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

Day by day, then before our king, the fool shall disappear, and the cross the world shall sway, marching on, marching on, for cries count everything but loss. And to crown him king will toil and sing beneath the banner of the cross. Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb? And shall I fear to own his cause or blush to speak his name? And when the battle's over we shall wear a crown, yes, we shall wear a crown, yes, we shall wear a crown. And when the battle's over we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem, wear a crown, wear a crown, wear a bright and shining crown. And when the battle's over we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem, on the second, must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas. And when the battle's over we shall wear a crown, yes, we shall wear a crown, yes, we shall wear a crown. And when the battle's over we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem, wear a crown, wear a crown, wear a bright and shining crown. And when the battle's over we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem, on the last, sure I must fight, if I would reign increase my courage more. And when the battle's over we shall wear a crown, yes, we shall wear a crown, yes, we shall wear a crown. And when the battle's over we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem, wear a crown, wear a crown, wear a bright and shining crown. And when the battle's over we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem. Children's children are the crown of old men and the glory of children are their fathers. Proverbs chapter 17 verse 6. And of course that's a Father's Day themed scripture there on our inside bulletin. On the left-hand side we have our service time, Sunday morning service 10 30 a.m., Sunday evening service 3 30 p.m. Tonight we'll be in Exodus chapter 19 and Thursday Bible study. We are currently going through the book of Malachi, that is at 6 30 p.m. We'll be in Malachi chapter 3 and then we'll have one more week after that. And that Bible study will be over. But I've been having a good time studying that and hopefully you have liked the study. So there's so many times for the list to blow. We do have soul winning today but we are having a meal after the service so it might be a little bit later than normal, maybe 5 or 10 minutes later. But if you're planning on going soul winning get with brother Sean Collin. And if you're just going to go from here then just meet in the auditorium here about like I don't know 120 or something like that today. And we'll go out soul winning. And then there's other times available there. And if you ever want to go up to Seattle, we've been going up to Seattle on Wednesdays at our church plant there. And had a pretty decent amount of people going with us. If you're ever wanting to go then you're more than welcome to. We do go soul winning right before the service. Then also so just throwing that out there if you have a Wednesday that you would like to go up and visit the church we're driving up there as a posse. So if you look down you can see the praise report, the salvations and baptisms and then the attendance totals. I don't know if the baptisms got counted for last week. I did have six baptized in Winnipeg. So I think that that got looked over there. So speaking of Winnipeg, I went there and ordained brother Jim last week. And I think a lot of people that were at the conference got a chance to meet him. He's a great guy, great family, hard working family, former Mennonite background. So you know they do everything. They work 12 hour days where we work 8 hour days and so on and so forth. I'm just kidding. But they are hard workers. And the church was great. We broke the records of both services. And so then had some people saved in the soul winning on the day before which was Saturday. Had four salvations there. So it was a great time and a quick trip but it was definitely profitable. And so now we have an ordained guy up in Winnipeg if you ever want to go up and visit. It's like the Bible Belt right now where they're meeting. It's literally called the Bible Belt of Canada. So when we went to Tim Hortons for coffee, me and brother Robert went and people were wearing suits and ties. We were like, what's going on here? It's like a church on every corner there. There was one little strip mall that we drove by and there was like a church in every store front. I was just like, okay. It was a little different. So we were at the Freaks walking around with suits and ties. Everybody was wearing suits and ties. All the ladies were wearing dresses. So it was pretty neat. I mean not all of them but a lot of people were. So anyway, it's a neat little town where they're meeting at right now. But they are planning on moving to Winnipeg at some point. That's about an hour and a half away. So anyway, again, today Happy Father's Day. We have a gift for every dad. And while I'm talking, well, let's just go ahead and start handing out the gifts. So I got some key chain mace for you. So that way if your wife gets out of line you can just spray her. I'm just teasing. You run into a pit bull, it'll just make him mad. And then he'll chew you worse. No, I'm just kidding. Well, hopefully you don't end up having to use it. It just stays in its capsule there. But I also have, for any guys that would like one, can I get another usher up here? Brother Alex, would you mind coming up here real quick? And if you wear a coat and tie or you just like the pin, you're welcome to have one. I only have 20 of them though. So it's just like a little pin that you can wear, you know, instead of the American flag and the Israeli flag combo. You can wear like something that says like the Bible on it or something like that. That's what it is. It's got a sword and a Bible on it. So anyway, it's just a gift for being a father today. So you get a freebie for coming if you're a dad. And so I hope you enjoy that. And then we have round table pizza scheduled to arrive at 1210 to 1215. So that really means 1230. They're usually late, but at least they like us. So I like that they like us and that they don't try to, you know, withhold the bountiful harvest of round table pizza from us. So anyway, we also have the next upcoming event we have is on June 30th. Deacon Corbin Russell is going to be preaching at Bible Believers Baptist Church in Yakima. And he's going to be preaching Friday night at 7 p.m. We're going to have kind of a big launch weekend there. And then sowing Saturday on the reservation from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. And then there'll be a meal fellowship at the church building at 3 p.m. And then Saturday, I'll be excuse me, Sunday, I'll be preaching 10 30 a.m. 3 30 p.m. And so the schedule up there has changed and a lot of things have changed. But we have people that are filling the pulpit up there. I'll be preaching up there on Wednesdays starting in July, probably the second week of July. But anyway, Brother Rick is retiring and he wants us to kind of take over. And then when we find an ordained guy, then we're going to install the ordained guy and it'll be independent once again. So that's the plan. Hopefully everything goes well. If you're wanting to go, if you have any questions about that, please see me after the service. I'll be happy to fill you in on all the details. So July 20th, we'll have Pastor Steven Anderson, actually July 19th, I didn't put this in the bulletin, but July 19th, Pastor Anderson is preaching in Spokane, Washington at our church up there. And then he's going to come down here the next day and preach on Thursday night. And he'll be here at the 6 30 regular time. So if you're not going to the Red Hot Preaching Conference, you'll have a chance to still hear one of the key speakers there. Pastor Steven Anderson, he'll be here Thursday night. So it'd be nice if we'd have a good showing for that. July 20th through 23rd is the 8th annual Red Hot Preaching Conference at Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, California. If you're planning on going that, great, that's awesome. That's the same night that Pastor Anderson will be here is when it kicks off. He's preaching down. I can't give away who's preaching what days. But anyway, it doesn't say it on the schedule, so I feel like he does that on purpose so that people won't just plan to be there on one particular day or another. If you're going, just go for the whole thing if you can, all right? And don't worry about who's preaching when. They'll all preach. So anyway, then we have July 28th through the 30th is our five-year church anniversary. So I think that's kind of a special thing. And so we're going to celebrate by having the pastor that started our church as Verity Baptist Vancouver. He's going to be preaching for us. Pastor Jimenez will be preaching for us. So like I said, even if you missed the Red Hot Preaching Conference, you're still getting Pastor Anderson. Pastor Jimenez will be here the next week after that. And then he's going to be preaching. As far as I know, it's going to be on Friday at 7 p.m. I think that that's what's planned. That's pretty much 99 percent set in stone. And there will be a Saturday soloing time for us here. And that will go from 10 30 to 1. And then at 1 o'clock or 1 30, excuse me, we're going to have a bounce house in the Mechanical Bowl. We'll be back. He's kicking butt and taking names. He says he wants to see the people that didn't get to ride last time. So except for me, I'm not riding it no matter what. I don't care. You can't shame. You can't shame me. I'm just not going to let it happen. So I'm not I'm not 15 years old where you can just shame me into getting onto it because I saw what it did to people. And, you know, I just don't want to go through that grueling pain, even though it's a soft landing. It still looked like it was some people hit pretty hard, especially the ones that try to get all into it and stuff. And that's when that's when the operator, he's like, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, let's let's try this. And then like pretty soon after that, you're flipped off of it. So he likes your pride when you try to bring a cowboy hat. We'll have a good time. All right. So and then we'll have also the next day I'll be preaching the morning service. And then our evangelist from Surrey, B.C., brother, when Fisher is going to be preaching for us at the P.M. service, the August 3rd through 6th. So winning Toronto solely trip, if you're interested in that. There's details forthcoming about that. But I believe it's the third through the sixth. And of