0:01 [Music] As as most of you know, I was born and raised in a in a godly home, and I had the privilege of hearing the truth from a young age, and I'm thankful for that. 0:20 Um, but I was taught about the fear of God and I was taught about the reality of heaven and hell, a God who loves me, but a God who's also just and righteous. And I'm thankful that I was taught the fear 0:38 of the Lord from a young age because it uh made me realize that I couldn't play around with it, with my future. I couldn't play around with my eternal destiny. What it did for me was that it it caused me to have an unhealthy sense of fear uh of 0:57 God. And uh that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. And we're very keen in the church that we should all understand uh the right fear of the Lord. And as you've heard often in the church, it's the fear not that God will hurt me, but 1:13 that I will hurt him. But I'm thankful that it started with in in a sense an unhealthy fear and I hope I can express this carefully or properly uh because it showed me the seriousness of sin 1:31 um and showed me the seriousness of why Jesus had to suffer. And unfortunately in Christendom now there is um there's very little talking about sin. There's very little speaking about the seriousness of sin. And the reason that's dangerous is 1:49 because if sin is not that serious, then Jesus didn't have to die. He didn't have to come and suffer what he did throughout his life here on this earth and be forsaken by his father and go through all of that suffering if sin 2:06 isn't really that serious. And the more we see the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross, the more we see the seriousness of sin, of our sin. And um I'm thankful for that. The consequence of that was that I um I 2:26 constantly was repenting. I anytime I did something wrong, I there was a my conscience pricricked me and convicted me about the things I had done. And I guess maybe I should back up. I gave my life to Jesus when I was a young boy. I 2:41 don't remember exactly. I don't have a date written down. I think I was four or five years old maybe. I was very young definitely. And the reason I did give my life to Jesus and ask Jesus to come into my heart was because I was 2:57 taught to do that in the same way that we've heard this morning already. And uh I'm so thankful for that. I'm thankful that my parents and the church that I was being raised in didn't just assume, oh, Santos will figure it out. He'll 3:15 he'll hear enough messages that he'll want to give his life to Jesus. I don't know that I would have if I if it had just been left up to me. And because I was told often, you must give your life to Jesus. You must be born again. You 3:29 must repent. because it was laid out that plainly, I believed. And that's why I think it's good that we have meetings like this where the children are told very plainly, you must repent. In the world, in Christendom, you see a little bit of both types. One 3:48 is many churches that are just keen to get the children to say a prayer, sign a decision card, come forward, and they're sort of given a free ticket to heaven. As a reaction to that, we could fall into the other extreme where we don't 4:05 tell them and we're so nervous about what what some churches call child evangelism that we never evangelize our children. And so, yes, we're not forcing any of our children to be born again, but we must tell them. And dear parents, 4:23 I I hope that this meeting we've had and the burden we've been carrying for the last few weeks towards this meeting is something that won't just die out now. The work that we we've seen God do this today and even building up to it must 4:39 continue in in our homes by us dads and moms starting the conversations with them and having the conversations with them. And that's why even though I grew up in a church knowing, you know, in a good church, I was told, you must be born 4:57 again. I was asked from time to time, have you given your life to Jesus? And it wasn't sort of just like, oh, we don't want to force them, so we're not going to talk to them at all. And we can't just leave them on their own to 5:10 figure it out. And that's the the burden on my heart over the last few weeks I would say especially is that we are consistent with asking our children fathers it starts with us. Have you as a 5:27 father actually asked your son or daughter have you given your life to Jesus? Have you ever asked them that? and not in a way that forces them but in a way that begins the conversation with them where they start to feel 5:43 comfortable with you as a dad to say uh no I haven't but I want to know more about it or the conversation continuing on from there and I hope that you'll take to heart this that it should never be that there is a single parent in this 6:01 church that has never once had that conversation with their children pull them aside side. It's not something you can necessarily have at the dining table. I found with my own children, I need to pull them aside sometime when I 6:12 sometimes I do it by inviting one of my children to go with me in the car or just go for a an errand to the store. Take them with you so that you can have that conversation one- on-one with them. Hold their hand as you're walking 6:26 through the store and and let that conversation flow because it was like that for me. One day I said, "I need to give my life to Jesus." And I did. And then after that and I'm sharing