For Your Children

I invite you to turn to the Book of Deuteronomy. It is one of those books that we sometimes do not read very much in the Old Testament, but it has a great deal to teach us. Part of the Pentateuch, it is actually the last of the first five books of the Bible, the books attributed to Moses as having been written by him, and it recounts the entire early history of the Hebrew people during their journey through the wilderness, as well as the laws, commandments, and principles they received from God.

This was as they were being strengthened and established as a new nation that God was founding. And in those books, God establishes the spiritual principles by which they were to live as a nation. And there in Chapter 11, let us go first—even—to verse 13, because I believe it provides context for what I want to discuss, which is primarily how to raise children who are spiritually and intellectually healthy, who reflect the values that Sarah Gautier spoke to us about this morning and that she herself reflects as a very special young woman.

How do we produce children like that, who reflect the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the vitality and beauty of the Kingdom of God? What does it require? We already saw some of those things right there in her testimony. But there in verse 13, what we are told beginning in verse 18 is placed in context. And this comes within the context of a series of commandments and principles that God commands the Hebrew people always to follow in their life as a nation and as a culture.

Then in verse 13 of Chapter 11 of Deuteronomy, God says to them: “If you carefully obey my commandments which I command you today”—that is, the commandments I am giving you, and if you obey them—“loving the Lord your God, because that is the most important thing.” Everything else comes from loving God. When we love our Heavenly Father, then the commandments and obedience flow from that love we have for God.

How wonderful it is when obedience springs from love and not from obligation! Isn’t that right? Then He says to them: “Loving the Lord your God and serving Him with all your heart.” How important it is for us to serve God with all our heart. God is not satisfied with a little piece of our heart. God is not satisfied merely with a little bit of time we give Him here and there. God is not satisfied merely with, “Well, it is Sunday, so I have to go to church. I’ll go just to fulfill my obligation.” No!

God wants our whole heart. Again and again: “You shall love the Lord with all your heart,” the first commandment. “With all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.” “With all your heart and with all your soul.” Now, what happens? If we function that way—if, as a church, as a nation, as the Latino people here in the United States, we carefully obey God’s commandments, if we love God and serve Him with all our heart and soul—He says: “I will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil.”

God was speaking to an agricultural community, a community for which rain was absolutely essential because they obtained practically all their sustenance from the land. So for them, having rain was absolutely essential. But the principle also holds true for the twenty-first century. Today we buy our vegetables, and everything comes canned, frozen, or wrapped in plastic from somewhere we know nothing about. But in principle, what God was telling them was: “If you conduct yourselves in this way, I will bless you and cause you to prosper, and you will lack none of the essentials in your life.”

I was thinking about this, and perhaps a little ice cream, but why not? I believe that today, with the very serious immigration problem we have and the desire for some kind of fair recognition of the enormous situation involving the more than 12 million immigrants in this nation who need to receive their documentation and regularize their lives, there must be some solution to that problem. The leaders and government departments of a country generally do not necessarily have justice in their hearts.

Sometimes what they are thinking about is vested interests, lobbying, business, pressure, who votes, who does not vote, and so on. Politics, right? I believe that one of the things that will exert pressure—in addition to what we are doing, which is very important: petitions, efforts, and calling the nation to awareness—is precisely for the Latino people to exert spiritual pressure on those in government. Pray.

Again, I am not saying that we should not do the other things, but that we should cry out to God to change the hearts of those in government, to place in them a sense of mercy, justice, and grace, so that they feel the need. May God change the seared minds of many who think only about vested interests, bring a change of heart to this nation, and enable them to see what a blessing these immigrants are to this nation and how they bring spiritual, moral, and ethical values that enrich this nation. May there be a change.

I strongly believe in taking action, working, and striving to change reality—but also in living lives that bring down God’s blessing. I believe that if the Latino community increasingly surrenders itself to Jesus Christ each day, seeks God, and loves God, instructed by a Latin American, Latino church that reflects the grace, love, mercy, and values of the Kingdom of God and teaches, disciples, and instructs them in an ethical and spiritual life consecrated to Jesus Christ—brothers and sisters, there is no government in this world that can resist.

Because God is the owner of the whole Earth, and He does whatever He wants. He changes hearts, He transforms lives, He moves… The Word says that “the king’s heart is like water in the hands of God.” He directs the king’s heart wherever He wishes. The Bible also says that we should pray for those who govern us so that we may lead peaceful and orderly lives. So I believe that one of the most powerful weapons the Latino people of God have here in the United States is to pray for those who govern them, asking God to touch their hearts.

