From the Upper Room to the Living Room | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson

as you're returning back your seats welcome the first apostolic church hasn't the glory of the lord filled the house today hasn't this been a beautiful day of worship already so far thank you choir amen thank you worship team amen pastor carpenter our senior pastor sends his love from crossfield tennessee he will be back this evening but he is preaching the morning service there in crosswalk with pastor cheshon and we love the cheshire they come and they're here with us probably i don't know probably once a month they'll come to our sunday night service and we love them so much and they're having a very important anniversary this week and pastor pastor is preaching there as brother as pastor hammond already said first lady is is uh taking care of of her youngest grandchild and god touched hampton this this morning in jesus name amen to all of our guests if this is your first time thank you so much for being here at first apostolic let's give them a first apostolic church welcome thank you for making this your place of worship today it means so much to us amen that you would be here i'm looking around i see so many so many faces that i don't recognize if you will stand and turn your bible with me to psalm 128 and verse 1. i want to give a special welcome to my family that's here today amen all the way from florida i have my brother and his wife john and angie and so glad to have them and they're here for a very important reason i'll tell you about in just a moment and they have they have their grandbaby with them their their solo grandparenting my mom and dad could make it but i'm so glad that molly made it this morning and she's here she's grown up you've seen her before but she was just brand new but she's growing up such a dull baby so good to have her of course my parents are here for just a great reason and then i'm so also so glad to have mama we call her affectionately call her mama davis this is sister patricia davis from west tennessee savannah tennessee her and her husband her late husband brother gerald davis they pastored savannah for decades and decades and not only that but they were the section six presbyter for the united pentecostal church in west tennessee for for many many many years matter of fact since i've known them they were the presbyter and just raised up such a mighty church many family mama davis for the very first time it's good to have you at first apostolic church come on make my family feel welcome aren't you glad they're here today and it's all about gabby of course gabby had a birthday this week we celebrated 24 years old celebrated her birthday but also i'm so happy that we're about to add noah frankly to our family he proposed to my niece and now they are engaged and we're so excited about that and we love noah and and could not ask could not ask ask for a greater godly young man amen to propose to to my niece to john and angie's daughter uh to my parents granddaughter i got to get everybody involved here to sister mama dave's grandbaby we got to get everybody involved here but we just had a special time and and and i hear it's been a big weekend and i don't want to tell anybody's stories but i just hear there's been a lot going on this weekend and i congratulate and maybe we'll get to hear more about that in just a little bit but congratulate uh so much amen all the things that are happening this weekend psalm 128 1 says blessed is everyone that feareth everyone say feareth feareth the lord that walketh in his ways and then deuteronomy 6 and 2 it'll be on the screen if you don't have time to get there it says that thou mightest fear the lord thy god to keep all of his statutes and his commandments which i command thee thou watch us right here in thy son and my son's son all the days of thy life and that thy days may be prolonged now this is going to be the last well i say that pastor carpenter he might come in and and teach another month on this series but this is supposed to be it's scheduled to be the last uh the last session in our series called from the upper room to the living room and i want to i want to name this i want to name this message today the transfer of fear all right the transfer of fear i want to teach mostly teach about the importance of making sure that the next generation understands the importance of fear all right let's put our bibles down let's lift up our hands father we love you lord i'm so grateful lord god i'm so thankful lord that your power is here lord your majesty is here lord the holy ghost is at work in this house today i don't know what your plans are god but i just know they're gonna be big plans lord and they're gonna involve the people that stand before me that are in under my hearing today lord i'm just gonna believe lord god that lord you're gonna you're gonna fix some families you're gonna fix some homes you're gonna fix some marriages lord there's gonna be some children though that after lord after we teach on the subject of fear lives oh god paradigms are gonna shift are gonna change and lord you're just gonna do great and mighty things through our families what i just believe the same power that's in the upper room lord belongs in the living room lord won't you bless me lord as we bless this great church today in jesus name clap your hands up to the lord and just give him vocal praise today hallelujah oh we bless you in your house today father because we love you we honor you and it's your day and we rejoice in it amen you may be seated today all all the way we we've been kind of moving through the series uh since mother's day since mother's day pastor began the very first lesson and he has been doing a splendid job teaching us in this syrian the utmost importance to serve the same god at home that we do here at church amen if we're gonna experience pentecost here we've got to experience pentecost at home yeah we're going to talk about this in just a little bit i i'm excited i'm excited about what god has given me today because fear is so important we have to create a culture of fear that we transfer to our children and i know that in our day and age and in the past decade or so i know that the no fear movement has come through and i get it i've preached messages about it and obviously we're talking about fear of the enemy or fear of failure or fear of not moving forward or not being able to accomplish what god has called us to do i i wholly agree with the fact that we got to have a campaign or a movement of no fear but what i really want to talk about today is there has to be a fear there has to be a different kind of fear there has to be a reverence a continual awareness that we are in the presence of a holy god a righteous god a just god an almighty god that every motive every thought every word every action is open before our god our god is omnipotent i'm not present omniscient he knows all he sees all he is all places and we can't look at that brother schnitzer as uh the man upstairs that's holding the club that's not that's not the point of a god who knows all who understands all who sees all who is all the point of that is to help the body to help the church to help the people of god in our time of need but at the same time we must understand there has to be a certain reverence a certain fear that we must keep for not only god but the house of god in the ways of god and so as i move down through uh as i move down through this lesson today i want you to keep in mind that there must be a transfer of of fear and as