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

All right, as I frequently do, we're going to be preaching this morning on our Father's Day, and I did a sermon on Mother's Day for the ladies, we're going to do a sermon this morning for the men, and it's a good opportunity, I think, just to make sure that we're hitting this stuff, because now, as much, if not more than ever, we need to be hitting these topics. I mean, this is one of the most important things in general, just in life, you know, being, if you're a father, being a good father is extremely important, I mean, this is critical in the life that you have here on earth, and especially when it comes to the attacks that's happening on the roles of men and women in our society, on mothers and fathers, on men and women, boys and girls, everything is just being confused and blurred and attacked, and I'm not even going to go, you know the nonsense that's going on out there, you know the targeting of our children, you know how the roles are being twisted around, and now it's becoming, you know, being pushed on people to be accepted that boys can become girls and girls can become boys and messing with the hormones and having surgeries and all this nonsense, it's just craziness, insanity, from a depraved culture that has rejected the Lord. So we need to have this preaching regularly, so it's not that, you know, Father's Day is in the Bible, so why are you preaching on it, well, fathers are in the Bible, quite a bit, the roles of men and women, it's a very important subject, so why not take advantage of this day that our country uses to celebrate fathers, which is, by the way, a great day to celebrate fathers, it's great to take a day to celebrate fathers, it's great to take a day to celebrate mothers, there's nothing wrong with that, it's a good thing to do, to give homage to people who are raising children, raising the next generation, raising the future, it's a great thing to do, so this morning, I told my servant, man up, man up, because, you know, as, I think the ladies have been attacked first in our society, and then the men have also been attacked, but that's increasing more and more on the men in our current day, see, it's been the past 50, 60 years, 70 years even, that the ladies have been targeted, where the, you know, the feminist movement, and trying to make ladies more like men, and if they're not more like men, then somehow they don't have value, and this is the lie that our culture has been, that ultimately Satan, but, you know, this anti-Christ type of philosophy has been pushed and promoted for decades and decades and decades, trying to, you know, oh, we need these women's rights, and see, here's the thing, you know, they use the terminology, oh, it sounds great, women's rights, sounds like a positive thing, and this is the way that propaganda works anyway, with everything, it's all, they try to make this spin to use words and terminology that just make it sound like, well, of course, well, who doesn't want that? It reminds me of, and this is like, this isn't a moral issue, but like, when it comes to trying to get taxes raised and past taxes and stuff, when we lived in Arizona, I remember the slogan was, well, every child is worth a penny, right, like Lisa? What they were trying to do is do, they wanted to add a percent of tax, which the increase isn't a one percent increase, it was like a, you know, 20 percent increase or something, because when you're adding a whole percent, if you have like, say, six percent or seven percent tax rate, you add one percent, well, that's, you know, one sixth or one seventh of an increase, so the actual, like, the reality of it is like, this is actually a very significant change, but they say, oh, one percent, that's one out of a hundred, so that's like a penny out of a dollar, so every child's worth a penny, right, and so they use these types of tactics and slogans to just make it sound like, well, of course, I mean, sure, no, like, there's a lot more to it than that, right, so it's that same type of, you know, watch out for people trying to get you to accept things and to normalize things and things that ultimately aren't going to be good for you. Now, regardless of, you know, that tax issue, whatever, that's not a, it's not even really that big of a deal, you know, argue about that, I don't want to get into that. The morality is what I'm focusing on and what I want to focus on this morning, and the attack on the women, like I said, came first, trying to change the roles, get women in the workforce, get women wearing men's clothing, get women, you know, doing the things that men historically have done, and basically saying that, well, if you're not doing this, then you're not, you don't have as much value as a man does or whatever, and that's a lie, it's a total lie. God gave us different roles, and we're going to read, you know, a little bit about the authority structure that God's put in the home, because it's very important, it's very important that we as Christians and we as Bible believers are going to follow the word of God and follow the instruction that God gave, follow the authority structure that God has put in our lives, because he put it there for a very good reason. And no matter what lie has been told to you, you know, we need, we ought to believe God rather than man, and not just accept what the world is trying to push on you as being what's right. We go to the word of God to understand what's right in our life. And something so core and so basic as the family, as mothers, fathers, men, women, you better believe God has talked a lot about this in scripture. This isn't something like, well, I don't know if God really has talked about this. No, he talked about it a lot. It comes up a lot. I mean, this goes down to creation, God making male and female. And he made them very different. So we shouldn't try to be making them the same. And the way that God made you is the way God made you, and you shouldn't be trying to change that in any way, whether it's physically and having these surgeries, and I don't know, I think in the inside, I'm a woman, so I need to become, you know, like, that's insanity. But how about not just with that, I mean, you're going to call that insanity, right? I mean, any normal person is going to call that insanity. But then why not call it also insanity for women to act like men, for women to try to do the same thing the men do? Well, we could do the same thing that you can do. How about God gave you a role, and God gave me a role, and they ought to be different, because God made us different. God made you better at things, and God made women better at things, and he made men, and men better at things, and he made women, so that you can do different jobs and perform different functions, and they're both equally important. Very important jobs. It's not about value. It's about where God wants you. You're a Christian and you're a Bible believer. Do you have the heart and the mind that says, God, I want to be whatever you want me to be. God, I want to do whatever you want me to do. I hope you have that attitude. I hope you have that mindset. Because if you're honest with that, then you could go to the Word of God and say, I'm going to flush the brainwashing from this culture of what it's telling me I should do and what it's telling me I should be, and all my public school telling me what I should grow up to be, and I'm going to look at this book and determine what I should be. I'm going to go to God to determine what I should be. What is good for me? What is my role? What is my place in this world, God? Please tell me. And he has the answers. And if you have that heart and you have that attitude, a sermon like this is not hard at all. It's not hard at all. For the world, this is hard preaching. For the world, this is really difficult. This goes against what you're going to hear out there in society. Everything I'm going to get into, you're going to say, oh, that's old-fashioned, but we're so much smarter now. We know so much better now. Yeah. You're seeing the fruits of how smart our society is. And people think we're so progressive today with all this love for the homos and all the rainbow stuff. People think, oh, wow, it's so great. Never before in history. Never before in history. Of