In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of empathy and compassion in dealing with others. They share personal experiences of letting go of their own goals and standards to allow their children to take part in household chores and activities. The speaker also encourages parents to be interested in their children's interests and to invest time in nurturing them. The congregation is invited to share their thoughts and practical ideas on how to bless their children. The sermon highlights the significance of creating a nurturing foundation for children to grow into mature adults.

Open your Bibles to Mark 10. Mark 10 and verse 13. Let's read verse 13 through 16. And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them. And his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them. Today we'd like to share on the foundations of child training. Foundations of child training. We see here in Mark 10, 13. Parents had a desire that their children would be blessed and touched by Jesus. It says that they brought young children to Jesus, that he should touch them. The value that Jesus put upon children. The disciples thought Jesus is about greater things, more important things. And they actually reproved the people that were bringing these young children. But when Jesus saw what was happening, scriptures tell us that Jesus was much displeased. I think there was various reasons of why he was displeased. I believe probably one of the reasons was that the disciples were really missing the mark in the worth and the value of these young children. Sort of like, go away, the master is busy. We don't have time for you. And Jesus, it really touched his heart. It really touched the father heart of God that these children were being shooed away and told to go away. You're not that important. We don't have time for you. And Jesus was much displeased. He said, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not. Because really of such is the kingdom of God. And really, to put it plainly, to put it to the heart, I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God, as a little child, he shall not enter therein. Oh, then he took the little children. It says there that he took them up in his arms and he put his hands upon them and blessed them. The foundation of child training. Let's go over to Matthew 18. In Matthew 18, beginning in verse 1. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called the little child unto him and set him in the midst of them. And said, verily I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee. It is better for thee to enter into life, halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thy eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, for it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you that in heaven there are angels to always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. The value of a child. When the question came up about greatness among the disciples, Jesus called a little child unto him. I thought maybe it would be a blessing this morning if we could have all the children that are say ages 10 and under, all the children that are ages 10 and under, to come up and just stand up here and we'll sing a song together, all right? All the children, 10 and under, just come right on up here and we're going to sing a song together and all the mommas and daddies are going to just be blessed to see all these children up here. All right. You can come right in here to the middle and get on the steps. Oh, you know how to do this. Very good. Excellent. Wow. Praise the Lord. If daddies need to come up with their children, that's okay. Yes, our mommas. Look at all these little children. Okay, we're going to sing together. Jesus loves the little children. Do you know that song? How many know the song Jesus loves the little children? All right. Let's sing that together. Jesus loves the little children. All right, let's sing Jesus died for all the children. Jesus died for all the children. Very good. Thank you. That was nice. We're going to pray a blessing. Daddies are going to stand. Father, we thank you for all of these children. They are very precious in your sight. And Father, in the name of Jesus, we pray a blessing upon these children. The blessing of the Lord that will keep them and inspire them for Jesus and to live for God. Father, we pray that you will protect them and deliver them from evil. And Father, that you will hold them ever in your arms and in your lap. We love you, Lord, and we love the children. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right, you may be seated. And children, you may go back to your parents. Thank you so much. Foundations of child training. The value of a child. Our children need our blessing. Our children need to know that they are accepted just as they are. Our children need to have that sense of absolute belonging. That they're not pushed away. They're not a bother, but they are highly treasured and valued. Jesus gave us some very direct teaching to help us. That we don't get this idea that we have more important things to do. There are bigger things that need our attention. When this whole matter of greatness, this debate among the disciples of who is the greatest, Jesus called a little child. You know, I wonder how that looked. Wouldn't it have been a blessing to be there that day? See, here's all the big people. And they're the ones close to Jesus. And, you know, they're having their discussions with Jesus. And then Jesus just sort of hushes their talk. And he looks out across the audience there, the people gathered round. It says that he called a little child unto him. I wonder if he called the child by their name. I wonder how he called the child. But it does tell us that the child came unto Jesus. And Jesus set him in the midst. So we know by that, that Jesus' attitude and his demeanor was such that this little child felt very comfortable coming to Jesus. I can envision a little child running to Jesus. And Jesus takes this little child. It says he set the child in the midst. I don't know quite how he did that. But maybe there was a