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And of course, it being Father's Day, out of tradition for most churches, we'll have a Father's Day message. It's always good to look at the fathers, you know, fathers, the head of the house. You know, we look at God the Father many times, you know, what is he like a father to us? And we want to try to replicate that with God the Father. But today I wanted to look at these last words of King David to his son Solomon. So look at 1 Kings chapter 2, 1 Kings chapter 2, verse number 1. The Bible says, So you see as King David knows it's close to death, he brings Solomon. Solomon is going to reign after him and he gives him these great words of advice. And so he gives him this charge. He charged Solomon his son. The title for the sermon this morning is A Father's Charge. And if you're a father today, you ought to be giving your children a charge for their life. Give them some direction, some type of purpose. And if you look at 1 Kings chapter 2, verse 12, after King David passes away, it says here, verse number 12, Look at this. You know what I want for my kids as they grow up? You know, my sons and my daughters, I want them to have a life that they can look back and say, This was a great life. You know, I lived in a great way. And I hope, you know, it's the encouragement, the advice, the wisdom that they receive from Dad and Mum as well, but especially from the Father, that we make sure we sit down our children from time to time, we give them a charge, we give them purpose in life, we give them tasks, we give them goals for our children. And I think sometimes, think back to when you were a child, think back to when you were going to school and you were studying things and you know one day you need to grow up, you know you need to one day you need to get out there and work, you know one day you're going to be an adult, but as a child, you don't think about these things. And I remember as a teenager, I'm thinking, yeah, after high school, I guess I'm going to university, I guess I'm going to do something, but I really didn't know what the purpose of life, I wasn't sure what is it that I need to do. One day I'll have a family, one day I'll have a job, but what are the steps that I need to take? Sometimes I think we forget as parents, we forget that our kids, you know, they start with this clean slate. They don't know much of the world besides what they've learnt at home, besides the things that you've taught them, they don't know about the apprenticeships, they don't know about, you know, what steps do I need to take to go from a child into an adult and start living my life. In our lives, we need to think about what kind of direction we want to give to our children. And it's not just that, it's not just the direction of life, but also what does God have to say about their lives. You know, in this Father's Day, I want to just bring a reminder to the fathers, you know, to remember your children, don't neglect your children, you're a father, because you have children, you now have a great responsibility to look after those kids, to give them some purpose, some direction in life they can walk in. Let's have a look at the direction that King David gave to his son Solomon. Solomon's taken on a huge responsibility, taken on this kingdom, and we know he did super well. You know, the nation of Israel prospered, you know, it was great, it was mighty, was a faithful nation under the kingship of Solomon, at least for the first part of his life, okay. So he did really well at the beginning, and I believe this came because he had a godly father in King David. Later on in his life, he messed up, okay. But for now, we see this advice that King David gives to his son, Solomon. So what does he say to Solomon? Verse number two. He says, I go the way of all the earth, okay. So what is David saying there? He's saying, look son, soon I'm going to perish, soon I'm going to pass away. And the first thing that I want to say today from what we see here is we need to teach our children that mums and dads were not always going to be there in life. You know, we're going to teach them about death. We're going to teach them that one day mom and dad are going to pass away into this life, okay. And that they won't always have mom and dad there for them. And so they need to start preparing now. They need to start thinking, hey, you know, when mom and dad are gone, you know, what's going to happen to me? You know, how faithful am I going to be? I'm not going to have my parents there to go for advice and for counsel. What do I do in that situation? How do I grow up? I see that mom and dad aren't always going to be there. We need to teach them that there's an afterlife. There's death and there's an afterlife, of course. You know, I'm going to, if you guys, keep your finger there, go to 1 Peter chapter one for me, please. 1 Peter chapter one. Because if we teach them of death, sometimes, you know, we're concerned. You know, do I tell my children about death? I think it's so important that you do. It's a huge part of life, you know. As many people that are born into this world, guess what, they also perish in this world. You know, death is a significant part of life, but it should not be the end of your living. It should not be the end of your living. In fact, death should be the beginning of you living more than you've ever lived before, okay. Because if there's death, we know the Bible teaches there's an afterlife. And in the afterlife, of course, there is heaven and hell. We want them to know, hey, the directions to heaven, how is it that we make sure that we go there, we can have eternal life and live with the Lord God forever. Look at 1 Peter chapter one, verse three. 1 Peter chapter one, verse three. The Bible says, The first thing I want you to notice there in 1 Peter chapter one, verse three, is that God is our Father. It said there at the beginning, right, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The key thing you need to understand, especially children, is yes, you've got mum and dad here, but you need to make sure not only are you part of an earthly family, you need to make sure that you're part of the heavenly family. You need to make sure that you make God the Father, you become the sons of God, you become the children of God, the sons and daughters of God, and that you do that by the resurrection there of Jesus Christ, the power of his resurrection. You know, in order for you to be saved, what do you need to do? You need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, right? But as many as received him, to them, gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. That's the first thing we need to be thinking about when we teach our children. We want you to be saved at an early age. We want you to have the Heavenly Father as your Father. We want to make sure that through Jesus Christ, you