Live blameless lives, live productive lives, work. Silence those who accuse our community of draining money and resources from this church, and show that no, we bless this nation through our work; that we even contribute taxes; that we do jobs no one else wants to do, thereby allowing the prices of many things to remain lower.

Because if workers had to be paid what they are supposed to be paid, the price of meat and of so many other things would rise. Caring for the elderly, jobs in hospitals that no one wants to do, good, delicious food prepared in restaurants in many parts of Boston. I sometimes go to the Italian bar, and when I listen to what is going on in the kitchen, what I hear are Salvadoran and Guatemalan cooks in there cooking. And what wonderful Italian food those people make! And others benefit from the talents and gifts that we add.

That little touch of flavor in that chicken Parmesan does not come from Italian seasoning—no! It is a little something that Salvadoran chef added from his own country, right? That is why it tastes so good. It is funny, but it is true, right? You go to those restaurants, and they do not let the cooks or the servers speak because almost all of them speak Spanish, and so they have to make it look like, well, if it is an Italian restaurant, they are supposed to be Italian. But no, they are Latinos. We contribute in many ways.

But, brothers and sisters, what I mean to say—straying a little from the subject like this—is that I was thinking about what Patty said this morning. I believe, brothers and sisters, that the greatest power it has, that we have in this day, without taking anything away from the efforts we must make, is precisely to live lives that enable God to let us, as a church and as churches, demonstrate the transforming power of the Gospel. To show families growing, blessing their communities, working hard, buying their homes, and contributing.

Being the best workers in the factories and in the places where we work, raising and bringing up healthy children who reflect the joy and the spiritual and emotional health of a child who is growing up drinking from the Word of God. When people see that, they will be able to say nothing less than, “Wow! We want these people to stay, to bless us, and not to leave this country.” So I believe that is one of the very important things we have to do, right?

That came to mind because prayer changes the situation. A righteous life, a life that loves the Lord. God will then cause “the rain for our land, the early rain and the latter rain, to come, and we will gather in our grain, our wine, and our oil. And I will also provide grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied. Take care, then, lest your hearts be deceived and you turn away and serve other gods and bow down to them.” That is what we have to do: guard our hearts as a community.

Now notice, within that context: healthy lives; a healthy home that loves God and serves the Lord; a father, a mother, a husband, and a wife who are serving the Lord, loving God, and reflecting the best values of the Kingdom of God; a home that gives God His rightful place; a community that serves the Lord. Within that context, then, we are supposed to pass on what we have experienced in our own lives—with respect to our God—to whom? To our children, to the generations that follow us.

We cannot expect children who love God if we do not love God first. We cannot expect children who reflect the health and vitality of the Kingdom of God if our homes do not reflect the Kingdom of God, if our conduct, our personality, and our love for God are not things they can see day after day. That is why it is so important for us to understand this, because many times we think: “Well, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Well, we think that means I have to lecture him every day, talk to him about God, and preach him a little sermon every day before he leaves for school. Well, that is important. We must pray with our children; we must do many things with our children. But I believe that what the Lord placed on my heart this morning is that one of the most important things is to make sure that, before we speak to our children with verbal words, we speak to our children through the love for God that they see in us.

A home where the values of the Kingdom of God are reflected. Now, I do not want to lose sight of what the Word says, right? In verse 18, after encouraging them to obey the commandments carefully and to love God with all their heart and soul, He says: “Therefore you shall lay up these words of Mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes, and you shall teach them to your children.” Do you see there the sequence and the relationship between one thing and the other?

First, we place the Word of God in our heart and soul; we bind it as a sign on our hand. Incidentally, the Jews took this very literally, and today they have the “ephialtes”—I do not remember what that is called. But they have a device that they tie here at the elbow and something they also place here on their forehead. I do not know how many of you have seen them. It is a kind of object they use. They took that seriously and tie it on in a very elaborate way for some of their rituals as a reminder.

But I do not believe that is what is meant here. God was simply using a symbol to show that the Word had to be so closely attached to them that it was as though they tied it to their hands and placed it on their foreheads for everyone to see. The forehead represents the mind, and I would say that the hand and the arm represent action and work. So the Word of God must be that closely attached to us every day. We have to be students of the Word of God. The Word of God has to be “our daily bread.”

