In this sermon, the preacher discusses the current state of families and the influence of children over their parents. He mentions the controversy of television in Christian homes, with many families choosing to remove it due to its negative impact on children. The preacher shares a personal anecdote of a Christian lady who caught her son watching something inappropriate on television, highlighting the fear and concern that many Christian homes have regarding the influence of media on their children's integrity and purity. The sermon then transitions to the biblical passage of Malachi 4:5-6, which speaks of the coming of Elijah the prophet and his role in reconciling the hearts of fathers and children, turning them back to God.

Can we just bow for a moment of prayer, please? Our Father, we thank Thee that we can be together here because of Jesus. We are here out of love for Christ and we would be Christ's property, Christ's responsibility as we yield our lives to Him. There's no safer place to be God's property, if God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up to us all freely, how shall He not with Him also give us all things? Oh, we bless Thee, Lord, that God is for us. Who can be against us? Who should separate us from the love of Christ, if the delay, sin, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as is written, we are killed all day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter, and all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. We bless Thee, Lord, that nothing, no tribulation, no persecution, no distress, will separate us from the love of God. How we love Thee, Lord, who were kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Oh, we bless Thee that Thou wilt keep us as we rest in perfect love and perfect faith in Thee. I know whom I believe and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day, how filled with faith we are now, keeping power, God. Thou art God, greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Thou art great, and great is He to be praised. Come, Father, in Thy mercy to us tonight. Minister to us through Thy words. Speak to the depth of our hearts. Wash me in the blood of Jesus. Fill me with the Holy Spirit. Stand beside me in the pulpit of God. Dear God, Lord Jesus, make Thy word living and alive as Thou hast anointed my lips, my heart, and all of our hearts. Visit us here tonight through Thy word, Lord. Speak in a way we will never forget. For Christ's sake, in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Tonight, I would like for us to look at the last two verses in the Old Testament. Malachi chapter 4, verse 5. Behold, I will send you, Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. The Amplified Bible, in verse 6, says, And he shall turn and reconcile the hearts of the estranged fathers to the ungodly children, and the hearts of the rebellious children back to the piety and the feet of God of their fathers, a reconciliation which will be produced by the repentance of those who are ungodly, lest I come and smite the land, their land, with a curse, a ban of utter destruction. The Living Bible, you see, I will send you another prophet, like Elijah, before the coming of the great and dreadful judgment day of God. His preaching, his preaching will bring fathers and children together again, to be of one mind and heart, for they will know that if they do not thus repent, I will come and utterly destroy their land. I will come and utterly destroy their land. Such preaching is desperately needed in this age. Such preaching is desperately needed in this age. Preaching that will turn the hearts of the children back to the fathers or parents, the parents' hearts back to their children. Can I read to you these words which I have written on my knees? A sinful age, a sinful age like ours, rips apart the home, rips apart the home. A wicked generation like ours turns the hearts of the children against their parents. This age, this age breeds children who will defy their parents and drive them to rebel against all authority, especially the home. And a sinful age also breeds parents who will neglect their children and their responsibilities. They will refrain from discipline. They will let go of all authority, tragically even love for their children. That's what a sinful age like ours will do. And we must be honest. We must be honest today. The homes of God's people are being tragically affected by this age. The homes of God's people are being tragically affected by this age. We live in a day and age when as never before the fathers are controlled by the children. We live in a day and age when as never before the fathers or parents are controlled by the children. We live in a day and age when as never before the fathers are concerned about the children. We live in a day and age when as never before the fathers are condemned by the children. We live in a day and age when as never before the fathers are commissioned for the children. We live in a day and age when, as never before, as never before, the fathers are compared with the children. Let us look at these five points carefully here tonight. We live, firstly, we live in a day and age when, as never before, as never before, the fathers or parents are controlled by the children. In my country, South Africa, the controversy of television raids us. In a Christian home, many will not have the television in their homes anymore. Those who still hold on to the television for that which is good and educational, they're finding everywhere less and less time they dare to put it on. Most Christian homes, I wonder if it's wrong for me to say, at