In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of teaching children to flee from all appearance of evil. He highlights the contrast between the world's standards and the standards of Christians, stating that Christians should not rely on the world's ratings of movies but instead clean up their own homes and media choices. The preacher also discusses how God gave people up to uncleanness and dishonoring their bodies due to their rejection of the truth and belief in lies. He urges parents to pray for their children's path and teaches that presenting our bodies as living sacrifices and not conforming to the world is the acceptable and perfect will of God.

All God's people said, Amen. If you have your Bible, pronounce your eternal name if you will to Lamentations chapter 2. Amen. Anybody have a great prayer time this morning? Amen. Amen. Sure makes the day go different when you spend an hour alone with the Lord, doesn't it? Six prayers for our children. Let's all stand together in honor of God's word. Lamentations chapter 2. In verse 19. If you don't have your Bible with you or you haven't turned to it in your Bible, it's at the top of your sermon outline. There in page number 7, I believe. Is it page number 7? Is that right? Okay. Lamentations chapter 2, verse 19. The Bible says, Arise, cry out in the night. In the beginning of the watches, pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord. Folks, I'm telling you, there's some praying going on right here. Amen. Lift up thy hands toward Him for the life of thy young children that faint for hunger in the top of every street. I got news for you tonight. We have young people in our churches, in our streets, in our schools all across America out on the streets, fainting for hunger in the top of every street. Maybe it's not a physical hunger. Sometimes it's even that. But it's a hunger for affection, hunger for companionship, hunger for a daddy, hunger for a mama, hunger for the things of the world. Folks, I'll tell you something. Our children are starving to death today in America. And it's our prayer tonight that we'll learn how to pray for our children that they'd be filled with all the fullness that God has to do in their life. Amen. In your own children's lives. So we pray for other children. I'll tell you, this is a prayer we need to pray for the children at Brewer High School all around us. We need to pray for our children. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, tonight we come to you in a special way in asking you in Jesus' name to pour out your Spirit upon this place. I pray, Heavenly Father, right now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the authority of God's Word and by the power of His shed blood that you'd bind Satan and every spirit of unbelief, lukewarmness, indifference, apathy, pride, procrastination, presumption. I pray that every thought in this room would be brought into captivity into the obedience of Jesus Christ, of every man, woman, boy, and girl here tonight. Begin with me, Lord, as I preach the Word of God. Father, I pray in Jesus' name that, Lord, that you'd speak to us so clearly from your Word. Lord, I pray that we'd not just be hearers of your Word, but we'd be doers as well. I pray, Holy Spirit of God, you'd have a freedom to convict and to convert people here tonight. Heavenly Father, we don't come just to be challenged. We come to be changed tonight, Lord. Lord, we have children that are in desperate, dire need of our prayers tonight, Lord. And I pray in Jesus' name that, Lord, when we leave this place, Lord, we'll have a burden upon our hearts to pray for our children like we've never had before. Lord, thank God for praying mamas and daddies and grandmas and grandpas. Lord, I thank you, Lord, for my grandmother who prayed for me. Lord, I thank you for my great-aunt that prayed for me when I was a little guy. Lord, I thank you, Lord, for the prayers of mamas and daddies and relatives and people that love children. Lord, we're praying for our children tonight. We're rising, we're crying out in the night, Lord, for our children. Lord, they're fainting from hunger at the top of every street. Lord, I pray in Jesus' name you'd give us souls tonight for the kingdom's sake. I pray, Father, that you'd give us prayer warriors for the sake of our children. Lord, we love you so much. Let's pray together tonight. Dear Lord Jesus, please speak to my heart tonight. Help me to do what you say. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. In your sermon outline notebook there, I want you to see, number one, as we pray for our children, we need to pray for their path. P-A-T-H. Pray for their path. P-A-T-H. 3 John 4 has become my life verse for my children. I was having my Bible study a few years ago and going through 3 John, and I'm sure I'd read it several, I don't know how many times before, but, I mean, it's really neat. I tell you, when you're having your Bible study time and a verse just jumps off the page at you, don't pass it up without writing it down in your prayer notebook. Because God has just spoken to you. If y'all were experiencing God, as I understand that you did, Henry Blackaby and Claude King explained that so explicitly, that God speaks to us through His Word, through His Holy Spirit, through the church, through circumstances sometimes, and through the witness of the Spirit. Amen? God is speaking to mankind today, and I tell you where He speaks the most clearly is through His Word. Amen? God's Word, this is the voice of God. I have a message that I preach in evangelistic meetings, and I'll be preaching here in May, I'm sure I will, entitled The Voice of God. And it's a message the Lord gave me from Jeremiah a couple of years ago, and He put it before my heart everywhere I go to preach that message. I sure want to preach it this week, but it's not the time. God hasn't given us the freedom to do that. But this is the voice of God. I said this is the voice of God. Amen? And God is speaking to us today. And so when God gives you a verse, folks, when you're having your Bible study time, and I assume that you are, if you're not, your back's livid and carnal and need to get a ride or save one. Amen? I mean to tell you, folks, this Word is a lamp under our feet and a light under our path. That's one of the verses you need to write down. In fact, write down that verse right now. Psalms 119, verse 105. Psalms 119, verse 105. The Bible says God's Word is a lamp under our feet and a light under our path. So if I'm praying for my children's path, amen, my children are going to have to follow this book. Are you all out there? Look at 3 John 4. I love this verse. