Minding the Gap | Pastor Jason McKinnies | Purpose House Church

So, I went back and I rewrote my Father's Day sermon to be applicable to a baby dedication sermon. And it took me a little while, but we got there. And so, if you have a Bible, turn with me to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 22 and verse 30. Ezekiel chapter 22 and verse 30. And Mr. Logan Wilburn the other day sent me a text and asked me about what happens or how many sermons have I written that I've never preached. And out of that, it gave me an idea. And so, I went to Pastor Melissa and said, while you're turning to Ezekiel chapter 22 verse 30, I went to Pastor Melissa and I said, how many sermons do you think I've written for Easter, just Easter, since I've been pastor? And so, I've been pastoring now, this is my 17th year being pastor here at Purpose House Church. So, she said, well, 17. 50, I wrote 50 sermons for Easter. And so, I started writing a book about all the sermons I haven't preached. And I got to crying the other day and I was preaching to myself happy. I'm like, these were so good, why didn't I preach them? And then I watched the service happen today. I'm like, now I remember why I didn't preach those things. God just moves in this place and it's totally good. So, no doubt you have found Ezekiel chapter 22 and verse 30. It's somewhere halfway through your phone. Here's what it says, I'm reading out of the New King James.

So, I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land that I should not destroy it, but I found no one. Now, today, there's gonna be seven families walk across this platform and do something that is far more serious than it might look like from where you're sitting. They're going to hold their children before God and before this church and they're gonna say, we choose this. We choose to raise our child or our children in faith. In other words, they're saying, we choose to stand between this baby and whatever the world will throw at them. They're choosing from day one to stand in a gap. And I don't know about how you were when you had your first child. I remember when Morgan was born some 25 years ago that I didn't think I had the capacity to love until they put that little girl in my arms. And 25 years later, she still melts my heart and she ain't even here. It just does something to you. There's something that happens when you hold what God has blessed you with in your hands and it changes you. And all of a sudden you now are responsible for somebody who cannot take care of themselves, who cannot fight for themselves.

A guy that I grew up with has made the news here. He's a pastor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana who put a whooping on somebody this past week. Maybe you've seen it all over social media, but I'm gonna tell you this, if you threaten my family, you're not gonna get Pastor Jason. You're gonna get the South Sider because there's something that happens inside of a man that when you mess with my family who cannot defend themselves, God placed them in my care and that's my wife and those are my children and we feel the same way about the church as pastors. We come to the defense of people who cannot defend themselves. We come to the defense of people who've been placed into our care. In other words, we are standing in the gap and God was looking for people who would build a wall, not just to stand in the gap, but they are also building a wall and so what you have here are the two paths of life and this side over here, this is where we are born. We didn't do anything other than just be born and we're born over here on this path where fear resides and where depression and oppression and confusion and chaos and all addiction and broken hope, that's over here and if we don't do anything else in life,

we will remain right here on this side, but there has to be somebody in our lives that wants to come to the middle of that and tell us and teach us and talk to us that this over here was never God's intention. This over here was never God's design. It was never God's plan. God wanted to move you over to this side. This is where God intended you to live, not in chaos and not in confusion. He wanted you to live in peace and in joy and in power and authority, but yet the enemy would have you to believe this is normal and this is the way your whole family has been, but somebody has to walk in and say, wait a second, I need to help you transition from this path of life over to this side and over to this side. Here and you can't get there by yourself. You have to be led there You have to be drawn to another side and so every child Enters the world not because their parents were bad It was because of something that happened back there in the garden and it wasn't even because God made a mistake There was somewhere in a garden where somebody was told a half truth Which is really a full-out lie and they thought that God was holding out on them that somehow this over here Was not enough and that if their eyes could be open they could understand all this over here when God's whole intention Was for them to live for eternity over here and yet the enemy tells them no no No, this is so much better. God's holding out on you Yeah God was holding you out of fear and chaos and confusion and depression and oppression and death and he had this whole garden for you Over here and so we see this now happening on every life that is born

