In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of fathers and parents in providing moral instruction to their children. He encourages fathers to take responsibility for teaching their sons and daughters good doctrine and understanding. The speaker also highlights the negative consequences of a lack of parental guidance, sharing a disturbing story of a young girl who has been through traumatic experiences due to her father's neglect. He urges men to step up and get involved in their families and communities, emphasizing the need for active engagement rather than passivity. The sermon references Proverbs chapter 4 as a biblical basis for the importance of parental instruction.

I guess what I'd like to do, and I feel led to do, and constrained to do, because I am greatly impressed with the home structure, but Dad, I am more impressed with your leadership. I really believe that as we're going to leave here in a little while, we're going back to various places and, and we're going to be all moving back into different areas, but probably the secret of that home, the secret of that particular situation, the spiritual well-being of your family will depend largely on you, Dad, or it should if it doesn't. And I just pray that God will help us. I don't think there's ever a time when I get more excited when I'm asked to speak to a men's group, because I think that's the answer. I believe when the man knows where he's going, the wife will gladly follow along, and the young people will go along if Dad knows where he's going. When Dad doesn't know where he's going, it's another thing. So I just ask that God would help us here, and I'm going to pick up a little bit of where we were this morning, I'm going to keep on going, and we will close, and it may be rather abruptly, and it may not be maybe the most logical place to close, but we'll close when we have to close, and I know about the time that we have to close, because I have to speak at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, I think, later. But we'll have to do this. But what I would like to say is, men, don't get discouraged, and don't be too weary. Let's just determine by God's grace that we're going to be spiritual men. There are lots of spiritual women in the world, and many a mom and many a mother is leading the home which God never ordained, and it may be the thing that's keeping it together now, but that does not mean we're living in a women's liberation movement, when the women are becoming dominant, and they're becoming aggressive, and they're asserting themselves, and doing their own thing, and man is running scared, and he is becoming more effeminate, and many a men, they don't want to return home, and he's losing, and one man said, I have respect every place but at home. Well, it's time that in the Christian circles, God's chain of command has not changed. It's still God, Christ, man, woman, that's the way it is, that's the way it will be. I don't care how many ERA resolutions we pass in the United States, and how much we'd like to twist it around, it just simply will not be. God has given a man a position, he should take it, he should hold it, he should keep it. I would just ask even here, for you to listen to something that's nothing to do with the spiritual, but I think it should encourage some of the men to do something about that which they can do, and I believe it could help us if we would. This was written by Joseph Prince Johnson, the founder of the Alexander Hamilton Institute, and he simply puts this question, the price of success. Some of us as men, spiritually, the Apostle Paul said, quit yourselves like men. We have all kinds of spiritually effeminate men. We don't need spiritually effeminate men. I don't particularly care for a handshake of a man who is rather effeminate. He comes in, he shakes hands, you know, and it's like a bowl of jelly, and so forth. There's something in it that gives you the willies. I don't know what there is about that, but when you shake hands, it's like to be a man's handshake, and put it there and shake, you know, something of the kind. Why, spiritually, we need some men who have some muscle or strength and stamina, they know what they believe, etc., etc., etc. We'll go into that in a moment. But even from a secular point of view, and from a materialistic point of view, and from a success point of view, we have men here today who have varying degrees of success, and it's rather interesting how we got that way. Some say, well, they got it from their dad, gave it to them, and all that kind of thing. But let me just read this to you, and then we will apply it to the spiritual in a moment. It says, the price of success. He said, I often wonder what it is that brings one man success in life, and what it is that brings mediocrity or failure to his brother. The difference can't be mental capacity. There is not the difference in our mentalities indicated by the difference in our performance. In short, I have reached the conclusion, he declares, that some men succeed because they cheerfully pay the price of success, and others, though they may claim ambition and desire to succeed, are unwilling to pay the price. Isn't that what it is spiritually? Isn't that what it is spiritually? That very thing? There are men here today, they said, would, that we could be spiritual. As Dr. Tolles used to say, you'll never have what you wish to have, you'll have what you want to have. Because some people say, I wish I were spiritual. You'll never be spiritual until you want to be spiritual. Like the man says, he walks, he says, I sure wish I had a car. He never will have one if he wishes for it. If he wants one, he'll budget his time, he'll work harder, he'll save, he'll stop spending his money on gadgets, and he'll have it there. And one of these days, he'll have his car, simply because he wants it. And we wish things that we don't want. We get what we want. Basically, we have what we want. If a man wants to be spiritual, he can be spiritual because he's going to do whatever has to be done to get spiritual. If he wishes to be spiritual, he won't, he'll just simply die wishing. So he goes on and he makes his conclusions. He said, this is the price. And the price is, here's the price for a man who's going to succeed. The price is to use all of your courage to force yourself to concentrate on the problem in hand and to think of it deeply, constantly, and to study it from all angles and to plan. Sounds good, doesn't it? Now notice, this is none of those spirituality, but you're going to apply every one of them. Number two, to have a high sustained determination to put over what you plan to accomplish. Not if circumstances would be favorable to its accomplishment, but in spite of all adverse circumstances, which may arise, nothing worthwhile has ever been accomplished without some obstacles having been overcome. Amen. There we are. Number three, he said to refuse to believe that there are any circumstances sufficiently strong enough to defeat you in the accomplishment of your purpose. Beautiful. Number