The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Paul Washer with the following message entitled, Raising up boys and girls who can be missionaries. Let's let's go the Lord in prayer. Father, I come before you, Lord, And I thank you for this morning. I thank you for last night, your great help. Father, I pray that you'd give us wisdom.

That you would illumine our minds by the person of the Holy Spirit, that you would help me speak with clarity, that you would take sovereign control, that you would help the hearer to hear, For all of us to apply. Father, help us to raise children that will glorify you. And Lord, we recognize we want to confess that it is all of grace. And that if any good comes out of any of this, it is your doing. We boast in Christ, we put no confidence in the flesh.

In Jesus name, Amen. There's some feedback here, so I feel like I'm being preached that by me, so it's a little confusing, but I'll try to try to keep my sense about me. Let me start off by saying this. God hates pride. He hates pride, he hates all sorts of pride, he hates every kind of proud thing.

And one of the great dangers when we talk about homeschooling or when we with intentionality seek to raise our children, pride can enter in. And when it does, death follows with it, arm in arm, hand in hand. I would rather see a humble person broken and scared, raising their children, not knowing anything that you know, even the child exposed to public school and everything else with broken, trembling parents, then I would see a homeschool family so proud, so arrogant, thinking they've pushed all the right buttons, they followed all the right rules, And now like a vending machine, God is going to produce godly children. What do you have that you have not received? If you have received it, Why do you boast?

Any good thing that has come our way, that we have taken possession of or that has taken possession of us is by the grace of God. It's by the grace of God. And only the spirit of God gives life. Only God has power to save, only God has power to transform. And we must always keep that in mind that we are cast upon Jesus Christ not only for our salvation, but we are cast upon Jesus Christ for every breath.

And we are most certainly cast upon Jesus Christ for our children. But I have a five year old, a nine year old, an 11 year old. And I'm reminded of the only wise thing the king of Israel, Ahab, ever said. And he said it to Benedade of Aram. And he said, Let not him who girds on his armor boast like him who takes it off.

So the question is, you know, why is this man up here teaching us about homeschooling? He's got a five year old. He's got 11 year old. He's got a nine year old in between. What authority?

OK, we're back again. OK, we're back again. What authority do I have to tell you about raising children to be missionaries? Well, I don't want to be trite, but I've never been crucified. I teach on the crucifixion.

I've never been a lot of things that I'm called upon to teach. I've been on the mission field for many years. I work in machines. Obviously, I don't work in electronics. Am I doing it?

I'm sure it's somehow my fault. Are we on now? Okay. I'll try not to move. I've been involved in missions for many years, and I know something of what is needed on the mission field.

I know the great lacking that is on the mission field at this present moment, with many missionaries sent out of the West. Furthermore, I know what the Scripture says about what it is required to be a missionary, a minister of Christ, and about what is required to be a mature man or a mature woman in Christ. And when we come down to it, that is what it is all about. Our greatest need on the mission field are men and women with spiritual maturity and dedication to the person and cause of Christ. So realizing all of that, yes, I can teach on this.

Because what we need most on the mission field are men and women of character, men and women of knowledge, men and women who are possessed by a passion for Christ. Now, the first thing that I want to talk about in what needs to be instilled in our children. And again, God uses human means to do this. But as we must recognize that the the ultimate, the primary source of every good thing transferred to our children is God, not us. But God does use human means.

One of the first things that we need to realize what our children need to be servants of Christ is they need Christ like direction. The focus of their life must be geared toward the kingdom of heaven. Now, in the book of Genesis, and we don't have time to go there, but in Genesis 126 through 28, we see the mandate with regard to creation that man is to go forth. He's to take dominion of what God has made. Now what does that mean?