Every life that is born is now born over here and we're trying to move them over here So my buddy Judah Jude the dude's gonna him come help me today I had to get somebody light enough that I could carry and so Jude the dude is gonna happen. And so do you come right here with me? And so Jude was born his mom and dad I mean, there's there's one fatal flaw in his dad and that's that he was born a Georgia fan And so somewhere along the line we're going to have to convince this guy that there is a whole better life on the other side We're Notre Dame resides and we're Notre Dame lives and we're gonna pray him through to the Holy Ghost and fire But Jude the dude is born and he's just born he just thinks everything is wonderful and it's hunky-dory and he's in this life over Here and he his mom and dad are bringing him to church and his mom and dad are praying for him and his mom and dad are trying to move him from this path over here because his mom and dad are have been raised up in church and his mom and Dad have given their lives to Christ And so the duty of a parent is to become a bridge The bridge is moving your child from this path over here to try to move them over to this path And how do you become a bridge? Well you every day you have to make three decisions You're gonna you're gonna have to decide in your life these three things. Number one. I'm going to be the bridge I'm not gonna let somebody else be the bridge I'm not gonna leave it up to somebody else to move my child from fear and confusion and chaos Over here to peace and and joy in the Holy Ghost. I'm not gonna leave it up to the Sunday school teachers I'm not gonna leave it up to the youth pastor. I'm not even gonna leave it up to pastor I'm gonna make sure that I'm the one that is actively involved in making sure that I am a bridge Because my child cannot move from this one with to this one without somebody helping him move in that direction And so somebody has to take the boy and move him and say okay now you're on this side number two You're gonna have to decide to be a wall Because the same devil that was trying to convince Adam and Eve that it was hunky-dory over here is still whispering into your child's ear Telling that a peace and legacy and all the joy of God and all those services that no That's not really what God has been over here is something amazing And so the enemy is whispering to them and you were a bridge now You got to become a wall and so you got to help you keep the child on this side all the time and they will Wear you out why because they have more energy Then you have I'm 49 years old three paces I'm winded

But Here's what happens you're as a parent and you're trying to build a wall and the child is trying to get over there You're like Lord. I Cannot do this for myself. So you're gonna have to decide that you cannot be the wall by yourself You cannot fill this gap and fill all the avenues that the enemy is trying to get your child You're like well, I'm gonna keep him from chaos I'm gonna keep him from chaos and you're over here in chaos and the enemy's handing drugs at school You're gonna need some help and the best way you can find help is like Joe did every morning Joe would get up in the morning and say peradventure my children did something that God was not pleased with and Joe would get up every morning and he would build an altar and he Would begin to make offerings unto the Lord saying Oh God. I need some help with my children They're even out of my house and they're adult children now, but God I need you right now to come and help me with my children They're adults and they're out of my house But Lord, I need you to come and help me or any adult parents in the house You need to get on your knees in the morning and begin to pray God. I need some help. I've tried it all by myself I've tried to do it all by myself, but I cannot fill the gap all by myself and so God shows up and God's in the gap with us and we're keeping Judah from coming to the other side and God steps in Well, I cannot I'm out to work. I have no idea what's going at home, but God's still on guard And some of us when our kids leave we're like we're done parenting I don't think you've ever done parenting But let me show you something while dead baby dedications are so important. It's because you're asking the church to help you Raise your child and so when you bring your child to church, we got God here in the middle We got the parent in the middle and then the children's pastor shows up and we've got a phenomenal children's pastor She's praying over your children and leading your children preaching to your children, but listen She's not in this gap all by herself. We got God in there. We got the parent in there All right, Jude the dude try your best And I told pastor Lindsay she could shove you as hard as she wants to shove you and then Judah We defended him. We got him out of kids ministry. And now we got him into the youth ministry. So come on pastor Nigel We're bringing in that reinforcements now and all of a sudden now we got a youth pastor. We got a children's pastor We got the parent. We got the senior pastor. Come on. Some of my pastors just come up here

