That's page number 30 on the second.
For my part in this I see, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For my cleansing this my plea, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.
No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Nothing can for sin atone, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Not of good that I have done, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.
No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Let's sing it out now.
This is all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.
No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Okay, let's open up with a word of prayer.
Lord, holy Father, we just thank you for this day.
You have blessed us with Lord.
Thank you for the salvation that we saw today.
We ask that you continue to bless the rest of the services.
Fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit tonight to edify us, Lord.
We just thank you and love you, Lord.
We ask that you bless the rest of this week.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, if you would, turn in your hymnals to page 379,
Bringing in the Sheaves.
That's page 379, Bringing in the Sheaves.
Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness,
Sowing in the noontide and the dewy,
Waiting for the harvest and the time of reaping,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows,
Fearing neither clouds nor winter chilling breeze,
By and by the harvest and the labor ended,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Going forth with weeping, sowing for the master,
Though the law sustains, our spirit often grieves,
When our weeping's over, he will bid us welcome,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves,
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Good singing, thanks so much for coming
to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you don't have a bulletin,
we would like to get you one.
Our ushers should be able to have some extras.
So if you need one, lift up your hand nice and high.
And we got some over here, some over here, all over.
I mean, I see hands everywhere, all right?
Everyone just got saved, they raised their hand.
No, I'm just kidding.
So hopefully our ushers come around.
We got some bulletins.
Keep your hands nice and high.
Yep, there you go.
One over the back corner.
We have our Bile Memory passage, John 1, 38.
And then we have on the inside
our service and soul winning times.
And just in case, if you did have any salvations
to report for the last few days,
and you didn't report it to your captain,
we're gonna get you this time, all right?
So does anybody have anything to report?
Who was your partner?
Okay.
You all had one, is that what you said?
You had one, okay.
All right, today, you and who?
Okay.
How many did you have, just one?
All right.
Okay, anything else?
All right, keep up the great work on soul winning.
We'll make sure to get those turned in.
And then also on the right,
we have the list of expecting ladies.
Oh, one other reminder.
Since we are sending out all of our services via email,
try to get email addresses for anybody that you talk to.
And especially if they speak Spanish,
we're gonna try and have a special list
for the Spanish people that we reach,
and then send them the Spanish services
that we have on our service.
Yeah, you can email them to us,
or hand them to us, or whatever you want.
But if you give us the emails,
then we can add them to our email list,
and then we can send them to services every single time.
Even, it's great for like, Pure Words,
because even Pure Words, they don't really have us,
they don't even have a Spanish service option,
but they can still watch the Spanish services up here,
and everything like that.
So, I've been trying to collect that,
and whatever you have,
try to get that information if you can.
Also, I think we're working on an option
to have stickers or something.
There's a way to text to join.
So, we'll probably give you a sticker,
kind of like the Sodomite Deception sticker QR codes,
but it's like a text number,
and you can just tell them to text steadfast or something,
and they'll automatically get the information
about how to join our email list groups and stuff like that.
So, just that's a good habit.
I've been slow to get in that kind of habit,
so I just want to constantly remind you guys
if you can do that.
On the right, we have a list of expecting ladies.
Please continue to pray for all of them.
We have our other prayer list.
If you have any other prayer requests,
please email those in or submit them in a card,
and put them in their offing plate.
We have upcoming events, our men's conference.
Completely free.
We're doing a retreat, and I don't know, retreat's loosely,
it's loosely defined, but it's definitely fun.
So, it's the mighty men's conference, all right?
So, and we'll have a competition,
and that'll be a lot of fun,
and you'll definitely come back exhausted, so that's good.
Sunday Sundays, the last Sunday of this month,
we're gonna give Sundays out to anybody
that goes out for our soul-winning group.
Also, we have a soul-winning marathon
in Shreveport, Louisiana.
I mean, it's gotta be one of the best places
I've gone soul-winning in the United States,
so I highly recommend it.
I can't guarantee anything, but obviously,
most everyone that went out there,
had a similar experience,
said that they really thought it was great.
Who went last year, or last time?
Yeah, a lot of people went, and it went really well.
I think we had a good turnout,
and so, I'd encourage you to participate if you can.
I think that's all I have for announcements.
We do have a couple baptisms this evening,
so stick around, and we'll do that after our final song.
So, let's go to our third song for this evening.
We're doing 102.
All right, if you would,
turning your hymnals to page 102,
He Hideth My Soul.
That's page 102, He Hideth My Soul.
Yeah, the Shreveport Soul-winning marathon last year
was definitely a success.
If you wanna hit your numbers for the year,
you come there, and you'll definitely hit it, so.
["The Wonderful Savior Is My Lord"]
A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
a wonderful Savior to me.
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
where rivers of pleasure I see.
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock
that shadows a dry, thirsty land.
He hideth mine in the depths of His love
and covers me there with His hand,
and covers me there with His hand.
On the second, a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord.
He taketh my burden away.
He hiled me up, and I shall not be moved.
He giveth me strength as my day.
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock
that shadows a dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of His love
and covers me there with His hand,
and covers me there with His hand.
With numberless blessings each moment He crowns
and filled with His fullness divine.
I sing in my rapture, oh glory to God,
for such a Redeemer as mine.
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock
that shadows a dry, thirsty land.
That shadows a dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of His love
and covers me there with His hand,
and covers me there with His hand.
When cloth and His brightness transported,
I rise to meet Him in clouds of the sky.
His perfect salvation, His wonderful love,
I'll shout with the millions on high.
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock
that shadows a dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of His love
and covers me there with His hand,
and covers me there with His hand.
While the offering plates are passed around,
turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 13.
Proverbs chapter 13, and we're gonna read the whole chapter.
We're gonna read the whole chapter as is our custom.
You can follow along silently, starting at verse number one.
Proverbs chapter 13, the Bible reads,
A wise son heareth his father's instruction,
but a scorner heareth not rebuke.
A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth,
but the soul of the transgressors shall eat violence.
He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life,
but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction.
The soul of the slugger desireth and hath nothing,
but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.
A righteous man hated lying,
but a wicked man is loathsome and cometh to shame.
Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way,
but wickedness overthroweth the sinner.
There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing.
There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.
The ransom of a man's life are his riches,
but the poor heareth not rebuke.
The light of the righteous rejoiceth,
but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.
Only by pride cometh contention,
but with the well-advised is wisdom.
Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished,
but he that gathereth by labor shall increase.
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,
but when the desire cometh it is a tree of life.
Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed,
but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.
The law of the wise is a fountain of life
to depart from the snares of death.
Good understanding giveth favor,
but the way of transgressors is hard.
Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge,
but a fool layeth open his folly.
A wicked messenger falleth into mischief,
but a faithful ambassador is health.
Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction,
but he that regardeth reproof shall be honored.
The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul,
but it is abomination to fools to depart from evil.
He that walketh with wise men shall be wise,
but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
Evil pursueth sinners,
but to the righteous good shall be repaid.
A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children
and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
Much food is in the tillage of the poor,
but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment.
He that spareth his rod hateth his son,
but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul,
but the belly of the wicked shall want.
Let's pray.
Father God, thank you so much for Proverbs chapter 13, Lord,
and for the truths that are in this portion of scripture.