this stage are scared if they've still got it in their home to put it on. There's such fearful, fearful things that will destroy a child forever, his integrity, his honor, his purity. In one moment, for something in the home, I was speaking to a Christian lady who still has the television in her home. She was telling me how she came home a little bit earlier than expected and walked into the lounge, and there was her son lying on the carpet, looking at the television, propping his head up with his hands. And there she walked in a bit earlier than expected, and she looked at the television, and her heart just sank as she saw what he was looking at. And she looked at him and said, how could you? You know you shouldn't look at this. Her son staggered her at what he did. He didn't bat an eyelid. He didn't move. He carried on looking, and he said, I know it's wrong, mommy. I know this is wrong, but you see, mommy, I'm looking at it critically. I'm looking at it critically. You allow them to get away with it today, they'll talk you out of anything. You just give them half a chance today, they'll talk you out of anything. That's the day and age we live in, even in Christian home. Just give them half a chance, they'll talk you out of anything. Eli's son. Eli's sons were rebellious from childhood. They were rebellious from childhood and eventually became wicked. But Eli was to blame. God doesn't hide it. He hides nothing in the Bible, even though Eli was a man of God. He failed. Eli was to blame. He never disciplined them or challenged them. He let go of authority over his children, and they destroyed him. They were the destroying of their godly father and his ministry. You can be godly and fail and be destroyed. Like Eli, if you let go of authority, and the devil wants you to in this day and age. Everyone's crying out, let go of authority. In Romans 1, God's wrath is declared against all the wicked sins of men, as no other chapter in the entire Bible. You can't wind away past any of these sins without knowing the wrath of God comes upon those who commit it. There's no deviation, no excuse the way God declares in the New Testament in Romans 1. Most preachers are too scared to ever preach in their entire ministry on this chapter. You can't get around sin and God's wrath upon those who commit each sin named. Listen to the wrath of God upon the sins of the wicked in Romans 129 being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, spiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, disobedient to parents. The wrath of God according to the Scriptures is upon this wickedness. Oh obey thy father and thy mother. God commands, honor thy father and thy mother. God commands, we live in a day and age when as never before the fathers of parents are controlled by the children. We live in a day and age when as never before, as never before the fathers are concerned about the children, are concerned about the children. Look at how the godly Job became concerned about his children. Because you're godly doesn't mean you don't have to be concerned about your children. Look how the godly Job became concerned about his children. In Job chapter 1 verse 1, there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil and they were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand feet and three thousand camels and five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred sea asses and a very great household so that this man was the greatest of all the men in the east. And his sons went and feasted in their houses every one his day, every one on his birthday and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was so in the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, Job said, it may be that my sons had sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Oh, oh, he was the holiest man on earth, perfect. But look at his concern for his children. Being holy doesn't mean you don't have concern that everything automatically will go well. Here this man had deep concern for his children. Job offered sacrifices for his sons continually in his concern for them. Job offered sacrifices for his children continually to God. It may be my sons have sinned and cursed God. We know that all the Old Testament sacrifices of animals was looking to and pointing to the blood of Jesus Christ. The lamb slain from the foundation of the earth. No animal's blood could ever have cleansed away sin. But before the foundation of the earth, God in his sovereignty, in his foreknowledge, it was as good as Christ had been crucified. And all through from the time of the creation right through to the actual crucifixion physically of his son, it was in God's eyes completely done. For his son was so perfect in his resignation to the plan of God and salvation that every time men offered the blood and sacrificed animals, God accepted it as the blood of Christ as he looked to the lamb of God slain by God before the foundations of the earth. For the forgiveness of men, the blood of Christ was being pointed to every time Job sacrificed for his son. God looked at Christ's blood, nothing else. There's something very precious there. Back home, I knew a home, a family, a farming home with one of the godliest women I've ever known, the mother of that home. Every time I went through the years back to that home, the children, from the first time I ever saw them, they loved Christ with all their hearts. As the years went by, I went back there on fire for God, right through to manhood, to womanhood. There was never a time in their lives they didn't want God. They never wanted the world. They never felt that they