can enter heaven. That's not the end of you. Look at this, verse number 4. To an inheritance incorruptible, 1 Peter 1 verse 4. To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. What a promise, an incorruptible, undefiled life, that fadeth not away. We know that the earthly life fades away. We know mums and dads are going to fade away in their life. You know what? If mums and dads are at home in heaven one day, guess what the children can look forward to one day? I won't have them on this earth right now, but if I make God my Father, if I enter through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, I know I'll be able to be with my mum and dad forever. It will never fade away. What a great joy to know that in heaven we can be with our families forever. This is why we have a great sadness when we have loved ones, family members that are not saved. We know we have them for now. We try to enjoy them for now, but we need to give them the gospel. We want to spend all eternity with our unsaved friends, our unsaved family members. I feel so sad for people who have unsaved parents or unsaved children. It's a sad thing. I count myself so blessed to have grown up in a Christian home. For my children, my six older children now to have already called upon them, Lord, to understand salvation, have already received forgiveness for their sins and they can be sure of a home in heaven. What a great privilege. I want this for every family in this church. Fathers, you're the head of your home. If your wives are not saved, make sure they're saved. If your children are not saved, make sure they come to a knowledge of the gospel and receive him as a saviour, that they can have that assurance, the reassurance, that they will be eternally with their family one day again in heaven. And then verse number five, it said there, 1 Peter chapter one, verse five, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Go back to 1 Kings chapter two, please, 1 Kings chapter two. So the first thing, parents, fathers, that we need to teach our kids is to teach them about death, but not only death, but life after death, life eternal, a home in heaven, one that never passes away. The next words that King David says to Solomon, I go the way of all the earth. Be thou strong therefore, be thou strong. We need to teach our children, fathers, to be strong, not just our sons, but our daughters as well. They would grow up to be strong people. I'm not saying that they should be arrogant people. That's not strength. We need people that can stand strong on the teachings of the Bible. They can stand strong on good morals, on good principles of life. They can stand strong on the frameworks that God gives us in his word. That, you know, if people come and tempt them, they try to draw them away with foolishness. They would always stand strong on the truth. You know, Psalms 28 verse seven says, The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my song will I praise him. Who is our strength? We know we want our kids to stand strong. They need to make sure they go to the Lord for strength. My heart trusted in him. This is why they need to be saved at an early age, as soon as possible. When their hearts are trusting in Christ, guess what, they're going to be strong in the faith. They're going to grow up. They're going to have more time than a lot of us did to mature and grow in the Lord. Hey, maybe as adults there'll be greater believers, greater Christians doing greater works than us. Great! Praise God. That's what I'm looking forward to. I want my kids to excel. I want my kids to excel for the Lord. But it said there, and I am helped. I am helped. Being strong doesn't mean that there are times of weakness. Of course, we all go through times of weakness. We all go through times of difficulties and trials, and we feel cast down. But strength is to know that I can go to someone for help. Sometimes as fathers, when we're struggling, when we're going through difficulties, we're ashamed to call for help. Say, no, no. I need to look after. No, no. God's there for us. God's there to be our help. We need to make sure our kids see us when we're going through difficulties, that we call upon the Lord for help. Okay, so they know. They can follow the pattern they see from Dad. Hey, if Dad needs help from God, then I need help from God, and that's where I'm going to renew my strength. That's where I'm going to draw my strength. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 12, 10, you don't need to turn there. Therefore, I take pleasure, look at this, in infirmities. You know, if you're struggling with infirmities, sicknesses, you might say, I'm not strong. But Paul says, no, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses. For Christ's sake, why? For when I am weak, then am I strong, he says. Man, when I'm weak, that's when I can be stronger than ever. Because when I'm weak, that's when I can fully depend on the Lord God. Sometimes when things are going well, they're going super well, you know, we're not having any problems, we become strong in our own flesh. We don't rely on the Lord as much as we need to, because, hey, we're doing well, why do I need the Lord? Sometimes the Lord just allows us to go through these difficulties. So we can be stronger than we were before. Because when you think you're strong and you're not walking in the Lord, actually you're weak, actually you're spiritually weak. And you can be in a position of poverty, in a position of necessities and be stronger than ever, because you're drawing your strength from the Lord. We need to make sure we teach our children to draw strength from God. Philippians 4.13 says, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. What a great thing. You know what the teachers in the schools teach our kids? Man, you guys can be anything you want to be, right? If you want to be the President, the Prime Minister of Australia, if you want to be an astronaut, you can just dream whatever you want to dream, you can do that. Well, you know, there's kind of a truth to that, okay? The Bible tells us, I can do all things. But what the schools don't tell them is how to do all things. It says, I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. That's how we get the strength, that's how we can achieve all things, that's how we can do great things for God and great things for our lives, is that they draw strength from Jesus Christ who strengthens them, okay? We need to teach our kids to be strong, but not to be strong without the Lord, to draw their strength from the Lord. And in verse number 2, I go the way of all the earth. Sorry, back in 1 Kings 2, verse 2, I go the way of all the earth, be thou strong therefore, and look at this, and show thyself a man. Show thyself a man. Teach your children that one day they have to grow up, that boys, one day you're going to be a man, and girls, one day you're going