i begin to read all throughout the bible and and you're not going to be able to have time to to follow me verse by verse matter of fact i'm not even going to give you the scripture text i'm just going to rely on my friend brother tony that he's just going to throw these verses up as i begin to read them but i do want to start brother tony in psalm 85 and 9 i'm just going to roll through here but i want to i want to kind of talk about what the bible relates to fear and the promises that accompany fear the bible says surely his salvation is nigh to them that fear him by the fear of the lord men depart from evil the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom oh fear the lord ye his saints for there is no want to them that fear him be not wise in thine own eyes fear the lord and depart from evil it shall be watch this health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones the fear of the lord prolongeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortened happy is the man that feareth all way but he that hardeneth his heart shall be into mischief psalm 128 says blessed is everyone that feareth the lord that walketh in his ways for thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands happy shall thou be and it shall be well with thee thy wife shall be as the fruitful vine by the sides of the house thy children like isle of plants round about the table behold that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the lord by humility and the fear of the lord are riches and honor and life the angel of the lord encampeth round about from them for them that fear him and deliver them and then one more psalm 145 19 says he will fulfill the desire of them that fear him he also will hear their cry and save them just just a few verses i pulled out on the fear of the lord because sometimes we look so negatively at the word fear as if we're supposed to fear god and tremble in his presence because he's about to do something to us or punish us or somehow take out the the whooping stick yeah right that's kind of how you know being raised in pentecost we we were always watching and always being careful and and mind you you need to watch and you need to be careful but sometimes in in pentecost we can look at god as as as a do in a don't situation you can do this but whatever you do don't do that and i believe when we truly fear the lord it's not about his commandments any longer it's not about the law any longer it's it's a heart that wants to live for god and to please god and whatever he so desires it's not about watching out to see well what did i do in my past what am i doing what's in my closet i better watch be careful no skeletons fall out of the closet oh god i better be careful because man if if these people find out about that and those people find out about this i'm going to lose this ministry and lose that's not what it's about if you truly love god if we can really transfer fear to the next generation our kids are not going to be looking for a dues in a don't list they're saying god whatever your will is for my life that's what i want to do that's who i want to be that's how i want to live to please god to fear the lord so we have the opportunity not only to teach our children to fear but to train them to fear and you've heard you've heard the saying that you can't teach old dogs new tricks but but the fact of the matter is you can't teach dogs any tricks animals dogs have to be trained it's got to be a reoccurring training that happens because i'll just be honest with you listen i i wasn't always like this sister dempsey but i am now a dog person i've got a golden doodle we had some rough we had some rough months in the beginning i didn't know if he was going to live through the beginning of his life but he lived anybody have any doodles that you know what i'm talking about look at all these doodle lovers come on somebody whoo we can have church in here now but she's about 10 year 10 10 months old now she's got out of the binding stage she's she's pretty potty trained she doesn't excite on the floor as much anymore but everything that happened with her it wasn't because i walked up to her and said holly short for hollywood don't ask any questions holly do not mess on my bedroom rug again that's that's me trying to teach her that doesn't work there has to be a reward and it has to be something that happens over and over and over again so now we have a routine in the morning at seven o'clock and listen if it gets past seven o'clock she lets me know one of two things either i hear her or she starts she gets up on the side of my bed and just starts popping me with her nose and i don't fight it because i thought at one time i ignored it one time that was a mistake so now we have this thing we're at seven o'clock every single morning between 7 and 7 15 and that neighborhood's every single morning she knows i'm going to open up the she knows i'm going to go turn the alarm off she hears that noise that means okay we're about to go outside she goes to the back door she knows she's going to go outside it's going to be quick i'm going to open the door she's going to come right back in she sits down because she knows she's going to treat her it's simple it's easy and even now i'll be honest with you i don't even have to give her a treat she still sits there looks at me i pat her on the head and we walk away everybody's happy i'm more happy than she is but everybody's happy but the same thing happens you can't teach people talking about our children who don't have the capacity to understand there has to be training that's involved now i don't want to get i want to get too far ahead of myself but there has to be verbal and visual education that's that's teaching but train is consistent reputation so a repetition so here we go i want to read to you and this is in our text this is the charge that moses was giving the people and and i want to kind of start here and this is going to get kind of interesting here in a few minutes but but follow along with me we got to get through this to get to where i need to go so in our opening text here's charge charging he's he's trying to make sure right a new generation has come everybody over the age of 40 they're no longer we have a whole new generation a young generation they're about to move into canaan land about to move into the promised land and guess what there are no elders going with them there are no there's nobody that's filled with wisdom right thank god for our elders who are filled with wisdom who've been around the block who understand right none of them are going all it is is the younger generation it's it's the youngsters that are going over into the promised land and moses knows he can't go and so he's beginning to charge them because he understands that there's pagan religions that have multiple gods they're going to try to infiltrate into the people of israel and are going to try to pervert their religion and so here we have in deuteronomy 6 and 2 moses begins to charge and he says thou that thou mightest fear the lord thy god to keep all of his statutes and his commandments which i command thee thou and my son and my son's son all the days of our life and that the days may be prolonged and then we go into i want to skip down to verse 4 and we can all quote this so so well here oh israel the lord our god is one lord and he makes it very very clear from the very beginning you're gonna be amongst people that serve multiple gods they're gonna if you're not careful you're gonna marry into them and we know that happened you're