Hello, this is Brother Denny.
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Okay, this morning we are moving into the
visionary aspect of our sessions.
We'll be dealing with the subject of our
vision all day today and through tomorrow morning's
service.
That's six sessions on vision.
There's a reason for that, and you will
understand it as we go.
But it's very important that we see from
here what God wants for us and for
our children.
It's very important that God would give us
a vision.
The beautiful portion of Scripture that I have
chosen to read just to introduce the subject
of vision this morning in Psalm 127, verse
3, says these words, Lo, children are an
heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of
the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a
mighty man, so are children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver
full of them.
Full of them, the Bible says.
This morning our subject is the eternal value
of a child.
We see from this portion of Scripture that
children are an heritage from the Lord.
That in itself, if we could just grasp
what those simple words are saying, we could
all go home.
We wouldn't need to hear anything else.
Children are a heritage from the Lord, the
Lord of the heaven and the earth.
In a sense, a vision is that which
we see with the eyes of our hearts.
God must give us that.
What is the value of a child?
We want to focus on that a bit.
I feel that's foundational for everything else that
we're going to look at later.
If we have placed a little value on
our children, then we will also give them
little of our time.
And we all know the results of that.
So the value of a child is a
major foundation stone in this house that we
want to build.
How we answer this question will determine the
kind of houses we build and how they
stand when the winds begin to blow and
the rains beat upon it.
Whether we value our children rightly will determine
whether those houses stand.
The text says, an heritage.
Now, a heritage is an inheritance.
And here we have an inheritance that comes
from God.
I like that.
Something that God has left behind, something that
God has given to us to remember.
That's what an inheritance is.
An inheritance is an heirloom, something that is
given to remember.
Each child that we have is a deposit
from God of himself because they are made
in his image.
How we view our children will affect every
area of our life and theirs.
No doubt about it.
Many years ago, I was in a home
for a meal and some fellowship.
And when I go to homes, I'm always
looking on the wall.
You know, you can tell a lot about
a home by what they have on the
wall.
Amen.
You can.
And I'm always looking on the walls.
And I found the plaque with some powerful
words on it.
And as I looked at those words, I
knew these are important words.
I wrote them down and have never forgot
them.
These were the words on the plaque.
Empires fall.
Mansions crumble.
Cattle, they die.
Machinery, it rusts away.
Earthly pleasures vanish in a moment.
But a child lives on and on in
the lives of descendants and in the lives
of those he influences all the way into
eternity.
When I look at those words, I recognize
that somebody who wrote that understood a measure
of the value of one eternal soul.
And oh, if God could help us to
see some of that this morning.
A child is an eternal being.
It will live for eternity somewhere.
They will live for eternity somewhere.
And that's an awesome perspective, isn't it?
What is the value of a child?
Just one precious little one who can measure
its value?
I cannot.
For I know not what God will do
with the child.
If I knew what God would do with
it, maybe I could begin to measure its
value.
But I know not what God will do
with the child.
But I'll tell you one thing that I
can do as I wonder what God would
do with my child.
I can look into this book and begin
to find out the heartbeat of God concerning
my children.
And the heartbeat of God concerning the world
around us.
And you begin to see what God would
want to do with my child.
I cannot tell you specifically what God will
do with each one.
But I can read in this book and
begin to see where God would take them
if I direct them in the right path.
Amen?
Psalm 139.
We get a little bit of a glimpse
of the value of a child reading from
verse 13.
David says these words, awesome words.
For thou hast possessed my reins.
Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
Thou?
God.
God, you have covered me in my mother's
womb.
I will praise thee, for I am fearfully
and wonderfully made, David said.
Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul
knoweth right well.
My substance was not hid from thee, God,
when I was made in secret and curiously
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Thine eyes did see my substance yet being
unperfect.
And in thy book all my members were
written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as
yet there was none of them.
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me,
O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they are more
in number than the sand when I awake.
I am still with thee.
These verses take us into the very throne
room of heaven, where plans and purposes burst
forth from the mind of God.
Picture the God of the universe forming a
child in the womb.
