(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, Proverbs chapter 11, the verse I want to focus in on this morning is Proverbs chapter 11 verse 29 that reads, He that trouble at his own house shall inherit the wind, and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart. The title of my sermon this morning is, Troubling Your Own House. I just want to talk about and look at some examples in scriptures of certain things that people did throughout the Bible to trouble their own house. And from this verse alone we can see several things that, one, it is possible for us to trouble our own house. As it says, he that trouble at his own house. So it's not only possible to be a trouble to other people, but the scripture is telling us here that we can also trouble even our own house. What does it mean to trouble? Well trouble simply means to cause anxiety, or to cause difficulty, or to cause pain to others. And we see also from Proverbs chapter 11 that there are severe consequences involved for those who would trouble their own house. The Bible says he that trouble at his own house shall inherit the wind. So that's a very severe consequence. A lot of people when they get to the end of their life they're looking forward to an inheritance and when you come to the end of your life and find that you have nothing but the wind, that would be a very severe consequence for troubling your own house. We see also that there is always a cause or a source of trouble. There's always people, there's always somebody to blame for troubling their own house. It says he that trouble at his own house. There's always somebody to blame. And in the Bible there are many negative examples that will serve as warnings for us. In fact there's more negative than positive, if we were to think about it. The Bible has a lot of negative things in it, but it's important that we take heed to the negative things in the Bible because those often serve as signposts and warnings to us as we live our lives. There's also a few positive biblical examples that will serve as encouragements. I don't know how much time we'll really have until we get to the positive, but we'll at least look at one for sure. Now it's important that we take heed to this sermon this morning because there is no neutral ground here. If you'll notice in the verse, it says he that trouble at his own house shall inherit the wind, and contrary-wise, he that does the trouble at his house shall not inherit the wind. There's no neutral ground here. We are either going to be a curse or a blessing to our house. And now everyone has a house that they play a role in, or they will have a more significant role in their house even in the future. So it's important that we take heed to this sermon because the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 3, the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he blesseth the habitation of the just. So there's either a blessing or a curse on the habitation of our lives and our houses, and it's all dependent upon how we behave ourselves. Now first of all, I'd like to look at some of the bad examples, and I'll just very quickly, you know, the very first one that comes to mind would be, of course, Adam and Eve. They would be the first example of somebody who troubled their own house. And we're all familiar with that story, and if we're not, we should probably get a little more serious about our Bible reading, but you know, Genesis 1, 2, 3. So what we see in the story of Adam and Eve is a complete disregard for God's commandments. You know, God said, Thou shalt not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. He told them what did they end up doing? They just disregarded that commandment. You know, Eve was deceived and ate of the fruit, and then Adam willingly took of the fruit and ate that she gave him, that forbidden fruit. So we see that even Adam in the beginning had a disregard for the commandments of God, and as a result, you know, he troubled his own house. Now the thing about this is that, you know, when we think about troubling our own house, it's not just our immediate, within the immediate context of our family. It also can be a multi-generational curse, as is the case with Adam. I mean, we're all suffering today, even to this point, because of Adam's disobedience. The Bible says in Romans 5, Wherefore is by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. So we see that even today, you know, Adam troubled his house in so much that even we today are suffering because of his disobedience. And we ought to take heed to that story because we can trouble our house for generations to come. You know, we can develop habits and sins in our lives that our children can learn to mimic, and their children will learn to mimic, and it will just be passed on from generation to generation. And even today, I'm sure that there's some of us in this room that are sitting here that have already experienced that in our own lives. We already have seen the certain sins of our fathers and grandfathers in our own lives. But we need to make a point, and a purpose in our hearts that we're going to break that cycle, that we are going to be the generation that snaps that curse of the Lord in our house and begin to receive the blessing and our habitation of God. Now there are consistent things throughout the examples that we're going to look at. One is that sin affects those around us, and it affects those who will come after us. If you turn to Judges chapter 14, we'll look at another example of somebody who troubled his own house in Judges chapter 14. We'll look at Samson. Samson was one who troubled his own house by defiling his parents. The Bible says in verse 9, of course Samson is going down to try to take this Philistine woman for a wife, and he's traveling down to the Philistines. In verse 9 the Bible says, well let's back up to verse 8, the Bible says, and after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. So if you recall early in the story, you know, a lion met him in the way and he slayed that lion. And then later he's going by that same place and he sees the carcass of the dead body of this lion. To see this carcass of the lion, and behold there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion. So there's this carcass that literally has a swarm of bees inside the carcass they'd made of a hive or a nest, and there was honey dripping inside there. There's actual honey inside the carcass. The Bible says in verse 9, and he took thereof in his hands and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat, but he told them not that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion. And he purposely, you know, leaves out that information because that food, that honey that he took out of the lion was defiled. And we know that from the fact that Leviticus chapter 11, the Bible says that anything that goes upon its paws on all fours is an unclean beast. So that lion was something that he should have nothing