This sermon emphasizes the importance of not letting past failures cripple the future, especially in the context of family relationships. It highlights the need to seek God's grace to love like Christ, to be gentle, kind, and forgiving towards family members, and to yield to God's control through the Holy Spirit. The message encourages living in Christ-likeness, showing love that suffers long and is kind, even in the face of misunderstandings, hurts, and wounds that may arise in every home.

Can we bow for a moment of prayer, please? Can we always just bow our hearts before God now? Father, have mercy on all of us. Wash me in the blood of Jesus Christ. Should there have been the smallest reaction that was not utterly holy in Christ's life, the smallest thought, the smallest word that somehow in my baseness I overlooked to confess to Thee that needs cleansing, I come to Thee with the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, that cleanses us, Christians, from all sin. Come, therefore, in mercy on this base and weak and despisive man, and rightfully so. And wash me in the blood and show mercy and grace that I might be washed and cleansed and filled with the Holy Spirit and made meat for the Master's feast. Come, therefore, Lord, and speak to the depth of every heart here tonight. Make this a sacred ground, a sacred moment where God visits every heart. Come, for all of us long for our God to visit us. Humble us by Thy presence. In Thy presence no flesh shall be lowered. So we come and we humble ourselves in the sight of God that Thou in Thy mercy might lift us up. Visit our hearts in Jesus the Christ's name for His glory, amen. Thank you. In Matthew 12, 25, we read these words. Every kingdom, every kingdom divided against itself, divided against itself, is brought to desolation. It destroys itself. But God doesn't stop there. He goes on. Christ says, and every city or house that is home, family, divided against itself, shall not stand, won't survive being destroyed as a home, as a family. Now, of course, the context of this passage, beginning in Matthew 12, 22, concerns the Pharisees who were accusing Christ of being sent by Satan and used by Satan, which was the sin against the Holy Ghost. That's the context of these words. But the graphic illustration that Christ inserts here carries a terrible warning to all of us. The graphic illustration that Christ inserts in this passage carries a terrible warning to all of us. Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. And every city or house that is home or family, divided against itself, shall not stand. It won't survive. It will be destroyed. It will come to a tragic end and see much sorrow and grief and tragedy. Proverbs 15, verse 17, better is a dinner of herbs, that's vegetables, where love is, than a stalled ox. Oh, that's when you really have been treated, the tattered calf. But hatred, hatred therewith. Better to have dinner that isn't so wonderful and glorious, limited, meanly, but where love is, God says, here in Proverbs 15, 17, than it is to have wonderful meal, the best, the stalled ox, the tattered calf. But there's hatred at that table, in that home. That is staggering. Galatians 5, 15, if you bite and devour one another, that's possible. Take heed, be careful. God says, let ye be not consumed one of another. Galatians 5, 15, this verse is tragic. But if one considers applying this verse to a home, then that home is truly tragic. If you bite and devour one another, take heed, be careful that ye be not consumed, that you don't destroy each other. How can a home be destroyed? Well, it can be through the wife, where great division, hatred, hurt can be. I read this article in a newspaper recently. Would you listen to it carefully, please? Wife's arguing makes a Chinese man jump off the ship. A Chinese lorry driver jumped into the great Yangtze River because he couldn't take his wife's fighting anymore. Zhou and his wife were on a ferry. The ship's crew saw the man suddenly run out of his cabin with his hands covering his ears and shouting. But his wife ran up and just continued screaming at him and fighting. The crew members said the husband covered his ears, screaming, and eventually just jumped off the ship into the river, into this great, treacherous river. When the police finally found him, which they didn't think they would, he said these words, dying would be better than living any longer with my wife. That's terrible. John Wesley wrote this article in his journals on June the 9th, 1742. I rode into a town to witness the justice of peace being confronted by angry mobs who had carried a whole wagon load of converts, newly converted, referred to as new heretics, across England. When the justice of peace asked the crowd what these heretics had done, there was a deep silence over the accusers. Eventually, one said, they pretend to be better than others. They pray from morning till night. The justice says, but have they done nothing else? There was quietness. Yes, sir, replied an old man. They've converted my wife. Up till now, she has had a terrible tongue. Now, she's as quiet as a lamb. Oh, then carry them back. Carry them back to the town. Let them convert all the skulls of the town. That's wonderful. They were brought to be judged because they had become religious. All the judge could say, get them back. If it stops your wives from becoming skulls, well, that