Once again, we express our appreciation to the presence of
everyone who has come and as I previously announced tonight,
we're going to talk a little bit about being a dad and we're
going to draw our outline and our study from Psalm 128, we're
going to read from this text and then we'll view the verses and
the points of interest. You know, when you read this
Psalm at a glance you don't realize that he's actually
Talking to fathers because he mentions in the context a man in
general but as you read through the text you realize it's a man
with a wife and children and so he's riding the father's let's
read now Psalm chapter 1 28 verse 1 blessed, is everyone,
who fears? The Lord who walks in his ways.
When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy and it
shall be well with you. Your wife shall be like a
fruitful Vine in the very heart of your house.
Your children like, Olive plants, all around your table,
behold. Thus, shall the man be blessed.
Who fears the Lord? The Lord bless you out of Zion.
And may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your
life? Yes.
May you see your children's children?
Peace be upon Israel. Being a parent is one of the
most difficult things that any person can undertake.
In fact, there are several things about being a parent that
are different than anything else.
You know, you can change your career, you can choose to change
where you live. You can do lots of things to
change your life, but once you become a dad or a mom, then
you're a dad or a mom, as long as you live.
Even if your child doesn't live, you become a parent.
And you can't quit. There's no there's no stopping
point. You know, there's it's
on-the-job training. There's no really class that can
teach you to be the kind of parent you need to be.
Now we can learn some principles. but and the Bible
guides us, but really, you're going to make lots of mistakes,
and you have to realize that One thing that most people, I guess
don't realize is that while the children are small, sometimes
they may bruise your toe, but when they grow up, there will be
occasions when they Bruise Your Heart.
And that from that you never recovered.
It's a wonderful thing to be a parent Their Blessings Beyond
Compare. And if you give your whole heart
and Life to being the kind of parent that God wants you to be,
there can be blessings in your life even in the age that is to
come. Now, David tells us in this
Psalm what it takes to be a real dad.
Now this word blessed is interesting.
It is only used in The Book of Psalms and in this particular
chapter, the word is plural. And, of course, it means happy
and being plural means happy happy or Double Happiness.
If you're the kind of parent that you ought to be.
If you're the dad that the Bible teaches you you ought to be,
then you are going to bring into your life Double Happiness, but
there is an opposite end of that call. coin, you see for every
positive, there's always a negative and if you're not
careful, if you're not very cautious than you're headed for
Double Trouble, Not only can being a parent, give you great
satisfaction and great contentment and love.
That is unbelievable. But if you're not, if you don't
pay attention to the life that you have, you only get one shot.
But And that shot comes so fast. you know, we think we think when
we're young, we have the World by the tail, but while we're
thinking that our life grows old, And it's over.
And we realize we really didn't have anything but the tail.
Your children grow up so fast that little boy right there,
he's going to be graduating from high school at little girl,
right there is going to be getting married.
One of these days and you'll think how did it happen?
And so right now you have to count the cost.
David says, in the preceding Psalm, unless the Lord builds
the house, they labor in vain who build it.
Unless the Lord guards, the city, The Watchman stays awake
in vain. Now, we often quote this verse
in reference to the church and there's nothing wrong with
quoting it in reference to the church, I don't suppose.
But if you look at the context the succeeding versus are
talking about having children and having your quiver, full of
children will read those just a little later in our study.
And so No, we might apply to the church.
He's also talking about the home.
In fact, first, I believe it must apply to the home.
Now, listen to me if you move away from the standard that God
has given for the home that you're going to get yourself in
trouble. Now the does it take a brain
surgeon or a rocket scientist to figure out how far away we've
moved from the original standard.
Divorce is so high that hardly any family.
In fact, probably know family is not touched in some way by
divorce. Preacher told me that when I was
just a young boy preacher thinking about wanting to be a
preacher, he said everybody's family is going to be touched by
divorce, even your family that is that made me angry.
And it wasn't all that many years until there was divorced
in our family. You know what happens?
You get into the honeymoon and it's ideal.
Then he started having problems and ordeal develops.
And then people look for a new deal.
