“Not On My Watch!”
Ezekiel 3:16-21
1-4-2026 AM
I believe in Bible preaching, and I lean very heavy into “Expository Preaching” because understanding the Bible will help us to stand for truth.
But what are we teaching our young?
These last couple weeks I have had a thought that would not go away.
This will not be a normal “Sermon” because I am praying for a new normal concerning the Bible.
It is related to a story I read and I would like to share it with you.
Story:
I wish I knew 25 years ago what I've learned too late…
"My pastor's son just told him he's an atheist - and suddenly I looked at my 12-year-old and realized he can quote scripture but can't answer a single "why" question.
It was 7:32 PM on a Wednesday when Pastor Mike told our small group.
His son Daniel.
Homeschooled through high school.
Memorized entire books of the Bible.
Now a sophomore at a Christian college, telling his dad that "faith is intellectually dishonest."
Pastor Mike's voice cracked when he said it.
"He said I taught him what to believe but never taught him why any of it is true."
I drove home in silence, my hands gripping the steering wheel too tight.
When I got home, my son Caleb was at the kitchen table finishing his AWANA homework - filling in blanks about the twelve disciples.
I sat down across from him.
"Caleb, why do you believe the Bible is true?"
He looked up, confused.
"Because... it's God's Word?"
"But how do you know it's God's Word?"
Blank stare.
"Because the Bible says so?"
My stomach dropped.
"And how do we know the Bible is right when it says that?"
His face went red.
"I don't know, Dad. That's just what we believe."
Just what we believe.
Circular reasoning.
The exact trap that destroyed Daniel's faith the moment a professor questioned it.
I sat there watching my son - this kid who could recite Romans 8 from memory - completely unable to defend the most basic claim of Christianity.
The next morning, I tested him again.
"Why did Jesus have to die? Why couldn't God just forgive us?"
"Because... we needed Jesus to save us?"
"But WHY? What would happen if God just said 'you're forgiven' without the cross?"
Silence.
He had no idea.
He knew the story. He didn't understand the theology.
That Friday at men's breakfast, I brought it up.
Four other dads had the same story.
Kids who aced Sunday School.
Kids who got baptized.
Kids who couldn't explain why they believed a single word of it.
We were building a generation of Bible experts who would crumble the first time someone asked "why?"
I spent that weekend obsessed.
1:47 AM Saturday night, I was reading articles about Gen Z and deconstruction.
The pattern was everywhere.
Christian kids getting to college, meeting their first atheist professor, and having zero answers.
Not because they were rebellious.
Because they'd been taught WHAT to believe but never WHY it's true.
3:22 AM, I found myself on Daniel's Instagram.
Scrolling back three years.
Bible verse posts.
Youth group photos.
"Blessed beyond measure " everywhere.
Then freshman year of college, the posts changed.
Philosophy quotes.
Richard Dawkins references.
Then nothing about faith at all.
I could see the exact moment it happened.
Week 3 of his Intro to Philosophy class.
A post that said: "Turns out I can't answer basic questions about what I claim to believe. Maybe I never really believed it."
Sunday morning, I couldn't focus during the sermon.
I kept watching Caleb in the pew next to me, coloring his bulletin.
He looked so confident.
So sure.
But it was a house built on sand.
One good professor. One smart atheist friend. One hard question.
And it would all collapse.
That afternoon, I did something I'd never done before.
I asked Caleb to explain the Trinity.
He knew it was "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."
But when I asked HOW that works, he had nothing.
When I asked WHY it matters that Jesus is God and not just a good teacher, he guessed.
When I asked how we know the Bible wasn't just written by men and changed over time, he said, "I think someone checked?"
My twelve-year-old had spent eight years in Sunday School and couldn't defend his faith for sixty seconds.
Two weeks later, I was at Books-A-Million, standing in front of a wall of apologetics books.
William Lane Craig. Lee Strobel.
All way too advanced for a twelve-year-old.
I needed something that would teach him to THINK theologically, not just memorize better.
That's when I heard a conversation behind me.
A dad and his teenage son, maybe fourteen.
"So if someone says Jesus was just copying other religions, what would you say?"