course, this has happened plenty of times in history. Why don't you actually learn and study history? Learn from it so we don't repeat the same mistakes and say, oh, well, you're in the past. And they have this really short and narrow view of the past, going, oh, people were so hateful and this was so bad and so horrible, but now we're so enlightened and so progressive and everything's so great and wonderful. Yeah, the Greeks did that. Yeah, the Romans did that. Yeah, look at these other great societies that fell in depravity. They also accepted and normalized and thought it was great all the homosexuality. This is nothing new under the sun. You're not some, oh, wow, we're so enlightened now because we're some thousands of years in the future. No, you're not. No, you're not. You're going backwards and not in a good way. I mean, you're going backwards. You think you're progressive. You're regressive. It's disgusting. I didn't want to get in and off and all that, but as long as I am. Bringing it back to my point, I said that women were targeted first. In recent history, women in America have been targeted first, but now we're seeing it happen a lot more on the men. So the women's clothing, women's standards, putting women where you go, all these different things have been targeting women trying to become more like men. That was the first target. Now, men are being targeted to become more like women and it's happening. I remember, you know, when we first got, when my wife and I first got married, trying to find clothing for her because she was a newer believer when we first got married, and I was helping to change her wardrobe because I have rules in my house that says, you know, I'm going to wear the pants in my family. You're not going to wear the pants in our family. And when we got married, she had pants. Like I said, she's a newer believer. She didn't have all the doctrine and all this, you know, so but here's the thing. As the man of the house, and we'll get into this in a minute, as the man of the house, I determine what's happening in my house. It's not because I hated my wife. I actually love her. I want her to be right with God. And that is one of the responsibilities that a man has in his household is helping make everybody in your household follow the Lord. Now, obviously, you can only, you only have so much control and so much extent you can do that, and the way that you do that is also very important in how you lead and how you, you know, we'll get into all of that real soon, and hopefully I won't eat up too much of my time now. But the fact that, you know, men are being targeted now, I just witnessed this yesterday. I went out because I had some, you know, I don't buy clothing very often. I hate doing it. So I wear it until it's in tatters. I wear it until it's just like, okay, I have to do something about this now. So every time I go shopping, and usually I'll have my, like, my wife will supply me with the black clothing and the real simple plain stuff because I don't like being, having a, anything real fancy. Anyways, it doesn't matter what I like. But what's disturbing now is that, you know, it's already been almost accepted that it's hard to find modest women's clothing just because of all the modern styles and fashions and trying to get women into men's clothing and stuff. It's hard. Now, it's still out there. You can still do it. It's just a lot harder. Well, now, you know, and for men, it was never a problem. You always had the Levi's. You always have the, you know, you've got jeans, you've got shirts, you've got just normal clothing. What could you do to men? What could you do to their clothing? Well, now I'm starting to notice, I literally got, I was able to get one suit jacket yesterday from the whole department store that actually fits. Even suit jackets. I mean, talk about conservative, talk about old-fashioned, talk about things that just shouldn't change. You want to add an extra button? I don't care. Right? You want to put a pocket somewhere different? I don't care. But don't go changing how it fits. But now it's like everywhere I'm looking, everything is this tight fit. Tight fit. I'm going like, my arm barely, and I am not some muscular person. I don't, you know, I don't pump iron. I don't have the pythons. Right? These guns ain't that big. But when I'm having trouble, even like, I'm going like, you can't even move in this thing. Now, thankfully, I found one where it's a classic fit. Thank you for the classics. Straight fit. Good. I don't want the queer pants. Give me the straight pants. Give me the loose fit. I need to be able to move. I need to be able to work. I need to be able to bend down and move my arms and do things. I don't want to just go out on display with this skin-tight garbage and, oh, everybody look at me. Why in the world? What man, first of all, wants to have your clothes all super tight just so people can look at you? Now, it's more natural in the sinful nature for women to want to be attractive and people look at them. But not men. Now, it's wrong for both. But it's one of those areas that it's more sinfully natural for women to want to have people looking at them than men. That's why women are more attracted to the jewelry and the different broided hair and pearls and costly ray like the Bible's talking about and warns about. But a man should never have that, even that desire. That's already showing that you're being pushed to have more of a sinful desire of women and to be more like, no. And it's getting harder and harder even just to buy clothes these days. And I'll tell you what, I'm not going to the trendy place to buy clothes either. I don't even know what it is anymore. But you know the trendy places. You can walk into a shopping mall and you see all the graffiti-style words and stuff and you can barely even read what the name of the store is. Or they've got a bunch of like homo models up on the signs like advertising their product and how preppy, whatever they look. Look, I don't go into those places. I just want to buy normal clothing, even the normal clothing stores. It's crazy. And these jeans now, too. It's like the last time I went shopping, they got this stretchy fit stuff. Like, just give me jeans. What's wrong with you people? What's wrong with this stuff? We're going crazy. And all that by way of an introduction, you know, that men need to man up and not tolerate the garbage that's trying to be crammed down your throat. You know, we don't need purses like man bags. We don't need things that's going to make you look more like a woman. Be a man. And the first step with being a man or being a father or being a husband is understanding the authority that God has given you. And everyone needs to understand this. We start off in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Look at verse number 3. The Bible says, But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ. So first of all, understand your place, men. The head of every man is Christ. Christ is your boss. You want to man up. You want to be a real man. How about you make Christ your head? You're not going to be able to be a real man without having Christ as your head. Now look, that may not sound macho, but the Bible doesn't say that men have to be macho in, again, in the world sense of, you know, macho just means more like masculine, and you ought to be masculine, but not in the sense of, you know, some people consider being macho as being proud, right? Being arrogant, being haughty, being lifted up. Well, no. If Christ is your head, you ought not to be. So being manly doesn't mean you're proud, but there's a difference between being proud and being confident. There's a difference between being proud and being a leader and being someone who's decisive. You can be decisive. You can be confident. You can know the truth. You can know the right way. You can walk that way without being proud. Understand the difference, and don't confuse the one for the other, because you know what Hollywood, you know what the world's going to try to do? They're going to try to confuse the two and make you think, oh, being a man is being full of yourself. Being a man is being a womanizer. No, it's not. Being a womanizer is being a whoremonger. Big difference. That's why you've got to start with Christ as your head. Don't