I just pray now that you fill Pastor Shelley
with your spirit and just give him clarity of mind
as he preaches to us, Lord.
And also I just pray that you would keep us safe
as we go our separate ways after the service.
We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Amen.
The verse that I would like to look at is verse 22
where the Bible reads,
a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children
and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
And this evening's sermon,
I wanna focus on that first portion
of this particular proverb
where it says a good man leaveth an inheritance
to his children's children.
And you know, when we look at Proverbs,
a lot of them really are a whole sermon
in and of themselves.
I mean, they really have such wisdom.
And the Bible talks a lot about inheritance specifically.
And I wanna kinda dwell on this verse
and just kinda think about it,
but the title of my sermon is this, leave an inheritance.
Leave an inheritance.
If you wanna be known as a good man,
you're going to leave an inheritance.
What is an inheritance?
Say, what am I leaving?
Well, really an inheritance is simply just anything
being passed down from a parent to a child, okay?
So there's a multitude of contexts
in which inheritance can be implied.
But I believe if you study this proverb,
the primary interpretation,
what's being very clearly understood on the surface
is money, it's just specifically money, okay?
And typically when you hear inheritance,
that's what you would think of first
is you would think of money.
And it's basically saying that this good man
is leaving so much money and wealth unto his children
that literally his grandchildren
are gonna be able to inherit their grandfather's wealth
and that wealth is gonna be passed down
from generation to generation.
Now, some people might scoff at that idea
or think that that's wrong for some reason,
but pay attention to the second part
of this particular passage.
Notice this, and the wealth of the sinner
is laid up for the just.
Typically, proverbs have kind of a yin and yang to them.
They have kind of a dark and a light.
They kinda have a good and an evil
or a positive and a negative.
They kinda have a counterpoint to each other.
So if that portion of scripture is saying
the wealth of the sinner,
it's saying that the wealth is there.
That's obviously talking about money.
It's obviously talking about wealth,
talking about financial means,
and it's simply saying that wicked people
will end up storing a bunch of money
and storing up a bunch of goods
and then their children won't even get to enjoy that.
It'll somehow go to someone else.
It's basically saying the wealth of the sinner
is laid up for the just and meaning
that good people, righteous people, godly people
end up somehow taking the wealth of sinners
and wicked people from them.
So if we understand that the wealthier
is talking about money,
then obviously the opposite side
was also in talking about money.
Just to prove this point a little bit further,
because I don't want you to think,
I want you to understand this proverb very well.
Go over to chapter 17.
Let's look at other places the word inheritance
is even used in the King James Bible
to see what it's talking about.
Proverbs 17, look at verse two.
A wise servant shall have rule over a son
that causes shame and shall have part
of the inheritance among the brethren.
So what is that passage saying?
In that passage it's bringing up the fact
that even a wise servant could end up
inheriting part of the family goods.
They could inherit alongside brethren.
And that inheritance is gonna be, again,
a financial type of inheritance that is ascribing.
Look at chapter 19 and look at verse 14.
Chapter 19 and look at verse number 14.
Here's a really clear statement.
House and riches are the inheritance of fathers, okay?
And a prudent wife is from the Lord.
So if we wanna ask the Bible,
hey, what does inheritance mean?
House and riches seem like a really clear explanation
just found right here in the scripture.
So if we're kinda comparing these verses to one to another,
the wise servant is also gonna get what?
Houses and riches, a portion of that, right?
If we extrapolate that back to our previous proverb,
what is a good man gonna leave?
A good man's gonna leave house and riches
unto his children's children, right?
Go over to Proverbs 20, you're right there,
and look at verse 21.
And inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning,
but the end thereof shall not be blessed.
So the Bible also has counterpoints to the fact
that sometimes you could get a really good gift
from a parent or from an individual.
They would give you this inheritance,
your grandfather, your father, uncle, or whatever,
but oftentimes it's hard for children
to appreciate an inheritance.
You know, you think about trust fund babies
or you think about people that were born
with a silver spoon in their mouth.
Oftentimes it can be easy come, easy go,
especially if it's not coming from your parent,
if it's coming from an extended relative,
like a rich uncle, because they may not have instilled
in you good character, quality, attributes,
and you just randomly get all this money,
you may not know how to use that or spend that well,
and so we definitely want to be a good steward
of the things that God blesses us with.
But the proverb here is not saying that it's bad
to give someone inheritance, it's simply saying
that if you get a lot of money quickly,
you could end up, it could ruin you.
This is kind of the idea of the lottery.
You basically just get the lottery all of a sudden
and it's just like, you don't know what to do with it.
Think of the parable in the Bible where there's two sons
and one of the sons asks for the inheritance right away.
You know, just divide my portion of the goods
and give it to me now.
You know, he wants that quick lump sum payment.
He doesn't want the annuity program, right?
And when he gets that, what does he do?
He just wastes it on righteous living,
on harlots and whores and drinking and partying
and just going out and just instantly wastes all of it
and the end is not blessed, why?
Because he got that inheritance so quickly.
Whereas the other son who's working every single day,
sees the family farm, does the operations,
he realizes it'd be foolish to just sell all of that
and just go party for a week
and then basically have nothing at the end, okay?
So we don't wanna also just hand our kids a Ferrari
when they turn 16 and just be like, have fun.
You know, maybe they should drive a beater for a while.
Maybe they should work hard and learn to appreciate
the things they have before they get the nice things in life.
Okay, we get that.
But there's technically nothing wrong
with giving them an inheritance and in fact,
I'm gonna argue and suggest that the Bible's true here
that a good man's gonna leave an inheritance
unto his children's children.
Go to Daniel chapter number one,
go to Daniel chapter one and so, you know,
what's the primary application?
The primary application is money.
And of course, that would be a good thing.
You know, what did God, men would
actually work hard and lay up goods
and pass down to their children money as opposed to debt
or some kind of a grievance or some kind of a burden.
There was one other place I wanted to go to first,
I'm sorry, go to second Corinthians chapter number 12.
Go to second Corinthians chapter number 12.
You know, it's, as the scripture teaches,
you are supposed to take care of your parents
if they get older.
You know, the Bible says to honor thy father and thy mother
and the Bible talks about honoring widows
that are widows indeed and the Bible talks
about taking care of your parents.
But that really should theoretically only happen
if absolutely necessary.
In fact, the parent should not plan on that or expect that.
That is not something that you should just say,
well, you know what, nuts to it,
you guys have to take care of me now.
That's kind of the wrong attitude,
that's the wrong philosophy you find in scripture.
The right philosophy is that the parents
would have so much, you know, pouring over in their life
that they would have plenty to give to their children.
Let me show you another place
where this is taught in scripture.
Second Corinthians chapter number 12,
look at verse number 14.
Behold the third time I am ready to come to you
and I will not be burdensome to you
for I seek not yours but you.
For the children ought not to lay up for the parents
but the parents for the children.
Notice that the Bible is teaching the same principle,
the same concept, that essentially the parents
should be self-sufficient and going beyond self-sufficiency
so as much to actually bless their children
with houses, with riches, with goods
that their children can enjoy later in life.
And if you think about the cycle of life,
I mean, really, whenever your parents pass away,
you should be pretty mature by that time.
We're just saying like ideally, right?
