I would invite you to turn with me this morning to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy chapter 6, certainly not an unfamiliar portion of Scripture or text, or text being verses 6 through 9 following the summary of the law as Moses gives it. Every time I read this or use it for the summary of the law, I am reminded of my responsibility as a parent and now as a grandparent. And it's really quite humbling. It's really quite humbling as you think about what our God calls forth from us. We said a moment ago that the sacraments are not, first of all, about us and our response. But there is to be a response to what God does. God gives an awesome promise. And I believe that we see that great responsibility here with regard to what we are called to do when it comes to the children in the covenant community as believers, as parents, but also as a covenant community. We'll read the first 15 verses. And again, our text, verses 6 through 9. It also strikes me, verse 33 of chapter 5, you shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you. Verse 1 of chapter 6, hear now God's holy word. Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it. That you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear, therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you with great and good cities that you did not build and houses full of all good things that you did not fill and cisterns that you did not dig and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. And when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve. and by His name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you. For the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God. Lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and He destroy you from off the face of the earth. There ends the reading of God's holy Word. May He indeed bless it to us. Our text, once again, verses 6-9, And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. And you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, Our God, through the psalmist in Psalm 127, verse 3, says, Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb, a reward. Children are a heritage. They are an inheritance from the Lord. This is what children are. They are a treasure to parents from God. That's what God says is a fact about children. And that's true, beloved, not just if that child was planned or if that child was wanted. Sadly, we know that we live in a society that only calls an unborn child a child if that pregnancy was planned, if that pregnancy was wanted. Otherwise, it's nothing more than a fetus for the mother and or the parents to do with what they want almost until whatever time they want. But praise be to God, that's not the case for God's people. God's people rejoice in this gift of children. They rejoice in this treasure of children. And by the grace of God, they understand what a treasure they are and what a great responsibility we have toward God with them and also what an awesome privilege we have with them. And as parents, we take this responsibility seriously. It's true, we do dedicate much time and effort and resources to raise our children, and we strive to give them the good life. We try to equip them for this life, yet as an aside, I would have us to think about the fact that that which we think, the society says that our children need this, this, this, this, and this. That's what you need in order to raise them. But I would suggest that we need to be careful that what may seem right to us may not be right to God. That may not be what God intends for them. But we do seek to equip them for this life. Yet we also understand by the grace of God that there is a life that is so much more important than simply this physical life, which is so very short. But we understand there is that new life in Christ Jesus us and therefore beloved our children cannot and they must not do without jesus christ they cannot and they must not do without the gospel of salvation now as we consider true faith we know what true faith is the heidelberg catechism gives us a an excellent definition of true faith outlining three elements to faith first of all there is knowledge knowledge knowing what god's word says knowing what it says second element is belief believing that what god says is true being convicted that all that god says in his word is true but then there is that third and that indispensable element apart from which true faith is not faith at all and that's that personal trust trusting that what i believe about all that god says in his word is true for me too of course when it comes to our children we can't make them believe we can't believe for them we can't make them trust we also can't trust for them but we can give them a knowledge of the truth we can give them that most important equipping that God has given to us to give to them we can give them that treasure of the word of God to this treasure of children. And we pray, of course, that the Holy Spirit will effectively use that to bring them to true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to apply to their hearts and lives. We're required to do this. This is the duty that godly parents and the covenant community, as we have done this morning, we promise to train up a child or to train up these children in the way. Of course, those words are not unfamiliar to us. We recognize those from Proverbs 22, verse 6. Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old. He will not depart from it. There may be some among us that have trouble with that verse of Scripture. Well, that's what God says. But now wait a minute. That's what I've tried to do. I've tried hard to do that. To teach them about the truth of God and the way that they should go. But my child has not yet embraced the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. Or, maybe even worse, they've completely turned their back on the Lord Jesus and on the church and on the Word of God. We need to remember, beloved, that the Proverbs are not universal guarantees as we would like to make them out to be. But the Proverbs are indeed general truths and we are to trust God to take care of the rest. It is interesting, though, that with that verse, train up a child in the way, that's exactly where we could end that verse. In the way. And what is implied there is in the way that he or she should go. But what's interesting about that word way, the idea is in the mouth. Train up a child in the mouth. And I believe there are two details that we can learn from that. First of all, train up a child by instruction. Tell them with the mouth. But then also in the mouth, train up a child from the very beginning. From the start, train up a child by telling them from the very beginning. Train up a child in the way, in that way first of all then, embraced by godly parents and by the covenant community. Themselves redeemed by the one and only God. Notice again verses 4 and 5. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And, of course, our Lord Jesus added, love your neighbor as yourself. Now, for the Israelite community, that was an extremely important confession. Hear, O Israel, love the Lord your God in this way. It was an extremely important confession, still is for us, and an important reminder for them of their almighty covenant God so important into the context of a world of many false gods. They had been delivered from Egypt, a land filled with false gods. And now the land into which they would be entering, Canaan, that land flowing with milk and honey, would also be filled with false gods. And we read together they were to stay away from them. Don't look to them. Instead, Israel was to remember their God, the Creator, the Almighty Creator of the heavens and the earth. Remember who He is and what He had done in redeeming them from Egypt. They were called to love this very One who had demonstrated love for them by saving them. To love Him for saving them and preserving them. And to demonstrate that love by hearing Him. We read that a couple of times. Hear Him. Hear Him. listen to what God has to say to you. Love Him by hearing Him, but then also by heeding His Word. Heeding His law. We think about the preamble in Deuteronomy 5, verse 6. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. We notice that God did not give Israel His law in order to help them to get out of Egypt by themselves. He didn't say, now do these ten things and you should be okay. He didn't give them His law to help them get out by themselves. Just like God does not give us His Word to help us go out and get saved by ourselves. Or even to help us stay saved. No. God did not give them His law that they might help themselves to get saved, but He gave it to them after He delivered them out of Egypt before entering Canaan. He spelled out the way for those themselves being prepared for life in the land that God was going to give them, a land again in which there would be many false gods. God had already demonstrated that the false gods of Egypt were nothing. We know, we know because we have the entire Word of God that He would also demonstrate that the false gods of Canaan were nothing. Yet, there were many false gods embraced by the heathen nations in order for them to live wickedly and try then to influence, as they may and they did, to influence God's people to embrace wickedness as well. They were being prepared by God with His law, a law given to them to bind His people to Himself, not in a slavery sort of way, but in the ultimate freedom sort of way. He gave it to them that they might understand what it is that pleases Him. How they were to live in a land differently than the pagan nations, and instead, how they might live in fellowship with the Lord and with each other. He gave it to them for their good. He gave it to them for their protection. He gave it to them, as we read, that their days might be long. That it might go well with them. He gave it to them as well as a means for they themselves to demonstrate their love for the Lord. Verse 6, And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. Now to whom is God speaking? Well, verse 7 begins, You shall teach them diligently to your children. He's talking there to the parents. He's talking there to the believing covenant community. To those who, in a sense, have professed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Before He is talking to our children, beloved, He is talking to us as parents and as a covenant community. That these words that I give you might be on your heart. That you might know My Word. That you might understand My Word. That you might embrace my word. That you might trust my word. That you might love it. And that you might love the word giver. With obedience then, growing out of love for God. Notice for Israel, it was not obey or else. That's how it was for the pagan nations. They obeyed their false gods because they were terrified of them. Either they were afraid to make their God angry with them, or they were terrified that they had already made their God angry, and somehow they need to appease Him. It was not for God's people, obey or else, but in a sense we can say it was obey because. As if God says, obey because I love you. Obey because I have redeemed you. Obey because I care for you. Obey because you love me too. That's what our Lord Jesus said in John 14, verse 15. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. That's not an obey or else. It's going to be natural. That's going to be the response of those who love me because of the work of the Holy Spirit. In verse 21 of that very same chapter, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. It's a demonstration of love for God. Love for God demonstrated by obedience to His commandments. And again, the law of God, we know, reflects the holiness of God. It reflects His holy character. It shows what pleases Him. It positively puts God first. And it is to be a vital part of the believer. The Word of God, the law of God, is to be on your heart. It is to be on my heart. The Word of God, the law of God, is to be so very precious to believers. and so very precious to godly parents because if it's not precious to you and me, from our side of it, how can we ever expect it to be precious to our children? We can't expect that. Again, we don't make them believe. That's not the point. But from our side of it, if it's not precious to you and me, how could we ever expect it to be precious to them? Our children, even at the youngest age, as my wife and I are finding out again with four-year-olds and two-year-olds, they're not ignorant. they are not ignorant they are able to perceive beloved if the word of God means something to you and me or not they are able to perceive if we take the word of God seriously or not they are able to perceive if we are sincere about our profession of faith or not they are able to perceive whether we are honest with the word of God or not they are able as well to perceive whether God and His Word is a treasure to you and to me or not. We're not just talking about a simple knowledge or lip service but that it is to be a true treasure because God leads and protects His people through this life with His law. It is a rule of life by which we are blessed to be able to demonstrate our gratitude for His redeeming work and it reflects fellowship with Him and it reflects the holiness of Him. And the law upon the heart will determine the thoughts and the words and the conduct of God's people. And therefore, love for the Lord and His law, His word, means having a desire toward Him, having a delight in Him. It means having dependence upon Him and being entirely devoted to Him. is so very important, so very precious to God's people that they desire it in the second place that it be impressed upon God's gift of children. Notice, God did not just bring adults out of Egypt, but He brought families with countless numbers of children. The children were not left behind in Egypt. And the same is true with the church. The visible church on this earth. The children. God does not leave them behind and only say that those who profess their faith in the Lord Jesus are a part of the covenant community. And that's what baptism is all about. That's what God does in baptism. He visibly, with regard to children, He visibly sets them apart. Those who are in the visible church. Through baptism, He identifies those who are a part of the covenant community. as my mentor many years ago said to me, God has every right to say who is a part of the covenant community. And He says that believers and their children are a part of the covenant community. With regard to Israel, His desire was that His redeeming work and His commandments to govern them in the land, that they would be taught from generation to generation to generation. But why? Chapter 6 begins again. Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Godly parents were called upon to introduce their children to the Lord, To instruct them and to teach them about the redeeming work of God and His law of life, which would distinguish them, therefore, from the heathen nations. To impress it upon them. And this impression was to be in a couple of ways. A couple of ways we can describe that. First of all, constantly. Verse 7, You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, And when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise, teach them diligently. Another version says, impress them on your children. I like that way of saying it. Impress. There's a dual idea with regard to this impression. First of all, there is a visible connotation, like a scar, or an image, or an imprint, an impression of some sort. But also making an impression the second way by repeating something, by saying something again and again and again. Always be speaking the Word of God and teaching them of obedience that pleases Him. Why? With the result that like a scar from an injury or from a surgical incision or boys and girls, maybe you've fallen off your bike and you scraped up your knee really bad or your elbow and there's a scar there. you can still see it maybe happened a long time ago. You can still see it. Like a scar, it becomes a part of that one. Penetrating their minds with God's truth that the impression of the Word of God would always be with them. Speaking it constantly and now not only with our mouths, but also with our lives. Living the Word of God. In all places, at home and on the road, Moses says, at all times in the morning In the evening, with every single opportunity, applying the Word of God to every situation of