Back To School Blessing

And it is a great night, and we're expecting, this place will be filled with about 1,000 kids and teenagers, and we're excited about all things next generation. Of course, if you're here for the first time, you're getting that feel. We do not underestimate what Jesus said. You bring the next generation to me. The day that a church becomes like the disciples, even in the day of Jesus' disciples, even those that were walking with him, said, hey, what are you doing with these kids? They're getting too close. He goes, back off, you old, stale, religious people. This is why we're here. We're here for the next generation. And we, frankly, I say it at 62 years of age, we accommodate me, but we build for the next generation, because we're losing the next generation to church. As soon as they leave their school, their high school, we see them going off into university world or whatever that next step is, and there's a major amount of deconstruction happening. And I really do believe a lot of that has to do with the environment of the church that they were growing up in. Did they like it? Did they even think about it? Was there any kind of weight to their experience on the weekend?

And that's our prayer, is that your son and your daughter walk with Jesus all the days of their life. One of the reasons why we started Austin Christian University was that at the end of four years in our world today, I don't care what university you go to, oftentimes at the end of those four years, they don't love God, they don't love their parents, they don't love their country, they don't love church, they don't love the work. And how many believe at the end of four years there should be a greater love for God, a greater love for our country, a greater love for work, a greater love for family? That's the whole goal. And at the same time, being prolific in their particular craft and their particular calling. And look at Austin Christian University if that interests you. Father, thank you for your word that at the entrance of your word, everything changes. Lord, I thank you for this great school year. I pray that Father, over each and every mom and every dad,

is great peace this year. And Lord, ultimately the power of God protecting our children. In Jesus' name, and everyone said, amen. If you have your Bibles, we're gonna just start in the book of Ephesians chapter two. We are in a series that we have called Together. And when it comes down to it, Jesus came to bring everything back together. It's not if this world is a scrambled egg world. It's scrambled eggs. It's scrambled. It's broken. Jesus comes back for what reason? To bring it back. To make it whole again. He is not about judging, nor is he trying to figure out why it broke. He's just ultimately the answer. Because what we can't do, Jesus did on the cross for us. And the Bible tells us in the book of Ephesians chapter two, he came. He came for this purpose of togetherness. He didn't come for the purpose of scattering. That's Satan's purpose, is to scatter, to destroy,

to divide. But Jesus came to preach togetherness, or to preach this peace, that says you can't make yourself whole again. I've come to make you whole. And to those who were far away, to come back home. Maybe that's for you today. Maybe you're far away from God. Maybe in your spirit. You're in church, but your spirit is a million miles away. Maybe like that little boy. Maybe you're in a chemical lab somewhere. The reality is, is that Jesus came to give us the good news. One of the little boys in the first service, a little boy named Jacob, he goes, what are you doing in here? Aren't you supposed to be in service? I said, get behind me, Satan. That's a satanic. I said, this is my house. You get your butt out of here, Jacob. Deceiver, supplanter, all the things that the Bible tells us your name means. Anyway, for though, it says,

very peaceful, just so accommodating. For through Jesus, he came to preach peace. For through him, we both have our access in the spirit and to the Father. In other words, we get right spiritually, and we also are right with the Father. You can't go to the Father without a spirit. You gotta have a spirit. And that's what being born again is, born of his spirit. So you can have access to the Father, and eternal life. So then, you are no longer to live on this planet like strangers and aliens. Are we just some kind of foreigners? But you are fellow citizens with all the saints who believe in Jesus. And you are a part of God's house. Having been built on the foundation of the revelation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, the most outstanding of all the stones, of all the stories, Jesus is the ultimate. In whom?