four, hard, I shall say so. That's why so many men never attempt to acquire success and they answer the siren call of the rut and remain on the beaten paths that are for beaten men. Nothing worthwhile has ever been achieved without constant endeavor, some pain, constant application of the lash of ambition. That's the price of success as I see it. I believe every man should ask himself, am I willing to endure the pain of this struggle for the comforts and the rewards and the glory that go with achievement? Or shall I accept the uneasy and inadequate contentment that comes with mediocrity? Am I willing to pay the price of success? Oh Lord, help us. What kind of a man do I want to be? What kind of a leader do I want to be? What kind of a father do I want to be? What kind of a husband do I want to be? What kind of a church leader do I want to be? What do I want to be? Do I want to be one who just simply finds himself moving along or do I want to be one that God has given and God will give all the way through the scripture? We see constantly a division of men. It was rather interesting in the book of Ezekiel chapter 22 verse 30. It says, I sought for a man. I sought for a man among them who would build the wall and stand in the breach before me and for the land that I should not destroy it. The rest of the verse declares that he didn't find the man. We're still looking for men. We're looking for men for homes. We're looking for men for fathers. We're looking for men for husbands. We're looking for men for leaders. We're looking for men who know certain things. It was rather interesting that Senator Carlson, and I'm going to keep going here rather rapidly, and I hope you don't mind because we only got so much time. He said this, and I think this is just absolutely fascinating for what he said. He said, the world today is looking for men. He said, he's looking for men who are not for sale. Men who are on a sound from center to circumference, true to the heart's core, men with consciences as steady as a needle to the pole. Men who will stand for right. If heaven totters and the earth reels, men who can tell the truth and look the world right in the eye. Men who neither brag nor run. Men who neither flag nor flinch. Men who can have courage without shouting it. Men in whom the courage of everlasting life runs still deep and strong. Men who know their message and tell it. Men who know their place and fill it. Men who know their business and attend to it. Men who will not lie. Men who will not jerk. Men who will not dodge. Men who are not too lazy to work. Men who are not too proud to be poor. Men who are willing to eat what they have earned and wear what they have paid for. Men who are not ashamed to say no with emphasis. Men who are not ashamed to say, I can't afford it. Amen. We need men. That's the kind of thing we need. We need it in our churches. We need it in our youth groups. We need it in our leadership. We need it in our board, our trustees, our deacons, our whole realm, in our neighborhoods. We need men who know what they believe and stand for something and their family can gravitate toward them as leadership ought to be gravitated toward. This is something that we have to have and asking God that we can have and that we will have. And I believe God. You say, well, there's always that area where men will falter. Yes, indeed. Take your Bibles and turn to Judges chapter seven. We need to see here that God never wants a man doing anything unless his heart is totally in it and completely there. And he has a strange way of separating men out. This is an old familiar story for you. And I'm sure most of you are fully aware of it, but I want you to see it. And we're going to, again, move here rather quickly in Judges chapter seven. We know that God has something to do and his servant is the one who is going to be used. His servant has a whole group of men, as you will see, and they're all gathered together. In fact, he has approximately 32,000 men. They're all there. And these men are going to do battle. And the whole context is here. We don't have time to go into that, but 32,000 men are gathered together. First two, the Lord said unto Gideon of chapter seven of Judges, the Lord said unto Gideon, the people are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands. Lest Israel want themselves against me saying my hand has saved me. Now, therefore go to proclaim in the ears of the people saying, whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him, what let him go home or return and depart early from Mount Gilead. And there returned of the people, 22,000 and there remain 10,000. Amazing. Isn't it? They're already in the army. They're there. Only comes right down. Do you have what it takes? Can you go to battle? Are you convinced that we're going to go out there and we're going to do the job we're going to get it done? Or are you fearful? And are you afraid? He said 32,000. He said, let's get rid of them this way. All of those who are fearful and afraid go on home. 22,000 men backed away and said, we're afraid. Oh Lord, help us not to have that type of fear here. I pray with the Canadian revival fellowship and those represented here from churches in the area and all over the dominion of Canada, the United States, that we can have men who are going to be committed men, men who know what they believe, why they believe it, where they are, what they're going to do, what they're going to stand for. They can stand up and they can be not ashamed of Jesus Christ. And they know how to go as we'll see here briefly, what this really means. Well, they had 10,000 left and the Lord looked down and he saw the 10,000. He said, these 10,000 are not fearful and they're not afraid, but they've got another problem. They've got some appetites that aren't very good. They just simply are not going to be dependable because when it comes right into the heat of the battle, then they're going to cave in. We have all kinds of problems in churches today where you can get some people to do some things, but when it comes right down to committed, it's going to take time. It's going to take work. It's going to take struggle. And there somehow or another, they dissipate and you look and you wonder, this is why basically I said the other night, this is why pastors shouldn't be doing this, but they're doing all the work around the buildings and they're carrying chairs and they're doing this. Not the pastors aren't good enough to do this or too good to do this or whatever the case may be. It's just the fact that someone else should be doing it. But those who will do it are those who don't say, well, if you ever need me, call me. It's the case that I'm here. God's given me a gift and God given me ability. I want to be involved. And I have had man after man, after man in the coffee shop this morning at the hotel and everything else, they said, we want to get involved. We feel absolutely useless the way we've been sitting around for so long. We just simply sit and everything is done by somebody else. And we feel there's a task for us to