to do with. He also had the vow of the Nazarene upon him, so you know, he's not supposed to take any kind of, he's not even supposed to touch any kind of a dead body. But the Bible specifically in the law of Leviticus says that a beast, a lion like that was an unclean beast, and that they already have nothing to do with it. So he touches this beast and he takes the honey out of it, and then he goes and he gives it to his parents. And they unwittingly eat this food, and they themselves become defiled. The Bible says that if a soul touched any unclean thing, whether it be a carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of unclean claddle, or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him, which is the case with Samson's parents, they didn't know. But the Bible specifically says that if it be hidden from him, he also shall be unclean and guilty. So we see that Samson, in his own desire for that honey, the things that he should not have, that he was tempted to take of that unclean thing, brought it to his parents and thereby defiled them as well, even though they didn't even know. The Bible's very clear that even though you don't know that it's from an unclean source, you're still guilty. You are still defiled. And the point that we need to draw from this is that we ought to keep track of what our children are getting into. You know, Samson was getting into the lion going after that honey, was going after that unclean thing. And we as parents, or those who someday will be parents, we need to make sure that we are keeping track of what our children are getting into. Because what they're getting into, they could bring into the home. They could bring it home, you know, into the home physically. Let's say it's like music. You know, they're bringing in CDs or records or whatever it might be, or books or literature that they're bringing into the house that they're learning certain philosophies and attitudes from. And, you know, especially today with the internet, you know, just giving your child complete access to the internet with no supervision at all is incredibly dangerous. I mean, I can tell you stories, things that my wife has told me about people, you know, that she's heard from, that they're finding their kids looking at just the worst stuff accidentally. Young children just stumbling upon just the worst filth on the internet because you're not keeping track of what your children are getting into. And we need to keep track of that because, you know, all these things, you know, the internet, the video games, the movies, the music, the books, these all have honey in them. They all have an appeal that are going to draw our children towards them. They're all going to want to bring our kids and get them into something that's unclean while they're going after something that is appealing. And it's going to defile them, it's going to defile their mind, and they're going to bring that back into the home. You know, in the forms of attitude, things that they say, things, you know, their actions. And those things can defile our home, and that's how our own children can trouble their own house and end up inheriting the wind. So that would be our first example of somebody who troubled their own house. That would be Samson. Another one would be Lot. Lot is another person that comes to mind. If you want to turn to Genesis chapter 13, Genesis chapter 13, we'll look at another example of someone who troubled their own house. Example of Lot, Genesis chapter 13. Now we know the story of Lot here. This is when he's separating from Abram, and he's going, you know, his herdmen have contention, there's not enough room for them to land, and Abram says, you know, if you choose the right hand and left hand, if you go right, I'll go left, if you go left, I'll go right, we all know the story. The Bible says that in verse 10 of chapter 13, that Lot has lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere. So when Lot's sitting here at this place in his life where he's got to make this decision about where he's going to dwell, about where he's going to go live, the Bible says that he lifted up his eyes and he looked upon the land that it was well watered. And you know from the story that he's talking about the land, you know, the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, that's where he was looking towards. But he didn't take note of the fact that these men were wicked sinners there, he just saw how well watered the land was, how good it would be for his cattle, how he could prosper in that land. You see, Lot was enticed by the prosperity of the wicked, that's what drew Lot in. The Bible says in verse 12 that he pitched his tent towards Sodom, and we know from the story of Lot that Lot, over time, he starts outside and he's facing Sodom, you know, he's not in Sodom, but later we find Lot dwelling in Sodom, he has a home there. So eventually he starts out on the plain, you know, just looking at Sodom, and over time he finds himself living right in the midst of Sodom. You see Lot was affected by the wicked. The Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 2, for that righteous man, speaking of Lot, that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. So when Lot, you know, he's pitching his tent, and eventually he moves in towards Sodom, and eventually he moves into Sodom, the Bible says that those things that he did by dwelling among those people, that he vexed his own righteous soul. And that's the same thing a lot of people do today, they vex their own righteous soul with the seeing and hearing of Sodom. They're looking at the television, they're looking at, you know, things on the internet, they're looking at just the world in general, you know, adapting their philosophy of life and how to live this life, and it's vexing their own righteous soul. They get their priorities out of whack, their values are out of whack, they line up with the world more than the men, the word of God, and they end up vexing their own righteous soul. And the thing that we need to learn from Lot here is that the things that we see and hear will affect our house. He sees and he hears Sodom, he ends up moving in there, and the story goes on about Lot, it doesn't end there. And we see that towards the end of Lot's life, how seriously it affected his own house, how he troubled his own house. In verse 13, the Bible says, the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. So those are the type of people that Lot has chose to dwell among, wicked sinners that are exceedingly wicked before the Lord. Lot's daughters were affected by their father. We know the story that when God came with the two angels, the two angels come and they tell Lot to get out, take his family and get out, and they eventually rain fire and brimstone, and that Lot and his family flee, his wife turns into a pillar of salt because she looks behind as they're fleeing. Then eventually, you know, Lot ends up in a cave with his two