Custody Battle

I found myself torn between two topics I felt led to preach on this week, but I believe the Lord used elder Jermaine’s last sermon to help me decide.

I don’t know what part of that message resonated with you; but for me, the most powerful point that he brought out was this: Speaking of the great flood and also the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah he said, not only did adults perish in those terrible judgements of God, but “small children and even infants were also destroyed because of decisions that grown folks made...”

This is so important for us to realize, because not only were and are children dying every single day in our world because of decisions that adults make, but, even more tragically, they are also losing their salvation, in part because of something an adult in their lives either did or failed to do…

As you may recall, I’ve mentioned more than once how much spiritual danger our children are facing, particularly in the day and age in which we are now living. But today, I want to do more than merely mention it. Because, you see, now more than ever, there is an intense, psychological and spiritual battle for the custody of the minds, bodies and souls of our children.. And yet many Christian parents aren’t even aware that this battle is going on. And so, little by little they are unwittingly giving up custody of the very minds and souls of their children to others.

Let me put it bluntly, the devil knows his time is short, and he’s fighting, tooth and nail every day to get spiritual custody of our children, and he’s using worldly entertainment, social media and even our own government to do it.

Our president came on television the other week and said something that didn’t surprise me, but it did disturb me. He said this; “There’s no such thing as someone else’s child; I mean that, there’s no such thing as someone else’s child; our nation’s children are all our children..”

Now, you may be tempted to think he simply meant that we should all “care for one another’s children,” and maybe that is what he meant; but judging from a lot of recent legislation and things being taught in public schools and government subsidized universities, he thinks the government has the right to teach, influence and even groom our children to accept and take part in activities and lifestyles the Bible clearly condemns as sinful.—and they’re doing it without the consent or knowledge of the parents.

In short, they think they have custodial rights in raising our children. Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, we are in a custody battle.

Don’t misunderstand me here; I am not getting political, I don’t care who is in the White House—Democrat, Republican, or Communist… sin must be exposed for what it is and decisively condemned wherever it is—especially when that sin threatens the spiritual welfare of our children.

Some of you may remember that it wasn’t that long ago that the most spiritually dangerous thing our kids had to face in a public school setting was the teaching of evolution. I long for those days!!.. Today, they have to deal with the constant promotion of the LGBTQ lifestyle, this trending gender identity nonsense,—with some children and adults even identifying as pets…..and our children are continually subjected to a false narrative about racial and ethnic inequality that intentionally promotes division and animosity.

And because true biblical Christianity clearly denounces this godless ideology, Christianity itself is not only being mocked and derided, but now it has virtually been labeled a religion of intolerance and hate…

Many, if not most of you young people listening to me right now, have already been exposed to a lot of propaganda from school, Hollywood and social media. Propaganda that is meticulously designed to lead you to believe that Christianity—especially conservative, Bible believing, commandment keeping Christianity—is antiquated, narrow minded and intolerant.

And sadly, the vast majority of our young people are actually buying this lie. And why? I believe it’s in large part, because of things adults did and or failed to do in their lives…

But I’m not here today merely to point out this very serious and urgent threat, I want us to look at some powerful Biblical safeguards and strategies we can utilize to actually strengthen, equip and protect our precious children from being psychologically and spiritually abducted.

To begin with, we need to realize one very important fact: the president was right when he intimated that our children are not solely our children—he was right about that, but he was dead wrong to imply that we share custody of our children with the government or society at large. Our children are actually God’s children first, and as parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, God has given them into OUR custody to nurture, protect and raise them to know Him as their heavenly Father.