This sermon-only transcript omits timestamps, worship music, announcements, and session logistics. YouTube’s automatic captions may contain errors.
Good evening. Uh let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for this time that we have this week to come apart from the cares of this life to make investment in family community in eternity. And we pray that as we pause for a few moments to reflect on heavenly themes that your spirit would guide us, speak to us. We pray in Jesus name we ask these things. Amen. The Nobel Prize is widely considered to be the most prestigious that you can get in multiple fields. And you can get a Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, of course, peace, economic sciences. And those chosen to be Nobel Prize winners are those that have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.
And I want to ask you a question. These are no laureans. What is a common element among all these individuals? Anyone you can say it? White male. Okay. Yeah, that's one common I guess you can say and German. Okay. Yeah. Yes. They've achieved the ultimate in their fields. What's that? Yes. They were educated before before most women were. Okay. One common element among all these individuals that have won the Nobel Prize, all of them Jewish. these particular ones on the screen and I was curious to see the percentage of individuals that have won the Nobel Prize. So here it is of the 965 individual recipients of the Nobel Prize and Nobel Memorial Prize in economic sciences between 1901 and 2023. So that period at least 214 have been Jews. Okay. So, out of the 965 from that time period, 214 are Jews or with people at least one Jewish parent, representing 22% of all recipients. That's a large proportion, 22%. When you look at the world's
population, Jews only comprise 0.2% 2% of the world's population. Meaning their share of winners is a 100 times 110 times their proportion of the world's population. Jews, by the way, have been awarded all six of the Noble Foundation's awards. Think about that. 0.2% of the world's population have 22% of the Nobel laureates. And my question was why? We're all this Korean community big on education, right? I was like, oh, I wonder why. And I have two theories. Two theories. One of them is there's something in the Bible called generational blessing. If you're born an Israelite in Old Testament times, you have a huge advantage versus being born a Philistine. Okay? Huge.
And and God says, "When you're faithful, I will bless you to the thousands of generation." God is not stingy on blessing. So when you stand up and you say, "I'm going to be faithful. I'm going to be the Abraham of my generation. God says, I'm going to bless you with generational blessing. The residual effect of that is that your descendants, of course, they have to make their own decisions have huge blessings. And uh I had someone acquaintance of ours that went to school with people with Jewish heritage. He said it just made them sick because they're sitting in class not paying attention. They'd come to the final and they would just kill the curve. Right. Jews are blessed.
Blessed makes me want to have some Jewish heritage. And when and this this residual blessing has a cascading effect for generations as you can see. And the other element that I believe that is attributed to the genius and the intellectual acumen of this particular people group has to do with their educational system. In the book education she says that if you follow the principles it will lead to people that are leaders in enterprise those who bear responsibility. She also says they will become thinkers and not reflectors of other men's thoughts. Noans. Now there's a particular part that you can find in the shama in Deuteronomy chapter 6. Every faithful Jew would get up in the morning and say the shama here. O Israel, the Lord our God is one and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is what a faithful Jew would say in the morning.
And then the Bible goes on and says, "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children." This is what the children of Israel were told in the very beginning that the heritage, the legacy, the transmission of values. We're talking here about the Korean community and praise God for the transmission of values from one generation to others and the the connection, the bond between one generation and the other. Moses says the parents, the parents, you shall teach them diligently to your children. I believe this was part of the genius of Jewish education from the very beginning. Book education goes on, these principles embodied in his law. The fathers and mothers in Israel were to teach their children. She's echoing the theme found in Deuteronomy chapter 6. And then look at the results. Psalm 119:9, I have more understanding than all my teachers. For your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients because I keep your precepts. How did
they get this legacy? It was the parents. And you can see this in fundamentals of education page 95. The home and the school were what? One. One. In the pa place of stranger lips, the loving hearts of the father and mother were to give instruction to their children. Such was the training of Moses. Let's stop right there. Moses was trained approximately to 12 years of age by a slave woman. Slave woman. She didn't have degrees from the world standpoint, uneducated, but she had this legacy going all the way back to Genesis of this oral tradition that had been passed down. And you can see the impact, the imprinting of this woman on Moses.
He wrote the book of Genesis when he was 40 years in the wilderness. He didn't get that from Egypt. He got that from his mother. 12 years of age, he gets sent off secular university. He never went away from that heritage. The impact of that mother. We would not have Genesis through Deuteronomy today if it wasn't for that woman imprinting the power and the brilliance of Moses, his mother. Such was the training of Samuel. He went off to Hoffnine, Phineas, and Eli even before Moses did. I don't know what age, but the Bible says as soon as he was weaned, I'm assuming they they did that a little bit longer than they do today, but it wasn't that long. The impact of Hannah on Samuel. He never went away from that.