Jesus being the whole building. He fits us together, and we grow into a temple. We grow into a body. We grow into a family in whom also So you are being built together, we don't just grow to God, we are also growing to one another, and it becomes the dwelling of God's place on the planet, the church. And I'm not just talking about the church today, I'm talking about ultimately our family today. That ultimately we must get back to what God did start with when it came to his authority, delegating authority to the world, and that is he started with Adam, and of course he started with Eve, and he started with the family. And today I want to talk about how to keep our family together, how to make sure that in a world that we're living in that does any and everything to just try to divide our home and we just know the activities that you're about to start, and the schedule, and the routine, everything of course is crazy, the busyness. I want to help us because when it comes to going back to school, back to school for most people it's a best day, it's a great day, it's a fun day. Your kids enjoy going back to school,

not necessarily back to books, but they do go back to school to see their buddies, and they're going back to be a part of their team, or all the activities of whatever team they're a part of, and for some guys it's to see the girls, yeah. How many were in that world? Let me see, come on, don't act like it. You guys, you know, I know the players in this room are, I see you. Might have married her. You married her, marry you. But, and then for girls, you know, it's to see the guys. But then there's other people. Back to school isn't the best day. In fact, it may be for them, it may be a stomachache. Going back to school is a stomachache, it's anxiety, it's worry, it's not buddies, it's bullies. I went to seven different schools. I know what it's like, because my dad was an NFL football coach. NFL stands for not for long. My dad sucked as a coach, so we had to move every other year. And my dad and mom were like, hey, we're getting to go to a new city. I said, I have to have new battles with every new city. I told a story, I went to a small school, Birch Elementary, it was my middle school, and in Massapequa, New York. First day, first day.

And I'm in line, and this boy hears me talk. We had moved from St. Louis, like so, it wasn't like we moved from the deep south. And this New Yorker, little Vinny, Vinny comes out, little Vinny. He's a little mafia guy. He's running the school, he's the mafia. He's like the kid running the meth lab in the back. And seriously, he goes, is that a southern accent? I said, what? He goes, you a southerner. We don't like southerners. You in Yankee territory. And I said, oh. My mom and dad didn't tell me we were gonna have to fight mafia. This is like New York, 76. This is 1976. Like the Gambino family's child is right here in front of me. I got in a fight, I did. I said, I don't have a southern accent. I moved from St. Louis, I was born in Canada, you idiot. That tells you what you know. Anyway, that was my first day in the sixth grade. Maybe that's why I went to sixth grade twice. And of course, for all of us, going back to school, it's gonna have good days and bad days. It's gonna be hard days, easy days, recess days.

Days when the teacher's out. Days when it's, of course, the video or the movie that's being played as we used to have it back in the day. There's gonna be classes that you hate. There's gonna be classes that you're gonna have to take in order to graduate. There's gonna be days when you're gonna have days of prison-like activity. You're gonna feel like you're in prison. School's a prison. I had a parent, my mom and dad, I didn't miss school. I couldn't miss school. And so it was like every day, early lockup. I would just go and then for others, there's gonna be days where it's like a playground. And I say all that because back to school for everybody, and I think what ultimately school is good for, it's a back to reality. It's a back to reality. It's a reality check. It checks all of us. Let me tell you who it really checks. Not only the kids, but it checks the parents. And I wanna talk to you today because I don't think our greatest need is just with the kids. We can go into that direction. I really think our greatest need is, it's in our parents. Because the Bible tells us, parents, it's on you to train your child in the way.

In fact, Proverbs chapter 22 and verse says, verse six, train up a child in the way that they're supposed to go. Train. That means putting pressure, bringing some boundaries. You're coaching them, you're mentoring them. Train them up in the way that they're supposed to go, and then when they're old, even when they're old, they're not gonna forget it, you're putting. You're putting some training principles in them because I think you and I know when you go to work, how many know there are days when you are working with your best friends? That's awesome. And then there are days, some of y'all, you know, you go to work and you're working with some bullies. Who works with some bullies? Like you got some bosses. You got mob bosses that are running your life. And so just like school, you have buddies and then you have bullies, your workplace is gonna be filled with people like that. You're gonna have coworkers, like classmates that are not easy to get along with. You're gonna have some years better than other years. Some bosses better than other bosses. Some jobs are gonna be better than other jobs. Places that you've worked will sometimes be the best place and then other times you can't stand this place.