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Now would you agree with me that there's not anything in this present world that brings you any more joy as a believer than to know that your children are following and loving the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen? Let me ask you a question. Is truth a principle or is truth a person? Truth is a person. Jesus said in John 14, 6, I am the way and the truth and the life. So if my children are going to walk on the right path, they're going to have to follow Jesus. Now watch here, Daddy. They're going to have to be able to follow you to find Him. Mama, Grandma, Grandpa, they're going to have to be able to follow right in your footsteps to find the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's put it this way. They ought to be able to do that. Some children find the Lord without following in their parents' footsteps. I was one. It was just a miracle. I was 35 years old when I got saved. And 35 years old, the first time I heard John 3, 16. I wasn't raised up in a Christian home. And I'm not going to tell you, listen to me, I'm not going to tell you that because you pray every prayer in this page and do everything that God's called you to do and everything, still that your children will end up following Jesus. But I can tell you this one thing. If you train them up in the way they should go, that's to follow on the path. I'm talking about from the crib all the way up. If you train them up in the way they go, the Bible says when they're older, they won't depart from it. Now, there was a prodigal son. There are prodigal son children out there. Their fathers raised them up right, and they turned off and went off to the far country. But I can tell you one thing, there's not but one story about the prodigal son in the Bible. It's not the norm. The norm is when you raise up a child in the way he should go, he won't depart from it. Amen. That is the majority of the time you raise up a child to follow Jesus, and you live that life in front of him. Now, I'll tell you something. You really want to get a kid off and left field, you tell him one thing and do another. Son, you get them so confused it's unbelievable. But John 4 says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. There's nothing in this world that brings a parent more joy, and a grandparent more joy, than to know that their children are walking in truth. But let me tell you something. The other side of that coin is, there's not anything in this world that I know of that brings a parent or a grandparent more heartache than to know that their children are not walking with God. That is if you care. John said, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Proverbs 3, verse 5 and 6. The Bible says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thine own understanding, but in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy what? Path. Pray for their path. Pray that they'll always follow Jesus. Psalms 119, verse 105 says, God's Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. See, you cannot separate Jesus from the Word of God. You hear me. Jesus was and is the living Word of God. When Jesus died there on that cross, when he died, he stretched out those precious nail-pierced hands, and he said, Telestai, paid in full. What he was saying, he fulfilled everything in this book. I've got a new study I'm doing on all of the messianic prophecies of the Lord Jesus Christ. A fellow gave me, in fact, my associate pastor, our associate pastor, who lettered the back of the bus, put that letter on the back of the bus for me here just a couple of months ago. He gave me a sheet of paper with all the messianic prophecies of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's so neat, because I tell you something, if you got those down, you can really witness to a Jew real well. See, the only thing they're going to go by is Old Testament. I tell you something, Jesus, Jesus is the king of this book from Genesis to Revelation. Amen. And when Jesus died there on that cross, he said, paid in full. It is finished. He finished and fulfilled everything God called him to do right here in this book. Friend, I'm going to tell you something. You'll have no greater joy than to hear that your children are following God's Word. And by the way, not just while they're young, but when they go off to college. So they don't go off to college and get under some fuzzy headed professor that says in the beginning man evolved out of a big bang. See, listen to me. You pray that your children will always walk in truth. Always. Always. Not just when they're young, but when they get out on their own. Are y'all out there? I've seen young people in school and in high school and everything. They're doing fine. They're coming to church and everything. They get out and they go off to college and they get under some stupid fuzzy headed professor that says, you know, we all evolved from apes or something. I tell young people, I said, you know, if somebody tells you that, you tell them their ancestors might have swung through trees, but yours walked in the garden. Thank you very much. Amen. Big bang baloney. The world didn't start with a big bang, but it will end with a big bang. Pray that your children would always walk in truth. Nothing could break the heart of a parent more than to know that they raised their children up to walk in truth and then they didn't do it. Keep praying for them. Claim God's Word. Claim God's Word. That they'd walk in truth. Stand on God's Word. See, let me tell you something. That's the reason I gave you that sermon outline notebook. I'm going to tell you how much confidence I have in myself. Zero. Now, something you might be proud of yourself. You're proud of how many degrees you got. You're proud of your performance. You're proud of your knowledge. You're proud of this. You're proud of that. But I'm going to tell you something. I don't have anything to be proud of. Even if I had all that. I'll tell you one thing I am proud of. This book right here. Man, I'm going to tell you something. Heaven and Earth are going to pass away, but God's Word is not going to pass away. You want to build your children on the good solid foundation. You build upon the Word of God. Let me tell you something. You can build a family on this book. You can build a church on this book. You can build a nation on this book. This nation was built on this book. In fact, that's what we need today. We need a revival of the Bible. Exactly what we need. Pray that they'd walk in truth. Pray for their path. Number two, pray for their plans. Pray for their plans. Amen? Now, as your children and my children, your grandchildren and my grandchildren are on a path, they're going to have some plans in their life. Amen? Are y'all out there? I'll start preaching to the choir. Don't make me preach to the choir. Look what Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11 through 13 says. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. See, I don't know what God's plans are for my children, but God knows His plans. Amen? Isn't that good? I'm not going to try to make a preacher out of my son. If he wants to be one, and God calls him to be that, if that's God's plan for his life, praise God. But if it's not, I don't want him out of the will of God. Do you hear what I'm telling you? I know God's plan is for him to serve the Lord somehow, some capacity, but maybe it's not in full-time ministry. Maybe it's doing something else. But he'll be serving the Lord. Amen? He's secular for a Christian. Everything's sacred. I don't care what kind of job you've got. I was a barber for 30 years. The first 12 years of my being saved, my Christian life, I was a barber. That's a good place to preach. Get somebody to sit in your barber chair. You hold a razor up their head. Ask them, if you were to die today, sir, do you know for sure you'd go to heaven? I've had a lot of decisions. Some of them didn't stick, but you know. Everybody's got their own style of evangelism. Amen? Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11 through 13. God says, I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Oh, lost friend, if you're here tonight and you think God wants to make you miserable, oh, I've got news for you. He wants to give you joy and speak full of glory. He wants to give you life and give it to you more abundantly. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. Son, I pray this for my children every day. Then you will call upon me. Oh, see, I want my children to be prayer warriors. Amen? And come and what? Pray to me. He said, and I will listen to you. And you will seek me and find me when you seek me with half your heart, all your heart. Hey, Brother Rick, take one of these Sermon Outlines notebooks back here. Mr. Brock. Good evening, Mr. Brock. God's Word says, I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. Let me tell you something. If I can turn my children into prayer warriors, they'll know God's plans for their life. Amen? See, I'm not dependent upon a public school system to teach my children how to pray. Amen? I'm going to teach my children how to pray. I want prayer in school as much as you do. They're not going to take prayer out of school. You can't take prayer out of school. They didn't take it out of Brewer High School. I promise you that. But I'm going to tell you one thing. I'm going to teach my children how to pray. We teach our children everything. We teach our seminary boys everything in the world, but how to pray. Teach your children how to ride a bicycle, how to play football, how to do this and do that. Teach them to pray. Because I'm going to tell you, God knows the plans He has for your children. You don't. Claim James 1 5 for them. If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. They give it to all men liberally, and that's great if not. Claim Philippians 2 5 for them. Let this man be in me, which is also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal to God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and became in the likeness of sinful man. I'm going to tell you something, friend. If you teach your children how to pray, they'll know God's plans for their lives. Amen? I don't know what God's got planned for your children, but God does. He's got a plan for your kids. And don't you know that He wants to reveal it to them? Don't you want them to know what it is? Number three. Number one, pray for their what? Path. Pray for their path. Number two, pray for their what? Plan. Number three, pray for their pals. Pray for their pals. P-A-L-S. Their little buddies and buddettes. Amen? Amen. The boys your boys run around with. The girls your girls run around with. People of the same sex as well as of the opposite sex. I got in more trouble with other guys than I did with girls before I even knew girls existed. Hello. Some of you guys, some of you girls can say the same things as that. I'll tell you something. Pray for their companions, their pals. Proverbs 13 verse 20. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Let me tell you something. You don't have to just be a fool to be destroyed. You just be a companion of fools. That's what the Bible says. You see it happen all the time. Mr. Brock, you see it happen all the time? You show me who you run with, young people, and I'll show you who you're either like or going to become like. A companion of fools shall be destroyed. That's what the Bible says. And I claim that verse every single day for my children. Lord, I pray. And here's my prayer. Here's what I pray every day. I pray that God would bring into the life of my children other children who love Jesus, sold out to the Lord, worship Him, and committed to Him. And you notice I didn't just say other Baptists and other church members in our church. I want to tell you something. Kids can get in trouble in church. Pray for their pals. Pray that God would bring somebody into your children's life that I mean iron sharpens iron. I mean that when they're together, they're built up to the Lord Jesus Christ, not tearing one another down and headed in the wrong direction. Amen or amen? Friend, I'm going to tell you something. We need to pray for our children. He that walketh with wise men. See, now look at that word walk. That's neat. You see that? He that walketh with wise men. Now watch this. Your children are on what? Path. You starting to get it? Amen? See the progression here. They've got a plan for their life. God has revealed it to them. Amen? And God will use the parents in those young years to help guide them as they're maturing to show them the right path. Now there comes a time when they're adults and everything, that they're going to have to make that choice on their own, but God's going to use you as a parent to get them on the right path, to follow Jesus and everything. So they're