We are in a series right now on a book that I’m currently releasing. This book actually, it’s called It Takes a Team.

In a world where solo achievement is so highly celebrated, we’re saying that there’s actually no such thing. Nobody gets anywhere in life on their own. And we’re reminding ourselves and bringing it all up to a new place of awareness that anything that we do in life that is of any value, it takes a team to do it.

The tennis shoes that you have on right now, those were designed somewhere, made by other people. The rubber, the shoelaces, all the different elements that came into the making of that tennis shoe—not one person did it on their own, but many people together. It’s simple when you really start acknowledging it and realizing the power of teaming.

And so teaming is beneficial in every area of life. It’s beneficial, of course, in sports. How about those Mariners right now? Seattle Mariners. It’s beneficial at home. It’s beneficial in business and community. But today, we’re going to talk about a unique form of teaming that I talk about in the book.

And I want to remind you that some teaming has eternal benefits. And we’re going to talk about one of those today. Everybody say, “It takes a team.” It takes a team. Say it again if you would. It takes a team. It takes a team.

I’m going to read out of 1 Samuel chapter 1. 1 Samuel chapter 1, verse 26. And what I’m going to read you, I’ll explain in a moment. But these are the words of a woman named Hannah to her pastor, whose name was Eli.

Say with me right now, say, “My heart’s open. My mind’s ready. Make me better, God, by your word. I receive it. I believe it. I receive it. I’m ready for it. I believe it. And I won’t be the same again. In Jesus’ name.”

So Hannah said to him, meaning Eli, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord.” She’s calling him back in his memory to a previous time, years before.

And she said, “I’m that woman that stood here praying to the Lord. I’m the one who prayed for a child and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord.”

There’s a boy standing next to her whose name was Samuel. “For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.

This story in scripture provides a picture of what I want to talk about today. It’s the picture of a first-time mother named Hannah who had been barren and prayed, not just a little bit but relentlessly, for a child. And in her prayer she made a vow that if God would give her a child, she would give the child back to him.

And God answered that prayer. She named him Samuel. And this verse that I’m reading to you is a description of that moment where she brought him to the house of God and turns him over basically to the will of God for his future, to grow up in the atmosphere and the environment of the church.

Scripture doesn’t tell us what the exact arrangements were between her and her pastor, priest Eli. But we do know that Samuel from there on spent a lot of time at the temple, interning, learning. We know that there was a place there. I don’t know if it was a little dormitory. I don’t know if it was just a bed area. I don’t know. But we know he was there at night because of some things that happened later in his story when he heard from the Lord himself for the first time.

But the point was that she gave her child to the Lord, and from there on he was around the church and he grew up in a highly respected place next to a prophet in Israel and a priest in Israel. And then he himself later on in life became a prophet—a prophet of God, a prophet who actually anointed and proclaimed David.

Most of us know David—the one that killed Goliath. Well, Samuel was that prophet who proclaimed him as the king of Israel. It all started with a mom who gave her son to the Lord, not just in prayer, but in a real demonstration of wanting and making sure her child would be in the atmosphere and environment of the house of God.

I want to talk today about what I call the parent–church team. The parent–church team. Many of you parents, and single parents even, you’re already teaming with the church. Like Hannah, you’ve been intentional about giving your children to the Lord.

And I want to celebrate that because it’s the most important decision that parents can make when it comes to your children’s future. And I know that many of you, you’re first-time Christians. I don’t want any shame to get in this message I have for you today.

Many of you, your children are already grown and you’re going to hear me say some things that you’ll say, “I missed it on that. I could have done better there.” But I don’t want you to feel shame. I want to talk to everyone that I can today because maybe you’re a grandparent now. Maybe you’re in a space where it’s not your children actually that God will bring to mind, but it’s a neighborhood child. It’s a family member’s child.

I just want you to hear me talk about what God intended—for our children to have their parents and their church teaming up on their behalf.

Psalm 92:13 says, “Those who are planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish.” Somebody shout, “Flourish.” Flourish. Say it again. Flourish.

