3 John, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads,
The elder unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy
soul prospereth.
For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee.
Even as thou walkest in the truth, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children
walk in truth.
But thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers which have
borne witness of thy charity before the church, and with thou bringeth forward on their journey
after a godly sort, thou shalt do well.
And that's what this conference is all about, having children that walk in truth.
And he says here, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
He said, I wish above all things that his son would prosper and be in health and that
whatever he did, he would do it faithfully, whether it's to the church or to strangers.
I mean, this was something that was very important to him.
And to all of us, our children turning out right is one of the most important things
in our lives.
It's one of our highest possible priorities.
I mean, we'd rather fail as a pastor than to fail as a parent.
It's so important.
And so I like the fact that we're having this, this conference, and it's a great emphasis
because it's such an important subject.
Now the title of my sermon tonight is things that my parents did right.
Now as we already talked about earlier tonight, there are a lot of young people who jump ship
from the Christian life as soon as they turn 18.
And it's not that they're not saved, even if they are saved, but when they turn 18,
they don't live the lifestyle that their parents lived, meaning that they don't continue to
be a fundamental Baptist.
They don't continue to be faithful to church.
They don't continue to stand on the doctrines of the faith strongly and be a fundamentalist.
You know, I would hate for my kids to grow up, even if they're saved, I don't want them
to grow up and go to the church down the street that was called, what was it called?
LTL?
Help me out.
Who was that that I was with?
LSB?
No.
Oh yeah.
I drove by.
No, no, no.
Live the life.
There we go.
Yeah, I was driving down the street.
I saw a church called Live the Life, LTL.
You know, I don't want my kids growing up and going to these liberal, non-denom, fun
centers.
I want them to grow up and be a fundamental Baptist.
I want them to go to a church where it's the King James Bible that's being preached.
I want them to grow up and sing real hymns of the faith and actually go out and do real
works for God.
I don't want them to grow up and just wave their hands in some fun center.
So I want my children to grow up and be like me.
You want your children to grow up and be like you.
You want them to be like Pastor Perry.
You want them to live the lifestyle that we live and win the souls that we win and be
someone who honors the Lord and does great works for God.
It's not enough for me if my kids are just saved.
I also want them to be pure on their wedding day.
I also want them to grow up and go to church, a real church.
And so it's important that we raise our kids right.
And tonight I just want to talk about some things that my parents did right because a
lot of the people I grew up with, first of all, weren't even saved.
A lot of them are Sodomites today, literally from independent Baptist churches that I grew
up in.
I can name the Sodomites.
A lot of them today are in the fun center.
A lot of them today don't go to church at all.
A lot of them are all washed up, but yet thankfully I'm still here.
So what did my parents do right that I'm still here?
And not only am I still here, but thank God my parents have four children.
I have one brother and two sisters.
They're all independent fundamental Baptist.
They all love the Lord.
And so that's a great testimony for my parents.
So I want to talk about what they did right.
Just some things that I specifically could look at about my parents that I believe are
the reason why I, when I turned 18, didn't go out and party and drink and fornicate,
but why I stayed with fundamentalism.
I stayed with church and living for God.
Number one, and I'm not going to go through these in order of importance.
I'm going to go through them more in like chronological order, just some key things
that my parents did for me growing up, why I turned out right.
Number one is that my parents taught me to read.
They taught me to read.
Now this is something that I emphasize in my preaching, not being a fool, but growing
in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.
You see the book of Proverbs is all about getting knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.
And it's also all about what?
Not getting drunk and not fornicate.
So if you want your kids to grow up and not fornicate and not be drunk and not go into
the wrong paths, then why don't we emphasize knowledge, wisdom, and understanding?
You know, I want my children to be smart.
I want them to have knowledge.
I want them to be wise.
I don't want them to grow up and be fools because fools are much more likely to go into
sin than the wise.
And so my parents did a great thing for me by teaching me how to read.
School did not teach me how to read.
My mother taught me how to read.
I learned how to read from the book Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss.
And she took a pencil and she penciled in the short vowels and the long vowels.
And I remember her spending hours.
And here's the thing.
You know, that book was probably not a fun book for my mom to read.
I doubt she was just excited about what was on the next page, but yet she took the time
and made the sacrifice to go through Hop on Pop with me, which was an exciting book to
me at the time.
But for her, it's boring.
But she went through Hop on Pop.
She went through One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and actually taught me how to read.
And that helped me for the rest of my life.
And even when I went to school, I was already ahead of the game because my mom had already
taught me how to read well at a young age.
And so I was able to learn a lot.
You see, the Bible is a book.
And if you're going to be strong in the Word of God, you've got to be a strong reader.
And that's why I think education is so important.
And today the school system is just not getting it done.
We need parents that will teach their children knowledge and wisdom and understanding.
You know, even the word intelligence, when we talk about someone being intelligent or
if we use the word intellectual, you know, that English word, the root word behind that
is to understand.
If you learn other Latin based languages, that word means to understand or understanding.
And the Bible talks a lot about that.
So God does want us to be intelligent people.