First of all, man does not rule unto himself in this setting in the book of Genesis, but he is under the authority of God. And to take dominion means that he is to seek to work, to labor, to bring all things on this planet under the will of God, for the glory of God. Now, as Brother Doug Phillips shared, we now live in a fallen world. And there's a sense in which that dominion calling has been transferred over into what we know to be the great commission. That people are to go out and we are to take dominion, not taking dominion in the sense of politically or even materially or or such things, but to take dominion through the preaching of the gospel, take dominion does not mean that we create a world for us.

It means that we preach the gospel, that lives might be transformed, that people might be gathered into and under the kingdom of Christ. That must be the direction of our life, that everything we do is for that. Now let me share with you something about manhood and womanhood. I do not want to leave women out of this at all. Most human beings on this planet walk around totally miserable because they are not doing the very thing for which they were created.

And that is to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, and to labor to dedicate everything they do to the advancement of God's kingdom, the advancement of God's will on this planet. And in that, you need to realize that there is no sense in the Christian life of secular and sacred. That someone dedicated on the mission field or someone preaching the gospel is not more sacred than the mother at home raising her children. Everything we do now, because we've been brought into the kingdom, because we are children of God, everything we do is spiritual. Everything we do, whether we're preaching the gospel or hammering a nail.

It is to be unto the glory of God and for the advancement of his kingdom. Everything. Now, this is extremely important. Now, I want to go to a passage that shows us exactly how. The direction of our lives should be.

I want you to go to the book of Matthew chapter six. If you want to know what it means to be a person on the right path with the right direction in their life, we see it in Matthew Chapter six. Jesus said in verse nine, Pray then in this way, Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What do we see here?

That the overriding, the ruling passion of Jesus Christ was this very thing. His greatest desire is that God's name would be hallowed. That it would be made special. That it would be recognized as unique. That it would be set apart from everything on this planet and in heaven as supreme.

That was his passion. That everywhere on this earth, God's name would be separated out as unique and supreme and ruling over all things, that His kingdom would come, and that every person on the planet would become subject to His will. That's what He lived for, that was the beat of His heart, that was the thought of His mind, and If we are to be true men, this will be reflected in us. And where does it start? It starts with a father.

Let me give you an example. I'm going to chase a rabbit here, but it's very helpful for you to understand. Many men will point out to their wives the doctrine of biblical submission. They'll say, you know, women need to submit to their husbands. And a godly woman may look at that passage and say, yes, indeed, I must and I will.

But then She looks at a man who is a little boy that never grew up, filled with hobbies and desires for himself. He's all about himself, the promotion of self, his career, everything. He is about him. He's a little boy. He's not a man.

Even though he may be 50 years old. And she looks at that and she realizes, yes, I'm called to submit, but it can create a great bitterness in her heart. I'm to submit to this little boy who is all about self. How different it is. How different it is when the woman looks and sees a man whose heart beats, whose every breath is, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

She looks at that and says, yeah, yeah, I could gladly just submit to something like that. That He's not serving self. He's not thinking about hobbies. He's not doing all these things. His purpose in life is to serve the Lord, His God, and when you look Him in the face, It is set like flint.

But it doesn't mean that as this man concerned about the kingdom of God, he then neglects his family and runs off to do ministry somewhere else. No. He starts with concentric circles of concern. He is a man who is dedicated to being in the presence of God, reading the Word in prayer so that God might transform him and make him a useful servant. And then he begins the expression of his service first by loving his wife, by caring for her, by washing her in the gospel.

And then he gives himself to the discipleship of his children. And in doing this he is now showing one of the primary characteristics about a mature man who is able to go into the ministry. But the thing I most want to get to at this point is his children look at him. And they know what their father is about. That their father, His face is set like flint toward Jerusalem, the heavenly one.

That his heart beats with service to God. They have seen the sacrifice. They have seen the ongoing days of work and labor in the family, in His own vocation at the church. They can see it in their father. They can see it in their mother.