Picture it, somehow, if we could grasp the
God of the universe forming every one of
the children in the womb.
Does God make something for naught?
Does God just make children to populate the
earth?
No.
We know that if we're in the throne
room of God, where God is planning out
His purposes here upon this earth, God forms
every one of them with a purpose.
With a purpose.
I don't know if you believe that, but
I'm going to convince you of it, if
you'll keep your heart open.
Elohim, God Creator, surely has a holy purpose
for my children, which demands my utmost care.
You know, if we could get a glimpse
into the prophetic, we would begin to see
what God would do with our children.
Then we would begin to see their value.
But God doesn't give most of us those
kind of glimpses.
God gave me no glimpses like that.
I only saw what God would do if
I would raise them for Him.
That's all I saw.
I saw no more than that.
Every single one of us can see the
same thing.
As we gaze with an open face, which
is a clear and an open heart into
the beauty of the pages of this book,
we begin to see the heart and purpose
of God and what God would do with
any dedicated soul.
We begin to see that Susanna Wesley, inflamed
with a vision, was moved to raise a
different kind of child.
She saw the way so clearly laid out
in the Bible, and by faith she raised
some boys who shook the world in the
day that they were living.
Yes, she did.
Abraham and Sarah saw into the prophetic.
They had a prophetic word from God.
They had a promise from God.
They had a miraculous birth to back up
the promises.
How do you think they looked at Isaac
when he was placed in their hands?
Think about it.
The value of a child.
What do you think was going through Abraham's
mind when they brought that little boy and
put that boy in his hands?
My, he must have felt like old Simeon
did.
He must have felt like that.
His heart must have lifted up in praise.
We can clearly see how that old patriarch
must have valued that little boy as he
had him in his hand.
Parents of a barren womb, they can show
us what the value of a child is.
Drop in somewhere where a child has been
given after ten, twelve years of barrenness.
If you want to find out the value
of a child, just hide in the shadows
there at their house when their baby comes
forth.
And she takes it in her arms to
give it suck, and he picks it up
in his hands to give it back to
God.
They, with reverence and awe, hold their baby.
Is there really any difference between the ones
that they hold and the ten that you
have?
None at all.
They behold their gift, their reward from the
Lord with reverence and awe.
And we should also.
I've noticed that sometimes God withholds children to
raise the value in the hearts of the
parents.
Because he has a special vessel that he
would like somebody to train.
Abraham and Sarah waited forty years for Isaac.
Isaac and Rebekah waited twenty years for Jacob.
Jacob and Rachel waited twenty years for Joseph.
Manoah and his wife waited many years for
Samson.
Ruth waited for twelve years before Obed was
born.
Hannah waited for years before Samuel was born.
And Zechariah and Elizabeth waited fifty years before
John the Baptist was born.
And in each one of these situations, the
value went higher and higher and higher and
higher.
Imagine, just picture it with me.
Step into the hearts of Zechariah and Elizabeth
that day when John the Baptist was born.
Step into their hearts for a moment as
they take that little boy with reverence and
awe in their hands and realize God has
something special for this little boy to do.
We don't know what it is, but we
know it's something special.
Oh, how careful we're going to be.
It's no wonder the Spirit of the Lord
came upon Zechariah and he prophesied when he
wrote down the name of his son, his
name shall be called John.
And he began to prophesy.
Why?
Because the value of a child is way
higher than most of us understand.
Oh, God, open our eyes to see it
the way He does.
Open our eyes, Lord.
But we can see the wisdom of God
in withholding children like this, preparing parents to
receive them with awe, raising the value higher
and higher.
In the New Testament context, let's just look
at it there.
Let's bring it down to us.
We don't have an Isaac.
We don't have a Joseph.
We don't have a John the Baptist.
But let's look at it in the New
Testament context and see.
We can clearly see in the New Testament
that God wants us as His people to
go into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature that's clearly revealed in
the Word.
And I'm telling you this morning, dear parents,
if God had 10,000 John Wesleys, He
would pick every one of them up and
send them to some dark corner of this
dark earth and use them to shake that
place for His kingdom.