look to the world to know what's manly, because nowadays, they're going to tell you being manly is being some metro queerbait type of a guy talking with a lisp and walking around with a limp wrist and not able to look people in the eyes or something. That's not a man. That's not manly. So you can't go off what the world says. You've got to go based off of what the Word of God says. We start with Christ as the head. Look at this. And the head of the woman is the man. The head of Christ is God. Flip over to Ephesians chapter 5. We'll get more detail on this. Authority structure. We all need to understand our roles. We don't understand our God-given roles. What does God put us here to do? And this is specifically to fathers, more generally to men, and everyone needs to understand these truths, the roles that God has assigned in society. You're a single woman. You're a girl. You need to understand the roles that God has assigned in our society, not just our society, in righteousness, in truth. Everyone needs to understand this, so don't sit back and go, I don't have to listen to this. This is for fathers. No, it's for everybody. Everyone needs to understand these truths. Look at verse number 22, Ephesians chapter 5. Thank God for putting Ephesians 5 in the Bible, because this is something that needs to be preached on over and over and over and over again, because it's being fought against so much in our world. Verse 22, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife. Didn't we just see that in 1 Corinthians 11? The husband is the head of the wife. Even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body, therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. So understanding that the husband is the head. God has put you in a position of having leadership, of being in charge, but you know what, when you're in charge of things, when you're the head, you have responsibility. You have the greatest responsibility for the entire family, dads. So on the one hand, you have this false idea of going, well, great, I'm at the top, I'm in charge, so I can do whatever I want. Yeah? To some extent, yeah. But you also have the responsibility of your entire family. You know what, that requires a lot of work. That's a lot of stress. That's everything on your shoulders. So you know, everyone wants to say, oh man, it would be so great to be a man. Ladies have this false concept, it would be so great to be the man, it would be so great to be in charge, wouldn't it? Because then I could just do whatever. Look, it's not all it's cracked up to be necessarily. It's a position, it's a role, it needs to be filled. God gave it to the man to fill that job. But with that great freedom or with that great task is great responsibility. Extremely important job. Ladies and moms and wives have their own responsibilities. And they have great responsibilities. And there's a lot of work to be done there, too. Men need to understand, you know, hey, first of all, you are the one in authority, but now you've got to treat that authority with the responsibility that goes with it. Because you're going to fail at the job and the role that God has put you in if you don't take the responsibility seriously that God's given you. You think, great, I'm in charge. Well, you know what? Since I'm in charge, I feel like going over here and playing these games, and I'm going to go out to the bar and hang out with my buddies, and I'm going to go and do this, and wife, you need to just take care of everything, run the house, do this or this or this, right? I'm the boss. I'm the boss man. Now, has God given a man the authority to do that? He has. The authority is the man's to direct how he sees fit. But I'll tell you what, the responsibility is also on the man to make sure that he's raising a godly family, people that fear the Lord, that he's looking out for his wife, that he loves his wife. You know, there's a lot of other things. We're going to get into that here in just a minute. It's not just as simple as just saying, oh, I'm just going to please myself with everything because I'm in charge. That is not a godly husband. That is not a godly father at all. It's completely ungodly. But everybody needs to understand the authority that God has given. Now, God has given us a free will, and this is the same. It would be a similar type of argument for people who don't like the fact that once you're saved, you're always saved. You say, well, that means you could just go off and sin then. You can. Now, does it make it right? No. Is God not going to punish you if you go off and get into sin? No. He is going to punish you. What it means, though, is that your hell debt has been paid for because Jesus Christ paid for your sins when he died on the cross, and you receive it as a free gift. That's what it means. Now, with that freedom, comes still a great responsibility because God has a task for you as a born-again believer, to serve him, to love him, to obey him, to do the work that he has put forth before you. You have free will to do with that responsibility as you see fit. But you can still be a sinner and get yourself in all kinds of trouble when you go off and ignore what God has said. It's the same concept here. Yes, God has put you in charge, but it doesn't make it right to be a terrible leader, to be a terrible father and a terrible husband. But God has put you in charge, and understanding that you have that responsibility, you need to take it very seriously. Verse 25, husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. So right there, this concept of, well, men could just do whatever they want. Look, if men are truly loving their wives, the way that Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, the self-sacrificial type of a love, willing to go and suffer and do all kinds of things because he loves his wife, then you're not going to have a husband that's this tyrannical, Hitler-style dictator that is making you do all the work and he's doing nothing. This solves that problem right off the bat, because you're loving your wife the way that Christ loved the church. And how much did Christ love the church? Well, he gave himself to be beaten and bloodied and to bear the weight and bear the burden and take all the sin on himself to give you a free gift. And see, men, when we go to work and we toil and we slave and we get our hands dirty and we do all this work, it's so we could say, hey honey, here's a whole bunch of food for our family. Can you prepare this? Now, she has her own work. She has her own job. She's got a bunch of other tasks that she has to do too. But this is how everything can work together. And men, you're commanded to love your wife. Hopefully you just love your wife anyways. Hopefully you married your wife because you love her and you're going to continue to love her, but you're commanded to love her. And you're commanded to love her not just to love her but to love her with this type of a love, the way that Christ loved the church. Very important. And this verse continues, verse 25, this concept of even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, look at verse 26, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. See, the way that Christ loved the church, he said, hey, I'm giving you all this truth. I'm giving you the word of God. I'm doing so much more than just saving your soul. I want you to be Christlike. I want you to walk in this way. I want you to live in such a manner that you're without blame, without blemish, without spot, without wrinkle, that I can get you to the point where I really want you to be. This is the love that Christ has for the church. See, in the church we ought to be continually trying to get sin out of our life, trying to improve so that we can be walking as closely conformed to the image of Christ as possible, right? He's working, God is working on us. Christ should be working through the church to help us to get to that point, to improve. That's Christ's role with the church. You know what? The husband's role, that's why it brings this up, is that the husband's role with his wife ought to be one of trying to help your wife to improve, get her along the way to be holy and without spot and without wrinkle and all these things, to help her mature in her spiritual walk and her spiritual growth, to help