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🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 Hi, how are you bro? Hi, how are you doing? I'm fine. The weather was better. The weather was better? Yeah, it's alright. My first hot wedding. Any guys? 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 I'm going to take a picture with you. I'm going to take a picture with you. I'm going to take a picture with you. I'm going to take a picture with you. I'm going to take a picture with you. I'm going to take a picture with you. I'm going to take a picture with you. I'm going to take a picture with you. I'm going to take a picture with you. I'm going to take a picture with you. I'm going to take a picture with you. I'm going to take a picture with you. I'm going to take a picture with you. I'm going to take a picture with you. Welcome to Strong Tower Baptist Church, this is our Sunday morning service. Our first hymn is hymn number 13, hymn number 13, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Amazing Grace, how sweet thy sound, Thou saved the wretches by me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Most wide, but now I see. T'was grace that tore my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved. How precious did Thou close the door In Thou art the first relief. Through many dangers, woes, and sins, I have already gone. Tis grace hath known to save as one, And grace then gave me hope. The Lord has called his mercy, His word my love secures. Be with my shield and potion, As long as life returns. When we've been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to see God's rest Than when we first begun. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Strong Tower Baptist Church. This is our Sunday morning service. If you don't have a bulletin, if you don't have one of these, please raise your hand. But if you do have one, have a look down at our verse a week, which is Proverbs 20 and verse 7, which is, A just man walketh in his integrity, his children are blessed after him. Of course, it goes with it being Father's Day, so Happy Father's Day to all the men out there, all the fathers out there today. It's Father's Day today. We're going to be preaching a message that's kind of related to Father's Day shortly. That's going to be the sermon today will be about Father's Day. And then in the evening, we'll be finishing our series on how to win souls. It's going to be the last part, number eight this evening. We're just going to be looking at following up and then we'll do a bit of a recap as well on everything and maybe a little example at the end if we have time as well. Our service times are down there and that's going to be our 4 p.m. service. Our Wednesday evening service is at 7 p.m. That's a prayer night as well, so please send in your prayer request for the Wednesday evening service and then our soul winning times are down there. And if you haven't, please give your name to Andre there at the back if you plan to go soul winning this Sunday for the soul winning time, which is at 1.30. And then on Tuesday evening, it's at 6.30. It is in Basildon, but let me know if you plan to go on that and we'll get covered depending on how many people are looking to make this Tuesdays and maybe next ones, because we're going to have a bit of a thinner schedule with Malawi coming up. That will also be with Tilbury as well, but just let us know if you're planning to go to that. If you could just give me a shout, give me a message saying I'd like to still soul win either Tuesday or Thursday and we'll make plans for that. But there's going to be quite a few people away with our Malawi missions trip as well. Wednesday evening is local to the church and there will be that time. However, again, it's just going to be depending on how many people are willing to go soul winning. So the times are there, but just let us know if you're planning and able to make any of those times. And then the marathons, we're going to have one at the end of the month. Extra soul winning continues. I think they're out soul winning today in extra. Our praise report's down there. We're up to 14 for June so far. We've got 281 for the year. Our baptisms are on five right now and total salvation is 2,881. And South Africa salvation is 198, Swiss salvation 72, there were quite a few there over the last week. In both of those, I think they had three in Switzerland, I think they've had 10 or so in the last week in South Africa. 147 to baptisms. Our attendance total's down there. Busy services last week. But we have our missions trip about to start over in Malawi. We've got people out there right now just plotting and planning and everything else. They have visited a school there. They've done a bit of preaching. It's been great so far. We've got lots lined up there. Lots to do out there and lots to happen. So obviously there's a lot that therefore can be hindered and things can go wrong. So please keep it in your prayers as I keep asking you to just for that Malawi missions trip. But the official dates are June the 18th to the 25th. Saturday June the 29th then, so just after that is our next sort of marathon. It's an afternoon event where we do a long block of soul winning between three and four hours in the afternoon over in Erith in South East London. So that's where we're going to be soul winning on June the 29th. If you're able to make that, if you'd like to get involved with that then let us know. I'll put something up about that and get some numbers. There's going to be a meal afterwards as well. And then on Friday July the 19th is the kind of every two month homeschool trip. That's going to be local to here so talk to my wife. She's put something on a homeschool group about that if you'd like to get involved with that. Then August 31st September the 1st is a one year anniversary weekend. It's going to be a soul winning marathon in London followed by guest preaching on the Sunday. And then we've also got our Amsterdam Preachers Soul Winning event. It's going to be Friday preaching Saturday soul winning on September 27th to 28th. And again if you'd like to have more details about that let me know. Our Bible memory challenge we're on week four which is 1 Peter 2 10. Which in time passed were not a people but and now the people are God. Which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. That's week four of our Bible memory challenge. If you can memorise all six verses in six weeks you receive a prize. Please turn your mobile phones off and place them on silent if you haven't. We do have a birthday. Well we've got a birthday, we've got an anniversary and then we've got a birthday to come as well. So Leo happy birthday for today. So Leo is 12 years old today aren't you Leo and happy birthday. I hope you're having a great day so far and it's fallen on Father's Day. So I don't know who got the celebrations today but you've got to split it between you. But happy birthday Leo for today and we've got the Cachos wedding anniversary tomorrow. And on the 19th we've got Bethany's birthday as well. So yeah when you're ready happy birthday to Leo. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday God bless you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday Leo we hope you have a great day today. If you're not down there and your birthday is in June then let us know. And if you don't think you've given us your birthday or your wedding anniversary dates then let us know. We'd like to celebrate them with you. We don't know if you need details or online donations. I'm trying to remember there was something I wanted to remind people of. It might come to me when I'm reading this anyway. Okay so we're family integrated and I think everyone is well aware of the family integrated rules. But just to remind you we have the mother and father baby rooms. The mother baby room being this one and the father baby room behind. We've got a mother baby room upstairs as well. With each of those we ask that no ladies are in the mother baby rooms. We ask please for the only ladies in the mother baby rooms. No men in the mother baby rooms. No ladies in the father baby rooms. We also ask please to have no children unattended in the building at all times. Oh yeah and the other thing I wanted to remind everyone. Try where possible if we want to try and stop the young ones running around and doing laps of the church. It's an ongoing process with a lot of youngsters with that. But just to try and remind them please guys. And I think that's it. So on that I'll go back over to you. All right our next hymn is hymn number four hundred and fifty one. Four five one in our red hymn knows he hideth my soul. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in a cleft of the road, where ripples of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in a cleft of the road, that shall not untie the ski land. He hideth my life in the hands of his love, and covers me then with his hand, and covers me then with his roots. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord, he taketh my blood and my way. He holdeth me up and I shall not be moved, he giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in a cleft of the road, that shall not untie the ski land. He hideth my life in the depths of his love, and covers me then with his hand, and covers me then with his roots. With numberless blessings each moment he crowns, and filled with his boldness divine. I sing in my rapture of glory to God, for such a redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in a cleft of the road, that shall not untie the ski land. He hideth my life in the depths of his love, and covers me then with his hand, and covers me then with his roots. When clothed in his brightness tracks, Lord, did I rise to these hidden clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, his wonderful love, I'll shout with the news of heart. He hideth my soul in a cleft of the road, that shall not untie the ski land. He hideth my life in the depths of his love, and covers me then with his hand, and covers me then with his roots. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are here today, Lord. We thank you for the blessing that you have shown us, Lord. Please do pray for God to bless you so far, and that you may continue to do your work. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Please turn your Bibles to the book of Matthew chapter 1. That's the book of Matthew chapter 1. So the Bible reads in Matthew chapter 1 starting at verse 1. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren. And Judas begat Phares, and Zara of Phamar, and Phares begat Ezron, and Ezron begat Aram. And Aram begat Amminadab, and Amminadab begat Niacin, and Niacin begat Salmon. And Salmon begat Boaz of Rechab, and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse. And Jesse begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias. And Solomon begat Reboam, and Reboam begat Abiah, and Abiah begat Asa. And Asa begat Josaphat, and Josaphat begat Joram, and Joram begat Ozias. And Ozias begat Joatham, and Joatham begat Achaz, and Achaz begat Ezekias. And Ezekias begat Meneses, and Meneses begat Amon, and Amon begat Josias. And Josias begat Jeconias and his brethren about the time they were carried away to Babylon. And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconias begat Salathiel, and Salathiel begat Zorababel. And Zorababel begat Abiud, and Abiud begat Eliakim, and Eliakim begat Azor. And Azor begat Sadok, and Sadok begat Achim, and Achim begat Eliad. And Eliad begat Eleazar, and Eleazar begat Matthan, and Matthan begat Jacob. And Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations. And from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations. And from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was a spouse to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord have bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not till she had brought forth her fast-born son, and he called his name Jesus. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for this great chapter in the Bible. I pray, Lord, just please fill pastor with your spirit. Please, Lord, give us a tent of ears. Help us to apply what we hear in the message today to our lives. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. You know, back in August we started a series that we do visit from time to time called Lessons from Heroes. I don't know if anyone has remembered some of them, but I'll give you a reminder. We looked originally, the first one was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite. Then a few months later, the week before Christmas, it was Anna the daughter of Phanuel. Then a couple of months ago, it was a thief on the cross. And today it's a Father's Day themed message. So we're going to look at a hero of a father, and it's Joseph the husband of Mary. So it's Joseph the husband of Mary. The title is Lessons from Heroes, Joseph the husband of Mary. I'm going to pray and then we're going to get going with this message. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for, Lord, the examples you give us in your word about individuals, characters, that we could learn a lot from, Lord. Today we're going to learn from Joseph. And help me to just get across those attributes of him which made him who he was and that we can all learn from, especially the fathers here today, Lord, and maybe those who maybe will go on to be fathers in the future. Help us all to just have attentive ears, to listen to what your word is saying. Help us all to learn from it, to be edified by it. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Okay, so in case you're thinking, well, how do we know that Joseph was a hero of a father? Because I do believe that he was a hero of a father. Well, first off, he and Mary were chosen for the job of parenting the son of God. I don't know if you ever wondered about that before and thought, out of all the people that God could have chosen throughout the world, and he chose Mary and he chose Joseph. We focus a lot on Mary and a lot of people talk about Mary, of course. People go too far with that. You've got the Catholics turning her into a goddess. But not much is really mentioned about Joseph. You find you're not going to hear much preaching on Joseph. You're not going to think too much about Joseph. However, Joseph was chosen to be the stepfather, to be the stepdad of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we go through this sermon, hopefully you're going to see some glimpses, some qualities that prove for me why God gave him this job. Now, of course, Joseph started his parenting as a stepfather, okay? He wasn't the natural father of the Lord Jesus Christ, contrary to what the New International Perversion Bible likes to try and get across. However, being a stepparent often has more challenges and unique challenges, that to be successful in requires a great parent. A lot of people have different circumstances in life and there are a lot of stepfathers around and we have them in our church, we'll have them in the future in our church. That's life. Now, you've promised, if you're a stepdad or a stepmother, if you're a stepparent, you've promised, you've vowed to love that spouse. Yeah? So if you're a stepparent, you've promised to love that spouse, if you've got married to someone with a child, and by default, that would include loving their child too, wouldn't it? Yeah? If you've promised, you've made vows to, in front of God Almighty, marriage, whether you married in a church or not, whether you married in front of, you know, minister of religion or not, marriage is an institution of God. So if you've stood there and you've made vows to your spouse, you've vowed to love them, therefore, by default, that would include their child, right? Okay? And whether it's multiple children or not, that's part of it, okay? So whether their natural parent is alive, okay, in the picture or not, you're able to bless that child or even adult child, aren't you, with another parent, basically, in life. So if you've become a stepparent or you've become a stepparent in the future or whatever else, you know, whatever situation it is, you can be a blessing to a child, can't you? You can be a great blessing to them in life. And Joseph here is a great example for me for all fathers out there, though, okay? So whether or not that is your situation or whether it's not, we can all. So those, you know, who maybe aren't stepparents, all of us could just learn from Joseph. And it shouldn't be a surprise, okay? So we're going to see today what we can learn from Joseph, okay? Like I said, he was chosen by God here, and him and Mary were chosen here to parent the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're going to learn from Joseph today. We're in Matthew chapter one that said this. We're going to just look at the last several verses again from verse 18. Matthew 1.18 says, Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, and it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child, shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Then Joseph being raised from his sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not, till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. The title is Lessons from Heroes. Joseph the husband of Mary. Point number one, okay, Joseph was a just man. Joseph was a just man. It said in verse 18, now the birth of Jesus Christ on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away. Privately, what does it mean being a just man? Now there are different types of just in the Bible, it can apply to different things. It's eternal, sorry, eternal justification, in God's eyes, is through faith in the Savior. And an example of that would be the lousy Christian lot being described in 2 Peter 2, 7, sorry, as just lot. Okay, and it's not saying it's just the only person, it's talking about him being justified, but he was a lousy guy, it was about him being justified in God's eyes by being a saved person, having faith in the coming Savior. However, I don't think here we're referring to Joseph being saved, okay? I'm sure he was, but the context is the rest of the verse, where it said then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away, privately. Now, saved people may or may not have chosen to put away their wives in this situation, which means to divorce their wife, whether privately or not. However, I believe that we're being told that it was due to him being just, that he was going to put her away, yet privately or privately, we would say now. So here the definition of justice is in the moral sense, it's upright, honest, having principles of rectitude or conforming exactly to the laws and to the principles of rectitude in social conduct, equitable in the distribution of justice as a just judge. Joseph had just found out that his new wife was pregnant, before they had come together yet. Can you imagine how he felt, really? He must have been absolutely devastated. They were married, okay? It was his spouse. However, they hadn't come together for whatever reasons, and there's different reasons why that might be the case, and he's now found out that she's pregnant. He must be pretty shocked at this point. Turn to Deuteronomy 24, he could have made an example of her to all. He could have shamed her. He could have embarrassed her to everyone out of anger, out of just feeling hurt, feeling betrayed. He decided that he was going to do as the law allowed, and maybe that was partly due to him being a just man and him having that sense of justice, that sense of the right and wrong, but he was going to do as the law allowed in Deuteronomy 24. Deuteronomy 24.1 said this, when a man hath taken a wife and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes because he hath found some uncleanness in her. And this is what it's talking about, sexual uncleanness, impurity, it's fornication, as far as he was concerned anyway. Then let him write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his house. Now this is what Jesus was referencing, you don't have to turn a bit in Matthew 5.32, one of a few places where he said, but I say unto you that, Whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, that's what it's talking about. This law causeth her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery. So as far as Joseph was aware, this was fornication, it was pre-marriage, that she had got pregnant, he was a just man, he cared about right and wrong, but he was minded to put her away, yet it was privately. He wasn't willing to make her a public example. He didn't want to make a big show of it, he wasn't trying to, I'm going to punish her and everything else, you can imagine he could have done that, but instead he was going to do it privately. And how many husbands would have been that reasonable? How many men out there would be that reasonable, whether saved or not? How many husbands will make their wives public examples for much less, really, whilst they're complaining of them to their buddies? How many men