this testimony simply so that maybe the the 6:41 Holy Spirit will give you all as parents also wisdom on how to guide your children. I thought that whenever I did something wrong the Holy Spirit left. I thought oh I asked him to come into my heart. I repented of my sin but now I've 6:55 done this bad thing again. He must have left and so I need to ask him back into my heart. And there was this cycle of asking Jesus into my heart, falling into sin, and then asking him back into my heart. And maybe some of our children 7:08 will experience that as well. And you must ask God for wisdom on how to guide them. Uh for me, I thought God was out to throw me into hell because of the bad things I'd done. And especially after I had asked Jesus 7:27 into my heart, if I did wrong things after that, I thought God must really hate me. He's already told me, showed me how much he loved me. And on top of that, I disobeyed him. And I had this unhealthy fear that God was waiting to 7:40 throw me into hell because of the bad things that I'd done. And in my case, it was usually at night that that fear especially got bigger because to me in my little childhood way, uh, as a little child, I thought, well, during the 7:56 daytime, I can be ready if God's going to throw me into hell. But at night when I fall asleep, he's going to just take me and throw me into hell because of what a bad person I am. And the devil had done such a good job of painting 8:09 this picture of God just waiting to catch me as in bad person and threw me into hell. And then that verse in second Peter 3, you can turn there and look at that came alive to me in a in a way that I'll never forget. 2 Peter 3:9, God is patient 8:35 toward you. And it was like that was a breath of fresh air for me, Santosh, God has been waiting for you. He's not wishing that you would perish, but that you would come to repentance. And I realized that God God was exactly the opposite of what the 8:54 devil had showed him told me he was. It was as if God was saying, "I'm going to give Santosh one more chance to repent. Let me wait till the morning. He's he maybe he'll repent tomorrow. I'll give him one more chance. I'll give him one more chance." God is 9:11 not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you. He's waiting. And it brought such comfort to my heart that God was exactly the opposite of how the devil had painted him to be. that God was giving 9:26 me one more day to repent. And I hope you'll encourage your children with that as well, that if they um have these doubts or fears or uncertainties that they will know that God is patient, he's made a way of salvation. And today I'm so thankful for 9:45 that that I had parents who taught me the fear of the Lord, taught me the seriousness of sin, taught me that there is a place called hell. I'm so thankful what Olu said as well that it wasn't designed for us. It was for the the 10:00 angels who fell for the demons and the devil wants to get as many people as he can there. And since then it's it's not been a constant rise. There were many years of up and down and up and down especially in my teenage years in my 10:16 20s. But I'm thankful that God was patient and may the Lord give each of us patience as parents and as older brothers and sisters in the church to be long-suffering with the children. Um so often I'll say one more thing before I close. So often we spend 10:34 so much time at our meetings or downstairs uh over lunch uh just talking with each other and you know um enjoying our conversations with adults. But I want to encourage each of us in this local church to spend some time with the 10:52 children. Um and yes, it's good that we play games whether it's football or soccer or cards or whatever that you do with the children. But I hope that each of us adults will take it on ourselves to take some time to talk to the 11:07 children. Build a relationship with them. Let the Lord plant a burden in your heart and all of our hearts for these children. So that even if you think, well, I don't know what my ministry is in the churches, here's a ministry that every single one of us can 11:22 have. Open your heart to the ministry of winning these children for the kingdom of heaven. Will you take that upon yourself brother sister that yes you can play games with them and enjoy that but build a relationship with the brothers 11:37 and sisters I mean the children here in this church so that they will feel comfortable to come to you when I was growing up in the church that I was growing up I had um yes I had my parents and but sometimes I couldn't didn't feel 11:52 comfortable talking to them and I recognized that even with my children they may not feel comfortable talking to me. But I was thankful that there were young brothers in their late 20s and early 30s who took an interest in me 12:05 when I was a teenager. And in a sense, I could relate to them a little bit better. And I felt comfortable to open up to them. And you can be that brother, that sister. uh instead of thinking about yourself and getting hung up in whatever uh you 12:23 like or don't like about this church, what about if you take the ministry of investing in these children? Not just your own children, but every one of these children. What a tremendous ministry that is to invest in these 12:37 children. And um I hope you'll take it to heart sometime. Make a decision that you're going to sit at a table with one of these children. If you see a little child sitting by herself