But that's not the way you can have a good marriage.
That's not what it takes to be really genuinely happy.
See marriage and the home was designed for happiness.
It was designed for the greatest amount of happiness that can be
attained in this world. And yet sometimes in the home,
we have War zones. We have homes with Mom and Dad
are enemies where the children are allowed to do, whatever they
please. I'm telling you, there is a
pattern and there is a way to have a home that will work and
that will be successful and it of course it is the Lord's way.
Well, this Psalm Psalm 128, gives us at least five
principles that will help us to qualify.
Our parenting skill to look at our lives and to better assess
the kind of parent that we ought to be number one, the number one
principle that I believe every Father needs to recognize is the
character that you live listen to what he says.
So I'm 128 verse 1. Blessed is everyone who fears
the Lord, who walks in his way. What he's talking about here is
genuine character, he's talking about the kind of character that
it takes to be a good father, to be the kind of father that the
Lord wants that, the children will be blessed by that will
cause you to be a blessed individual.
My brother's ask yourself this question, what kind of character
do you have? Is it stable?
Is it honest? You see the way you live
demonstrates. The character you have Now, you
think about this David is talking about a prescription for
happiness in the home and the first thing he says you got to
do is you got to fear God, you got fear.
Now, have you ever gone and looked at self-help books and
and and found one? You wanted that told you, the
first thing you got to do is fear.
Now, see, we're not, we're not looking at it from a
psychological point of view, we're not looking at it from a
humanistic point of view, you know, often marriages will end
because somebody says I'm not happy.
So what That doesn't give you a reason not to stay married.
Happiness is a state of mind and happiness comes from within side
in US. Listen to me if you're not
contented, there's something wrong in here.
It's not everybody else, it's you.
If I have a problem with being contented and happy, it's my
issue and I need to make some self-examination.
David says, if you want to be double happy then, fear the
lord. Now what does he mean by that?
Does he mean that God is some monster that is lurking in the
Darkness ready to stop us out. You'll sort people sing like
that. They they think that's the kind
of God we serve Now it's true that God does not mess with us.
It's true. That God will punish the wicked
but listen to me. God is the creator. and the
Bible says that the Creator, Prepared everything on the
earth, perfect. And then he created, man.
He loves us. In the midst of the garden, the
Creator provided a tree. And God said, when you eat some
that tree, Adam, you'll live forever.
He put him in a sinless world. Think about it.
Where there was no child abuse. There was no drunkenness.
There were no divorces. There was no death.
There was no disease. There was no pain.
Angelique, the tree of life and his body was perfect forever.
God loved, man. But he told, man. that if you
eat of that other tree, whatever that tree was.
We don't know what kind of fruit is on that tree.
But whatever that tree was. God said, if you eat from that
tree, you're going to die. and we know that when man ate the
fruit, he died that day, Now, it's interesting because in
first Timothy Chapter 2, the Bible tells us something about
what happened in the garden. It says the woman was deceived
being in the transgression. When God came to Adam, he told
him Adam. It's for your sake.
That the ground is cursed. and it was that Student First, But
you think about that, he says that the woman to see what we're
seeing because she was deceived the devil lied to her and he
deceived her. But the Bible implies the man
knew what he was doing. God had told him not to eat the
fruit. He knew he shouldn't.
And he did anyway. There's a big difference.
And you seed man was
responsible. My wife, I've mentioned this
before, you know, I'm just like everybody else.
I like to blame somebody else. And sometimes I try to blame my
wife and one day I was blaming her and she got tired of it and
she said Dwayne, Adam tried to blame Eve.
Did it get him anywhere? You see, the problem was, Adam
was supposed to be the spiritual leader, he was the leader of the
family. He was the first leader that God
organized and he dropped the ball.
He probably was standing right there.
When Satan said, You shall not surely die, he had the perfect
opportunity to say, listen, we've get away from here, but
you'd only did he stood there and watched And then when she
ate and he gave her, she gave him the fruit.
He ate with her. Now, listen to me friends, if
there is trouble in the home, if you have problems in your family
this evening, I'm telling you Brethren.