were deprived or left out. They never wanted it. They never desired it. There was one thing they wanted was God, God's people. Oh, these children walked with God with such zeal, such joy, no compromise, from childhood right through, all of the children. I was stunned, and one day I looked at her and I said, what did you do? Not every Christian home has children like yours. What did you do that you can tell me that I can do? She looked at me quite staggered, and she said, oh Keith, I've made mistakes. I have made so many mistakes, but I tried with all my heart to bring them up in the fear of God. But if I have to single out one thing that I believe I should tell you, Keith, the day they were born, each child, the day they were born, I put my hands on them. And I said, oh God, shelter this child under the blood of Jesus. Protect this child under the blood of Christ. Every day, as they grew to teenagers, there was never one day in the nights when they fell asleep, and I finished my times with God. I went to each child every day of their life, from birth right through. And I nursed beside each bed, and I put my hands on their head, and I prayed while they slept. Oh God, if there's anything the devil's sight is so in their minds, undo it now by the blood of Christ. If there's any failure in anything, oh, wash them in the blood of Christ. If there's any influence, if there's any seed the devil's somehow gotten there, wash it out, undo it by the blood of Christ. Protect this child under the blood of Christ. I prayed on my knees at their bed when they were grown men. And those that have left the home, I still pray every day on my knees, though I can't put my hands on them. And those that are still in the home, though they don't know it when they're asleep, I still go from the day they were born till this day. I can think of nothing else that I can tell you that I did different from any other parent who tries. But I look to Jesus' blood and faith for my children daily, daily. Oh, Moses, when the battle was raging between the enemy of the people of God and God's people, Moses was in prayer watching the battle, and he stood there lifting up his hands in earnestness as he was looking at the enemy advancing, making advance over the people of God. He's lifting his hands up, crying to God in his old age, calling out to heaven. And as he began to pray, everyone looking at him calling out to God saw something amazing. Suddenly the enemy retreated. The people of God began to conquer in advance, and then in his old age he began to grow weary. His hands came down, and the people watching Moses saw suddenly the enemy advancing over the people of God, overcoming the people of God. And they took hold of his hands and lifted them up. Oh, it wasn't the physical hands they were encouraging, pray on! Moses prayed on, and as they held up his hands and encouraged him, pray on! Suddenly the enemy was overcome and retreating. The people of God were victorious, conquering. Oh, in this war there's a battle for your son, for your daughter, don't doubt it. And God says to you and I, there's one way I will, therefore that men pray lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. Don't doubt God when you pray. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, through the pulling down of strongholds. I don't care what stronghold the devil has on your child, God will pull it down. But we have to get into warfare, there's a war. If you don't know that, your head's in the sand. You'll be confused about everything on this earth. There was never a war so just terrifying, so many casualties, so many destroyed souls. There's a war between God and the devil, and the war's on for your son. If you don't know it, you're in trouble. And there's one way, one way, oh holy hands, lifted up without wrath, whatever the world's becoming, whatever happening that we could fight and get angry about, without doubting. And God will give you victory. Oh, while you pray in faith, the devil will retreat. If you grow weary in prayer for your children, you slack off and you forget to pray, the devil will make advances. The moment you slack, don't doubt it, with evil influences on your son, with wrong friends, with decadent, evil, corrupt influences will suddenly influence your son, I guarantee you. How do you think he'll escape this world, it's so filthy? Oh pray, pray, and see the devil retreat, I guarantee you, I guarantee you. Just pray, I entered into warfare, I entered into warfare before my sons were born, I entered into warfare for them. I found myself praying a prayer that I tried to stop, I tried to stop myself. When I was married to my wife, before we had any children, I found myself one night as I looked at this world, saying to God as I wept, Oh God, don't let us have children. If thou doesn't know, they're going to follow the devil. Don't let us have children, I beg you. If they're not going to follow thee, and I wept. And what I prayed, what have I prayed? Oh, what have I prayed? But I opened my eyes, and the words I read were very precious to me. Listen to them. The page the Bible was open, Isaiah 54, verse 13, I read these words the moment I said amen to that prayer. My heart sank in what I prayed, all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. That was not coincidence. God doesn't mock us that on the page of that prayer, groaning before God, God knew my eyes would fall and see all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. Great shall be the peace of thy children. I remember my second boy, praying, calling on God, not expecting it to happen again, believe me. But do you know what