to be a woman, you're going to be an adult, okay? We need to make sure we teach our kids these things. They need to understand there's a difference between a man and a woman. We don't want our boys to grow up to be effeminate, do we? We don't want our girls to grow up and be masculine. No, there's a proper order to things. There are proper distinctions to things, okay? I mean, one reason I just, you know, besides all the reasons I'm not wanting to put my kids in school, one of the main reasons, I want my boys to be men. I want my daughters to be women. They go to school, they don't know the difference. It's all the same. Boys these days, some schools can put on dresses if they want. They can walk into school with a dress. They can go to school and use the girls' toilet if they identify as a girl. How ridiculous is this? No, I don't want that. I don't want that. I don't want to put my kids in a place like that where they're being told, hey, experiment, try. No, I'm going to raise my boys to be men. And this is so important. You know, I don't do it so much now, but, you know, when I used to work and I used to travel quite a bit, before leaving the house, I don't know if you remember this, Nicholas, because you were younger, I'd say, Nicholas, he was small. Nicholas was small, but Nicholas is my oldest boy. I'd say, Nicholas, you're the man of the house. I'm going to be gone. You're the man of the house. You're the man of the house. If someone breaks in, it's your job to stop them. He's small. He's a little kid. But what am I – I mean, obviously, I'm not expecting someone to break in. You know, but what am I driving to him? I'm driving to him. I say, look, when Dad's not around, you need to take charge. You need to step up. You need to start becoming a man, start becoming an adult. The reason I bring Nicholas to the men's literature class is so he can learn to be a leader, so he can learn to be a man according to God's word. And in due time, as my other boys get older, I want them to grow up and know they need to be a man. I don't expect them to be a man today. I expect them to be children today. They are children today. I want them to enjoy life. I want them to enjoy their siblings. I want them to create good memories so when they're older, they can go back to those memories and say, hey, we had a great time back then. You know, remember when this happened, remember when that happened. I want them to enjoy life right now, okay, right now. But while they're enjoying life, I'm also preparing them to be men. I'm preparing them to be adults. You know, and fathers, we need to take this responsibility. It doesn't just happen. It doesn't just, okay, on the 18th birthday, now you're an adult. No, no, no. You've got to be trained. You've been given them all these years of their life. By the time they're 18, you should have spent 18 years training them up to be the men that they need to be, or the girls, the women that they need to be. You've been given a long time. You know, I know, you know, I see how children grow so quickly, right? Isabel's already 14 years old. I can't believe it. You know, it goes quick. But then, at the same time, I've been given so many years to invest. And I wonder sometimes, you know, are we taking the time? Are we redeeming the time that God has given us to make sure that we teach our children, you know, these things, that we teach them to be strong and adults, and we teach them about, you know, how to live after the Lord. So we need to make sure we teach our boys especially to be men and our girls to be women. All right. And just one little point that I would say with especially the boys is give them work to do. I mean, even the girls, you know, give them work to do. You know, get them to start thinking to be productive right now. You know, I love my mum. I'm not trying to have a go at my mum, but my mum did everything for me. All right. She would literally make my bed. She'd do everything for me, okay, everything. And I'm thankful because then I have a wife who's very good to me as well. Okay. The other thing, I want my kids to be able to do things. I want them to be more productive. I want them to use their hands. And many times I'll give my boys especially work to do, and I know they don't know how to do that job. And they'll come back and say, Dad, how do I do that? I said, Son, you figure it out. That's what it means to be a man. You start figuring things out. You know, I need to find the answers myself. And what's great about the Internet these days, you know, I can just go on the Internet and look things up. That's good. The research, the learning, start being productive, start training your mind, start, you know, exercising the brain and say, I need to be able to accomplish things. Again, mums and dads are not always going to be there for them. They need to start learning how to do things on their own. So, fathers, please, use the years that God has given you to train your children so they can be great adults one day. Look at verse number 3, 1 Kings chapter 2 verse 3. I'll just read the whole verse here. It says, And keep the charge of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways to keep his statutes and his commandments and his judgments and his testimonies. As it is written in the law of Moses, thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest and whithersoever thou turnest thyself. I had titled this sermon A Father's Charge. We see that this is the charge of a father to the son. But look how verse number 3 begins. And keep the charge of the Lord thy God. You know, fathers, the charge that we need to give our children is the same charge that God gives all of us. The same charge that we see in the Bible. What does this tell me? This tells me that the teachings, the instructions, the guidance that we give our kids must come from this book. Must come from this book. I remember when I first got married, I was gifted a book, How to Be a Godly Husband. And then my wife was given a book later on, How to Be a Godly Wife. Or maybe the other way around. We were given books, How to Be a Godly Wife. And then when we had kids, we were given these kids, How to Train Up a Child, these books. And I told Kristina, I'm never reading these books. I'm never reading them. I don't know. I don't want to take charge from some man or some other woman. I want to take charge, my charge, the guidance from the word of God. Especially if I've not read my Bible cover to cover. How many Christians are there out there that have not read their Bibles cover to cover but their library, their bookshelf is full of these books that they've read from these men or these women even. And how many of them are probably not even saved? Probably a bunch of them are not even saved. And a lot of the times those books are contrary to the word of God. Many times those books are the complete opposite to the instruction that