You better look at yourself because most of the time, the
problems in the home are caused by the fault of the man.
Now, don't misunderstand me. I know there are a few Jezebel's
left. But most of our sisters, all of
our sisters in this assembly, do not none of them are Jezebel's.
Most of the time, it's the man causing the problem because he's
not what he ought to be. He's not fulfilling his
responsibility that he ought to be.
God says if you want to be happy, you need to fear God.
In other words, you need to show God.
Reverence you need to recognize who he is.
He's the Creator. He made us.
He's so much higher than anything that we know or
understand. He's God, he's outside of time.
We lived in a clue. closed system where everything is
measured by time, but God is eternal and yet He put us on the
Earth. His creation.
And made us King of the earth, and we blew it.
We see him. And he gave us a second chance.
He sent his son Jesus to die on the cross of Calvary so that we
can live eternally. In fact, I don't remember if
I've mentioned it already and this meeting but you know, back
younger Genesis chapter 3 and verse 21.
The Bible says that these individuals in the beginning,
Adam and Eve were clothed. And that word clothes comes from
a Greek word, which means cover And they were close with tunics
of skin or coats of skin and of course, the word closed later.
He's used that is the route the Hebrew word, by which your from
which the word clothes is translated.
Later is translated atonement and it has to do of course with
the Forgiveness of sins. Now, Adam and Eve were closed by
God with those animal skins and of course in order for animal
skins to cover the their body's blood had to be shed.
Blood had to be shed. and the point is death, was brought to
the world because of sin, and that was the first death when
that animal died and Adam and Eve knew that I'll think about
it. God, devised a plan.
When man sinned, when man wronged him.
To send his son to die. And he beginning a series of
love. Substitution sacrifice.
That pointed forward in time. God, of course, courtrooms
chapter 3, as I have stated in the past.
Did not give remission of sins with this Blood.
But it was rather he passed over the sins because of this blood
and he passed over the sin. Finally, until Jesus died on the
cross, for your sin and mine, and our sins are nailed to the
cross. Think about it.
We should serve God because he loves us.
No wonder. Paul said in Romans chapter 2
verse 5, the goodness of God leads us to repentance.
We should be ashamed of ourselves.
When we fall short, we should be ashamed of ourselves.
When we are not, the kind of father, we ought to be.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
Fear, God, and keep his Commandments.
For this is man's, all for God, will bring every work into
judgment including every secret thing.
Whether good or bad, listen, brother.
If you're the kind of dad that your son needs to see if you're
walking away that God wants you to walk.
Look, he needs to hear you pray. When's the last time you prayed
with your son? Some of you have sons that are
grown, I hope you still pray with them sometimes.
When was the last time you heard you pray?
When was the last time that you listen to them, pray.
What a perfect opportunity, Terry, you work with your son.
Think about it brevet. We need to pray together with
our children. They need to hear us praying to
God, because we realize we've been wrong.
They need to know that we feel accountable to God.
They need to understand that we're responsible to him.
They may be responsible to us why they're small, but they need
to realize that the same time. One of the main causes of our
discipline. One of the main causes of our
sharp words sometimes of because we're under God's sight and
we're subjecting them And when we make a mistake, they need to
know that we're seeking his forgiveness.
They need to see you reading Bible.
Do the see you reading the Bible?
You got some decent Saint Matthews.
They ever see you reading the Bible.
You see that's important. I got it mean when you see him
running up in the yard, you pick your Bible up but I mean because
you're reading it so much they sometimes catch you reading it.
Because they can see through the fake.
We think we're fooling them, but we're not.
They need to hear you singing in the assembly.
They need to know that when you're saying those words, you
really mean what you're saying, they need to know that when you
see what a friend I have in Jesus.
That you're not spending all your nights Sleepless.
Because you haven't been living right?
Or maybe because you have problems that you have in cast
on the Lord, they need to see that you're vulnerable and that
you need God and that you look to God for help.
We'll talk about that again some more tomorrow night, but I want
to tell you something, what you have to do with your children,
you have to convince them to do what you want them to do,
because they think they need to do it.
