Welcome to The Roads Church! So I do have a very special message, um, today in it’s it’s called the father’s heart. Um, and so I’m just going to kind of sit and just have a talk with you today. Um, so, uh, it is about children and, um, you know, God was reminding me that we’re not complete without them. Um, they make up our body of Christ. Um, they’re a part of our body. They’re a part of, of our army. That’s rising up. Um, they’re just, they’re a part. They play a part, they don’t get to play a part when they get to a certain age, they’re already a part of, of our body. And, um, he was just reminding me about how important they are and about how powerful they are. Do you know that they’re powerful, our kids are very powerful. Um, and so, uh, God calls them in the army.
He calls them the privates. So when you come in to the army, you’re a private, when you enlist, right. You’re apart, but you’re beginning, you’re in the beginning stages and that’s where you’re learning, you’re training, but you’re already a part you’re a part of it. Um, and so, uh, I just want to go ahead and sh and share with you guys, um, a scripture, if you guys want to go ahead and get your Bibles out, we’re going to open it up and learn about how powerful our kids are. I want to start with this scripture right here. Um, and so I love how pastor Chad says, we get excited about the word of God, and we should be excited about the word of God. It was one of the things that I loved when we first came here, was this excitement for the word of God. So if you’re ready, we’re going to turn to Psalm eight two.
Yes, yes, yes. So, um, I’m going to turn there too, but I, I, this I’m actually going to read out of a different translation. It’s the passion translation, and I love the passion translation. Um, it’s not the whole Bible, but it is, it is really, really wonderful. And so here we go. Uh, Psalm eight, two says you have built a strong hold by the songs of baby’s strength rises up with the course of singing children. This kind of praise has the power to shut Satan’s mouth childlike worship will silence the madness of those who oppose you. And the one thing that God highlighted to me in this scripture was that our children, their praise has the power to shut Satan’s mouth. That’s powerful. That is powerful right there. Cause he’s all the time talking and chattering and talking and chattering and their praise can silence that.
So, so powerful. Um, and so as I was, um, preparing for this sermon for The Roads Church , this message actually came, um, about a month ago. And, uh, God has, God has spoken and showed me things over the course of a couple of years now. But, um, the heart of this message came, uh, about a month ago. I was just having some time in the morning with the Lord and I woke up and it was just kind of in worship. And I wasn’t asking him for anything. Um, I wasn’t praying anything specific. And I just said, I want to hear your heart Lord. I want to know what’s on your heart. And, um, I had this encounter and it was, it was very, very powerful. Um, and it just really, really gripped at my heart. And it was this thunder that are heard in my spirit. And I actually started to really weep as a, heard him, ask me two questions.
It broke my heart. He said, won’t anyone teach my children? Won’t anyone invest in my children. And I knew that he was not just talking to me, but he was talking to his body, the church and not just here and not just across our nation, but this is a global, this is something I’m hearing pastors and church leaders say from all different areas is this, this is going on right now. It’s very similar. And there’s this, this war going on. I don’t know if you have, have seen this or paid attention, but there is a war going on for our children. And it is for our children. And to remember how powerful they are, the enemy goes after something that he feels threatened by. So he feels threatened by children. So he’s going after them. And it’s, we see things in the natural, but it is also very spiritual, very spiritual.
And so I started to think about these things that we’re seeing in the natural, you know, we see this trafficking going on and the slavery, when we see child abuse happening and we see orphans, um, abortion and the killing of innocent lives and our identity, you know, there’s confusion right now about who we are, or am I a boy? Am I a girl? I don’t know. The world is telling me how I need to think how I need to dress, how I need to look. There are things vying for our children’s attention all day long, all day long, all day long. And there are children who have never heard the name of Jesus ever. And it’s here, it’s here in Southern Illinois. It’s not just in a, in a big city and it’s not somewhere oversea, but it’s here in Southern Illinois that there are children who have never heard the name of Jesus, not once, not once.
And then he started the Lord started telling me about talking to me about neglect and I thought, wow, yes, neglect. That is another big thing. You know, um, children who are neglected and, but it weighed heavy on me, that one right there. And I thought, okay, there’s something to this. And so I started to look up like, what does this, what does neglect really mean? And so neglect means to give little attention or respect to, to leave undone or unattended, to, especially through carelessness, a lack of attention or care that someone or something needs. And there’s actually a legal definition, a disregard of duty resulting from carelessness, indifference, or willfulness, a failure to provide a child under one’s care with proper food, clothing, shelter, supervision, medical care, and emotional stability. And I thought, man, those, there are some that are really severe, like that’s severe neglect.