course, we're a family integrated church. Please utilize the mom and baby room, mom and dad, baby rooms for your convenience. And remember to try to keep it as quiet as an environment as you can. Obviously, you're taking them out because they're crying. But it shouldn't be a total scream fest throughout the whole service. You can just kind of walk outside with them or whatever or take them to a different area of the church if that becomes an issue. So but just remember that people do want to listen to the sermons in there. So keep that in mind. And please don't take your older children in there because that's when they want to get kind of rambunctious. If you do take if you have to take your older children in there for whatever reason, please just don't let them get out of control and throw balls against the wall and and stuff like that. So I'd appreciate that. And I think the ladies that go in there would appreciate that, too. There is a little crawler area back there. There's like a divided gate area. You can go back there if your child you don't want your child crawling around with the older toddlers and stuff. So today, the no food in the assembly area is a little bit suspended. We only have so much room in there, but we've got the tables and chairs set up. And of course, the vehicles are available by the ushers. And if you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask them for help. All right. All the other stuff is on there. And we have some some birthdays coming up this week. And we had a new baby born. And it was specifically in our family and the Dehas family. So I just want to say congratulations to the Dehas family on the birth of Hannah Joy. She's beautiful and she's precious. And she was 8 pounds and 12 ounces. So she was a pretty big baby for being two weeks early. And so just make sure you get around and congratulate the Dehas family on the birth of Hannah Joy. And I'm sure she'll be here to be seen at some point in the near future. We also have Kohaz's birthday on the 21st. Miss Sheila's birthday is also on the 21st. And then Karina, my other granddaughter, is on the 25th. And then we have Ryan and Sarah Holmes' anniversary on the 22nd. And Tony and Jazzy on the 24th. So lots of birthdays in June, lots of anniversaries. So let's go ahead and sing Happy Birthday to all the birthday people. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Ryan will sing Happy Anniversary to the anniversary people. Ryan, hold on before we do it. Ryan and Sarah, how long have you been married? Nine years. Nine years. It's been that long. It's like it just was yesterday, right? And then Tony and Jazzy, has it been five, six years now? Huh? Oh, six. Okay, I was right. Tony, you want to sit out here with your wife? You can leave the desk for a second. Okay, he's very busy. Things are happening. He still loves her. All right, she's filing for divorce. No, I'm just kidding. All right, let's sing Happy Anniversary. Ready? Happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary to you. God bless you and keep you. Happy anniversary to you. All right, Happy Anniversary. That's all I have for announcements. Let's go ahead and sing another song and then we'll receive the offering. All right, let's go ahead and turn to page 407. We're going to sing Faith of Our Fathers. Page 407, Faith of Our Fathers. Page 407, sing it out on the first. Faith of our fathers living still In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword Oh, how our hearts beat high with joy When e'er we hear that glorious word Faith of our fathers holy faith We will be true to thee till death Our fathers chained in prisons dark We're still in heart and conscience free How sweet would be their children's faith If they like them could die for thee Faith of our fathers holy faith We will be true to thee till death Faith of our fathers we still strive To win all nations unto thee And through the truth that comes from God Mankind shall then indeed be free Faith of our fathers holy faith We will be true to thee till death Faith of our fathers we will love Both friend and foe in all our strife And preach thee too as love knows how By kindly words in virtuous life Faith of our fathers holy faith We will be true to thee till death Faith of our fathers holy faith We will be true to thee Faith of our fathers holy faith We will be true to thee Faith of our fathers holy faith We will be true to thee Proverbs 17 The Bible reads, Better is the dry morsel and quietness therewith than in house full of sacrifices with strife. A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causeth shame, and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren. The finding pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but the Lord trieth of the hearts. A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips, and a liar giveth ear to a knotty tongue. Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his maker, and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished. Children's children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children are their fathers. Excellent speech becometh not a fool, much less do lying lips a prince. A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it. Whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth. He that covereth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth the matter separateeth very friends, and reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool. An evil man seeketh only rebellion, therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him. Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man rather than a fool in his folly. Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house. The beginning of strife is as when one leadeth out water, therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with. He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. Wherefore is there a prince in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it. A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversary. A man void of understanding strikeeth hands, and becometh surety in the presence of his friend. He loveth transgression that loveth strife, and he that exalteth his gait seeketh destruction. He that hath a froward heart findeth no good, and he that hath perverse tongue falleth into mischief. He that begotth a fool doeth it to his sorrow, and the father of a fool hath no joy. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones. A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment. Wisdom is before him that hath understanding, but the eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth. A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bear him. Also to punish the just is not good, nor to strike princes for equity. He that hath knowledge spareth his words, and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise, and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding. Amen. All right, well, I was just kind of using Proverbs 17 as the springboard with our verse of the week there that's found in there because I'm going to be preaching a topical sermon this morning, and the title of the sermon is Pro Tips for Fathers. Now, these aren't necessarily my pro tips, I mean, even though I approve of all of them, but these are really God's pro tips for being a father, and so I think it's really important that what God stresses as important as dad's, that we should also stress, and whatever the Bible says is right. How we are supposed to maintain our marriages is right, according to the Bible. How we are supposed to train up our children is right. How we're supposed to discipline our children, how we're supposed to love our children, and how we're supposed to be as men in general. And these are some topics that I want to cover this morning, and point number one is get married and remain married. If you want to be a good dad, if you want to be a good father, get married and remain married. Now, I always have to caveat this, and I just kind of preached on divorce and remarriage a little bit on Thursday, but this does tie in with the sermon. I'm not picking on anybody that's been divorced or remarried. I'm not trying to do that, but I'm trying to help people that are already in the role as a married man with children, and because this is pro tips for fathers, but if you're a single and you're wanting to get married, these are things that you should apply to your life now and start training to be. If you want to be a good dad someday, if you want to be a good husband someday, if you want to be a manly Christian someday, then these are things that you should already start to work on, because being prepared to be married, there's a preparation involved in it. It doesn't just happen by osmosis, you have to kind of know going in what God expects from you. Now, I'm talking to Christians this morning, all right? Now obviously, I think that all people, God honors all marriage, as long as it's not queer marriage or something. God doesn't honor that because they shouldn't even be around, but anyway, my first point this morning is get married and remain married. Look at Proverbs chapter 5 verse 15, Proverbs chapter 5 verse number 15. Now, we should only be, once you're married, you should be a one-woman guy, all right? That's what the Bible teaches, we're supposed to marry and we stay with them till death do us part. We all, if you're married in here today, you made vows, and maybe you didn't make those vows to the Lord, but you made vows to your spouse that you were going to stay with them in sickness and in health and poverty and wealth, cleaving only to each other, as long as you both shall live, and then you probably said, I do, right? I hope you did, otherwise it didn't count, right? I mean, that's why we perform marriages as Christians and we actually do the traditional vows and that's all I'll allow. We don't do things that are not traditional vows where you're like holding candles together and birds are flying around and just, people just come up with some stuff and they come up with their own vows, I promised to wash my feet, and just people can get real hokey with some of that stuff, and I think it's a serious thing, I think it's something that God has ordained that man and wife shall be married all their days, right? So look at what it says in Proverbs 5 15, it says, drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well. And I believe this is an allusion to that we're supposed to be together and when it's talking about things that are done within the bounds of marriage, when you go outside of your marriage, you're putting yourself in danger of getting diseases. And God, you know, he's the one that made the whole world