is, according to a dictionary, a person who's always angry, screaming, nagging, unsubmissive, and uses foul language. Terrible. It could be that a house is divided and brought into a state of sorrow and tragedy and suffering and grief through the daughter-in-law. Not just the wife. Jerusalem is here, sitting with Roy. Now, Jerusalem is our daughter-in-law. We visited her grandfather, Mr. Willard, when they were courting. And we had a lovely meal. Her grandfather said these words to me, I trust you will find in Jerusalem someone who does not complain or argue. We brought her mother up, her grandfather said. We brought her up without showing her any example of complaining, arguing, fighting. And she brought up her daughter, that is Jerusalem, in the same way. We didn't teach her mother to be a moaner or a complainer or an arguer. Then he said these words, Brother Keith, we trust that she will make some young missionary called Roy Daniel in Africa a good wife. Because on the mission field, the last thing a preacher needs is a wife who will fight and argue and complain and murmur. She'll destroy him. Because so much on the mission field is a life of trials. We trust that she will be what we raised our daughter to be and our daughter has raised Jerusalem to be. It could be a daughter-in-law that comes into your son's life. It could be a mother-in-law that destroys the home, destroys the happiness. Could be. I want to read to you another article that I read in a recent newspaper. A weird sensation. A British woman emailed to her daughter-in-law, her future daughter-in-law, has become an international sensation on the internet. She attacked her daughter-in-law on the email of being guilty of lacking manners. And she said that this daughter-in-law of hers should stop staying in bed late as she did when they visited the home she visited. She said you should also stop wanting an extravagant wedding ceremony. People who want a wedding in a castle obviously should own one. You are staggering in your uncouthness and lack of grace in my home. And I suggest that you go to experts immediately for finishing school in the utmost of haste. There are many finishing schools around but this lying in bed until late in the morning taking extra food at your meals without being invited to. She goes on and on. Must stop for you to be embraced by this family. Well, this went into newspapers across Britain and became a hit, whatever that means, on the internet. I'm still trying to learn all these things. What a wonderful start that daughter-in-law had with her mother-in-law by visiting her future husband's family. It could be a mother-in-law yourself. Not every mother-in-law is like Naomi and Ruth. So godly that her daughter-in-law cried out from her soul you go, I go. My people shall be my people. It is precious that there can be such mother-in-laws. I was in a home right now wherever I've just come from. Houston, Texas. And the preacher there, his mother is holding on to life. But he came to the meeting and he said, you know brother, what really is touching is my wife is the one who sits through the whole night if someone's there. Night after night. With her own daughter but my wife's there. Not that the daughters are neglecting the mother but the daughter-in-law so loves her mother. He said, oh what a lovely testimony my wife has. Just the way she loved her mother-in-law. Even now, sitting through the night beside her. Well, David lived in fear of his life you know, through Saul who wanted him dead. And trust me, this might come to you as a shock. I have been in so many homes where parents-in-law literally would long to see their son-in-law dead. They so hate them. They think it was only Saul full of carnality and everything a father-in-law shouldn't be to break down the happiness of a home that destroys. No wonder Micah, his daughter hated, despised David when he danced in victory over the Philistines. It wasn't the dancing. It was the poison of her father that she hated her husband. Destroying. Destroying. Divided against herself. A terrible thing. It can be your children who destroy your home and your home's happiness. In 1 Samuel 2.12 we read that the sons of Eli were sons of Belial. They knew not the Lord. Verse 22. Now Eli heard of all the wickedness that his sons did. Verse 23. And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? I want to shock you. Eli's not the only father that wept in front of his children. He was a man of God. He made mistakes. And God doesn't hide. David, the man after his own heart, he doesn't hide the mistakes even in the Holy Writ that men make. And Eli was not the only God-fearing father to look in shock and shame and fear and to fall backward dead not because of the wrath but because of his children's wickedness. That killed their father. Proverbs 30 verse 11. There's a generation that curses their father. The Bible says, I think that's this generation. When I look at 44 years of going into homes and what the children have done to those parents, destroyed them. There's a generation that curses their father. It does not bless their mother. But God says in Proverbs 20 verse 20, Whoso curses his father or mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. Have you seen that? I quoted that. And later those children went dead. And such a job went away no more in the darkness of God. The eye that mocketh his father despises to obey his