I’m going to talk about next week—I’m going to talk about teaming together for a flourishing life. Don’t miss next week. We’re going to go into spaces, and I’m so excited about… anyway, I’ve got to stay on point here. “They will flourish in the courts of our God. Even in their old age, they will bring forth fruit. They’ll be flourishing.”

You see, it’s describing the fact that not everyone will have a flourishing life. It’s telling us who will and then, by nature of us knowing who will, it’s also saying that the others won’t. So this is what happens: children who get planted flourish. Not everybody flourishes. Not everybody produces good fruit. But children who are planted flourish.

Who we are is a byproduct of where we are. It matters. Atmosphere. Environment. It matters.

I was looking at our main stage today and those who were on stage worshiping. None of them are perfect—I don’t want to say that—but there is a high standard of faithfulness, of being trustworthy, of having a track record. And I counted nine people on the main stage here, nine on the worship team. Six of them grew up in this house. Six of them.

I’m not sure about the other three, but chances are they grew up in a house like ours. You see, when you raise your children in the atmosphere of God’s house, I can’t guarantee you what’s going to happen and the choices they’re going to make. But I can tell you, you tilt things in the right direction in a heavy way.

John F. Kennedy said, “Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.” So it’s not just that we want to raise them in the house of God. When we raise our children in the house of God, it brings hope for the kingdom of God, but also for the nation and the communities and the cities.

You see, children—they are our greatest treasure. Children make up one-third of our population and all of our future. Irma Bombeck said this: “Children make your life important.”

Now, that sounds like a bit of a slap or a bit of a “Wait a minute, what are you saying?” I’m just saying there’s no future. There’s no positive future. There’s nothing you can invest in or sow seed into other than the children who are our hope for the future. That’s a powerful statement.

Psalm 127:4 says, “Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth.” Like arrows in the hands of a warrior. I like to say aim and release. Aim and release.

Like, you don’t just wish. All you parents here, don’t just talk about, “Someday they’ll be out of the house and I’ll get to do what I want to do.” What are you talking about? Take time to aim.

It’s our job to aim. The church’s job, the parent’s job: aim. Everybody shout, “Aim!” Aim our children in the direction of God’s will, God’s plan, God’s purpose for their life. And then we release them with confidence.

So I want to talk to the parents that may attend our church who are not yet teaming with the church for the future of your children. And this may be the first time you’ve really heard it explained even. But I hope today that you’re open and receptive and ready to change your schedule, ready to change the way you live your life, and reprioritize your children and the time that is invested in your children.

I’m hoping and praying that God will use this word to cause you to consider some things that maybe nobody has taught you or you haven’t really realized or known. The first thing that I want to tell you today is that myself and the leaders of our church are a generational-minded church.

We refer to this concept as “Think Three.” In other words, it’s common around here. When you get into the fiber of our church, you’ll hear that phrase: think three, think three. What we’re talking about is: don’t just think of your own generation. Think of right now, but then also think of your children and your children’s children.

And do everything we do as a church with that in mind. There’s a lot of churches right now that all they did was think about themselves, and now they are old, rusty, dusty. They squeak, the size has gone down, and their children are not interested.

The mission statement for our Next Gen team—we have a team called the Next Generation Team that oversees everything from babies all the way up through high school age—and here’s the mission statement: “Our mission is to lead the next generation to find a home in His house, to get rooted in His word, and to be builders of His kingdom.”

We’re on a mission every Sunday and during the week, year round. We’re working hard. We’re using our resources. We dedicate a lot of our annual offering that we receive—Legacy—I hope you’re getting ready. It’s coming up in November to invest. It’s called Legacy for a reason. We invest in our legacy: our children, our youth, our future.

We have staff and a team of volunteers who are creating spaces and places and services. We have shuttle drivers that take time off. They transport kids from other locations for One Big Night. Belle, I salute you. Belle, I heard you had to have two buses, two shuttles, to get all the kids here about a week ago.