will make public examples of their wives for next to nothing and will just be constantly talking about them, complaining about them, it's a running joke out in the world, isn't it, really? It's just people moaning and complaining and talking badly of their wives, and they might do it as if it's a joke, but a lot of the time it's not, it's just making a public example, it's revealing truths and character traits and things that they don't like about them, whether they're in a jokey sense or not, shaming them in public. And shaming them in public, people do a lot as well, where they'd just be stripping them down, giving them an earful or worse in public, you see it a lot. Again, it's just making a public example of their wives bad-mouthing them to their parents. How many men will do that? How many men think that it's acceptable, okay, to just talk about their wives to their parents? Well, that's okay, because it's my mum and dad, so at least I can complain to them or to their brother, their sister, their old friend or something else. It's just making a public example of her, isn't it? Is it okay? Is that acceptable? Of course it's not. And then how difficult then is that ongoing relationship if you're just constantly complaining about your wife to your in-laws, or to her in-laws, sorry, to your parents or whoever else it is, blaming them for whatever has gone wrong, how many people, whatever happens in life, it's the wife's fault, you know? So many men are like that, aren't they? Well, turn to Colossian three. You say, well, what's this got to do with being a parent? I thought this was a Father's Day message, not a being married message. Well, it's got everything to do with being a parent. Your relationship with your spouse makes a massive difference to your parenting. Okay, how you treat your wife, men, dads, or boys, when you become men in the future, how you treat your wife has a massive difference to basically how your kids are going to be raised. Husbands, fathers, being just, being morally upright, being not bitter, even in most extreme circumstances, something to aspire to, isn't it? And Joseph is a great example for us here. Even in extreme circumstances, he's still minded to put her away privily. Colossians 3.19 says, Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. That's a command, isn't it? We're told to not be bitter against our wives. I mean, Joseph was an example of not being bitter in a situation that most people can maybe imagine and hopefully we'll never have to go through anything similar, but we're told don't be bitter against them. It's a command, be not bitter against your wife. And Joseph is an example here of not being bitter, of still trying to do the right thing, even when he must have been hurting like crazy at this point, okay? But for me, that was also due to another lesson that we can learn from Joseph. So we're going to go back to Matthew 1. It's lessons from heroes, Joseph, the husband of Mary. Point number one, Joseph was a just man. But point number two, Joseph was a rational man. Joseph was a rational man. Verse 18 said this, Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise when his mother Mary was the spouse of Joseph. Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily, but while he thought on these things, notice that, while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife, for that which is conceived of her is of the Holy Ghost. So had Joseph been a fluff to handle impulsive type, it would probably have been too late by now, wouldn't it? If he'd just been the type who just loses it over, whatever it is, and suddenly everything's done, he's already put her away, he's already announced it to all and sundry, he's already told every family and friend member, this is what's happened, she's done, I'm putting her away, it would have been too late. Or at least it would have been very hard to come back from. But he did what we should all do, he thought on these things. If you get nothing else from this sermon, dad's out there, men out there, just everyone out there, before you act, just think. Think on these things. We should be able to control ourselves, to take time to think, to think things through, to consider things, to act in a considerate way, in a way where we've already considered things. Turn to Proverbs 21. As fathers, we need to be able to think on many things. We need to be rational. As a father, as a dad especially, you need to be rational, you need to be able to plan things, to think things through, to take your time before making decisions. Because parenting isn't always just black and white. People like to think it's just black and white. And people would love just life to be just simple, it's just black and white, it's yes and no, it's just simple to deal with. Well, you just do this, don't you? Because that's what you're meant to do. But different children have different challenges. And as you grow as a parent, as you learn as a parent, you start to see, actually, they're really different. And how this child responds is completely different to how this child responds, and what they will respond to, and how you'll get the best out of this child is different to how you get the best out of that child. That's just the way it is, that's life. Life isn't just always so simple, it has challenges. Joseph, it means that you have to make decisions a lot of the time in life as well, and you come up with kids as well, with kids, you'll come up with different challenges that you didn't deal with previous kids. And you're, oh man, wow, now this child is like this, or this is the latest way that they're starting to behave, or issues that I have to deal with. And different family situations just have different challenges, don't they? So it's not all just straightforward, different families, there's different family situations, there are decisions to make. Sometimes there are big decisions to make, aren't there? And as a dad, as a man, as a father, it should be you making that decision. Now, don't get me wrong, some people go too far and it's like, what their wife thinks and feels, everything is not even considered, okay? But then other people go the other way, and it's just basically all their decisions to really just respond to what their wife tells them. But no, you're the head of a house. If you're a man, if you're a father, you're the boss, and your decisions have to be considered, they have to be thought out. And Joseph had a big decision to make here, right at the beginning, any thought on these things. And Proverbs 21, 5 says this, the thoughts of the diligent, that's someone that considers, puts time in, puts effort into it, the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness. But of everyone that is hasty, that's quick, fast, rash, only to want. So we need to, look, we need to be diligent. We need to put time and effort and thought into our decisions in life, not hasty to make rash decisions. And especially as a father, as a leader of a household, it's even more important. You need to get in a habit to take your time to make a decision. And here's the thing with that as well, don't let people rush you, because people like to rush decisions out of you. I get that a lot in this job, and you just get it in life anyway, where people just want to push and force you into a quick decision on things. And they harass you sometimes. And if you don't reply to a message within a certain amount of time, the next message comes, and the next message, and the next call or something else. And good advice is, don't let people push you, you make the decision in your own time. And kids are experts at this, aren't they? When kids want something, man, they'll keep asking and keep pushing you and keep pushing you to make a decision. And really, don't let people push you. You need to make considered decisions or make a better decision. The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness, but of everyone that is hasty only to one. Now, sometimes it's our thoughts, sometimes you want to prey on things, you want to get counsel, but just whatever it is, just don't be hasty. Sometimes it doesn't take that long. Sometimes it's an easier decision, but especially difficult decisions. Here it said, the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness, but of everyone that is hasty only to one. Now, go back to Matthew chapter one. The title is Lessons from Heroes, Joseph, the Husband of Mary. So number one, Joseph was a just man. We saw that he was a morally upright guy. He wasn't just out to punish his wife. He was out to do the right thing. Number two, Joseph was a rational man. He thought on things. He took his time. He thought on things before making a decision. He was rational. He didn't just fly off the handle. He wasn't hasty. And number three, Joseph was an obedient man. Joseph was an obedient man. Not to his wife. Just making it clear, he was an obedient man, though, to God. Look at verse 18. It said, Now the birth of Jesus Christ on this wise one, as his mother Mary was a spouse to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto the Lord and fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth the Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth the Son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, notice this, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. Why did God choose Joseph as a man to raise the Lord Jesus Christ? He was just, he was rational, but more importantly, he obeyed God. He obeyed God. And to be a good parent, to raise Godly children, you need to obey God, don't you? We need to be able to obey God in all things and do our utmost to do so. You say, well, if the angel of the Lord had bidden me in a dream, I would have obeyed too. You know, if God came to me in a dream, of course, I'm going to do what God tells me. Well, turn to 2 Peter chapter 1. Now, you might have persuaded yourself that it was, you know, just a dream, for example. Maybe you would have just said, well, it was, you know, it was just a dream. Maybe I'm just imagining it. Maybe, well, maybe I'm just, my mind's playing tricks on me. Maybe you might have delayed, at least. You might have said, yeah, but God knows that I'm not perfect. I know God came to me in a dream and told me to do something. He knows who I am. He gave me that choice and I've made a choice. We all have free will, right? People justify disobeying God in many different ways. Maybe you might have just refused and gone into backslide mode instead. People do that as well. Sometimes