Raising Confident and Courageous Christian Kids

Children are the future of the church, and they need more than good advice. In this message, Pastor Chris Teien shares practical, biblical ways to help children develop a strong faith that will prepare them to stand confidently for Christ in an increasingly challenging culture.

God has entrusted parents, grandparents, and the church with the responsibility of passing biblical truth to the next generation. This message explains seven practical ways to meet the spiritual needs of children by modeling authentic faith, teaching God's Word, developing godly habits, and preparing young people to follow Jesus with courage and conviction.

In This Message:

1. Lead Children to Know and Love God

A child's spiritual foundation begins with adults who genuinely love and follow the Lord. This message encourages parents, grandparents, and the entire church to model authentic faith while helping children develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Psalm 78:1-8; Matthew 19:13-15)

2. Build a Biblical Foundation for Life

Children need more than Bible knowledge. They need God's truth impressed upon their hearts through daily conversations, prayer, Scripture, and faithful example. This message explains practical ways to help children develop a biblical worldview before culture shapes their thinking. (2 Timothy 1:5; Joshua 24:15; Psalm 119:11; 2 Timothy 3:14-17)

3. Prepare the Next Generation to Stand Firm

Christian children can become confident, courageous followers of Christ when they are grounded in the gospel and trained in godly habits. This message encourages believers to teach children to pray, develop spiritual disciplines, understand baptism and communion, and stand faithfully for Christ throughout their lives. (Proverbs 22:6; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Colossians 2:6-7; Ephesians 6:10-18)

Takeaway

Invest intentionally in the next generation by modeling authentic faith, teaching God's Word, praying with children, and helping them build a biblical foundation that will prepare them to follow Jesus for the rest of their lives.

Illustrations

• Children at Big Sandy Camp remind us that they are full members of the body of Christ and often teach adults important spiritual lessons.

• Waiting too long to teach children about biblical truth allows culture to shape their thinking before parents have the opportunity.

• Young King Josiah demonstrates that God can use children and young people who are committed to following Him.

Key Quotes

"Children are the future church."

"We need to give our children the right information before the world gives them the wrong information."

"Don't beat them over the head with the Bible. Show them that it is a life guide that leads to a great adventure."

Search Topics

Christian parenting, raising godly children, discipleship, Deuteronomy 6, family ministry, biblical parenting, Christian families, spiritual growth, children and faith, Pastor Chris Teien

Full Episode & Transcript:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/17843818

25.0914der 7 Ways to Help Meet the Spiritual Needs of Children

Helping you apply God's Word and follow Jesus in everyday life. Learn more at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.church  Find episode transcripts at Well.faith 