And when they get to the age, That they're going to leave the
nest, they'll be ready. To live under God's Rule.
Now I'm not talking to somebody tonight who has grown children.
We can't go back and change. What we're what we were.
And we can change what we are and it doesn't matter if your
children are grown or not. If you're alive, there's still
hope. But the point I want to make
tonight is we need to all evaluate our fatherly
characteristics because our children can see whether or not
we really love God or not, do your children that they have.
They seen how they learn how you listen to God's word.
Do they hear you say? I'm sorry.
Not easy for so many say, they're sorry.
But you know, what's so bad with that?
It's sometimes we all have need to say we're sorry.
And when we can't admit it when we can't say, we're sorry, all
were doing is fooling ourselves because the children know we
need to say we're sorry. They need to hear say that they
need to see a serve others. You need to take him up to the
hospital and someone sick to visit.
You need to take a to some widows home and clean the yard
up with them. You see, they need to see you
serving others, you need to teach them how to serve others.
Well the character that he lives the contentment that he learns.
Now we're living in a day and time when a man sometimes will
take a wife and he has no concept of what it means to
work. I'm going to tell you something,
if you're a young man, contemplating marriage and
you're not ready to work, Then you better stay out of marriage
because it's your job to work and make a living for your
family. That's your responsibility.
It's given to you by God. Listen to what David says.
When you eat the labor of your hands you shall be happy and it
shall be well with you. There's nothing like going out
and laboring hard through the day.
That isn't mean necessarily physical labor but laboring hard
through the day and when you know you've done all you could
to accomplish the purpose that you live for that day coming
home at night to a good meal. And to the family.
A family that welcomes, you knowing that you have sacrificed
for them, that you're laboring for them.
He Genesis 3:19 in the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread.
Tell you, return to the ground for out of it.
You were taken for dust, you are and to dust you shall return.
A man must work hard, but listen to me, brother.
Don't carry it to an unwholesome evil.
Because if you spend all your time away from home, you spend
all your time, bringing home the bacon.
Didn't you go to lose the most prized possession in your life?
Your children? You know, one of the problems
that we face today is both the man and woman have gone to the
workplace and the workplace is not a place where you can take
your children generally. You know, I was blessed by mom
didn't work and my dad had his own business, so I could go to
work with you. And it was an environment where
I could labor and I could learn my sister wasn't so fortunate
wasn't so blessed. She didn't get to go with my
dad. But your children need to spend
time with you, even when you working.
Now, I know you can't take him on the job, I understand that
generally But listen to me dad. You're the one that's to teach
your little boys and your little girls how to work.
We're living in a day and time when young people don't know how
to work. When one of the biggest problems
is when you have a place where you need to employ, people is
getting somebody to have come to work on fine.
Isn't that amazing? All this other employment, all
these people out of work and when they get an opportunity for
a interview or or for a job, they show up late.
Every man needs to learn and know how to work hard.
In fact, Paul says that if you did not provide for your family
that you're worse than an Infidel.
Now how you get worse than an Infidel?
I haven't figured that out yet. But that's what the Bible says.
That when you want work and provide for your family, you're
worse than an unbeliever. There's something about working
hard. That brings satisfaction, you
know, you need to teach your children to stick to things.
They need to see you getting up and going to work.
Even when you don't feel like going to work, they need to see
you getting up and doing what you need to do.
Even when you don't feel like doing what you need to do.
They need to see you on a day-to-day grind, being the kind
of person that you ought to be. And that'll stick to them the
rest of their lives. Listen to this little poem.
We've all heard it. I guess a little fellow follows
me a careful man. I ought to be a little fellow
follows me. I dare not go astray for fear.
He'll go the self same way I cannot wants Escape his eyes.
Whatever. He sees me.
Do he tries like me? He says he's going to be that
little chap who follows me. He thinks that I am good and
fine believes every word of mine.
The base of me, he must not see. That little chap who follows me
I must remember as I go through Summer, Sun and winter snow.
I'm building for the years to be in the little chap who follows
me my little, my youngest, well he is my youngest grandson
anymore. But he's going to be three just
a few days. We went to the parts store.