And the Lord said, that’s not what I’m talking about. He said, I’m talking about spiritual neglect for our children. And I kept hearing him say, we’re too busy. We’re too busy. And I recently did a Bible study and I do on Friday mornings at five o’clock. It is awesome with a group of ladies. There’s, it’s really amazing, but we did this study called breathing room, and it’s talking about how we need breathing room in different areas of our life. We need it in our finances. We need it in our time. We need it with our relationships. Um, but God reminded me about the time when, and there was a place in our study where we would fill in, it said, um, I’m too busy if I don’t have enough time to blank. And we had to fill in the blank. And I remember sitting there and I thought, what goes in this spot, Lord, what is this?
And he said, it’s your family. You’re too busy. If you don’t have enough time to invest in your family. And so that’s, that’s your husband, your wife, your children. After God, we devote our time that we give our first to God and then it comes to our family. And, um, so he’s telling me about all this. And, and he reminded me in Matthew 18, that Jesus actually talks about neglect and leading children astray. And he gives a warning and he’s talking to his disciples. And so I’m just, I’m going to summarize a little bit of this. Um, but this is Matthew 18. So the disciples are sitting there and they’re talking to Jesus. And they said, Hey Jesus, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And I love what Jesus does. He calls a child to him and he sets the child in the middle of him.
And he says, if you want to enter the kingdom, you must be converted and you must become like a child. You must humble yourself like a child. And if you receive a child in my name, that is the greatest, the kingdom of heaven. And then he starts to, to move on. Jesus starts to move on. There’s no break in scripture. He starts to move on. And, but God pointed out to me. He said, the child is still sitting here through this. He says, whoever causes one of these little children or one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him. If a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the sea and they talked through offenses and sin, and he says, if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.
If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out, and he’s talking to them about sin. And, but in between all of this, there’s these things about children about not neglecting them about not leading them astray. And then he goes on about the lost sheep. But before that, he says, take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones for, I say to you that in heaven, their angels always see the face of my father who is in heaven. And God highlighted that word despise to me. I kept thinking about that word. And I thought, what does that mean? We’re not to despise them, but what does that mean? So I looked it up. I look up words a lot because I want to know what they mean. I want to understand. And despise is to regard as negative global, so small or unimportant or so little consequence as to warrant little or no attention.
It also means to look down on with disrespect or aversion towards something, with a desire to avoid it lead or turn from it. So that turned from it. Hang on to that. That’s going to be important, but the Lord was telling me we can, can lead astray by sin, by offense, all of these things, but it can also be a wrong mindset, just a wrong thinking about something that can lead us astray. The Roads Church It can, it can, it, we miss the Mark. It can be by busy-ness. And God reminded me that if I’m, if I have an arrow, the Bible says that children are like arrows in the hands of a mighty warrior. And if I have my arrow and I’m aiming it at my target and I miss my target while I still missed my target, I didn’t hit it. I w I, I thought I was, I thought I was right there, but I was a little off.
I still missed it. And God said, we can, we might think that our day and day what we’re doing is right, but maybe it’s not. And if it’s not, we still miss the Mark. And so I thought, Lord, how do we, well, how do we fix all of this? What, what do we do? How do we, how do we come out of this? And I heard three specific things. He said, we have to turn it off parts. We have to repent. And then we have to invest. We have to train, equip, and teach. And so, um, it’s despise. If you remember, it was to turn away from you’re turned away from, but then the Lord reminded me of the turning too. So it’s the opposite. So if I’m turned away from my children, I need to turn to my children. So he reminded me of Malakai chapter four.
So we’re going to go to Malakai chapter four. And Malakai is the last Bible in the old Testament. So in Malakai chapter four, God is speaking to his people and he says, behold, I will send you a Libre to the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers, to the children and the hearts of the children, to their fathers. Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse period. That was it. That was all he said. And for 400 years, that was all he said, that was his last instruction. So then God said, look at the first thing that I said. So in the new Testament in Luke chapter one, verse 13 through 17, I do have a little bit of scripture for you today. Um, so in Luke, this is the first time that we hear from the Lord for 400 years.