We're gonna make you to do work pretty hard. We're just gonna make him come on. You thought you were tough. We know Eli And we got all of a sudden hey listen Pastor my son has been offered something that I never thought he would be offered And we need to get on the phone and say all right pastor Scotty I need you to make sure that my son doesn't get a hurt He doesn't get a habit and he doesn't get a hang-up pastor Scotty I need you to walk in here and I would need you to tell him the dangers of addiction I need you to tell him the dangers of alcohol the danger to draw What are we doing? We're building a wall that they cannot get over to cross back to the other side and all the devil may try But God said if you will stand in the gap and build a wall So How do we build a wall we just keep putting blocks on it maybe Jude isn't Into all the Bible study stuff. Well, that's all right. We'll bring the worship pastor in come on pastor Melissa come up here with your excited self. I See that saunter she got that little saunter like all right, we're gonna drop this and see some people say Oh pastor I don't know about all that worship stuff. You know, we had this question yesterday and I don't want to be offensive I'm 49 years old, but the worship in this house is designed to keep a generation that the church is losing We're here to reach your children and we need to make sure that worship if they're not going to hear the pastor preach We need to make sure that they feel the glory of God tug on their heart because we're ushering them in to the throne room Of God I don't want your kid to go to school and see people more excited about their football team than we are about Jesus because they'll run to the football team and get community at the football team They need to find what they are missing in the house of God The enemy is trying to do everything in his power to feed them popularity feed them all these things But what they're missing is the glory of God. So the worship team's got to usher in the glory of God So when they go to that party, they're not going to get as high on those drugs as they are on Jesus You Feel like it's impossible

That's right. It is because once your child experiences the presence of God, they will never fit back in on this side of this bed Once they experience the peace of God, they will never be satisfied with chaos and confusion Once they understand an identity in Christ Their identity will never come into question about who they are and whose they are and what they are Thank you all thank you Jude the dude and I love that green shirt She's standing in the gap is active is intentional It's a daily decision to be the bridge to become the wall and To depend on God you have to be consistent in your faith and faithful parents Are moving their children into blessings and then they stand between that child and every force of hell That would pull them back into bondage We as parents we got a hard responsibility But can I say this to us as parents? It's kind of hard to pray your kid out of a bondage that you're actively participating in This isn't do as I say this is do as I do Follow me as I follow Christ you have a you're carrying amazing weight and the assignment that you're carrying is a Massive burden if you will, but you're not carrying it alone and you're wondering am I enough? You're not But you and the Lord With the Lord on your side, you can do all things through Christ So when God said in Ezekiel 22 30 that he was searching for a man He wasn't just looking for a man. He was looking for a man for somebody to stand in the gap, like church folks do. I knew he was going to fail. I just knew that little boy was bad when he was born. Yes, he was born in sin and shaped in iniquity. Instead of standing around being a church person, how about you help build a wall that when they cross over to the other side, you help defend them and keep them

from the other side. You got to stand in the gap, but you're not just a gap filler. You got to build a wall. And the most important thing you will ever do as a parent is not to try harder. It's to stay close to the one who actually fills the gaps where you're not watching. The gap is real, and God's calling you to fill it. So God's not looking for perfection. He's looking for presence. He's looking for a parent who will position themselves intentionally between their child's vulnerability and the world waiting to exploit it and hold that ground. My daughter was a phenomenal, phenomenal basketball player. She had two offers to go play college basketball. And I got in the car with her, and we drove to meet the coaches, and the whole way over there, Pastor Pete, I was praying, Lord, make her hate basketball. And I prayed all the way over there. We get in there with the coach, and he was the biggest jerk in the world. And I thank you, Jesus, he was a jerk. Thank you. And we get in the car, and we're driving back home. And she said, that guy was a real jerk. And I said, you're going to have to live with that jerk for four years. And on the way home, she said, Dad, I don't think I want to play basketball in college. I said, oh, really?