gonna marry into them and you're gonna take on the gods that they serve so he said you got to tell it not it's not just for you and this is what this is what i've come to talk about today this transfer of fear it's not good enough that myself and my wife felon have the fear of god it's not good enough that's that's not gonna fix anything because there's a next generation we have daughters and will soon have grandchildren that are gonna have to understand the same fear that we understand it's it's not good enough that the elders understood because the elders didn't go over and it's not good enough that the 40 and under understand because there's a coming of generation that if we allow them to do what they want to do and to do what is right in their own sight well i feel like i'm preaching the bible right now and so moses is trying to tell them there's one god he continues in in verse 5 he says and thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thine heart with all thy soul and with all thy might you see what he's doing right here he's trying to say hey if you love god if you follow him with your heart your soul and everything inside of you that leaves nothing to serve any other god with talk about the transfer of fear if we really fear this great jehovah there's no room for for these small gods and these small idols and these these foreign paganistic rituals and the things that are trying to infiltrate the church he said you've got to serve god with everything you are and verse 6 says in these words which i command thee this day shall be in thine heart watch this and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shall talk of them when thou sittest in my house and when i walk us by the way and when i lies down and when thou risest up he he's charging the people you've got to train your children steadily with great earnest and energetically that's what diligently means he's saying this is not something that you can just do on accident you have got to purposely train up your children they're not going to catch this with the culture they're about to move into in the society they're about to move into they're not going to naturally catch this you're going to have to train them up and i don't know if we realize it or not but we are in a dark culture in america today and we can't just assume that our kids are going to naturally follow in our footsteps they are not going to naturally follow in our footsteps a child does not have to learn to lie to steal to back talk somebody said amen it's natural so therefore we got to do something that's not natural and i think my parents can agree with me we're going to have to train them it's not easy it takes time we're tired at the end of the day last thing we want to think about is training after we've been working all day get up in the morning you're trying to get your kids ready for school oh my word maybe some of y'all got it easy three girls trying to iron stuff wife's doing all the hair i'm making lunches we're just trying to survive and get him to school training doesn't come it's not a natural thing it takes time it takes effort it's difficult at times but moses what he's trying to say is listen we have got to make this a priority whatever we do we've got to train up our children we got to make sure everywhere we go everything we do whether we're in our living room sit on the couch and talk about the goodness of jesus if you're putting them to bed at night share your testimony with them tell them baby i remember when i was a child and my mom almost put me to bed my daddy wasn't even in the house and and there wasn't nobody to kiss me good night and you could start talking about your your testimony and say baby but you got a daddy that does love you or maybe daddy you put your your son to bed he said you got a mama that cares about you you got a mama that cares about how you look and how you're dressed want to make sure you're presentable listen these are all things listen everybody has a testimony and we've got to share it with our children the saddest thing would be for us to have a testimony and everybody know it except for our own kids somebody walk up and start talking to you about your daddy's testimony you say what who that's my dad did that bad my god help us in the home to intentionally bring the upper room into our living room moses said whatever you do when you rise or when you go to bed when you're sitting or when you're walking by the way talk to your kids about your god hey there's nothing wrong with taking on taking a stroll down down the road in the subdivision or some of you live out in the country take them out on a path back through the woods and just talk to them about god what would be wrong with that we'll talk about hunting talk about fishing topple we're going shopping next week talk about hey we're going to do this at competition we're going to go up here and gather we're going to do this god help us help us to realize train up the child wherever you are whenever you get a chance but it can't all be done here it's got to be done at the home we can we can teach them here oh yes we can teach them here you can bring them to church three times a week they can go to chapel a fourth service we can preach our student pastors can preach and teach our teachers in the classroom can teach our sunday school teachers can teach our kids quests can teach but that's not training that's all it is it's education and education backs training education teaching is what gives them the word knowledge the wisdom in order to back up what's being taught or being trained at home a lot of times and this is something that we as as pentecostals we could really fall through the cracks because we think to ourselves well i know that most denominations they're only taking their kids to church once uh once a week and and sometimes only on easter and christmas but i'm taking my kids three times a week and we can start thinking about we got sunday school and kids question my god my kids go to school for five six seven hours a day with with holy ghost filled teachers and and we can somehow just back right out of the fact that we're the trainers i'm gonna i'm gonna prove it to you training a child is constant training never takes a break transferring fear to the next generation is something we've got to do intentionally i began to research world religions i wanted to find out which religion retains their children at the highest percentage i began to look and study through course christianity and judaism through islam buddhism hinduism taoism began just just to just kind of read through and do some some research and find out you know what are we looking at which ones are growing the quickest which ones are uh which ones are are building uh are are building up great next generations and wouldn't you know and you could probably guess that islam also known as the muslim faith i found out is the fastest growing major religion in the world a comprehen comprehensive religious forecast for 2050 by the pew research center predicts this it says that the global muslim population will grow at a faster rate than the christian population it said within christianity pentecostalism is the fastest growing religion within christianity due to conversions watch this right here due to conversions however when you step back and look at the world religions islam is growing the most rapidly because its children are not leaving the faith and i know i see some of y'all with furrowed eyebrows and you're saying it's because they kill people that lead the faith and that is no just