They can see it in both. A united Two people who govern everything they govern in the home, that God's name might be holy, that His kingdom might come, that His will might be done. So one of the first things that we have to see is a Christ-like conviction. They have to know what their father is about. When my boys were a little bit younger, they would always ask me, Dad, what do you do?

I mean, what do you do? And I would always play with them. I had intentionality, I can assure you, but I would say, I'll tell you when you're older. But dad, what do you do? I mean that really gets them going, you know, now.

Well, you won't even tell us. What do you do? I said, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. Oh, come on, dad. What do you do?

Okay, you promise to believe me? Yes, we'll believe you. What do you do? I fight dragons. And they said, Ah, Dad.

You told me you promised to believe me. I fight dragons. Little boys, when you're asleep, because you need more sleep than I do. I'm in the night watch fighting dragons in Iran, in Peru, New York City. I fight dragons When I leave here and go to places, whether it be jungle, whether it be the Himalayas, whether it be preaching Eastern Europe, Spain, I go to fight dragons that eat people.

I go to get God's people and bring them home. To do all things for the sake of the elect. You see, here's what I want you to see. So many times things like Harry Potter and these types of movies, they're almost a rebuke to the church. Why?

I'm not saying that there's some virtue in them, but what I'm saying is this. Christianity, for most, has just become a few set of rules that you follow with regard to morality. You go to church once a week or twice a week. You sit there and listen to a teaching. You go home.

You don't realize that the Christian life is far greater than anything you would see in Harry Potter or anything you would see in Lord of the Rings or the greatest battles that have ever been fought on this planet. That there is a spiritual reality out there. There is a kingdom advancing. There is a great war. People are dying.

There are really dragons that need to be slain. And this needs to be instilled into the heart of our children, Not just the idea of the advancement of the kingdom, but an idea of wonder. Of wonder. Of battle. Of blood, sweat, tears and death for a cause.

And they can see that in their father. And they can see that joyfully in their mother. So there needs to be a direction. Also I want us to switch gears now and go to Matthew 9 and verse 36. It says of Jesus, seeing the people, he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.

I was in Brazil with my two boys just a few weeks ago and we went to a favela. We went to a barrio in Rio de Janeiro. It's what they call a barrio. It's a very poor area. It's what you would call the inner city or the hood.

Extremely dangerous. Extremely dangerous. Police walking around in riot gear. There's prostitution. There's drug dealers on the street.

There's guys carrying machine guns. There's all kinds of things going on. We were going there to look at some new church plants, and I said, my boys are coming, right? Yes, brother Paul, you can bring them. Yes, they're coming.

Why? Look out these windows, boys. Look at this. And because they're homeschooled, because they're rather protected at times, they were like, how can these people be this bad? How can these people do this?

Turn both their faces around and said, you are looking at what your father was before Christ came into his life. Now look back out there without a judgmental homeschooling spirit and look at those people and have compassion. You would be wandering these streets because your father would be like the men that are here if it was not for Christ. They need direction. They need to see.

Yes, we need to protect our children from so many evil things. We need to guard their innocence. But at the same time, little by little, they need to see that this world is hurting and does not need a whole bunch of judgmental homeschoolers to heal it. But people who are going to go out in the midst of this horrible mess with healing in their hands, with the gospel in their mouth. They need direction.

They need to see that this world is not 40 acres in Kansas or the little house on the prairie. This is a hurting world, And the only reason they're being trained, protected, nurtured, is so that they can go out in the midst of this filth. And they can redeem God's people that have yet to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, they need direction. Now, another thing I want, we're going to each one of these is two or three sermons, but I just want to we're going to have to jump around because the limited of time and look at some of these things. So there's Christ-like direction.

They're heart-beating for the advancement of the kingdom, but also direction in the sense that they've seen the pain, the suffering of this world. And let me just run a rabbit here for just a second. Something I want to tell you about. You take a child and the moment that child is born, you throw that child in a sewer. That child is going to die.