get involved in. And I agree, don't you? There's something to be done. We need to get this thing straightened out. So the men of our congregations are more than just resources for financial aid. We must get ourselves really involved in the whole thing. Well, he went to Gideon and he said, now, therefore, he says, go to proclaiming years of the people saying, who's, whoever's fearful and afraid you go on home. Well, that time, 22,000 went home, 10,000 were left. And the Lord said, verse four to Gideon, the people are still yet too many, bring them down to the water and I will try them for the there. Oh, he says, I'm going to try them for you, Gideon. I'm going to get rid of some people that you really shouldn't have because their hearts aren't really content. He says, go on down. He said, they're thirsty. Give them something to drink. And he says, when they come down to the water, he said, just keep an eye on how they drink. And so they've been out there a long time. They're all thirsty and they run down, they see the water. And some of them just simply went down. They got right down on their knees and they just started to drink right down, not looking anywhere at all. They're just simply looking and they're drinking in the water and the appetite was there more than anything else. And yet there were a few who went down to get the water and they got their eyes open and they scooped the water up in their hand and they left it. He said, now I want you to do something. All of those who got down and put their face into the water, he said, send them home. 9,700 of them went home. We've only got 300 left out of 32,000. 32,000 men. And we have a little handful of 300 who aren't fearful and they're not afraid. And they're also not given over so that they wouldn't be looking for the enemy. Their, their, their bodily appetites were real and they were hungry and thirsty, but there were more concerned that they would be in a position to watch for what is happening in the enemy. 300. And God works. I pray God that he'll give us this kind of man. I think we have more probably than 300 men. I would trust that every man here somehow would resolve before God. I will be that man who's going to succeed spiritually. I will be that man who knows his message and will tell it and will stand and will go forward. I will ask God to give me a new vision of my home, my wife, my children, my sons, my daughters. I will ask God to give me ability so I can teach my family. I sometimes think probably one of the greatest things that could happen to the church would be the best thing is to close all Sunday schools and let the teaching be done. When at home by, by the dad, that's the way it should have been. You know, Sunday schools aren't that old. They got them all created here. And sometimes we've made great things of them and I'm not necessarily here to speak against busting, but sometimes busting has its problems. I think if dad ever met Jesus Christ, then he could bust his own kids. He could bust them home too, but somehow we bust them in. And sometimes there's great things you can do. Well, we've got a great Sunday school and we bust them in and so forth. But my greater desire is that those who are in the church would get the Bible studies going and get mom and dad converted and you'll have the whole family. And isn't that right? And if you get dad converted, it's not too hard to get who? To get mom and the children and you'll have them all coming in and they'll be in their car paying for their own gas and seeing that they all get home. And you'll be more than a babysitting girl. And you say that, that may not go over. All right. Busting has its place in some churches. It's a very real thing and that's fine, but that will never take the place of getting that dad in his place. Men, we need that place. We need you in your place and we have to work with you. Then when that is taught to these children in our Sunday schools and so forth that we do teach them here, it ought to only be supplemental to what dad's doing in his home. What dad is doing every day, what dad's doing line upon line, precept upon precept here, a little there, a little, and when I'll rise up and when I'll sit us down and when I walk us in the house, the whole thing, these things you'll be in your heart, dad, and you'll teach them diligently under your children and they shall know them. They will understand these things. It's all going to come. Dad, just here, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad. And yet there are men probably seated here today. You can't remember the last time you ever got your family together to pray with them other than the grace at the table. You say, is this the last message? This is the last one. But it's the one I think that got laid on my heart. Fellas, you're going to go. This has been good. This has been wonderful. This has been beautiful, but it won't be long. You're going to be home. Tomorrow's Monday. And somehow or another, the whole responsibility is going to be right back on you. Oh, that God would help you. Turn with me to Proverbs chapter four, would you please? Proverbs chapter four. Oh, let every son be able to say this. Let this come through. Look at this. May every son and every daughter be able to say exactly what was said here. Just beautiful. Chapter four of the book of Proverbs, hear ye children, the instruction of who a Sunday school teacher, a youth leader. Oh, you say that's good. Yes, that's good. We're thankful for it, but that will never take the place of this. Christian school will never take the place of this. And, and, and those others around you who are, thank God for all that's being done, but basically where is it to be done? Note verse one, chapter four, here you children, the instruction of a father and attend to no understanding for I give you what folks, anyone, I give you good doctrine. Who does the father? I give you good doctrine. I give you the doctrine. I had a young lady come into the office, the most mixed up little girl, sexually, I think I've ever talked to. And I can't even start to share with you. You absolutely would shudder. If I told you what a 13 year old girl has been through. And I said, honey, is your daddy ever talked with you? She said, my daddy has never told me one thing of how to live morally. In fact, it goes on to say, and I don't know the dad, but he even has mutilated his own daughter. We wonder why our world is so mixed up. We wonder why our kids are so mixed up. We wonder why they're going to drugs. We wonder why they're going haywire. We wonder why the suicide rate is higher than a teenager that's ever been in history. These kids don't know which way to turn because we lost the foundation of the home and the home can't be a home without dad. And dad can't hold his place mom until you help him to hold it. And I would pray that every mother and every wife here today would resolve before God almighty, before you go out of this place, by God's grace, I'm going to help my husband. I'm going to help him as I've never helped him to before to assume his God-given