we find in the word of God. No, David, make sure the charge I'm giving you, son, is that you will be charged of the Lord. You will take His charge. You will take His instruction. The only way you can do that 100% is to make sure you do it by this book. That's the only way. By doing it according to this book. Which makes sense for the rest of this verse because now he's explaining all these things. He says to keep the charge of the Lord thy God, look to walk in His ways. To walk in His ways. And of course, I'll just read to you Psalm, actually you guys can turn there. Go to Psalm 119 because we've got a lot of verses to look at here. Psalm 119 is a massive chapter in the Bible. And it deals with the word of God. It's such a great psalm to read through. To find a great love. To find great joy in the word of God. And if we find His charge in His word, we're going to spend some time here in Psalm 119. But look at verse number 3. Psalm 119 verse 3. The Bible says, What did David say to Solomon? Walk in the ways of the Lord. It's the way you live your life. How should you live your life? We should try to overcome sin. The first thing we see in verse number 3, we need to try to overcome the sin in our lives. Learn how to overcome temptation. The more you overcome temptations, the more you defeat sin, the greater of a soldier you will be in your spiritual walk. You'll be able to overcome greater things. And the Bible says here, They also do no iniquity, they walk in His ways. If we walk in the ways of God perfectly, we will do no iniquity. And when you do commit iniquity, when you do commit sin, guess what? It's because you did not walk in His ways at that point in time. We need to make sure we walk in His ways. Why number 1? So we can overcome sin. And the next reason, and you don't need to turn there, I'll just read to you from Psalm 128 verse 1. The Bible says, Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord. Look at this, that walketh in His ways. Why is this important? Verse number 2 says this, just listen to this, For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands, happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Do we want our children, fathers, do we want our children to be happy? Do we want for things to be well with them in their lives? Do we want them to eat the labor of their own hands? Be productive, be someone, make something of themselves. What do they need to do? They need to walk in His ways. They need to walk in the ways of the Lord and fear the Lord. It says in Psalm 128 verse 1, Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord that walketh in His ways. You're not going to find, I want my kids to be happy. I've heard parents, they've got a wayward child, a child that's out of church, that's not working, that's just a failure in life, they're just not accomplishing anything in their lives. And they often say, well, I just want them to be happy. I just want them to, look, they're not happy. They're not happy if they're not walking in the ways of the Lord. If you want your children to be happy, you need to teach them to walk after His ways. The next thing we saw there in 1 Kings chapter, you guys are in Psalm 119, you can stay there. The next thing was to walk in His ways to keep His statutes, to keep His statutes. Now the Bible in this verse uses a few phrases, statutes, commandments, judgments, testimonies. A lot of these things are very similar. And not often when you read through the Bible you see these words. It's basically, just to keep it simple, it's just the Word of God. It's the Word of God. But they do mean slightly different things. Now when it comes to a statute, what this basically means is kind of like the word status. The word status. We say, what's your status at this point in time? What are we saying? What position are you in at this point in time? Another way of saying it is, where are you standing? Where are you standing? Or it's a reflection of God's standards. God's standards. So when it talks about statutes, it's a status, or standing, or God's standard. Those kinds of words are there. And of course when it comes to the Word of God, God has standards. God stands on certain things. And so when the Bible says here, in 1 Kings 2 verse 3, it says to keep His statutes, what David is telling Solomon, I want you to stand where God stands. You need to know where God stands, and you stand exactly right there in the middle where God stands. You work out what God's will is in your life, and you stand right there in God's will. Okay? You know what that means? That means we need to know what God loves, and we need to love what God loves. We need to know what God hates. We need to stand there right where God hates. You know, it doesn't matter what the world standard is. It doesn't matter what your family's standard is. It doesn't even matter what your church's standard is. You need to make sure you find where does God stand, what are His statutes, and stand in those things. And that's going to make you very unpopular in life when you stand on God's Word. When you stand exactly where God stands, hey, but you're going to find joy. You're going to find fulfillment in life. You're going to be able to accomplish great things when you know what God says. Look at Psalm 119 verse 5. Psalm 119 verse 5. We talked about before walking in His ways, but look at this. It puts it together. Psalm 119 verse 5. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes. O that my ways, the way that I go about life, Lord, I want to always stand where you stand. I want to know exactly what you think about this situation. We ought to desire for our children to stand where God stands. Look at verse number 12. Psalm 119 verse 12. All these passages I'm going to give you are from Psalm 119. Verse number 12. The Bible says, You want to get the statutes of God? Yeah, you read the Bible, but you need to go in prayer to the Lord. Say, Lord, teach me your statutes. Teach me because I'm a product of my environment. I'm a product of all the years of messed up philosophies and brainwashing of the public school systems, even the Christian schools, you know, or just the laws of my land maybe have corrupted my mind to think about certain things. Maybe Hollywood has corrupted my mind. Lord, you need to teach me your statutes. That's a great prayer to have. You need to teach our children. You know, stand on the statutes of God. Look at verse number 23. Look at verse number 23. The Bible says, This is what I said to you before. If you just stand on the statutes of God, guess what? The princes, those in authority, you know, will not. What did it say there? They will speak against you. They will speak against you. Please understand this. Understand. Okay. I know we want our children, fathers, we want our children to get along with everybody. We want them to live peaceably amongst all men and that's the goal. Okay. But