Let's say your parents live to be 70, 80 years old,
that would mean that you're probably 40 or 50 years old
when you would actually receive
that kind of inheritance from them.
Hopefully you've matured by age 40, okay?
Some of you, there's hope, okay?
You haven't gotten to 40 yet.
Some of you, it's late, it's too late, I'm sorry, you know.
No, I'm just kidding.
But at the end of the day, we should realize
that there's nothing wrong with passing that down
and then not only will the parents benefit from that,
but then the children of those parents
would benefit from that.
And that's really this principle
that Paul's kind of trying to extract here
and saying, look, guys, I don't need your stuff.
I don't need you to take care of me.
I should be taking care of you.
The parents should be taking care of the children.
The parents should be laying up for the children,
not vice versa.
But sometimes it happens.
You shouldn't be mad at your parents if they didn't.
You shouldn't treat them poorly.
You should still take care of them.
But I'm just saying ideally, as the parent yourself,
you should reverse the cycle and decide,
you know what, not only am I gonna take care of my parents,
I'm gonna take care of myself so much
that I can then take care of my children
and they don't have to take care of me
where I can actually give them an inheritance.
And you know, interestingly enough,
this was something that was passed down to me
from my mother.
My mother really taught this a lot,
where she would always bring up how she really wanted
to have an inheritance to give to her children.
And she thought it was very important.
It was very, in her mind, a big deal.
And she didn't want to be a burden unto her children.
She wanted to be a blessing unto her children.
And you know, unfortunately, my mom passed away before she,
in my mind, before time a little bit.
So she didn't necessarily get to do
what she wanted in that regard.
But that was at least a philosophy,
that was at least a principle that she constantly taught me
and was really insistent on and did not want to be a burden
because I think she personally,
her parents had been kind of a burden on her.
And she just, she didn't want to do that to her children.
She just felt like that was something
that she didn't want to pass down.
She wanted to pass down an inheritance.
Now, go back to Daniel chapter one, if you would.
We've learned the principle.
Now, I believe the principle, though,
can be applied more than just what we talked about.
Because as a parent, you should be passing down
a lot of things to your children.
You already passed down your genetics, okay?
They're stuck with those.
They're stuck with the DNA.
You can't fix that or change that.
They're gonna look like you, talk like you, sound like you.
I mean, it's locked in.
But there's a lot of things that you could pass down
to your children that are really important.
Like just being, how about men teaching their children
or their boys how to be strong?
I mean, wouldn't it be nice if we actually had men
teaching their children and their boys how to be strong?
And how to be men in this generation?
I mean, we need someone to teach them.
And you know what, who's not gonna teach them,
is there's a feminine queer society out there.
There's a feminine queer society
where there's men wearing dresses.
Look, this stupid Brad Pitt going to movie premieres
in a skirt.
What kind of a queer sissy is wearing a skirt?
And look, all of these Hollywood celebrities are faggots.
Let me just make something clear, okay?
They're all queers, they're all sissies.
Every girl's like, oh, Brad Pitt,
he's not even interested in you.
He's interested in dudes.
And he's probably not even the man in the relationship.
I mean, to say, you know,
I'm not gonna go down that road, all right?
But you know what I'm talking about.
We need men to teach our boys to be men
so that the sodomites out there
don't teach our men to be girls.
You know what, and men don't have to cry
about everything.
Men don't have to get their feelings hurt about everything.
Men can actually fight.
And you know what, also, men don't have to go around
and complain about everybody not caring about them.
You know, what's with these stupid sodomites
having to go around and just be like,
oh, nobody cares about us, let's go protest.
Let's just get somebody to care about us.
What are you?
That's not a real man.
A real man doesn't care if everyone's against him.
A real man doesn't need anybody to tell them
that they like them.
I don't need you to wave a banner and be like,
I love Pastor Shelley, please come to my restaurant.
It's like, I don't care if you like me or not.
If I like your food, I'm gonna come eat it.
I'm gonna give you money, you're gonna give me food,
and I'm gonna eat it.
I don't care what you think about me.
It's not like I'm thinking like,
now, do you guys like Baptists here?
You know, do you like fundamental Baptists?
Do you like preaching?
Do you like it when I say faggot?
You know, is that okay with you guys?
They're like, ah!
You know, they may be horrified of me, okay?
But I don't care, because a real man doesn't care
what people think of them.
They care what God thinks about them.
You know what, real men actually have some real strength.
They can actually handle some things.
They don't always have to be coddled and held
and told, you're a victim.
You poor little victim, let me come here
and let me just hold you and tell you
that someone loves you.
It's like, no man needs that.
The man's like, I'm good, don't hug me.
Actually, don't touch me at all, all right?
Men don't like hugs, you know?
The bro hug is kinda awkward, you know?
You're like, eh, you know?
It's like fist bump or something, right?
Just punch me.
You know, it's like men, they just like hit each other
or something, it's like they don't need
all these touchy feeling things or whatever.
I mean, we need to teach our boys how to be men.
Someone has to do it.
Someone has to teach them how to go out
and stand in the heat and not complain about the heat
and not complain about having to work
and not having to complain.
I mean, look, there's so many boys at work today
complaining about everything.
They're not men.
You know, the Bible says quit you like men.
You know what that means?
Quit complaining.
Just get the job done.
You know, it's so annoying being around complaining.
And you know, the biggest complainer is children.
You know what shouldn't be complaining is men.
It's really, really annoying when you're around men
that are complaining.
You're just thinking like, you're not a man at all.
You're just a young single dude
and you don't realize you're complaining about everything.
Sorry, young single guy has to complain a lot, all right?
So that's my grievance.
You know, somebody needs to teach these men how to shoot.
A gun.
I mean, you look at shootings today
and I wish that we would even have in the poor areas,
the ghetto areas where the gangs are,
that they would at least teach their kids how to shoot too.
So they stop shooting all these babies and everybody else
when they miss.
Because they're like, hey, man, I'm
going to go out there and shoot some people or whatever.
It's like, you won't hit anything with that.
People don't even realize how hard it is to shoot a gun,
apparently.
It's not like a video game where you have this automatic cross
hair and automatic targeting.
Video games try to make it easy.
In fact, you'll be aimed over here
and it'll just drag you towards the target
because you suck so bad with a joystick or whatever.
Or they'll auto fix your bullets and stuff like that.
That doesn't happen in real life.
We need some men to take their boys out and show them
how to use a knife, show them how to use a gun,
show them how to fight, show them how to defend themselves.
Because they're going to have to defend a family one day.
They're going to have to defend women and children.
And we need some men to know how to use some weaponry.
What would happen if we actually lived
in a country that wasn't America?
You could be invaded like that.
And all the men had to be ready to fight throughout history.
And even today, think about Ukraine.
They're just dragging guys off the street,
putting them in the army.
And they're like, this isn't Call of Duty.
No, it's not.
It's not a video game.
This is real.
We need men to know how to fight, how to shoot,
just have skills in general.
It seems like men today, and I'm using that word lightly,
the men of our today don't know how to do anything.
And it's just like, how do you not know how to?
It's like, can you change a tire?
What's a tire?
What is an engine?
What is oil?
It's like, they don't know how to do anything.
Hey, how do you tie a tie?
Sorry if I'm shaming you, but it's like, hey.
It's like, you don't know how to tie a tie?