and he made those diseases too. And you know how he does that? He uses those diseases to punish people that are doing something wicked. It says, drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of waters in the streets. Let them be thine, or only thine own and not strangers with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. So what's it talking about? It's talking about marriage, it's talking about being together in the bounds of marriage and the things that husbands and wives do, it's alluding, you know, it's being, it's not being over descriptive about those types of things, but that's what it's talking about. So it says, rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe. Let her breast satisfy thee at all times and be thou ravished always with her love. And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a stranger for the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings. And to me, that last verse is very scary because when God is, you know, he sees what we do, he knows what our thoughts are, he knows what we're looking at, and guys, we're supposed to be only to our wives alone, all right? Now if one spouse dies, then the other is free to remarry and then you could get married again. But while you're married, you're supposed to be kept to each other only, you're not supposed to be being some kind of an adulteress or an adulterer behind the scenes. And I looked up the top 10 reasons in the United States, and this probably has different, you know, places in the list and different things that I'm sure that there's other lists that would disagree with some of the what's number one and what's number two and all this other stuff, but I just looked up top 10 causes for divorce. And the first one is marital infidelity. Big surprise there, right? When people go outside the bonds of marriage and commit, you know, people will say it's an affair, but that's just a way to kind of blunt it down and make it not as bad. But it's called adultery. It's called playing the whore, it's being a whoremonger, it's cheating is what it is. And in Malachi where I've been studying in the Bible study last week, you know, God talks about how all these different things are dealing treacherously with somebody, and in the end he's talking about being treacherous against your spouse, against your wife, and it's talking to the men. But obviously this applies to both men and women. Obviously women are not supposed to go outside the bonds of marriage either, but today I'm talking to the fathers, and don't get this idea that some other woman is going to be better for you. You made vows, you vowed that you would stay with them until death, and that you would keep yourself only to her as long as you live. Now some people have gotten divorced, and you know those divorces are legal, you know. It's not God's will to get divorced, but it happens. And when people get divorced and remarried, if you weren't faithful to that spouse, be faithful to the one you're with now, because all you're doing is entering into a world of pain, and one of the leading causes of divorce is the most, the biggest one is marital infidelity. And it's because people just spit on their vows, people just spit on the fact that God has made marriage a holy thing, and people want to go outside and profane their marriage, and it says deal treacherously. You know, we don't want to deal treacherously with someone that we're supposed to love and care about. Number two is finances. And I think a lot of the reasons why finances are an issue is because there's women working outside the home when they shouldn't be. Now if that's your situation, I know there's different situations, there's caveats to those things also, but in general, women are supposed to stay and work inside the home. And if you have children together, raise your children. And dad, you're supposed to get out and work. And if you're not bringing home enough, then go out and bring more. Work harder. Don't make her get a job because you don't want to work harder. Quit being lazy. And you know, look, there's plenty of money to be gained. Get some skills, work some longer hours, and bring home the bacon, and there won't be problems with the finances. But also, if it's like a 50-50 thing, so here's where the problem begins to happen is that you both have your own money, and some married couples have different bank accounts. And I'm like, I just can't fathom that. People would have different bank accounts, but it's a thing. They're like, well, that's my money. You start making everything 50-50, and then when one person's making more than the other, there's problems there too. And so if the wife is making more than the husband, and there's a weird phenomenon in our day today where men try to be stay-at-home men. Stay-at-home dads. And you know what's going to happen every single time that happens is they're going to lose respect for you, and then they're going to go outside the marriage. I've seen this happen so many times, and look, if that's the situation you're in, just learn from it and get past it. But I would say as a man, make money and work hard for your family, and when you are doing things the way God designed them to, then things are going to work out right. So obviously, we've got the human factor. You can have all the best intentions in the world, but sin creeps in, and people get enamored by other people. That's why I teach that we shouldn't have friends outside of our marriage as far as the opposite gender. I don't have a bunch of girlfriends that I hang out with and go to lunch with. If you ever ask me for a lunch date, I'm going to say no. If I'm going to go with anybody, it's going to be with my wife. Now obviously, for friends and couples going together or something, that's different, but for some woman to just, for me to just go to lunch with some woman privately without her knowing or even with her knowing is wrong. You're opening yourself up to getting, you know, some people get feelings. When the opposite sex gets together and they start spending more time with those people, this can happen at work too. People can catch feelings. That person might not be an independent fundamental Baptist, and they're going to tell you all kinds of things that you should, oh, you know, he don't really care for you, girl, you know, you should get with me, drop that zero, get with this hero, and I make all this money. Things like that happen. So we need to guard ourselves in our marriages and like, hey, if you're going to get married, you better get with somebody that believes the same as you. And I even say down probably to the core beliefs of what you believe in Christianity. Because if someone just says, oh, I'm a Catholic, and you're like, oh, well, they believe in the Trinity, I'm going to get married to them, you're an idiot. It's going to cause problems. So another cause of divorce is lack of intimacy, where the physical relationship is lacking. So you need to get together, and you know what I'm talking about on a regular basis, lack of equality. One does more work than the other. This is another thing. So like, if you're like, well, I'm the man of the house, and she's going to do the dishes and she's going to fold the laundry, she's going to do the laundry, she's going to do all the house cleaning and work outside the home, then she's going to get resentful about it, and you're going to have problems. Or she's going to say, well, it's your turn to do the dishes, and you're like, uh-uh. That's causing problems. So that's why we have to have our different roles, folks, because if you don't, then problems are going to happen. There can't be two heads of the house. There has to be one head. The Bible, obviously God the Father is the head of Christ. Christ is the head of the church. He's the head of the man, and he's the one that we answer to as men. But the wife is supposed to answer to her husband. It can't be 50-50. It can't be like that because it's not going to work. Anything with two heads is a freak, right? And then, let's see, lack of preparation. I talked about this just briefly, but lack of preparation, being ready for the commitment of marriage, if you're not prepared for that, then get prepared. Don't be a fool and just walk into some marriage when you don't realize what it takes to be married because it does take a lot of selfless sacrifice on both people's parts. It's not easy. Anybody who says marriage is easy, maybe you're the one in a million that has never been in an argument in your whole life as a married person, but that is generally just pastors trying to pretend like they're more holy than everybody else. I mean I've been in churches where the pastor acts like they've never gotten into a fight and it's like, okay, well, whatever. And maybe some people have more restraint to not fight in front of their children or whatever, but I'm not even going to ask for a raise of hands, but I know that probably 99% of the people in this room that are married have been in a fight before. Now obviously, that's a problem to have too much fighting and that's when people start to resent each other and to hate each other. And so being prepared as to what your role is. Being prepared as to what it is you're supposed to be as a husband and as a father. And so, before you get married to someone, you better make sure that that other person agrees with you on the things that you want to do. And maybe you weren't saved before you got married or maybe one was and one wasn't and the other one gets saved. There's a lot of combinations of things that can happen. I'm talking about two Christians, two believers. You get together and you're just like, well, I just love them so much. You mean you love their face. You just love their beauty. You love how handsome they are. You love how manly they are and how much they can deadlift or whatever. That's not what's going to be important 10 years from now or 20 years from now when you start to lose your looks. You start to lose, you know, obviously we all get ugly, folks, and eventually you're going to be a wrinkled up old raisin prune, you know, everybody in here. If you live that long and then it's like, what good does that do? You know what counts is character. What counts is whether you're going to agree together on the things of marriage. Are you going to stay with me no matter what? Yes. I mean, you think that when everybody makes those vows, that's just a no brainer, but today 50 to 60 percent of marriages end in divorce and that includes quote unquote Christians. It ought not to be so. It ought not to be happening, but yet it does. Now another one is poor communication and here's what I found after more than 