mother. The ravens of the valley shall pick it out. The eagle shall eat it. Proverbs 30 verse 17. Judgment. God says. Romans 1 verse 30 condemns children who are disobedient to parents along with Satanists and murderers. It is equal evil in God's eyes and no less disobedient to parents. Cursed be he that set his light by his father and mother. Cursed, God says. Deuteronomy 27 verse 16. The set of light by his father or mother. Proverbs 19 verse 26. He that wastes his father. Oh, there's a message in there. Chases away his mother. The son that causes great shame and bringeth reproach. Proverbs 19 verse 13. A foolish son is the calamity of his father. Do you know what the Hebrew means? The destruction. The destruction. Literally. They destroyed their daddy by their wickedness. A foolish son is the calamity, the destruction, the ruin. The margin says in the Hebrew of his father. Proverbs 10 verse 1. A wise son maketh a glad father but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. Even if that mother is godless or that father is godless. A son robs them of happiness. That godliness won't make them happy. That mother will have a heavy heart. That father will die in shame and sorrow. A son can destroy a home. A wicked child can destroy the home and destroy his parents' happiness that they deserve in their fear of God because the son is wicked. When someone truly comes to Christ from a godless home, when someone truly is converted from a godless home, God warns them of the tragic possibility the son will dishonor the father. God says in Micah 7, 6. The daughter rises up against her mother. The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own house. You see, not everyone in your home, God says, with sorrow, I believe, will be delighted at your turning from sin and evil when they still want that and their hearts condemn them because of your confrontation. Their hearts condemn them and they will rise up, the father against the son, the son against the father. The daughter rises against her mother. Everywhere I find it. You don't know how much an enemy can hurt you, sir, lady, until someone in your own home hates you because you love God. You've never known the pangs and hurts of what an enemy can be. You don't know what an enemy is until you find one in your own home. And that, God warns, will happen in home upon home. And I've seen it. I've come to set a man at variance against his father, Matthew 10, 35, Christ said. The daughter against her mother. The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's foes, enemies, shall be the day of his own household. Of course, God is repeating what Micah prophesied would be in the gospel dispensation. Persecution within the home. It starts in the home. You don't have to go out there to the wicked. You're truly saved, Pilgrim. And watch how your wife curses you. Your daughters curse you. They hate everything you are. They spy on you and undermine you. But now I want us all to be very careful here. And this is the total turning point of the sermon. We must be very careful, Christian, if the reason that the children resort to curse their father and mother in their hearts is because their father and mother are truly a curse to them and would destroy them through their own failure. That is terrible. I'm going to ask all of us this question. Every one of you sitting here. Are you tragically offensive as a Christian? I say tragically. I'm not talking about godliness, but total form. Be careful of offensing. Proverbs 18 verse 19, of course, speaking in the broader sense, but I bring it right to the heart as God allows us to because that's where it starts when you get saved. The brother offended, God says, is harder to be one than a strong city. Be careful, sir. You might never ever get respected to the day you die if you offend the members of your household by being offensive. The great godly man in Africa said when he walked into any church that I was in, the entire church stood in respect. He said, Jesus, a Christian is a gentleman for he ceases to have the right to be called a Christian. You don't go out to offend Jesus. It's impossible, but the offense will come. You will offend. And if you believe offending is the goal to be like him, you must be like him. You must win men, beloved, without compromise, unagreeably. Without compromising your own life before God, but always remember this, it is through respect and compassion and love and longsuffering that you win, not through foolish, foolish, foolish actions and words that will lose them forever. I want every one of us to think of this very carefully here tonight. You say that you have prayed so long for your loved ones, but I want to ask every one of you to answer this before God. Are you the reason your loved one doesn't want Christianity? Will you please think of that? Are you the reason I want you to answer God? For God's sake, what are you doing here for God? If your family look upon you as an enemy because they reject Christ and refuse to repent, that is one thing, but if it is because of your folly and your wrong approach and your offensiveness, then you have totally missed the mark of God. Totally. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. But you're not blessed and no one near you is blessed if you are persecuted for stupidity, for foolishness, for total folly and arrogance and stepping over the ethical mark of conduct within your own home. That common sense will tell anyone, even unsaved people, they've gone too far. They have no right to. If your family look upon you as an enemy because they want to reject Christ and will, that is one thing and that happens everywhere. But if they treat you as an enemy and look upon you as an enemy, because quite frankly, no one in their right mind would want what you had. The way you put it all. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely. But if what they say is true, if they're justified in their accusations, God have mercy on your family. When we are the reason our children, our loved ones reject Christ, then we are truly the greatest living tragedy our home will ever know if we profess to know Christ. A preacher once said something very tragic with me. He was to be the main speaker of this great convention here in America. And he was accommodated on the upstairs of some cabin or other or some apartment on the whole conference center. Now tragically, the rooms beneath him was another preacher, a very well-known preacher and his wife. And this preacher said that as he was trying to sleep, these two began to argue and fight. And eventually he was in prayer because he had to prepare, he had to get sleep. And this was wearing him out as it went on into the early hours of the morning, nonstop just nagging and fighting going on. Oh, no way of cutting out their voices. And then he even heard foul language. I mean, from a preacher and his wife. The worst guttural languages were flinging out and he couldn't believe in the despair in his heart as he listened. In his weariness, he said he was praying earnestly for God to stop. He didn't want to witness this. He wasn't trying to ease Job. He was abhorring it and it was wiping him away emotionally and wearing him out. And so he prayed. But he said as he prayed, the strangest thing happened. Suddenly, it seemed the Lord just brought to memory how he had fought with his wife in the room above where their children could hear. And he didn't know, like these people didn't know that children were listening. And it came out one day that those children had reheard everything over the years. Now this preacher said as God began to impress this on his heart, it shook him as never before. There he was judging this other preacher and his wife that he had done the same. But to his children who had to witness it, they must have been worn out and grieved and emotionally distressed as he was with this lot. But he was their father. It was like Nathan coming to David and David judges. And then he says, Thou art the man! Thou art the one! Thou art the one! You're judging yourself! He found himself groaning before God for forgiveness and forgot about the people downstairs. The damage he did and what he put his family through and his families. There is great tragedy attached to when people are broken and destroyed by others in the home. One of the great preachers in southern Africa. I don't want to use his name and God forgive me if anybody recognizes him that he has a message. But he was esteemed above most preachers in our land when I was a young preacher. But his son turned to wickedness, landed up in prison and great evils in that boy's life. Now this man's preaching was great. It wasn't just the norm. He was esteemed, he was revered. But suddenly there was a brokenness in this man's life. And he lost all liberty to preach. And he became shelved it seems by the church throughout our land. Virtually never heard again of him being used mightily. It seemed he himself was so broken that his son that he judged himself and couldn't preach anymore. That's tragic. To me it's tragic. It is tragic when we see ourselves as failures when our children become failures. Because of our children's sin and pursuit of sin we see ourselves as failures. Many Christians would never consider attending a half night of prayer in their entire life until their children, even if just one, choose to serve the devil. And believe me, many nights of prayer, not half nights. I want to address the children at this point from Christian homes where you're where you have tragically witnessed your parents' failures while they profess to know God and serve God, whether they're a preacher, an elder. I want to address every child here tonight who comes from Christian homes where your parents would tragically witness their failures. You may tragically hide behind your parents' failures for the rest of your life, blaming them as to why you will never pursue God. You may tragically hide behind your parents' failures, defend your failures as a person forever, hiding behind them, blaming them. But there must come a time when you need to stop and let God heal you. God is more than great enough to undo all the damage. God is more than great enough to undo all the damage and to heal every wound caused by their failures if you let Him and the moment you let Him. Can you stand before God, young man, young lady? God isn't going to pull your parents next to Him. Forgiveness comes. Enormous grace is shown. You will stand alone and nothing you say about your parents will influence God's judgment on you, because there must come a time when you need to stop and let God heal you, and that you can do, no matter what your parents did. God is more than great enough to undo all the damage, to heal every wound caused by their failures, and to deliver