God did? Isaiah 44, my eyes fell upon, verse 2, in the amplified version, I was opened at that particular time, fear not my servant, I will pour my spirit upon your offspring. I was praying, so when my wife fell pregnant with our second child, I got on my knees and began to groan again as I saw the world getting worse. People were standing and saying, is it right to bring a child in this world? And I prayed, oh God, oh God, concerning my second child, oh fear not my servant, I will pour my spirit on your offspring, my blessing upon your descendants. One shall say, I am the Lord, another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, another will write upon his hand, I am the Lord. You know what I do daily? I say to God, remember, remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou has caused me to hope. I have nothing else to hope in. Remember the promises God in this wicked world unto thy servant for my children that thou didst give me when I wept before their birth, upon which thou has caused me to hope. Oh, we live in a day and age, we live in a day and age when as never before, as never before, the father, the parents are controlled by the children. We live in a day and age when as never before, the fathers are concerned, are concerned about the children. We live in a day and age when as never before, as never before, the fathers are condemned by the children. Oh, oh, as never before, fathers were condemned by the children in our Christianity. When I was saved, one of the first people I wanted to find was my childhood friend who went into such sin. His life was virtually destroyed in his sin. When I found him, I wanted to tell him about Jesus. I did find him. There he was, married with his children. I sat looking at him and I wanted to weep as I looked at him. All that was left of him. Sin is a terrible thing. I told him what God had done for me. I told him of the salvation of Christ and all the eagerness and the longing and the yearning in my heart. Something I could give him now that I couldn't give him when I saw his life being destroyed. This young man looked at me and tears came down his face and he said, Oh, Keith, oh, Keith, I've heard everything you're saying, everything you're telling me. I've heard it all before from my father and mother who told me to come to Christ so when I could remember hearing it first. All I heard was give your life to God, come to Christ. They dragged me to church. There they were in the church praising the Lord. But oh, Keith, as the years went by, I looked at their lives, the hypocrisy, what they were in the church, they weren't in the home, they were not in the home, Keith. I looked at their lives and I made up my mind once for all, forever as a child, I don't want this religion. I don't want this lie. I don't want what you've come to give me, Keith. I had enough of it in my home. Oh, many people believe that David's son, Absalom, was the result of David's sin. I can't be sure of that, for God's forgiveness is so great. But while David professed to be a godly man, and the world believed him to be a godly man, his sins are sins that his children stumbled over to accept from him. Oh, oh, be careful, be careful not to judge now other Christians if their children go astray into sin. You must very, very, very carefully hear, listen to me. You be careful never to judge other Christians whose children go wide into sin, don't you dare judge them. Be careful, a woman walked up to me in Pietermaritzburg of South Africa, weeping, oh, Keith, whatever you do, boy, don't judge other Christians if their children go into sin. I did, I did, Keith. My husband was an elder, another elder, whose children were my children's age. These kids eventually went off into such wickedness, such sin, and I stood judging them that they were wrong in the way they brought up their children. I didn't agree on certain issues. And, Keith, two weeks after that, my children started going, but, oh, Keith, I looked at them, and I began to fear that I had ever judged someone else whose children went astray. I was so sorry as I watched my children fall into such sin that they were unfaithful. My daughter is somewhere in Europe, she's a prostitute. None of my children follow God anymore. And it happened right when I judged. Be careful, be careful, don't you judge anyone whose children go astray. You just pray for them, you weep for them, you encourage them, you help them, guide them with love if you dare. But don't you judge. A careful note must be taken now that the children also may be wrong in condemning their fathers through misunderstanding. Oh, this word, misunderstanding, is a terrible word, you know. And careful note must be taken by everyone sitting here. Careful note that the children may be wrong in condemning their fathers through this terrible thing called misunderstanding when you really didn't understand, and you condemn them for something they're not guilty of. You be careful. I was once preaching in Stutterheim, a German community back in South Africa, virtually the whole town and farming community is German. I was asked one night at the meeting to come for lunch at one of the farms just outside of the town of these Christian people. So I arrived there, and as I knocked on the door, the door opened, and I suddenly thought, oh, as I looked at this woman's face, her eyes were swollen, tears, she was smashed. I said, oh, it's wrong for me to be here, I can go, I don't have to be here for lunch, I've come at the wrong time. She said, no, no, God knew you must come now, today, come inside, please. I looked at her husband, broken, sobbing. I