And the Cows Went Straight

Chapter 6 in verse 12, And the cows took the straight way in the direction of Beth Shemesh, and they went along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. And the lords of the Philistines followed them, followed the cows to the border of Beth Shemesh. Now the people of Beth Shemesh, which would be the children of Israel, were reaping their wheat harvest in the field, and they raised their eyes and saw the ark and were glad to see it.

It is not unusual for the Scriptures to use, could you turn the monitors down just, just very slightly. It's not unusual for the Scriptures to use most ordinary, mundane, earthly things to teach great spiritual truths. Jesus took the most simple things of the people and used them to teach parables and to teach great truths.

But even in Proverbs you know that it says, go to the ant, learn a lesson from the ant, a lesson on how to avoid spiritual and physical slothfulness or laziness. And I call your attention tonight to a pair of farm cows, milk cows, to teach a very profound truth. The story of these cows involves two nations, the Ark of the Covenant, and one of the strangest events in Israel's long history.

Two cows under divine direction, under divine guidance and divine impulse tell a story and teach a lesson that puts to shame not only many in the church, but the two cows have seemed to have more intelligence and spiritual discernment than some of the people of God, and especially the children of Israel. Now here's the background to the story. The Ark of the Covenant, Israel's most important possession, which contained the Law of Moses, was captured by the Philistines and was in their possession for seven months.

Now the Ark represents or represented to them the presence of God. It also contained the tablets of the Law, and it was God's way of visibly and spiritually reminding the people that when they followed after the Lord, and they followed hard after God, and if they walked in accordance with the Law and His will, that His blessing was upon them and everything they did prospered, no enemy could come against them and prosper, they were always in victory when they acknowledged the presence of the Lord. The Ark was a reminder of that.

Now in the days of Samuel the prophet, the Philistines came against Israel and captured the Ark. But the Philistines lived to regret the day that the Ark ever came into their land and into their presence. They eventually looked upon it as a bad luck charm.

For example, wherever the Philistines took the Ark it seemed to bring to them trouble, big trouble, bad trouble, even death. Now at first what they did with the Ark when they captured it is they took it to their heathen temple because they believed in many gods and they figured well this represents Israel's God, but it's just one of many gods and so they brought it into their own temple to have company with their number one God, Dagon. Their number one heathen God, Dagon.

And so they set up the Ark there next to their their God and the next morning the priest comes in and he finds that their God fell down on the ground on the floor in front of the Ark as if prostrated in worship before the Ark. Well they didn't think anything of it, they thought that was coincidence, so they set it up again. The next morning the priest come in and now Dagon is gone.

Dagon has fallen down and this time his head is broken off, his arms and his hands are broken up and broken into hundreds of pieces and there's only the trunk that's left there. And can you imagine those heathen priests going into the temple and seeing that sight? One of them must come out hollering, Dagon is gone. And so shocked was the whole nation that no one ever stepped over the threshold of Dagon again in the temple.

But then they began to take the Ark from province to province. Now in the Philistine Empire they were broken up into five provinces under five major cities ruled by five governors or lords. And so they each took turn taking the Ark to these five different cities but in every place the Ark went, trouble broke out, plagues broke out, the people started having tumors.

Tumors started to break out in the people. Mice or rats began to go over the land destroying the crops. And so they said get it out of here.

One governor said get it out here and so he sent it to the next governor, same thing happened over there. Finally after each lord and city had taken their turn entertaining the Ark and the same plague had broken out and death was taking place as a result of the tumors the lords called. They got their heads together and they called in an emergency summit meeting and they said what are we going to do? What shall we do with the Ark of the God of Israel? Get rid of it was the conclusion.

Send it back to Israel pronto. In fact here's what it says in 1st Samuel 5 11 you can look at it if you want it said they sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines and said send away the Ark of God of Israel and let it return to its own place that it may not kill us and our own people. For there was deadly confusion throughout the city but the hand of God was very heavy there.

They were under divine judgment and the men who did not die were smitten with tumors and the cry went up to heaven. But you see they had a problem how do you get rid of the Ark? That was the purpose of their summit conference is how do we get rid of it because as soon as we touch it someone will die. And so they called together their heathen priests and their occult leaders and they said what do we do? And so the priest said oh we know a little bit about this Jewish of these Jews religion or the about Israel's religion and here's what you do.