daughters, and these two daughters have been so affected by living with these wicked, unrighteous, unholy, ungodly people in Sodom, that the Bible says that they made their father drunk and they lay with him. And the Bible says in Genesis 19, 36, thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. Now it's easy to just read over in the story, but you have to stop and think about what a wicked sin that is. I mean, how defiled does your mind have to become to where you think that's a good idea? How foolish and how just wicked a person has to be to think that that would be something that they should do. You see, Lot dwelling among those people troubled his own house because it affected his children, and their thinking. And that's why we need to be careful. We need to be careful about how we let the things that we look and see at, how they will affect our own children. Because they could even, you know, those sins could come back around and haunt us. Now it's interesting that in the story of Lot that alcohol was involved. And anytime, you know, you want to talk about something that's troubling a lot of houses today. You want to talk about how a lot of fools today are troubling their own house and causing themselves to inherit the wind. Alcohol is a great way to do it. It's involved in this story, and there's so many examples that we could go to. I mean, even in my own life, I can tell you that the way my house was troubled was through drugs and alcohol. I mean, it's affecting our nation. You see, alcohol was involved and often is a cause of troubling a house. I'll read to you from a study that was done by the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. It was published in May 2014. Researchers from the University of Michigan have found that nearly half of the more than 17,000 studying participants with a history of alcoholism got a divorce at some point in their lives. So half of these 17,000 people that had any kind of trouble with alcoholism prior, half of them end up getting a divorce out of these 17,000 participants. And I don't understand, you know, I don't have the formula exactly how they, you know, they do these research studies and what, you know, what sample group tells you about the general populace, but when you have 17,000 people, you have a pretty good cross-section of your society. What you see in that small group, you can pretty much extrapolate and apply to the nation. So half of the people that are studied here in these 17,000 get a divorce because, directly because of alcohol, while only 30% of the participants were not affected by serious alcohol, got a divorce. So you know, alcohol aside, you know, 17,000 people, 80% of them are getting divorced. I mean, that's not, now I've read other studies where the marriage rate isn't that, the divorce rate, excuse me, isn't that bad in this country. But it's bad in this country and it's getting worse. And a divorce is a great way to trouble your house. And that's what's troubling a lot of houses across our land and yet even the world today. We have homes that are being troubled because of divorce and we have people, children, that are inheriting the wind because of their children's, or their parents' sins. So 17,000 people, 80% of them, had a divorce. That's 13,600 people out of 17,000 that got a divorce. That's a staggering number to think about that. 8,500 of those 17,000 people getting divorced, that was due to alcoholism. Because of alcoholism, 8,500 get a divorce. Now if we remove alcohol alone, just remove that one factor, now let's say that was for sure the one thing that these people got, you know, a divorce over. Or it caused, you know, through a process of staphs, you know, alcoholism, the alcohol led to one thing to another, it all began with the alcohol. Let's just remove that one factor, the alcohol. That really means that you would only have 5,100 people out of the 17,000 that got divorced. That's a huge percentage, that's when those numbers start to make sense, when you go from, you know, 13,600 people getting a divorce to 5,100. That's still, you know, it's not good, but I mean, that's a huge way, a great way to eliminate and bring down the divorce rate is to, you know, get away from alcohol. Because alcohol, all it's going to do is trouble your own house. All it's going to do is cause you to inherit the wind. The Bible says, Proverbs 21, wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. Who is it that troubles his own house? It's the fool. The Bible says, shall be the servant. It's the person who is not wise. So if we're not wise, if we're fools, and we get involved with alcohol, you can rest assured that to some degree, you are going to trouble your own house. He that troubleeth is a fool. The Bible says, we'll move on to another example. The example of David, if you would, turn to 2 Samuel chapter 12. So we see that alcohol is one of the leading causes of divorce, or at least a major factor in divorce, and it's causing people to trouble their own house. Now David troubled his own house as well as others. He not only troubled his own house, but he troubled a lot of other people's houses too. Now, we're picking on David a little bit. Now, no mistake, David was a great man of God. But he was a man just like me and you, he had flesh and blood, and he made mistakes, and I believe God uses David in the scripture. We looked at Peter last week, was another man who did great things for God that had a lot of shortcomings, and God puts these men in the Bible, makes them main characters, so to speak, in the Bible, so that we can learn from their example. And David troubled his house as well as others through his flesh. And that's how all the examples that we're looking at this morning pretty much, so far at least, all these examples are people troubling their house basically through the sins of their flesh. And David was no exception. The Bible says that David committed adultery. David saw Bathsheba and committed adultery. Now in the United States, 17% of all divorces that occur are due to adultery. 