The kid didn't hesitate.
"I'd say the manuscript evidence proves Jesus's story came first, and I'd explain how the dying-and-rising god myths are actually different in like six important ways. We covered that in week 19."
I turned around.
"Excuse me, what are you studying?"
The dad showed me this thick workbook.
Systematic theology for kids.
52 weeks of actual arguments, not just stories.
How we know the Bible is reliable.
Why the resurrection proves Jesus is God.
What makes Christianity different from other religions.
His son had been working through it for seven months.
"He destroyed his youth leader's doubts last month," the dad said, laughing.
"The leader said something about science disproving Genesis, and my son spent twenty minutes explaining why that's a category error. I was so proud."
The kid shrugged.
"I just like knowing WHY things are true. It's like solving puzzles."
I bought the workbook immediately.
That Sunday afternoon, I sat with Caleb and opened to lesson 1.
"How Do We Know God Exists?"
But it wasn't just "the Bible tells us so."
It was actual arguments.
The cosmological argument explained at a sixth-grade level.
The moral argument with examples from his life.
A logic puzzle where he had to work through cause-and-effect to understand why there must be a First Cause.
Caleb leaned in.
"Wait, so EVERYTHING that begins has to have a cause? Even the universe?"
We spent an hour on that one lesson.
He asked nine questions.
Real questions.
Not "what's the answer" but "how does that work?" and "what if someone says this instead?"
Two weeks in, something shifted.
Caleb started arguing with me at dinner.
Not disrespectfully - theologically.
"Dad, I don't think that's right. Because in lesson 6, it explained that God existing outside time means..."
He was THINKING.
Week 5, he came to me frustrated.
"Dad, I can't figure out the problem of evil. Like, I get the free will answer, but what about natural disasters?"
He was wrestling.
Not just accepting.
Actually working through the hard stuff.
Week 8, we were at a family dinner and my brother - who's agnostic - made a comment about the Bible being "written by men."
Before I could respond, Caleb jumped in.
"Uncle Rob, do you know about the manuscript evidence? We have more copies of the New Testament than any other ancient document, and they're way closer to the original events. If you don't trust the Bible, you can't trust anything we know about Julius Caesar either."
My brother was stunned.
So was I.
That's when I knew.
This wasn't just memory work.
This was genuine understanding.
Three months later, we're on lesson 31 of 52.
Caleb can explain the Trinity using the right theological terms.
He knows why Jesus had to be fully God and fully man.
He can give you four reasons why the resurrection is historically credible.
Last week, he asked if his friend Marcus could join us for lessons.
"Marcus says he doesn't believe in God, but I think I can show him why it's actually the most logical option. Can we do the cosmological argument week again?"
Those Sunday afternoon sessions did what eight years of Sunday School couldn't.
They turned my son into someone who can defend what he believes.
Not perfectly. He's twelve.
But when he gets to college and some professor challenges him?
He won't crumble.
He'll have answers.
I think about Daniel constantly.
About Pastor Mike's broken voice.
About all those Instagram posts that went from "blessed" to silent.
Those kids weren't stupid.
They weren't rebellious.
They just had no foundation.
No one taught them the WHY behind the WHAT.
Caleb won't be Daniel.
Not because he memorized more verses.
Because he knows how to think theologically.
That workbook sits on our dining room table now, covered in Caleb's notes and highlighted sections.
Proof that faith can be intellectually rigorous.
If you're watching a child you love recite Bible stories but collapse under basic questions, you need to know there's another way.
Before freshman year of college.
Before the first philosophy class.
Before they become another pastor's kid who walks away.
The workbook that changed everything for Caleb is still available.
It's 52 weeks of systematic theology that teaches kids to think, not just memorize.
I don't know how much longer we can keep building faith on sand and expecting it to survive the storm.
But I know this: every week you wait is another week your child practices circular reasoning instead of building a defensible worldview.
Don't let them become another Daniel.
Not when there's still time."
Introduction:
Circular reasoning is often of the form: "A is true because B is true; B is true because A is true." Circularity can be difficult to detect if it involves a longer chain of propositions.
An example of circular reasoning is: “This statement is correct because it says it is correct.”