The first thing you have to do is you can't return it without making an offering and they call it a guilt offering. And so they decided to make five golden tumors and five golden mice or rats according to the number of the lords or governors of their provinces. And next the priest and the occult leader said to take the Ark place it on a cart and put the articles of gold which you return to him as a guilt offering in a box by its side then send it away that it may go.

Now they also said that if the Ark would go back to Israel they would know for sure that that Ark was of God and that they were under divine judgment. But they reasoned that if the Ark does not go back we'll know that there's no power in the Ark whatsoever and everything that happened to us the plagues, the tumors, the mice, the death, all of that was a coincidence and it would happen and it happened only by chance. In fact look in your Bibles chapter 6 verse 9 they said and watch if it if the cart goes up by the way of its territory to Bashimish in other words towards Israel then he or God has done all this great evil but if not then we shall know that it was not his hand that struck us it happened to us by chance.

Now here's where the cows came in. They took two milking cows, cows with young, and took them away from feeding their calves. They hitched an Ark to the cows they put the Ark on a cart and the box containing the likenesses of the tumors and the mice and they pointed the cows and the cart towards Israel in Bashimish.

All the lords of course gathered to witness this. Also there was all the heathen priests, all the occult leaders, as well as probably a whole host of civil servants and government people and they all watched where were those cows gonna go? Would they go straight ahead on the highway towards Israel and away from Gath, the capital city of the Philistine Empire? Or would they rebel and go towards their farms and their calves, the young ones that were taken away from them? And every eye of every important person in the nation was fixed on those two cows and that cart. If there had been national television back then, national television would have carried the event.

And to everybody's surprise and delight, the cows took the straight way along the highway and slowly but surely began to head towards Israel's territory, lowing or moaning for their young as they went. And they turned neither to the right nor to the left. And the lords followed that cart all the way and when it crossed the border they said good riddance.

And pretty soon it came over the highway and the children of Israel there and they saw it. And then of course their reaction was different. They were so glad to see it.

The Bible says that there was gladness in their heart. Okay, that's the story, but what's the point? What's the lesson here? Why did the cows do what they did? And what does this have to teach us? You see the cows knew something. The cows knew something.

They knew something that a lot of church people don't know. They knew something and did something no one in Israel knew or did for seven months. And the cows also could have taught the Philistines a lesson if they were willing to listen to it.

And hear me out, if we do not learn the lesson of the cows tonight then we're dumber than the cows. Now we have to take a look at the events that led up to Israel losing the ark of God and why it took the cows to bring it back instead of Israel themselves recapturing that ark or they should have never lost it in the first place. First of all, Eli the priest at that time sinned in not disciplining and bringing into check the rebellion of his sons who were the priests, who were priests.

Eli's sons manifested extreme wickedness by profaning and degrading the worship of God. And what they would do is that whenever there would be a regular worship service or whenever the children of Israel would go to Shiloh to offer up their sacrifices and the worshiper would lay that sacrifice on the altar and while the flesh was still boiling they would have the servants take a three pronged flesh hook and take that sacrifice that was to be lifted up unto God and burned unto God as a sign of sacrifice to God. They took it off of the altar and they devoured it or ate it for themselves which was a direct violation of the law because the Bible says that they were to burn the fat or the meaty or most precious portion of it and offer that up to God.

But they directly violated that commandment and in open rebellion the scripture says that these two sons treated all the Israelites in this way when they came to Shiloh to worship. And so get the picture of what's happening here. Here's the altar of sacrifice and here's the temple and here's these two fat boys.

Picture these two fat boys outside the temple stuffing themselves with the sacrifice in open rebellion. 1st Samuel 2 17 says, Thus the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord for the men despised the offering of the Lord. But you see that the problem was not just these two sons.

Eli the priest and the father was partially to blame. He may have been a priest in the house of God but he was not a righteous father or priest in his own home and when it came to disciplining and creating the fear of God in those two sons and therefore they did not have a proper respect for the things of God. They profaned the things of God.

Now tonight I have a burden on my heart and what the Lord has shown me. In fact when I was reading this story about these two cows it leaped out of the pages at me and the Lord just put it on my heart to stock up to preach tonight about the cows that went straight. But God did you ever get it the Lord give you a story and then you don't know what the application is.