here's the truth. Here's the truth of the Christian life. If they just stand where God stands, maybe we don't care that much anymore. We've lived our lives. Maybe we've burnt some of those friendships that, you know, were bad for us anyway. Maybe, you know, people know exactly where we stand. They don't bother us anymore. But our children are going to go through that same process one day. They're going to stand for God and they're going to be rejected by men. They're going to be rejected by princes, people in authority because they just, hey, I just believe what God says. Okay. Yeah. All right. You want to do things your way but I'm going to stand right here. I'm going to stand right here where God wants me to stand. We need to teach our children that they're going to be rejected by this world. They're going to be rejected by this world. I wasn't really prepared to know how rejected I would be when I started to stand for the word of God. You know, when I picked up my King James Bible and I started to just grow and mature in the Lord, I thought all my friends wanted to know what I was learning. I thought all my friends wanted to know the standards that God has in statutes. Nope. As soon as I started talking about it, they started arguing me. Right? As soon as I started talking about it, they started to drift away from me. Hey, that's, you know, I wasn't ready for that. I wasn't ready for that. You know, I had to grow through that process. But we need to teach our kids that's the expectation of the Christian life. They need to understand this. That they're going to be rejected by man just for standing where God stands. Look at verse 71. Same chapter. Psalm 119 verse 71. They say, well, if they get persecuted, they get, you know, attacked for the word of God. Well, look what it says here. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes. You know, the Psalmist says, look, yes, I've been afflicted for standing for God. I've been afflicted for learning the statutes of God. But it says it was good. You know, he says, yes, awesome. And that's the next thing, right? Once you get used to the idea that you're going to be rejected by man, when you are rejected, when you are afflicted, when you are persecuted, you're going to say yes, praise God. Just more treasures for me in heaven. I'm just laying up more treasures for me in heaven every time. Really, why? You know, we already taught our kids about eternal life. We already taught our kids about everlasting life and the home in heaven, the rewards they can have on high. And so when you are rejected, you know, well, it's good for me. It's good for me. This helps me to learn the statutes of God. The next thing that David says to Solomon, he goes, to keep his statutes and his commandments. Now, this is a term we're probably more familiar with. We use more often when we talk about the words of God. But the commandments basically is to command, all right? To commandeer. You know, if someone's commandeering a tank, it means they're driving the tank, right? They're in control of that tank. And when we read about the commandments of God, it's not just knowing God says this, but allowing God to be your commander in chief. Allowing God to commandeer your life. That's what it means. That means you become a servant, you know, to the Lord God. You say, Lord, I want you to take control of my life. And this is challenging. It's hard because God wants to do a lot of changes in your life. God wants you to grow up a lot. And sometimes, you know, he knows exactly how quickly we need to grow. He knows what he needs to put in our lives in order for us to mature and develop. But the commandments basically mean not just do what you know you need to do, but allow God to work for you, to commandeer your life. And you need to, you know, keep commandments through the power of God. You need his help in order to do many of these things. Look at verse number 6, Psalm 119, verse 6. The Bible says, Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments. All thy commandments. Wow. You know, say, well, how many commandments are you keeping right now, guys? Maybe 50%. You know, we need to strive to keep all his commandments. That's the goal for our lives, right? And the Bible says here, then shall I not be ashamed. We spoke about we want our kids to be strong, okay? I don't want my children to be ashamed for the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want them to be ashamed for the Word of God. And in order for them not to be ashamed, what do they need to strive to do? To keep all the commandments of God. Look at verse number 10, Psalm 119, verse 10. Verse number 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee. O let me not wander from thy commandments. You'll notice this theme a little bit here in Psalm 119. When it comes to the commandments, a lot of it has to do with your heart, okay? Again, with my whole heart have I sought thee. O let me not wander from thy commandments. And look at verse number 32. Look at verse number 32. I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart. If you're struggling to keep the commandments of God, what's a great prayer we see here? You ask the Lord to enlarge your heart. When we talk about the heart in that sense, we're talking about the love. You know, Lord, please increase my love for your word. Please help me to love you more, Lord. And if I can love you more, I can love your word more, I know that I'll be able to keep your commandments more. You know, it's a great prayer to ask the Lord. And this, of course, reflects with the same way, with the same instruction, or the same advice that Jesus Christ gives in John 14 and 15. He said to his disciples, if ye love me, keep my commandments. He said, I love God. You know, are you keeping his commandments? Because that's the measure of your love for the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you haven't got the love, Lord, please enlarge my heart. That's who you go to full strength. That's who you go to. You say, man, I'm failing. Go to the Lord. Ask him to increase your heart, to enlarge it, to have a greater love for his word and for who he is. You cannot love God if you do not love his word. You cannot love God if you do not love his commandments. And sometimes, again, these phrases, I'm not attacking people, because a lot of things in churches, we parrot. We say the same things. We heard them said before by the previous generations. We say them again. And again, you find out someone's, you know, backslidden. They're at a church. They're living a worldly life. Oh, but they love Jesus. They love God. No, they don't love God. Okay, if they love God, they would still be in church. If they love God, they'd still be reading their Bibles. If they love God, they would still be following the commandments of God, okay? Don't make excuses for people that are not walking in the ways of the