Welcome to life. Because when it came to my mom and dad, if I heard it once, I heard it a million times, your school is your job. I'm like, I'm in kindergarten. Goes, no, but you're going to work. You're learning life. You're learning the reality of life. You're learning reality. This is not pretend. You're preparing for your future. And if you don't like school, you're probably gonna live a life that's gonna be what my dad used to say. You're gonna be digging a ditch, boy, for the rest of your life. And who would like to be digging a ditch? Great motivation from the NFL football coach. It's probably the reason why he was fired all the time. And whether you're homeschool, private school, public school, school is a shaper. It's a shaper of all of our characters. It's a maker of our conduct, our brains, our disciplines, our attitude, our people skills. It does develop our people skills. How to get along with people. It develops our leadership skills. Maybe the biggest one, it puts some toughness in you. And I think that sometimes I'm hearing this phrase, well, I'm a gentle parent.

And I'm not telling you that gentleness is not a fruit of the Spirit. It is a fruit of the Spirit. Gentleness, kindness. But if you're training your child, if you're gonna raise up, in fact, the word train. Hey, hey. And then they go into the real world and meet Vinnie the Mob boss in Massapequa, New York. Hey, hey. I'm just gonna tell you, hey is not gonna make it. This is a real world. The kingdom of heaven, Jesus says this, Jesus said the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. It's like, it's a real world. And part of your job as a parent is to prepare your children for the real world. And that's where you and I have to come in and make sure are we doing what the Bible tells us because school can make us or break us. It can develop us or it can disengage us and even disintegrate us. We gotta teach our kids how to not collapse under pressure. We gotta teach our children how to not disintegrate when they don't like their teacher, they don't like their class, they don't like where they're sitting, they didn't like the lunch. We gotta teach them that world doesn't work that way. We're not born to be at the center of the world.

We've gotta put some things in them because here's ultimately what the scripture tells us. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child and it takes the pressure of discipline to remove it far from them. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of every human being. You were born, you weren't born wise. You weren't born smart. You weren't born like, hey, I'm God. No, the Bible says we all fell from God, we all were separated from God. Because if that, your theology is that, well, no, we're all right with God. Well, what did Jesus have to die for? What was the point of his coming to this? Why was he betrayed? Why was he treated the way that he was treated? Everything that you see that happened to Jesus, going all the way ultimately to the cross, is the picture of humanity towards God. That was God. God on the cross in Christ was there to reconcile us, to bring us back together, but the crowd, and it still is the same crowd today, what did they say when it came to Jesus or Barabbas? Give us the bully. Give us the bully, give us Barabbas, give us the thief. And they chose Barabbas over Jesus. That's humanity. That's a picture of our fallen nature.

And that's why the Bible says that foolishness, that foolish, if you will, the ignorance of what is right, what is wrong, the ignorance of eternal life, the ignorance of who God is, that has to be pushed out of us. Now, thank God. Thank God that Jesus took the discipline, he took the pain. How many are thankful that he paid the ultimate? He went to the rod of the cross, that's what he did. If that cross was a rod, he took it for it. He was impaled, he was punished, though he knew no sin. He who knew no sin became sin for it. He tasted it for it. So you wouldn't have to die eternally in hell. The Bible says it. But the Bible does not also remove the idea that parents, just as Christ had to have discipline, he learned through discipline. The Bible says even the father was pleased to discipline his son, to train his son, even though he was perfect. The Bible says he still learned obedience through the things that he suffered. That's our job, is to help our sons and our daughters prepare for reality. Ultimately, to prepare for the eternal life, the day that they're gonna have to meet God. But also the day that they leave us, the day that we see them move and go away. And hopefully that happens in your life.