You don't say. You don't want to play, huh? She goes, but that means that you're going to have to come up with a way to pay for me to go to school. And I said, listen, God will provide a way. This is what I've been praying for. But as your dad, I wasn't going to take this opportunity away from you, because you would hate me for the rest of your life, thinking that I robbed you of some opportunity. But I've been praying under my breath the entire day that you would hate these coaches, you would hate basketball, you would hate all this, so that you would not be tempted by all those doors that the enemy was going to throw. What was I doing? I was trying to build a wall and try to keep my child on this side of the path. And sometimes you're going to have to do it under your breath. They come home and they bring somebody home for you to meet. And you're like, oh, good Lord, have mercy. Just be kind and then go to the prayer room. And listen, now listen, when you get into that prayer room, the church has got to change how we pray a little bit. Instead of this stuff of Lord, bless the food. And you're going to have to get down and get into business with God, and you're going to have to start speaking to those things that are not as though they already are. You're going to have to start praying in the prophetic spirit and begin to pray, Lord, that is not the right man for her. That is not the right guy for her. I see the trouble, and Lord, you remove him out of her life.

And you put it, Lord, you stand in the gap. And Lord, I'm building this wall, and that boy is not going to marry my daughter. Now, the reason why I say that is because some of y'all are looking at my daughters, and I want you to know, you're going to have to come through me, and you're going to have to come through her mama. And if that don't scare you, wait till you meet her mama. And some of you need to start building some walls because you have higher expectations for your children than you're praying for. Build a wall. So, God has designed us not to be perfect, not to have it all figured out, but to be consistent, to be present, to be a bridge that carries our child towards the blessings of the Lord. And then we become a wall that holds the ground once they get there. There's been a common theme over the last two weeks amongst us as staff members. It's like put a stake in the ground. Just put a boundary marker in the ground and say, listen, devil, you're not going past it. The question that God is asking every parent in the room today is the same question he asked in Ezekiel. Will you stand in the gap? Will you build the wall? Will you carry your child from where they are to where he designed them to be? Bless you.

And every child in this room needs at least one person. Every child in this room needs at least one person who has decided before it gets hard that they're not leaving that gap until that child is safely on the other side. Because I know some of you are probably wondering, well, maybe my husband isn't as strong spiritually. Listen, I don't know of a fella anywhere that wants something less for his daughter. And some ladies talk so spiritually condescending to their husbands, that's why their husbands don't want to be spiritual. But if you bring that up, you're not going to be a spiritual your husband and say, listen, you may not even want to go to husband. You're not going to be a spiritual wife. church every week, but we're going to pray for our daughter. You're not going to be a spiritual father. We're going to pray for our children and we're going to You're not going to be a spiritual mother. build a room. But every child needs at least one person who has decided You're not going to be a spiritual father. before it gets hard, in other words, before they turn 13 and learn that they have an attitude. Can I just pastor just a moment? Some of you are fussing about your child and how they don't pay attention. You bought the phone. You pay for the phone. My child's always on social media.

You allowed that. Be a parent instead of stop being their friend. I told my children, when you get to be about 20 years old, we'll be friends. But right now, the Bill of Rights and the federal government are not applicable to the McInnes household. You do not have the right to privacy. You do not have freedom of speech. Anything you say will be used against you. You do not have a right to an attorney. I am the judge, the lawyer, and I am the executioner. I know that's not popular. I'm going to get some nice emails. We have a file 13 called trash. What's wrong in this generation is that parents are not being parents and we are not being godly parents. We want them to get along with the world. What about getting along with heaven? Before it gets hard, make a decision. I want to walk you just real quickly through five parents in Scripture who understand, who understood what it meant to stand in the gap for the child. Some were in impossible situations. Some were afraid. Some didn't feel qualified. But all of them showed up. And because they did, everything changed. There's Hannah. See, Hannah said in 1 Samuel 27 and verse 28, for this child I prayed and the Lord has granted me my petition