I'm always baffled at the things
that people don't know.
But it's really not their fault. It's
the fact that their fathers taught them nothing.
It's that their fathers didn't sit there and say,
here's how you mow the lawn.
Here's how you change a tire.
Here's how you dress like a man.
Where's the lesson on getting a belt
and just pulling your pants up?
I mean, just everything, how to tie your shoes,
how to speak properly, how to use language,
how to shake someone's hand.
I mean, these weak handshakes need to go away from me.
If you're going to shake someone's hand, it better hurt.
Not this weak, like, hey, you want to shake my hand?
It's like, no, I don't want to touch that.
What'd you do to that?
You know, like when your kids get something on their hands
and they're all like, don't know what to do with it?
It's like, don't come at me with that.
You know, like, come on, give me like a real man shake, OK?
This is the stuff that should be passed down from the parents
to the children.
We should also just educate them.
And look, we should teach them everything.
You know, every time you go somewhere with your boys,
you go somewhere with your children,
you should be educating them, telling them about the world,
bringing up the Bible, explaining how the world works,
explaining how to use money, explaining them
how to drive a car, explaining to them how
to navigate situations, explaining to them discretion.
People don't understand discretion
because their father didn't hit them,
you know, didn't smack them around when they were saying
something they shouldn't.
You know, and we've all been there.
We've all done that.
I remember, this wasn't me personally,
but it was in my family.
And one of the children in our family,
we were at Pizza Hut, and my family
was really into these like weight loss TV shows.
Who's ever watched those like weight loss TV shows
or whatever?
Well, we're in this restaurant, and it's a buffet, all right?
So a very large gentleman came in to eat in the buffet,
and they watch all these weight loss shows.
Well, guess which one really came to his mind?
He's like, hey, dad, look, it's the biggest loser.
Dad, look, it's the biggest loser right there.
Hey, the biggest loser.
And it's just like, knock it off, you know?
You need someone to just kind of hit you and be like, no.
You know, bad timing, right?
It's like, but how does the kid know any different, right?
It's the name of the show.
The show's filled with fat people trying to lose weight.
He doesn't know any different.
In fact, myself included, apparently, OK,
I don't know how true this is, but my siblings
tell it like it's the gospel or something.
But we were at the store, and there
was a large person in front of us in that checkout aisle,
and they started backing up, and I was like, beep, beep, beep.
I don't know what to say, OK?
I was a child.
Someone should have smacked me, OK?
I deserved it, all right?
But this is what you need to do.
You need to constantly be educating your children
and teaching them appropriateness, discretion,
how to behave, what to think, what to say.
You know, there's just too much to be taught to these children.
And unfortunately, most children are
getting none of this education.
They just don't know anything.
They just really are uneducated.
They're not skilled.
They're not strong.
They can't shoot.
It's just like, they're like worthless.
They're worthless blobs.
And they're like, but I'm really good at Minecraft.
Oh, that's great.
What does that benefit you, right?
I mean, people are literally just wasting their life
on the dumbest things.
What is the youth of today?
What are the teenagers and the college kids?
You know, what did they spend all their time doing?
Video games.
And you know how much video games profits you?
Zero.
It's fun.
I mean, I love playing video games.
It's not like it's not enjoyable.
In fact, if you want time to pass like this,
play video games.
At least if you're me.
Maybe you don't like them.
I like them.
So whenever there would be a video game that I enjoy,
I could play it for hours and it felt like five minutes.
And there's no satisfaction in it in the sense
that you could play for five hours
and you still want to play just as much as you did
before you started playing.
So like food, at least when you start eating,
eventually you get to a full point.
With these type of things, there's like no full point.
TV is the same way.
You could watch.
I mean, that's why it's called binge watching.
Because you just sit there and watch the episode,
you're like, watch the second one.
Watch the third one.
And of course, the TV shows try to make hooks in them
to try and be like, what's going to happen on the next show?
Is Johnny going to date Susie or whatever?
You're just like, oh man, I'm so interested.
Is she going to break up with them?
Are they going to go there?
Are they going to have that conversation?
And you're just like, it's fake.
But you're just so interested.
What's going to happen to the dog?
Is the dog going to make it?
I have to watch it just to see what happens to the dog.
And it's just like, and then they
get through the whole episode.
And they're like, we still don't know
what's going to happen to the dog.
And you're like, oh no.
I've got to watch the next one.
You get so emotionally invested in fake crap.
OK?
And the same happens with video games.
You're trying to climb the leaderboard.
You're trying to get that kill streak.
Or you're trying to get to the next level or build something.
I mean, it's just incessant.
But it's just a time waster.
All it does is just waste your life.
Social media, drinking, partying, cartoons,
all of this stuff is just vanity.
It's just vanity.
It's worthless.
It's not building the next generation.
And here's something really clear about it.
It's not being passed down from the parents of the children.
My dad didn't pass down video games to me.
He tried to play it one time and he sucked.
OK?
We played Mario Kart.
And he couldn't even do one lap on the easiest level.
He's just like running into the side.
And I'm like, no, no, no, turn.
He's just like, this is done.
You know?
I'm like, you're so bad at this.
OK?
He didn't pass that down to me.
But even if your parents did pass it down to you,
I mean, that's a bad inheritance.
Video games.
And nobody even, I mean, you're definitely
not going to play the games your parents played.
Atari, Duck, Duck Hunt, or whatever.
I mean, Pac-Man.
It's not even that cool anymore, right?
The video games now are like realistic.
And there's names and badges.
And you can talk online and whatever.
I mean, it's not even the same experience whatsoever.
Before, it's just pong or something.
You know?
It's just like, you just got to hit it and get
through the levels.
But it was just, it was for the time wasters.
And our generation is literally, the children and the youth
and the men in our generation are just professional time
wasters.
That's all they even care about.
They're addicted to things that have no point, no value.
And they really are just worthless individuals
because of it.
Now, in Daniel chapter 1, I had to turn here for a reason
because I want to point out a verse here.
But look what it says in verse 20.
And in all matters of wisdom and understanding
that the king inquired of them, he
found them 10 times better than all the magicians
and astrologers that were in all his realm.
Now, Daniel was taught in all the same learning
as the children around him.
So basically, they're basically going
to all the same school district.
They're learning the same arithmetic, same language.
But he's like, how are these guys 10 times better
than all the other students?
You want to know why?
Because on their extracurriculars,
Daniel wasn't playing video games.
In their extracurriculars, Daniel
wasn't going out and drinking and partying
and being a derelict loser.
You know what?
He was getting wisdom from the Bible, from the word of God.
And in fact, what the Bible says is
he was literally 10 times better than all of his peers,
all of his counterpoints.
And let me tell you something.
If you men in this room actually teach and train
your boys, and you actually educate them,
and you give them skills, when they become young adults,
they will be 10 times better than the public fool system
is pumping out, even if they go to it.
But I'm just saying, if you put a lot of effort and energy
and time in training them, they'll
even be hundreds times better, in my opinion.
They'll be way less defiled.
They'll be more intelligent, more mature,
have a better vocabulary.
They're going to know what to do in their life
and make important decisions.
In fact, tons of times, if you actually
know what you're doing, at 18, you can already have a good job.