He wants us to understand things.
He wants us especially to read and understand the Bible.
So if you would to 1 Timothy chapter 4, there are a lot of scriptures that we could turn
to when it comes to reading.
How many times did Jesus rebuke the Sadducees and the Pharisees and say, didn't you read
this part of the Bible or didn't you read that part of the Bible?
And I'm sure they knew how to read, but they weren't reading the Bible enough.
And we need to teach our kids how to read and we need to teach them to read the Bible.
It's important.
When Jesus confronted the rich young ruler, he said to him, what is written in the law?
How readest thou?
How's your reading, buddy?
That's a great question.
1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 11, these things command and teach.
Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation,
in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
You know, God wants us to read and God wants us to learn doctrine.
He wants us to gain knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.
Now the school system today is a complete joke.
Many people who are graduating from high school today can barely even read, even when they're
graduating from high school, let alone as a young child.
I mean, how can you from a child know the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee
wise unto salvation, when you don't even know your ABCs?
You got to know how to read.
I'll give you an illustration.
I often get to speak at the community college in Phoenix.
It's just kind of a miraculous door that God has opened because it doesn't really seem
right, or it doesn't even seem normal, or it just boggles the mind that Pastor Steve
Anderson goes into the public schools in Phoenix, Arizona and speaks in the community
college every semester.
And I'm allowed to say whatever I want.
And believe me, I've pushed that to the, I've redlined that and pushed that to the limit,
and I've never been rebuked.
I mean, I'm allowed to preach whatever I want.
And I preach every bit as hard there as I preach behind the pulpit of faithful word,
and it's totally acceptable.
Only God could do that.
I mean, isn't that a blessing?
So I've been in there, I've spoken in about 60 to 65 classes.
And it's pretty interesting, it's pretty eye-opening going into the public school at the college
level.
This is a junior college.
Well, the classes that I speak in are religion classes and philosophy classes.
Those are the two classes that I typically speak in.
And I'm in these philosophy classes and I'm just blown away.
I mean, here we are.
We're not in elementary school, we're not in junior, I mean, we're in a college.
We're in college and it just blows my mind, the lack of intelligence of the students.
It's mind-blowing.
Let me give you a few illustrations.
I was there recently and I was talking to the teacher and I was saying to him, you know,
here's some books that you should have them read, I think would really help them to understand
what you're trying to teach them in this philosophy class.
And I was given some suggested reading and he said, wait a minute, we can't have them
read any books because he said, if I assign a book to them to read, they just won't read
it.
Like, what are you talking about?
I mean, don't you set the agenda for what's required in this class?
He said, if I assign them to read a book, they won't read it.
And then if I enforce it by giving them a bad grade if they don't read the book, he
said, I'll get in trouble with the school because all the other teachers have the education
bar just set so low, they'll give them an A if they have a pulse and if they're breathing
and they show up and, you know, they're like, they're probably holding the pen like this
when they write, you know, and they pass the class.
But he tried to, you know, raise the standards a little bit and say, look, you have to read
this book.
You have to learn this material.
You have to learn this stuff.
And then they come and then if he fails them, then they say, well, you're a bad teacher
because your students are failing.
And if he starts actually making the class hard, quote, unquote, then all the kids will
start dropping his class.
Then he gets, because they know that the other teacher down the hall is just going to, no
child left behind, just pass them on through.
So I told him, I said, what, you know, you got to get them to read these books.
He said, no, they don't read books.
Now I'd already been in the class with them for an hour and a half and I, you know, in
the conversation I could tell which students were the most intelligent.
He said, these two guys right here are my most intelligent students.
He brought them over to me and he said, watch this, Pastor Anderson.
He asked one of them.
He said, hey, have you ever read a book before in your life?
And these are, look, these were the two smartest guys in the class.
He said, have you ever read a book before?
And the guy said, well, you mean like a nonfiction book?
And he said, no, no, I just, any book, could be fiction, could be nonfiction.
Have you ever read a book?
And he said, I've read one book before.
And he said it was called The Little Princess.
That's what he said.
I mean, this is a, this is an adult man.
This is a grown man.
And the only book that he'd ever read was literally The Little Princess.
Now I don't know, I've never read The Little Princess.
I was chatting with somebody at church about this and they said, yeah, I read it, it was
a pretty good book, you know, when I read The Little Princess.
But that's all.
He said, I've read The Little Princess.
That's a true story.
I mean, does that just boggle the mind?
I mean, one time I stood in this class and the teacher was asking, this is a philosophy,
and look, this is in the philosophy department.
Okay, we're in the class and he's asking the students what certain words mean.
He said, what do you think the word culture means?
Does anybody know what culture means?
Nobody.
No hands going up.
Does anybody know what culture means?
And he's trying to kind of prompt them a little bit.
He's like, you know, culture, it's like, it's like the food that they eat, the clothes that
they wear, the language that they speak, the religion.
You know, I came home to my kids and asked them, do you know what culture is?
My kids are like the architecture, you know, they're like going even deeper than he brought
it.