Circular reasoning (also known as circular logic) is a logical fallacy in which the reasoner begins with what they are trying to end with. Circular reasoning is a realistic defect in an argument whereby the premises are just as much in need of proof or evidence as the conclusion. As a consequence, the argument becomes a matter of faith and fails to persuade those who do not already accept it.
“I believe the Bible because it is true; the Bible is true because it says it is true.”
As a matter a faith I accept the Bible, but history reveals that the Bible can be trusted and is accurate.
When I was in the United Sates Navy, one job that I had occasionally; being on guard duty.
I was a watchman for the Navy.
While in the Navy we were given “Job Descriptions” so that we would know what was expected of us.
The passage before us is a good description of the job of being one of God's watchmen.
I. Responsibility As A Watchman
Vs. 17 “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.”
I was thinking about the various duties of watchmen and how they apply to preachers of God's Word.
1. A watchman protects.
Just as a watchman is assigned to protect something or somebody, a preacher is assigned to protect the saints from false teaching, discouragement and sin.
He is also sent to the unsaved as a protection against going to hell.
Of course, a watchman can only warn.
The decision to obey is up to the person hearing the message.
2. A watchman patrols.
The watchman will move about, being on the alert for trouble.
The Godly pastor will move through his congregation looking for those things that need prayerful attention.
3. A watchman perceives.
A watchman is on the alert.
A good watchman can perceive problems.
A man of God can perceive Spiritual difficulty.
4. A watchman proclaims.
He isn't silent when he spots trouble.
He takes action, warning the violator and notifying those who can help stop the violation.
The preacher proclaims words of warning to those who have sinned against God.
When necessary, he warns others of the potential danger of listening to someone who is sinning.
II. Reception Of Orders
Vs 17 “…therefore hear the word at my mouth…”
A good watchman has orders to follow.
He is enforcing the rules of another.
Preachers must get their message from God.
They must get their message by being in the Word of God.
Ezra 7:10 “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.”
Jeremiah 15:16 “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.”
III. Report To The People
Vs 17 “… and give them warning from me.”
Just as the watchman reports of those who are breaking the rules or who might break the rules, the preacher is responsible to proclaim the rules to those who have or might violate God's Word.
IV. Rewards For The Watchmen - Vss. 18-21
A good watchman is rewarded with pay and compliments for doing his job.
A poor watchman is rewarded with loss of pay because he'll lose his job.
He might also be rewarded with punishment for breaking laws himself.
The faithful preacher will not be held accountable if he has faithfully warned the righteous and the unrighteous.
(Vss. 19, 21)
He will also be rewarded at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
The unfaithful preacher will be held accountable if he has not delivered God's message to the righteous and the unrighteous. Vss. 18, 20
These are the orders we memorized while in Boot Camp and they are now part of who I am today!
11 General Orders of a Sentry
1. To take charge of this post and all government property in view.
2. To walk my post in a military manner, keeping always on the alert, and observing everything that takes place within sight or hearing.
3. To report all violations of orders I am instructed to enforce.
4. To repeat all calls from posts more distant from the guard house than my own.
5. To quit my post only when properly relieved.
6. To receive, obey and pass on to the sentry who relieves me, all orders from the Commanding Officer, Command Duty Officer, Officer of the Deck, and Officers and Petty Officers of the Watch only.
7. To talk to no one except in the line of duty.
8. To give the alarm in case of fire or disorder.
9. To call the Officer of the Deck in any case not covered by instructions.
10. To salute all officers and all colors and standards not cased.
11. To be especially watchful at night, and, during the time for challenging, to challenge all persons on or near my post and to allow no one to pass without proper authority.
Conclusion:
Not On My Watch:
I will not allow mere Scripture Memorization
I will ask “WHY” and then help explain “WHY” when necessary.
If this is the end of my ministry, so be it; but I am tired of losing our children to this world.
Every ministry going forward will meet the same questions:
Why do we have this ministry?
What are our goals of this ministry?
How will this help our children/adults to understand “why”.
If they do not meet this simple truth then the “ministry” will end!
Not At Bills Lake Baptist Church
No On My Watch!
