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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Go ahead and turn to song number 351. Tell it to Jesus. Amen. Three, five, one. Tell it to Jesus. Are you weary? Are you heavy-hearted? On the first. Are you weary? Are you heavy-hearted? Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Are you weary? Tell it to Jesus. Are you grieving? Or joys to find? Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well-known. You know others. Such a friend. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Are you weary? Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Are you weary? Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Do the tears float down your cheeks? consent You know others. Tell it to Jesus. Tell it to Jesus. Have you sins that to men's eyes are good? You know others, such a friend or brother, tell it to Jesus alone. Do you fear the gathering clouds of sorrow? Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. Are you anxious? What shall be tomorrow? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well known. You know others, such a friend or brother, tell it to Jesus alone. Are you troubled? Are you troubled at the thought of dying? Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. O Christ coming, Kingdom are you sighing? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well known. You know others, such a friend or brother, tell it to Jesus alone. Amen. All right. Well, good morning. Welcome to Shield of Faith Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, just raise your hand and we will try to get you one. So let's go through these announcements here. Front page, weekly church service time, Sunday mornings at 1030. Sunday evenings at 6 and Wednesdays are at 7 p.m. Underneath there is a list of soul wanting times. The only time that is consistent is Saturday mornings at 1030 meeting right here. All the other ones are subject to change. 208-391-5323 is the number to call. Middle page, tonight will be in Hebrews chapter number 10. Don't forget about the Old Testament Bible reading challenge. And let's see here, Wednesday. That's right, Wednesday, June 29th. So the last Wednesday of the month, Pastor Steven Anderson from Faithful Word Baptist Church will be here preaching for us. So again, everything is the same. So Wednesday, same time, different preacher. July 2nd, we'll be having a mini soul winning marathon in Napa and we'll give you the details as it gets closer. Birthdays and anniversaries for June. So we're up next to an anniversary which will be on the 27th which is Miss Joanna and Mr. Roberts. Verse of the week, Proverbs 20 verse 7 which says, The just man walketh in his integrity. His children are blessed after him. We are a family integrated church. What that means is we don't separate children from their parents for any reason. Dad's still got to use the break room for now. Mom's mother baby room is right across the hallway. Hopefully the monitor is still set up. Yeah, it's got a mind of its own. But it took me forever to get it turned on today. I don't know what I was doing wrong. But if you have any issues, the one back there may be able to help or Miss Jessica can help. So let's see here. Don't forget to turn your phone off or place it on silent so it's not a distraction. And the very bottom line says God's word is the advantage we didn't have. That was from Brother Jeff last Sunday morning. So with that being said, we're going to have one more song before we receive the offering. Alright, let's grab those hymn books one more time. We'll turn to song number 270, Just As I Am. We'll go ahead and sing it with all our hearts. Number 270, Just As I Am. On the first. Just as I am without one plea, But that thy blood was shed for me, And that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come, Just as I am, and waiting not to rid my soul Of one dark blot to thee whose blood Can cleanse each subtle limb, O Lamb of God, I come, I come, Just as I am, though tossed about With many a conflict, many a doubt, Fighting and fears within, Without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come, Just as I am, poor wretched mind, Side riches, healing of the mind, May all I need in thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come, I come, Just as I am, thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, Because thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. I never got tired of that song. When I was in Japan, that was the song. Obviously, we don't do altar calls here, but that was the song for like six months straight. They would sing every service. I remember one day, this lady, I got to tell you the story. She was the deacon's wife, and I don't know, she was just spaced out or something. She picked up the hymnal, and they started singing Just As I Am, and she just throws it down. I was like, man, I don't know why I picked that up. I know the song in my sleep. But still, it's a great hymn, a great hymn. It never gets old. I could see how some people could find it. I guess knowing if it was every service, every altar call, right? All right, well, with that being said, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for allowing us to be able to meet here this morning. Just pray that you'd bless our service, Lord, and the fellowship to come, everything we have going on today. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Proverbs 20, starting in verse 1. Wine is a mocker, and strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. The fear of the king is as the roaring of a lion, whose so provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul. It is an honor for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will be meddling. The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold, therefore shall he beg and harvest and have nothing. Counsel in the heart of a man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. Most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find. The just man walketh in his integrity, his children are blessed after him. A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes. Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? Diverse weights and diverse measures, both of them are like an abomination to the Lord. Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure and whether it be right. The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord have made even both of them. Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty. Open thine eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread. It is not, saith the buyer, but when he has gone his way, then he boasteth. There is gold and a multitude of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel. Take his garment that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman. Bread of deceit is sweet to the man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. Every purpose is established by counsel, and with good advice make war. He that goeth about as a tale-bearer reveal of secrets. Therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips. Who so curseth his father or his mother? His lamb shall be put out in obscure darkness. An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the endereth shall not be blest. Say not thou, I will recompense evil. But wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee. Diverse weights are an abomination unto the Lord, and a false balance is not good. Man's goings are of the Lord. How can a man then understand his own way? It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy, and after vows to make inquiry. A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the will over them. The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly. Mercy and truth preserve the king, and his throne is upholden by mercy. The glory of young men is their strength, and the beauty of old men is the grey head. The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil. So do stripes inwards parts of the belly. Brother Victor, you want to pray for us? All right, amen. Well, happy Father's Day to all of you fathers out there, or anybody who's acting in the role of a father. Good morning. We're definitely glad that you're here. As many of you know, we started a miniseries a couple weeks ago. Brother David started off for us about Father's Day, right? Because you take David, he's a brand new dad. We figured what better way to mess with him than to have him preach to Sermon. What he learned about being a father for the last three months. Yeah, three months, right? Yeah, okay. And then we're going to get Vic up here next week. Surprise, Sermon. Then we have Brother Jeff last week, because he's got the munchkins all over the place. He's pulling his hair out now. Just kidding. Patty's pulling his hair out now. Just teasing. And so I'm going to finish it off today. So we're in Proverbs chapter number 20. And by the way, before we continue, I do want to thank you guys for preaching those sermons. They were great. We all learned a lot. And we should do stuff like this more often, because I get a little bit of a break. With that being said, we're in Proverbs chapter number 20, look at verse number 7. So the Bible says, The just man walketh in his integrity, his children are blessed after him. Now the title of the sermon is this, Father Time. Father Time. You'll see about halfway through why I've titled it that, okay? I'm not going to give it away just yet. But the topic is this, okay? It's what I've learned from having teenagers. Now, after all of these years, I've had a lot of time in the role of a father. And we're going to talk about some stuff. I'm going to tell you some of my mistakes, because I've got plenty of them. I'll tell you some of my success stories too, because I have a few of them. But definitely more failures than successes. But nah, just teasing the kids. I think it's going to be great. But really, I'm going to be answering these questions. Things I've learned having teens and an adult now, who's 18, well he's almost an adult. He's an American citizen adult, because he's 18. But he's not 20 yet, so he's not a biblical adult. So that's when we'll have another conversation. And I'm going to go over things that I thought that I knew about having teens, about having children. I'm going to talk about the things that I wished that I knew. And I'm going