I hope that that happens one day, that that 42-year-old will leave, if there was a basement, out of the basement, it's time to go. I have a pastor, Joe, he loves his games. That's his problem. You have been the giver of his game or life. And I know that they can make a living, actually, playing games today. But the Bible says that that's foolish. That's not the way God has made us to be, is players and pretenders. So I wanna give you, from the book of John, chapter 13, the story of Jesus taking his team and taking his disciples and parenting them in a very strategic moment. Now, in the big picture of all things, the Bible tells us that we are to run this race, and all of us, if you're a Christ follower, you're running this race, you're in a race. And then he says, but only one receives the prize. Run in such a way that you may win. Paul the Apostle was saying this, and even this is the heart of God. He wants us all to be winners. He wants us to be champions. He doesn't want us to be at the tail end of life. He doesn't want us to be people that are just, frankly, always having to go through something, and we never win. We never succeed. Because you're not born into a world that is easy.

And you're not born to have it easy. In fact, any and everyone that makes it to some degree, anyone and everyone that makes for, has a beautiful life, a contented life, has conflict. You born, the day you were born, you were born into a conflict. You were born into a battle. You were born into a struggle. That's why the Bible, anytime in the New Testament, the word faith is used, or fight and faith, they're usually linked together. It's a fight. Life is a fight. And that's what I like about school. That's why I think it's important for us to help our sons and our daughters prepare. But ultimately, parents, the weight and responsibility falls on you. Now let's look at Jesus. The Bible says, now it was right before the feast of the Passover. It's right before, if you will, a shift, a change. Some things are about to happen. And of course, we know Christ is about to die and give his life, knowing, Jesus knowing, that it was now time, get the timeframe of this, the hour had come that he was gonna depart out of this world and go to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

You're seeing, and we're gonna unpack this, during supper, the devil, how many know the devil shows up during supper a lot of time? But during supper, the enemy, the devil, Satan himself, having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Jesus with those 30 pieces of gold and silver, I should say, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come forth from God, he was going back to God, he knew that this was a moment to display some parenting principles. He got up from supper, laid aside his garments, took a towel, girded himself, poured water into the basin, began to wash the disciples' feet, to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. He came to Simon Peter, and he said to him, Peter saying to Jesus, you're gonna wash my feet? I don't think so. And Jesus said, Peter, you're such a hard-headed person, and you're always missing it, and you're missing it now. I know you don't get this. I know you're thick. I know it's just not how you were born with. He says, but one day, you're gonna get what I'm telling you now. Peter said to him, I'm telling you, taking it to another level, you're never gonna wash my feet. Did I already rebuke you once? I'm rebuking you twice, God. You're not washing my feet.

And Jesus answers and says, well, let's just bring it to reality. If I do not wash your feet, you are going to hell, Peter, for the rest of your life. you will have no part with me. You and I are not talking anymore from this moment on. You will have no part. You're not walking with me. You're not in a relationship with me. Peter, being the extreme Peter that he is, he says, oh okay. He says, how about if you now wash not just my feet but my hands and my head. Do a mani, do a pedi, give me the seaweed, give me everything. And he goes, Peter, I don't need to wash every body part of your stinky life. I just need to wash the part that's touching the world. The point being, Peter, is a beautiful picture of every human being and especially parents, listen, your student, your child, the extremes and how we're going to have to learn how by in our own lives to help people not sway like Peter. He went from you'll never to you can wash everything and it's just part of life. How many know the whole battle is to help our sons and our daughters stay in the pathway or the route that God has for them. To stay on the way, the way, the truth, the life. And so Peter, of course, gets this revelation and Jesus has to help him and he coaches them. And then he says, he who has bathed needs only to wash his feet but is completely clean. You are clean but not all of you. And of course, there's Simon. For he knew the one who was betraying him and for this reason Jesus had already said, not all of you are clean. So when he had washed his feet and their feet and taken the garments and reclined at the table again, he said, guys, I know you don't get, but you do call me teacher, you do call me Lord and you're right. He says, but if I am showing you that I as washing your feet and taking care of you, you also should know what it means to take care of one another. I have given you an example. And then he says, truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who was sent greater than the one who sent him. And this is a great line and a great text. If you know these things, you are blessed if you what? If you do them. Let me give you what I call the ten values of back to school.