But I mean, just even a simple word like culture, no one could define it.
And then he said, you know, does anybody know what it means to be creative?
Does anybody know what that word creative means?
Nobody could define it.
All kinds of hands are going up here.
You know, nobody could define it.
And then finally he said, does anybody here consider yourself a creative person?
This one guy raised his hand and he calls on him.
What does that mean when you say that you're creative?
You know, I just, I don't know if I could really explain it.
Well, you know, try and explain it.
I mean, it's like, I just imagine things in my head.
You know, I just like picture things and imagine things.
I mean, look, this is what's going on today in these institutions of higher learning.
You say, well, that's just junior college.
But you know what, if you go down to Beer Pong University, down at ASU, Devil State
and Satan U, yeah, they're a little smarter down there, but not that much smarter.
This is the product.
These are high school graduates that are sitting in a community college.
They're barely even literate.
They barely even could force themselves through the little princess.
I mean, this is the education standard today.
And you wonder why our nation is filled with fools today.
You wonder why people are just deceived by every slight of men and cunning craftiness
whereby the devil lies in wait to deceive them.
It's because they're fools today.
We need to make sure that we teach our children some smarts.
And it all starts with reading.
It starts with learning how to read and getting some smarts.
Here's a scripture I love.
You don't have to turn there.
Proverbs 19, 27, Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that caused it to err from the
words of knowledge.
That's a great verse for the public fool system.
Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that caused it to err from the words of knowledge.
That's what's going on and down in the school system.
It's instruction that causes you to err from the words of knowledge.
So I thank my mother for having the patience.
And look, my wife will tell you too, it's one of the most frustrating, most time consuming,
most difficult parts of homeschooling is just teaching them how to read.
You know, it's tough.
But you've got to bite the bullet and get it done because readers are leaders, amen?
You want your kids to grow up and read and learn.
So that's number one.
I thank God that I had parents who taught me how to read.
Number two, they got me saved.
My parents got me saved and that's pretty important.
Obviously, as the previous message said, that's not going to make them turn out right.
Do all the people that we win to the Lord out on soul winning turn out right?
Are they all here tonight?
No.
It's going to take more than that.
But I thank God that my parents did get me saved.
My mother won me to the Lord at the bedside, I can picture it now, kneeling beside my mother's
bed as she gave me the gospel and took me down the Romans road and prayed with me and
won me to Christ and showed me John 5 24 that I would never come into condemnation and that
I'd been passed from death unto life.
Thank God for that.
You know, I think one of the best ways to make sure that our kids get the gospel is
just by taking them out soul winning with you.
I think that's the best way to get kids the gospel because of the fact that they're hearing
the gospel over and over again and they get to hear all the people give the wrong answers.
And I look over at my kids and my kids are just kind of like at some of these answers.
But it kind of just shows them the foolishness of work salvation.
You know, they're sitting there and listening to these answers just thinking how ridiculous.
And then they're hearing the wisdom come out of the soul winner's mouth.
And so they're hearing the gospel and they're seeing the fraud just constantly just put
to bed constantly debunked.
So I like that as a good now obviously it's good to also sit down and talk to your kids
one on one, but and make sure that they're saved and that they believe that and that
they've made that decision.
But I think taking them out soul winning is a great and look, I don't know about you,
my kids love going soul winning.
I've never had a kid yet who didn't want to go soul winning.
Now maybe your kids are different, I don't know.
But honestly, every single time my kids are begging to go so and they fight over whose
turn it is and everything just because they enjoy they get out, they see things, it's
a good time.
And now praise God, my oldest three boys go soul winning pretty much on a weekly basis
where they do the talking.
And they've actually won souls.
And then also, my daughters Miriam and Rebecca have each gotten to the point where they can
win someone to Christ.
Now we don't send them off soul winning, obviously unsupervised the girls because we got to protect
our girls, amen.
But we do send the boys when they're teenagers out to go soul winning out up in the highways
and hedges.
But the daughters, we protect them and keep them close.
But a lot of times there are kids playing on the street and I'll send my daughter, hey,
go talk to that little child over there.
And a child can give a child the gospel and they can get a taste of that at a young age
and learn how to win souls.
So number one, I thank God my parents taught me how to read.
Number two, they got me saved.
But number three, they disciplined me.
My parents disciplined me.
I think I even got more spankings than the other three kids combined.
But go if you would to the book of Proverbs, go to Proverbs chapter 13.
My parents definitely believed in spanking, there's no question about that.
And my parents spanked me with an implement known as the sailboat rod.
Now I don't really know where they got this thing.
I don't know what it has to do with sailboats because I've never been sailing before.
But this thing was like a long fiberglass thing.
And it would kind of flex like woo, woo, woo, as hard as a rock.
So my parents were experts with this thing.
And they'd get like a momentum going with a wrist action.
And this thing was just whipping back and forth, just like whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
So I don't know all the science behind it.
I don't know where you buy one.
I don't know.
But it was just known as, you know, get the sailboat rod.
And we dreaded the sailboat rod.
I mean the belt was nothing.