responsibility. And at home moms, you'll never do what God ordained dad to do. You can't, you won't, it will not be. You need that role that's given to that man. He is to be again, as I mentioned to that home and to that wife, what Christ is to the church and consequently to that, to those children. You teach your children. You say, I don't know anything to teach them. Then learn it. I don't know how to teach them anything. Then study it yourself. It's going to take some of your extra time. The TV is going to go off and you're extra and you're bowling and you're curling. And some of these things that you're doing and some of the gadgets, sometimes we get involved in and going out with the boys. You might find yourself taking one night alone in your own home, digging into the word of God so that you have something to share with your own children. You say, well, I just don't even think I can get that interested in it. I know that's where we're back to the price of success. Let's ask ourselves, how much do I desire to be a God, a God, a godly father as God ordained the task that he gave me the position he gave me. That's what I'm concerned about. Somehow or another that says, oh, I went back to my hotel. I asked God, your God, there's so many things we could say. What do you want to seem to come back to me? The man, the man, the man, the man, the man. It may be that we'll never meet like this again. It may be as we have in Jamaica, the churches could be closing. And when the United States, we could soon see the churches closed and we could have something happen. We may not even be able to meet collectively who should be the spiritual leader of that little home. Who dad, he should be able to take the word of God and get his wife and little family around him and said, this is God's word. And he had there, he should be able to open this up. And he says to this one, as he said, he said, I give you good doctor and forsake you, not my law. And look at this in verse three. I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also. Dad taught me and said unto me, let thine heart retain my words. Oh, may every son and every daughter have the privilege of retaining the words of dad on how to live and how to dress and how to act and how to behave and how to court and how to, to, to choose a marriage partner. And so all of this should come. And how many fathers never talk to their daughters? I even have them come in for marriage and I sit down and I said, how many of you have had your mom and dad talk to you about the things of life and how to establish a home and so forth. And some of them absolutely say, no, they've never discussed the word here. There's that daughter, that son going out and making one of the second greatest choices of life, Jesus Christ first in marriage and choice of a partner. And we wonder why in the United States, one of the very two homes going into divorce, I have young people come in and say, I said, what if this doesn't work out? What are you going to do? We'll divorce and try again. Where should all this have been taught or should they get it? You can't get it from all the family and hee-haw and some of these things. You'll get everything just the contrary. You'll get it torn down. How long dads have been since you've taken time with your family to sit down and have a serious discussion on the things of God, on morality, on the things that ought to be, on the kind of a daughter and the kind of a son. How long has it been since you and your wife have ever got on your knees before God and said, Oh God, what kind of children do you really want us to have? What kind of children should we teach them? You say, well, I go to church. Church is fine. I give. That's fine. But what is it that we need? That home responsibility is basically dad's responsibility. That's why I'm back to this. I have this come to me constantly. Probably nine out of every 10 women who come said, he just does not lead spiritually. You can't nag him and you can't push him. You can't make him be spiritual. Dad, this is something that you shouldn't have. Your wife pushed you and nagged you and try to coerce you to do this. Why don't you read with us? Why don't you pray with us? Why don't you go to church? Come on. Why don't you go? Oh, they're leaving me alone. You go ahead and go, go ahead and go. And it goes on and on and on. And you go, I'll go some other time and so forth. That's leadership. No, your friend that home is need needing a dad who knows what he believes, knows where he stands, knows where he's going and can say to wife and children with confidence, follow me. I will teach you good doctrine. I will show you the way to go. He said, he taught me also. And he said unto me, let thy heart retain my words, keep my commandments. And he said to me, get wisdom, get understanding, forget it, not neither decline from her words, from the words of my mouth, forsake her, not she shall preserve the love of her. And she shall keep the wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore I get wisdom and with all my getting, get understanding. Oh, it's fantastic. Turn with me to job 28. Just a moment. Would you please job 28? Just, just fantastic. Uh, what this is. And I know we're going to go just as quickly as we can just take a look at this. And you wonder what this is all about. He's looking for wisdom, verse 12 of job 28. He says, where shall wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding? They can't find how it goes. It says, man knows not the price thereof, neither is it found in the land of the living. And it goes on down. The depth says it's not in me. The C says, it's not in me. It cannot be gotten for gold. It is above the price of silver. It cannot be valued with gold or for precious Onyx Sapphire, gold and crystal cannot equal it. The exchange of it cannot be for jewels. No mention shall be made of coral pearls. The price of wisdom is above rubies. Topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it. Neither shall it be valued with the pure gold. When send come with wisdom, where is the place of understanding? Seeing it as hit from the eyes of all living, kept from the fowls of the air, destruction and death. Say we have heard of the fame thereof. We can't find it. God understands the way thereof. Yes, he does. He knows the place thereof for he looks to the ends of the earth and he sees under the whole heaven and to make the weight for the winds. And he wears the waters by measure when he made a decree for the rain and a way of the lightning and thunder. Then did he see it and declared it. He prepared it. Yay. And searched it out and under man. He says, let's read it together. Behold the fear of the Lord. That is wisdom. And to depart from evil is understanding. Oh, you say, I didn't know wisdom was so valuable. I didn't know understanding was so valuable. You mean it's worth more than all my jewelry. You mean it's more worth more than all my gold. And ladies can get an awful lot of rings on their hands today. They got them on every finger and I don't know how they do any work, but