you completely from the wounds and the scars inherited from generational sin. John Emerson, Kalisper, Montana, his daughter, Brittany, is sitting here tonight. Oh, by the way, just about every statement I'm making, in case you think I've prepared for anybody, is word perfect what people said to me. 1 Peter 2, 19 says, You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers by the precious blood of Christ. This, of course, is paraphrased by me, but God's blood can undo every single thing that you will blame them forever, and it's up to you to do that, and stop hiding behind them as to why you will not pursue God. You need to listen to me, young person, because I've got bad news for you. Wait till you've got children, and you fail. You will have incredible mercy in your heart toward the memory of your father and mother when you realize we all need grace and forgiveness from each other, but not to blame and become angry and hate them. I would ask every child who is embittered at their parents' failures in the home, what if you had not had your parents, but were raised in another home? I want to repeat that. I want to ask every child who is embittered at their parents' failures in the home, what if you had not had your parents, but were raised in another home? Last year in New York, a diamond point where I was this year again, there was a family. I got the names, won't give it, and I went for tea in their little RV that they brought to this convention that I've just come from now, and I was stunned at the godliness of this woman and man, the father of these children, who invited me to come and have tea with them as a family, and I asked their testimonies, but I didn't know what I was in for. The lady was very quiet for a while, and so was that entire RV, and she said, all right, and in great humility, she shared of how the father had sold the children into some form of abuse and made a living from it. Of course, it was jailed for life. This terrible, wicked, evil man, yes. But, what to me is so wonderful is that that woman sought Christ, and to me, is one of the godliest people I've ever sat with in my life. The scars are gone, the wounds are gone. I want to ask you again, what if you were raised in another home with all the folks you find? What if you were raised in that home? What if? Is there one of your parents? Are you able to, when you know other homes? But look, that woman got up. Why can't you? No matter what the parent did, I wish that lady could be here tonight. I would ask her to come forward and share her testimony the way she did in that caravan. It was astonishing that there's no scar left, though she endured that evil as a child. What if? I could just go on, this year alone, sitting at a table. It's my custom to ask everyone in conferences, when they make me sit at a table, tell me quickly, where were you saved? Oh, lovely testimonies. One young lady sitting there, I wasn't saved in such a home as these people. I was saved, but I come from a very abusive home, with drugs, drink, abuse, and she said things. But somehow, through it all, I just kept saying, God, protect my mind from insanity with all I have to endure. And eventually, how this godly young man sitting next to her walked across the street to introduce herself. He had come to the Lord through some sermon I preached years ago, and he now brought her to this convention where I was preaching. She said, he walked across the road and said, I want to introduce myself. I stay across the road to you. I want your name first, but then I want something else before I say anything else. Are you saved? I need to know that. I think his heart went a bit of fluster when he saw how beautiful she was. So he crossed the road. But the first thing he asked her, are you saved by Jesus Christ's blood? She was so staggered, she says, you know, I've prayed every day for God to protect me, for God to keep me safe. And she said, and he led her to Jesus. He brought her to Christ, and she found peace. But God kept her. Now, she is busy winning that whole home to God, including all the abusive ones in that home. I think that's wonderful. But now I ask you a question again. What if? What if you were in that home, young person? What if you didn't have your daddy and mommy, and you hide behind their failures? You won't forgive them. You're bitter against them. Look at that girl. Look at that woman. For God's sake, grow up toward yourself. I want to ask every one of you sitting here today, don't let the past cripple the future. I love that. I love that statement. When the devil accuses us that all our past failures have caused our children to be destroyed, we must find forgiveness. But we must find also forgiveness toward ourselves. I was with a man, woman in their home. A number of times I realized they were troubled, but they were pursuing God. And then one day the children did confront them. One child especially, blaming his father, especially because of the failures in his father's life while he professed to know Christ as being the reason why he was such a wayward boy and rejected Christ and Christianity so totally. He said to his wife as he went to the bedroom and sat weeping on the bed, I am of poor men, most miserable. I am most certainly the worst father that ever lived. His wife said these staggering words to him. You weren't. We failed. You failed. Under stress your children didn't know just