You know, there was a guy that went
to one of our soloing marathons in the Houston area, a young
man, he was like 16 or something at the time, and he's like,
man, I'm really interested in computer programming.
And I was just like, we talked about it.
That's all anybody wants to talk to me about.
And I'm like, yeah, you know, I basically gave him
a lot of tips of what he could do.
By the time he's 18 here, he has a professional career.
And even years beyond that, now he's making good money.
It's like, if this kid just keeps going on the road
he's going, I mean, he could be making six figures
and have a nice house and have all kinds of goods
at like 24, 25 years old, whereas there's
plenty of people that I know that are 30, 35,
and they're like, man, I'd like to have a house someday
or have a decent job someday, or I'm thinking about
switching careers, and I'm thinking like,
this guy's way ahead of you.
And look, myself included.
I went down a path that wasn't very good.
I got a college degree that was worthless, management,
and a minor in marketing, which is extra worthless
on top of that.
Then I went and worked in the banking industry, which sucks,
and after several years I ended up making
a complete career move.
And I wish that I could go back in time and say like,
hey, that was stupid, a bunch of waste of your time.
College, I became really good at ping pong,
which has benefited me a lot, huh?
I became good at video games, that's benefited me a lot,
huh, you know?
I played a lot of basketball, I played a lot of golf,
I worked out, and then I got a real job and I lost
all of that working out and all of that other skill
and all that, I mean, it's just like,
that was just a complete waste of my life.
And we need men to say, hey, this is what you're gonna do,
this is how you're gonna live your life.
In fact, most children throughout history,
their last name was related to their occupation.
Like the dad was a blacksmith and their name was Smith.
And it wasn't like, do you wanna be a gender studies major?
Or you wanna be a history major?
It was like, you're gonna be a blacksmith.
It was like, well, what if I don't,
you're gonna be a blacksmith.
You know, it's just like, hand it down, here's your job.
And you know what, that's what I'm gonna do
with my children, is I'm gonna literally just force them
to have skills and just have ability to do things,
whether they like it or not, and then afterwards,
if they decide they wanna do something different, go for it.
But you know what I'm not gonna do,
I'm not gonna be like, what do you wanna do, Johnny?
It's like, what little kid's just like,
I just really wanna work hard.
You know, you gotta teach them how to work hard.
You know, there's a special time in a child's life
when he's like five to about eight, nine, 10 years old,
somewhere in that range, where they love working.
Like, I wanna help dad take out the trash and mow
and clean and cook and all these things.
And then somewhere, by the time they get to a teenager
or something, it's just like, I never wanna clean,
pick up trash, it's like, this is terrible, it's a chore.
It finally becomes a chore.
And you know what, you have to push through that
when you're children.
You have to help them realize, okay, well life is not
just party and vacation and having fun.
You know, the public pool system teaches you
to basically take three months off for summer,
and it's like, that's a bad habit.
And I'm not saying you have to do school during summer,
but you should be making them do something.
Why would I just want my children,
especially when they're getting older, okay?
When they're children, they play, right?
But when they're getting to become a young adult,
to me, it makes sense to force them to do stuff
during that time.
And you know, while I didn't go to school,
my dad forced me to play golf in the summer.
And what I mean by force is like,
in the morning, when he went to work, I went with him.
And he just dropped me off at the golf course
at 7 a.m. or 7.30, and he picked me up at 5.30.
And I didn't have a car.
I was like 12 or 13 or whatever it was like.
So I'm just at the golf course, so you know what I did?
I played golf every day.
I just hit range balls, I played rounds,
I kept myself entertained.
I was there by myself every day.
And unfortunately, the courses I would play,
like it's all old men, so they don't care about me.
So I literally was just by myself all the time.
You know what?
It helped at least instill in me a good work ethic
and an ability to work hard, do things on my own.
And while that might not be perfect,
I'm not suggesting this, I'm not recommending this,
I'm just saying that at least giving your kids
something to do is important.
Teaching them and training them.
And you know, even at ages five, six, seven, eight, nine,
they have an ability to work on stuff.
You should give them projects or give them things to work,
give them books to read.
Don't just let them play all day every day.
You're just wasting all that time.
You know, we should be passing down
to the next generation skill and education and understanding.
And we shouldn't let society tell us
how smart our children should be,
how educated our children should be,
how skilled our children should be.
We should be dictating that to them.
And I'll tell you what, the children of yesteryear
were way more skilled and intelligent than we are.
Because they had no option, they weren't like,
you know what, I just wanna play video games today.
Their video games are like sticks and rocks outside.
And it was like, hey, if you don't come with me,
you're gonna die.
Or a bear might eat you.
Or you know, whatever, it's like,
they didn't have all these luxuries that we have today.
You know, kids were literally forced into hard labor,
learning, education, and if you didn't know
how to read and write, it was such a detriment
to you financially, a detriment to you in society,
that it was such a privilege,
people wanted to learn how to read and write.
Today, it's so easy, people just take it for granted
that they don't even learn how to read and write.
It would surprise you, if we got every man in this room,
if I gave you out a piece of paper,
and I said, write Matthew chapter one, just copy it out,
it would surprise you how bad most of them would look.
Like, you'd be like, oh, did y'all do
a children's activity today?
I'm just being honest with you.
Like, I never thought that was real,
and then I work with a lot of men,
and they'll write stuff down every once in a while,
and I'll look at it and be like, who wrote this?
And I'm thinking like, what is wrong with you?
I don't, you know, no one looks at really crappy handwriting
as like, I know you're a good person because of this.
I mean, it's John Hancock, have you seen
the really important documents of our founders?
Does any of that look like chicken scratch?
I mean, that stuff is some of the greatest looking
penmanship I've ever seen in my life.
The Declaration of Independence.
Go look at the signatures on the
Declaration of Independence.
Look at what they had to hand write and hand craft.
You know what, our children should be able to read,
and they should be able to write.
You know, you should give your children writing projects.
I don't even do this, fortunately my kids do this themselves
and they have this weird habit, they just make books.
And I'm just thinking like, this is great.
This is wonderful.
You know, I haven't even bought a card in a while,
I just make my kids make the cards.
I'm like, Mother's Day card, go.
You know?
And they just make a card or whatever.
And it's like, that's a great activity
to have your children do.
You know, we had the spelling bee last year,
and I'm planning on having it again this year.
You know, we need to teach our children how to read,
how to write, how to be educated,
how to do these type of activities.
You know, and writing is written in the Bible
as an instruction for the king.
I mean, the king was literally supposed to write him out
a copy of the law.
And there's just something that happens
in your brain when you write.
You know, that's why most of my sermons even as of late,
I always just write my notes typically,
because I like to be in a habit of writing.
You should get in a habit of writing things.
Even on your job, maybe get a notepad,
and when your boss is giving you instructions,
write them down physically.
You know, work on your penmanship.
Work on writing things.
People will take you seriously if you have good handwriting.
And they will look at you like a joke when you don't.
You say, oh, you're mean.
I'm telling you what the reality is.
When you go and you fill out an application,
when you go to the workplace,
and they're looking at you as a person,
and they're trying to evaluate you,
and they look at chicken scratch,
they think, here's a person that's not well educated,
didn't take time in school,
doesn't care about the details.
When you can't spell words correctly,
they're like, oh, what other details
is he gonna mess up on?