looked at the son, sobbing. I sat just looking at this broken family. See, when my boy was a young child, he's a man now, farming with his father here on the farm. When he was a boy, something happened, we could never work out. He turned against his father. He hates his father. We tried to speak, to talk to him, what is it, what's wrong? He just closed up. He never wanted to come near his father, to touch his father. He wouldn't show any affection or love to his father, right through to the man. He doesn't want anything to show love to his father, just keeps his distance. And today, we found out why. He looked at me and said, mommy, how could you ever have loved such a wicked man as my father? I said, how could you say such a thing? Your father's a good man. How could you ever say that of your father? Mommy, when I was a boy, I remember one day daddy whipping you, in the pantry, whipping you. You were screaming. I stood at the door. I was too small to help you. I never forgave him. She said, your father never did that to me, boy. What are you talking? She called her husband, told her husband what the boy said. He just sobbed. Then they sat there thinking, and she said, I remember. One day you came into the pantry, she says to her husband. He took the sandbox from behind the door. I was on my knees, clearing up below in the lower shelf. And you were joking, you pretended you were whipping me, and I just laughed, screaming. That child behind the other side must have thought you meant it. You were doing it. Misunderstood. Robbed of a son. Robbed of a father. Do you know how possible it is you made a mistake? Through misunderstanding. But if the fathers are condemned justly, now that's another thing. If the fathers are condemned justly, that's another thing. I remember standing as a boy with my father at the gate of our home in Durban, in South Africa. And there was this neighbor of ours who would walk down the street. He always loved to speak to my father. My father never asked him in. But there at the gate, he was speaking to daddy. And I was standing beside my father, and his son was standing beside him. And they were speaking about this thing of disciplining children when they needed it. And suddenly this man took my father, when he looked at my father with a smile on his face and said, Oh, this boy knows. When he does wrong, he never does it again. I beat him. I beat him, and I don't stop beating him until he's crawling up the wall, trying to crawl up the wall. Then I stop. He knows never to do it again. And I looked at this little boy as he looked up at me. And the man went, and my father stood there. And I looked at my daddy's tears, which was coming down my daddy's face. My mother said, Why are you crying? He said, Oh, that man is so wrong. Something terrible is about to happen. You know, a few days later, that boy committed suicide. He couldn't face the discipline of his father. When that father found what he had done, he drove himself into the grave. And he realized how wrong he had been. But it was too late. Oh, I have seen many Christian parents beat their children so that their children were not the only ones who condemned him. Everyone condemned him the way he beat their child. Listen. Listen to these words. I have so many scriptures. I'm only going to give you one here. Colossians 3, verse 21, in the Amplifiers. Fathers, do not provoke your children. Do not be hard on them or harass them, lest they become discouraged and sullen and morose and feel inferior and frustrated. Do not break their spirits. He's writing to Christians. It's possible. It's possible. Don't be hard on them or harass them, lest they become discouraged. Oh, I could give you other scriptures. I'd love to. But, oh, I have seen so many Christian parents being so hard on their discipline of their children that their children didn't only stand there condemning them. In everyone's heart, we knew this is wrong. Moody, your great D. R. Moody, who shook the whole world and still shakes the whole world. After all these years of his death, Moody, his children wrote a book about him, you know. Will your children ever write a book about you, sir? What will they say with all your Christianity? What will they tell the world? Isn't what these children told the world about Moody? When they needed to be disciplined, Moody disciplined them. Sometimes it had to be publicly. He disciplined them. But they knew something about Moody that he never failed to do. Whenever it happened that they had to be disciplined, they didn't go to sleep when they lay in their beds, you know. They knew something still had to happen. Moody was a very big man, and they waited, and there he came. They heard him coming up the steps every time anybody was disciplined. They waited. They didn't go to sleep. There he comes. Here comes Daddy. And Moody fell on his knees beside the children, and he wept. He wept, and he said, forgive me if I was too harsh. You may say that's wrong to compromise and ask forgiveness when they need it. Let me tell you something. If your children don't know that it hurts you more than it hurts them, then you're wrong. If your children doesn't know and don't know every time you have to discipline them, it hurts you more than it's hurting them, then you're wrong in how you're disciplining them. Moody's children knew one thing. It hurt him far more than it ever had hurt them. He wept when he had to hit them. He wept. That's what made Moody great. That's what made him great. We live in a day and age when, as never before, the fathers, the parents are controlled by the children. We live in a day and age when, as