they have them all in their fingers. And you see this, it's just jewels and gold and silver and all this. We think it's real precious. He said, look, wisdom and understanding are far above all of them. You can't even be equal with topaz and Sapphire and onyx and coral and Pearl and gold and silver. None of these things are even equal to it. It's above that. And what is wisdom? The fear of the Lord. Dad, how long has it been since you've talked to your son or daughter about the fear of the Lord? How long have you ever sat down? How many of your children could write out the 10 commandments? How long has it been since we've taken them to Exodus 20? How long has it been since we've talked to morals of upon this? I go into high schools and so forth. And it's amazing. The questions are asking me what's wrong with premarital sex. It's wonderful to take them right to the word of God and said, that says the Lord. And they just look at me and start to laugh. You said, you don't believe that Bible, do you? I said, yes, I happen to believe it. And that's what I stand. And you'll believe it too. Someday it'll be too late. I said, there'll be the day that you'll actually stand before God and give an account. And they just laugh. And I said, when the graves are opening and you're coming out, I'll see you. And I won't say I told you so, but you're going to come. Hmm. Doesn't make a bit of difference if you don't believe it's going to happen. Like the man who says, I don't believe in gravity. He steps out of the fourth floor. He wants to go to the seventh. It just doesn't work. I don't care whether he believes it or not. It doesn't work. He's out of the fourth and he sees three, two, one. And that's all there is to it. God's word is still true. The robber comes in. He walks into the man's bedroom and he's got a 38 on the man. And so the man in the bed gets out and get the 38. He points it at the robber and the robber says, I don't believe in 38. So he puts it away and says, go ahead and rob me. No, he pulled the trigger and makes a believer out of him. It's just, it's just the way it works. Dad, you need to talk to your son and your daughter. He said, well, everybody's doing it. Not everybody. You're not. That's what my dad used to say. I used to go, well, dad, everybody's going. Well, no, they aren't. You aren't. Dad, you need to take that. Your son and your daughter will be delighted if you'll take a stand and not be a tyrant, not be a Lord in love. You just simply do that. Some of the greatest memories I've got over my dad. My dad didn't always walk the way he should have, but I thank God for him. He got us together in his family. He talked with us. We brought him to feel before we plant a crop. He'd get the five boys together. We'd get on our knees and pray, dedicated to God said, Lord, we're going to give you a tithe of this. Sometimes we had crops. Well, no one had crops in there. My dad taught us this just in everyday life. He taught us what we should do and how God does work. It's all there. Turn to Psalm 78 and you see it all better than I can tell you. It's absolutely beautiful. And I would just hope every dad would just find time to study Psalm 78. If you'll study it, it'll help you to be the dad that you ought to be. And then your wife will be delighted and your children will look to you and they'll be absolutely elated. My dad, he's a great man. He loves the Lord. He knows what he's doing, where he's going. Listen to this. Psalm 78 says, give ear all my people to my law, incline your ears to the word of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter a dark thing of old. We have heard and known. And our fathers have told us, our fathers have told us, get this. And we'll just take a moment here. We will not hide them from their children. Every dad ought to be the one to sit down and he ought to share with his son and his daughter. This is what God, this is what we needed. This is how God answered the prayer. Here's the way we pray. This is what God did. What does that do? That builds up. We have generations today actually being raised. You don't even know what God does in Christian homes because we have the finance company. We have everything else. We don't go to God. We go to everyone else. Psalm 78 says, give ear all my people to my law, incline your ears to the word of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter a dark thing of old. We have heard and known. And our fathers have told us, our fathers have told us, get this. And we'll just take a moment here. We will not hide them from their children. Every dad ought to be the one to sit down and he ought to share with his son and his daughter. This is what God, this is what we needed. This is how God answered the prayer. Here's the way we pray. This is what God did. What does that do? That builds up. We have generations today actually being raised. You don't even know what God does in Christian homes because we have the finance company. We have everything else. We don't go to God. We go to everyone else. It happens. How long has it been since you've gotten your family together and got your children together and said, we have a need kids. What are you doing with your mom and myself? And let's get down and ask God. And then when God answers the praise of the Lord, look what the God, look what the Lord did. Beautiful. And those children, Oh, God answers prayer. Then when they get married and they go through that problem, they'll say, Hey, I remember when mom and dad, we trusted God and we got down on our knees and God answered there. The average young person today getting married. They don't know what God will do because they haven't seen it at all. The only thing I know, the mom and dad maybe didn't have the happiest life together. And I won't tell you all you hear about that. What happens here? Note this carefully. It says, we will not hide them from their children. Why? Look at this. Verse four is beautiful. Underline study it out, dad. I think it'll help you. It's beautiful. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, the strength of the Lord and the wonderful works of the Lord. That's what it means. I will show to my children so they can show to their children that God is mighty. He's strong. He's wonderful. He hears in the answers. Who should share that with your children? Dad, you should, so that your grandkids come back and say, you know what daddy and mommy told me when they were little children, this is what God did. Dad, that's through you. That ought to be the joy of your heart. Go a little bit further. He says, for he established the testimony in Jacob. He appointed a law in Israel when he commanded our fathers that they should make them known. No, he commanded the fathers. He commanded them. He commanded the fathers that they should make them known to their children. Dad, take time with your kids. You can send them off to the hockey rink. You can send them off to boys, brigades and private girls and whirlybirds and everything. We got all kinds of things going on. We can send them off and off and off, but