Transcript

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Chris T 0:16

Seven ways to help meet the spiritual needs of children. I know some of you are like, my children are already gone, already growing. I don't have children. How does this apply to me? Well, you all see children. There's children everywhere. There are many opportunities for us to connect with children. Maybe you're young. Maybe you're going to have children. Maybe you're going to adopt children. Maybe you will have an opportunity to minister to children that come here. But children, as you know, are our future. Children are the future church. Children are what we need to invest in. And it seems like the whole world is trying to lure the children away from Christ and to teach them things that are not true when it comes to morality and sexuality and all sorts of other things. And if we don't stand against it, if we don't stand up for what we believe and proclaim what is true, no one else is going to do it. So there are so many people who are afraid to do it. Some quotes that I was not able to verify, but I believe they are quo are close. Billy Graham said the greatest legacy one can pass on to one's children and grandchildren is not money or material things, but rather a legacy of character and faith. Paul David Tripp said parenting is not first about what we want for our children or from our children, but about what God in grace has planned to do through us and our children, do through us in our children. So another Christian leader said, Your greatest contribution to the kingdom of God may not be something you do, but someone you raise. I really like that one. I really like that one. And I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time talking about Charlie Kirk. I actually don't know everything about Charlie Kirk. I know that when I exercise, I have a TV and I like to watch YouTube Shorts, and I know that he showed up a lot. And I like the way that he would kindly debate students, especially on college campuses, that had some pretty outlandish things to say. And I liked reading about the people whose lives were changed when he pushed back and tried to get them to think clearly about what is true and what is important. But children, children are important. Children are so important that I'm actually like re this is a sequel. This is a sequel to the message that I had on February 16th. Love and action shapes the next generation. And I mentioned this before, but just about every Sunday when I leave this church, I get into my car and I pray, Lord, I hope it was good enough. I don't know if that's defective or if that's a good thing to say, but I only take a half an hour to 40 minutes at the most. And there are so many things we could say about children. And I listened to this message, the one from the past, and thought about this one for today, which is so important. And next week we're going to talk about marriage and biblical sexuality, which is so important as we're in the series on being authentic in our faith. And then the final one in the series is I'm not okay, where we talk about depression and stuff like that. Those are all important about the authentic Christian life. But so I want to revisit it, and it's like a sequel. Have you ever gone to a movie and there's a sequel? And so they give you some of the stuff that was in the first one so that if you're watching the second one, you have a general idea of what's going on. So the first one was more about how it's important for us to share our faith with others. And this one, I hope, will be more about how to give you an idea of some practical ways that you can help meet the spiritual needs of children and what they need, because those things are so important. And also some of the scriptures that we went through have changed. Like the last time in February, we had just looked at Psalm 71 that talked about sharing our faith, passing on our faith to the next generation, to all who are to come. And then that was Psalm 71. Last week we looked at Psalm 78. So let me just read some of the passages, and then I want to show you a movie clip of kids talking about how we need to treat them, which I it's a few years old, but it's pretty good. Um let me just read. Deuteronomy the Shema. Deuteronomy 6 Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads, write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. And then last week we looked at Psalm 78. It said, We will not hide them, these truths, these historical things, these things that God did through us, whether they were good or bad. We will not hide them from their descendants. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power and his wonders he has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach their children. So the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children, and that they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds, but would keep his commands. And then Jesus said, Matthew 19, as the people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and to pray for them. The disciples rebuked them, and Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. And when he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there. So Jesus was about kids. Jesus is like, Don't keep the kids from coming to me. I'm not too important to connect with the kids, to touch the kids, to be with the kids. So I'm not sure how many years ago this was, like seven years ago. The children's ministry director for the Christian and missionary alliance made a really great video at Big Sandy Camp out in McGregor, Minnesota. And even though it's been a few years, I think it's got some timeless truths as these kids talk about adults and how they're treated and spirituality. And I really think it applies to this message, so let's watch this.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

We go from a lot and people still see us and people who need teaching of a mate when we need to pretend like everything's okay. We need it a lot more than a month's link in the thing that we shouldn't like keep anything for months because we might understand what we're saying. Must be what I really think. I'm a member of the body of Christ. I don't have the miniature version of the body.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

It's comments and it's thoughts like that that remind me so often how we as adults overlook kids. And it's really easy to do. We're filming today from Big Sandy Camp up in the northern part of Minnesota. It's one of our alliance camps, and I'm so privileged to be here and be the speaker this week because this is a camp I came to as a kid. And even at the age of seven, God was working in my heart. He was calling me to ministry. He was molding and shaping me, and he was breaking my heart from lost people. God isn't work in kids. Now it's easy to overlook kids because they're small and you can see them over the top of them. And sometimes we think they don't understand the limit or we think they don't get everything. And yet, they do. And honestly, I have learned more about the character of God through kids than I have through anyone else. Their questions and their pursuit of Jesus have major mind closer to Jesus. They constantly get into the word more rigorously, and they constantly are challenging me. And they believe in the front of me and the rest of the one of 1 Timothy for Twin. Which is anyone because they're young. Setting an example for the believers. And then is what is my challenge to you and my family. And to see them intimidating members, interpreting members of the body of Christ. And ask them what they're thinking about guns and ask them to pray with them. And ask them to speak into us. And understand that God isn't working them. And when we overlook them, we miss a piece of what God desires to show us.