on a path. You're showing them from God's Word, God's plan for their life, at least maybe not vocationally or anything, but what God expects of their life. And along comes a little pal into their life. Another girl, another boy. Opposite sex, same sex, makes no difference. And let's say they're on a different path. Can they walk together? The Bible says, Amos chapter 3 verse 3, Can two walk together except they be agreed? What's the answer? No way. I'm going to tell you what's fixing to happen. When some boy comes into your son's life, some girl comes into your daughter's life or your son's life, and they're on drugs and your son's not, they're into ungodly rock music and your daughter's not, they're watching ungodly video games and movies that your son and your daughter's not, one of two things is fixing to happen. Because your son and your daughter is on a path. They've got a plan. This child that's come into their life is on a different path, a different plan. Amen? One of two things is going to happen. One of two. In order for them to walk together on the same path, either that child is going to choose to walk with your child on the path that they're on to Jesus, or your child's going to get off the right. See, you've got to get them firmly established on the right path, following Jesus first. And you've got to claim 3 John 4. Lord, I pray that I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in truth. Because if my children are walking in truth, they can't walk with someone they don't agree with. Is it plain and simple? It's simply glorious and gloriously simple. I love the Word of God. I love how simple God's Word is. Two cannot walk together except they be agreed. He that walketh with wise men shall be wise. You know what? Let me tell you something else. I don't want to get this thing sounding like we're supposed to be a bunch of spiritual Holy Joes and if a lost kid even comes up and speaks to our children, they're not supposed to love them and care for them. I'm going to tell you something. I want my children always to love and befriend and witness to lost other children and lost men and women when they grow up. I'm not trying to make this thing like you're supposed to put your children in some little holy bubble and keep them from the world. I'm telling you, though, we've got to get our children on the right path because you know what? I don't want my children to be a stumbling block to some other praying mom and daddy. You hear what I'm telling you? And they could be. Satan hates a preacher's kid as much as anybody. He can get that kid to fall. He can get anybody to fall. He hates all children. I promise you, listen to me, Satan himself would put a nipple on every Jack Daniel's file that's ever been made and put it in the incubator of every hospital in the world. The weaker, the better. Satan hates children. Satan hates anything that God loves. He hates God's children. He hates little children. But Jesus loves the little children. All the little children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they're all precious to His side. If they're on the right path, that's Jesus. And they have chosen the right plans, they'll choose the right pals. Amen? You need to tell them the difference. Let me give you some names here. Jim Jones and Guyana. David Koresh, Waco, Texas. Charles Manson, California. And, oh, Marshall Applewhite in San Diego, California. You know what all four of those people had in common? All four of them, their followers called them Father. It was Father Manson. Marshall Applewhite in San Diego, California, that had all those people drink that gel and commit suicide, they all called him Father Doe, affectionately called him Father Doe. David Koresh in Waco, Texas, all of his followers called him Father Koresh. They all called their leader Father. You know what else they had in common? They all called each other family. It was a Jonestown family. They took some 700, 800 people to a devil's hell when Jim Jones, an ex-Baptist preacher, an ex-Baptist preacher, who got off on the wrong path, believing a devil's lie, he told those people, he said, they all called, it was a Jonestown family. He told them, he said, you drink this Kool-Aid, we'll all go to Nirvana. We'll go to heaven together. Charles Manson, it was the Manson family. There's a book, the Manson family. You know what else they got in common? Every one of them promised their followers a future. David Koresh told his followers, we commit suicide, we'll go to heaven. Let me tell you something, there's cults, there's people out there, just like that bunch right now today. You know what the, where do you think the gang thing comes from? You know what the biggest breakdown in the, give me a single parent family. You know who's missing in the average single parent family? What's the greatest breakdown in America? Family. You know what, you know why suicide is the number two killer among teenagers today in America? Because they don't feel like they've got any future. No hope. Many children have bought into that hellish evolution story. Say, well if there's no God, that means there's no Bible. If there's no moral absolutes, then there's nothing really to count on. Number two killer among teenagers today in America is suicide. You know what I got, see Satan's a great counterfeiter. What I got saved, guess what I got? I got a heavenly father. Amen? Guess what else I got? I got a big ole family. Amen? It's called the family of God. Guess what else I got? I got a future. You gotta make sure, you gotta pray that your children are on the right path. And that's the Word of God and the Son of God. That way they won't get off on the wrong, with the wrong plan and running with the wrong pals. Let me tell you something, that's the reason gangs are thriving the way they are. Soon these gang leaders will come in and say, Oh, we'll be like a daddy to you. Sure do. You run with us, we'll protect you. We'll be like big family. And there's gangs willing to lay down their lives and die for a lie. Rise, cry out in the night. In the beginning of the watchers, pour out thine heart like water. Before the face of the Lord, lift up thy hands toward Him for the life of thy young children. It's faint for hunger in the top of every street. You turn on cops, turn on 10 o'clock news, see if it doesn't sound like Lamentations 219. Amen? Our children need our prayers. Young people run with people that are dream makers, not dream breakers. Amen? Number four, pray for their purity. Pray