scripture and fragment the worship God into different teaching levels, then you should have a clear warrant, a biblical warrant for it. And I don't know what, I can't find a biblical, I can find a pragmatic out-of-the-mind-of-man warrant, but I can't find a biblical warrant for it. We believe that there should be some biblical warrant for everything we do in the church. When somebody wants to do something, that's the first question we ask, is there a biblical warrant for this?

Now Could it be that God has so arranged humanity and the growth stages of children and adults and the church so that children would increase incrementally, progressively in their knowledge from the time that they're born on up which by the way that's how children learn they they do learn that way And could it be that God has designed children in such a way so that they're greatly benefited by the preaching of the word? And even as they don't understand things, they understand a little bit more and they understand a little bit more. Is it possible that that's what God has done? As cognitive abilities grow, so does knowledge grow and affection grow. But affections are pivotal for knowledge And this is where parents come in to create good affections toward the good things in life.

The worship of God is a good thing. To grow in maturity because that's the way that children grow. They grow by progressive acquisition of wisdom and knowledge. That's God's plan. And are we content to let that happen organically as we as parents shepherd them through all the stages of their life.

Here's another objection. Parents are not being fed because they can't hear the whole message with their children present. We all understand this. This is an important objection to deal with for sure. Parents are not being fed because they can't hear the whole message with their children present.

I think I think that the underlying principle here is that parents need to be taught so that they can grow and so that they can teach their children. That makes sense, doesn't it? But children are distracting their parents so that they cannot concentrate. And you know how this works. You can see it when you're preaching every once in a while you'll see a little side conversation you know and you can imagine what it is Johnny stop pinching your sister okay something like that right sit still sit up straight look at the preacher right these are you know in interim coaching things that happen in a church like this.

Is that a bad thing? Is that a good thing? It can be difficult, but I don't believe the answer is just throw up your hands and get rid of the kids. We must teach children to be responsible in the moment of their development, whatever that is. And not just let kids be whatever they are.

Now we have to be patient with children, they are little. We need to train children to sit still and be respectful. We need to teach them that they're not allowed to scream. They're not allowed to just blow their emotions whenever they want to blow them off. Children have to be taught this.

They don't come by it naturally and if you just let them do it, well there you have it. That's what you're gonna get and that you might get it when they're 25 years old or maybe 50 years old whatever but progressively teaching your children to respect you and what you have said to them about how to engage in the worship of God and how to be respectful how to look at the preacher and I grant that there will be times when you you're going to miss something you are going to miss something but this okay this also happens when there are no interruptions Have you ever missed anything in a sermon? Like did like did the preacher use a word that like sent you off to the reservation? And now you're thinking you know you're thinking about that problem at work that you're trying to fix and your mind is over there, you know and And then you go. Oh wait, where am I and you come back?

I'm sure that's never happened to you it happens to everybody And everyone does not hear everything that is said in a sermon because we don't have perfect powers of concentration. None of us do and we miss things. I know this is true and on Sunday afternoon when we talk about the sermon it's very clear to me that some of the people didn't hear didn't hear everything I said but you know what when I listen to a sermon I don't hear everything they said either. I'll be talking to Trent and he's telling me something that he said in a sermon. He said, do you remember when I said this?

And I'll say, oh yeah, but I didn't really. This is part of being a human and our children are humans just like we are and we are bringing them up in the training and the admonition of the Lord. There's no more beautiful way to do that than with you the one who loves them the most in the midst of God's people who love them greatly. So nobody gets everything out of a sermon. If when you're distracted then you're helping your children to learn how to appreciate a moment And this is a great responsibility.

You're training them to delight in the day of delight. It's a wonderful calling. Here's another objection. Children are distracting others who are trying to hear the word. Well, of course that does happen.

And you might even have somebody praying, Oh Lord, please show those parents So they take their kids out of this service. They're driving me crazy. I can't hear what the preacher is saying You know and frankly when when a child gets loud there are two things That happen number one the preacher starts preaching louder But secondly the parents need to be sensitive and take their children out if it's too loud. You can't keep a screaming child in church. It actually is disruptive.

This is a legitimate objection. If you have a church where people are just gonna let their kids scream and be disruptive, that is a problem. We don't have a church like that. We do have a church where there's surface noise. We do have a church where you do hear little bits of crying and things like that, but if it becomes wailing, the parents take them out.

That's what they do. And it doesn't have to be so massively disruptive, but we also have to be patient with one another. These are little children. We love them. We know what they're going through.

If you raise children you know and you're tender-hearted toward them and so you want to shepherd them through it. Some of that might mean shepherding them out of the room and then bringing them back. I'm going to talk at length about this next week about taking your children out and bringing them back. I want to give you some principles that I think would really help to operate by here in this church. But why would we change a biblical and historic pattern?