Lord. If they're not walking out of the ways, they don't love God. It doesn't matter how much they say, I love God. They don't love God, okay? The only way you can measure someone's love for God is by how well they keep the commandments of God. So please, teach your children fathers to love the commandments and to love the Lord God. And just the last one I want to look at is verse number 60, Psalm 119 verse 60. This one challenged me a little bit as I was reading it. It says, I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments. Wow. It says, look, as soon as I learned your commandments, I didn't delay. I made haste. I'm going to keep that one. That's how it should be in our lives. That's how it should be. No, you know, I'll keep that maybe next week. I'll do that next week, Lord. You ask me that, I'll do it next year, you know. Or maybe after I get married, Lord. Maybe then when I have kids, when I settle down, I'll start living after. No, no, no. I made haste. As soon as you learn things from the word of God, put it into practice. You know, there are a lot of things in the Bible that I've learned and right now I've probably forgotten. A lot of things you've learned, a lot of commandments you've learned, you've probably forgotten. You know why we forget them usually? Because we didn't make haste to do them, okay? And then we've got onto some other topic and we could have grown at that point. We could have just said, yes, Lord, I'm going to put this into place, but you've delayed, you've forgotten and again, it's not showing a love for God. The next thing that David says to his son Solomon, he goes, and his judgments, and his judgments. Of course, to judge is to make decisions, okay? To judge is to make decisions. You look at a situation and you make a judgment call on that situation, okay? Look at Psalm 119 verse 30, verse number 30. Psalm 119 verse 30. The Bible says, I have chosen the way of truth. Thy judgments have I laid before me. You see, when we need to make judgments, parents, when we need to train our children to make the right decisions, we want them to make decisions based on truth. The Bible says here, the way of truth, okay? Anybody can make judgments. Everybody makes judgments. But we want to make sure that our children make judgments based on the truth, the truth of God's word, okay? When they have a decision to make in life, the first thought is, well, what does God have to say about that? And this is what makes Christian life very easy in some ways, is I don't need to worry about certain decisions in life. If there are many options, which way do I go? Well, you know what? Many times the Bible just spells it out for me, all right? It just spells it out for me. You know, which, you know, just your decisions in life. You know, you get married. You say, well, Lord, you know, who should I marry? Well, the Bible tells you already, marry a saved woman, okay? That's who you need to make a decision on. Marry someone that is saved. Well, that makes sense. Then when it comes to the unsaved, I'm not going to, you know, set my eyes on those people. I'm going to make sure I start, you know, narrowing it down to someone that is saved. Lord, should I have kids? It's not a decision. The fruit of the womb is His reward, okay? Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth with the instructions of God. I don't need to decide on those things. And the world has told you, no, you need to make a decision. Don't worry about the decision. God tells you, just do it. That's right judgment. That's true judgment. When God's really laid it out, He makes it easy for us. You know, should I tell a lie in this situation or tell the truth? You tell the truth, okay? It's a way of truth, His judgments. You judge according to His word. It takes the pressure off us. So many things we need to decide in life, okay? And some things are not necessarily all spelt out for us. You know, God gives you a lot of liberty as well to make decisions in your life. But I see the ungodly world, you know, often struggling about decisions. I'm thinking, it's so easy. It's so easy. Because God told us already what to do. You just do it. And you know if you do what God said, it's going to be best for you. It's going to work out best for you. So judgments is to make decisions. Look at verse number 62. Verse number 62. Now sometimes we might think that the judgments of God are outdated. You know, we live in 2019 now. Come on. It's the 21st century. You know, this book was written back many, many years ago. But look at Psalm 119 verse 62. He says, I want to just drive home the righteousness of the judgments of God. You know, when you read your Bible, you go, man, God, that's a bit harsh. You know what you just did? No, it was righteous. You know, when you say, Lord, I don't know. I can't understand how you would cast unbelievers to hell. It's righteous. It's righteous. Because even when we don't fully wrap our heads around it right now, one day we will. One day when we have our new resurrected bodies, we're not struggling with the sinful flesh anymore. We're going to know every decision, every judgment God made was righteous. It was correct. In fact, you don't even need to wait for that. You can just stand on the promises of God and say every time, everything God says is right. It's righteous every time. It's never unrighteous. Look at verse number 72. Verse number 72. I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness has afflicted me. What about when you go through afflictions? Okay? When you're suffering. This is not fair, God. No, he says, look, I know your judgments are right. I know that the affliction that I had was in your faithfulness. You're being faithful toward me. You're allowing me to go through this for whatever purpose. I don't necessarily know the reason right now, Lord, but it's difficult. I'd rather not have to carry this, but I'm just going to judge that you're right in your judgment. You've allowed this for a righteous reason, for a faithful reason, the affliction that I'm suffering with. We need to teach our children when they're afflicted that it's righteous. It's the right judgment from God. He might be chastising you for some purpose. Okay? We need to make sure when we discipline our kids, we do it. We make right judgment as well. We need to make sure, where wise, we make the right judgment call. Look at verse 160. 