We have something called Dads on Duty. We have something called Foodie Moms. We have events that are laser-focused on partnering with parents, reaching and teaching the next generation at all of our locations.

What you’ve heard about already—they’ll put it back up here—but you heard it: Monday, October 13th. I wanted to say this to you personally for the Home Team Night. It’s for children. It’s for youth. It’s for young adults. Everyone is invited to every location. And it’s free. Yeah, it’s free. We need you to register, but it’s free.

This is our church. This is who we are. This is what we do. Please don’t be casual about it. I said it’s free. Business people, business leaders, motivated people that want to do something with their life—they pay thousands of dollars to go to seminars, to hear people speak. They invest in themselves. Please invest in yourself. Please have your children here. Please, let’s invest together.

And I’ve found out a lot of people who need counseling are people who don’t take the time—uh-oh, I’m going to get in trouble right now—to take advantage of everything the church provides to help them grow and to get strong in the Lord. That’s the people that come around in their time of need. And I’m not saying we don’t want to help. I’m just saying, would you please not wait until there’s a crisis?

See, the church can’t be the parents, and we’re not supposed to be the parents, but we’re a church that’s committed to family. We’re fighting for the family.

Now I want to acknowledge something, and that is that parenting is not easy. Matt Walsh said that parenting is the easiest thing in the world to have an opinion about, but the hardest thing in the world to do. Somebody say, “Uh-huh. Amen. Oh yeah.”

Right? Because we’ve always got an opinion about “Their kids this, their kids that. If they were my kids, I’d do that.” But everybody’s got an opinion. It’s the hardest thing to do. There’s a lot of pressure in parenting.

And nothing really prepares you. It’s not like you can have a practice trial run and then give the child back and say, “Okay, I’m ready now for number one. Here we go.” You don’t get to do that.

And that’s the thing that all of us parents have in common: we feel unprepared and we feel inadequate. We all feel that way. We feel like we’re failing. And I hope to encourage you and remind you that God is for you and your family, and He wants to see your children grow up to be in a good place with the right friends, the right people, surrounded by the right people in their life.

See, research tells us that a person’s worldview—listen to this—a person’s worldview is largely shaped by age 13. Somebody say, “Wow.”

Kids ask questions even when they don’t verbalize it. In their minds: Who am I? What is right and what is wrong? What’s good and what’s bad? They ask questions in their mind about God: Is He real? And they ask questions in their mind about others.

That’s why infants and little toddlers really ask so many questions: “Why? Why?” And you think you answer, but then, “Well, why? Why that?” Because that’s what starts to happen in a child’s mind at a really young age. They’re just trying to learn and figure things out.

And without parents that are intentional, somebody else will answer these questions and shape our children’s perspective. If we don’t.

So parents, I want to give you three things today, really from the story of Hannah. The first one is: identify yourself—your family—as fully serving the Lord. Don’t wait. Do it now.

Who are we? We are God’s people. In our house, we love the Lord and we serve the Lord. There’s a story of a man named Joshua. When it wasn’t popular in the crowd that he was a part of to say this, he stood up one day, and just when everyone else was saying other things, he got in front of everybody and he said, “As for me and my house, we’re going to serve the Lord.”

And he literally said, “For the rest of you, you do whatever. I can’t control that. But as for me and my house…” Can you imagine the little children looking up at Grandpa Joshua, Dad Joshua? That day he’s declaring not just for himself. He’s declaring, “This is who we are. This is our house. This is what we stand for. This is who’s first in our life.”

Our battle—hear me when I tell you this—our battle is spiritual. But don’t forget that people choose sides. And the people who are on the other side are after our children.

They don’t honor God like we do. They tell our children things like “Truth is relative,” that there is no absolute truth. They even ask our children at school and other places when we’re not around, they ask them questions like, “What are your preferred names and pronouns?” They ask them, “Do you identify as a male, a female, or other?”

Your children need to know that when they get asked about their name, they can respond with, “My name is the one my parents gave me, and I’m a boy,” or “I’m a girl.”

