Rescuing our Sons and Daughters

0:00 This week's message is rescuing our sons and daughters. I was there preaching actually, preaching and ministering. I preached in South Africa for a conference. My wife and I both spoke at a conference with thousands of people in this conference. and then I preached at several churches and then I did training for pastors training pastors on the things about developing, winning people to the Lord, how they can develop their churches I was so honored, they were so respectful and receptive we taught about discipling, how to create a culture of evangelism and a culture of discipleship and the pastors were so grateful, so receptive to us and I want to give a shout out to our production team because on one of the flights we was on this, you know, traveling over there like forever, eternity, it seemed like.

1:12 And while we was on the plane heading over there one day, one of the students says is that Pastor Jenkins I'm on a plane in another country seemed like another world and they got exposed to our production our production Let me give a shout out to our A1 Cracker Jack production team. 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 30. This is a familiar passage that we have talked about on many occasions, but I want to take it from a different vantage point today. 1 Samuel chapter 30. This is a passage where David is on the run. David is on the run because he killed Goliath, and he's on the run from the king.

2:07 King Saul is after him because the people have sang David's praise. They have celebrated David. They are rejoicing that he killed Goliath and Saul is jealous. So he goes about in an attempt to kill David. And David ends up running into a cave where there are a group of rejected men, rejects. They're in debt, they're discontent, and they're in distress. These men are the rejects of society, and they're hanging out in a cave. And they decide, when David comes in, to make David their leader. So David is their leader, and he leads them to the place where they join the Philistine army. They are members of the army of the Philistines.

3:08 That's unbelievable. They hear these Jewish men would join the enemy's camp. It's what they've done. It would be like a Redskins person joining the Cowboys camp. Somebody's going to be depressed in this area today after this afternoon. Somebody's going to be down. so when the general of the Philistine army sees these Jewish boys in his army he decides they can't they can't fight because they're they're the Philistines are about to fight the Israelites and he he rejects them he fires all of the men that were part of David's team of people that he calls them to come and these men, he rejects them. And they go home, they leave the army of the Philistines and go back to their camp, which is in a place called Ziklag, and they

5:51 I love this passage right here. I love how David's description says David strengthened himself. Sometimes you have to learn how to strengthen yourself. Amen. And what does that word strengthen mean? It means that he talked to himself. He gave hope to himself. Some of you got to learn. It's okay to talk to yourself. It just depends on what you're saying. Yes, in that video right there, the news today, Tamara was talking to Tamara. Y'all may not have realized that, but you got to learn what to say to yourself when things are not right. And what, again, amazed me about this passage is it says that their sons and their daughters have been taken captive. And they were weeping for their sons and their daughters. and what I want to talk to you today about is rescuing our sons and daughters because our sons and daughters have been taken captive.

6:47 Yeah. Yeah, our sons and daughters are under the control of society, under control of social media, under control of the culture of the day, under control that they're believing things that the world is telling them that's not right. And I'm coming, I tell you, we've been on a war to capture and reclaim our sons and our daughters. Amen. Look at these kids up here. I'm so proud of them. They would not dare. Wait, don't clap yet. Wait, wait. They would not dare be up here without their Bibles in their hands. I'm so proud of them. That's because I busted them out one Sunday. They didn't have their Bibles. They don't even have their phones. I'm so proud of y'all. y'all got it to in the first Samuel chapter 30? Let me check and see what you got there.

7:46 We got to capture our children. We got to get a hold of them. We got to do what's necessary because the next generation determines what happens with their kids, with their sons and their daughters. We are just one generation away of losing our kids to the kingdom of the enemy, but we need to have our children on fire for Jesus, on fire for the kingdom, on fire for the word of God. They might not like the things that we tell them. They might not agree. They might not want to be there, but it's okay. We have got to be determined to rescue our children and not let the enemy take them away. I wish I had a prayer and cry out with me here today. Amen. Amen. And not just our sons and our daughters, but our grandsons and our granddaughters.

8:36 I know this, how many of y'all got grandkids? How many of y'all got grandkids? Oh my God. Are you involved in their lives? Are you helping them to become what God wants them to become? Are you teaching them the things God wants you to teach them? Are you involved with the lives of your seed?

8:57 And the scripture says that they wept and they spoke of stoning David because every man, verse 6, the soul of the people was grieved. Why were they grieved? Because of their sons and daughters. so I want to talk to you today about how do we rescue our children I got three simple points today that I want to challenge you with your sons and your daughters and your grandsons and your granddaughters amen you may not have your grandchildren every day but you can play a role you can play a role on this Remix Sunday you can play a part with helping them become the children of God that God wants them to become Ephesians chapter 6 begins by saying this. This is Ephesians 6, 4.

9:53 It tells us about their spiritual development. Somebody say spiritual development. We have to play a part in spiritually developing our children. Now, the reason I talk about this for a few moments is because we are quick to take our kids to their games. We are quick to make sure they get involved and entangled with their sports. And I'm not against that. Don't hear me say that I'm against that. What I'm concerned about is when the spiritual games take priority and precedence over their spiritual development. Ephesians 6 and 4 says, And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. The very first responsibility we have is for us to develop our children spiritually.