20 years of marriage that women like to over communicate things and men like to under communicate things. You know, sometimes we're, you know, men, we kind of get to this point where it's like ooga booga, you know, we just, we don't want to talk about stuff and then women like to talk about stuff and I'm just going to use my wife as an example really quickly. I hope she doesn't get mad about this. But last night she's telling me some directions and, you know, to me, here's how I look at it. Just tell me, you know, a little bit of the directions, but she's like, then take a right at this place and then take a left at this place and then take a right. I'm just like, I'm never going to remember this. I don't care. And I was like, OK, let's just cut, let's cut to the quick here. What's the general location of this place? I love her. God bless her. But sometimes I don't want to talk and sometimes she, you know, so, you know, but communication is important. You know, we shouldn't over communicate because it's annoying, but we, you know, no offense, I love my wife, but we shouldn't under communicate either because they don't like that either. So what do you find that's right? Well, there should be a balance, OK? And obviously we're different. You know, men can go long periods of time without talking a lot of them. So and I used to work with this guy and like we work all this overtime and literally after like two weeks of working like 12 hour shifts all the time, that's literally what he's doing. It's just like, what? What did you say? It's just like, you need to take some time off, bro, because you totally went caveman and gorilla on this one. But I'm just so poor communications are an issue. And why? Because one likes to over communicate. You know, you know how you find out whether the difference between a man and a woman when you find a skeleton in the ground, how you tell the difference. The jawbone of the woman is more worn out than the man ever. All right. I know it's a bad joke, but I don't think that's true. But there are ways to find out. I'm not sure if that's one of the ones, but it might be. Anyway, addiction is another one. Abuse is another one. Men, keep your hands off your wife. Don't touch them in that way as far as abusive. And then obviously stay sober and you won't have a problem with addiction. And the last one was difference of religion. Difference of religion. So that's why I said it's important. Number one, God says we're not supposed to marry the daughter of a strange wife. So don't go and try to marry someone that's not saved. Don't go and try to marry someone that you just got saved and you haven't taught her anything yet. So sometimes people can fake. They just want to go along to get along. Hopefully you understand whether that person actually really means what they're saying and really does believe it because it can mean problems for the rest of your life if it's not. Don't go out and marry the daughter of a strange wife because it's going to cause lots of problems later on. Now stats on children that grow up without fathers. Well, why am I making this point when I'm talking about marriage? Well, because the stats on children that grow up without fathers are pretty devastating. I'm going to go through some of those really quickly here. It says in the US, 23.9 million children live absent of their biological fathers. And fatherless children represent 63% of teen suicides, 70% of juveniles in state institutions, 71% of high school dropouts, 75% of children in chemical abuse centers, 80% of rapists, 85% of youths in prison, 90% of homeless and runaways. Those are some pretty sobering statistics and what's the factor here is that when they grow up without a dad, it's a devastating thing for them. That's why it's important to stay, remain married to your spouse. You're like, well, we have problems. Who doesn't? Work through it. Get over it. Quit being so stuck. And men like to get bitter with their wives. And sometimes we won't say anything, but we're thinking it. And then those feelings bubble out later on and then you kind of explode, at least that's what I do sometimes. Back a long time ago, no, I'm just kidding. But women like to get it all out there. And sometimes everything doesn't need to be thought about and it doesn't need to be resolved right at that moment. Sometimes it's good to have a cool down period where you both just walk away. But I've noticed a lot of times that women don't want to just walk away. They want every single problem that we've been talking about and fighting about to be handled right then and there. And sometimes you've got to just say, hey, let's just cool down and come back. Because when you do that, then you're not as mad, right? But things need to be settled, but they don't need to be settled right there on the spot all the time. Sometimes you don't need time to think. Sometimes you need to process things. Those are just some tips that I find are important. Proverbs chapter 19, verse 14, go ahead and turn to Proverbs 18. Proverbs 19, 14 says, house and riches are the inheritance of fathers and a prudent wife is from the Lord. So a wife from God that's prudent is a blessing in your life. Proverbs chapter 18, verse 22 says, whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor of the Lord. So God wants to bless you with a wife. Now obviously there's prerequisites. I kind of already went through some of that stuff. But let's go to Malachi chapter 2, where I preached from on Thursday night, Malachi chapter 2, verse 14. The Bible says in Malachi chapter 2, it's the book right before Matthew. So Malachi, then Matthew, it's the last book of the Old Testament. And I'm going to kind of go through some of the things that I wanted to say the other night and I just kind of ran out of time. But Malachi chapter 2, verse 14 says, yet ye say, wherefore, because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously. He's talking about the men that would divorce their spouses or go outside the marriage. It says, yet is she thy companion. Now what is a companion? A companion is one who keeps company with another. One with whom a person frequently associates and converses. The word does not necessarily imply friendship, but a companion is often or generally a friend. And God is saying here, she's your companion. She's the one you talk to. She's the one that you've had sleepless nights with or problems with the children, being unhealthy or just problems in your family. And the times that you've shared what each other loves about this world and things and dreams and hopes and goals that you have in your life, she's your companion. So don't betray the wife of your youth. It says, dealt treacherously, means you're a traitor, you're a cheater. It says, and the wife of thy covenant. When you get married, it is a covenant. I don't care what anybody says. If you make a vow, then you're doing something that's right because God already said you're supposed to stay married. So why would it be wrong to say, yes, I do vow to stay with my wife till death do us part? That's what God says. So yes, I know we're not supposed to swear oaths, but that is not swearing an oath. That is vowing a vow. It is different. They might be in the same camp, but when you vow a vow to stay with your wife, God is going to hold you to that vow till death do us part. And all the things that you said you were going to do, that you must do. And if you betray that, then you're dealing treacherously with your spouse, whether you're male or female. And again, so a companion is someone that you spend time with. That's your partner. That's your role dog. That's your Bonnie and Clyde or whatever, hopefully not doing the things that they did. But you know what I'm saying? It's like you're two, your partners and your partners in this life together. It's a big decision to get married. It's a lot of preparation and sometimes you kind of got to wing it because you don't know all the situations you're going to run into, but I'll tell you, there's going to be heartache. There's going to be pain, but you know what they're also going to be love and joy and great times and being able to raise your children in the ways of the Lord and to bring up a godly generation for that generation. That's what God desires from us. He wants us to stay together. He wants us to be a picture of the right things of the Lord. So now let's move on to the second point, which is to raise your family and children or, you know, family, your whole family in the ways of the Lord. Raise your family in the ways of the Lord. Let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4. Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4. The first part is we're supposed to remain married. As men, that's really important. Number two, we need to raise your family in the ways of the Lord. So Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4 says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. So what does God want? What's the greatest commandment? It's to love God and, you know, we are supposed to implement those things as the father and the head of the family. We need to implement those things in our daily life. To what? To get our wife, to get our children to love the Lord with all their heart. And how do we do that? Well, we teach them what God's Word says. You know, obviously, it doesn't just have a list of do's and don'ts. God loves us. And so, if He loves us, we should love Him. There's a lot of people out there that hate God, but there's a lot of people that love Him too. And it's our duty as dads to, and husbands, and fathers to teach our family the ways of the Lord. And it says, And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Now who's up to this standard right here? Is anybody in this room up to this standard that you're diligent, I mean, this is what God expects from us, guys, and also moms, that we diligently teach them to our children. Do you diligently teach God's commandments and to love God? Do you diligently teach them that over diligently cleaning the house? Or how diligently you are at work? Because everything's important, but you know who's most important? God is most important. That's what these verses are teaching, that God is so important, it's the most important thing we can do. There's a lot of important things we do in our life, but the thing that God really wants us to do, more than anything, is to teach the things of God diligently to our children and also to our spouse. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 34, 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 34, the Bible says, Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak. Now just caveat this real quick, after service it's okay to talk, it's talking about the church services, okay? So it's not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law, and if they will learn anything, let them, what's it say there? Ask their husbands at home. So it's important for us men to know the Bible so that when our wives have questions, they can ask us those things at home. Your wife shouldn't have to go to the pastor or some other pastor to ask questions, they should be able to go to you. So it's our responsibility as husbands, our responsibility as dads, as fathers, to raise our family and in the ways of the Lord. So one of those things we can do is be in church every time the doors are open. Whether we're having a conference, you know a lot of churches will have revivals where they have like Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and the pastor's encouraging them to go to revivals. Well I believe our church is always in revival because we're doing what God wants us to do. But going to church three times a week, there's a little saying in fundamentalism called three to thrive. That's what I believe that we should be as husbands, as fathers, and I'm the pastor so I kind of have to believe that, right? But two to stay alive and one to survive, alright? And it's important, why is it important to be in church? Because there's always something for you when you come to church. You're like, well it's Father's Day, this isn't really geared towards me. But it is because the whole word of God can be, we can glean things from God's word when it's preached and we can implement those things in our daily life. Just like, yeah the dads are supposed to lead their family, but who's there training the children and teaching the children when dad's not there? It's mom. So where can you apply stuff to your life? Well, you're with them more than the dads are because they're out trying to bust their humps and bring home the bacon. So you're going to spend a lot more time with the children than dad is because if you're staying at home with your children like you should, anyway. But being three to thrive, the Bible says in Psalm chapter 92 verse 13, it says, those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. So to be planted in the house of the Lord, plants have what? They have roots, don't they? And so when you're planted in the house of the Lord, when people know, and a lot of times Baptists are planted in the same seats. I notice that a lot of people sit in the same seats. And there's various different things for that, but one of the things is you just want to be planted. That's my seat. You know, so in the conference when people got here earlier than you and stole your seat, well, you know, sorry Charlie, they don't know where your seat is. But you know what, sometimes people sit and we have different places where people sit and that's fine, but Baptists are very particular about where they sit. And I believe that there's a rule that's an unsaid rule. You put your Bible down in that seat, that's your seat. Amen. Now that doesn't mean don't read your Bible. You know, whosoever touches someone else's Bible, second opinions should be thrust through with a dart. You don't just move somebody else's Bible. I mean, unless it's like some single dude in the middle of a long aisle, you might just ask him to move or something, but anyway, I'm being silly. But plant yourself in the house of the Lord. Plant yourself. Plants are, what, stationary. They grow roots and we're supposed to be rooted and grounded in the truth. And in order to do that, you must be at church and as much as you possibly can be. So you want to be a good father? You want to train up your children in the ways of the Lord? You want to train up your wife? And what's important? Well, be in church then. Be in church whenever you can be. Bible reading. Read your Bible. I already kind of covered that, but how about reading the Bible with your family? Do you ever read the Bible with your family? Do you have a Bible time where you read the Bible together with your family? Joshua chapter 1 says, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that's written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, then thou shalt have good success. You want to be successful? You want to be prosperous? You want your family life to be successful? You want your family life to be prosperous? Well, get into the Word of God. Get into the Bible with your family. Don't just make it all about you. Yes, you have to have your own personal devotional Bible reading time, but there should be a time when your family has Bible reading time. Whether they're stumbling through it or not, I mean, it's a good way to train your children how to read the Bible. Make them read the Bible. Obviously, if they're two or three, you know, it's going to be rough. But the older they get, the better they're, you know, they, if you read the Bible, it's going to make you smart. It's going to give you wisdom. The Bible says it will give you wisdom. If you read the Bible, you learn how to read out loud the words of this book, you're going to get smarter. You're going to understand more words. And it's going to be a blessing to your family. It's part of raising your family in the ways of the Lord. But Dad, you've got to read the Bible. You've got, you know, when the hard questions come, and they're going to come, and you don't know, then you need to find out. Don't make them go ask somebody else. Don't make them, you know, well, Dad, why do women wear skirts and dresses only? You better be able to show them. Why are men supposed to be manly? Why aren't they supposed to be effeminate? You better be able to show them in the Bible. Why do we go to church, Dad? You better be able to show them. Why aren't we going to church, Dad? That's what they're going to be asking. So be prepared for that question. If you're just one of these people that just wants to show up for church whenever you feel like it, why aren't we at church, Dad? How come that family's in church all the time? That's a shame, folks, and it should, you know, and believe me, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings that was perfected praise, they're going to ask. They're going to ask you why you do stuff and why you're not doing stuff. Well, are we going to church tonight? Huh? Huh? No. I'm doing this. It's like, what are you teaching them that the things of God aren't important? You know what? When you're older and they're out of your house and they don't want to go to church anymore, you're going to know why. Because you failed. And look, it's our jobs, Dad, to lead our families. And so if your family fails, if your children fail, if your marriage fails, it's ultimately on you. And God is going to hold you personally responsible. And I don't want to say I told you so. I don't want it 20 years from now, pastor, you're right. I don't care about that. I don't care about being right. I care about your family being right. I care about your marriage being right. I care about your children turning out right. Because you know what? That's what God wants. He wants a godly family. He doesn't just put these in here for no reason. Be in church. Read your Bible. And prayer time. Teach your children to pray. Some of the most fond memories of prayer I have is when my children are praying. And they're praying for all these funny things, you know? And they're praying for the dog. You know, I pray the dog doesn't have to get put to sleep. They're praying for Grandma and Grandpa. They're praying for their cousins. They're praying for other people in the church to quit smoking during prayer time in Sunday school. I mean, they're going to say some of the funniest things, but you know. And we're like, oh, I didn't know they smoked. But anyway, please pray for my dad to quit smoking. It's like, oh, man. All right, let's just make that a private prayer request, but anyway. Teach them to pray. Why? Well, because when they get older, it's going to be a habit for them. At least at night, you know, just have a family time where you just kind of go through some prayers and pray with them before they go to bed. Psalm chapter 58, or 55, let's look at Psalm chapter 55. Psalm chapter 55, because, you know, and obviously as dads, we need to have some prayer time ourselves. And you know, I talked a little bit, I've said, well, isn't it nice when your boss catches you working? That is nice. You know what's even better? When your Heavenly Father catches you praying. When your wife walks in and you're on your hands and knees. When your children walk in and you're on your hands and knees. Those things are things that have an effect because they know that it's not just words that you're saying. It's not just a pretend time. This is what dad really does. This is what mom really does. And then, you know, if you get caught praying, well, you know, it's kind of annoying being interrupted, but you know what else it is? It's good for them to see that you do. It's good for them to see you have a time of prayer. Look at Psalm chapter 55 verse 17. It says, evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. So, does God hear your voice if you're saved and you pray? How often did David pray? It sounds to me like you prayed three times a day. Well, let's look at Daniel chapter 6 verse 10, Daniel chapter 6 verse 10. And look, if you're not there yet, don't feel too bad about it, but just do better. These are things to help remind us like if we're off track a little bit and we're off balance a little bit, you know, we can apply these things to our lives and this is, you know, dads, husbands, wives, children. We can all soak these things in. This is what God, you know, is pleased with. Daniel chapter 6 verse 10, it says, now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house and his windows being opened and his chamber toward Jerusalem. He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and what did he do? Gave thanks before his God as he did a four time. So Daniel wasn't a phony. They had passed a law that says that nobody can pray to any other god besides, you know, the gods of Babylon or whatever and they said that it's illegal for Daniel to pray to his God. I mean, you think that might be weird, but we're here. Those days are upon us again where you can't even say a Bible verse without a cop arresting you. So anyway, it says, and gave thanks to his God as he did a fourth time. It was a habit of Daniel's that he was into. Mark chapter 1 verse 35 talking about Jesus says, and in the morning rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed. So yes, there's a time for our solitary prayers. Jesus sets the example