One day, and we were waiting for some help.
And we were standing outside and I put my hands in my pocket.
I put my foot up on the wall and I looked down and Isaiah had his
foot on the wall. Sometimes he tries to wear his
Daddy's Shoes. I'm telling you The Greatest
Prize that you have in your life is not what you get, not your
money, not your possessions, not your job, your business, it's
your family. and if you let your family slip, through your hands,
You'll have nothing but regret. Did you girl?
And how sad will that be the character that he lives the
contentment in his life and the companion that he loves listen
to me Chris if you want your children to have the greatest
value in their life that you need to learn to love their mama
more than you love anything else in this world.
If you want your children to understand what God and how God
loves them, then you need to love their mom with your word.
Words, you need to love their mom with your actions.
You need to love their mom with your life.
You see God designed it so that children can see God and us.
The companion that he loves listen for hymns, to be the kind
of father, we need to be, we need to love our wives.
We need to love our spouses with everything that we have.
Got your wife shall be like a fruitful Vine in the very heart
of your house. What you talking about now,
Doyle, you got some Tomatoes, but I had no, that you never
went out there and started walking on those tomatoes.
They look pretty good. He's got some, you know, he's
got some, but I want to tell you something, he's not as good at
raising Tomatoes is my dad. As my dad's got about 1,000 more
tomatoes on his Vine that he does.
But you know what happens? I've hit you to say if you were
a fly on the fence out there, you'd hear Doyle talking those
plants. He wouldn't be yelling out of
neither, he'd be talking soft to him.
I venture to say you might see him nurturing those plants who
looking for maybe some worms and getting those worms off of
there. He's taking he's fertilizing.
He's cultivating them. He's caring for him because he
wants them to grow and make tomatoes.
Now, if you ever seen an old woman, With wrinkles all over
her face because she's had to deal with so much stress in her
life. I'm not talking about the
crinkles around her eyebrows and maybe on her cheekbone from
laughing so much. But I'm talking about somebody
that's had a hard life. You see, Dad, it's your job to
make your wife's life better. Now, I want you to be honest
with yourself. Paul says, examine yourselves.
Whether ye be in the faith, Jack you need to ask yourself.
The question is Betty a better person today than she was 40
years ago? You need to think about that
because when you take a wife, it's your responsibility to make
that woman better than she would have ever been.
That's your job. The companion that he loves.
Now, what does a vine do? Think about it of buying Cleaves
to a wall? What the vine needs is a steady
wall. That is a help to that vine.
Now, listen to me, I've stated this already.
If there is trouble in the home, most of the time, the trouble Is
Man's fault. Now we're talking about this
idea of Love. Did you ever notice that the
Bible doesn't tell the woman who loved her husband?
There is no place that directly commands the woman to love her
husband. Have you ever wondered why?
now, God made us He knows who we are.
He knows the potential that we have.
Why does he command the man to love his wife?
But not the woman to love her husband.
Well, I believe it's creational and I'm convinced that if a man
loves his wife, as the Bible teaches him to love his wife,
then he will have to shift. His wife won't have to be told
to love him because she'll love it.
If you really love your wife as the Bible teaches you to love
your wife, then that love is going to be requited.
There is no doubt about that. The command companion, that he
loves the kind of love were talking about is Selfless Love.
Now, what how do you demonstrate your love to your wife?
Well, most of us don't think about relationships.
You know, if your wife says she needs a relationship, You know,
we think what we got a refrigerator in a dog?
What else do you need? In fact, most of us, probably
talk more work than we like to talk anyway and we get home.
We don't want to talk anymore. But the truth of the matter is,
I'm supposed to love this woman more than I love anything else
in this world. You think about that?
I'm supposed to love my wife with a sacrificial love.
In fact, I want you to listen to this statement.
Well, the husband is head of the wife as also Christ is head of
the church and he is the savior of the body, think about this.
Jesus did not become head of the church before he was savior of
the church. Now if you spend your time brow
beating your wife over the head, with the idea that you're the
boss, you're the boss. I'm the boss need to listen to
what I'm saying. Then you're making a terrible
mistake. In fact.