160. And this is the one I love the most when it comes to the judgments of God. Verse 160. Thy word is true from the beginning, and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever. Forever. Every judgment of God from the beginning. What's the beginning? The creation of heaven? There's nothing before that. The creation of heaven and the earth. But not only the beginning, but it endures forever. Forever. You know, and this is so important because, you know, we know that, you know, people say, well, that's the Old Testament. You know, God was like that in the Old Testament. He's not like that. No. It endures forever, his judgments. It's always correct. It's always right. I don't care how old this book is. It's still correct today. It was correct in the beginning. It's going to be correct all the time. And so if I judge according to God's judgments, I know it's always right. It's never going to change with the times. You know, if we're still here for 100 years more, I still know it's right. Okay. Till the end of my life, I still know the judgments of God are right. I'm not going to be ashamed of his judgments. All right. The next thing that David says to Solomon in verse number three, and his judgments and his testimonies, testimonies. So if someone gives a testimony, you know, we ask someone, hey, can you give your salvation testimony? What are they saying? They're giving a witness, right? They're giving a witness of what they experience. So that's what testimonies are. You know, the testimonies of God are the witnesses of God. God's witness for us. The evidence or the proof that he gives us in his word. Look at verse number 46, Psalm 119 verse 46. Psalm 119 verse 46. The Bible says, I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings and will not be ashamed. We need to testify of the things that God testifies of. If we're brought before kings, we need to make sure we stand there on the word of God. This is what God witnessed to us. This is his witness. This is his evidence. This is what we need to tell other people. You know, kings and magistrates as well. Verse number 119, please. Psalm 119 verse 119. The Bible says, thou put us away, all the wicked of the earth like dross. Therefore, I love thy testimonies. Listen, we need to realize that God punishes the wicked, okay? He puts them away like dross, like waste. He destroys the wicked. He goes, look, when I see that happening, when I see the wicked being punished, when I see the wicked being destroyed, therefore I love thy testimonies. Man, that's not common in churches, right? When people are, you know, the wicked are suffering, they're falling in their own pits, or the wicked are being cast into hell. As believers, we need to get a point where we say, I love it, Lord. I love it because it's your testimony, it's your witness. You tell me this is the situation and I'm going to love in the things that you love, Lord. If you destroy the wicked, the wickedness. Yes, I love it when you take judgment upon those things. That's so hard for a lot of Christians, you know. It's not that you, because they think you're puffed up. They think you're proud and arrogant, you know. No, it's just that I love the Lord. We do it because we love the Lord. We love where he stands. We love the things that he says. We need to get to that point in life. You know, look at verse number 157. Many are my persecutors and my enemies, yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. Lord, the things you've shown me, I appreciate them. It doesn't matter how many people come up against me. I'm always going to find joy and satisfaction in the testimonies that you've given me. This is what we need to teach our kids. Again, we have it all nice in a little package right here. Kids, pick this up. I've broken it down like that and we don't need to worry too much about that, but we know that all of those truths, the statutes, the judgments, the testimonies, are all found here in the Word of God. We need to train our children to pick it up and read it. One of the responsibilities we give our kids, even before they have breakfast in the morning, is the first breakfast they should have is the Word of God. They read that chapter and the older kids that are able to understand it very well and can write well, we get them to summarise that chapter in a book. At the end of the week, I check what they've done and they do quite good. They break it down. They do a good job, but it helps them to read. They write it down and then reward them for the work they've done as well. I reward them for that because they're learning the words of God. We need to teach our kids to love His Word. The next thing that David says there, once he mentions all those things, let me just find where I'm at. So, keep His statutes, His commandments and His judgments and His testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses. As it is written in the law of Moses. What's the law of Moses? The Old Testament. The Old Testament, guys. We need to teach our kids the Old Testament. The laws of Moses. Again, many churches these days are moving away from those teachings. That's old school. God doesn't feel that way anymore. I already covered that. This is why I taught you guys the differences between the Old and the New Testaments. We looked at what the ceremonial laws are. Yes, the ceremonial laws have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. They were pictures for us in Christ. But we need to teach our kids from the law of Moses the moral laws. Teach His statutes. Where does God stand on these moral issues? What's right? What's wrong? What's sinful? Because we don't want our kids to commit those sins. We don't want them to transgress the Word of God. We need to teach them the moral laws where God is. The civil laws. Why are the civil laws important? How they punished crime. Because God gives us His judgments on those crimes. We're going to teach them these things. We need to tell them, how does God feel about this criminal activity? How would God punish this if He had a sovereign nation of His own today? And we know when Christ comes back in the millennium, that He's going to rule and reign according to the Lord of Moses, according to the Word of God. It's not Moses' law we call that many times. It's God's law. It's God's judgments. And if we're going to rule and reign with Christ, we better start learning now what God wants us to do. How He wants us to operate. How He wants us to judge. Start learning now. So you can be super effective there, come in the millennium. And again, once again guys, we've got the whole Bible. The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 3, 16, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. I want my kids to be instructed. I want them to be a prophet in life. They can only do it by knowing all scripture. By knowing that all parents, fathers, we need to make sure our kids read their Bibles. And why? David kept saying that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself. See, David wanted Solomon to prosper. He wanted him to have a successful life, Solomon. I want you to do well. But you know, biblical prosperity is not measured by the size of your bank account. And many fathers, many parents, we desire our kids to have a great job, to make a lot of money, to have great wealth and great possessions. Even Christians, even Christian families are pushing their kids to do