17% of all divorces in the United States, this study said, are due to adultery on either part of, you know, on part of either party. That's 17%. So, you know, a great way to get rid of, bring down the divorce rate, you know, and despair our children of this country, one would be to avoid alcohol, another one would be to avoid adultery, you know, to learn to control ourselves and our fleshly appetites. So if we reduce adultery, we will reduce their divorce rate. The Bible says that 90%, not the Bible, excuse me, the study says that 90% of Americans believe it is morally wrong to commit an adulterous act. So this is, I think this is back in 2008, that might have changed, you know, even in that short time. People might be, eh, it's not such a big deal. I know other countries in Europe, that rate is much lower. They're perfectly fine with it. They think, hey, there's nothing wrong with it. But 90%, at least when this study was done a few years ago, at least at that time, 90% of Americans believed that it was at least morally wrong to commit an adulterous act. And that only 61% of those people would like to see it punished as any other crime. So at that time, even more than half of Americans thought, not only is it wrong, it should also be punished as a crime, which it used to be in this country, it used to be a crime to get a divorce. Now it's always been a crime in the eyes of God. You know, adultery, excuse me, I said divorce, but they wanted to see adultery punished as any other crime. Now adultery has always been a crime in the eyes of God. Always has been, still is today, and always will be in the future. That has not changed. The Bible says in Leviticus chapter 20 verse 10, and the man that committed adultery with another man's wife, even he that committed adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulterous shall surely be put to death. God puts the death penalty on adultery. You know, we take a lot of flak here at Faith to Word because we say that homosexuals should be put to death, as the Bible clearly states. Not that it's our job to do it, but that a righteous government, a holy government, who's going to fall in line with the word of God, who's going to follow the precepts and the commandments of the word of God, would put these people to death. We take a lot of flak because we pick on the homosexuals, well let me get off men for a second and pick on the adulterers a little bit. They also should be put to death. Let's spread it around a little bit. The Bible makes it perfectly clear here that they are to be put to death. And some people would object and say, well you know, Jesus forgave the woman who was caught in the act of adultery. He abolished it. No he didn't. Go read the story, friend. The Bible says, he told the Pharisees, he said, ye are which without sin first cast a stone. He didn't say don't stoner. He said, no, go ahead stoner. Just you who don't have sin, do it. And I don't have time to really explain that whole situation there, but they were trying to trick Jesus into breaking the Roman law because it was against the law for them to put anyone to death. They were trying to play a trick on Jesus to say, oh you want to put them to death? Well you just broke the Roman's law. Or oh you don't think she should be put to death? Well you just broke God's law. And what's he do? He just flips it around on them and says, yeah stoner, but you who don't have sin, you cast the first stone. And Jesus did say, you know, go and sin no more. He forgave the woman of that act. But the point is, but we shouldn't get this nonchalant attitude about adultery. You know, God will forgive who he forgives. And the Bible says that adultery, in chapter 20 verse 10 of Leviticus says that they that do it should be put to death. You see adultery is not like any other crime. So I'm glad these 61% of Americans at least thought that adultery should be punished, but they thought it should be punished as any other crime. Like what? Like a speeding ticket? No, it's far worse than that. The Bible says that it should be punished with death. Why? Because it leads to divorce and people have this nonchalant attitude about divorce today. They just kind of count on it. First you fall in love, you know you meet, you fall in love, you get married, you stay married for a few years, maybe have a couple kids, and then you get a divorce. It's just like, that's just a pattern people have fallen into. But it affects our children and that's the problem with divorce today. A lot of people, a lot of adults can get divorced and go on and live productive lives as far as the world is concerned. They can hold down a job, they can function in society, yada yada yada. But the fact is that divorce has a devastating effect on children. Now the various studies on the US rate of divorce show significant differences when a comparison is made in first, second, and third marriage breakups in America. The marriage breakup rate in America for the first marriage is 41 to 50 percent. So your first marriage, you're 41 to 50 percent likely to get a divorce if you're just the average Joe in America. The rate after the second marriage is 60 to 67 percent. So a lot of people who get divorced are like, I'll just find somebody else who will be a lot better. No. You're even more likely. Well that one doesn't work out. So you get a divorce again. You get a third one. You go and get married a third. Well the rate in America for the third marriage is 73 to 74 percent so it just keeps getting worse and worse. You know why? Because a lot of times you're the problem and you're just carrying your problems from marriage to marriage. You know, it's not the other person, it's you. That's what you need to fix. Reports also say that couples with children have a slightly lower rate of breakup. Well that's nice that they have a slightly lower rate when people don't have children. And just goes to show you that some people still have enough of a brain in their head to understand what it's going to do to their children if they get a divorce. And I've met people that say, well we're not going to break up for the children's sake. You know, they stick together and they have a lousy marriage just because they don't want to affect their children. This is due to the fact that being childless is also one of the prime causes behind divorce in America. Now this is the fact, this is the point that I really want to focus in on the study. The Bible says, or the study says, also the children of divorced parents, don't miss this, if you have divorced parents, are prone to divorcing four times more than the children of couples who are not divorced. So if you are a child who comes from a home where your parents got divorced, this study is showing that you are four times more likely to yourself get divorced. That tells me that if you're a person, such as I am, who comes from a home where the parents got divorced, you need to be very careful, one, about who you choose to marry, and going into it, understanding what it's going to take to keep a marriage together, and making sure you understand who you're marrying, because you're already at a default here. You're already starting off on a bad foot. And the point I'm trying to make here is David troubled his own house by committing adultery. You may think, well what's the big deal with that? Well it's because a lot of times adultery leads to divorce. And let's not forget what David did when he committed adultery, he also committed murder. So one thing leads to another. And divorce is a huge problem, it has devastating effects on children. They did this interesting study, they asked these kids, just to kind of, because we just read numbers, we just read statistics, we just read these digits with these percentage symbols behind it, and it doesn't really hit home with people. This study is interesting because they actually took this group of