people hear a clear instruction from God. Maybe they read it in their Bible reading. Maybe they hear it in council. Maybe they hear it from behind a pulpit. They listen to it. They know it's talking to them and they go, nah, I'm backsliding. So many people do that. That's just the way it is. That's life. Well, regardless of any of that, even if it was in a dream, even if you did hear it from God, we actually have a more sure word of prophecy. In 2 Peter 1, Peter describes having seen even the glorified Christ. He said in verse 16, for we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. They also heard the Father from heaven. Look at verse 17, for he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount, also known as the mount of transfiguration. But we have something more dependable than that, don't we? More dependable than what they saw and heard. More dependable to that amazing thing that they saw in the mount when they were just like, they didn't even know what to say, just coming out with a round of stuff, shall we like make some tents or something? They were just like in complete shock. More convincing than an angel in a dream. More convincing than an angel of God coming to you in a dream and telling you by your name this is what you need to do. It said in verse 19, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and a day star rise your hearts, that light is the word of God, this Bible. That's a more sure word of prophecy. That is more sure than an angel in a dream. It's more sure than seeing the Lord Jesus Christ on the mount of transfiguration with God the Father calling out. More sure is your Bible. More sure is your word. Do you know why? Because all of that stuff, you're relying on what you've kind of, your version of, what you remember of it, what you've seen, your mind quickly plays tricks. You know, when you look back to past events, the details can be slightly different to someone else's recollection of it. But we have the word of God where it's just in black and white. It's preserved. It's inspired. And in this word of God, God has commanded you in many things in many different ways. He said in verse 20, knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man. No, it wasn't written by man, basically. Yes, yes, it was written through man. Yes, men penned it, but all these people like you are just following a book written by men. No, it says, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. That's the reality. That's the truth of the word of God. The Bible is the words of holy men speaking as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. That's why we can trust every single word of it. That's why 2 Timothy 3.16 says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Better than an angel in a dream. Better than seeing the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father calling out. Better than all of that is this Bible. It's a more sure word of prophecy. And just like Joseph obeyed God, if you're going to be a good father, you need to also obey God. If you're going to be a good father, you need to obey God. Joseph had to do something harder, okay? He took on a woman who was already pregnant. He could have just cut his losses easily. He could have gone on alert. Even with that coming from the angel, he just thought, I'm not dealing with this. I'm not bothering with this. You know, she's betrayed me. What's going to happen next? He could have just convinced himself he was right. Or even if he believed it, he could have said, well, still, I've got a good excuse to just get out of this. Can you imagine the pressure now? He's being told it's conceived of the Holy Ghost. He's being told in a minute that he's basically going to be the saviour of the world. He could have thought, I can't deal with this. I'll just put her away privately. He could have put her away. He could have gone back to the power tools and looked for someone with much less baggage, couldn't he? He could have gone back to the carpentry, much less expectation. He could have just found a woman where what's conceived of her is not being called the saviour of the world. He went, yeah, I think I'll just go back to the simple life, yeah? He could have done, couldn't he? He could have chosen that. He chose to obey God in something much harder than so many men so many men, Christian men, so many out there disobey God in. We disobey God in so many, so much more simple things, things which are so much easier to obey in, we choose to disobey. Turn to Ephesians chapter 5 because God's got some clear instructions for husbands and fathers that so many choose to disobey. He's given us some just clear instruction that we choose to either obey or disobey from our more sure word of prayer. From our more sure word of prophecy. From our King James Bibles, from our preserved inspired words of God, we have a more sure word of prophecy and we choose regularly to disobey. He said here in Ephesians 5.25, husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That is a pretty simple command, really, isn't it? You know, and when you really just take away everything else, you just look at that command, it's a simple command. It's just love your wife. Love her. That's it. Simple. It's not well, if this and if that and work out this way. There are no ifs and buts, are there? Anyone seeing if or a but in there? There is no if or a but in there. Just love your wife. And if we just, if we as men, if we as fathers, if dad's out there, just obey that simple command, so many relationships, so many marriages would be this much better. Regardless of the way, what if she's done this? It doesn't matter, love her. Love her, because the Bible says love her. Love your wife. It's simple. And if you obey that simple command, so many people's marriages would be so much better if they just loved their wives. Now, loving your wife doesn't mean bending over backwards and letting her run the marriage. That's not loving your wife. Because you're going to end up with a bad marriage, that's not a loving thing to do. But loving your wife is just ultimately giving to your wife. It's charity, isn't it? Giving out to your wife, and it's just putting her first. Making, trying to do, always do what's best for her. Loving her as your own body. Nourishing, cherishing her is what we see in that chapter as well. It's a command. Husbands love your wives. Here's another command that would, that is ultimately, is easy to, really, it should be easy. Look, at times, maybe it's not so easy. At times when you're rang and things like that. But it's something that's just an easy, clear command. Isn't it, that we can choose to obey or not obey. Well, in Ephesians 6, 4, he said this. This is for fathers. He said, in ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Notice how it's of the Lord. Just a quick point. Children need to be taught the things of God. Okay, clear. Children need to be taught the things of God. You need to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And part of that is for them to understand, the Lord understand the word of God, understand the things of God. But you could, you know, you could have them on all the Bible training programs and Bible memory and all this stuff. But it also needs teaching by example, doesn't it? It's a nurture and admonition of the Lord. Okay. And another way you can look at that is that the Lord is there. He's with you all the time, isn't he? He cares. He's on hand. He nurtures us. He doesn't just kind of kick us off so we don't have to bug him and pester him anymore. He's always there for us, isn't he? And he also admonishes us. And that's a part of loving your child, isn't it? That corrects us, okay. And that's something that isn't just a mother's job. He said here, ye fathers, ye fathers. And one way that God corrects us is through chastening, okay, punishment. You can't, we can't just be good time dads. Okay, if you're just a good time dad, if you just refuse to chastise, refuse to punish your kids, you're not loving your kids, okay. Proverbs 19, 18 says, and you don't have to turn there, they're quick, simple verses. Chasten thy son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying. So the Bible's clear that we're to chasten our kids while there's hope. There's a point when it will get too late to chasten your kids. There's a point when it gets, there can get to a point where now you've left it too long and it's going to be too hard to get your kids in line. He said, and let not thy soul spare for his crying because it's easy just to kind of not, you know, when a kid needs a punishment and they cry to just go, you know, we'll leave them to it because they're crying. But that's not really the loving thing to do, is it? And if it's done in the right way, it is a loving thing to do. Proverbs 13, 24 says, he that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. The Bible's pretty clear, isn't it? If you spare that rod, if you spare that rod, you don't punish your child, you don't chastise them. Well, you're hating your kid. What do you mean? I love little whoever, you know, but I don't smack their bottom, but I love them. Well, you're showing hatred ultimately because really you're not doing the right thing for them. You're not giving to them what they need. So it's the opposite of loving them when you know full well what you're meant to be doing. But he that loveth him chasteth him betimes, which is early, okay? It's a loving thing to do to chastise, to punish your child, but it's not the only thing to do. So it's a loving thing to do. We should punish our kids, we should chastise our kids, but it's not the only thing to do. Ephesians 6, 4 said, and you fathers provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. God's nurture doesn't just consist of three, it doesn't just consist of spankings and three meals a day, okay? I don't know if anyone's noticed that. That's not the way that God nurtures his children. It's not like, well, I get a spanking when things are bad and he gives me enough to survive. That's not the nurture of the Lord. It's a nurture as well as the admonition of the Lord. He gives time to us, doesn't he? Yeah, God gives us time. He gives us of his time. He'll hear your prayers at any time of the day, won't he? Yeah, he wants you to pray to him, he wants you to call on him and he'll always have an ear open to your prayers. He guides us, doesn't he? He blesses us with joy, with contentment. He forgives us regularly as well, and that's something as fathers, you've got to do