to talk about the things that I learned and things that I wish I did differently, which are the same. Because obviously we all learn things as time goes on. And of course, you wish you'd done all those things. That's all of us. You'll see that here. And again, this sermon's not designed to blast you. Oh, you're not doing this, you're not doing that. It's to be an encouragement, it's to be a help to all of us. And if you're not a dad in here, there's wisdom in here, because this is the word of God. So there's something for everyone in here this morning. Now, let's talk about this here. Look down at verse number seven. So it says, the just man walketh in his integrity. His children are blessed after him. Now, that's right in between two verses that really hammer home the point that Solomon is trying to make for us here. Now, we all know what integrity is, right? What is that? It's walking with a high moral standard, okay? It's a person who says, hey, you know what? This is right, this is wrong. End of story, okay? Now, where does a just man get that judgment? Where does he get that information from? Well, he gets it from the word of God. Gets it from the Bible, okay? Now, what's the result of doing that? What's the result of walking in integrity, being honest, you know? Calling truth, truth. What's the result of that? For especially a father in this verse. His children are blessed after him, okay? We're really gonna be talking about that this morning. Now, back up just one verse and look at verse number six. The Bible says this, most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find. And boy, isn't that the truth today, right? I mean, you go knock on 100 doors and ask people if they're sure they're going to heaven and the vast majority of them are gonna tell you what? Yes, because I'm a good person, right? Most people are willing to say that. Hey, you know, at least I'm not Adolf Hitler. Now, there's a lot of people who think I'm Adolf Hitler right now, but, you know, whatever. That's all good. But, you know, you get the point. Most people think, well, because I'm not Hitler or because I'm not Stalin, right? Well, I must be pretty good because apparently God only judges the mass wicked murder types of people, which apparently, again, I am. But that's a sermon for another day, okay? Most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness. So most people will at least say something like, well, you know, I'm not that bad. You know, my kids are jacked up. Well, it's really their fault. You know, and sometimes that's the truth because let's face it, people have free will. You know, there are, I mean, there are people out there who've done everything right and for whatever reason, you know, the kids are just like, I want no part of this. I don't want anything to do with this. And you say, well, how do you help those types of situations out? Well, you as a person keep being just and walking in your integrity, okay? Your hands are clean. Your hands are free. You've done what you can do, okay? But also what I wanted to point out from this verse here, look at the end. It says, but a faithful man who couldn't find, right? What does that mean? It means that most people in the world are not faithful, meaning they're not reliable. They are not trustworthy, especially in today's day and age. Who here thinks that the media is trustworthy, right? Who here thinks the government's trustworthy? Who here thinks the police department's trustworthy, right? Very, very few people in those organizations could say that they are faithful. Why is that? Because most people today, unfortunately, are raised according to the wisdom of the world, okay? And what does that produce? Does that produce faithful people? Does that produce children that are blessed after their fathers? No, it produces selfish, victim-typed people, which unfortunately in today's day and age we are surrounded by, okay? So again, now read verse seven. It says the just man walketh in his integrity. His children are blessed after him. Look at verse eight. A king that sitteth in the throne of, what does that word say? Judgment. Judgment. That's right. Judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes. This is the goal. Obviously not just for the fathers in here, but also for the mothers, for every Bible-believing Christian, because the Bible says that we are kings. We are priests. And the only way that you can be effective in that role is to have judgment. So my encouragement right off the bat to you, fathers, is to make sure that you are walking just and in integrity with the idea that you will teach your kids judgment. Teach them discernment. Teach them judgment. And you know what? You will produce children that have a backbone, children that can stand up in the face of adversity and call evil, evil. Call wickedness, wickedness, right? That is what we need today because there is a tremendous lack of it, right? I mean, just our small state. I mean, we are surrounded by cowards. We are surrounded by people who are not faithful, by people who openly reject truth. Truth is simple as male and female. Truth is simple as two plus two equals four. And it ought not to be so. It doesn't have to be said, and it should never be said of God's people that we are of that sort ever. What this book says is judgment. What this book says is truth. And this truth needs to be passed on to these kids, to these children here. And that's my goal. That's what I want to do. And I believe that's what every father and even mother in here wants to do. Now, if you would, go to Matthew chapter number seven. Matthew chapter number seven. So, so far, what have we seen? Well, we've seen that a just man walketh in his integrity. What's the result? Well, his children are blessed after him. But there's a huge problem today, okay? And this problem has existed since the beginning, pretty much the beginning of time, okay? And we're gonna take a look at that. You say, well, what's this problem? Well, we'll get to that here in a second. This is a problem that every father faces. This is a problem, honestly, that every mother and every Christian and every human being on the face of the earth has to face. See, it's not enough for me to just read for you guys Proverbs 20 verse seven, and just be like, all right, sermon's over. You know, hey, walk in your integrity, have some standards, word of God, and we're out, okay? That's not good enough to just leave it at that because there is a major problem that we all face. And part of being just, part of walking in integrity is acknowledging this problem, okay? And Jesus talks about this problem here in Matthew chapter number seven. Now, just for quick context, many of you already know, but just in case you're not familiar, Matthew chapter seven is part of the Sermon on the Mount. And Jesus is basically, he's making all kinds of application here. He's teaching law. He's teaching how it applies to them and their situation. And obviously, by reading it, we can see how it applies to us in our current day situation. He says things like, hey, you are the salt of the earth. You guys are the light of the world. A few verses before where we're gonna pick up, Jesus says, hey, you know, why are you guys worrying about everything? You know, don't you see that God takes care of the fowl? Aren't you better than sparrows? Aren't you guys better than the animal kingdom? And we talk about that today. And because it's very important, most people today that are alive in the world get animal rights or human rights, and they should have more rights than us, you know? That's the society that we live in today. But I wanna highlight something here. Now look down at verse number seven. So as Jesus is teaching them application, he's teaching them how to overcome anxiety, how to properly execute judgment. Verse seven, he says this. He says, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Obviously, a great formula for prayer. You know, if you ever say, you know, I'm stuck in a rut. What's the answer here? What are we doing? Well, if you can remember the acronym, ask, right? You ask the Lord, you seek opportunities, and you keep knocking on doors. Eventually, God's gonna funnel you into the right avenue to take. Look at verse eight. It says, for everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Say, why are you reading this? What does this have to do? I'm reading these verses here to let you guys know and to highlight the fact that Jesus is talking to these people as if they're saved, right? There are people here that are saved. It's important for verse 11 here, okay? Look at verse nine. It says this. It says, verse nine, it says, or what man is there of you whom if his son ask bread, he will give him a stone? Verse 10, or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? Right? So he's basically saying, hey, look, any one of you fathers here, any one of you guys here, if your child asks for something, you're gonna give them what they need. You're gonna give them what they want if you're able to, right? If they want food, you're not gonna be like, here, here's a dirt, a little dirt cake, you know, mixed with a little bit of oil, you know? Oh, you want some fish? Here, try this out. And it's grilled snake or something like that. He's like, you know, you wouldn't do that. Why would you expect me to do the same to you? And here's the thing that he says next. Look at this. If ye then, being evil, do you see that? If ye then, being evil, you say, well, stop right there, wait a second here. I mean, if you were to read the Sermon on the Mount, it doesn't sound like he's talking to a group of evil people, does it? I mean, he just got done saying, hey, you guys are the salt of the earth, you're the light of the world. Hey, you guys are better than fowl, you're better than these sparrows. You know, your heavenly father takes care of the grass, why wouldn't he take care of you? And then all of a sudden he says, hey, if you guys know how to give good gifts unto your children and you're evil, what does that mean? Well, let's finish the verse. He says, if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Now let's stop right there. The problem today is that we don't understand the English language as well as we once used to, okay? When Jesus says there, if ye then being evil, what does that mean? Well, when