what stress you were going through to keep them alive and to keep this house so they had a home. We didn't share everything with them to just keep them. But in that you did fail under the stress of life, the pressures, the things that came on you. I knew when you raised your voice it was so tempered at times and impatient. I forgave you because I knew what the children didn't know. We did our best. They might never accept that, but to God God knew it was our best. We confessed and we found forgiveness from God. You and I on our knees for where there was failures under the weariness of life to both of us. But I believe our children have the capacity to rise up above the failures they saw in our lives. By the grace of God, the moment they want God to save them in truth. But you and I we dare not allow ourselves to live in morbid sorrow because of our past failures when we tried so hard, though the children are just like us now. There have been tragic moments of failure in this house. Brother, you have to come to a place that you can commit the past to God. Be cleansed by the blood. You will never undo the past but not only the past you have to commit the future to God. If you don't the past will cripple the future. Now that is tragically written across many homes, many fathers, many preachers and many children. Don't let the past cripple the future, child of God. Only Satan would encourage you to do that, not God. Don't obey Satan. Don't submit to him and what he suggests. I was in a vehicle this year and the gentleman who was taking me around the Eastern Cape touring where he spoke to 17,000 people in that tour and just on a thousand came to Christ. All the gatherings, town after town. All these rural towns. We came up to the lights. It turned red and I just look at these big billboards all over the place. Sometimes I glance at them all advertising but there was quite a significant remark on one of the billboards. It said, this spot marks the beginning of your future. That's quite something. This spot marks the beginning of what's left of your life. Don't let the past cripple the future. God doesn't want you to and you have no right to. Take what's left of life, young person. Take what's left of life, father. With both hands, without letting the past failures cripple any hope for the future, that would be sin. Don't let the past cripple the future toward your wife, brother. No matter what happened toward your husband, lady, toward your children, no matter what they've done to destroy your life, toward your parents, no matter what failure was in their lives, no matter what the devil reminds you of, of the failures of your mother and father's life, no matter what the devil reminds you of, of your failures of your father and mother's lives, God still says to you, if you profess to know Christ, in 1 Corinthians 13, love, suffereth long in his kind. You can show that to them, for what's left of life. Don't let the past cripple the future of you fulfilling what God says. And let me shock you, it begins in the home, or everywhere else, is a lie, and total hypocrisy. Love, suffereth long, not just a day, but is kind by the grace of God. I want to ask you, did you suffer long from your mother and father's failings? But are you showing them kindness now, or doing what the devil wants you to, still bitter against them? Maybe you didn't know that there's change of life after 40. In most people, especially those who've burned out to keep you alive, young person, and in their weariness it comes fast. Through financial strain and many other stresses that life comes at, you have no idea your father or mother endured, but they did their best for you. Maybe you should just give them the credit due to them, that you didn't see everything that God saw, as he weighed them in the balances of what was going on in their lives, that you won't forgive. Love, suffereth long, but is kind. What does love mean? Husbands, love your wives, be not bitter against them. Now God says there that it's possible that you as a Christian will be bitter against them, can be, because they're the weak of essence, of course they fail, but husbands, love your wives. Love is not rash, love is not easily provoked, love endureth all things, believe it all things, hope it, love never fails. This love is agape love, that God commands from children to love their parents, to honor their father and mother. It asks the fathers to love their children, and don't break their spirit, the literal Greek. To show love, that suffereth long, no matter what you've endured, and to be kind, to not be rash, not easily provoked. This love is not a human love, it's not possible. The actual word is agape. Now how does God put a different word there? Because he knows you will never be anything but a failure until you let his love, love through you. This is God's love. Christianity is not you setting a whole lot of rules and thou shalt not trying to attain it by your own strength. Christianity, full stop, is to the degree you yield to God, and God through you, lives. You see the fruit of the spirit literally means the evidence that the Holy Spirit is controlling you. The evidence is love, it always starts with love. God's love is revealed through you, and God's love is this, not some definition you say of some sentimental little word. It suffers long, and is kind. God can do that through you, to the degree you yield