children, actually they were young adults, people who came from divorced homes, and they gave them these statements, these certain statements, and they said, do you agree with this statement or do you disagree? And these are some of the statements out of a hundred of them. I'd be a different person if I were not divorced, 73% said I would be a different, well that's kind of a no brainer, right? Well of course you would, you would have a different path in life, your dad or mother would have stuck around. My life would be different if my parents were together. That's again kind of a no brainer, but think about it, these are the kind of things that these children that have gone through this are thinking about, how different their life might have been. I'd be a different person if dad were in my life more. That's a sad statement. I'm someone who came from a broke home, I'm somebody whose parents got divorced and dad left the country pretty much, and I don't mean to pick on my dad, I forgive him, I love him, I understand that unsaved people make terrible decisions and they have to live with those decisions, but I can tell you that as a child who's coming from that situation, you think about how different your life would be if your dad had been around. The lessons that I've had to learn the hard way because I didn't have a father figure instructing me, drilling these things into me, and teaching me the things about just being a man in the world, being a man of your word, learning how to work, learning how to be responsible and do these things. I would be a different person if my dad were in my life. I worry when both parents are at events at graduation, these are all over 50% here. I had a harder childhood than most, 48%. I really miss not having dad around, 48%. My parents' divorce still causes struggles for me, 48% of them said that. And that's the truth. People who have come from that divorce zone, they're four times more likely to divorce because they're still struggling from the effects that their parents divorce had. Here's a real great one, I hope my children would never have to say this, my childhood was cut short, 34%. I mean that's terrible, maybe I'm getting a little too personal, but I know when my dad left, I used to have this reoccurring dream. I'm okay with it now, I've dealt with it, so don't worry, I'm not freaking out up here. I used to have this reoccurring dream as a child, shortly after my parents split, and this dream went like this, I'm standing in this meadow and these clouds are just, it's like have you ever seen a time lapse where they speed it up and the clouds are just, so it's this blue sky, it's this big beautiful meadow, but the clouds are just rushing, and way off in the distance there's this like silo with this white picket fence around it. I had this dream three times, three times in a row, this exact dream, exactly like this, and all of a sudden I'm rushed to the silo, right, and there's these ladies and these children, they're all picking flowers outside the silo, it's a really lovely scene, but all of a sudden I have this ability to see inside the silo, and it's my dad, and he's like walking around the catwalk, and inside the silo is a nuclear missile, okay, I know this is crazy, then all of a sudden from that point I'm transported to the moon, alright, this is a dream, alright, I'm transported to the moon, and me and my sisters and my mother are sitting there and we're looking at the earth, and the earth just goes, just blows up, alright, this is like a seven year old type of dream. I woke up just crying, wandering around the house, I had a friend over, the last time I had, when my best friend was sleeping over, and he said he literally had to slap me, like I wouldn't even come out of it, finally I woke up, my head was in my mother's lap and she's like brushing my hair, trying to get me to calm down, and I come to my friend later told me, I was like, I had to make sure you didn't fall down the stairs, I was slapping you trying to get you awake, but this is the kind of devastating effects that divorce has on children. The Bible says, well not the Bible, the study says, my childhood was cut short, I mean, what do you think that dream meant? My world was just exploded, the father, the dad that you looked up to, the man in your life when your child was just bigger than the world itself is your dad, when that person just leaves you, you know, oftenly under very bad circumstances, that could cut your childhood short. Here's another one that he said, the last one, 18% said, I feel doomed to repeat my parents' problems, not me. Now the last accurate, the last year for accurate numbers of children, last accurate number on children annually affected by divorce was 1988 when the Center for Disease Control stopped gathering data. So they stopped gathering this data, probably because it was so overwhelming, so boy we can't even publish this, this is terrible, but it was 1988 when they were still collecting accurate numbers for the children affected by divorce annually. That year the number was over 101,044,000, however, since then, the percent of women who have had, who have been divorced has continued to rise, therefore, conservatively, we estimate the number to be at least one million child per year, so one million children per year are affected in some way by divorce. Should one add to the number affected by the dissolution of an always intact cohabitation of natural parents, the number is significantly greater. We do know that for all U.S. children, as of the latest data from the 2009 American Community Survey, only 47% reach age 17 in an intact and married family. Divorce detrimentally impacts individuals and society in numerous other ways. So the study is saying here that as of 2009, when they were estimating about a million children that are affected by divorce annually every year, that every year 40% of those people, they only reach, 40% of children only reach age 17 in an intact home. And the point they're trying to make here is how terrible divorce is, how it impacts individuals and society. In terms of religious practice, divorce diminishes the frequency of worship of God and recourse to him in prayer. That makes perfect sense because often, you know, God likens himself unto a father and he is the father. And our fathers are kind of, in a way, a picture of God, should be a picture of God to us. We as children should be able to look to our fathers and say this is somewhat, to some degree, what God is like, someone who's caring, someone who's nurturing, someone who's protective, someone who's going to care for and provide for you. So it only makes sense that when someone sees the person who is kind of a picture of God in their life abandon them, that they kind of bring that attitude over into how they perceive God, which is why, you know, it diminishes the frequency of worship of God. Why would they want to worship a God who they think is like some man who's going to abandon