I always tell Christians: “Study the Word of God.” We rejoice that two hundred—how many people graduated? Two hundred twenty-five people celebrated their graduation from discipleship here at Lion of Judah on Friday. Give the Lord a round of applause, if only to wake yourselves up a little. Two hundred twenty-five members of this congregation are engaged in sustained studies on different topics from the Word of God and at different levels of Bible study.

I wish we could say five hundred. I know that many have already studied and graduated; this is what we have now, the current class. But I encourage you, brother, sister, father, mother: you need the Word of God. More than ever, we fathers and mothers need wisdom to educate our children. Yes or no? Because we live in a culture that is hostile—not merely opposed, but I would say hostile—to the values of the Kingdom of God.

Structurally speaking, it is not that people are bad and hate God and hate His Word and have committed themselves to going against the Word. No, it is that the values of the culture—its very educational and governmental structure, the values of the media, everything—are contrary to the Word of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. The principles that undergird and govern this culture are contrary to the Word of God and the Kingdom of Heaven, and so, in this context, fathers and mothers need, as never before, to raise their children in the midst of a generation that—I would say—is evil and perverse, as the Bible says.

I thank God to a certain extent because—perhaps I should not say it; I am not going to say it because I am not going to frighten my brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters, you—the new parents, those who are raising children at this time—need God greatly. It is difficult to be a parent and raise God-fearing children who reflect the beauty of the Kingdom of God, but do you know what? It is not impossible. It is not impossible. It can be done, because the first Christians in the first century had all around them the pagan kingdom of Rome and the worship of gods and demons.

And they were a tiny, minuscule minority, yet they were able to raise their children in the midst of that. Why not us in the twenty-first century? It is the same God, the same Word, the same Spirit. So, father, take heart, but prepare yourself and be strengthened in the Lord. Eat as much of the Word of God as you can. Study the principles of the Kingdom of God. Pray much and make sure that your life reflects the vitality of the Kingdom of God. Because you will not really be able to produce children—well, it will be difficult for you to produce children—who surpass you spiritually.

If they do, it will be because, well, they eat bread and drink water that will come to them later, beyond what you can give them. That also happens because, when they come into the Kingdom of God, they receive nourishment. But generally, what God wants is for parents to bless their children with their spirituality, so that as a result of the milk and bread they have received from their parents, they may even become better than their parents later on. But we need to possess extraordinary vitality in this time.

I believe that the days when nominally religious, evangelical parents could produce children who love the Lord have passed. We are living in a time when producing a child who loves God means going against the current. It is a struggle against the devil himself, who wants to snatch our children away from us. And that is why we need to be spiritual athletes; that is why we need to be spiritual warriors; that is why we must fill ourselves with the Word of God. Eat of the Word of God.

Within it are the principles that will help you be a man, a woman, a father, a mother who can bless your children with good counsel, a good example, a good life, and good spiritual nourishment for your children. I encourage you in the name of the Lord to follow this sequence that I see in the Word of the Lord. First, you must love God with all your heart and with all your soul; write His law upon your forehead and bind it around your hand. Fill yourself with the teaching and instruction of the Word of God. Reflect an overflowing vitality, spiritually speaking.

Then pass on to your children the overflow of your spiritual life, so that as your love for God overflows—as your cup overflows—they may drink from it and may also become the same kind of man or woman that you are. That sequence of things is important. It says: “You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be as numerous upon the land that Jehovah swore to your fathers He would give them as the days of Heaven upon the earth.”

What beautiful counsel from the Lord! May our homes be saturated with the values of the Kingdom of God. “Write them on your doorposts and on your gates.” Once again, the Jews have taken this literally, and perhaps someone here has moved into an apartment that belonged to an Orthodox Jew; I lived in Brooklyn for many years as a child, in an area where Orthodox Jews lived. I remember that in the first apartment where we lived in Williamsburg, New York, in Brooklyn, there were little metal objects nailed to the lintels and doorposts.

One day I took one of them out, and there was a little scroll inside containing a text from the Bible in Hebrew. Because they take that seriously and nail those religious signs to their doorposts. Now, what God was saying was, “Look, let your house be saturated with the Word of God.” And I say, brothers and sisters, that is the most important thing we must do, because that is what God placed in my heart. Apart from the specific, deliberate, active interventions we need to make—teaching the Word to our children and all those very good things.