And he, an angel of the Lord comes to Zachariah and he says, Zacharias and says, do not be afraid for your prayers. Heard so Zacharias and his wife were praying for a child you’re wife. Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name, John, and you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth. He will be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord, their God. He will also go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers, to the children and the disobedient, to the wisdom of adjust, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
So the last thing,The Roads Church and the first thing that he spoke were the exact same thing. But this time he says, it’s going to come through John the Baptist. And so this there’s highlighted things here to turn. So we’re turning, he’s turning children of the Lord to, to the Lord, children of Israel, to the Lord, and he’s turning hearts of the father and to make ready a people, we have to be a people who’s ready for the Lord and prepared. And that’s our children, too. We have to make them ready. They have to be ready and prepared. And so this word turn is to direct one’s attention to, or away from someone or something to engage in, to become focused on something. So this turning we’re turning to our children, we’re engaging with them as we’re turned and we’re focusing on them. And that two turning to two is action word.
It’s used as a function word to indicate movement or an action or condition suggested of movement toward a place person or thing reached. And so, um, I asked the Lord though, I was like, why the spirit of Elijah, why specifically Elijah? And I’m sure there are lots of reasons why, but the one that, the one that was stuck out to me was that Elijah, when he was hiding out in the cave, he encountered God, and God said, Elijah, what are you doing here? And he said, I want you to do three things. And one of those things was, he said, you need to leave here and you need to go find a live HSA, a younger prophet, and you need to give him your mantle and you need to prepare him to take your place. And so Alijah had this charge to invest in someone younger, to invest in that younger prophet.
And the Bible says whenever Elijah was taken up in the chariots of fire, alive HSA had looked to him and called father father. That was his spiritual father who had invested in him and who had, had showed him what he was to walk into and how to do it. And it, and the Bible says that when he had gone right after that, a lie HSA grabbed his MainTel Elijah’s mantle. And he did the exact same thing that he just saw Elijah do right before he left, he took it and he slammed it down in the water, which was exactly what Elijah did. So our children are the same way. They see what we’re doing, and they follow in our footsteps. They watch this, how they learn it’s visual. And most of us are visual learners. Uh, 65% of us are visual learners. So they see, and they do.
They see, and they do. And so God says, our hearts have to turn, and we have all of, all of these generations, all of us together make one big generation and our hearts have to turn. And when our hearts turn and we’re facing each other, something super powerful happens, I’ve heard other people say it’s called the synergy of the ages. And I thought, Whoa, that is a big word. What in the world does that mean? And so I looked it up and the definition of the word synergy is the interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect, that is greater than the sum of individual elements or contributions. And the Lord said, put the word generation in there. So it’s the interaction of generations that when they combine produce a total effect, that is greater than the sum of the individual generations or contributions, this is his heart.
This is his heart. This is what he wants. He wants all of us working together as his body. We’re no good without a part of it. We have be whole and complete. The second thing was repent. We have to repent. And so it means to feel sorrow regret, uh, to change our mind. And the Lord said, this is what I told. This is what Elijah preached. This was his thing. Or John, sorry, John, the Baptist, John said, we’re pit repeats for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And this is what Jesus preached the same thing. But Jesus also said that the kingdom belongs to children. And so, um, in Matthew, 1913 through 15, he says, then the children were brought to Jesus so that he might place his hands on them for a blessing and pray. But the disciples reprimanded them. But Jesus said, leave the children alone. Do not forbid them from coming to me. The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. And so this repentance we’ve got to repent for. I heard the Lord that, that spiritual neglect, the busy-ness the wrong thinking, the wrong thinking of Sundays enough,
Because it’s not is not enough. Wednesday night is not enough. We have to have it every day. Just like we have to have it every day. Our kids have to have it every day. And I remember God telling me, at one point, he said, Charla, do you make sure your kids do their homework every day? Yup. Are they in my word? Every day is so important. Guys. We have to, we have, they have to be in their word, just like we are it’s food. And we’re taking care of our kids. We feed them with the word of God. We clothed them with the mind of Christ. With the armor of God. We give them to drink from the living word, from the living water of the Holy spirit. They need it. We can’t think we’re too busy because we’re not, we
Can’t be distracted with these other things
That are going on. Can I fit one more thing in my schedule? No, not if your kids are not getting the word. He says, these are things that he’s spoken to me
This wrong thinking. He says, you’re not too old.