Changed the trajectory of Israel. David, Daniel, Daniel becomes a unic. Daniel chapter 1, he doesn't go away from his heritage, the impact, the genius of Jewish education, parents, the sole proprietors in having the heritage and legacy and the transmission of values from one generation to another. She goes on, the family was the school, the parents were the teachers. And she says this, "Next to God, the mother's power for good is the what? The strongest known on earth. The ability to shape the next generation, the mother. Fathers aren't left out either. The work of making home happy does not rest upon the mother alone. Fathers have an important part to act. The husband is the house band of the home treasures binding by this strong earnest devoted affection the me members of the household mother and children together in the strongest bonds of union.
Now this this heritage carries on through the Bible and then you come to the book of Joshua and the Bible says that they obeyed God all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua. Then you come to the book of Judges. Have you ever read the book of Judges? Book of Judges is crazy. It's like the stock market. It goes up and down, up and down. It's it's everywhere. a good judge comes in and and it's okay for a little bit, but there's a theme throughout the book of Judges and it says every man did what was right in their own eyes. Just there's a loss of that transmission of values. And the book education talks about this. It says in many households the training appointed by heaven and the characters were thus developed were alike rare. He said, look at this.
Fathers and mothers in Israel became indifferent to their obligation to God, indifferent to their obligation to their children. Through unfaithfulness in the home and idolatrous influences without, many of the Hebrew youth received an education differing widely from that which God had planned for them. They learned the ways of the heathen. Book of Judges, chaotic. And even though he's not in the book of judges, he epitomizes the ethics of the book of judges. It's Eli. Eli is in the book of Samuel, but he is a judge. And he's unable to control Hoffni and Phineas. He's a spineless father. And the children should never be made priests. He's unable to reel them in and he rewards them. Hoffnineas go crazy.
go crazy. And the individual that puts a stop to the crazy cycle in the book of Judges was Samuel. Samuel puts a stop to the crazy. And look at what he does. This is in the book of education. It says, "Fathers and mothers in Israel became indifferent to their obligation to their children through unfaithfulness in the home and idolatrous influences without many of the Hebrew youth received an education differing widely from that which they planned to them. They learned the ways of the heathen." And it says, "To meet this growing evil, God provided other agencies as an aid to the parents in the work of education." Praise God. Education. Samuel by the Lord's directions established the schools of the prophets. So there was something to mitigate against the disintegration of the home and it was something called the schools of the prophets. And look at the effect of the schools of the prophets.
These schools of the prophets were intended to serve as a barrier against the widespreading corruption, to provide for the mental and spiritual welfare of the youth, and to promote the prosperity of the nation by furnishing it with men qualified to act in the fear of God as leaders and counselors. Look at this. In no small degree they aided in laying the foundation of the marvelous prosperity which distinguished the reigns of David and Solomon. Do you see that the stop to the crazy cycle in the book of judges happened because of education. And she links the prosperity of David and Solomon specifically to the schools of the prophets. It's been said, change the university and you change the world because what happens in the classrooms of today shapes the revolutions of tomorrow. Now there's an element of what the school should look like. All right, look at this.
Same principles except in a school context. Look at this. Our schools should be as what? Homelike as possible. So that model that model of the home is now transferred to the school context because the disintegration of the home. The school should be as homelike as possible. Okay. They should be family schools where every student will receive special help from his teachers as members of the family should receive help in the home. The theme comes on. Our schools should have been established that as far as possible a homelike atmosphere may be provided. Now you're like, well, I don't know if this stuff works, homelike family, I don't know. Accreditation standards. Now, I I want to do a little exercise here. What do these individuals have in common? Okay, we'll try this again. Uh, look, Jerome Pal, okay, chairman of the Federal Reserve. I don't know if they replaced him yet, but anyways, he was or is okay. Head of the Fed. Okay.
John Dingle, longest serving US congressman in history. Okay. Chris Dodd, former US Senator of Connecticut. Neil Gorsuch, US Supreme Court Justice, Brett Kavanaaugh, US Supreme Court Justice. Now, the list can go on and on, but these are some of the most prominent. I was I was reading a book a couple summers ago and it was about the Fed and uh there was a little paragraph that came in. I was like, "What?" And it brought out this interesting fact. And so I was so curious I I went and did a little more research and there's a long list of these individuals. Okay, prominent. You know how hard it is to become a Supreme Court justice but two of them have the same characteristic. And then you have Jerome Pal. These are distinguished individuals.