At the same time, home schoolers, If you take that child and the moment that child is born, you put that child in a bubble where there is never any bacteria, there's never any disease, there's never anything. Then when that child is 19 years old and leaves that bubble, he's going to die. He's built up no resistance. There needs to be a great balance, a biblical balance of protecting our children and yet letting our children know what the world is like and the confrontations that they're going to have. And the need not to judge, but to get out there.

That when our children see some European techno punk girls who are 17 years old with purple hair and nails driven through their nose and tattoos down their back. They don't snarl. They weep with love. They want to help them. Want to help them.

Now, the next thing is a Christ like character. I want to go to what may be the most important passage that we're going to look at. Look at Matthew chapter five, verse 13. It says, you are the salt of the earth, But if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

Now, this passage has been used to validate, to sustain what I would call a militant parade like political Christianity, where we're going to go out there, we're salt out of the salt shaker, we're going to go into the world, we're going to change things, we're going to have Jesus parades, we're going to take control, we're going to do all this, we're going to be militant Christians. That's not what this text means at all. It's not what it means at all. As a matter of fact, it's not so much about doing as it is being. I want you to understand this text, and I've rarely heard anyone teach it this way.

There is a hermeneutical principle that whenever we interpret a certain verse, we do it in its context. So we should not... Sometimes we come across really prominent and amazing verses and immediately we pull them out of their context and they become a cliche. We don't need to do that. What do we need to do?

Look what it says. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? The idea here is that salt has certain properties. You take those certain properties away, you no longer have salt. Now, if you take those certain properties away and even replace them with other good properties, you still don't have salt.

And it's useless for the purpose for which it was made. So what is He teaching us? That there are certain characteristics to a disciple that makes him what? Makes him a preserving influence in society, makes him add flavor to life, makes him restrain corruption in society. There are certain characteristics to true discipleship which will have impact on the world and be a light to the world.

Well, what are they? Do we need to go to 1 Timothy? I mean, where are we going to find these characteristics that will make someone a world changer? You have to go anywhere. Look at verse three.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Verse four, blessed are those who mourn. Verse five, blessed are the meek. Verse six, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Verse 7, blessed are the merciful.

Verse 8, blessed are the pure in heart. Verse 9, blessed are the peacemakers. Verse 10, blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness. What are the characteristics of a disciple? The very character traits that this disciple must have to be someone who God uses to impact the world.

There they are. There they are. There they are. These are the things that need to be instilled in our children. These characteristics.

What the world most lacks is a demonstration of virtue. Leonard Ravenhill used to say, All these Christians running around trying to find a new definition for Christianity. What we need is a new demonstration of its power. And one of the greatest demonstrations in a hypocritical age where every institution has been mowed down. No one can any longer trust in anything.

Talk about the institution of president. You can't trust in that because of the moral failures. You look at religion, evangelicalism. Someone got to trust in that? I mean, look at these pastors.

Many of them, what they've done, the moral scandals, everything that's going on, every institution in our society has been ripped up from the foundations and thrown down in the sewer. So what is the only thing a world is going to listen to a skeptical world laughs at everything and with reason. What are they going to listen to? A true man of character. A true woman of character.

And I would say that one of the most powerful things on the mission field is a true biblical family. Where the mother and father are loving one another, where the children are loving one another, and people are shocked. Because it's just not seen. They're shocked when they see character. So if we wanna be world changers, if we want our children to be used, we must seek to instill in them character.

Now, listen, I know that there are things like all kinds of classical education and Latin and all these different things, rhetoric and debate and all the... We want our children to be scholars and all these things, but my wife constantly reminds me, the purpose of everything we're doing in this home is the conversion of our children and their conformity to the image of Christ. Not Latin, not rhetoric, not scholars, not scholarship. Men and women who know Christ and have Christ-like character. Now, let's just go look.

I want to give you another text. I don't have time to go to it, but 2 Peter 1, 5, 8. Well, we've got to go there. It's just so good. Let's just go there quickly because I'll point out some things for you.