them? But we know God is not like that. God's saying, you know, I will never leave the door for safety. So we know that that's not the truth about God, but the fact is that it does affect people to where they have this misconception of who God is because of divorce. Education. Divorce diminishes children's learning capacity and educational attainment. The marketplace. Divorce reduces household income and deeply cuts individual learning capacity. That's probably tied in with education. Government divorce significantly increases crime, abuse and neglect, drug use, and the cost of compensating government services. So when dad's not around, when dad's not there, you know, to lay down the law, to give out the whooping, to tell them how it's going to be, and to correct the children, they just start to run wild. And the next thing you know, all the crime rates are going up. Now why do you think it is that the wicked, the evil rulers of this world have made divorce so easy? Because they understand the detrimental effects of divorce on society. It's exactly what they want. They want chaos. Health and well-being. Divorce weakens children's health and longevity. It also increases behavioral, emotional, and psychiatric risks, including suicide. The Bible says in Malachi chapter 2, what he's saying, wherefore? That's kind of what adultery, or the society is like when we talk about these subjects. But what for? What's the big deal about adultery? What's the big deal about divorce? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did he not make one, yet had he the residue of his spirit, and wherefore won, that he might seek a godly seed? Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away. For one covereth violence with his garment, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore take heed to your spirit, that he deal not treacherously. You see, divorce is punishable by death, or excuse me, adulterous, and that leads to divorce. And the divorce is a treacherous act, the Bible says, that's what he's saying here, it's a treacherous act, according to the Bible. Now we would say, well you're looking at the example of David, here's a guy who committed adultery and in the process committed murder. And David, you know, but David did not get off the hook, you know, and we could shake our fists and say, well that's not fair, why does David get away with it? Well you know, the Bible says, the Lord will have mercy on whom he will have mercy. You know, if you want to shake your fists and reply against God, you take it up with him. But God chose to show David mercy here. Bible says in 2 Samuel, there in chapter 12, look at verse 13, and David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. So we see that even back then, that David understood that adultery was punishable by death. David understood the law. Now he got off the hook, so to speak, God didn't let him, he said, I'm going to spare your life. But instead, David's house was troubled. You're there in 2 Samuel chapter 12, look at verse 10. God puts this curse upon his house. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house, because thou hast despised me, and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, behold I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this son. You see, Absalom's rebellion is what resulted because of David's sin. Bible says in 2 Samuel 18, I'll read it to you, that eventually Absalom was killed. We know the story that he rebelled, he becomes bitter because of the incest and rape that came against his own sister, that he becomes very angry about it, slays his half brother, ends up fleeing the country, David eventually brings them back, kind of ignores them, and eventually Absalom just rebels completely and has a civil war against his own father. And that's the curse that came up, that was the trouble in David's house that was a result. And when they finally killed Absalom, the Bible records David's response in 2 Samuel 18, and the king was much moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would God I had died for thee. O Absalom, my son, my son. So we see that David troubled his house through adultery, and he troubled it even to the point that his own son died, and it grieved him so much that even he wished that he had taken his place. So that's the example of David, we'll look at another one very quickly, and that would be the example of, I don't know that we have time to look at Achan, but we'll fast forward here to Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, turn to Numbers chapter 16. You know, Achan was another one, real quickly, who just troubled his own house through covetousness. He ended up taking the Babylonian garment, he took the thing of curse and was not supposed to, and he causes Israel to be in sin against God, he hides his sin, and he goes behind everyone's back, hides it in his tent, eventually he's found out, and what happens? They take him, they take his whole family, his children, his wives, his cattle, and stones them all. And people would say, well why did his family have to suffer? Well maybe they were in on it, the Bible says he hid it in his tent, underneath his tent. So maybe, I don't know, maybe they weren't around when he did it, but perhaps they did know that he did it. But either way, you know, even if they didn't know, I think the thing is, is that had Achan gotten, you know, been slain alone, they might have become embittered about it, and sought to retaliate. But I tend to believe that they were in on it, you know, that they were aware of what their father was doing, that they, and their house was troubled, you know, they troubled Israel, that's what Joshua said to him, why hast thou troubled Israel's day? The Lord shall trouble thee. And they dragged him out, they stoned him, they burned him to fire, put stones on him. So, you know, there's an example of a guy who really troubled his house to the point where they were all destroyed. But look at another one here in Numbers chapter 16. Numbers chapter 16, I'm going the wrong way, Numbers 16. We're going to look at Korah, Dathan, and Abiram as examples of people who troubled their own house. Now Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, these were men that troubled their own house, how did they do it? They did it by withstanding the men of God. The Bible says in Numbers 16 verse 2, And they rose up before Moses with the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. So notice there, it says that they, they stood up against them with the children of Israel, and they took two hundred and fifty princes. So what they're doing is they're starting this faction, they're starting this little group within the children of Israel, and they're withstanding the man of God. They started a faction, and the Bible says in verse 3 that they said, All the congregation are holy. So this is their objection, this is the case that they're bringing against them. All the congregation are