And I just knew the Lord wanted me to preach on this but I didn't know what the application was until Sunday night laying in bed the Lord began to pour it in my heart. And the Holy Spirit has put such a burden on my heart and a warning tonight. A burden and a warning tonight to every parent who sits in the house of God.

I say to every mother, to every dad, to every parent don't become blind to the needs of your children. Whether your children are babes whether they're one years old or they're 40 or 50 years old. Look what it says in 1st Samuel the third chapter of the second verse if you want to go back there.

You know at the same time God was raising up Samuel the prophet and oh what a picture and contrast there is between little boy Samuel and his love for the Lord and these two sons of Eli. But in the third chapter in the second verse it says and it happened at that time as Eli was lying down in his place. Now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well and apparently Eli was an old man.

He also was old and fat but he had developed cataracts apparently in his eyes and he had poor eyesight. But Eli also had spiritual cataracts on his eyes and when he carried on his priestly responsibilities he was blind to the fact that his own sons were in rebellion and when he was at home his eyes were blind to what was taking place in his own home and with his own children. And Eli eventually dealt with the sins of his sons but it was too late.

Look at chapter 2 verses 22 and 23. It says now Eli was very old and he heard all his sons were doing to all of Israel and how they lay with a woman who served at the doorway of the tent and he said to them why do you do such things the evil things which I hear from all these people and the tragedy of Eli's story is that he had to hear it from the people. He didn't see it himself, he didn't see that right in his midst, right in his midst, right in his own home while he's carrying on all of his priestly responsibility.

Here is two sons that are coming up in rebellion and when the boys grew old enough they desecrated the holy sacrifices but the seeds of it began years before in Eli's home and right under his nose because Eli had no sense of his parental responsibility. He was blind to their faults. Perhaps he was a gentle easy going man.

