Today's message particularly speaks about the childhood of Jesus. When we look at this scripture, we can see, "Ah, this is how we should educate our children." Generally, I don't preach much about child education, but I hope you see this as an opportunity to listen about it in church, so please lend me your ears. Therefore, the title of today's sermon is "This is How to Educate Children."
First, We Must Pray with the Given Word
First, we must always pray with the given Word. Some things may seem obvious, but you can understand why I am saying this. If we look again at Luke 2:40 and 52, it says, "The child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him." Jumping to verse 52, it states, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." These two verses are very special to me. Why? Because I have used these two verses in my ministry for the past 20 years. What I mean by using these verses for 20 years is that whenever a baby is born in our church, I always go to these two verses to preach and share the Word. The reason I somewhat disregard our congregation is right here. If it's a baby, it must be these two verses, yet many of the congregation members do not know this. They might not even know that I shared these verses during the first child. However, by the fifth child, they seem to catch on. They start to understand around the third child. But the problem is that when they catch on from the third child, they might think, "Isn't there a different verse? Why does the pastor keep preaching the same verses?" Why is that? Is it because it's hard to choose Bible verses? No, I have counted and counted the verses. But I have my own reasons. If we talk about pastoral philosophy, I have my own reasons. The reason is that all our congregation members have one goal. From the moment they are born, all our congregation members have one goal, which is to become like Jesus. "Be like Jesus Christ." Of course, there is also this expression, "Like MJ." Do you know who MJ is? Yes, Michael Jordan. For those who like sports, there is also the expression "Be like MJ." But that's not the reason I do this; I believe all our congregation members, the members of Youngnak, should become like Jesus. Therefore, since we need to grow to be like Jesus from a young age, I preach with this Word. I share this message so that our children can grow up like Jesus from a young age.
Another reason is that when our congregation members have babies, many parents panic when they have that one baby. If the baby gets a little sick, some parents rush to the emergency room. Some parents call me, saying, "Pastor, my child has a fever." All babies grow while having fevers. But many parents are very anxious and don't know what to do. However, in verse 40, it starts with this: "The child grew and became strong." Right? In verse 52, it says, "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature." Right? Growing in stature means growing healthily, right? Becoming strong means that initially, they are weak. All babies are weak. What God has promised is that they will become strong. He promises through His Word that they will grow healthily. So, when a child is born, the parents may not know what Word the child received, but I know. I have preached the same Word to our children for 20 years, so I know. I tell them, "This is the Word I shared when your child was born." But they don't know. They don't realize that I have shared the same Word with all babies. They might think, "Wow, the pastor has a good memory." Yes, I do. Because I preached this Word when they were born, and I believed and preached it. So, I share this Word. Why? Because the Word has power. If it has power, we need to know what was done. At least the congregation members may not remember, but the pastor should know. The pastor should know. So, the reason I share the same Word is because of this.