this. But you know, true prosperity is a knowledge of scripture. It's a knowledge of doctrine, knowing the Bible. And not just knowing the scriptures, but living in them. Walking in the commandments of God. Walking in His way. That's where true prosperity is. I'd rather my kids to be struggling financially in life, but they have a great joy for the Lord. They're laying up treasures in heaven for all eternity. They're just serving the Lord God with all their lives, and maybe from time to time they're struggling financially. Hey, but they're getting through. I'd rather that than my kids have ten houses, all these investments, a great name in society, but they lose their soul. Or they have all those things, and they're saved, but when they get to heaven they've got nothing to show. It all gets burnt up, and all they've got is a foundation of Christ. That's good, but I wish they would have done better. That's how I would feel if I was a father. Hey, great prosperity is not the size of your bank account, contrary to what the Pentecostals and Charismatics teach these days. The prosperity gospel, they got it in the wrong place. Prosperity is knowing the scriptures and walking according to His way. Fathers, please think about this, because we want our kids to do well. We want them to suffer in life. We push them to do well, to make money, and that's important. That's important. If our kids, as a byproduct of just serving the Lord, get rich, praise God. Awesome. They can do more for the Lord. They can be generous. If we train them right, if we train them to have a heart for the Lord, the Lord may very well just bestow them great riches. We saw that with Abraham. We're going through the story of Abraham. Abraham does just everything he does, even when he does wrong. He's being given great riches. He's growing in status because he's got a heart for the Lord. He's walking in His ways. The Lord sees the righteousness there of Abraham, how he desires to know the Lord. He gives them great riches. Our kids might even have great riches, but I want them to have riches as a result of first prospering in the scriptures, prospering in the ways of the Lord. If they've got their hearts in the right place, God says, you know what, so and so there. He's not going to be corrupted by riches. I know He's going to be generous with what He's got. I'm going to give Him great substance. It might happen that way. That would be just a bonus on top. We want to make sure they lay up their treasures in heaven first and foremost. If you guys want to go back to 1 Kings 2, you can. 1 Kings 2, I'm almost done now. 1 Kings 2 verse 4. 1 Kings 2 verse 4. King David says this, That the Lord may continue His word, which is spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth, with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee, said he, a man on the throne of Israel. And again, we saw Solomon was the most successful king out of all the kings, even more successful than his father David when he came to the nation of Israel. It's prosperity at its time in life. So I believe Solomon took heed, especially in those early years, to King David. But again, at the end of Solomon's life, what does he do? He messes up. He does a really bad job. And after his kingship, the nation of Israel was split into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom, which went by Israel, the southern kingdom, which went by Judah. And it was never the same again. Israel was never the same again. But the kings continued, but there's no kingly line today, is there? There's no kingly line today. And what was the promise from God? That if your children take heed to their way, walk before me in truth, with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail, he said thee, a man on the throne of Israel. You know what this tells us? This tells us that this lineage of men failed. They failed. Otherwise, they'd still be a king of Israel today. But here's the thing. There is a king of Israel today. There is a king of Israel today. Because out of the loins of David, Jesus Christ, he calls himself the root and the offspring of David. And of course, when we look at these words, we're thinking about a physical, kingly line, and there's a truth to that, but the greater truth is that this was a prophecy of Jesus Christ. There always will be a king on the throne, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ was someone who walked in truth, that his heart and his soul was for the Lord. He never failed. He kept all the commandments. He did something that no man could do, because he was the Lord God manifest in the flesh. That's the king of Israel. That's the king of the Jews. That's the king of the Gentiles. That's the king of the church. That's the king of kings, the Lord of Lords. And the lesson that we take out of this, guys, is that we need to teach our children to set the right king in their lives. Not to look at a man and say, man, I'm going to live after this man. Hey, this is a great man. I want to be just like that person. I want to be known by that man. No man will fail them. Men will fail our kids. Make sure they set the right king in their lives, King Jesus. You know, King Jesus comes first. And so when men fail them, when mums and dads fail them, they know, oh, Dad told me I've got to have my eyes on King Jesus. He will never leave me. He will never forsake me, he said. Teach our children to set their eyes on God. That's who their standard is. That's who their authority is. That's who they need to follow, Jesus Christ. Once again, it's good to have godly men in their lives. But teach your kids, yes, listen to godly men. Listen to godly preachers. But always say this, there's a chance they'll fail. In fact, some of these great men that you listen to will fail. So when it happens, they're not in shock. When it happens, they're not depressed. When it happens, they're like, of course, because they're a failure of a man. They've got sin, they've got a sinful nature, of course, because my eyes are set on Jesus Christ and I'm never going to waver from my spiritual walk because I've got the right standard in place. The King Jesus Christ. So, parents, fathers, fathers, fathers day, take your responsibility seriously. God has given you these kids for many, many years so you can train them. You can teach them the word of God. The Bible's a big book, but you've got many years. You can get through the Bible many times with your kids. You're not going to teach them everything. At some point, they need to read the Bible. They need to feed themselves the word of God. And they need to know one day, I need to mature. Boys, I'm going to become men. Girls are going to become women. They need to know their role and place in life. And when they're struggling, they can always remember the words from Dad. When you're struggling, when you need help, go to God. Draw strength from Him. Let's pray.