which I asked of him. Therefore, I also have lent him, the child, back to the Lord. And as long as he lives, he shall be lent to the Lord. So, Hannah wanted a child so desperately that the Bible says she wept and she could not eat. And year after year and cycle after cycle, the grief of her empty womb happening in a culture that made her feel like a failure because she could not have a baby, she began to cry out to God. She does something remarkable. She went to the temple. She prayed a prayer that cost her everything. She said, Lord, if you give me a son, I will give him back to you. I will stand in the gap for this child by surrendering him back to you. You're the one who gave him to me. I will surrender him back to you. That is one of the most powerful acts of parenting that you'll ever find in Scripture. She decided I'm not going to hold on but I'm dedicating him back to you. I'm not going to possess but I'm going to release. And Hannah understood what every parent needs to hear in this room, that your child ultimately does not belong to you. They belong to God. They were entrusted to you. So standing in the gap means you're standing there with open hands, dedicating them to God before they ever know his name. Before they can even speak, you should be bringing them to

church. It's going to get tight in here just for a moment. It'll be alright. We are now developing that when our children are born, we keep them out of the house of God. And we try to protect them from diseases and sicknesses and germs. I'm going to tell you the best thing you can do is bring them to the house of God and let God protect them because there is no amount of parenting that's going to keep your child from all the stuff that's going on in the world. But if you bring them to God and you'll put them in the hands of God, God can protect them from anything at any time and anywhere. I told you it's going to get tight in here, man. You need a pastor, I should bring them. Sometimes we just need to lick a door jam. That's a Pastor Melissa-ism. Every time my kids would get sick, she'd go, go lick that door jam. Get your system all built up. My kids are healthy. They're healthy as oxes. We don't take them to the doctor. Why? Because we had them in the house of God. We had them around people. We're praying over them. We need to get strong in our belief again that God can protect our children.

Well, I just don't know if I can bring them to youth. Things are crazy. Yes, for sure, there's things that are crazy. But I'm going to bring my kid to youth. You know why? Because Pastor Nigel is not what all these other churches have. We actually background our pastors here. We don't have our pastors grooming children. Let me preach to the pastors. If you all got some weaknesses, you need to run to an author and come and confess and resign from your positions instead of taking the church through the mud and saying, oh, it was just a mistake. No, that's more than a mistake. You were grooming them for years. and we ain't going to cover it up. I'll call the po-po. And they'll come and they'll talk to you. Y'all mopping what I'm dropping? The church has had enough of this stuff. Let's say well, we just need to keep it quiet and watch. No, no, no, no, no. If we have predators in the building, we need to deal with them right here and right now. That's, you know what that's called? That's called standing in the gap and building a wall. Before y'all start going after pastors, what about our teachers? Just as many teachers getting arrested as there are pastors. You know why? Because we have checkbox Christianity. But if you yield yourself to a holy God and get Him to clean you out and be faithful to your wife and faithful to your husband, this is, Lord, have mercy. Pastor Melissa may have to come up here and tell me to lick a door jam. Be holy. It ain't that hard. Stop having secrets. Show people your phone.

Put your computer in a public place. Stop having a private chat room. Ah, it's just me and my wife doesn't even know about it. That's trouble. I better keep moving. I'll never get through 39 pages. Give them to God. Let's keep moving. Number two, there's Mary. Mary said yes even before she understood. Mary said, Behold, the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel then departed from her. So when the angel came to Mary, she didn't have a five-year plan. She did not have a book on what to expect when you weren't thinking that you were going to be expecting. She didn't have a parenting manual. She didn't have a support system lined up. She had an assignment that she didn't fully understand. And she said, Yes, anyway. She said, Be it unto me according to your word. That's a courageous statement. I ain't got it all figured out. How many of you when you were first married had it all figured out? I thought I had it all figured out and then I met Melissa. And you know, 26 years later, I still don't know a thing. And she just said, That's right. You don't have to understand everything about your assignment to say yes. Mary said yes to uncertainty. Then there's Manoah and his wife. How many of you know who Manoah is? These are the parents who co-parented a man who had a vow of a Nazarite. This is Samuel. Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, Oh, my Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come to me. And he said, Yes, I will. And prayed to the Lord and said, Oh, my Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born. So Samson's parents are often very overlooked in parenting stories. But Samson, before Samson ever did anything extraordinary or anything reckless, his parents did something that set the course of