If God had 10,000 of them, He'd
use every one of them today.
But before God can have 10,000 John
Wesleys, He needs 10,000 parents who will
get serious about their children and recognize the
high, high, high value on every single one
of them.
Oh, the value is high.
It's very high.
Think about an earthly king.
Just an earthly king.
I mean, when a king has a son,
everybody knows that son will receive extra special
training.
Why?
Oh, because it's a king's son.
Oh, but my dear brothers and sisters, do
we not have sons and daughters of the
king of kings and the Lord of lords?
And if God could pull back the veil
just for two or three seconds and let
us see who that king really is, oh
my, how we would raise our children with
such dedication for the king.
Because he needs every one of them.
Every one of them.
God, open our eyes.
Open our eyes.
Remember the birth of your first child.
Just let your mind go back a little
bit.
Remember?
Never had a child before.
She married a year, maybe two years.
And here you are.
Husband, wife, first baby.
Remember how you felt?
I mean, the fireworks of heaven were going
off inside of you.
You held that little one.
You looked at it.
My, bone of my bone.
Flesh of my flesh.
You know, and you looked at it and
you said, it's like my nose.
She had your ears.
Look at that.
Look at the little fingers.
They're long just like yours.
Oh, you remember?
Hallelujah.
What a sweet time that was.
Well, my dear parents, that was your first
love relationship with that child.
That's what it was.
First love relationship.
What do I mean by first love?
Well, the Bible talks about first love, doesn't
it?
It speaks about the church's emphasis and says
the church at Ephesus has lost its first
love.
Oh, you're doing many things right.
Amen.
But God said you left your first love.
Didn't say you lost it.
He says you left it.
Amen.
So we understand that that first love relationship
that God had with the church at Ephesus
was supposed to be the foundation upon which
the whole relationship with that church was built.
And God said, wait a minute.
I'm glad you're doing this.
Praise God.
You're taking a stand for truth over here.
But I have one thing against you.
And it's the most important one.
You've left your first love.
That's not a little issue.
Have we left our first love with our
children?
We understand first love relationship as we reflect
a bit on our wedding day.
There are a lot of married couples in
this room.
Remember your wedding day?
Remember how you felt on the inside?
Remember?
You listened to the sermon.
You said your vows.
Remember how you felt?
I mean you thought nothing will ever hinder
me from loving my dear wife or my
husband all of my days.
You said those vows freely.
It was no problem to say them.
You know why?
First love.
But that first love was only supposed to
be a foundation.
It should never go away but something that
you build on top of.
It is the same with the children, brothers
and sisters.
It should never go away.
That awe that we have.
That reverence that we have.
It should never go away.
We're supposed to build on top of that.
Have we left our first love for our
children?
We often start out right but then other
things distract us away.
Isn't that how it happens?
Oh we're in awe.
We hold this little one.
It's awesome what's going on.
You see this child.
You realize this is a gift from God.
But then you get distracted and over there,
over there.
And you can quickly turn into not now
parents.
Not now.
Have we left our first love for our
children?
We had six of our eight children at
home.
The first two, we went to the hospital.
We didn't know any better.
Sorry.
But we had the last six at home.
And oh what a sweet and a beautiful
experience that was.
I mean, the child comes forth.
Bless God, I get to hold him right
away.
It was wonderful.
But in every one of those experiences, I
can give this testimony that the Spirit of
God was hovering near over the birth of
those children.
And it's not just mine.
Midwives testify that the Spirit of God hovers
over the birth of every child.
It is designed by God.
God sanctifies the birth of every child because
He's trying to lay a foundation.
You know why?
Because He's seeking a godly seed.
And He wants to sanctify that relationship between
parents and child from the very beginning.
And I can say, God did sanctify those
six births that we had at home.
And the other ones, too.
But you know, it's quite a bit different
looking through the glass at them.
You know what I'm saying?
You can look at them through the glass
and say, yeah, that one's mine.
Okay.