never before, the fathers are concerned about the children. We live in a day and age when, as never before, the fathers are condemned by the children. We live in a day and age when, as never before, the fathers are commissioned for the children. Where do I see that? Oh, yeah, in the very book we started with, Malachi. Listen to how God commissions us as parents to reach the children. And listen what he tells us the commission is. This is going to shock you all. You think reaching the children is preaching to them, reading the Bible to them. Listen to what God says is the only reason you ever will reach your child in truth. Malachi chapter 2, where God cries out against divorce, separation, because it breaks his heart to know who's going to suffer the most, of course, the children. And then after God's rebuke, he cries in verse 14, and I'm reading from the amplified version. I wish I had time to read first from the King James, the authority to me. But here to bring it in its expounded way, in clarity, right to the point, verse 14, the Lord was a witness. The Lord was a witness to the covenant you made at your marriage, between you and the wife of your youth, against you have dealt faithlessly. Faithlessly, faithlessly. Verse 15, did not God make you and your wife one? Why? Why did God make you two one? Because he sought a godly offspring from your union. Why did God make you two one? Because he sought godly children, godly offspring from your union. Therefore, keep a watch upon your spirit, that it may be controlled by my spirit, that you deal not faithlessly or treacherously with your married mate. Keep a watch upon your spirit, that it may be controlled by my spirit. We live in a day and age when as never before, the fathers, the parents are commissioned for the children. How does God commission us to reach our children? Let me tell you, by being faithful in your marriage, by being Christ-like in your marriage, by being spirit-controlled in your marriage toward your partner, your life partner, to bring up these children to fear God, godly offspring is one way. Let them see you spirit-filled, spirit-controlled in your love, in your Christ-likeness, in your reactions to each other. They'll listen to you then, but otherwise I think they'll hate the God of their fathers and mother. Do you want to win them to Christ? Are you the reason they'll go to hell? The only reason they're going to hell is that their mother and father will tell them to come to Christ. We have to be spirit-filled. We're commissioned to be sure we're filled with God's holy spirit. Do you know what that means? You're not filled with the spirit if this isn't written across your life. In every circumstance, no matter how trying, the fruit of the spirit will spontaneously react in your life. Not the gift. The gifts are counterfeit if the fruit isn't there. The evidence that we're filled with God's holy spirit is not gifts. Don't seek them. Seek desperately for God to fill you with the holy spirit that in every circumstance you will spontaneously react, no matter how trying, with the fruit of the spirit. Love suffereth long and is kind, especially to your marriage mates, not only to your enemy. Oh, spirit-filled lives in the home is what this age needs to bring the children back to the God of their fathers. Don't blame the devil. Don't blame the world. Blame yourself, because if you're not spirit-filled, you're the one to blame on almost every account. And I don't say that with any judgment, to bring judgment on myself. I say it because God's word cries out, that's the way you will bring godly offspring from your union. By being controlled by my spirit in front of those children, so they will want the God who made this mother and father what they are and gave them the home they have. We live in a day and age when, as never before, as never before, the fathers are controlled by the children. We live in a day and age when, as never before, the fathers are concerned about the children. We live in a day and age when, as never before, the fathers are condemned by the children. We live in a day and age when, as never before, the fathers are commissioned for the children, are commissioned by God for the children. We live in a day and age when, as never before, the fathers are compared with the children. What do I mean by that? I don't know if you see through the scriptures how God compares the fathers. He is to us, with me, as fathers. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask Him? There's this amazing comparison. If you are a father toward your children, God says, I'm a father toward you. And how much more in every aspect, if you do any good, anything right, how much more shall I be to you? In every aspect, God continually flowing out, look at your children, look at the love you have, look at the care, the discipline, the chastening. Oh, God compares us as His children, as we as fathers look to our children. We live in a day and age when, as never before, the fathers are compared to the children. It's a terrible thing, you know, when suddenly you see your child disobeying you, beginning to rebel against you, not under your authority anymore, wanting to break loose, will not obey your will or your commandments to him. Oh, how your heart breaks when suddenly you see this happening in your own child. But then how staggered we are, how bewildered and staggered we are when suddenly God whispers in our hearts, as our hearts are bleeding over our children's defiance, and God whispers to us, now you know something, what have I, of the grief I know through you, through your disobedience, through your