you do a study on the word evil in the Bible, it doesn't always mean somebody who's involved in witchcraft and devil worship, right? It means to hurt. That's what the word means, it means hurt, right? Who's ever read the book of Amos? What does it say about evil and the Lord? Hey, if evil's been done in a city, you better understand that the Lord has done it. The Lord does evil things to nations. The Lord does evil things to people. Okay, that doesn't mean wicked, it doesn't mean sinful. It means that hey, he's a righteous judge, right? The things that he did in his nation when his children turned their backs on him, right? Those were considered hurtful or evil, but they were just. And he's saying if ye being evil, meaning inherently we are all sinners, right? We are all evil and this is the dilemma that we all face today. And guess what it is? You can't do it right. You can't be a perfect father. You will never be a perfect parent, right? But understanding the last part of this verse here where he says how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? That is key to your Proverbs chapter 20 verse seven. That's walking in integrity, understanding that you are not better than anyone else. If you have wisdom, if you have any kind of integrity, if you are considered just by God, it's because of what he did for you because we are all sinners. No father gets it right all the time. That's the biggest thing that I've learned. Looking at my kids and talking with them and seeing how they interact with people, you know what I've learned? And just talking with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. No one gets it right. You just need to understand that. Now I'm not saying hey, let's party and just throw caution to the wind and just don't even try. No, of course we need to try. Every single father in here needs to purpose in his heart to serve the Lord and the rest will follow with it. You're gonna make mistakes along the way because you carry the old nature with you. You carry that old man. You're gonna say things in front of your kids that you wish you didn't. You're gonna act a certain way in front of your kids in a way that you wish you didn't. You know what? It is what it is. You will never, ever be able to father perfectly. And the same goes for you moms out there. You will never be perfect of your own accord. But you could still be successful. It could still be said about you, hey, you are a Christian. You are a person of God that is walking justly and after integrity. Only after though, only after though, you understand that that comes from the Father of lights, the perfect one, the one who died for us. Go to Luke chapter number two. Luke chapter number two. And I bring this up because, you know, fathers have a tendency to set the bar extremely high. I've been there. Okay, I'm gonna talk about that here in just a minute. You know, sometimes we'll set the bar higher than it was ever set for ourselves, won't we? And then when it's not met, what do we do? We flip out. We freak out. We come unglued and we start really hammering down on these kids in regards to things that we ourselves have never done or aren't willing to do. Is that okay? Absolutely not. Jesus said, hey, don't think that you're more than you are because you're evil. We are inherently hurtful. There will be times where we say hurtful things to our spouse, where we say hurtful things to those around us, where we say and do hurtful or evil things to even our children, okay? And again, look, this is the type of truth that's not being taught everywhere. You know, you're gonna go to some of these watered down churches and they're just gonna be like, oh, God bless you. Happy Father's Day. You're the best. All you gotta do is this and turn from this and you know, God's not mad at you. God's probably mad at all of us from time to time, especially in here. You know, we're his children. We're gonna do things that upset him, right? He says, if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, you know, take a look at me as an example, not me, but the Lord God, okay? And so the question is, do we ever teach them that there's a level that you can't get to? Do we ever tell our kids, you know what, you cannot be perfect. It's okay to try and fail. Failure is actually what brings out a true champion in life, a true champion in the Christian life. I believe that. I believe that you need to try things, you need to go forward in things and actually have some failures. You need to get knocked down a little bit. You need to bite off a little bit more than you can chew. But here's the thing, as a father, right, we don't wanna be super duper hard on these kids, okay? That's what I'm saying. That's what I have learned from being a father and I'll give you an example here. You know, several years ago when Kayden was wrestling when he first started out, I was very hard on him. Because to me, that type of thing came very easy. I considered myself to be pretty decent, pretty good. And when he was starting out, it's not really something that he wanted to do. He didn't raise his hand and, you know, I wanna become a wrestler. Back in that timeframe, in the time of his life, I saw the way that the world was going and my answer to that problem, my answer to all the wickedness and stuff that was being promoted is, I gotta make him the best fighter I can because that's what's gonna solve it. I want him to be able to smash anyone and I still kinda do in my heart, you know? And now that he's a giant, he's got nothing to really worry about. But, you know, I remember he went to the state tournament in Washington, you know? He did very well but because he didn't win number one, I was that parent on the sidelines yelling, screaming and just acting a complete fool. I wouldn't even talk to him until we almost got home and I realized, what am I doing to this kid? What in the world am I doing to this kid? That is horrible. He went out there and he wrestled his heart out and lost to somebody who was like two years older because the thing you all know about Kayden is he was always bigger than the other kids, you know? So when he was, you know, eight, I think I started him in Judo when he was four, you know, and they would be like, what's wrong with him? Is he a little handicapped? I'm like, no, he's not handicapped. He's four years old. You know, what are you talking about? Oh, I thought he was like seven. You know, you bring him to these tournaments, he's wrestling two grades up and you know when you're a kid, that's a big difference. That's a huge difference. I mean, you're in fifth grade and you're wrestling eighth graders. I mean, they've had two years to mature, two years of more hormones, two years of more muscle growth, you know? And for those of you who don't know, you know, when you're trying to teach a kid how to wrestle and they grow, every year, they've got to relearn their balance because their body's changed, you know? But when you're going up against these short stocky guys, you know, that don't really grow a whole lot, they just keep getting muscular and more muscular, you know, it's hard to deal with them. Eventually, he learned how to deal with that and I got a better approach at teaching, I got a better approach at coaching him. We took him to a very, you know, a very good wrestling program and he succeeded. In fact, he wound up beating everyone who had ever beat him. We were satisfied with that and then finally I started getting my head in the Bible more and I was like, boy, what kind of father am I? These kids are going to be all jacked up. And that's just him. Now I can talk about the girls. You know, you see how, I mean, I can stand up here all day and tell you stories like this. I set the bar very high for them. In fact, so high that sometimes I don't even know what they're doing or what they like or what they think. You know, what was it last year, I think, there was these episodes that some of the churches were doing called Landmarks, right? You guys remember the Landmark episodes? And I was talking about the kids, Pastor Mendez was like, tell me, you know, tell me some stuff about Kayden and some of the success stories that you had with the kids. And you know, I'm talking about the things that they like, you know, what Kayden likes to do and Kylan and Kinley. And I got, I can't remember what I said, but I said something wrong about Kylan and she brought it up and I was like, what in the world am I doing here? You see, because for those of you who don't know, Kylan is the most like me in just about every way. So like, I feel like I already know what she's thinking. I know what she's doing. You know, like I'm kind of a sneaky dude. I'm kind of good at sneaking around. So is she. You know, I'm good at roasting people. So is she, you know? And you know, and with that being said though, sometimes I feel like I don't maybe need to keep as close of an eye as I should. You know, she's, and she's doing great. There's nothing that she's doing wrong. I'm just simply saying, you know, but because of that connection, because she is just so much like me, I feel like I already know what you're thinking. I already know what you're gonna say. I already know what you're gonna do. So there's no need to, but that's wrong. That's not okay, right? I mean, what kind of father am I up here saying that? But guess what? We're all evil. We all make mistakes. That's one of the things that I have learned. You can't do this thing perfectly. And don't let people try to put you in a box. You're not good enough. Look, if you're bringing your kids to this church, obviously you're doing something right. You know, I know that's gonna get some hate. I know that's gonna get some messages. I'm sure that last phone call was probably something along the lines of that statement, but maybe not. It doesn't matter, right? Let's talk about Kinley for a second. Kinley likes to hit. You know, there was a proverb born in our house several years ago. I told you the story about how I was teaching Kylan to hit because she could throw very well. You know, you guys out there see her throw the football. You know, she could just throw stuff. I figured, well, if she could throw balls and blocks and Legos, she could probably throw punches. I was right, you know? And that day at the park, and I'm telling you guys this as if you already