And what are the values that all of us need to apply to our lives? And I think from this portion of scripture, even in big picture parents, this is you, this is you. The value, number one, the value of Christ. Jesus lays this whole beginning of this last words and his last time, guys, I'm about to depart, but you know how much I have loved you, but I love you because I've come from God. I was not raised in a Christian home. I was not raised with a mom and a dad that attended church or even read a Bible verse or prayed a prayer, never heard a prayer, never attended church as a family. They were not wrong people. They aren't bad people. They just, just wasn't their life. And just, we did not have any spirituality, but, but I'm going to tell you something. What I did know was that there was a love for my family. But when you as a Christ follower had the revelation of who God is, your first responsibility is to point your family to the love of Christ, the love of God. And that ultimately what Jesus is saying, and this is the first responsibility that every parent has, and that is seeking first the kingdom of God, Matthew chapter six and 33, and these things will be added unto you. The very first value. All of us are responsible as parents. My sons, Mason, Connor, Jackson, 34, 30, and 26, now all married. But our first responsibility was, as for me and my house, we serve Christ. And especially as a pastor, it was another level. Because they would say, I thought you were a pastor. What an example you are. And they'd call me Judas. The truth is, is that we got to make sure that we are that which Christ said we were called to be. And that is giving what ultimately every family is on this planet for, and that is to love God. Jesus said, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. Mom, Dad, are you a Christ first family? That's what Jesus was showing us here. Here's the second one, the value of purpose. Jesus knowing that He had come from the Father, knowing that He was going back to the Father, knowing that He had loved those that the Father had given Him to the very end, and the ultimate reason was to die on the cross. The second great value every mom and dad has to bring into the home is a value of purpose, a mission. Now, I like that our last name is champion because I

could use that, we are the champion, my friend. We'll keep on fighting. If your last name is Zizinski, we are the Zizinskis. We'll find the Polish definition of that or whatever, but does your family have a mission? Does your family have a purpose? This is how we act, this is how we roll, this is why we're on this planet. Guys, we're here for a purpose, a mission. Here's the third thing, the value of love. When it says Jesus loved his disciples all the way to the very end, that literally means he loved them through thick and thin. He loved the world right up. He so loved them that he marked them forever. Guys, who loved us more than God? Who loved us more than Jesus? My dad used to say, even though he was not strong in his faith, he says, if you can find someone, a mom and her dad that loves you more than I love you, I will help you pack and we will move there today. I never questioned the love that my father had for me. May your home be filled with love. May your home be filled, of course, ultimately with the love of Christ. May your home be filled with purpose. Here's the fourth one. There's the value of consistency. One of the things that you and I have to help in our coaching and our training of our children, what home do they come to every afternoon? And if they walk through that front door wondering, what kind of mom am I going to get today? What kind of dad am I going to get today? What kind of cat? What kind of dog? What is this home? I'm going to tell you why kids don't want to stay at home, because they're tired of the inconsistency of that home. And the reason why they often go down to the home down the street is that at least they know the mom and the dad that's down there is going to be the same. And Jesus wants us to be like him, which means he's the same today, yesterday, and forever. He's consistent. He doesn't shift. He's not moving around. And Jesus is taking his disciples to this very last moment, and he's giving them an example of his consistency. He's giving them an example of his love, of purpose, of what the real value of life is all about. Number five, it's the value of time. He spent time. You're going to have to make time. You've got to carve time, whether that's breakfast or whether that's at dinner. And we all know our calendars. We all know our schedules. But Jesus did take the time to gather. And that means the television's going to have to come off. The phones are going to have to be put down. It means that we're going to have to sit down and look at each other without headphones on. We're going to have to look at each other. Yeah, Pastor Joe, I