kidding and then that is true that's true in a very small i want you to know that that's a very very isolated community that that happens i promise you that's not all over the middle east but that's true and also we understand that they're growing because their families are a lot larger than our families if we have two if if america averages 2.2 children they're more like 4.8 children or higher and and that that is a good way to grow a church i think nathan and faith we're growing had a beautiful little baby girl this weekend i mean y'all young couples we can grow the church that way that is a way to grow but the fact of the matter is they are training their children in a way i'm going to kind of go through it here in a minute but they're training their children in a way that when they grow up and when they leave the home there's no question whether they're going to remain in islam or not there's no question about it they are going to be muslim until they die so i i want to i want to talk about that in just a moment but but it's very important to understand that that there are ways that there are ways in which the church the body grows but the greatest way we're going to grow is by retaining our children because here's the deal if we have the greatest outrages and we win people from all over the community but our own kids aren't saved and our own kids don't go to heaven we've kind of missed the whole point of being a parent i mean thank thank god thank god for those that that have these great ministries and can go out and reach the lost and going into far countries and and bring people in but if their own home is not saved i'm going to catch that in just a moment also so i as i begin to try to understand the muslim they have they have such a disdain and a hatred towards our western culture and it's not an arab mind you it's not an arab feeling it's a muslim feeling because all arabs are not muslims besides the fact that we politically align with their neighboring enemy israel other than that they also disagree fully with our society and the way we run our society the social views are entirely too far right of center and unfortunately america's social views as a whole are entirely too far left of center right and i'm not here to say that muslim society is better a society because they're definitely not but but i want to bring this before before you because there's some very harsh ways of thinking about our culture because the only news that they really get is cnn and i want you i want you to think about this the reason why they view our culture is because they're not getting the marches the pro-life marches if you will they're getting all the marches on their tvs they're seeing these americans and of course because we're called a christian nation they just assume just like we assume that they're all muslim they assume that we're all christian and so they assume that all christians have this warped view of abortion they don't believe in abortion this warm view of of they let their children decide what gender they are i mean you got to think about that this is all they're seeing in the middle east they're not here with us today all they're seeing is what's being presented to them on these liberal news outlets that does not represent america as a whole by any means but to them just kind of like very similar to you know after 9 11 how every muslim or every arab we saw we automatically thought what all right get on an airplane with them right you had you had a few extremists and all of a sudden we just bunched everybody together from the middle east as if they're all extreme terrorists right that wasn't true at all i've been i've been over to middle east a few times and every every person i've met over there has been the nicest person i've gone and eaten i've eaten at a muslims home i've eaten lunch sitting on the floor of where they eat around in a circle when they brought food and laid it on the floor i met some of the nicest kindest people they begged us not to leave because they like this so much but here we have a nation and you gotta you gotta kind of understand they look at our society and they think these people are crazy these people have given themselves so many freedoms their brain has rolled out of their heads they're so open-minded and again thank god for america i would not want to live in any other country it's the land of the free the land of the brave i thank god for my nation however we can if we're not careful this free thinking culture could seep into the church because i don't know if we realized or not but christianity did not develop in america christianity is a middle eastern religion that was brought to america in the way of the thinking matter of fact if we start to read what moses was commanding them to do you're about to see when i start talking about how the muslims raise their children there's a lot of simulators you know why because they're both middle eastern religions i know some of you that just went and you're like what yeah it all happened over there jesus is not american he didn't speak english that's another lesson simple proverb we can all i'm going to give you an example a simple proverb we can all recite train up a child and the way he should go when he is old he'll not depart from him the very first thing that i see right away is the the pronoun he it's very middle eastern obviously here in our culture we would say train up a child in the way they should go which is correct but once again in the culture that hates our culture they try they try to pull they stereotype and they try to pull everything everything together and and we can kind of see this because if our current administration wrote this proverb it wouldn't sound like that it would say it would say train up in a child child any way they want to be trained up and when they're old if they want to they can depart from it right because they look out and they see oh my god and they're right we have we have a we have a government in a court system that that's passing laws of of children and and tell a school system don't call boys he and girl she any longer ask them what they want to be called don't call mrs smith ma'am she may not want to she might not identify as a man matter of fact don't call her missus just call her teacher if you're interested young man in in dating another young man that's okay young lady if you wanna if you wanna if you wanna date another young lady that's okay you can marry anybody you wanna if you wanna identify as a squirrel oh you laugh they're called furries we went we went to opryland for a pre-con meeting for nyc years ago and they had put plastic down over all of the floors and we're like what is this plastic for well he's like there's there's a furry convention and they just relieve themselves whenever they want to relieve themselves now they char brother hammond they charge us for every hanging point they won't let us roll in certain machinery into their little carpet and they won't let us do this and won't let us do that but we don't want to mess with their feelings of their identity y'all this is real and again don't get me wrong i'm not preaching against freedoms of america god thank god that we're able to worship like we want matter of fact we probably won't be worshipped like this today if we didn't have freedom of religion we understand that but at the same time oh my god the only way we're going to keep the culture of this world from polluting our christian culture is to not let it enter into our training center and when i say training center i'm not talking about