1 Peter 1. I'm sorry, 2 Peter. Didn't get to bed till 1 last night. He's saying in verse 5, Now for this very reason also apply all diligence, all diligence in your faith. Supply moral excellence and in your moral excellence knowledge and in your knowledge self-control and in your self-control perseverance and in your perseverance godliness and in your godliness brotherly kindness and your brotherly kindness love.

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is a missionary? He's a person who's fruitful. Useful and fruitful. How is that accomplished?

Here we see. Through giving all diligence to cultivate Christ-like qualities in us. Christ-like qualities. 1 Timothy chapter 3, you know that that's the famous passage with regard to elders. The qualities of an elder.

Notice, apt to teach is only one thing. The rest have to do with moral characteristics. Now, let me share with you something about this passage that so many people misunderstand. They think, oh, those are qualifications of elders. No, they're not.

They're not qualifications of elders, primarily. If you think that way, you're missing the whole point. Because when you think, oh, that's a qualified... A man looks at that, who has no desire to be an elder, he looks at that and says, well, man, at least I don't have to worry about that. I mean, that's for elders.

No, you're missing the point. All that is in 1 Timothy 3 is a description of a mature Christian man. And what it's saying is an elder must be a mature Christian man. So it's not the standard for an elder, it's a standard for what a mature man is in the faith. So all men in the church ought to be mature men, but some of those mature men are going to desire to be elders.

Do you see that? Do you see how wrong you can be? Just take a passage, especially when it's a special passage, a well-known passage, and immediately you pull it out of context and use it for some other reason. It turns into a powerless cliché. Pastor, why are you teaching on this?

That's for elders. Shouldn't you do that in an elders meeting? No, this is for all the men in the church. And this is what we need to come to, this idea of character. Now, let's just go to 1 Timothy for just a second.

And again, We're jumping around and each one of these is a sermon in itself. But look what it says in verse 12 of chapter 4 of 1 Timothy, Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. Again, what do we have? Character that validates a man's witness. Now young man, listen to me.

A lot of young men have this attitude, even a chip on their shoulder, say, look, just because I'm a young man doesn't mean you don't need to listen to me. I mean, I've got an opinion, too. I have the right to speak. Well, look what Paul is saying. Paul is addressing that some youth do have the right to speak.

But they earn that right to speak with the character of their lives. You want to speak. OK, wonderful. Then be an example in your speech, your conduct, your love, your faith and your purity. Show yourself an example of those who believe.

Show yourself as an example of what a believer is, or it can be translated, show yourself as an example to other believers. What it's talking about is we gain the right to speak by the character of our lives. By the character of our lives. So again, when you're thinking about homeschooling and you see, you look at all this material And you see all these things, you know, you see there's other guys, you know, gosh, his kid's five years old and can already, is quoting, you know, the New Testament in Greek. And this guy over here, I mean, his kid knows all about history and what am I doing?

I'm a failure. Just realize this. The greatest, most necessary thing. Is to know Christ, the knowledge of Christ, and the character of Christ. Let me give you an example.

I did not go to the greatest grade school or high school in the world, I can assure you. I can't even really remember reading a book, not a whole book, not one anyways without pictures. And I didn't know how to write, so I go to the university. And I went to the university just because my coach made me mad because he told me I needed to go to the military because I couldn't function in outside society. So I went to the university.

And it's English class. And the lady walks in, she says, students, class is going to be short today, but what I want every one of you to do is just write a paragraph, bring a paragraph to class in our next session, a thesis statement and a paragraph surrounding statements that, you know, I'm sitting there going, thesis, statement, paragraph. I know that Dr. Beekie has my book for sale out there, so I'm afraid to tell you this, but I got an F. I didn't even know what they were talking about.