or himself, just sit there and talk to them for a 12:49 little bit. Ask them some questions about what their school is like and start to build that relationship with them that one day make it your prayer. Lord, I want you to use me to win this child for the kingdom of heaven. The 13:02 it'll mean so much to these children, I believe. So, let's take that to heart. I want us to spend a little bit of time in prayer. Um, we're not going to ask you to raise your hand or or anything like that because as we've heard today, this is a 13:20 decision between you and the Lord. One day it will be evident for all to see when Jesus comes and he says that he will separate the sheep and the goats. There will be the sheep who obeyed what 13:38 we heard today. They confessed their their sin. They repented and believed and they received Jesus. And those will be the sheep. And then there will be goats who had a chance to hear but refused it. Some of them will have a good excuse. 13:57 Well, Lord, I wasn't sure. I waited. I thought I would have one more day to do it. I thought I would do it tomorrow. And all of those goats whom God will cast out into eternal darkness will have some excuse I think. But that excuse will not stand 14:17 because God will say I gave you time to repent. And there are many people suffering for all eternity who had the opportunity but they thought I'm not quite ready. So, we're not going to ask you to come up front or raise your hand 14:34 or anything like that, but you recognize that Jesus is sitting right next to you right now and he's calling you and he's set an open door before you. He's opened the door and he's saying, "Come in." He's knocking at the door of your 14:50 heart. Will you let him in? And while I pray, I want you also to pray. Whatever words you have, if you don't understand what I said or what was said, God, that's okay. You may still think, "Lord, I I still don't get it." But in the 15:08 simplicity of your heart, in ordinary words, you tell, "Lord Jesus, I know that you died for me, and I want to be with you. Will you show me? I'm going to receive you today. Even if I don't understand everything with my mind, I'm 15:24 going to receive you today." and then come and talk to your Sunday school teachers. Talk to us parents. We've been praying for you children. For not just over the last few weeks since the Lord placed this burden on our heart, but for a long time, I believe 15:39 that with almost all of you, if not all of you, from the day you were born into your home, your parents started praying for you one thing. Not that you would be good at soccer or good at school or any of those things, that you would be a 15:52 disciple of Jesus Christ. That's what we've been praying for and that's what we're praying for in this church that every one of you will be disciples of Jesus Christ. You will have a wonderful life. So if you haven't done so yet, I 16:07 hope today will be the day that you decide, I'm going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And then come talk to your Sunday school teacher or one of your parents or any one of us adults and you will never regret it. You'll never regret it. Your life will 16:21 just get better and better and better. You'll go through sufferings. You may go through hard times. But you will have peace in your heart knowing that you are God's forever. You belong to Christ forever. And then he wants you to tell 16:37 others about it. The moment he does something in your life, you'll have to tell your friends about it because you want everybody that you know to be to experience this. And God will fill you with his Holy Spirit. So let's 16:51 pray and family pray with me for these children. No amount of words like we heard today just like no amount of water, no amount of words can force the children to be born again. We can point the way to him, the Holy Spirit who 17:09 comes and shines a light into their hearts. And let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I thank you for what we've heard. And this is just a weak attempt to try to explain that amazing work that you've done. It's a weak 17:27 attempt we have made to try to describe it and explain it to these children especially. But you do the real thing, Lord. You please come and shine the light of the gospel of the glory of Jesus Christ into their hearts. You do 17:46 the real thing. Lord, we've just tried to point them to it. But you do the real thing cuz you have done the real thing. You did die, Lord Jesus. You did rise again. You are ascended there and seated at the right hand of the father. You've 18:02 been praying for these children, interceding for them much longer. From before they were even born, you were praying for them, Lord. And I thank you that we can partner with you in upholding these children. I pray Lord that for every single one of them if 18:18 there's anything that's still blocking them Lord if there's anything that's still hindering them from giving themselves to you that you will set that aside. You said that if we have faith we could say to this mountain be taken up 18:30 and cast out into the sea and it shall be so. If there is a mountain of unbelief in the heart of any of these dear children Lord I pray in the name of Jesus you will take that mountain out and cast it into the sea and open the 18:43 eyes of their heart. Lord, I pray that they will believe you. They will trust you. Any doubts they have about your word or your plan for their life in the name