life as it can be. Now, young people, the Bible doesn't tell us what college we ought to go to. It doesn't tell us what career we ought to engage in. But it gives us principles by which to guide us in making those decisions. Indeed, like Paul, when he talks about praying continually or without ceasing, he's not talking there about praying literally 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, constantly having your eyes closed your hands folded your heads bowed on your knees but he's talking about prayer being a daily part of our daily life the same thing is true here that that the instruction of our children with the word of God is to be a part of daily life throughout the day keep repeating it why because like us beloved our children are slow to remember and they are quick to forget. Keep the commandments of God alive in the everyday thoughts and lives of our children as it is to be in the lives of believers and believing parents. Impress it upon them constantly. But also comprehensively, verses 8 and 9, you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall bind them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Now, Moses is not speaking literally there, though we know that later on the Jews and especially the religious leaders in Jesus' day, they did try to keep this literally. And Jesus in Matthew 23 condemns them for their broad phylacteries. Boys and girls, a phylactery was some sort of a small leather container that was either tied to one's forehead. It probably looked pretty fun our day. It probably wouldn't look very strange anymore. But to their forehead or to their left arm. and inside this little container, they would either have the summary of the law of God or some other important scripture passage written down and put inside that little container to remind them, no doubt, of the whole law of God. They didn't have the entire Bible. They didn't have, not only did they not have the Bible, they didn't have many, many copies like we have. They didn't have church buildings with all kinds of copies of the Word of God in all the various pews. We have it on our cell phone today. The problem is these phylacteries turned into legalism and it became for them that the size of that pouch was meant to be a measure of the greatness of their piety. So, if they had a larger pouch, that meant they had greater piety maybe than someone else. It wasn't to be taken literally, but metaphorically. It was to be considered symbolically. In Proverbs 3, verse 3, we read, Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. Now, boys and girls, we know that we cannot wear love and faithfulness around our neck like a gold necklace with pearls and jewels on it. But that's the idea that it's just like you see a necklace. It's right there that love and faithfulness is to be right there, visible in a sense for everyone to see and especially experience. And then Proverbs 7, verses 2 and 3, Keep my commandments and live. Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart. Again, we cannot literally write these things on our heart, but they are to be at our fingertips. Always ready to be used. Moses says, bind them on your hand. The commands of God are to be practiced all the time, everywhere, with everything we do. As frontlets between your eyes, all of life, beginning with our thoughts, are to be controlled by God's Word, applied to all situations and all circumstances, asking with everything, is this according to the revealed will of God? Would this be pleasing to God? On the doorposts of our house and on our gates, Moses says, It's to be the foundation of our homes and obvious to all who observe that we are governed by the Word of God. That we don't just treat the commandments, the Ten Commandments of our God, as ten suggestions to use as we feel like at any given time, however we think they might fit our lives. And as parents too, beloved, this means that we are to be involved, we are to be active in the spiritual nurture of our children and not just in the home we don't just send them off to Sunday school and catechism class but we are called to help them help them prepare do their lesson with them help them to prepare help them to learn help them to memorize and check up on them see how they're doing impress it upon them constantly comprehensively and caringly because we care about them. Why do we teach our children? Because as believers by the grace of God, first of all, we love Him. We love God. He is our salvation. We understand His redeeming work. We know that His law has been given to us for our good. It is what's best for us and guiding us throughout this life. It's for our protection and care, leading us to walk in holiness and away from wickedness. And children are to see that we love Him. They are to be able to look at you and me as parents, as leaders, as teachers, as elders, as deacons, as pastors, whatever our position is, they are to see that we love Him. They ought to be able to see that He is our treasure. Maybe we ought to ask our children, and especially our teenage children, this is going to be a hard thing to do. Ask your teenage child, as your dad, as your mom, as you think about me, what would you say is most important to me? What would you say that your dad or your mom treasures the most? I don't think I would like the answers I would hear. Maybe you wouldn't either. But maybe it's the answers that we need to hear. We teach them because we love God. And we teach them because we love them. We love our children. We desire that the