It was like, there was the sailboat rod that was dreaded.
And you know, but my mom and dad, they spanked me with that sailboat rod.
And it made an impression.
And I thank God for it.
And not only did I thank God, I personally thank my mom and dad for spanking me.
And for disciplining me.
Now when I thanked my mom, she said, I never spanked you with that sailboat rod.
That was your dad that did that.
I'm like, no, it was you.
I got more spankings from you with that thing than from him even.
So they both spanked me with the sailboat rod.
And I thank God for every single swat because the Bible teaches that it's necessary that
we discipline our children.
The Bible says in Proverbs 13 verse 24, he that spareth his rod spoileth his son.
Is that what it says?
No.
No, it says he that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth
him betis.
Betis means early.
Proverbs 22 verse 15, if you want to flip over there.
Proverbs 22 verse 15, the Bible says, foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the
rod of correction shall drive it far from him.
Chapter 23 verse 13, withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with
the rod, he shall not die.
Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell.
It's important.
The Bible says in Proverbs 26 verse 3, a whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a
rod for the fool's back.
Proverbs 29 verse 15, the rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth
his mother to shame.
The Bible says in the New Testament, whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth.
He said, if you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons, for what son is he
whom the father chasteneth not?
But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and
not sons.
Look, being spanked is biblical.
It's not optional.
It's not a way to discipline your kids.
It's the way to discipline your kids.
And you know what?
My parents never grounded me.
They never took away any privileges from me.
They spanked me.
They whipped me.
That's how they punished me.
That was the punishment.
And I thank God for that.
And it was no joke when they punished me.
It was for real when they punished me.
Number four, they did not raise me to be soft.
And Brother McMurtry touched on this, and I'm glad he did, about working hard and having
character and how even sometimes unsaved people's children, if they grow up in an environment
where they at least have to work hard, they at least have decency and manners and character.
I thank God that my parents did not raise me to be soft.
Here's some Bible on this.
It says, and you don't have to turn there, but in 2 Timothy 2, 3 it says,
Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
But if we raise our kids to be soft, they're not going to be able to endure hardness, are
they?
If you're going to spend your whole life soft, you're not going to grow up and suddenly be
this hardness enduring adult.
You've got to be raised to endure hardness.
The Bible says in Lamentations 3.27, it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his
youth.
It's good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth, to work hard as a youth.
Now the biggest thing that I worry about with raising my children, the big thing that I
worry about, is just do my children have too easy of a life?
And this is what we see all throughout scripture.
The parents are right with God, the parents love the Lord, and then what does God do?
He blesses them.
Because when you do right, you get blessed.
And we see this in the book of Judges, they're blessed for doing right, and then the children
grow up and turn against the Lord.
Now I believe part of the reason for that is that the children grow up having it too
good and having it too easy, and so I think that that's where a lot of kids go bad.
And when we look at the baby boomer generation, which I preached a whole sermon about the
baby boomer generation, and I keep wanting to preach against them again and again, but
then I keep realizing I already preached that sermon.
But I'm like, man, I want to preach that sermon again and again and again as I go out and
just keep having experiences with that generation, encounters with that generation, and just
seeing that generation and their wickedness.
That is truly the most wicked generation that our country has ever seen.
I think it's even more wicked than even our young people today.
I mean, we see our young people today, many of them are going back to the old paths.
That's why our movement is growing.
That's why our churches are growing.
But it's not filling up with baby boomers.
And if you're in that baby boomer generation, God bless you, I'm not down on you, the exception
proves the rule.
But the problem with that generation is that they were a generation of spoiled brats who
had everything handed to them, just unprecedented prosperity in the United States.
They grew up in the idyllic 1950s and everything was so nice and everything was handed to them
and they were too comfortable and things were too easy, they're spoiled rotten.
And I just worry sometimes that my children would have it too easy in life.
And I try to ask myself constantly, you know, are my children enduring hardness?
Are they going through any struggles?
Because that's what makes us a better person.
And so I thank God that my parents didn't raise me to be soft.
We have too many parents today who coddle and shelter their children from any pain and
suffering and any hard work.
They make things too easy for them.
And they raise a generation with no character.
And we need to give our children opportunities to work every chance we can.
Now I, you know, I don't live out in the country, unfortunately.
I don't have a farm where I can send them out to do all this manual labor.
But you know, I try to find whatever manual labor I can around the house.
I try to find any way to get them to do physical work down at the church building or get them
a job as soon as they're legal to work in Arizona, like 14 years old, they can start
working.
So we have all of our kids out there working when they're 14, 15, 16, yes we do.
It's the best thing.
And look, when I was 11, 12, 13, 14, I would love to go out and work as much as I possibly
could have.
Because we want to work as men.
We desire to work.
It's good for us.
And it makes us a better person.
And so I really am concerned about this whole generation, even in a good church, I just
wonder if their life is too easy and if they have enough struggle in their life.
So sometimes I think it's good to create an artificial struggle.
And you know, this is something that my dad did for me.
You know, during recreation, we played hard.
You see, my dad, he would take us out and his thing was riding dirt bikes.