They are telling our children that they might be in the wrong body. They mislead and they lie to our children. And hear what I’m doing right now: they say the truth is hate speech. They say I’m not supposed to say things like this.

You notice how I don’t care. Because here’s what you’ve got to know: you’ve got to know that the truth, and speaking the truth, is the most loving thing that we can do for people.

If you have a five-year-old that puts a towel around his neck and he’s going to jump out the window because he thinks he can fly, you don’t affirm that. You don’t say, “You are Superman. Jump out.” You are going to end up down there, right?

It’s the most loving thing we can do—to tell one another and tell our children the truth. I just want you to understand that they’re not on our side. I said they’re not on our side.

And parents, you need to be careful what side you find yourself on. If you can’t declare some of the things that I’ve said today, you really do need to team with the church. We’ll show you what the Word of God says. We’ll show you the truth. We’ll give you the boldness and the courage to stand up in a world of lies.

We’re in a world that is divided, a world that is divisive. Children’s minds are being filled with divisive ideology. It separates people into groups based on skin color, social status. Our children hear racist talk around every turn.

They hear warnings from their teachers and even their parents and other students and kids about people of a different race. That’s evil. That’s evil.

I don’t care what race you are—if you have that kind of conversation going on in your house, that’s not of God. We’re all God’s people. We’re all God’s children. It’s pretty simple.

Some hear that they’re victims and others are shamed for their skin color. They hear all kinds of bias and unfair judgment. This is all going on out there today. I’m just trying to raise your awareness of why the parent–church team is so crucial and so critical in the times that we’re living in right now.

I’ve found that when I tell the truth—what I’ve found a lot of times when I just speak truth—is that there are people who will do this: they’ll walk out. I don’t know what they’re afraid of. I don’t know why. But if you don’t have the resolve within you to listen and look and consider and respect the fact that there’s a true north—north is north.

North is north. It’s not south. It’s not east. It’s not west. And when you dedicate yourself to that, then you can get places safely. But if you question that, you don’t have a map. You don’t have any guidance.

So I’m hoping I’m helping somebody today to realize that on behalf of your children and future generations, don’t close yourself off to truth—to knowing for sure, when you believe something, that it is first of all grounded in the Word of God. Because north is north, and truth is truth. It’s not relative.

Second thing I want to encourage you as parents today is: pray, play worship music, and quote Scripture every day in your house.

Deuteronomy 6 tells parents, “Teach my word diligently to your children. Talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise.” We don’t have Sunday every day, but this is God’s discipleship plan for parents. Every day, talk about God. Talk about His goodness.

Set the atmosphere for the day in the morning with good music. If you don’t have Forrest Frank on in your home and you have children, put him on today. Put him on your playlist. Children love this young guy. There are sounds out there and music out there that honors God and turns children’s hearts toward the Lord.

Every day, quote God’s promises and declarations in your home. The formula for success—God gave it in Joshua 1. He said, “Keep this book of the law on your lips. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

Keep God’s Word flowing. Let your children say the Word of God. Quote Scriptures every night before you go to bed. Let them talk about their favorite one. Pray the Lord’s Prayer every day with your children.

And the third thing for you parents is: be intentional to connect your children to the church. In the same way that Hannah was intentional to get her son into the atmosphere and environment of God’s house, don’t treat church as an option.

We’re not a perfect church, and you won’t find one. I always tell people, if you find a perfect church, don’t join it, because then it won’t be perfect anymore.

But the church is meant to partner with parents—not to be parents—but to create environments and atmosphere where friendship can begin and abound.

Honor God’s house. Don’t talk bad about church in front of your children and expect your children to respect the church. Don’t find fault.

Get involved in parents’ nights. We started that for you just three or four years ago. I said, “Our parents want help. We’ve got to do something.” We started parent nights. We started websites. We started investing to have people that we would bring in here.