In the marriage, there are roles that are given by God.
And there's a role for the man, there's a role for the woman.
But the roll. It's not.
So much like this. And like this.
It's more like this. Now it's true.
That the man is the head of the home.
But over there in first, Timothy Chapter 5 and verse 14.
The Bible says, the wife is to manage the home.
Now that word managed is from a Greek word that's translated in
other places Rule. Now, don't misunderstand me
here. Listen to this.
What's he talking about manage or rule of home?
Now, Jesus is head of the church but who rules the church?
It's the elders. You see the point?
the umbrella of leadership the headship is the man's, but under
that umbrella of authority, the wife has some authority to She's
knocked the she's not the slave to the family.
She's not. And we have to always remember
that. The Bible says, for the husband
is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church and
he is the savior of the body therefore just as the church is
subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husband's
in everything. Husbands love your wives just as
Christ. Also loved the church and gave
himself for her. Now, let me ask you, do you love
your wife, brother? Like Jesus loves the church.
Now, do you think if Jesus were you, she'd come he'd come and
sit in his easy chair and tell his bride to bring me a glass of
tea after she's worked all day. How about it?
Now, is it wrong for your wife to bring you a glass of tea?
Oh, that's a good dude. but the point is, She needs to know that
you love her and then she'll bring you a glass of tea without
you asking me. But you have to demonstrate
that. By the way you treat her, by the
way that you live, you need to take your wife on dates.
You know what happens, a man romances his wife and he
romances her takes her on dates and brings her flowers or brings
your candy or whatever. Anything she likes.
He tries to figure it out. I'm going to get you to the
marriage altar, it all stops and after a few weeks, the wife gets
a little bit disgusted about it and then she doesn't say
anything yet. She just thinks he's busy.
You know? He's starting a new life but
pretty soon she blows up and she wants to know what's wrong.
You see a man is go. Goal oriented.
His goal was just to get married and after he gets married, he's
reached his goal. So we don't have to romance
anymore, but you see, God don't want it to be that way.
We need to stop and think about it and we need to continue to
romance. Our wives, we need to continue
to take them on dates. We need intent, continue to
spend time with our spouses, we need to do things with them, and
show them how much we love them. Listen to this.
Bought a beautiful diamond ring, offered it to the sweetest
thing. I know.
And she said she would take it. Started making some wedding
plans, she looked at me and she took my hand and said, are you
sure we can make it? I said my grand dad, still loves
my grandma, he's still in love with my Grandma.
I said, my dad still thinks my mom's the sweetest thing he ever
saw. I come from a long line of love.
When the times get hard, we don't give up.
Forever is in my heart and in my blood, you see I come from a
long line of Love years went by. And we had a son.
Now he thinks that he's found someone for him and they're
planning a wedding. He called me up on the phone
today, just to see what I had to say to him.
Did I think he was ready? I said what his grandfather used
to say to me? It's been handed down for ages.
It runs in the family. You come from a long line of
love. When times get hard, you won't
give up for Evers in your heart and in your blood you come from
a long line of love. The children that he leads when
someone 28 verse 3 of children like Olive plants, all around
your table, all of us were a symbol of righteousness, but I
am like a green olive tree in the house of God, I trust in the
mercy of God forever and ever. Now, look at this.
He says our wife has to be like a Vine and our children are to
be like Olive plants. Planets and Vines.
That means that there's some cultivating that has to go on.
There's some time that has to be spent, you see people in our day
and time talk about Time in the wrong sense. you know, quality
time they call it But you don't say that tomorrow at 5:00, we're
going to have some quality time. They didn't way it happens.
What you do is you spend day after day time together. and you
spend time and more time and more time and then all of a
sudden, because you spent a lot of time together You have some
quality time. Have you ever wondered why these
big organizations have ball clubs?
You know why they do that? Because people break their legs
and break their arms. Yeah, that's why they do that.
Now, do they want people to break their legs and break their
arms? No, that's not the idea.