That was his main thing.
He would take us out riding dirt bikes, but he didn't coddle us.
He didn't raise us to be soft.
He pushed us to our physical limits.
And you might not understand that riding a dirt bike could be physically draining.
Some people say, well, you know, what do you do?
You just sit there and twist the throttle, you know, but actually, you know, motocross
is considered the second most physically demanding sport, second only to soccer or something
like that.
It's extremely physically demanding.
And I remember my dad, he would always take us out riding our motorcycles way over our
heads.
You know, he'd take us on the stuff that was at his level.
And he'd take us out and this is how we would ride with my dad.
He would, he'd get way ahead of us and then he'd stop and rest.
He's taking a drink.
He's having a snack.
We're struggling to catch up.
As soon as we got caught up, it's like, all right, let's go.
So there's this no break.
I mean, he pushed us hard and he didn't raise us to be soft.
I mean, he expected us to push ourselves physically and, you know, we didn't just
cry and say, I want to go home.
You know, it's like, no, we'd get rebuked if we were being a baby and a crybaby about
it.
Now, this might not be popular today, this type of parenting, and maybe it's considered,
you know, cruel or harsh, but you know what?
It's actually good for you as a man.
And this is obviously we're not talking about the girls.
Don't take them out and physically exert them until they cry.
But I'm saying, you know, I'm talking about for young men, we need some men to grow up
and endure some hardness.
Now, look, I'm not into dirt bike riding anymore.
That's a pretty expensive hobby.
That's not really for everybody.
But you know what?
I take my kids out and I'll take them on a hike or I'll go take them to climb some mountain
somewhere.
And you know what?
I push them to the limit and I make sure that they learn to work hard.
And you know what?
I develop an attitude of wanting to get it done and wanting to endure hardness.
And I don't even have to push them because they are not being raised to be soft.
But we're raising a bunch of softies today in America, bunch of pudgy, weakling people
who just they're the most physically exerted they get is going like this with the remote,
you know, on the car game or whatever.
You know, I guess the new video games, at least the Wii gets them moving a little more
than the other.
At least they kind of move their arms around a little bit.
But you know, just they sleep in a soft bed.
They eat all these perfect meals at all the right times.
They got a water cooler right there.
They don't know what it means to be hungry.
They don't know what it means to be thirsty.
They don't know what it means to really be exhausted or tired because they're sitting
on soft cushions all day and sleeping in a soft bed.
And they don't do any physical hard work or anything.
And their hands are soft and everything.
Look, they're being raised like the royal little prima donnas.
That's not what the Bible teaches a man is like.
They need to learn to endure some hardness.
And I thank God that my parents didn't raise me to be soft.
And you say, what does that have to do with spiritual things?
Well, have you ever heard of this thing called hard preaching?
Hard preaching?
There's even a website about it, hardpreaching.com.
And you know what?
Hard preaching is preached by hard men of God.
It's preached by people who do hard things.
And when other people quit because it was too hard, they keep going.
They're not just a baby, a crybaby, a whining, sniveling little brat that whenever there's
any persecution or tribulation, they back down.
No, they take it as a challenge, and they stand up to it, and they stay in the fight.
And when it's hard, they thrive on that.
But why?
Because that's how they're raised to be.
And I love what Brother McBurtree said, too.
His dad made him work, and don't quit your job.
Even though it was a bad job that he didn't want, he stayed with it.
And he learned the character of doing hard things that you don't want to do.
But today, food is given to them.
Oh, I don't want that.
Eat it!
We had to eat what was put in front of us.
In our house, we had to eat what was put in front of us.
And if you didn't finish your food, it didn't just get dumped in the trash.
Because His Highness is done with this meal, so let's move it to the trash now, and we
will prepare a fresh course for His evening repose, or repast.
So no, actually, when we didn't finish our food, it was wrapped up and pulled out again
at the next meal.
And that was if we were lucky, because usually it was just, you don't get up until it's done.
And I can remember specifically an instance where I endured this, and an instance where
my brother endured it, going out to lunch after church on Sunday morning, eating out,
the food being packed up, because we didn't finish our burger.
As soon as we got home, we were set at the breakfast table with that food, and I can
remember it taking until almost the evening service until I was done.
I basically had to digest whatever was in my stomach, and basically just, and it was
just, you can't get up until you finish your food.
And three hours later, I was still there.
You know, I can remember my brother being there one time at like five o'clock, because
he didn't finish his food.
Why?
Because you'd filled up on junk food, or you'd ordered too much, or whatever.
It was your fault why you can't eat a normal meal, for whatever reason.
You snuck snacks or whatever, but at least they enforced rules.
And you had to eat the lima beans, and you had to eat all the things that you didn't
like.
And if you don't finish your food, you sit there, and you can't get up until it's done.
Or if you needed to get up, it's packed up and pulled out cold at the next meal.
So you don't raise a bunch of soft, spoiled brats.
And we don't want to raise a generation of spoiled brats in our churches.
And I don't care how great our doctrine is, I don't care what kind of preaching comes
forth that stirs our souls and stirs our hearts.