He had maybe an easygoing temperament but he did not repent as a result he may have not reproved his boys enough. You see a little plant can easily be rooted up but when it is grown into a tree it can only be moved by extraordinary effort and somebody has said that it's easier to mold clay than to chisel a stone and he didn't take care of the little plants and they grew up and they grew up diseased and they grew up and became hard and turned away from God and I can just see and hear Eli when the boys were growing up and they were doing certain things they probably just pushed it off and he said oh you know maybe his wife even said you better do something about Hophni and Phineas that was their names Hophni and Phineas and maybe his wife said you better do something about those boys and maybe he answered his oh let them alone they're good boys they're good boys but he was blind and how easy it is how easy it is and innocent it is to lose our young ones while we are busy worshiping the Lord and working for the Lord it's been our burden in this church that we would not lose we've made a commitment to our children we've made a commitment to our young people we may not have a youth director yet for our teenagers but at the same time God knows the burden of our heart for our young people because we don't want to lose them we don't want to so concentrate on all what God is doing here and not and not have a burden for them in the church and I say that to you as parents in your home as well may you have eyes to see and a burden for your young people and you know I was praying today about a day I think was today yes I was praying today you know we prayed so long that the Lord would send us along a youth director for our teenagers and you know what the Lord spoke to me and he said you know the problem is that maybe why I can't answer it is that you're looking for a youth director to be your answer or you're looking for a person or man to come along and be an answer when I'm your answer and you've got to put you've got to put your trust in me not and that doesn't mean we don't want a youth director don't get me wrong but we're not going to put our emphasis on just the man we're going to believe that God we're going to watch over them hallelujah and believe that if there's any seeds of rebellion that God will take care of it hallelujah now Eli's lack of discipline towards his sons was not the only problem leading up to the loss of the ark there was a widespread condition of apostasy and hidden backsliding hidden backsliding the back in other words the backsliders were in the church and in this condition the Philistines attacked Israel and they suffered a bitter defeat look at chapter 4 in verse 2 it says and the Philistines drew up in battle array to meet Israel when the battle spread Israel was defeated before the Philistines who killed about 2,000 men on the battlefield in fact isn't that 4,000 men? 4,000 men but notice what their reaction was in the next verse when the people came into the camp the elders of Israel said why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines in other words they put the blame on the Lord you know a sure sign that our relationship to the Lord is not right is that whenever we suffer defeat or whenever things are not going our way the immediate reaction is why is the Lord doing this to me we've had prayer requests over the last several weeks people have prayed and said God's not God seems to be against me or God doesn't seem to be doing this for me or God's not finding me a job and so forth and that's always a sign that there is a hard attitude towards the Lord that may be wrong you see the people did not ask what did we do wrong they assumed everything was all right with them and it was the Lord who had defeated them can you imagine the self-righteousness of that and you see what had happened is that God had already raised up Samuel as a prophet in their midst he was young he was very young but it was confirmed to all of Israel look at the third chapter and the 20th verse it says and all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord and the Lord appeared again at Shiloh because the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord and thus the word of Samuel came to all Israel now Israel went out to meet the Philistines in battle and camp beside Ebenezer and you see as you read it there you will see that they never consulted Samuel they never consulted the Lord they just rushed ahead on their own and they were not under the divine mandate of the Lord which again show the condition of their heart and so then what do they do next they called for a revival meeting they tried to shout their way to victory instead of weeping their way to repentance look what happened in verse in chapter 4 in verse 3 you see since they were convinced that God was to blame for their defeat they decided to go get the ark in verse 3 that God may be among that that it may be among us and deliver us from the power of our enemies and so the people went to Shiloh and they carried back the ark into the camp and guess who was right there besides the ark verse 4 and the two sons of Eli verse 4 so the people went to Shiloh and from there they carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts who sits above the cherubim and the two sons of Eli Hophni and Phinehas were there with the ark of the covenant of God and I can just hear everybody saying everything's alright now everything's gonna be okay we got the ark and look at look at the Eli's sons doesn't that look wonderful there's the two preachers kids over there they're right beside the ark my isn't that wonderful to see those boys there oh they must really love the Lord and as soon as the ark comes into the camp they come running up and standing beside the ark but you see just because we're in the service or just because our children are in the service does not necessarily mean that the service is getting into them you see a lot of people are just like the two sons of Eli they're always standing near the ark but it doesn't mean that what's in the ark is in them and the problem with Hophni and Phinehas is that they are mentioned here as a visible illustration to all of Israel that just because they stood beside the ark which had the law did not mean that they were walking by the law they were walking beside it they were not walking in the law and you can become you can come into the house of God and all I pray that God would preserve all of us but especially I say to those to young people especially because I know I've been I was raised in the church I slept through many of the finest preachers in America when I was when I was a kid and I knew it all I knew the courses and and all of us can get the same way where we just move into it and we can go along we can go by a rote and you see they walk beside the ark which contained the tablets of