his life. The angel comes to Manoah's wife and says, You're going to conceive a son. She ran and told her husband. And Manoah's response is stunning. He says, Let's pray. And he said, God, send that angel back. You told her we're going to have a boy. Send that angel back because I need to know how to raise that boy. I need to know that what we're doing is pleasing to God. Teach us what to do. Tell us how to raise the child. That's a man who understood the weight of what was being placed in his home. And notice what he didn't do. He didn't step back and let tell his wife, You carry it all alone. He leaned in as a man. He prayed alongside her and he stood in the gap with her. We want this path over here is a fatherless generation. They have dads in the home, but they're not fathering. A father, listen, a father is there to teach, to instruct. We're not there to be mean and abusive. We are there to teach and instruct my, my children. Honestly, once 25, one is getting ready to be 19. I've never heard them mouth off to their mother. You know why? Because if they mouth off to their mother, they don't dig to deal with their mama. They get them deal with me because I don't get to talk to Melissa that way. And you ain't going to talk to Melissa that way. That's what men are for. There's so much disrespect. There's no fear before their eyes. And I would put that on the men. It's not father's day. I can be a little rough on you, but we need men to step up. And what the enemy has done is kept men on this side over here that they have no understanding of this side over here. They were raised up with a, without a father and somebody needs to step up and say, listen, we're going to break that generational curse. And there's men in this building

who have stepped into gaps that weren't theirs to step into, but they had to because somebody else stepped out. There's men like Scott Kelly and Keith Edwards and Pete Mokes and the John Gordons, the men that have stepped in when somebody else stepped out to try to be a father so that their grandchildren or their foster children or their adopted children don't stay on this side, they became a bridge and moved them over to this side. I got mad respect for you fellas. Samson's story with his parents, they carried it together. They became the bridge that carried Samson towards his calling. And God placed that in his life before he was ever born. And together, Manoah and his wife, they became a wall between their son and the world. The gap is not one parent's responsibility. It is a partnership that covers the child completely. And when two parents stand in the gap together, they build a wall that is twice as strong. Then there is Abraham. He's the parent that God chose because he could lead and would lead his house. Genesis chapter 18, verse 19. For I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice. So God is literally pulling back a curtain on why he chose Abraham.

He's telling us it wasn't just because Abraham believed, it was because God knew that Abraham would lead his house. He would command his house. We need some men that will lead their house. This is one of the beauties of Purpose House Church. One of the reasons why I think it's one of the greatest churches in all the world is the amount of men who lead in worship around here. The amount of men who lead in serving around here. We are a rare church with the amount of men that we have serving in this house. So I give you, again, great respect because we have men that lead. Look down front here, men leaping and dancing before the Lord, leading their house, getting a little bit undignified. And thank you, wives, for allowing your men to lead. So God doesn't place anybody in a home by accident. He's wondering, can you lead your home? Then there's Job. He's the parent who covered his children in prayer every morning. Job 1.5, so it was when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. So how many ever children he had, he gave a burnt offering. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.

And Job did this regularly. So Job gives us quite a picture. He has adult children. They're old enough to throw their own parties. They were grown, living their own lives, making their own decisions, and Job couldn't control them anymore. The only thing he had left as a parent was the most powerful thing a parent can do. He had prayer. So every single morning before the day started, before the noise began, Job rose up early, stood in the gap for each one of his children, not because he knew they had sinned, it was just in case. He covered every angle. He prayed for every child, and he was still being in the wall even when they were old enough to scale the wall themselves. I'm at least gonna make it difficult on you. That's the long game of parenting. The gap doesn't close when your child turns 18. It doesn't close when they leave the house. Faithful parents stand in the gap for as long as God gives them breath because the wall does not come down just because the child grew up. In fact, here I am, 49 years old, and I texted my mother that I was gonna go snorkeling. And she said, apparently, I need to smack you in the head with a trunk again.