of Jesus. Lord, I pray that that mount of of unbelief will be cast into 18:56 the sea forever and they will trust you and they will believe you. Lord, I pray for every boy and every girl that's in this church sitting here and listening to this prayer in the name of Jesus. Father, will you move in their hearts 19:10 and rem and remove the scales from their eyes? You've done it for me. You've done it for us. You've done it for brother after sister and so many. We've read read the examples of them. Lord, you did it for Saul on the road to Tarsus even 19:23 though he was your greatest enemy. And you can do it for these dear children. Lord, I pray that this will be a turning point for them. That today will be the day that they mark it and know that they decided that they would be your 19:35 disciple. And even if things don't go hunky dory, even if everything's not perfect, that they made that decision. Oh Lord, do a work. I pray you'll bring peace into their heart. Thank you that when we receive you, when we have our 19:48 eyes open to the justification you've given us, we have peace with you. Let there be peace in the hearts of every single one of these children from the youngest to the oldest. Lord, I pray that you will pour out your Holy Spirit. 20:00 Lord, we cry out to you. Open the windows of heaven even now upon every heart that's here listening to this prayer. Pour out your Holy Spirit and shine into their hearts, Lord, and renew them and strengthen them, Lord. And 20:12 remove those scales of unbelief and stren encourage them, Lord. I pray lift them up. Help them to know, help them to see the seriousness of sin, the seriousness of the one life they have. And I believe, Lord, you're going to do 20:24 a miracle. You're doing a miracle here. We've prayed for it, Lord. We don't want a temporary stirring. We don't want an emotional stirring. We don't want a physical stirring, Lord. Lord, we want that deep work that only a Holy Spirit 20:35 can do deep into every single heart. We believe you're doing it, Lord. We praise you. Let's praise him together. It's good to give thanks to the Lord. We thank you, Lord, with all of our heart for what you've done. We believe you've 20:46 answered our prayer, Lord. We don't We didn't ask for a thing that we could see. We asked you to do something that's beyond our eyes, Lord, that's supernatural, that our eyes of faith believe, Lord. And so, we thank you and 20:57 praise you that you poured out your Holy Spirit upon us. We thank you and give you all the glory and honor and thanks, Lord, for speaking to us, for doing a work in these children, Lord. And we believe that we're going to see the 21:09 fruit of it, the fruits of repentance in their lives. And give us grace, Lord, to nurture them, to be godly examples to them. Help them to see in all of us adults that the kingdom of heaven is the only thing worth living for. Forgive us, 21:21 Lord, for our laziness. Forgive us for the earthly mindedness that we've had in the past, Lord. And I pray that even for us adults that this will be a turning point that we'll set our eyes on eternity and we'll live for eternity 21:33 alone. That you'll remove any unbelief and any laziness, any anxiety, any worry, anything else, Lord, that's not of you. You'll remove it here. And let may we be a church that's united with one purpose to press on into the kingdom 21:47 of heaven to lay a hold of the kingdom of heaven. That we will be those violent ones that lay a hold of the kingdom of heaven in faith. Lord, help us as parents. I pray for every father here or of these children. I pray that you will 21:59 pour out your Holy Spirit that we will be godly men who are broken and humble and setting a godly example for our children. I pray for every mother here in this church, Lord. I pray that they will be godly mothers, Lord, who will 22:11 nurture and teach their children how to follow you, Lord. I pray for every brother, sister here in this church, Lord, that we will be godly examples to these children, Lord. And I pray for the children as well. again. You are the one 22:24 who died for them, Lord Jesus. We don't have to beg you. We don't have to plead with you, Lord. It is your will that none of these children should perish. And we pray according to your will that it shall be so that none of them will. 22:35 That everyone will be truly your disciple, Lord. Thank you. Thank you for this church, Lord. Thank you for your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your presence here. We never want to take it for granted. And I pray that you'll pour 22:45 pray that you'll pour out your Holy Spirit upon us and give us an anointing. Give us power through your Holy Spirit, Lord, to be bold witnesses. I pray that the faith that you filled in the hearts of these children would overflow with a 22:58 confession, Lord, that out of the abundance of their heart, their mouth will speak, that they will testify that they are your children, not just today, but for the rest of their lives. We thank you. Thank you, Lord. You've heard 23:08 our prayer. You are here. And we recognize that, Lord. We fall on our face and say, "We are nothing. We're just dust. And who are we, Lord, that you would choose to walk in our midst and speak to us this way? We don't deserve it, but we're thankful. We're 23:23 grateful. We want to say thank you, Lord, by our words, but more importantly by our lives. We believe it shall be so in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