the law but it was only form it was only show it was phoniness they were not walking in the truth and oh God preserve us from that turn with me turn in your Bibles if you will to Deuteronomy I want to show you something and trace it for you and we're going to trace it from Deuteronomy back to these two cows Deuteronomy the fifth chapter verses 32 and 33 these two verses capture for us the Lord's promise and warning to his people from the very time that he formed them as a people Moses said it Joshua repeated it so shall you observe to do just as the Lord your God has commanded you you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left you shall walk in the way which the Lord your God has commanded you that you may live and it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess now that same warning and same promise is repeated to Israel I think at least five times maybe even more in five different times that I know of the Lord said to them go straight go straight don't turn one way or the other straight is the way that lead us to life eternal don't deviate don't turn aside to the right or to the left and because Israel had violated that because Eli did not supervise his children in carrying that out Eli was punished he died because of it his sons died because of it and Israel lost the ark because of it turn to Deuteronomy the 17th chapter Deuteronomy 17 here's it repeated again according to the terms of the law which they teach you and according to the verdict which they tell you you shall do you shall not turn aside from the word which they declared to you to the right or to the left the man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands there to serve the Lord your God nor to the judge this man shall die thus you you shall purge evil from Israel now let me get back here go back to first Samuel then the next thing that Israel did during this time of Eli and Samuel is that they tried to shout out the enemy and shout down the presence of God but it didn't work first Samuel 4 or 5 it says and it happened as the ark of the covenant Lord came into the camp that all Israel shouted with a great shout so the earth resounded but in spite of that apparent praise and worship and revival or charismatic meeting that went on in fact it was so loud it seemed to scare the Philistines and they even said then the Philistines were afraid but it goes on a few verses later and it says so the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated and every man fled to his tent and the slaughter was great and 30,000 foot soldiers died including the two backslidden preacher sons again why were they defeated because there was no repentance proceeding to shout there should have been tears instead of shouts and listen you can praise and worship the Lord as loud as you want but unless your heart is committed to what Deuteronomy says to the terms of the law which they teach you and unless you're committed to according to the verdict which they tell you and what you shall do in not turning to the right or to the left unless you do that you can shout all you want it will not defeat the enemy it will not bring success in your walk now listen carefully because I want to say something important some of you may have come from a background where you judged a church by the loudness of its worship by its shout the louder the shout or the longer the shout the better you thought that church was in fact you may have even believed that as long as you could shout or as long as you could praise God it didn't matter as long as you could shout as long as you could praise God that God was pleased with you even if when you left the church you kept turning to the right or turning to the left but as long as you can come back and move right along beside the ark and raise your hands and praise the Lord or if you heard the shout you said oh this is wonderful listen the only right we have to shout in the presence of the ark is when the presence of God and when the presence of the law abides in our hearts that's why we like to we sing and we shout in this church bless your heart and you've heard us say that once you've laid down sin you have every right to praise the Lord just get the order right and some of you ought to know by now that in some of those churches there was a shout but they had given birth to something in that church like Israel gave birth to a child called Ichabod that says my glory has departed and if God liberated you out of it then thank God if he hasn't liberated out of you from it then may your eyes be opened make sure God's in the shout but there's another danger I see in this and it has to do with our children our teenagers and our youth don't try to shout the word or shout the presence of God at your children it's possible to be an Eli and neglect to discipline our children but it's also possible to go in the other direction and try to shout them to victory you know I've noticed something about right listen carefully please because I've noticed something about raising kids in this wicked city there is a tendency among some mothers and fathers to be overprotective with their kids to put a narrow leash on them and to protect them and so try and protect them that you smother them and treat them as rebels instead of little planes that need the right sunshine and water to grow you see when raising children or even in our Sunday school or our children's church when we teach our classes we need to do what Deuteronomy says we are to do neither turn to the right or turn to the left this is what we're to do this is what we want our children to do don't turn to the left or don't turn to the right and turning to the left means that you let your kids go their own way and do their own thing and you don't guard them and watch over them you commit the sin of Eli but some Christians go the other way the scripture says don't also don't turn to the right and this means don't do less than God requires but also don't lay a burden of the law upon yourself or your children and require them to do more than what God requires you see that's my interpretation of don't turn to the left to me the left is when you go the world's way turning to the right is when you sometimes go further than what God requires and you smother your children for example for example I've seen parents lay this heavy trip on their kids it's when mom and dad's attitude towards everything everything that happens in terms of the world everything is a demon everything is a devil they tell their kids that's demonic everything to some Christians is demonic now listen to me some things are of the flesh some things are of the world and some things are of the devil and some things are demonic but if you treat everything your kids do that is wrong as demonic they're going to grow immune to the whole idea of the demonic world and they're also going to rebel against you and if