But you know what happens, when somebody breaks her leg, when
they're playing together when they're together.
Everybody comes to the rescue. Any short-tempered experience
that happened. Last week is forgotten.
And you touch each other's heart and you know what happens when
that leg men's and there stood the working out there together,
they become a team. And they begin to love each
other because they bombed, Gary Smalley says that every family
ought to go camping. because there's a lot of experiences
when you go camping that are bonds, you Now, it's not it's
not good for the experience. The experience is not something
you wish on anybody, but when you do things together that are
little bit risky, something happens, maybe Emma.
I'll get her finger stuck in the door and and it'll get smashed.
I hope that doesn't happen, dear.
But that happened to one of our kids one time, and it's amazing
how much we can laugh. Now when we talk about that day,
that Phillip smashed his finger in the dike.
Door now he wasn't laughing that day.
But today we can laugh about it. And that's how you raise a
family and that's how you cultivate your family.
You spend lots of time with them and you Bond the Bible says, and
you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath but bring them
up in the nurture or in the training and admonition of the
lord. Well, the last point, I want to
make is because our normal times already gone, is the
contribution that he leaves. This is the most important
point. But you can't have this point
unless you keep the others. so, you got to take your kids to
church, You don't send them to church with Dad, you don't send
to church with Mom. You go to church together.
You read the Bible together. You do lots of things together.
Maybe grocery shop together or I hate to shop, but sometimes I
grocery shop with my wife, Because I look for any
opportunity to spend time with her.
And when that is all put together at the end of your
life. The greatest tribute will be the
contribution that you leave. Our greatest asset in the church
is our families. You think about it?
if we all saved our families, the church would be Giant.
It would grow incredible, you know, that's one of the reasons
why Fremont got so big so fast. It's because that generation the
last generation after me. They saved all their children.
And their children married people and they all stayed at
Fremont. And the church grew tremendously
because of that. That's not the only reason.
But that's one of the reasons you want the church here too.
Be shot into the future. Then you need to teach and train
your children. It is vain to rise up early to
sit up late to eat the bread of Sorrows or so, he gives his
beloved sleep. Listen to this behold.
Children are a Heritage from the Lord.
The fruit of the womb is a reward, like arrows in the hand
of a warrior. So are the children of one's
youth. Happy is the man who has a his
quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but
speak but shall speak with their enemies.
He's in the gate, the character that he lives, the contentment
that he learns the companion, that he loves the children that
he leads, and finally, the contribution that he leaves.
You want to be happy tonight. You want to grow old.
Then be this kind of father. And you'll have memories, and
you'll have Pleasures that are Untold.
Now, I don't know the minds of people who are here tonight, but
I'm going to tell you, you can't be blessed like you can be
unless you're a Christian and if you're here tonight and you're
not a Christian, then the best time to start being the kind of
dad, you ought to be as right now, show your children.
What it means to give your life to God?
The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6, but without faith, it is
impossible to please him. For he, that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is, the rewarder of those who
diligently seek Him. Are you ready to diligently seek
after the Lord, then pronounce your faith in him, decide in
your heart, that you're no longer going to serve the wages
of sin turn about face and that's repentance.
And I asked the third chapter verse 19, the Bible says, repent
and be converted that your sins may be blotted out.
Are you ready to be converted? Do you believe in Jesus with all
of your heart? Have you repented in your heart
confess you before this audience?
And Jesus makes a promise. He says, I'll confess you before
God. Be like the eunuch.
Who said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
And the Bible says that when the eunuch made that confession,
that the preacher commanded the Chariot to stop.
And they both went down into the water and he baptized him.
Why did you do that? The like figure whereunto does
even baptism. Now, also save us.
He believed he repented he confessed and then he was
baptized because baptism is the final step that saves us.
You want to be happy, give your life to God tonight.
Make up your mind. You're going to serve him from
this day forward. You're going to give him
everything and he'll bless you. Wherefore my beloved Brethren be
ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the
Lord Inasmuch, as you know that your labor is not in vain.
In the Lord. We thank you for listening to
our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.
Road in Bakersfield, if you would, like any additional
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