for us. He got up way before, it wasn't even light out yet, and he's already praying to God. And I'm sure you might wake up in the middle of the night and pray to God and fall asleep praying, but you know, I'm sure God is pleased with the fact that you fell asleep praying more than he's pleased that you never pray. You know what I mean? So we should have a prayer life, it should be instituted with your children, and they're not too young to do it. You know, and if you have to like do forced prayer, you know, you might have to do that. It's like we're supposed to train them. And not everything, I don't know if you know this or not, but if you don't have kids you won't understand this, but kids don't just obey everything you say all the time. They rebel against you constantly and you have to correct that part of them because we're all rebellious. The other thing that you can do to show your children that, you know, to raise your family in the way of the Lord is soul winning. Show your family how to love people early and how others turn out that don't follow the Lord. There's some lessons that you can learn. The other thing is it's hard work. Sometimes it's hot outside. Sometimes it's raining and pouring, you know, and we go out and it's like, why are we doing this dad? Why are we doing this mom? Well, you know why? Because we need to show our love to other people. We need to show our children how to really love other people because it's pretty loving for someone that you don't even know to knock on that person's door and know that you might be hassled or maligned or made fun of or the door slammed in your face or cussed out because you're trying to love them than to not show any love to people at all. People might, you know, you might say to people when you're out soul winning, I'm doing this because I love you. You know, that's what we say sometimes when we spank our kids, right? Or what your parents used to say to you. I'm doing this because I love you, right? But it's true. I'm knocking on your door because I love you and you know what, your kids will see that and you'll teach them how to be hard workers and you'll teach them to love other people. Look at Revelation chapter 2 verse 4. Revelation chapter 2 verse 4. Revelation chapter 2 verse 4, the Bible says, Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Now the first love is supposed to be who? The Lord our God. And how does that happen? How do people lose, you know, how do people leave their first love? Well, it says, Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works. What were the first works? The first works was follow me and I'll make you to become fishers of men. So when we love other people, that helps us love God more because we are showing the love of God to other people. And therefore, because he told us to do those things, it's showing our love towards God also. So it says, To do the first works, or else I'll come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent. Now obviously he's talking to the angel of the church of Ephesus here, but what about you, the individual? Have you stopped going soul winning? Have you stopped taking your family out? Do you take your children soul winning with you? Do you go out, you know, with your family and go soul winning? Well, the Bible says that he's going to remove the candlestick from out of its place, but you know what's going to happen to you personally? You're going to lose your first love. You're going to stop caring about the things of God and then you're going to eventually just going to drop out of church. Because if you really don't love God, then what are you doing here? And I'm not saying you're not saved. I'm just saying that when you lose your first love, when you stop doing the first works and you don't show your family that you care about God, therefore they can't be taught how to care about the things of God, then God's calling you to repent. If you stop going soul winning in this church, then start again. Just start again. That's the nice thing about God is that he gives us second chances and third chances and fourth chances and we can always pick up where we left off, right? So take your kids soul winning and you know, just on another note, who you are at home is who you should be at church. Obviously around your family you're going to let your hair down, so to speak, a little bit more. Maybe you're going to crack one in the car, dad, engross the whole car out or whatever. These are not things that we should be doing in church, okay? I'm not saying that, all right? No fart jokes and you know, let's keep it, you know, obviously again, there's things at home that you might do that are a little different. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the way, who you are. Who you are at church should be who you are at home. If you love God at home, you love God at church. If you love God at church, you should love God at home, right? And if you teach things to your children at church, then when they go home, those things should be in effect. So they're not seeing you live a double life because when they see you live a double life, then they're going to be like, well, what was I doing all this for? Why did I do all this? You know, I'm gone. I'm out of here. And then it happens a lot. Happens a lot in churches and people are like, I just don't understand why all the kids are leaving the church because they got a bunch of hypocritical parents at home talking bad about the pastor, talking bad about other church members, you know, being the opposite of what you're being taught to be at church and that your kids see that and they watch that and they pick up on things that you do and they're like, well, why would I want to do that when my dad was a fake? My mom is a fake. We should be the same people at home that we are here at church. And again, and here's another thing, dad, when you screw up, own it. When you do wrong by your children, because you're going to do wrong by your children at some point, you're going to lose it, you're going to maybe overspank them at some point or yell at them or do something that wasn't quite right, you're going to blame them for something they didn't do or you're going to fight with your wife in front of them or you're going to do something wrong, well, let me tell you something, you need to own it. And you need to apologize to them, you need to apologize to your spouse and say, you know what, I'm sorry, I blew it. Because you know, if you never own up to your mistakes, then why would they ever own up to theirs? If they see that you just are prideful and you never want to own up to what you've done, they're going to be the same way. You're going to, look, you're going to raise what you are. And so what you are, dad, needs to be the best Christian you can be. And we know we're not perfect. Nobody is going to be perfect in every situation, but you know, when you know you screwed up, when you know you messed up, own it, apologize. You know, the real wimp is the one that's afraid to apologize to his family. The real coward is the one that will not own up and is too proud to admit when they've done something wrong. That's the real wimp and the real coward. You're not manly because you just refuse to apologize. You're a coward. You're a wimp. So do what's right. Don't be too weak to own up to your mistakes. Number three this morning, be balanced in your child rearing. Be balanced in your child rearing. Turn to Proverbs chapter 19 verse 18, Proverbs chapter 19 verse 18, and I want you to catch the theme of these verses, okay? And some people will be like, well, that parent beats their child. They, you know, they're just, they're too far. They're overboard. You know what? You can be overboard. But the Bible tells us a specific way we're supposed to, we're supposed to chasten our children and spank our children. So, but that's not all I'm talking about here. I'm not talking about just spanking, but correcting your children is really important and especially when they're early, in the early stages of their life. And when they grow up, you're going to have to do it less. So get the pain out of the way. Don't be a wimp. Do what God says. If you do things the way God says, He's going to bless you for it. Look at Proverbs 19, 18, it says, chasten thy son while there is hope and let not thy soul spare for his crying. Don't let their crying get them out of the spanking every time. That's what it's saying, right? So, chasten them while there's hope. Because there comes a point when there is no hope for them anymore. If you've waited until they're 17 years old to start implementing spanking, you've already failed. And look, if you already have, then you know, just do your best to be a parent to them the way you should be. You know, because people get saved in different stages of life. There's all different types of stories out there and they're like, well, I never spanked my kids growing up, but now I learned. Look, do your best to implement things as you can. But look at Proverbs 13, 24. So when are we supposed to chasten our children? While there's hope for them. Hope for what? Hope that they would turn out right. Hope that they would get saved. You're like, well, what does that have to do with it? Because if our kids never have accountability for anything that they do, they're never going to have accountability towards God. If you let them off the hook of everything they've done, if you never spanked them, if you never correct them, if you never chasten them, then they're going to just turn out to be little monsters. Look at Proverbs 13, 24 says, he that spareth his rod hateth his son. So what does it say? Sparing the rod means not doing it. Not doing it probably consistently, not doing it on a regular basis. If you spare the rod, and notice how it says it's a rod, right? But he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. And look, it's going to say son, father spanking their son, but look, moms, you need to spank your kids too. And you need to spank your daughters too, because they can be little brats too. Right? You know, they're beautiful, they're sweet and charming, but they have their bad side too. This is talking about both, right? But what does chasteneth betimes? Well, it means to correct, chasten means to correct. That's what it means. Betimes means early. So early on in life. You don't say, well, I've just got to wait until they're seven years old until they can take the correction. No. You've already failed, because you're waiting too long. Now of course you're not going to, you know, Nia's probably not at home beating her new daughter that's like a week old. You know what I mean? So, and all she