Chris T 9:11

Alright, so some of those kids, you wouldn't agree with them. You should hide some things from kids, but you should probably tell some kids more of what's going on and why you choose to respond and why you choose to react and what the problem is and how you're praying for a solution and let them know some of the things. So it's not just this big whispering mystery. But to lead kids to know and love God, to allow them to come into a personal relationship and to experience that. Hopefully you have experienced that. It's hard to lead and to give kids something that you don't have. So maybe you need to work on your relationship with Christ. And there are so many resources. We try to make resources available. There's books, we've got a big library over here. We use right now media that has videos. And if you like search parenting, it gives you all sorts of different videos that you can watch for different age groups, and there's just so many resources out there. And if you are a parent, then you need to become a student of parenting. You need to learn the different ways to lead your kids to follow Jesus. Some of them work and some of them don't. And some of the books you look at, and I remember one, one parenting book I read, showed four different types of kids. And so it was like one of my kids, and I'm like, Yeah, my kid made his own box. He's not in any, he said, yeah, that's not him. And so you find what works for you, we find what's good, but we want to do everything we can to pray for our kids, to spend time with our kids, and to lead our kids in a way that helps them to grow spiritually, helps them to grow. Now, again, I've already read this, but love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. So this Shema, this is something that the children were taught at an early age to memorize and recite. They would say this in the morning, they would say this during the day. It was something that was repeated over and over again, repeated morning and evening, and it shaped their identity as they learned to recite that the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. There's a lot of kids that are taught they're supposed to discover themselves, to find themselves. There's some people that think that they shouldn't impress Christianity on their kids. They should let kids just grow up and find it on their own if that's what they choose to do. And I think that is a terrible idea. If you're a Christian parent, that's the worst idea ever. That's not even godly to fall for that lie. But to know that we need to train up the kids to know that God is the creator, God is the one that we worship, God is the one in control, that God is important to us. Jesus said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. So when we love God and we show that to our kids, hopefully they can see in us something worth following, something that is different, that they would gain a spiritual backbone, that they would have a spiritual foundation, that they would have a moral compass, a spiritual compass. Not just based on our good character or morals, but on God's word, that we would teach them the reason that we think this, the reason that we do this, the reason that we stand for these things is because this is what scripture says. So we don't beat them over the head with the Bible like it's a rule book. Instead, we show them it is a life guide that leads to a great adventure. And as our kids become more age appropriate, and when they reach a certain age, you can tell them certain things. However, I was part of a church years ago that wanted to do everything they could to tell the young kids about biblical sexuality, about how God made men and women and how babies are made and everything like that, and they wanted to beat the school to it. And in the church was a medical doctor and a lady that would do, like she had a crisis pregnancy center thing that she helped run, and she would go do assemblies and schools and stuff like that. So they set out to make this curriculum, and they're like, we got to get the kids before sixth grade, we got to get them before they head to school for sixth grade, and then the school's like, we're doing it in fifth grade. They're like, we got to get the kids before their fifth grade. And then I heard something about fourth grade, and it's like we've got to get to the kids and the parents before the public school does, because we want them to know a biblical view of marriage. And they were really smart about it. They're like, hey, parents, this is what we're gonna teach your kids. And it was surprising because some of the parents are like, I never knew that. And but it was a biblical view, and it was important to do, and that's what we need to do now in our society is we need to get the information there first. Now, that doesn't mean you need to tell everything. There's great books and things to help you and some of those right now media videos and stuff, but you need to give your kids the right information before the world or some kid on the playground gives them other information that isn't correct. And you might say, Well, I homeschool my kids, so we're safe, but that's not true. If you let your kids out at all, they'll find some kid here, something at the playground, or some other kid or Christian kid or whatever, and you just want to get them to the point where they're like, you know what, that's not even true because my parents showed me that the Bible says this, and that is a great way to be. It's a great thing when your kids want to do what's right because they know it's the right thing to do, and because they don't want to hurt you, they don't want to disappoint you, and they don't want to displease God. Those are great things. Second Timothy 1, Paul writes about Timothy. I'm reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois, and in your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded now lives in you also. These ladies were living out the Christ's life, living out, well, they were before probably living it out. Grandma was living it out before Christ even came. But nonetheless, they were living out their faith, and Timothy picked it up. Timothy had that example. Are you that example? Could you be that example? What could you do to be that example? Think about the children who are following your lead. Think about the children that you are preparing and raising up. Joshua 24, 15. Joshua makes a commitment and he's like, hey, I'm gonna follow the Lord. If you don't want to follow the Lord, that's fine. But we're this is what we're doing in my household. And that's the place where you are the king or queen of your domain, is your household. When the kids, when the grandkids, whenever people are over at your house, you can control the TV, you can control the music, you can control it all, because it's your house, and you should. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourself this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors serve beyond the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites, see those are small G's, false gods, in whose land you are living, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. And that is a great place to serve the Lord. It's a great place to lead by example. Again, Barna and Life Way research consistently shows that the single most important influence on a child's lifelong faith is the example of parents, not sermons, not Sunday school, not youth group. Those matter. But the faith that kids see at home when they watch you pray, forgive, give, and prioritize God, that shapes them far more than what they hear on Sunday. So, someone said they heard a story about a young boy who, when asked what God was like, answered, God is like my dad, only bigger. That would be such a compliment, such a cool thing. And in Genesis 18, 19, God says, I've chosen him. This is talking about Abraham, that he will direct his children, so that he will direct his children in his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised. And we need to do that. We can we can lead, we can guide, we can direct, we can teach, and we can do these things. And if you listen to the message from February, I talked a lot about sharing your testimony and helping them to understand your spiritual roots and where you came from and stuff. And those are really good. But number two, to impress God's word on their hearts, to impress God's word on their hearts so that they, like I said, would have a foundation, a manual worth following, for following, which means you have to help them to rightly divide the word of truth, to help them to understand how it's not a novel, it is 60, it's a library of 66 books. Help them to realize how to understand what the Old Testament means to us under the Old Covenant, what the New Testament means, and to help them to learn about those different things so that they can have the skills to use scripture and to share scripture with others. So again, we looked at Deuteronomy 6, 6 and 7. But here we have commandments and to impress them on your children. So impress, the Hebrew word means to engrave, like carving into stone. So not a casual suggestion. It's a command to press God's word deep into the hearts of our children through constant conversation, repetition, and example. The goal is information. The goal is not information, but transformation. And when? So I think I mentioned before that I would take my son and his friend to like midnight showings of different movies because it gave me the opportunity to talk with them on the way there and on the way back. So it gave me like 20, 25 minutes to say whatever I wanted to on the way. And they were all excited to listen because I was doing something they wanted, and then maybe even try to apply some of the movie things to scripture in their life. They were teenagers. Yeah, pretty sure I saw a few Star Wars movies when they first released at midnight. Interesting. We try to bridge uh spiritual things to that, but you be creative as a parent or a grandparent, and you do what you can to help teach them. Again, Paul talks about Timothy and the grandparents, how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. I was reading that it's really important for us to read Bible stories to babies that while they might not seem to be able to question or understand fully, to read basic Bible stories to kids from infancy to teach them about scripture. And there are books that talk about age characteristics of children. I actually had a class many years ago on the age characteristics of children. Like you're not supposed to make a toddler sit in a chair for a really long time because that's like torture. So you let them up and around and you can still talk and teach while they're moving and dancing around and whatever else. But to try to figure out what is it they're able to understand, what is it they're able to comprehend, what is good teaching for that age, and there are so many resources out there. But if you are a parent or grandparent and you have an opportunity, send them Bibles, send them resources, spend time with them if you can, reading scripture and things like that. If I could be a parent again, I would probably spend more time reading the Bible one-on-one to my kids. I thought it was taken care of because we homeschooled and it was in the curriculum. But when I look back, it's I I shouldn't have delegated that one. I wish that I would have done that more. Psalm 119, 11. I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Helping kids to understand scripture and helping them to hide it in their heart so that it might stay there for a lifetime is huge. It is a great thing for us to get scripture into the hearts of children where they know it, where they remember it. And you can, like I mentioned in the last message, you can reward them for it. My parents and grandparents gave me money to memorize Bible verses at first. Maybe that's a good idea. Colossians 3 16, let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. I'm not gonna put the verses on the screen, but a Old Testament example is in 2 Kings chapter 22, young King Josiah. So he 22 verse 1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. That's a really