can't get them to sit down. It's because of your lack of parenting, intentionality. You've got to put them in places. And of course, ultimately, they're going to feel the love. They're going to feel whether you like them or not. They're going to feel whether or not you're living a genuine life. And this is reality. The reality is it's not if we're going to be pulled here and there. We will be, but you're going to have to value the time. The Bible says Jesus, knowing that his time was to go back to the Father. I don't want you to think about 18 years of training your child and raising your children. I want you to think about it in terms of summers. You have 18 summers. And so if your child is 12, hey, you've got six more. You've only got six more summers. And the value of time, making sure, because once they're gone, they may come back. But hopefully not for long. The reality is we only have so much time. The Bible says redeem the time, make use of the time. Don't waste time. Here's another one. I think Jesus was showing us the value of team. Make sure your family is a team. We don't do life separately. We don't do life in our own little rooms. We are one team, one body. We are one family. We roll together. We do vacations together. We spend time together. We text together. Even to this very day, we do a family group text, and it's all day. And we're in each other's lives, in each other's worlds, and we're all together. And I think Jesus brought them to that moment, to guys, which is ultimately, everybody needs to be a part of a team. I think you're at a disadvantage in life if you've never been a part of a football team, you've never been a part of a cheerleading team, because you need to realize what it means to sacrifice for other people, which is the seventh one I want to give you, the principle of sacrifice. Jesus laid down His life. I told our boys, when you go to school, if you see a new student in that school, you go find that student that's sitting by themselves. You be the one that lays down your life, your insecurities, and you get into their world. Pastor Joe, my son is shy. My child is shy. They'll never do that. You coach them to do it. You pull it out of them. The real world, it's just again, they're not made to be that way. They're made to be in the image and the likeness of Christ. Everything about this world is to get your child to sit in the back and to sit down and to shut up and to be insecure. That's the whole world. But the Bible tells us, Adam, Eve, take your children and teach them how to have dominion and how to walk with authority into a room. I told my boys, you don't walk with your small shoulders in

a room. You're going to walk in there and change the world. Appropriately submitting to the teacher. Appropriately, of course, obeying the rules. At the same time, you're there to make a difference in the lives of people. The value of discipline. This is probably the biggest one that we live in today, and that is the world that doesn't want to discipline their sons or their daughters. They want the friendship of their sons and daughters. And I'm here to tell you, you are not first to be their friends. You have a stewardship. You have a stewardship. You have a responsibility to train them in the way that you're supposed to go. And if your first goal, and if your first intention, and your first move is to always make your child happy, reality is going to hit that child in the face, and they will be unemployed for the rest of their life. How many want your sons and your daughters to prosper in this world? Let me see your hand. You want to help them. Discipline means you got to be at work or at school on time. Teach your son. Teach your children. Why do we get up? Why do we prepare? Why do we have the things that we do in a form of a routine? It's discipline. Because everything about this world is to undo you, to untether you from discipline. Any train that rolls has to be on the rails of discipline. Any train that comes off the rails doesn't roll. A life doesn't roll without discipline. And I want to say, mom and dad, be together in your discipline. Don't be the good guy, bad guy.