everything is called demonic then your kids are going to say well demonic things are not that dangerous and when they face real demonic powers they'll not be able to discern it or they're treated lightly and you see I've learned in my experience that there are some things that have to be worked out and there are some things that have to be cast out and it's been my experience that most things have to be worked out as the Bible says work out your salvation with fear and trembling and I want to tell you help your children to work out their salvation don't lay a demonic trip on them when it's the flesh or it's the world that they're being drawn to and furthermore when you do this you'll give more credit to the devil that's due him there's enough real demonic stuff around we should not give more attention to the devil than he deserves now finally this brings me to the cows Israel lost the ark they lost 30,000 foot soldiers and Eli and his wicked sons died and when the philistines decided they didn't want the ark anymore and sent it back to Israel it became one of the strangest object lessons to them in all of the Old Testament let me paint the picture again and I'm drawing to a close remember the philistines didn't know if they'd had a string of bad luck or if this was really this ark really represented the one true God who had power and because they were not worshiping this God and they had it in their midst therefore they were under divine judgment they didn't know that they said maybe it's the only only chance bad luck and so they prepared a new cart and two milk cows which had never upon which never there had been a yoke they hitched the cows to the ark they took their calves away from their mothers they placed the ark on the cart and they sent it away that it may go and when the ark crossed the border that's when they were relieved and that's when Israel embraced it and here's what it says when the ark came into the land of Israel I read it before let me read it again now all the people of that she were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley and they raised their eyes and they saw the ark and they were glad to see it tonight my challenge to you is this raise your eyes and see the ark and see the presence of God the presence of Jesus and if we hitch ourselves to the ark and if our young people and our children know that the presence of God which is represented by the ark if the presence of God is in our midst if we're properly teaching them the law of the Lord the law of God then just as the cows went straight so will our young people and so will you and I go straight and the cows took the straight way in the direction of Bashish and they went along the highway lowing as they went and did not turn aside to the right and to the left remember I told you before that the cows knew something you would think they had been back there when Moses was teaching them and when Moses had said to the children of Israel observe to do all the law don't turn to the right or to the left that's exactly what the cows did and they were lowing as they went I think this means that they were crying or they were longing for their children but under the constraint and impulse and influence of the presence of God they did not even go back to their children they were lowing as they went but they didn't go back they kept right on going it was almost as if as the scripture says you shall hear a word behind you this is a way walking in it and if cows can go straight attached to the ark of God I believe that we and our children can go straight if we let God do it and if we let God be God and if we have enough faith to let God do it and not get in his way I want to tell you a story in closing a lesson that I learned years ago as a teenager that had a profound effect upon my my life my mother taught it to me and she didn't even know it I don't know whether she's even heard the story before she may have had when I was about 14 years of age back in western Pennsylvania where my father was a pastor it was a third Wednesday or Thursday night I believe a Thursday night we have our meeting here on a Tuesday night here in Times Square Church when I was a kid we had ours on Thursday night I was out playing football what we call touch football on the street in front of our house and my mother came out on the steps of our house and she said Don it's time to go to church and I looked and turned I didn't respond and so I guess again she said Don it's time to go to church I finally turned around and for the very first time in my life I said I'm not going to church now I had no problem with church I generally went to church but my friends had convinced me to go with them that night to a basketball game my folks didn't mind permitted me to go to basketball games except on church nights that was a priority and so the very first time I turned and I said to my mother I'm not going and she looked at me and all she said was this well you know where you belong and she went back in I finished the football game and then got together with my friends and we went to the basketball game I'm sitting watching this high school basketball game and all of a sudden as the game starts I start hearing you know where you belong you know where you belong you know where you belong with my mother was my mother sitting behind me or sitting beside me did my mother chase me no she didn't but I remember there was one thing that my mother said to me when I was younger she said son if there's anything that I pray for in your life in that you will grow up and you'll have the fear of God in your heart meaning to have a reverence for God a fear of turning to the right to the left and so I thought my mother was in the in the at the had traced me to the ballgame you know where you belong but then I knew that it was the Holy Spirit it was a spirit it was that word behind me saying this is the way walking in it and I resisted it for a while but finally it got stronger you know where you belong you know it was almost like a like a red light going on like a siren going on inside me you know where you belong and I felt so miserable I couldn't enjoy the game at halftime I got out of there and I ran I half ran and I half walked and bless your heart this cow went straight and the cow went straight and I went straight back to the church I got there the service was stood my dad would just about had just about started to preach and I'll never forget I slipped in the back queue and as soon as I sat down I went and when I did that inner light or that red light or whatever it was it was going on my conscience it settled down it disappeared and I believe my mother divinely inspired of the Lord knew that she had enough confidence that what God had planted in my heart that word that was planted in my heart that if I was attached to the ark and if the law of God was in my heart that that seed