there's no one can take the place when you sit down, dad and say, kids, let me show you what, and, and, and, and just give you something that God has made real to your dad. This is beautiful. That will mean more to them than a hundred teachers. In fact, it even says that in the scripture spiritually of 10,000 instructors, but not many fathers. You need that one dad who's going to sit down and say, this is the thing that God has helped me with. Let me share it with you, but notice, no, why it should be. And we're only a generation away from this. And I think we can actually see it with our youth problem today. Verse six goes further. He said, you should make them known to your children. Matter part of verse five or six. Why that the generation to come might know them, even the children, which should be born, who should arise and declare them to, to their children. Why would you read the next point, please? That they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. That's exactly why dad, you can share it with your son and your daughter, and they can share it with their children and they can share it with their children yet unborn. And you can affect your great grandchildren. And that's why it says that the iniquities of the visits the second, third and fourth generations, but the blessing of the fathers can come to the second, third and fourth generations, right? The greatest gift I can give to my great grandchildren will not be my stock securities, bonds, houses, and all that kind of thing. It will be what I gave to my son so that they can give to your children and they can give it to their children's children. And that will be that they can be inclined to set their heart on God and be steadfast in the Lord. Dad, that's a responsibility of you to see if your home has that kind of an atmosphere. And you say, well, I give them a nice home. I give them a nice bed, beautiful furniture. We have carpets. We have China. We have TV in every room and telephone. We've got new cars, two of them. We have everything. But I say, go back and look over the spiritual apparatus that you have. What do you have? If you had to write down everything spiritual that you have in your home, how big of a list would it be? It wouldn't take very much paper. I try to get them into church and encourage them to go to their youth activities. I don't get to pray very often with them, or we try to have blessing at the table. When it comes right down to it, I really don't have a plan. And I don't have any real course of action that I take. I guess if I happen to get a chance, I'll do something about it. Dad, rethink this. Canadian Revival Fellowship, if it's going to be anointed of God, is not going to only affect the collective gathering. It's going to affect every home represented. That's right. That is if it's of God. And I believe it is. And I think these homes are affected of God. I believe they are. We're going to have men fall because they're afraid, men who are fearful, men who've got other desires far greater than God. But oh, we come back and say, dear God, help me to share with my children. I want to close with this. If you'll turn with me to Chronicles 28, I want you to note it, look it over, and it should be the desire. I never will forget. I sat in a Bible study and my heart just kind of ached as I watched this. And I asked, I said, if you would ask your children tonight, and I'll give you all a piece of paper, and your child is asked one question, write down the God of Dad, what would they write? And a man was sitting right next to me and he said just this, oh God, he said, my child or my children would write medicine. He's a medical doctor, three medical doctors in that place. But he looked at me, he said, oh God, my children would write medicine. It wasn't six to eight weeks after that, but that man was found dead in his own driveway. I never will forget. Medicine was his God. I don't know what your God is. It could be sports, could be any number of things. I wonder how many tonight whose children would say without a question, my God's dad would be the Lord Jesus Christ. No questions. Wouldn't be a car, wouldn't be your job, wouldn't be your career, wouldn't be all your aspirations, wouldn't be climbing up the company ladder, he wouldn't be trying to get the bigger house, he wouldn't be golf, he wouldn't be sports, he wouldn't be any of these things. You may have these things, but your children would immediately know, my God's dad, the one who holds the greatest devotion and place in his life, the one that just holds his life and runs him and controls him, the God who is over him, is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that your children would write that in. David said this to his son Solomon. David heard, oh he learned it the hard way. Note what he says in 1 Chronicles 28, we'll just look at it and we'll close. 1 Chronicles 28, verse 9, he wanted to do so many things for the Lord that he couldn't do, but he said his son was going to do them. And he said here in verse 9, and thou Solomon my son, and every time I read it something inside happens. What a beautiful statement. And you can turn to your son, and now Jack, Bill, John, George, whatever your son's name is, put this in there. And thou, my son, know thou the God of thy father. Wouldn't it be wonderful to say that? Know the God of your dad. Son, I want you to know my God. He looks back and he says, Dad, I've watched you. My heart delights to hear Tom down here, the greatest man he respects, if you write it down. I know who he put down. It's his dad, his dad. Father came to me the other day, tears started streaming down his face, and he said, you know what happened to me? I said, no, he said, my son's getting married. And he said, I said, you know, we had discussed it, and he said, you got everybody arranged, but he said, who's your best man? He said, Dad, you. I said, now stop fooling me. Who's your best man? He said, Dad, you, you're my best man. I want you to stand up to us. He said, I don't know of anyone else I'd want to have other than my best man and my dad. And the fellow started to weep. He's an insurance broker. And he said, did you ever hear a greater compliment all your life? My son wants his dad to be his best man at his wedding. I thought that was great. Don't you? I never heard that before. I said, what are you going to do? He said, I'm going to be in his wedding. Just think of that. A son who wants his dad is his best man in his wedding. That didn't just happen, did it? No. And I happen to know the insurance broker and I know what has happened. I know the life that he's lived before those kids. And I know the walk that's been so beautiful. The man has a beautiful testimony, but in his wedding, he said, I want my dad to be my best man. Know thou the God of your father. Oh, Solomon. He says, know the God of your father. Look what it says. There's three things it says here. Know the God of your father. And he says, I want to challenge you, Solomon. What should you do? Serve him with what? Do you think he learned that the hard