10:51 That's why I'm proud of what we do here at First Baptist Church. I'm very proud of all of what we're doing with them. Kim Green is a children's director. Stand up, Kim. Smile at the people. Look at them. She's doing a great job. Her team, her team, and the team of people work with her. Because kids, I'm telling y'all, kids can drive you crazy. kids can make you cuss.

11:22 And I'm grateful I haven't cussed all day today. Somebody give God praise. I ain't said nothing today. Kids can drive you crazy. But they do it. They got an anointing. Where your team at? Who else is on your team? Stand up. Who else is on Kim Green's team? Who else? All the Sunday school teachers, all of the children's workers, they, they, they, okay, they probably coming to the next service. Thank you all. Give them a hand. Give all of these people a hand. Yeah, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you of investing in our kids. Amen. We invest a lot of resources in this church in children, developing our children to be what God wants them to be. We devoted a Sunday every month for the kids, for the children. They're in charge.

12:15 They're leading service. They're guiding. They're presiding. They read scripture. They pray. They do the welcome. They do all that things. But not only that, we are trying to train them in the things of God. You know what we're trying to do? I'm trying to get our young people to have a taste for the atmosphere of the presence of God. So they recognize what it's like to be in the presence of God. That's what I'm trying to get. We try to create an atmosphere of worship to the almighty God. Amen. So when they get in the club, they'll recognize this ain't the Lord. Come on, somebody. Y'all, I wish I had somebody say amen. So they will know that this is not what I learned at church. This is not the atmosphere of church. So, so, so I'm telling you today, the music you have in your house, the books, the shows you watch on television, the things you find joy in, you are setting a tone for what your children are going to like and want to listen to. All y'all, whoo!

13:13 Amen. This is the assignment of our church is the next generation. God wants us to spiritually develop our children. I've spent time training our kids. My wife did a wonderful job raising up our six kids. I'm so proud of her. And I just followed her lead because she has an anointing in that arena. She has an anointing. We homeschooled our kids. Amen. Didn't nobody say amen to that point right there. I'm going to talk about that in a moment, but our first priority is the spiritual development, and I want to challenge you parents while you're so busy making sure They go to their football practice and their basketball practice and their cheerleading activities.

14:08 I want you to have the same passion for them to come to Sunday school and children's ministry and all of the things that we make available to our at this church. You had a good church that we have made children a priority. here's my second point it's Proverbs 22 and 6 Proverbs chapter 22 and 6 it says train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it train up a child in the way he should go and here's what I call that the character educational and personal development of your child, the character, educational, and personal development of your children. Now, Proverbs 22 and 6 is telling us, see, my first point was about spiritual development. My second point is about the character of the child, the education of the child, and the personal development.

15:09 And what concerns me is we have relegated all of the education to our schools. We think the schools are going to do it. The school is not going to do it. I appreciate the teachers. I appreciate what they do. But I want you to understand it is our role as parents and grandparents to educate our children. The teachers are supposed to be a supplement to what we do with our kids. And yet we have made them the primary. We made them primarily responsible. And I'm saying to you today that God holds us accountable for shaping a child's behavior, shaping that child's character, shaping that child's personal development. If your child spends eight hours a day in school with the teacher and you get them in the evening, guess who's going to have the greatest influence on that child? Your teachers. Amen. And my assignment and my challenge to say to you today is that don't leave it to the school systems to shape your children. They want you to teach...

16:21 How do I want to say this? the culture wants you to teach your child that they get to choose which sex they are. That's what the culture wants you to teach your child. They don't know what they are. It's a very easy way to tell what your child is. I ain't saying nothing. I'm just looking down. We have the responsibility of discovering how to help our child grow.

17:30 By the way, every child has giftings that God put in that child. And our role as parents is to help them discover how God wired them for his assignment. That's right. His purposes for their life. So as we grew up, we had six, my wife and I had, well, my wife had six kids. I didn't have the six kids. But we raised our six children. And each one of them had a particular way that God wired them. And our job is to discover for the purposes of God's kingdom to figure out how God wired that child and help enhance, help build it, help build on that, how God wired them for his kingdom. I am persuaded, and I know as I was growing up, even as a young man, I know that the way God wired me, I would have never thought I would be a pastor speaking to people every day. As a matter of fact, I used to be afraid of talking to people, in front of people.

18:39 But somehow or another, God put me in situations where I thrived when I was a young kid teaching Sunday school. A young kid teaching other kids Sunday school. As a matter of fact, that's how you know when children's ministry is going, when children are teaching other children. That's how you know. when older kids are teaching younger kids. And I had that opportunity as a young man. It was setting me up for the purpose and the assignment that God had for me for my life is those opportunities. And I was given those opportunities by leaders in this church who saw something in me, who recognized something in me. And my mother who saw to it that she brought me to church every Sunday. My mother brought me to church every week, every Sunday. Nothing, nothing. Matter of fact, I can't remember the last time I didn't go to church.

19:32 It's so indwelled and drained inside of me. It's so built inside of me. I can't remember the last Sunday I didn't go to church. They didn't answer him a word because y'all can't say that. You can't say that. You can't say that. I feel like if Sunday comes and I don't go to church, I feel like something's wrong. I done missed something.