holy, wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. So what are they trying to do here? They're trying to bring down the man of God. They're saying, what makes you so special, Moses and Aaron? All the congregation are holy, why can't any of us do what you're doing? They tried to bring down the man of God whom the Lord had appointed. Remember, it wasn't Moses that took that role upon himself, it wasn't Aaron that decided he was going to do what he did. It was God who appointed these men, who said, you know, you are going to lead my people out of Israel. God chose Moses. But these guys didn't understand that. They just see the fact that Moses and Aaron have this position of being in leadership, and they become envious, and they want, you know, they want to take part in it. They want that role. So they tried to bring down the man of God. So they're troubling their own house by withstanding the man of God. Verses 8 through 11, we'll look very quickly. And Moses said unto Korah, Here I pray you, ye sons of Levi, seemeth but a small thing unto you. The God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord. So it's not that these guys didn't have a part in the ministry, they're doing the service of the tabernacle. They are the sons of Levi. Then he says this, And to stand before the congregation to minister unto the Lord, and he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren, the sons of Levi, with thee, and seek ye the priesthood also. So they didn't have enough. It's not that these guys didn't have a significant role in the ministry that God had ordained at that time. They wanted even more. They wanted to take more to themselves. They wanted that priesthood also. It wasn't enough that they were just going to serve in a tabernacle. For which cause both thou and thy, all thy company, are gathered together against the Lord? What is Aaron that ye murmur against him? So what was he saying? Who are we? You're withstanding God. You're not withstanding us. You're not coverizing him. You're withstanding who God has ordained to be put in this position. He said, Seek ye the priesthood also, for the which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the Lord? What is Aaron that ye murmur against him? You see, they wanted to be exalted in the eyes of others. They wanted others to see how great they were. And they withstood the Lord and his servants, and they caused a vision within the congregation. Look at verse 19. The Bible says, And Korah gathered all the congregation against them. Remember it started out as 250? Now I don't know if this is when it says all the congregation, it's referring to that 250. When I read it, I kind of perceive this as, you know, that, that, that, that division spread and eventually they got all the congregation to stand against them at the door of the tabernacle. They went from 250 to all the congregation. That's why people who withstand the man of God, people who are going to take a stand against the preacher of the church need to be cast out because those people, they will spread like a cancer to the whole church is going to withstand the man of God. They're going to, and it's not the man of God, you know, decided to just be in that position. He was ordained and put in that position by another man of God. So as Moses and Aaron were, it's not that they just decided to take this upon themselves and self-ordain them and they're just subject to, to, to, to everybody else's women desire. No, they have an obligation before God, they have a charge in the sight of God to oversee the flock of God. That's why people have to be cast out from church who caused division. That's why heretics and gainsayers have to go. They nearly got everybody killed. If you look at verse 20, and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron saying, separate yourselves from among this congregation that I may consume them in a moment. So God's just going to destroy them all. He's just going to wipe them all out. And what Moses and Aaron did, they just stepped aside and said, have at him God, go for it. Yeah, let's see, let's see the vengeance of God. No, that's not what he said. Verse 22, and they fell upon their faces and said, Oh God, the God of the spirits of all flesh shall one man sin and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation. So they intercede for the whole congregation. I don't know if the congregation realizes that they did this. That they, I don't think these people realize how close they came to just being wiped out by God. And if it weren't for the man of God getting down on his face and interceding for them and pleading for them, that they wouldn't have been spared. Moses and Aaron intercede for the congregation. See, we need to understand that the man of God is on your side, even if it doesn't seem like it. Even if you aren't on his side in some cases, often the man of God, you know, he might never verbally express it. He might never come to you and try to tell you how, you know, even though you've come against him or you're being divisive or you're causing him heartache or being a pain in his side, the fact is that the man of God probably in all likelihood is like Moses in his closet of prayer praying for you, you know, asking God to show you mercy, asking God to have pity upon you. See, not everyone receives that mercy. We know the story here of how David and Abiram, they were separated, eventually God opened up the earth and swallowed them and all that pertained unto them and they went down live into the pit. See, Korah and his men troubled their own house by withstanding the man of God and being divisive and bringing, you know, and bringing the congregation against the man of God. They troubled their own house and as a result they inherited the wind. And people today, they don't have the same reaction as people back then because back then in number 16, in verse 34, all Israel, they were around about them, you know, when they've been swallowed up and they saw this, the Bible says they fled at the cry of them. They said, let the earth, lest the earth swallow us also. So they see this happen and they go running the other direction. And wouldn't it God that's how people would react today when heretics, when divisive people are cast out of the local church, that they would think, wow, let's take heed to the fact that this happened, you know, but that's not the way people are today. And if there's the same people, they want to befriend these people and reach out to them and help them and try to, you know, remain pals with them or something. Well, I wonder if those people had been back then when they saw Korah and David and Abiram go down live in the pit, if they just jumped in after them, you know, that's what people do spiritually today. They want to keep going after these people that they cast out for perfectly good reason. And they just want to jump in the pit with Korah. Now we've looked at quite a few bad examples, you know, and I don't have an awful lot