All of them, all of them have gone to the same exclusive prep school just outside of Washington DC or in that area, Metropolitan. Oh, one more. I forgot. John F. Kennedy Jr. Secretary of Health and Human Services. All of all of these guys have gone to the same school. What is that school? Georgetown Prep. What What are the odds? What are the odds that all of these individuals have gone to the same exclusive prep school? Two Supreme Court justices, head of the Fed, and there there's something interesting about the school. As a side note, this is a screenshot from their from their website. It's a it's a Jesuit school. All right? There's a lot of uh conspiracy theories about Jesuits. Uh now when you read there's a thick book I have in my library called from dawn to duck decadence and it's from a secular historian and he brings out that the Jesuit order was there as a part of the counterreformation to bring
protestantism back it's very open all right now the way they did this is genius education they did it through education okay the children of the protestants were to be trained by the Jesuits daycart voltater I mean all of these guys went to Jesuit schools. Now, now here's the thing. Here's the thing. Um, EA Southerntherland in his book, Living Fountains or Broken Sistns, it is without the slightest feelings of an animosity toward the Jesuits or the papacy that these facts are trade traced. These both do for their cause what will best serve to uphold it. Their method in so far as they accomplish their desired end are to be commended, and their zeal is to be admired. So he says, "Hey, look, they're doing what they need to do to get what they want to accomplish in the counterreformation." Now, here's here's a screenshot from their website.
Look at look at what they do in producing these notable individuals. Are you ready? Direct screenshot. Look at this. Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Maryland, fosters. Look at that. A what? a family like atmosphere. Looks like something straight out of the playbook. All right. Straight copy and paste. A Are you kidding me? A familylike atmosphere. Okay. Through its close-knit international boarding program, the Jesuit Cura, whatever students live alongside 29 dorm. Look at this. Dorm parent. All right. dorm parent and faculty families creating a supportive home away from home that builds liflong brotherhood. Do you see that? the effects to two Supreme Court justices, the head of the Fed, all just happened to have gone to Georgetown Prep and they just happened to have a homelike atmosphere.
Now, here's the thing. What is it about the home dynamic, whether in the school or in the family, that makes this so powerful that you find in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and and it's here you you can see it with Jesus. Okay, Jesus used the same principle in the training of the 12. The the savior followed the system of education established at the beginning. The 12 first chosen with a few others through ministry to their needs were from time to time connected with him. Look at this. They formed the family of Jesus. Jesus took 12 men and they became his his family. Greatest teacher the world has ever known. In the training of the disciples, the savior followed the system of education established at the beginning.
The 12 first chosen with a few others who through ministry to their needs were from time to time connected with them formed the family of Jesus. They were with him in the house, at the table, in the clo in the field, in the closet, in the field. They accompanied him on his journeys, shared his trials and hardships. So, here is the the part of the family that makes it so powerful. And you can find it here in Mark 3:14. Then he appointed 12 that they might be what? With him. that he might send them out to preach. The power of the family dynamic, the power of the parents is this element of with with when you're with them, there is naturally innocuously a transmission of values from one generation to another.
When you're not with them, transmission doesn't happen. In a school context, the individuals that are with their students, transmission. All right? That's why the family is so powerful. Knowledge was to be gained by association before it was understood by explanation. And we know the impact of this. Look at this. For three and a half years, the disciples were under the instruction of the greatest teacher the world has ever known. By personal contact and association, Christ trained them for his service. He took them with him that they might see how he taught the people. They traveled with him from place to place. They shared his frugal fair and like him were sometimes hungry and often weary on the crowded streets, by the lakeside, in the lonely desert.
They were with him. Look at this. They saw him in every phase of life. And the results speak for themselves. Now, this is me back a number of years ago when I was a canvaser in central California, Fresno. Uh, this was our our leadership group and this was our team. We were staying Fresno Academy and this was back in 2001. This is before I went to grad school. I took a break during the summer to to canvas. And there's something about canvasing. There were 19 kids. I think the average age was was 15 and going doortodoor selling books. These teenagers, rejection after rejection after rejection. And at the end, it seems like I mean, they're they're about to have a nervous breakdown.
and and our role was was to train them to sell books. And so we would have these training sessions and I would tell them, "Look, you need to speak and act as though your faith is invincible." So when they slam the door in your face, you need to say, "I love these people. I love these people. I love canvasing. I love my leaders." you know that has an effect on you because afterwards they would be like you know they would they would have all of these challenges but but not only this training but but we were with them I can't do this anymore but I slept on the floor in the closet in the same room as these guys no mattress just got up and uh took the ladies to the mall on Friday on the weekends we took them to Yusede they knew that we love Right around week five, something happened.