Because you have it, because there's a challenge, because they're a problem. Like if there's a challenge or a problem in your business, do you just quit your business? Do you just quit working? No, you don't, you overcome it. And you make something good out of it.

If your child is unruly or too loud, consider it a valuable teaching opportunity for you to take your father in your child raising abilities. Learn how to know how to govern your family and We think it's more important to inculcate them into a life that flows in the worship of God than to be taken out and put in a place of far lesser importance with a tremendously diminished discipleship agenda. So, fifth. Now this is, most of these are pragmatic, pragmatic objections but this one is more of a biblical objection. Nehemiah had a nursery.

Have you ever heard this? Have you ever heard this? Nehemiah had a nursery. That is so interesting. I thought I would see at least 20 hands go up.

You've never heard of Nehemiah's nursery? This was like a big firestorm about 15 or 18 years ago with me and Vodi Bakim because somebody was saying, hey wait a minute Nehemiah had a nursery how come your church Vodi and your church Scott doesn't have a nursery? Nehemiah had one. Open your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 8. I'll show it to you.

People still cite this. It cracks me up. I just like a couple months ago I heard a local church pastor or a pastor around here use this. Nehemiah 8 1 through 3. Is Nehemiah 8 1 through 3 an example of age segregation and a nursery because of one phrase in this text.

Okay let's read it. Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Watergate and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women. Oh and here we go here's the nursery and all who could hear with understanding there it is Nehemiah's nursery only those were there who could hear with understanding He read from it in the open square that was in front of the water gate from morning until midday before the men and the women and those who could understand and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. So the argument for Nehemiah's nursery hinges on all who could hear with understanding, those six words.

And so the idea is that Nehemiah had a nursery for those who could not understand. And so I'm gonna cut to the chase. I'm gonna give you some more analysis of this text, but. We're not explicitly told what the phrase meant, but if you go to Nehemiah chapter 13, you don't need to turn there, 13-24, we learn that half the children only spoke the language of Ashdod. The parents did not teach their children the word of God in Hebrew.

And they did not, they could not understand because they only knew the language of Ashdod. This was part of the departure of Israel from faithfulness. The parents did not teach their children. And but how did but the text actually what kind of gathering is this? I mean it's a large gender integrated age integrated gathering.

I mean the children are there obviously. It's at least an example of some level of age integration, including adults and children, men and women who were able to understand. It involved the whole community, but it never says anybody was actually excluded. Nobody was excluded. Those who could understand came.

And the categories of people who are identified that did not hear, they're not mentioned. No children are mentioned that could not hear. In other words, children are actually not mentioned as people who could not hear. So to use this as an example of an age-integrated church or a nursery is a really a very huge stretch. This is probably the only possible biblical argument that you can make.

Matthew Henry writes, the persons that met were all the people who were not compelled to come, but voluntarily gathered themselves together by common agreement as one man. Not only men came, but women and children, even as many as were capable of understanding what they heard. Masters of families should bring their families with them to the public worship of God. Women and children have souls to save and are therefore concerned to acquaint themselves with the word of God and attend on what means of knowledge of grace there is. Little ones as they come to exercise their reason must be trained up in the exercises of religion." So I think we throw out Nehemiah's nursery as an evidence.

I want to pick this up next week. I want to talk about my top four family integrated church pastors from the past. Let me wind it up by saying this, and I'll continue next week. The welfare of the world depends on the passing of the gospel in successive generations. The generational degeneracy that we find today is one of the greatest dangers to the Church of Jesus Christ.

The welfare of the world depends on a good succession of the generations. And it depends on parents who bring their children up in the worship of God, who teach their children the ways of God through the worship of God, who bring them up incrementally one season at a time in their lives filling up the well, giving them more and more pictures of the goodness of Jesus Christ, the greatness of his kingdom, the superiority of all of his laws. And His, God's love flows successively through the generations and is that perhaps why God has designed his worship to be generational in nature, when love for the Lord flows like a river from generation to generation and children are not left to their own. And when children become better than their parents because they were raised better in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It marks the beginning of our true revival and for the well-being of the communities that we live in.

So I pray that children growing up in this church would see Jesus Christ from the time that they're born and that they would see all of his commands pass through their eyes in every stage of their life and that they would be converted at a very young age. You know this, you've been around here long enough, you know that that many little children have been converted through the preaching of the Word of God. Not through kiddie sermons here, but through actual sermons like you're hearing right now because children are able to understand a lot more than you think they are. So imagine a church like that, imagine a church like that. Could it be that God has already designed it for his own glory let's pray Lord we thank you all your ways are pleasant ways all your paths are peace You are a tree of life to those who embrace you and all who lay hold of you will be blessed.

Oh Lord let it be so right here. Amen.