her become more conformed to the image of Christ as well. And men, that's your responsibility as being head of the house, of being head of the wife. Christ is your head, so you learn everything from Christ, and now you're your wife's head. You need to transfer all that along and help her along. That's your job. Don't neglect that job. That's one of love, but it's also one of you just don't let everything go. And part of manning up is making sure that you run your household the way that you know it needs to be run, because that's your responsibility. I mean, some of the easiest ways to understand a lot of these spiritual truths and the way things ought to be run is comparing it to how companies operate. You have people in charge of things and businesses, and the reason you have management and people supervising and things like that is so you have somebody responsible for what other people are doing. And oftentimes when you have problems that happen, sometimes you have a one-off and there's an employee, everyone's responsible for their own actions, but there's also extra responsibility that goes all the way up, and it goes all the way up to the top. And if you have employees that do something wrong, of course you're going to be held responsible for that, but if you've got management and there's always these same problems reoccurring, you know what you're going to do? You're going to say, you're responsible for this. You're going to suffer the consequences because you are not doing your job in making sure that they're doing their job. That's how it works. That's reality. That's the way things work in real life. Well, that same concept, you know, men, you're responsible in the home. Obviously, your wife, in our analogy here, would be like the employee. She has her own responsibility, too, to God, right, to do what she's supposed to do, and you can't force anyone individually to just do what you just always do, what's right, you know, you can't do that. So the way that you lead is also important. We're going to get into that. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself here, but if you identify things that are a problem, you need to correct them in your house. You need to make sure that these things don't continue to happen. You need to make sure that you're guiding and directing for the way that's important, you know. I mean, for example, just, you know, let's say your wife doesn't want to, you know, want to come to church. Your wife doesn't want to do certain things that you say, no, you know what, in this house, this is what we do. Wife or kids. You know, going to church for my family is not optional, not optional. Now, you make up the rule. God's given you the authority, right? So I'm not going to tell you how to do every single thing in your life, in your household, everything else. For me, because I make the rules in my household, I've said church is not optional. It never has been, not from day one, not when we go on vacation, not, you know, and in fact, when we plan vacations, we're going to plan it around church. You ask my wife about it. Before I was a pastor, before I even thought about being a pastor, that was the rule in my house. And if I'm going to go somewhere, if I'm going to go hunting, if I'm going to take a week off, you know what I did? I went to church on Wednesday night. Now, you do what you want to do, but make sure that you are running your house to the best of your ability, the way that you think that whatever is important to you, right? Whatever you think is necessary. Maybe you don't have the same stand that I do on the importance of just making sure that that's happening every single church. That's fine, you know, for you. You determine what you think is right. So the point isn't about it's not about how many times you go to church. I'm bringing this up. The point is about you establishing that rule of men in your household as to why things are going to run in your household because you think that that's the way that needs to be and that you make that rule. And if you think, hey, going to church once a week, this is what we need to do, this is what's right, this is what I'm going to command, then do it. I mean, whatever it is. My point is you are in charge of doing that and making sure, so if you have resistance coming from your wife, from your spouse, you need to man up and say, no, this is how things are going to be done. And sometimes it can be uncomfortable. Or maybe you got something sinful in the house that your wife is really into and your wife really likes, you say, you know what, no, we can't have this, this is idolatry or whatever, you know, something that's just, this is sinful, this is wrong, we can't have this. We're not going to have this booze in the house, we're not going to have, you know, whatever the case may be. So I don't drink, but this is just for when someone so comes over and they just have one drink and they don't get drunk, you know. But you say, no, we're not going to have this in the house. Whatever, I mean, there's a million different scenarios that you could come up with. But being a man is saying, no, I'm going to take the responsibility, I'm going to make sure our house is run the way that it's going to be run and I'm going to love my wife and I'm going to help her along and I'm going to teach and I'm going to show, hey, this is why we do what we do. But at the end of the day, and ladies need to understand this too, at the end of the day, the husband's the boss. They're the head of the household. Whether you agree with their decision making is inconsequential. If you're going to do what's right in the eyes of God, you say, okay, I'm going to submit to his authority, even though I disagree. And men, you know, you lead, you know, you're going to have to get in a way that is going to try to be tactful, it's going to try to be the best way you could possibly lead. But when you're getting the resistance, it doesn't mean you back down because you're responsible for that. If you have a conviction, if you know something needs to be done a certain way, you have to be able to lead and run your household because you're responsible for that. So you determine how the best way to do it. Now, it doesn't mean you have to be heavy handed with everything, right? You can achieve the results, and this goes with being a wise leader and being smart and getting God's word and studying God's word yourself and understanding how to be the best leader that you can be to earn the respect and trust because you need respect and trust from your wife and from your children if you're going to lead them well. So if you're perceived as a deadbeat dad, nobody's going to respect you. Your kids won't respect you, your wife won't respect you, and you won't be able to successfully lead your house. And you won't be able to accomplish the things that you are supposed to accomplish if you're being some deadbeat dad. Not loving your wife, not loving your kid, doing your own thing all the time and not caring. It's not going to work out for you at all, and it's your responsibility to make things that are working right. Let's keep reading here in Ephesians chapter 5. I'm getting way too much time on this passage. I got a lot more to go. You know what? It's important. So one of the responsibilities of the husband is to make sure, hey, you're presenting your wife just as Christ would want the church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that should be holy and without blemish. Verse 28, so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself, for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. So again, it's not a mindset of like, well, I just need to control my wife, and I'm going to be this person in charge, and you're like my robot, and I'm controlling. No. You're nourishing, feeding, and cherishing, and loving and caring. But also, because of that, you have to be guiding, you have to be leading and instructing. But it's not a control freak type of a relationship. It shouldn't be. That's not godly, right? This is what the Bible is teaching us here, how to do this. Verse 30, for we are members of his flesh, of his body, excuse me, of his flesh and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. It is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Turn, if you would, to