I believe the most powerful way for us to speak to our children is through the atmosphere we create in our home. It is what happens minute after minute, day after day. It is like the net sum of everything that takes place in the home over the course of a week, for example, so that at the end of the week, when the negative and the positive are considered, the balance is overwhelmingly positive in favor of the Kingdom of God. And why do I describe it that way?

Because everything happens in a home. Sometimes there are arguments and conflicts, of course. None of us is perfect as a father, as a wife, as a sibling, as a friend, or as a member of a congregation. Everything can be heard in a house; everything happens there. Over the course of a week, there are good moments and bad moments; different things happen; there is agony, anguish, anxiety, and many other things. But there should also be much love, much forgiveness, much of the Word of God, much good music playing, many good programs on television, many open Bibles being read, and many Christian objects—pictures and magazines—as well as conversations.

Then, at the end of the week, when all of that is gathered together—our fallen humanity and our sin, the Christian values, and the noble, beautiful, biblical moments—and when we work it all out and move it around, what remains in the end should be positively in favor of the Kingdom of God. Do you understand the difference? Because no home is a paragon of virtue, no home is perfect, no marriage is perfect, and no parent is perfect. But what we must make sure of is that the balance is overwhelmingly in favor of the Kingdom of God. Always.

What kind of home are we creating? The home is like an open book in which children—our sons and daughters—are constantly reading messages without realizing it. Every day, every interaction, every conversation, every gesture, every argument resolved with violence or with love, every offense met with forgiveness or with vengeance, every silence offered as an expression of patience or as the blow of a sword. Children are continually seeing all those things together. Children notice everything, brothers and sisters. Children are sponges who absorb and read their environment.

Subconsciously, their personalities are being affected by everything that happens in a home. And as Christians, we must make sure that our home teaches, that our home is a book our children can read with their innermost being, with the cells of their bodies, with their subconscious, and that it is always radiating and conveying to them messages of love, of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and of loyalty to the Kingdom of God, so that they absorb all of that. Because that teaching, that reading, will be much more important than any verbal lesson you give them.

The reading of life, the reading of your home. What kind of home are we providing for our children? Listen to me, it is difficult nowadays because there are so many opportunities to fill our home with violence, movies of every kind, inappropriate entertainment, and destructive sounds that create anxiety and aggressiveness in our children. No, no, we must refrain from many things. There are things we would love to watch, say, or experience in our homes to which we must say, “No!” because they would damage the book my children are reading.

It would corrupt and contaminate the air they are breathing, and therefore I am not free to do that. Do you know something, parent? That reminds me of something else: you owe yourself to your children, not to yourself. Of course, you owe yourself first to God and to the Kingdom of God; that is why you must keep yourself healthy and love God above all things. But you have a sacred duty that you assumed on the day you brought those children into the world. One of the things in this culture that is contrary to the Word of God is the idea that a woman owns her own body.

I do not see that in the Bible. God owns a woman’s body. That is why, you know, the abortion industry is founded on that struggle over who owns the body: God, the woman, or the man? I do not own my body; you do not own your body. God owns your body. And if there is a life within you, I believe that the property rights become much more complicated at that point. You can no longer do whatever you please with your body, because there is something there that is sovereign and belongs to God as well.

And when we bring those children into the world, do not think that we have thereby freed ourselves from responsibility; that is when the real responsibility begins. Because there are many parents who do not understand this. I believe that when we understand what a sacred responsibility it is to have a son or daughter, and that we must now devote ourselves completely to them—to love them, be an example to them, feed them, clothe them, and show them support—we then understand. We must instill in them a noble Christian sensitivity. Then we understand that being a parent is a twenty-four-hour-a-day matter.

We can no longer give ourselves the privilege of pleasing only ourselves. That is why so many people say, “I am no longer in love with my wife; I do not love her anymore, so I am going to divorce her because I no longer love her.” And what about the children you brought into the world? What about them? What duty do you have toward them to ensure that they have a healthy, wholesome home with a father and a mother who teach them the full character of human life? Man, woman, you must think about that too before making your decision.

It is not only about what you selfishly feel or do not feel. You are a moral being, an ethical entity. Your decisions should not be based solely on what you feel or do not feel, but on moral decisions that stand above you. And that child who is part of your life—and whose life you are part of—reflects who you are and now has a claim upon your life and your decisions. And if you respect that, you will be blessed; if you do not respect it, there will be judgment and condemnation upon your life for your entire life. Unless you repent and God’s mercy intervenes.