A young person with no character that can't eat their food, and that can't walk up a hill,
and that can't do hard work, and that cries and is a baby when they're forced to do something
that they don't want to do, is going to grow up and be a bad person.
They'll get to heaven, but they're not going to be a great person.
They're not going to have character.
I thank God that my parents didn't raise me to be soft.
They taught me to work hard.
They taught me even to play hard, and to not be lazy, not to give up.
And so I got some good lessons on that, just growing up, because my dad really pushed us
hard.
And when we would go to work, he pushed us hard.
We didn't get to work a lot with him.
I would have liked to have worked with him more.
But I did go to work with him every chance I got, and make $5, $3, $10, whatever, for
going along and working.
And I mean, he was a slave driver.
He worked us hard.
But you know what?
At the time, it was no fun.
But we wanted that money, so we went to work.
And you know what?
That's a great lesson of doing stuff that's painful and hard and stressful to get paid.
That's called going to work every day.
But today, we have people quitting their jobs because it's too hard, and then they
get some low-paying job where they have no responsibility, and they can be lazy.
They don't want to go to the high-paying job that challenges them.
As a kid, I learned, hey, you don't just get free money handed to you.
You work hard, and you get paid $5.
And when you're a kid, $5 is a lot of money, and you're willing to go through that.
And you know what?
At the time, it was no fun, but when I got my first job, I was already prepared for the
boss to get on me and be harsh and demand a lot out of me because my dad had raised
me not to be soft.
It's so important.
It's very important.
And number five, they did this.
They always took me to the best church that they could find.
My parents were faithful to church.
My entire life, there was never a time when we didn't go to church.
I mean, it didn't even matter.
Even when our family was a little bit backslidden, even when our family went through lower points
spiritually, the one thing that was just non-negotiable was that we always attended church.
They were always in church.
There was never a time that we didn't go to church.
We always went to church, always.
No matter what, there was not like a month where we just didn't have a church.
Never happened.
Never happened in my home.
Number one, they taught me how to read.
Number two, they got me saved.
Number three, they disciplined me.
Number four, they raised me not to be soft.
And that goes with discipline.
They raised me not to be a spoiled brat.
And number five, they always took me to the best church that they could find.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter one.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter number one.
They always went to church and they always did their best to go to the best possible
church that they could find.
And you know what, sometimes that meant driving as much as 55 minutes, 45 minutes, a half
hour.
I mean, driving 30 minutes to an hour to church when I was growing up was something that we
did frequently.
That was not out of the ordinary for us.
Because my parents didn't just take us to any church.
They strove to take us to the best possible church that they could take us to.
And if we went to a church and the church preached heresy, we got out of there and we
found something better.
And we didn't just stay home and say we couldn't find anything.
We found the best possible church.
And you know what, I thank God that even when the churches were not perfect, we still went
there.
We kept going.
I remember one time we went to an independent fundamental Baptist church and it was a good
church but it wasn't perfect, but it was a pretty good church.
They had soul winning.
They were King James and a relative of ours that was just really strict, really fundamental,
he came and visited the church and after the service he kind of picked it apart.
And he didn't even go to church though because everything's too liberal.
And I remember my dad just yelling at him and laying into him and saying, hey, we're
commanded to go to church and this is the best church that we can find and if you can
show me a better option, we'll do it, but don't come here and pick apart our church.
This is the best church in our area, you know, and we're doing our best here.
We're serving God.
And you know what, God blesses that.
You know, think about the church at Sardis.
They had some serious problems, but God said, thou hast a few names even in Sardis which
have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for their worth.
At least those people at that Sardis Baptist, they went there, at least they went to church.
Even though the church had problems, they went to the best church in their area.
And my parents, I thank God, would make that sacrifice.
And sometimes we would have to kill a lot of time between that morning and evening service.
So I mean, and now I don't think you guys have that problem here, right, because you
put them closer together.
But when I was growing up, we'd have the morning service at 11, and then the night church
was usually at 6 o'clock, and so we would just stay down there.
So we'd drive like 40 minutes, we'd go to the morning service, then we'd go out to lunch,
and then we would just walk around stores or just, we would, I remember we would look
at model homes.
We'd take like open houses of model homes.
We weren't even in the market for a house sometimes, but it was just something to do.
So we would just tour.
I mean, I've toured so many model homes because my parents, for some reason, enjoyed that.
I don't really know why.
But they just really enjoy touring homes.
So we would just tour.
I mean, it was just killing time.
All right, we got two more hours.
You know, hey, they could have just driven home.
But they took us at evening service, and they literally wasted the whole day.
They wasted the whole afternoon just filling it with meaningless activity just so that
they could have us in church on Sunday morning and Sunday night.
But you know what?
I'll bet they're glad that they did now because I guarantee you that my mom and dad have no
greater joy than the fact that all four of their children are going to heaven, and all
four of their children love the Lord, and all four of their children are an independent
Baptist that reads a King James Bible.
I mean, what is that worth?