Proverbs chapter one. I'm going to blow through some of these verses real quick, but just one more point. You know, as a leader in the home, I talked about this being a spiritual leader as well. First Corinthians 14 has this great passage about how women are supposed to keep silence in the churches, okay? The Bible says, I'll read this for you, you turn to Proverbs chapter one. First Corinthians 14, 34 says, let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak. But they are commanded to be under obedience is also saith the law. And people like to try to twist this verse and make it say, mean something it doesn't mean. Look, you read it. It's pretty simple to understand. Women keep silence in the churches. It's not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience. I mean, three ways in the same exact verse, I think it's driving the point home. Then the next verse, verse 35 says, and if they will learn anything. So what's the context here? Well, when the Bible's being taught, and when things are being taught in church, well, there's when learning's happening, right? It's not talking about praising God. It's not talking about singing. We've got this learning going on. If they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. So when the wives are having questions about learning something from the passage, learning something from scripture, who is their head? Their husband. So who should they be asking? Their husband. That is what the Bible says. So if a wife is supposed to and commanded to, by the word of God, ask their husband about, hey, I want to learn this from the scripture. Hey, men, what does that mean for you? It means you ought to study the word of God, to show you're self-approved, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. So when your wife comes to you and says, hey, I'm having a hard time understanding this, what exactly does this mean? Or does this apply in this way, right? And wants to know that she can ask you and be able to rely on you, and you ought to be able to provide. Now, you're never going to have all the answers in the whole world. You're never going to be able to answer every single thing. But you know what? You better not be the type of person that can never answer your wife's questions. Right? I mean, I don't know. Well, you know what? You better start figuring it out, because that's your job. That is your responsibility. And it's a good opportunity. You know, men, pay attention. You say, well, I never want to be a pastor one day. I'm never going to be in the ministry. You know what? If you're going to be a husband, you better be paying attention, because you're a leader. You're supposed to be a leader at home. It's God's position for you. Start getting serious about learning the Word of God. Man up. Your roles ahead of the household means you have to start taking responsibility seriously, not just with your wife, but also with your children. We're going to blow through a lot of these verses in Proverbs chapter 1, because I spent way too much, or in Proverbs in general, because I spent way too much time on my first page of notes. But when you go through especially the first, I don't know, 10 chapters at least of the book of Proverbs, just think, how often do you see my son, my son, my son, my son, my son? Here's a few of those verses. Proverbs 1, 8, my son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother. Dads, you know what that means? You ought to have instructions for your children. You ought to be able to teach them. It's not just mom's job to teach your children. Look, I believe in homeschooling. I believe that God has given the responsibility on the parents to teach their children, and not on someone else. But it's not just pushed off solely on mom. Now, the greater responsibility may end up being, or the greater teaching may end up being from the mom more amount of time because she's spending more time with the kids. But you know what that means? This means you still have to have instructions for your kids. You have to participate in the teaching as well. Again, it may not be to the same degree, but part of it's going to be making sure your wife's teaching them the things that she needs to teach them, because you're responsible for that, as well as you making sure, dead sure, that they're learning what they need to learn. Instruction. And what we understand, especially from the book of Proverbs, these are all life lessons. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to teach your kids, you know, English grammar or something like that. That's not the most important thing. I'm all for education. I want people to be as smart as possible. But you have to prioritize what's most important. And you know what? Raising your children and training them to be able to succeed in this world and become successful for God is going to have to do with them living righteously, loving God, and just being a good follower of Christ themselves. If you can train a child in that regard, they'll be successful in whatever they do. The emphasis should be on that type of education, because God will provide. If people are seeking first a kingdom of God and His righteousness, God will provide. And again, like I said, I'm all for learning and studying and knowing more and just gaining knowledge. But you can have all the world's knowledge in the world, you know, in the world. You can have all the knowledge of the world and be a complete failure if you don't have the knowledge from God's Word. If you're living this horribly wicked, sinful life, sure, in the world's eyes, you can have success. But that's not what we're trying to teach our children. We want to teach them, look, it doesn't matter how much money you have. What matters is that you're doing right. What matters is that you're going to have an inheritance in heaven anyways. So sure, there's things that you could do here that's going to make your life a little bit easier, maybe a little bit more comfortable. But you know what? The priority and what you really need to focus on is being right with God. So learn everything you can learn that's not going to defile your mind. But make sure you're doing right by God. And this is the look, fathers, this responsibility is on your shoulders. Because at the end of the day, everything falls on your shoulder in your household. Everything does. That's what goes along with being at the top. And you're not really at the top because Christ is at the top. And think about that. You know, your wife is supposed to answer to you, who do you answer to? Who's your boss? Keep that in mind. You are not someone who doesn't have a boss. You are not like CEO with no one else above you or whatever. You'd be like the CEO with a board above you, where the board is the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Right? You're actually still working for someone else. So don't forget that either. Jesus is my boss. How do you want to perform for your boss? You better not be ashamed. You better not be ashamed of you. Proverbs 1, 8, my son, hear the instruction of thy father, forsake not the law of thy mother. Proverbs 3, 1, my son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments, for length of days and long life and peace shall I add to thee. These are important things for your children to know. Dads, make sure your children don't forget your law. And your law ought to line up with the law of God. And what's the whole point of it? Because you want to be some dictator and not let your kids have any fun? No, because length of days, long life, peace shall they add unto you. That's the purpose of having those commandments for the kids, having those laws, having those rules, because you know what's best for them. You're trying to help look out for them because you love them. And part of that also, dads, is going to be correcting your children when you need correction. Jump down to verse number 11, Proverbs chapter 3, the Bible says, my son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction, for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, even as a father, the son in whom he delighteth. You know what? You need to know what's going on in your kids' lives. If you don't have any involvement in your kids' lives, how do you even know when they're doing wrong? How do you know when