movement university we're about to start here in a year or so i'm not talking about that training center i'm talking about i'm talking about our homes i'm talking about our living rooms i'm talking about the place where we train our children it is our training center as parents we are the trainers whether we realize it or not we're training you say well i leave that to my wife or i some of you say i'll leave that to my husband oh no you don't because your kids are watching every move you make every attitude every response the way you look at a situation and guess what daddies your boys are gonna be just like you you think we're going to raise you think you think in our training centers you think we're going to raise up kids that don't act like daddy and mama absolutely not so we better get because they're following every because you know what every parent is a natural leader and every child is a natural follower and god help us and you say well my kids know my issues i tell them right up front you don't do like daddy does you you do what i say not as i do we'll see i'll see how that works for you here about ten years i'm moving quickly i'm digressing quickly proverbs 22 6 says train up a child children today have more knowledge and are less mature than they've ever been you hear me they have more knowledge our kids are brilliant they're all coming out of universities with degrees upon degrees they are brilliant people are playing a lottery sending our kids to college thank god y'all think i'm preaching against it don't do it but do send your kids to college our kids are so smart but the kids of today don't look anything like the kids when i was a kid and the 18 year olds when i was 18 don't look like the 18 year olds of today now they smarter oh my word they're smarter sure but so much less mature we live in a culture where children are raising parents and not parents raising children my mother brother fuller my mother she's here she could be a witness she never one time asked me what i wanted for dinner honey do you want papa john's do you want chili's do you want mama made it set it on the table and bless god we ate it corey i i like peas today because i was forced to eat peas y'all don't even know what those are those are from up north little round little devil things broccoli i like broccoli today because mama made me eating grits we didn't have grits but i do like grits daddy didn't say son you're 16 now are you going to church today so you furnish them with a bedroom with the latest technology mounted to the wall they've got they've got a a closet filled with the latest garments the most the stylish you probably bought them a car that's nicer than your car yeah probably pay for the gas that's in their car and you're gonna ask them if they're going to church what what where's brother kyle long for the comment uh i'm gonna quote i'm gonna quote jeff arnold jeffrey i heard him say something i said he's preaching he said you little creep get up out of bed you're going to church we didn't have options when i was growing up we were told the way not given a choice what the way would be the word train in hebrew this word train means to narrow the path train up a child they got so they got so much influence they got so many things that are bombed out in their little minds training narrows the path train up a child give them boundaries build guard rails listen we don't need our kids don't need a ton of options they need the way show them the way narrow it down to where they're not confused and they're not am i a boy am i a girl there's no training involved right here i wish somebody would help me today i feel the holy ghost because we're raising up a generation that we're going to narrow the way and they're going to understand who they are and whose they are that can be confused by hollywood not to be confused by nashville not going to be confused by washington d.c but they're going to know who they are because we're going to narrow the way train up a child give perimeters you may be seated give restrictions restrictions are good parkour and where's parker in one of my favorite my favorite voicemails she's voice messages she let me hear from from her grandfather the late james r stevens she was leaving she was live with the stevens and he left a message on her phone and said parker and you are restricted and i think he meant grounded but i like that word right there he said you are restricted she probably still has that on her phone just listens to just to hear his voice i oh my word i'm sure it wasn't nothing you did i'm sure he was having a bad day you know restrictions are good perimeters are good children that don't live in the perimeter of limitations and restrictions become adults that don't know how to live in the perimeter of restrictions and limitations that's why we have adults that can't keep jobs don't want to get up for work well you know what they were kids that didn't want to get it for school well i'm meddling again if we don't train up our children we can sure expect them to not be trained adults train up a child in the way he should go the way that's a direction go that way come this way these are these are directions teaching involves giving information but training is so much more advanced it's more advanced than teaching because it's leading them in a direction god help us i know i know i said this already but i'm gonna kind of come back to it again because it's so important the training that happens in the home we will duplicate what we are if there's carnal habits there's going to be carnal habits duplicated in our children issues hang-ups attitudes mistakes guilt dear god fathers if you feel guilt don't put that upon your sons but at the same time or the same things with our daughters with our sons the same things little boys can grow up and be just like their daddies and be just like their mothers and have spiritual habits and have the same blessings and the same favor of god the same godly spirit the same accomplishments that's what i want to raise it all it all starts here my kids are horrible well my kids are never obey my kids my kids they're about to go to college they don't even know what they want to be the lord they want to do if the kid doesn't know what direction they're going something happened in the training center train up a child and the way should go when he's old he will not depart from it when he's old he will not depart what does that mean first of all we understand that this is a proverb and not a promise right you understand that this is a proverb this is kind of like if you don't play in the street you should not get hit by a car but there's other places you can get i know people that are walking on sidewalks that got hit by cars but but it's proverbs it's just it's it's it's good sense the 98.7432 percent of the time if you don't play in the street you're not gonna get hit by a car that's kind of what that is right it just the percentages are high same thing with a problem it's this is not a problem because i know too many good parents i i went to bible school with friends that had some of the greatest parents and they're no longer living for god today don't even don't even believe in god today on drugs i i got bible school friends i'm i'm talking about the same people that went to the same services i went to the same chapel service and and were inspired by paul d mooney just like i was don't even believe there is a god had awesome parents so so this is not this is not something to where a parent in this place should feel conviction it's because your