But to young parents and parents who still have their home, I say: do not be guided only by emotions when making your decisions. No! You have a sacred responsibility toward those creatures whom God allowed to enter the world through your involvement. And you must live twenty-four hours a day thinking, “How can I bless this child? How can I be like my Heavenly Father to this child?” This means—and here I return to my original thought—what you eat, what you wear, what you watch on television, your conversations, and your conversations with your wife.

Your moral decisions each day, where you go for entertainment—all of that is conditioned by your status as a father or mother. And you must ask, “How does this affect my children? How does it affect my home? How does what I watch and what I allow affect them?” Because I am a father twenty-four hours a day, and that is my great mission—a mother’s mission on Earth as well. And I know that what I say or do will affect my children. That is why it is so important, brothers and sisters: let us work on our marriages!

I hope no one feels—I do not know—may the love of God be reflected through my words. I am not condemning anyone, am I? I do not want to place a burden on you; on the contrary, what I want is to give you sound counsel from the Word of God and encourage us as a congregation, as a spiritual community, to care for our marriages and make sure that our marriages are part of that book of the home that our children see and through which they are blessed and formed. Because, once again, that is part of the sacred privilege. I do not believe there is any greater privilege than the privilege of being a father or a mother.

So one of the things I must do is work on my marriage so that the marriage reflects—children see their father and mother, and the relationship they have will give them either a sense of security and stability or the feeling that “we do not know what is going to happen. We do not know whether my home will still be here tomorrow or whether one of its most important elements—my father or my mother—will disappear; whether we will have to move somewhere else; whether our way of life will change; whether we will have food tomorrow or not; whether I will have a mother who cries all the time or a joyful mother.”

All those things are processed by children subconsciously, and that is why our marriages have to convey stability, peace, and security to our children. They need to know that even if Mom and Dad have an argument or whatever, that does not mean Dad is going to disappear off the face of the earth tomorrow and my home is going to fall apart. No! Our children need to know, “No! I have a stable home.” They need to be able to see the values of the Kingdom of God—for example, forgiveness.

If you want a child who is forgiving, gentle, and full of grace toward others, make sure your marriage reflects grace, love, forgiveness, patience, and reconciliation. Now, if children see a marriage in which one offense merely creates another offense, long-standing scores are kept, and an offense provokes a negative reaction, then what happens? They learn this, and in their lives they will reflect that same kind of behavior. Now, if you want your child to be forgiving, kind, and patient toward others and to see the good in others before the bad, make sure your marriage reflects that.

That is why I tell you that being a parent is a twenty-four-hour-a-day responsibility. In fact, I would say that before you are a father or mother, you are a pastor to your children and your home. And a pastor has to be one continually; that is their calling. You do not take off your pastor’s hat and become a civilian. No! You are a pastor twenty-four hours a day, and our congregations reflect who we are. Our children will reflect the same thing. You never take off your father’s or mother’s hat. It is always there. Your marriage has to reflect that.

Your home has to reflect it: the values, sounds, smells, objects, and atmosphere of your house have to reflect the values of the Kingdom of God, and your children will take their script and their direction from that. So the Lord is calling you. Cultivate your home. I believe that is God’s Word for us this morning: Cultivate the atmosphere of your house. Cultivate your marriage; cultivate your life. Make sure your spirituality is overflowing and that your communion with the Word of God is intimate and impeccable.

Let your integration of the values of the Kingdom of God be as complete as possible, and love God above all things. Let your life show that you are a missionary on earth. Your great privilege comes from being a man or woman with a mission, and that mission entails great responsibilities and serious consequences if you do not carry it out as you should. So this morning, embrace the privilege of being one of God’s missionaries, with the privilege of raising sons and daughters who reflect the finest values of the Kingdom of God.

Take care of your house, take care of your home, take care of its atmosphere, and take care of your spiritual life. And I would add, for those who are not biological parents: Look, there are many young people out there who need a mentor, a father. This is a generation that desperately needs fathers and mothers; it needs mentors. There are many young people out there, like Sarah, for example, who has decided to be a mentor to these children and is rendering a great service to her congregation and her community.

I believe many of you also have a great opportunity to bless young men and women by mentoring them, setting an example for them, loving them, and greeting them. Many young people are continually walking through the hallways of this congregation, and you are a missionary. As an adult, make sure they see a smiling face and a welcoming hand. Greet those young people and bless them. If there is a grandson or granddaughter, a nephew or niece, or a child who lives in your building, and God gives you the opportunity to have an influence—even just once—to make a positive intervention in their life and plant a positive seed there, do not excuse yourself from doing it.