instruction in the Lord become their treasure too because in it is found the way alone leading to the Father in the third place. The Israelite parents, as we think about Israel, the parents and the nation as a whole, again, they were to teach their children in order that the children too, their goal would be that their children would have a relationship with God. Verse 2 again, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son, and your son's son, by keeping all His statutes and His commandments, which I command you all the days of your life. And if they were to teach them of the Redeemer, they were to teach their children how to live before Him in the promised land. And if we would have gone on to read verse 20, when your son asks you in time to come, what is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you? Then you shall say to your son, tell them. And if we would go on, tell them about Pharaoh. Tell them about Egypt. Tell them that you were slaves. Tell them that you were stuck. Tell them that you needed to be saved. Tell them. And later on, after crossing the Jordan, the memorial stones, tell them. And beloved, the same is true for you and me. Tell them. Tell them also about our struggles with sin. Tell them about the challenges that we have in life. Tell them about our hope in Jesus Christ. Tell them about the joy of the Lord that is ours in Christ Jesus. And then verse 25, and it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God as He has commanded us. It will be righteousness for us. The law is to be our standard for life. Now, we could have a problem with this verse, and I don't think there is a problem. There are those who would take it and say, well, okay, we achieve righteousness by the law. That's not what Moses is saying. That's not what God is saying. We know that because by the very fact that God gave them the sacrificial system, It was a reminder that their righteousness was inadequate. It was imperfect. It was completely defective. In fact, a few generations later, we know they lost the land, which was a vivid reminder that they needed the perfect righteousness of another. They needed the Word of God indeed to lead them to the Father by the grace of God. The law shows sin. We must know this. As Paul points to that in Romans 3, verse 20, through the law comes a knowledge of sin. In chapter 7, I would not have known what it meant to covet if the law had not said you shall not covet. The law shows us our sin. As parents, as believers, as teachers, as leaders, we teach our children from a very young age the difference between right and wrong, and we teach them based on the unpopular standard of God's commandments. Versus the world's faulty standards. And we know that we need to correct them again and again and again and again. We never stop teaching them, no matter how tired of it we get. Well, there may be times in this life when they're simply not listening and we might say, I'm not saying it again. But when it comes to this stuff, we had better say it again. Teach them about God. Teach them about the truth of God. Teach them that God created man good, but that man sinned and that each and every one of us is sinful, each and every one of us by nature is an enemy of God, teach them as well that our continued sin reminds us that we can do absolutely nothing to earn God's favor. Nothing to earn eternal salvation or to earn the heavenly promised land. But that there is a way. There is a way. The law not only shows us our sin, but points us to the only Savior. Perfect righteousness was needed. No sin, no disobedience allowed, and there is one who gave that perfect righteousness, our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why we teach them about their baptism. Parents first, and the church community as well. Those who know that salvation by faith, Those who love the Lord, teach them. Teach them about their baptism. Teach them that they have been given the sign of water. Boys and girls, it's an understandable sign. You saw the water. I wanted to make sure you saw the water. That's why I played with it a little bit. It's an important thing. And it's understandable that just as water washes dirt off the body, that water is to remind us of the blood of Jesus. That the blood of Jesus washes away the sin of those who believe in Him. Not in the physical act. Not when the water is administered in baptism. We teach them because our children need a Savior too. They don't just need a faithful church to attend. They don't just need a Sunday school and a catechism class to attend. They don't just need Christ-centered education. All of these are important tools of instruction. But they need a Savior. Because our children are sinners before God. They're hopeless in themselves. Boys and girls, and especially young people, you may think that that sounds kind of harsh. It may sound kind of mean for me to say that about you, that you're sinners. That you're sinful. That you're hopeless before God by yourself. But I can say that to you and about you because I say the very same thing. about myself i am a hopeless sinful sinner apart from jesus christ and as you think about your baptism you don't remember i suspect most of you don't remember when that water was was put on your head i mean judah and annabelle they don't even remember it anymore you don't remember when that actually happened but as you as you think about your baptism you are to understand how blessed by god you are what a blessing he has given you by separating you from