children because we all we all have the right to be whoever we want to be and to do whatever we want to do but it simply means this today it simply means you have a better chance of having a child that will live for god the rest of their life if you instill that in them from a young child if you train that in them from a young god god help us lord the word depart in this hebrew proverb means you can't turn it off he will not depart from it the it is not the church right because there this is proverbs there is no church it is whatever that child has been taught good or bad right whatever the training center taught he's not going to depart from it in the good that just simply means i i'm almost in and lord god help me i'm about 95 finished with the book i'm writing on the pathway home it's about to go to the editor here in the next couple weeks but when the prodigal came to himself he's there feeding swine he's lost everything he's messed up riotous living has found him in a place he thought he would never be and luke 15 17 says and when he came to himself he said how many hired servants of my father have bred enough and despair and i perish with hunger some prodigals make the decision to come home and unfortunately others don't but what's true with all of them they'll always have a memory of home and mom and dad and what was instilled in them something will always come up where they'll think to themselves there's some servants back home people i used to look down upon people that i used to make them do the dirtiest of the dirtiest work while i sat back and watched them those people have it better so much better than i have it right now and so a prodigal will come to themselves and that's what this is simply saying it's simply saying oh they may not ever come back home but they will never forget it will never leave their mind the good that god did in their lives i got to hurry to an end but it's very important listen i need everybody to raise their right hand i just say to say i will not be offended when pastor erickson reads what the muslims believe and how they raise their children because i just love brother eriksen thank you i love you all too here we go this this i read through some articles that just that blew my mind how the muslim faith their technique in raising their children you wanna hear about this is very interesting okay one of their prophets i'm not gonna like i don't wanna go too far to this one of the prophets he said this he said play with them for the first seven years of their life then train them for the next seven years and then advise them for the next seven years so if you if you're good at math that's somewhere in the neighborhood of 21 years right and he's simply saying for the first seven years play this is now this is not bible this is this is what they do he said play with them for the first seven years get to know your child create a bond with your child then for the next seven years it's time to start training them it's time to start training i'm gonna kind of go through the training process here in a minute and then the final seven years so now they're about 14 headed into puberty right they're getting and at this point now it's time to advise them every decision they make let's advise them okay so that this is this is how they're gonna roll so it is for the first seven years this is the time the child play but roll up the parenting sleeves to build a strong connection to your child these are the formation years when a child is constantly influenced by the surroundings and learns by observing children imitate their parents more than anyone if you find here this is good right here if you find any undesirable behavior in your child check if you your spouse or a caregiver has acted similarly in front of your child these are the foundation years the base from which the relationship with them grows if this is rock solid the remaining years will be much easier if this foundation forms poorly the next seven years will be more challenging can somebody say amen okay the next seven years this is from age seven to the age of fourteen once children reach seven they are ready for logical reasoning and islamic ethics this is the time when children are sponges they read they soak up anything everything to show to teach that you tell them the second stage of upbringing is the time to teach them secular and religious knowledge halal versus haram and all the things they need to know teach them sports too the prophet said teach your children swimming and archery and horseback riding so teach them sports too sports have many benefits including teamwork and leadership sportsmanship and physical fitness at this stage children are young and they are still in the process of learning what is right and what is wrong it is the parent's responsibility to teach the child how to behave how to choose his environment and decide which type of people to fill the environment with so that they can continue to do what is best for them without without boundaries society will be in chaos similarly children need a set of boundaries to guide their behavior this sounds so familiar behavior which gives the children the freedom to act and behave if they do not know what the boundaries are then they do not know what is acceptable and what is not if children are taught beforehand what is correct in good behavior then they will have the guidelines to act within the boundaries and will not be left wondering and confused as parents set rules and boundaries for everyone in the family including yourself and take care to explain to your children why they must obey them children love logical reasoning so let them ask questions while they calmly while you calmly explain so that's 7 to 14. now at 14 to 21 once your child is 14 or or hits puberty children achieve independence and they develop their own personality during these critical years befriend them advise them and do what you can understand what they are now that they are now full adults according to islam and the choices are theirs to make right or wrong as parents our responsibility responsibility is to advise them okay so then i i begin to read a little deeper into this and here are the 10 steps i'm going to go through this quickly so don't get nervous don't get nervous 10 steps just be really fast but this is 10 steps to raising a muslim child number one recite the adhan where when your child is born repeatedly whisper the call to prayer in his or her right ear okay they're very specific step two on the seventh day perform a quiqua i think i did that pretty good a quick what a q iq a h it says shave off the hair on the head and offer sacrifice which can be a goat or sheep and we understand this is islam circumcise the boy as this is obligatory to ensure cleanliness okay step three when the child begins to speak teach them which means there is no god except allah and muhammad is allah's prophet okay so here this this all sounds very familiar with with with the christian with it with the jewish with the hebrew way that they do it encourage them to memorize it recite it often teach them its meaning and what this short statement entails as they grow up they need to understand that there is only one god uh known by the name and they go by the god allah and the ultimate purpose of their life is to worship him they must remind be reminded of truth day in and day out it must worship him with their tongue heart thoughts action their whole being this sounds so familiar step four be a role model and a teacher remember kids learn what they see more than what they hear so