way? Solomon, I know this God. I know him. You better serve him with a perfect heart because I recall what it means to create within me a clean heart. Oh God, if you only knew Solomon, all the backgrounds that I know, don't try to serve God with a divided heart. Serve him with a perfect heart. He knew he's challenging his son. Serve him with a perfect heart. He says further, Solomon, I want you to serve him with a willing mind. And he says further, I want you to know God searches the hearts. Solomon further. I want you to know he searches the understanding and all the imaginations of the thoughts. Solomon, if you'll seek him, this is your dad speaking. Listen to me. If you'll seek him, he will be found of the, if you forsake him, he will cast you off Solomon. Take heed now for the Lord's got something for your son. He's chosen your son. He's got something for you to build. He's got something for you to do. He's got something he wants to have accomplished. Oh, my son be strong and do it. But then he doesn't stop. Go down to verse 11. Then David gave to Solomon, his son, the pattern of the thing that he wanted built. And every dad ought to be able to sit down with his family and give his sons and daughters the pattern of the thing that God wishes to accomplish through them. And to hear my son, this is exactly what God would have us to do. And the whole thing is beautiful. It's fantastic. Verse 20, time doesn't permit. We can stay here the rest of the evening. Verse 20, it says, David said to Solomon, his son, be strong and of good courage and do it. Fear not. Don't be dismayed son for the Lord. Thy God, even my God will be with me. Note that you see how he encourages him. He was with me, Solomon. He will be with you. He will not fail you. He will not forsake you until you finish all the work of the service of the house of the Lord. And then he goes down and he challenges the rest of them. He said, take care of my son. He's young and tender and beloved. And so it's the dad who is now pleading with his son. Oh my God, serve him, walk with him, do it with a perfect heart, a willing mind and let the imaginations be. God knows those two don't turn right or left. Solomon, do what dad has for you to do. I think that's fantastic. God gives us these kind of dads. And you'll have wives who'll look up and say, thank you, dear God, for a husband. And you'll have your children. They'll come and they'll say, Oh dad, one young man came up here this morning to me. He says, my mom and dad are just exactly what you were talking about this morning. And he said, I just love them. I said, go home and tell them that you do and you appreciate them. What a difference it would make. What a difference it would make. Oh dad, you're going to be driving the car before long. You're going to be on your highway. You're going to be on your way home. I wonder just before we go, if somehow the dads could ask God to know, by your grace, dear God, give me the strength, take out the bitterness, take out the idols, take out the world, take out the sin, take out the weight. Oh God, that does so easy beset me. You know, the things I do, you know, where I'm going, what I'm doing, my literature, you know, the filter, right? You know what's in there. Oh God, why I can't talk to my son. You know, I don't have moral freedom. You know, I don't have a clear conscience myself, and I can't tell my son something that I can't tell myself. Oh God, I have to keep busy. I've got to have three jobs. I can't go away. I got to stay away from the family because I just am not in a place personally where I can actually go and honestly and transparently and say, son, your dad loves you. And I want you to know my God, you can know, okay, where you are, it's where you can be. Amen. We can have it happen. You can cry with David. He learned the hard way, create within me a clean heart. Oh God, that lustful mind that he had. He cried, create within me a clean heart. Oh God, renew within me a right spirit. Oh God, don't take your spirit from me. Oh, restore the joy to me once again, dear Lord, that I have known. That's the same one who says, Solomon, my son, know the God of your dad. He said, it's too hard, Pastor Valentine. Then perhaps you are to be a beaten man on a beaten path because you're not willing to pay the price for spiritual success. I don't know. Paul said, I beat my body black and blue. I bring my body under lust after I've preached to others, I myself become a castaway. Oh, come back. And now Paul says, I beseech you by the mercy of God, give your body, give your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable then so that you can know what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God through a renewed mind, not being conformed to the world, but transformed and conformed to the very image of Christ. Dad, we love you. You say this is a little hard to close this way. I believe God wants it this way. And I believe God's going to help you, dad. And I'm going to ask every wife to do something in a moment. I'm going to ask you somehow to make a new covenant with God, such as you've never done before, that God is going to do something between the two of you in your home. I wonder if we could have all the men of our congregation stand. Would you stand, please? Just the men. Isn't this wonderful? Perhaps you've been a dad, perhaps you're a grandfather, perhaps you're not even married, but somehow or another, here's the potential. Here is, here is what God says is a spiritual leadership right here. Here it is. All you fellas, too. We want all the males to stand. I don't care whether you qualify or not or however, just stand. We want all the males to stand. Here's the male leadership. Here's the potential that's soon going to disband from this place and you're going to go all over the area. You are God's chosen instrument to be the head of your home. Whether you qualify is not the question. That's what God wants for you. I only pray that somehow God will give you a challenge that by his grace, regardless of the obstacles, regardless of how awkward, how difficult, how far away from God you may be at this moment, by God's grace, I will set my face like a flint and I'll head towards that place and I can be in my home whether it's future or even whether it's past or present. By God's grace, I want to be the man that God ordained me to be when he created the male and that he's to be to that home and to that wife and to those children what Jesus Christ is. God bless you men. God help you men. God work in you men. Just don't take no for an answer. Somewhere get a loan, clean it all up. Let me encourage you that whatever's in there that may have to come out, God says, my little children, if you confess it, I'll forgive it. He says, confess your sins and I'll be faithful and just to forgive you. You haven't done a thing, committed a thing, or involved in anything, you may be amazed. You may have to go home and get rid of some of your literature, probably amazed at some of the pictures and magazines. One man just died, his daughter, supposed to be a