as well as parents. You've got to regularly forgive your children. You know what, they regularly forgive you as well because we get a lot wrong as well, don't we? Okay, he forgives us. He said to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and Joseph, for me, clearly obeyed God in much harder things, so I've got no reason to believe being chosen to be the stepfather of the Lord Jesus Christ that he was then disobeying God in these other things. I believe Joseph was an obedient man, and the question for us is, are we obeying God in the easy things? Because some of this is easy stuff, really, compared with what Joseph was called to do. Are we obeying God? Go back to Matthew chapter two. Sorry, Matthew, but chapter two now we're going to go to. The title is Lessons from Heroes, Joseph, the Husband and Mary. Point number one, Joseph was a just man. Point number two, Joseph was a rational man. Point number three, Joseph was an obedient man. And point number four, Joseph was a decision-making man. Joseph was a decision-making man. Look at Matthew two. Okay, the wise men have been and gone at this point. It said in verse 13, And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, so this is the next time now, okay, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. So he's hanging out in Bethlehem, okay, and suddenly he's being told to flee into Egypt. He's being told to up sticks and just move to another country. And by the way, notice who the angel of the Lord appeared to. Did the angel of the Lord appear to Mary or to Joseph? To Joseph, to the leader, to the man, to the husband, who had to make the choice. Okay, so the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph, basically God's saying to him, move. So what does he do? So he moves. And when it came to command of God, did he think on these things, though? Did he think on these things, assess whether it was right or wrong? Look at verse 14. When he arose, okay, that's talking about, he's appeared to him in a dream. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night. Basically, he's just woken up after the dream and got straight up and did exactly what God told him to do it straight away. And departed into Egypt. He got up, left straight away, like we should when it's a command of God. Don't delay. When you hear a command of God, when you hear it, whether it's from behind a pulpit, whether you hear it in your Bible reading, whether it's some study, whether it's something you're trying to work out what to do or what not to do, you see the command of God, get on with it. Because often when you delay, when you put it off, you'll quickly put it out of your mind. You'll quickly forget about it, you'll quickly start to rationalize it. When you hear the command of God, you'll quickly start to rationalize it. When you hear the command of God, just get on and do it. That's what he did. He got up that night and went. He said in verse 15, and was there until the death of Herod, it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying out of Egypt, who I called my son. Now, it wasn't just an easy decision, okay, because Herod was on the warpath. So you go, well, of course, he's being told he's going to be killed. Of course, he got up straight away. He must have just been out of fear. Well, look at verse 19. But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appears in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, arise and take the young child and his mother and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead, which sought the young child's life. Verse 21, what happened? And he arose and took the young child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. So he upped and relocated again. Not easy, especially with a young child. So he's got a young child. He's got his wife there, and he's being told, right, now you're moving again. So he just did as he was told. So he even made these big decisions to follow God, to do as God wanted. And he even did that when it was scary. Look at verse 22. It said, but when he heard that Archilaeus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither. So now he's scared. He's thinking, wait a second, though, because this guy might be still after us as well. Notwithstanding being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee. He still went from Egypt into Galilee and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets, he should be called a Nazarene. So Joseph was a man that changed his family's lives to do as God wanted him to. He got the command of God and he made massive changes, uplifted his whole family, moved nations. And that's something that we as fathers have to do too, to make some big decisions to serve God, don't we? And sometimes they're unpopular decisions. Sometimes your wife might not like that decision. To lead our wives and our children when it's unpopular. You know, do you think maybe Mary wasn't so up for coming out? You know what? Maybe Mary wasn't so up for coming out of Egypt. You ever wondered that? Mate, you know there's a lot of wives out there that don't want to be taken up and out of Egypt. They're not so fond of coming out of the world. There's a lot of, there's parts of the world, there's a foot that still wants to stay in Egypt, that still wants to stay in the world one way or another. Do you know what a good father, a good husband does, is he pulls her out of Egypt. Now sometimes you've got to do that softly, sometimes you've got to do that gently, sometimes there's ways of doing that, but you've got to still do it. Don't use leading softly or leading gently as an excuse to not do it. As an excuse to just encourage your wife to be worldly. Okay, sometimes you've got to remove your wife, you've got to pull her out of Egypt and into the things of God. And you know what? That might be something you have to do regularly as well. Because often, who's the devil constantly trying to turn and sway and everything else? A lot of the time it will be the woman that he's attacking. And you've got to regularly be on top of that. Don't you, as dads and as fathers out there, and be careful for how the wife is targeted by the world. And not always the wife, it could be the kids as well, right? It could be all of us. But here, here he led his wife out of Egypt. Okay, and that's something that Christian men need to learn to do is lead their wives out of Egypt. Ephesians 5 26, okay, compares husbands to Christ cleansing his church. He said that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. So the way that we sanctify and cleanse our wives is like Jesus Christ does the church with the washing of water by the word. It's the word of God. And no, it's not by just throwing Bible verses at your wife every day. But you know what it is? By encouraging, by leading, by example, by doing things how the word of God wants you to do. And also by having family Bible time, by teaching from the word of God. You know, look, if you're a man out there, you're leading a wife, you're leading a family. You'd best be reading your Bible. If you've never read your Bible through, you're a babe in Christ. If you've read it through once, you're probably still a babe in Christ. You need to be reading it and reading it and reading it. You need to be in the word of God. That needs to be a mainstay to be able to lead a wife, to be able to lead children, to be able to lead a family. You need to be in the word of God. And if you're making excuses in the morning, in the evening, and you're putting it to this side because it's something more fun, something more exciting, well, you're failing. You're failing. And how are you then going to wash, how are you going to cleanse your wife with a wash of water by the water? How can you lead your wife out of Egypt if you're still in Egypt? It ain't going to happen. You have to make those big decisions for God, okay? And maybe for some it's moving areas, moving town. Maybe it's even nations. Sometimes you've just got to make those big moves. Maybe it's a new job that's going to mean that you're able to serve God properly and that your family can. A new lifestyle, a new church. You know, there are many big decisions that dads out there have to make. Turn to Proverbs 3. Maybe despite the risks, you just need to go where God's leading you in life. And maybe there are some risks, there are some problems, there are some issues. Maybe you might fall out with someone. Maybe worse. Maybe there are some danger risks. Maybe there's financial risks. You need to do what God wants your family doing. And some say, well, how do I know? How do I know what God wants us doing? Well, Proverbs 3 says it like this in verse 5. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not until thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. Put him first. Make him king in your life. Pray thy will not mine and mean it. You know, everything you're doing is just right. God, what do you want me to do? Show me. Make it clear to me, God. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. Fear him. Follow his commandments. Swerve the evil. And those decisions do often just become much easier. Often, when you're trying to do that, the forks in the road are often just a simple decision. Look, of course we have big decisions and things where maybe you need to think on some things, but often they're just a simple case of God says to do this and there's another fork going that way. And you just go, okay, I'm going God's way. And often it just comes down to that. Am I going to obey God? There's just clear principle, clear commands, clear instruction in the word of God, or am I going to put it into my own mind and work out how I can do what I want to do or something that seems a bit more attractive, a little bit easier, or whatever else it is. Go over to Luke chapter two now. The title is Lessons from Heroes, okay? Joseph the husband of Mary is who we're looking at today. Number one, Joseph was a just man. Number two, Joseph was a rational man. Number three, Joseph was an obedient man. Number four, Joseph was a decision maker. Joseph was a decision making man. Okay, he made those decisions. And number five, Joseph was a holy man. Joseph was a holy man. Look at Luke two. So Jesus has just been born. Look at Luke two and verse 21. It says, and when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. So he obeyed what he was told there to do. And when the days of a purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. So they circumcised him the eighth day, okay? They named him as instructed. He kept Mary out of the sanctuary for 33 more days as per Leviticus 12.4. You don't have to turn there. They then came to present him to the Lord as per Exodus 13.2. He then brought the lesser sacrifice where they therefore couldn't afford a lamb as per Leviticus 12.8. Joseph was a holy man, wasn't he? He did everything that God wanted him to do. He just followed it to the letter. Now, did Joseph, and you go, well, surely they all did. I'm sure they didn't all do what they were meant to do here. I'm sure they found ways out of it. I'm sure they didn't bring the sacrifice. Or maybe they didn't do the purification days they're meant to. Maybe they didn't come to present him to the Lord, whatever. Joseph did the whole lot, okay? He just followed the law by the letter. But did he just start out holy and then let it slip? Because some people are like that. Some people, when the child is born, when it comes to their first child, they're like, right, we're in the things of God. We're going to do everything right. And often with kids, it's like, I'm going to do everything exactly I'm meant to do. And then it slips, doesn't it, right? Well, have a look. Verse 39. And when they had performed all these things according to the law of the Lord, this is verse 39 now, they returned into Galilee to their own city, Nazareth. So they did everything according to the law of the Lord. They returned back to Nazareth and the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. So Joseph and Mary relaxed a bit, stayed home singing Kumbaya and high-fived about those glory days meeting wise men and hopping boarders for God. You know, they really put a shift in. They just reminisced about that until the twilight years. Well, no, look, verse 41. Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. So every year they went to Jerusalem. Now you go, well, what's the big deal? They went once a year. Okay, they did as they were meant to. And every year, okay, they made a near hundred mile trip to Jerusalem. It was the best part of a hundred miles from Nazareth to travel to Jerusalem without cars, without trains, without buses. These people, they couldn't afford the lamb. They weren't riding on fine stallions and things like this. These were probably, it was walking, let's be honest. If they brought stuff with them, maybe they had maybe an ass or something amongst their group, I don't know. But let's be honest, they're walking. Okay, they're walking. And that's over 30 hours of walking. So that's three days of walking pretty much all day, every day. Can you imagine how much walking? Can you imagine how often, if you were doing that trip regularly, the kids would be going, are we nearly there yet? Now I'm sure Jesus Christ wasn't doing that, okay? He was perfect. Okay, but I'm sure the other kids that had afterwards were. Imagine after the first hour, on the first day, how long have we got left? Yeah, only another three days of walking, son. You know, don't worry, you just keep quiet. Give them something to do. We can't, we're walking. That'd be a rough three days, wouldn't it? And that's three days of walking. And that's in the beating down sun. I mean, that's tough, right? That's tough. We complain about a several hours journey in a car or plane, even if we do it like once a year or something. People complain like, oh, well I went on holiday, but I need a holiday to get over the travel. Because you drove to an airport and got on a plane or something. And these guys are walking three days. Three days every single year. But Joseph did all of the religious stuff that he was supposed to do. That's what we see there. Joseph's just doing the things that God tells him to do. He observed the ordinances at birth, he observed the yearly Passover, and you could assume, therefore, everything else that he was meant to be doing, he was doing. Joseph was a holy dad, okay? And you can read all the parenting books, okay? You can take your kids on the best days out. It can be theme park this weekend, it can be this that weekend, it can be this that weekend, it can be whatever the best things are now for kids. You can teach them, you can love them, okay? But if your Christian life stinks, you're failing as a Christian dad, okay? If your Christian life, if your spiritual life stinks, you're failing as a dad. Because what are we raising them for? What are we raising kids for? Is our ultimate goal for them to have a great job? Is that up here? Is that number one on your list? I hope it's not. Is our ultimate job for our daughters to just be the best housewife there'll ever be? Is it for our kids to just be the greatest sportsman? Or whatever, you know, whatever your kind of thing is, right? What are we ultimately raising them for? To serve God. So we're raising our children to serve God. Psalm 127 verse three, you don't have to turn there, you have to turn to Proverbs 22, I think. But Psalm 127 verse three says, are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. They're his. They're his inheritance, we might say. They're his reward. They're his. And we want to return them to him for proper service. Okay, that's what our goal is. Our number one goal with our kids is to raise them to return to basically to serve God for life. Now firstly, obviously, you need to get them saved. But after that is, look, do all saved people come to church to serve God? The vast minority do. Hardly any do, do they? That's it. That's sadly what it is. So just because our kids are raised in church, you think they're automatically going to be in the church? Not at all. So that's what our goal is. That's what we're trying to raise them for to serve God. Now a good job, being a good homemaker, will help that. You know, they can learn lessons from sports that can help them in their Christian life. But number one is that they learn to be a good Christian. That's number one, isn't it? Our number one goal for our kids should be that they're going to be a good Christian. And Proverbs 22 and verse 6 says it like this, Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. And do you know how most people learn best, what the best training is? It's by example, isn't it? It's by observation. That's the best way to learn. It's by watching, it's by looking, it's by seeing an example, and by observing that and copying it. If you're a father, are you leading by example, for example, are you leading by example with church tenders? If you're a father, or if you're going to be a father in the future, if you're a dad, are you leading by example with church tenders? Are you in church basically barring illness or other, you know, kind of other reason, and you know, are you in church? Are you in church? Is that your regular? Does church come first, or is it sort of let's see how we feel in the morning, let's see what happens? Are you leading by example with church? Are you making a way to be in church pretty much no matter what? And barring illness, you know, when you go on holiday or whatever else, barring, you know, some extreme situations, are you in church? Are you leading by example with Bible reading? Now, you don't have to read for show, but you know, kids quickly start to realize if you're someone that reads your Bible and in the morning, dad gets up and reads his Bible, in the morning, mum gets up and reads her Bible. Are we leading by example? Because that's how they're going to learn, but you can tell them all you want, read your Bible, read your Bible. You know what kids generally do, especially young, they just copy you, don't they? They just want to do what you do. If you're reading and you read your Bible, no, not, not, look, you're a bad dad if you read your Bible six hours a day and neglect your kids completely, but are you reading your Bible and are you getting that balance right and your kids know that, yeah, every single day, dad reads his Bible. Are you leading by example with a prayer life? Are your kids seeing you pray again, not for show, just because if they live with you they're going to start to understand, yeah, dad prays, dad prays for food, dad prays before he eats, dad prays in situations when we've got a problem, when we've got a situation in the family, we come together and pray. Are you leading by example with that? Are you leading by example with your soul winning? You want your kids to go on to serve God and go on to be soul winners, are you soul winning? Are your kids seeing that? Is it a regular, is it something that you do every now and again to tick the box? Are you leading by example with tithing? You know, something that's part of the Christian life, is it? Do your kids see you tithe? Do they understand that that's what you do? Do you teach that? Do you not? Do you lead by example with resisting sin? Is it, oh, well, I do all of that stuff, but my kids just are watching me, just can't see, just getting into the next sin and the next sin. My kids see a different dad when he's outside the church doors. He's a completely different person. It's like the opposite. Oh, well, he's one guy in church, but at home he's like the complete opposite. And if they see that, do you really think they're going to be raised into the things of God like that? You've got to lead by example, right? No, don't do it for show. You don't go too far. It's like, right, the kids are here quick. You know? Because they quickly see that as well. Kids know you. Kids know you best. They see whether you are who you say you are. Whether you are who you are in public, are you the same person at home behind closed doors? Within reason. Look, we're going to put on our best. Aren't we in public? Okay, of course, you know, maybe you're going to be a little bit more natural at home. Maybe you're not going to have some of the kind of, you know, awkwardness and anxiety and everything else that people have in a group setting. But are you a fake? Because if your kids see that, you're not leading them into, you're not training them in the way they should go because they're going to basically learn from what they observe. Kids quickly see that, don't they? They see when it's competitive Christianity. Are you training your child? Are you training your child to be a competitive Christian? Because there's a lot of those out there, where it's all about competing with so and so and all about being the best at this and all about somehow being better than that person and better than whoever it is in the church and everything else. They'll see that and you're just going to raise them to do the same. You just end