You’re not too old.
Maybe you think, well, I’ve raised my kids.
God says, you’re not too old. You’re not, and you’re not too young. You’re not too young. If God has spoken something to you, you have a little revelation on something. You are not too young. You can do it. And we aren’t perfect.
And we can’t do it without him. There’s mercy. And there’s grace every day to do these things that he us to do every single day. And so don’t listen to the condemnation, either the guilt and the shame, because that is not of God. That is not of God. God does not say you’re a failure. You didn’t do that. Right. You don’t have anything to give anybody else. Our lead team was talking the other day. And I don’t remember who said it, but said we win. And we learn, we don’t win and lose. We don’t win and fail, but we win. And we learn. There’s a reason that we learn. It’s not just to go, Oh, yup. I learned a good lesson there it’s so that you can tell someone else you’re investing that in someone else. So older mothers and fathers, you have something to share with young parents, things that you have learned, you pass that on.
You tell them those things. And so, um, so that last thing is, is invalid assisting in, in teaching and training and equipping. Um, you know, it’s actually, the Lord tells us that as a parent, it’s a command that we are to teach and train our children. You don’t have to have an education degree to do it. You don’t have to be a teacher to do that. It’s in you. God, if he’s going to tell you to do something, he’s going to give you the tools to do it. It’s just like a kid. If we say, I’m here, you need to cut this piece of paper out, but we don’t give him scissors. He doesn’t do that with us either. If he tells us, you need to teach your children, you need to train them up in the way that they should go. You’re equipped. You’re prepared.
You have the things that you need. You have those tools inside of you and you have him. And, um, he told me that there’s something really special. That happens whenever it is a parent and a child and your teaching, something they’re back in. And that back and forth is super special and divine. They have your DNA and they also have that spiritual DNA. So if there’s gifts that you have those things that are inside of you, they’re also in your children and you can help them grow in those things that they have. You can help them walk that out. And he says that, um, just reminded me that they’re a blast scene. And he trusts us. If he’s given you a child, he trusts you. He trusts you to teach them and lead them and train them. There’s a trust that he has. And also remembering that if he’s done that, then you have something super valuable and important.
You have another session, it’s a soul, it’s a child, a human being, and it’s something great. And he, he says that if you know who, whoever is given much, much is required. So there’s much required. If, if we have been given a child there’s so much required and it will, it will mean that there’s sacrifice that’s needed that, but there’s much required of us. And we are to steward what we have been given. Um, and so the greatest thing he says, though, is what he spoke in Deuteronomy six, verse four. And this is, um, the Lord telling Moses, this is what you need to tell the people. He says, hero Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength and these words, which I command you today shall be in your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house. And when you walk, by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your Gates. So church, if we’re loving him with all that, we are our mind, our soul and our strength. That’s going to pour out into our kids. We can’t withhold that. We have to pour that out into them. And they’re going to see it’s every part it’s everything that we’re doing during the day is Jesus. We’re getting up. It’s Jesus, we’re eating. It’s Jesus. It’s everything. It’s not just a quick prayer before we eat in a quick prayer before we go to bed. But it’s everything that we’re doing. It’s everything that we’re doing. And that’s something I’ve been telling the Lord. I, I just want you, Lord. I don’t want to do anything.