children of unbelievers that's not to say that you don't have friends who are unbelievers you probably do and what an opportunity you have but he has separated you in this way by giving you to christian parents who love the lord and by giving to you those christian parents who love the lord and they have been given an immensely important responsibility. They are responsible to God. They have been given an immensely important responsibility to teach you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. To give you instruction that is more important than any other instruction, even of the most prestigious college in the world. More important instruction than even that. Eternal instruction. they have been given the responsibility and they have promised to introduce you to Jesus, the only Savior, the one alone who is the way, the truth, and the life. He says there is no other way to the Father, no other way to escape hell except through Him. No other name under heaven given among men by which we might be saved. Don't fool yourself and think that you can find some other way. You won't. You will only be sorely and eternally disappointed apart from the Lord Jesus. He is the one whom you don't want to leave this life without. He is our only hope. And with that sign of water, you've been given something amazing. The promise of God that if you repent of your sins and if you believe in the Lord Jesus and trust in Him as your Savior and the Lord of your life, all of your sins are washed away by Jesus. who came to this earth who took on that human flesh. He went to the cross to pay for our sin and His payment has been received by God the Father as if it was our payment, as if we made it. His perfect righteousness is given to those who believe as if it's their very own. Beloved, those who treasure God and treasure His Word and those who have the joy and the confidence of salvation, They also love the souls of their covenant youth too. They desire this treasure for them. They delight in teaching them, trusting that the Holy Spirit will give the increase and bring to faith with a desire to claim the promises of God to say, I believe. I believe in Jesus. I'll never forget many years ago, Pastor Donovan explained it probably 10, 12 years ago beautifully. And I never heard it this way. that profession of faith is the last act of baptism. And that rang in my head. Profession of faith is the last act of baptism. That child saying, yes, I understand. I believe in Jesus. I believe that He died for me. I believe that all my sins are washed away by His blood. And we trust the Holy Spirit to write God's law of love on their heart. And as our children embrace the Word of God, as they embrace Jesus Christ by faith and delight in His commands, they respond with love to God through obedience from grateful hearts. Children are a heritage, an inheritance from the Lord. Parents, not a career. That's not what God says. Not a good name. Not many possessions. None of these things are bad or sinful in and of themselves. But children are a heritage, a treasure. Do we see them as a treasure? We tend to take care of an inheritance, I would suspect. We try to use it to the fullest possible extent, right? What about the inheritance of children? You know, there's a saying that we know, you can't take it with you. We're talking about the things of this life. When you die, you can't take it with you. But if you think about it, there is one thing that you and I might be able to take by the grace of God. And that is our children who also, by God's grace, put their trust in Jesus Christ alone. And therefore, dear people of God, may God continue to bless us and to equip us as a believing covenantal community to be used of Him. To make the instruction of our covenant youth in the Lord first priority even as we seek to be used of Him to spread the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And may He enable our children with faith to claim His eternal promises. Just think. As believers, we get to, not have to, we get to introduce our children and others to Jesus Christ. The One who is the only way, the only One who can bring us to the Father. The only One who can bring us to the glory of Heaven. Let's pray together. Our great God and Heavenly Father, indeed, O Lord, You have reminded us again and maybe for some for the very first time opened our eyes to the great responsibility that You give to those who profess their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to those to whom you give that gift of children. Indeed, what a very important responsibility you give that you place the souls of others in a sense in our hands to be molded, to be shaped, to be fashioned by your Word. Oh, indeed, we know, Father, that it is not our job, it is not the church's job to change hearts. We can't do that. That belongs alone to the power of God by Your Holy Spirit. But You've given to us that great and glorious task to share the truth of Jesus Christ, the good news of salvation, that there is hope for those who are hopeless into themselves. May we take that task seriously. May we rejoice to do so depending upon You to equip us for that very task. Father, we thank You for the church of Jesus Christ. We thank You for that visible church. We thank You for each and every covenant member, young and old alike. And we pray that You would continue to work powerfully and effectively therein as You build Your church, preparing the bride, adorning her for the day of Christ Jesus. In His name, we pray these things. Amen.