be a role model for them offer salah which is their prayers before them and let them listen to you reciting the holy quran this way they will realize you are doing something important and they will try to follow you encourage them to worship alongside of you you see how we're going with this teach them that as muslims we are different from the non-muslims dress yourself and your children in accordance with islamic tradition in order to help them develop their muslim identity place the koran at the center of their child's life young minds are very receptive to children so children should be required to read and memorize from an early age teach them to recite the quran in arabic and help them to understand its meaning in your native language by the age of seven the child should be learning the correct way to pray this albuquerque players from age 10 the child should be praying all five salah correctly and on time every day step five tell them bedtime stories about the prophets in the early days of islam i don't have time to go through all this but they're making a big deal about there's truths within all of these stories step six spend time with them get them admitted to good schools where they can be free to practice islam and they go through all of this and and what it takes to be an islamic student number seven develop an encouraging and supportive environment number eight keep an eye on the company of your kids friends have a great effect on kids personalities so watch who they befriend step nine ensure that they fulfill the religious obligations and are aware of the importance of submission to allah with with everything they're going through they're going to start and this is this is i'm i'll get to number nine and number ten but this is this is what they're doing they are ingraining in their minds the way to train up their children do we see this and again this is not christianity i'm sorry i'm not giving you the pillars of islam i'm not giving all that i'm just simply saying this is how they are they don't do anything but but they don't do anything by accident everything they're doing is on purpose and they're going through ritual because it takes ritual to train somebody step 10 keep the deen in their hearts and encourage them to focus their lives on pleasing allah is it any wonder why the muslim faith is retaining their children think about this they're becoming adults and they're not leaving the muslim faith because in their training center in their homes you could call it brainwashing you could call it spiritual abuse you can call it whatever you want to call it but the fact of the matter is they're successfully training up their children and we know it's not the truth we understand that it's not truth that they're teaching we understand that i on every say brother erickson understands that all i'm saying is they are making sure that every day when they're in the home with their kids they're going through an order of steps to make sure when that child graduates from the school when the child gets married and leaves a home that child is muslim until they die it's on purpose it's intentional and i got i got to be honest with you as a christian father i feel a little conviction because at home i i'm not that detailed now now i believe they're following me and i i want to raise up raise up children that that are like their father and i want to live for god with all that i am and i i want to do the things that i want my daughters to do when they're they're 20 and 30 and 40. yes but when it comes to just saying that every time i sit down with them i talk about god every time i i rise up with them i'm talking about god i can't tell you that's true i wish it was true but it's not like that in my home don't get me wrong i'm careful we don't watch anything we don't want anything that has language we don't watch we don't watch any kind of nudity any if there's if there's homosexual implications on on shows we don't watch them we're very careful what we watch and what we bring into our home but god help us as christian parents to go farther than just being good i thank god for vid angel i thank god that takes all the cussing out takes all the scenes i thank god for all that i thank god we have on devices we make sure we have on our kids devices that we make sure we know what they're looking at and who's texting them and we understand i thank god for all those things and and brother ham is going to come in just a few minutes and kind of promote what's going to happen this afternoon i thank god for all that but it's got to be more than just keeping them from things we got to put something into them oh my god i thank god my daughters don't cuss i'm so glad my daughters don't talk dirty but my god that's not where we got to stop we got to say god but i want them to profess your name and profess your holiness and profess your righteousness it's not good enough that they don't do wrong i want them to do right god help us i'm almost done i'm almost done i'm almost done god help us listen i think that we as apostolic pentecostals probably struggle with this more than the average christian i'll tell you why because we already look different we are our families already look different our families dress different our families don't go to certain places and don't do certain things and so a lot of times in our mind we can make that our religion right we we can make that what we are and we think that because we do those things our kids go to a christian school and because they go to a christian school it's almost like we check all the check boxes and and when we're done we just kind of sign the bottom line and said hey i raised my kids good because i brought them to a good church put them in a good youth group had them at a good school hurrah but god help us to be trainers on purpose god help us to be transfers of fear i want my girls to fear god i don't want them to fear me or their mother i want them to fear god because if they fear god i i didn't finish the charge i want to read some other charge and i'm almost done deuteronomy 6 7 and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and so talk of them talk about the laws and the things of god that when i'll sit us down in the house and when thou walk us by the way and when thou liest down when thou risest up and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand and thou shalt be as frontlets between thine eyes and thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house and on thy gates thou shalt fear the lord thy god and serve him and shall swear by his name moses was saying when you go into the landform with milk and honey and you walk into these cities that you did not build and you have vineyards that you did not plant and you're reaping places where you did not sow he said you better walk in there and you better put the name of your god on every post of the gate the post of the doorway you better put it you better put it between your eyes i'm talking about some place where you can see it no matter which way you turn you and your kids better understand that you didn't get yourself to this point like a turtle sitting up on a fence post what everybody knows about that turtle my god he didn't get there by himself i sent a picture in the family feed the other day chubbs the hammond's bulldog he was sitting on one of my lawn chairs and i said guys i quoted that i said like like the turtle on the fence post i said so help me god i did not put him on that chair i don't know how he got i don't know if my dog holly put him up in the chair because