What other things is he gonna get wrong?
Or not pay attention to?
You know, readers are leaders.
And I'm telling you, you need to get your kids
highly educated and pass that down.
Even if you don't have it,
start getting it and start passing it down.
And start having your wives pass it down.
Go over to Ecclesiastes chapter number 11,
Ecclesiastes chapter 11.
It's like, well, this doesn't sound fun.
I was just wanting to go play and have fun.
Well, that's what we do in heaven, okay?
You know, we'll work till Jesus comes, we'll work.
It wasn't, we'll play and drink and have fun all day.
Where is that in the Bible?
Oh, it's always the fool that's like,
hey, eat, drink, and be merry,
because tomorrow we die.
You know what, the Christian attitude
is one where we work, where we build,
where we grow, where we educate ourselves.
You know, how many people, think about this,
never educate themselves out of school?
I mean, just, you think that going to church
is so, such a judge and whatever,
but it's like, be honest with me,
how many times have you even opened any book
if it wasn't for the Bible?
You're just lucky you're getting to read
some of the Bible today,
that we're having somebody actually open it up
and teach you things out of the Bible.
I mean, learning and educating yourself and growing
is a blessing unto you.
These people that are not getting it,
they're so uneducated, they're so foolish,
they have a limited vocabulary,
that's why they always use expletives to express themselves,
because frankly speaking,
they don't have any other vocabulary.
That's become their vocabulary.
And if you look at expletives,
what's really interesting about these words
is they're like the most versatile words in our language.
Like the F word.
I mean, it's considered the most versatile word
because it could be used in like, in every way.
Noun, adjective, adverb,
and if you've ever been around a cursing sailor,
he'll use it like eight times in the same sentence.
Why?
Because he has no vocabulary.
Because he doesn't know how to express himself.
You know what, you don't want your children to be like this
where they have no vocabulary,
where every word is just thing.
Hey, will you give me the thing with the stuff at the place?
What?
You know, the thing with the things on it.
It's like, you don't want to be like this at the workplace.
You don't want to be working
with the electrician or the plumber.
Hey, can you give me the like green and the red thingy
with the thing that lights up with the things on it?
You know?
And it's got like a thing that you plug into the thing
where the thing goes with one of those thingers.
It's like, what are you saying?
Yet uneducated people are like this.
They don't learn any words.
You know, in Spanish it's cosa, okay?
It's like, cosa.
But, you know, we need to educate ourselves
and we need to educate our children
and teach them other words
because, you know, children would get by with just us
if they could.
I had a nephew and he refused to speak
for like the first three or four years
and all he would do was uh.
Just uh, uh, uh, until they were like,
we're not responding anymore.
You either say the word or you don't.
And it was weird because he never went
through the cute toddler phase of like garble.
It was just then all of a sudden like,
can I please have a sandwich?
It was like, there was never, you know,
any of the cutesy phrases or improper understanding.
He went from us to, may I have a sandwich please?
You know, it's like, what?
It's crazy, okay?
But we need to educate our children
so they don't have to go, ugh.
Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 11 verse 10.
Therefore, boost sorrow from thy heart
and put away evil from thy flesh
for childhood and youth are vanity.
Oh, you're gonna ruin all my kids' playtime.
Well, it's time for them to grow up.
Playtime's over.
It's time to man up, to put away childish things
for us to educate ourselves and get skills
and training and teaching.
I mean, what person in this room would honestly say,
you know what, I would really hate it
if my dad would take me out and teach me a bunch of stuff.
Even if you're older.
Even right now to this day.
I love it when my dad tries to teach me something
or educates me.
And you know, frankly speaking, my dad,
he's one of the smartest men I've ever known in my life.
He has one of the greatest vocabularies.
He's really articulate.
He knows a lot of information.
And it'd be great.
Anytime my dad wants to just take me and say,
hey, let's learn or I'll teach you something
or I'll tell you about this word.
I remember when I was studying for the SATs,
I was kind of like skeptical of how smart my dad was
because he wasn't the most humble about it.
I'll just be honest, okay.
But he was like, he's like, I know all of these words.
And I'm like, whatever.
So I'm just flipping an SAT book.
And I would ask him like,
what I thought would be the hardest question.
He got every single one right every single time.
And I'm thinking like, how do you know that word?
How do you, and the, but he would always talk to me like,
you guys are, know nothing.
The education system is teaching you nothing.
And it's probably true.
Okay, make fun of me for being uneducated.
But I'm like, instead of just making fun of your kids,
teach them too, okay, right?
But there's no need to just be a child forever.
It's vain.
We need to stop living this life of partying and fun
and whatever and actually educate ourselves
and do some work.
Go to Ephesians chapter one, go to Ephesians chapter one.
So look, we need to leave and inherit our children.
And I've dwelled a lot of time on the physical.
But I want to spend another quick second
on the spiritual.
And really, the spiritual is more important.
But I just, I think we get a lot of spiritual preaching.
So I wanted to kind of also emphasize the physical too,
because both are important.
In fact, you know, physical spankings
is what delivers your soul from hell,
is what the Bible teaches.
Think about how that physical correlation
relates to the spiritual wellbeing.
And you know, a lot of physical things that God has us do
relate into the spiritual realm as well,
where if you're teaching and training your children,
obviously what's going to eat through that a lot
is a spiritual walk, is Christianity.
And you're going to instill in them good values
and character traits and a lot of things
that they can carry with them into the future.
And we need to do that, spiritually speaking,
because there's a spiritual inheritance to be had.
Ephesians chapter one, look at verse 11.
The Bible says, in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things
under the counsel of his own will.
So according to the Bible, we have an inheritance
that we get, we get it from the Lord Jesus Christ's
work on the cross.
God the Father has an inheritance
that he's going to give to us
that we will inherit with Christ.
Think about some of the verses we read earlier.
A wise servant is going to have a portion
among the brethren.
Meaning that if you actually get saved
and then you work for Jesus Christ,
you're going to inherit a lot of houses and riches
with Jesus Christ in the end times,
in the millennial reign, in the heavenly kingdom.
You know, there is an inheritance, and I'll say this,
your inheritance is not just a lump sum.
It is accumulating every day that you work.
That's why we say, we'll work till Jesus comes, we'll work.
Why?
Because we want to get that inheritance.
And we don't want to have just the smallest house
on the block.
Hey, Jesus Christ said there's mansions in heaven.
I mean, why would I not want to inherit
a nice dwelling place?
You know, I don't want to live in, you know, New Jersey.
I don't want to live in Canada.
It's like, you get to rule over this nation.
You're like, oh, sweet, Canada.
Really?
That's what you thought of me?
You know?
It's like, can I get something cool?
You know?
It's like, there's all these possibilities out there,
and it's like, well, if you'd worked a little bit harder,
you know, we would have upgraded you.
You know, San Diego, you're like, sweet.
That'd be nice, right?
I mean, especially, California's nice to inherit
in the new heaven and earth, right?
When you get rid of all the politics and all of this stuff.
Because the weather's fantastic, right?
Florida, I mean, these places are great.
These places are wonderful.
They're just ruined by cockroaches now.
Spiritual cockroaches.
But there is an inheritance to be had.
Look what it says in verse 18.
The eyes of understanding being enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope of his calling
and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints.
You know, there is an inheritance.