godly man. She said, pastor, I went into his closet and mother wasn't even there and I found the lewdest bunch of pornography and all kinds of homosexual pictures. She came to me, she's sweet. She says, I got them out. She says, my mother would absolutely die. She said, any idea that those things were in there? And she said, my father wrote articles for many of the major publications. If I were to name the man, you would know it just like that. Is it any wonder that I'm counseling now with her mother? Is it any wonder that her, this girl has been so mixed up and she's had a struggle with God because somehow that dad just never was quite right and she views her heavenly father just like she views her earthly father and we've dealt with her now over a period of weeks and she's finally coming through and she comes through and now there's a joy and a victory because she realizes that God is an immutably holy proper right good God and she doesn't have to equate him with her earthly father. But how much easier it would have been for her had the earthly father walked the life that he should have and it would have made it so much easier for her to relate to heavenly father. So whatever has to be done, fellas, do it. I don't care what it is. You may have to make restitution, you may have to change, you may have to be more prompt, you may have to be more punctual, you may have to get up early in the morning, you may have to change priorities, you may have to change anything, whatever has to change for you to be the spiritual man that God wants you to be, it'll be worth it. And someday you'll stand before God and you'll bless God that you've made that choice of that which has value. And then we could have these dear ladies, they may be your wife or maybe your daughter, maybe some members of your family, but they would be able to actually then back you up and say, by God's grace, I'll help you to be what I believe God would have you to be. And you ask me to assist you any way you can, honey, and I'll try to be a helper. I want to be a help adapted to you so that together we can see God's will in our life and in our children and someday in heaven we'll all be there together and there won't be one member missing. Ladies, would you stand beside these men wherever you are? All the ladies stand, would you do that? And again, I'm going to ask if they'd be mom and dad just kind of reach over and get each other's hand if you want. Let's bow our head, we're going to pray. We just pray that somehow or another there'll be a new knittedness of that family and you would recognize, dear lady, that that man is God's vessel and he needs your help, your prayer, your encouragement. Don't nag him, don't push him, don't try to coerce him to do anything, just simply pray for him and that that man will somehow find himself as the man who will stand in the gap and he will be the one chosen of God to make that home wall of yours complete. And he can reach out and take the hand of a wife and his sons, his daughters, his family, maybe his grandchildren, whatever, and he can be the one to stand before God and intercede and be that leader that will help not only in time but on into eternity. And with our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I would just ask as we close this service that you would just simply put this all before the Lord. God sees your heart, God knows what you're thinking now, God knows what's in there. God knows what has to go. And again with Samuel of old, if you'll just simply have that prayer and attitude speak, Lord. This is one man who's going to hear, I'm a young man, I'm not even married, but God speak to me. I'm married and I have a wife, dear God, speak to me. I'm a grandfather but oh God, speak to me. I want to be the leader that you want me to be. Did we leave this place? I want our home to be just a little revival. I want our home to be just a little citadel of joy and I want our home to be that God-given little area that God is going to use. Oh God, now our Father, we bow before you and we pray, Holy Spirit, as you have been in this meeting and all these meetings beautifully working, we pray that you'll just settle down over every one of these men. Oh God, we pray that you'll just somehow give that man a new glimpse of yourself, your power, your will, your purpose, and that dad somehow would get a new grasp and that son and that grandfather and or uncle, whatever the case may be here now, they will just somehow feel the surge of your power and your strength that you don't will us to be anything that you won't give us wherewithal to become and we'll stop wishing to be and we'll desire from this moment on. Oh God, as John 7, 17 says, if any man will to do his will, he shall know, and dear God, today in these closing hours of this closing service, I will to do your will in any capacity that I know it in. Whether I be a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter, a grandparent, I will to do your will and I want to be able to say to those of my household, know my God and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind. No, my God, our father, let it be. We pray that you'll wash us and you'll cleanse us from everything that's foreign, everything that's offensive, everything that's vain, everything that's sinful, everything that's black, everything that's dark and alien to the very perfect will of yourself. Father, we pray that you will wash us and we cry with David, create us within his clean hearts. Oh God, renew within us, oh God, a right spirit. Don't take your Holy spirit, but father God, take out the sin and give us more of your spirit and then give us the joy of your salvation and help us. Oh father, that we might walk circumspectly, not as fools, but wise, understanding what the will of the Lord is and help us now, Lord, where these things have been taken out to be filled with the spirit. Oh God, come and anoint us with fresh oil tonight. As we go, give us that fresh oil and granted that dear wife standing beside her husband will find a new humility before God that though we're living in a world father, when women's live is seemingly surfacing and there's somehow contempt for the men and for their husbands. Oh God, give a new love for that husband right now. And the wife give her a new love, give her a new understanding that he can't be what God wants him to be until I am what God wants me to be as well. And together, we're going to seek to know his will. Let it be Lord and pray and grant that together. Oh God, these couples might leave this place with just a new awareness of God's work. And we might hear of revivals going on everywhere and homes literally changed and transformed because God is a new in our hearts and in our leadership. Oh Holy Spirit, let it be. We thank you for doing it and we pray that you'll continue to work in us. And may if we have another time in Winnipeg another year, we can have those who will stand and say, Oh God transformed our home and it's been a different year. And we'll give you all the praise, all the glory in Jesus' sweet name. Amen.