I would give every penny that I have to have that blessing, that all of my kids would be
saved and they'd be independent fundamental Baptists.
I mean, I'd pay any price.
So of course they're glad that they made those commutes to church.
Of course they're glad that they made it to the evening service and that they took us
to church.
And you know, one other thing that this did for me by my parents always having me in church
and always taking us to the best church that they could find is that I knew that they really
believed the Bible because it mattered to them.
Doctrine mattered.
I mean, we never had this attitude in my house that, well, doctrine doesn't matter.
Doctrine's not that important.
Well, it's not really a big deal.
You know, we never had the feeling that my parents were just going through the motions.
Oh, let's go to church.
You know how people at these false religions, the Catholics, the Mormons, they just show
up and just go through the motions and in their heart, they don't even believe in it.
I think the vast majority of Catholics and Mormons don't even believe any of it.
But it's a social thing.
It's just a thing to give their kids morals.
And we never felt that our parents were just going through the motions, taking us to church
to get us some morals or just to kind of, you know, do what we do in our culture.
It's just church.
And no, no, no, we knew this is one thing we never doubted.
We knew that our parents really believed in Christianity.
They really believed in the Bible.
And it really mattered to them, the doctrine and getting us in the right church.
I mean, it meant that to them.
I never doubted that my parents really believed the Bible.
I never thought that they were fake, never, never.
I mean, they believed in the Bible.
That's why they would drive far to go to the right church.
And look, and just when they would talk about the Word of God, doctrine mattered.
And some of the greatest doctrines that I live or die by today, I didn't learn them
in church, I learned them from mom and dad.
Because my mom and dad would talk to me about the Bible passionately, passionately.
I mean, they would rebuke Calvinism.
They would rebuke false religion.
They rebuked modern Bible versions.
They would passionately rip on Billy Graham and John MacArthur and all the phonies.
And you know what?
No question that they believed what they were saying, that it was real.
Hebrews 10 25 says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some
is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
More than ever we need church today.
And the verse that came to mind when I thought about how my parents, they always took us
to the best church they could find and they were always passionate about it.
They were never just going through the motions, never just kind of putting in their time,
check it off, we went to church.
No, no, no.
They were like, we want to go to a church where the preaching is feeding us.
And it meant something to them.
This is the verse that comes to mind, 2 Timothy 1 5 and I think it's a good verse to close
on because this is just a great verse for this whole conference.
It says, when I call the remembrance, the unfeigned faith.
What is that?
Real faith.
You actually believe in what you say you believe in.
When I call the remembrance, the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwells first
in thy grandmother, Lois, and thy mother, Eunice, and I'm persuaded in thee also.
Look, here is a third generation Christian and his grandma's faith was real.
And not only did he know that, even Paul knew that, an outsider knew that, he looked at
Lois's faith and said, it's real.
He could look at Eunice's faith and say, it's not fake, it's real.
If we're going to raise godly children, we need to make sure that our faith is real and
that we demonstrate that our faith is real.
Where they look at us and say, well you know what, dad's got his faults and mom's got her
faults, but you know what, their faith is unfeigned.
They really do feel strongly about the things of God.
Their heart really does burn within them about the things of God.
What do we need today?
We need to raise a generation of children that can read and that do read the Bible.
So that they're not like these bunch of fundamental Baptists that their doctrine's all goofed
up because they do so little reading.
They don't know what the Bible says.
We need a generation of young people that know the Bible, that are intelligent enough
to understand the doctrines of the Bible.
What else do we need?
We need them to grow up and we need them to not be soft.
And we need them to take their faith seriously and take the sacrifices necessary to go to
church at all costs.
And to get into a fire-breathing church at all costs.
You know what, I'll tell you why I didn't fornicate was because of the hard preaching
against fornication.
That's the only reason.
That's a strong temptation for a young man and the only reason that I didn't fornicate
was because of the fear of God.
I was scared to death to fornicate because I knew from all those sermons I heard that
God killed 23,000 people in one day and I knew that I wasn't going to get away with
it.
Because I knew unto whom much is given of him so much be required.
And I knew God would cloud up and rain on me so hard if I went out and got drunk or
committed fornication or anything like that.
I was scared to death to do it, but you know what, if my parents would have been taking
me to some milk toast, watered down, soft, live the life church or whatever that's five
minutes away, you know what, I wouldn't have made that decision.
I would have gone the wrong way.
I'm just a normal guy.
And you know what, the only reason why I'm serving God today and preaching the Word of
God and winning souls to Christ is because my parents did these things for me.
And if they had not, if my parents had not done these things for me, I would not be here.
If my parents had not taught me to read and be smart and intelligent, I'd be a shallow
preacher today.
I mean if my parents didn't get me saved, who knows where I'd be today.
If they didn't discipline me, I guarantee you I'd be living in all kinds of sin because
I know that in me that is in my flesh, well it's no good thing.
And if they would have raised me with this coddling where as soon as you get a little
tired, oh you're a little tired on the bike ride, well let's just stop immediately and
buy you an ice cream cone because you got a little tired.
You know what I'm talking about?