Go to Colossians.
I'm just gonna look at a couple of verses real quickly.
Colossians chapter one.
Let's flip to the right, just a few pages.
Colossians chapter one, look at verse 12.
Verse 12, giving thanks unto the Father
which hath made us meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light.
Look at chapter three, verse 24.
Chapter three, verse 24.
Knowing that of the Lord, you shall receive
the reward of the inheritance,
for you serve the Lord Christ.
Go to first Peter, first Peter chapter number one.
First Peter chapter number one.
I don't wanna squander the inheritance possibilities
I have with Christ.
That's why I wanna do that which is right.
And you know what?
We need to pass this down to our children
the importance and the zeal for them
to work on their inheritance.
You know, I didn't get started on my spiritual inheritance
when I should've.
I want my children and my grandchildren
to have a testimony that says,
I worked on my inheritance my whole life.
Even if I couldn't.
I want that to be passed down to them.
First Peter chapter number one, look at verse four.
To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.
And notice it can't be corrupted.
You can't lose it, can't get burned down,
you can't have interest, you're not gonna have interest
in all the mortgages and all the other garbage
that goes with home owning.
Property taxes, oh, that's the worst in Texas.
Literally going to the fund, the public school system
that I don't use, thanks for that.
You know, it's just like, it's bizarre.
Go to first Timothy chapter one.
You know, as a Christian, you should look for opportunities
to pass down a spiritual inheritance.
And when you pass down a spiritual inheritance,
while it's most important to pass it down
to your physical children, this can be passed down to anyone.
You can pass down your spirituality to anyone.
And in fact, often, you pass down your spirituality
to people that aren't blood.
You take people on as like a child unto you.
And you teach them and you train them
and you give them a lot of stuff.
You mentor them, you help them, you adopt them,
even though it's not in an official capacity.
You know, so you don't even have to have children
to take all of this advice that I'm giving you.
You could take any person under your wing
and do everything that I'm saying right now.
And you know, one of the greatest people that did this
was the apostle Paul, and the apostle Paul
had no physical children that we know of.
In fact, I don't think that he did.
I personally don't believe he did.
Studying the scripture doesn't seem like that at all.
But you know, he did have, he had a spiritual son.
Look at First Timothy chapter number one.
And look at verse number two.
Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith.
Now, I personally do not believe that Paul got Timothy saved.
OK?
You could believe differently than me on this.
I believe when you study the scripture,
he was saved from his mom.
Because the Bible talks about the lineage
going from his grandmother down to his mother and then to him.
I believe he was saved from his parents.
But I believe that Paul was a father into Timothy
and teaching him, training him to be a Christian,
and to be a godly man, and to be a leader.
And he looked at him as his own son.
That's how much love and fervor and zeal
that Paul had to Timothy.
And you know, wouldn't it God that Christians today
would get a fervor and a zeal for other people that aren't
even their physical flesh and blood
and just take them in as their own children
and just love on them and pour into them
and invest in them and help them to be better people.
You know what, there's some people in here that maybe they
didn't have a father to teach and train them everything.
So you take them to the gun range.
You show them how to write something.
You educate them.
You mentor them.
You help them.
You teach them how to read the Bible.
You teach them how to go soul winning.
You teach them the Christian faith.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter 1, 2 Timothy chapter 1.
You know what?
We as Christians are not supposed
to just lay around and say we're helpless.
We're supposed to be constantly building and working
and putting to effort all of the instructions
that God's given us.
We have something to build.
We have something to pass down.
You know, the rest of this world has nothing to live for.
We have everything to live for.
Our children, our spiritual children, our brethren,
we need to build something to pass down.
And you know what, I don't want Steadfast Baptist Church
to be a Roman candle.
I want it to be an inheritance that's passed down
to our children's children.
Where we look down and we say, hey, this is what we gave you.
Have a wonderful church.
Not just like, ah, well, it worked for us.
See you later, guys.
Nuts to you.
You know, I've seen churches that they basically
it's just a bunch of 80-year-olds.
And as soon as the last one dies,
I guess they're just going to come and repot the building.
There's no kids there.
It's like, what's going on here?
You know, church isn't just for me.
It's for my children.
It's for you guys.
It's for your children's children.
You know, I'm not up here just seeing
what I can get out of this.
I'm seeing what I can put into this
and see what I can put into my children.
You know, I believe the job of a pastor
is to help others serve Christ better.
And I believe that that is the goal of every Christian, too.
Your goal should be to help other Christians serve
God better.
You know why?
Some people may never even come to my church again.
They may come one time.
They may hear one sermon.
They may get baptized one time.
Whatever.
You know, at least they're just serving God
a little bit better.
Job accomplished for me.
Now, of course, I'd want them to be three to thrive, plugged in,
soul winning, the whole everything.
But you know what?
A lot of people won't do that.
But at least if we can just make them a little better,
at least if we can just help them
be a little bit better of a person,
a little bit better of a Christian,
have better doctrine, better children, better finances,
better marriage, better everything.
You know, even if they walk out of there, they're like,
my handwriting's not that bad.
I'm never going back to that church again.
But then they're like, you know, I'm going to write a little bit
just to see if I can improve that.
It's like, mission accomplished, buddy.
You're welcome.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 5.
When I called her, remember it's the unfeigned faith that is in
thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois,
and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also.
So he's like, hey, I see that faith that
was in your grandma, and your mom, and you.
And I personally believe, again, that he was probably
already saved from his parents.
Paul just simply helped him guide along.
Maybe he wasn't.
But it seems weird to me that you
have a grandmother and a mother that are so influential, saved,
and then their son's just not.
And then Paul had to randomly come in and get him saved.
I don't believe that.
I believe that he was saved before.
And why I bring that up is because then it
takes a different meaning what Paul means by, he says,
is my own son of the faith.
He's not talking about just a conversion story.
He's talking about a lifestyle.
He's talking about taking this kid in and saying,
you don't know anything.
Let me teach you everything.
And there's nothing wrong with being ignorant,
as long as you're willing to fix it.
You know, why would you stay ignorant?
Because you're prideful.
Don't be prideful.
Don't think, you know what, I have a good vocabulary.
Get better.
I have good handwriting, get better.
I know a lot of things, no more.
I've read the Bible some.
Read it again.
I know how to shoot.
Hit the bullseye every time, from further away,
with your left hand, without looking, when I'm not with you.
OK, I'm just kidding.
Right?
I mean, just why not keep pushing the limits?
Get stronger.
Get bigger.
Get faster.
Get everything.
Build.
We as God's people should keep getting better
while the world waxes worse.
Nuts to them.
Everybody gets so distracted on the world getting worse.
And I think, well, it sucks for y'all.
But as for me and my house, we're going to get better.
As for me and my house, we're going to get smarter.
As for me and my house, we're going to get richer.
Hey, you know what?
While inflation's kicking everybody else's butt,
I'll just get a better paying job.
I'll just make more money.
I'll just work harder.
I'll build my own things.
I'll cut out things that I don't need.
You know, I already don't drink and smoke and chew
and go with girls that do.
So that already saved me tons of money.
I mean, by just coming to church,
I mean, that didn't cost you that much.
A little gas.
But most activities cost you more than that.
You know?
Save some money, go on a diet.