rock there or a tree stump or something where he was standing there. And he set the child right there in the midst. And they said, now if you want to enter into the kingdom of heaven, then you need to be converted and become as this little child. And he said, unless you humble yourself as this little child, you can't enter. But we don't want to focus so much on that today as the later teaching that Jesus gave. In verse 6 of Matthew 18, Jesus said, Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. This is pretty hard to wrap our minds around. Jesus put such value on the little children that he said, if anyone causes or offends one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. That's pretty staggering. Better? It were better for a millstone to be hung around the neck. He says, they're angels, these little ones, that in heaven, they're angels to always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. It's amazing. How many little ones do you have in your home? They're angels. They're angels. Plural. I don't know how many. But they're angels to always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. Foundation of child training, I believe, begins here. That we have a deep heart level of understanding, the value of our children. That our understanding and our value lines up with God's value. That our hearts and just the very core of our depth of understanding is in harmony with God's. The foundation of child training. You know, we all know the verses, train up a child in the way he shall go and when he's old he will not depart from it. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from them. And those are truths. They're important. But you know, you can do all those things without having a right heart attitude. Did you know that? We can do those things. We can discipline without a right heart. The rod of correction without a right heart. I believe a foundation of child training is to have a heart that beats with the Father heart for the worth and the eternal value of that child. I think while we're on that subject, we'll go ahead and we'll look at a few things here. Practical matters. Let's look at some positives. And I welcome your input here. Train up a child in the way that he shall go. I thought of the scriptures where he speaks about bringing our children up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. You know, I almost like that better than training. The foundation of nurturing our children. Training we can pretty easy misinterpret, but if you put the word nurturing in there, I think that captivates the heart of God. So how do we nurture our children? I have a few thoughts in mind. Some practicals. And then I want to hear from you all as well. Read to your children. When they're too young to read on their own, especially. Read to them. Read to them books that they can grasp. They're on their level. That teach good values. Teach Christian character. Teach lessons of life. Read. Read to your children. And there is a lot of good reading material available. Be careful what you read. Foolishness is bound in the heart of the child. You don't need to add more foolishness in by reading foolish stories. So be wise in what you read. Then also read Bible stories. There are some very excellent Bible story books. Read to your children. In their formative years of their little minds just being wide open to receive. Read. Good lesson teaching. Life examples. And of course, read the Bible to your children. I believe Proverbs is a very good book of the Bible to read to your children. As our brother was sharing testimony, it teaches the way of life and the blessings of those who walk in the path of righteousness and obedience. And it teaches the path of the unjust and the wicked. Read the Bible. Talk of the Bible as you go about your day. When you walk in the way by your house and wherever you are, let the Word of God be richly in my own life and in your life as a dad and a mom. Some more practicals. Respect and honor your children. Value them, respect them, honor them. Are you struggling with your children having disrespect toward you? Examine your heart. Have you modeled disrespect toward them? Respect and honor. Like you want to be respected and honored. Here's one for teens. Treat your teens like adults. Let them make some decisions and then guide them with teaching. Give them some parameters and then free them to make some choices within those parameters. And if they go off, bring correction and instruction. One of the things to keep in mind in teaching and guiding our homes is don't expect perfection. We all make mistakes. We will make mistakes. But the important thing is to give opportunity to learn and to grow. I would way rather correct a small mistake than before it's a big mistake. So give opportunity to your youth, your young people in your home to make some decisions. Give them some room, but not too much. Oversee. Guide them in wise choices. If you make all the choices for them, they won't have the exercise of how to make their own choices when they need to. So give them some space. The young boys are going to love this one. Give your young men, your young men, age 7, age 9, 10, 11. Give them some space to experiment with some stuff. Tear something apart. Try to figure out how it works. Give them some space in the garage or the shop. Let them make some things. Be creative in what they're doing. Making something, figuring it out, putting it together. Girls, young ladies, moms, give your girls some liberty in the kitchen. Let them try their hand at doing some cooking and some baking. And then delight in what they make. Dads, that was so good. Some of our girls were quite good at that, making things without recipes, just putting it together. Sometimes they had some flops. If the flop isn't too bad, eat the flop too. Foundations of nurturing our children in right paths to mature adulthood. What are some of your thoughts on the positive side? What have you done? What are you doing presently that could be a blessing to the congregation here? I don't know if we need to get microphones or not. Who would have something