up with a competitive Christian and that's not a good place to be because the heart's wrong when it's like that. They'll copy, they'll see, and that's not what we want. Go back to Luke chapter 2. Joseph, the husband of Mary. Number one, Joseph was a just man. Number two, Joseph was a rational man. Number three, Joseph was an obedient man. Number four, Joseph was a decision-making man. Number five, Joseph was a holy man. And number six, Joseph was a caring man. Joseph was a caring man. Look at verse 42. It says, And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and his mother knew not of it, but they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances. Now, look, just to make it clear, this was a big error. This was a big error that they made. They basically lost their child. We say that children in the heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb are his reward, let alone the Lord Jesus Christ. You're parenting, you're the stepfather to God in the flesh, to the Son of God, and you've forgotten about him for a day. This was an error. And even the best parents, and for me these are two of the best parents probably in the world, even the best parents in the world make mistakes. We're all going to make mistakes. Every single person here is going to make mistakes. Every father is going to make mistakes, has made mistakes, will continue to make mistakes. How do we come back from those mistakes? The important thing. How do we get right after those mistakes? Well, they made a big mistake here. Now, in their defense, so there's a group of them. They probably thought that Jesus was amongst maybe some of the other kids. They said amongst their kin's folk, there's family members there, et cetera. They just assumed he was there. Maybe they were focusing on the other kids. He's 12 by now, right? So maybe they were focusing on some of the other kids. He's an older kid. He's 12 years old. They probably weren't as focused on where he was and what he was doing at this point. It said in verse 45, and when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem seeking him. And it came to pass that after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. So whether that was including the day's journey or it was three days on top, I don't know. But they traveled back a day to Jerusalem. Regardless, they searched for at least a day there, as well as the travel on top of that. So verse 46 says, and it came to pass that after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking questions. Verse 47 said, and all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed. And his mother said unto him, Son, why has thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I have sought thee, sorrowing. Okay, now this is out of Mary's mouth, but I've got no reason to doubt her here. She said both of them were seeking him, sorrowing. Now she's obviously referring to Joseph here as his father. Now he's a stepfather and Jesus obviously says afterwards about being in his father's house, talking about God the Father, but she's referring to him as his father, he's a stepfather here, and she states that they have sought him, sorrowing, so much so that they spent three days trying to find him. And for most normal parents, you're looking at that going, well, fair enough, right? Okay, they lost their 12-year-old, they spent three days looking for him. However, there are parents out there that honestly would not give a damn that their 12-year-old had gone AWOL for three days. Sadly. Wouldn't even care. Wouldn't even, would just be like, ah, he'll find us in the end. Honestly, I've known parents out there who are like that, who'd just be like, yeah, whatever, he's 12, he'll be all right. There are stepfathers out there that would leave the mum to look, let alone look for three days without saying something like, look, I'm sure he'll find his way home. Oh, he'll be able to tag along with someone else, I'm sure it'll be all right. There are people out there, let alone be sorrowing, be grieving, basically, be so upset is how she's relating. Now, Joseph clearly cared, okay, and despite the mistakes that we all make, we should care about our kids, shouldn't we? Joseph clearly cared to the point of sorrowing for his 12-year-old stepson who has been left back in Jerusalem, and we should all care. Turn to Proverbs 3, we saw Ephesians 6, 4 said, you're turning to Proverbs 3, Ephesians 6, 4 said, and ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And as fathers, we can lack when compared to mothers in that area, okay, and we probably balance each other out, don't we? That's the reality of it, usually, okay. As fathers, sometimes we can be maybe a bit too much, oh, they'll be fine, and mothers can sometimes be a bit too much, you know, I haven't wrapped them in cotton wool before they went out today. So we often will balance each other out to some degree with that. However, we don't want to get too hardened where there's little of the caring side, where there's little sorrow for our children, because it can be sometimes almost a defense mechanism for some, I think, to just kind of, oh, they're fine, they're fine, oh, I'm sure they're fine, and we can go too far with that and then we're becoming too hardened towards them. You get these dads out there who think that just everything will toughen them up, you know, you've never been around those, it's just like, oh, he's, you know, he's split his head open, oh, he'll be fine, toughen him up, won't he? Put hairs on his chest, you know, and it's like, look, you know, again, you can go too far the other way, oh, no, he grazed his knee, come here, little one, you know, and, you know, we leave that for the mums to do, right? But, and we've got to balance things with this a little bit, but I, you know what I've seen though, I've seen some pretty wimpy adults out there who are still sad that their dads didn't care for them. So I've known people who, when they became adults, a bit of a mess and they ain't tough because they just, they're still basically mourning the fact that their dad never cared for them, and it actually had the opposite effect, right? So we want to kind of get the balance right with this, notice in Proverbs 3 and verse 11, okay, after talking about chastening, there's a key point in the next verse. Said in verse 11, my son despised not the chastening of the Lord, neither be wary of his correction. For whom the Lord loveth, okay, so it's who he loves, he correcteth even as a father, the son in whom he delighteth. So the example there is to be delighting in our children, isn't it? Delighting in them, getting joy from them. If we delight in them, then we're going to correct them, but we're also going to care about them in other ways, aren't we? Then you delight in your kids. I delight in them so much, so I just whoop them all day because it's the son in here. No, the point being is that it's a loving thing to do, but it's one of many things to show that you're delighting them. And we need to remember, as dads especially, because we can be a bit harder with this stuff, to still delight in our kids, still care about our kids, still sorrow for our kids, to still actually put effort, love, time, and affection into our kids. Go back to Luke 2. The title is Lessons from Heroes, Joseph the Husband and Mary. Point number one, Joseph was a just man. Point number two, Joseph was a rational man. Point number three, Joseph was an obedient man. Point number four, Joseph was a decision-making man. Point number five, Joseph was a holy man. Point number six, Joseph was a caring man. And last one, point number seven, Joseph was a responsible man. Joseph was a responsible man. Verse 49 says, And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Whist ye not that I must be about my father's business? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them, but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom, and stature, and in favour with God and man. Now I want to point something out here, okay? Jesus was subject unto his parents, yet 2 Corinthians 5.21 says that he knew no sin. 1 Peter 1.19 says of our being redeemed, but with the precious blood of Christ, is of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Jesus Christ was sinless. We all know that. Jesus Christ was a sinless, unblemished lamb, yet he was subject unto his parents, it said here. It said, and was subject unto them. Which tells me that his parents never encouraged him to sin. That's what I get from that. You've got the sinless, the without blemish, without spot lamb, he who knew no sin, who was subject unto them, subject unto his parents. Well, therefore, to have been able to be subject to them, and still be sinless, they weren't entirely encouraging pushing him to sin. They never made him choose. They never tried to get him to lie, for example. To cover for them. To skip the spiritual things. To indulge in their sin with them. Because some parents do that, don't they? Especially as kids get older, they want them to enjoy the sin with them and stuff like that. Turn to Proverbs 20. Joseph understood his responsibilities as a leader of that family, basically. And that's a responsibility that we have to take seriously as fathers, and we fail at it. We'll all fail at that from time to time. He didn't put them in compromising situations to have to choose. Jesus Christ was subject unto him and Jesus Christ was sinless. He didn't put him in situations where he had to not be subject unto him. Jesus was subject unto them, which for me shows that Joseph specifically, here we're talking about, was a parent with integrity. He had integrity. And Proverbs 20 verse 7, which is our verse of the week, says this. The just man walketh in his integrity, his children are blessed after him. And we saw right at the beginning that Joseph was a just man. And he walketh in his integrity, his children are blessed after him. And isn't that just what we want as parents? As fathers today, we're looking at fathers, we just want our children to be blessed, really, don't we? I think if we want our children to be blessed, we need to take a few leaves out of Joseph's book, because this guy was a special guy. This is a hero. He's a hero in the Bible. He's a hero that we don't think much of. And I've tried to, with this series, go through people that are maybe lesser kind of known or lesser thought about, at least. Everyone knows who Joseph is, but we don't really hear much about Joseph. Why? Because he was a great leader, he was a great stepdad, and he