know, you know, there was a situation where some kids were picking on Kinley, and Kylan, you know, doing her thing, went over there and started beating them up. Well, the funny thing about that story is I often overlooked the part about Kinley. Now, Kinley at the time, I think she was like one, one and a half, something like that, and Kinley went from laughing, because she didn't know that these kids were picking on her. She just thought, oh, because I have red hair, you know, everybody plays with my hair, whatever. She had no idea that those kids were actually picking on her. So when Kylan goes over there and starts punching these kids in the face, Kinley instantly, without thought, just starts open hand palm striking the kid closest to her in the face, just rapid, just like that. And I thought to myself, I didn't, I didn't, I haven't started working on her with that yet. What is it that I'm doing that caused such a rapid fire response like that? Because it wasn't from Jessica. It was definitely from me. Something I was doing caused that, you know? And that's kind of followed her around to this day. You know, there was a proverb born in her house, Kylan made this up, and it's that Kinley just starts scrapping. Right? There's like no, there's no warm up. There's no nothing. It's just, there's a problem, bam! You know, it's just on. It's just, it's funny. And obviously I say this to be funny, but these are some of the things that I've learned. Our behaviors, they pick up. They pick up things that we're not even trying to teach them, like verbally. So something in my demeanor, and you're like, yeah, I can tell you what it is. Something in my demeanor she had picked up. Right? Now, obviously that's not just, that's not necessarily walking in integrity. But what I'm trying to tell you is that we are evil and we have to be aware of that. We have to be aware that our old man, our sin nature has a tendency to want to influence, teach or push in some way, shape or form, some hurt or some worldliness. Okay? That's what I'm trying to tell you. So let's move on from that. So I guess what have I learned? What's the biggest thing that I've learned? It's probably, you know, that allowing them to see me come unglued on people throughout my life, you know. You guys know about my dad. You know, he definitely brought out the worst in me, having Alzheimer's and dementia. He was probably the hardest on me because I grew up with him. And I'm like, why are you acting like this? This isn't normal. You're your dad. You're not supposed to be this way. You're not supposed to behave in this manner here. Right? And so I took it the hardest. You know, that probably hurt me obviously more than them. And so there were certain times where, you know, I would yell at him or I would say things and he can't help it. He's got dementia. He didn't ask for it. It's not like he went down to the store and bought a box of pills and took them and said, yeah, I want to cause myself to be a zombie so I could just mess with my son the rest of my life, you know. It's not like he did that. But yet I came unglued several times. I yelled at him. You know, I just flipped out. My kids got to see that. You say, why are you bringing this up? Because Matthew chapter seven is real. We are evil. We will say we will do things that cause hurt. But he's provided a way to overcome that. Right? And that is through his integrity. That is through his wisdom, his righteousness, which he has made available for us. We're saved. We can overcome the world because he overcame the world. All right. So things that I thought I knew. Let's talk about that now. I know you're in Luke chapter two. We'll talk about that here in just a second. Let's talk about things that I thought that I knew. Well, be honest with you. When I had kids, we started having a family. Kids were growing up. We would often say to ourselves, boy, the teen years are getting close. It's going to be a whole new world once they hit those teen years. We're going to have all sorts of problems. We're going to have all sorts of issues. We're going to have the moodiness. We're going to have the attitudes. We're going to have the looks. Just all the stuff that you typically hear. I'll be honest with you. I talk with people every single week, and they're like, oh, do you have kids? Yeah. Oh, how old are they? I'll tell them their ages, and they're like, oh, you have teenagers? Oh, I'm surprised you're still able to walk. I'm surprised you're still able to function. Are you okay? Do you need medication? Do you need help? Are you all right? You just sit down and drink some water. Do you want beer? Do you want wine? Do you want alcohol? People say this to me all the time. I'm like, no, I'm good. In fact, what's the problem with teens? You know, my kids, I'm not bragging, but I'm like, we have no real major issues. We don't have to really struggle all the time with the back talk, with the moods, with them not doing things. You say, well, how can that be? Well, that's what we're going to get into here. But isn't that true? Isn't that what the world says? Right? And I bought that. I thought that was reality. I thought that was truth. Because people, you know, even my mom, right? Oh, you just wait. They're going to be just like you. And Colin's just like me, but she's way better than me. Look, when I was a teenager, I was a horrible, horrible teen. Right? I would rally the other teens up. Let's go throw rocks at cars. Hey, you know, I know what time the city bus comes. I got his route down. Let's go blow the, you know, just stupid things. I was a riotous teen. And you know what? I was saved. I was saved. I was born again. And I figured I'm, all that's going to come back on me. I had no idea that my dad was going to break all that back on me, you know? But again, that's a sermon for another day. But you know what the world says? Teens are horrible. They're know-it-alls. They're dreadful. They're moody. They're self-centered. They're rebellious. All these types of things. And you know what? It doesn't have to be like that. It doesn't. It does not have to be like that. You're in Luke chapter number 2. Look at verse 52. So here's Jesus, right? How old was Jesus at the end of Luke chapter number 2? He's 12 years old. 12 and a half to be exact. I'm just kidding. Look what verse 52 says. It says this. It says, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and man. Now obviously, him being perfect, that's going to happen. But why do you think that verse is in the Bible? We've talked about this, you know, several times in this church. Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man. How did he do that? What's the example that he gave us in that story there? You know the context? You guys know the context, right? Mary and Joseph were traveling back home. And after about three days, they were like, where's Jesus? Where's our son? Where's he at? Where's Jesus? So they go back, they turn around, and they go find him asking questions and talking with the people in the temple. And they were like, this young man's very smart. What's going on here? And what does his mother say? Mother says, thy father and I sought thee, worrying. Right? What does Jesus say? I must be about my father's business. And he corrects her. But what does the Bible tell us that he did after that? That he was subject unto them. He made himself of service to his family. Right? That's what he did. Say, well, that was him. Only he can be good. Well, only he can be good as in the God sense. But this verse is in the Word of God to serve as an example and an encouragement to us. Because within this verse is a key that we're going to get into here in a minute that will take any teen, I believe this, any teen, any child, into the next level. To grow up and be the opposite of what the world says. Because I thought the world was right. I thought that when our kids hit 13, man, it was just going to be game over. It was just going to be just a wild ride. And I was just going to be pulling my hair out. Like, man, I may not even become a pastor. Who knows? Because I've got to have my kids serving the Lord and stuff. They're going to be all over the place. But it didn't happen that way. I told Pastor Mendez this when we were filming the Landmark series. I was like, I think God gave me these kids to watch me. To make me grow up. I'm like, this is backwards here. They're all better than I am. They're the ones like, hey, dad, you think that's right? You think you should? And it's like, no, you're right. How is it that you teens are pointing stuff out to me? But, amen, praise God for that. Go back, if you would, to Proverbs chapter number 22. Or go to, I'm sorry, Proverbs chapter number 22. So now we're going to spend some time talking about the things that I have learned. And obviously, yeah, I learned that the world was wrong. But that's also something that I thought that I knew. So, with that being said here, Proverbs chapter number 22. Look at verse number 6. Things that I've learned, things that I wish I did differently. What does verse 6 say? Train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. We're going to talk about that here in a second. So train up a child in the way he should go, or she. It's not just talking about the men child. It's talking about children in general. And I believe this. I believe this. If you're starting this later in life and your teens are already in the midst of their teens, I believe you can still implement this. Obviously, it's much easier to do it when they're younger. But don't lose hope because we serve a great God who overcame the world. But look at that verse again and just think about this. Train up a child in the way he should go. What does that require? It requires work, but it requires time. It requires time that you need to invest with your children. There's no way that you can train them up if you do not dedicate the time. That's why the title of the sermon is called Father Time. You are given a specific amount of time. I get it. We have to work. Most of us in here have single income families. God has blessed us, and we're raising families, and our wives typically don't have to work or work outside of the home. That's great. And sometimes with that means that we have to work longer hours. I work a lot of hours. I'm doing all kinds of stuff here and everywhere, but