I couldn't write a paragraph. But here is something. Even though my father was an unbeliever, From the time I was born, I had a bad back when I was about 12. I remember the doctor just railing on my dad, you're going to kill this boy, you're working him in the ground. The one thing my dad did to me is he worked me in the ground.

Now I'm not saying that's right or wrong, but I'll tell you this. I was dumb as a brick, but my dad taught me how to work. That was one character he gave me was to work. And so I stayed up all night at times. I dropped, I don't know how many pounds my first semester.

I weigh like 210 right now. I think I weighed 165 when I finished my first semester in college. I was sick, end up putting me in the hospital, but I had a in that class. And in most of my other classes. The point I'm trying to make is this, although I didn't have a believing father or anything else, he just gave me one good characteristic.

I knew how to work. And that character trait enabled me to accomplish what guys 10, 000 times smarter and with a much better education could not accomplish. Character trumps just knowledge with no application. Now, so we've talked about Christ like direction, talking about Christ like character. Now I want to talk about Christ-like knowledge.

And this is the greatest lack on the mission field today. Let me share with you, missions is not about sending missionaries, please. Because then it just turns into a peace corps. Missions is about communicating biblical truth to men. If you do not know biblical truth, if you cannot communicate biblical truth, you have no business on the mission field.

The mission enterprise today in the world is filled up with strategists, facilitators, all sorts of things, and very few people even preaching or teaching the gospel or the full counsel of God. If there is anywhere on this planet among a group of people, a dearth of the knowledge of God and the preaching of the knowledge of God is among missionaries from the West. Missions is about truth and communicating biblical truth to men. I want us to go to John chapter 1. And of course you have in chapter 1 the idea of the incarnation, the coming of God in the flesh.

And in verse 18, we have a very important passage. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. From this word, explain, we get our word exegesis, to draw out. Exegesis is when you study the Scriptures and draw truth from those Scriptures, draw meaning from those scriptures.

To exegete a text is to explain a text. And here we see Christ, the Son of God, the great missionary, who comes down from heaven, takes upon himself flesh. What is a characteristic? He expounds, he explains, he exegetes God to men. He opens up his mouth and is full of the knowledge of God.

Now this applies not just for men, this applies for women. One of the greatest disservices done to women in the world today is if ever you see a man's conference, a lot of times it will be, you know, soteriology, the doctrine of God, redemption, all these different things. And then a woman's conference comes along, you know, how to take lemons and make lemonade. Put a cherry in your hat or whatever and be happy. All these goofy things.

Women need theology just like men. Women need truth just like men. Women can understand these things just like men. And never forget it, men. Most of you boast of being homeschooling dads, when in fact all you are are men married to homeschooling moms.

Now, if that's you repent. But realize this, a lot of what your children and your sons are going to know about God should come from you, but it's also going to come from your wife. And she needs to know theology. And men and women who go to the mission field need to know theology. They need to know doctrine.

They need to know truth. A young man called me many, many years ago when I was in Peru. He said, Mr. Washer, I want to come down there and work with you. And I said, why?

He said, I just want to give my life away. I said, okay. I said, how are you in your study of the scripture? Well, you know, that's really not a strong point with me, but, Brother Washer, I just want to come down there and give my life away. I said, okay, how are you in intercessory prayer?

Well, you know, Brother Washer, again, that's not really one of my strong points. I just want to come down there and give my life away. Now, I said this in love, but this is what I said to him. Young man, there's no one here in Peru who needs your life. With the brothers in Peru, what the people in Peru need is a man who can come down here, open up his mouth and either tell them about God or tell God about them.

It is a spiritual endeavor. So many people just want to go to the mission field, give their life away, give their life away. These people need truth. And they don't need just to hear Jesus loves you, this I know because the Bible tells you so. They need to know what the Scripture says.

They need a defined Jesus, because there's all kinds of Jesuses being preached out there today. There's all kinds of doctrines of salvation. There's all kinds of doctrines of grace and faith and everything else and most of them are not biblical. So we're talking about our children becoming missionaries. We need to be teaching them the scriptures.