can do wrong is cry, and that's not wrong, that's just how they communicate. But you know, when they get older, the older they get, the more they're going to start to do things wrong. What are they going to do? They're going to scratch your face. They're going to slap your face. You know when you have them on your lap, they're just like. Those are things you have to correct. You can't just let them just keep hitting you in the face. Grab their little hands and go, no. That's correcting them, isn't it? And then if they try to go, no. You should not let your children hit you. That's insane. You're teaching them that hitting people, including their parents. The Bible says he that smites his parents shall surely be put to death. You know, and again, don't take this too far. Don't be weird. Like, he slapped me in the face, death penalty time, get the rocks out everybody, you know. That's not what I'm talking about. But when they grow up, they're going to think it's okay to hit you. You have to correct things as they come. So that's what B times means. It means early or at the expected time. So there's certain things that your kids do that have to be corrected. You cannot let them pass. You cannot let them go on it. Hitting you is one of those things. Hitting other kids is one of those things. You can't just let your kid walk up and totally bulldoze another kid without correcting them for it. Because you know what you're teaching, oh, no, no, no, don't do that, Johnny. What is that teaching them? Nothing. It's teaching them it's okay, I can get away with it again because you're not going to do anything about it, sucker. And then they're going to do it again. And then it's going to get worse. And some kids are just really hard to get that stuff out of them. But we have to, we have to correct things. If they're breaking the Ten Commandments, you should correct them. It should be a spankable offense to lie to you. It should be, you know, obviously they're not going to be able to commit adultery. But I'm just, I'm talking about some of the things that are really wicked sins that you catch them doing or they're on the path to it. You have to correct those things. But here's the other thing, you also have to give grace. Because if you're not teaching them grace and mercy, that you just spank over everything, then you're going too far with it. Because God gives us mercy. He's long suffering towards us. He gives us grace, doesn't He? Now it doesn't mean He's not going to punish our sin. But see, the picture of a father, we have a Heavenly Father. We're earthly fathers. Do you see the connection there? We're supposed, and God has, the Heavenly Father has children, doesn't He? And what does He do when they get out of the line? He corrects them. He chastens them. And it might not be with a rod, but the rod is a tool to help implement the fear. And we should fear God when we know He's going to come down on us. So we can't just let our kids slide on things if they're doing things that, especially when it comes to a will thing. Here's one thing, and I'm going to use my granddaughter as an example, but Karina, sometimes I'll call her and, you know, I'm her grandpa, but she'll just refuse. She'll just stand there like, mm-hmm. And I just go over there and I go, whoosh, and I give her a little smack because she needs to come to me when I call her. Because what's going to happen when your kid runs out on the road and you say, stop! Are they going to listen to you? Are they going to obey you? Because it could be a life or death situation. So if your kids don't obey you, and obviously that's my grandchild, and I do have permission to do that, I think. I think. Do I have permission around me? Okay. Yeah. And I know Kylie's going to give permission, but I'm not, I don't beat her to, you know, to deadly death or whatever, but like, I'm going to correct her. Because when they, you have to break their will, folks. Because if you can't break their will, and I'm not saying break their spirit, you don't break their spirit, you don't make them hate you, you don't make them hate God, but you do have to break their will because a child's will can be really strong. They're stronger in some kids than they are in others. I barely had to spank Nina, I had to spank Remy Lotz, I had to spank Josh Lotz, you know. Jasmine got beat down several times, not by me necessarily, but by my wife. But that's because kids have strong wills. They need to get spanked, okay? This is how God says to do it. So my rod was a spatula that became the ultimate rod because it never breaks, there's those plastic ones, you know, with the ladle at the end. And that ladle, when it makes that connection, it hoits. It hurts. I know it hurts because when their cheeks squeeze together, like, you know it hurts. But you know what I don't spank them with? I didn't spank them with belts. Does the Bible say chase them with the belt? It says chase them with the rod. Look at Proverbs 23 verse 13, Proverbs 23 verse 13. So it doesn't say throw them outside and pour cold water on them, it doesn't say put Tabasco sauce in their mouth when they cuss, it doesn't say stick a bar of soap in their mouth. The Bible doesn't say, does the Bible say those things? I mean, correct me if I'm wrong. Now those things probably got done to you, and you probably watched the, you know, your parents watched the Christmas story growing up, you watched the Christmas story growing up, you know, and Ralphie says, oh fudge. But he didn't really say fudge, he said the queen mother of dirty words. The F word, right? The other F word. But what was his punishment for that? Bar of soap in his mouth for who knows how long. I mean, what should he have gotten? He should have got a spanking. You know, Ralphie should have got beat down by the rod. Look at Proverbs 23 verse 13. Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Now, let me just caveat this too. Yes, your kid could die if you're hitting him with the rod in places that you're not supposed to. I mean, if you're hitting him in the head with it. But a rod is just like a little switch or a little implement that you would use, and you apply that to the seed of correction. You can't injure the booty, okay? You can smack the bottom and that's where you're supposed to apply the rod. You apply it to the bottom. The rod of correction to the seed of learning. And they learn real quick when you smite them with the rod. It says, beatest, if thou beatest him with the rod. It's not talking about child abuse, folks. It's not talking about getting them into a corner and doing some ground and pound on them or something. The Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible teaches to spank them with the rod. Look at what verse 14 says. What does it say in verse 14? Thou shalt beat. Isn't that what it says? Is it a commandment? Is it wrong? Well, I know Child Protective Services says it's wrong. And they say, well, you can only spank your kid with your hand. Well, you know what your hand can do? It can dislodge muscles. First of all, if you hit with your hand and they block it with an elbow, you can hurt your hand. You can hurt their spine. You can hurt them. And this isn't in the Bible, but here's something I found. If you spank with your hand, they're going to fear your hand when it comes towards them. Do you want your kid to go like this every time that you walk up to them in public? In any other place? You walk up, oh, hey, they're like, ah! But when they see the rod come out, that's when they should fear. Because they know that you're going to be consistent. They know you're going to spank with that thing and you're going to hit them in the spot where you're supposed to. It's not going to be like your Mozart or something, just smacking them with every single spot in the body. Because it says, thou shalt beat him with what? The rod. Does it say the hand? Does it say the fist? Does it say with Tabasco sauce, a bar of soap, a bicycle tire? No, it doesn't say those things. And it says, and shall deliver his soul from hell. Well, how is that possible? Because when you teach them that there's punishment, when you teach them that there's going to be accountability for the things that they do, then when they say, well, you know, when you say, well, God says if you break these commandments, these are going to happen to you, they make the correlation. You're supposed to be the picture of God the Father to your children on earth. That's the picture, folks. And that's what the Bible says. How many verses have I gone through already that say the rod? Like three, right? And let's look at another one, Proverbs 22, verse 15, Proverbs chapter 22, verse 15. The Bible says foolishness is bound in the heart of a child. So what's bound in the heart of a child? Foolishness. They like to do stupid things. They play with matches. They, you know, they whatever, you know what they do. They do a lot of stuff that you're like, what are you thinking? What was going through your brain at that time? Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the, what's it say there? The rod of correction shall drive it far from them. So how do you drive foolishness out of a child? With the rod of correction. You're like, you're teaching child abuse, Pastor Thompson. No, I'm teaching what the Bible says. So go ahead and sue me, you pig. Go ahead and try to, you know, bring some kind of accusation against me and try to get my, my kids are already grown up and out of the house, so too late, reprobate. You can't get me on that. You're like, well, you're teaching other people to be violent towards children. Oh, you mean like you trying to chop their nuts off? You freak? Yeah. Or trying to dress them up like a little girl? You freak? Go ahead and tell me how I'm a child abuser. So again, what's the Bible say to do? Correct them when it's, when you need to, at the appropriate times. When they're doing something that's worthy of correction, you need to correct them early and you know, do it age appropriate too, please. You know, I mean, 30 lashes, 39 lashes save one for a one-year-old is pretty ridiculous. I mean, you should be able to get them good a few times with three or four licks or just, you know, lift some weights or something. But anyway, so, but remember to give grace. Don't try to break their spirit and, you know, turn to Ephesians chapter six verse four. While you're turning there, I'm just going to say this also. Don't ever punish your children with the Bible. Don't ever punish your children using the things of God. You know, yeah, you can show them the scriptures that say they're supposed to get spanked. There's nothing wrong with that. But if your punishment is