they need to be corrected? You need to be involved. But I got to go to work, I know. No one ever said it was going to be easy, but it is your responsibility. Proverbs 13 24, you have to flip over to Proverbs chapter 4, we'll look at that next. Proverbs 13 24 says, he that has spareth his rod, hateth his son, but he that loveth him, chasteth him betimes. Again, I preach this on Mother's Day, moms ought to be disciplining their children. But you know what? Dads ought to be disciplining their children too. He that spareth his rod, hateth his son. But I'm tired, I just got home from work, I need to break, I need to rest, I just need to sit here and relax. Hey, when your son is going over and doing something and needs to be disciplined and need to pick up the rod and deal with them, then you get up and deal with them, you man up. Stop getting so soft saying, oh, I need a break, I need to rest. Get up and deal with it. And you get up and deal with it because you love them. Because when you spare the rod, you hate the son. You're sparing the rod because of, oh, I'm too tired, you know what you're doing? Now you're putting yourself above them. And that is not the right way to lead, and that's not the way that Christ led. And if we're supposed to love the way that Christ loved, he gave himself. He allowed himself to be whipped and beaten and scourged and mocked and spat on. That wasn't fun. That didn't feel good. I bet he needed a rest. But he didn't take it. He took it all the way to the end. So your job is to take it all the way to the end, too. There is a rest coming. Don't worry about it. You'll get a rest. We rest in Christ. But for now, you've got a job to do. For now, you've got responsibility. It's your job, man. Don't be some deadbeat dad. Don't be some dad that never corrects his child. The Bible says in Hebrews 12, 6, For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure a chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? So what do you really think about your kids when you don't chasten them, when you don't discipline them? What type of son is that a son that a father isn't chasing him, isn't correcting him? But if you be without chastisement, what the Bible says here, were of all betakers, then he bastards and not sons. Dad, when you're not willing to get up and discipline your child appropriately, when it's appropriate, when the time needs to come, then you're dealing with your son like he's a little bastard instead of your actual son. That's what the Bible says. Don't get me all past the verse, I can't believe you're using that language. It's God's word. Every word of God is pure. Is it strong language? You better believe it's strong language. That just underscores how important it is. Proverbs 4, verse 1, Hear ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to no understanding. For I give you good doctrine. You need to know the word of God to teach doctrine to your children. You need to be teaching them. You need to be involved. Forsake ye not my law. For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also. He taught me also, in addition to mom. Because he was tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. But I was my father's son. He taught me also and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words. Keep my commandments and live. Underscore the importance of what you're teaching your children. Look, this is critical. This is vital. You need to understand this. Dad, that's your job. Jump down to verse 10. Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings. In the years of thy life shall be many. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom. I have led thee in right paths. So not just teaching, but leading. I've led thee in right paths. I've shown you the way. Dad, it's not enough just to speak and tell them how to do things. You need to show them how to do things. You need to be walking the right path. Not this do as I say not as I do mentality, because you know what? You can say that. You can think that you can get away with that. But then you're going to be ashamed when your child grows up and does as you do, because that's what's going to happen. And then you failed in your leadership. So well, I taught them, not effectively, not the right way. You teach with words and you teach by actions. You teach by doing. I've got more. I'm going to skip over some of these. Just read through the book of Proverbs. You'll see what I'm talking about. My son, my son, my son, listen to me. Attend unto me. You know, listen to my words. They're important. Abraham was considered a great father. Turn, if you would, to Colossians 3. Very important point. I'm not going to skip that. Colossians chapter 3. I'm running out of time here. Abraham was a great example of a father. Genesis 18, 19. This is God speaking about Abraham. He says, For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him. God says, I know Abraham. I know he's going to command his children and his household after him. To do what? To follow God, to follow the Lord, to be righteous. I know Abraham. Can God say that about you dad? I know. I know that he's going to command. A righteous dad, they command. Oh, that sounds like you're a dictator. You command, because that's the job that God's given you. You don't need to be so soft and a pushover and oh, well, we should be doing it. Well, no one's listening to me. Grow a spine. Man up. Take charge. It is your right. It's your responsibility. It's not just your right. It's your obligation. It's not optional. If your house isn't being run the way that it ought to be run, man, the problem is yours. It's not your wife's. It's not your kids. It's your problem. And you better step up and do something about it, because that's a position that God has put you in. You make sure things go right in your household. And when they fail, you're responsible. And you know who you're responsible to? Jesus Christ himself. You answer to him. And at the end of the day, that's where your authority comes from. So if you're saying, hey, look, you know, you could explain that to your wife, explain that to your children. Here's why we're doing this. It's not because I just came up with this out of my own mind. It's because we're serving Christ. And he said it. And in a way, that alleviates some of the ire that you might receive. Hopefully you don't get any. But you could say, look, this is the same way when I preach against the homos, the sodomites. Say, look, it's not like I just chose, like I just, for some random reason, decided that I'm going to just say everything I can negative against these people. It didn't just come into my own heart. It came from this book. It came from the word of God. God taught that. God commands that. So I'm going to repeat it. And I'm the messenger. So dads, you're a messenger. You're the leader, but you're still just a messenger. Just like the prophets of God are ultimately just messengers. Yeah, they're leaders. Yeah, they've got great responsibility. Under whom much is given shall much be required. But ultimately, all of these positions are given to us by God. We're just relaying the message. We're just trying to do what he's told us to do. Colossians 3, look at verse number 19, the Bible says, husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. This is kind of a much shorter version of Ephesians 5. It's a parallel passage. Children obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. But I want to focus on verse number 21 here. It says, fathers, provoke not your children to anger lest they be discouraged. There's a way of parenting specifically now, and it's dealing with your kids. I mentioned before, men and women are different. We saw in the book of Proverbs, you know, I was tender and well beloved in the sight of my mother, right? Moms are gentle. Moms are nurturing. Moms have the type where, you know, when the child gets hurt, right? When my son falls down, oh, son, here, let me give you a kiss. Let me get a Band-Aid. Let's get you all fixed up. And you know what? That's great. Kids need that. But what's the attitude of a dad a little bit more typically? Get up, son. You're all right. Brush it off. Clean it up. You'll be good. Don't worry about it. Not that bad. You'll be okay. And you know what? Kids need both. They need both. They need to