your life to him, totally, and ask him for grace you don't have in a human capacity. Your love's not good enough for this, but God will do it through you. The fruit of the spirit is Christ. Holiness is Christ. Any other standard is total heresy if it replaces Christ. You can only be like Christ, not by your attempts, but by your attempting to so yield your lives to God. You haven't been able to reveal this love before, and to let him control your life. Being filled with the spirit is to be controlled by the spirit, totally. There's nothing else. He's in you, brother, otherwise you're not saved. But is he in control? Have you yielded, because to the degree you yielded to God, totally, the evidence of a total yielding of God controlling your life by his Holy Spirit is spontaneously reacting with Christ-likeness. And that is 1 Corinthians 13. Great preachers have seen this, where they say, put in the place of love, charity, the word Christ. And that's the closest you come to what God is asking of you, not for you to attain this in your own strength. What's left of life you can do that. Don't let the past cripple the future. Live Christ before your family with what you have left in your life. And he can, if you would just yield everything to him, and not hide behind everybody's failures as to why you can't be holy or like Jesus. It's up to you. For God's sake, don't fail them. Don't fail yourself. Don't fail the moments left of life. And don't fail God for proving to everybody in this world, beginning in your home, that you can be like Jesus. But you have to do one great sacrifice. And that is totally yielded to him by faith. In a town called Rhinelander, there's a boy, a brainard boy, who's close friends to Roy. He's come to Africa to see Roy. Like quite a number of these young fellows across America, Aaron, and all, coming to Africa. His sister be with Roy, go around preaching. Well, this family has a daughter that has married a young boy. I don't even know his name. But what incredible graciousness. I mean, he is so gracious that it's disarming. Have you ever seen that gentleman there? Utterly with such tenderness. Now, they were saying of how he is so tender to his wife. He is tender and gentle and loving to the degree that everyone is unnerved. That's tender. That's love. But then the staggering statement is that there are a number of sons in that family. I don't know whether it's five or six of this boy who's so gentle to this brainard girl in their marriage that it's staggering everybody in the community that comes near them. It is said, and was said to us, every single one of the boys is like that to their wives. Not just this one. And why? Because their father was like that to his wife. Their daddy was exactly the same. Every single son treats their wife in a way that I've only witnessed one and it's literally unnerved me that this boy is so gentle and tender in every word and every reaction. And the girl said in the home he's the same every single moment. Because his daddy, all those boys, brother you can still do that. It's not too late. Don't say it's too late. There's no such a thing. If you've got a day left, show your family you've got a day you can live like Christ. For God's sake, don't waste that day. I've just come from Palestine in Texas where I was speaking and I stayed in Mike Klein's home. Mike Klein is a good man. Very gracious and gentle man with an accent that you want to well they call it the Texas drawl. We don't want to go into that. It's very very well there you are. I had to endure it. And every time he speaks I just wish he cut all the long drawls out and get to the point. But he's a wonderful man. Oh I'm sorry brother if you hear this. But it's true. All of you Texans are the same. That's something. Mike Klein's son was home. I saw pictures of him and his brother and sister in the war. Well he came home this time. Said he heard me preach when he was a boy but little boy was alone in the house with me on one day while I was there and I just walked out and sat with him and had something to drink. Well he began to share about his daddy. He said my father has lived a life in front of us toward my mother and I don't know if any other Christian has ever witnessed any other Christian hope. My father's gentleness and love and tenderness to my mother from when I was a little boy right through and when I went into other boys' homes, even preacher's children's homes I witnessed my daddy's got something more than the preacher because that man doesn't do what my daddy does. The tenderness the gentleness the respect the love. They never raised their voice. He never ever spoke harshly to my mother. That's possible brother if you start like that man obviously started years ago totally yielding to God for God to control by the Holy Spirit and the spontaneous reaction no matter how trying the circumstances by God's grace can be what these boys witnesses that every son emulates the father. This child said he asked his father because he longed as he approached his marriage to emulate his daddy about this amazing love. He said daddy it seems your love for mummy grows I don't know how that's possible because I don't know if a man ever loved a wife as much as you did right from the beginning but daddy it's like your love just grows for mummy. I'm looking at you now it's growing more and more that's how a Christian home should be but daddy