not the rod, but it's, hey, you're going to sit there and read the Bible all day. It's a total time out. You know what that causes, reprobates. And I know for a fact, Remy I think just preached about it last week, how his cousin came out as a trans freak on Facebook or something and that's what their parents did with him. It's exactly, and I've said that for years and then he actually came out as a tranny. So guess what? The Bible's right and to punish your children with Bible reading is just weird. Like this is what you get. You have to read the Bible, God's holy word. That should be something they enjoy doing. That should be something they grow up to enjoy doing, not something that you're punishing them with. Now, if you're giving them schoolwork or reading assignments, that's different. You're commanding them to do something like that, that's not wrong. But punishing them with it is. You know what I'm going to do today? We're only one to survive, but you know what I'm going to do to punish you? Take you to church three times a week. How do you like that, you little brat? I mean, why would you try to bring punishments that the Bible doesn't, it's not a punishment to go to church. It's a privilege, something that they should want to do. There's kids that cry or have cried every time they leave the building because they don't want to miss their friends. They should love church. Look at what the Bible says, Ephesians chapter 6 verse 4, it says, and ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up, bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It doesn't say put them down, bring them down, make them low, make them your footstool. It says bring them up in the ways of the Lord, I mean, excuse me, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, which are the ways of the Lord. So nurture means to care for and encourage the growth or development of. To care for and encourage the growth and development of. Admonition means to an authoritative, authoritative and counsel and warning. So you're an authority, you're the boss, but you're also counseling them, you're warning them, and love your children. They're not just, it's not just discipline, folks. We're supposed to care for them also. It's not just, they shouldn't just look at you like you're the disciplinarian, that's all you do. You should love them too, and if you're Latin, look, guys are the worst at this, where we'll just like spank them and, you know. But you know what you should do after you give them a spank? You should tell them you love them and say, you know, that was for your own good. They might not realize that at the moment, but you know what I learned when I grew up? That even my stepdad, who I hated, when he spanked me for things that I needed to be spanked for, I'm glad that he did. Even though he was the biggest jerk, and he's a reprobate, he wasn't a molester, but he was a reprobate, and I hated him, but when he spanked me for good, for right reasons, I remember that those things were right. You play with matches, you should get spanked. It's not like, oh, Johnny, don't burn the field down again, okay? Because what did Absalom do, burn people's fields down? Maybe he should have got spanked more, I don't know, because he turned out bad, didn't he? Hebrews chapter 12 verse 11 says, and now no chasing for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. For some reason, a spanking yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness in your children with you, and for those that are exercised thereby. What it's saying, exercised thereby, it's talking about the people that got the spanking. And so when God spanks us, it also brings forth, we're like, we realize, hey, I was doing something wrong, that's why God punished me. You come out the other side and you're like, well, that wasn't great, that didn't feel good, but you know, I'm glad that God corrected me with that thing because I learned my lesson and now I know the pain that's going to come next time. But we don't hate God when he punishes us. We shouldn't hate him because he loves us, he's doing it for a good reason. And the last point I'll just get through real quickly is represent yourself as a strong man and leader in your home and in church. First Corinthians chapter 16 verse 13, the pizza's not here yet so quit whining. First Corinthians chapter 16 verse 13 says, watch ye stand fast in the faith, quit ye like men, be strong. Let's see Apostle Paul telling us, hey, stand fast in the faith, watch ye, quit ye like men. Be like men, be strong. So what's Paul saying that men are supposed to be, what, strong? They're supposed to be strong. And in Job chapter 38 verse 3 it says, gird up now thy loins like a man. Notice it doesn't say, it never says in the Bible for a woman to gird up her loins. You know why? Because women are not supposed to wear pants. But anyway, gird up your loins now like a man, for I will demand thee and answer thou me. God tells people in the Bible lots of times to gird up their loins. Men. And what does that mean? Pull up your pants, put the buckle, put a belt on. Get ready to work. And the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6, 9, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. So God tells us men not to be effeminate. It is a sin to be effeminate. That's why God's saying not to do that. It is a sin to be a little soft little sissy boy. If your boys are kind of gearing themselves towards being sissies, have them do some pushups or something. Okay? And I already tipped them, so don't sign for another tip. Anyway, you hear me? I already tipped them. But anyway, it says, so the Bible says not to be a man. That's my last point. Be manly. When your boys look up to you, they should look up and go, my dad was a man. My dad was a man. My dad worked hard. And that's what we should be. Be manly. Don't be effeminate. Don't wear skinny jeans. Don't wear soft pink colors. Be manly. If you come to church in an all-pink suit, you're going to get laughed at at this church. You're like, well, I'm manly enough to wear the pink suit. You don't look manly, though. That's the point. But anyway, so, you know, and don't take advice from people that have never been married and raised kids. This drives me up the wall. There's this whole Bill Gothard thing where, you know, it's a big thing with the Duggars and all this other stuff. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then it doesn't matter. But Bill Gothard never had children. Bill Gothard never had a wife, and yet he's teaching all these thousands of people how to raise their families. And you know what? A lot of the things that they taught were weird, and it gives fundamentalism a bad name. And you know, I'm a fundamentalist, and I think that you should be a fundamentalist because that's what being a Bible-believing Christian is. But I don't think that, you know, when your kids grow up, they go, well, I never want to come to a fundamentalist church again because I was damaged by the things that they taught. I didn't do blanket training where you smack your infants every time they crawl off a blanket. You know, I mean, that's some of the weird stuff that they taught people to do. I'm not saying everything that was taught there was bad, but there's a lot of weird stuff that came out of that movement. The IFLB or whatever it was called, I can't remember what it was called. But anyway, don't take advice from people that don't have kids. If you have a whole ministry, and you have a whole movement, like he wasn't a pastor, what was he? He was just someone grifting, making money, he was a pervert, and you know, it's just follow what the Bible says. And don't make your kids hate fundamentalism because you're overboard on stuff. Because you're taking them outside and hosing them down when they do something wrong. And if you've ever done any of those things, those implements that I've mentioned, I'm not saying you're the worst parent ever, but just do what the Bible says. Quit trying to do it your own way. Quit trying to find the gimmick that you can do that doesn't spank because you're too cowardly to spank your kids. Spank them. Beat them with the rod. That's what the Bible says. And don't go overboard. Alright? So, and you know, if you don't have a father, maybe your father's passed away today, but you know what? If you're saved, you have the heavenly father, and he's the best father that there ever could be. So, and the Bible says for us to honor our father and mother, make sure if your dad's still around you can call him and just wish him a happy Father's Day. And you know, for the singles, just prepare yourself because marriage isn't easy, child rearing isn't easy, but you know, if you do things the way the Bible says and you prepare your heart to get married the way the Bible says, how you should treat each other, how the relationship should be, how to raise your children, how many, you know, how many children does it say to have? A lot. It just doesn't really say. However many you can have. And we need to be strong fathers in this world. We need to lead our families in the ways of the Lord. We need to discipline right. And you know why? God is seeking a godly generation to come afterwards. And it's up to us dads to lead our families well and to reach that next generation, your children, reach your spouse, and that they would love and trust in you. And obviously no one's perfect, but we can be the best dads we can be if we put the Bible to use. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this church. We thank you for the great dads that are in it. Pray, Lord, that you'd help us to be the best dads that we could possibly be. And Lord, we just kind of throw away all the foolish things that we're taught as kids, things that are maybe we were taught that just are wrong. I pray that we would let the Bible tell us what's right. I pray you'd just help us to bring up our children and our families in the ways of the Lord, the way you say, and that Lord, our children would love you after they leave our home, that they would still believe the same things that they believed while they were here and with our families. Lord, I pray that you would just help them in their daily lives. Help us to have a great church filled with great families that love you, God, and we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, Lord, that you'd help us to be the best dads that we could possibly be. Amen. Thank you, Lord, that you'd help us to be the best dads that we could possibly be. Thank you, Lord, that you'd help us to be the best dads that we could possibly be. Thank you, Lord, that you'd help us to be the best dads that we could possibly be. Amen. Amen.