Parenting never leaves you. It's always there. And the most powerful thing you'll ever do for your child is to pray for them. Pray for them before they wake up. Stand in the gap before they even know a gap exists. Some of you may not have had a parent who did that for you. Now you get to be the parent who does it for your children. Some of you may not even know that your parent did it. But they were. Somebody was rising up early, standing in the gap before the throne of God on your behalf. And it held you through things you didn't even realize that you survived. That's the legacy that all these families today are stepping into. But I do love to be honest with you. Standing in the gap cost you something. Hannah wept for years before she got to hold her son. And then when she got to hold her son, she released him. None of it was easy, none of it was cheap. None of it came without nights of wondering. If we're doing enough, being enough, we're giving enough. Parenting costs you comfort. I've slept in beds that were too small for me. I've rode in back seats when I get car sick. I've made noises that I still don't believe that I can do. I've bounced, I've cradled, I've swaddled, I've changed more diapers than I thought I was capable of. Parenting costs you something.

It's never easy, it's never cheap. Costs you your comfort, costs you sleep, costs you resources, just wait till they get a car. Costs you your plans, costs you the ability to say that's not my problem, because from the moment that the child is placed in your arms, everything is your problem. And it costs you something the world will never tell you. It costs you the right to live only for yourself. The gap you stand in today, though, becomes the foundation your child builds their life on tomorrow. And what you pour into that child, in the years they cannot remember, the prayers, the presence, the consistency, the love, that becomes the bedrock of who they are. You know why we have the little bread scriptures in the bookstore? Because my daughters wanted them in the bookstore so that other kids could live like they lived. Because every night before my children would go to bed, we would pull out one little scripture out of that little loaf of bread, and we would read it to them. And then when Morgan was a little girl, she was scared of the dark for some reason, and I'd have to sleep in that small little bed with her. Now, I'm not the biggest guy in the world, but that bed didn't fit me. Now, I had to get up at four o'clock in the morning, and I had sales meetings at five in the morning,

but my little girl was afraid, and I was gonna be there. And we would read the scripture, and it costs you things. Costs you their whole life. And they may not thank you until they're about like 39. They may not even know what you did, but it is in them. It is under them, and it's holding them up. You're not just raising a child, you're building a foundation. And God gives us a promise in the New Testament. It's the favor of God over every child, especially those that we're gonna dedicate here today. Acts chapter two, verses 38 and nine. Then Peter said unto them, repent, let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off, and as many as the Lord our God will call. So Peter just preached the first sermon of the church age. The crowd's been cut to their heart. They're asking, what do they do? And Peter's answer includes one of the most sweeping promises in all the New Testament. It's a promise that reaches not just to the person standing in front of him, but even to their children. He's declaring the arrival of something the world has never seen before, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And he says, it's beginning in the church,

it's gonna be fulfilled. The prophets have looked for this, and it's a promise that's been coming, and now it's here, but it doesn't just stop with you. It also goes to your children. A promise that moves past you and into your children. Not just one generation, multiple generations. So when you stand in the gap for your child, you're not standing there empty-handed. You have a promise from God in that gap with you. It's the same promise that filled an upper room that changed generations, turned the world upside down, and it can change your child. If you don't know what to do with your child, pray him through to the Holy Ghost and fire. This promise is powerful. It means that God's favor rests on that child before they have done a single thing to earn it. Before they take their first step, before they speak their first word, there's a promise of God over their life. Before they make their first choice, good or bad, the promise of God is already over their life. Because somebody stood in the gap and said, we received this, and now that we have received this promise it also is a promise to our children. It means the Holy Spirit is not just restricted to the grandparents and the parents. It moves in the child. He speaks to the child.

He draws the child. He covers the ground the parent cannot reach because the parent can't reach inside of the heart. The parent cannot reach to the depth of the soul. The parent cannot get to the place where human hands cannot go. So when you stand in the gap, God's standing there with you. God's standing on the inside. So the gap you stand in today is not just covered by your presence. It's covered by the promise of God. And here's the thing about God's promises. They never expire. God's promises do not weaken and they do not fail. In just a few moments we're gonna sing a song. This was a miracle. Pastor Melissa never wanted to sing this song. We're going to sing a song called The Blessing. It's actually coming out in Numbers chapter 6, one of the oldest recorded blessings in Scripture. God begins to speak over the children of Israel. The same words that have been spoken over God's people for thousands of years and today we speak them over your children. That there is a promise that God has for you. There's a blessing that God has for you. And I just want to close today by telling you about a young father in our church. In fact, his wife is going to be on the stage and his children are going to be on the stage, but he's not going to be on the stage. Austin knew what it meant to stand in the gap. Austin wanted to be a dad.