of time, but I do want to look very quickly at one last good example if you can bear with me for a little longer. Go to Proverbs, I'm sorry, turn to, where am I going to have you go? Just go to Joshua 24. The Bible says in our text verse, or not our text verse, the wicked are overthrown. So we see that the wicked are overthrown. That was kind of the case in all of our examples, to some degree or another, Korah and Abiram overthrown. David, you know, his house was overthrown, and so on and so forth. The wicked are overthrown, but the house, the habitation, the house of the righteous shall stand. Now Joshua is a great example of somebody who got it right, was a good example of somebody who did not trouble his house and did not inherit the wind. Joshua, his house stood because he knew where to stand. That's why his house stood, because he knew where to stand. You see, Joshua, the Bible says, was a minister and servant of Moses. He was the exact opposite of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. He was not coming against the man of God, he was getting behind the man of God. He was supporting the man of God. His house stood because he knew where to stand, and where to stand is behind the man of God, not against him. Joshua was a minister and servant of Moses. Your house will follow your lead. That's why Joshua's house stood, because he knew where to stand, and as a result his house followed his lead. Loyal parents are going to produce loyal children. Faithful parents will produce faithful children. Godly parents will produce godly children. Divisive, contrary, rebellious people better take heed, because the fact is, they are going to produce contrary, rebellious, and divisive children. They're going to take, children are taking note of your attitude towards the man of God, and that's how they're going to perceive the man of God. That's how they're going to perceive how they should treat authority in their life, and mark it down. That's how they're going to, the attitude that they're going to adopt towards the authority that you are in their life. Joshua was in the battle with God's people in Exodus 17. We see that Moses told them to go out and fight with Amalek, and Joshua did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek, so we see that Joshua was in the battle with God's people battling at the command of the man of God. We need men today who will obey the man of God and fight, who will fight the good fight of faith, who will get behind the man of God who is leading a charge and trying to accomplish something for God and take on an enemy that deserves to be fought, and we need men that will get behind that man and join him in the battle. What we don't need is men that are going to fight the man of God. We don't need that. We need men who are going to fight with him and not against him. Joshua was loyal to the Lord, not only the man of God, but also loyal to the Lord. He said in Joshua 24, if you're there, verse 14, Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. And if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served at were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, and whose land ye dwelt, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. You see, Joshua, his house stood because he knew where to stand. He knew to stand with the man of God, he knew to serve God with his life. And when we serve God with our lives, everything else just lines up. When we make God the priority and the focus of our lives, all these other things are going to fall into place. Because we're going to do that, we're going to heed the commandments of the word of God, we're going to heed the preaching of the word of God, we're going to apply those things to our life. We're going to be obeying God and following God in our life. The primary focus and what we need to be doing in our lives, all those other things are going to fall into place. And as a result, our house will not be troubled. Joshua serves as a great example of not troubling your house. In Deuteronomy 34, the Bible says, Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom. And it's the fool that troubles his house. But Joshua had the spirit of wisdom, for Moses laid his hands upon him, and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses. See Joshua was exalted in the eyes of Israel, and he was glorified in their sight as a result of the fact that he followed the man of God, in time he was exalted and lifted up, because he was following and serving the man of God. Not his core, Nathan and Byron, who stood the man of God in an attempt to be exalted in the eyes of the people. The Bible says in Proverbs 3, 35, the wise shall inherit glory. And what was Joshua? He was full of the spirit of wisdom, and he did receive glory, you know, in the sight of man, and in the sight of God, because he was humble, he was a servant, and he stood with the man of God, and in time he was exalted into that place of leadership. But shame shall be the promotion of fools. The person who troubles his own house is a fool. The fool receives the promotion of shame, and is a servant to the wise, and he troubles his own house. The Bible says in our text verse, he that troubles his own house shall inherit the wind. Now fools, the Bible says, inherit the wind, because it's a fool that troubles his own house. So the question is, what are you going to inherit? Are you going to inherit the wind, or are you going to inherit glory? They're putting bad examples to learn from, and we looked at several of them, and there's a few good that, you know, we looked at Joshua's all the time we had for, but we need to take knowledge and be wise of these good examples and these bad examples, because the Bible says the simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. It says that those that trouble their own house are going to inherit the wind. Now I'll just close with this example. Can you imagine being at the reading of a will? You know, someone who's gone out before you, passed on, they have all this abundance of wealth, and you go to the reading of the will, and you're just like, man, what am I going to get? And you know, they say, to so-and-so, I leave a jar of wind. Everybody else is getting like the Rolls Royce, the mansion, the yacht, the money, just a mason jar of wind, you know, that's what you get. That would be devastating. You know, so are we going to get a jar of wind or are we going to get crowned with that crown of knowledge? That's what I want to hear, is that crown of knowledge, that crown of wisdom, and that only comes when we take heed to the good and bad examples in the Word of God, and we understand what it means to trouble our house, and how we should avoid those things, like divorce, alcohol, standing against the man of God, falling in line where we should. So let's just take heed to that today, and we won't have to worry about hearing the wind. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, again, thank you for...