for their purity. You need to write 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 22, down there, right in front of verse 23. I just didn't have enough room to put it on the page. I'm still figuring out how I'm going to do it. You can get it all on one side. But anyway, I guess I'm going to have to go to a smaller font there or something. But 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 22 said, abstain from all appearance of evil. And then it picks up in verse 23, and the very God of peace will sanctify you wholly, I pray, God, your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know what I pray for my children every day? I pray that they abstain from all appearance of evil. You know, the Bible doesn't just say flee all evil. The Bible says flee all appearance of evil. Amen? Anything that even appears to be evil. If you're young people, and I pray for this for my children every day, pray that flee any appearance of drugs, alcohol, rock music, movies, PlayStation games, Nintendos, anything that appears to be evil. I'm not getting legalistic with you. I'm telling you, there are some good video games out there, and there are some good movies. But some of them are straight out of the pit of hell. And I want my children to flee all appearance of evil. I'm not going to brag on my kids too much here, but I'll tell you one thing. The Bible says the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. That's what the Bible says. And I want my children to fear God. Amen? And when my children come home with a new PlayStation game or something, you know what they do? They come in there and say, Daddy. They say, Daddy? And they mean it. I didn't tell them to start doing it. They just started doing it. I say, Daddy, would you come in and watch this game with us and see what you think that's okay? I love that. I pray they'd always be that way. And it's to the point now that I don't even have to tell them about half the time. They'll come in there and tell me. Say, Daddy, there's something wrong in this game. I pray that they'd flee all appearance of evil. Amen? You know, it's amazing to me. The world can rate a video or a movie. Restricted? Are y'all listening? The world says it's restricted, and a Christian says it's okay. Understand me. Christians don't rate movies. A lost and dying world rates movies. Oh, it's getting close to the corn now. I love this. Daddy, before you're going to be able to have much impact on your children, your grandchildren, about them fleeing all appearance of evil, you're going to have to clean up your house. You're going to have to clean up your video rack. You're going to have to clean up your tapes and CDs. You're going to have to get your house in order. Flee all appearance of evil. Amen? Anything that appears to be evil. I mean, anything that even looks. Some things, you've seen things that you can't really put your finger on, but you know something's not right about this. See, as a Christian, as a child of God, God's Holy Spirit comes into your life, not for enjoyment, for employment. Amen? Not just to make us have bubbly feelings and everything all the time, even though, bless God, the Holy Spirit of God does make you feel good and everything. But I'm going to tell you something. The Holy Spirit of God comes into our hearts and our lives for one reason, it's the spirit of discernment. And you can be able to discern truth and evil, good and bad, better and best. Amen? What's right for your life. So you pray that God would give them a spirit of discernment. Look at Romans chapter 12, verse 1. Paul said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Amen or Amen. And be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That's verse 2. Folks, I'm going to tell you something. We need to teach our children that what Hollywood says is okay is not okay. Hello. See, you can't win an Oscar or an Emmy today unless you've been divorced 17 times. See, over one out of every two marriages today is a divorce. If it doesn't work out, we'll walk out. We need to teach our children, listen to me, that safe sex is for morons. Let me get down here. Maybe you all can hear me better. Maybe you all can't hear me or something. Safe sex is for morons. The Bible doesn't teach safe sex. The Bible teaches sacred sex. Amen. Pray for their purity. Pray that they stay pure before marriage and faithful afterwards. We started praying for our two little ones before they were born. All these things, I'm telling you, praying before they were even born, when they were still in their mother's womb. We've got to pray for our children. Y'all getting the idea? Amen. Satan's out to steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus said, I've come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. Pray for their purity. Pray that they'll make a stand when we're not around. When Mom and Daddy aren't there to tell them what's right and wrong. If they don't know it, they'll make a stand. They'll fear God. Oh, boy. I tell girls all the time, Hey, girls. Y'all take a Bible with you if you start dating. Take your Bible with you. And you put it between you and old Harry. Amen. Old Harry, get any funny ideas? By the time he climbs over Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, he ain't going to be fooling with you. Amen? He does. If you've got any funny ideas, you tell him to pull over and call your Mom and your Daddy. Well, pray for their purity. Boy, I wish we had time. Well, we do. Nobody here but us and the Lord. Return to Romans 1. Pray for their purity. Romans 1. Paul talks about the wrath of God here. Verse 18. Paul said, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who choke the... Literally, the word hold means to choke the truth and unrighteousness. Verse 19. Because that which may be known of God is manifested in them, for God has showed it unto them. For the visible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Verse 21. So that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Verse 22. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made unlike unto a corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Verse 24. Wherefore God also gave them up. God gave them up. Three times in this one chapter, God's Word says God gave a person up. God gave a people up. God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. Now I'm going to tell you something. You back all this up right back to verse 18. The wrath of God has come against people because they choked the truth. They knew the truth, but they choked the truth. They held the truth, and they believed the lie. They rejected the truth, and they believed the lie, and it ends up here in verse 25, who changed the truth of God into a lie. Do you see that? See, here's the truth. And worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever, amen, for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections. Even their women did change the natural use of that which was against nature, and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their hearts one towards another, men with men working that which is unseemly, and looky here, and receiving in themselves the recompense of their error, which was me. You can put age right there. Received in their own bodies the recompense of their error. You can put age right there. Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them up. God gave them over to a reprobate mind. God said, you don't want to think on me? I'll make you where you can't think at all. I'll give you over to a reprobate mind. Friend, I'm going to tell you something. Our children, our grandchildren across America are defiling their bodies at the altar of their own lust. Young people need to understand, need to know. See, I'm going to tell you something. I preach this way because I've been there and done that. I made those mistakes. And I don't want my children making the same stupid mistake. Which brings us to number five. Pray for their partners. Amen. And pray that they choose one of the opposite sex. I never thought we'd ever say that. Hello. Good grief. Young people, God didn't create Adam and Steve. God created Adam and Eve. And the homosexual crowd needs to understand, needs to know that homosexuality is a sin God hates and it's a sin God will judge. Hello. God hates the sinner. Excuse me, hates the sin, but He loves the sinner. He hates the sin, but He loves the sinner. God destroyed a whole city of homosexuals, Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities. God hates that sin. I hate it too. There's perverts out there trying to destroy our young people. Well, pray for their partners. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14, the Bible says, Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Amen. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? What's the answer? None. Not any. Not any. The Bible says don't be unequally yoked together. Now, that word yoke was a term that was used, it was a thing that they put on oxen. Have you ever seen a picture of two oxen working together? It's a collar that they put on them, and the two oxen are walking side by side, and this collar is put around their neck, so they can work together. Are you out there? And here, listen to me. The Bible says don't be unequally yoked together. The Bible says don't be unequally yoked together, because if they couldn't walk together, they couldn't work together. You understand what I'm saying? If they couldn't walk together, they couldn't work together. You know why the average family today, over one out of every two marriages ends in divorce today, if it doesn't work out, they walk out? Because they're unequally yoked. If you took an oxen that was a whole lot bigger than this oxen physically, and this oxen was like this, so you didn't yoke a mule and an oxen together. Hello? There's two oxen. And that's the reason the Bible says don't be unequally yoked together. With unbelievers, it says. Pray that your children will grow up to fall in love with... In fact, start praying right now for your children and grandchildren that God will begin to raise up the children, the grandchildren, or the child that your children and grandchildren are going to marry. Right now, start praying for them. You don't know who they are, but God knows who they are. Pray for them right now. Amen? That they'll be equally yoked together. And listen to me. And I believe that's not just the fact that they're a Christian, but that they'll have the same theological beliefs. Are y'all getting what I'm saying? Now, there's a lot of confusion tonight, and a lot of, I don't know, love of children. I meet families all the time. I meet men and women. He's a Baptist. She's a Catholic. He's charismatic. He's Presbyterian. That don't work. I mean, you can kind of force it and make it work. And I'm talking about maybe both faiths. But you know what? They need to have the same biblical theological beliefs. And I'm not saying if you're similar to God and that's the way you believe, then you need to marry somebody that's of that same denomination, I believe. Because I guarantee you'll be a whole lot more equally yoked together. You'll be able to worship together. Amen? Everybody needs free homes. That's a home for their family, a home for their faith, and a home for their future. You tell me how you're going to be equally yoked together if you're going down to a similar-to-God church and your husband's going down to the Baptist church on Sunday morning? How can that work? Amen? So find somebody. These kids come to me and say, Well, Brother Jack, I'm dating this lost boy, and he don't know Jesus, but I'm going to date him. I'm going to win him to the Lord. That old dog won't hunt, honey. Amen? I was born at night, but it wasn't last night. No. You pray for them, win them to Jesus and everything, and then talk about dating. I'm not going to have my kids dating anybody that's not a Christian. I mean, sold out. I'm not talking about just out with their lips. I'm talking about with their lives. Pray for their purity. Pray for their partner. I tell single people all the time that something worse than being single is being married to the wrong person. Amen or oh me. It's a long haul being married to the wrong person. I'm going to tell you something. You want God's very best for your life. Number six, pray for their protection. Pray for their protection. Amen? Psalms 121, verse 7-8. The Bible says, The Lord shall preserve. This is a verse the Lord gave me. Listen, as you're having your Bible study, you pray that God will show you verses. Psalms 119, verse 18. Make sure I got it right. Yes, that's it. Psalms 119, verse 18. You need to claim this before you start reading your Bible. Every time before you start reading your Bible. Psalms 119, verse 18. You got these right in front of your Bible. Write it down someplace. Write it down good. Write it down big. Psalms 119, verse 18. Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Every time before I start reading the Word of God, I pray Psalms 119, verse 18. Open thou mine eyes, Lord, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. And then as God shows you, you write them down. Write them down. God shows you a verse of Scripture for your children, for your family, for your finances, for your job, for the church, for something. Write it down. That's God speaking to you. He speaks loud and clear. This is a verse God gave me for my children to pray for their protection and for my whole family. And I claim it every day, every single day. In fact, many times, many times a day. Have you ever been driving down the road and you're thinking about your wife or your husband or something in there and you know they're driving or something and you get kind of a scared feeling? You know what I'm saying? It's just kind of a strange thing. Sometimes I don't know where it comes from. It's the devil just giving me that fear or maybe God is prompting me to pray for my children. Whatever it is, if it's the devil, he ain't winning because I stopped and prayed right there. Amen? He ain't going to come out ahead on that deal because the first thing I do whenever I have one of those deals, I pray for my children and my family. And I pray this verse right here. The Bible says here in Psalms 121, verse 7-8, The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth even forevermore. I'm going to tell you something. That's a good verse to claim in the Dallas Metroplex. Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Amen? I pray for my family. They're going out and they're coming in from this time forth even forevermore. And look back at Lamentations 2, verse 19. Cry out in the night in the beginning of the watches, pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up thy hands toward Him for the lives of thy young children that faint for hunger in the top of every street. Your children as they're out there on the street, there's a devil trying to stall them. Through danger, through delusion, through destruction, through drugs, through alcohol, Lord pray for their going out and their coming in from this time forth even forevermore. Lord, I pray that you put a hedge of protection around them. You need to write Job chapter 1 down right there in your sermon outline notebook. Job chapter 1. Go back. Don't go there now, but go back later and study Job chapter 1. Job prayed a hedge of protection around his children and his family every single day. Every single day. And because he did, as long as that hedge was there, Satan could not touch Job's family. You say, well, I know the rest of the story too, Preacher. God took the hedge down and Satan touched his family. Sure did. Bad things happen to God's people. Did you know that? Did you know bad things happen to God's people? Did you know? Did you know that you could do everything we're talking about doing right here and still bad things happen? But let me tell you something about Job. That's the reason when you get over in there in the middle of the book, at the end of the book, Job, because he rose up early every morning and prayed for his children, because he made intercessions for them every day, daily. You check it out in Job chapter 1. Every day he offered up his sacrifice for every one of them. Individually he did. Individually. He didn't just say, Lord bless my children. He said, Lord bless Bethany Grace and Lonnie Jeffrey. He prayed for every one of them. By name. Because you see, they all have different bents. They all have different personalities and everything. Let me tell you something. When God allowed through His own sovereign will and way, God allowed that hedge to be taken down, Job lost his family. Because he had prayed that hedge of protection around his family, Job could say, The Lord give us. The Lord take us away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's the reason Job could say, Lord, the Lord slay me. I'll still serve you. You know, that's the reason when some people go through crises, some people get bitter, and some people get better. Did you ever notice that? I want to tell you something. It would have been a different story with Job if he had not offered up a sacrifice every day for his children. You know what he would have been doing? He would have been wringing his hands and saying, Oh God, I wish I would have prayed for my children. I wish I would have prayed for my children. It's my fault. It's my fault. He would have been right. But Job understood that what happened to his family had to come with God's approval somehow. And it was going to work out all right. You can handle it if you know it came with God's approval. Now, it doesn't mean we're going to understand it. You understand what I'm telling you? We're not going to understand. We don't understand what happened at Wedgwood. We don't understand that. I'm going to tell you something, folks. God is sovereign. We get up and we pray for our children. We pray that He has protection around them. And, Lord, every day, Lord, I pray that You'd protect their going out and their coming in from this time forth even forevermore. Because of the Lord, we've made the Lord with our refuge even in the most higher habitation. There shall no evil befall us. Neither shall any plague come to our dwelling. I'm going to tell you something. If something still happens to my children, I'm going to tell you something. I understand it had to come with God's approval because I've done all I can do. I've done what God's called me to do. As a daddy, as a spiritual priest of my home and my family, I've done what God's called me to do. And I can't do anything else. Amen. Look at the next verse. Psalms 91, verse 9-10. It's the verse I just got you quoting. Because thou hast made the Lord which is your refuge even in the most higher habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh your dwelling. I claim that verse around my home and my family, around 5704 Billingsley, Sachse, Texas, 75048, just in case God's in the zip code. I claim it. Amen. Lord, I pray because we've made the Lord who is our refuge. So, Lord, you're our refuge. This house, 5704 Billingsley, is not our refuge. You're our refuge. Even in the most higher habitation. Our habitation, that's where we live. We live in Jesus. We stay in a house, but we live in Jesus. Any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Amen. Because I've made the Lord which is my refuge even in the most higher of my habitation, there shall no evil... I didn't say it shouldn't be. I said there shall be no evil befall us, neither shall