that's her dog i don't know if she put him up the chair but moses had to say listen you didn't get into the promised land on your own doing you serve a great god and you better fear that god and realize that god knows all sees all oh my god i want my daughters to raise up in a way it's not about like i said it before but i got to keep on reiterating it's not about what they can do and what they can't do it's not even about right and wrong it's simply about i love god so much i've got a relationship with jesus that's so strong i don't want to displease him i don't want to cause shame to him oh my god that's when we do passion for purity that's the thing that we try to we try to get into the minds of the students this is not about giving you a bunch of to-do lists on on on where you can date and where you can't date and what you can hold and what you can't hold what you can see what you can't see and where's a good place to put your hand where's it you know if you've got to be told all that stuff you already something going on up here we want to say listen get so close to god that conviction sets in that's we need a good godly conviction to set in you put your hand somewhere ain't nobody ever told you it's wrong but you say i don't need to put my hand there you start thinking thoughts and and nobody's ever told you you can't think you ain't never even heard those words don't know those definitions you don't know anything about that but there's conviction that breaks forth that says that's not right oh if we can get so close to god as parents that we get our kids we train up our kids to get so close to god that they don't want to sin against stand stand stand your feet with me i read this and this is so interesting if a generation only has knowledge of god's commands and no love for his ways then the next generation will depart from the commands if the fear of god is not transferred from generation to generation through training this is what happens first generation passionate everybody say passion they fear god they keep god's commandments it's the inward desires that shape their life if it's not transferred second generation is polite they somewhat go by god's commands and they conform to convenience convenience such as going to a christian school where everybody else is doing it it's convenient i wear this because it's convenient i'll look this way because it's convenient i don't go certain places you know but because none of my friends go those places it's convenient but it's the third generation that third it goes from it goes from passionate to polite to perverted in that generation they leave god's commands and they reject god by preference i don't have to do that i don't want to do that that doesn't fit into my desires it doesn't fit into my plan for my life passionate polite perverted oh my god i just believe close your eyes with me i i just believe that we're going to raise up generations oh my god i feel the spirit of god in this place i just believe we're going to make decisions even from this series right here that god our homes aren't just gonna be a place where we abide but god they're gonna be a place where we train although we're gonna take on what you've called us to be you've called every parent to be a trainer every home to be a training center god we're going to transfer fear like we've never transferred fear i want every parent i want every grandparent please place your hand upon your heart i want you to i want to turn this into a prayer but i want you right now in this place i want you to make up in your mind i will train up my child intentionally and on purpose everything that i say in their presence everything that i do in their presence everything that i talk about what i talk about who i talk about come on i charge you in this room today every chance you get train up your child i charge myself i'm preaching to myself this morning every chance i get when i'm putting them down to bed and and i'm giving them their i'm saying baby come on it's time to pray come on close your eyes we're going to pray it's bedtime we're going to pray god help me to instill in them knowledge of your word god help me to to train them oh god to put honey upon their palate when i start to speak about the oneness of the godhead god i'm just believing in jesus name god help us to raise up to direct to explain god help us to transfer the fear of you it's not good enough that i fear you i want my daughters to fear you i want my grandchildren to fear you come on fathers in the house let us pray god help us to lift up holy hands before our sons that our sons can see what it looks like for daddy to lift up holy hands and to worship oh i want my sons and my daughters come on somebody says i want my sons and my daughters to see me holy and sanctified come on mothers holy and sanctified and righteous before the lord oh god i don't want there to be wrath oh god i don't want there to be fear god lord god in everything that i do lord let it be an example i want to set an example for my children lord jesus oh god come on pray with me father father father father father help me as a father come on we're not going to have an altar call this morning we're just going to touch god right where we stand ah god help me come on moms and dads come on if the muslim faith that they can do it they don't have the holy ghost they don't even believe they don't even believe that our god is the god of the universe oh my god lord god if they can find a way to raise up their children to stay in the faith surely as apostolic pentecostals feel with the holy ghost baptized in the name above every other name the only name that has power surely we can come up with ways oh god to train up our children intentionally oh god help me as a father god i don't want to fail as a father god i want to succeed oh god help me to succeed as a parent come on if you're standing next to your husband or your wife or maybe you're standing next to your children come on why don't you put your arm around them and come on let's pray as a family god oh so goes the family so goes the church the only way this is gonna be a powerful church is if we have powerful families the only way we're going to have powerful families is if your holy ghost will not only be here in the house but it's going to be in our homes oh god oh god convict us so god to be the parents we need to be oh god convict us to be the parents we need to be uh come on why don't you pray call out your children's names oh god i pray god prepares my now god of all heart oh god you've given her a talent oh god god you've given her abilities oh god oh god help me as a father train her to use those for you oh they use them for your purpose oh god for worship unto you oh god god i pray for windsor kate oh god you put in that child lord god our heart to love you hard to serve you god you've put affection into my baby girl london god oh then she might be affectionate for you all the days of our life god i pray for my children god help me god out of the book for the erickson training center god god we're going to step it up oh we're going to step it up oh god oh god oh god we're going to intentionally on purpose train them to live for you lord god when they become of age oh god to leave our home there's not going to be a question what they're going to be who they're going to be what they're going to be god but they're going to live for you lord for the rest of their life i believe that in jesus name i believe that in jesus name oh in jesus name if you believe that same men just stand for a few more minutes