You know, these people that show up at our church as guest speakers—and some of them are in ministry and some of them are child psychologists and various kinds of people who can help us—well, they don’t come for free. We’re investing on your behalf. Get involved in parent nights.

And maybe you’re not ready for this yet, but consider some of you joining Church Kids team. Help us out. Let’s team up together on behalf of our children.

Please don’t wait till the enemy attacks to prepare for battle. Please don’t wait. Start now. Start right now.

Find out—Wednesday night is Youth Night. Find out at your location what that means and how to get there and what time it starts, and get your kids there. Don’t think of Sundays as an option, like, “Well, if they feel like going…” Think of it like you do school.

Isn’t that fair? You get your children to school. You don’t just, “Well, if they wake up and don’t want to go…” You don’t say, “Okay, you don’t have to go today, Bobby, it’s okay.” No, you get them there.

“Well, I don’t like school.” You’re going anyway. “Yeah, but Jimmy said something to me…” You’re going anyway. Treat church with the same level of honor—and more, actually—because we’re better together.

I said we’re better together. Come on. Two are better than one.

Stand to your feet at every location if you would. Just stand to your feet.

Father, I want to pray for all parents right now. I pray, God, for Your wisdom and Your guidance and Your direction. I pray for the power to make decisions and choices in Your direction, in the direction of Your will. I pray for boldness for dad, for mom, for grandparents to come together and team together with Your church.

And God, I speak against any kind of animosity, or what we would call “church hurt,” that’s kept people away from coming close. I just come against it, because the enemy uses that. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

And I pray for healing. I pray for hope. I pray for courage. I pray for a willingness in the heart of every mom, every dad, every parent, every family today. Help us to overcome any kind of negativity, any form of resistance or hesitation today, God, so that we would diligently and passionately team up with God’s people—not just the structure or the positional people of the church, but just with the people around us, the other moms and dads—and that we would all team up together on behalf of our children and our future.

And to understand, God, that You are the hope of the world. You are the hope of our children. Without You there is darkness. There is no light.

And so I pray today for a new way of thinking and a new heart. I pray this word would not return void today, but that it would accomplish everything that it is sent forth to do, and that our church would take a step forward on behalf of the next generation.

I pray that Champion Centre would set its heart to raise champions for the kingdom of God, to invest our heart, our time into our children in an unprecedented way for our life and for our future. So be it.

I pray, Holy Spirit, that You would guide us, help us, bond us together for this cause and for this purpose and for the legacy that the enemy is trying to steal from us, so that we can glorify You, build the kingdom of God, and be the kingdom of God in the earth today.

In Jesus’ name, I pray.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, I want to invite you today as I end this service: Jesus said, “I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”

I don’t know what you’ve been looking to. I don’t know where your mind has gone—to “this is the way” or “that is the way.” I want to tell you: Jesus is the way. Jesus is the way to the best life on planet Earth. If you build your house on the things of God, your house will stand strong through storms, through trial, through trouble.

And I want to invite you today—man, woman, mom, dad, parents, whoever you are—I’m going to invite you right now: if you’ve not fully surrendered your life to the Lord, would you just raise your hand and say, “I want to today,” because I want to pray with you.

If that’s your heart and you say, “I want God in my life. I want God’s Word in my heart. I know that Jesus came…” Good. Hands are going up. Others that might go up today. Every location—hands up in the air.

We’re going to pray this prayer, and God’s going to hear and God’s going to answer, and you’re going to walk out of here different. God bless you. Keep those hands up. Keep your hands high today. Keep your hands high. God’s doing something in the rooms right now. Fantastic.

Just keep holding your hand up. And let’s all say this together. Let’s say it out loud:

“Lord Jesus, welcome to my world. Thank You for Your Word. I come to You today. And I call You my leader. And I call You my Lord. And I ask You to forgive me of all my sin. I dedicate my life to be devoted to Your will, to Your plan, and to Your purpose. In Jesus’ name.”

And everybody said, “Amen.”

I want to welcome everybody who prayed that prayer. God bless you. Welcome to the house of God.