You know, that's very different than to be
right there and sometimes even catch that little
one, bless God, and lift it up to
the Lord.
This relationship is a foundation stone upon which
a God-honoring life is built, parents.
It is a foundation stone.
Let me share with you a very revealing
story.
Some years ago, I was invited to a
home of a couple.
They wanted to ask some child training council
questions.
And I was there sitting in the living
room.
They just had one little three-year-old
boy.
And he was all over the place.
They just kept correcting him.
And he was what, you know, the modern
people today call hyperactive.
You know, he was all over the place.
And they were trying to settle him down.
And he was getting up and going here
and there.
I mean, you know how it is.
Brother Denny's sitting in our living room, you
know, and he preaches these tapes.
Please be a good boy, don't you know
Brother Denny is here?
You know, that's how the mother was feeling,
you know.
And finally, they just gave up in frustration
and said, Brother Denny, this is why we
have called you here.
Oh my, I didn't know what am I
going to say, you know.
They're asking deep questions.
And I just made a prayer to God.
And I believe God gave me a word
of wisdom.
And I asked her a question off the
cuff, right out of nowhere.
I said, Dear Sister, I want to ask
you one question.
How did you feel about that little boy
when he was in the womb?
She looked at me in shock.
She said, How did you know to ask
that question?
And then she began to weep.
She began to weep.
And I knew why then, why I was
led to ask that question.
And she opened up and she said, It
was not good.
It was not good.
I was a spoiled little girl when I
was growing up.
And I entered marriage with a fairy tale,
dreamy, romantic idea about what marriage was and
home was.
And when I got pregnant, I despised the
whole thing.
Those were her words.
I thought, Oh no, now I'm pregnant.
Now what am I going to do?
All the pain and the discomfort and all
those things.
She was sharing all of this.
And I simply looked at her and I
said, Dear Lady, This is the reason why
this little boy is doing what he's doing.
And she broke her heart there and she
repented.
And God changed a mother's heart that day.
And guess what?
God changed the little boy that day also.
He changed the little boy.
You see, that little boy, he picked up
that silent message.
He probably picked it up in the womb.
But in his heart, he thought, I will
get the attention one way or another.
I will get your undivided attention, even if
I have to bounce off the walls to
do it.
And that's kind of how it is sometimes,
isn't it?
What is the value of a child?
How we view our children will affect everything
about them.
It will affect our lives.
It will affect their lives.
It will affect their very conduct from the
time they're little bitty babies.
It's not a little thing.
Some parents have this thing all mixed up.
They think, Oh, the baby is in here.
No problem.
I'm going to do what I want.
I'm going to get angry when I want
to.
I'm going to live in unpeace in my
life.
And they have no idea that they are
laying the foundation stones for a child's life
while they spit and spew in argument and
anger.
And then they wonder why the child is
all the way the child is.
Oh, well, we've got a real tough one
on our hands, they say.
Well, what kind of a life did the
child live when he couldn't see you?
Where on the priority list would you put
your children?
Dear brothers and sisters, if we were to
give you a priority list and you could
get before God and just start writing with
the all-seeing, probing eye of God, the
priorities in your life, where would your children
fit on the list?
It's a good question.
Have we swallowed the spirit of the age?
Yet we don't know it.
We've deceived ourselves.
You know, the world doesn't value children very
highly.
They have devised many, many different ways to
get them out of their hair.
The worst being abortion.
Just get them out of my hair.
I don't even want them.
They do not see the value of a
child.
Not at all.
But sometimes I wonder if we haven't swallowed
more of that same spirit and attitude in
our own hearts concerning our children.
Four years ago, I was meditating on the
Sermon on the Mount.
I was reading through the sermon each day
for about six months.
I did that.
Very convicting, by the way.
But I came to the verses on treasures.
You know, talks about treasures there, laying up
treasures in heaven, all of that.
And as I was reading one morning, the
spirit of God quickened my heart and said
this to me.
God said, your children are your treasures.
And I thought about that for a minute.
And God began to bring it all together
to me to help me to see that,
yes, my children are my treasures.