tell me the secret because it's not in every Christian home. The father looked for a while quite stunned I suppose he'd be stunned when he hears this. This is what your son said didn't he shock you? The son is truly honest that's your testimony. What did he give you? He said my father looked at me and said the only thing I can think of son is that I endeavour to love Christ more and more. The more I soak myself in the scriptures daily I find myself loving God more and more and the more I love Jesus I find more and more love for your mother. The more you're in love with Christ the more love flows through you the more Christ is seen in you it would seem beginning in our marriage that's the only thing I can think my boy of telling you why what you seem to see is that I love your mother more and more I was standing with a young boy and it was like this little thing I watched him grow up actually and I was standing just before I came to America at the airport and he walked up to me I worked with his father, his father was the great Barney Horrocks of whom you might have heard some of the illustrations of this godly man's life in some of my messages over the last 40 years and the son said I never witnessed him ever being angry or losing his gentleness and kindness and graciousness toward my mother so both my mother and father never ever spoke angrily once to my memory in their married life never raised their voices they lived Christ in front of us as children for which I will be eternally grateful for above everything else that I have gratitude for in life it's possible brother but don't let the past cripple the future to live it, to prove what's left that you can you want to know when people forgive you not when you ask for forgiveness that comes but when you prove to them you can live what you should have lived they'll forgive you when they see you love their mother and you love their father and you love your parents too no matter what's in the past in every Christian marriage there arises circumstances that can create great misunderstanding confusions and bring great hurts and wounds in every Christian marriage there arises circumstances raise yourself if you haven't found it I guarantee you it's coming no matter how godly you are circumstances that create great misunderstandings confusions and can eventually lead to great hurts and wounds and through life when these circumstances arise and they will and when they prevail our mental and spiritual survival will be to flee to our hiding place the most beautiful place in the storm right in the storm is God it is not a permanent geographical spot, sir, or cave that you go and hide in it's in the storm but this discipline of seeking grace to be alone with Jesus while all these things and confusions come in every single home you will survive the fires and you will emerge like Daniel's three friends, unburned unhurt you will find the consciousness that underneath are the everlasting arms that is bearing you with eagle wings through every single thing you face I possibly have the most precious woman in the history of the world as a wife and the mother of my children but I needed to hide myself in my hiding place in the times and circumstances that I've come to realize every single home will have even if you are married to the godliest woman on earth even if you have the godliest father and mother on earth where wounds can come but those wounds do not come you are not scathed and burned in the fires that come on all of us if you know what it is to be totally yielded to god and therefore filled with his holy spirit and that means controlled by his spirit to live agape love because human love cannot live it only god can live it to the degree you yield it to him through you and that's Christ like this to bring back into you the image that was lost at the fall to be conformed and continually be more and more conformed to the image of his son that which was lost and that is the whole thing god predestinated us for there you are Calvin to be conformed to the image of his son preach that let's not get into trouble Ephesians 4 26 you all know it be angry and sin not let the sun go down upon your eyes I think this was Wesley in your anger yeah Wesley don't sin do not let the sun go down while you are angry for you will give the devil a foothold if you do you could destroy your house and your father and your mother and your husband and your wife and your children outside of Christ likeness when you say utter Christ likeness which is 1 Corinthians 13 full stop if you want to be honest you've got nothing of any value to God or man beginning in your own capacity there's no possibility of living it for God's sake no matter how much failure in the past don't let the past cripple the future start now this marks the beginning of the rest of your life and if you don't change and deal and address these things we've spoken of tonight now I don't only pity you I pity everybody near you beginning in your heart if you choose to destroy the happiness it should be to you in your heart could be oh by the by I just need to say this this sermon has nothing to do with my knowledge of anyone in this conference or otherwise I lose the right to preach that would be stupid to great folly can we all stand please father bless every single person in this building in an amazing way the moment they allow thee to in Jesus Christ's name amen