Psal 78 verses 1 through 8 is the text for this morning sermon.

Psalm 78 verses 1 through 8.

Give you, O my people to my teacher, 8.

Give ear, oh my people to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable.

I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard

and known that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the

Lord in his might and the wonders which he has wrought.

He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them

to their children so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His Commandments, and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

My aim in the message this morning is to give a biblical exposition of the motto of the

children's ministries here at Bethlehem.

And then to apply it briefly at the end towards our situation in training children at home and at church.

When Shaw Ransom was called as Minister for Children in August of 1984, she chose a for children's

in August of 1984. She chose a motto for children's ministries that comes right out of

scripture, in fact, right out of this text. You've read it probably on many of her little brochures that seem to come out of her office weekly.

It goes like this, that the next generation might put their hope in God.

And it comes from verses 6 and 7, which say,

that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn,

and rise and tell them to their children children so that they should set their hope in God.

Now we believe at Bethlehem that the primary responsibility of training children in the ways of God lies with the parents and that a secondary responsibility parents.

And that a secondary responsibility lies with the whole church,

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