It was a rhema to me that morning.
It was God speaking His word to me.
And I had to, after I sat and
listened to the Lord a while, I had
to agree.
Yes, it's true.
And as I meditated upon it, I realized,
you know, what was happening inside of my
heart.
You see, Daryl and Rebecca had moved to
Africa.
And they're part of my treasures, bless God.
And I found my mind and my prayers
were there continually.
I just kept thinking more about Africa and
more prayers were going to Africa all the
time.
And God spoke to me and He said,
where your treasure is, there will your heart
be also.
And your heart is now gone over there
because you've deposited some of your treasures there.
Oh, I took that and I brought it
to my wife.
You know how it says you're supposed to
wash your wife with the word?
Well, I brought a fresh word to my
wife.
And she listened to me and she said,
it's so, it's so.
I'm in the same place.
I wondered why so much, so much.
Thinking about Africa all the time.
It's because your treasure is over there.
And where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also.
Where's your treasure, dear father, dear mother?
Where your treasure is, there will your heart
be also.
Our children are our treasures.
No doubt about it.
Americans have many treasures laid up on earth.
I'm afraid our devastated homes is the fruit
of this wrong pursuit of treasures.
Because see, where your treasures are, there will
your heart be also.
We have deceived ourselves.
We think that we, Americans, we can serve
God and mammon.
We think we can do both of those,
even though God said you cannot serve God
and mammon.
Somehow, we think we can get away with
it.
But we can't.
And the devastated homes are proof of it.
The fruit of our deception screams from every
corner of American society.
It screams.
Allow me to make another application here.
You know the verses.
You'll find them a couple of times in
the Gospels.
Where Jesus said, what shall it profit a
man if he shall gain the whole world
and lose his own soul?
Awesome words.
Awesome.
And what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul?
May I make the application to our children
this morning in this way?
What shall it profit a man if he
gains the whole world, but loses the souls
of his children?
And worse yet, what will a man give
in exchange for the souls of his children?
You know, it's pretty sad sometimes to see
what a man really will give in exchange
for the souls of his children.
I mean, imagine it!
Imagine it!
That a man would give, you know, his
golfing.
You know, I mean, he's going to go
golfing.
Every Friday night he's golfing.
Saturday morning he's golfing.
Saturday afternoon he's at the country club with
the boys.
That's what he's giving in exchange for the
souls of his children.
What a shocking reality that is.
These words make me tremble.
And the stories of broken-hearted parents abound
in the churches who look back at the
end of their days.
And it all looks so different, you know.
I mean, here sits a man on a
big pile of money, you know.
So what?
So you've got a big pile of money.
And there are all his children out in
the world, and they're all gone.
All he has is a big pile of
money.
Guess what?
When he dies, leave the whole pile of
money behind.
That's it.
How sad.
Some years ago, I was at a Bill
Gothard seminar, an all-day minister seminar.
Two thousand pastors sitting in the room.
Imagine it.
So the Bill got up in his own
quiet way.
He said, I want to find out how
many children you have.
All you pastors here.
How many of you have one child?
All these hands went up.
How many of you have two children?
A whole bunch of hands went up.
How many of you have three children?
Just a few hands.
Four, five, six.
And we got all the way up to
nine.
That was the highest there.
And then everybody clapped, you know, for the
guy that had nine.
And we blessed him.
And, oh, it was a great time we
had there.
But then Bill turned his attention on the
rest of us.
Instead of that one guy, you know, who
had nine.
He turned his attention on the rest of
us and said these words.
Most of you men have limited the size
of your family.
Oh, it got quiet in there.
I mean, from all the clapping and all
the rejoicing, you know, and all these preachers,
you know, and they're full of amens and
shouts and all that.
Whoosh, quiet.
Most of you men have limited the size
of your family, he said, because of the
ministry.
And in Bill's gentle way, and if you
know Bill Gothard, you know, I don't think
he ever shouted once in his life.
But in his gentle way, he looked at
all these pastors and said, Kindly, you men
have the spirit of abortion.