Let's go to one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible. It's from the last book of the Old Testament. So go to the book of Matthew and make a left. Verse 5. Listen to what it says.

My covenant with him, talking about Levi, was one of life and peace. A man whose life will bring life and peace to other men. My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him as an object of reverence. So he revered me and stood in awe of my name. What do we need as a missionary?

Someone who reveres God and stands in awe of his name. You cannot do that apart from a biblical knowledge of God. Verse six, true instruction was in his mouth. That cannot be true unless true instruction has been poured into his heart and brain. True instruction was in his mouth and righteousness was not found on his lips.

He walked with me in peace and uprightness. And he turned many back from iniquity For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge and men should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. What a passage, what a missionary passage. Let's go to Ezra. You know, there's some Bible verses that just speak for themselves, don't they?

Let's go to Ezra chapter 7 verse 10. Young man, young woman, girl, boy, you want to be a missionary? Learn from Ezra, because you must do what Ezra did if you're going to become like the priest Malachi describes. For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel. Look at the wisdom here of the Holy Spirit.

He set his heart to study, But not just study, to practice what he learned. And then in practicing to proclaim what he was doing. Never forget in the Great Commission, Jesus said, teach them. He doesn't say teach them everything I commanded. He says, teach them everything I commanded you, which implies your doing of it.

Now, let me give you a warning here, young person, that is so important. The Bible is a really big book. And if you think in terms of learning the Bible in a year or two years or three years or five years, you are going to become discouraged. The devil is going to come in and He's going to cause you to give up your plight, your determination to know God through His Word. Myself, let me use myself as an example.

I try to read through the Scriptures everyday systematically. That's one of the most powerful things. It is necessary. It should be a life practice. Even if you're studying for sermons or you're writing a book or something else, you need to be reading through the Bible systematically.

The great Puritans, the amazing thing about them is how they would preach magnificent sermons from texts that we would consider obscure or that we couldn't even find. That's because they didn't have software, which I praise God for, But they didn't. They didn't have concordances, many of them. They had to know the scriptures. And you get that by reading, by reading through the scriptures.

Now, I'm 51 and I like to say that my memory is not as sharp as it used to be. But to be honest with you, my memory has never been sharp. But I'll read those, I read seven verses in English. Right now I'm in the Old Testament, seven chapters in English and three chapters in the New Testament in Spanish. And I'll read those seven chapters, and honestly I have to tell you, sometimes I couldn't go back and even tell you an hour later what I'd really read.

That can be discouraging. But young person, let me tell you this. If you make this a life practice, you will see the fruit of it. In over 15, 20 years, you will have a magnificent abundance of truth in you from reading the Word. I don't know if you've ever heard the illustration, young person, about the little boy who comes to his grandfather on top of a hill and he says, I'm not going to read the Bible anymore.

And he said, why? He said, well, I forget everything I read. It's no use. So the father, the grandfather said, take that coal bucket, go down to the river, fill it up with water and bring it back. Dirty old coal bucket full of black soot inside.

Little boy grabs the coal bucket, runs down to the river, fills it up, runs back, but by the time he gets back, it's all empty because it's got holes in it everywhere. He says it's empty. He said run back and do it again. He ran back and did it again. Ran up here, empty.

He said run back and do it again, grandson. He ran back down to the river, filled it up, brought it up. The boy's about to have a heart attack, and he said, Grandpa, I'm not doing this anymore. Why? It's no use.

I fill it up down there, it's empty before I even get to you. He said, that's true, son. He said, but look in the bucket. It's clean. And I've held on to that.

I heard that one of the first things I heard, I guess, is a new Christian. I've held on to it all my life. I don't know what it is, but even if I read it and forget it, I'm cleaner than if I didn't read it. It is a supernatural book. Not a superstitious book, but it is a supernatural book.