to share? Raise your hand, both brothers or sisters. All right, there's a hand up front here. Why don't you just shout it out? Timothy says time is incredibly important. Maybe you want to elaborate on that a little bit. Tell us how you invest that time. How do you do it, Timothy? Give us some practical here. Well, I am not your expert on this, but I'm needy in this area. That's why I think of this one. But some of the ideas you gave already are things that I've been thinking about, but just that giving opportunities to experience life and have some responsibilities or have that opportunity to learn things. The other one that I think of in relation to time is I desire to just be more purposeful about one-on-one spending a little bit of time, a very open and free time, allow the children to have time to just talk about anything. That's one of my goals there. All right, thank you, Timothy. I've heard testimonies from some of you of some very good things. Anybody else have one they want to share? Brothers or sisters? Yes, Brother Ross and Brother Paul. Let's be edified here together in this very important matter. Yes, Ross. So it's kind of a simple thing. Be mindful to catch my children being good. Amen. Thank you. Yes, I think about the time. One thing we've learned doing the last years is having dates with our children. Try to have a date with them every month at least where we just play a game together or do something that they enjoy. That started after our oldest got married, our firstborn, and I realized my time's over for that in some ways. That was really a wake-up call. So after that we started having dates regular with our children that are just enjoyable times together. Good, praise God. It's a lot of experience sitting here in this room. Anyone else want to share? Some of you older ones share that as young fellows could learn from. Or young fathers, that's okay too. There's a hand over on the sister's side. Have fun together. Children are a little like puppies. They like to have fun. That's good, Almeda. Yes, some other sisters as well. Yes, the microphone's over there now. You can feel free. One thing that I try to do is be interested in the things they're interested in. Excellent, yes. Thank you. Right there, Robert. Something I feel like I have been learning the last years is empathy. Rather than coming up with an answer right away to solve their problem is to listen and care and have compassion. Thank you. Excellent. Yes. Another hand in the front. Yes, go ahead. Put your hand up again. I found I had to lay aside my goals, my standard for taking care of my house. When our son at a young age began to vacuum the floor, it wasn't like I usually did it. And now it's a joy to see our little grandson at three years old enjoying vacuuming their living room. And another struggle was for me when the girls cooked in the kitchen. When they baked, it got so messy, and I decided, well, I'll go out and cut the grass while they do that. That way I can keep my mouth out of it. Oh, that's good. Oh, yes. Oh, praise God. Brother Robert. Yeah, I think I never had children. Well, never mind. How about in this season to plant a garden, to let a child have their part of the garden, to show something that they're proud of. Also about fixing their bicycles together, helping them when they're real young to get a little trade, because a trade will take them a long way in life. There's so many things that if we just ask God, he'll tell you. Just listen to what God has to say. He'll give us wisdom. Thank you, Robert. Yes. Some very good thoughts expressed here today. Appreciate that so much. Here in the back. Go ahead, sister. I agree with Brother Robert on the garden. I have ever since I have had children, whenever we've had the opportunity to have a garden, and even if not, then a little quarter in a sour bed, just somehow to get their hands in the dirt. And it's very therapeutic. See something grow, and they always are excited. No matter how tired they get of it by the end and the weeds take over, the next spring they're always excited. They want their own little plot, and they want to plant something, and they have ideas of what they want to do and what they're going to do with it. Good. Maybe some young people would like to share. Some youth. Or some children. Yes. It's open. There's a hand up front here somewhere again, I think. Yes. I try never to say you're too little or to have that mentality. It took a lot of creativity, but somehow they could do with me what they wanted to do. Thank you. Yes. I heard you mention earlier about cooking and, like, girls working in the kitchen. I just want to throw it out there that it's not just for girls. You know, guys enjoy it too. So, like, when we were younger, our mom let us guys cook, you know, as well, and we enjoyed it. And, yes, it's definitely enjoyable for both sides. Thank you, Sheldon. Brother Paul? I think it's competition. Brother Paul right here then also. Just thinking about Ross mentioned earlier about catching our children doing something good, something we have done in our families. We have a little book that we write down all the blessings. When we catch them doing something good, we write it down. And then when it's their birthday, we bring out the little book and we read it all, what they did in the year. And then everybody gets a chance to give a blessing then as well, just to say, hey, I really liked how you did this certain thing, or I like the way you are somehow or other. And that just has been so rich in our family. Thank you for sharing that. Yes. That's right. Grandma gets her blessing on her birthday. Praise God. I just thought of the not-too-little, how the children, sitting them on the counter next to you, next to me as I'm cooking, or sitting them, having them push the foot pedal when I'm sewing, teaching them to obey, sitting on my lap when I'm doing projects. Whatever I'm doing that my children are welcome to be with me, pulling things out of a certain drawer in the kitchen as I'm cooking, just knowing that they are welcome with me, I think has been a special way to show them they're