You are part of the reason why abortion
has turned itself loose in this land.
Because you do not value children.
You only have one.
You only have two.
You limited the size of your family because
you wanted to do the ministry.
And he rebuked us.
All those pastors there, he rebuked us.
And then, it was even more quiet in
there.
And then he said, you need to go
and get a reversal and change this thing
and repent before God.
And you could hear a pin drop in
there.
It was a very quiet meeting.
I'll never forget that.
I thank God for what that man did
in that meeting.
I thank God for the courage that he
had to say that to 2,000 pastors.
And probably some of them wrote him off
and said, He's just a legalist.
He's under the law.
We're free from the law.
We're going to have a good time.
We don't have to worry about that.
I can just have one child.
It's no big deal.
I'm free from the law.
And they walked out the door.
But you know, some of the men in
that room didn't do that.
Some of the men in that room repented.
And they changed their hearts.
And some of them have children today to
show for it.
How we value our children will affect every
area of our lives and theirs.
How we train them.
How much time we spend with them.
How we treat them in love.
Somehow God must open our eyes to see
the true value of each one of our
precious treasures.
Think of it.
Only one life of each child.
It will soon be past.
Only what's done for Christ in them will
last.
A child is an eternal being made in
the image of God after His likeness.
Our God wants to dwell in our children
someday.
And He is working toward that end.
Will we allow Him to do it?
I remember at little David's birth, seven years
ago now, it was a sweet time like
they all were, but it stands out in
my memory because I was getting a bit
older when David was born.
I took that little fellow up in my
hands and lifted him up before God and
made my prayer before God an earnest prayer
that God would take this little boy and
make him like David in the Bible.
That God would take this little boy and
give him a vision like Isaiah had in
the Bible.
That God would give us the wisdom to
train this little fellow for the glory of
God.
That he would be a servant of God
someday.
And in the midst of that prayer, it
dawned on me, oh, when I get done
with this commitment that I just made to
God, I'll be 66 years old.
And you know, for just a moment, for
a passing moment, I thought, what am I
doing?
I'm getting too old for this stuff, you
know.
This is too much for me.
But you know, it's not too much for
me.
Praise God!
Another 20 year commitment for a precious soul
that God has placed in our care.
I don't mind making the sacrifice one bit.
And you know why?
Because I'm raising a soldier for the King
of Kings and for the Lord of Lords!
So maybe I won't be able to run
and play with David like I did as
much with Daniel or Samuel.
But bless God, if David rises up and
does damage to Satan's kingdom, I'll be delighted
to invest 20 years in that little boy's
life.
We need to see with the eyes of
our heart what God sees.
Lord, open now mine eyes that I may
behold wondrous things about my children out of
thy law, O Lord.
Open now mine eyes that I may behold
wondrous things about my children out of thy
law, the psalmist says.
That's what we need, brothers and sisters.
We need a vision.
We need to see with the eyes of
our heart.
We need to see the way that God
sees with the eyes of our heart.
If we could get a glimpse to see
what God sees, I believe it would shake
us to the depths.
I believe we would fall flat on our
face and weep before God for the neglect
that we have already done with our own
children, mine included.
We need a vision.
Let's stand before God in prayer.
We love you, Lord.
Thank you, Father, for all the children you've
given to us.
There's a lot of children represented in this
room, Lord.
Oh, we just come again, Father.
We come crying to you.
You've got to do something inside of our
hearts, Father.
It's not enough just to sit here.
It's not enough to get a bunch of
how-tos, Father.
You've got to change something inside of our
hearts, Lord.
And we come crying to you and pray
that you will do just that, Father.
Take your finger, Lord, and write on the
fleshly tables of our heart.
And, oh God, if the heart is hard,
then God, break the heart so you can
write on it, each and every one that
is here.
Do that, Lord.
We commit each heart into your care.
And I pray, God, give us the vision
that we need.
Lord, we have five more sessions on this
subject.
Oh, God, we open our hearts to you.
Write on them, Lord.
Write on them.
In Jesus Christ's name I pray.
Amen.