You’re not in it. I don’t want to do anything if you’re not in it, I don’t want to teach my kid. One thing, if you’re not in it, I don’t want you to be in it Lord daily. And we have to think, he said, we have to think kingdom minded. It’s not just what’s in front of us. It’s the kingdom. It’s eternity. We think about the eternal and we with an eternal mind, what is my child learning? What is being deposited into
Them on a daily basis and how much I started to think about school. I’m a school teacher. And I started to think about that. And I thought, how many days do we go to school? There’s 365 days in a year. And we go to school 176 in Illinois. It’s 176 days. And the percentage on that is 48%. It’s 48%. And if we only, if we only talk,
At The Roads Church we Talk about Jesus to our kid on Sunday morning, that’s only 14% of the year. It has to be more than that. It has to be more than that. The Lord has a great plans for all of us. And that includes our children. He has special plans and purposes for them. He wants them to come up as these warriors. That’s how we’re going to change this culture that we’re in. It starts with us pouring that into our kids. That’s how it changes. We can’t go about in busy-ness and be consumed with other things and not doing our duty to our children. He reminded me that we’re training, even when we don’t think we’re training just about the homework or, you know, you’ve had a long day. It’s okay, you can just go to bed. We don’t have to pray tonight. We’re training them to think that I’ve had a long day. I don’t have to read my devotion out. I have to devote any time to God. I know this is a hard word. It was a really hard word when he’s speaking all of it to me as well. But it’s, it’s a lot more than what we’re doing right now. And it’s telling me that he is preparing his church. There’s a preparation that is going on right now. And it includes our children. And the Lord reminded me that when he comes back for his bride, that’s the church. When he comes back, she’s going to be pure and spotless and she’s going to be ready because these preparations have been made. Repent, repent for the kingdom is at hand to make ready a people prepared
Or the ward.
We have to be mostly concerned with spiritual investment. If you don’t feel equipped, I want to encourage you. The Holy spirit is a wonderful teacher. The Bible says that he will lead us into all truth and he will tell us things that we do not know he’s with you. If you’re a believer, he’s there. He can tell you, just ask. I know, I remember I’ve talked to him, but he’s told me, I said something about one of my kids talking to the Lord about, he said, just ask me. And I’m like, Oh yeah. Uh, what do you think about that? And he’ll tell you for every season that they’re in, he knows he created them. He knows exactly who they are. He knows the gifts inside of them. He knows who he created them to be. He knows. And all we have to do is ask him and he’ll tell us, he’ll tell us, he’ll show us how to train them up.
He’ll tell you exactly who they are. This one here. This one is a worship leader. This one over here, this one’s going to the word of God, that one there, that one’s going to lead others to the Lord is an evangelist. He created them for certain things to do as a part of his body. And all we have to do is ask him and he’ll tell us what we need to know. And we can speak that over our child from when they’re very little, this is who you are. This is who God says that you are. We put that in them. That’s their identity. Their identity is in Christ. And that’s the only identity that they need to know is who they are in Christ. Who are they in the Lord? And there will never be a doubt. There will never be a doubt when they get to that place where someone else says, are you sure? No, it is not because the Lord has said, this has been spoken over me. This is who I am. This is how I have been raised. This is how I have been trained. I have been trained up in the Lord and it says that when we train them up in the Lord, they will not depart from it. They will not depart.
And I want to encourage some of you who are older here at The Roads Church . The Lord said to encourage you that, um, we need you. We need you. If you think you’ve retired, you’ve not, God’s calling you up. There’s generals in the army. They’ve served a long time, but they have a lot of wisdom. They have a lot of knowledge and experience and that’s who you are. We need you. We need generals in the faith, leading us and training us. We need you. You have something to impart and we need you. It’s not time to lay down. You’ve got, we’ve got these privates over here that we’ve got to train up to one day, be generals. There’s this it’s just a process, but we need you. We need what’s inside of you. God loves family. He is family. God, the father, the son, and the Holy spirit. He said, he called Jesus. His son, Jesus was his son for a reason. He loves family. He, his family, he’s the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He speaks of generations. It’s generational. What he says, we have to remember that. And even just today, as I was watching little Gemma be baptized, there’s a harvest of children right now. Their hearts are so ready for him. I know of a Mount Carmel. There was three baptisms today and they’re all children
Yeah. So I think I just want to pray. I do want you to know, the Lord is asking, he’s asking for us to turn our hearts. It might be hard to turn away from this rhythm that we’ve built in our schedule and our day in our life. But he’s asking us to turn and look at what is on his heart is on his heart today. He wants us to turn and repentance. We’re believing for revival, but repentance comes before revival comes. It does. And then to invest in teach. [inaudible] so much for watching with us. We love our online family and we invite you to connect with us. We have a few different ways. You can do that on our website@theroads.church, as well as on social media, you can text to give by texting the amount space, roads to four, five, seven, seven, seven, and we’d love to pray for any needs you might have. So send us a message and let us know how we can partner with you in bringing the light and love of Jesus to your world. Glad I could be here at The Roads Church.