that was planted within me would keep me from turning to the right or to the left and would keep me going straight on in the under the divine influence of the power of the Holy Spirit and oh my friend that's what I'm I wanted to say to you tonight I say in behalf of your children your unsaved loved ones turn them over to God turn them over to God don't get in God's way let the Holy Spirit do it in their life don't you try oh yes you must not mean it be neglectful you must not be an Eli but neither must you get in the way let God do it and they'll go straight to the presence of God hallelujah they'll not turn to the right they'll not turn to the left praise his name shall we stand together shall we stand together hallelujah Lord Jesus tonight Oh God we pray we pray Lord in this in this service tonight Oh God I lift I lift our children up to you I lift our teenagers up to you I lift our young people our sons and our daughters Oh Lord we pray we pray for those that are here tonight who have burdens on their hearts maybe even fears of raising their children in this city and in this wicked age and all of its influence Oh God encourage our hearts tonight encourage our hearts that if we train up a child in the way that he shall go when he's old he'll not depart he'll not turn to the right or to the left but he'll go straight he'll go straight Lord encourage every parent here tonight and you know tonight folks I want to do something a little bit different than what we normally do for an older call but I want to pray for every parent that's here tonight I don't care if you have a baby that's a few months old or a few years old or if they're 20 or 30 or 40 years old but you're here tonight you're a parent concerned about your children I want you as Kevin leads us in appropriate course or him I want you I want to pray for you tonight I want you to come to this altar and I want you to lay your children before the Lord tonight especially if they're unsaved that God will save them if they're still in your home that God would give you wisdom God would give you strength God would give you understanding God would give you grace God would give you power to minister to them and most of all that you would just have confidence you would have confidence in God have confidence in his work in their life you'd put them in his hands amen till I die till I die God only knows what pain is represented with some of you that are at this altar tonight because your children are grown or left home they don't know the Lord or maybe there are at home and don't know the Lord and so we feel that the pain of that others of you have younger children you have concerns and fears about them and their future whatever be the case we pray that this year last year we made the theme year of prayer but we felt this year that God is going to send revival to this church in a dimension greater than that we have seen in the short time that he's put this this church to birth in a year and a half but we believe that God wants to begin to save your children he wants to begin to save unsaved loved ones let me tell you mom and dad the burden of their salvation is not just entirely on you the burden is not just entirely you yours to win them to the Lord the responsibility is is yours to do what you can but don't try to do what you can't and we're going to lift them up to the Lord tonight and believe that God miraculously will begin to work in those that are unsaved that are away from you or at some distance from you that he'll begin working miraculously in them and those of you that have children or teenagers at home that God will give you divine anointing and direction and that you'll believe as the cows went straight that God will also God will also point your children in the right direction all they may turn a little to the right and to the left they may not walk a perfect straight line they may turn some to the left and to the right but God will bring them back he'll bring them back to walk that straight and narrow way let's believe God will you believe God all Lord as we've sung tonight Lord we trust in you we trust in you Lord tonight Lord we pray for our families we pray for our children Lord we pray first of all for the unsaved ones the ones that are away from us the ones that live at some distance but Lord most of all they're at a distance from you Lord I pray that the Holy Spirit would bring conviction to their heart oh Lord especially if they have been raised in the faith and they backslidden bring the backsliders back to you Lord if some of them are in drugs or alcohol Lord deliver them we pray Lord if there are parents here tonight that carry hurts and pains heal the wound Lord some of them feel so guilty they feel the burden of guilt they feel so much the responsibility of theirs but all Lord you are even greater than our faults you're greater than our mistakes and Lord you can reach them out you can save them Lord in spite of what failures may have been in the past Lord we put that under the blood we put that under the blood and Lord we ask you to minister to them I pray for every parent who has a child at home God lift them encourage them tonight Lord sometimes they don't know what to do they're overwhelmed by Oh Lord come supernaturally into their homes come supernaturally Lord give them wisdom from above and Lord give them an anointing in their homes give them instruct them be their teacher Lord be their teacher at home Lord we pray for those of our children our teenagers that are in this church Lord send a revival send a revival Lord to our 12 year olds 13 year olds 14 year olds 15 16 17 Lord send revival we pray Lord move upon them move upon them Lord Oh Lord we pray in Jesus name amen hallelujah hallelujah Kevin sing that again trust in the Lord hallelujah yes will you do trust him this is the conclusion of the tape hallelujah praise God praise God Lord I just pray for some that are here tonight or in a situation where they don't know what else to do they've they've reached the end of their rope they've come to the end of themselves in knowing what to do with their children with a child with a son with a daughter Lord I pray that right now they'll just throw their hands up in surrender to you and say God you take over it's too much for me I can't handle it anymore I cast it on you tonight I give it to you Lord Lord free tonight release in the name of Jesus some are at this altar they're overwhelmed they're overwhelmed Lord let your Holy Spirit overpower them overwhelm them tonight lift this burden we pray in the name of Jesus hallelujah thank you Lord thank you Jesus thank you Jesus amen will you release that to the Lord now release it to the Lord this is the conclusion of the tape maniac of Gadara sitting in clothes and his right mind Exodus he had from the tombs and from we see the withered hand the company of his followers who were made glad