be nurtured. They need to be, you know, they're little. They need that help for mom. They need that love and tenderness. But you know what? They also need to know that as life continues, you're going to get bumps and scrapes and bruises. It's going to hurt, and you're going to have to deal with this. And you're going to have to just get up, and you can't just sit around and cry about it. So you need both perspectives. And you know what? That's one of the reasons why God made men and women different. Because we all individually, as we're being taught, as we're being raised, need both influences in our life to balance us out, to help us understand, hey, yes, I need this taken care of. I'm hurting. You know, someone loves me, and they're going to help take care of me. But then I also got someone teaching me and saying, okay, you know what? That's going to happen. You need to be able to get up and keep going. But you do so in a way that's encouraging and edifying to your children, not in a way of just being a jerk and provoking your children to anger. There's a difference there. And you have to be able to, men, we need to understand to follow that appropriately. You ought to have hardness with your children. I believe in being strict and being the one that's, you know, mom, you might be able to get away with a little bit more. You know, maybe not. Depends on the family. But you might be able to. But dads, you need to, buck stops with you, right? I mean, because you're in charge. You could say at the end of the day, no. This is where the line is drawn. You have to have a hardness with your children. Just like mom has a tenderness. Okay? But don't allow that hardness to extend to the point where you're provoking your children to anger. Very important point. Be careful that you don't mock and ridicule your own child just to make them tougher. Right? And men, it can be easy to fall into that, right? You're trying to toughen up. You want to make sure, hey, my child, they need to be tough for this world. But we don't want to have that toughness to where they despise you and you're just provoking them to anger because you're poking at them and doing things that aren't ultimately going to help them. When I was preparing this sermon, the thought that came to my mind was, and this is a totally worldly example, but the old song, you know, a boy named Sue, like we don't want to take that. And if you're not familiar with it, it's a man, a boy that was named Sue because his dad said, well, I'm not going to be around. So, you know, basically I knew I did it for you because it's going to toughen you up, right? So I wasn't there to, you know, and that's a totally bad approach, right? It's not the right way to do it. It's not godly. That's why it's of the world, right? It's a worldly mentality. It's kind of a funny song, whatever, right? I'm not, you know, don't go out and listen to it if you don't know the song. It's not right, but we don't want to take that approach where you're just like, well, in order to get them tough, then I'm going to, you know, because that guy's like, he grows up and he wants to kill his dad. He's angry. You named me Sue, you know? So, yeah, he grew up to be real tough, but in the end, it was, you know, it was not a good thing. And, you know, there's a little bit of truth to that song, but again, it's twisted. It's whatever. We don't want to have that approach, you know, to make children tougher, to instigate them, to belittle them, right? Dads, you can prepare your children for the pain and suffering that might go along in this world and harden them in a sense of giving them some thick skin, but not at the expense of provoking them to anger where you're not really edifying them and you're being more of a bully or a jerk to them. Don't provoke your children. Now, look, obviously, kids are going to get angry. When they do something wrong and they need to be disciplined, they may get angry. That's not what the Bible's talking about, about provoking them to anger. It's talking about not training, it's talking about provoking them. It's literally what the word is, provoke not your children to anger. You're doing the provocation. You're not correcting something they've done. You're pushing their buttons. You're provoking them to be angry. That doesn't help them. That doesn't help them. They need to be encouraged. And you need to be able to show some mercy also. The Bible says in Luke 6, 36, you don't have to turn, turn if you would to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. Almost done. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. Luke 6, 36 says, be ye therefore merciful as your father also is merciful. God shows us a lot of mercy. He does. God also corrects us. You know, the Bible says, be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. You're going to reap what you sow, but at the same time, God also extends mercy. And he's the Heavenly Father. So if we're going to give some examples about being a father, why not look at the Heavenly Father? So yes, you need to be tough. Yes, we need to have some hard line, but there's also a place for mercy. And when you can have that mercy, you show some extra love that's going to go a long way for your children also respecting you and loving you and appreciating. Thank you. I mean, don't you appreciate when God extends mercy unto you? Doesn't that really hit home in your heart and give you even more of a love to God, knowing like, God, I've done this sin against you, Lord, and I feel like you haven't even, you've shown me mercy and I beg you for mercy and you've given me mercy. God, thank you. We ought to be able to do the same thing for our children. Think about how much you love that from God. I love that from God. That's a big deal. That helps draw me even closer because of that mercy and that love. Now, I also know and I'm thankful that God punishes because he punishes us when we need to be corrected. And if we just got away with everything, that's no longer even being merciful, that's being neglectful. But you've got to strike the balance. So you can't just be on your kids every single time, every small infraction, you've got to pay, you've got to pay, pay that the lowest. It's not the way to father. Discipline when appropriate, but also extend the mercy. Strike the balance. Have both. Have both. Let your kids understand dad don't play. You're going to be respected. But at the same time know, hey dad, but dad loves me. Dad loves me. And you know when the best time for mercy is? When you can see that your kids are repentant. When you can see that they are sorry for what they've done. That's a really good, because isn't the point of the disciplining anyways to bring the repentance? To let them know, well, you're getting this because you've done this wrong and I don't want you doing it again. That's why you're getting punished. But sometimes you can see they know. They know they've done wrong and they are truly sorry and they will definitely try their best not to do it again. Those are great opportunities to show mercy. Because that's how God deals with us. Because if you do things unrepentantly, you better believe that God is going to bring down that rod. Absolutely. And you ought to also as a father. But when you've got that repentance going, show some mercy, show some grace. They need to understand both. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, we're going to see here how, and again, we're going to apply this to fatherhood. This is specifically talking about spiritual fatherhood, but it applies and you can apply it both ways. And this shows us how the apostles were leading by example. Look at verse number 7, the Bible says, But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us. You know, fathers, you ought to have that same attitude towards your children. You're going to impart unto them not just wisdom, not just knowledge, not just the gospel, but your own souls. Because you love them, right? You care about them. Now this is something you already should have, and it's being taught here about other people who are not your physical children, right? You have this similar type of affection towards these other people. Verse 9 says, For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail, for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Verse 10, Ye are witnesses, and God also how holily and justly and unblameably we have behaved ourselves among you that believe. So the way that they're leading, the way that they're instructing, the way that they're teaching, they're saying, you know, we did all the work. We're paying for everything. We're not asking thing of you. And you know, parents, you don't need to ask anything of your kids. You can go out and you do the work. You're not asking them. I'm not asking my kids to help pay for the mortgage and help pay for the bills, right? Look, I'm not chargeable unto you. I'll take care of that. And I'm going to stay up late, and I'm going to teach, and I'm going to instruct, but I'm also going to labor and travail, but I'm also going to make sure that you witness that you see how I behave. You see how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you. Kids are going to see how you behave at home. They're going to see how you behave in public. They're going to see how you behave at church. And you know what? They're going to take all of that into consideration. You act one way, and you talk one way at church, and then you act one way and talk one way differently when you're not at church. Kids are going to pick that up and see that, and you know what they're going to start thinking? Hypocrite. Or they're going to start thinking that, oh, well, this is just how we act among church people, but this is how we really live. You ought not to have a difference between the two, because you know which one your kids are going to choose? They're going to choose the way you live at home. And what good is that going to do them? If they know how to put on a charade and they want to put on a show in front of other people, what good does that do them? Nothing. Nothing. You lead by example. Your kids witness everything that you do. You be a good witness. They should see how holy and blamably you behave yourselves among them. As ye know, verse 11, how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father doth his children. So what should a father do with their children? Exhort, comfort, and charge. Charge means you're telling them what to do. This is how spiritually, spiritual fathers are dealing with their spiritual children. Hey, we're going to exhort you. We're going to try to encourage you. Right? We're going to comfort you. Oh, man, it's okay. You'll get through this. And we're going to say, this is what you need to do. Dads, that's what you do in your home. You exhort your kids, encourage them, build their confidence, help them to know the right way. Comfort them. It's all right. We'll get through this. I'm here for you. I love you. And in charge them, this is what you need to do. This is what I expect out of you. Here's my law. Here's my instructions. Biblical fathering. Yeah, it's work. Man up. Don't shy away from the work. Last place, turn to 3 John, the book of 3 John. I'm just going to close on this passage. I'm not going to expound on it very much. I was going to go into this more, but again, this is spiritual, but you can apply this to the home. And this is an attitude that fathers, I believe all fathers ought to have with their children. It's a fatherly attitude, a biblical fatherly attitude towards their children. 3 John, starting in verse number 1, the Bible says, the elder unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved. And this is how he's speaking. This is how the apostle John is speaking on the Gaius. Beloved. He's someone who's loved of him. And just imagine, this is the picture of how you should be with your children, with your son, with your daughter. I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul prospereth. You care about your kid's well-being, right? For I rejoice greatly when the Brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. So you're seeing your child now. They're not just behaving a certain way in front of you because you're hearing reports about how they behave in front of other people when you're not around. This is what we're trying to train our kids for. This would be more of a picture of a child that's grown. And not many people here have children that are already grown. Some people do. But this is what we're trying to accomplish is to be able to have this 3 John type of experience where we're going, I want you to prosper. I want you to be in health. I want things to go well for you. And I'm hearing this report from these other people that the truth is in thee and you're walking in the truth. Verse 4 says, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. That's the mindset you need to have. So you need to teach and to train them when they're young. You need to train up a child when he's young the way you should go that when they're old they won't depart from it. It's your job. It's training ground. You don't get them for as long as you think you do. You have your first child and they're real little. It feels like you have tons of time. You know what? That time goes by fast. Before you know it you go, oh I think we're already halfway done or more than halfway done. That's where I'm at. Kids are getting 10, 11 years old. Man, you better make sure that you're making it take an advantage of every time that you have. Eight, nine, I mean how old how long are your children gonna stay with you? I mean I'm gonna try to follow a biblical model or leave father and mother and cleave unto their wife right or get married and do that but how much time do you have? It's not a lot. Take advantage of all the time that you have. Let's finish off here. Verse number five. The Bible says, Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers which have borne witness of thy charity before the church whom if thou bring forward on their journey after godly sort thou shalt do well because that for his name's sake they went forth taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers of truth. So he's seeing this great report. You know what Gaius has? Gaius has charity and it's well known among everyone that he has charity and that's the report coming back to him. I went over charity last week I think it was. You know charity is one of the the top called levels of spirituality that we ought to possess. You ought to have that vision in mind for your children and raise them in such a way that you're teaching instructing and spending the time and chastening and doing everything you need to do so when they grow up and they're out of the house you could have a good report so when people say oh yeah I talked to your son I talked to your daughter the other day they're in church they're serving God they're doing this they're you know like that's the joy that you're hopefully will receive as a father going forward and and that's what we're working towards have the faith have the vision don't get so caught up in the stress of a day-to-day remember that stay the course do your job work harder it's not work pastor I know it's all right it's worth it they're worth it we need more godly fathers because we need more godly children that are gonna grow up and be godly adults in such a wicked perverted dark world that we live in we need that now more than ever be a man be a biblical man be a biblical husband be a biblical father regardless of what the world thinks around you and how crazy they think you are doesn't matter worry about what God thinks worry about what your boss thinks the Lord Jesus Christ as far as that word of prayer dear God we love you we thank you so much for the instruction that you give us for all matters of life Lord especially for parenthood pray that you please help us to to improve the areas that we need improvement on Lord help us to lead help us to grow and learn and have wisdom and knowledge understanding Lord help us to to teach and to train our children and not to just be bothered or inconvenienced by them Lord but that we we value them with the with the value that's that's required to make sure that we're involved and make sure we're teaching all the way God men have a lot of responsibilities that you've given us ladies have a lot of responsibilities that you've given them Lord and I pray that you'd help us all to balance and and prioritize appropriately and and that we can do all that you would have us to do Lord we love you to Jesus name we pray amen