you know what? What time that you have. Don't get this selfish attitude, dads. I'm telling you, I've seen this, and we're going to talk about this. Well, I need to just relax. I need to just take this for me. I need to take this evening just for me, because you know what? That one evening is going to turn into two, three, four. Yeah, you do need some time. You do need some time away. You need to kind of gather yourself and reflect from time to time. I get that. But here's the thing. You need to spend time with these kids. You have to do this. This is not optional. There's no way to train up a child in the way he should go if you don't take the time. You've got to set apart that time. Spend as much time as you can with your kids, because it goes by like this. I remember one time we were driving back from Louisiana to Washington. We stopped at a Target over in Salt Lake City, and I'll never forget it. Caden was like this tall, so he was like one. We were walking through the store, and this guy goes, you're going to blink. I'll never forget this. He goes, hey, you're going to blink, and he's going to be asking for the keys to the car. And I was like, that's forever. Get out of here. What do you know? I feel like that was just yesterday. I could still see the man's face. I could still see the groceries on the shelves over at Target, which you probably wouldn't see today. You'd probably be blank and missing things and stuff like that, no formula, that sort of thing. But you get the point here, man. This life is like a vapor. It goes by so fast. And so if you're hearing this today, I just want to really exhort you and encourage you to spend as much time as you possibly can with your children. The bottom line is this. The best thing that you can spend on your children is time. The best thing that you can spend on your children is time. Time training, time playing with them, time teaching them. Without this, the odds are against you. I mean, think about it. I told you about my rebellious teens. My parents, they were from San Francisco, and they were of that persuasion. They were just liberal, as liberal as it gets. We've gotten several messages that say the opposite, like these people actually know me. My parents were extreme liberals, and you know what? They were liberal with their time. Say, hey, go do whatever you want. I can remember being like eight years old, waking up and leaving a note for my mom on the table. Went to so-and-so's house. Hey, went to Ben's house. And we would just do whatever we wanted all day long out in the woods. Doing playing games sometimes, sometimes doing stuff that's just stupid. I mean, I could not even fathom doing that to my children. In fact, we never let that happen. None of our kids have ever, you know, I've never gotten up and been like, oh, there's a note. You know, Kylie and Kenley went to the mall by themselves. And if that's you, that's your thing. I'm not trying to tell you what to do. I'm just telling you what didn't work in my life and what did work in my life. And I'm telling you right now, one of the things that we did well was make sure that we spent as much time as we possibly could with our children. One of the things that we used to do when they were younger is we would take them to the store at night. Because we're kind of night owl, so it worked out perfect for us anyways. But, you know, they would be just super munchkins, you know, just little munchkins. And we'd be taking them, and they'd be tearing it up, yelling, you know, goofing around and stuff. And we used that as a training opportunity. We did that for years. You know what? And people would be like, oh, you guys are all late. Shouldn't they be in bed? We don't think about school tomorrow? Hey, don't worry about what we're doing. We know what we're doing. We're training our children to grow up the way that the Bible says. You know what? We're taking that time. And that's what we did. And so, you know, I've had to, because I've been asked this all the time. You know, how come your kids, you know, aren't this, aren't that, aren't doing this? And I'm like, because we took the time to train them when they were younger. And we never gave up. Now, I said this a couple weeks ago, you know, and I'm just going to say this. Take it for what you want. I get the results that I want. I do not compromise. When I want an attitude adjustment, it's going to happen. When I want something done, it's going to happen. Some of you are like, yeah, that's kind of how you are here. It's just why we've lost 40 people over the last three years, right? That's the way it has to be. When I want an attitude adjustment, it's going to happen. You know, and that's something that I want to pass on to all you dads and all you moms too. Everybody in here. Even if you don't have kids, I want you to understand truth is truth. Judgment is judgment. You don't let people tell you what to do. You have the oracles of God. And when you want change, when you need to proclaim truth, you stand up and do it. And you don't let people bully you. You don't let this world come against you and try to make you feel small. You don't let them level the playing field. No, no, that's not how this works. We're going to proclaim truth no matter what anybody says or anybody does. We never back down and we're never going to give up. That's how you have to be. That is what produces great godly teenagers which will turn into great godly adults. And guess what? They're going to make mistakes. There's not a soul in here who hasn't sinned this week. There's not a soul in here who hasn't done something wrong. Even after being a soul winner, even after being a Bible reader. You will make mistakes. But the question is, can you keep going? When you get knocked down, can you get back up? Can you keep moving forward? That's the question we need to ask. Go to Matthew chapter number five. Matthew chapter number five. The best thing you can spend on your children is time. You know what I mean? That applies to every person hearing my voice. Because there's this culture today in Christianity in America. That basically says you're in this thing alone. It's just you. It's Sunday morning and you're done. The rest of the week you're on your own. It shouldn't be like that. Now obviously we don't want to spend too much time with our neighbors because there's a Bible verse about that. But you get the point. We need to stay connected to each other. Those of us that are saved in here, that's the church. That's the church. That's where the wisdom needs to be manifested. In the church, the body of believers. You see, some of you are like, I don't have any kids. So how does this apply to me? Well guess what? You can invest in other people's kids too. You can invest in your converts. You can invest in people who don't quite understand what we're about. That don't understand this in the workplace. There's no limit to this wisdom here. It's for everyone in this room. So you're in Matthew chapter 5. We're going to get to that in a second. I'm going to read for you Ephesians chapter 6 verse 4 which says this. And ye fathers... This is one that gets mentioned to me all the time and there's a reason why. But just listen. And ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath. That's what I like to do to Kinley because she just likes to scrap. But the rest of the verse says this. But bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. This is a command. This is not something that's optional. We are commanded to train up these children in the way they ought to go. The Bible says when they're old they will not depart from it. So you know what else that means? That means for a season they may depart from it. They may kind of seem like that. They may seem like they're not interested from time to time. That's okay. You don't give up. You don't say, oh this stuff doesn't work. No, that's not the attitude that we have. We keep moving forward. That's what we do. And your consistency, right, your consistency, your faithfulness, which is lacking in today's day and age, will be noticed by your children. And dads, you have to understand this. He says, Paul told the Ephesians, hey, but bring them up in the nurture. What does that mean? Well, that's the care. That's the growth and development, right? We're supposed to bring these kids up in the nurture of the Lord. We're supposed to read to them, Matthew, Mark. You know, we're supposed to take that wisdom that we're about to look at and show our kids how it applies to them even in the face of adversity. That's what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to show the nurture and the caring side of God which requires sermons about attitude adjustments, which requires conversations about personality traits that aren't good. Okay, you have to know this. You have to understand this. That is a command in the Bible. And then it says in the admonition of the Lord. What does it mean to admonish somebody? It means to warn them, to correct them, right? It's not necessarily a pleasant thing. Most people didn't wake up this morning and say, you know what? I hope that the pastor admonishes me today. Some people, some of you are kind of like that, you know. We get like that from time to time. But most people don't wake up every day. I'm going to go to work. I hope the boss just really rips me, you know, just really lets me have it. Right? But guess what? There are warnings in the Bible from God to his children. Do we let our kids know that? Are we teaching those things? Because we're commanded to. It's part of training up our children in the way they should go, right? Obviously, it can be done better than being like, hey, if you don't do this and you just keep bothering, if you don't do this, God's going to come after you. There's a better way to do it. Right? There's a much better way to do it. And I'm going to show you that here in a second. But the point is, we need to commit to bring them up in the nurture, meaning the care, the development, the changes that God wants to see in us. We're supposed to bring our children up that way. And then also, hey, teach them the warnings, the warnings that are going to come upon this world, the warnings that are here right now, right? The prophecies, all of that stuff. We need to teach our children those things. You know what a lot of Christians do