They became like us, for better, for worse. You know, and they would come away from a door, someone had just screamed at them, and I'd hear them say, "I love these people. I love these people." And I'd be like, "Are you all right?" They'd be like, "I'm fine." They just go and they started selling books. All glory goes to God. And this is back in 2001.201 they sold $157,000 worth of books. I asked Chad GPT how much that is worth today. It was it was depressing. I mean the the devaluation of the dollar. It was it was like $331,000 in today's dollars. I mean they they they encaptured the values just being with them in every phase of life. And this is the power of this model. Now, there there's something else I'll talk a little bit later this week if I have time. I I started doing this uh the cold plunge because of the benefits. I I'm one of the chaplain that does the depression anxiety program as helps out with that. And uh I got so inspired by
these people doing the cold plunge. And what they what they found is like cocaine or the candy bar, you go up dopamine and then and then you have the crash, you come back down. But with a cold plunge, you go in and then it dips. But uh but the research has found according to Huberman out of Stanford. He's citing the European Journal studies that the dopamine goes up and it lasts for many hours without the crash. And I found this to be true. So I can't afford a cold plunge tub. And what I did was I found these silicone uh things on uh Amazon that I fill up. It's about 15 pounds of ice and I dump it into the tub and I found the research. It's like three minutes is is a good spot. So I go in there up to here about 50 degrees, not that cold. Go in there up to here and to pass the time I
started memorizing Psalm 119, not the whole thing. Okay. So I found if I go to about verse 40 that uh it's roughly around three minutes. And so I go and there, blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity. They walk in his ways. And my son, watch that. And one day he was taking a shower and it went cold and he started reciting scripture. I was just like I didn't tell him to do that but it's the power of that transmission the power of being with. Now there's other habits that he's picked up I wish you wouldn't have. So but uh this is this is the beauty of education. And so the takeaway I know we're running out of time is number one by the grace of God be you know make sure that we're
connected with God every day. be a loving and lovable Christian and and and when we make a mistake, of course, we'll be talking about forgiveness another day this week, but uh our children are so forgiving and there are times that you know I lost it or I was frustrated and it's amazing as a parent how hard it is to apologize to your child, right? I'm like, "Oh, all right." But I go to them and I say, "Hudson, I shouldn't have talked to you that way." And he's like, "I forgive you." Clara is like, "Don't do it again." You know, it's like I said, "I promise. I promise." But uh but children are so forgiving and and that that thing about going to them and asking for forgiveness when we mess up because you know, we're all human. But uh but but but that power of being and and as much as possible, be with them.
Be with them. And that's why camp meeting is so precious because the more you're in contact with them and and someday Hudson and Clare are nine and six right now and someday I'm going to have to pass them off to someone else and I pray that they love Jesus because they're going to look to them. Now, one last quote and one more story here. The link is a mysterious one that binds human hearts together. Look at this. So that the feelings, tastes and principles of the two are so closely blended. One catches the spirit and copies the ways and acts of the other. Acts as wax retains the figures of the seal. So the mind retains the impression produced by intercourse. It's a 19th century word for contact and association.
One last story. HMS Richard Senior uh founder speaker for Voice of Prophecy was doing an interview and they asked him, "Do you have any regrets in ministry?" And he said, "One of my greatest regrets is I was traveling so much with the voice of prophecy I couldn't spend time with my kids." And there's a story of his son that went through a very rebellious phase because he wasn't with him, was out doing ministry for the Lord. And one night his son was headed out to go clubbing. I don't want the legacy my father. I'm going to forge my own path. So he's going out. You're clubbing with his friends. tiptoeing across the living room and he hears something in the other room. He's like, "What's that?" It's a voice.
So, he goes over there, puts his ear on the door, and it's his father. His father saying, "Lord, I want my son back. Lord, please save my son. I want my son back. Please, Lord." that just melted his son's heart. Turned around, went back inside. Later on, he'd become speaker, voice of prophecy, and that gives me a lot of hope. So, we all as parents could have, would have, should have, right? But it's the power of intercessory prayer for our kids. When we pray, we give God authorization. There's rules in the great controversy. God's not going to pass a certain line unless he has authorization. Now, primary authorization is the most powerful thing. And we pray that our children make their own decision for Jesus. But secondary authorization, intercessory prayer, powerful, too.
Because when you pray for your son or your daughter, Jesus says, "I got the paperwork." Gabriel, go. You start shaping and molding events in your children's life so that they are receptive to Jesus. And the devil's like, "Hey, he didn't ask for this." He says, "Step out of the way. He didn't did. He didn't do it, but his mom just did. got the paperwork, the power of prayer, the power of intercession, the power of a mother or father to change the world through the legacy of our children. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you so much oh for the principles of education found in the Bible and spirit of prophecy. We thank you for the genius of parents, children, the transmission of knowledge from one generation to another. And Lord, we've all made mistakes, but we thank you that we can redeem the time. Help us number one to be a loving and lovable Christian, to be with our
kids as much as possible, to pray for them as HMS Richard Senior did for his own son. And we thank you that you hear the prayer of us as parents.