That'll make you angry, at least, you know?
Sorry.
Go ahead to Acts chapter 20.
That's the last place I'll have you turn.
Look, we need to teach our children about church
and Bible reading and soul winning and doctrine
and not get so distracted by the political landscape,
by all the things that we don't have any control over.
The Bible says redeeming the time because the days are evil.
We need to take back our time, take back our lives,
take back our families, take back our church,
take back education, take back manliness.
Everybody freaks out when you go online and you preach
and you say, hey, my wife should go in the kitchen
and make me a sandwich.
It's like, everybody freaks out.
How dare you say that?
I bet he's not even married.
I am.
And my wife makes great sandwiches.
And I don't even have to tell her, she just doesn't.
What kind of, she must be so repressed and so horrified.
She's really happy.
Here's all these children.
I mean, you guys are the ones all sad and mad about it.
I mean, what does it matter to you
what I tell my wife anyways?
Why are you freaking out?
You know why you're freaking out?
Because you can't tell your wife that.
Because you don't even have a wife to tell that.
You know what?
Comment to me about my wife when you get married, number one.
Then you can talk.
If you want to tell me what you're
going to tell your wife to do, first get married.
Then get her in line.
Then tell me how you did it.
OK?
But you know what?
All these guys out there, they're
just weak and effeminate and queer and sissy.
And so they have to get mad at real preachers,
at real manliness, like, oh, man, that guy,
he must be mean to his wife.
He tells her to make him sandwiches.
I'm kind of hungry.
Wish someone would make me a sandwich.
It's like, dude, I paid for it.
I mean, what if I walk in Subway right across the street,
and there's some lady behind the counter,
and I say, make me a sandwich?
No one freaks out.
But if I ask my wife to, it's like, ah, the horror!
It's the same.
It's the same deal, except for I'm
paying her way better than them, OK?
They're making peanuts compared to what my wife gets.
Acts chapter number 20, this is the last place
I want you to look, but the apostle Paul
is leaving the church at Ephesus,
and he's kind of sad because he's not
going to see them anymore.
But he's trying to remind them of some things.
Look at verse 31.
Therefore, watch and remember that by the space of three
years, I cease not to warn everyone night and day
with tears.
And now, brethren, I commend you to God
and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up
and to give you an inheritance among all them which
are sanctified.
You know what?
God will build you up.
Reading the Bible, going to church, praying, soul-winning,
all these things, God will build you up
and make you a better man and a better person
if you'll let him.
You know, the apostle Paul can't do it all.
He can't be there to hold everyone's hands.
He's going to eventually be gone.
He's like, you know what?
I'm just commending you guys, the Lord, just stay faithful
and let the Lord build you up.
And I'm telling you, Steadfast Baptist Church,
please, men of this church, let the Lord build you up
so that you can build your children up.
Build your children up so they can build their children up.
And let us not just be the hezekiahs of this world
that say, oh, peace and truth in my days.
No, let us care about our children.
Let us care about the inheritance.
You know, the Bible said, a good man
leaveth an inheritance unto his children's children.
I want God to look down from heaven at me
when I'm in my dying breath and say, that was a good man.
I want my children to look at me and say, my dad was a good man.
I want my grandchildren to be there
and say, my grandfather was a good man.
Not for them to be like, thanks for all the debt, pappy.
And you know what's most important is that they say,
I'm so glad that my grandfather and my father
passed down to me a Baptist heritage, a Christian faith.
The greatest compliment my children could ever compliment,
not how much money I gave them in houses or anything
like that, but they gave me a King James Bible.
They gave me soul winning.
They gave me good doctrine.
They gave me zeal to serve the Christian life.
And think about this, if we last that long,
just think how many cool stories we're going to have.
They won't even believe it.
We'll have so many stories about all the crazy things
that we went through.
But you know what?
Your kids won't want to hear this one time when
I was playing on the Atari, like the pong paddle
was going like this and the ball was going like this.
Sure, grandpa.
Sure.
Can I go back to Minecraft 47?
We are the building blocks.
They just plug into this.
It's like, don't go down that road.
Care about the inheritance.
Leave an inheritance and leave a good inheritance, all right?
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the word of God.
Thank you that you give us an inheritance.
Thank you that we get to enjoy all the riches and the houses
and the new earth.
And not by any good that we did, but we
get it by the work of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we understand that you're also going to reward us
according to our works on top of that.
And I pray that we wouldn't take it lightly,
that we'd see the great opportunity before us,
that we would have love in our hearts for our children,
that we'd have love in our hearts for our grandchildren,
that we'd have love in our hearts for our fellow brothers
and sisters in Christ in this room,
that we'd have love in our hearts
for our spiritual children, for those whom we claim
as our children, those we claim are our brothers and sisters,
those that we can pour our lives into.
And I pray that we wouldn't get so selfish
and we get so distracted to only care about the things that
are vain in this life, but rather, we
care about the things that have eternal value
and eternal weight.
And I pray that you'd help build us up
so that we can leave an inheritance
under our children's children.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, if you would, grab your hymnals
for our final song, page 309, Dare to be a Daniel.
That's page 309, Dare to be a Daniel.
Stick around, we have a few baptisms.
And this is a great inheritance we could pass down
to our children, the hymns.
So let's sing out with our hearts, 309, Dare to be Daniel.
Standing by a purpose, true, heeding God's command,
honor them, the faithful, few, all hail to Daniel's band.
Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone,
dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known.
Many mighty men are lost, daring not to stand.
Who for God has been the host by joining Daniel's band?
Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone,
dare to have a purpose firm, and dare to make it known.
Many giants, great and tall, stalking through the land,
headlong to the earth would fall if man is banned.
Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone,
dare to have a purpose firm, and dare to make it known.
Hold the gospel, ban your heart unto victory grand.
Satan's host is fire, shout for Daniel's ban.
Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone,
dare to have a purpose firm, and dare to make it known.
We have Brother Shane coming for baptism this afternoon.
And here, I'm going to have you scoot back a little bit
and just sit down all the way on your bottom, OK?
Brother Shane, when we were out stalling this afternoon,
he came up to me and he said, hey,
what do I have to do to be saved today?
So we got to talk to him and his cousin, and both of them
got saved, and then he brought Timothy today.
So Brother Shane, have you trusted Christ as your Savior?
Then I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost.
How's your nose?
Very likeness of his death, raised
to walk in newness of life.
Congratulations.
Make sure to say congratulations, Brother Shane.
Brother Timothy.
Go ahead and have a stand right here and sit all the way down
on your bottom, OK?
Sit down all the way on your bottom, if you don't mind.
Yeah, scoot up just a hair if you can for me.
Perfect.
Yeah, all right.
Whenever I say the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
hold your nose.
I'll get you down and bring you back up, OK?
We have Brother Timothy coming here for baptism.
Brother Timothy, have you trusted Christ as your Savior?
Then I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost.
Hold your nose.
Very likeness of his death, raised
to walk in newness of life.
Congratulations.
Good job.
We have Brother Jared coming.
You can sit all the way down on your bottom right here.
Perfect.
All right.
Brother Jared, have you trusted Christ as your Savior?
Then I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, buried in the likeness of his death,
raised to walk in newness of life.
Congratulations to all our baptisms.
Make sure to congratulate them after the service.
You are dismissed.