was a hero. Okay, he was a hero. The title was Lessons from Heroes. Joseph was the husband of Mary. Joseph was a just man. Joseph was a rational man. Joseph was an obedient man. Joseph was a decision-making man. Joseph was a holy man. Joseph was a caring man. And Joseph was a responsible man. He took those responsibilities seriously, and to the point where the Lord Jesus Christ, as a child, was subject unto him. Was sinless. And he was a great father. He was a great stepfather there. And I'm sure he went on to be a great father as well, to the other kids that came after. And on that, we're gonna finish in a word of prayer. Father, thank you for the examples we get in the Bible of men whose good qualities we can copy and we can learn from. There we've just seen some great qualities in Joseph. You know, that we've managed to pull out of the text there. Lord, it's something to be a father. It's a responsibility to be a dad. It's a big responsibility. And help us to all just do our best with it, to take it seriously, to understand that, yeah, the children, they're yours. They're given to us, but they're ultimately yours. And we need to do the best job we can with them to take it seriously, to understand that being a husband, being a father is a massive job and an important job. And help us as dads here to just be the best dads that we can be, Lord. We know that we're gonna make errors, we're gonna make mistakes. Help us to just keep improving, to keep being better, to keep doing better, Lord. Help us to take some lessons here, some examples that we've seen in Joseph to heart and help us to apply them to our lives. Help us have a great day today, Lord. Help the kids here to appreciate those that have dads here and those that maybe don't, Lord, just to appreciate that ultimately they have, well, they have the eternal Father, Lord. They have you, the everlasting Father, Lord. They have God in their lives and that's beyond most people, sadly, in this nation, in this world. And thank you for the blessings you give us, Lord. Help us to get out and get people saved and to return for this day. And to return for this evening's service. Jesus, don't pray all this. Amen. Amen. Our last hymn is hymn number 69. Hymn number 69 in our Red Hymnals, only for a thousand tongues to sing. 4,000 tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King, the truths of his grace. My precious Master and my God assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth the orders of thy name. Jesus, the name that cast my fears, that is my sorrows cease. Tis music in her senses, shes life and health and peace. He praise the power of God's mercy, he sets the prison free, his work and make the Pharisee, his power there for me. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word and thank you for today's message. Thank you for your sermon, and I pray, Lord, for all the fathers to continue to walk in integrity and everyone to continue to walk in integrity. I pray, Lord, that you'll keep us safe as we go out and attempt to preach the gospel and bring people to you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Hi there, my name is Pastor Ian Tabin of Strong Tail Baptist Church. I'd just like to take a few minutes today to show you how you can be 100% sure that if you died you'd be going straight to heaven. So a lot of people teach all these strange things about how you can be good enough to go to heaven, how you've got to follow a list of commandments to get to heaven. See, they're really the other religion. There's only really two religions in the world. There's good you go to heaven, bad you go to hell, and all the varying versions of that, some of them are very subtle. Oh, you've got to at least give up a certain amount of sin. You've got to at least try not to sin and then there's a Bible which says, no, no, no, go to heaven is a free gift, and I want to show you how you receive that free gift today. A few things you've got to understand first though before you receive that gift, and that's number one is that you are a sinner, I'm a sinner, we're all sinners. The Bible says in Romans 3.23, for all have sinned to come short of the glory of God. See, we're all sinners, we've all broken God's commandments in one way or another, and the Bible says because of that we come short of the glory of God. We cannot be good enough to go to heaven, which means that we're on our way somewhere else. There's only two places you go. You either go to heaven or you go to hell, and the Bible says for the wages of sin is death. We're all sinners and what we get in return is death, and in the end that's in a place called the second death, which is a lake of fire. The Bible says in Revelation 20.14, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, this is the second death. If the wages of sin is death and the second death is the lake of fire, that's not a very good picture being painted there. In fact, in Revelation 21.8, we see just a quick list of common sins to show that we're all on our way to the lake of fire. The Bible reads, but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, and that's you, me and everyone else in the world, shall have their part in the lake which burneth the fine brimstone, which is the second death. However, God doesn't want you to go to hell. Hell is eternal, hell is a very real place, but God wants you in heaven. And in fact, he made a way for you to go to heaven. In Romans 5.8, the Bible says, but God commendeth his love toward us. In that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God in the flesh came to this world and he didn't commit any sin. He lived a perfect life and then at the end of his life, he was hung up on a cross. He died to pay for our sins. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5.21, for he hath made him, that's Jesus Christ, to be sin for us, who knew no sin. Jesus Christ was sinless. However, he became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He swapped with us. He took that punishment for you. He died on that cross and he then tasted death for every man. The Bible says in Acts 2.31, he, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh should see corruption because on the third day rose again. He showed the holes in his hands, the holes in his side. It was a bodily, physical resurrection. He wasn't a ghost. They ate with him. They handled him and then 40 days later he went to heaven. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean everyone's going to heaven? Well, of course not. See, there's one thing we have to do to receive that gift and in Acts 16.30, someone asked the question, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? The Apostle Paul and Silas answered and they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. So what does that mean, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved? Are they saying to just believe that he exists? Are they saying to believe that there's a person called Jesus? No, they're saying to believe on or put your faith, your trust in that death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ to have paid for all your past, present and future sins and you can go to heaven. That's what it means. It's to put your trust in Jesus. Like it says in the most famous verse of the world, John 3.16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. See, the Bible teaches us time and time again that the only way you're going to heaven is by putting your faith and trust in what Jesus Christ did, not what you do. See, many people claim to be Christians and say, Oh yeah, I'm going to heaven because I believe in Jesus and I'm a good person and I got baptized and I read my Bible and I do this and I do that. Well, they're not trusting Jesus Christ, they're trusting themselves. And the Bible says if they're not trusting Jesus Christ, they're going to hell. Ephesians 3 and 9 says, For by grace are ye saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works. Not of works that any man should boast about. The Bible said, It's not of yourself. It's not of your own works. It's just faith alone in Christ alone that gets you to heaven. And a lot of people find that really hard to understand. Now, they look at the Bible and think, Yeah, but you've got to follow the commands. You've got to do this. You've got to do that. Yeah, look, as a child of God, when you get saved, when you become one of God's children by faith in Christ Jesus, which is what Galatians 3, 26 says, For ye all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Once you become that child, God's going to punish you in life. He's going to reward you in life. However, the only way you become that child, the only way that you could ever get to heaven is by what Jesus Christ did, not what you do. Once you receive that gift, that's it. It's a gift. You're saved. The Bible says, in fact, in John 10, 28, And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. You see, once you're saved, you've received that gift. You've become a child of God. You could never go to hell, otherwise Jesus Christ lied when he said all you had to do was believe. He lied when he said that you shall never perish. And that's the Gospel. Gospel means good news. The good news is that your sins have been paid for. All you've got to do is receive that gift. And in fact, in Romans 10, 9, the Bible reads that If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised it from the dead, thou shalt be saved. It says in verse 13 of Romans 10, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you believe, if you want to put your faith, your trust in Jesus Christ, just ask him. And I'd like to leave you in a short prayer. Now, if you believe everything I've just said, if you believe that you're a sinner, you believe that the wages of sin is death, that you deserve hell, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that he died, was buried and rose again to pay for your sins, and that all you've got to do is put your faith and trust in him. And once you've done that, there is no way you could lose that salvation. And please just repeat after me. Dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. I know I deserve hell. I believe that you died, was buried and rose again to pay for my sins. I trust in you now and only in you. Please take me to heaven when I die. Amen. If you believe that and you've called on the name of the Lord for salvation, congratulations, you're saved. And I'll be seeing you in heaven one day. God bless you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.