any plague come nigh our dwelling. I'm going to tell you, for God's glory, it's been, well, God has so sovereignly answered that prayer in my family's life, and I just praise Him for it. I just cannot tell you how God has answered it. Does it mean that my children couldn't come down sick tomorrow and have something bad? No, but there again, there again, I know that if something does, it has to be for our good and God's glory, because it had to come with God's approval because I've done all I can do. Amen. God can take down the hedge, but I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to be putting back up every day. Amen. Every day. Every day. Pray that hedge of protection around your children. Pray that hedge of protection around your home, your family. Before we leave, every time before I go off on a trip, I mean, I pray this hedge around even when I'm at home in town, especially before I go off on a trip. We all get together there in the bus. All my children, I mean, they know the drill. I mean, it's a done deal. When we get together, we pray. It's one of the verses I pray. Lord, as I'm going, I pray that you protect my going out, my coming in, my family. Watch over them and protect them. Put a hedge of protection around my home here. Lord, while I'm gone, around the bus, as I travel, around the pickup and the van, the garage, the car. Protect me from any fire, any danger, anything like that. Lord, please protect our home and our family today. As Daddy's gone and protect the children, protect Mama, Lord. And you know what, man? I'm going to tell you something. I take the load off of Daddy. Because I can't deal with my children all the time. You can't deal with yours all the time. You can't deal with your grandchildren all the time. But the Lord, amen, he's there all the time. Isaiah 54, 17, No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment. Thou shalt condemn. For this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me. Sayeth the Lord. Right down to John 17, 15. This is Jesus' high priestly prayer. And I think this might be a verse I might be, I started praying it for my children. I started putting it in the sermon outline notebook. I'll just read it to you. Don't go there. Jesus prayed for those believers that he knew he would be leaving. He said, I pray not that thou should take them out of the world. Listen to this verse. Oh, man. Jesus. He said, I don't pray that you would take them. He's praying to the Father. He said, Father, I pray not that you take them out of the world, but thou should keep them from the evil. See, I'm not praying that God would put my children in some little holy bubble and just, you know, isolate them and everything. You know, I'm going to lock them up during the day and they not have to face a real live world. Because I'm going to tell you something, they're going to have to face that real live world. I'm just praying that God will keep them from the evil. Amen? Well, I'm not praying that you take them out of the world. They're going to have to walk in the world. They're going to have to live in the world. But they don't have to live with the world and as the world. There's a difference. There's a big difference. Pray for your children. Now, I think that's what we need to do tonight. We talked about it and we need to do it. Now, to your children here tonight, I want to bring your children down to the altar, bring you prayer notebooks with you. Pray these scriptures over your children, whatever you feel led to do. And do it right there where you're at, whoever you are, wherever you're at. We need to pray for our children. Pray for their what? Path. Number two, pray for their plan. Number three, pray for their how. Number four, pray for their purity. Number five, pray for their partners. And number six, pray for their protection. Our Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for the Word of God. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the Son of God. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you come that we may have life and have it more abundantly. And I pray right now, Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, Lord, for every child that's represented here tonight in this sanctuary. Lord, I pray, Lord Jesus, that you'd bind Satan away from their lives by the authority of God's Word in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of His shed blood. And I pray for daddies and mommas and grandmas and grandpas here tonight, Lord, that have not been the spiritual priests of their homes and their families that you've called them to do. Especially daddies, Lord, I pray that, Lord Jesus, tonight they come and make a commitment to pray for their children every single day of their lives. Lord, a lot of parents here have been praying anyway, but Lord, you've given them some new tools tonight, some new weapons in the arsenal against Satan. We know the enemy hates prayer. You love it, Lord. It's our way of communicating with you. So tonight, Lord, it's our prayer. Lord, as families come tonight praying over their children, Lord, that you'd hear these prayers and you'd answer them. You tell us your Word. If we'll call unto you, you'll answer us. You'll show us great and mighty things that we don't even know. So, Lord, hear the prayers of your children for your children, and we'll go up by you. With every head bowed, every eye closed, maybe you're here tonight and you're not a child of God. I'll tell you what, Jesus is praying for you tonight that you'd come to trust Him as your Lord and your Savior. I'm going to pray a prayer right now, and if you'd like to ask Jesus to come into your heart tonight and ask Him to be your Lord and your Savior while these parents and these children come to pray for their children and their grandchildren, I want to lead you in a sinner's prayer. The Bible calls it the prayer of salvation. You can know that you know that when you die, you'll go to heaven. If you'd like to know that, if you don't know for sure, if you were to die tonight, if you'd go to heaven, you need to settle that once and for all. You just pray this prayer after me. Just whisper it to Jesus. Dear Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. Without you, I'm lost, and I'm headed for hell. But tonight, Lord Jesus, I ask you to forgive me of all of my sins. I ask you right now, Lord Jesus, to come into my heart, be my Lord, my Savior, and my Master. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for saving my lost soul. In Jesus' name.