Then that's the way they're going to live their life.
You know, oh I got to use the bathroom.
No, when they have to use the bathroom at the wrong time, the answer is, are you in
a diaper?
Because I say to them, you know what, if you're not in a diaper, then you must be able to
hold the bathroom.
So you must be able to wait until after church.
Because if you didn't wear a diaper into church, then you could hold the bathroom for an hour
and wait until church is over.
And you know, not just, oh I have to eat right now, I have to drink right now, I have to
use the bathroom right now.
I'm a little tired, I have to stop right now.
No, no, no, we need our kids to actually experience a little pain in their lives.
And if you think that sounds weird, that just shows how weird you are that you want to live
in this weird, cushioned, padded, sanitary society.
You got to get, look, you got to get out there and sweat and bleed a little bit to enjoy
life.
And you got to get out there and learn some hardness because if you can't do anything
hard physically, you're never going to do anything hard spiritually either because you're
just going to be a big softy all the way around.
You know, you got to learn self-control, you got to keep under your body and bring it into
subjection.
The slothful man is also a wicked man because it's both a lack of self-control.
And so I thank God for my parents and I pray that everyone who's in here, myself included,
would be a godly parent that would give these five gifts to their children, that would give
these things to their children.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, men, 3 John beginning verse number 1, the Bible reads, the elder unto the well-beloved
Gaius, whom I love in the truth, beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper
and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee,
even as thou walkest in the truth, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children
walk in truth.
Beloved thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers which
have borne witness of thy charity before the church, and with thou bring forward on their
journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well.
And that's what this conference is all about, having children that walk in truth.
And he says here, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
He said, I wish above all things that his son would prosper and be in health and that
whatever he did, he would do it faithfully, whether it's to the church or to strangers.
I mean, this was something that was very important to him and to all of us.
Number 18, didn't go out and party and drink and fornicate, but why I stayed with fundamentalism,
I stayed with church and living for God.
Number one, and I'm not going to go through these in order of importance, I'm going to
go through them more in like chronological order, just some key things that my parents
did for me growing up, why I turned out right.
Number one is that my parents taught me to read.
They taught me to read.
Now, this is something that I emphasize in my preaching, not being a fool, but growing
in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.
You see, the book of Proverbs is all about getting knowledge, wisdom, and understanding,
and it's also all about what?
Not getting drunk and not fornicate.
So if you want your kids to grow up and not fornicate and not be drunk and not go into
the wrong paths, then why don't we emphasize knowledge, wisdom, and understanding?
I want my children to be smart.
I want them to have knowledge.
I also want them to grow up and go to church, a real church.
And so it's important that we raise our kids right.
And tonight I just want to talk about some things that my parents did right, because
a lot of the people I grew up with, first of all, weren't even saved.
A lot of them are Sodomites today, literally from independent Baptist churches that I grew
up in.
I could name the Sodomites.
A lot of them today are in the fun center.
A lot of them today don't go to church at all.
A lot of them are all washed up.
But yet, thankfully, I'm still here.
So what did my parents do right that I'm still here?
And not only am I still here, but thank God.
My parents have four children.
I have one brother and two sisters.
They're all independent fundamental Baptists.
They all love the Lord.
And so that's a great testimony for my parents.
So I want to talk about what they did right.
Just some things that I specifically could look at about my parents that I believe are
the reason why I, when I turned eight, what was it called?
LTL?
Help me out.
Is that what I was with?
No.
Live it.
Oh yeah.
I drove by it.
No, no, no.
I was driving here.
What?
Live the life.
There we go.
Yeah.
I was driving down the street.
I saw a church called Live the Life.
LTL.
You know, I don't want my kids growing up and going to these liberal non-denom fun centers.
I want them to grow up and be a fundamental Baptist.
I want them to go to a church where it's the King James Bible that's being preached.
I want them to grow up and sing real hymns of the faith and actually go out and do real
works for God.
I don't want them to grow up and just wave their hands in some fun center.
So I want my children to grow up and be like me.
You want your children to grow up and be like you.
You want them to be like Pastor Perry.
You want them to live the lifestyle that we live and win the souls that we win and be
someone who honors the Lord and does great works for God.
It's not enough for me if my kids are just safe.
I also want them to be pure on their wedding day.
Children turning out right is one of the most important things in our lives.
It's one of our highest possible priorities.
I mean, we'd rather fail as a pastor than to fail as a parent.
It's so important.
And so I like the fact that we're having this conference and it's a great emphasis because
it's such an important subject.
Now the title of my sermon tonight is things that my parents did right.
Now as we already talked about earlier tonight, there are a lot of young people who jump ship
from the Christian life as soon as they turn 18.
And it's not that they're not saved, even if they are saved.
But when they turn 18, they don't live the lifestyle that their parents live, meaning
that they don't continue to be a fundamental Baptist.
They don't continue to be faithful to church.
They don't continue to stand on the doctrines of the faith strongly and be a fundamentalist.
I would hate for my kids to grow up, even if they're saved, I don't want them to grow
up and go to the church down the street that was called...