today? They say, you know what, that's too harsh. I don't want my children to hear that. Every once in a while, someone will send us a message, hey, man, I've been listening to you. I love that. But I'm afraid that if my kids hear the things that are coming on this earth, it's really going to derail them and it's going to hurt their development. That's not what Paul said. Paul said, hey, bring them up in the admonition of the Lord. The Lord's judgment is righteous. It's for everyone to see. And guess what? You're going to see it one way or the other. So you might as well just relax, come on down and be part of the show because guess what? Things are about to get real real, if you know what I mean. So Matthew chapter number five. Before we get there, I know I keep bringing this up. Before we get there, I've got to respond to this question here. So again, the sermon's a little bit different today because I've got these questions I'm trying to answer here. And I want to bring this up. So we asked our kids this. And this applies. We asked our kids, what made them not get caught up in the selfish stigma that comes with the teens of the world? What was it? And all three of them said this. And you'll see this here in a moment. All three of them said this. It was service. It was service. You say, well, service what? You're talking about service here. Look at this. Look at Matthew chapter five. Look at verse 15. And we'll talk about this. Look what it says. It says, Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Look at verse 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your what? Your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. Look, you say, how do I train up a child in the way he should go? What's the one thing? What's the one thing that I could give you today, dads, that you could take with you and never forget? Well, it's time, okay? But here's the main thing that I think and that I've learned that has contributed to the success of my teens, and it's teaching them to serve. So we asked Kaitlyn, we asked Kylen, we asked Kylie, said, hey, what was it, and we asked them this independently, like what was it that made it so you guys weren't looking to the world's teens and like, man, I'm drawn to that. I really want to be like that. And what they all said was that we taught them to be of service from a very young age. You see, it didn't matter what church we were going to. Even when we were going to the liberal churches, you know, they saw mom and dad staying late, helping roll up the sound system cords and putting the instruments away, stacking chairs, unstacking chairs. They saw that and they figured, oh, that's just how this is supposed to be. If you ask my kids, I will get mad if we're at a restaurant and there's kind of like a long table and the wage is just like setting stuff down. Like let's say I ordered a sweet tea and they set it down at the end of the table and they're going to set their stuff down and then come back. I will get mad if they're not like passing it down, trying to help that person out. You say, why are you like that? Because that's service. Right? We want to implement Matthew 5 16. We want to let our light so shine before men, not just believers, but before men, before everyone that we can possibly think of. Because guess what? What does that say? Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. Now I'm not up here talking to you today about lifestyle evangelism, but look, this is part of the program here. Okay? Service. What did Jesus say to his mother and Joseph? What did he say? The Bible says that he was subject unto them. He was of service unto them. That's it. If you could spend time with your children and teach them to be of service, the rest will fall into place. So please understand that. You say, how did you do it? It was time and service, time and service. The best thing that you could spend on your child, on your children is time. And during that time, you're teaching them to be of service. Look, the rest is going to just fall into place. You don't have to worry about, okay, I got this long checklist. I got to teach this today. I got to do this today. No, no, no. Time and service and the rest will follow. Looking back, like even when we weren't in the best of churches, it didn't matter. We had this down. We had that time and taught them service. And you know what? That's why they didn't end up like me. My parents gave me an abundance of time and idleness with no consequences. And you know who actually straightened me out? Obviously it was God because he put me in the military and they took care of a lot of the problems that I have. They gave me some extra ones too, which are a great bonus in times like our church is going through now. But hey, you know, it is what it is, okay? So go back if you would to Proverbs chapter 22. Let's look at this verse again here. Proverbs chapter number 22. So again, that to me is the biggest thing. Time and service. If we can get our kids to understand that, guess what? Man, we're going to be strong. We're going to be rock solid. We're not going to have any major issues, okay? So let's look at this verse again here. This is something I see a lot in the world today. Notice the verse. It says, train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. Now notice what it doesn't say. It doesn't say bribe up a child, does it? Look, I'm telling you, this is what my parents did to me. When they wanted me to do something, they bribed me. We'll give you a treat. Now there's a time and a place for that. There's a time and a place for the reward system, okay? For example, I'll give you an illustration here. So Jessica came up with this with our girls. When they became of age to have their ears pierced, okay? I don't want to say we bribed them, but we implemented a rewards program. And that program was if you can keep your room clean for a month, you get them ears pierced, okay? They dropped the ball one time, they got corrected, and they went back on the program and they earned that, okay? But that's like extra. Now do you think I'm going to bribe them to be nice to people at church? No, I'm going to go completely nuts. I'm going to go, hey, I'm not talking about beatings. You know, everybody thinks, oh, you're a Baptist, you beat your kids, you know? Well, we spanked them, right? But those spankings were when they were younger, and they became less and less and less as time moved on. You start when they're younger with that correction and that discipline, and it becomes less and less and less as they grow up. If you've got that time and you've got that service and place. Look, if you forget everything else I said, I don't blame you, I get some of you are tired, whatever. Just remember these two words, time and service. Time and service, okay? The rest falls into place. But that verse doesn't say bribe up a child. What happens when you do that? You become like teenage Pastor Jones. That's what happens, you know? You become a rebellious, moody, disgraceful, dreadful, hurtful individual. That is what happens. This is what I'm seeing out there, okay? On a daily basis. People are treating their kids like a dog. Like, oh, come on, I got a little biscuit for you here. I'll give you a little candy bar if you do this. And it's like, oh, I'll give you this if you don't cuss this guy out. No, man, that ain't how I play. My house, my rules, you're doing what I'm going to, you're going to do what I say. Like, I just hope you guys hear what I'm saying and you understand that that's the way that it needs to be. Go to 2 Chronicles 24. We're getting close to being done here. I just want to show you an example of a king here in the Bible and kind of hammer this bribing thing home, okay? So again, there's a time and a place for the reward system. And I would say, and this is just my opinion, I would say when it's something extra, okay? When it's something outside of the normal, right? Behaving well, being of service, things like this, this stuff needs to just happen. Dads, you need to learn to put your foot down. And I'm not calling anybody, I'm just saying. Put the foot down. Hey, this is what it is. You don't talk to that person like that. Hey, no, you don't throw that Lego at that old lady's face. You don't do stuff like that, okay? Knock it off. Look, when we were little and I was like, Kayden, come here, you know, and you know you're coming here right now. Get over here. Hurry up. You know, and where did I get that from? I didn't get that from my parents. No, I got that from Uncle Sam. But back then, he was right. See, Uncle Sam used to be right. Today he's wrong. You know what? But thinking back, you know, there were a lot of people even back in the late 90s that were Christian, that were raised in Christian homes. And some of that wisdom just came out and these people didn't even know that. Discipline needs to be proper. It needs to have the right timing. And you know what? It needs to happen. And it needs to also happen from Dad. Right? And this is the tough part, you know, because I would come home from work and I want to play. I want to wrestle with the kids and, you know, just goof around and stuff. You know, when they were younger, sometimes things would happen and it's like, man, I don't want to come home to this. But every once in a while I would have to come home and be like, oh, so that's what's going on, huh? And I'd have to, you know, go into discipline mode. But you know what? If we don't do that, you know what's going to happen? We're going to raise kids that are causing our hair to fall out prematurely. You know that you guys know this is true. This is the big problem that the world's having today. You know, sometimes people will honestly call and ask questions and I try to help them with this. And they're like, I just can't bring myself to do it. I'm like, well, I guess I can't really help you then. You know, I don't know what else to tell you. You got to be tough. You have to be tough. And on that note here, you're in 2 Chronicles, chapter number 24. We're going to talk real quickly about Joash here. Now, there's a couple of Joashes in the Bible. We're going to talk about the Joash that became king when he was just seven years old. Now, what's the problem with becoming king when you're seven years old? Yeah, don't even need to bring it up, do I? What's the problem with being a king in general from a man's standpoint? Did God ever intend for the nation of Israel to have kings, to have that much power? No, it's not wise. It was never wise. That's what they wanted, so that's what he gave them, right? But what happens when you turn a seven-year-old into a king? Well, let's take a look here. Look at verse one, 2 Chronicles 24. Look at verse one. It says this. Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Zebiah of Beersheba. And look what it says, verse two. And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. All the days of Jehoiada the priest. You see, the back story on this, there's this crazy woman who's probably Hillary Clinton's long-lost relative. She decided she was going to go on a rampage and try to destroy all the seed royal, try to rid the Davidic lion completely. Now, who do you think was behind that, behind the scenes? It was Satan. It was the devil. But Jehoiada the priest, with the help of others, were able to save and rescue Joash. And when the time was right, he was revealed to the nation, and she was taken out of the temple and put to death, okay? We don't have time to get too much more into the back story, but it left a nation in this unfortunate situation. They've got to have a king. It's got to be, you know, it's got to be Joash, right? He is the lone survivor in the Davidic line. But the problem is he's seven years old, right? Now, there's a good thing here, though. You've got this guy named Jehoiada, who's not his biological father, and he's doing everything in his power to help and to aid the king, to steer him in the right direction, okay? Now, how do you think this goes? Well, let's take a look here. Jump down to verse 15. It says this. It says, But Jehoiada waxed old and was full of days when he died. This is the priest Jehoiada. It says, 130 years old was he when he died. Now, even back then, man, that was a long time to live, right? When you're in Genesis and you read that, you're like, oh, okay, you know, they all lived a long life. But I mean, during these times, look, God gave him a blessed life for what he did and the love and the care that he had for that nation, okay? Now, look at verse 16. It says, And then he buried him in the city of David among the kings because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and toward his house. Verse 17 says, Now, after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah and made obeisance to the king. Now, look what the Bible says here. Then the king hearkened unto them. What does that mean? Well, that's a problem. Somehow in this situation here, it was never imputed unto Joash to go directly to the Lord and to just, hey, when I'm gone, you need to be like me. You need to be the one that goes after the Lord. You don't need to listen to these other people. See where this is going? This is our job as a father, is to train our children to act independently in this harsh, harsh, evil world. And apparently there's a couple of them out here right now with picket signs. So, you know, we'll talk about that here in a minute. But look at verse 18. It says this, And they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served groves and idols, and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem. For this their trespass. Now, the Bible doesn't say this, but I have a feeling that a lot of people probably bribed, probably kind of tiptoed around Joash after he was made king. It doesn't say that, but I have the feeling that that's how it was. And that's kind of what you see here in verse 17. He's already grown up, right? He's already been ruling and reigning for quite a while. Jehoiada dies, and all of a sudden these other guys come up to him, and it says, Then the king hearkened unto them. You know, what does that mean? Hey, we need to teach these kids, hey, surround yourself with people that are like-minded. Don't, you know, don't ever buy off, don't ever get sucked into this trap of envying and looking towards those in the world that have success and wanting to surround yourself with those types of people because they'll pull you down. They will pull you out of the will of God. And what do I always say? Hey, look, you're going to be in heaven a lot longer than you're going to be here on this earth. It is worth the suffering. It is worth the pain. It is worth the hard work. Now, surround yourself with people that love the Lord. Surround yourself with people that are going to tell you like it is, right? Hey, I'm just being honest. Surround yourself. Make sure you've got a few people in your life that will tell you when you are wrong, when you are messed up. And that's the problem that Joash is facing here. His father-like figure probably just didn't really implement that very well, but you know what? It wasn't his child. It really wasn't his responsibility. He did the best that he could. Look at verse 19. It says this, Yet, so yet he sent prophets unto them to bring them again unto the Lord, and they testified against them, but they would not give ear. Man, I mean, think about this. They had such a great revival after Joash was put on the throne. I mean, because think about it. Before that time, I mean, they're having to submit themselves to Athalia, and I mean, she's just going on a liberal, commie rampage, you know? I mean, she doesn't love the Lord. She doesn't love God. All of a sudden, they get the statutes of God back. You know, Jehoi is trying the best he can to get Joash to do what's right in the eyes of the Lord, and the Bible said at the beginning of the chapter that while the priest Jehoiada was alive, things were well. All of a sudden, he dies, and there's instantly a shift. Instantly, they're like, hey, let's bring on the groves and idols. Wait a minute here. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. My suspicion here, and this is just me. This is my suspicion. My suspicion is that people that were surrounding Joash from the time he was seven probably had to bribe him up in the way he should go. There had to be some level of that, because he did not get that Proverbs chapter 20 result, did he? At the end of his life. Look at verse 20. It says, And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper, because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you. So he's not just talking to the king here. The king's actions affected everyone in the nation, and so this prophet here, Zechariah, is like, hey, this is why none of you are going to prosper. Think about that for a second here. If dad gives up the likelihood of those in his kingdom or his household, growing up to serve the Lord are very slim. It is very slim. It can happen, though. It can happen, but I'm just saying it is very slim. Now look at verse 21. And they conspired against him and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king and the court of the house of the Lord. Now here's what will blow you away. Look at verse 22. Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness, which Jehoiada his father, so it was like a father-like figure, that Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The Lord look upon it and require it. Think about that. Think about Joash's attitude now that Jehoiada the priest is now dead, now that he's gone. Now all of a sudden he thinks that it's justifiable in the eyes of the Lord to kill one of his prophets. He thinks that's okay. That's how a lot of teens are today. That's how a lot of adults are today. That's how a lot of people are today. That's how even a lot of Christian people are. We have that same attitude right there. That hey, you're wrong preacher. You're wrong pastor. You don't know the Bible. You didn't go to seminary. And you know why they say these things? Because they don't like these things. Because they tell them the truth. They tell them what's written in these pages here. And we proclaim that truth. And they get mad and they want to start throwing stones and start casting bricks and start staging bricks and all of this harmful stuff and make us out to seem like we're murderers, to make us seem like we are the cowards when the opposite is true. And when we don't spend time and teach our children service, the odds of them ending up like Joash are much, much higher. Now look, I'm also a testament. I'm up here before you today saying hey, I was kind of like Joash was at one point in my life. Maybe you were too. I don't know. Turned out okay in the end. You know what? But again, that was by the grace of God. It's not because there's anything good in me that, you know, just a good seed sprung up just by chance. No, it was by the grace of God. It's because I was ignorant doing a lot of those things. I didn't have a teacher. I went to church. I was a bus kid for a while. But then after that, my parents yanked me out and they're like, no, none of that stuff's for you. You're going to, you need to just kind of do whatever. Anything but that. Anything but that is fine with us. Go to Ephesians six. We're almost done, almost done. Ephesians chapter six, almost done. We're going to wrap this up. Ephesians chapter six. The Bible says in verse one, Ephesians chapter six, verse one, children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. You say, but yeah, that's talking to kids. Well, dads need to know this. We need to know that our children need to obey us, meaning we train them. We teach them. We command them. We don't bribe them for basic things that they ought to be doing. You tell them to clean up that room. That room better get cleaned in the time that you've set forth. Right? Now, bribing them to do things like that is hurting them. You tell them, you require it. You're the dad. You've got to have the backbone. You command these things to be done. And then you set that rewards program up for things that are above and beyond. That's the time and place for that. Look at verse two. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise. It doesn't say bribe or only honor if I get a treat. Only honor my parents if I get a reward. And dads, we have to act like this. This is the truth. Do you believe the Bible? Do you want to be a good father? Look, I'm telling you. You want to raise young teens, teens, and eventually adults to serve the Lord and to love God? Time and service. Time and service. With time comes teaching. With teaching comes service. With service comes faithfulness and a faithful man who can find. You know, when you talk to your kids, they're not like, oh, I'm great. I'm good at this. Right? They're just like, oh, what's going on? Yeah. You know, whatever. They're humble. Now, do they have issues? They all do. All of us do. Right? But they're not going to be like, oh, man, I'm really something. You know, we had a kid come in here almost two years ago. He was telling one of our church members, you know, boy, I used to be really wicked, but now I'm really something. And I'm listening to this like, get out of here. I mean, if that's your attitude, man, God's not going to be able to use that. Ye being evil. Okay? Matthew chapter 7. Let's not forget who we really are. Okay? We're the only reason that we're special, that we're kings, that we're priests. That we're fathers of courage. If that's what we are, it's because of the grace of God. It's because of what he did and the wisdom that he has imparted on to us. Go to Psalm 103 and we're done. Psalm 103 and we're done. While you're turning there, I'm going to read for you Colossians chapter 3, verse 20, which says this, Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Right? So again, as dads, as fathers, I want to encourage you to make sure that you implement that to your children. Okay? That you teaching them, you not backing down, not sparing for their crying, like it talks about in the Proverbs. Okay? Is a good thing for them. Because it's hard when you hear them crying and you have to make corrections. It's like, oh, it hurts. Right? But dad, you got to be strong. You need to be able to overcome that because if you can overcome that, guess what? You're going to produce a powerhouse individual for this world and we need more of them. Right? We definitely need more of them. So last but not least, I do want to quickly mention things that I wish I knew. Okay? I wish I knew all this. A lot of the stuff that I did that was right, like spending time in service, you know, I didn't realize the impact. I wish I could go back and realize how important that was back then because I would have done more of that. I would have done more of that because there are plenty of times where I'd get home from work. I know I'm going on TDY. I know I'm going to Japan. I'm like, I got to go to the gym. Man, I got to go to rodeo style. I got to go to rough house, man. You know, I got this tournament, man. I got to scrap. I got to learn how to fight because the end's coming. Right? If I would have just known how much more I could have done with them, I would have threw all that in the trash in a second. It's not worth it. It's not worth it. The Bible says safety is of the Lord. But I spent so much of my time, like I got to teach Kaiden how to fight. I got to even make sure the girls can scrap. I'm just not going to talk about it a lot, you know, and I got to make sure I can scrap. You know, that's it. And then we'll be fine. It's not Bible doctrine. That's not good. Psalm 103, look at verse 13. The Bible says this. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Right? So dads, let's make sure that we understand what's going on here. We all show pity to our children. We're all merciful to our children. We need to realize that, hey, the Lord's like that with us. I mean, I don't want to take up too much more time because I know it's Father's Day and a lot of you want to go out to lunch and stuff like that. My goal is to let you out of here rather quickly. But, you know, I do want to say that let's as dads, let's not forget how the Lord's been merciful to us. Right? Because there's things that all of us have done, all of us have said, all of us have gone through that none of us know about each other. And God was merciful to that, wasn't he? Yeah, that's right. So let's make sure that we apply that same mercy and that same pity even to our own children. You know, the way you can do this is by understanding, you know, they all have different personalities. You know, I mean, they do. They all have different personalities. I can't treat Kaiden the same way I treat Kylen. I can't treat Kylen the same way I treat Kinley. And so on and so forth, you know? But that comes with spending more time and learning about your kids, learning about your children so that you can apply that right amount of pity. Right? Now, you don't want to take out the discipline. Right? You know, dad, you know when they need that discipline. You know when they need that hard talk. You know when they might need that spanking. You know these things. Okay? And in that moment, you've got to execute. You have got to do it. You have to get the results that you want. And you don't do that by bribery. You do that by being tough when the time calls for it, but also remembering that we're evil. We are hurtful inherently, and we need to display mercy. Right? Somebody asked me, well, what kind of parent are you? You're more like a helicopter dad? And I'm like, no, I'm not a helicopter dad. I'm more like a U2 pilot dad. You know like the U2 plane, the spy plane that's like way up there. They wear like an astronaut type suit. That's the kind of parent I am. I'm involved in ways they don't really understand or know right now, and I'm always watching. But I kind of just let them, at this stage in their lives, I kind of just let them play. I let them do what they've got to do. And I listen, and I observe, and I make subtle adjustments and corrections here, and it's not perfect. Right? But that's my style. I'm more of a U2 parent. And we're going to do a leadership series here in a couple of months, and more of that will come out. I'll explain that better. That's just kind of my style. But you know what? We don't want to get so tough, though, that we're just hammering them for every little thing. There are things that they'll do sometimes, and I'm just like, Ken, it's all good. Just walk away. Just look the other way. You know what? But here's the thing. You've got to learn that balance. Right? That's the word of the year, balance. Right? Have balance. Make sure that you are implementing that correction. Okay? And you know what? If you just apply this, time, it's going to come naturally. Teach them to serve. It will come naturally. Because guess what? When they're supposed to be serving and they're not, guess what you're going to have to do, Dad? You're going to have to get on them and make it happen. And that will just, look, time and service will take care of all of that stuff that I'm talking about today. Okay? You won't have to worry about it. Don't feel overwhelmed. Two words. Two words, Dad. Time and service. And the rest will fall into place. Those two things are what I have learned, what we have implemented, and I wouldn't be a pastor. Pastor Mendez would not have sent me out here if those things weren't true, if my kids were unruly. Because that would be a violation of 1 Timothy chapter 3. It would be a violation of the whole book of Titus. I mean the violation of the word of God. Right? So I know what I'm talking about. And understand, time and service will take care of a multitude of problems. Everybody good? Understand this? All right. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this great wisdom. Thank you for this series, Lord. I just pray that you would help us to remember these things and apply them to our lives. We love you, Lord. Please keep us safe. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. We need to talk for a second here. So there are some people protesting out here. And I want to give you guys some wisdom, okay? Some understanding here. I've been through this before. You need to be careful. Now, the good thing about our church is that most of you all live a long ways away. So it's the likelihood of them following you home is slim. But be aware. Watch for people two, three, four cars behind you. Okay? I'm not trying to scare you, but these people are crazy. We've had them follow us home. We've had them take pictures of our license plate. Not here in Idaho, but in California. I'm just telling you. And another thing, do not engage with them. Defend yourself at all costs. My policy is this. You grab me, it's on. I do not tolerate people grabbing me. That's me. You do whatever you want. We have the right to defend ourselves. But what I'm saying is don't engage. Don't egg them on. Just ignore them. This is a church with God's people that commands the oracles of God. And we need to act like it in this situation. Amen. All right? So with that being said, during the song, I'm going to have Kayden come up here and pass out all the fathers their gifts for today. And we'll talk in a minute. All right. So for our final hymn this morning, let's go out this morning singing with all our hearts. A great song. 173, Love Lifted Me. Grab those hymn books. 173, Love Lifted Me. Let's sing it out. I was sinking deep in sin on the first. I was sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore. Very deeply staying within, soon to rise no more. The master of the sea heard my despairing cry. From the waters lifted me. Now see, am I. Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. I hold my heart in my gift forever to Him I plead. In His blessing as it's lit, ever His praises sing. Love so mighty and so true, there is my soul's message. Faithful loving service to to Him belongs. Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. On the last. Souls and men do not go on. Jesus completely saves. He will lift you by His love out of the angry face. He's the master of the sea. He blows His will within you. The Savior wants to be beside you today. Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Amen. Great singing. Brother Skolk, will you focus with a word of prayer, please? Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for Father's Day. Thank you for this church, Lord. Thank you for the preaching and the singing. Lord, I pray that you just protect us and not just here, but at our travels and our workplace and everything, Lord. I pray that you just protect us against these evil, wicked sodomites, Lord. And that you just keep your hand over us. And let us be bold and brave as a lion. And just bless us and keep us safe and be with the mothers. That's with the children here and the teenagers, Lord. And we love you dearly, Lord. We love you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.