young age to be king. I don't think that he was doing edicts and doing peace treaties and whatever. I'm pretty sure he had a bunch of advisors or surrounded him. Him as he was growing up. But it is interesting that you have no idea what age that God can start using kids, that God can start speaking to kids. Melissa in the video mentioned that she felt God was calling her to ministry at a young age, and now she's a like a professional consultant doing children's ministry stuff. And God's just worked in her life. But Josiah shows us the kids are not too young to follow God. As Josiah continued to grow, he did even more. Second Chronicles 34, 3 says, In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. So what is that? That's eight and eight. So he's 16 years old and he gets serious about following God. He gets serious of following God and personally seeking the Lord. So at age 20, the twelfth year of his reign, he took action, initiating reforms, tearing down the idols, and cleansing the temple. And as they did that, at age 26, in the 18th year of his reign, he ordered repairs to the temple, and that while they were doing that, they found the book of the law. It was rediscovered, and he didn't he commanded that it be read to everybody, and he was pushing for spiritual renewal. He was a good, godly king. And I don't know where the foundation for that would have been if it wasn't for maybe his mother and some of the advisors and things like that. So I'm not sure what your role is. Maybe you're a father, maybe you're a mother, maybe you're a grandfather, maybe you're a grandmother, maybe you're an advisor, maybe you're a coach, maybe you have opportunities to connect with the neighborhood kids. So many ways to share God's Word. You can read it aloud, you can memorize verses together. You can ask questions about scripture to impress upon their hearts. Number three, teach them to pray and listen to God. Teach them to pray and listen to God. Teaching them to pray is more than just wrote prayer, like now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Beyond that, and more than, you know, God bless mommy and daddy and the dog, beyond that too, but to get into praying for real things in a real way, teaching them to pray. We all need to learn to pray. Even the disciples that were hanging out with Jesus said, Jesus, teach us to pray better. One day when Jesus was praying in a certain place, when he finished, one of his disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples. And that is a good thing to pray yourself. Lord, teach me to pray. Lord, teach me to pray and help me to teach my kids, my family to pray. What can we pray about? We can pray about everything. You know, kids get anxious, parents get anxious. Upcoming tests, medical diagnosis, struggling to pay the bills, things like that. Again, you don't have to give your kids all the details on the struggle of the bills and stuff because you want them to feel safe and all. But on the other hand, to pray that God would provide, that God would help, that God would guide. Philippians 4 6 says, Don't be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with your thanksgiving, present your requests to God. What a great thing for old people and young people and kids to be involved in. An old testament example that you might remember is that Hannah brought Samuel, and Eli was raising him in the temple. And so young Samuel is lying there, and he's hearing voices. And I don't think that you'll probably hear voices. God could speak to you audibly, but anyway, Samuel keeps hearing these voices. And so Eli, Eli's like, hey, it's not me. Maybe it's the Lord. So go and lie down, and if he calls you, you say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. So Samuel went and lay down in his place and said that. And then a message was revealed, and Eli's like, You gotta tell me what he said. And Samuel's like, No, I don't think you want to hear it. And Eli's like, No, may God deal with you ever so severely if you hide anything from me. What did he say? And basically, he said that God is disappointed that you have allowed your sons to do all this sin and you're gonna pay for it. And so that was a scary message for a kid. But anyway, the idea is that God can speak to the heart of kids, and God can do great things through the life of the kids. I thought it was interesting in that video that that kid said, we don't have a junior version of the Holy Spirit. That's true, you don't. Jesus says, The advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you everything I have said to you. So, number four, show them faith in action. Show them your faith in action. Tie them when you tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads and write them on the door frames of your houses and gates, that is to be a reminder. So you could do that. Matter of fact, you could probably go to Hobby Lobby and get some great stuff that you could put on your walls and your door frames that say stuff about scripture that would be an encouragement. But to make scripture a priority, to make scripture something that you want to apply to your life and then to show them your faith in action. Tell them maybe what you did and why you did it or how you care, and together as a family, we're gonna help provide for these people, but shh, don't tell anybody because it's a secret. But we want to show them that Jesus loves them and Jesus cares. What a good thing. Could we be like Paul that says, Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ? That would be a great thing. A great thing. Unfortunately, some of us hear the message, some of us come to church, some of us hear all these things, and we listen to Christian music and we go, Oh, that was a great message, and we take lots of notes, but we don't put it into practice. Sometimes our kids can see. James 1.22 says, Don't merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves to do what it says. And so number five, train them in godly habits. Train them in godly habits to teach them how to have daily devotions, teach them how to live the Christian life, teach them