He wanted to be present. He wanted to be the bridge. He wanted to be the wall. In fact, the first night I met Austin, it was courtyard worship. We were having worship and Austin was sitting in the picnic table just outside on the sidewalk and I watched him as he held his babies. He took care of his babies and he would change their diapers on the picnic table and he was just a good dad. All he wanted was to be a bridge and was bringing his family to the house of the Lord. He even brought them on off church nights to be in the presence of God. He wanted to sit at the table and he wanted to coach and be at the games. He wanted to pray over his children. He wanted to be there before they woke up in the morning to pray for them. He wanted all of it. Austin wasn't one of those guys that just left. He didn't leave. He didn't step out on Matty. Matter of fact, it wasn't really even his choice to go. He was just a Department of Natural Resources officer who got overwhelmed by a swarm of bees in the woods and they stung him to death. He was taken. Now there is a gap. There's a gap in Austin and Cash's life. Not the kind left by a man who chose to walk away, but one that grief carves into a family without warning. The kind that doesn't have an easy answer. When Austin and Cash grow up, we'll have to explain it. In fact, it was hard to explain it to Matty. I remember the day that I walked into a room to ask if there was any questions. The question began about heaven.

What's heaven going to be like? So one day we're going to have to sit down with your children and we're going to have to explain that on the sunny banks of Sweet Deliverance, the first arms they see will be Jesus and the second arms they'll see will be their daddy. Somebody though has to step into that gap while Austin's already on the other side. Somebody has to step in for the children. For a man who wanted to stand here today, wanted to hold his baby in front of this church and say with everything within him, I'll be the bridge. I am the wall and I'm standing in the gap for my children. He didn't get to say it. So we get to say it for him because that's what the church is for. When one parent cannot fill the gap and one family is left standing with a space that nobody should have to carry along, the church steps in. I showed you that when they can't defend it, the pastor's pulling beside them. The elder's pulling beside them. It's the Clay Bradleys sitting on the floor in nurseries, rocking babies to sleep as the head usher. It's when they come down to the altar and they don't know how to go and it's the Pete Mokes who step in and say, let me show you how to be led by Christ. It's the Hound Dog of Heavens. It's the Ernie Laquats who walk around and young people are just walking along beside him listening to a man of wisdom and a man of character and a man of integrity, a man filled with the Holy Spirit. And they're just walking. It's the church, the whole church joining together to stand in the gap. We come alongside of Maddie, the mother, and we become a wall around the children. We surround this family. We don't just do it for the single mother. We also do it for the parents because it doesn't take a village to raise a child. It takes a church.

If you ever come to my office very often, you'll hear these words. Come out of my mouth. Everything you need can be found within the four walls of a church Especially a church of this size Everything you need can be found within the four walls. You don't have to go look to the world The church has it you don't have to go out there and look for the palm readers. We can help you find the answers to life In the word of god everything you need can be found within the four walls of the church But we're going to surround these families today and say you're not standing in this gap by yourself We're standing here with you It's not a program It's not a ministry initiative It's the body of christ doing exactly what jesus designed the body of christ To say we don't let this gap stay empty. We fill it together So During this song The families who are going to have their children dedicated i'd like for you to come to the stage with your children And Thank you so much for joining us We pray that not only you are ministered to but you are blessed by the service If you want to make sure you hit that subscribe button that way you're notified when we upload any content or go live Please make sure to leave a comment Let us know what minister to you where you're watching from and how we can pray with you And if you want to help support click the give button You're helping us spread the gospel of jesus christ not only across the aisle and across the street But the message of jesus christ around the world. Thank you. We'll see you next time