Bless that generation. Share your time generously, and be an example wherever you go. Be an instrument of God’s grace twenty-four hours a day, and embrace the privilege of being a father or mother. Do not be afraid; do not be afraid. Father or mother in the situation where you find yourself now, or single mother, do not be afraid; God is with you. God will give you the resources. Make sure you connect yourself to that divine electricity; make sure you are a transmitter of the vitality of the Kingdom of God. And do not worry, because God will always be more powerful than the demons of this world. Pray for your children. Wage spiritual warfare on their behalf; fill yourself with the Word of God.

Pass on the counsel of the Bible to them, anoint them with oil, care for your home, and turn it into a book that tells the story, that speaks in many ways about the values of the Kingdom of God; then entrust yourself to the Lord. And if, at the end of the day, you did not do everything you should have done, or if you made mistakes along the way, forgive yourself. That is part of what God spoke to us this morning: Forgive yourself. Do not live overwhelmed by what you failed to do. That is already spilled milk; you cannot go on condemning yourself if God has already forgiven you.

Now look toward the future and do what you can with what lies ahead of you, and make sure your present and your future reflect who you are now: a son or daughter of God. Forget the past. If, at the end of the day, you made a mistake, forgive yourself, ask God to forgive you, and ask your son or daughter to forgive you. Be reconciled, and promise yourself that tomorrow you will try to do better. That is all. Do not live burdened by guilt, because that is not good either. We have a God.

He truly knows how to forgive; He truly knows how to be patient with us, and He commits Himself to walking with us every day until the end of the world so that we may be good fathers and good mothers. So may God bless you this morning. We declare over this congregation, its families, and its homes the blessing of the Kingdom of God, the nourishment of the Kingdom of God: prosperity, healthy children, blessed generations. An exemplary congregation, an exemplary family that tells the world that with Christ it is possible, with Christ there is victory, and with Christ our children will become spiritual giants.

With the Word of God, they will reach the place they need to reach. Let us stand for a moment and receive that grace of God in our lives and in our families. Glory to the name of the Lord. This morning, God calls us to rejoice in what He gives us. Let us embrace the calling of the Word of God. Thank You, Father, because You have not called us to perform an impossible task. You have said, “I am with you.” Help us embrace the values of the Kingdom of God.

Right now we receive them; we fill ourselves with them. I bless my congregation, its families, its homes, those who are here and those who are not here. I declare over them the nutrients of the Kingdom of God. Thank You, because even if our children were wayward right now, You will bring them back to Your ways, Lord. We bind them to the Kingdom of God. Hallelujah. Yes, Lord. Thank You, God. Oh, Lord! Thank You, because Your Word does not return to You empty. You have said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you and your household will be saved.”

Today we commit ourselves to serving You, loving You, honoring Your Word, and living lives in accordance with the values of the Kingdom of God; and on this day, Lord, we leave the burden with You. No matter which paths our children travel, we know they will reach the goal. They will reach the place they need to reach, and they will be saved. And they will be men and women who fear Your name and seek You, Lord. We leave the process with You. You know, Lord, the twists and turns of their spiritual pilgrimage, but You have the final word.

Bless my brothers and sisters. May they receive new strength today, Lord. I declare joyful homes, clear homes, uncontaminated homes, homes where Jesus Christ reigns. Homes where the Word of God dwells richly, homes where praise is the distinguishing mark, homes where Satan does not know how to enter because there is nothing there that resembles him. Homes where broken men and women, shattered by the Word of God, manifest the character of Jesus Christ.

Lord, work in marriages, in our church, and in our homes. Lord, work in the memories of the past and in the mistakes that were made; work in the wounds our children bear, and work in the wounds the parents bear, Lord. Send Your Spirit, Lord; send Your oil, send Your ointment, send Your wine to bring health and healing to them. We bless this home, and we bless our Latino community. Father, raise up a church that is a mother church, a counseling church, an elder church, an apostolic church, Lord. A church that covers our community with its spiritual covering, Lord.

Allow this church to be a refuge for many families in this community, Lord, and raise up an exemplary people, Lord. A pastoral people, a missionary people, Lord, who recognize their calling twenty-four hours a day. I bless this community, Lord. I thank You for it; thank You. Thank You. In the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen and amen. Glory to God. Brothers and sisters, give glory to the Lord.