defiance, through your rebellion against my authority and will. Now you taste something of the grief and the sorrow I have daily over you, as you grieve now for your son. How bewildered we become when God says that to us, as we begin to grieve over our children. I want to ask everyone here tonight, I want to ask every father and mother who needs to ask God from their souls in this day and age, desperately, God, fill me with the Holy Spirit, that I may bring my children up, fearing God through my life in the home. Those of you that know you desperately need for God to control you by His Spirit toward your married mates, to keep a watch on your spirit, that it may be controlled by my Spirit toward your life partner, for your children to be able to fear God and want the God you tell them of. I want all of you who know you need desperately to cry out to God, it's me, fill me tonight, God, with a little bit of time left. I want you to stand right now as you're the one that God's speaking to. God, fill me for my home's sake. I need to be Spirit-filled and controlled by the Spirit for my children's sake, and I'm not, though I'm saved. Will you stand, those parents who need to, please, before God. Thank you for all these that are standing, courageous of you. I want to ask all of you to come, come stand in the front here, make your way, let's make this a consecration to God here, it's a holy thing in this day and age to seek God like this. I want to ask all the young people, all the children, all you children who are not Spirit-controlled in the home, who are not obeying your parents, but you're grieving them, who are not honoring your mother and father. I want those of you that need to ask God for mercy for that tonight, to stand right now, be courageous, yes, and ask God tonight to make you Spirit-controlled so that you in your home, you in your home cannot be a grief to your parents, but a joy. Come, you make your way to the front, young people. I want to ask one last thing. This is going to cost you sitting here tonight, you parents that aren't saved. In this day and age, imagine being unsaved and bringing up children without God. Don't do it. There's virtually no hope without God. You parents that know you don't know Christ, and you need Him to come now for your home's sake, for your life. I want you parents, you young people who are not saved, you are looking at the world and all its lust and all its evil and all that cries out to you to rebel against your parents, with your parents tonight, with all the unsaved here tonight in the home. Give God a chance in this day and age to prove to you and to promise you, oh, even as He promised me, great shall be the peace of my children. Their righteousness shall be of me. They shall follow me. Let God begin to give you promises in this wicked age that will fill your heart with hope, but you have to be God's child for that. I want all of you who are unsaved, please, take courage. All of us have to do is, will you stand right now where you sit in and say, God, I'm coming. I'm coming. Will you stand? We're waiting. Come to Christ. You're not saved. I look around. Yes. Now all of us bow our heads in prayer. I want the father, the parent to pray this with me. Father God, forgive me for failing thee toward my children, toward my wife, my husband. Forgive me for professing Christ, but not living Him in front of my children as I ought to. Wash me in the blood. Make me clean. Let the blood go deeper, God. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Oh God, fill me with the Holy Spirit. Take complete control of my life. I yield it to thee. Let the fruit of the Spirit spontaneously be seen in my life, in every reaction, no matter how hard or trying the circumstance. That my children may believe in God through what they see in my life. And they may want the God of their father and mother. In Christ's name. Now you young people, will you pray aloud? All you children, no matter how old you are, who need to pray this, but you young people who should pray aloud. Father, forgive me for causing any grief to my father and mother. I love them. Reveal thy love to them through me as I obey them, as I honor them. Wash me in the blood now from every failure. Let the blood cleanse me through and through and fill thou me now with thy Holy Spirit. That I may be Christlike and godly and a blessing to my father and mother. In Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Can we all stand in the congregation please? If there were any who are unsaved here tonight who are seeking God, will you please do me the honor of walking up immediately to someone you know is godly. Even if it's a young person whose parents are godly. Don't let daddy lead you to Christ tonight. But come to Christ tonight. Please. Give yourself to God as family and serve him. And in this world, I guarantee you, I don't care how wicked this world becomes, God is obliged to answer the prayers of those holy hands. Lifted up without wrath or doubting in the God who's greater than the devil right to the end. You pray, you live the life and your children will be godly. And if they aren't, they're bred and will pray with you, not condemn you. They dare not. It's a terrible age we're living in. But with God, it's God. There's never going to come a moment that we can't walk holy in our homes and in this world in white. I guarantee you that if you have God first. Now tomorrow night, I want to go even deeper with this thing called the home. And I want every one of you to come back here with others who need to hear whose homes are hurt. Our brother here will commit us to God. Please.