valuable. And I want them with me. Praise God. Open the front row here. I heard a preacher one time share how he was a grandpa by that time, and he said, at our gatherings we always have so much dessert. How come this way when my wife was always trying to teach you all to be healthy? And they were like, well, we always dug through your lunchbox looking for the wrappers when you came home from work, the candy wrappers or the pastries or whatever. And I thought that was interesting. And on the other hand, in my own family, my dad was a truck driver, so we went with him a lot, and he was basically exactly the same at home, driving truck, whatever. He just never really, you know, he always tried to eat healthy, and my mom always tried to feed us healthy, and even today people are surprised at how much I don't care about dessert. So he was bringing out the idea of train up a child in the way he should go, and he kind of gave a little twist. He said, and when he's old, he's not going to depart from it. He's not going to depart from whichever way you've trained him up to be. And he was bringing out the thing of how our example is a very important factor. Yes, thank you. There is more caught than is taught. Yeah, you all heard that one, I'm sure. Yes, Adam. Believe in your children. As having firsthand experienced the power of people saying, you can't do that, you're not able, and the negative effect of that, I purpose to believe in my children and to encourage them that they can, even if it's too heavy for them, maybe help them, but believe in them. It's powerful. Amen. Thank you. All right. Thank you all so much for sharing. I think our time is pretty well spent. It may be good to just read those verses again and close here. I had quite a lot more Scripture, but I think it would be good to just go back again to Mark 10 and verse 13. And they brought young children to him. Young children. I want to encourage us. It starts when they're very young. And our attitude, our spirit is sensed and felt by our children. And I just want to really encourage us as parents that we are in a place of being at peace with God and at peace with one another in our marriage relationship, that the atmosphere and the attitude is one of love and peace and joy. They brought young children to him that he should touch them. Touch your children. Hug them. Affirm them. Be like Jesus. Take your children up in your arms often and bless them. Now, sometimes they can be a little naughty. And they can test us. And maybe we don't feel like receiving them so warmly and blessing them. But that's when they need it the most. Don't spare the rod. God is right. The rod shall drive that foolishness out. Shall save their soul from hell. But the rod needs to be balanced with the receiving, with the blessing. He took them up in his arms. He put his hands upon them. And he blessed them. May the Lord bless every home here today with a foundation that is nurturing, loving, disciplined, orderly. Mom and Dad are walking in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit. Oh, it will bless your home so much. And it is so foundational. Let's kneel together for prayer. Father, we come in Jesus' name. We kneel before you, Lord. And we acknowledge, Father, that we are not able to do these things of ourselves. We need you, Lord. We need the anointing and the power of the Holy Spirit upon our lives, fresh and new every day. Father, I pray for the Mamas and the Daddies. I ask you to bless them. I ask that you would give them courage, fill their hearts with faith, Lord, that they may continue to press on in the nurturing and the training of these precious little ones that you've given to us. Father, we thank you for the children. And we thank you for the Moms and Dads. And, Father, we pray, we pray, Father, that you would guide us and lead us by the power of your Holy Spirit, by the wisdom of God, by the Word of the Lord. Father, I do ask that you would give us as parents a discerning heart to guard well our castle, our homes, so that the enemy, that destroyer, couldn't get in and rob us and steal from us the virtues of godliness and holiness that will bless our homes. Give us sensitivity, Lord, if any of our children is in danger, in harm's way, in any way. Give us a sensitivity in our spirits to recognize if any of our children have been wounded and are hurt, they've become quiet, something has changed. Father, I ask that you would give us parents the heart of Jesus to minister the life and the compassion and the love of Jesus. Father, I pray that we would for always see them in the light of how you see our children and we would remember how when we treat our children, their angel is beholding the face of our Heavenly Father. Amazing. Lord, we thank you for the value that you have placed upon each of our children and Father, we value them, we treasure them. Show us how to live that out every day, every moment. Father, thank you. Thank you for these dear brothers and sisters and these homes represented here. Thank you for the way mommies and daddies are training their children and how they love their children and how they are raising them up in godliness. Oh Lord, strengthen those things that are right and good. And Lord, where we're lacking, show us, Lord, and give us revelation and insight and inspiration that we may be blessed in our homes and our children be as fruitful vines around the table. Oh God, thank you for your provision through Jesus. Amen. Thank you so much, Brother Aaron, for your willingness to share with us concerning the foundation, and I like how you said that, of nurturing our children. God spoke to my heart this morning and we have this moment, don't we? It's not very long. My wife and I often look at each other and realize how quickly years go by and technology, it even reminds us of that. It sends us these little notifications of pictures. This is a year ago. This is two years ago. This is three years ago. Whoa, that's not that long ago. So, thank you so much. Thank you for listening. We hope this message has blessed you. 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