how to live out their values. Proverbs 22, six, start children off in the way they should go, and even when they're old, they will not turn from it. So when they're under your roof, when they're in your house, you have a lot more opportunity to guide them and direct them than you do when they get out on their own. It is a good thing when they are in the habit of spending time in God's Word, maybe the habit of praying before the meal, maybe a habit of being able to share their faith, or to be really discerning and ask questions about things and from a spiritual, scriptural standpoint to think, okay, what would Jesus think of that? How would the Bible answer that? Is this good or bad? Where does this to get them into those habits, to train them in those godly habits and to filter their lives, have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales, rather, train yourself to be godly, to get them started in that, to get them excited about that. It says for physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for the present life and the life to come. Some kids, their life is sports, and their parents are good with that. There needs to be a balance. There needs to be a balance. Sports is good, physical exercise is good, but spiritual training is even more important to facilitate that. So if you are homeschooling, there's curriculum. You can even tie your science and your history and stuff into biblical curriculum. Great thing. If you're sending your kid to the Christian school, you still want to do everything you can to train those kids up to be godly. If you're sending them to the public school, you have even more work cut out for you, but you make it a priority. You make it a priority to train them in spiritual things and to discipline them, to help them to learn self-discipline and to discipline them. No discipline, Hebrews 12, 11. No discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. What a good thing, what a good thing to be trained by it. I don't have time to look into it, but if you remember the story of Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego getting carried off into Babylon when they're teenagers, and they stood up and they're like, Man, we're not gonna defile our God. Can we please just eat these vegetables and not this other food that's been offered to false gods? And can we do this and can we live this way and we're gonna do this thing? These teenagers had a foundation built in them when they were carried off to another land in captivity, out of the reach of their parents, that could have done anything they wanted to. They're like, nope, we're gonna stand up for Jesus, and that's the kind of thing we're trying to do. We're trying to prepare, we're trying to guide, we're trying to raise up these kids. Number six, guide them to true faith before baptism and communion. This is just a really short point here, but we all know that as believers, we're supposed to be baptized. And we can baptize people here, it's a great thing. And to take communion is a good thing. But a part that is a problem, and we always ask kids that want to be baptized, is why do you want to be baptized? Sometimes kids think that it's really gonna please my parents or my grandparents, or we're gonna have a baptism party afterwards, or I heard that I get baptized, I get baptism cards and money, or I heard somebody celebrated their first communion and it was celebrated, and to let them know what it means and to make sure that your kids don't take communion until they're truly saved and they know what it means. It is not cracker and juice time, it is a serious ordinance, a thing that we are supposed to remember, and so we need to guide our children in that and to make sure that the motives are pure and the knowledge is good. First Corinthians 11 28 says everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink of the cup. So that's important. And then my final point, number seven, anchor them in the gospel to stand firm. Anchor them in the gospel to stand firm, to know the gospel. First Corinthians 15 gives a summary of the gospel. What I received, I passed on to you, of the first important, that then that Christ died for our sins according to scriptures, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to scriptures. And so have them know the gospel, to live out the gospel, Colossians 2, 6. Then, as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. And anchor them too is spiritual warfare, like in Ephesians 6, to be putting on the full armor of God and to be living out that way. But all of those things are important. There are so many different resources out there. Sometimes at my own website at christine.com, I put stuff out there like I just put out a list that I found of 50 different things, 50 different Bible stories that you could share with your kids, 25 Old Testament, 25 New Testament, to build courage in their life, to help them to grow in their faith and to be courageous Christ followers. So you could find that there. But next time we get together, we're gonna talk about honoring biblical marriage. That means the whole church needs to honor marriage. We need to stand for biblical marriage between one woman and one man for the rest of their life. And so to stand upon that is a good thing. But I'm gonna pray, Jesus, I thank you so much for everybody that came here today. There are so many things that could be said about this, about meeting spiritual needs of kids. But Lord, help us to be used by you to meet the needs of kids. Lord, to value children, to just look with great opportunity at all that can be done. Maybe we help them to go to camp. Maybe we help fund them to go to college, Bible college, if we can. Uh Lord, help us to be used by you. If there's anybody here that doesn't know you as our Lord and Savior, we pray that they would ask us before they leave what that means. We could give them one of those How to Find God New Testaments, help them start their spiritual journey. But we just thank you for it all. We thank you for your word and we thank you for this time. Now we're gonna sing in Jesus' name. Amen.