Now look at Ezra, for he set his heart. Now, young person wanting to be a missionary, let me share something with you. So many people think that some people study the Bible because it's easy for them. And some people have a life of intercession because they're just gifted in it and it's easy for them. That's not really true.

And if you believe that, it will always be an excuse for your flesh. I have to fight to read the Bible many times, I have to fight to get up in the morning, I have to fight to pray, I have to fight to love, I have to fight for joy. I have to fight for everything. One of the greatest things I ever heard one time is Dr. Piper preaching and he said this very thing.

I have a great admiration for many of the ways that God has used him, and it seems like, well, he just, you know, reads the Bible, writes one book a day, does all these different things, and I was like, he's just gifted. And then he said he had to fight for literally everything. That made me realize, well then I can in the power of the Holy Spirit, it also made me realize I have no excuse. There's a man by the name of David Miller who's been confined to a wheelchair for a greater part of his ministry and life. And yet he can't move his hands.

So when he preaches from the chapter one of the book of Acts, he just sits there and says, turn to the book of Acts chapter one, and then he quotes the whole thing off the top of his head. And then he preaches an outline off the top of his head. And one day I was out at his hunting lodge chopping wood for him. He kind of came there in his wheelchair and I said, God's really gifted you brother, I wish I had that gift of memory. He said, oh brother Paul, I don't have a gift of memory, I just work at it harder than you do.

It's true. It's true. Now why do we work? And again, remember what I said last night? You may think, well some men are able to fight that fight because they're just strong, they're bold, they're self-willed, they're kind of John Wayne mentality, they're going to grab the bull by the horns.

No, not at all. That, again, is a lie. The power of the fight comes from desperation, born out of weakness. I fight because I must read the Word, because I know what I'll look like without it. I don't like many times what I see in myself with it when I study.

I can't be without this thing. If I get out of bed without offering prayer to Christ, I will fall before I make it to the bathroom. It's desperation that gives us strength for the fight. It's desperation. The problem is not that you're not strong enough.

The problem is you don't realize how weak you are. You see, weakness, young person, is not a catalyst for failure. It's not an obstacle to spirituality. Weakness is the catalyst to spirituality. That's why Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit.

And that's why Jesus is spending your entire life blowing strong winds against you and putting you in circumstances that you can't deal with to make you weak so that you'll call on Him. That's what providence is all about in the life of the believer. Creating in you a dependence. Peter had to fall. He had to deny Christ.

He had to. Why? Because he said he wouldn't. In his own flesh and in his own strength, he basically said, everyone denies you, I'm standing with you. He had to fall.

It was necessary so that he could be a useful servant. Christ had to create in him poverty of spirit. So that when he went back to him later and said, Do you love me? Peter couldn't even lift his head up. He made a boast.

Now he was cured. It was a painful medicine he had to take, but he was cured. You see that. Now, I'm going to begin in the next session with something that is absolutely important that we've just started talking about, and that is Christ-like dependence. You say, well, Brother Paul, don't you mean dependence on Christ?

I say, no, Christ-like dependence. Well, Christ was God. Yes, Christ was God. God in the flesh. God and man.

But what you need to realize that many people totally miss out on the example of Christ because in our desire to protect His deity, we forget His humanity. Everything Christ did on this planet, He did as a man filled with the Holy Spirit, dependent upon the Father and dependent upon the Spirit's power. And that's why He can be our example. You see, if you just look at Christ's deity, then you begin to to skew everything. What he did, he did as a man.

He did in the power of the Holy Spirit. All right, well, let's let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, I thank you for this time and I pray, Lord, that you will use it for the benefit of your people, the benefit of their children, your children. In Jesus name. In Jesus' name, Amen.

The National Center for Family Integrated Churches is dedicated to proclaiming the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life and to the establishment of biblically ordered churches. For more information, resources and products, please visit our website at www.ncfic.org. You