There's only one cop in that home. And we all know, the sons and the daughters, they're going to look for the good cop and the bad cop. Yes, we understand there are those that are a little bit maybe less inclined or more inclined. But when Lori and I had to discipline our sons and our daughters consistently, appropriately, we were always on the same page. We just told them, you got the short end of the stick when God puts you in our family. And so you have to remain parents. In order for your children to be disciplined, you have to remain disciplined. Because you're an example. And then lastly, and I think that might be the big one, I just want to give you purity. The discipline of purity. What's in your home? Starting in that cell phone. What's in your home? Looking at that television screen. What's in your home? What's coming out of your mouth? The Bible says when you love righteousness, the Bible says God will fill your home with the oil of joy. You hate wickedness. You hate evil. You hate the things that God hates. And you love the things that God loves. There comes this power. Because God is beautiful. God is majestic. And He's grieved and He's quenched when we're walking in darkness, but we come to the light. And as you're allowing the light of God's purity to just do what it wants to do, beginning in your own heart, it begins to get into your sons and your daughters.

And then I said that was the last one, but I've got to give you the last one. How many know, I don't care how much time, I'm just going to keep preaching. The value of action. The final one is that Jesus said, blessed are you that do what I just told you to do. You need to do what Jesus did. You have to work. You've got to put it into action. You've got to apply yourself. Failure, we understand, we all fail. We all are going to come home with those report cards. Our sons and our daughters may come home with those report cards that are not what we want. But what's not appropriate is the lack of effort. Failure is acceptable. Lack of effort is not. And you're going to work. And you're going to study. And you're going to give your best. And you're going to apply yourself. But ultimately, we're trying to bring our sons and our daughters to the reality of what makes for a life. The Bible tells us that we are not to be hearers of the word, but doers of the word. And if we apply these ten values, if we were to say, Lord, I want to see this applied to my life, I want to see this applied to my sons and my daughters, can I tell you, you're back to school. We'll be back, not just to reality, but back to a year of blessing. And just as Jesus was going back to the Father, He wasn't going back alone. Jesus came to this world to bring people back with Him. And back to school for your sons and daughters means that this year could be a year where sons and daughters in your sons and daughters' classes might know God.

They might come to an encounter with Christ. They might come to a wave. Ultimately, Jesus came to take people back. We are in this world, ultimately, for what? To take people back with us, that they will have a relationship to Christ. My prayer parents, in fact, how many parents do I have here? Can I just see your hand all over this place? And I know many of you are praying and believing for children, or sensitive to that as well. How many grandparents do we have here as well? You're not through parenting grandparents, just like you're not through writing a check. If they want that check, you give them your opinion. Yes, I can hear the ripple effect happening through the congregation. With every head bowed and every eye closed today, I wanna start with you as an individual. Forget your kids, forget anything and everything. Here's, ultimately, our Heavenly Father came down for this reason, to save you. Jesus said it like this, I have manifested your name, God. What's his name? Father. He's a father. You're his child. Life will never go and never be what life was intended to be. And I'm talking not just now, but eternally, without the Heavenly Father. He has come to display his love. And he's loved you, even when you could not love him. He first loved you before you would ever love him.

And he's loved you and he still loves you through thick and thin. In fact, he wants to love the world and the things of this world right out of you. And if you're here today and you'd say, Pastor Joe, first and foremost, I don't know if I have a relationship to Christ, but I would. I would like a relationship. I realize that without God, there's no life. If that's you, can I see how many people I might be praying for today? If that's you, would you just slip up your hand and say, Pastor Joe? Yeah, include me in that prayer. A lot of hands going up. How many would say, I'd need to rededicate my life to the Heavenly Parent even right now? He loves me. The second thing, parents, are you an example? Are you an example? God is the God who equips us for every good work to be the example, to be what God has called us to be in every way. You can be the kind of parent God wants you to be. And then thirdly, to our sons and our daughters, to those that have moms and dads, the Bible says, honor your parents, for this is going to require, first of all,

the understanding of submission, but the Bible says with it comes a great life. Can we say this out loud all together? Lord Jesus, because of your grace and your love displayed on the cross, we can have your life. And to know you is to have eternal life. Forgive me. Take me. My life is all yours. Now lead me and guide me with your wisdom by your Spirit, fulfilling the purpose and the mission. It's your half of my family and all of God's people said, come on, we're to have a great Baptist school, John. уб